Janet Nelson wrote the 2019 biography King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne.
Nelson is a leading historian of the early medieval world and professor emerita of medieval history at King’s College London. Her book, published in 2019, reconstructs Charlemagne’s life and rule from surviving written, artistic, and material evidence rather than relying only on later legends about the emperor.
The biography examines Charles as a Frankish king, conqueror, Christian ruler, and Roman emperor. It also considers the limits of the evidence: wars, accidents, weather, and the passage of twelve centuries destroyed much of the documentation, while surviving prayer books, charters, chronicles, artworks, and physical remains offer partial clues.
The title can cause confusion because several major scholars have written influential books about Charlemagne. Rosamond McKitterick, Judith Herrin, and Henri Pirenne are associated with important medieval histories, but Nelson is the author specifically asked for here. The book appeared in English editions from Allen Lane and the University of California Press.