Charlemagne

Posted on by Derek Wilson
Charlemagne An absorbing biography of the great leader who was the bridge between ancient and modern Europe the first major study in than twenty five years Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure an ingenious mil

An absorbing biography of the great leader who was the bridge between ancient and modern Europe the first major study in than twenty five years.Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout believer who ensured the survival of Christianity in the West He also believed himselAn absorbing biography of the great leader who was the bridge between ancient and modern Europe the first major study in than twenty five years.Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout believer who ensured the survival of Christianity in the West He also believed himself above the rules of the church, siring bastards across Europe, and coldly ordering the execution of 4,500 prisoners Derek Wilson shows how this complicated, fascinating man married the military might of his army to the spiritual force of the Church in Rome, thereby forging Western Christendom This is a remarkable portrait of Charlemagne and of the intricate political, religious, and cultural world he dominated.

Twelve Paladins of Charlemagne TYPE MOON Wiki Fandom The Twelve Paladins of Charlemagne , Sharurum nyu J ni Y shi are the group of knights serving under Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, who were only selected from the most excellent of candidates They are a group of knights similar to the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur, and their exact numbers and members differ Learning psychology Britannica Learning, the alteration of behaviour as a result of individual experience When an organism can perceive and change its behaviour, it is said to learn The array of learned behaviour includes discrimination learning where a subject learns to respond to

  • Charlemagne Best Read || [Derek Wilson]
    251 Derek Wilson
Charlemagne

  1. Derek Wilson has been a writer of historical fiction and non fiction for 50 years His much acclaimed prize winning works have largely centred on 16th and 17th century Europe He has used various pen names for his fiction, his current Thomas Treviot Tudor crime series being written under the name D.K Wilson The first 2 books in this series The First Horseman and The Traitor s Mark are based on real unsolved Tudor mysteries and have received enthusiastic plaudits Readers have favourably compared this innovative series with the books of C.J Sansom and S.J Parris Recent non fiction triumphs include The Plantagenets, Holbein Portrait of an Unknown Man, and Charlemagne a Biography Derek Wilson graduated from Cambridge and spent several years travelling and teaching in Africa before becoming a full time writer and broadcaster in 1971 He has frequently written and appeared on radio and television and is popular as a public speaker having appeared at several literary festivals,British Museum, Hampton Court Palace, The British Library and other prestigious venues.

388 Reply to “Charlemagne”

  1. This one gets 2 Stars only because I did actually learn something peripatetic traveling from place to place, especially working or based in various places for relatively short periods and capitulary a civil or ecclesiastical ordinance The guy used these like he was getting paid on how many times he could squeeze one in He should be charged with misleading advertising This was barely a bio of Charlemagne was a thesis on how Europe came to be an idea that would wind up as the EU Charles the Great [...]

    Reply

  2. This book reads like a term paper from a mediocre student The thesis is forced, the cynicism is heavy, and the bizarre comparisons to political events 1000 years later makes one wonder who would publish this.The thesis is that the current European Union can trace its origin to Charlemagne Do prove such a thesis, you have to be able to separate Charlemagne from Christianity, no easy feat Secondly, you have to ignore the 1200 years of history between the two points.Unfortunately, the facts of Char [...]

    Reply

  3. I enjoyed the majority of the book that is focused on Charlemagne and his context but agree with a number of other reviewers that the final third is really another argument A title like Charlemagne and the Creation of Europe would have hinted at the broader focus of the book.

    Reply

  4. If you are looking for a biography about Charlemagne, this isn t it The book deals with the establishment of Christianity and its legacy down to the present, than it does with Charlemagne s life, the politics of the time, his campaigns, battles, and how he forged his empire.

    Reply

  5. Wilson s Charlemagne The Great Adventure upset a lot of readers by seemingly misleading them in its summary purported to be a biography of the emperor s life, the book is rather a glimpse into the formation of Europe as a concept across the centuries, centralised around the idea that it all began with Charlemagne and his reforms Looked at this way, the book could easily disappoint while full coverage is given to the scope of Charlemagne s life, it is general rather than specific different campai [...]

    Reply

  6. A well written description of the man and his myth The basic argument is that Charlemagne was the founding father of Europe Easily read in a scholarly style but not overly dry or dense It also shows how the sources are biased and that he was pretty ruthless at times which contradicted his idea that he was creating a reformed, Christian society like Augustine s City of God It makes him interesting to me to see the flaws, the issues, the complexity, that made up the man It also backs up my experi [...]

    Reply

  7. El autor provee dos cosas, la vida de Carlomagno y, al final, ocupando como una cuarta parte de su obra, una serie de especulaciones de la influencia del personaje desde su muerte hasta nuestros d as Hubiera yo preferido ampliar la biograf a que soportar las especulaciones, las que no dejan de tener puntos interesantes, pero no satisfacen.De haber sabido eso antes, hubiera seleccionado otro libro, aunque no me arrepiento de haber le do este, el que me dio lo que creo que es un perfil razonable a [...]

    Reply

  8. This book is not just about Charlemagne It is not so much a biography as an overview of over 1200 years of European history While it did put some events in perspective for me, it was not what I expected from the title.Perhaps if my expectations had been different I would have rated it higher.

    Reply

  9. Great read on Charlemagne, totally engrossing However, once he dies in the narrative the author spends another 70 pages covering European history to the modern era While well meaning it feels out of place and could have been done in a chapter rather than nearly one third of the book.

    Reply

  10. I would like to thank Derek Wilson for such a fabulous read Much research obviously was spent on this book Enjoyed the way he seem to bring the characters to life Surely this book has become a must read for all world history lovers and students.

    Reply

  11. Informative, knew nothing of the Great Charlie before reading it Proves how much the Vikings writers did their research.

    Reply

  13. This book is part biography, part historiography, and completely brilliant.Charlemagne is one of those obscure figures from history who everybody would have heard about but not know much about In this case, almost of a millennium of embellishments has led to the Charlemagne the Myth becoming popular than Charlemagne the Man Derek Wilson, tries to disentangle the two.In all honesty, there is not much concrete that has survived of the man, and the first half of this short book probably covers alm [...]

    Reply

  14. Charlemagne was a fascinating and complex individual He was an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout Christian who joined the military might of his army to the spiritual force of the Church in Rome to forge Western Christendom Charlemagne A Biography by Derek Wilson is not so much a biography as an interesting combination of biography, historical, mythological and political analysis that puts Charlemagne into the context of broader European [...]

    Reply

  15. Charlemagne, aka Charles the Great, ruled the Frankish kingdom of what is now western Europe from 771 to 814 Initially, the rule was split with his younger brother, who conveniently died at an early age Through military conquest and the force of his personality, he built the kingdom to the point that it roughly comprised present day France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands at his death, and he earned the title Father of Europe.Charlemagne presents a problem for the biograp [...]

    Reply

  16. If you are into History and books, this one is for you Quamvis enim melius sit benefacere quam nosse, prius tamen est nosse quam facere Right action is better than knowledge but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right Charlemagne, who was born on this day April 2nd in 742 A.D enpedia wiki CharlemagneAn absorbing biography of the great leader who was the bridge between ancient and modern Europe the first major study in than twenty five years Charlemagne was an extraordinary figu [...]

    Reply

  17. This book was simply phenomenal Wilson treats the reader to a detailed yet thrilling account of this most Protean figure of history He takes us through his wars, follies and successes, and in doing so allows us to get an idea of what that man accomplished He also devotes time to recounting the myth which he came to symbolize, how that came about and why it has lasted millennia after his death Wilson then goes on to analyze the impact of this grandiose figure, and the myth around it, through the [...]

    Reply

  18. An adequate highly readable introduction to Charlemagne and the history of Europe Wilson traces Charlemagne after his death in the last third of the book through European history and shows how he provided the foundation for unity and a distinctly European culture There was only 200 pages of text, so there is only so much one can fit into a relatively brief space However, I think the author did a fine job of making his subject interesting and avoiding caricaturing Charlemagne by omitting too much [...]

    Reply

  19. Wilson s Charlemagne A Biography is perhaps the most deceptively titled non fiction book I have come across While the work does contain a biography of Charlemagne, this covers only approximately half the book Charlemagne does not appear until page 25 and dies on page 131 of 203 The final third of the work covers future European leaders and the author s increasingly tortured attempts to connect them to Charlemagne The true subject of Wilson s book is his argument that Charlemagne founded a Europe [...]

    Reply

  20. Beyond the name and the legend of a sleeping monk, I didn t know much about Charlemagne until reading this book An immense library of fables grew around the figure of Charlemagne This book removes the layers of stories that have accumulated over the ages Unfortunately, there is so little left that it is difficult, outside of pure generalities, to form an opinion of Charlemagne as an individual There is also an outline of how Napoleon and other ambitious individuals used Charlemagne as an icon.I [...]

    Reply

  21. Really enjoyed this history after listening to a fiction tale frought with many liberties The Charlemagne Pursuit , I wanted something closer to the facts known Found this effort surprisingly readable not at all term paperish as another reviewer noted Appreciated knowing some roots of continentalism , Christendom, the French German dispute, the encroachment of islam, who Roland really was, etc The author even tied into the secular humanism statism of the current age in his conclusion RECOMMEND t [...]

    Reply

  22. A very curious piece of history writing A life of Charlemagne tied into a theory of the unification of Europe In other words, Charlemagne s reign influenced all the leaders, tyrants, dictators, and statesmen of import from Charles V to Louis XIV to Napoleon to Hitler It s perhaps a bit far fetched as these men were also readers of history to some effect but it is something to think about Did Charlemagne create the concept of Europe Bibliography has some books that look interesting and informat [...]

    Reply

  23. I appreciate Mr Wilson s efforts to outline the history from present day Europe to that of Fancia in the the 8th century The text read well, unlike a term paper as described above, and was quite lively in most places The last 1 3 of the book really requires a solid European history fund of knowledge say, 1500 1850 to follow the parallels Mr Wilson is making I, unfortunately, don t have that, and leaned heavily on to fill in the gaps for me That being said, what I was loaned as an interesting rea [...]

    Reply

  24. This biography of Charlamagne was pretty interesting I picked it up on a whim at the library because I didn t know much about him Still don t as there was a dearth of too much personal information I like the gossipy biographies better The author s main point was that Charlemagne s mythology set the stage for a lot of the impetus behind a united Europe It wasn t too jargony, though I thought the author assumed a lot of familiarity with the rulers of Europe throughout the ages, and didn t always s [...]

    Reply

  25. Good introduction I liked the way it wasn t just a biography but also put Charlemagne s life in the context of broader European history right up to the current day by examining the way that the myth and legend has grown and been used by everyone from Louis XIV to Hitler If you already have a lot of knowledge about Charlemagne you may find this a bit brief and basic but for me it was just the right level of detail.

    Reply

  26. Most people have heard of Charlemagne but most, myself included, know very little about his life This book presents his life, achievements in a readable format against the history of Europe in that time frame He used many sources with as much contemporary analysis as possible An analysis of how Charlemagne s life and subsequent legend impacted Europe to the current age was very interesting This was a very good book.

    Reply

  27. This book is divided into three parts Charlemagne the Man, Charlemagne the Emperor, and Charlemagne the Myth.The author made a compelling story for the man and the emperor Basically, I ignored the authors intent of linking Charlemagne to the EU, a much pleasurable read.The myth part washBut reading many reviews and opinions on Charlemagne, the myth seems to captivate most.

    Reply

  28. This book is 1 3 biography, 1 3 political history, and 1 3 analysis, as the divisions of the contents imply Overall, it is well written and interesting Part of me wishes that it were three separate book as each section left me wanting a bit depth Nonetheless, I would still recommend this as an introduction to Charlemagne.

    Reply

  29. I found this interesting and helpful, as well as ambitious After trying to tackle presenting an accurate view of Charlemagne, he then traces the myths which arose afterward and the way the mythic Charlemagne story was used to support opposing and diverse views in later Europe It helped me understand and bring unity to a long sweep of European history.

    Reply

  30. A cleverly written book Not only did I learn about Charlemagne himself, but was pleasantly surprised to get an overview of the last 1200 years of European history I thought the author s topical rather than chronological approach to his subject was well suited to a biography of a man that lived so long ago.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *