Charlemagne

Born 2 April 748, eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, Charlemagne became King of the Franks in 768 alongside his brother Carloman I, then sole ruler three years later. He spent decades expanding: removing the Lombards from northern Italy in 774, conquering Bavaria, Saxony - where the Massacre of Verden marked his ruthless spread of Christianity - and northern Spain, while maintaining diplomatic contact with the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 790s. On Christmas 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor in Rome, a title that brought him into conflict with Constantinople and made him forerunner to a line of Holy Roman Emperors lasting into the 19th century. His reforms in law, administration, education, and military organisation fueled the Carolingian Renaissance and set the template for medieval Europe. He died 28 January 814 and was buried at the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, his imperial capital - still called the Father of Europe, still claimed as a founding figure by multiple states.