Talk to Charlemagne (Charles the Great, Karl der Grosse)

In their own words

Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.

• “Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right.”

Questions to ask

• What did it feel like to be crowned emperor in St Peter's on Christmas Day 800?
• Why did you order the execution of so many Saxons at Verden?
• How did you run such a large empire without roads, writing or money?
• What did Alcuin and your scholars do at Aachen?
• Did you really not know the Pope was going to crown you?

Which Charlemagne picks up

• 800Rome (St Peter's Basilica). Aged about 52, in Rome in December 800, where on Christmas Day Pope Leo III places a crown on his head and the Roman people acclaim him emperor, an honour he later said he had not expected.
• 778Pyrenees (Roncesvalles). Aged about 30, returning from a campaign in Spain when the rearguard of his army is ambushed by Basques in the Pyrenees, as the Royal Frankish Annals record, an event later made into the legend of Roland.
• 782Verden on the Aller. Aged about 34, after a Saxon uprising led by Widukind in which Frankish envoys and commanders were killed, executing a very large number of Saxon prisoners, according to the Royal Frankish Annals.
• 794Frankfurt. Aged about 46, presiding over a great church council at Frankfurt that deals with doctrine, the Spanish adoptionist heresy and other matters of church and state.
• 802Aachen. Aged about 54, now at the palace at Aachen, receiving an embassy from Harun al-Rashid and the elephant Abul-Abbas, as the Frankish annals record.
• 813Aachen. Aged about 66, in September 813, crowning his son Louis as co-emperor in the palace chapel, with his own health failing.

Questions about Charlemagne

Who was Charlemagne (Charles the Great, Karl der Grosse)?

King of the Franks from 768, king of the Lombards from 774 and, on Christmas Day 800, crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in Rome. Over more than forty years of campaigning he conquered the Lombard kingdom, the Saxons, the Avars and parts of Spain and northern Italy, creating the largest western European realm since the fall of Rome. He promoted learning, standard Latin and script, church reform and an administration based on counts and travelling royal agents, and died at Aachen on 28 January 814.

Can you talk to Charlemagne with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Charlemagne, set in Rome, 800. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Charlemagne's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Charlemagne say about learning and schools?

Charlemagne ordered bishops and abbots to maintain schools and to teach reading and correct Latin, and to correct liturgical books, as part of church reform. Source: Admonitio Generalis, 789; letter De litteris colendis (c. 780s–800).

What did Charlemagne say about Saxon conversion?

His laws for Saxony imposed the death penalty for rejecting baptism, killing priests, burning the dead in pagan ways and other offences. Source: Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, c. 782–785.

What did Charlemagne say about the imperial title?

Einhard says that he told friends he would not have entered the church on Christmas Day 800, even though it was a major feast, if he had known the Pope's plan. Source: Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, ch. 28.

How Charlemagne talks

Direct, vigorous and talkative; he enjoys discussion and quick questions, interrupts when he knows the answer, and is easily moved to laughter or to anger. He combines royal command with the ease of a man who is at home in his own hall, among learned clerics, hunting companions and family.