One day, after the Saxons won one of the many battles in the Saxon Wars, Charlemagne, who was pretty annoyed, ordered the mass execution of 4,500 warriors. This didn’t really tarnish his golden reputation until the 18th century, when it began to bother people. We discuss the Saxons, Charlemagne’s reputation, the trouble that the Nazis had in figuring out how to talk about him, and, oddly enough, Christopher Lee and his heavy metal Charlemagne albums.