Charlemagne was also known by another name, Charlemagne. Like many other greats, he received the title "great" for the things he accomplished and his impact on history. To fully understand that impact we must look at his rise to power, the empire he built, and the consequences he left on Europe. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In most cases, emperors and kings inherit their kingdoms from their fathers before them. However, due to an ancient Frankish tradition, Charlemagne inherited only part of his father's kingdom, the other part was inherited by his brother Charlemagne. Historical articles differ as to who inherited the better part of the kingdom. Some think he was Carloman because his kingdom was manageable and stable, and others think he was Charlemagne because his share of the kingdom was larger. One thing is true, although Charlemagne had difficulty managing his lands; as much was still newly established, once he took control, he encountered a revolt, "very difficult to put down". To further compound his difficulties, tensions between him and his brother were rising, reaching a level where war seemed a possibility. This pushed Charlemagne to look for an advantage over his brother, something that would guarantee him victory. Eventually he would turn to Desiderio, king of the Lombards, taking the king's daughter as his wife. However, fortunately for him, the threat of war would later subside when his brother fell ill and died in the year 771. Bringing his father's previously divided kingdom whole again under the rule of Charlemagne. By this point, Charlemagne possessed the physical means to launch all manner of military conquests. Knowing this very well, he decided to realize his ambition, an ambition that would lead him to many military campaigns. Charlemagne wanted to unite the Germanic peoples under a single flag and a single religion, Christianity. His most important and time-consuming military actions were against the Saxons. For three decades (772-804), Charlemagne waged war on the Saxons determined to conquer them and convert them to Christianity. The Franks fought many relentless battles against the Saxon forces with few defeats, but the Saxons held firm and refused to surrender easily. This prompted the Franks to take drastic action. They annexed large masses of land between the Rhine and Elbe rivers, plundered, took hostages, carried out mass killings, deported rebels, and even persecuted Saxon allies, all to force them to accept Christianity. However, Charlemagne did not stop with the Saxons, in fact, he had several other campaigns carried out at the same time against other kingdoms. In 773 the Pope asked him for help against his own allies, the Lombards. The Pope had more influence and was more useful to Charlemagne than Desiderius, king of the Lombards. This pushed Charlemagne to repudiate his wife and usurp the crown and lands of Desiderius, forming an alliance with Rome. But Charlemagne's thirst for expansion had not yet been quenched. Later, in 788, he would annex Bavaria, an act that would have put him face to face with another adversary: ​​the Avars. The Avars were a group of Asian nomads, who came together to form a vast empire; in 796 the empire disintegrated and Charlemagne claimed much of it and converted many of his subjects to Christianity. While his many highly successful military campaigns are indeed impressive, he had his fair share of failures. At the time of Charlemagne, the Islamic Caliphate was quite powerful. They had a great empire along the Sea.