THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

The Birth of Charlemagne and Murder of his Parents
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© 2009 Max Wickert
When the end of the term of nine months arrived since Bertha had slept with King Pepin on the car,
she gave birth to a boy child which bore the niello mark on his right shoulder which was the sign
that manifests the Royal House of France. It was now well known how Pepin had begotten him in
the car on the banks of the river Maine, when he found Bertha in Lambert’s house, and how Bertha
had made him dower and give in marriage Lamberts daughter, and how Lambert had become a
wealthy man in Paris, as he well deserved. Therefore, in memory of these things, Pepin desired that
the child should bear the name Carlemaine, the first part for the car and the second for the river. In
this he did no wrong, since the childe was also “magnus,” that is “great.” 36 There was great rejoicing
over Charlemaine and his nativity. It was said that the King of Hungary held a feast greater than any
other lord’s. And though the child was called Carlemaine, it was sometimes also referred to as
Charlot, and thus it happened that his name came to be Charlemagne and not Carlemaine. He had a
face and a glance so fierce that no man could look in his eyes without lowering his gaze. He was
given to Morand of Riviera to rear, and he had him nursed and educated. He bestowed more love
on him than if he had been his own sun. Later, when Charlot has completed twelve years, Bertha
gave birth to a girl child.
By that time Lanfroy was sixteen years old, and Ulric, fifteen. Their Maganza relatives were daily
writing letters to them, about how their mother had been burnt alive, and how it had been Pepin’s
decision to burn her, and how Bertha had been the cause of all these evils. Also, that they would
lose their lordships if Charles reached the age of fifteen, and would then be subjects not merely of a
36 ‘Magnus,’ that is ‘great’: The translation here is rather free, to approximate the puns in the Italian original on
‘Carro Magno’ (car + river name) and ‘Carlo Magno’ (Charles the Great, i.e. Charlemagne). Mainet (Mainetto),
Charles later pseudonym, obviously also puns on the name of the river.