Eginhard, or EINHARD, the biographer of Charlemagne, was born in Maingau, in East Franconia, about 770, and on account of his ability was sent at an early age to the court of Charlemagne, where he became a pupil of Alcuin, and ere long a favourite of the emperor, who appointed him superintendent of public buildings. His artistic skill earned him the scriptural name of Bezaleel (Exod. xxxi. 2), and to him have been ascribed the building of the bridge at Mainz, the royal palaces at Ingelheim and Aix-la-Chapelle, and the basilica in the latter city. Eginhard accompanied the emperor in all his marches and journeys, never separating from him except on one occasion, when he was despatched on a mission to Pope Leo. Louis, the successor of Charlemagne, continued his father's favour to Eginhard, and appointed him preceptor of his own son Lothair. For years afterwards he was lay abbot of various monasteries, but ultimately becoming tired of court life, he retired with his wife Emma to the secluded town of Mühleheim, the name of which he changed into Seligenstadt, having built a church there to contain the bones of St Marcellinus and St Peter. Here he died, 14th March 840, and was buried beside his wife, who had died four years before. The two coffins are now shown in the chapel of the castle at Erbach, the counts of which trace their descent from Eginhard.
His Vita Caroli Magni, completed about the year 820, with respect to plan and execution, as well as language and style, is incontestably the most important historical work of a biographical character that has come down to us from the middle ages. It was frequently used as a school-book, and was therefore copied ad infinitum. The best editions are those of Jaffé (1876) and Holder (1882). An English translation by W. Glaister appeared in 1877. Of Eginhard's valuable Epistole, sixty-two in number, the French edition of his works by Teulet, with a translation and life (1848), is the best and most complete. Eginhard's Annales Francorum embraces the period from 741 to 829. A fine legend, unhappily without foundation, makes Eginhard's wife Emma a daughter of Charlemagne. A mutual affection had arisen between them, and once when the lovers had met secretly by night, a sudden fall of snow covered the spacious court, thus rendering retreat impossible without leading to a discovery. A woman's footprints could not excite suspicion, so Emma carried her lover across the court on her back. This scene was observed from a window by Charlemagne, who united the affectionate pair in marriage. On this legend Fouqué founded his play of Eginhard and Emma, and Longfellow has made it the subject of one of the Tales of a Wayside Inn. See Varn- hagen's monograph on the sources of those tales (Berlin, 1884), and Bacha's Étude (Paris, 1888).