Well if I could be Charlemagne I would! I love this weeks weekend engagement, because I could be anyone I wanted to be. As a historian that is the stuff we dream of!
And who wouldn't want to be Charlemagne? Even his name is cool!
Who Would I Be?
For those of you not that familiar with medieval history I might need to explain myself. Imagine this:
In 476 AD the West Roman Empire fell, ceased to exist. The empire that had dominated most of Europe for centuries was no more and Europe was thrown into the abbyss of chaos. Tribes moved around, roads were unsafe to travel, cities became deserted and people went back to a small agricultural life for safety. It would stay that way until 800 AD when, you guessed it Charlemagne came into the picture as Holy Roman Emperor.
So Charlemagne originally was a Frankish king (of the area now called France) but managed to unite most of western Europe. For the first time since the Romans! Therefore he is also known as the father of Europe, which would be a pretty cool nickname to have! He managed to gather this crazy big empire:
More interestingly, Charlemagne also loved arts and science, and created a little renaissance of both in his lands. He was also a knight and is said to have inspired the tale of the knights of the round table. His love life would have been pretty cool too, he had numerous lovers, concubines and was also married.
Of course it cannot be all fun and games. If I were Charlemagne I would die at the age of 66, not what I was hoping for. I would also have to know loss, with 2 children and 4 wives dying before me. But my final resting place would not be too shab, in this silver and gold casket.
I mostly thing it would be amazingly cool to be the first person to unite Europe since the Roman times and someone who clearly lived through a lot of exciting things in his life.
Who would you be if you could be a historical figure?