E'GINHARD, or EINHARD, the biographer of Charlemagne, was b. towards the end of the reign of Pipin, or the beginning of that of Charlemagne. At an early age, he repaired to the court of the latter monarch, and became a pupil of Alcuin. His talents. and acquirements gained him the favor of the emperor, who appointed him his private secretary, and superintendent of public buildings. E. accompanied the Emperor in all his. marches and journeys, never separating from him except on one occasion, when lie was dispatched by Charlemagne on a mission to pope Leo. On the death of the emperor, he was appointed preceptor to Lothaire, son of Louis le Debonnaire, and for a of years afterwards appears to have been lay abbot of various monasteries; but ulti mately becoming tired of secular life, he retired to the secluded town of Mfililheim. Here he erected a monastery, and changed the name of the place from Mtililliehn to. Seligenstadt (City of the Blessed). He is said to have now become a monk, but this is scarcely authenticated. E. died 14th Mar., 840, and was buried beside his wife, who died in 836. The two coffins are now shown in the chapel of the castle at Erbach. The counts of Erbach trace their descent from Eginhard. His Vita Caroli Magni, completed about the year 82.0, 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 schoolkbook, and was
therefere copied ad infinitum. The best German edition is that of Pertz, in the Monu menta Germanise Ilistorica. His Epistoke, 62 in number, are also of considerable value in a historical point of view. The French consider the edition of E.'s works by M. Teulet, with a translation, and life of E. (1848), to be the best and most complete. E.'s second work, the Annales Regum Francorum, Pippini, Caroli, Magni, Illudowiei impera toll's, embraces the period from 741 to 820. According to a pretty legend, E.'s wife, Emma, was a daughter of Charlemagne. A mutual affection had arisen between them, and on one occasion when the lovers were enjoying a nightly interview, a sudden fall of snow covered the spacious court, thus rendering retreat impossible without leading to a discovery. As the traces of female footsteps could not excite suspicion, Emma carried her lover across the court on her shoulders. This scene, it is said, was observed from a window by Charlemagne, who united the affectionate pair in marriage. On this legend Fouque founded his romance of Eginhard and Emma, and Longfellow has made it the subject of a short poem.