THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN EUROPEAN STATES.
§ 1. _The Division of the Frankish Empire._
♦Dissolution of the Frankish dominion.♦
The great dominion of the Franks, the German kingdom which had so
strangely grown into a new Western Roman Empire, did not last long.
In the course of the ninth century it altogether fell to pieces. ♦The
chief states of modern Europe spring out of it.♦ But the process by
which it fell to pieces must be carefully traced, because it was out
of its dismemberment that the chief states of Western Europe arose.
Speaking roughly, the Carolingian Empire took in Germany, so far as
Germany had yet spread to the East, all Gaul, a great part of Italy,
and a small part of Spain. ♦National kingdoms not yet formed.♦ Of
these, it was only Italy, and sometimes Aquitaine, which showed any
approach to the character of a separate or national kingdom. ♦Extent
of _Francia_.♦ Northern Gaul and central Germany were still alike
_Francia_; and, though the Romance speech prevailed in one, and the
Teutonic speech in the other, no national distinction was drawn between
them during the time of Charles the Great. Among the proposed divisions
of his Empire, none proposed to separate _Neustria_ and _Austria_,
the Western and the Eastern _Francia_. ♦Separate being of Italy and
Aquitaine.♦ But Italy did form a separate kingdom under the superiority
of the Emperor; and so for a while there was an under-kingdom of
Aquitaine, answering roughly to Gaul south of the Loire. This is the
land of the _Provençal_ tongue, the _tongue of Oc_, a tongue which,
it must be remembered, reached to the Ebro. ♦Division under Lewis
the Pious. | First glimpses of Modern France.♦ It is in the various
divisions, contemplated and actual, among the sons of Lewis the Pious,
the successor of Charles the Great, that we see the first approaches to
a national division between Germany and Gaul, and the first glimmerings
of a state answering in any way to _France_ in the modern sense.
♦Division of 817.♦
The earliest among those endless divisions that we need mention is the
division of 817, by which two new subordinate kingdoms were founded
within the Empire. Lewis and his immediate colleague Lothar kept in
their own hands _Francia_, German and Gaulish, and the more part of
Burgundy. South-western Gaul, Aquitaine in the wide sense, with some
small parts of Septimania and Burgundy, formed the portion of one
under-king; South-eastern Germany, Bavaria and the march-lands beyond
it, formed the portion of another. Italy still remained the portion of
a third. Here we have nothing in the least answering to modern France.
The tendency is rather to leave the immediate Frankish kingdom, both in
Gaul and Germany, as an undivided whole, and to part off its dependent
lands, German, Gaulish, and Italian. ♦Union of Neustria and Aquitaine
the first step to the creation of _France_. 838.♦ But, in a much later
division, Lewis granted Neustria to his son Charles, and in the next
year, on the death of Pippin of Aquitaine, he added his kingdom to
that of Charles. A state was thus formed which answers roughly to the
later kingdom of France, as it stood before the long series of French
encroachments on the German and Burgundian lands. ♦Character of the
_Western Kingdom_.♦ The kingdom thus formed had no definite name, and
it answered to no national division. It was indeed mainly a kingdom
of the Romance speech, but it did not answer to any one of the great
divisions of that speech. It was a kingdom formed by accident, because
Lewis wished to increase the portion of his youngest son. Still there
can be no doubt that we have here the first beginning of the kingdom
of _France_, though it was not till after several other stages that
the kingdom thus formed took that name. ♦Division of Verdun. 843.♦ The
final division of Verdun went a step further in the direction of the
modern map. It left Charles in possession of a kingdom which still more
nearly answered to France, as France stood before its Burgundian and
German annexations. It also founded a kingdom which roughly answered
to the later _Germany_ before its great extension to the East at the
expense of the Slavonic nations. And, as the Western kingdom was
formed by the addition of Aquitaine to the Western _Francia_, so the
Eastern kingdom was formed by the addition of the Eastern _Francia_ to
Bavaria. Lewis of Bavaria became king of a kingdom which we are tempted
to call the kingdom of _Germany_. Still it would as yet be premature
to speak of France at all, or even to speak of Germany, except in the
geographical sense. ♦Kingdoms of the Eastern and Western Franks.♦ The
two kingdoms are severally the kingdoms of the _Eastern_ and of the
_Western Franks_. But between these two states the policy of the ninth
century instinctively put a barrier. The Emperor Lothar, besides Italy,
kept a long narrow strip of territory between the dominions of his
Eastern and Western brothers. After him, Italy remained to his son the
Emperor Lewis, while the border lands of Germany and Gaul passed to the
younger Lothar. ♦Kingdom of _Lotharingia_, Lothringen, Lorraine.♦ This
land, having thus been the dominion of two Lothars, took the name of
_Lotharingia_, _Lothringen_, or _Lorraine_, a name which part of it has
kept to this day. This land, sometimes attached to the Eastern kingdom,
sometimes to the Western, sometimes divided between the two, sometimes
separated from both, always kept its character of a border-land. ♦The
Western Kingdom called _Karolingia_.♦ The kingdom to the west of it, in
like manner took the name of _Karolingia_, which, according to the same
analogy, should be _Charlaine_. It is only by a caprice of language
that the name of Lotharingia has survived, while that of Karolingia has
died out.
♦Burgundy, or the Middle Kingdom.♦
Meanwhile, in South-eastern Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps,
another kingdom arose, namely the kingdom of _Burgundy_. ♦Union under
Charles the Fat. 884.♦ Under Charles the Third, commonly known as the
Fat, all the Frankish dominions, except Burgundy, were again united for
a moment. ♦Division on his deposition. 887.♦ On his deposition they
split asunder again. We now have four distinct kingdoms, those of the
_Eastern_ and _Western Franks_, the forerunners of Germany and France,
the kingdom of _Italy_, and _Burgundy_, sometimes forming one kingdom
and sometimes two. _Lotharingia_ remained a border-land between the
Eastern and Western kingdoms, attached sometimes to one, sometimes to
another. Out of these elements arose the great kingdoms and nations
of Western Europe. The four can hardly be better described than they
are by the Old-English Chronicler: ‘Arnulf then dwelled in the land to
the East of Rhine; and Rudolf took to the middle kingdom; and Oda to
the West deal; and Berengar and Guy to the Lombards’ land, and to the
lands on that side of the mountain.’ But the geography of all the four
kingdoms which now arose must be described at somewhat greater length.
It must be borne in mind that all these divisions of the great Frankish
dominion were, in theory, like the ancient divisions of the Empire,
a mere parcelling out of a common possession among several royal
colleagues. ♦No formal titles or names of the Frankish kingdoms.♦ The
Kings had no special titles, and their dominions had no special names
recognized in formal use. Every king who ruled over any part of the
ancient _Francia_ was a King of the Franks, just as much as all among
the many rulers of the Roman Empire in the days of Diocletian and
Constantine were equally Roman Augusti or Cæsars. As the kings and
their kingdoms had no formal titles specially set apart for them, the
writers of the time had to describe them as they might.[9] ♦Various
names of the Eastern Kingdom or _Germany_.♦ The Eastern part of the
Frankish dominions, the lot of Lewis the German and his successors,
is thus called the _Eastern Kingdom_, the _Teutonic Kingdom_. Its
king is the _King of the East-Franks_, sometimes simply the King of
the _Eastern men_, sometimes the _King of Germany_. This last name,
convenient in use, was inaccurate as a formal title, for the _Regnum
Teutonicum_ lay geographically partly in Germany, partly in Gaul.[10]
To the men of the Western kingdom the Eastern king sometimes appeared
as the _King beyond the Rhine_. The title of _King of Germany_ is
often found in the ninth century as a description, but it was not a
formal title. The Eastern king, like other kings, for the most part
simply calls himself _Rex_, till the time came when his rank as King of
Germany or of the East-Franks became simply a step towards the higher
title of Emperor of the Romans. ♦Connexion between the Eastern Kingdom
and the Empire.♦ But it must be remembered, that the special connexion
between the Roman Empire and the German kingdom did not begin at once
on the division of 887. ♦Imperial coronation of Arnulf. 896. | Homage
of Odo to Arnulf. 888.♦ Arnulf indeed, the first German King after the
division, made his way to Rome and was crowned Emperor; and it marks
the position of the Eastern kingdom as the chief among the kingdoms of
the Franks, that the West-Frankish King Odo did homage to Arnulf before
his lord’s Imperial coronation, when he was still simple German king.
♦Final union of Germany with the Empire under Otto the Great. 963.♦
The rule that whoever was chosen King of Germany had a right, without
further election, to the kingdom of Italy and to the Roman Empire,
began only with the coronation of Otto the Great. Up to that time, the
German king is simply one of the kings of the Franks, though it is
plain that he held the highest place among them.
* * * * *
♦Extent of the German kingdom.♦
This Eastern or German kingdom, as it came out of the division of
887, had, from north to south, nearly the same extent as the Germany
of later times. It stretched from the Alps to the Eider. Its southern
boundaries were somewhat fluctuating. _Verona_ and _Aquileia_ are
sometimes counted as a German march, and the boundary between Germany
and Burgundy, crossing the modern Switzerland, often changed. To the
North-east the kingdom hardly stretched beyond the Elbe, except in the
small Saxon land between the Elbe and the Eider. The great extension of
the German power over the Slavonic lands beyond the Elbe had hardly
yet begun. ♦The Austrian and Carinthian marks.♦ To the South-east lay
the two border-lands or _marks_; the _Eastern Mark_, which grew into
the later duchy of _Oesterreich_ or the modern _Austria_, and to the
south of it the mark of _Kärnthen_ or _Carinthia_. ♦The great duchies.♦
But the main part of the kingdom consisted of the great duchies of
_Saxony_, _Eastern Francia_, _Alemannia_, and _Bavaria_. ♦Saxony.♦ Of
these the two names of Saxony and Bavaria must be carefully marked
as having widely different meanings from those which they bear on
the modern map. Ancient Saxony lies, speaking roughly, between the
Eider, the Elbe, and the Rhine, though it never actually touches
the last-named river. ♦Eastern or Teutonic _Francia_.♦ To the south
of Saxony lies the Eastern _Francia_, the centre and kernel of the
German kingdom. The Main and the Neckar both join the Rhine within
its borders. To the south of Francia lie _Alemannia_ and _Bavaria_.
♦Alemannia and Bavaria.♦ This last, it must be remembered, borders on
Italy, with Bötzen for its frontier town. Alemannia is the land in
which both the Rhine and the Danube take their source; it stretches
on both sides of the _Bodensee_ or Lake of Constanz, with the Rætian
Alps as its southern boundary. For several ages to come, there is no
distinction, national or even provincial, between the lands north and
south of the Bodensee.
* * * * *
♦Lotharingia.♦
These lands make up the undoubted Eastern or German territory. To the
west of this lies the border land of _Lotharingia_, which has a history
of its own. For the first century after the division of 887, the
possession of Lotharingia fluctuated several times between the Eastern
and the Western kingdom. ♦987.♦ After the change of dynasty in the
Western kingdom, Lotharingia became definitely and undoubtedly German
in allegiance, though it always kept up something of a distinct being,
and its language was partly German and partly Romance. Lotharingia took
in the two duchies of the _Ripuarian Lotharingia_ and _Lotharingia on
the Mosel_. The former contains a large part of the modern Belgium
and the neighbouring lands on the Rhine, including the royal city of
Aachen. Lotharingia on the Mosel answers roughly to the later duchy of
that name, though its extent to the East is considerably larger.
* * * * *
♦The Western Kingdom.♦
The part of the Frankish dominions to which the Frankish name has
stuck most lastingly has been the Western kingdom or _Karolingia_,
which gradually got the special name of _France_. This came about
through the events of the ninth and tenth centuries. ♦Its extent.♦
The Western kingdom, as it was formed under Charles the Bald and as
it remained after the division of 887, nominally took in a great part
of modern France, namely all west of the Rhone and Saône. It took in
nothing to the east of those rivers, and Lotharingia, as we have seen,
was a border land which at last settled down as part of the Eastern
kingdom. Thus the extent of the old _Karolingia_ to the east was very
much smaller than the extent of modern France. But, on the other hand,
the Western kingdom took in lands at three points which are not part
of modern France. These are the march or county of _Flanders_ in the
north, the greater part of which forms part of the modern kingdom of
Belgium; the _Spanish March_, or county of _Barcelona_, which is now
part of Spain; and the _Norman Islands_ which are now held by the
sovereign of England. And it is hardly needful to say that, even within
these boundaries, the whole land was not in the hands of the King of
the West-Franks. He had only a supremacy, which was apt to become
nearly nominal, over the vassal princes who held the great divisions
of the kingdom. ♦The great fiefs.♦ South of the Loire the chief of
these vassal states were the duchy of _Aquitaine_, a name which now
means the land between the Loire and the Garonne—the duchy of _Gascony_
between the Garonne and the Pyrenees—the county of _Toulouse_ to the
east of it—the marches of _Septimania_ and _Barcelona_. North of the
Loire were _Britanny_, where native Celtic princes still reigned under
a very doubtful supremacy on the part of the Frankish kings—the march
of _Flanders_ in the north—and the duchy of _Burgundy_, the duchy which
had Dijon for its capital, and which must be carefully distinguished
from other duchies and kingdoms of the same name. ♦The Duchy of
France.♦ And, greatest of all, there was the duchy of _France_, that is
_Western_ or _Latin France_, _Francia Occidentalis_ or _Latina_. Its
capital was Paris, and its princes were called _Duces Francorum_, a
title in which the word _Francus_ is just beginning to change from its
older meaning of _Frank_ to its later meaning of _French_. ♦Normandy
cut off from France. 912.♦ From this great duchy of France several
great fiefs, as _Anjou_ and _Champagne_, were gradually cut off, and
the part of France between the Seine and the Epte was granted to the
Scandinavian chief Rolf, which, under him and his successors, grew
into the great duchy of _Normandy_. Its capital was Rouen, and this
settlement of the Normans had the effect of cutting off France and its
capital Paris from the sea.
The modern French kingdom gradually came into being during the century
after the deposition of Charles the Fat. ♦Fluctuations between the
Duchy of the French at Paris and the Karlings at Laon. 888-987.♦ During
this time the crown of the Western kingdom passed to and fro more
than once between the Dukes of the French at Paris and the princes of
the house of Charles the Great, whose only immediate dominion was the
city and district of _Laon_ near the Lotharingian border. Thus, for
a hundred years, the royal city of the Western kingdom was sometimes
Laon and sometimes Paris, and the King of the West-Franks was sometimes
the same person as the Duke of the French and sometimes not. ♦Union
of the French Duchy with the West-Frankish kingdom. 987.♦ But after
the election of Hugh Capet, the kingdom and the duchy were never again
separated. The Kings of _Karolingia_ or the Western kingdom, and the
Dukes of the _Western Francia_, were now the same persons. ♦New meaning
of the word _France_.♦ _France_ then—the Western or Latin _Francia_,
as distinguished from the German _Francia_ or _Franken_—properly meant
only the King’s immediate dominions. Though Normandy, Aquitaine, and
the Duchy of Burgundy, all owed homage to the French king, no one
would have spoken of them as parts of France. ♦Advance of the French
kingdom.♦ But, as the French kings, step by step, got possession of the
dominions of their vassals and other neighbours, the name of _France_
gradually spread, till it took in, as it now does, by far the greater
part of Gaul. On the other hand, Flanders, Barcelona, and the Norman
islands, though once under the homage of the French kings, have fallen
altogether away, and have therefore never been reckoned as parts of
France. Thus the name of _France_ supplanted the name of _Karolingia_
as the name of the Western kingdom. ♦Title of _Rex Francorum_.♦ And,
as it so happened that the Western kings kept on the title of _Rex
Francorum_ after it had been dropped in the Eastern kingdom, that
title gradually came to mean, not King of the _Franks_, but King of
the _French_, King of the new Romance-speaking nation which grew up
under them. ♦Origin of the French nation.♦ Thus it was that the modern
kingdom and nation of France arose through the crown of the Western
kingdom passing to the Dukes of the Western _Francia_. ♦Paris the
kernel of France.♦ Paris is not only the capital of the kingdom; it is
the kernel round which the kingdom and nation grew.
* * * * *
♦The Middle Kingdom or Burgundy.♦
Of all geographical names, that which has changed its meaning the
greatest number of times is the name of _Burgundy_. ♦Various meanings
of the name _Burgundy_.♦ It is specially needful to explain its
different meanings at this stage, when there are always two, and
sometimes more, distinct states bearing the Burgundian name. ♦The
French Duchy.♦ Of the older Burgundian kingdom, the north-western
part, forming the land best known as the _Duchy of Burgundy_, was,
in the divisions of the ninth century, a fief of Karolingia or the
Western kingdom. This is the Burgundy which has Dijon for its capital,
and which was held by more than one dynasty of dukes as vassals of
the Western kings, first at Laon and then at Paris. This Burgundy,
which, as the name of France came to bear its modern sense, may be
distinguished as the _French Duchy_, must be carefully distinguished
from the _Royal_ Burgundy, the _Middle Kingdom_ of our own chronicler.
♦The Kingdom of Burgundy or Arles.♦ This is a state which arose out of
the divisions of the ninth century, and which, sometimes as a single
kingdom, sometimes as two, took in all the rest of the old Burgundian
kingdom which did not form part of the French duchy. It may be roughly
defined as the land between the Rhone and Saône and the Alps, though
its somewhat fluctuating boundaries sometimes stretched west of the
Rhone, and its eastern frontier towards Germany changed more than once.
It thus took in the original Roman province in Gaul, which may be now
spoken of as _Provence_, with its great cities, foremost among them
_Arelate_ or _Arles_, which was the capital of the kingdom, and from
which the land was sometimes called the _Kingdom of Arles_. ♦Cities
of the Burgundian kingdom.♦ It also took in Lyons, the primatial city
of Gaul, Geneva, Besançon, and other important Roman towns. In short,
from its position, it contained a greater number of the former seats
of Roman power than any of the new kingdoms except Italy itself.
♦Cis-jurane.♦ When Burgundy formed two kingdoms, the Northern or
_Trans-jurane_ Burgundy took in, speaking roughly, the lands north of
Lyons, and _Cis-jurane_ Burgundy those between Lyons and the sea. These
last are now wholly French. The ancient Transjurane Burgundy is in
modern geography divided between France and Switzerland.
♦Burgundy separated from the Frankish kingdoms.♦
The history of this Burgundian kingdom differs in one respect from
that of any other of the states which arose out of the break-up of the
Frankish Empire. It parted off wholly from the Carolingian dominion
before the division of 887. It formed no part of the reunited Empire
of Charles the Fat. It may therefore be looked on as having parted off
altogether from the immediately Frankish rule, though it often appears
as more or less dependent on the kings of the Eastern Francia. But its
time of separate being was short. ♦Union of the kingdom with Germany.
| Later history of Burgundy: mostly annexed by France.♦ After about a
century and a half from its foundation, the Burgundian kingdom was
united under the same kings as Germany, and its later history consists
of the way in which the greater part of the old Middle Kingdom has
been swallowed up bit by bit by the modern kingdom of France. The only
part which has escaped is that which now forms the western cantons of
Switzerland. ♦Partly represented by Switzerland.♦ In truth the Swiss
Confederation may be looked on as having, in some slight degree,
inherited the position of the Burgundian kingdom as a middle state.
Otherwise, while the Eastern and Western kingdoms of the Franks have
grown into two of the greatest powers and nations in modern Europe,
the Burgundian kingdom has been altogether wiped out. Not only its
independence, but its very name, has passed from it. The name Burgundy
has for a long time past been commonly used to express the French duchy
only.
* * * * *
♦The Kingdom of Italy.♦
Italy, unlike Burgundy, formed part of the reunited dominion of
Charles the Fat; but it altogether passed away from Frankish rule
at the division of 887. It must be remembered that, though Lombardy
was conquered by Charles the Great, yet it was not merged in the
Frankish dominions, but was held as a separate kingdom by the King
of the Franks and Lombards. ♦Carolingian Kings of Italy.♦ Till the
reunion under Charles the Fat, Italy, as a separate kingdom, was
ruled by kings of the Carolingian house, some of whom were crowned
at Rome as Emperors. After the final division, it had separate kings
of its own, being not uncommonly disputed between two rival kings.
♦Italian Emperors.♦ Some of these kings even obtained Imperial rank.
♦Extent of the Italian kingdom.♦ The Italian kingdom, it must be
remembered, was far from taking in the whole Italian peninsula. Its
southern boundary was much the same as the old boundaries of Latium
and Picenum, reaching somewhat further to the south on the Hadriatic
coast. ♦Separate principalities of Benevento and Salerno.♦ To the south
were the separate principalities of _Benevento_ and _Salerno_, and
the lands which still clave to the Eastern Emperors. The kingdom thus
took in Lombardy, Liguria, _Friuli_ in the widest sense, taking in
_Trent_ and _Istria_, though these latter lands are sometimes counted
as a German march, while the Venetian islands still kept up their
connexion with the Eastern Empire. It took in also _Tuscany_, _Romagna_
or the former Exarchate of Ravenna, _Spoleto_, and _Rome_ itself. ♦The
Kingdom of Italy represents the Lombard Kingdom.♦ The Italian kingdom
thus represented the old Lombard kingdom, together with the provinces
which were formally transferred from the Eastern to the Western Empire
by the election of Charles the Great. But it may be looked on as
essentially a continuation of the Lombard kingdom. ♦Milan its capital.♦
The rank of capital of the Italian kingdom, as distinguished from the
Roman Empire, passed away from the old Lombard capital of _Pavia_
to the ecclesiastical metropolis of _Milan_, and Milan became the
crowning-place of the Kings of Italy.
* * * * *
♦Abeyance of the Empire.♦
For nearly eighty years after the division of 887, the Roman Empire of
the West may be looked on as having fallen into a kind of abeyance.
One German and several Italian kings were crowned Emperors; but they
never obtained any general acknowledgement throughout the West. There
could not be said to be any Western Empire with definite geographical
boundaries. ♦Restoration of the Western Empire by Otto.♦ A change in
this respect took place in the second half of the tenth century under
the German king Otto the Great. ♦952.♦ While he was still only German
king, Berengar King of Italy became his man, as Odo of Paris had
become the man of Arnulf. ♦962, 963.♦ Afterwards Otto himself obtained
the Italian kingdom, and was crowned Emperor at Rome. The rule was now
fully established that the German king who was crowned at Aachen had
a right to be crowned King of Italy at Milan and Emperor at Rome. A
geographical Western Empire was thus again founded, consisting of the
two kingdoms of Germany and Italy, to which Burgundy was afterwards
added. ♦The three Imperial kingdoms.♦ These three kingdoms now formed
the Empire, which thus consisted of the whole dominions of Charles
the Great—allowing for a different eastern frontier—except the part
which formed the Western kingdom, _Karolingia_, afterwards _France_.
This union of three of the four kingdoms gave a more distinct and
antagonistic character to the fourth which remained separate.
Karolingia looked like a part of the great Frankish dominion lopped off
from the main body. ♦Relations between the Empire and France.♦ On the
other hand, now that the German kings, the Kings of the East-Franks,
were also Kings of Italy and Burgundy and Emperors of the Romans, they
gradually dropped their Frankish style. But, as that style was kept
by the Western kings, and still more as the name of their duchy of
France gradually spread over so large a part of Gaul, the kingdom of
France had a superficial look of representing the old Frankish kingdom.
The newly-constituted Empire had thus a distinctly rival power on its
western side. And we shall find that a great part of our story will
consist of the way in which, on this side, the Imperial frontier went
back, and the French frontier advanced. On the other side, the Eastern
frontier of the Empire was capable of any amount of advance at the cost
of its Slavonic neighbours.
§ 2. _The Eastern Empire._
♦The Eastern Empire.♦
The effect of the various changes of the seventh and eighth centuries,
the rise of the Saracens, the settlement of the Slaves, the transfer
of the Western Empire to the Franks, seem really to have had the
effect of strengthening the Eastern Empire which they so terribly cut
short. It began for the first time to put on something of a national
character. ♦It takes a Greek character.♦ As the Western Empire was
fast becoming German, so the Eastern Empire was fast becoming Greek.
♦Rivalry of the Eastern and Western or Greek and Latin Churches.♦ And
a religious distinction was soon added to the distinction of language.
As the schism between the Churches came on, the Greek-speaking lands
attached themselves to the Eastern, and not to the Western, form of
Christianity. The Eastern Empire, keeping on all its Roman titles and
traditions, had thus become nearly identical with what may be called
the artificial Greek nation. It continues the work of hellenization
which was begun by the old Greek colonies and which went on under the
Macedonian kings. ♦Fluctuations in the extent of the Empire.♦ No power
gives more work for the geographer; through the alternate periods of
decay and revival which make up nearly the whole of Byzantine history,
provinces were always being lost and always being won back again. And
it supplies also a geographical study of another kind, in the new
divisions into which the Empire was now mapped out, divisions which,
for the most part, have very little reference to the divisions of
earlier times.
♦The _Themes_ as described by Constantine Porphyrogennêtos.♦
The _Themes_ or provinces of the Eastern Empire, as they stood in
the tenth century, have had the privilege of being elaborately
described by an Imperial geographer in the person of Constantine
Porphyrogennêtos.[11] He speaks of the division as comparatively
recent, and of some themes as having been formed almost in his own
time. The themes would certainly seem to have been mapped out after
the Empire had been cut short both to the north and to the east.
The nomenclature of the new divisions is singular and diversified.
♦Asiatic Themes.♦ Some ancient national names are kept, while the
titles of others seem fantastic enough. Thus in Asia _Paphlagonia_
and _Kappadokia_ remain names of themes with some approach to their
ancient boundaries; but the _Armenian_ theme is thrust far to the
west of any of the earlier uses of the name, so that the Halys flows
through it. Between it and the still independent Armenia lay the theme
of _Chaldia_, with Trapezous, the future seat of Emperors, for its
capital. Along the Saracen frontier lie the themes of _Kolôneia_,
_Mesopotamia_—a shadowy survival indeed of the Mesopotamia of Trajan,
of which it was not even a part—_Sebasteia_, _Lykandos_, _Kappadokia_,
and _Seleukeia_, called from the Isaurian or Kilikian city of that
name. Along the south coast the city of _Kibyra_ has given—in mockery,
says Constantine—its name to the theme of the _Kibyrraiotians_, which
reaches as far as Milêtos. The isle of _Samos_ gives its name to a
theme reaching from Milêtos to Adramyttion, while the theme of the
_Ægæan Sea_, besides most of the islands, stretches on to the mainland
of the ancient Aiolis. The rest of the Propontis is bordered by themes
bearing the strange names of _Opsikion_ and _Optimatôn_, names of Latin
origin, in the former of which the word _obsequium_ is to be traced.
To the east of them the no less strangely named _Thema Boukellariôn_
takes in the Euxine Hêrakleia. Inland and away from the frontier are
the themes _Thrakêsion_ and _Anatolikon_, while another Asiatic theme
is formed by the island of _Cyprus_.
♦The European Themes.♦
The nomenclature of the European themes is more intelligible. Most
of them bear ancient names, and the districts which bear them are at
least survivals of the lands which bore them of old. After a good deal
of shifting, owing to the loss and recovery of so many districts, the
Empire under Constantine Porphyrogennêtos numbered twelve European
themes. _Thrace_ had shrunk up into the land just round Constantinople
and Hadrianople, the latter now a frontier city against the Bulgarian.
_Macedonia_ had been pushed to the east, leaving the more strictly
Macedonian coast-districts which the Empire still kept to form the
themes of _Strymôn_ and _Thessalonikê_. ♦Use of the name Hellas.♦
Going further south, the name of _Hellas_ has revived, and that with
a singular accuracy of application. Hellas is now the eastern side of
continental Greece, taking in the land of Achilleus. The abiding name
of Achaia has vanished for a while, and the peninsula which had been
won back from the Slave again bears its name of _Peloponnêsos_. But
_Lakedaimonia_ now appears on the list of its chief cities instead
of Sparta. This and other instances in which one Greek name has been
supplanted by another are witnesses of the Slavonic occupation of
Hellas and its recovery by a Greek-speaking power. Off the west coast
the realm of Odysseus seems to revive in the theme of _Kephallênia_,
which takes in also the mythic isle of Alkinoos. Such parts of
Epeiros and Western Greece as clave to the Empire form the theme of
_Nikopolis_. ♦The Hadriatic lands.♦ To the north, on the Hadriatic
shore, was the theme of _Dyrrhachion_, and beyond that again, the
Dalmatian and Venetian cities still counted as outlying portions
of the Empire. ♦Possessions of the Empire in Italy.♦ Beyond the
Hadriatic, southern Italy forms the theme of _Lombardy_, interrupted
by the principality of _Salerno_, while Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi were
outlying posts like Venice and Ragusa. _Sicily_ was still reckoned as
a theme; but it was now wholly lost to the Saracen. ♦Chersôn.♦ And far
away in the Tauric peninsula, the last of the Hellenic commonwealths,
the furthest outpost of Hellenic civilization, had sunk in the ninth
century into the Byzantine theme of _Chersôn_.
♦Seeming Asiatic character of the Empire.♦
The first impression conveyed by this geographical description is that
the Eastern Empire had now become a power rather Asiatic than European.
It is only in Asia that any solid mass of territory is kept. ♦Nature
of its European possessions.♦ Elsewhere there are only islands and
fringes of coast. ♦Maritime supremacy of the Empire.♦ But they were
almost continuous fringes of coast, fringes which contained some of
the greatest cities of Christendom, and which gave their masters an
undisputed supremacy by sea. If the Mediterranean was not a Byzantine
lake, it was only the presence of the Saracen, the occasional visits
of the Northman, which hindered it from being so. Then again, the
whole history of the Empire, if a history of losses, is also a history
of recoveries, and before long the Roman arms again became terrible
by land. The picture of Constantine Porphyrogennêtos shows us the
Empire at a moment when neither process was actually going on; but
the times before and after his reign were times, first of loss and
then of recovery. ♦Loss and recovery of Crete. 823-960.♦ Early in the
ninth century _Crete_ was suddenly seized by Saracen adventurers from
Spain; about the same time began the long and slow Saracen conquest
of _Sicily_. ♦Loss of Sicily. 827-878. | Advance in Italy, Dalmatia,
and Greece. c. 802.♦ But, almost at the moment when Sicily was lost,
the Imperial province in Italy was largely increased, and the Imperial
influence in Dalmatia was largely restored. About the same time
Peloponnêsos was won back from the Slaves. ♦Recovery of provinces in
the East. 964-976.♦ In the latter half of the tenth century Crete was
won back; so were Kilikia and part of Syria, with the famous cities
of Tarsos, Edessa, and Antioch on the Orontes. ♦Conquest of Bulgaria.
981-1018.♦ Presently Basil the Second overthrew the _Bulgarian_ kingdom
in Europe and the _Armenian_ kingdom in Asia; the lands at the foot of
Caucasus admitted the Imperial supremacy, and the Byzantine rule was
carried round the greater part of the Euxine. ♦Loss of Cherson. 988.♦
Cherson indeed was lost; the old Megarian city passed into the hands
of the Russian. At the other end of the Empire, the recovery of Sicily
was actually begun, and, if the Saracen was not driven out, his power
was weakened in the interest of the next set of invaders. ♦The Eastern
Empire under Basil the Second.♦ Early in the eleventh century the
Eastern Rome was again the head of a dominion which was undoubtedly the
greatest among Christian powers, a dominion greater than it had been at
any time since the Saracenic and Slavonic inroads began.
§ 3. _Origin of the Spanish Kingdoms._
The historical geography of two of the three great Southern peninsulas
is thus bound up with that of the Empires of which they were severally
the centres. ♦Position of Spain.♦ The case is quite different with
the third great peninsula, that of Spain. There the Roman dominion,
even the province which had been recovered by Justinian, had quite
passed away, and it was only a small part of the land which was ever
reincorporated, even in the most shadowy way, with either Empire. ♦The
Saracen conquest. 710-713.♦ Spain was now conquered by the Saracens,
as it had before been conquered by the Romans, with this difference,
that it had been among the longest and hardest of the Roman conquests,
while no part of the Saracen dominion was won in a shorter time.
But, if the Roman conquest was slow, it was in the end complete. The
swifter Saracen conquest was never quite complete; it left a remnant
by which the land was in the end to be won back. But the part of the
land which withstood the Saracen was, as could hardly fail to be the
case, the same part as that which held out for the longest time against
the Roman. The mountainous regions of the North were never wholly
conquered. ♦Asturia 732, | united with Cantabria, 751.♦ _Cantabria_ and
_Asturia_, which had never fully submitted to the Goths, now became the
seat of resistance under princes who claimed to represent the Gothic
kings, and part of whose dominions bore the name of _Gothia_. Twenty
years after the conquest, Asturia was again a Christian principality,
which was presently united with Cantabria. ♦Kingdom of Leon, 916.♦ This
grew into the kingdom of _Leon_. ♦County of Castile, 904. | Kingdom,
1033.♦ The great fiefs of this kingdom on its eastern and western
borders, the counties of _Gallicia_ and _Castile_—the last originally
a line of _castles_ against the Saracen enemy—both showed from an
early time strong tendencies to separation. ♦Kingdom of Navarre. 905.♦
Meanwhile the kingdom of _Navarre_ grew up to the east, stretching,
it must be remembered, on both sides of the Pyrenees, though by far
the larger portion of it lay on their southern side. ♦County of Aragon
c. 760.♦ To the east of Navarre the small counties of _Aragon_ and
_Riparanensia_ were the beginning of the kingdom of _Aragon_. ♦The
Spanish March. 778.♦ To the east again of this was the land which,
after the final expulsion of the Saracens from Gaul, became part of the
Carolingian Empire by the name of the _Spanish March_. The shiftings
of territory, the unions and separations of these various kingdoms
and principalities, belong to the special history of Spain. But early
in the eleventh century the whole north-western part of Spain, and a
considerable fringe of territory in the north-east, had been formed
into Christian states. ♦Beginnings of Castile and Aragon.♦ Among these
had been laid the foundations of two kingdoms, those of Castile and
Aragon, which were to play a great part in the affairs of Europe.
It will be at once seen that those among the Spanish powers which were
destined to play the greatest part in later history were not among
the first to take the form of separate kingdoms. ♦Slow growth of the
greater kingdoms.♦ At this stage even Castile has hardly taken the form
of a distinct state. Aragon is only beginning; _Portugal_ has not even
begun. ♦History of Castile and Aragon.♦ Of these three, Castile was
fated to play the same part that was played by Wessex in England and by
France in Gaul, to become the leading power of the peninsula. Aragon,
when her growth had brought her to the Mediterranean, was to fill for
a long time a greater place in general European politics than any
other Spanish power. The union of Castile and Aragon was to form that
great Spanish monarchy which became the terror of Europe. ♦Portugal.♦
Meanwhile Portugal, lying on the Ocean, had first of all to extend
her borders at the cost of the common enemy, and afterwards to become
a beginner of European enterprise in distant lands, a path in which
Castile and other powers did but follow in her steps.
* * * * *
♦Break-up of the Spanish Caliphate.♦
Meanwhile the advance of the Christians was helped by the division of
the Saracenic power. The Caliphates of the East and of the West fell to
pieces, exactly as the Christian Empires did. The undivided Mahometan
dominion in Spain was at the height of its power in the tenth century.
Yet even then, amid many fluctuations, the Christian frontier was on
the whole advancing in the north-west. In the north-east Christian
progress was slower. ♦1028.♦ But, early in the eleventh century, the
Caliphate of Cordova broke in pieces, and out of its fragments arose
a crowd of small Mahometan kingdoms at Cordova, Seville, Lisbon,
Zaragoza, Toledo, Valencia, and elsewhere. It was now only by renewed
invasions from Africa that the Mahometan power in Spain was kept up.
But, as the Christian states are now fully formed, such mention of
these African dynasties as concerns geography will come more fittingly
at a later stage.
§ 4. _Origin of the Slavonic States._
♦Slavonic and Turanian invasions.♦
We left the borders of both the Eastern and the Western Empire beset by
neighbours of Slavonic race, who, in the case of the Eastern Empire,
were largely mingled with other neighbours of Turanian race. Of these
last, _Avars_, _Patzinaks_, _Khazars_, have passed away; they have
left no trace on the modern map of Europe. With two of the Turanian
settlements the case is different. ♦Bulgarians.♦ The settlement of
the _Bulgarians_, the foundation of a kingdom of Slavonized Turanians
south of the Danube, has been already mentioned. They still keep their
place and nation, though in bondage. Another Turanian settlement to the
north of the Bulgarians has been of yet greater importance in European
history. ♦Settlement of the Magyars or Hungarians, 895.♦ In the last
years of the ninth century the Finnish _Magyars_ or _Hungarians_, the
_Turks_ of the Byzantine writers, began to count as a power in Europe.
From their seats between the mouths of the Dnieper and the Danube, they
pressed eastward into the lands which had been Dacia and Pannonia.
♦Great Moravia.♦ The Bulgarian power was thus confined to the lands
south of the Danube, and _Great Moravia_, a name which then took in the
western part of modern Hungary, fell wholly under Magyar dominion.
This settlement is one which stands altogether by itself. ♦Peculiar
character of the Magyar settlement.♦ The Magyars and the Ottoman Turks
are the only Turanian settlers in Europe who have grown into permanent
Turanian powers on European ground. The Bulgarians have been lost in
the mass of their Slavonic neighbours and subjects, whose language they
have adopted. Magyars and Ottomans still remain speaking a Turanian
tongue on Aryan soil. But of these it is only the Magyars that have
grown into a really European state. ♦The Kingdom of Hungary.♦ After
appearing as momentary ravagers in Germany, Italy, and even Gaul,
the Magyars settled down into a Christian kingdom, which, among many
fluctuations of supremacy and dependence, has remained a distinct
kingdom to this day. ♦Effect of its religious connexion with Rome.♦ The
Christianity of Hungary however came from the Western Church and not
from the Eastern. And this fact has had a good deal of bearing upon
the history of those regions. But for this almost incidental connexion
with the Old Rome, Hungary, though settled by a Turanian people, would
most naturally have taken its place among the Slavonic states which
fringed the dominion of the New Rome. As it has turned out, difference
of religion has stepped in to heighten difference of blood, and Hungary
has formed a kingdom quite apart, closely connected in its history
with Servia and Bulgaria, but running a course which has been in many
things unlike theirs.
♦The Magyars separate the Northern and Southern Slaves.♦
The geographical results of the Magyar settlement were to place a
barrier between the Northern and the Southern Slaves. This it did
both directly and indirectly. The _Patzinaks_ pressed into what had
been the former Magyar territory; they appear in the pages of the
Imperial geographer as a nation with whom the Empire always strove to
maintain peace, as they formed a barrier against both Hungarians and
_Russians_. ♦The Russians.♦ This last name begins to be of importance
in the ninth century. A part of the Eastern branch of the Slavonic
race, they were cut off from the other members of that branch south
of the Danube by these new Turanian settlements. The Magyars again
parted the South-eastern Slaves from the North-western, while the
Russians were still neighbours of the North-western Slaves. ♦Effects
of the geographical position of the Slaves.♦ The geographical position
of these three divisions of the Slavonic race has had an important
effect on European history. ♦History of the South-eastern Slaves.♦ The
South-eastern Slaves in Servia, Croatia, Dalmatia, and the neighbouring
lands, formed a debateable ground between the two Empires, the Magyar
kingdom, and the Venetian republic, as soon as Venice grew into a
distinct and conquering state. These lands have, down to our own time,
played an important, but commonly a secondary, part in history. And in
later times their history has chiefly consisted in successive changes
of masters. The states which they formed will have to be spoken of in
connexion with the greater and more lasting powers to which they have
commonly been adjuncts. ♦The North-western Slaves.♦ The North-western
Slaves appear for the most part in different degrees of vassalage or
incorporation with the Western Empire. ♦Bohemia, Poland.♦ But, besides
several considerable duchies, there grew up among them the kingdoms of
_Bohemia_ and _Poland_, of which the latter established its complete
independence of the Empire, and became for a while one of the chief
powers of Europe. ♦Russia.♦ Russia meanwhile, forming a third division,
appears, in the ninth and tenth centuries, first as a formidable
enemy, then as a spiritual conquest, of the Empire and Church of
Constantinople. Russia had then already assumed the character which it
has again put on in later times, that of the one great European power
at once Slavonic in race and Eastern in faith. Russia is now fully
established as an European power. The variations of its territorial
extent must be traced in a distinct chapter.
§ 5. _Northern Europe._
♦The Scandinavian settlements.♦
The European importance of the Scandinavian nations at this time
chiefly arises from their settlements in various parts of Europe, and
specially in Britain and Ireland. The three great Scandinavian kingdoms
were already formed. Sweden was doing its work towards the east; the
Norwegians, specially known as Northmen, colonized the extreme north
of Britain, the Scandinavian earldoms of Caithness and Sutherland,
together with the islands to the north and west of Britain, Orkney,
Shetland, Faroe, the so-called Hebrides, and Man. They also colonized
the eastern coast of Ireland, where they were known as _Ostmen_. And
it was from Norway also that the settlers came by which the coast of
France in the strictest sense, the French duchy, was cut off from the
dominion of Paris to form the Duchy of Normandy. ♦England and Denmark.
789-1017.♦ But the chief field for the energy of Denmark properly so
called lay within the limits of that part of Britain which we may now
begin to call _England_. It was during this period that the united
English kingdom grew up, that the many English settlements in Britain
coalesced into one English nation. And this work was in a singular way
promoted by the very cause, namely, the Danish invasions, which seemed
best suited to hinder it.
Up to this time the great island had been in truth, as it was often
called, another world, influencing but little, and but little
influenced by, any of the lands which formed part of either of the
continental Empires. ♦Formation of the Kingdom of England.♦ The English
history of these times, a history which is specially connected with
geography, consists of two great facts. The first is the union of
all the English states in Britain into one English kingdom under the
West-Saxon kings. The other is the establishment of a vague supremacy
on the part of those kings over the whole island. ♦West-Saxon supremacy
under Ecgberht. 825-830.♦ The dominion established by Ecgberht was
in no sense a kingdom of England. It consisted simply in a supremacy
on the part of the West-Saxon king over all the princes of Britain,
Teutonic and Celtic, save only the Picts, Scots, and Welsh of
Strathclyde or Cumberland. The smaller kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and
Essex formed appanages for West-Saxon _æthelings_; but the superiority
over East-Anglia, Mercia, Northumberland, and the Welsh princes was
purely external. The change of this power into an united English
kingdom holding a supremacy over the whole island was largely helped
by the Danish incursions and settlements. ♦The Danish invasions. 789.♦
These incursions began in the last years of the eighth century; they
became more frequent and more dangerous in the middle of the ninth;
and in the latter part of that century they grew from mere incursions
into actual settlements. This was the result of the great struggle in
the days of the first Æthelred and his more famous brother Ælfred.
♦Division between Ælfred and Guthrum. 878.♦ By Ælfred’s treaty with the
Danish Guthrum, the West-Saxon king kept his own West-Saxon kingdom
and all the other lands south of the Thames, together with western
Mercia. The rest of Mercia, with East-Anglia and _Deira_ or southern
Northumberland, passed under Danish rule. ♦Bernicia not Danish.♦
_Bernicia_, or northern Northumberland from the Tees to the Forth,
still kept its Anglian princes, seemingly under Danish supremacy.
Over the lands which thus became Danish the West-Saxon king kept a
mere nominal and precarious supremacy. ♦Scandinavian settlements in
Cumberland.♦ In Scotland and Strathclyde the succession of the Celtic
princes was not disturbed; but in part at least of Strathclyde, in
the more modern Cumberland, a large Scandinavian population, though
probably Norwegian rather than Danish, must have settled.
♦Increase of the immediate kingdom of Wessex.♦
By these changes the power of the West-Saxon king as an over-lord
was greatly cut short, while his immediate kingdom was enlarged. The
dynasty which had come so near to the supremacy of the whole island
seemed to be again shut up in its own kingdom and the lands immediately
bordering on it. ♦Second West-Saxon advance. 910-954.♦ But, by
overthrowing the other English kingdoms, the Danes had prepared the
way for the second West-Saxon advance in the tenth century. Saxon king
was now the only English king, and he further became the English and
Christian champion against intruders who largely remained heathen.
♦Wessex grows into England.♦ The work of the first half of the tenth
century was to enlarge the Kingdom of Wessex into the Kingdom of
England. Eadward the Elder, King, not merely of the West-Saxons but
of the English, extended his immediate frontier, the frontier of the
one English kingdom, to the Humber. ♦First submission of Scotland and
Strathclyde. 923.♦ Wales, Northumberland, English and Danish, and now,
for the first time, Scotland and Strathclyde, all acknowledged the
English supremacy. ♦926.♦ Under Æthelstan Northumberland was for the
first time incorporated with the kingdom, and after several revolts and
reconquests, it finally became an integral part of England, forming
sometimes one, sometimes two, English earldoms. ♦Cumberland granted
as a fief to Scotland. 945.♦ Meanwhile Cumberland was subdued by
Eadmund, and was given as a fief to the Kings of Scots, who commonly
granted it as an appanage to their sons. ♦Lothian granted to Scotland.♦
Meanwhile, partly, it would seem, by conquest, partly by cession, the
Scottish kings became possessed of the northern part of Northumberland,
under the name of the earldom of Lothian. Thus, in the second half of
the tenth century, a single kingdom of England had been formed, of
which the Welsh principalities, as well as Scotland, Strathclyde, and
Lothian, were vassal states.
♦The English Empire.♦
Thus the English kingdom was formed, and with it the English Empire.
♦Use of the Imperial titles.♦ For the English kings in the tenth and
eleventh centuries, acknowledging no superiority in the Cæsar either of
East or West and holding within their own island a position analogous
to that of the Emperors on the mainland, did not scruple to assume the
Imperial title, and to speak of themselves as Emperors of the other
world of Britain. The kingdom and Empire thus formed were transferred
by the wars of Swegen and Cnut from a West-Saxon to a Danish king.
♦Northern Empire of Cnut. 1016-1035.♦ Under Cnut England was for a
moment the chief seat, and Winchester the Imperial city, of a Northern
Empire which might fairly claim a place alongside of the Old and the
New Rome. England, Denmark, Norway, had a single king, whose supremacy
extended further over the rest of Britain, over Sweden and a large
part of the Baltic coast. That Empire split in pieces on his death.
The Scandinavian kingdoms were again separated; England itself was
divided for a moment. ♦The Norman Conquest. 1066-70.♦ The kingdom,
again reunited, first passed back to the West-Saxon house, and then, by
a second conquest, to the Norman. After this last revolution a division
of the kingdom was never more heard of. ♦England finally united by
William.♦ William the Conqueror put the finishing stroke to the work of
Ecgberht, and made England for ever one. And, by uniting England under
the same ruler as Normandy, and by thus leading her into the general
current of continental affairs, he gave her an European position such
as she had never held under her native kings.
* * * * *
♦Summary.♦
By the end of the eleventh century then the chief nations of Europe
had been formed. The Western Empire, after many shiftings, had taken
a definite shape. ♦The Western Empire and the Imperial Kingdoms.♦
The Imperial dignity and the two royal crowns of Italy and Burgundy
were now attached to the German kingdom. The Empire, in short,
though keeping its Roman titles and associations, and with them its
influence over the minds of men, had practically become a German
power. Its history from this time mainly consists in the steps by
which the German Emperors of Rome lost their hold on their Italian and
Burgundian kingdoms, and of the steps by which the German dominion
was extended over the Slaves to the East. ♦France.♦ To the West the
Western Kingdom has altogether detached itself from the Empire; the
union of its crown with the Duchy of France has created the French
kingdom and nation, with its centre at Paris, and with a supremacy, as
yet little more than nominal, over a large part of Gaul. ♦The Eastern
Empire.♦ As the Western Empire has become German, the Eastern Empire
has become Greek; in the early years of the eleventh century it again
forms a powerful and compact state, ruling from Naples to Antioch.
♦The Slavonic states.♦ Of the states to the north of it, Bulgaria has
been reincorporated with the Empire; Servia, Hungary, Russia, have
taken their definite position among the Christian powers of Europe. So
have Poland and Bohemia on the borders of the Western Empire. Prussia,
Lithuania, and the Finnish lands to the immediate north of them remain
heathen. ♦Spain.♦ In Spain, the Christians have won back a large part
of the peninsula. Castile and Navarre are already kingdoms; Aragon,
though not yet a kingdom, has begun her history. ♦The Scandinavian
kingdoms.♦ In Northern Europe, the three Scandinavian nations are
clearly distinguished and firmly established. ♦England and Normandy.♦
Within the isle of Britain the kingdoms of England and Scotland have
been formed, and the union of England and Normandy under a single
prince has opened the way to altogether new relations between the
continent and the great island. In short, the only European powers
which play a part in strictly mediæval history which are not yet formed
are Portugal and the Sicilian kingdoms.
From this point then, when most of the European powers have come into
being, and when the two Roman Empires are fast becoming a German and a
Greek power alongside of other powers, it will be well to change the
form of our present inquiry. Thus far we have treated the historical
geography of Europe as a whole, gathering round two centres at the
Old and the New Rome. It will henceforth be more convenient to take
the history of the great divisions of Europe separately, and to trace
out in distinct chapters the changes which the boundaries of each have
gone through from the eleventh century to our own time. ♦Ecclesiastical
geography.♦ But before we enter on these several national divisions, it
will be well to take a view of the ecclesiastical divisions of Western
Christendom, which are of great importance and which are constantly
referred to in the times with which we are now concerned.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The best account of the various names by which the East-Frankish
kings and their people are described is given by Waitz, _Deutsche
Verfassungsgeschichte_, v. 121 et seqq.
[10] So Wippo (2) describes the gathering of the men of the kingdom:
‘Cis et circa Rhenum castra locabant. Qui dum Galliam a Germanis
dividat, ex parte _Germaniæ_ Saxones cum sibi adjacentibus Sclavis,
Franci orientales, Norici, Alamanni, convenere. De _Gallia_ vero Franci
qui super Rhenum habitant, Ribuarii, Liutharingi, coadunati sunt.’ The
two sets of Franks are again distinguished from the Latin or French
‘Franci.’
[11] See special treatise on the Themes in the third volume of the Bonn
edition. The Treatise which follows, ‘de Administrando Imperio,’ is
also full of geographical matter.