Charlemagne in Hell

Abstract

On Sunday 11 September 813, an assembly of bishops and abbots, dukes, counts and highborn imperial officials gathered in the palace chapel at Aachen, where they saw the emperor Charlemagne crown his son Louis with a golden crown, making him co-emperor, before they all heard Mass. The once-tall emperor was bowed down, old, sick and limping from gout. Feeling himself to be declining in strength, he leaned on his son's shoulder on the way to and from the church. Louis was celebrated for his strong arms and broad shoulders, developed by practice in archery and throwing spears. Was he, perhaps, wearing his golden tunic with a golden belt and sword, in contrast to the plainer dress of his father? After father and son had prayed together for a long time (Louis was celebrated for praying on his knees with his forehead touching the ground, often in tears), Charlemagne had turned to his son, speaking in that high voice which seemed so out of character to those who looked at his tall body with its protruding stomach, large nose, and friendly face. He charged his son in the presence of all the bishops and great men chiefly to love and fear almighty God and to keep his commandments in all things, to govern the churches of God, and to defend them against wicked men. He was always to show unstinting compassion to his sisters and his younger brothers, his nephews and all of his kin. He was to honour priests as fathers, to love the people as his children, and to direct the ways of proud and wicked men in the path of salvation, to be the consoler of monks and to be a father to the poor, to establish faithful and God-fearing servants who hated unjust gifts. He was to dismiss no one from his honour without just cause and to show himself at all times without reproach before God and all the people. After Louis had promised to obey all of these injunctions he received the consent of all, and was crowned to popular acclamation—with the crown that rested on the highest altar, the altar dedicated to Christ which stood in the gallery of the palace chapel. During the coronation the people shouted Vivat imperator Ludovicus. (The ceremony was customary in Byzantium, where the emperor's eldest son had been crowned mitciugustus from 717 to 867.5) Hence forth Louis was granted the title of emperor and Augustus, and in November his father allowed him to return to Aquitaine.