This guide covers the mechanics behind the Charlemagne story events which on the face of things are supposed to allow the AI to form the Holy Roman Empire dynamically but in the hands of a player those same events allow you to form an Empire the likes of which Western Europe hasn't seen since the fall of Rome.

Following this guide you can learn the potential outcomes of the various story events surrounding Charlemagne, Karloman and their mother Bertrada as well as which kingdoms are affected by the events.

Laws

Day one of the game once you take Control of Karl you want to immedietly head to the realm law screen and implement title revocation, this is to ensure that the law is passed in the event the Council gets additional power which it shouldn't if you play around your vassals.

I play with Quartered Demesne Limit and with the new Non-Aggression Pact faction blocker mechanic, marrying your daughters to the powerful vassals of the empire will allow you to reign absolute as any true Roman Emperor should.

Vassals

Important things to note are there are several dukes in Karl's realm which are heirless and Karl is their sucessor, one notable example is the duke of flanders, having him killed will give you a power base to control the rest of the Dukes. (if you play with Default Demesne size)

You also have direct control of counts who should be rightful vassals of your dukes and you are eating a -25 opinion penalty because of them. Check you De Jure mapmode and transfer any counts under their respective dukes this will free up your vassal limit greatly in preparation for the events to come.

Way of Life Focus

If you have Way of Life I highly recommend Theology for the bonus health and the piety events since you will need a lot of it and the events can give good virtues which can help you and being a pilgrim can get you good traits such as charitable which makes your vassals like you more.

Karloman

Around two weeks after the game has begun Karloman will be set as your rival putting a nail in the coffin of any peaceful cooperation between your two realms you are each other's heir so make sure Karl stays out of any battles or generally is safe the majority of the time, take this idle time to find a court physician.

It is useful to note that should you start as Karloman or somehow die as Karl you can follow this guide but Karloman will lack a Claim on Italy which is a requirement to forming the Holy Roman Empire but he will get the Saxon Wars all the same like his brother allowing for a powerful Frankish Empire and Holy Roman Empire by his descendants.

The Lombard Princess

This event is actually unnecessary to get the claim on Italy though I suggest you marry her as it allows for a cash sum of around 180 gold which you can use to form new duches such as Normandy to get rid of the many count vassals.



You will in time get a event to divorce your new queen but keeping her around as well as Himiltrude won't affect events as the current king of Lombardy is very old and will die shortly breaking the Non-Aggression Pact

Pepin the Hunchback



Karl's only son at the begining of the game due to his amorous adventures with noble woman Himiltrude (courtier in game) the choice is yours whether you legitimize him or not but it is important to note that legitimizing him can assure a safe sucession free from gavelkind allowing you more time to get legalism 3 and switching to primogeniture Succession. I chose to legitimize him for the aforementioned reason as well as the opinion penalty applied to Karl's wife lowers the chance of addional heirs. There is a good chance Himultrude will be married off to a vassal so you may end up accidently cucking them and earning a powerful rival either break up with her or invite her to your court to keep a lover for more illegitimate offspring or just to stay out of trouble.

Societies
As soon as possible you should join the Dominican or Benedictine religious orders as they can grant you powerful artefacts as well as allowing Karl to take a vow of cellibacy allowing him to marry without any gavelkind troubles as well as being able to gain powerful Christian artefacts to help him earn the respect of his vassals.

Bertrada

Karl and Karloman's mother, Bertrada will around the year 771 ask Karl if she can go attempt to mediate with Karloman which if you do, Karloman will die a "Natural Death" leaving the Kingdom of the Franks to you, should you refuse her offer, Karloman will live and you will have to find another way to kill him such as a duel using the war focus.



Upon his death you will be met with this event be sure to hover over the only option as it will tell you what kingdom Karl has gained a claim on due to Karloman's wife fleeing It is necessary for the claim to be on the Kingdom of Lombardy in order to Form the Holy Roman Empire if it isn't restart or load an earlier save untill you gain the desired claim. The other Kingdoms the Claim can be on are Asturias and Bavaria.

King of the Franks
Once you are King of the Frankish Kingdoms you are probably over your vassal limit, Karloman often creates the Duchy of Orleans for you so you can give that to one of the counts and transfer some surrounding counts under him. I do not recommend handing out any titles to the Duke of Burgundy or Toulouse as they are from the same dynasty and can cause a lot of trouble if they grow too powerful, but fun fact they are related to Karl though his ancestor Karl the Hammer.

Once your vassal limit is at its cap or lower you can relax and focus on gaining the necessary 400 piety to forming the empire of Francia. During this time the Saxon wars are due to fire.

The Saxon Wars
During a period of peace you'll be met with a decision to attack the Saxons to the north you need to take this decision as it is a good source of additional piety which we will need a lot of down the road but pagan attrition on the surface will kill a large frankish army.

The way to beat Saxony is to detach a small enough unit to enter Saxon territory and construct a fort in the besieged province this will increase the supply limit and allow the bulk of the frankish army to safely siege the holdings there. you are aiming for the germanic holy site of Paderborn as this will lead to the next event.



As a true Christian we should burn this devil tree as we need to show our devotion to the faith burn it and hurt the Germanic moral authority which will make the saxon provinces easier to convert to Christianity. All that remains is to win the war with saxony, simply siege down the holdings and attack any saxon army as usual but do not follow them into high attrition provinces and Saxony is yours.

Widukind

Once you've taken Saxony and are at peace the Saxon Rebellion will begin. Widukind will spawn with a stack of 12000 event troops but he usually splits them into stacks of 4000 allowing you to pick them off one by one don't before enforcing demands, a white peace is enough to stop him and to get him to join your court.

Kingdom of Bavaria

As Karl is now Emperor of Francia he can look east to the Kingdom of Bavaria he has two cousins Grifo and Karl, both with a strong claim on Bavaria you may have even seen one of them form a host to attempt to take it for themselves. They are both of your Dynasty and pushing their claim would grow your Empire I chose Grifo as he was the eldest and thus the rightful king of Bavaria. Simply win the war and your chosen claimant will be places on the throne. I advise you keep an eye of them as the desposed king doesn't usually sit quiety as he has his title taken from him.

A Pope of Your Own

Now that Bavaria is under Franish rule its quite easy to just press your claim on italy straight up but I chose to get creative and ask for a invasion as well as vassalizing the Pope since forming the Holy Roman Empire gives him land in italy. The process is rather simple, implement free investure in Francia and all of the kingdoms below it and create a Anti-Pope and Press his claim on the Papacy. It should be an easy victory as the Pope is quite a non-influencial figure until the year 1000.

The Bones of Saint Peter

You should have won the war without a problem and now your own pope is sitting on the Throne of Saint Peter but we're not finished with the former Pope who most likely will be exiled to somewhere like venice or an italian Duke inside lombardy. With a small gift the former Pope should bring with him the Bones of Saint Peter. Land him in a county and immedietly start a plot to kill I got over 400% plot power so he died relatively quickly.

Why should I get this item you ask? Well the bones of Saint Peter Makes building cheaper, increases your tax income and gives a huge +10 opinion boost to all Christians which can really help when managing a realm. Remember our friends in the Dominican order? Well you might get a event to steal a holy artefact I got lucky I got the Crown of Thorns giving me another +10 opinion. Additional artefacts such as the seamless robes of Jesus can give even further opinion boosts and tax income.

Artefacts the most powerful tool in keeping vassals friendly and in the new patch Council Power factions only form when vassals are below 50 opinion which means a small gift and good stats and maybe some honorary titles means you can sit back and reap the fruits of your labour with no pesky rebellions cropping up every 2 years.

The Invasion of Italy

Now with the Pope under Frankish Control ask him for invasion he will say yes and now use that invasion casus belli and occupy only the primary holding of each county, this will depose all the rulers but leave the baronies (mostly) intact allowing you to appoint new vassals. As of the 2.7.1 update Lombardy starts with the Iron Crown, it would suit you better as future king of the Lombards do what you must to get that crown for even futher opinion boosts.

Once Lombardy is yours it will be renamed to Italy and the Holy Roman Empire decision will be available. We won't however be using it for a while, this one decision is the most powerful decision in the game but it's quite hard to understand what it actually does so here's what it does without the weird formatting of the decision interface.

Form the Holy Roman Empire

• Change the Primary Empire title to the Holy Roman Empire
  
• The current Primary Empire title [if one exists] becomes De Jure part of the Holy Roman Empire
  
• All Kingdom titles owned by the character become De Jure part of The Holy Roman Empire

So basically every kingdom you own and your primary Empire Title becomes the Holy Roman Empire's new De Jure land so to maxmize this decision we need to make a few more titles.

Titles you should Form or hold prior to pressing the Decision

• Empire of Germania
  
• Kingdom of West Francia (France)
  
• Kingdom of Middle Francia (Lotharingia)
  
• Kingdom of Aquitaine
  
• Kingdom of Burgundy
  
• Kingdom of Italy
  
• Kingdom of Frisia
  
• Kingdom of Brittany
  
• Kingdom of Bavaria
  
• Kingdom of Saxony
  
• Kingdom of Pomerania

IMPORANT NOTE
Unde no circumstances give out kingdom titles to vassals unless it is a kingdom title inside your primary Empire such as Bavaria which should be ruled by your claimant. Bavaria is Dejure Germania so it will be intergrated without you holding it directly.

Pomerania makes a good place to gain piety just assault the holdings and win a holy war for a quick 100 piety. Plus it makes the borders look sleak and clean and if you're wondering about Germania, the decision makes the coat of arms of your highest title the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire. If Germania is your Primary title you gain its Dejure Land which means you get Bohemia in your empire too, as well as the iconic Holy Roman Eagle.



If you hold all those titles and set your Primary to the Empire of Germania and NOT Francia you should come out with this beast of a De Jure Empire



So there it is, the Empire which is possible during the reign of Charlemagne. Keep in mind Charlemagne is around 60 years old by the year 800 AD so in CK2 terms he's not long for this world but if you're so inclined you could always leave the decision and take even more with Pepin the Hunchback and then press the Decision you could easily intergrate Andalusia, Carpathia and Poland into the Empire in one button press.

Thanks for Reading this guide, Charlemagne's story can make for a nice fast paced game of expansion as a king and with an empire spanning form the Pyrennes to the Elbe you can rightfully call yourself Western Roman Emperor. Be sure to rate this guide if it helped you out.