Einhard

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Einhard When one thinks of Carolingian reformation, and the people related to it directly the first person that comes to mind is the king Charles the Great, and along with him one involuntarily thinks of his faithful ‘servant’ Einhard because he is the one that introduces him to us. But on top of being a simple biographer Einhard has done far more greater things in life, and today one has the opportunity to study what kind of man Einhard was, what he’d done during his life, and why is he important through his works and documents related to him that survived until our time. 9th century documents presented in Charlemagne’s Courtier portray Einhard as a well educated person, a talented poet, writer, and artist in different kinds of arts, religious,

humble and faithful man, as well as the most prudent and influential courtiers of his time. One of the most important and prominent figures of Early Medieval Europe was the persona of Charles the Great. Charlemagne lived between 742 and 814. During the forty-seven years of his kingship, the great warrior king was able, for a short while, to create kingdom of similar in size to that of the Western Roman Empire. The greatness of his kingship, however, was not in the successful war campaigns or his conquest of several kingdoms, but in the vision that he had for his peoples and as well as the other peoples of Europe. Often called ‘an apostle with iron tongue’ Charlemagne had seen himself as King David was for the Jewish nation. His mission and vision were perfectly described in

one of his letters to the Pope: “Our task is, with the aid of Divine Piety, to defend the holy church of Christ with arms against the attack of Pagans and devastation by infidels from without, and to fortify it within the knowledge of the catholic faith. Your task most Holy Father, is to lift us your hands to God, like Moses, so as to aid our troops, so that through your intercession, the Christian people may with God as its leader and giver always and everywhere be victorious over the enemies of his hole name, and so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be famous throughout the world”. King Charle’s mission, the Carolingian Reformation, was to Christianize and educate his kingdom by means of military force, the restoration of old church documents, and the creation of

educational institutions.[i] [ii]‘One of the instruments of this reformation was the palace school because of the many great European scholars it housed. Their job was to restore and preserve the early church documents, to guide and support the spread of Christianity. One of the noticeable scholars of the court was Einhard’. ‘He was born around 770. Einhard studied the Bible and the classics at the monastery of Fulda. When he was in his twenties he was recommended by his chief abbot Baugulf to serve in Charlemagne’s court. At court Einhard served as a courtier to Charles the Great and his son Louis the Pious. Around the year of 815 Einhard and his wife Emma were granted land at Michelstadt and Mulinheim. As a result of this he became not only a courtier at kings’

courts, but he also was a lay abbot. Some of Einhard’s contemporaries suggest that he had become rich along with other poets of Charlemagne’s court. Therefore it is a reasonable assumption to say that Einhard was a wealthy man. He was a very prominent figure at the court, and it is thanks to this faithful courtier that we have some of the best medieval poetry and writing.’[iii] There is no doubt that Einhard was very well educated. ‘Walahfrid Strabo has these things to say on Einhard’s education and intelligence: “From there Baugulf … sent him to the palace of Charles ….because of the specialness of his capacity for learning and his intelligence. For even in that monastery he had shown great signs of the wisdom that later on shone forth so clearly from him.”[iv]