524. Charlemagne: Pagan Killer (Part 2)

1656.76 - 1682.105 Dominic Sandbrook

As I say, these are atrocities on a Roman scale, but the truth is that Charlemagne's inspiration is probably not Roman, but in the Old Testament, because the Pope, when he had crowned Pepin, Charlemagne's father, had hailed the Franks as a new Israel. The example of Israelite warfare actually offers... A king like Charlemagne who wants to extirpate a pagan people, quite a lot of inspiration.