Charlemagne (or Karel de Grote as we call him in Dutch) is a pretty big deal in our history. We've learned about him in primary school and again, somewhat more

Charlemagne (or Karel de Grote as we call him in Dutch) is a pretty big deal in our history. We've learned about him in primary school and again, somewhat more in depth, in secondary school. Of course not everyone knows what he did. Most people aren't all that interested in history. You could say the same thing about most historical figures. As a quick guess Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Hitler are the most obvious of a pretty short list of counterexamples that are so well-known that almost everybody has at least some idea of what they did. Even that is going to be pretty limited: I suppose a lot of people here in Belgium are aware of Caesar because he came here to conquer, and provides the oldest written sources of our regions. But not a lot of people are aware of his role in the end of the Roman Republic.