The Historians' History of the World 07

Having adopted the imperial title he turned to the numerous deficiencies in the laws of his people—for the Franks have two laws which differ considerably in very many places. He meditated how to fill up the omissions and reconcile what conflicted and to correct what was mischievous and erroneously stated; but of these projects none were fulfilled except that he increased the laws by a few chapters and these were fragmentary. But he caused the laws of all nations under his dominion which had not been reduced to writing to be definitely codified. So too he wrote out and committed to memory the rough songs of antiquity in which the exploits and wars of the ancient kings used to be sung. He also began a grammar of his native speech. He gave names to the months in the national tongue, for before this the Franks spoke of them partly by the Latin and partly by foreign names. Also he designated the twelve winds by proper appellations, whereas before this, words could not be found for more than about four. The month January he called Wintarmanoth; February, Hornung; March, Lentzinmanoth; April, Ostarmanoth; May, Winnemanoth; June, Brachmanoth; July, Hewimanoth; August, Aranmanoth; September, Witumanoth; October, Windumemanoth; November, Herbistmanoth; December, Heilagmanoth. And the winds he named thus: that called in Latin Subsolanus he called Ostroniwint; Eurus, Ostsunderen; Euroauster, Sundostren; Auster, Sundren; Austroafricus, Sundwestren; Africus, Westsundren; Zephyrus, Westren; Chorus, Westnordren; Circius, Nordwestren; Septenrio, Nordren; Aquilo, Nordostren; Vulturnus, Ostnorden.

HIS DEATH (814 A.D.)

[814 A.D.]

Towards the close of his life when he was weighed down with illness and old age he called to him his son Louis, the king of Aquitaine and last surviving son of Hildegard, solemnly assembled the Frankish nobility from all over the kingdom, and with the unanimous consent appointed Louis his partner in the whole kingdom and heir of the imperial title. Then he placed the royal crown on his head and decreed that he should be saluted as emperor and augustus. All those who were present hailed his doing this with much acclamation, for it seemed as if the king were divinely inspired for the welfare of his kingdom. For did he not by this act enlarge his own majesty and strike no small terror into the nations abroad? He discharged his son to Aquitaine and then, old as he was, set out for the chase as was his wont in the neighbourhood of the palace at Aachen. He spent what remained of the autumn in this pursuit, and then returned to Aachen early in November.

During the winter in the month of January he was seized with fever and took to his bed. He at once prescribed for himself, as he always did when he was attacked by fever, an abstinence from food, thinking that by a privation of this kind the disease might be banished or in any case reduced, but the pain increased until his side was inflamed (the Greeks call it “pleurisy”). Yet he continued to starve himself, keeping himself alive by an occasional draught until the seventh day after he had taken to his bed. He then received the holy communion and died on the 28th of January at nine o’clock, in the seventy-second year of his age and in the forty-seventh year of his reign (814).

They solemnly washed and tended his body, laying it in the church where it was buried amid the great grief of the whole nation. At first men doubted where he ought to rest, since he himself in his lifetime had left no directions in the matter. At last the minds of all were satisfied that nowhere could he more fitly be buried than in that church which he had built at his own cost at Aachen from his love of God and our Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of the ever blessed Virgin his mother. Here then he was buried on the same day that he died. Above his tomb was erected a gilded monument with his effigy and title upon it. This famous title runs thus:

UNDER THIS TOMB LIES THE BODY OF

CHARLES THE GREAT AND ORTHODOX EMPEROR

WHO GLORIOUSLY ENLARGED THE REALM OF THE FRANKS AND

FORTUNATELY ORDERED THE KINGDOM FOR FORTY-SEVEN YEARS

HE HAD PASSED THE AGE OF SEVENTY WHEN HE DIED

JAN. XXVIII IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD DCCC XIIII

INDICTION VII

PORTENTS OF CHARLEMAGNE’S DEATH

There were many portents of his approaching death, for not only others, but the king himself felt them. During the whole of his last three years there were eclipses both of the sun and of the moon, and certain spots of blackish hue were seen in the sun for the space of seven days. The portico which he had built with great labour between the church and the palace fell in a sudden and complete ruin from top to bottom on the day of the ascension of our Lord.