Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans
On this day · 25 December 800
On Christmas Day 800 a pope placed a crown on the Frankish king's head, reviving an imperial title vacant in the West for three centuries.
On December 25, 800, during Christmas Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo III placed a crown on the head of Charlemagne, king of the Franks, and the assembled Romans hailed him Imperator Romanorum — “Emperor of the Romans.” It was the first time anyone in the West had held the imperial title since the deposition of the last Roman emperor in 476.
The moment was loaded with debts and ambitions. Leo had recently been attacked and driven from Rome, and Charlemagne had restored him; the coronation repaid that protection while asserting the papacy’s claimed right to confer the imperial crown.
Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard insisted the king was taken by surprise — that he would not have entered the church that day had he known the pope’s plan. Historians still argue whether that was true humility or careful theater. Either way, the act fused Roman, Christian, and Germanic ideas into a new political order.
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