Author:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Natl Book Network
Published: Aug 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography - Historical
Retail Price: $12.95
Pages: 245
Few men have exerted such a lasting influence on the course of Western history as Charlemagne (742-814). At the height of his power in the early ninth century Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Lombards and Emperor of the Romans, ruled all the Christian lands of western Europe except the British Isles and southern Italy and Sicily.
Charismatic, gregarious, energetic and cultured, he initiated and encouraged a renaissance of learning and artistic enterprise that appeared to later generations as a Golden Age. An incomparable general, administrator and law-giver, he was as skilled on the battlefield as in the council chamber, and by sheer force of character held together an empire that rivalled the Byzantines in the East.
To the many portraits of the man who was crowned the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Russell Chamberlin now adds a modern portrait which reveals the man behind the achievements. This book brings to life a key personality and a formative period in European history.
Most of us aren't particularly aware of who Charlemagne was and what his influence on modern Europe has been. This book educates in a detailed, scholarly fashion without being boring or collapsing under the weight of facts presented. I recommend it.