Ebbo

Louis the Pious, like his father, was a man interested in the pursuit of knowledge.

While not having a figure as brilliant as Alcuin of York like Charlemagne, he surrounded himself with educated people, one of whom was his librarian, a man called Ebbo.

Ebbo was born the same year as Louis in 775 AD.

However, they could not have had a more different status at their birth.

Louis was born the son of the most powerful person in Western Europe, and even before his elder brothers had died, was destined to rule at least a major portion of the Frankish realms, and as such, wealth and power were things that he could have expected from his first mewling scream.

Ebbo was born the son of a German serf, an indentured laborer on an estate owned by Charlemagne.

And in an age where social mobility was not as easy comparably as it is today, this might have been his lot in life.

We don't really know why, but Ebbo, instead of being raised working the land with his family, was educated at Charlemagne's court.