swords. They boasted of their shocking deed, and announced that they
had delivered their country from a tyrant. The people, stunned by
the daring of this terrible act, knew not what to think or do. Some
barricaded their houses in fear; others hurried through the streets
with blanched faces; and still others excitedly seized any kind of
weapon near at hand, and joined a mob, which threatened to break out in
awful violence, to avenge the death of Cæsar, their idol.
During all this time the body of Cæsar lay unheeded at the foot of
Pompey’s statue, pierced with twenty-three wounds, made by the hands of
men he thought were his friends. Three slaves were his only guardians;
and at last they lifted the poor bruised, bleeding, and ghastly corpse,
and carried it home to the distracted Calpurnia. The next day, Brutus
and the other conspirators called the people together in the Forum, and
there addressed them, endeavoring to persuade them that the deed had
been committed only in the interests of the people, to rid them of a
tyrant. But the subsequent famous funeral speech of Marc Antony, roused
the people to such a wild frenzy of revenge, that the conspirators were
only saved from death with great difficulty by the intervention of the
Senate.
The Field of Mars had been chosen as the place for the funeral pile;
but after the speech of Marc Antony in the Forum, where the body of
Cæsar had been placed on a gilded bed covered with scarlet and cloth of
gold, under a gorgeous canopy made in the form of a temple, the people
in their wild outbursts of love for Cæsar, as they had then learned
from his will, which Antony read aloud to them, of his munificent
bequests to the Roman citizens, became ungovernable in their desires
to do him reverence. As a crier, by Antony’s order, read the decrees
of the Senate, in which all honors, human and divine, had been been
ascribed to Cæsar, the gilded bed upon which he lay was lifted and
borne out into the centre of the Forum; and two men, having forced
their way through the crowd, with lighted torches set fire to the bed
on which the body of Cæsar lay, and the multitudes with shouts of
enthusiastic applause, seized everything within reach and placed them
upon the funeral pile. The soldiers then threw on their lances and
spears; musicians cast their instruments into the increasing flames;
women tore off their jewels to add to the gorgeous pile, and all
vied with each other to contribute something to enlarge the blazing
funeral pile. So fierce were the flames that they spread to some of the
neighboring buildings, and a terrible conflagration which would have
given Cæsar the most majestic funeral pile in the annals of the world,
for it would have been the blazing light from the burning city of Rome
itself, was only prevented by the most strenuous efforts.
Some time after, Octavius Cæsar, the successor of Julius Cæsar, and
Marc Antony, waged war with Cassius and Brutus; and at the battle of
Philippi, where Cassius and Brutus were defeated, and while they were
fleeing from the field, hopeless of further defence, they both killed
themselves with their own swords.
Cæsar died at the age of fifty-six. The Roman people erected a column
to his memory, on which they placed the inscription, “To the Father
of His Country.” A figure of a star was placed upon the summit of
this memorial shaft, and some time afterwards, while the people were
celebrating some games in honor of Cæsar’s memory, a great comet blazed
for seven nights in the sky, which they declared to be a sign that the
soul of Cæsar was admitted among the gods.
CHARLEMAGNE.
742-814 A.D.
“To whom God will, there be the victory.”
SHAKESPEARE.
THERE was great terror and dismay among the inhabitants of the city of
Paris, called in those early days, Lutetia.
[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE.
(From Early Engraving.)]
The Gauls, who dwelt in that part of the country, were now menaced by a
foe even more terrible than the Roman soldiers led by the famous Julius
Cæsar, who had invaded their land about 500 years before, and made
their country a Roman province.
But now a fearful war-cry rings through the air; and as the frightened
Gauls hastily arm themselves for resistance, a horde of Teutonic
giants, with light complexions, long yellow hair waving in the wind,
and eyes so bright and cat-like that they fairly shone with a green
glare of animal-like ferocity, which was heightened by their clothing
made of the skins of the bear, the boar, and the wolf, making them
look in the distance like a herd of wild beasts, came rushing like an
avalanche of destruction over the peaceful homes of the Gauls. These
hordes advanced in a mighty wedge-like phalanx, formed of their bravest
warriors, each man carrying in his right hand a long lance, and in the
left a buckler, or skin-covered shield, while his girdle held a sharp
two-edged axe, which became, with dexterous handling, a most dangerous
weapon, and was hurled from a distance with marvellous aim. With
mounted warriors protecting the wings of this invincible phalanx,
on came this fierce, wild tribe, charging to battle with a terrible
war-whoop, which they made more shrill by placing the edge of the
buckler to the mouth.
In vain the Gauls looked to Rome for help. There was too much trouble
in Italy for the Roman government to help any one. So these giant
Franks came rushing unchecked on to Paris, while the frightened Gauls
were powerless to resist them. The leader of this horde was called
Hilperik, the son of Meerwig; and having taken possession of Paris, and
several surrounding provinces, he founded the kingdom afterwards called
France, from this tribe who were called Franks.
The story of kings is too often a story of blood and cruelty, and the
kingdom which the great Charlemagne inherited had been the scene of
fearful and continual conflicts.
The Goths, one of the fierce German nations, had conquered a large part
of Gaul after it had become a Roman province, and in the year 451,
the Huns, a more terrible nation still, whose chief was the famous
Attila, who called himself the “Scourge of God,” invaded Gaul with
his army,—horrible looking men, whose faces had been gashed by their
savage parents in their infancy, that they might look more dreadful.
The poor Gauls thought rightly, that it was more fearful to fall
into their hands than into those of the Franks; but the Huns came no
further than Orleans, where an army, composed of Gauls, Franks, Goths,
Burgundians, all under the Roman general Ætius, attacked the Huns at
Châlons-sur-Marne, beat them, and drove them back. Châlons was the last
victory in Gaul, won under the Roman banners, and now the poor Gauls
were obliged to meet their enemies alone. The chief tribes of those
warlike races, who swarmed over Europe, both north and south, were
the Goths who conquered Rome, and settled in Spain; the Longbeards
or Lombards, who spread over the north of Italy; the Burgundians, or
town-livers, who held all the country around the Alps; the Swabians
and Germans, who stayed in the middle of Europe; the Saxons, who dwelt
south of the Baltic, and finally conquered South Britain; the Northmen,
who found a home in Scandinavia; and the Franks, who had been long
settled on the rivers Sale, Meuse, and Rhine. Their name meant freemen,
and they were noted for using an axe, called after them. Of the Franks
there were two noted tribes,—the Salian, from the river Sale, and the
Ripuarian. They were great horsemen, and the Salians had a family of
kings, who were supposed to have descended from one of their warlike
gods, called Odin. Although the Franks were a ferocious and sometimes
cruel race, they were in some respects superior to the other barbaric
tribes, and were liked better by the Gauls than any other of those
various nations.
[Illustration: THE HUNS AT CHÂLONS.]
After Cæsar’s conquest many of the Romans had remained in Gaul, and had
built and conquered cities, and lived under Roman laws. They taught the
Gauls to speak Latin, and organized many schools and colleges among
them. The Gauls adopted the Roman dress and religion. The religion of
the ancient Gauls had been taught to the people by priests, called
Druids. Druidism was a confusion of mingled ideas of Oriental dreams
and traditions, borrowed from the mythologies of the East and the
North; and although it was degraded by barbaric practices such as human
sacrifices in honor of the gods or of the dead, it possessed one germ
of truth, for the Druids believed in the immortality of the soul. Their
priests were old and wise men, who had studied often for twenty
years before they were considered wise enough to become “Men of the
Oak,” as the chief Druids were called. They made laws for the people
and settled questions of dispute. Once every year the Druids went out
to look for the mistletoe, which they considered a sacred plant. When
a mistletoe was found growing upon an oak, the people came from all
parts of the country and stood around the tree. Then a Druid, clothed
in white, climbed up the oak-tree, and cut off the sacred mistletoe
with a golden sickle, and the much prized plant was caught by the other
Druids below, in a white cloth, and was carried away to be preserved as
a great treasure.
But the Gauls living in those provinces conquered by the Romans, had
given up their old Druidical religion, and adopted that of their
conquerors, which was no improvement, for it was also a paganism, and
was such a mass of superstition and idolatry, derived from Grecian
mythology and old traditions, that it did not even possess the vital
force of the Druidical belief. For the Druids worshipped, as they
thought, living deities, while the Græco-Roman paganism was a dead
religion, with only dead gods, buried beneath their still standing
altars. Such were the superstitions and false religions with which
the Christians of the early centuries had to contend in laboring to
convert the then known world to the worship of the one true and living
God and His Son Jesus Christ, who had already lived his holy life
upon this earth, and given himself a sacrifice for the salvation of
mankind. Already the disciples of Christ had founded Christian churches
in Asia Minor and Palestine, and many of them had died as martyrs for
the faith. St. Paul had preached at Athens and at Rome, and having
finished his glorious work he had received his crown of martyrdom.
And all down these early centuries teachers had been sent out by the
Christian churches, to endeavor to convert the heathen world around
to a belief in the one true and only religion which could secure the
salvation of the immortal soul. The Roman emperors had all persecuted
the Christians and sought to uphold paganism. But when A.D. 312, the
Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, “paganism fell, and
Christianity mounted the throne.” Previous to the conquest of Gaul by
the Franks, the Gauls had adopted Christianity, and when Hilperik,
king of the Franks, conquered Paris and the surrounding country, and
at his death left this kingdom to his son, named Hlodwig, or Clovis,
there were many Christians and churches and monasteries in Gaul. Clovis
conquered many of the surrounding provinces, and at last became the
ruler of nearly the whole of Gaul. Clovis had married a Burgundian
maiden, named Clothilda, and as she was a Christian he allowed her
to worship God in the Christian churches. But in the great battle of
Tolbiacum, which Clovis fought with the Germans, when it seemed as
though the Franks would be defeated, Clovis took an oath that if the
God of his wife would give him the victory he would become a Christian.
The Franks were victorious, and Clovis was baptized with all his chief
warriors.
[Illustration: “THRUST HIM AWAY, OR THOU DIEST IN HIS STEAD.”]
When Clovis died, he left four sons, among whom he divided his kingdom.
One was the king of Paris; another, king of Orleans; a third, king of
Soissons; and the fourth, who reigned over that part of Gaul nearest
Germany and the Rhine, was called king of Metz. In a battle with the
Burgundians, the king of Orleans, Clodomir, was killed, leaving three
young sons who were placed in the care of their grandmother Clothilda.
At length the kings of Paris and Soissons became jealous of these
children of their elder brother Clodomir, and sent for the children,
under pretence of placing them upon the throne of their father. But
as soon as they had them in their cruel power, they sent a pair of
scissors and a sword to Clothilda, with a message, saying: “We wait
thy wishes as to the three children; shall they be slain or shorn?”
meaning, shall they be killed or shut up in monasteries? Clothilda, in
despair, cried out: “Slain, rather than shorn!” and the messengers,
not waiting to hear her further words, returned to the cruel kings,
and announced that they had secured the consent of Clothilda for the
shocking deed. The wicked kings then hastily entered the room where the
three helpless boys were imprisoned, and having slain the eldest, the
second one clung to the knees of his uncle Childebert, king of Paris,
who was for a moment moved with pity, and asked his brother Clotaire
to spare the boy. But the wicked Clotaire, king of Soissons, exclaimed
in wrath, “Thrust him away or thou diest in his stead!” Whereupon,
Childebert tried no more to save him, and Clotaire seized the poor boy,
who was now shrieking with terror, and plunged a hunting-knife into his
side, as he had his brother’s, and slew him. These murdered children
were only ten and seven years old. The third brother was snatched up by
some brave friends, and hidden away where the cruel uncles could not
find him. He was afterwards placed in a monastery, and became a monk,
and founded a monastery near Paris, called after him, St. Cloud. After
the sons of Clovis there followed a line of kings in France called the
Meerwings, or long-haired kings, known in history as the Merovingians;
and only two of them are important enough to be mentioned, and those
only on account of their crimes. One of the sons of Clovis left four
sons; and two of these, named Hilperik and Siegbert, married the two
daughters of the king of the Goths, in Spain. These sisters were
called Galswinth and Brunehild. Hilperik loved a slave girl he owned,
named Fredegond, and either with or without his consent, his wife
Galswinth was found strangled in her bed, and he afterwards married
the murderess, Fredegond, who, though most atrociously wicked, became
a powerful queen. Brunehild persuaded her husband Siegbert to make
war upon Hilperik, to avenge the death of her sister. Hilperik was
defeated, but the Queen Fredegond contrived to have Siegbert murdered,
and afterwards killed her husband’s other children, thus leaving her
own son heir to the throne. She then ordered her husband also to
be put to death, so that she could reign alone in the name of her
infant son. The four kingdoms left by Clovis had been now merged into
three,—Neustria, which is now the north of France; Austrasia, which is
now the north-east corner of France, and part of Belgium, and part of
the western side of Germany; and the third kingdom was called Burgundy.
The Neustrians and the Austrasians were usually at war with each other,
the Burgundians taking now one side of the quarrel and now the other.
Queen Fredegond’s part of Gaul was Neustria, while Queen Brunehild
governed Austrasia. But Brunehild quarrelled with the chiefs of the
country; and after many years of wars, plots, and murders, she was at
last brutally killed by the son of Fredegond, who became king of all
the Franks; and in Neustria every one obeyed him; but in Austrasia
the great chiefs and bishops were opposed to him. The bishops had by
this time become rich and powerful, for a great amount of land had
been left to the church by the wills of dying Christians, or as gifts
from kings and chiefs. When Clotaire, son of Fredegond, died, he left
two sons; one of them named Dagobert made himself master of Neustria
and Austrasia, and gave his brother land in the south part of the
country, which had not been visited before by a Frankish king. Dagobert
took Paris for his chief town; he made himself a splendid court, took
journeys through his kingdom, doing justice to his subjects, and
encouraged the building of churches, and had copies of the old Frankish
laws written out and sent throughout his kingdom. The people liked him;
but the powerful chiefs and the bishops, who had become so worldly that
they thought a great deal more about piling up riches than in turning
the people to Christianity, were filled with dismay to have so wise and
just a king, who was fast gaining a great power over the people. After
ten years Dagobert died and left two sons; one was king of Austrasia;
and the younger king of Neustria. After these, there followed three
more kings in Neustria, and four in Austrasia, but they had no power,
and were only called kings, while the government was really in the
hands of a new set of men, from which line the illustrious Charlemagne
sprang. The chief man next the king in these countries was called the
Mayor of the Palace. He had the chief command in times of war, and at
last became in truth the sovereign ruler; and they only put up one of
their do-nothing kings as a figure-head. After the death of Dagobert,
there was no other Frankish king of any importance in the line of the
Merovingians. The Fainéants, or do-nothing kings, as they were called,
sat on the throne and pretended to rule, but the mayor of the palace
told them what they must say to the people and what they must do.
This went on for nearly a hundred years. When Dagobert died, the mayor
of the palace was named Pepin, and through several reigns he really
governed both Austrasia and Neustria. He made war against the Germans,
and sometimes when they were very troublesome he went with an army and
subdued them; and at other times he sent monks to try and convert them
to Christianity. When Pepin died, his son Karl became the mayor of the
palace. Now Karl wished to secure money to give to his chiefs, so that
they would fight for him, and so he took away from the bishops the rich
lands which belonged to the church, and gave them to his warriors.
Karl had first to fight the Saxons, whom he defeated, and then there
appeared a new foe. The Arabs lived in Arabia, on the east side of the
Red Sea, in Asia.
They had always been a poor, wandering people. But about one hundred
and fifty years before this time, an Arab had appeared among his
countrymen, claiming to be a mighty prophet, and teaching them a new
religion. It was not the Christian religion; but this man, who was
named Mohammed, claimed that he had been sent by God to teach the
people; and so the religion he proclaimed was called Mohammedanism.
Now the Arabs had never left their own country before, but they
determined to go forth and conquer the world, and make all the nations
Mohammedans. They conquered Persia, Egypt, Spain, and a part of Africa.
When they overcame any nation, if the people would consent to become
Mohammedans, the Arabs treated them with kindness; but if they refused,
they made slaves of them, and sometimes put them to death. Having
conquered Spain, the Arabs wished to become masters of France.
When they had passed the Pyrenees, Karl went forth to meet them. There
was a great battle, known in history as the Battle of Tours, and at
length Karl conquered the Mohammedans, and drove them out of France.
Some accounts state that three hundred thousand Arabs were killed.
This mayor of the palace has been called Karl the Hammer, or in
French, Charles Martel, in memory of the blows he inflicted upon these
Mohammedan enemies. He was afterwards called the Duke of the Franks.
In the time of Charles Martel, several kings became monks. An English
monk named Winfrid had been sent by the Pope and Charles Martel to
preach to the Saxons. After persuading thousands of the people to be
baptized, this monk was made bishop and then archbishop. But he thought
more of converting the heathen than of wearing honors, and leaving his
bishopric to another, he went forth into a wild part of the country
to preach Christianity. When a large number of people had assembled
to be baptized, an armed force of the heathen attacked them, killing
Winfrid and all the Christian people. This good monk is called also St.
Boniface.
After the death of Charles Martel his two sons ruled for six years
together, and then one of them went into a monastery, leaving the
younger, Pepin, who now became the only duke of the Franks.
The people began to think it absurd to have a useless set of lazy,
do-nothing, Merovingian, or long-haired kings, who were only puppets in
the hands of the reigning duke. So Pepin, also called Le Bref, or the
Short, asked the Pope to make him king, instead of the figure-head who
sat upon the throne, who at that time bore the name of Hilperik. The
answer of the Pope was, “He who has the power ought also to have the
name of king.”
[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE.]
As the Pope had thus consented to the change, all the Franks were
delighted, and they took the useless king from his throne, cut off
his long yellow hair, which was his sign of royalty, and shut him up
in a monastery. He died two years afterwards, and was the last of the
Merovingian kings.
Pepin was now crowned by St. Boniface, as this event preceded the death
of that king, and thus he became the first of the Carlovingian kings,
so called from Carolus, the Latin for Charles, which was the name of
Pepin’s father, and his still greater son.
Pepin now aided the Pope by marching into Italy and fighting the
Lombards; and having conquered them, he took their lands and gave them
to the Pope, which property afterwards descended from one pope to
another, so that the popes at last became masters of quite a kingdom in
Italy. Pepin also besieged a town in Southern Gaul, belonging to the
Arabs, and after seven years captured it, and drove the Arabs over the
Pyrenees, into Spain. He reigned for sixteen years, and dying left his
kingdom to his two sons Karl and Karloman, who divided it between them;
but Karloman lived but three years, when Karl became the king of France.
While his Austrasian subjects, who spoke German, called him Karl, the
Neustrians, whose language was a mingling of the Latin and the German,
which has since become the French language, called him Charles; and
after he became so famous, the Latin word _magnus_, meaning great, was
added, and Charles-Magnus thus became the Charlemagne of history.
Very little can be learned regarding the early life of Charlemagne. One
of the old writers, named Eginhard, who afterwards became the secretary
of Charlemagne, records that neither he himself, nor any one then
living, knew anything about the birth of this prince, nor about his
infancy, nor even youth. His father, King Pepin, had his two sons
associated with himself, when he received the title of king from the
Bishop of Rome; but neither of them received any separate government
during their father’s life. They were taught, with the other young
nobles, by Peter of Pisa, whom Pepin retained at his court for this
purpose. It is supposed that King Pepin took the young princes with
him in his Italian expeditions, and that Charlemagne accompanied his
father in the Aquitanian war. When King Pepin died, his eldest son was
twenty-six years and a half old, while the younger was barely nineteen.
Both were already married to wives of the Frank race. Charles, or
Charlemagne, to Himiltrude, and Carloman to Gerberge.