the position of Charles Martel's sons turned out to be pretty nearly the
same as that of their father: it was touching the necessity of assigning
warriors a portion of the ecclesiastical revenues. But they, being more
religious, perhaps, than Charles Martel, or more impressed with the
importance of humoring the priestly power, were more vexed and more
anxious about the necessity under which they found themselves of
continuing to despoil the churches and of persisting in a system which
was putting the finishing stroke to the ruin of all ecclesiastical
discipline. They were more eager to mitigate the evil and to offer the
Church compensation for their share in this evil to which it was not in
their power to put a stop. Accordingly, at the March parade, held at
Leptines in 743, it was decided, in reference to ecclesiastical lands
applied to the military service: 1st, that the churches having the
ownership of those lands should share the revenue with the lay holder;
2d, that on the death of a warrior in enjoyment of an ecclesiastical
benefice, the benefice should revert to the Church; 3d, that every
benefice, by deprivation whereof any church would be reduced to poverty,
should be at once restored to her.
"That this capitular was carried out, or even capable of being carried
out, is very doubtful; but the less Carloman and Pépin succeeded in
repairing the material losses incurred by the Church since the accession
of the Carlovingians, the more zealous they were in promoting the growth
of her moral power and the restoration of her discipline ... That was
the time at which there began to be seen the spectacle of the national
assemblies of the Franks, the gatherings at the March parades
transformed into ecclesiastical synods under the presidency of the
titular legate of the Roman pontiff, and dictating, by the mouth of the
political authority, regulations and laws with the direct and formal aim
of restoring divine worship and ecclesiastical discipline, and of
assuring the spiritual welfare of the people."
Pépin, after he had been proclaimed king and had settled matters with
the Church as well as the warlike questions remaining for him to solve
permitted, directed all his efforts toward the two countries which,
after his father's example, he longed to reunite to the Gallo-Frankish
monarchy, that is, Septimania, still occupied by the Arabs, and
Aquitaine, the independence of which was stoutly and ably defended by
Duke Eudes' grandson, Duke Waifre. The conquest of Septimania was rather
tedious than difficult. The Franks, after having victoriously scoured
the open country of the district, kept invested during three years its
capital, Narbonne, where the Arabs of Spain, much weakened by their
dissensions, vainly tried to throw in reinforcements. Besides the
Mussulman Arabs, the population of the town numbered many Christian
Goths, who were tired of suffering for the defence of their oppressors,
and who entered into secret negotiations with the chiefs of Pépin's
army, the end of which was that they opened the gates of the town. In
759, then, after forty years of Arab rule, Narbonne passed definitively
under that of the Franks, who guaranteed to the inhabitants free
enjoyment of their Gothic or Roman law and of their local institutions.
It even appears that, in the province of Spain bordering on Septimania,
an Arab chief, called Soliman, who was in command at Gerona and
Barcelona, between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, submitted to Pépin,
himself and the country under him. This was an important event, indeed,
in the reign of Pépin, for here was the point at which Islamism, but
lately aggressive and victorious in Southern Europe, began to feel
definitively beaten and to recoil before Christianity.
The conquest of Aquitaine and Vasconia was much more keenly disputed and
for a much longer time uncertain. Duke Waif re was as able in
negotiation as in war; at one time he seemed to accept the pacific
overtures of Pépin, or, perhaps, himself made similar, without bringing
about any result; at another, he went to seek and found even in Germany
allies who caused Pépin much embarrassment and peril. The population of
Aquitaine hated the Franks; and the war, which for their duke was a
question of independent sovereignty, was for themselves a question of
passionate national feeling.
Pépin, who was naturally more humane and even more generous, it may be
said, in war than his predecessors had usually been, was nevertheless
induced, in his struggle against the Duke of Aquitaine, to ravage
without mercy the countries he scoured, and to treat the vanquished with
great harshness. It was only after nine years' war and seven campaigns
full of vicissitudes that he succeeded, not in conquering his enemy in a
decisive battle, but in gaining over some servants who betrayed their
master. In the month of July, 759, "Duke Waifre was slain by his own
folk, by the King's advice," says Frédégaire; and the conquest of all
Southern Gaul carried the extent and power of the Gallo-Frankish
monarchy farther and higher than it had ever yet been, even under
Clovis.
In 753 Pépin had made an expedition against the Britons of Armorica, had
taken Vannes and "subjugated," add certain chroniclers, "the whole of
Brittany." In point of fact, Brittany was no more subjugated by Pépin
than by his predecessors; all that can be said is that the Franks
resumed under him an aggressive attitude toward the Britons, as if to
vindicate a right of sovereignty.
Exactly at this epoch Pépin was engaging in a matter which did not allow
him to scatter his forces hither and thither. It has been stated
already, that in 741 Pope Gregory III had asked aid of the Franks
against the Lombards who were threatening Rome, and that, while fully
entertaining the Pope's wishes, Charles Martel had been in no hurry to
interfere by deed in the quarrel. Twelve years later, in 753, Pope
Stephen, in his turn threatened by Astolphus, King of the Lombards,
after vain attempts to obtain guarantees of peace, repaired to Paris,
and renewed to Pépin the entreaties used by Zachary. It was difficult
for Pépin to turn a deaf ear; it was Zachary who had declared that he
ought to be made king; Stephen showed readiness to anoint him a second
time, himself and his sons; and it was the eldest of these sons,
Charles, scarcely twelve years old, whom Pépin, on learning the near
arrival of the Pope, had sent to meet him and give brilliancy to his
reception.
Stephen passed the winter at St. Denis, and gained the favor of the
people as well as that of the King. Astolphus peremptorily refused to
listen to the remonstrances of Pépin, who called upon him to evacuate
the towns in the exarchate of Ravenna, and to leave the Pope unmolested
in the environs of Rome as well as in Rome itself. At the March parade
held at Braine, in the spring of 754, the Franks approved of the war
against the Lombards; and at the end of the summer Pépin and his army
descended into Italy by Mount Cenis, the Lombards trying in vain to stop
them as they debouched into the valley of Suza. Astolphus, beaten, and,
before long, shut up in Pavia, promised all that was demanded of him;
and Pépin and his warriors, laden with booty, returned to France,
leaving at Rome the Pope, who conjured them to remain awhile in Italy,
for to a certainty, he said, King Astolphus would not keep his promises.
The pope was right. So soon as the Franks had gone, the King of the
Lombards continued occupying the places in the exarchate and molesting
the neighborhood of Rome.
The Pope, in despair and doubtful of his auxiliaries' return, conceived
the idea of sending "to the King, the chiefs, and the people of the
Franks, a letter written, he said, by Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ,
Son of the living God, to announce to them that, if they came in haste,
he would aid them as if he were alive according to the flesh among them,
that they would conquer all their enemies and make themselves sure of
eternal life!" The plan was perfectly successful: the Franks once more
crossed the Alps with enthusiasm, once more succeeded in beating the
Lombards, and once more shut up in Pavia King Astolphus, who was eager
to purchase peace at any price. He obtained it on two principal
conditions: (1) That he would not again make a hostile attack on Roman
territory, or wage war against the Pope or people of Rome; (2) that he
would henceforth recognize the sovereignty of the Franks, pay them
tribute, and cede forthwith to Pépin the towns and all the lands
belonging to the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire, which were at that
time occupied by the Lombards. By virtue of these conditions Ravenna,
Rimini, Pesaro, that is to say, the Romagna, the duchy of Urbino, and a
portion of the Marches of Ancona, were at once given up to Pépin, who,
regarding them as his own direct conquest, the fruit of victory,
disposed of them forthwith in favor of the popes, by that famous deed of
gift which comprehended pretty nearly what has since formed the Roman
States, and which founded the temporal independence of the papacy, the
guarantee of its independence in the exercise of the spiritual power.
At the head of the Franks as mayor of the palace from 741, and as king
from 752, Pépin had completed in France and extended in Italy the work
which his father, Charles Martel, had begun and carried on, from 714 to
741, in state and church. He left France reunited in one and placed at
the head of Christian Europe. He died at the monastery of St. Denis,
September 18, 768, leaving his kingdom and his dynasty thus ready to the
hands of his son, whom history has dubbed Charlemagne.
CAREER OF CHARLEMAGNE
A.D. 772-814
FRANÇOIS P.G. GUIZOT
In Charles, the son of Pépin the Short, later known as Charlemagne,
or Charles the Great, the Carlovingians saw the culminating glory
of their line, while in French history the splendor of his name
outshines that of all other rulers. It seemed an act of fate that
his brother and joint heir to the Frankish kingdom should die and
leave the monarchy wholly in his hands, for his genius was to prove
equal to its field of action.
The kingdom which Charlemagne inherited was great in extent, lying
mainly between the Loire and the Rhine, including Alemannia and
Burgundy, while his sphere of influence--to use the modern
phrase--covered many provinces and districts over which his rule
was wholly or in part acknowledged--Aquitaine, Bavaria, Brittany,
Frisia, Thuringia, and others.
To enlarge still further the bounds of his kingdom was the task to
which the young monarch at once addressed himself, and upon which
he entered with all the advantages of family prestige, a commanding
and engaging personality, proven courage and skill in war, as well
as talent and accomplishments in civil affairs.
The central purpose of Charlemagne, to the service of which all his
policies and his conduct were directed, was the maintenance of the
Christian religion as embodied in the Western Church, whose great
champion he became, and in that character occupies his lofty place
in the history of Europe and of the world. At this period the two
great powers in the Christian world were the Roman pontiff and the
Frankish king; and when, on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, Pope Leo III
crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans, and in the Holy Roman
Empire restored the Western Empire, extinct since 476, he welded
church and state in what long proved to be indissoluble bonds,
somewhat--it must be added--to the chagrin of the Byzantine
emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople. This was an
event the significance of which only later times could learn to
estimate. The Holy Roman Empire henceforth held a leading part in
the world's affairs, the influence of which is still active in the
survivals of its power among nations.
Charlemagne served the Church and fulfilled his own purposes
through the military subjugation of all whom he could overcome
among the barbarians and heathens of his time. And the powers which
he gained as conqueror he exercised with equal ability and
steadfastness of purpose in his capacity as foremost secular ruler
in the world. By the union of the Teutonic with the Roman
interests, and of northern vigor with the culture of the South, it
is considered by the historians of our own day that Charlemagne
proved himself the beginner of a new era--in fact, as Bryce
declares, of modern history itself.
Gibbon has said that of all the heroes to whom the title of "the
Great" has been given, Charlemagne alone has retained it as a
permanent addition to his name.
The most judicious minds are sometimes led blindly by tradition and
habit, rather than enlightened by reflection and experience. Pépin the
Short committed at his death the same mistake that his father, Charles
Martel, had committed: he divided his dominions between his two sons,
Charles and Carloman, thus destroying again that unity of the
Gallo-Frankish monarchy which his father and he had been at so much
pains to establish. But, just as had already happened in 746 through the
abdication of Pépin's brother, events discharged the duty of repairing
the mistake of men. After the death of Pépin, and notwithstanding that
of Duke Waifre, insurrection broke out once more in Aquitaine; and the
old duke, Hunald, issued from his monastery in the island of Rhé to try
and recover power and independence. Charles and Carloman marched against
him; but, on the march, Carloman, who was jealous and thoughtless, fell
out with his brother, and suddenly quitted the expedition, taking away
his troops. Charles was obliged to continue it alone, which he did with
complete success. At the end of this first campaign, Pépin's widow, the
queen-mother Bertha, reconciled her two sons; but an unexpected
incident, the death of Carloman two years afterward in 771,
reëstablished unity more surely than the reconciliation had
reëstablished harmony. For, although Carloman left sons, the grandees of
his dominions, whether laic or ecclesiastical, assembled at Corbény,
between Laon and Rheims, and proclaimed in his stead his brother
Charles, who thus became sole king of the Gallo-Franco-Germanic
monarchy. And as ambition and manners had become less tinged with
ferocity than they had been under the Merovingians, the sons of Carloman
were not killed or shorn or even shut up in a monastery: they retired
with their mother, Gerberge, to the court of Didier, King of the
Lombards. "King Charles," says Eginhard, "took their departure
patiently, regarding it as of no importance." Thus commenced the reign
of Charlemagne.
The original and dominant characteristic of the hero of this reign, that
which won for him, and keeps for him after more than ten centuries, the
name of great, is the striking variety of his ambition, his faculties,
and his deeds. Charlemagne aspired to and attained to every sort of
greatness--military greatness, political greatness, and intellectual
greatness; he was an able warrior, an energetic legislator, a hero of
poetry. And he united, he displayed all these merits in a time of
general and monotonous barbarism when, save in the church, the minds of
men were dull and barren. Those men, few in number, who made themselves
a name at that epoch, rallied round Charlemagne and were developed under
his patronage. To know him well and appreciate him justly, he must be
examined under those various grand aspects, abroad and at home, in his
wars and in his government.
From 769 to 813, in Germany and Western and Northern Europe, Charlemagne
conducted thirty-one campaigns against the Saxons, Frisians, Bavarians,
Avars, Slavons, and Danes; in Italy, five against the Lombards; in
Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia, twelve against the Arabs; two against the
Greeks; and three in Gaul itself, against the Aquitanians and the
Britons; in all, fifty-three expeditions; among which those he undertook
against the Saxons, the Lombards, and the Arabs were long and difficult
wars. It were undesirable to recount them in detail, for the relation
would be monotonous and useless; but it is obligatory to make fully
known their causes, their characteristic incidents, and their results.
Under the last Merovingian kings, the Saxons were, on the right bank of
the Rhine, in frequent collision with the Franks, especially with the
Austrasian Franks, whose territory they were continually threatening and
often invading. Pépin the Short had more than once hurled them back far
from the very uncertain frontiers of Germanic Austrasia; and, on
becoming king, he dealt his blows still farther, and entered, in his
turn, Saxony itself. "In spite of the Saxon's stout resistance," says
Eginhard, "he pierced through the points they had fortified to bar
entrance into their country, and, after having fought here and there
battles wherein fell many Saxons, he forced them to promise that they
would submit to his rule; and that every year, to do him honor, they
would send to the general assembly of Franks a present of three hundred
horses. When these conventions were once settled, he insisted, to insure
their performance, upon placing them under the guarantee of rites
peculiar to the Saxons; then he returned with his army to Gaul."
Charlemagne did not confine himself to resuming his father's work; he
before long changed its character and its scope. In 772, being left sole
master of France after the death of his brother Carloman, he convoked at
Worms the general assembly of the Franks, "and took," says Eginhard,
"the resolution of going and carrying war into Saxony. He invaded it
without delay, laid it waste with fire and sword, made himself master of
the fort of Ehresburg, and threw down the idol that the Saxons called
_Irminsul_." And in what place was this first victory of Charlemagne
won? Near the sources of the Lippe, just where, more than seven
centuries before, the German Arminius (Herman) had destroyed the legions
of Varus, and whither Germanicus had come to avenge the disaster of
Varus. This ground belonged to Saxon territory; and this idol, called
_Irminsul_, which was thrown down by Charlemagne, was probably a
monument raised in honor of Arminius (_Hermann-Seule,_ or _Herman's
pillar_), whose name it called to mind. The patriotic and hereditary
pride of the Saxons was passionately roused by this blow; and, the
following year, "thinking to find in the absence of the King the most
favorable opportunity," says Eginhard, they entered the lands of the
Franks, laid them waste in their turn, and, paying back outrage for
outrage, set fire to the church not long since built at Fritzlar, by
Boniface, martyr. From that time the question changed its aspect; it was
no longer the repression of Saxon invasions of France, but the conquest
of Saxony by the Franks that was to be dealt with; it was between the
Christianity of the Franks and the national paganism of the Saxons that
the struggle was to take place.
For thirty years such was its character. Charlemagne regarded the
conquest of Saxony as indispensable for putting a stop to the incursions
of the Saxons, and the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity as
indispensable for assuring the conquest of Saxony. The Saxons were
defending at one and the same time the independence of their country and
the gods of their fathers. Here was wherewithal to stir up and foment,
on both sides, the profoundest passions; and they burst forth, on both
sides, with equal fury. Whithersoever Charlemagne penetrated he built
strong castles and churches; and, at his departure, left garrisons and
missionaries. When he was gone the Saxons returned, attacked the forts,
and massacred the garrisons and the missionaries. At the commencement of
the struggle, a priest of Anglo-Saxon origin, whom St. Willibrod, bishop
of Utrecht, had but lately consecrated--St. Liebwin, in fact--undertook
to go and preach the Christian religion in the very heart of Saxony, on
the banks of the Weser, amid the general assembly of the Saxons. "What
do ye?" said he, cross in hand; "the idols ye worship live not, neither
do they perceive: they are the work of men's hands; they can do naught
either for themselves or for others. Wherefore the one God, good and
just, having compassion on your errors, hath sent me unto you. If ye put
not away your iniquity, I foretell unto you a trouble that ye do not
expect, and that the King of Heaven hath ordained aforetime: there shall
come a prince, strong and wise and indefatigable, not from afar, but
from nigh at hand, to fall upon you like a torrent, in order to soften
your hard hearts and bow down your proud heads. At one rush he shall
invade the country; he shall lay it waste with fire and sword, and carry
away your wives and children into captivity." A thrill of rage ran
through the assembly; and already many of those present had begun to
cut, in the neighboring woods, stakes sharpened to a point to pierce the
priest, when one of the chieftains, named Buto, cried aloud: "Listen, ye
who are the most wise. There have often come unto us ambassadors from
neighboring peoples, Northmen, Slavons, or Frisians; we have received
them in peace, and when their messages had been heard, they have been
sent away with a present. Here is an ambassador from a great God, and ye
would slay him!" Whether it were from sentiment or from prudence, the
multitude was calmed, or, at any rate, restrained; and for this time the
priest retired safe and sound.
Just as the pious zeal of the missionaries was of service to
Charlemagne, so did the power of Charlemagne support and sometimes
preserve the missionaries. The mob, even in the midst of its passions,
is not throughout or at all times inaccessible to fear. The Saxons were
not one and the same nation, constantly united in one and the same
assembly, and governed by a single chieftain. Three populations of the
same race, distinguished by names borrowed from their geographical
situation, just as had happened among the Franks in the case of the
Austrasians and Neustrians, to wit, Eastphalian or Eastern Saxons,
Westphalian or Western, and Angrians, formed the Saxon confederation.
And to them was often added a fourth people of the same origin, closer
to the Danes, and called North-Albingians, inhabitants of the northern
district of the Elbe. These four principal Saxon populations were
subdivided into a large number of tribes, who had their own particular
chieftains, and who often decided, each for itself, their conduct and
their fate. Charlemagne, knowing how to profit by this want of cohesion
and unity among his foes, attacked now one and now another of the large
Saxon peoplets or the small Saxon tribes, and dealt separately with each
of them, according as he found them inclined to submission or
resistance. After having, in four or five successive expeditions, gained
victories and sustained checks, he thought himself sufficiently advanced
in his conquest to put his relations with the Saxons to a grand trial.
In 777, he resolved, says Eginhard, "to go and hold, at the place called
Paderborn (close to Saxony) the general assembly of this people. On his
arrival he found there assembled the senate and people of this
perfidious nation, who, conformably to his orders, had repaired thither,
seeking to deceive him by a false show of submission and devotion....
They earned their pardon, but on this condition, however, that, if
hereafter they broke their engagements, they would be deprived of
country and liberty. A great number among them had themselves baptized
on this occasion; but it was with far from sincere intentions that they
had testified a desire to become Christians."