The degeneration of the monarchy was clearly apparent on the death of
Charles the Bald, when his son, Louis the Stammerer, was only assured of
the throne, which had passed by right of birth under the Merovingians
and been hereditary under the earlier Carolingians, through his election
by nobles and bishops under the direction of Hugh the Abbot, successor
of Robert the Strong, each voter having been won over by gift of abbeys,
counties or manors. When Louis died two years later (879), the same
nobles met, some at Creil, the rest at Meaux, and the first party chose
Louis of Germany, who preferred Lorraine to the crown; while the rest
anointed Louis III. and Carloman, sons of the late king, themselves
deciding how the kingdom was to be divided between the two princes. Thus
the king no longer chose his own vassals; but vassals and fief-holders
actually elected their king according to the material advantages they
expected from him. Louis III. and Carloman justified their election by
their brilliant victories over the Normans at Saucourt (881) and near
Epernay (883); but at their deaths (882-884), the nobles, instead of
taking Louis's boy-son, Charles the Simple, as king, chose Charles the
Fat, king of Germany, because he was emperor and seemed powerful. He
united once more the dominions of Charlemagne; but he disgraced the
imperial throne by his feebleness, and was incapable of using his
immense army to defend Paris when it was besieged by the Normans.
Expelled from Italy, he only came to France to buy a shameful peace.
When he died in January 888 he had not a single faithful vassal, and the
feudal lords resolved never again to place the sceptre in a hand that
could not wield the sword.
Death-struggle of the Carolingians (888-987).
The death-struggle of the Carolingians lasted for a century of
uncertainty and anarchy, during which time the bishops, counts and lords
might well have suppressed the monarchy had they been hostile to it.
Such, however, was not their policy; on the contrary, they needed a king
to act as agent for their private interests, since he alone could invest
their rank and dignities with an official and legitimate character. They
did not at once agree on Charles's successor; for some of them chose
Eudes (Odo), son of Robert the Strong, for his brilliant defence of
Paris against the Normans in 885; others Guy, duke of Spoleto in Italy,
who had himself crowned at Langres; while many wished for Arnulf,
illegitimate son of Carloman, king of Germany and emperor. Eudes was
victor in the struggle, and was crowned and anointed at Compiègne on the
29th of February 888; but five years later, meeting with defeat after
defeat at the hands of the Normans, his followers deserted from him to
Charles the Simple, grandson of Charles the Bald, who was also supported
by Fulk, archbishop of Reims.
King Odo (888-893).
Charles the Simple (893-929).
Rudolph of Burgundy (923-936).
This first Carolingian restoration took place on the 28th of January
893, and thenceforward throughout this warlike period from 888 to 936
the crown passed from one dynasty to the other according to the
interests of the nobles. After desperate strife, an agreement between
the two rivals, Arnulf's support, and the death of Odo, secured it for
Charles III., surnamed the Simple. His subjects remained faithful to him
for a good while, as he put an end to the Norman invasions which had
desolated the kingdom for two centuries, and cowed those barbarians,
much to the benefit of France. By the treaty of St Clair-sur-Epte (911)
their leader Rolf (Rollo) obtained one of Charles's daughters in
marriage and the district of the Lower Seine which the Normans had long
occupied, on condition that he and his men ceased their attacks and
accepted Christianity. Having thus tranquillized the west, Charles took
advantage of Louis the Child's death, and conquered Lorraine, in spite
of opposition from Conrad, king of Germany (921). But his preference for
his new conquest, and for a Lorrainer of low birth named Hagano, aroused
the jealousy and discontent of his nobles. They first elected Robert,
count of Paris (923), and then after his death in a successful battle
near Soissons against Charles the Simple, Rudolph of Burgundy, his
son-in-law. But Herbert of Vermandois, one of the successful combatants
at Soissons, coveted the countship of Laon, which Rudolph refused him;
and he thereupon proclaimed Charles the Simple, who had confided his
cause to him, as king once more. Seeing his danger Rudolph ceded the
countship to Herbert, and Charles was relegated to his prison until his
death in 929. After unsuccessful wars against the nobles of the South,
against the Normans, who asserted that they were bound to no one except
Charles the Simple, and against the Hungarians (who, now the Normans
were pacified, were acting their part in the East), Rudolph had a return
of good fortune in the years between 930 and 936, despite the intrigues
of Herbert of Vermandois. Upon his death the nobles assembled to elect a
king; and Hugh the Great, Rudolph's brother-in-law, moved by
irresolution as much as by prudence, instead of taking the crown,
preferred to restore the Carolingians once more in the person of Charles
the Simple's son, Louis d'Outremer, himself claiming numerous privileges
and enjoying the exercise of power unencumbered by a title which carried
with it the jealousy of the nobles.