Charlemagne. For centuries his name has been legend. Carolus Magnus (‘Charles the Great’), King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, the subject of numerous epics and romances – he was even made a saint. As a figure of history he is larger than life. Charles the Great was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as Charles I in the regal lists of Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, and France.Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as a Pater Europae (father of Europe) his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.