Charlemagne

Charlemagne remains one of the towering figures of European history. He created for himself a vast territory that covered most of modern-day France and Germany, encompassing the Low Countries, areas in northern Spain, and parts of Italy. His imperial coronation on Christmas Day 800AD was the culmination of his life’s work. But alongside his sometimes brutal military campaigning, Charlemagne was a devout and cultured leader. He sponsored educational reforms, brought leading scholars from across Europe to his court at Aachen, and pursued diplomatic ties with far-flung Christian and Muslims kingdoms alike. But how was Charlemagne able to conquer such an enormous swathe of Europe? Why was this famous warrior so interested in spiritual and intellectual matters? And what fate befell his mighty empire after his death? This is a Short History Of Charlemagne. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Matthew Gabriele, professor of medieval studies and the co-author of the recent book on the Carolingian dynasty, Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers that Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe. He also hosts the podcast “American Medieval". Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:03Speaker 00

  It is Christmas Day, 800 A.D.

• 0:07Speaker 00

  Heavy gray clouds fill the sky above the city of Rome, threatening rain.

• 0:14Speaker 00

  A young nobleman glances up at the oppressive sky. He is wearing a new, dark-green tunic, and does not want to get it wet. But he cannot hurry undercover.

• 0:26Speaker 00

  Part of an orderly procession, he slowly makes his way into Saint Peter's Basilica, in the heart of the Holy City.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  At the head of the procession strides Charlemagne, King of the Franks.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  Tall and heavily built, though his hair is graying, his body is still strong, after years spent on campaign. Thanks to a string of victories over the past three decades, he is undoubtedly the most important ruler in Western Europe.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  The basilica's sturdy wooden doors swing open as the king approaches them, admitting him into the cavernous interior.

• 1:11Speaker 00

  Following behind, the young nobleman walks with the crowd, amid thick coils of incense and smoke from hundreds of candles. Crammed in on either side are thousands of Rome's inhabitants. Even the heady frankincense can't fully mask the unpleasant tang of so many unwashed bodies.

• 1:34Speaker 00

  As the nobles process through the grand nave towards the altar, a flickering candlelight catches on the gilded mosaics decorating the walls, and illuminates the soaring pillars. The timbered, gabled roof is so far overhead, that it might as well be touching heaven.

• 1:53Speaker 00

  At the altar ahead waits the Pope himself, Leo III, resplendent in white and gold silk vestments. Filling the central aisle, the procession now comes to a halt, and the King alone mounts the steps to the high altar. As Leo raises his hand in blessing, Charlemagne lowers himself to the ground, the entire congregation following suit. The young nobleman prostrates himself, letting the familiar words of the Mass wash over him as the Pope begins to chant. But what he and all these people are really here for is what comes next:

• 2:33Speaker 00

  the real reason the King is celebrating Christmas in Rome. At last, the Pope falls silent, and the congregation climb to their feet. Then Leo steps forward, a thick circlet of gold raised high in both hands. The colorful jewels adorning the crown gleam in the candlelight as he gently places it on Charlemagne's head. It is the moment they have been waiting for. As one, the congregation raises its voice in acclamation, chanting the words that confirm him as their great leader, crowned by God. They repeat the phrase three times before the church is filled to the rafter

• 3:17Speaker 00

  with a deafening wave of cheers. But then, as the last shouts die away, something even more astonishing happens. Amid murmurs of incredulity, the Pope himself, the inhabitant of the throne of Saint Peter, prostrates himself on the floor before Charlemagne. For the first time in 300 years, the eternal city has its own emperor: a man to whom even the Holy Father will kneel.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, remains one of the towering figures of European history. Through a series of astonishing feats of arms, he created for himself a vast territory that covered most of modern-day France and Germany, encompassing the Low Countries, areas in northern Spain, and parts of Italy. His imperial coronation on Christmas Day 800 AD was the culmination of his life’s work.

• 4:33Speaker 00

  But alongside his sometimes brutal military campaigning, Charlemagne was a devout and cultured leader. He sponsored educational reforms, brought leading scholars from across Europe to his court at Arken, and pursued diplomatic ties with far-flung Christian and Muslim kingdoms alike.

• 4:55Speaker 00

  But how was Charlemagne able to conquer such an enormous swathe of Europe? Why was this famous warrior so interested in spiritual and intellectual matters? And what fate befell his mighty empire after his death?

• 5:11Speaker 00

  I’m John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is A Short History of Charlemagne.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  The royal line to which Charlemagne belongs is known now as the Carolingian dynasty, named after his grandfather Charles Martel, who was born around 688 AD.

• 5:39Speaker 00

  His home is part of a territory known as Francia, the kingdom of the Frankish people. Their Christian realm covers much of modern-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and large swathes of north-central Germany, and is ruled by a dynasty known as the Merovingians.

• 5:57Speaker 00

  Professor Matthew Gabriel is the co-author of Oathbreakers, a recent book on the Carolingian dynasty and host of the American Medieval podcast.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  When we want to talk about how Charlemagne came to power, we really have to start with the people that he belonged to, a group of people called the Franks. They solidified as Roman authority kind of pulled back under a dynasty called the Merovingians, who ruled for about 300 years. And then, in the beginning of the 8th century, a very powerful aristocratic family, who would soon become the Carolingians, kind of rose to power under the Merovingian kings, mostly as kind of their war leaders.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  But by the start of the 8th century, the strength of the Merovingian kings is weakening, with much of their power held by the mayor of the palace, akin to a prime minister. By 719, Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, holds that position. As he controls the region's military, he essentially controls the king, his treasure, and with it, the entirety of the Frankish kingdom.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  When Martel dies in 741, he has such power over the state that he is able to bequeath his ruling position to his two sons, Pippin, also known as Peppin, and Calamon.

• 7:19Speaker 00

  Within a few years, Calamon enters a monastery. A career in the church is not unusual for the second sons of the Frankish nobility. And Calamon is certainly deeply pious, though some sources suggest he faces pressure to step aside. Whatever the truth, the move leaves Pippin as the sole mayor of the palace. But that is not the limit of his ambitions.

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Peppin, unfortunately named Peppin the Short, became king in 751 in basically a coup d'etat, when he seized power from the Merovingians, kind of assigned them to a monastery so that they could live out their lives and seize power for himself.

• 7:58Speaker 00

  With both his brother and the last Merovingian ruler now confined to religious houses, Pippin the Short becomes Pippin III, the first Carolingian king.

• 8:13Speaker 00

  Charlemagne, or Charles as he was christened, is Pippin's oldest son, the grandson of Charles Martel. But his exact birth date is unclear.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  It's a really interesting question about when Charlemagne was born. We don't actually know because there's no sources from that period that recorded a birth date. There's no later sources which record kind of how old he is. Some really good scholarship has put his, probably it's our best guess, and it's probably a very good guess that he was born sometime around 741. His mother was a woman by the name of Bertrada. We don't know a whole lot about Bertrada. She was probably a high-ranking noblewoman befitting someone of Pepin's station.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  As with his childhood, Charlemagne's upbringing and education remain something of a mystery. He is likely raised at court, taught by the group of scholars Bertrada had gathered around herself.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  We can kind of guess from what the education of an elite Frankish man at that time would have been. And also from a biography that was later written about Charlemagne by a chronicler by the name of Einhardt, who was a courtier who knew Charlemagne personally, who lived at his court. There's some problems with the biography, of course. It's very highly stylized. And also, it was written as political propaganda after Charlemagne's death. That being said, is that it seems pretty clear that Charlemagne himself was pretty well-educated. He himself knew how to read, but he probably didn't know how to write, which seems maybe perhaps odd to us, but at the same time, in early Middle Ages, these two activities were actually held as distinct. You could learn how to read but not how to write. They were seen as kind of not part of one basket of literacy, but as different things.

• 9:49Speaker 00

  He is raised to be king alongside his younger brother Calaumont. At the annual assemblies his father holds, he learns the arts of diplomacy and leadership, and is also trained to be a warrior and to lead troops in battle. But though Pippin rules as a king, he still lacks the legitimacy that the Merovingians before him enjoyed. The sense of a true royal bloodline, something that can only be bestowed by the Pope.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  But as luck would have it, the Pope needs something from him.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  In 754, Pippin strikes a deal. In exchange for military support against the Lombards, who have long coveted papal lands, he convinces the pontiff to formally consecrate him as king of the Franks. Charlemagne and Calaumont are anointed in the same ceremony.

• 10:41Speaker 00

  Though all three are now recognized as kings, it is still very much Pippin who rules. And sometime during his father's reign, a teenage Charlemagne starts considering a family of his own.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Charlemagne had no fewer than five wives, many more informal sexual partners who were women, and at least nineteen children over the course of his life. One of the reasons that it's a little bit squishy is because the idea of marriage was not the same as what we have now. It's a much more informal process. Like, we have no records of kind of what a wedding ceremony looks like from the early Middle Ages. We have no sense of what a marriage kind of entailed. It was probably some kind of agreement between families. But that also meant that they could be broken very easily.

• 11:27Speaker 00

  Though weddings are not yet a sacrament of the church, it is into this context that he marries a woman named Himiltrute, with whom he has a son named Pippin after his father.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  By 768, Charlemagne is in his early twenties, a trained warrior with a wife and son. He is ready to be king on his own terms.

• 11:50Speaker 00

  On the 24th of September 768, Pippin III dies after a successful campaign in Aquitaine in the south of France. It is a troublesome region of the Frankish kingdom, frequently attempting to assert its independence. But as he leaves two equal heirs, the transfer of power is not straightforward.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  When Pippin the Short dies in 768, he follows very typical Frankish custom at the time and divides the kingdom between his two sons, his eldest son Charles, later Charlemagne, and then his younger son Carlemagne. Charles gets kind of the heartland of Frankish power, kind of the western section of the Kingdom of Francia, and Carlemagne kind of gets the eastern side, including areas of Alamania, what's now modern Germany, and places like that. They are, shall we say, antagonistic towards each other throughout this entire time. They don't get along particularly well. But Charles has the great good fortune of having his brother die. It seems like natural causes. There doesn't seem to have been kind of any foul play at that time. Charles moves very quickly to secure the support of powerful aristocrats

• 12:54Speaker 01

  in Carlemagne's kingdom and establishes himself as kind of sole ruler of the Frankish kingdom.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  It is not inevitable that Charlemagne will inherit his brother's territory. Calamon's widow Gerbaga flees with her sons to Italy as soon as her husband dies, possibly fearful of what her brother-in-law may do to secure the Frankish throne for himself.

• 13:20Speaker 00

  Around the time of his brother's death, it is possible that Charlemagne briefly marries, or at least contemplates marrying, an Italian princess, the daughter of the King of Lombardy.

• 13:31Speaker 00

  A letter survives from the Pope chastising him for considering such a match with the Lombards against whom he has had frequent clashes.

• 13:40Speaker 00

  What is certain is that Charlemagne now marries a noblewoman from the Germanic Allemagna tribe.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  He marries a woman by the name of Hildegard, who is from a very prominent aristocratic family in his brother's kingdom in 772, meaning that he's forming an alliance across the borders after his brother has died in order to cement aristocratic support for his takeover of his brother's kingdom.

• 14:03Speaker 00

  Hildegard is only thirteen or fourteen when she weds the Frankish king, who is at least a decade older. Over the eleven years of their marriage, she will give birth nine times. Three sons born to Hildegard and Charlemagne, Charles, a second Pippin, and Louis, as well as daughters Rotrude, Bertha, and Gisella, will survive into adulthood.

• 14:30Speaker 00

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network. Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.

• 15:01Speaker 00

  In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 15:21Speaker 00

  Charlemagne has only been sole king for a few months when he launches a campaign against the pagan Saxons on his Norman border.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  One of the fundamental pillars of Frankish rule is conquest, is warfare. It was a way that kings established themselves as legitimate rulers, but also as a way of gathering plunder, gathering booty that they can distribute to powerful aristocrats in order to effectively buy their loyalty. Military campaigns are built into the very fabric of governance of the Frankish realm, meaning that every May 1, the Franks would gather an army, usually the king would send out notices as to where that would be, and then they would launch a campaign. So, most of their campaigning was done to the northeast, into an area called Saxony, which is a modern region in Germany as well.

• 16:10Speaker 01

  But in Saxony, the polytheistic Saxons at the time had been the long-term enemies of the Franks for quite a while, and it was a way of demonstrating power, it was a way of asserting control, but also, again, a way of gathering plunder from non-Christian enemies in order to redistribute that elsewhere.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  The 772 campaign is a stunning success. The Frankish army destroys the most sacred, holy site of the Saxon people, and also captures a huge amount of treasure.

• 16:42Speaker 00

  Despite the victory, this is far from the last war he will wage in Saxony, which will not be fully subdued for another three decades. But though Charlemagne's fight with the Saxons partly has its roots in his religiosity and his fervent desire to convert non-believers, he doesn't only fight pagans.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  In places where they fought other Christians, there was a betrayal of the Franks as the right kind of Christians, and their enemies as the wrong kind of Christians. And one of the ways that they emphasized this was the Frankish alliance with the papacy, the bishop of Rome, so that they had the backup of the bishop of Rome and the entire church establishment on their side to help them justify the conquest of these other Christian peoples.

• 17:29Speaker 00

  The first of these conquests of fellow Christians is the northern Italian kingdom of Lombardy. At the request of the Pope, Charlemagne brings the region under his control in 774, dethroning the man who may have been his father-in-law, King Desertarius. A few years later, he launches an expedition into Catalonia, beginning the process of extending Carolingian control across the Pyrenees. Though he will eventually conquer Barcelona, this first campaign is blighted by a devastating ambush in the mountains as his army makes its way home.

• 18:04Speaker 00

  In the early 780s, the Frankish army suffers an even greater defeat back in Saxony. While some groups have submitted to Charlemagne's authority, others continue to resist the foreign, Christian invasion of their homeland.

• 18:18Speaker 00

  One such group, fighting back against forced baptism and the destruction of their sacred sites, defeat one of his Frankish forces in 782.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  When he hears of the loss, the king is furious. Gathering an army, he rides hard to Saxony to exact his revenge.

• 18:43Speaker 00

  It is October 782. In Saxony, northern Germany, a man in a filthy tunic stumbles along a riverbank.

• 18:53Speaker 00

  His hands bound tightly behind his back with rough cord, he struggles to maintain his balance.

• 18:59Speaker 00

  The rope chafes the soft skin on the insides of his wrists, and he can feel angry welts forming.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  As he steps onto a particularly treacherous patch of ground, it is only the tightly packed bodies around him that prevent him from pitching forward into the mud.

• 19:17Speaker 00

  Like him, the hands of these men are also tied. Several thousand Saxon prisoners being herded along this riverbank like livestock.

• 19:29Speaker 00

  To add insult to injury, the armed men marching alongside, striking them if they stumble, are their countrymen.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  The prisoner glares at the nearest guard. It is traitors like him, Saxons who have allied themselves with Charlemagne and taken their own kind captive, who should be the ones in bondage.

• 19:53Speaker 00

  Too soon, the prisoner arrives at his destination. A large, open field beside the river, fringed with ancient trees. And in the center, something that makes his heart sink.

• 20:09Speaker 00

  Even from this distance, he can see that the small, mounted party awaiting his arrival is heavily armed. Breastplates flash dullly under heavy cloaks and swords are visible at their hips. Arrayed behind them are lines of cavalry, the horses shifting and tossing their manes. Further back are hundreds of infantrymen, all equipped with round wooden shields and long spears, their wickedly sharp tips gleaming in the insipid autumn light.

• 20:38Speaker 00

  The leaders of the Saxon party order the prisoners and their guards to halt before crossing the field to speak to the men on horseback.

• 20:46Speaker 00

  The rebel watches as these Saxon turncoats bow their heads deferentially to one of them, the man he assumes must be the hated Charlemagne.

• 20:56Speaker 00

  After a short conversation, the Frankish king gestures to his soldiers, who begin to march across the field towards the captives.

• 21:05Speaker 00

  Within minutes, the prisoners are encircled by a wall of Frankish infantrymen. Panic rises among the bound men, but there is no escape.

• 21:16Speaker 00

  Charlemagne rides up and dismisses the Saxon guards, who nod and depart, leaving their bound compatriots alone with the Franks.

• 21:28Speaker 00

  Despite the wall of spears, the prisoner can see the king clearly, sitting proudly on a dappled gray horse.

• 21:36Speaker 00

  In a loud voice, he accuses them of treason. For their unlawful uprising and their slaughter of his Frankish soldiers on the field at Zuntel, there is only one fitting punishment: death.

• 21:51Speaker 00

  The prisoner lets out a shudder in breath. All around him, his fellow Saxons are in uproar. Some shout, others sob, or plead for mercy. But Charlemagne sits impassive on his horse as his soldiers begin to slide from their saddles, hands going to their swords.

• 22:11Speaker 00

  As the first prisoners are hauled away and forced to their knees by the banks of the river, the man closes his eyes to pray. It is not clear if the gods will hear him over the screams and the sickening sound of metal meeting flesh.

• 22:36Speaker 00

  In retaliation for the Saxon revolt in 782, Charlemagne kills four and a half thousand rebels before pillaging the surrounding countryside.

• 22:46Speaker 00

  The toll exacted is so steep that Saxon resistance then melts away. In later years, a contemporary source records that the king is able to travel through the region on empty roads wherever he chooses.

• 23:01Speaker 00

  Charlemagne's actions have been described by some historians as a form of genocide.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  The Saxons really were the most intransigent enemies and the ones in which, very frankly, the greatest number of activities were, but also the greatest atrocities were committed. And the sources record massacres of thousands of people at times at the end of campaigns, destruction of polytheistic or pagan temples, if you prefer, and in fact, forced migration in which thousands of Saxons were forcibly relocated into Francia and then Frankish nobles and Frankish freemen were put into their place in order to finally subdue the subjugated population.

• 23:40Speaker 00

  Saxony will not be fully incorporated into the Carolingian Empire until 804, but these actions precipitate its end as an independent pagan region of Europe.

• 23:51Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, Charlemagne continues his ruthless quest for domination. In 788, he seizes Bavaria from his cousin Thasilo and sends him, his wife, and his children to religious houses to remove them from the political arena. After that, he moves on to modern-day Hungary, where he crushes the pagan avas and takes their wealth for his own.

• 24:15Speaker 00

  But he is also forced to suffer his own losses in these years. After his wife Hildegarde dies in childbirth, he marries again, this time to Fastrada, with whom he fathers two more daughters. But within a decade, she is also dead.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  When she passes away, he remarries another woman at the age of 50 by the name of Lyutgard, who, they don't have any children together. But in his first among them, he is having relationships and having children as well.

• 24:43Speaker 00

  In 800, Charlemagne reaches the pinnacle of power. On Christmas Day, he is crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome, the first to hold the title in the West since the 5th century.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  In the early medieval period, Rome is racked by political turmoil, and the Pope is frequently subject to the whims of secular elites. Charlemagne's coronation is thanks, at least in part, to the Pope's reliance on him and his military might.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  In 799, the Pope in Rome, Leo III, is attacked during a procession. He's captured, and he manages to flee the city of Rome. There's dramatic accounts of him scaling the walls and jumping outside, and then running north to Paderborn in modern Germany to meet Charlemagne there. Charlemagne sends an army south and then marches south as well, reestablishes the Pope in Rome, establishes justice, puts the perpetrators of this attack on trial. And then, on Christmas Day in the year 800, Leo rewards him by putting a crown on Charlemagne's head and claiming him as Roman emperor.

• 25:51Speaker 00

  This is at least how the story goes. According to one contemporary biography of Charlemagne, he is unaware of the Pope's plan until the imperial crown is laid on his head.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  But the events seem too stage-managed for this to be a convincing explanation.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  Now, the actual reality is a little bit more complicated because Charlemagne had probably been planning to become emperor for some time beforehand. What being Roman emperor does, it allows him equal footing to negotiate with the Byzantine emperor, with the Eastern Roman emperor in the east, but also allows him jurisdiction in Italy in and around Rome and then further to the south as well. And this was an important part of his expansionistic plans in order to demonstrate that this marriage between the papacy, between the church and the state had kind of finally come to fruition, but also allow him to push further south into the rich heartlands of southern Italy, which he was very much interested in doing.

• 26:50Speaker 00

  After his coronation, he uses his new authority as Roman emperor to exert his influence throughout Italy, launching a new series of military expeditions. He turns his attention to the Duchy of Benevento, the remaining fragment of Lombardy in the south of the country, as well as fighting with the Byzantine Empire over the remnants of their Italian territory.

• 27:12Speaker 00

  By the early years of the ninth century, Charlemagne has expanded the lands he inherited from his father in almost every direction. The emperor of much of Western Europe, he is without a doubt its most powerful ruler.

• 27:28Speaker 00

  Having built himself an empire, Charlemagne is now faced with the challenge of ruling it. Twice a year, Frankish nobles travel to the emperor's court, bringing with them their military retinues and mountains of precious gifts for their emperor.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  At these assemblies, major decisions about Francia's governance are made. Though Charlemagne has the last word, it is a space where ecclesiastical and secular elites can make their voices heard, and from this hub, his commands are carried across every part of his territory.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  He relies a lot on centralizing his authority, establishing basically a capital at the city of Aachen, which is in modern western Germany. As he gets older and as he starts to take on the trappings of empire, he starts to send out missi dominici, basically messengers of the lord, in which they are charged by the king himself, sometimes maybe with written orders, law codes that are promulgated at Aachen itself. And then making sure that the establishment of justice is being done, that people are aware of the new regulations and records that are being put forth at the capital are known about in southern Italy or in Bavaria or wherever. This goes back to why expansion is so important, why plunder, why loyalty of his high aristocrats are so important,

• 28:45Speaker 01

  because they become effectively representatives of him out in the rest of the empire as well. And they become visible signs of the reach of the Frankish empire that extend everywhere across this vast expanse of land.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 29:48Speaker 00

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• 29:55Speaker 00

  Historians know little about the people over whom Charlemagne and his nobles rule, but aspects of their lives can be glimpsed in official sources as well as archaeological finds.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  What we can tell is that it was heavily agricultural, it was tied very much to place, really dependent upon harvests and the rhythms of the season. One of the really interesting things is that teeth quality actually improved in the early Middle Ages as opposed to Rome and to the later Middle Ages, which means that they actually had a better balanced diet than earlier and before. Generally, the standard of life was maybe kind of a little, especially in rural areas, was actually a little bit higher than it was in late Rome, which I think kind of goes against our expectations.

• 30:38Speaker 00

  Christianity plays a large role in everyday life, with the religious houses Charlemagne patronizes serving as important outposts of his authority. By installing sympathetic abbots and bishops, who then owe him their loyalty, he establishes a network of eyes and ears throughout Francia, even in harder to reach rural areas, and pushes his preferred expressions of faith.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  And so Charlemagne fought not only to expand his own territory, but to standardize the practice of Christianity, which led to, at his court, new translations of the Bible into Latin and the dissemination of proper translations, a standardization of the mass, of the liturgy that would be performed so that ideally every church within his empire would be having the same kind of Christian experience.

• 31:25Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, as he continues to extend his political and ecclesiastical control across the empire, Charlemagne's wives and daughters have their own roles to play closer to home.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  He relied upon his wives, the queens, to be important political figures as well. And so this is absolutely true of Kildegard, his third wife. She was absolutely a political dealmaker in her own right. He was off campaigning a lot at the same time, and so she was in charge of the court. She was the person, his woman, at the court who was in charge of maintaining the proper functioning of court. If you wanted to get to Charlemagne, you had to go through his queen oftentimes. And we know this because, actually, there's a really interesting coin that was struck at one of his royal mints, which has the name Carolus Rex, Charles the King, on one side, and then Fastrata Regina, Fastrata the Queen, on the other side. This is almost

• 32:17Speaker 01

  unheard of. It acknowledges this relationship between the king and the queen, that she is not just a woman who's sitting by his side, but a power in her own right.

• 32:27Speaker 00

  Outside of Francia, Charlemagne must maintain diplomatic relations with a dizzying array of countries. Some, like the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia, are fairly close to his borders. But he is also enmeshed in long-distance communication with other foreign rulers, including the Abbasid Caliph, based in Baghdad, with whom he exchanges messages and gifts.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  It is July 802, at Charlemagne's new palace at Arcon. The sun burns brightly in a shockingly blue sky. Hurrying across the courtyard outside the stables, a man ducks through a creaking wooden door into a small room. It is a little cooler inside, and he finds a pitcher and basin have been laid out for him on a wooden table. He splashes water onto his face and neck, scrubbing off the accumulated sweat and grime from his long journey.

• 33:30Speaker 00

  His name is Isaac, and despite his Jewish heritage, he is one of Charlemagne's emissaries. He has just returned from an arduous voyage to the court of the Muslim Abbasid Caliph, where he was entrusted with a mighty gift for the emperor. A gift Charlemagne is anxious to receive.

• 33:51Speaker 00

  Quickly drying himself with a cloth, Isaac runs a comb through his curls, grimacing at how dusty his hair feels. There is a fresh tunic here, too, and he hastily shucks off his dirty one and pulls it on. It's as clean as he can get without keeping the emperor waiting.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  His stomach rumbles, a reminder that he has not eaten for hours, but that will have to wait too.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  Flinging the door open, he heads back out into the stable courtyard, the sudden burst of sunlight making his eyes ache. His squints at the group of servants gathered anxiously around the emperor's gift, whispering and staring, and shouts at them to get moving.

• 34:34Speaker 00

  At his instruction, two of them run off to get a large trough of water.

• 34:40Speaker 00

  Isaac moves towards the beast that now dominates the courtyard. He has become accustomed to it over the course of their long journey together across land and sea, but now that it stands outside the palace, he feels its incongruity again. Its skin is tough and gray, ridged and rough to the touch as he lays a hand on its flank. Its large ears flap as though in recognition, and its long trunk continues to scuffle about on the dirty floor, searching for something to eat. It trumpets happily when the trough of fresh water is placed in front of it.

• 35:18Speaker 00

  When the elephant has drunk its fill, Isaac instructs an attendant to take hold of its lead rope. Then, with servants holding other boxes containing an assortment of other offerings, the procession is ready.

• 35:32Speaker 00

  Isaac himself leads it, bearing a letter from the caliph. Behind him, men bearing wooden chests, and bringing up the rear, the astonishing exotic beast, the most anticipated gift of all.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  Now they set out for the larger courtyard in front of the palace, where the emperor and his courtiers are gathered.

• 35:57Speaker 00

  When they emerge through the gateway, many of the nobles surrounding Charlemagne gasp in surprise, or draw back in fear as the strange beast lumbers towards them with heavy footsteps. But all Isaac can see on the emperor's own face is an expression of pure joy and amazement as he takes in the precious gifts he has been sent from the east.

• 36:26Speaker 00

  After its arrival in 802, the elephant lived at Arken for almost a decade. His journey, and even his name, Abul Abbas, are recorded in the prolific histories and annals produced at Charlemagne's court. This literature is part of a broader programme of intellectual pursuit and educational reform encouraged by the emperor. As well as being a warrior, he is a learned man, supporting a renewal of the scholarly culture of antiquity.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  For a long time scholars used to talk about the Carolingian Renaissance, this period kind of in the late 8th, early 9th century, in which there seemed to be kind of a re-flowering of learning after a long decline. And that's still kind of true, though the term itself has fallen out of fashion.

• 37:11Speaker 00

  As a central aspect of this programme, Charlemagne gathers the best and brightest scholars of the day to his court. Some of them travel across Europe to reach Arken, drawn to the side of the pious and academic emperor.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  One of the things that Charlemagne did was not to kind of do something new, but to consolidate a lot of the learning that had been happening elsewhere. And what I mean by that is that one of the most famous figures of this period, this so-called Carolingian Renaissance, was a guy by the name of Alcuin. Alcuin, from Northumbria, grew up kind of around York, also known as Alcuin of York. It wasn't that he suddenly became kind of brilliant once he showed up at Charlemagne's court, he had been a very learned scholar and he was attracted to this kind of centre that Charlemagne was establishing around his court.

• 37:55Speaker 00

  The written word is crucial to Charlemagne's reign and legacy. Before his rule, textual forms vary from scribe to scribe and monastery to monastery, hindering legibility and the transfer of ideas.

• 38:10Speaker 00

  But as part of his reforms, and perhaps under the supervision of Alcuin, a standardised text is developed, with rounded letters and consistent punctuation and spacing.

• 38:22Speaker 00

  With everything from law codes to histories to bureaucratic records now written down and stored in libraries. But he also encourages a flourishing of art and poetry and has strong views on education. Schools are set up throughout the empire to promote the training of clerics and to improve their Latin literacy, and a palace school is founded at Arken, where the sons of the nobility are sent to be trained.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  Educational standards absolutely without question seem to rise there. Aristocratic men from all over want to be sent or have their sons sent to the palace school to be educated there, but also of course to be in proximity to the king, to maybe gain a favor from him, to go on campaign with him, to catch his eye so that they can be rewarded with some of the plunder or land or a title, to be named a Missi Dominici, to be sent out to the interlands on the king's behalf as well.

• 39:13Speaker 00

  There is of course a heavily religious element to Charlemagne's enthusiasm for education.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  It wasn't just kind of a side interest in education, and by education we should say not just secular education, but religious education as well. Charlemagne cared about Christianity, he really did, like he wanted people to worship in the proper way, he wanted people to be converted, and it wasn't just an element of political control, but the role of king as he seemed to understand it was to be a shepherd of souls.

• 39:44Speaker 00

  Whatever his motives, it is thanks to Charlemagne's patronage that many important early medieval scholars are able to work and many classical texts copied and preserved for future generations. This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at

• 40:29Speaker 00

  the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews, and in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in the Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 40:52Speaker 00

  As he ages, Charlemagne increasingly remains in his capital at Arcon, rather than heading out on the annual campaigns that dominated his younger years. Though his forces have, by the early 9th century, fully secured what was once Saxon territory, this extension of his northern border brings him into direct contact with a new enemy: the Vikings.

• 41:15Speaker 00

  Though pitched battles between the two are largely avoided through diplomacy, Charlemagne recognizes the threat of maritime incursions and sets about building a massive system of naval defenses. Using a combination of watchtowers, signal fires, and his own ships guarding the coast and river mouths, he successfully deters any major land invasion in his lifetime. But he also starts thinking about his legacy.

• 41:44Speaker 00

  His eldest son with Himiltrude has by now been confined to a monastery following a failed rebellion. But his sons with Hildegarde are given pieces of the empire to rule. Though the emperor retains primary authority, his eldest son with Hildegarde, Charles the Younger, is anointed "co-king of Francia" by the Pope, with the understanding that he will inherit most of his father's territory when he dies.

• 42:10Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, Pippin is made king of Lombardy, Louis is given Aquitaine, and his daughters begin to take over the reins at court.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  Especially his eldest daughter by the name of Bertha, she seems to have been the power at court. She was the one who distributed patronage, who allowed access to the king in his old age and stuff like that, and basically ran things in his absence.

• 42:32Speaker 00

  Though we might imagine medieval princesses to be married off strategically, as little more than pawns in their father's diplomatic games, Charlemagne's daughters remain unwed. His biographer Einhard claims that the emperor loves his daughters too much to ever let them leave home. But a more likely explanation is the concern that making in-laws of another noble family could dilute his own power. He is also possibly worried about his daughters producing male heirs who could challenge his own son's inheritance.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  But the lack of diplomatic, arranged marriages does not stop his daughters from entering into romantic relationships with courtiers.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  I don't know if the daughters themselves, in every case, wanted to marry. They were very happy establishing themselves at court. They had power. And again, based upon what we know about marriage patterns and the legitimacy of marriage, their relationships, which oftentimes we know they had long-term relationships, like, why are we saying that's illegitimate? We're saying it's illegitimate because some of them did produce children and Charlemagne didn't want them to be kind of potential threats. But it didn't seem like anybody at the court or anybody in the period kind of thought of those as inappropriate in any way, shape, or form.

• 43:45Speaker 00

  Though Charlemagne may imagine himself, in his later years, surrounded by his daughters and grandchildren, with his three sons ready to rule parts of his empire after his death, fate has other plans.

• 44:00Speaker 00

  In 810, his son, Pippin, king of Lombardy, dies. Charles the Younger follows him to the grave a year later. Only Louis remains. And in 813, he is crowned co-emperor by his father.

• 44:15Speaker 00

  Then the next January, Charlemagne himself passes away in his early to mid-sixties.

• 44:21Speaker 00

  But by now, Louis is far away, ruling Aquitaine. He is only informed of his father's death after the funeral at Arcon has taken place.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  Louis is very aware of his tenuous position at this time. And so he marches very, very slowly with an army back towards the court because he doesn't know what's going to happen. It seems very clear he's expecting maybe a fight in order to take the empire. And the person who would organize that fight is his sister. Once Louis finally does arrive at court, the first thing he does is he exiles all of his sisters, every single sister. He has a couple of noblemen killed for treason. It seems very clear that they were the partners of some of his sisters. Whether they were actually kind of plotting his demise or not, that seems very up in the air. And then also some of his cousins and his half-brothers, his illegitimate brothers, if you will,

• 45:13Speaker 01

  sending them off to monasteries, exiling them from court. And then that allows him to finally kind of take over.

• 45:23Speaker 00

  Louis continue in his campaign to secure his position, with a ruthlessness that marks him out as his father's son. In 817, after his nephew attempts to regain control of the Lombard Kingdom that had been bequeathed to his brother Pippin, Louis has the upstart blinded, a procedure from which he dies two days later. But his attempts to exert control over the entirety of Francia are ultimately fruitless. Louis spends much of his reign warring with his own sons, men who, after his death in 840, continue to fight amongst themselves. Eventually, in 843, the Carolingian Empire is formally divided. Today, this event is considered the catalyst

• 46:06Speaker 00

  that establishes France and Germany as separate countries. It is also the death knell for the unified European empire Charlemagne fought so hard to create.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  His empire may not have lasted, but Charlemagne's legacy lives on. It's largely thanks to his efforts to preserve and copy ancient texts that so much writing from ancient Rome survived. And the standardized script that was developed under his rule formed the basis of much of our modern writing.

• 46:39Speaker 00

  His control of European territories remained unmatched for a thousand years, until the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. And though his often barbaric methods might not win him any accolades today, he is remembered annually with the Charlemagne Prize, awarded to recognize those who advance the cause of European unity, with past recipients including Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, and Angela Merkel.

• 47:04Speaker 00

  As a warlord, political figurehead, defender of the Christian faith, or religious unifier, Charlemagne retains his place in history as an emperor for the ages.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  For us today, he becomes incredibly important because he seems like the first, especially to 19th and early 20th century scholars, kind of the founder of Europe in a real way. Charlemagne created this empire and then it was lost in the subsequent generations. And then it led to all this dissension of the European religious wars of the early modern period, the world wars of something like that. If we had only kept on to that unity, we would have had peace, we would have had modernity in an early period as well.

• 47:52Speaker 00

  Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of Jacques Cousteau.

• 47:57Speaker 02

  He embodies adventure under the sea and he is still the name that comes to mind when so many people talk about where they got their inspiration from the sea. Jacques Cousteau will come up and it's because his films are still out there on the internet, his books are still out there and available and because his principles are stronger than ever about the need to look after the oceans.

• 48:22Speaker 00

  That's next time.

• 48:29Speaker 00

  If you enjoyed hearing about Charlemagne's life and would like to know more about his clashes with the Vikings, then why not delve into Noiser's new show, Real Vikings? Search Real Vikings in your podcast app and hit follow. You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www-noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today. This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster.

• 49:13Speaker 00

  On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.

• 49:26Speaker 00

  In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.