INTRODUCTION
Part 1 – What Has Gone Before
One trouble with setting a story in the Carolingian Cycle comes from the fact that it is a cycle. Each tale springs from several that have gone before. It can be hard to understand who people are, and why they act the way they do, until you have that background. At the same time, most of those stories aren’t readily available in English; you can’t just go and pick up the first three volumes before diving into this one. Maps, family trees, history (real and mythic), backstories, and much, much more are available at my Charlemagne Homepage. What follows here is a summary of the summary, along with some notes on general structure.
The Four Sons of Aimon begins in the 15th spring of Charlemagne’s reign when the King is 34 years old. He has just returned from a campaign in Italy, where he drove off the Saracen King Guithelm in Lombardy. The campaign had several notable features.
First, anticipating a problem from the southern borders, the King had gone on a preliminary review of his Italian lands a few years before, and as part of the tour had stopped for a night in Atri. There he was feted by Duke Reyner and his 10-year-old son, an appealing lad named Oliver. Just when the feast had reached its height, however, a ragged, black-haired boy sauntered into the hall, strolled up to the King, removed a choice leg of lamb and some bread from the high table, and then walked – walked! – out of the hall. This of course proved to be Roland, the unguessed-at son of the King’s long-lost sister Berta who’d run off with a glamorous bachelor knight named Milon. Young Roland was, by all accounts, a prodigy. The only boy who could even begin to match him was Reyner’s own Oliver.
Roland had gone away with the King from Atri, to be raised and trained by Duke Richard of Normandy. One of Charlemagne’s farthest-reaching plans has been a broad and systematized approach to the training of young knights. The idea grew out of the king’s recognition that each part of the realm had developed special talents in some areas and corresponding weaknesses in others. The new system made sure that all the would-be knights learned the best tricks from across the land, as well as receiving a thorough grounding in the King’s personal expertise at logistics, battlefield strategy, and the design of castles and forts. Not coincidentally, it also had the effect of broadening horizons, encouraging future peers to see their lands as a part of something larger. The true impact of this approach would be immense; but it won’t be felt until the upcoming generation matures into its full power.
The first of that generation is Ogier the Dane, now 25, who’d started his life in the King’s court as a hostage for the good behavior of his father, the King of Denmark. The good behavior was not forthcoming and Ogier (then 17) was sentenced to death. Ogier was such a model character, however, that Duke Naymon of Bavaria (49 years old, and the King’s closest and most vital advisor) intervened and had the boy “paroled” into his care. In the Lombardy campaign Ogier literally saved the day, the King, and the Realm single-handed.
Charlemagne’s war on Guithelm culminated in the Battle of Pavia, which the King barely survived. Three of his northern Dukes failed to show up; the brothers Benes of Aigremont, Gerard of Vienne, and Ronald of Nantes. The battle would have been lost completely if Salomon of Bretagne hadn’t arrived unlooked for with 30,000 men.
Ogier was still unknighted, of course, and was therefore relegated to looking after the squires and other boys who were along for the experience. At the height of the battle, when all looked to be lost, the boys saw Ganelon’s cousin Aloys fleeing from the battle with the Oriflamme (Charlemagne’s banner) in hand. The behavior was not only cowardly but also potentially disastrous. Ogier (unarmored because he was only a squire) rode up and blocked Aloys’ escape. Aloys drew a blade, but Ogier knocked him flying anyway. Ogier then put on Aloys’ armor and rode back into the thick of battle with the Oriflamme held high. His assault rescued the King and paved the way to victory.
That night the King called Aloys into court to receive a special reward for making that heroic charge. Ogier was too honorable to speak up on his own behalf and Aloys was such a louse that accepting a reward he hadn’t earned didn’t bother him in the slightest. The 12-year-old Roland, however, had seen the whole thing, and even at that age he couldn’t keep quiet about things he didn’t like. The upshot was that Ogier was pardoned, knighted and gifted with the magic sword Cortana,[3] Aloys was disgraced (but escaped being condemned), and Roland earned the general dislike of the Mayence contingent.
At the beginning of this story the spring has arrived and the King has returned in triumph to Paris. His nephew Enguerrand (23) rode ahead earlier, braving the snow-bound passes to summon Duke Benes and deliver the King’s complaint. The complaint is more important than it might seem at first. Charlemagne is the third in the Carolingian line, but the first to rule without the comfort of a Merovingian supporting his back. And therein lies a story.
