section_path: Wives, concubines, and children
section_name: Wives, concubines, and children
paragraph_text: Wives, concubines, and children
  
  Charlemagne had at least twenty children with his wives and other partners. After the death of his wife Luitgard in 800, he did not remarry but had children with unmarried partners. He was determined that all his children, including his daughters, should receive an education in the liberal arts. His children were taught in accordance with their aristocratic status, which included training in riding and weaponry for his sons and embroidery, spinning and weaving for his daughters.
  
  Rosamond McKitterick writes that Charlemagne exercised "a remarkable degree of patriarchal control... over his progeny," noting that only a handful of his children and grandchildren were raised outside his court. Pepin of Italy and Louis reigned as kings from childhood and lived at their courts. Careers in the church were arranged for his illegitimate sons. His daughters were resident at court or at Chelles Abbey (where Charlemagne's sister was abbess), and those at court may have fulfilled the duties of queen after 800.
  
  Louis and Pepin of Italy married and had children during their father's lifetime, and Charlemagne brought Pepin's daughters into his household after Pepin's death. Rotrude had been betrothed to Emperor Constantine VI, but the betrothal was ended. None of Charlemagne's daughters married, although several had children with unmarried partners. Bertha had two sons, Nithard and Hartnid, with Charlemagne's courtier Angilbert; Rotrude had a son named Louis, possibly with Count Rorgon; and Hiltrude had a son named Richbod, possibly with a count named Richwin. The Divisio Regnorum issued by Charlemagne in 806 provided that his legitimate daughters be allowed to marry or become nuns after his death. Theodrada entered a convent, but the decisions of his other daughters are unknown.