TY - BOOK ID - 30136918 TI - An empire of memory : the legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade PY - 2013 SN - 9780199686124 9780199591442 019959144X 0191725129 9786613215574 0191616400 1283215578 0199686122 PB - Oxford: Oxford university press, DB - UniCat KW - Christian legends KW - Civilization, Medieval KW - Medieval civilization KW - Middle Ages KW - Civilization KW - Chivalry KW - Renaissance KW - Legends, Christian KW - Legends KW - History and criticism KW - History KW - Charlemagne, KW - Karol Wielki, KW - Karl KW - Carolus Magnus, KW - Shārlmān, KW - Charles the Great, KW - Karl Velikiĭ, KW - Carlo Magno, KW - Carlos Magno, KW - Karolus Magnus, KW - Karl the Great, KW - Carlomagno, KW - Karl den store, KW - شارلمان، KW - History and criticism. KW - Civilization, Medieval. KW - Civilisation médiévale KW - Légendes chrétiennes KW - Histoire et critique KW - Christian legends - Europe - History and criticism KW - Charlemagne KW - Francs KW - Charlemagne, - Emperor, - 742-814 - Legends - History and criticism KW - Charlemagne, - Emperor, - 742-814 KW - Charlemagne (empereur d'Occident ; 0742-0814) KW - Légendes chrétiennes KW - Légendes KW - Europe KW - Légendes UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:30136918 AB - Beginning shortly after Charlemagne's death in 814, the inhabitants of his historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it an exemplar of Christian universality - Christendom. They mapped contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with each retelling, almost always including the Christian East. Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and intellectual developments of the intervening years. Paradoxically, Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne legend. The legend became a story about the Frankish people, who believed they had held God's favour under Charlemagne and held out hope that they could one day reclaim their special place in sacred history. Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which spoke of a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation for the last battle between good and evil, promised just this to the Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious violence were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could remind men of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to take up arms, march to the East, and reclaim their place as defenders of the faith during the First Crusade. An Empire of Memory uses the legend of Charlemagne, an often-overlooked current in early medieval thought, to look at how the contours of the relationship between East and West moved across centuries, particularly in the period leading up to the First Crusade. ER -