SOURCE: Painter, Sidney. Foreword to The Life of Charlemagne, by Einhard, pp. 5-12. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1960.

In the following excerpt, Painter explains some limitations of the Life of Charlemagne and discusses why Einhard used the work of the Roman historian Suetonius as his chief model.

Charlemagne or Charles the Great who is counted as Charles I in the conventional lists of kings of France was one of the truly imposing figures of history. At the height of his power he ruled all the Christian lands of Western Europe except the British Isles and southern Italy and Sicily under the titles of king of the Franks and the Lombards and Roman emperor. He held this vast realm in a grip of iron and cowed its foes on every frontier. He also initiated and encouraged a revival of learning which is sometimes called the Carolingian Renaissance...