60 Fun Facts About Charlemagne

Who was Charlemagne's father?

Pepin the Short. Already the real ruler of the Franks, he had the last Merovingian king deposed in 751 and became the first Frankish king to be anointed.

Which grandfather of Charlemagne won the Battle of Tours in 732?

Charles Martel. He was never king, yet he ruled the whole Frankish realm while its kings reigned in name only, and his byname Martel means 'the hammer'.

What does the name Charlemagne mean, from the French?

Charles the Great. The name is the French form of the Latin Carolus Magnus, and Charles itself goes back to a Germanic word, Karl, that meant simply 'man'.

Charlemagne's name became the word for 'king' in which language family?

Slavic. Russian korol', Polish król and Slovak kráľ all go back to Karl, just as Caesar's name gave German its Kaiser and Russian its tsar.

Before taking the crown, Charlemagne's father ruled as what?

Mayor of the palace. The office had eclipsed the figurehead Merovingian kings, and in 751 Charlemagne's father dropped the pretence, had the last of them deposed and took the crown himself.

Which last Merovingian king did Charlemagne's father depose in 751 or 752 to take the throne himself?

Childeric III was shut away in the monastery of Saint-Bertin, and the pope later crossed the Alps to anoint the new king in person.

With which brother did Charlemagne share the Frankish kingdom from 768 until 771?

Carloman died suddenly in December 771; his widow fled with their sons to the Lombard court, and Charlemagne took the whole kingdom.

Which Lombard king did Charlemagne depose in 774 after the siege of Pavia?

Desiderius had been Charlemagne's father-in-law until the Frank sent his daughter home; after Pavia fell he lived out his days in a monastery.

What became of Charlemagne's nephews, his late brother's sons, after he captured Verona in 774?

Their fate is unknown: the boys and their mother vanish from the record once Verona fell, and historians suspect a monastery, a common end for unwanted heirs.

What pagan Saxon monument did Charlemagne destroy at Eresburg in 772?

The Irminsul, a sacred pillar or tree trunk, fell in the raid that opened more than thirty years of near-continuous war with the Saxons.

Which Saxon leader fled to Denmark in 777 and resisted Charlemagne until his baptism in 785?

Widukind was baptised with Charlemagne himself standing as godfather, which ended that phase of the Saxon Wars.

The annals say Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxon rebels beheaded in 782 at which town?

Verden. A Saxon revolt had just beaten a Frankish army; when Charlemagne marched in, the Saxons submitted and handed over the men blamed for it themselves.

What did Charlemagne's Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae prescribe for Saxons who refused baptism?

The death penalty covered even eating meat in Lent, though anyone who confessed to a priest and did penance could be spared.

At which pass in the Pyrenees was Charlemagne's rearguard ambushed by Basques in 778?

Roncevaux. The Basques wiped out the rearguard to the last man, plundered the baggage train and slipped away under cover of night.

Which medieval epic poem grew out of the ambush of Charlemagne's rearguard in 778?

The Song of Roland, written some three centuries later, turns the Basque ambushers into a Saracen army and a border skirmish into a heroic last stand.

Which first cousin of Charlemagne, Duke of Bavaria, was deposed and sent to a monastery in 788?

Tassilo was accused of plotting with the Avars, stripped of his duchy and shut in a monastery, and Bavaria was absorbed into the Frankish kingdom.

Which sidelined son of Charlemagne plotted in 792 to assassinate his father and brothers?

Pepin the Hunchback was betrayed before he could strike; his fellow plotters were punished, and he was tonsured and sent to the monastery of Prüm.

On what day was Charlemagne crowned emperor in St Peter's Basilica?

Christmas Day 800. Two days earlier the pope had sworn an oath clearing himself of the charges his Roman enemies had brought against him.

Which pope crowned Charlemagne emperor?

Leo III had been attacked in Rome in 799 by enemies who tried to cut out his eyes and tongue, and had fled north to Charlemagne for protection.

Charlemagne was the first reigning emperor in the West since the deposition of whom in 476?

Romulus Augustulus was a boy-emperor whom the general Odoacer deposed and sent into retirement; Charlemagne's crowning left two rival emperors, in the West and at Constantinople.

According to his biographer, Charlemagne said he would never have done what had he known the pope planned to crown him?

Entered the church. Historians still argue over whether the remark is true or a biographer's device to show the new emperor's humility.

Which Byzantine empress, who had blinded her own son, did Charlemagne reportedly propose to?

Irene's match with Charlemagne, reported by the chronicler Theophanes, came to nothing: her own officials deposed her in 802 and exiled her to Lesbos.

To win Byzantine recognition as emperor, Charlemagne gave up his claim to which Adriatic city?

Venice. His son, the king of Italy, had brought it under Frankish rule; once the claim was dropped, Byzantine envoys hailed Charlemagne as emperor at his own court in 812.

Which Abbasid caliph exchanged envoys with Charlemagne in the 790s?

Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne had rivals in common: the Umayyad emirate in Spain and the Byzantine Empire, with which the caliph was at war.

Which animal, named Abul-Abbas, reached Charlemagne's court in 802 as a gift from the Abbasid caliph?

An elephant. Charlemagne had asked the caliph for one himself; Abul-Abbas wintered in Italy, crossed the Alps and lived until 810.

Which Jerusalem shrine did the Abbasid caliph place under Charlemagne's nominal rule?

The Holy Sepulchre. His biographer says the caliph made the site over to him, and Charlemagne's agents later surveyed the Holy Land's churches to work out the funds they needed.

Which single Latin word did Charlemagne's council of 809 defend adding to the Creed?

Filioque, meaning 'and the Son'. The pope accepted the teaching but refused to alter the Creed, and displayed it in Rome on two silver shields without the word.

Charlemagne's palace chapel was modelled on San Vitale, a church in which Italian city?

Ravenna. Charlemagne's builders copied the eight-sided church and hauled marble columns north from Ravenna and Rome because none good enough could be found nearer.

Which scholar did Charlemagne recruit in 781 to direct learning at his court?

Alcuin of York headed the most renowned centre of learning in England when the king met him in Italy and talked him into coming; his pupils at court included Charlemagne himself.

Which script, developed under Charlemagne, went on to influence Renaissance and modern typefaces?

Monastic scriptoria produced an estimated 90,000 manuscripts in the 9th century.

What were Charlemagne's travelling royal inspectors, sent out in pairs of one cleric and one layman, called?

Missi dominici, 'envoys of the lord', rode set circuits to check on local counts; the 802 law that paired them also made every free man swear loyalty to Charlemagne.

Which Frankish courtier wrote the Vita Karoli Magni, modelled on Suetonius?

Einhard knew the emperor well in his later years, yet admitted that nobody alive could tell him anything about Charlemagne's birth or boyhood.

According to his biographer, Charlemagne's height was seven times the length of what?

His own foot. A 2010 scan of his shin bone agreed he was tall, about 1.84 metres, but suggested a slim frame, not the heavy build his biographer described.

According to his biographer, which natural feature drew Charlemagne to the site of his favourite palace?

Hot springs. A strong swimmer, he bathed in them with his sons, nobles and bodyguards, sometimes a hundred or more men at once.

How did Charlemagne's look break with the long-haired Merovingian kings before him?

Short hair and a moustache. His coins show him cropped like a Roman emperor; the flowing beard of later statues and stained glass was an invention of the centuries after him.

Which of Charlemagne's wives, mother of Louis and Pepin of Italy, died in 783 after her final pregnancy?

Hildegard came from a great Swabian family, and marrying her in 771 won Charlemagne allies in his late brother's lands; she bore him nine children in eleven years.

His biographer says Charlemagne kept tablets under his pillow to practise which skill, with little success?

Writing. He began too late in life to train his hand to form the letters, although he spoke Latin as easily as his native tongue.

What did Charlemagne never allow any of his daughters to do?

Marry. His biographer says he could not bear to part with them, so they stayed at court, where several had children out of wedlock anyway.

Which Anglo-Saxon king agreed a formal peace with Charlemagne in 796, protecting trade and English pilgrims?

Offa had quarrelled with Charlemagne around 790, and for a time trade between their kingdoms stopped; the peace of 796 put English merchants under the Frank's protection.

King Gudfred, murdered by his own men in 810 as Charlemagne marched against him, ruled which people?

The Danes. Gudfred had boasted he would fight the emperor in the field; after his murder his successor made peace with the Franks at once.

Which city did Charlemagne's son Louis capture from the Emirate of Córdoba in 801?

Barcelona became the stronghold of the Spanish March, the Frankish buffer zone south of the Pyrenees from which Catalonia later grew.

Charlemagne's Divisio Regnorum of 806 split his realm among three sons but left out who would inherit what?

The imperial title. The gap closed itself: by 811 two of the three sons had died, and in 813 Charlemagne made the survivor co-emperor.

Which sword, by legend Charlemagne's own, was carried at the coronations of French kings?

Joyeuse, 'the joyful', now hangs in the Louvre, though experts date its blade anywhere from Charlemagne's century to the 13th.

Which illness killed Charlemagne in January 814 after a week in bed with fever?

Pleurisy, a pain in the side on top of his fever. He fasted through the illness, eating nothing and taking only an occasional drink.

What were Charlemagne's recorded last words?

"Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit" echoes Christ's dying words in Luke's Gospel; Charlemagne is said to have chanted the verse softly as he died, after taking a last communion.

Which Holy Roman Emperor exhumed Charlemagne in 1165 and had an antipope declare him a saint?

Frederick Barbarossa had his antipope Paschal III canonise Charlemagne for political ends; Rome never ratified the act, though it let a local cult carry on.

Which 843 agreement divided Charlemagne's empire among his grandsons into West, East and Middle Francia?

The Treaty of Verdun ended three years of open war between the three brothers; the western and eastern kingdoms it created grew into France and Germany.

Which East Frankish king revived Charlemagne's empire as the Holy Roman Empire in 962?

Otto the Great was crowned emperor in Rome in 962; the empire he founded outlived him by more than eight centuries, until Napoleon's wars ended it in 1806.

By what title is Charlemagne often known to historians?

The Father of Europe. He was hailed as 'pater Europae' in his own lifetime, and the title has made him a modern symbol of European integration.

Which name is given to the twelve legendary knights of Charlemagne's court?

The Paladins. A paladin was at first a real palatinus, a court official; the romances turned the word into a knight.

His biographer says Charlemagne loved hearing which work by St Augustine read aloud at dinner?

The City of God. Its picture of a society ordered by faith shaped how he and his advisers saw kingship: an office given by God to carry out a divine plan.

Charlemagne is counted among which group of exemplary heroes fixed in medieval art and literature?

The Nine Worthies mix history and legend: Charlemagne, a real emperor, is one of their three Christian heroes beside the legendary King Arthur.

According to his biographer, Charlemagne gave new Frankish names to which of these?

The months of the year. January became Wintarmanoth, 'winter month', and he went on to give the winds twelve Frankish names as well, where only four had been in use.

Which Protestant reformer criticised Charlemagne for accepting his crown from the pope?

Calvin, by contrast, saw him as a forerunner of the Reformation for condemning image-worship in the Libri Carolini.

Which Enlightenment thinker praised Charlemagne for balancing the orders of the state and shielding freemen from the nobles?

Montesquieu wrote in The Spirit of the Laws that Charlemagne marched his nobles from one campaign to the next so that they had no time to form conspiracies.

Which 787 church council, held without any Frankish bishops, did Charlemagne's scholars attack in the Libri Carolini?

The Second Council of Nicaea restored the veneration of icons with the pope's approval, so the rebuttal from Charlemagne's court set him against Rome as well as Constantinople.

Which city, Charlemagne's capital and burial place, was the first major German city to fall to the Allies in 1944?

Aachen. Hitler ordered the city of Charlemagne held at all costs, and it fell to American troops only after bitter street fighting.

For which great-grandson of Charlemagne did a monk of St Gall write the anecdote-filled Gesta Karoli Magni?

Charles the Fat visited the abbey of St Gall in December 883, and the monk's book of stories about his great-grandfather was written for him in the years that followed.

Which Lombard duchy in southern Italy did Charlemagne threaten in 787 until Duke Arechis offered hostages and fealty?

Benevento. Arechis handed over his son Grimoald as a hostage; when Charlemagne later sent Grimoald home to rule, he soon turned against the Franks himself.

Charlemagne's Admonitio generalis of 789 ordered every monastery and cathedral to set up what?

A school. Boys were to learn reading, chant and grammar there, so that future priests could understand the scriptures and copy them from correct texts.