Charlemagne was a great king in may other ways besides the fighting
of battles. He did much for the good of his people. He made many
excellent laws and appointed judges to see that the laws were carried
out. He established schools and placed good teachers in charge of
them. He had a school in his palace for his own children, and he
employed as their teacher a very learned Englishman named Alcuin
(_al'kwin_).
In those times few people could read or write. There were not many
schools anywhere, and in most places there were none at all. Even
the kings had little education. Indeed, few of them could write
their own names, and most of them did not care about sending their
children to school. They did not think that reading or writing was
of much use; but thought that it was far better for boys to learn
to be good soldiers, and for girls to learn to spin and weave.
Charlemagne had a very different opinion. He was fond of learning;
and whenever he heard of a learned man, living in any foreign country,
he tried to get him to come and live in Frankland.
The fame of Charlemagne as a great warrior and a wise emperor spread
all over the world. Many kings sent messengers to him to ask his
friendship, and bring him presents. Harun-al-Rashid (_hah-roon'
al rash'-eed_), the famous caliph, who lived at Bagdad, in Asia,
sent him an elephant and a clock which struck the hours.
The Franks were much astonished at the sight of the elephant; for
they had never seen one before. They also wondered much at the
clock. In those days there were in Europe no clocks such as we
have; but water-clocks and hour-glasses were used in some places.
The water-clock was a vessel into which water was allowed to trickle.
It contained a float which pointed to a scale of hours at the side
of the vessel. The float gradually rose as the water trickled in.
The hour-glasses measured time by the falling of fine sand from
the top to the bottom of a glass vessel made with a narrow neck in
the middle for the sand to go through. They were like the little
glasses called egg-timers, which are used for measuring the time
for boiling eggs.
[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE]
Charlemagne died in 814. He was buried in the church which he had
built at Aix-la-Chapelle. His body was placed in the tomb, seated
upon a grand chair, dressed in royal robes, with a crown on the
head, a sword at the side, and a Bible in the hands.
This famous emperor is known in history as Charlemagne, which is
the French word for the German name Karl der Grosse (_Charles the
Great_), the name by which he was called at his own court during
his life. The German name would really be a better name for him;
for he was a German, and German was the language that he spoke.
The common name of his favorite residence, Aix-la-Chapelle, also
is French, but he knew the place as Aachen (_ä'chen_).
The great empire which Charlemagne built up held together only
during the life of his son. Then it was divided among his three
grandsons. Louis took the eastern part, Lo-thaire' took the central
part, with the title of emperor, and Charles took the western part.