Charlemagne and France: A Thousand Years of Mythology

In this volume Robert Morrissey explores a millennium’s worth of history and myth surrounding Charlemagne (768-814). 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 one 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 16th century. Part two discusses the remythologizing of Charlemagne in Renaissance and Reformation France through the late 19th century.