2 56. CHAELES THE GREAT. A.D. 768-814. 239
crowned princes of his age, and is the greatest as well as the first of the long line of German emperors from the eighth to the nineteenth century. He is the only prince whose greatness had been inseparably blended with his French name.1 Since Julius Ccesar history had seen no conqueror and statesman of such com manding genius and success; history after him produced only two military heroes that may be compared with him, Frederick II. of Prussia, and Napoleon Bonaparte (who took him and Caesar for his models), but they were far beneath him in religious character, and as hostile to the church as he was friendly to it. His lofty intellect shines all the more brightly from the general ignorance and barbarism of his age. He rose suddenly like a meteor in dark midnight. We do not know even the place and date of his birth, nor the history of his youth and education.2
HIS REIGN.
His life is filled with no less than fifty-three military cam paigns conducted by himself or his lieutenants, against the Saxons (18 campaigns), Lombards (5), Aquitanians, Thuringians, Bavarians, Avars or Huns, Danes, Slaves, Saracens, and Greeks. His incessant activity astonished his subjects and enemies. He seemed to be omnipresent in his dominions, which extended from the B-iltic and the Elbe in the North to the Ebro in the South, from the British Channel to Home and even to the Straits of Messina, embracing France, Germany, Hungary, the greater part of Italy and Spain. His ecclesiastical domain extended over
1 Joseph de Maistre: " Cet homme est si grand que la grandeur a penetre son num."
2 " It would be folly," says Eginhard (ch. 4), "to write a word about the birth and infancy or even the boyhood of Charles, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one alive who can give information about it." His birth is usually assigned to April 2, 742, at Aix-la-Cluipelle ; but the legend makes him the child of illegitimate love, who grew up wild as a miller's son in Bavaria. His name is mentioned only twice before he assumed the reins of government, once at a court reception given by his father to pope Stephen II., and once as a witness in the Aquitanian campaigns.
240 FOURTH PERIOD. A^D. 590-1049.
twenty-two archbishoprics or metropolitan sees, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Friuli (Aquileia), Grado, Cologne, Mayence, Salzburg, Treves, Sens, Besancon, Lyons, Rouen, Rheims, Aries, Vienna, Moutiers-en-Tarantaise, Ivredun, Bordeaux, Tours, Bourges, Narbonne.1 He had no settled residence, but spent much time on the Rhine, at Ingelheim, Mayence, Nymwegen, and especially at Aix-la-Chapelle on account of its baths. He encouraged trade, opened roads, and undertook to connect the Main and the Danube by canal. He gave his personal attention to things great and small. He introduced a settled order and unity of organization in his empire, at the expense of the ancient freedom and wild independence of the German tribes, although he con tinued to hold every year, in May, the general assembly of the freemen (Maifeld). He secured Europe against future heathen and Mohammedan invasion and devastation. He was universally admired or feared in his age. The Greek emperors sought his alliance ; hence the Greek proverb, " Have the Franks for your friends, but not for your neighbors." The Caliph Harounal-Raschid, the mightiest ruler in the East, sent from Bagdad an embassy to him with precious gifts. But he esteemed a good sword more than gold. He impressed the stamp of his genius and achievements upon the subsequent history of Germany and France.
APPEARANCE AND HABITS OF CHARLEMAGNE.
Charles had a commanding, and yet winning presence. His physique betrayed the greatness of his mind. He was tall, strongly built and well proportioned. His height was seven times the length of his foot. He had large and animated eyes, a long nose, a cheerful countenance and an abundance of fine hair. te His appearance," says Eginhard, " was always stately and dig nified, whether he was standing or sitting; although his neck
1 According to the enumeration of Eginhard (ch. 33), who, however, gives only 21, omitting Narbonne. Charles bequeathed one-third of his treasure and moveable goods to the metropolitan sees.