Charlemagne chessmen

The Charlemagne chessmen are a group of 11th century chess pieces made from ivory, now in the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France. In 1598 the set contained 30 pieces, but after the French Revolution only 16 pieces survived. Next to the Lewis chessmen, the set is thought to be the second-most important collection of medieval chess pieces in the world. It is one of the best-preserved sets of figures from the High Middle Ages. Their name comes from the legend that they belonged to Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, who died in 814, but, with the exception of one earlier piece, they are actually thought to have been made more than 200 years after his death, probably in southern Italy. They were in the Treasury of Saint-Denis at Saint Denis Abbey near Paris by the 13th century.

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