Actually, Charlemagne would be French...he united France, Germany, and Italy, then was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, and upon his death, split his kingdom up into Holy Roman Empire(Germany), Italy, and France....but he originated in France.
Well, actually he was born either in what is today Belgium or in Germany, sprent parts of his childhood in what is today France - and likely spoke a precursor of the french, german and dutch tongues. I think either classification (German or French) does not do the circumstances of the time justice.
Here's a snippet from Wikipedia:
Charlemagne's native tongue is a matter of controversy. He spoke the Germanic language of the Franks of his day, which should be called Old Frankish, but linguists differ on the identity and periodisation of the language, some going so far as to say that he did not speak Old Frankish as he was born in 742 or 747, by which time Old Frankish had become extinct. Old Frankish is reconstructed from its descendant, Old Low Franconian, also called Old Dutch, and from loanwords to Old French. Linguists know very little about Old Frankish, as it attested mainly as phrases and words in the law codes of the main Frankish tribes (especially those of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks), which are written in Latin interspersed with Germanic elements.[4]
The area of Charlemagne's birth does not make determination of his native language easier. Most historians agree he was born around Liège, like his father, but some say he was born in or around Aachen, some fifty kilometres away. At that time, this was an area of great linguistic diversity. If we take Liège (around 750) as the centre, we find Low Franconian in the north and northwest, Gallo-Romance (the ancestor of Old French) in the south and southwest and various Old High German dialects in the east. If Gallo-Romance is excluded, that means he either spoke Old Low Franconian or an Old High German dialect, probably with a strong Frankish influence.
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