Charlemagne & France - (Laura Shannon French Medieval Studies) by Robert Morrissey (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Charlemagne, claimed by the Church as a saint, by the French as their greatest king, by the Germans as their compatriot, by the Italians as their emperor, heads all modern histories in one way or another; he is the creator of a new order of things," wrote the historian Sismondi in 1821. In this fascinating book, available for the first time in an English translation, Robert Morrissey explores a millennium's worth of history and myth surrounding Charlemagne (768-814).

Although Charlemagne held a strong position in defining France's national identity for more than ten centuries, he was swiftly rejected as a national hero from the 1870s onwards for being too German and has never really regained his rightful place in France's history. This study, now available in English, explores the reasons why Charlemagne was at the heart of French mythology for so long. Morrissey examines two major stages or `cycles' in the history of Charlemagne, the first beginning after his death in 814, lasting until the end of the 16th century, and the second involving the remythologising of Charlemagne in the Renaissance and during the Reformation. He assesses Charlemagne's symbolic importance in people's quest to find their roots and define the origins of French identity, and asks what it was about the man that embodied French ideals and aspirations for so many years.

Charlemagne's persona--derived from a blending of myth, history, and poetry--assumes a constitutional value in France, where for more than ten centuries it was deemed useful to trace national privileges and undertakings back to Charlemagne. His plasticity, Morrissey argues, endows Charlemagne with both legitimizing power and subversive potential. Part 1 of the book explores a fundamental cycle in the history of Charlemagne's representation, beginning shortly after the great emperor's death and continuing to the end of the sixteenth century. Part 2 discusses the remythologizing of Charlemagne in Renaissance and Reformation France through the late nineteenth century.

At a time when a new Europe is being created and when France continues to redefine and reinvent itself, Morrissey's detailed study of how history has been reappropriated is particularly valuable.

Review Quotes

"... erudite and enthralling.... The book is a powerful reminder of the importance of Charlemagne in French conceptions of themselves and their history until 1870...." --Choice

"... this book will be an indispensable reference for scholars attempting to understand any literary or historical reference to Charlemagne...." --H-France

"...a stunning new edition.... ...this is a book that can enlighten all scholars about the origins and course of French nationalism." --European History Quarterly

"Charlemagne and France is a solid book that can be of use to anyone interested in European, particularly French, history. ... Robert Morrissey has written a remarkably accessible work...." --History: Reviews of New Books

"An ambitious, consistently thought-provoking book . . . its publication could hardly be more timely. Through this story, Morrissey, combining the skills of historian and literary critic, presents nothing less than the story of France." --Times Literary Supplement

"Here, in a book originally published (in French) in 1997, Robert Morrissey writes the history, not of Charlemagne himself, but rather of how the emperor was conceived and reimagined from the ninth century to the nineteenth, especially in France. This is a rich and wide-ranging book, with much to ponder. The translation is clear and readable." --Speculum

"In a rich and provocative study that shows his mastery of medieval and modern historiography and literature, Robert Morrissey traces the complex and contradictory place of the eighth-century Frankish king and emperor in French ideology and imagination from the ninth century to the nineteenth...." --American Historical Review

"Morrissey's book is more than rich and imaginative literary history, which represents its main genre. It is an interdisciplinary, meta- mythistorical effort that more than does justice to an extraordinary theme central to European culture, in peace, war, nationalist enthusiasm, and imperial expansion, over twelve centuries." --Journal of Modern History

"This full and rewarding study deserves widespread attention from students of French and European history of all periods." --International History Review

"This learned, but eminently readable, book enlightens one of the most guarded secrets of the French political imagination." --Marc Fumaroli, College de Francé

About the Author

Robert Morrissey is professor of French literature and director of American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language at the University of Chicago. He is the author of La Reverie jusqu'à Rousseau: Recherches sur un topos littéraire.