Pope Leo III Rebrands Charlemagne
Pope Leo III (750-816) had a black eye in 799. Not a metaphorical one - he literally had bruises all over his face. He needed to make a plan, fast.
Leo III had become pope back in 795. While the family of the previous pope was mourning his death, Leo III quickly got himself elected to the papal throne while his opponents weren’t looking.
There was much grumbling in Rome. Many didn’t like his popely politics. There were rumors about his personal life and allegations of some very un-popely activities. This came to a head in 799, when the opponents of Pope Leo III attacked him during a parade in Rome, stripped him of his papal garments, mutilated his face, and declared him deposed.
Just like popes had done for decades before, he looked to the king of the Franks for protection. Unlike other popes, he fled Rome, crossed the Alps, and headed straight to Charlemagne’s court to plead his case and beg for assistance from the king.
Charlemagne, like his father before him, had gained a lot of legitimacy as the protector of the pope, so this would not stand. King Charlemagne allowed Pope Leo III to swear an oath that he was innocent of all accusations. That was good enough for the king, so he escorted the pope back to Rome and reinstalled him on the papal throne.
Now the pope owed the king, big time. And he knew just the perfect gift to bestow. On Christmas Day in 800, in Rome at St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne:
“Most serene Augustus, Great Peacemaker, the Emperor crowned by God, ruling over the Roman Empire, also by God’s Grace King of the Franks and King of the Lombards.”
That’s quite a title. Charlemagne was the first person to be crowned emperor in the west since the late Roman Empire. This wasn’t exactly the same Roman Empire, as it had lost all those once-Roman lands south and east of the Mediterranean, but it had gained new territories in Germany and Central Europe. The map had changed. It looked less like the Rome of old and more like Western Europe. But that’s jumping ahead…
Over in Constantinople, The Byzantine Empire was surprised to hear about this whole new emperor and Roman Empire thing. They had always considered themselves the only Roman Empire, and they already had an emperor, or rather, empress.
A few years earlier, Empress Irene had pushed aside her son to rule on her own. Some thought that this made her a usurper, and thus, an illegitimate ruler. Others thought that any woman in power was improper. Either way, this allowed lawyers to proclaim the imperial throne “vacant” and Leo III slid in.
Empress Irene said, “Oh no you didn’t!” and stamped her feet angrily, but she lacked an army in Rome and Charlemagne had one there, so her troops remained in the east and the new imperial crown stayed on his head in the west. That was that.
Pope Leo III successfully rebranded his patron. Emperor Charlemagne sounds way more impressive than King Charlemagne. Also, that Leo III had been the one to place the crown on his head set an important precedent, giving rise to the idea that only the pope could crown someone emperor.
The emperor gave the pope protection. The pope gave the emperor legitimacy. They needed each other. From more than 1,000 years later, this can look like the pinnacle of Charlemagne’s career, but he still had 13 more years on the throne. This wasn’t his peak, but it was an important inflection point in the flow of history.
A man who once might have been seen as just another bigshot barbarian king now held the imperial title. Score one for Leo III, all healed up from his scuffle. It was a medieval rebrand without precedent.
If your CMO or VP of Marketing, or worst of all, an outside consultant, suggests a rebrand, alarm bells should go off in your head. This is a VERY expensive undertaking. As the Romans said, cui bono? Who benefits?
A rebrand is a great way for Marketing to spend buckets of cash and countless hours of effort. But to what end? Whoever is boss of marketing is unlikely to get fired during the process, because every cowboy knows you don’t change horses midstream. So good for them. But for everyone else, is this in their interest?
Maybe it is. If your company just spilled oil all over some cute baby seals or got caught stealing money from elderly war widows to finance your CEO’s private jet, then maybe with a new name, this rose might just smell sweeter.
Pope Leo III’s epic rebrand succeeded because it pleased his patron, raised the profile of the papacy, and gave a giant wedgie to the older imperial power in the east. The benefits in power and prestige outweighed the costs in unity of The Church and Christendom.
So before you rebrand the company or the product or even the executive washroom, make sure you know what you’re hoping to get out of it. If the answer is “to generate consulting fees for my firm” or “to distract from our many problems” or “to make Marketing look relevant and feel important,” maybe this isn’t the best use of resources.
