The Historians' History of the World 07

As for children he thought they should be so brought up, both sons and daughters, as to be first informed of those liberal studies to which he himself devoted his attention. For his sons as soon as their age permitted it, he ordered riding in the Frankish style, the practice of arms, and the chase; for his daughters, woolspinning, the use of distaff and spindle; they were to beware of becoming slothful by reason of their leisure, they were to be instructed in every virtuous occupation. Of his numerous family two sons and one daughter died before him, Charles the eldest and Pepin whom he had made king of Italy, and Hrotrud his eldest daughter who was betrothed to Constantine the emperor of the Greeks. Pepin left a son Bernhard and five daughters, Adalhaid, Atula, Guntrada, Berthaid, and Theoderada. The king showed marked evidence of his affection for them, allowing his grandson to succeed to his father’s kingdom and his granddaughters to be educated with his own daughters. The greatness of his soul was so eminent that he bore the death of his sons and of his daughter with exceeding patience which did in no wise detract from his affection, for his tears would not be held back. When he heard the news of the death of Adrian, the Roman pontiff and his chiefest friend, he wept as bitterly as if he had lost his dearest son or brother. For he showed the finest loyalty in his friendships, forming them readily and preserving them with the utmost constancy and he cherished the purest affection for those whom he had attached to himself by the ties of sympathy. So much care did he bestow on the education of his sons and daughters that he never took his meals at home without them. In travelling his sons rode by his side, his daughters followed close behind, their train being guarded by servants specially appointed for this purpose. So beautiful were his daughters and so tender was his affection for them that strange to say he would not consent to give any of them in marriage either to one of his own nation or to a foreigner, but he kept them all with him until his death in his house, saying he could not do without their society. On this account, although lucky in all else, he experienced the malice of ill fortune. Yet he hid his thoughts and behaved as if no suspicion of any evil had ever arisen about any of them, as if no rumours had ever been spread.

He had by a concubine[138] a son called Pepin whom I have forborne to mention among the others; he had a good countenance but was deformed by a hunchback. During the war against the Huns, while his father was wintering in Bavaria this boy feigned sickness and made a plot against his father with certain of the Frankish nobility who had fascinated him with the idle promise of the kingdom. When the fraud had been detected and the conspirators had paid the penalty the king caused the boy to shave his beard and allowed him to pass his time in religious exercises in the abbey at Prüm to which he objected nothing. Another powerful conspiracy had been previously made against him in Germany; the originators were some of them blinded, and some of them had got off safe and sound, but all had been exiled. Death was not inflicted except on three who, drawing their swords to avoid being captured, even went so far as to kill some of those sent to take them, so that they were despatched because there was no other way of keeping them quiet.

The cause and origin of these plots is supposed to have been the cruelty of queen Fastrada and in both cases the king was the object of the plot because in acquiescing in his wife’s cruelty he seemed to have taken a monstrous departure from the gentleness of his nature and his usual clemency. For all the rest of his life he showed so much love and consideration for all men both at home and abroad that not even a murmur of undue cruelty was ever raised against him by anyone.

He had a great love of foreigners and showed so much anxiety to receive them that the multitude of them came to be thought burdensome not only to the palace but also to the kingdom. The high-minded king himself was however not in the least oppressed by a responsibility of this kind, knowing that such inconveniences were outweighed by the wide reputation for generosity and the reward of fair fame which were his.

HIS PERSONAL LOOK AND HABITS