CARLOVINGIAN PARIS
While the nominal kings were losing their powers through inaction,
activity was developing a race of strong rulers in the Mayors of the
Palace--originally the royal stewards. Pépin d’Héristal (who died in
714) is accounted the founder of the family which was to oust the
Sluggard Kings from the throne that they disgraced. Pépin’s son, Charles
Martel--the Hammer--(715-741) stayed the advance of the Saracens in the
fiercely fought battle at Tours where he earned not only his nickname
but the gratitude of the Christian world, threatened by the Mohammedan
invasion. Charles’s son, Pépin le Bref (752-768), thought that the time
had come when the achievements of the Mayors of the Palace should
receive recognition--when the king in fact should be the king in name.
He appealed to Pope Zachary to sanction his taking the title. The pope
was glad of the support of the Franks, and approved. Childéric III
became the last of the Merovingian line when he was shorn of the long
locks which symbolized his regal strength, and Pépin, anointed king in
his stead, became the first of those monarchs who have been called
Carolingians or Carlovingians from the name of his son, Charlemagne
(Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great.)
Pépin was anointed first at Soissons by the Bishop of Mayence who used
in the ceremony the flask from which Saint Rémi had anointed Clovis.
Later the new king was anointed again, this time at Saint Denis, by
Zachary’s successor, Stephen III, who was the first pope to visit Paris.
The Frankish nobles paid for the honor to their city by being forced by
the Holy Father to swear allegiance to Pépin and his sons.
There was much in Paris to interest the pope. The Cité was rich in
churches and religious establishments. The cathedral now was a church
dedicated to Notre Dame, built by Childebert in gratitude for a recovery
from illness. It stood beside the one-time cathedral dedicated to Saint
Étienne; smaller churches honored Saint Gervais, Saint Nicholas and
Saint Michel. Eloy, the jovial goldsmith saint, was the protector of a
convent raised to his name. Saint Landry, a bishop of Paris in the
seventh century, had founded a hospital on the very spot where Saint
Louis and his mother, Blanche of Castile, were to build the Hôtel Dieu
in the thirteenth century, and but the width of the present square from
the new Hôtel Dieu, built since the Third Republic came into being.
Together with religion and good works justice held sway on the island.
In the Roman palace judges interpreted the laws gathered and summarized
by Dagobert. In a building near by whose site is covered by the enlarged
palace was housed the first organ known in Europe, a gift to Pépin. So
mysterious seemed its working that a woman is said to have fallen dead
when she heard it.
On the Cité dwelt the merchants, too, for the right bank of the river
had not yet become the business section of Paris, although the Grève
always was busy with the loading and unloading of boats. The shops in
the Cité held stocks of rich stuffs and of gold and silver vessels and
ornaments, chiefly of home manufacture, for the trade that had grown up
in Gallo-Roman days was rapidly dying out in the unsympathetic
atmosphere of constant strife.
Back from the river on the right bank were monasteries in whose great
size the papal visitor must have delighted as he did in the
establishment dedicated to the patron saint of Paris on the hill now
called by her name, the Mont Sainte Geneviève, and in the abbey of Saint
Germain-des-Prés, rich in lands and serfs and so gorgeous with Spanish
booty that its church was called Saint Germain-le-Doré--The Gilded.
Charlemagne (768-814), son of Pépin le Bref, saw a splendid vision of a
united Gaul, but his plan was not suited to a period when the German
belief in the might of the strong-armed individual was laying the
foundations of the feudal system. He himself was German and established
his capital not at Paris, but nearer the German boundary, where he felt
more at home. He visited Paris, however, lending the splendor of his
presence to the services of dedication which marked the completion of
the church of Saint Denis. Under the emperor’s direction his adviser,
Alcuin of York, established in Paris the first of those schools which
have made the city through the centuries one of the chief educational
centers of the world. Charlemagne himself never learned to write, it is
said, but his intelligence appreciated the value of learning and he
first offered to the students of Europe the hospitality which Paris has
given them with the utmost generosity ever since. To-day foreign
students are admitted to the University of France on exactly the same
terms as native students.
An equestrian statue of the Emperor, his horse led by Roland and Oliver,
stands before the cathedral of Notre Dame.
Not only was Charlemagne’s kingdom divided after his death, but his
strength as well seemed to have shared the shattering. His descendants
were men of small force. Louis le Débonnaire, (814-840) succeeded the
great king. Louis’ three sons, Lothair, Louis, and Charles the Bald
divided the vast possessions into three parts.
The oath by which Louis pledged himself to support Charles against
Lothair has an especial interest for scholars because it is the oldest
known example of the Romance tongue which succeeded the Low Latin of the
Gallo-Romans. The oath was given at Strasburg, the armies of Louis and
Charles witnessing, in March, 842.
The weakness of Charlemagne’s successors helped the growth in power of
the individual nobles. The feudal system developed without check.
Families made themselves great by their fighting strength. Dukes and
counts held sway without hindrance in their own dominions. Much as this
added to their importance it was a disadvantage to them when there was
need for concerted action against an enemy. Once Charlemagne saw the
piratical crafts of the Northmen enter one of his harbors and he
prophesied that they would bring misfortune to his people when he was no
longer living to guard them. His prophecy came true, and when the sea
robbers penetrated into the country by way of the big northern rivers
and attacked the cities on the Seine and the Loire, sacking the churches
and carrying away the riches of the monasteries, there was no concerted
action among the nobles, and destruction and loss went on little
hindered by the inadequate efforts of this or that feudal lord. Paris
itself was pillaged more than once, and the abbeys of Saint Denis and
Saint Germain-des-Prés paid unwilling tribute to the boldness of the
invaders.
Charlemagne’s grandsons were not of the mettle to deal sharply with the
Northmen. Charles the Bald preferred diplomacy to fighting. His nephew,
Charles the Fat, once more united the great king’s possessions, but he
was no warrior and when the terrible foes appeared in the Seine he was
not ashamed to buy them off. Again and again they came, each time
ravaging more fiercely, each time approaching nearer and nearer to Paris
which they now threatened to destroy. It was in 885 that Rollo or Rolf,
called the Ganger or Walker, because he was so huge that no horse could
carry him, led a persistent band before whom the Parisians abandoned
their suburbs and withdrew behind the walls of the Cité. They fortified
the bridges leading to the northern and southern banks, and under their
protection sustained a siege of a year and a half. Abbo, one of the
monks of the monastery of Saint Germain-des-Prés, has told us about it
in a narrative poem of some 1,200 lines. It all sounds as if the days
of Cæsar had come again. The Northmen used machines for hurling weapons
and fireballs into the city, and floated fireboats down the river to
destroy the bridges. The Parisians retaliated from the wall and the
towers. The leaders were Eudes, count of Paris and of the district
around the city, and Gozlin, bishop of Paris, both of whom fought
manfully, and also took intelligent care to foster the courage of their
people. Not a day passed without fighting, and although success usually
rested with the practised Northmen the Parisians did not become
discouraged or demoralized. The most dramatic episode of the siege came
at a time when the swollen Seine swept away the Petit Pont leading to
the southern bank, and cut off from their friends the defenders of the
Petit Châtelet on the mainland. The garrison numbered but a dozen men
and they fought with superb courage until every one of them was killed.
Abbo’s story tells of sorties to secure food, of negotiations that fell
through, of a journey made by Eudes to seek help from the Emperor and of
the suspicion of treachery that his long absence cast upon him until he
banished it by cutting his way through his foes into the town again. His
return heartened the besieged, but the besiegers were not disheartened.
Hot weather lowered the Seine and an attacking party found footing
outside the walls of the island and built a fire against one of the
gates. Then in truth the very saints were called on to give aid. Holy
Sainte Geneviève’s body had been in some way brought into the Cité from
its resting place on the southern hill, and now it was carried about the
town that she had succored three centuries before. The trusting declared
that they saw Saint Germain in spirit-guise upon the wall encouraging
the defenders.
At last Charles appeared upon the hill of Montmartre, but while the
plucky fighters in the beleaguered city were preparing to go forth to
meet him they learned that once again he had bought off the invading
army.
The fat king was deposed and died soon after and again the regal
possessions were divided. Paris and its surroundings, the Île de France,
fell (887) to Eudes, the candidate of a party of independent nobles who
admired his fine work in the defense of the city.
The end of the siege did not mean the end of the new king’s troubles
with Rollo. That sturdy opponent never ceased his fighting though his
invasions became in time not ravages but reasonably ordered campaigns,
since he did not destroy what he gained, and sometimes even repaired the
damage he had done. Fortune was impartial. Now Rollo defeated Eudes, now
Eudes defeated Rollo. The king’s most famous success was at Montfaucon,
then northeast of Paris, but now within the fortifications. For five
hundred years before the Revolution there stood on this spot a gibbet
three stories high on which one hundred and twenty criminals could be
hung at once. The man who built it was one of its victims.
Loyalty to the royal family led to the restoration of the Carlovingian
line after the death of Eudes. Charles, called the Simple, a youth of
nineteen, was set upon the throne and found himself faced at once by the
problem of crushing or checking the perpetual invasion. When no solution
had been found after thirteen years the king attempted conciliation. He
offered Rollo his daughter in marriage and a considerable piece of
territory provided that the rover should acknowledge himself Charles’s
vassal and should become a Christian. Rollo considered this proposition
for a period of three months and then consented to parley with the king
over details. They went with their followers to a town not far from
Paris where they ranged themselves on opposite sides of a stream and
communicated by messenger. Rollo seems to have made no difficulty on the
subject of his bride or of his religion, but he was fastidious as to the
land he should receive. No one knew better than he the character and
condition of northern France, and he rejected one proposed section
after another on the plea of its being too swampy or too close to the
sea or--brazenly enough--too seriously hurt by the harrying of the
Northmen! When at last he deigned to accept what came to be called
Normandy a further difficulty arose because he refused to acknowledge
his vassalship by kneeling before the king and kissing his foot. He had
never bent the knee to any one, he said, and he never would. He was
willing to do it vicariously, however, and he directed one of his
followers to offer the feudal salute. But his proxy had been trained in
the same school. Stooping suddenly he seized Charles’s foot and raised
it to his lips, oversetting the king and provoking bursts of laughter
from the Northmen and of indignation from the Franks.
Charles found it prudent to swallow his rage and he was rewarded by
gaining an admirable colony. The Northmen or Normans became excellent
settlers and their coming invigorated a people whose feeble monarchs had
represented only too well their own characteristics. It was largely
through this vigorous northern influence that, when a break occurred in
the Carlovingian line, Hugh Capet, duke of France and count of Paris, a
descendant of Eudes’ brother Robert, was elevated (987) by the barons to
the throne which his descendants in the direct line occupied for some
three hundred years. The family never has died out. Louis XVI in prison
was called “Citizen Capet;” the duke of Orleans, pretender to the
non-existent French throne, is a twentieth century representative.
The tenth century found Paris reduced to practically its size when Cæsar
sent Labienus to attack it. The Northmen had destroyed the _faubourgs_
on the once flourishing left bank, and it was only by degrees that the
abbeys of Sainte Geneviève and of Saint Germain-des-Prés replaced their
buildings to meet the needs of the population slowly growing around them
once more.
The northern bank was even more forlorn, with but a chapel or two to
lighten its waste places, and an insignificant blockhouse, perhaps built
by the Northmen, where to-day the Louvre stands magnificent.
Packed into the Cité were the houses and the public buildings of such
population as the wars had left. A street led across the island from
north to south, connecting the two bridges; another from east to west
between the cathedral and the palace. Around the open square made by
their crossing clustered the shops and markets. Wooden dwellings filled
every alley and even crouched against the huge encircling wall. Nobles
in armor, their servitors in leather, ecclesiastics with mail beneath
their robes, merchants in more peaceful guise, peasants in walking
trim--all these carried on the every-day life of this city which is
seemingly immortal since fire and sword and flood have laid it low
repeatedly but only for such brief time as it takes for it to grow
again.