De Gaulle's vision of Franco-German reconciliation, of the building of a new European order with France and Germany as its centre of gravity, ended - according to one British historian - a historic enmity created by the division of Charlemagne's empire in the ninth century.

BBC: Part Three - France and the World

In the 9th century, the western part of Charlemagne's empire was called France and its inhabitants French.

ECONOMIST: Letters

It is sometimes observed that places that once formed part of Charlemagne's empire France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands have been much more at ease with the modern-day drive for European unity than areas that fell outside it, notably Britain and Scandinavia.

ECONOMIST: European unity

Charlemagne is a more palatable figure than some of the European empire-builders that followed him, be it Napoleon, Hitler or Stalin.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne