The movie starts out with Pepin, Charles’ father. He doesn’t want his first-born son Charles to rule the entire Kingdom of the Franks after he dies, which is very soon. A scene after this, Pepin dies. All of his family is around for a minute or two, and then the scene changes again.

Charles receives the word that he will not rule his father’s entire Kingdom. Instead, his father has given Charles only a little bit of land, and his brother Coloman receives the major portion. Charles gets mad, but his mother calms him down. Word is received that the Duke of Aquitaine doesn’t want to keep his treaty as an ally with the new Frankish Kings. Charles goes without his brother to straighten out the Duke. Aquitaine was re-taken over by Charles.

When Charles comes back, his mother says that he needs to marry a woman with land, money, and a good mind. She wants him to marry the King of the Lombards’ daughter. (The Lombards are the Franks’ enemy)

At the Lombard capital of Pavia, the King wants to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to Charles. Charles’ mom goes to the convent to see Charles’ future wife. She goes back with the Queen to marry Charles. Charles likes her, and they get married. The Pope doesn’t approve of Charles getting married to the King of the Lombard’s daughter, because the Lombard’s aren’t friendly to Rome. The Pope sends someone to tell Charles that he will be reprimanded for marrying her. He also sends a monk to tell Charles that he will have to attack the Lombards, because they are planning to attack the Papal States.

Charles told his wife that he will fight the Lombards, her people. She says that is the end of their marriage, and that she will go back to the convent to live. About this time, he receives word that his brother died of food poisoning. He is suspicious about the real reason.

While fighting the Lombards, Charles loses lots of men. He goes to Rome and visits the Pope, because he wants an answer as to why his men are dying. The walk up some steps on their knees and pray to God to help the men to get well.

One of Charles’ men went over to the Lombards side because he thought the Lombards were going to win. In other words, he was being a traitor to Charles. Charles then came back to his men and got ready to fight the Lombards. The plague by this time had gotten to the Lombards, and they start dying. Charles defeated the Lombards. The man that betrayed Charles wanted Charles to kill him, but Charles spared his life.

Back in Rome, the advisors of the Pope (his nephews) want to take over. They start conspiring against him.

Over a period of time, Charles conquers land and gets the Saxons on his side. He converts them to Christianity. There was an ambush in Spain. Charles meets Alquin, a monk who becomes his mentor. He marries for the fourth time, and makes an alliance with the King of Bavaria. The King betrayed the alliance, and Charles confronted him. The Bavarians charge their King as guilty. He is put to death, and Charles takes over Bavaria. He wants to stay and build a great canal.

While Charles is in Bavaria, his wife finds out that he has a hunchback son named Pepin. She takes him in and fixes him up. Galalon, the man who Charles think has killed his brother, invaded the Frankish palace. He made Pepin the King of the Franks. Alquin goes to Bavaria and tells Charles that Pepin is on the throne, and Charles goes home. He does not blame Pepin, but he blames Galalon. Charles and Galalon talk with each other, and Galalon admits to killing Charles’ brother. Charles forgives Galalon, but he must leave.

Alquin convinced Charles to build roads instead of canals, and Charles forgets about the canal and starts to work on the roads. His sons come back. One has conquered Spain, one brought back lots of gold and treasures, and one planted a whole lot of trees. Charles sends someone to tell Pope Hadrian of his conquered lands.

Hadrian wants to see Charles right away. The Pope’s nephews don’t like that Charles’ army is coming, and they want to bring in the Byzantine navy. Meanwhile, Pope Hadrian needs Charles. Alquin tells Charles that he isn’t going with him to Rome. He is going somewhere to die.

A messenger comes from Rome before Charles leave and tell Charles that Hadrian is dead. Leo III is the new Pope. The messenger (monk) says that Leo is in the back of the wagon and has been beaten. Charles took him in and took care of him. The Pope gets stronger. Around this time, Charles’ mother tells him that she is dying.

The nephews of Pope Hadrian accuse Pope Leo of blasphemy and other crimes. They are trying everything in their power to throw him out of office. The Pope wants no trial and also no war in Rome. However, Leo will go on trial. Aganon found the Oath of Innocence in a doctrine. This will help the Pope and he will not be guilty. Aganon wrote the Byzantine navy, and they go home.

At the trial, the nephews find out that the fleets were sent home. Pope Leo speaks and swears and oath of innocence. King Charles ordered that the accusers by arrested, and they were.

Later on, Charles tells Pope Leo why the fleets turned back. He says that Charles will be crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas Day. In the year 800 on Christmas Day, he was crowned by Pope Leo, and was named Charlemagne.

The Historians say that most of the movie is historically accurate. The historians believe that Hadrian died of natural causes. They also think that Charlemagne was illiterate. Leo didn’t commit blasphemy, but the nephews did try to throw him out of office. The main points were that Charles was interested in education and conquering. He also spread Christianity throughout the empire.

This movie was a very great movie and taught me a lot about Charlemagne and what went on in his time. If Charlemagne had never lived, the spread of Christianity and classical culture in Europe wouldn’t be the same as it is today. He was a great ruler.