Charlemagne, King of the Franks (766-814 A.D.) built the largest, empire in western Europe since that of ' Rome.
He fought to unify all German peoples into one empire by seizing Saxony, Bavaria and Lombard, Italy, and fighting Avars, Moors and Slays in border battles. He relentlessly pushed his empire boundaries east to the Elbe and Danube rivers and south into Spain.
At Aix-la-Chapelle remains his tomb. He was buried in the central space beneath the dome.
The manner of his burial is said to be one of the most impressive sermons ever preached.
In the death-chamber beneath the floor he sat on a marble chair, wrapped in his Imperial robes. The chair was that in which kings had been crowned.
A book of the Gospel lay open in his lap. As he sat there, silent, cold and motionless, the finger of the dead king's hand pointed to the words of the Lord Jesus: "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, Were my life worth living for a day? Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort In the things that soon must pass away? If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, Would my gain be worth the toil and strife? Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing With the gift of God—eternal life?