Charlemagne-ruler of the vast Frankish kingdom from 768 to his death in 814 and Holy Roman emperor from the year 800 - is considered the father of Europe. In this concise, insightful, and eminently readable biography, Mathias Becher provides a wealth of information about a remarkable man and his times. Among the topics Becher discusses are Charlemagne's rise to emperor and his political and military maneuvering against the Saxons, the Lombards, and others; the ways in which laws and language in these lands were reformed and revised; and the tensions that emerged in Charlemagne's court between modern ideas and traditional thinking. He concludes by discussing the effects of Charlemagne's reign and his posthumous fame. "Becher suceeds in combining a masterful account of life stages of the 'powerful figure' and the myth of Charlemagne with a precise and impressive representation of his era" - Die Zeit