Jonathan Wright - The Ambassadors - From Ancient Greece to the Nation State

Charlemagne is convinced, and all that remains is the selection of the ambassador to be sent to Marsile. Some are rejected because they would be too dearly missed; Roland is regarded as far too hot-headed for such delicate negotiations. However, he does succeed in nominating his stepfather, Ganelon, one of his harshest critics. Ganelon is far from happy with being chosen for such a treacherous mission. He asks Roland why he would be so wrathful as to nominate his own stepfather and promises that, should he return safely, ‘I’ll follow thee with such force of passion, that will endure so long as life may last thee.’ Roland offers to go in his stead, fully aware that Ganelon would never accept so insulting a proposal. Charlemagne calls Ganelon before him and presents his staff and glove, symbols of his authority, but Ganelon drops the glove – an unhappy omen. And so the ambassador sets out for Sarragossa. The Muslim ambassadors have succeeded in hatching their plan: Charlemagne has been utterly deceived. They have also managed to sow dissent within the Frankish camp, and Ganelon will not forget the treachery of his stepson. He will turn to plotting with the Moorish king and help to bring about Roland’s death. 13

The historical Charlemagne was rather less gullible, and he developed an efficient wide-ranging diplomatic apparatus. The Carolingian ambassador – usually referred to as missus or legatus – was a familiar figure throughout the courts of Europe and beyond. Under the Carolingians, there was a steady stream of envoys to Rome, Bulgaria, Constantinople and Scandinavia, to the kings of Northumbria, the emir of Cordoba and the patriarch of Jerusalem. There was no professional diplomatic class, and individuals – whether clerics, palace officials or nobles – were chosen as the need arose. However, there was a tendency to return envoys to places they had previously visited and learned something of: Gervolde, the abbot of St Wandrille on the Seine, for instance, would make several embassies to the English king at Mercia.

There was more to diplomacy than industry, of course. It also demanded glamour. The wonderfully named Notker the Stammerer most likely spent his entire adult life sequestered in a Benedictine monastery. In his biography of Charlemagne, the emperor is portrayed as a master of diplomatic ritual. When a party of Greek ambassadors arrived in Aachen in 812, the palace courtiers decided to have a little sport at their expense. They took turns dressing as the emperor, allowing the envoys to think they were speaking with the mighty Charlemagne. The exhausted Greeks doubtless grew impatient but suddenly, with the appearance of the true emperor, all weariness and irritation evaporated. ‘Charlemagne, of all kings the most glorious was standing by a window through which the sun shone with dazzling brightness. He was clad in gold and precious stones and he glittered himself like the sun at its first rising.’ His sons stood around him ‘like the host of heaven’; next to them his wife and daughters, adorned alike with wisdom and pearls. ‘Had David been in their midst,’ Notker suggested, ‘he would have had every reason to sing out: “kings of the earth and all people, princes and judges; both young men and maidens, old men and children; let them praise the name of the lord.”’ The Greek envoys, overcome by such a majestic sight, ‘fell speechless and senseless to the ground’.

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