Charlemagne

 Biel, Timothy Levi. Charlemagne. Part of The Importance Of series. 1997. 127p. ISBN 1-56006-074-3. Available at B CHA on the library shelves.

When the Roman empire collapsed in the 400s CE, a power vacuum was left behind. Germanic invaders had conquered the lands previously governed by Rome, and they set up small independent kingdoms. Over the next three hundred years, these kingdoms fought with each other and with invaders from the eastern prairies and from the Muslim south. Some of these kingdoms began consolidating in the 700s, but it wasn't until Charlemagne ascended the throne of the Frankish nation in 768 that feudal Europe truly came into its own.

Following the death of his father, Charlemagne was co-ruler of the Franks with his brother until he too died a few years later. Charlemagne consolidated his power, and focused his knights and nobles on yearly campaigns of expansion in Italy, Spain, Lombardy, and parts of what would eventually become Germany. He exerted his power over the pope in Rome and was christened the first Holy Roman Emperor, the first person to rule over Western Europe since the fall of Rome. 

He reformed the government, the system of laws, expanded religious orders but reformed the church, and promoted education. At the height of his power, his power stretched from the Atlantic to the eastern border of Germany, and down the Italian peninsula. He established the idea that kingdoms could be hereditary, paving the way for the divine rights of kings and the absolute monarchs of the 1600s. Even today, Charlemagne remains one of the most consequential historical figure.