[129] [“A meeting full of interest,” as Hodgkin[e] notes, for the fourteen-year-old prince was the future Charlemagne.]
[130] [Oelsner[k] and others advocate 754 as the date of Pepin’s first Italian campaign, but Abel,[l] Perry,[b] and Hodgkin[e] agree upon 755.]
[131] [This statement in the Annales Mettenses[c] alone is somewhat doubtful.]
CHAPTER V
CHARLEMAGNE
[768-814 A.D.]
HIS BIOGRAPHY BY A CONTEMPORARY
[The chief source of our information concerning the personality of Charles the Great, is the biography by Eginhard or Einhard, who was intimately associated with the king and his family, and was highly esteemed and trusted. Soon after the death of his master he wrote the story of his life. The uniqueness of the document, its charm of diction, and its intimacy make it invaluable, while its brevity permits us to translate it from the Latin and present it here entire. The reader must be cautioned that, as a document of history, this account is not always accurate in details. The following discrepancies might be noted: Carloman reigned over three years instead of two; the empire was not divided in the way stated between the two brothers; indecisive battles like the engagement on the Berre are given as decisive; and the names of popes are confounded in places (Ranke). But in spite of these mistakes the general picture of Charles by Einhard stands lifelike and doubtless accurate in the main.]