Medieval Sourcebook:
Einhard: Life of Charlemagne
Charlemagne [i.e. Charles the Great] is the most discussed political
leader of the 8th and 9th centuries. He became rule of a vast empire in
Western Europe, and from 800 on held the title of Roman Emperor.
The most extensive account of his life is by his friend and courtier, Einhard.
Although Einhard modeled his life on the genre of biography exemplified
by the Roman writer Suetonius, there is no reason to believe that much
of the detail is inaccurate. Later on Charlemagne acquired an almost divine
status, bith as a Catholic saint, and as the hero of French epics and Romances.
The Full
Text of Einhard's Life of Charlemagne
is also available here.
[All extracts from Book III. Section numbers used in various translations]
#22. [Charles' Appearance.] Charles was large and strong, and of lofty
stature, though not disproportionately tall (his height is well known to
have been seven times the length of his foot); the upper part of his head
was round, his eyes very large and animated, nose a little long, hair fair,
and face laughing and merry. Thus his appearance was always stately and
dignified, whether he was standing or sitting; although his neck was thick
and somewhat short, and his belly rather prominent; but the symmetry of
the rest of his body concealed these defects. His gait was firm, his whole
carriage manly, and his voice clear, but not so strong as his size led
one to expect. His health was excellent, except during the four years preceding
his death, when he was subject to frequent fevers; at the last he even
limped a little with one foot. Even in those years he consulted rather
his own inclinations than the advice of physicians, who were almost hateful
to him, because they wanted him to give up roasts, to which he was accustomed,
and to eat boiled meat instead. In accordance with the national custom,
he took frequent exercise on horseback and in the chase, accomplishments
in which scarcely any people in the world can equal the Franks. He enjoyed
the exhalations from natural warm springs, and often practised swimming,
in which he was such an adept that none could surpass him; and hence it
was that he built his palace at Aixla-Chapelle, and lived there constantly
during his latter years until his death. He used not only to invite his
sons to his bath, but his nobles and friends, and now and then a troop
of his retinue or body guard, so that a hundred or more persons sometimes
bathed with him.
#23. [Charles' Clothing] He used to wear the national, that is to say,
the Frank, dress-next his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above
these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands covered his
lower limbs, and shoes his feet, and he protected his shoulders and chest
in winter by a close-fitting coat of otter or marten skins. Over all he
flung a blue cloak, and he always had a sword girt about him, usually one
with a gold or silver hilt and belt; he sometimes carried a jewelled sword,
but only on great feast-days or at the reception of ambassadors from foreign
nations. He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never allowed
himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman
tunic, chlamys, and shoes; the first time at the request of Pope Hadrian,
the second to gratify Leo, Hadrian's successor. On great feast-days he
made use of embroidered clothes, and shoes bedecked with precious stones;
his cloak was fastened by a golden buckle, and he appeared crowned with
a diadem of gold and gems: but on other days his dress varied little from
the common dress of the people.
#24. [Charle's Manner] Charles was temperate in eating, and particularly
so in drinking, for he abominated drunkenness in anybody, much more in
himself and those of his household; but he could not easily abstain from
food, and often complained that fasts injured his health. He very rarely
gave entertainments, only on great feast-days, and then to large numbers
of people. His meals ordinarily consisted of four courses, not counting
the roast, which his huntsmen used to bring in on the spit; he was more
fond of this than of any other dish. While at table, he listened to reading
or music. The subjects of the readings were the stories and deeds of olden
time: he was fond, too, of St. Augustine's books, and especially of the
one entitled "The City of God."
He was so moderate in the use of wine and all sorts of drink that he
rarely allowed himself more than three cups in the course of a meal. In
summer after the midday meal, he would eat some fruit, drain a single cup,
put off his clothes and shoes, just as he did for the night, and rest for
two or three hours. He was in the habit of awaking and rising from bed
four or five times during the night. While he was dressing and putting
on his shoes, he not only gave audience to his friends, but if the Count
of the Palace told him of any suit in which his judgment was necessary,
he had the parties brought before him forthwith, took cognizance of the
case, and gave his decision, just as if he were sitting on the Judgment-seat.
This was not the only business that he transacted at this time, but he
performed any duty of the day whatever, whether he had to attend to the
matter himself, or to give commands concerning it to his officers.
#25 [Charles' Education] Charles had the gift of ready and fluent speech,
and could express whatever he had to say with the utmost clearness. He
was not satisfied with command of his native language merely, but gave
attention to the study of foreign ones, and in particular was such a master
of Latin that he could speak it as well as his native tongue; but he could
understand Greek better than he could speak it. He was so eloquent, indeed,
that he might have passed for a teacher of eloquence. He most zealously
cultivated the liberal arts, held those who taught them in great esteem,
and conferred great honours upon them. He took lessons in grammar of the
deacon Peter of Pisa, at that time an aged man. Another deacon, Albin of
Britain, surnamed Alcuin, a man of Saxon extraction, who was the greatest
scholar of the day, was his teacher in other branches of learning. The
King spent much time and labour with him studying rhetoric, dialectics,
and especially astronomy; he learned to reckon, and used to investigate
the motions of the heavenly bodies most curiously, with an intelligent
scrutiny. He also tried to write, and used to keep tablets and blanks in
bed under his pillow, that at leisure hours he might accustom his hand
to form the letters; however, as he did not begin his efforts in due season,
but late in life, they met with ill success.
***
#19 [Charles and the Education of His Children] The plan that he adopted
for his children's education was, first of all, to have both boys and girls
instructed in the liberal arts, to which he also turned his own attention.
As soon as their years admitted, in accordance with the custom of the Franks,
the boys had to learn horsemanship, and to practise war and the chase,
and the girls to familiarize themselves with cloth-making, and to handle
distaff and spindle, that they might not grow indolent through idleness,
and he fostered in them every virtuous sentiment. He only lost three of
all his children before his death, two sons and one daughter, Charles,
who was the eldest, Pepin, whom he had made King of Italy, and Hruodrud,
his oldest daughter....
He was so careful of the training of his sons and daughters that he
never took his meals without them when he was at home, and never made ajourney
without them; his sons would ride at his side, and his daughters follow
him, while a number of his body-guard, detailed for their protection, brought
up the rear. Strange to say, although they were very handsome women, and
he loved them very dearly, he was never willing to marry any of them to
a man of their own nation or to a foreigner, but kept them all at home
until his death, saying that he could not dispense with their society.
Hence, though other-wise happy, he experienced the malignity of fortune
as far as they were concerned; yet he concealed his knowledge of the rumours
current in regard to them, and of the suspicions entertained of their honour.
#27[Charles and the Roman Church] ... He cherished the Church of St.
Peter the Apostle at Rome above all other holy and sacred places, and heaped
its treasury with a vast wealth of gold, silver, and precious stones. He
sent great and countless gifts to the popes; and throughout his whole reign
the wish that he had nearest at heart was to re-establish the ancient authority
of the city of Rome under his care and by his influence, and to defend
and protect the Church of St. Peter, and to beautify and enrich it out
of his own store above all other churches. Although he held it in such
veneration, he only repaired to Rome to pay his vows and make his supplications
four times during the whole forty-seven years that he reigned.
#28 [Charles' Coronation] The Romans had inflicted many injuries upon
the Pontiff Leo, tearing out his eyes and cutting out his tongue, so that
he had been comp lied to call upon the King for help. Charles accordingly
went to Rome, to set in order the affairs of the Church, which were in
great confusion, and passed the whole winter there. It was then that he
received the titles of Emperor and Augustus, to which he at first had such
an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church
the day that they were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if
he could have foreseen the design of the Pope. He bore very patiently with
the jealousy which the Roman emperors showed upon his assuming these titles,
for they took this step very ill; and by dint of frequent embassies and
letters, in which he addressed them as brothers, he made their haughtiness
yield to his magnanimity, a quality in which he was unquestionably much
their superior.
from Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, S. E. Turner, trans. (New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1880), pp. 56-62, 51-54, 64-66.
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(c)Paul Halsall Feb 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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