In this volume Robert Morrissey explores a millenium's worth of history and myth surrounding Charlemagne (768-814). Charlemagne's persona - derived from a blending of myth, history and poetry - assumes a constitutional value in France, where for more than ten centuries it was deemed useful to trace national privileges and undertakings back to Charlemagne. His plasticity, Morrissey argues, endows Charlemagne with both legitimizing power and subversive potential. Part one of the book explores a fundamental cycle in the history of Charlemagne's representation, beginning shortly after the great...