524. Charlemagne: Pagan Killer (Part 2)

952.025 - 973.809 Dominic Sandbrook

And he says to Desiderius, look, I am willing to hold off war and I'm willing to pay you a frankly enormous amount of money if you will hand these boys over to me. And Desiderius refuses. And Charlemagne, I think, is really quite surprised by this. Janet Nelson, in her brilliant biography of Charlemagne, offers an explanation for why Desiderius should have refused Charlemagne's offer.