Only on feast days or visits to see the popes in Rome would he wear gold robes or jewels; “on other days his costume was little different from that of the common people.” He was ostentatiously pious, a keen reader who could also write to a basic standard, a light sleeper and a healthy eater, although never a drunk. He was, then, in Einhard’s sympathetic eyes at least, the very image of a mighty king.
