EARLY LIFE

As mentioned, Charlemagne was the son of Pepin the Short (714-768) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720-783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Ber-trada of Cologne. Records name a brother, Carloman, a sister, Gisela, and a short-lived child named Pippin as his younger siblings. One late medieval text suggests that a shadowy Redburga, wife of King Egbert of Wessex, might have been Charlemagne’s sister, sister-in-law, or niece, and the legendary material makes him Roland’s maternal uncle through a Lady Bertha. Einhard refuses to speculate on the early life of Charlemagne:

It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charlemagne’s birth and infancy, or even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on

The subject, and there is no one alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deeds, and such other facts of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of his deeds at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know. (21)

We do know that Charlemagne was born out of wedlock, also as mentioned. Pepin declined to marry Bertrada until Charlemagne was a few years old, not on account of loose morals, but because of the need to provide the kingdom a healthy heir at a time when the death rate from infantile diseases and childhood mortality was very high. A king often had a harem of mistresses and would choose which one of them to marry based on her proven ability to bear healthy children, especially sons. Pepin the Short chose well. Bertrada must have been a tall and large woman, because Charlemagne had a commanding stature, suggesting that in terms of his size and looks he took after his mother.

Pepin’s father was Charles Martel (ca. 688-741), for whom the Carolin-gian dynasty is named, a bastard son of Austrasia’s mayor of the palace. The mayor of the palace usurped power from the king; the Merovingian-dynasty monarchs, who had ruled since 476, were by this time rulers in name only. Martel was an aggressive man who from a disadvantaged start, by sheer force of personality and military genius, established his authority over his father’s heirs (his legitimately born brothers) and put his own Merovingian puppet-king on the throne. When Martel died he divided his empire between his elder sons Pepin and Carloman and their half-brother, Grifio; almost immediately Pepin and Carloman attacked, captured, and locked Grifio away, and Grifio’s mother was sent off to a nunnery.

Pepin and Carloman then moved to take over the Frankish empire, dragging their own puppet-king named Childeric III and putting him on the throne so their actions would look legitimate. Pepin and Carloman began to have tensions in their partnership, and soon Carloman was “encouraged” to become a monk with the promise that his son, Drogo, would be Pepin’s heir. Because Pepin was unmarried and had no legitimate heirs, it seemed like a good idea, and Carloman soon joined the Benedictines. Within months, however, Pepin showed his hand. He married his concubine Bertrada, legitimized his son, Charles, and began consolidating his power. He had to fight his half-brother Grifio when the man escaped from prison, but fortunately for Pepin, Grifio was killed in battle in 753. Drogo was quickly put under lock and key, and the now unnecessary puppet-king Childeric could return to the monastery from whence he came. Pepin did some fancy negotiating with Pope Zacharias (who knew a powerful ally when he saw one), who in turn authorized Boniface to crown Pepin and his two sons Charles and Carloman in 751 at the tender ages of nine and three, respectively.

The boys were not sent away to school but educated under their father’s eyes. In order to found a new dynasty, Pepin knew that he had to make sure that his heirs would follow his thinking and beliefs, that they were protected from being kidnapped and murdered, and that they were taught that any influence other than their father’s was the sin of rebellion. Thus they were educated in the art of war along with the sons of Pepin’s most trusted followers—as soon as they were able to walk and speak, they began learning how to ride a horse, and their boyhood games were modeled on the military arts. At age six, military training began in earnest and all luxuries ceased. They were taken on campaign and subjected to the hardships of camp life, such as long marches in foul weather; simple, cold meals; sleeping in the open around a campfire; and commands enforced with the flat of a sword.

An education like this did not leave much time for book learning, and even though Charlemagne supposedly knew how to read, he is noted for having great respect for men who knew how to write, as he did not know how. The Frankish warrior caste generally regarded literary pleasures and interests as beneath them, but the brothers were still well educated for their time. In later years, Charlemagne oversaw educational reform for the clergy, rationalization of the law codes, and the growth of written communication and administration to keep his empire together. He had a sharp grasp of theology, and he could dispute with church leaders. So somehow Pepin managed to create a balance in his sons’ education between ruling at swordpoint and ruling through effective legal and social administration.

On Pepin’s death, Charlemagne, then 23 years old, took the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea—namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia—while Carloman, 18, retained the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, the lands bordering on Italy. Carloman had a solid block of land made of the central and eastern parts of Francia, and Charlemagne’s land was in a semicircle around it from the Pyrenees to the Elbe, but blocked from direct contact with Rome.