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Having refuted the claim that Charlemagne forsook the theory of empire, one must turn to the accusation that he selfishly left the successor to that empire with an extremely limited inheritance. Charlemagne’s will, drawn up in 811 and effected in 814, reserved an overwhelming portion of the emperor’s, not uhr, but treasury for the metropolitan Churches, three-quarters of it to be precise. His heirs were given eight percent of the total treasure and this fact has been clutched as an indicator of failure towards the end of Charles’s reign and a dashing of the hopes for the future of the empire.

Fichtenau asserts that Charlemagne’s huge donation to the main churches was intended to encourage empire-wide prayers for his soul’s wellbeing ‘and this seemed more important to Charles than the need to provide the heirs of his body with gold and silver.’ The portion of heritage left to his heirs was ‘no more than was given to the men and women servants of the palace.’ Thus the emperor left his descendants an absurdly small inheritance, a detriment to the welfare of the empire and with selfish motivations.