The life, times, and historical legacy of the man who created modern EuropeEvery facet of the rule and legacy of one of the most remarkable rulers in European history is explored in this magisterial new study. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne is a defining figure of both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. Crowned king of the Franks in 768, he expanded their kingdoms into an empire that incorporated much of western and central Europe, recreating a single Christian imperium in the heartlands of the old Western Roman empire for the first time since the decline and...