In our last blog post we covered the Iron Age Celts, the Romans and now more about the Franks. Here we will begin with Charlemagne.
Charlemagne
To view the original painting by Albrecht Dürer you may wish to visit the Nuremberg National Museum.
Charles the Great, Charles the I, Charlemagne was born on the 2nd of April in the mid 700's (the exact year is cited differently depending on who you read), and he died 28 January 814. He was king of the Franks taking the throne in 768, king of Italy in 774, and the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800. If you would like to go back further in time you might want to look at Constantine who settled the Franks on the lower left bank of the Rhine.
He founded the Carolingian Empire, which would be the beginnings of what is now France and Germany.
If you look carefully on this map you can find Strasbourg on the line of the green and yellow areas. It is interesting to read about the Carolingian Empire and see which countries were fully in this, and which were partially in this.
Charlemagne is called the father of Europe because both France and Germany considered their kingdoms to be the decedents of Charlemagne's empire.
Charlemagne left us his genes.
Charlemagne left more than policies in his empire, and yet another reason to be called "The Father of Europe", he left his genetics too. Too say he was a ladies man seems a bit of an understatement. Depending on who you read he had 20 or 18 children of record. These are listed out of 8 of his 10 wives or concubines, which may or may not reflect all of the children accountable to him. He is listed as one of the top 10 people with the most decedents. Estimation of half of the population of Europe (250 million people) 100 million in the U.S.A. and another 250 million across the world.
His pedigree is clear. If one should choose they can trace his line all of the way back to Adam and Eve. Regardless if you find this an impossible myth or not, the possibility to trace him back that far exists. One must never loose site of why pedigree charts started. Ah, yet another subject but it is the "divine right of kings"which is the right to rule. Still to this day pedigree charts are the most valuable possession of royals.You will find the Adam Pedigree here and you will find Charlemagne in the line of France.
Charlemagne left the Alsace region to his son Louis the Pious. Charlemagne's home was in Aachen, Germany. Charlemagne enjoyed hunting in the Vosges.
Back drop of your genealogy.
If you are researching your family tree and you manage to make it back to the Medieval times chances are good on one line or another you will find you descend from Charlemagne. What is nice about this is if you are working on a large family tree this work will have already been done for you. If you find what is known as gateway ancestors you can depend on established pedigrees. Click here to view the decedents of Charlemagne.
Oh one last thing, Charlemagne is behind the Hapsburg (Habsburg) who have castles in Alsace and all over Europe, and the Plantagenet who are behind all U.S.A. presidents with the exception of Martian Van Buren. One castle in Alsace we visit regularly with JSwinetours is Haut Koenigsbourg who the first named inhabitants were the Habsburg family.
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