Charles I, often known as Charlemagne, is one of the most extraordinary figures ever to rule an empire. Driven by unremitting physical energy and intellectual curiosity, he was a man of many parts, a warlord and conqueror, a judge who promised 'for each their law and justice', a defender of the Latin Church, a man of flesh-and-blood. In the twelve centuries since his death, warfare, accident, vermin, and the elements have destroyed much of the writing on his rule, but a remarkable amount has survived. Janet Nelson's wonderful new book brings together everything we know about Charles, sifting through the available evidence, literary and material, to paint a vivid portrait of the man and his motives. Charles's legacy lies in his deeds and their continuing resonance, as he shaped counties, countries, and continents, founded and rebuilt towns and monasteries, and consciously set himself up not just as King of the Franks, but as the head of the renewed Roman Empire. His successors--in some ways even up to the present day--have struggled to interpret, misinterpret, copy, or subvert his legacy.

An authoritative biography of the greatest ruler of the medieval period. The Emperor Charlemagne is an ideal book for readers of Tom Holland, Dan Jones and Helen Castor. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned 'Emperor of the Romans' by Pope Leo III. Originally inheriting one half of his father's Frankish kingdom, by the time of his death in 814 he had put down rebellions in his own provinces, conquered the Lombards, fought against Saxons, Avars and Slavs in the east, clashed with Muslims in Spain, negotiated with the papacy and the Byzantine Empire, and united much of western and central Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire. Under his guidance the Carolingian Renaissance flourished, with his capital of Aachen becoming a centre of learning and artistic genius. The legacy of Charlemagne on European history and culture is monumental. Yet, within thirty years of his death, his empire had fragmented. Who was this legendary ruler? How had he managed to rule these vast domains? And why has his legacy continued to influence Europeans to this day? E. R. Chamberlin's masterful biography of Charlemagne demonstrates the sheer force of will that this charismatic leader was able to command as he created a realm to rival the Byzantines in the east. Through the course of the book Chamberlin brings to life how Charlemagne forged his empire, and uncovers the people, the religious and political controversies, the social and agricultural conditions, and the changes in warfare that took place over one thousand years ago. The Emperor Charlemagne is an engrossing biography of one of the most legendary figures in history, and first embodiment of the ideal of European unity.

Emperor of the World, traces the curious history of the story of the alliances forged by Charlemagne while visiting Jerusalem and Constantinople, revealing how the memory of the Frankish Emperor was manipulated to shape the institutions of kingship and empire in the High Middle Ages. The legend incorporates apocalyptic themes such as the succession of world monarchies at the End of Days and the prophecy of the Last Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's apocryphal journey to the East increasingly resembled the eschatological final journey of the Last Emperor, who was expected to end his reign in Jerusalem after reuniting the Roman Empire prior to the Last Judgment. Latowsky finds that the writers who incorporated this legend did so to support, or in certain cases to criticize, the imperial pretentions of the regimes under which they wrote. Latowsky removes Charlemagne's encounters with the East from their long-presumed Crusading context and shows how a story that began as a rhetorical commonplace of imperial praise evolved over the centuries as an expression of Christian Roman universalism.

Through his foreign conquests & internal reforms, Charlemagne is a defining figure of both Western Europe & the Middle Ages. Crowned king of the Franks in 768, he expanded their kingdoms into an empire that incorporated much of western & central Europe. In this study, Hywel Williams explores every facet of Charlemagne's rule.

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.