Editing Pope Leo III (section)

===Coronation of Charlemagne===
[[File:Raphael - Coronation of Charlemagne (cropped).jpg|thumb|Detail from ''[[The Coronation of Charlemagne]]'' by [[Raphael]] (1517)]]
Charlemagne's father, [[Pepin the Short]], defended the papacy against the Lombards and issued the [[Donation of Pepin]], which granted the land around Rome to the pope as a fief. In 754 [[Pope Stephen II]] had conferred on Charlemagne's father the dignity of ''Patricius Romanus'', which implied primarily the protection of the Roman Church in all its rights and privileges; above all in its temporal authority which it had gradually acquired (notably in the former Byzantine [[Duchy of Rome]] and the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]]) by just titles in the course of the two preceding centuries.<ref name=shahan/>

Two days after his oath, on Christmas Day 800, Leo [[Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor|crowned]] Charlemagne as [[Holy Roman Emperor|emperor]]. According to Charlemagne's biographer, [[Einhard]], Charlemagne had no suspicion of what was about to happen, and if informed would not have accepted the imperial crown.<ref>{{cite book |author=Einhard |author-link=Einhard |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/einhard.asp |title=The Life of Charlemagne |chapter=Charlemagne Crowned Emperor |chapter-url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/einhard.asp#Charlemagne%20Crowned%20Emperor |translator-first=Samuel Epes |translator-last=Turner |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Brothers |year=1880}}</ref> There is, however, no reason to doubt that for some time previous the elevation of Charlemagne had been discussed, both at home and at Rome, especially since the imperial throne in [[Constantinople]] was controversially occupied by a woman, [[Irene of Athens]], and since the [[Carolingian dynasty]] had firmly established its power and prestige.<ref name=shahan/> The coronation offended Constantinople, which had seen itself still as the rightful defender of Rome, but Empress Irene, like many of her predecessors since [[Justinian I]], was too weak to offer protection to the city or its much reduced citizenry.

In 808, Leo committed [[Corsica]] to Charlemagne for safe-keeping because of Muslim raids, originating from [[Al-Andalus]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=Raymond Davis|title=The Lives of the Ninth-century Popes (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of Ten Popes from A.D. 817–891|date= 1995|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=9780853234791|page=93|edition=illustrated}}</ref> on the island.<ref>{{cite book|first=Thomas F. X. |last=Noble|title=The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825|date= 2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=9780812200911|page=173}}</ref> Nonetheless, Corsica, along with [[Sardinia]], would still go on to be occupied by Muslim forces in 809 and 810.<ref>{{cite book|first=Henri |last=Pirenne|title=Mohammed and Charlemagne|date= 2013| publisher=Routledge| isbn=9781135030179| page=160}}</ref>