The Frankish King Charlemagne ranks alongside the likes of King Arthur as one of the finest examples of medieval kings. He was born in 742 A.D. close to Aachen, also known as Aix-la-Chapelle, the city that he made his empire’s northern capital and later his eternal resting place.

Charlemagne gained notoriety as a fearsome and brave warrior, so powerful that his fame spread far beyond Europe and into Asia. In respect, the Caliph Haroun el Raschid Emperor of the East, famous from the stories of ‘The Arabian Nights’, sent Charlemagne wonderful gifts: monkeys, elephants, organs, mechanical clocks and even the keys to the church of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, which housed the tomb of Jesus Christ.

In 814, Charlemagne was buried with honors at the Cathedral of Aix-la Chapelle, along with many precious items including the Sapphire talisman. Otto III reopened Charlemagne’s tomb in 1000 A.D., and the talisman was then preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral.
In the summer of 1804 the famed Empress Josephine, consort to Napoleon, visited Aix-la Chapelle to take the waters and visit the tomb of Charlemagne. One month later she was joined by Napoleon who requested that the Cathedrals chapter bestow upon Josephine numerous relics from the tomb of Charlemagne, including the Sapphire talisman, which she wore on her coronation. The Blue Sapphire talisman is now somewhere in a private collection, the exact whereabouts unknown.