The Rise of the Franks

In 768 the Frankish king Pepin the Short died, leaving his realm — the most powerful in Western Europe — divided between his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman. The brothers' rivalry threatened civil war, but Carloman's sudden death in 771 left Charlemagne, still in his twenties, sole ruler of the Franks. He would spend the next forty-three years at war, transforming his inheritance into an empire.

His first great conquest was Italy. The Lombards, who had ruled the north of the peninsula for two centuries, were pressing hard on the Pope, and the papacy — bound to the Franks since Charlemagne's father had defended it — appealed for help. Charlemagne, who had personal grievances against the Lombard king Desiderius (his former father-in-law), answered the call.

In 773 he led his army across the Alps and laid siege to the Lombard capital of Pavia. Through a long winter the city held, but hunger did its work, and in 774 Desiderius surrendered. Charlemagne deposed him, placed the Iron Crown of the Lombards on his own head, and annexed the kingdom of Italy. In a single campaign he had doubled his stature — master now of Italy, protector of the Pope, and the dominant power of the Latin West. But to the north lay a far harder war.