Charlemagne was a King of the Franks in the 8th and 9th centuries renowned for his martial and administrative competence. His reign over the Kingdom of West Francia saw the expansion of the Frankish Kingdom to its greatest extent, covering territory from Spain and Italy in the South to Saxony and Frisia in the North. Due to his sweeping conquest of most of Western Europe coupled with his constant military campaigns against pagan 'heathens' in what is now Germany, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans, or Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in the year 800.
