FREE ESSAY ON CHARLEMAGNE

CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne
1. The Merovingian Family
The Merovingian family, from which the Franks used to choose their kings, is commonly
said to have lasted until the time of Childeric [III, 743-752] who was deposed, shaved,
and thrust into the cloister by command of the Roman Pontiff Stephen [II (or III)
752-757]. But although, to all outward appearance, it ended with him, it had long since
been devoid of vital strength, and conspicuous only from bearing the empty epithet Royal;
the real power and authority in the kingdom lay in the hands of the chief officer of the
court, the so-called Mayor of the Palace, and he was at the head of affairs. There was
nothing left the King to do but to be content with his name of King, his flowing hair,
and long beard, to sit on his throne and play the ruler, to give ear to the ambassadors
that came from all quarters, and to dismiss them, as if on his own responsibility, in
words that were, in fact, suggested to him, or even imposed upon him. He had nothing that
he could call his own beyond this vain title of King and the precarious support allowed
by the Mayor of the Palace in his discretion, except a single country seat, that brought
him but a very small income. There was a dwelling house upon this, and a small number of
servants attached to it, sufficient to perform the necessary offices. When he had to go
abroad, he used to ride in a cart, drawn by a yoke of oxen driven, peasant-fashion, by a
Ploughman; he rode in this way to the palace and to the general assembly of the people,
that met once a year for the welfare of the kingdom, and he returned him in like manner.
The Mayor of the Palace took charge of the government and of everything that had to be
planned or executed at home or abroad.
2. Charlemagne's Ancestors
At the time of Childeric's deposition, Pepin, the father of King Charles, held this
office of Mayor of the Palace, one might almost say, by hereditary right; for Pepin's
father, Charles [Martel 715-41], had received it at the hands of his father, Pepin, and
filled it with distinction. It was this Charles that crushed the tyrants who claimed to
rule the whole Frank land as their own, and that utterly routed the Saracens, when they
attempted the conquest of Gaul, in - -two great battles-one in Aquitania, near the town
of Poitiers , and the other on the River Berre, near Narbonne-and compelled them to
return to Spain. This honor was usually conferred by the people only upon men eminent
from their illustrious birth and ample wealth. For some years, ostensibly under King the
father of King Charles, Childeric, Pepin, shared the duties inherited from his father and
grandfather most amicably with his brother, Carloman. The latter, then, for reasons
unknown, renounced the heavy cares of an earthly crown and retired to Rome [747]. Here he
exchanged his worldly garb for a cowl, and built a monastery on Mt. Oreste, near the
Church of St. Sylvester, where he enjoyed for several years the seclusion that he
desired, in company with certain others who had the same object in view. But so many
distinguished Franks made the pilgrimage to Rome to fulfill their vows, and insisted upon
paying their respects to him, as their former lord, on the way, that the repose which he
so much loved was broken by these frequent visits, and he was driven to change his abode.
Accordingly when he found that his plans were frustrated by his many visitors, he
abandoned the mountain, and withdrew to the Monastery of St. Benedict, on Monte Cassino,
in the province of Samnium [in 754], and passed the rest there in the exercise of
religion.
3. Charlemagne's Accession
Pepin, however, was raised by decree of the Roman pontiff, from the rank of Mayor of the
Palace to that of King, and ruled alone over the Franks for fifteen years or more
[752-768]. He died of dropsy [Sept. 24, 768] in Paris at the close of the Aquitanian War,
which he had waged with William, Duke of Aquitania, for nine successive years, and left
his two sons, Charles and Carloman, upon whim, by the grace of God, the succession
devolved. 
The Franks, in a general assembly of the people, made them both kings [Oct 9, 786] on
condition that they should divide the whole kingdom equally between them, Charles to take
and rule the part that had to belonged to their father, Pepin, and Carloman the part
which their uncle, Carloman had governed. The conditions were accepted, and each entered
into the possession of the share of the kingdom that fell to him by this arrangement; but
peace was only maintained between them with the greatest difficulty, because many of
Carloman's party kept trying to disturb their good understanding, and there were some
even who plotted to involve them in a war with each other. The event, however, which
showed the danger to have been rather imaginary than real, for at Carloman's death his
widow [Gerberga] fled to Italy with her sons and her principal adherents, and without
reason, despite her husband's brother put herself and her children under the protection
of Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Carloman had succumbed to disease after ruling two
years [in fact more than three] in common with his brother and at his death Charles was
unanimously elected King of the Franks.
4. Plan of This Work
It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles' birth and infancy, or
even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one
alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as
unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deed, and such other facts
of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of
his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his
administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know.
5. Aquitanian War
His first undertaking in a military way was the Aquitanian War, begun by his father but
not brought to a close; and because he thought that it could be readily carried through,
he took it up while his brother was yet alive, calling upon him to render aid. The
campaign once opened, he conducted it with the greatest vigor, notwithstanding his broth
withheld the assistance that he had promised, and did not desist or shrink from his
self-imposed task until, by his patience and firmness, he had completely gained his ends.
He compelled Hunold, who had attempted to seize Aquitania after Waifar's death, and renew
the war then almost concluded, to abandon Aquitania and flee to Gascony. Even here he
gave him no rest, but crossed the River Garonne, built the castle of Fronsac, and sent
ambassadors to Lupus, Duke of Gascony, to demand the surrender of the fugitive,
threatening to take him by force unless he were promptly given up to him. Thereupon Lupus
chose the wiser course, and not only gave Hunold up, but submitted himself, with the
province which he ruled, to the King.
6. Lombard War
After bringing this war to an end and settling matters in Aquitania (his associate in
authority had meantime departed this life), he was induced [in 773], by the prayers and
entreaties of Hadrian [I, 772-795], Bishop of the city of Rome, to wage war on the
Lombards. His father before him had undertaken this task at the request of Pope Stephen
[II or III, 752-757], but under great difficulties, for certain leading Franks, of whom
he usually took counsel, had so vehemently opposed his design as to declare openly that
they would leave the King and go home. Nevertheless, the war against the Lombard King
Astolf had been taken up and very quickly concluded [754]. Now, although Charles seems to
have had similar, or rather just the same grounds for declaring war that his father had,
the war itself differed from the preceding one alike in its difficulties and its issue.
Pepin, to be sure, after besieging King Astolf a few days in Pavia, had compelled him to
give hostages, to restore to the Romans the cities and castles that he had taken, and to
make oath that he would not attempt to seize them again: but Charles did not cease, after
declaring war, until he had exhausted King Desiderius by a long siege [773], and forced
him to surrender at discretion; driven his son Adalgis, the last hope of the Lombards,
not only -from his kingdom, but from all Italy [774]; restored to the Romans all that
they had lost; subdued Hruodgaus, Duke of Friuli [776], who was plotting revolution;
reduced all Italy to his power, and set his son Pepin as king over it. [781] 
At this point I should describe Charles' difficult passage over the Alps into Italy, and
the hardships that the Franks endured in climbing the trackless mountain ridges, the
heaven-aspiring cliffs and ragged peaks, if it were not my purpose in this work to record
the manner of his life rather than the incidents of the wars that he waged. Suffice it to
say that this war ended with the subjection of Italy, the banishment of King Desiderius
for life, the expulsion of his son Adalgis from Italy, and the restoration of the
conquests of the Lombard kings to Hadrian, the head of the Roman Church.
7. Saxon War
At the conclusion of this struggle, the Saxon war, that seems to have been only laid
aside for the time , was taken up again. No war ever undertaken by the Frank nation was
carried on with such persistence and bitterness, or cost so much labor, because the
Saxons, like almost all the tribes of Germany, were a fierce people, given to the worship
of devils, and hostile to our religion, and did not consider it dishonorable to
transgress and violate all law, human and divine. Then there were peculiar circumstances
that tended to cause a breach of peace every day. Except in a few places, where large
forests or mountain ridges intervened and made the bounds certain, the line between
ourselves and the Saxons passed almost in its whole extent through an open country, so
that there was no end to the murders thefts and arsons on both sides. In this way the
Franks became so embittered that they at last resolved to make reprisals no longer, but
to come to open war with the Saxons [772]. Accordingly war was begun against them, and
was waged for thirty-three successive years with great fury; more, however, to the
disadvantage of the Saxons than of the Franks. It could doubtless have been brought to an
end sooner, had it not been for the faithlessness of the Saxons. It is hard to say how
often they were conquered, and, humbly submitting to the King, promised to do what was
enjoined upon them, without hesitation the required hostages, gave and received the
officers sent them from the King. They were sometimes so much weakened and reduced that
they promised to renounce the worship of devils, and to adopt Christianity, but they were
no less ready to violate these terms than prompt to accept them, so that it is impossible
to tell which came easier to them to do; scarcely a year passed from the beginning of the
war without such changes on their part. But the King did not suffer his high purpose and
steadfastness - firm alike in good and evil fortune - to be wearied by any fickleness on
their part, or to be turned from the task that he had undertaken, on the contrary, he
never allowed their faithless behavior to go unpunished, but either took the field
against them in person, or sent his counts with an army to wreak vengeance and exact
righteous satisfaction. At last, after conquering and subduing all who had offered
resistance, he took ten thousand of those that lived on the banks of the Elbe, and
settled them, with their wives and children, in many different bodies here and there in
Gaul and Germany [804]. The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by
their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were renunciation of their
national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the
Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people. 
8. Saxon War (continued)
Charles himself fought but two pitched battles in this war, although it was long
protracted one on Mount Osning [783], at the place called Detmold, and again on the bank
of the river Hase, both in the space of little more than a month. The enemy were so
routed and overthrown in these two battles that they never afterwards ventured to take
the offensive or to resist the attacks of the King, unless they were protected by a
strong position. A great many of the Frank as well as of the Saxon nobility, men
occupying the highest posts of honor, perished in this war, which only came to an end
after the lapse of thirty-two years [804]. So many and grievous were the wars that were
declared against the Franks in the meantime, and skillfully conducted by the King, that
one may reasonably question whether his fortitude or his good fortune is to be more
admired. The Saxon war began two years [772] before the Italian war [773]; but although
it went on without interruption, business elsewhere was not neglected, nor was t ere any
shrinking from other equally arduous contests. The King, who excelled all the princes of
his time in wisdom and greatness of soul, did not suffer difficulty to deter him or
danger to daunt him from anything that had to be taken up or carried through, for he-had
trained himself to bear and endure whatever came, without yielding in adversity, or
trusting to the deceitful favors of fortune in prosperity.
9. Spanish Expedition
In the midst of this vigorous and almost uninterrupted struggle with the Saxons, he
covered the frontier by garrisons at the proper points, and marched over the Pyrenees
into Spain at the head of all the forces that he could muster. All the towns and castles
that he attacked surrendered. and up to the time of his homeward march he sustained no
loss whatever; but on his return through the Pyrenees he had cause to rue the treachery
of the Gascons. That region is well adapted for ambuscades by reason of the thick forests
that cover it; and as the army was advancing in the long line of march necessitated by
the narrowness of the road, the Gascons, who lay in ambush [778] on the top of a very
high mountain, attacked the rear of the baggage train and the rear guard in charge of it,
and hurled them down to the very bottom of the valley [at Roncevalles, later celebrated
in the Song of Roland]. In the struggle that ensued they cut them off to a man; they then
plundered the baggage, and dispersed with all speed in every direction under cover of
approaching night. The lightness of their armor and the nature of the battle ground stood
the Gascons in good stead on this occasion, whereas the Franks fought at a disadvantage
in every respect, because of the weight of their armor and the unevenness of the ground.
Eggihard, the King's steward; Anselm, Count Palatine; and Roland, Governor of the March
of Brittany, with very many others, fell in this engagement. This ill turn could not be
avenged for the nonce, because the enemy scattered so widely after carrying out their
plan that not the least clue could be had to their whereabouts. 
10. Submission of the Bretons and Beneventans
Charles also subdued the Bretons [786], who live on the sea coast, in the extreme western
part of Gaul. When they refused to obey him, he sent an army against them, and compelled
them to give hostages, and to promise to do his bidding. He afterwards entered Italy in
person with his army [787], and passed through Rome to Capua, a city in Campania, where
he pitched his camp and threatened the Beneventans with hostilities unless they should
submit themselves to him. Their duke, Aragis, escaped the danger by sending his two sons,
Rumold and Grimold, with a great sum of money to meet the King, begging him to accept
them as hostages, and promising for himself and his people compliance with all the King's
commands, on the single condition that his personal attendance should not be required.
The King took the welfare of the people into account rather than the stubborn disposition
of the Duke, accepted the proffered hostages, and released him from the obligation to
appear before him in consideration of his handsome gift. He retained the younger son only
as hostage, and sent the elder back to his father, and returned to Rome, leaving
commissioners with Aragis to exact the oath of allegiance, and administer it to the
Beneventans. He stayed in Rome several days in order to pay his devotions at the holy
places, and then came back to Gaul [787]. 
11. Tassilo and the Bavarian Campaign
At this time, on a sudden, the Bavarian war broke out, but came to a speedy end. It was
due to the arrogance and folly of Duke Tassilo. His wife [Liutberga], a daughter of King
Desiderius, was desirous of avenging her father's banishment through the agency of her
husband, and accordingly induced him to make a treaty with the Huns, the neighbors of the
Bavarians on the east, and not only to leave the King's commands unfulfilled, but to
challenge him to war. Charles' high spirit could not brook Tassilo's insubordination, for
it seemed to him to pass all bounds; accordingly he straightway summoned his troops from
all sides for a campaign against Bavaria and appeared in person with a great army on the
river Lech , which forms the boundary between the Bavarians and the Alemanni. After
Pitching his camp upon its banks, he determined to put the Duke's disposition to the test
by an embassy before entering the province. Tassilo did not think that it was for his own
or his people's good to persist, so he surrendered himself to the King, gave the hostages
demanded, among them his own son Theodo, and promised by oath not to give ear to any one
who should attempt to turn him from his allegiance; so this war, which bade fair to be
very grievous, came very quickly to an end. Tassilo, however, was afterward summoned to
the King's presence [788], and not suffered to depart, and the government of the province
that he had had in charge was no longer intrusted to a duke, but to counts.
12. Slavic War
After these uprisings had been thus quelled, war was declared against the Slavs who are
commonly known among us as Wilzi, but properly, that is to say in their own tongue, are
called Welatabians. The Saxons served in this campaign as auxiliaries among the tribes
that followed the King's standard at his summons, but their obedience lacked sincerity
and devotion. War was declared because the Slavs kept harassing the Abodriti, old allies
of the Franks, by continual raids, in spite of all commands to the contrary. A gulf [ie
the Baltic Sea] of unknown length, but nowhere more than a hundred miles wide, and in
many parts narrower, stretches off towards the east from the Western Ocean. Many tribes
have settlements on its shores; the Danes and Swedes, whom we call Northmen, on the
northern shore and all the adjacent islands; but the southern shore is inhabited by the
Slava and the Aisti [from whom derive the modern name of Estonia]; and various other
tribes. The Welatabians, against whom the King now made war, were the chief of these; but
in a single campaign [789], which he conducted in person, he so crushed and subdued them
that they did not think it advisable thereafter to refuse obedience to his commands.
13. War with the Huns
The war against the Avars, or Huns, followed [791], and, except the Saxon war, was the
greatest that he waged; he took it up with more spirit than any of his other wars, and
made far greater preparations for it. He conducted one campaign in person in Pannonia, of
which the Huns then had possession. He entrusted all subsequent operations to his son,
Pepin, and the governors of the provinces, to counts even, and lieutenants. Although they
most vigorously prosecuted the war, it only came to a conclusion after a seven years'
struggle. The utter depopulation of Pannonia, and the site of the Khan's palace, now a
desert, where not a trace of human habitation is visible bear witness how many battles
were fought in those years, and how much blood was shed. The entire body of the Hun
nobility perished in this contest, and all its glory with it. All the money and treasure
that had been years amassing was seized, and no war in which the Franks have ever engaged
within the memory of man brought them such riches and such booty. Up to that time the
Huns had passed for, a poor people, but so much gold and silver was found in the Khan's
palace, and so much valuable spoil taken in battle, that one may well think that the
Franks took justly from the Huns what the Huns had formerly taken unjustly from other
nations. Only two of the chief men of the Franks fell in this war - Eric, Duke of Friuli,
who was killed in Tarsatch [799], a town on the coast of Liburnia by the treachery of the
inhabitants; and Gerold,Governor of Bavaria, who met his death in Pannonia, slain [799],
with two men that were accompanying him, by an unknown hand while he was marshaling his
forces for battle against the Huns, and riding up and down the line encouraging his men.
This war was otherwise almost a bloodless one so far as the Franks were concerned, and
ended most satisfactorily, although by reason of its magnitude it was long protracted.
14. Danish War
The Saxon war next came to an end as successful as the struggle had been long. The
Bohemian [805-806] and Linonian [808] wars that next broke out could not last long; both
were quickly carried through under the leadership of the younger Charles. The last of
these wars was the one declared against the Northmen called Danes. They began their
career as pirates, but afterward took to laying waste the coasts of Gaul and Germany with
their large fleet. Their King Godfred was so puffed with vain aspirations that he counted
on gaining empire overall Germany, and looked upon Saxony and Frisia as his provinces. He
had already subdued his neighbors the Abodriti, and made them tributary, and boasted that
he would shortly appear with a great army before Aix-la-Chapelle [Aachen - Charlemagn's
capital], where the King held his court. Some faith was put in his words, empty as they
sound, and it is supposed that he would have attempted something of the sort if he had
not been prevented by a premature death. He was murdered [810] by one of his own
bodyguard, and so ended at once his life and the war that he had begun.
15. Extent of Charlemagne's Conquests
Such are the wars, most skillfully planned and successfully fought, which this most
powerful king waged during the forty-seven years of his reign. He so largely increased
the Frank kingdom, which was already great and strong when he received it at his father's
hands, that more than double its former territory was added to it. The authority of the
Franks was formerly confined to that part of Gaul included between the Rhine and the
Loire, the Ocean and the Balearic Sea; to that part of Germany which is inhabited by the
so-called Eastern Franks, and is bounded by Saxony and the Danube, the Rhine and the
Saale-this stream separates the Thuringians from the Sorabians; and to the country of the
Alemanni and Bavarians. By the wars above mentioned he first made tributary Aquitania,
Gascony, and the whole of the region of the Pyrenees as far as the River Ebro, which
rises in the land of the Navarrese, flows through the most fertile districts of Spain,
and empties into the Balearic Sea, beneath the walls of the city of Tortosa. He next
reduced and made tributary all Italy from Aosta to Lower Calabria, where the boundary
line runs between the Beneventans and the Greeks, a territory more than a thousand miles
long; then Saxony, which constitutes no small part of Germany, and is reckoned to be
twice as wide as the country inhabited by the Franks, while about equal to it in length;
in addition, both Pannonias, Dacia beyond the Danube, and Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia,
except the cities on the coast, which he left to the Greek Emperor for friendship's sake,
and because of the treaty that he had made with him. In fine, he vanquished and made
tributary all the wild and barbarous tribes dwelling in Germany between the Rhine and the
Vistula, the Ocean and the Danube, all of which speak very much the same language, but
differ widely from one another in customs and dress. The chief among them are the
Welatabians, the Sorabians, the Abodriti, and the Bohemians, and he had to make war upon
these; but the rest, by far the larger number, submitted to him of their own accord.
1. The Merovingian Family
The Merovingian family, from which the Franks used to choose their kings, is commonly
said to have lasted until the time of Childeric [III, 743-752] who was deposed, shaved,
and thrust into the cloister by command of the Roman Pontiff Stephen [II (or III)
752-757]. But although, to all outward appearance, it ended with him, it had long since
been devoid of vital strength, and conspicuous only from bearing the empty epithet Royal;
the real power and authority in the kingdom lay in the hands of the chief officer of the
court, the so-called Mayor of the Palace, and he was at the head of affairs. There was
nothing left the King to do but to be content with his name of King, his flowing hair,
and long beard, to sit on his throne and play the ruler, to give ear to the ambassadors
that came from all quarters, and to dismiss them, as if on his own responsibility, in
words that were, in fact, suggested to him, or even imposed upon him. He had nothing that
he could call his own beyond this vain title of King and the precarious support allowed
by the Mayor of the Palace in his discretion, except a single country seat, that brought
him but a very small income. There was a dwelling house upon this, and a small number of
servants attached to it, sufficient to perform the necessary offices. When he had to go
abroad, he used to ride in a cart, drawn by a yoke of oxen driven, peasant-fashion, by a
Ploughman; he rode in this way to the palace and to the general assembly of the people,
that met once a year for the welfare of the kingdom, and he returned him in like manner.
The Mayor of the Palace took charge of the government and of everything that had to be
planned or executed at home or abroad.
2. Charlemagne's Ancestors
At the time of Childeric's deposition, Pepin, the father of King Charles, held this
office of Mayor of the Palace, one might almost say, by hereditary right; for Pepin's
father, Charles [Martel 715-41], had received it at the hands of his father, Pepin, and
filled it with distinction. It was this Charles that crushed the tyrants who claimed to
rule the whole Frank land as their own, and that utterly routed the Saracens, when they
attempted the conquest of Gaul, in - -two great battles-one in Aquitania, near the town
of Poitiers , and the other on the River Berre, near Narbonne-and compelled them to
return to Spain. This honor was usually conferred by the people only upon men eminent
from their illustrious birth and ample wealth. For some years, ostensibly under King the
father of King Charles, Childeric, Pepin, shared the duties inherited from his father and
grandfather most amicably with his brother, Carloman. The latter, then, for reasons
unknown, renounced the heavy cares of an earthly crown and retired to Rome [747]. Here he
exchanged his worldly garb for a cowl, and built a monastery on Mt. Oreste, near the
Church of St. Sylvester, where he enjoyed for several years the seclusion that he
desired, in company with certain others who had the same object in view. But so many
distinguished Franks made the pilgrimage to Rome to fulfill their vows, and insisted upon
paying their respects to him, as their former lord, on the way, that the repose which he
so much loved was broken by these frequent visits, and he was driven to change his abode.
Accordingly when he found that his plans were frustrated by his many visitors, he
abandoned the mountain, and withdrew to the Monastery of St. Benedict, on Monte Cassino,
in the province of Samnium [in 754], and passed the rest there in the exercise of
religion.
3. Charlemagne's Accession
Pepin, however, was raised by decree of the Roman pontiff, from the rank of Mayor of the
Palace to that of King, and ruled alone over the Franks for fifteen years or more
[752-768]. He died of dropsy [Sept. 24, 768] in Paris at the close of the Aquitanian War,
which he had waged with William, Duke of Aquitania, for nine successive years, and left
his two sons, Charles and Carloman, upon whim, by the grace of God, the succession
devolved. 
The Franks, in a general assembly of the people, made them both kings [Oct 9, 786] on
condition that they should divide the whole kingdom equally between them, Charles to take
and rule the part that had to belonged to their father, Pepin, and Carloman the part
which their uncle, Carloman had governed. The conditions were accepted, and each entered
into the possession of the share of the kingdom that fell to him by this arrangement; but
peace was only maintained between them with the greatest difficulty, because many of
Carloman's party kept trying to disturb their good understanding, and there were some
even who plotted to involve them in a war with each other. The event, however, which
showed the danger to have been rather imaginary than real, for at Carloman's death his
widow [Gerberga] fled to Italy with her sons and her principal adherents, and without
reason, despite her husband's brother put herself and her children under the protection
of Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Carloman had succumbed to disease after ruling two
years [in fact more than three] in common with his brother and at his death Charles was
unanimously elected King of the Franks.
4. Plan of This Work
It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles' birth and infancy, or
even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one
alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as
unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deed, and such other facts
of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of
his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his
administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know.
5. Aquitanian War
His first undertaking in a military way was the Aquitanian War, begun by his father but
not brought to a close; and because he thought that it could be readily carried through,
he took it up while his brother was yet alive, calling upon him to render aid. The
campaign once opened, he conducted it with the greatest vigor, notwithstanding his broth
withheld the assistance that he had promised, and did not desist or shrink from his
self-imposed task until, by his patience and firmness, he had completely gained his ends.
He compelled Hunold, who had attempted to seize Aquitania after Waifar's death, and renew
the war then almost concluded, to abandon Aquitania and flee to Gascony. Even here he
gave him no rest, but crossed the River Garonne, built the castle of Fronsac, and sent
ambassadors to Lupus, Duke of Gascony, to demand the surrender of the fugitive,
threatening to take him by force unless he were promptly given up to him. Thereupon Lupus
chose the wiser course, and not only gave Hunold up, but submitted himself, with the
province which he ruled, to the King.
6. Lombard War
After bringing this war to an end and settling matters in Aquitania (his associate in
authority had meantime departed this life), he was induced [in 773], by the prayers and
entreaties of Hadrian [I, 772-795], Bishop of the city of Rome, to wage war on the
Lombards. His father before him had undertaken this task at the request of Pope Stephen
[II or III, 752-757], but under great difficulties, for certain leading Franks, of whom
he usually took counsel, had so vehemently opposed his design as to declare openly that
they would leave the King and go home. Nevertheless, the war against the Lombard King
Astolf had been taken up and very quickly concluded [754]. Now, although Charles seems to
have had similar, or rather just the same grounds for declaring war that his father had,
the war itself differed from the preceding one alike in its difficulties and its issue.
Pepin, to be sure, after besieging King Astolf a few days in Pavia, had compelled him to
give hostages, to restore to the Romans the cities and castles that he had taken, and to
make oath that he would not attempt to seize them again: but Charles did not cease, after
declaring war, until he had exhausted King Desiderius by a long siege [773], and forced
him to surrender at discretion; driven his son Adalgis, the last hope of the Lombards,
not only -from his kingdom, but from all Italy [774]; restored to the Romans all that
they had lost; subdued Hruodgaus, Duke of Friuli [776], who was plotting revolution;
reduced all Italy to his power, and set his son Pepin as king over it. [781] 
At this point I should describe Charles' difficult passage over the Alps into Italy, and
the hardships that the Franks endured in climbing the trackless mountain ridges, the
heaven-aspiring cliffs and ragged peaks, if it were not my purpose in this work to record
the manner of his life rather than the incidents of the wars that he waged. Suffice it to
say that this war ended with the subjection of Italy, the banishment of King Desiderius
for life, the expulsion of his son Adalgis from Italy, and the restoration of the
conquests of the Lombard kings to Hadrian, the head of the Roman Church.
7. Saxon War
At the conclusion of this struggle, the Saxon war, that seems to have been only laid
aside for the time , was taken up again. No war ever undertaken by the Frank nation was
carried on with such persistence and bitterness, or cost so much labor, because the
Saxons, like almost all the tribes of Germany, were a fierce people, given to the worship
of devils, and hostile to our religion, and did not consider it dishonorable to
transgress and violate all law, human and divine. Then there were peculiar circumstances
that tended to cause a breach of peace every day. Except in a few places, where large
forests or mountain ridges intervened and made the bounds certain, the line between
ourselves and the Saxons passed almost in its whole extent through an open country, so
that there was no end to the murders thefts and arsons on both sides. In this way the
Franks became so embittered that they at last resolved to make reprisals no longer, but
to come to open war with the Saxons [772]. Accordingly war was begun against them, and
was waged for thirty-three successive years with great fury; more, however, to the
disadvantage of the Saxons than of the Franks. It could doubtless have been brought to an
end sooner, had it not been for the faithlessness of the Saxons. It is hard to say how
often they were conquered, and, humbly submitting to the King, promised to do what was
enjoined upon them, without hesitation the required hostages, gave and received the
officers sent them from the King. They were sometimes so much weakened and reduced that
they promised to renounce the worship of devils, and to adopt Christianity, but they were
no less ready to violate these terms than prompt to accept them, so that it is impossible
to tell which came easier to them to do; scarcely a year passed from the beginning of the
war without such changes on their part. But the King did not suffer his high purpose and
steadfastness - firm alike in good and evil fortune - to be wearied by any fickleness on
their part, or to be turned from the task that he had undertaken, on the contrary, he
never allowed their faithless behavior to go unpunished, but either took the field
against them in person, or sent his counts with an army to wreak vengeance and exact
righteous satisfaction. At last, after conquering and subduing all who had offered
resistance, he took ten thousand of those that lived on the banks of the Elbe, and
settled them, with their wives and children, in many different bodies here and there in
Gaul and Germany [804]. The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by
their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were renunciation of their
national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the
Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people. 
8. Saxon War (continued)
Charles himself fought but two pitched battles in this war, although it was long
protracted one on Mount Osning [783], at the place called Detmold, and again on the bank
of the river Hase, both in the space of little more than a month. The enemy were so
routed and overthrown in these two battles that they never afterwards ventured to take
the offensive or to resist the attacks of the King, unless they were protected by a
strong position. A great many of the Frank as well as of the Saxon nobility, men
occupying the highest posts of honor, perished in this war, which only came to an end
after the lapse of thirty-two years [804]. So many and grievous were the wars that were
declared against the Franks in the meantime, and skillfully conducted by the King, that
one may reasonably question whether his fortitude or his good fortune is to be more
admired. The Saxon war began two years [772] before the Italian war [773]; but although
it went on without interruption, business elsewhere was not neglected, nor was t ere any
shrinking from other equally arduous contests. The King, who excelled all the princes of
his time in wisdom and greatness of soul, did not suffer difficulty to deter him or
danger to daunt him from anything that had to be taken up or carried through, for he-had
trained himself to bear and endure whatever came, without yielding in adversity, or
trusting to the deceitful favors of fortune in prosperity.
9. Spanish Expedition
In the midst of this vigorous and almost uninterrupted struggle with the Saxons, he
covered the frontier by garrisons at the proper points, and marched over the Pyrenees
into Spain at the head of all the forces that he could muster. All the towns and castles
that he attacked surrendered. and up to the time of his homeward march he sustained no
loss whatever; but on his return through the Pyrenees he had cause to rue the treachery
of the Gascons. That region is well adapted for ambuscades by reason of the thick forests
that cover it; and as the army was advancing in the long line of march necessitated by
the narrowness of the road, the Gascons, who lay in ambush [778] on the top of a very
high mountain, attacked the rear of the baggage train and the rear guard in charge of it,
and hurled them down to the very bottom of the valley [at Roncevalles, later celebrated
in the Song of Roland]. In the struggle that ensued they cut them off to a man; they then
plundered the baggage, and dispersed with all speed in every direction under cover of
approaching night. The lightness of their armor and the nature of the battle ground stood
the Gascons in good stead on this occasion, whereas the Franks fought at a disadvantage
in every respect, because of the weight of their armor and the unevenness of the ground.
Eggihard, the King's steward; Anselm, Count Palatine; and Roland, Governor of the March
of Brittany, with very many others, fell in this engagement. This ill turn could not be
avenged for the nonce, because the enemy scattered so widely after carrying out their
plan that not the least clue could be had to their whereabouts. 
10. Submission of the Bretons and Beneventans
Charles also subdued the Bretons [786], who live on the sea coast, in the extreme western
part of Gaul. When they refused to obey him, he sent an army against them, and compelled
them to give hostages, and to promise to do his bidding. He afterwards entered Italy in
person with his army [787], and passed through Rome to Capua, a city in Campania, where
he pitched his camp and threatened the Beneventans with hostilities unless they should
submit themselves to him. Their duke, Aragis, escaped the danger by sending his two sons,
Rumold and Grimold, with a great sum of money to meet the King, begging him to accept
them as hostages, and promising for himself and his people compliance with all the King's
commands, on the single condition that his personal attendance should not be required.
The King took the welfare of the people into account rather than the stubborn disposition
of the Duke, accepted the proffered hostages, and released him from the obligation to
appear before him in consideration of his handsome gift. He retained the younger son only
as hostage, and sent the elder back to his father, and returned to Rome, leaving
commissioners with Aragis to exact the oath of allegiance, and administer it to the
Beneventans. He stayed in Rome several days in order to pay his devotions at the holy
places, and then came back to Gaul [787]. 
11. Tassilo and the Bavarian Campaign
At this time, on a sudden, the Bavarian war broke out, but came to a speedy end. It was
due to the arrogance and folly of Duke Tassilo. His wife [Liutberga], a daughter of King
Desiderius, was desirous of avenging her father's banishment through the agency of her
husband, and accordingly induced him to make a treaty with the Huns, the neighbors of the
Bavarians on the east, and not only to leave the King's commands unfulfilled, but to
challenge him to war. Charles' high spirit could not brook Tassilo's insubordination, for
it seemed to him to pass all bounds; accordingly he straightway summoned his troops from
all sides for a campaign against Bavaria and appeared in person with a great army on the
river Lech , which forms the boundary between the Bavarians and the Alemanni. After
Pitching his camp upon its banks, he determined to put the Duke's disposition to the test
by an embassy before entering the province. Tassilo did not think that it was for his own
or his people's good to persist, so he surrendered himself to the King, gave the hostages
demanded, among them his own son Theodo, and promised by oath not to give ear to any one
who should attempt to turn him from his allegiance; so this war, which bade fair to be
very grievous, came very quickly to an end. Tassilo, however, was afterward summoned to
the King's presence [788], and not suffered to depart, and the government of the province
that he had had in charge was no longer intrusted to a duke, but to counts.
12. Slavic War
After these uprisings had been thus quelled, war was declared against the Slavs who are
commonly known among us as Wilzi, but properly, that is to say in their own tongue, are
called Welatabians. The Saxons served in this campaign as auxiliaries among the tribes
that followed the King's standard at his summons, but their obedience lacked sincerity
and devotion. War was declared because the Slavs kept harassing the Abodriti, old allies
of the Franks, by continual raids, in spite of all commands to the contrary. A gulf [ie
the Baltic Sea] of unknown length, but nowhere more than a hundred miles wide, and in
many parts narrower, stretches off towards the east from the Western Ocean. Many tribes
have settlements on its shores; the Danes and Swedes, whom we call Northmen, on the
northern shore and all the adjacent islands; but the southern shore is inhabited by the
Slava and the Aisti [from whom derive the modern name of Estonia]; and various other
tribes. The Welatabians, against whom the King now made war, were the chief of these; but
in a single campaign [789], which he conducted in person, he so crushed and subdued them
that they did not think it advisable thereafter to refuse obedience to his commands.
13. War with the Huns
The war against the Avars, or Huns, followed [791], and, except the Saxon war, was the
greatest that he waged; he took it up with more spirit than any of his other wars, and
made far greater preparations for it. He conducted one campaign in person in Pannonia, of
which the Huns then had possession. He entrusted all subsequent operations to his son,
Pepin, and the governors of the provinces, to counts even, and lieutenants. Although they
most vigorously prosecuted the war, it only came to a conclusion after a seven years'
struggle. The utter depopulation of Pannonia, and the site of the Khan's palace, now a
desert, where not a trace of human habitation is visible bear witness how many battles
were fought in those years, and how much blood was shed. The entire body of the Hun
nobility perished in this contest, and all its glory with it. All the money and treasure
that had been years amassing was seized, and no war in which the Franks have ever engaged
within the memory of man brought them such riches and such booty. Up to that time the
Huns had passed for, a poor people, but so much gold and silver was found in the Khan's
palace, and so much valuable spoil taken in battle, that one may well think that the
Franks took justly from the Huns what the Huns had formerly taken unjustly from other
nations. Only two of the chief men of the Franks fell in this war - Eric, Duke of Friuli,
who was killed in Tarsatch [799], a town on the coast of Liburnia by the treachery of the
inhabitants; and Gerold,Governor of Bavaria, who met his death in Pannonia, slain [799],
with two men that were accompanying him, by an unknown hand while he was marshaling his
forces for battle against the Huns, and riding up and down the line encouraging his men.
This war was otherwise almost a bloodless one so far as the Franks were concerned, and
ended most satisfactorily, although by reason of its magnitude it was long protracted.
14. Danish War
The Saxon war next came to an end as successful as the struggle had been long. The
Bohemian [805-806] and Linonian [808] wars that next broke out could not last long; both
were quickly carried through under the leadership of the younger Charles. The last of
these wars was the one declared against the Northmen called Danes. They began their
career as pirates, but afterward took to laying waste the coasts of Gaul and Germany with
their large fleet. Their King Godfred was so puffed with vain aspirations that he counted
on gaining empire overall Germany, and looked upon Saxony and Frisia as his provinces. He
had already subdued his neighbors the Abodriti, and made them tributary, and boasted that
he would shortly appear with a great army before Aix-la-Chapelle [Aachen - Charlemagn's
capital], where the King held his court. Some faith was put in his words, empty as they
sound, and it is supposed that he would have attempted something of the sort if he had
not been prevented by a premature death. He was murdered [810] by one of his own
bodyguard, and so ended at once his life and the war that he had begun.
15. Extent of Charlemagne's Conquests
Such are the wars, most skillfully planned and successfully fought, which this most
powerful king waged during the forty-seven years of his reign. He so largely increased
the Frank kingdom, which was already great and strong when he received it at his father's
hands, that more than double its former territory was added to it. The authority of the
Franks was formerly confined to that part of Gaul included between the Rhine and the
Loire, the Ocean and the Balearic Sea; to that part of Germany which is inhabited by the
so-called Eastern Franks, and is bounded by Saxony and the Danube, the Rhine and the
Saale-this stream separates the Thuringians from the Sorabians; and to the country of the
Alemanni and Bavarians. By the wars above mentioned he first made tributary Aquitania,
Gascony, and the whole of the region of the Pyrenees as far as the River Ebro, which
rises in the land of the Navarrese, flows through the most fertile districts of Spain,
and empties into the Balearic Sea, beneath the walls of the city of Tortosa. He next
reduced and made tributary all Italy from Aosta to Lower Calabria, where the boundary
line runs between the Beneventans and the Greeks, a territory more than a thousand miles
long; then Saxony, which constitutes no small part of Germany, and is reckoned to be
twice as wide as the country inhabited by the Franks, while about equal to it in length;
in addition, both Pannonias, Dacia beyond the Danube, and Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia,
except the cities on the coast, which he left to the Greek Emperor for friendship's sake,
and because of the treaty that he had made with him. In fine, he vanquished and made
tributary all the wild and barbarous tribes dwelling in Germany between the Rhine and the
Vistula, the Ocean and the Danube, all of which speak very much the same language, but
differ widely from one another in customs and dress. The chief among them are the
Welatabians, the Sorabians, the Abodriti, and the Bohemians, and he had to make war upon
these; but the rest, by far the larger number, submitted to him of their own accord.
Bibliography
Einhard. Medieval Sourcebook: Los Angelas Random HOuse 1947.