10 Incredible What-Ifs That Could Have Changed The Course Of History

5. ...Charlemagne Had Married Irene Of Athens?

Charlemagne Paderborn
Wikipedia Commons

You don't get a name like the 'King of the Franks"'or 'Charles the Great' for nothing - and yet Emperor Charlemagne could have ruled over an even greater portion of Europe had his marriage to Irene the Athenian happened.

Charlemagne united most of Western Europe during the 8th Century, as well as laying the foundations of modern-day France and Germany, having ascended to the Frankish throne in 768 AD before acquiring the Kingdom of Italy in 774 AD, and then becoming the first Roman Emperor in Western Europe to be recognised by a Pope in more than three centuries.

Yet, in 802 AD - two years after Pope Leo III had acknowleded the legitimacy of Charlemagne's claim over that of Irene the Athenian as Emperor of the Roman Empire - he very nearly became married to his former rival. However, Irene, the widowed Empress of the Byzantine Empire, was deposed and exiled to the Greek island of Lesbos by Nikephoros where she died in 803 AD before the marriage could occur.

Irene's death ensured that Charlemagne was unable to unify the Western Roman Empire with the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), therefore preventing him from creating an even larger Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne's empire eventually collapsed when his grandsons divided it into thirds. If there had been a greater number of lands to divide, might his legacy have survived even longer, perhaps?

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NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.