Charlemagne

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Charlemagne is mentioned by Dante in three places in the poem. In Canto VI of the Paradiso, Justinian concludes with him the account of the history of the eagle: Charlemagne, king of the Franks crowned emperor in 800, is presented as the restorer of the ancient Roman Empire, which with him took the name of "holy," as blessed by the authority of the Church, and as a defender of the Church itself, having defeated the Lombards. In Canto XXXI of the Inferno, his "santa gesta" — the holy band of paladins — is recalled in relation to the painful rout of Roncesvalles in 778, in which the rearguard led by his nephew Roland was annihilated by the Saracens. In Canto XVIII of the Paradiso, Charlemagne and Roland are numbered among the most celebrated champions of the war of the Christians against the infidels, whose deeds were narrated in the songs of the Carolingian cycle.