author
Einhard
d. 840
A trusted courtier of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, this Frankish scholar wrote one of the earliest and most vivid biographies of a medieval ruler. His Life of Charlemagne remains a key window into the Carolingian world.
1 Audiobook
Early Lives of Charlemagne by Eginhard and the Monk of St Gall edited by Prof. A. J. Grant
by Einhard, Balbulus Notker
About the author
Born around 775, Einhard was educated at Fulda and later joined the circle around Charlemagne, where he served as a scholar, courtier, and administrator. He became closely connected with both Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious, giving him an unusually intimate view of the Carolingian court.
He is best known for the Vita Karoli Magni (Life of Charlemagne), a work that has long been valued as one of the most important surviving accounts of the early Middle Ages. Written with clear admiration but also with memorable detail, it helped shape how later generations understood Charlemagne as a ruler and person.
Einhard also wrote about the translation of saints' relics and was associated with Seligenstadt, where he died on March 14, 840. Though little of his own personality survives outside his writings, his work endures because it brings a distant empire into human focus.