Charlemagne was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe and promoted a cultural and intellectual revival known as the Carolingian Renaissance. One of his main achievements was the reform and expansion of education in his empire. He believed that learning was essential for the spiritual and moral well-being of his subjects, as well as for the effective administration of his vast realm.

Charlemagne established schools in monasteries, cathedrals and palaces, where he encouraged the study of the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, and invited scholars from different regions and backgrounds to his court. He himself was an avid learner who studied languages, literature, history and science with his tutors. Charlemagne’s educational reforms had a lasting impact on the development of medieval culture and scholarship.

He also wanted to foster a common language and culture among his diverse subjects, who spoke various dialects of Germanic, Romance and Celtic languages. He chose Latin as the lingua franca of his empire, and ordered that all official documents, laws and decrees be written in Latin. He also supported the creation of a new script, known as Carolingian minuscule, which was more legible and uniform than the previous scripts.