Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the Romans
- Date
- 25 December 800 CE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Rome (Italy)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
On Christmas Day 800, during Mass at St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne 'Emperor of the Romans' (Imperator Romanorum).
The act revived an imperial title in Western Europe that had been vacant since the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476, and it rested on the claim that the imperial throne in Constantinople was vacant because it was held by a woman, the empress Irene. The coronation crowned decades of Carolingian conquest that had unified much of Western and Central Europe under Charlemagne, and it bound the new empire tightly to the Latin Church and the papacy. It also strained relations with the Byzantine Empire, which regarded itself as the sole legitimate Roman authority, producing a lasting 'problem of two emperors.' The event established a model of Western, Christian, papally sanctioned imperial rule that would echo through the medieval Holy Roman Empire and shape European conceptions of legitimate sovereignty for a thousand years.
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Empires active in 25 December 800 CE
- Tang Dynasty618 CE – 907 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Uyghur Khaganate744 CE – 840 CE
- Khazar Khaganate650 CE – 969 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Emperor Kanmu founds Heian-kyo, opening Japan's classical golden ageNovember 17, 794 CE
- Al-Mansur founds Baghdad as the Abbasid capital30 July 762 CE
- Treaty of Verdun partitions the Carolingian Empire10 August 843 CE
- Donation of Pepin establishes the Papal States754–756 CE
- The Abbasid Revolution overthrows the Umayyad Caliphate25 January 750 CE (Battle of the Zab)
- Wu Zetian Proclaims the Zhou Dynasty and Becomes China's Only Female Emperor16 October 690 CE
Further reading
The wider story
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
Vivid, thematic popular history by a top Byzantinist.
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