Happy Birthday, Karl

It's the birthday of Charlemagne (probably), in either 747 or 748, in Herstal, a city close to Liège in modern day Belgium. Note that Charlemagne is traditionally believed to have been born on April 2, 742; however, several factors have led to a reconsideration of this date. (You can see Wikipedia or other sources for why.)

He never learned to read or write, but he admired scholars who could, and he brought many to his court. Charlemagne started schools that taught all kinds of worldly knowledge, and he said that they should "make no difference between the sons of serfs and of freemen, so that they might come and sit on the same benches to study grammar, music and arithmetic."

Linguistic item of interest: his name was taken into Russian as the word for king. Korol = Karl = Charles - the magne is, of course, "great". Charlemagne = Karl the Great. And the alternation of Karl to Korol is a typical Germanic - South Slavic - East Slavic reflex - examples abound, such as grad - gorod (city) - yard, glava - golova (head) - calv- (old Germanic for 'bald), broda - boroda - beard, and mleko - moloko - milk.