Rhoda POWER
Today Schools are to hear the first dramatic interlude of the term by Miss Rhoda Power. It concerns one of the barbarian rulers referred to by Professor Eileen Power last week, who between them conquered the old civilisations-China and Rome.
Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was the ruler of the Franks, who had set up a kingdom on the ruins of the Roman Empire. He conquered a large realm and ruled it well, and he was a great supporter of the Church. Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor in Rome on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, and so there was once more an Empire in the West.
The scene is laid in the house of a Frank at Aachen (the capital of Charlemagne's empire) on the morning of Charlemagne's death, on January 28, A.n. 814.
Old Grimwald, his son, Adelbert,
Adelbert's wife, and their little boy, discuss their own affairs, and then the Emperor's life and death. Adelbert thinks the fame of Charlemagne will last for ever.