“Charlemagne, claimed by the Church as a saint, by the French as their greatest king, by the Germans as their compatriot, by the Italians as their emperor, heads all modern histories in one way or another; he is the creator of a new order of things,” wrote the historian Sismondi in 1821. In this fascinating book, available for the first time in an English translation, Robert Morrissey explores a millennium’s worth of history and myth surrounding Charlemagne (768–814).


Although Charlemagne held a strong position in defining France's national identity for more than ten centuries, he was swiftly rejected as a national hero from the 1870s onwards for being too German and has never really regained his rightful place in France's history. This study, now available in English, explores the reasons why Charlemagne was at the heart of French mythology for so long. Morrissey examines two major stages or `cycles' in the history of Charlemagne, the first beginning after his death in 814, lasting until the end of the 16th century, and the second involving the remythologising of Charlemagne in the Renaissance and during the Reformation. He assesses Charlemagne's symbolic importance in people's quest to find their roots and define the origins of French identity, and asks what it was about the man that embodied French ideals and aspirations for so many years.


Charlemagne’s persona—derived from a blending of myth, history, and poetry—assumes a constitutional value in France, where for more than ten centuries it was deemed useful to trace national privileges and undertakings back to Charlemagne. His plasticity, Morrissey argues, endows Charlemagne with both legitimizing power and subversive potential. Part 1 of the book explores a fundamental cycle in the history of Charlemagne’s representation, beginning shortly after the great emperor’s death and continuing to the end of the sixteenth century. Part 2 discusses the remythologizing of Charlemagne in Renaissance and Reformation France through the late nineteenth century.


At a time when a new Europe is being created and when France continues to redefine and reinvent itself, Morrissey’s detailed study of how history has been reappropriated is particularly valuable.

Translated by: Catherine Tihanyi