<span>Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the </span><span>discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today.
</span> Europe was mired in a centuries-long dark age before a king named Charlemagne came along and turned on the light switch.
By encouraging arts, culture and education, the 8th-century Frankish king – who would eventually become the first Holy Roman Emperor – tugged the continent out of cultural stagnation that threatened to never end.
Both a fierce warrior and in many ways the first Renaissance man, Charlemagne's achievements on the battlefield and in his laws led to the first notion of a pan-European identity.
