As someone who took over the kingdom two years after his father's death, running the country without knowing how to read and write becomes problematic for two reasons. One reason is that by virtue of his position he had to read many documents and due to this limitation he had to rely on the loyalty of those working with him including his personal advisors
A book describing the life of Charlemagne is the book by Einhard, a writer of his time, "The Life of Charlemagne". It is not a book like a biographical book of our time, but a book, but also from it you can learn about the period of this king. From the description given in this booklet, the image of an educated, authoritative and powerful man is drawn who knew how to manage his actions wisely and the evidence for this is the power he founded (a power whose geographical areas include France and Germany nowadays). Charlemagne was born in 742 and died in 814. He came to power when he was 26 years old.
An interesting detail given by Einhard is that Karl "tried to write and for that purpose he used to keep writing boards and notebooks in his bed under the pillows, so that he could in his spare time practice his hand in writing letters, but he was only slightly successful in this task, since he started it at an advanced age" (p. 64) the question can be asked Why didn't he learn to read and write as a child? As the son of a king, Pippin III, Carl grew up within the ruling elite and as such he was supposed to learn to read and write as a child in an orderly fashion. As someone who took over the kingdom two years after his father's death, running the country without knowing how to read and write becomes problematic for two reasons. One reason is that by virtue of his position he had to read many documents and due to this limitation he had to rely on the loyalty of those working with him including his personal advisors. Let's not forget that in these settings intrigues and intrigues are the bread of the law. A second reason is his personal feeling that everyone around him is literate and only he is not capable of it.
Were these learning difficulties due to the fact that he might have been short sighted. What he did know how to do was sign his name. It seems that he worked on it a lot. The complexity of the signature (p. 64) could imply that his vision was normal throughout his life. Einhard notes that "he spoke beautifully and fluently and could clearly describe his desire. He was not satisfied only with his mother tongue and made an effort to learn many languages as well. He learned Latin and spoke it as if it were his mother tongue, while Greek he understood more than he could express himself in (p. 63). Charlemagne had a talent for languages and his language was eloquent, which also indicates a great linguistic richness and an excellent memory. His memory can also be evidenced by the fact that he worked extensively for the establishment of a codex of laws for his country (p. 70). For a person who cannot read and write such a task is almost impossible. The only way to master such a scope of knowledge is an excellent and possibly phenomenal memory. Moreover, "he began writing a grammar of his native language" (p. 70). It is likely that he used a team of linguists to complete this task and even in this case a good memory is needed. It may be that he developed a way of thinking and different techniques that allowed him to remember many details.
Charlemagne is portrayed as an unusually greedy and curious person. He invested much of his energy in studying dialectics, geometry (studying this subject can also testify to a very strong photographic memory), arithmetic, music and astronomy (p. 56). Beyond his political, military and organizational talents, he was fundamentally self-taught and intellectual. Despite his limitation "he enjoyed the books of St. Augustine" (p. 62) and probably other books as well. It is likely that the books he liked were read to him.
Despite his many talents, the craft of reading and writing did not succeed in his hands and the question becomes more acute why? The hypothesis that can be made is that Charlemagne did start to learn to read and write as a child, but he encountered difficulties due to a congenital limitation and gave up. He stopped his studies and only at a late age tried to learn to read and write again. In addition to this, the constraints of the royal court forced him to enter into political activity at a young age, which forced him to devote his time at the expense of his studies. The characterizations of this gifted man give room for the hypothesis, albeit a cautious one, that he may have been dyslexic.
מקור
Einhard - The Life of Charlemagne Open University 2005
A collection of Haim Mazar's articles on the Hidan website
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~178108368~~~98&SiteName=hayadan
