Daily Medieval

In Saint-Omer in France there was a Benedictine abbey called the Abbey of St. Bertin , founded in 638 and existing right up to the late 18th...

Charlemagne's son and successor as emperor, Louis the Pious , had several children. Several of them were with his first wife, Ermengarde...

Attigny is a commune  (an incorporated municipality) in northeast France. Clovis II built a palace there in 647 that was a Carolingian resid...

When Louis the Pious inherited the empire after the death of his father, Charlemagne, he took steps to organize his kingdom and ensure the s...

When speaking of the Carolingian Renaissance, the most common name mentioned is Alcuin, but there were many other scholars involved. One of ...

Charlemagne believed strongly in education for all his children; his daughters learned to read and write as well as his sons. He was also cl...

Charlemagne's fourth son, his third by his wife Hildegarde, was Louis, called "the Pious" in later life. He was born 16 April ...

Continuing with Hildegard of Vinzgau, Charlemagne's official second wife (as opposed to a concubine like Himiltrude): with her he had ni...

We saw here how Charlemagne captured his ex-father-in-law, King Desiderius of the Lombards, and imprisoned him in the Benedictine Abbey of...

Nithard, as Abbot of St. Riquier Charlemagne, looking around for suitable political marriages, chose a likely source of a bride for his ...

Abbot Angilbert (c.760 - 18 February 814)was mentioned as Charlemagne's envoy to Pope Leo III here, but there is much more to his story...

Notker Balbulus (the Stammerer) Yesterday's post on cheese included an anecdote about Charlemagne, attributed to Notker the Stammer...

Charlemagne's grandsons were not satisfied with the way their father, Emperor Louis the Pious, divided up his realm while still alive so...

Lothair, rebel with a cause After Louis the Pious dealt with an insurrection by his three sons (see yesterday's post ), Bernard of S...

Yesterday's post about William of Gellone didn't mention his family at all, but he had four sons, Barnardo, Guitcario, Gaucelm, and...

Far from being a complete intellectual vacuum in the years between the decline of Rome and the Renaissance, Europe experienced three distinc...

Machiavelli's Il Principe (c.1513) was far from innovative. Writers since classical times had produced works that explained the proper ...

A lunar eclipse was recorded for July 1 in 828 very early in the morning. A second one occurred on Christmas Day, and was recorded thusly in...