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Hello and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit. I'm Dr Cat Jarman.

Charlemagne is often claimed as the greatest ruler in Europe before Napoleon.

And in his 46 year rule that started in the late 8th century, he must fast territories and

was responsible for facilitating a cultural and intellectual Renaissance.

And he's also been credited with forming a European identity.

What do we really know about him and how in the years after his death have the different

sources about his life work to shape his ongoing reputation?

Today on the podcast I'm joined by Professor Rosman McKetrich, who is Professor Emerita

of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge. She is also the author of numerous books on

Medieval and Early Medieval Europe and in particular the book Charlemagne, The Formation of a

European Identity. So thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really delighted to have you

on the podcast. Nice to be with you, Ed. So we are recording this during Storm Unis so fingers

crossed we get to the end without too much interference but so bear with us. So today I really

wanted to talk to you well in general about Charlemagne but also what you've done in your book and

in the preface to your book you say that you've investigated what we can know about Charlemagne

and what we think we know which I thought was a great way of phrasing it. So you deal with the

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