The Life of Charlemagne: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Life of Charlemagne, credited to Thomas Hodgkin, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Life of Charlemagne by Thomas Hodgkin. Read in English by Pamela Nagami Charlemagne (Charles the Great) c. 742-814 was King of the Franks, conqueror of Lombard Italy, and on Christmas day 800, was crowned by Pope Leo III as the first Holy Roman Emperor. The author tells us that he "was a man of commanding presence, more than six feet high, with large and lustrous eyes, a rather long nose, a bright and cheerful countenance, and a fine head of hair." Charles was a just ruler, a lover of learning and of women (he married five times). He was a strong supporter of the Church and of the Pope, whose divisive territorial rule in Italy he helped to establish. In this engaging, short biography, the historian Thomas Hodgkin shows how he emerged from his father's Frankish Kingdom on the Rhine to conquer and to govern fierce tribes and to revive for the first time since Rome's fall, the title of Emperor of the West - Summary by Pamela Nagami

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Life of Charlemagne
• Author credits: Thomas Hodgkin
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 8:19:01

Catalogue topics

• middle ages
• Charlemagne
• pope
• Saxons
• Franks
• holy roman emperor

Track guide

1. 01 - Ch. 1: Introduction — 18:58
2. 02 - Ch: 2, Pt. 1: Early Mayors of the Palace — 26:30
3. 03 - Ch. 2, Pt. 2: Early Mayors of the Palace — 21:13
4. 04 - Ch. 3: Pippin of Heristal and Charles Martel — 28:08
5. 05 - Ch. 4, Pt, 1: Pippin, King of the Franks — 19:50
6. 06 - Ch. 4, Pt. 2: Pippin, King of the Franks — 22:28
7. 07 - Ch. 4, Pt. 3: Pippin, King of the Franks — 24:10
8. 08 - Ch. 5, Pt. 1: Fall of the Lombard Monarchy — 23:20
9. 09 - Ch. 5, Pt. 2: Fall of the Lombard Monarchy — 19:32
10. 10 - Ch. 6, Pt. 1: The Conversion of the Saxons — 20:15
11. 11 - Ch. 6, Pt. 2: The Conversion of the Saxons — 22:13
12. 12 - Ch. 7, Pt. 1: Revolts and Conspiracies — 8:52
13. 13 - Ch. 7, Pt. 2: Revolts and Conspiracies — 23:44
14. 14 - Ch. 8: Roncevales — 22:34
15. 15 - Ch. 9: Wars with Avars and Sclaves — 21:39
16. 16 - Ch. 10: Relations with the East — 34:35
17. 17 - Ch. 11: Carolus Augustus — 50:09
18. 18 - Ch. 12, Pt. 1: Old Age — 27:33
19. 19 - Ch. 12, Pt. 2: Old Age — 23:54
20. 20 - Ch. 13, Pt. 1: Results — 20:43
21. 21 - Ch. 13, Pt. 2: Results — 18:40

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This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.