Historia Caroli Magni

The work was extremely popular, and served as a major source of material on Charlemagne in chronicles, fiction and iconography throughout Medieval Europe.

The Chronicle recounts the following incidents:[4] At the request of Saint James who appears to him in dream, Charlemagne embarks on four wars to wrest Spain from the Saracens.

[6] Once the last Saracen leaders are defeated, Charlemagne invests Santiago de Compostela with considerable powers and begins the return to France.

After routing the Saracens, Charlemagne oversees the trial and execution of Ganelon, and the heroes' bodies are brought back to France.

The chronicle ends with several appendices, including the purported discovery of Turpin's tomb by Pope Calixtus II and Callixtus' call to crusade.

[7] There is a Welsh adaptation, dating to the 14th century, and found in the Red Book of Hergest and a number of other early manuscripts, where it occurs along with the translations of The Song of Roland and the Romance of Otinel.

[10] An adaptation of the Pseudo-Turpin story including the scene with Ferracutus/Ferraguto and his mortal duel with Orlando (Roland) occurs in the anonymous Franco-Venetian epic L'Entrée d'Espagne (c.1320; the author is thought to be from Padua).

[11][12] The material also appears in the 14th-century Italian epic La Spagna (attributed to the Florentine Sostegno di Zanobi and likely composed between 1350-1360).

[13] Jean Bagnyon's 15th-century La Conqueste du grand roy Charlemagne des Espagnes et les vaillances des douze pairs de France, et aussi celles de Fierabras (also called Fierabras) includes material from the Historia Caroli Magni, probably via Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum Historiale.