Genealogy Wynnes
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Thoms Wynne Geneology & History This is one of two web sites designed to provide genealogical
and historical information
The 11th Century Coat of Arms of Ednowain Bendow - Head of the 13th Tribe of Wales - an Ancestor of Thomas Wynne For Information about the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne Thomas Wynne's first wife was Martha Buttall 1 Martha BUTTALL b: ABT 1627 in Clwyd,
Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales Thomas Wynne's father was Thomas ap John Wyn, born 26 Dec in Bron Fadog, Anne Elizabeth Wynne born 28 June, 1617 at Bron Fadog
Biography Charlemagne -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Historians know very little about the childhood of Charlemagne. Einhard, a historian who wrote one of the first biographies on Charlemagne around 830 wrote in his biography The Life of Charlemagne, "I consider that it would be foolish for me to write about Charlemagne's birth and childhood, or even about his boyhood, for nothing is set down in writing about this and nobody can be found still alive who claims to have any personal knowledge of these matters." However, Einhard as well as other historians did describe Charlemagne as a man. He was tall in stature and had a muscular physic; he had a handsome face and blond hair. At all times he carried himself nobly. When he dined, he ate and drank in great moderation, despising drunkenness either in himself or in those around him. Charlemagne, a very active man, enjoyed hunting, horseback riding, and swimming. Dressing simply, Charlemagne wore the garb of the commoners with only a few vestiges of royalty such as edging of silk on his woolen tunic or an ermine vest in the winter. Only on special occasions like ceremonial processions did Charlemagne don accouterments such as those worn by most of the nobility of the day. Charlemagne became the king of the Franks in 769. He and his brother Carloman divided the kingdom in half, but at the death of his brother in 771, Charlemagne became the sole ruler of his father's kingdom at the age of twenty-nine. As a powerful and skilled warrior, Charlemagne fought the enemies of the Franks. First of all he finished a campaign in Aquitaine that Pepin the Short had started but never fully completed. In his campaign, Charlemagne entirely subdued the fierce inhabitants of Aquitaine. In later campaigns Charlemagne would fight the Lombards, the Saxons, the Saracens, the Bretons, Bavarians, the Slavs, the Huns, the Bohemians, and the Danes. By the end of Charlemagne's reign in 814, his empire, the Holy Roman Empire, covered the modern day countries of France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Italy, Germany, Austria, and Spain. Although Charlemagne waged many campaigns, one of the longest campaigns was his campaign against the Saxons which lasted thirty years. Le Chanson de Roland, one of the old French chansons de geste, records one of Charlemagne's campaigns in Spain. When Charlemagne, traveling back to France from the campaign, marched his army through the Pyrenees, the treacherous Basques who lived there ambushed his army in a narrow pass, killing several of Charlemagne's commanders as well as soldiers. However, despite his many campaigns, Charlemagne made many friends among both commoners and kings. He carefully cultivated these friendships as well. Charlemagne also respected liberal arts in spite of his warlike nature. He spoke well and easily, had learned Latin, Greek (although he understood it better than he spoke it), and had studied grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, astrology, and mathematics. As a scholar, Charlemagne named the months and the winds, ordered scholars to write out the poetry of the times, and a grammar for his own language. Additionally he strove to encourage learning and to make it available to commoners as well as the nobility. Some of the first free schools were churches in Charlemagne's empire where the priests taught children in the churches without compensation. Charlemagne also was a devout Christian. He supported the Church, giving liberally at his own expense as well as that of the state to support the Church and fighting to protect the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church's property in Italy. On Christmas Day in 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne "Emperor and Augustus." This could have created conflict since the emperor of the Byzantine Empire already possessed this title, but Charlemagne quickly sent gifts and envoys to appease his usurpation. In reality, Charlemagne claimed that he had not known of what the Pope intended to do beforehand and would have prevented the coronation if he had. However, this action created the Holy Roman Empire, and through it, Charlemagne supposedly had the sanction of God. Called "by far the most able and noble-spirited of all those who ruled over the nations in his time" by Einhard, Charlemagne's success came from God. When he died on January 28, 814 at the age of 72, the inscription on his tomb read, "Beneath this stone lies the body of Charles the Great, the Christian Emperor . . . " Throughout his life, Charlemagne had worshiped God devoutly, supported the Church, given to the needy (at his own expense) and even built a magnificent cathedral. In the Bible in I Samuel 2:30 God says, "Those who honor me I will honor . . . " Since Charlemagne honored God, God raised him up to lead a great nation.
Bibliography Chew, Robin. "Charlemagne: King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire." April 1996. Online. Lucid Interactive. Google. (Retrieved 9 Oct. 2003). Durant, Will. "King Charlemagne." History of Civilization Vol III, The Age of Faith. Online. The Knighthood, Chivalry, & Tournaments Resource Library. Google. (Retrieved 8 October, 2003). Einhard. The Life of Charlemagne. Two Lives of Charlemagne. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books, 1969 Kimball, Charles. "A History of Europe, Chapter 7: The Viking Era, Charlemagne" 2000. Online. The Zenophile Historian. Internet. (Retrieved 11 Oct. 2003). Notker the Stammerer. Charlemagne. Two Lives of Charlemagne Trans. Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books, 1969 Winston, Richard. Charlemagne. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1968
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