Peter's on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, and known to
posterity as the Great (chiefly by his agglutinative Gallicised
denomination, of Charlemagne), was a man great in all ways, physically
and mentally. Within a couple of centuries after his death Charlemagne
became the centre of innumerable legends; and the myth-making process
does not seem to have been sensibly interfered with by the existence
of sober and truthful histories of the Emperor and of the times which
immediately preceded and followed his reign by a contemporary writer
who occupied a high and confidential position in his court, and in
that of his successor. This was one Eginhard, or Einhard, who appears
to have been born about A.D. 770, and spent his youth at the court,
being educated along with Charles's sons. There is excellent
contemporary testimony not only to Eginhard's existence, but to his
abilities, and to the place which he occupied in the circle of the
intimate friends of the great ruler whose life he subsequently wrote.
In fact, there is as good evidence of Eginhard's existence, of his
official position, and of his being the author of the chief works
attributed to him, as can reasonably be expected in the case of a man
who lived more than a thousand years ago, and was neither a great king
nor a great warrior. The works are--1. "The Life of the Emperor Karl."
2. "The Annals of the Franks.
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