Boyhood -- The Frankish empire and the wider world -- The warring king -- Power structures -- The ruler -- The royal court -- Reviving the title of emperor -- Imperator Augustus -- Epilogue: myths and sainthood

Charlemagne was the first emperor of medieval Europe and almost immediately after his death in 814 legends spread about his military and political prowess and the cultural glories of his court at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Brussels 1969: Oskar Lenkeit is a fish out of water at the EEC. He's about to find out how far. Echoes from the past are threatening to disturb the three-year-old truce between France and Germany over the direction of the EEC. At the request of some unlikely sponsors, Lenkeit takes on an Internal Affairs investigation intended to restore the peace, but ends up with a foot on either side of a widening rift. With corruption at the pinnacle of European society, can the project survive and will France and Germany finally set aside old differences, or will their countries' ghosts bring it down? Written for fans of Philip Kerr, Len Deighton, Robert Harris and John Le Carré, who are looking for a European Union origins story of the same genre and set in a similar era. 'A very intriguing and thought provoking read... that grabs you, makes you stop and think and twists and turns until the end. This is one of those books that leaves you wanting to read the next adventure.' - Roy 'The story is well paced and a balanced mixture of suspense and political intrigue; a real page turner. I would thoroughly recommend this novel.' - Lesley

Among the readings included are several existing letters by Emma (Einhard's wife), The Life of Charlemagne, and The History of His Relics. The latter work transports us into an almost unknown world as Einhard, the cool rationalist, arranges for a relic salesman, a veritable bone seller, to acquire saints’ relics from Italy for installation into his new church. The reader is taken on an intrigue-filled trip to Rome, where Einhard's men creep into churches at night to steal bones and then spirit them away to Einhard in the north. The relics are received in town after town as if they were the living saints come to cure the infirm. Einhard's descriptions of the sick, the lame, and the blind of northern Europe vividly expose us to a side of medieval life too rarely encountered in other medieval sources.

The year is A.D. 781. King Charles of the Franks is crossing the Alps with his family and court on a journey to meet with Pope Hadrian. One frosty night he speaks to his young son Carl: When we come to Rome you will know that I am naming you my heir. One day you will rule over all my lands. . . . But the King already had an heir, Pepin the Hunchback, mockingly called Gobbo. Was he to be dispossessed? Yet Carl sees that Charlemagne is determined to do what he feels is best to serve God and Europe.