He has conquered Northern Italy, much of what we consider modern-day France, much of what we consider modern-day Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Charlemagne is really one of the defining figures of the Middle Ages, and especially the early Middle Ages. As you can see, he's able to unify much of Western Europe. A lot of our ideas about kings and castles and knights begin to emerge around the time of Charlemagne. This notion of being a Holy Roman Emperor, because he's able to provide protection to the pope. The pope says, hey, I'm going to say that you are continuing on the legacy of the Roman Empire. Now, as we'll see, and we cover in much more detail in other videos, the title of Holy Roman Emperor, or Emperor of the Romans, does not continue on with Charlemagne's descendants.