Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, and great part of Italy.

In the year 800 Charlemagne, being in Rome, whither he had gone
with a numerous army to protect the Pope, was crowned by the
Pontiff Emperor of the West. On Christmas day Charles entered the
Church of St. Peter, as if merely to take his part in the
celebration of the mass with the rest of the congregation. When he
approached the altar and stooped in the act of prayer the Pope
stepped forward and placed a crown of gold upon his head; and
immediately the Roman people shouted, "Life and victory to Charles
the August, crowned by God the great and pacific Emperor of the
Romans." The Pope then prostrated himself before him, and paid him
reverence, according to the custom established in the times of the
ancient Emperors, and concluded the ceremony by anointing him with
consecrated oil.

Charlemagne's wars were chiefly against the pagan and barbarous
people, who, under the name of Saxons, inhabited the countries now
called Hanover and Holland. He also led expeditions against the
Saracens of Spain; but his wars with the Saracens were not carried
on, as the romances assert, in France, but on the soil of Spain.
He entered Spain by the Eastern Pyrenees, and made an easy
conquest of Barcelona and Pampeluna. But Saragossa refused to open
her gates to him, and Charles ended by negotiating and accepting a
vast sum of gold as the price of his return over the Pyrenees.

On his way back, he marched with his whole army through the gorges
of the mountains by way of the valleys of Engui, Eno, and
Roncesvalles. The chief of this region had waited upon
Charlemagne, on his advance, as a faithful vassal of the monarchy;