Charlemagne

Charlemagne was said to be one of the greatest medieval kings. He was born in 742, and the place of his birth is unknown. He was German blooded, and spoke German. He shared with his people many strong characteristics, such as, strength of body, courage of spirit, and pride of race. Charlemagne did not read many books, but the few that he had read, were good ones. In his old age, he tried to learn to write, but he did no succeed. He was very smart and spoke many different languages, such as Teutonic, literary Latin, and he understood the Greek language.

A loving man, Charlemagne got along very well with his sister, Gisela, and their mother, Bertrada, treating both with great respect. Gisela was a nun, so she lived in a convent, but Bertrada lived with Charlemagne. It was Bertrada who arranged for Charlemagne to marry a daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards which was Germanic tribe whose kingdom was in Italy. But it seems this wife was not to Charlemagne's liking, because he soon ended the marriage and took a new wife named Hildegarde, with her he had six children. In 783, Charlemagne suffered the death of two loved ones, when both Hildegarde and Bertrada died. Before long he found a new wife, Fastrada. Charlemagne was a devoted father, and he had a large family: three sons and three daughters by Hildegarde, two daughters by Fastrada, and at least seven other children by various women. When one of his sons died young, leaving five daughters, Charlemagne took all five girls into his household and raised them as his own. Despite the duties of kingship, he found time to personally supervise his children's education. He ate all of his meals with his children, and took them with him wherever he traveled. In fact, he was so fond of his daughters that he didn't marry them off for political purposes, as most royal fathers did, but kept them at his court. It seems they didn't need boyfriends; at least two of the princesses gave birth to children which were born out of wedlock. Charlemagne pretended not to know about his daughters' love affairs. One of the king's children was called Pepin the Hunchback, whose mother, Himiltrude, was either Charlemagne's first wife or his mistress. In 792, while Charlemagne was away at war, Pepin conspired with a group of Frankish nobles to kill his father and take the throne. After learning about the plot, Charlemagne sent Pepin to live