Didn't Charlemagne already have a couple of wives. Would it be suitable for an empress to marry such a foreign king, and not even become his only wife?
The concept of crusades didn't exist yet. The Pope wasn't yet that powerful.More seriously i think you have a scenario for a Frankish-East Empire war, how about it
or
What if we butterfly Irene into being a real catch and she calls on her husband to assist the Empire against the Arabs, as leader of HRE
can he pressurise the pope to call a crusade -
True, but Charlemagne recently crowned HRE might suggest a war with church backing. The pope might think, hey know heres a chance to increase my authority. It needn't be called a crusade, im talking about the content not the labelling.
Thanks for the sig![]()
I think Charlemagne was not the most ignorant of people.
He was interested in many subjects, incl astronomy, he could read and speak several languages, incl latin, he instituted important economic and monetary reforms, educational reforms, i think maybe some snobbery and chauvinism is going on here.
What's the probability of Charlemagne abandoning Aachen and becoming the Emperor of Constantinople? He could appoint Charles the Younger as his regent in the West.
Let's say the Constantinoplitan aristocracy accepts him as Emperor after a series of bribes and blackmails. How would his reign be? And there is still the problem that he hasn't a qualified heir. Could he marry someone of the Roman elite if Irene dies 'mysteriously' and produce a legitimate prince?
Also, what's the Greek name of Charles?
I think Charlemagne was not the most ignorant of people.
He was interested in many subjects, incl astronomy, he could read and speak several languages, incl latin, he instituted important economic and monetary reforms, educational reforms, i think maybe some snobbery and chauvinism is going on here.
Again, as barbarian kings go, he's impressive. The problem is that speaking from the perspective of "civilization", aka something like the Byzantines (which I will proudly and shamelessly side with), none of those compare to what the Byzantines have already.
Its a great step for the West back towards that level, but no more.
And yes, the Byzantines were snobs, but not without reason.
Until the common Ottomans over ran them, hooray for the Ottomans.![]()