The Treaty of Aachen

The Treaty of Aachen commemorated in this chapter is an ambiguous subject for modern historiography. From the point of view of the participants, the inquiry must start with noting that the negotiations that culminated in the signing of a treaty in Aachen in 812 and its subsequent ratification in Constantinople in 813 lasted for more than a decade. The negotiations were closely tied to Charlemagne's imperial coronation in Rome on Christmas Day 800. The Annales regni Francorum, rewritten years after the event, still states that Empress Irene sent messengers to Charlemagne's court in order to confirm the existing arrangement, described as 'peace', in 802. The war on the Adriatic is not the focus of the Annales regni Francorum, which primarily records engagements with the Byzantine imperial forces, including the navy sent from Constantinople. But it was described in more detail and from a different angle by the Venetian chronicler John the Deacon in his Chronicon Venetum.