terrible in war, merciful in peace, as a victorious hero, a wise lawgiver, an unerring judge, and a
Christian saint. He suffered only one defeat, at Roncesvalles in the narrow passes of the Pyrenees,
when, on his return from a successful invasion of Spain, his rearguard with the flower of the French
chivalry, under the command of Roland, one of his paladins and nephews, was surprised and routed
by the Basque Mountaineers (778).^249
The name of "the Blessed Charles" is enrolled in the Roman Calendar for his services to
the church and gifts to the pope. Heathen Rome deified Julius Caesar, Christian Rome canonized,
or at least beatified Charlemagne. Suffrages for the repose of his soul were continued in the church
of Aix-la-Chapelle until Paschal, a schismatical pope, at the desire of Frederic Barbarossa, enshrined
his remains in that city and published a decree for his canonization (1166). The act was neither
approved nor revoked by a regular pope, but acquiesced in, and such tacit canonization is considered
equivalent to beatification.
Notes.
I. Judgments on the Personal Character of Charlemagne.
Eginhard (whose wife Emma figures in the legend as a daughter of Charlemagne) gives the
following frank account of the private and domestic relations of his master and friend (chs. 18 and
19, in Migne, Tom. XCVII. 42 sqq.):
"Thus did Charles defend and increase as well as beautify his kingdom; and here let me
express my admiration of his great qualities and his extraordinary constancy alike in good and evil
fortune. I will now proceed to give the details of his private life. After his father’s death, while
sharing the kingdom with his brother, he bore his unfriendliness and jealousy most patiently, and,
to the wonder of all, could not be provoked to be angry with him. Later" [after repudiating his first
wife, an obscure person] "he married a daughter of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, at the instance
of his mother" [notwithstanding the protest of the pope]; "but he repudiated her at the end of a year
for some reason unknown, and married Hildegard, a woman of high birth, of Swabian origin [d.
783]. He had three sons by her,—Charles, Pepin, and Lewis—and as many daughters,—Hruodrud,
Bertha, and Gisela." [Eginhard omits Adelaide and Hildegard.] "He had three other daughters
besides these—Theoderada, Hiltrud, and Ruodhaid—two by his third wife, Fastrada, a woman of
East Frankish (that is to say of German) origin, and the third by a concubine, whose name for the
moment escapes me. At the death of Fastrada, he married Liutgard, an Alemannic woman, who
bore him no children. After her death he had three [according to another reading four]
concubines—Gerswinda, a Saxon, by whom he had Adaltrud; Regina, who was the mother of
Drogo and Hugh; and Ethelind, by whom he had Theodoric. Charles’s mother, Berthrada, passed
her old age with him in great honor; he entertained the greatest veneration for her; and there was
never any disagreement between them except when he divorced the daughter of King Desiderius,
whom he had married to please her. She died soon after Hildegard, after living to see three grandsons
and as many grand-daughters in her son’s house, and he buried her with great pomp in the Basilica
of St. Denis, where his father lay. He had an only [surviving] sister, Gisela, who had consecrated
(^249) The historic foundation of this defeat is given by Eginhard, ch. 9. It was then marvellously embellished, and Roland
became the favorite theme of minstrels and poets, as Théroulde’s Chanson de Roland, Turpin’s Chroniqué, Bojardo’s Orlando
Innamorato, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, etc. His enchanted Horn sounded so loud that the birds fell dead at its blast, and the
whole Saracen army drew back terror-struck. When he was attacked in the Pyrenees, he blew the horn for the last time so hard
that the veins of his neck started, and Charlemagne heard it several miles off at St. Jean Pied de Port, but too late to save
"The dead who, deathless all,
Were slain at famous Roncevall."