Dictionary / Encyclopedia Article Legendary Presents of Charlemagne TERRIER ALIFERIS, Laurence Reference TERRIER ALIFERIS, Laurence. Legendary Presents of Charlemagne. In: Taylor, L. J.; Craig, L. A.; Friedman, J. B.; Gower K.; Izbicki, T. & Tekippe, R. Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage . Leyde : Brill, 2010. Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:97828 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 BrillOnline.com BrillOnline Reference Works ▶ Home > History > Brill’s Medieval Reference Library > Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage > Legendary Presents of Charlemagne Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage Legendary Presents of Charlemagne (1,482 words) Several objects coming from different abbeys were reportedly given by Charlemagne. We can observe that this phenomenon spread during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. At the same time, some abbeys used Charlemagne as a tutelary figure and claimed to have been founded by the emperor. The actual founders, such as Louis the Pious or Charles the Bold, thus lost their importance to a reputedly much more glorious figure. To make theses foundations legitimate, the abbeys didn't hesitate to create narratives or goldsmith works that they claimed had been given by Charlemagne himself. Moreover, they asserted that Charlemagne had also given them the relics they contained. From the time of his death and, particularly until the end of the eleventh century, many narratives presented a sanctified image of the emperor: the Vita Karoli Magni Imperatoris (between 829 and 836) of Eginhard, the Gesta Karoli Magni (about 883) by Notker le Bègue, monk of St-Gall, as well as the Chronicon by Thietmar of Merseburg which relates the opening of the sarcophagus in Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) by Otto III in the year 1000. At the time of the first Crusades, Charlemagne was depicted as if he were the first crusader, liberating Spain or Jerusalem from the pagans, as in the Chronicon by Benedict of St-André (about 968), the Song of Roland, and the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi (beginning of the twelfth century). Benedict of St-André imagined that Charlemagne had traveled to the Holy Land and brought back the body of Saint André to the monastery dedicated to this saint in the Mont-Soracte. This seems to have been the first attempt of a monastery to authenticate the relics it possessed. The Abbey of Saint-Denis, at the end of the eleventh century, did the same thing by ordering the writing of the Descriptio relating how Charlemagne received a nail of the cross and a part of Christ's crown of thorns from Constantine, thanking him for having delivered Jerusalem and then describing how Charles the Bold gave those relics to St-Denis. Thus the two main relics of the abbey were authenticated. The Voyage de Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople, written in the vernacular, had the same goal. The numerous narratives of expeditions to Spain or Jerusalem shaped the image of a crusader, a pious man fighting to establish the Christian faith. In this way, the monasteries sought to authenticate their relics at a time when their growing numbers caused a need for their legitimation. A relic that had been given by Charlemagne reinforced prestige and consequently the abbey's fame. In 1165, Frederick Barbarossa undertook the canonization of Charlemagne by the anti-pope Pascal III (a decision never ratified by the universal Church) and commissioned for the occasion an hagiographic text, the Vita Karoli Magni, by a monk of Aix-la-Chapelle. This text honors Charlemagne for his role as a founder of churches and abbeys in a similar way to that of the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi, written a few years earlier. These documents responded to concrete needs, as the monasteries gained economic advantages from using the emperor's image and reputation to authenticate the relics they possessed or from attributing to him the foundation of their monastery or church. The abbeys of Conques and of St-Denis were leaders in shaping the more legendary history around Charlemagne. Not only did they ascribe to him their foundations but, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they fabricated goldsmiths' works that they claimed had been given by the emperor. At Conques, we find the "A of Charlemagne" fabricated under the initiative of Begon III (1087-1107) to concretize the legend that appears in the Prologue of the Chronicon monasterii Concehensis, describing how Charlemagne ordered the building of twenty three monasteries designated by the letters of the alphabet; since Conques was the first it received the A. This abbey also possessed the Reliquary of Pepin, also reputed to have been gift from the emperor, a legend attested by the Liber miraculorum Sancte Fidis by Bernard d'Angers and by the Chronicon. The presence of Charlemagne on the tympanum of the church portal reinforced the legend. Such stories, of course, enhanced the relic cult in general and further spurred pilgrimage. According to the Miracula sancti Dionysii, the rebuilding of the abbey of St-Denis had been begun by Pepin the Short and finished by Charlemagne. The inventories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries show that Charles the Great had been particularly generous. Several objects were reported to have been emperor's donations: a crown, a scepter, a cross, an escrain and some chess pieces. However, all these objects were fabricated after the period of Charlemagne's reign. For instance, the escrain (melted down in 1794 but still known thanks to Labarre's eighteenth-century watercolor) was probably made by a goldsmith during the reign of Charles the Bold, although parts of it are sometimes dated to the ninth century. In the thirteenth century, the Grandes Chroniques described it as a gift of the latter, but by 1505, it was shown as a gift of Charlemagne in an inventory. The same thing happened at St-Maurice d'Agaune in Switzerland. This abbey possesses in its treasury an aiguillère (pitcher) and a cup with a centaur supposedly from Charlemagne. The first one was given in reality by Charles the Bold and the second one is dated to the thirteenth century. Moreover, the abbey possessed a golden table, now missing, also supposedly given by Charlemagne but which would have been dated to the tenth or eleventh century. As the emperor's capital, Aix-la-Chapelle Aachen, the remembrance of Charlemagne was kept up and the tradition around him remains very strong. There are many objects that reportedly belonged to Charles, but among them is one with particularly strong legend -- the talisman called "that of Charlemagne," a round medallion enclosing a relic of the True Cross. It seems to have actually been a Carolingian work and tradition tells us Charlemagne was buried with it and that Otto III removed it when he opened the sarcophagus at the turn of the millennium. Many scattered objects today are related to Charlemagne by a later traditions. A sword, kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, was said to have been a gift from the caliph Haroun- al-Rachid to Charles the Great. It has Carolingian parts, but in fact it may be a vestige of the Avars treasury. The so-called "Joyful" sword at the Louvre is also supposed to have belonged to Charlemagne, who named it Durandal, according to the Chanson de Roland. This work could have belonged to Charlemagne and to Pepin the Short before him, but it's significant that the gold hilt was made in the twelfth century, perhaps at the abbey of Saint-Denis. The Vienna Gospel book, said to have belonged to the emperor, was according to legend placed on the emperor's knees as he lay in his Roman-era sarcophagus, chosen by him as his tomb. The book was supposedly taken by Frederic Barbarossa, in 1165, along with the sword and the diadem. In fact, these objects are contemporary to Charlemagne but it remains dubious as to whether they were on his knees in the tomb. In conclusion, there are objects dating from the ninth century but some of those were apparently given by Charles the Bold and not by Charlemagne himself. On the other hand, many objects considered as Charlemagne's gifts have proven to have been fabricated much later. Moreover, some dubious legends were spread concerning some of the real Charlemagne objects. In the twelfth century, we can observe a competition among the abbeys and using the figure of Charlemagne was a most frequently-used form of publicity to attract pilgrims and to increase in consequence the prestige and the economic situation of the abbeys. For both geographic and historical reasons, some abbeys in the north of Europe used Charlemagne as a tutelary figure, to their advantage. Laurence Terrier Aliferis Bibliography Charlemagne, Exh. Cat. (Aachen, 1965) Demoraine, Hélène, 'Le Trésor Légendaire de Charlemagne,' Connaissance des Arts 98 (1960): 87-95 Folz, Robert, Le Souvenir et la Légende de Charlemagne dans l'Empire Germanique Médiéval (Paris, 1950) Lasko, Peter, Ars Sacra 800-1200 (New Haven, CT, 1995) LeJeune, Rita, and Jacques Stiennon, The Legend of Roland in the Middle Ages (New York, 1971) Remensynder, Amy G., Remembering Kings Past (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1995) Terrier, Laurence, 'Se Souvenir de Charlemagne au XIIe Siècle,' Thesis 5-6 (2004-2005): 9-29 Cite this page Laurence Terrier Aliferis, “Legendary Presents of Charlemagne”, in: Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage. Consulted online on 10 October 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2213-2139_emp_SIM_000096> First published online: 2012 First print edition: ISBN: 9789004181298, 20091023.