790-809 Charlemagne Crowned Holy Roman Emperor

This twenty year period covers the crowning in 800 of Charlemagne (pictured), a Frank, as the northern emperor by Pope Leo III.

It also covers the reign of the West Saxon King Beorhtric who died in 802 and was succeeded as king of the English by Egbert.

In 795 the Norsemen raided Ireland and Pope Leo III succeeded Pope Hadrian.

Pope Leo III was disliked by the Roman aristocracy -- particularly Pope Hadrian's family -- and in 799 Pope Leo III was attacked by thugs.

He fled to Germany to seek Charlemagne's protection and charges of adultery and perjury against him were set aside by Charlemagne and in gratitude Pope Leo III crowned him Western Emperor (actually, the first Holy Roman Emperor).

By allying Rome with Germany - and becoming subject to German rule - Pope Leo III may have declared Rome's independence from Constantinople but he merely exchanged one master in the East for another one in the West and in doing so he can be attributed with starting western civilization as we know it, with German ascendancy. 

770-789 Danes Invade England, Charlemagne Destroys Lombards

In this twenty year period the West Saxon King Beorhtric became king of the English in 786;  in 787 the very first Danish Invasion on the Dorset coast occurred; and Charlemagne destroyed the Lombard kingdom by 774.

In Rome, Pope Stephen IV had cast aside Charlemagne and his Frankish allies and thrown in his lot with the Lombards. 

In 772, Hadrian I succeeded Stephen as pope and tried to extricate Rome from the Lombards, demanding the Lombard king Desiderius to restore lands to the Holy See.

King Desiderius refused and Charlemagne came to Pope Hadrian I's assistance, destroying the Lombard kingdom between 773-774.

Arriving in Rome, Charlemagne gave the pope a document promising to give the papacy a large portion of the Italian peninsula in return for giving up Tuscany and Spoleto.

With the papacy's power restored, Pope Hadrian I then proposed at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 that inconaclasm, favoured by Constantinople, be condemned and in doing so he drove a further wedge between the eastern and the western church.