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About Charlemagne: A Biography
Product Description An incisive and absorbing biography of the legendary emperor who bridged ancient and modern Europe and singlehandedly altered the course of Western history. Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure: an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout believer who ensured the survival of Christianity in the West. He also believed himself above the rules of the church, siring bastards across Europe and coldly ordering the execution of 4,500 prisoners. Derek Wilson shows how this complicated, fascinating man married the military might of his army to the spiritual force of the Church in Rome, thereby forging Western Christendom. This is a remarkable portrait of Charlemagne and of the intricate political, religious, and cultural world he dominated. Review Praise for Derek Wilson's Charlemagne“Wilson interrelates the personal and political. . . with an effectiveness that few other biographers have matched.” —The Sunday Telegraph (London) “Fast-paced. . . . Wilson deftly chronicles Charlemagne's military exploits, political intrigues and religious devotion.” —Publishers Weekly “Masterful and lively. . . . [Wilson] writes with great conviction and a breathtaking attention to the kind of personal detail that makes his books such compelling reading.” —Alison Weir, author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII“Brilliant. . . . An utterly captivating and exquisitely written narrative about the rise and fall of the Carolingian empire. . . . Charlemagne is also a timely and provocative essay about the idea of Europe.” —Donald Yerxa, editor at Historically Speaking About the Author Derek Wilson graduated from Cambridge in 1961. He spent several years traveling and teaching in Africa before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster. His bestselling and award-winning books include Rothschild: A Story of Wealth and Power, Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man, and Tudor Tapestry: Men, Women and Society in Reformation England. He has also written and presented numerous radio and television programs. Wilson is married and lives in Devon, England. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER 1 Inheritance He pitched there a tent and was waiting in prayer the arrival of the new converts when, behold! instead of friends, a band of enraged infidels appeared on the plains all in arms and, coming up, rushed into his tent. The servants that were with the holy martyr were for defending his life by fighting; but he would not suffer it, declaring that the day he had long waited for was come, which was to bring him to the eternal joys of the Lord. He encouraged the rest to meet with cheerfulness and constancy a death which was to them the gate of everlasting life.(1) That account of the death of Boniface, the "Apostle of Germany," in June 754 is important because it marks a turning point in world history. It is also useful as a launchpad for this book because it may help us to get into the right frame of mind to approach the life and times of Charles the Great. Professor Barraclough succinctly observed, "Without Boniface there could have been no Charles"(2) and that is a truth that we in the laid-back, agnostic, twenty-first-century West should not lose sight of. If we find it difficult to understand the mentality of Islamic suicide bombers and tend to be dismissive of all fundamentalisms, then our imaginations need to be jolted so that we can place ourselves alongside the warriors, scholars and missionaries who created and led the first western empire. They were men who believed simply, felt passionately, saw complex issues in black and white, were aggressive in word and deed and understood this world as but a shadow of a greater reality. And it was because they were the men they were--heroes in every sense of the word--that they turned the tide of events, took hold of a culture that seemed doomed to extermination by superior forces and forged the civilizati
