Johannes Fried was, until his retirement, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Frankfurt.
Charlemagne is relentless in the accumulation of detail and
austerely comprehensive in its endnotes… This Charles the Great is
unmistakably Karl der Grosse… Matching the mood of our times,
blood-flecked Realpolitik and smoldering religious intolerance are
very much to the fore… Few [Charlemagne biographies] capture so
well the unlovely realities of Carolingian politics and the sheer
technical difficulty of ruling a medieval empire in the absence of
a state apparatus.
*Wall Street Journal*
Fried is a retired professor of medieval history but also
thoroughly contemporary, a gleeful debunker who spends many pages
demonstrating that the relatively few ‘known facts’ about
Charlemagne rest on shaky foundations…The biography offers a
first-rate survey of the war-torn eighth century.
*Maclean’s*
[A] big, immensely satisfying life of the semi-legendary medieval
Frankish king Charlemagne…[and] expertly translated by Peter Lewis…
Instead of a legend, Fried builds a convincingly three-dimensional
portrait of a man—a complicated, forceful, often contradictory man…
There has never been a Charlemagne biography to appear in English
that comes close to matching this big book from Fried… Fried has
come as close as we’re every likely to get to knowing the man.
*Open Letters Monthly*
In this splendid biography, Fried shows that Charlemagne remains a
figure to be reckoned with even 12 centuries after his death. The
book, excellently translated by [Peter] Lewis, is arranged by
topic, rather than chronology. This format helps to clearly present
a broad picture…This is a magisterial study of the life and times
of the Frankish king who became the first Holy Roman Emperor.
*Publishers Weekly*
Johannes Fried has put forth a valiant effort in untangling the
wheat from the chaff in Charles the Great’s life. Charlemagne is
viewed as a flawed leader who cared about his kingdom and his
religion, even if his approach could be questioned. An excellent
view of a mysterious monarch.
*Seattle Book Review*
For those who wish to grapple with Charlemagne’s life in its
entirety, without false certainties, Fried’s book is the best
choice.
*Foreign Affairs*
An engaging and delightful read. It is well placed to foster
curiosity and shed light on a lesser known period of history and
this ‘late dark-age’ king…Lewis’s translation of Fried’s work is
successful in exposing a side of Charlemagne that most works do
not. The translation provides English readers with a considered
account of Charlemagne’s educational ideals, his relationship with
Christianity and the Papacy and his attempts to construct a unified
kingdom in something of an unstable world. The author creates a
Charlemagne who tried his best to provide for his people in their
physical lives as well as their afterlives…It is one of the most
accessible and perhaps well-rounded accounts of Charlemagne
currently available.
*LSE Review of Books*
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