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Charlemagne pp 1–22Cite as

The Frankish Inheritance

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Abstract

Tall, round-headed, with unusually large eyes, a short neck, a long nose and a rather protruding stomach is how Charles the Great (768–814), or Charlemagne, appeared in his later life, according to the author of the first biography of a secular ruler to be written in Europe since Late Antiquity.1 It may not sound very flattering, and when the added observation is made from his coinage that he had a long moustache and no beard, the description may sound better suited to be that of Obélix, the tubby friend of the cartoon character Astérix, than that of ‘The Father of Europe’. However, his former courtier, the lay abbot Einhard (d. 836), who wrote the Vita Karoli or ‘Life of Charles’ at some point in the second half of the 820s, a decade after his former master’s death, had no intention of belittling him.2 On the contrary, from his closely followed literary model, the ‘Life of Augustus’ that was written by the Roman biographer Suetonius around AD 125, Einhard had learned that the physical description of the subject of such a work, however highly admired, should be as accurate and detailed as possible, not sparing bad teeth, a wizened finger, a limp and gall-stones.3

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Notes

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© 1998 Roger Collins

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Collins, R. (1998). The Frankish Inheritance. In: Charlemagne. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26924-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26924-2_1

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-65055-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-26924-2

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