Charlemagne

Charlemagne-ruler of the vast Frankish kingdom from 768 to his death in 814 and Holy Roman emperor from the year 800 - is considered the father of Europe. In this concise, insightful, and eminently readable biography, Mathias Becher provides a wealth of information about a remarkable man and his times. Among the topics Becher discusses are Charlemagne's rise to emperor and his political and military maneuvering against the Saxons, the Lombards, and others; the ways in which laws and language in these lands were reformed and revised; and the tensions that emerged in Charlemagne's court between modern ideas and traditional thinking. He concludes by discussing the effects of Charlemagne's reign and his posthumous fame."Becher suceeds in combining a masterful account of life stages of the 'powerful figure' and the myth of Charlemagne with a precise and impressive representation of his era" - Die Zeit