Bahādur Shāh II, also called Bahādur Shāh Ẓafar, (born October 24, 1775, Delhi, India—died November 7, 1862, Rangoon [now Yangon], Myanmar), the last Mughal emperor of India (reigned 1837–57). He was a poet, musician, and calligrapher, more an aesthete than a political leader.
He was the second son of Akbar Shāh II and Lāl Bāī. For most of his reign he was a client of the British and was without real authority. He figured briefly, and reluctantly, in the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58; during the mutiny, rebel troops from the city of Meerut seized Delhi and compelled Bahādur Shāh to accept nominal leadership of the revolt. He was arrested by the British Army after it captured Delhi in September 1857. After the rebellion was put down by the British, he was tried and exiled to Burma (Myanmar) with his family.
Charlemagne, also called Charles I, byname Charles the Great, (born April 2, 747?—died January 28, 814, Aachen, Austrasia [now in Germany]), king of the Franks (768–814), king of the Lombards (774–814), and first emperor (800–814) of the Romans and of what was later called the Holy Roman Empire.
Around the time of the birth of Charlemagne—conventionally held to be 742 but likely to be 747 or 748—his father, Pippin III (the Short), was mayor of the palace, an official serving the Merovingian king but actually wielding effective power over the extensive Frankish kingdom. What little is known about Charlemagne’s youth suggests that he received practical training for leadership by participating in the political, social, and military activities associated with his father’s court.
