Editing Charlemagne (section)

===Birth===
Charlemagne's year of birth is uncertain, although it was most likely in 748.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=29}}{{sfn|Costambeys|Innes|MacLean|2011|p=56}}{{sfn|Fried|2016|p=15}}{{sfn|Collins|1998|p=32}} An older tradition based on three sources, however, gives a birth year of 742. The ninth-century biographer [[Einhard]] reports Charlemagne as being 72 years old at the time of his death; the ''Royal Frankish Annals'' imprecisely gives his age at death as about 71, and his original epitaph called him a septuagenarian.{{sfn|Barbero|2004|p=11}} Einhard said that he did not know much about Charlemagne's early life; some modern scholars believe that, not knowing the emperor's true age, he still sought to present an exact date in keeping with the Roman imperial biographies of [[Suetonius]], which he used as a model.{{sfn|Becher|2005|p=41}}{{sfn|Nelson|2019|pp=28–28}} All three sources may have been influenced by [[Psalm 90]]: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten".{{sfn|Hägermann|2011|p=xxx}}

Historian [[Karl Ferdinand Werner]] challenged the acceptance of 742 as the Frankish king's birth year, citing an addition to the ''[[Annales Petaviani]]'' which records Charlemagne's birth in 747.{{sfn|Barbero|2004|p=350 n7}}{{efn|"At 747 the scribe had written: {{lang|la|'Et ipso anno fuit natus Karolus rex'}} ('and in that year, King Charles was born')."{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=29}}}} [[Lorsch Abbey]] commemorated Charlemagne's date of birth as 2 April from the mid-ninth century, and this date is likely to be genuine.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=28}}{{sfn|Barbero|2004|p=12}} Matthias Becher built on Werner's work and showed that 2 April in the year recorded would have actually been in 748, since the annalists recorded the start of the year from Easter rather than 1 January.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=29}} Presently, most scholars accept April 748 for Charlemagne's birth.{{sfn|Fried|2016|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=29}}{{sfn|Costambeys|Innes|MacLean|2011|p=56}} Charlemagne's place of birth is unknown. The Frankish palaces in [[Vaires-sur-Marne]] and [[Quierzy]] are among the places suggested by scholars.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=68}} Pepin the Short held an assembly in [[Düren]] in 748, but it cannot be proved that it took place in April or if Bertrada was with him.{{sfn|Hägermann|2011|p=xxxiii}}