JOYEUSE

Joyeuse was the name of Charlemagne's personal sword. The name translates as "joyful". Some legends claim that it was forged to contain the Lance of Longinus within its pommel—others state it was supposedly smithed from the same materials as Roland's Durendal and Ogier's Curtana.





The 11th century Song of Roland describes the sword:

Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus) was wearing his fine white coat of mail and his helmet with gold-studded stones; by his side hung Joyeuse, and never was there a sword to match it; its color changed thirty times a day.
Some seven hundred years later, Bulfinch's Mythology would describe Charlemagne using Joyeuse to behead the Saracen commander Corsuble, as well as knighting his comrade Ogier the Dane.

It is alleged to have been interred with Charlemagne's body, or contrarily to be held by the Saint Denis Basilica, where it was later retired into the Louvre after being carried at the front of Coronation processionals for French kings such as Philip the Bold. Another supposed Joyeuse is held at the Imperial Treasury in Vienna.

The town of Joyeuse in Ardèche, is supposedly named after the sword: Joyeuse was allegedly lost in a battle, and retrieved by one of the knights of Charlemagne; to thank him, Charlemagne would have granted him an appanage named Joyeuse.





Charlemagne, the son of Pepin the Short, declared himself the defender of Christianity and reinforced the power of the Carolingian dynasty. He spread his power throughout most of Europe, but did not succeed in his attempt to defeat the emir in Córdoba in the Iberian Peninsula.

On Christmas day in the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned as the new Western Emperor (The Holy Roman Empire) by the Pope Leo III in Rome.