From the accession, in 768, of Charlemagne, eldest son of Pepin le Bref
may be dated the establishment of clerical power, the rise of chivalry,
and the foundation of learning in the Empire of France. He was a man
of extraordinary foresight and strength of character, and possessed
not only the valor of a hero and the skill of a general, but the calm
wisdom of a statesman, and the qualities of a judicious sovereign.
Ambitious of conquest as Alexander or Darius, he nevertheless provided as
conscientiously for the welfare of his subjects and the advancement of
letters, as did Alfred the Great of England about a century afterwards.
He founded schools and libraries—convoked national assemblies—revised
laws—superintended the administration of justice—encouraged scientific
men and professors of the fine arts—and, during a reign of forty-six
years, extended his frontiers beyond the Danube, imposed tribute upon the
barbarians of the Vistula, made his name a terror to the Saracen tribes,
and added Northern Italy to the dependencies of France. Notwithstanding
these successes, it appears that the conquest and conversion of the
Saxons (a nation of German idolaters, whose territories bordered closely
upon his chosen capital of Aix-la-Chapelle) formed the darling enterprise
of this powerful monarch. From 770 to 804, his arms were constantly
directed against them; and in Wittikind, their heroic leader, he
encountered a warrior as fearless, if not as fortunate, as himself. The
brave Saxons were, however, no match for one whose triumphs procured him
the splendid title of Emperor of the West, and who gathered his daring
hosts from dominions which comprised the whole of France, Germany, Italy,
Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and Prussia, and were only bounded on the east
by the Carpathian mountains, and on the west by the Ebro and the ocean.
Year after year he wasted their country with fire and sword, overthrew
their idols, leveled their temples to the ground, erected fortresses amid
the ruins of their villages, and carried away vast numbers of captives to
the interior of Gaul. To this forced emigration succeeded a conversion
equally unwelcome. Thousands of reluctant Saxons were compelled to
subscribe to the ceremony of baptism; their principalities were portioned
off among abbots and bishops; and Wittikind did homage to Charlemagne in
the Champs-de-Mars.
It was about this period that the Danes and Normans first began to harass
the northern coasts of Europe. Confident of their naval strength, they
attacked the possessions of Charlemagne with as little hesitation as
those of his less formidable neighbor, Egbert of Wessex; descended upon
Friesland as boldly as upon Teignmouth or Hengesdown; and even ventured
with their galleys into the port of a city of Narbonnese Gaul at a time
when the emperor himself was sojourning within its walls. Springing
up, as they did, toward the close of so prosperous a reign, these new
invaders proved more dangerous than Charlemagne had anticipated. He
caused war barks to be stationed at the mouths of his great rivers, and
in 808 marched an army to the defense of Friesland. On this occasion,
however, he was glad to make terms of peace; and it is said that the
increasing power of the Baltic tribes embittered his later days with
presentiments of that decay which shortly afterward befell his gigantic
empire. From the conclusion of this peace to the date of his death in
the year 814, no event of historical importance occurred; and the great
emperor was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle, in that famous cathedral of which
he was the founder.
The race of Carlovingian kings took their name, and only their name, from
this, their magnificent ancestor. Weak of purpose as the descendants of
Clovis, and endued, perhaps, with even a less share of animal courage,
they suffered their mighty inheritance to be wrested from them, divided,
subdivided, pillaged and impoverished. No portion of French history is
so disastrous, so unsatisfactory, and so obscure as that which relates
to this epoch. Indeed, toward the commencement of the tenth century, an
utter blank occurs, and we are left for many years without any record
whatever.—_A. B. E._