Life Of Charlemagne Analysis

Einhard’s Exultation of Charlemagne’s Life Einhard composed Life of Charlemagne in 825 AD with the intention of commemorating King Charles’s well rounded devotion to his kingdom and his family, as he went beyond the expected duties of a King. Throughout the course of his life, Einhard had become very fond of the King and felt it his responsibility to preserve his knowledge of the King’s great deeds subsequent to the King’s death. Einhard provides a detailed piece of writing in which he eternalizes the deeds enacted by the King through which the King’s devotion is reflected. First, Einhard provides some detail about rulers who came before King Charles. In doing so, he provides the reader the opportunity to create a comparison between average rulers and King Charles, in which King Charles has a greater devotion to his rule than the leaders prior to his succession of the kingdom. For example, King Childeric III spent his rule “[sitting] on his thrown with his hair long and his beard cut, satisfied [to hold] the name of king only and pretended to rule” (137). There was also Carloman, King Charles’s uncle, “who walked away from the oppressive chore of governing an earthly kingdom” (137). Then there was King Charles’s brother, Carloman, with whom he “divided up the entire territory of the kingdom equally” until after his brother’s
He “protected, increased the size of, and beautified his kingdom” (141). When it came to family, “he could not stand to be parted from their company” (142). Einhart’s evidence within his writting, along with how the information was presented, persuades the reader that as a King, Charles was deeply devoted to his family and kingdom, going well beyond what was expected of him as a ruler, as is commemorated through the Life of