A map of Europe, showing territorial borders existing in the 9th century, under the reign of Charlemagne. Charlemagne (748-814) was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and from 800 the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire. Map published in 1831.