Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne Emperor in Rome
A Frankish king becomes the West's first emperor in over three centuries
Quick facts
- Location
- Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome
- Crowned by
- Pope Leo III
- Prior titles
- King of the Franks (768-814), King of the Lombards (774-814)
- Capital
- Aachen
What happened
Charlemagne, king of the Franks since 768 and of the Lombards since 774, had spent decades expanding Frankish rule through conquest, absorbing the Lombard kingdom, waging the long and brutal Saxon Wars, and defending the papacy against its Italian enemies. On Christmas Day 800, while Charlemagne knelt in prayer at Saint Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo III placed an imperial crown on his head and the crowd in the church acclaimed him emperor. By his death in 814 Charlemagne had roughly doubled the Frankish kingdom's size, ruling from Barcelona and Brittany in the west to Bavaria, Croatia, and Hungary in the east, with his capital at Aachen.
Why it matters
The coronation revived the idea of a Roman emperor in the West for the first time since 476, tying that title to Frankish, and later German, kingship rather than to Constantinople, and it set the pattern by which popes claimed the authority to make emperors, a claim that would fuel centuries of conflict between empire and papacy.
How we know
The coronation is described in multiple contemporary Frankish annals and in Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, written by a member of his own court within a few years of the emperor's death.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Charlemagne · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Carolingian Dynasty · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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