The successors of Charlemagne in his French dominions, were examples of
a melancholy destiny.
His son, Louis le Debonnaire, died for want of food, in consequence of a
superstitious panic.
His successor, Charles the Bald, was poisoned by his physician.
The son of Charles, Louis the Stutterer, fell also by poison.
Charles, king of Aquitaine, brother to Louis, was fatally wounded in the
head by a lord, named Albuin, whom he was endeavouring, by way of
frolic, to terrify, in disguise.
Louis III., successor to Louis the Stutterer, riding through the streets
of Tours, pursued the handsome daughter of a citizen named Germond, till
the terrified girl took refuge in a house; and the king, thinking more
of her charms than of the size of the gateway, attempting to force his
horse after her, broke his back, and died.
His successor, Carloman, fell by an ill-directed spear, thrown, by his
own servant, at a wild boar.
Charles the Fat perished of want, grief, and poison, all together.
His successor, Charles the Simple, died in prison of penury and despair.
Louis the Stranger, who succeeded him, was bruised to death as he was
hunting.
Lotharius and Louis V., the two last kings of the race of Charlemagne,
were both poisoned by their wives.
After a revolution of two hundred and thirty years, there remained of
the whole line of Charlemagne, only Charles, duke of Lorrain; and he,
after ineffectually struggling in defence of his rights against Hugh
Capet, sunk beneath the fortune of his antagonist, and ended his life
and race in solitary confinement.
The French historians observe, that the epithets given to the princes of
the line of Charlemagne, were, almost all, expressive of the
contemptuous light in which that family was held by the people over whom
it reigned.