The short time which elapsed before the arrival of the Neustrians was

spent by Charles in summoning his friends from every quarter, to assist

him in the desperate struggle in which he was engaged. In the meantime

Chilperic came up, and, encamping in the neighbourhood of Cologne,

effected a junction with the Frisians. Contrary to expectation, however,

no attack was made upon Plectrudis, who is said to have bribed the

Frisians to retire. A better reason for the precipitate retreat of the

Neustrians and Frisians (which now took place) was the danger which the

former ran of having their retreat cut off by Charles, who had taken up

a strong position in their rear, with continually increasing forces; as

it was, they were not permitted to retire in safety. Charles attacked

them at Amblava, near Stablo, in the Ardennes, and gave them a total

defeat. This victory put him in possession of Cologne, and the person of

Plectrudis, who restored to him his father’s treasures.

[Sidenote: [717-720 A.D.]]

In the following year, 717 A.D., Charles assumed the offensive, and,

marching through the Silva Carbonaria, began to lay waste the Neustrian

territory. Chilperic and Raginfrid advanced to meet him, doubtless with

far less confidence than before; and both armies encamped at Vincy,

in the territory of Cambray. Charles, with an hereditary moderation

peculiarly admirable in a man of his warlike spirit, sent envoys to the

Neustrian camp to offer conditions of peace; and to induce Chilperic to

acknowledge his claim to the office of major-domus in Austrasia, “that

the blood of so many noble Franks might not be shed.” Charles himself can

have expected no other fruit from these overtures than the convincing of

his own followers of the unreasonableness of their enemies. The Neustrian

king and his evil adviser rejected the proffered terms with indignation,

and declared their intention of taking from Charles even that portion

of his inheritance which had already fallen into his hands. Both sides

then prepared for battle; Charles, as we are expressly told, having first

communicated to the chief men in his camp the haughty and threatening

answer of the king. Chilperic relied on his great superiority in numbers,

though his army was drawn, for the most part, from the dregs of the

people: Charles prepared to meet him with a small but highly disciplined

force of well-armed and skilful warriors. In the battle which ensued on

the 21st of March, the Neustrians were routed with tremendous loss, and

pursued by the victors to the very gates of Paris. But Charles was not

yet in a condition to keep possession of Neustria, and he therefore led

his army back to Cologne, and ascended the “throne of his kingdom,” as

the annalist[t] already calls it, the _dignissimus hæres_ of his mighty

father.

The unfortunate Chilperic, unequal as he must have felt himself to cope

with a warrior like Charles, was once more induced by evil counsellors to

renew the war. With this view he sought the alliance of the imperfectly

subjected neighbouring states, whom the death of Pepin had awakened

to dreams of independence. Of these the foremost was Aquitaine, which

had completely emancipated itself from Frankish rule. The Aquitania of

the Roman Empire extended, as is well known, from the Pyrenees to the

river Loire. This country, at the dissolution of the Western Empire, had

fallen into the hands of the Visigoths, and was subsequently conquered,

and to a certain extent subjugated, by the earlier Merovingians. But,

though nominally part of the Frankish Empire, it continued to enjoy a

semi-independence under its native dukes, and remained for many ages a

stone of offence to the Frankish rulers. Its population, notwithstanding

the admixture of German blood consequent on the Gothic conquest, had

remained pre-eminently Roman in its character, and had attained in the

seventh century to an unusual degree of wealth and civilisation. The

southern part of Aquitaine had been occupied by a people called Vascones

or Gascons, who extended themselves as far as the Garonne, and had also

submitted to the Frankish rule during the better days of the elder

dynasty.

The temporary collapse of the Frankish power consequent upon the bloody

feuds of the royal house, and the struggle between the seigneurs

and the crown, enabled Eudes, the duke of Aquitaine, to establish

himself as a perfectly independent prince; and he and his sons ruled

in full sovereignty over both Aquitaine and Gascony, and were called

indifferently _Aquitaniæ_ or _Vasconiæ duces_.

Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that Eudo should

gladly receive the presents and overtures made to him by Chilperic;

who agreed to leave him in quiet possession of the independence he had

contumaciously asserted, on condition of his making cause against the

Austrasian mayor. He lost no time in leading an army of Gascons to

Paris, where he joined his forces to those of Chilperic, and prepared

to meet the terrible foe. Charles advanced with his usual rapidity, and

having laid waste a portion of Neustria, came upon the enemy in the

neighbourhood of Soissons. The new allies, who had scarcely had time to

consolidate their union and mature their plans, appear to have made but

a feeble resistance; and Chilperic, not considering himself safe even in

Paris, fled with his treasures, in company with Eudo, into Aquitaine.

Raginfrid, the Neustrian major-domus, who with a division of the combined

army had also made an attempt to check Charles’ progress, was likewise

defeated and compelled to resign his mayoralty; as a compensation for

which he received from the placable conqueror the countship of Anjou.

The victorious Austrasians pursued the fugitives as far as the river

Loire and Orleans, from which place Charles sent an embassy to Eudes, and

offered him terms of peace, on condition of his delivering up Chilperic

and his treasures. It is difficult to say what answer Eudo, hemmed in as

he was on all sides (for the Saracens were in his rear), might have given

to this demand--whether he would have consulted his own interests, or his

duty to his ally and guest. But the opportune death of Clotaire, whom

Charles had made king of Austrasia after the battle of Amblava, relieved

him from his dilemma. Charles, who was remarkably free from the evil

spirit of revenge, declared his readiness to acknowledge Chilperic II as

king, on condition of being himself appointed major-domus of the united

kingdoms of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy. These terms, offered by

the victor to one whose very life was at his mercy, could not but be

eagerly accepted; and thus, in 720 A.D., Charles became nominally mayor

of the palace to King Chilperic II, but, in fact, undisputed master of

the king himself and the whole Frankish empire.

[Sidenote: [720-727 A.D.]]

The temperate course pursued by Charles in these transactions, proceeded

in a great measure from the natural moderation of his character.

[Chilperic died in 720, and Charles invested Thierry IV, son of Dagobert

III, with the royal title. But when Thierry died (737) the major-domus

made no attempt to fill the vacant throne.]

After the death of Ratbod, the “cruel and pagan” king of the Frisians,

in 719 A.D., Charles recovered the western portion of Friesland, and

reduced the Frisians to their former state of uncertain subjection. About

the same time he repelled the Saxons, those unwearied and implacable

enemies of the Frankish name, who had broken into the Frankish _gaus_ on

the right bank of the Rhine. We know little of the particulars of these

campaigns, since the chroniclers[t] content themselves with recording in

general terms that the “invincible Charles” was always victorious, and

his enemies utterly destroyed; a statement which is rendered suspicious

by the fact that their annihilation has to be repeated frequently, and at

no long intervals.

[Illustration: CHILPERIC II

(From a French cut of 1832)]

In the year after the Saxon campaign (the date of which is rather

uncertain), Charles crossed the Rhine, and attacked the Alamanni (in

Würtemberg) in their own country, which he devastated without any serious

opposition. Subsequently, about 725 A.D., he crossed the Danube, and

entered the country of the Bavarians; and after two successful campaigns

obliged that nation also to acknowledge their allegiance to the Franks.

From this expedition, says the chronicler,[t] “he returned by the Lord’s

assistance to his own dominions with great treasures and a certain

matron, by name Piltrudis, and her niece Sonihilde.” This latter, who is

called by Einhard “Swanahilde, the niece of Odilo,” subsequently became

one of Charles’ wives, and the mother of the unfortunate Grifo.

It seems natural to conjecture, that Charles had an important ulterior

object before his mind in these extraordinary and sustained exertions.

They were but the prelude to the grand spectacle soon to be presented

to an admiring world, in which this mighty monarch with the humble name

was to play a conspicuous and glorious part. A contest awaited him,

which he must long have foreseen with mingled feelings of eagerness and

apprehension, and into which he dared not go unprepared; a contest

which required the highest exercise of his own active genius, and the

uncontrolled disposal of all the material resources of his empire. He

had hitherto contended for his hereditary honours against his personal

enemies--for the supremacy of the Germans over the Gallo-Romans, of his

own tribe over kindred German tribes--and finally, for order and good

government against anarchy and faction. Hereafter he was to renew the old

struggle between the West and East--to be the champion of Christianity

and German institutions, against the false and degrading faith of

Mohammed, and all the corrupting and enervating habits of the oriental

world.

[Sidenote: [600-710 A.D.]]

The most sober history of the rise and progress of Islamism, and the

Arabian empire, which was founded on it, has all the characteristics of

an eastern fable. In the beginning of the seventh century, an Arabian

of the priestly house of Hashim retired into a cave at Mecca, to brood

over the visions of a powerful but morbid imagination. The suggestions of

his own distempered mind, and the impulses of his own strong will, were

mistaken for the inspiration and the commands of the Almighty, concerning

whom his notions were in part adopted from the Jewish and Christian

Scriptures. He learned to regard himself as the chosen instrument of God,

for the introduction of a new faith and the establishment of a power,

before which all the nations of the earth should bow.

When his meditations had assumed consistency, he shaped them into a

system of faith and practice, which he confidently proposed for the

acceptance of mankind, as the most perfect and glorious expression of the

divine mind and will. His belief in himself, in his own infallibility,

and the perfection of his system, was so absolute, that he regarded all

other men in the light of children, who, if they cannot be persuaded,

must be forced, into the right path. The sword was the only logic he

considered suitable to the case; and death or the _Koran_ was the sole

alternative which his followers thought fit to offer.

For a time the lofty pretensions of the prophet were acknowledged only

by a few, and those few belonged to his own family. But his system,

springing as it did from an eminently oriental mind, was wonderfully

adapted to the wants and tastes of oriental nations. But while the

sublimity of certain doctrines afforded suitable objects of contemplation

to the nobler faculties of the soul, the strongest passions of fallen

human nature, pride, revenge, and lust, were not denied their appropriate

gratification. What could be more acceptable to the natural man than a

system which quiets the conscience amidst the excesses of sensual love,

which takes away the necessity for self-discipline by the doctrine of

fatalism, which teaches men to look down with a lofty contempt upon all

who think differently from themselves, and, lastly, holds out as a reward

for the coercion and destruction of opponents an eternity of voluptuous

enjoyment in the society of celestial courtesans?

There is no doubt that much was done by the sword of the hardy and

impetuous sons of Ishmael, but this could not alone have spread the Koran

over half the world; the very faults which make it odious in Christian

eyes, gave wings to its progress, and excited in its favour a deep and

frenzied devotion.

In 622 A.D. Mohammed was obliged to flee to Medina, from the virulent

opposition of the members of his own tribe. Within ninety years from

that time his successors and disciples had conquered and converted, not

Arabia alone, but Syria, Persia, Palestine, Phœnicia, Egypt, Asia Minor,

Armenia, the country between the Black Sea and the Caspian, a portion of

India, and the whole of the north of Africa from the Nile to the Atlantic

Ocean.

[Sidenote: [710-724 A.D.]]

The year 710 A.D. found them gazing with longing eyes across the straits

of Gibraltar, eager for the time when they might plant upon the rock

of Calpe the meteor standard of their prophet; and thence survey the

beautiful and fertile country which was soon to be their own. Nor were

their hopes deferred: their entrance into Spain, which might have

proved difficult if not impossible to effect in the face of a brave and

united people, was rendered safe and easy by treachery, cowardice, and

theological dissensions.

The first collision, indeed, of the Arabian conquerors with the warriors

of the West was rather calculated to damp their hopes of European

conquest. The Visigothic kings of Spain possessed the town of Ceuta on

the African coast, of which Count Julian, at the time of which we speak,

was military governor. The skill and courage of this great warrior and

his garrison had hitherto frustrated all the attempts of Musa, the

general of the caliph Walid, to make himself master of the place. The

Saracens were already beginning to despair of success, when they suddenly

received overtures from Count Julian himself, who now offered, not merely

to open the gates of Ceuta, but to procure for the Saracens a ready

admittance into Spain. The grounds of this sudden treachery on the part

of one who had risked his life at the post of honour, cannot be stated

with any degree of certainty. By some it was ascribed to the desire of

avenging himself upon Roderic, his king, who is said to have abused his

daughter; and by others to the fact that he had espoused the cause of

Witiza’s sons, at that time pretenders to the Spanish throne. The Saracen

general Musa, delighted to have found the Achilles-heel of Europe,

immediately despatched a few hundred Moslems across the strait, under the

command of Tarik; from whom the modern Gibraltar (Gebel al-Tarik) derives

its name. These adventurers were well received in the town and castle of

Count Julian at Algeciras, and soon returned to their expectant comrades,

with rich booty and exciting tales of the fertility of the country, and

the effeminacy of the degenerate Goths.

In the April of the following year, 711 A.D., a body of five thousand

Saracens effected a landing on the coast of Spain, and entrenched

themselves strongly near the Rock of Gibraltar. These were soon followed

by other troops, until a considerable Moslem army was collected on the

Spanish shores. The feeble resistance made to this descent was a fatal

omen for the empire of the Visigoths. This once brave and hardy tribe

of Germans had lost, during a long peace, the valour and endurance to

which they owed the rich provinces of Spain; and, amidst the pleasures

of that luxurious country, had grown so unaccustomed to the use of arms,

that it was long before they could be roused to meet the foe. At length,

however, the unwarlike Roderic, having collected an army four times as

great as that of the enemy, but without confidence either in their leader

or themselves, encamped at Xeres de la Frontera, in the neighbourhood

of Cadiz. While awaiting at this place the approach of the enemy, the

Gothic king is represented as sitting in an ivory chariot, arrayed in

silken garments unworthy of a man even in time of peace, and wearing a

golden crown upon his head. The battle which quickly followed was fought

on the 26th of July, 711 A.D. It was of short duration and of no doubtful

issue. The timid herd of Goths, scarcely awaiting the wild charge of the

Saracens, turned and fled in irretrievable confusion. Roderic himself,

fit leader of such an army, was among the first to leave the field on

the back of a fleet racer, which had been placed, at his desire, in the

neighbourhood of his tent, as if his trembling heart had foreseen the

issue.

The Visigothic empire in Spain fell by a single blow. Tarik advanced

with his victorious army as far as Cordova (Corduba), which immediately

yielded at his summons; and he would, without doubt, have overrun the

whole of Spain, had he not been recalled by the jealousy of Musa, who

reserved for himself the glory of completing the splendid conquest.

Of all the Spanish towns which were captured on this occasion, Seville

and Merida alone appear to have upheld the ancient glories of the Gothic

name; but even these were finally reduced, and the last remnants of the

Visigoths were driven from the rich plains they had so long possessed

into the mountains of Asturias. It was in these rugged solitudes, and

amidst the hardships and privations which they there endured, that they

regained their ancient vigour, and preserved their Christian faith. It

was thence that at a later period they descended upon their Moorish

foes, and in many a hard-fought battle, the frequent theme of ballad

and romaunt, recovered, step by step, the fair possessions which their

ancestors had won and lost.

And thus by a single victory Spain was added to the vast dominions of

the caliph, and the cross once more retired before the crescent. Nor

did it seem that the Pyrenees, any more than the Rock of Gibraltar,

were to prove a barrier to the devastating flood of Islamism. About 718

A.D., Zama, the Arabian viceroy of Spain, made himself master of that

portion of Gaul, on the slopes of the eastern Pyrenees, of which the

Goths had hitherto retained possession. In 731 A.D. he stormed Narbonne,

the capital of the province, and having put all the male inhabitants

capable of bearing arms to the sword, he sent away the women and children

into captivity. He then pushed forward into Aquitaine, and laid siege

to Toulouse, which proved the limit of his progress; for it was there

that he was defeated by Eudo, the duke of the country, who was roused to

a desperate effort by the danger of his capital. The check thus given

to the onward march of the Moslems was of short duration. Anbasa, the

successor of Zama, about four years afterwards once more made a movement

in advance. Taking a more easterly direction, he stormed and plundered

Carcassonne and Nîmes (Nemausus); and having devastated the country as

far as the Rhone, returned laden with booty across the Pyrenees.

Duke Eudes of Aquitaine, deprived of the fruits of his single victory,

resigned all hopes of successfully resisting the invaders, and

endeavoured to preserve himself from utter ruin by an alliance with his

formidable foes. He is even said to have so far belied his character of

Christian prince as to give his own daughter in marriage, or concubinage,

to Munuza, the governor of the newly made Gallic conquests.

It appears that the expeditions of the Saracens into Gaul had been

hitherto made by individual generals on a comparatively small scale,

and on their own responsibility. The unusually slow progress of their

arms at this period, is to be ascribed less to any fear of opposition,

than to inward dissensions in the Arabian empire, and a rapid succession

of caliphs singularly unlike in their characters and views. Nine short

years (715-724 A.D.) had seen the cruel Suleiman succeeded by the severe,

yet just and upright Omar, the luxurious epicurean Yazid, and the

little-minded, calculating Hisham.

[Sidenote: [724-728 A.D.]]

It is probable, therefore, that, amid more pressing anxieties and

interests, the distant conquest of Spain was forgotten or neglected by

the court at Damascus; and that the generals, who commanded in that

country, were apt to indulge in ideas inconsistent with their real

position as satraps and slaves of an imperial master. But a change was

at hand, and the new actor Abderrahman (Abd al-Rahman), who suddenly

appeared upon the scene with an army of four hundred thousand men, was

charged with a twofold commission,--to chastise the presumption of

Munuza, whose alliance with Eudo was regarded with suspicion,--and to

bring the whole of Gaul under the sceptre of the caliph and the law of

Mohammed. Regarding Munuza as a rebel and a semi-apostate, Abderrahman

besieged him in the town of Cerdagne, to which he fled for refuge, and,

having driven him to commit suicide, sent his head, together with his

wife, the daughter of Eudes, as a welcome present to the caliph Hisham.

The victorious Saracens then marched on past Pampeluna,[125] and, making

their way through the narrow defiles on the western side of the Pyrenean

chain, poured down upon the plains with their innumerable hosts as far as

the river Garonne. The city of Bordeaux was taken and sacked, and still

they pressed on impetuously and without opposition, until they reached

the river Dordogne, where Eudes, burning with rage at the treatment

which his daughter had received, made a fruitless attempt to stop them.

Irritated rather than checked by his feeble efforts, the overwhelming

tide poured on. The standard of the prophet soon floated from the towers

of Poitiers, and even Tours, the city of the holy St. Martin, was in

danger of being polluted by the presence of insulting infidels, when,

in the hour of Europe’s greatest dread and danger, the champion of

Christendom appeared at last, to do battle with the hitherto triumphant

enemies of the cross.

It seems strange at first sight that the danger, which had so long been

threatening Europe from the side of Spain, should not have called forth

an earlier and more effectual resistance from those whose national and

religious existence was at stake. Abderrahman had now made his way

into the very centre of modern France; had taken and plundered some

of the wealthiest towns in the Frankish Empire; and, after burning or

desecrating every Christian church he met with, was marching on the

hallowed sanctuary of the patron saint, enriched by the offerings of

ages; without encountering a single foe who could even hope to stay his

progress. Where was the “invincible” and ubiquitous Charles, who was wont

to fall like a thunderbolt upon his enemies? We might indeed be surprised

at his seeming tardiness, did we not know the extraordinary difficulties

with which he had to struggle, and the seemingly impossible task he had

to perform. It was not with the modern superstition of Mohammed alone

that he had to contend, but with the hoary heathenism of the north; not

with the Saracens alone, but with his barbarous kinsmen--with nations

as hardy and warlike as his own Austrasian warriors, and animated no

less than the followers of Mohammed with an indomitable hatred of the

Christian name. Enemies were ready to pour upon him from every side,

from the green slopes of the Pyrenees and over the broad waters of the

Rhine; nor could he reckon upon the fidelity of all who lay within these

boundaries.

[Sidenote: [728-732 A.D.]]

During the whole of the ten years in which the Saracens were crossing

the Pyrenees and establishing themselves in Gaul, Charles was constantly

engaged in wars with his German neighbours. In that short period he made

campaigns against the Frisians, the Swabians, and the Bavarians, the last

of whom (as we have seen) he even crossed the Danube to attack in their

own country. As late as 728 A.D., when Abderrahman must have been already

meditating his desolating march, Charles had to turn his arms once more

against the Saxons; and in 731 A.D., the very year before he met the

Saracens at Poitiers, he marched an army into Aquitaine to quell the

rebellion of Duke Eudes.

Such were some of the adverse circumstances under which Charles had to

make his preparations, and under which he encamped with his veterans in

the neighbourhood of Poitiers, where, for the first time in his life, he

beheld the white tents of the Moslem invaders, covering the land as far

as the eye could reach.

We cannot doubt that he had long been looking forward to this hour with

an anxious though intrepid heart, for all depended upon him; and that the

wars in which he had lately been engaged, were the more important in his

eyes, because their successful termination was necessary to secure his

rear, and increase the limits of his war-ban when the time for action

should arrive.

The hitherto unconquered Saracens, who had carried the banner of their

prophet in almost uninterrupted triumph from the deserts of Arabia to the

banks of the Loire, were destined to find at last an insuperable barrier

in the brave hearts of Charles and his Austrasian followers.

On a Sunday, in the month of October, 732, after trying each other’s

strength in skirmishes of small importance during the whole of the

previous week, the two armies, invoking respectively the aid of Christ

and Mohammed, came to a general engagement on the plains between Poitiers

and Tours. The rapid onslaught of the Ishmaelites, by which they were

accustomed to bear everything before them, recoiled from the steady

valour and iron front of the Franks, whose heavy swords made dreadful

havoc among their lightly clad opponents. Repulsed, but unbroken in

courage and determination, resolved to force their way through that wall

of steel or to dash themselves to death against it, the gallant Moslems

repeated their wild charges until sunset. At every repulse their blood

flowed in torrents, and at the end of the day they found themselves

farther than ever from the goal, and gazed upon far more dead upon the

slippery field than remained alive in their ranks. Hopeless of being

able to renew the contest, they retreated in the night, and, for the

first time, fled before an enemy. On the following morning, when the

Franks again drew up in battle-array, the camp of the foe was discovered

to be empty, so that, instead of awaiting the attack, they had the more

agreeable task of plundering the tents and pursuing the fugitives.

Abderrahman himself was found among the dead, and around him, according

to the not very credible account of the chroniclers,[v] lay three hundred

thousand of his soldiers; while the Franks lost only fifteen hundred men.

Eudo, who after his defeat on the Dordogne had taken refuge with his more

merciful enemy Charles, was present in the battle and took part in the

pursuit and plunder. It was after this glorious triumph over the most

formidable enemies of his country and religion that Charles received

the surname of Martel (the hammer), by which he has since been known in

history.

The importance of this victory to all succeeding ages has often been

enlarged upon, and can hardly be exaggerated. The fate of Europe, humanly

speaking, hung upon the sword of the Frankish mayor; and but for Charles,

and the bold German warriors who had learned the art and practice of war

under him and his glorious father, the heart of Europe might even now be

in the possession of the Moslem; and the mosque and the harem might stand

where now we see the spire of the Christian church, and the home of the

Christian family.[q]

FOOTNOTES

[119] [His soldiers sang a song which Vopiscus[c] quotes:

“_Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus_

_Mille mille mille mille mille Persas quærimus._”

This song which became a street song in Rome is perhaps the first

appearance of the name in Roman history.]

[120] [He is also called Hlodowig and Chlodwig, and succeeded his father

in 481.]

[121] [Also spelled Hlothehild and Clothildis.]

[122] [Clovis defeated the Alamanni in 496, but not, as is wrongly

stated, at Tolbiacum or Zülpich.]

[123] [The absorption of the Burgundian kingdom by the Franks is vaguely

reflected in the great German epic, the _Nibelungenlied_.]

[124] [Henri Martin[w] says that _Luco-Fago_ appears to be the same as

_Latofao_, where a great battle had already been fought in 596, and which

is identified with the village of _Lafaux_ between Laon and Soissons.]

[125] [According to Strabo[x] this town, called in Roman times Pompelo,

derived its name from Pompey the Great, who rebuilt it in 68 B.C.]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV

CHARLES MARTEL TO CHARLEMAGNE

[732-768 A.D.]

Though an effective check had been given to the progress of the Saracens’

arms, and they themselves had been deprived of that chief support of

fanatic valour, the belief in their own invincibility, yet their power

was by no means broken, nor was Charles in a condition to improve his

victory. The Neustrians and Burgundians were far from being reconciled

to the supremacy which the German Franks had acquired over themselves

under the mighty Carlovingian mayors. Their jealousy of Charles Martel’s

success and their hatred of his person, were so much stronger than their

zeal in the cause of Christendom, that even while he was engaged in his

desperate conflict with the Saracens, they were raising a rebellion in

his rear. But the indefatigable warrior was not sleeping on the fresh

laurels he had won. No sooner had he received intelligence of their

treacherous designs, than he led his troops, fresh from the slaughter of

the infidels, into the very heart of Burgundy, and inflicted a terrible

retribution on his domestic foes. He then removed all whom he had reason

to suspect from their posts of emolument and honour, and bestowed them

upon men on whom he could depend in the hour of danger.

In the following year, 734 A.D., he made considerable progress in the

subjugation and, what was even more difficult, the conversion of the

Frisians, who hated Christianity the more because it was connected

in their minds with a foreign yoke. The preaching of Boniface was

powerfully seconded by the sword of Charles, who attacked them by land

and sea, defeated their duke, Poppo, destroyed their heathen altars,

and, like Alfred in the case of the Danes, gave them the alternative of

Christianity or death.

[Sidenote: [735-737 A.D.]]

After the victory of Poitiers, Charles had entrusted the defence of

the Pyrenean borders to Duke Eudes, whom he left in peaceable though

dependent possession of his territories. Eudes had received a rough

lesson from his former misfortunes, and passed the remainder of his life

in friendly relations with his Frankish liege lord. At the death of

Eudes, in 735 A.D., a dispute arose between his sons, Hunold and Hatto,

respecting the succession; and it seems that in the course of their

contest they had forgotten their common dependence upon Charles Martel. A

feud of this nature at such a period, and in the immediate neighbourhood

of the Saracens, was highly dangerous to Aquitaine and the whole Frankish

Empire. Charles therefore lost no time in leading an army into the

distracted province, to settle the disputes of the contending parties,

and bring the population into a more complete state of subjection. Having

advanced to the Garonne and taken the city of Bordeaux, he entered into

negotiations with Hunold; and, “with his accustomed piety,[c]” conferred

the duchy upon him, on condition of his renewing his father’s oath of

fealty to himself and his two sons, whom he thus distinctly pointed out

to the Franks as their hereditary rulers.

THE SARACENS AGAIN REPELLED

[Sidenote: [737-739 A.D.]]

In 737 A.D., the infidels were once more introduced into the south of

Gaul by the treachery of Christians. A man of influence in Provence,

called Maurontus, who probably aimed at an independent dukedom, formed a

strong party among the Neustrian seigneurs against the detested German

mayor. As the Arabian alliance was the only one which could sustain them

in a conflict with Charles, they made no scruple of inviting Ibn Yusuf,

the new viceroy of Septimania (Languedoc), into their country and giving

him the city of Avignon as a pledge of their sincerity. The Saracens,

instructed by their strange allies, passed into Burgundy, where the party

opposed to Charles was strongest; having taken Vienne, they covered

the country as far as Lyons with their wild and rapid cavalry, which

everywhere left its traces of fire and blood.

The advance of the Saracens was so sudden, and their progress so rapid,

that Charles Martel was not immediately prepared to meet them. He

therefore despatched his brother Childebrand and his principal seigneurs,

with such forces as were ready, to keep the enemy in check; determining

himself to follow with a numerous and well-appointed army. When the

advanced guard of the Franks arrived near Avignon, the Saracens retreated

into that place, and prepared to stand a siege. On the arrival of Charles

the town, which had resisted Childebrand, was taken by storm, and the

Arabian garrison put to the sword. The Franks then crossed the Rhone, and

marched through Septimania to Narbonne--a place of great importance to

the Saracens, who had made it a magazine for their arms. It was defended

at this time by Athima, viceroy of the caliph in Septimania, with a

considerable force. The Saracens of Spain, fearing that the garrison

might be insufficient to withstand the assault of the Franks (who had

invested the town on every side), fitted out a fleet, and transported a

body of troops to the mouth of the river Berre, near Narbonne, in hopes

of raising the siege. This movement did not escape the quick eye of

Charles; who, leaving his brother with a division of the besiegers, fell

with the remainder on the newly landed force of the enemy, and routed

them with dreadful slaughter. He failed, however, in his attempts upon

Narbonne, which remained in the hands of the Saracens; while Bérziers,

Agde, Megalone, and Nîmes, together with all the territory on the north

side of the river Aude (subsequently known as Languedoc), were reunited

to the Frankish Empire.

According to Paulus Diaconus,[f] Charles Martel was assisted on this

occasion by Liutprand, king of the Lombards in Italy, with whom he had

formed a close alliance and friendship. We have hardly sufficient grounds

for believing that the Lombards took an active part in this war, but the

mere expectation of their approach may have exercised some influence in

bringing about the results above described.[126]

The activity of his enemies in the north again prevented Charles from

pursuing his advantages against the Moslems, who might perhaps, had

German Europe been united, have even then been driven back to the shores

of Africa. In 737 we find the indefatigable warrior employed in repelling

and avenging a fresh inroad of the Saxons, whom he defeated with great

slaughter and drove along the river Lippe. In 739 he again appeared

in Burgundy, where his presence had become necessary to stamp out the

smouldering embers of the old conspiracy.

THE AFFAIRS OF ROME

[Sidenote: [739-740 A.D.]]

In the meantime a new theatre was preparing for the Franks, on which they

were destined by Providence to play a very conspicuous and important

part. The exertions and influence of Boniface, the great apostle of

Germany, and the intimate religious union he had effected between the

Frankish church and the bishops of Rome, were to produce for both parties

still richer fruits than had yet appeared.

The reunion of the Lombards under one head had been naturally followed as

we have previously seen, by a further extension of their borders at the

expense of the Roman Empire; and this extension was the immediate cause

of a collision between the kings of the Lombards and the successors of

St. Peter, which gave rise to the most important and lasting results.

The evident intention of the bishops of Rome, to play off the Lombards

and the Byzantine court against each other, and to make their own career

the resultant of these two opposing forces, seemed, for some time, likely

to be entirely frustrated.

[Illustration: A FRANKISH OFFICER]

Liutprand, justly irritated by the conduct of the Romans, to whom he had

shown so much forbearance, had led his forces to the very gates of Rome,

with the full intention of incorporating it with the rest of his Italian

dominions; and thus, with all his foresight, Gregory had brought the

rising structure of the papacy into the greatest danger, and appeared to

be himself at the mercy of his enemies.

In this extremity the holy father bethought himself of the powerful

nation which had for so many ages been the faithful ally of the Catholic

church, and had lately been united in still closer bonds of reverence

and amity to St. Peter’s chair. In 739 Pope Gregory III applied for aid

against the Lombards “to his most excellent son, the sub-king Charles.”

That this application was made unwillingly, and with considerable

misgivings about the consequences, may be inferred from the extremities

to which Gregory submitted before he made it.

His hesitation was owing, no doubt, in part to his instinctive dread of

giving the papal chair a too powerful protector, who might easily become

a master; and partly to his knowledge of the sincere friendship which

existed between his opponent Liutprand and his desired ally. Of all the

circumstances which threatened to prevent the realisation of the papal

dreams of temporal independence and spiritual domination, none were so

greatly and so justly dreaded as an alliance between the Franks and

Lombards; and we shall see that Gregory III and his successors spared no

pains, and shrank from no means however questionable, to excite jealousy

and hatred between the Franks and their Lombard kinsmen.

THE POPE CALLS TO CHARLES

[Sidenote: [740-741 A.D.]]

While the Romans were trembling within their hastily repaired walls, and

awaiting the decisive assault of the Lombards, Charles Martel was resting

from the fatigues of his late campaigns in Burgundy; and he was still in

that country when the papal envoys reached him. They brought with them

a piteous epistle from Gregory, in which he complains with bitterness

of the persecutions of his enemies, who, he says, had robbed the very

church of St. Peter (which stood without the walls) of its candlesticks;

and taken away the pious offerings of the Frankish princes. Charles

received the communication of the afflicted pontiff with the greatest

reverence. The interests of the empire, and more especially of his own

family, were too intimately connected with the existence and honour of

the bishops of Rome, to allow of his feeling indifferent to what was

passing in Italy; and there is no reason to doubt that he entertained the

highest veneration for the head of the church. Yet this first embassy

seems to have justified the fears rather than the hopes of Gregory. The

incessant exertions which Charles’ enemies compelled him to make for

the maintenance of his authority would long ago have destroyed a man of

ordinary energy and endurance, and were beginning to tell even upon his

iron frame. He was aware that the new order of things, of which he was

the principal author, depended for its continuance and consolidation

solely upon his presence and watchfulness. So far from being in a

condition to lead his forces to a distant country, and to make enemies

of brave and powerful friends, it was not long since he had sought the

assistance of the Lombards themselves; and he knew not how soon he might

stand in need of it again. He therefore contented himself with opening

friendly negotiations with Liutprand, who excused himself to Charles,

and agreed to spare the papal territory on condition that the Romans

should cease to interfere between himself and his rebellious subjects.

The exact terms of the agreement made between Gregory and Liutprand, by

the mediation of Charles Martel, are of the less moment, as they were

observed by neither party.

In 740 the Lombards again appeared in arms before the gates of Rome;

and the pope was once more a suppliant at the Frankish court. In the

letter which Charles Martel received on this occasion, Gregory bitterly

complains that no effectual aid had been as yet afforded him; that more

attention had been paid to the “lying” reports of the Lombard king than

to his own statements, and he earnestly implores his “most Christian son”

not to prefer the friendship of Liutprand to the love of the prince of

the apostles. It is evident from the whole tenor of this second epistle,

that the Frankish mayor had not altered his conduct towards the king of

the Lombards, in consequence of Gregory’s charges and complaints; but had

trusted rather to his own knowledge of his friend than to the invectives

of the terrified and angry pope.

To give additional weight to his written remonstrances and entreaties,

Gregory sent the bishop Anastasius and the presbyter Sergius to Charles

Martel, charged with more secret and important instructions, which he

scrupled to commit to writing. The nature of their communications may

be gathered from the symbolical actions by which they were accompanied.

The envoys brought with them the keys of St. Peter’s sepulchre, which

they offered to Charles, on whom they were also empowered to confer

the title and dignity of Roman patricius. By the former step--the

offer of the keys (an honour never before conferred upon a Frankish

ruler)--Gregory expressed his desire to constitute the powerful mayor

protector of the holy see; and by conferring the rank of Roman patricius

without, as seems probable, the sanction of the Greek emperor, he in

effect withdrew his allegiance from the latter, and acknowledged Charles

Martel as liege lord of the Roman duchy and people. It was in this light

that the whole transaction was regarded at the time, for we read in the

chronicle of Moissiac,[g] written in the beginning of the ninth century,

that the letter of the pope was accompanied by “a decree of the Roman

principes”; and that the Roman people, having thrown off the rule of the

Greek emperor, desired to place themselves under the protection of the

aforesaid prince, and his “invincible clemency.”

Charles Martel received the ambassadors with the distinguished honour due

to the dignity of the sender, and the importance of their mission; and

willingly accepted at their hands the significant offerings they brought.

When they were prepared to return, he loaded them with costly presents,

and ordered Grimo, the abbot of Corbey, and Sigebert, a monk of St.

Denis, to accompany them to Rome, and bear his answer to Pope Gregory.

Rome was once more delivered from destruction by the intervention of

Charles, and his influence with Liutprand.

And thus were the last days of the great Frankish hero and Gregory III

employed in marking out a line of policy respecting each other, and the

great temporal and spiritual interests committed to them, which, being

zealously followed up by their successors, led in the sequel to the most

important and brilliant results. They both died nearly at the same time,

in the same year, 741 A.D., in which the events above described took

place. The restless activity of Charles Martel had prematurely worn him

out. Conscious of the rapid decline of his powers, he began to set his

house in order; and he had scarcely time to portion out his vast empire

among his sons, and to make his peace with heaven in the church of the

patron saint, when he was seized by a fever in his palace at Cariciacum

(Quierzy) on the Oise; where he died on the 15th (or 21st)[127] of

October, 741 A.D., at the early age of fifty. He was buried in the church

of Denis.

Charles Martel may be reckoned in the number of those great men who have

been deprived of more than half the glory due to them, “because they want

the sacred poet.” Deeds which, in the full light of history, would have

appeared sufficient to make a dozen warriors immortal, are despatched

by the Frankish chroniclers in a few dry words. His greatness, indeed,

shines forth even from their meagre notices; but we feel, as we read

them, that had a Cæsar or a Livy unfolded his character and described his

exploits,--instead of a poor pedantic monk like Fredegarius,[d] a rival

might be found for the Cæsars, the Scipios, and the Hannibals.

CARLOMAN AND PEPIN THE SHORT

[Sidenote: [741-742 A.D.]]

Charles Martel left two sons, Carloman and Pepin, by his first wife,

of whom nothing is known, and a third, Grifo, by the captive Bavarian

princess Swanahild, who is sometimes called his second wife and sometimes

his concubine. In the first partition of his dominions, which was made

known before his death, he apportioned Austrasia, Swabia (Alamannia), and

Thuringia, the German provinces, to his eldest son, Carloman; Neustria,

Burgundy, and Provence, to Pepin, the chief inheritor of his glory. In

this arrangement the son of Swanahild was wisely passed over; but the

entreaties of his beautiful spouse induced Charles, at the very end of

his life, to set apart a portion from each of the two kingdoms above

mentioned for Grifo; an unfortunate step, which only brought destruction

on him who received the fatal gift.

The mischievous effects of the new partition showed themselves

immediately. The subjects of Grifo, among whom alone he could look for

sympathy and support, were discontented at being arbitrarily separated

from the rest of the empire; and the ill-feeling of the seigneurs and

people in all parts of the country appears to have been enhanced by the

prejudice existing against Swanahild, both as a foreigner and on account

of the great influence she exercised over the heart of Charles. So

strong, indeed, was the feeling of the Franks upon the subject, that we

may fairly doubt whether Carloman and Pepin themselves, had they been so

inclined, would have been able to secure to their brother the possession

of the territory allotted to him.

Whatever sentiments the two eldest brothers previously entertained

towards Grifo, they were soon rendered openly hostile by the flight of

their sister Hiltrude to the court of Bavaria, and her unauthorised

marriage with Otilo, the duke of that country. Swanahild and Grifo, who

were naturally looked upon as the instigators of this unwelcome alliance,

shut themselves up in the fortress of Laon; but being entirely without

resources, they yielded up the place and themselves as soon as Carloman

and Pepin appeared with an army before its walls. The favourite wife of

the mighty Charles Martel was sent into a nunnery at Chelles, and Grifo

was imprisoned in the castle of Neufchâteau, in the forest of Ardennes.

Having placed a Merovingian named Childeric on the throne,--which their

father for some time before his death had left unoccupied,--the young

princes marched an army towards Aquitaine; for Hunold the son of Eudes,

the sworn vassal of Charles Martel, had manifested his rebellious

intentions by throwing Lantfred, the Frankish ambassador, into prison.

Crossing the Loire, they devastated Aquitania as far as Bourges; and were

on the point of overrunning the whole country, when the intelligence of

the still more serious rebellion of the Swabians compelled them suddenly

to break off their campaign in the south, and return to the heart of

their dominions. Preparations of unusual magnitude had been made for the

war by the dukes of Swabia and Bavaria, who had invited the Saxon and

Slavonian tribes to make common cause against the Franks. The sudden

return of the Frankish army, however, frustrated their half-completed

plans. In the autumn of the same year, Carloman crossed the Rhine, fell

upon the Swabian duke Theobald before his Bavarian allies were ready to

take the field, and compelled him to renew his oath of allegiance, and to

give hostages for its observance.

[Sidenote: [742-745 A.D.]]

In the meantime, Otilo, duke of Bavaria, the husband of the fugitive

princess Hiltrude, was doing all in his power to strengthen himself

against the expected attack of the Franks, and was evidently acting in

concert with Duke Hunold of Aquitaine. The defeat of the Swabians was a

heavy blow to his hopes; but he had gone too far to recede, and having

united a body of Saxons and Slavonian mercenaries with his own subjects,

he took up a position on the farther side of the river Lech, and

stockaded the banks to prevent the enemy from crossing. The Franks came

up soon afterwards, but found the Bavarians so strongly entrenched, that

they lay fifteen days on the opposite bank without attempting anything.

After a diligent search, however, they discovered a ford by which they

crossed the river during the night, and, falling on the unsuspecting

enemy, put them to flight, and drove them with great slaughter across the

river Inn.

[Illustration: CHILDERIC

(From a French print of 1832)]

The Frankish princes are said to have remained for fifty-two days in

the enemies’ country; but their expedition partook more of the nature

of a foray than a conquest, and left the Bavarians in nearly the same

condition of semi-independence in which it had found them. The activity

of the revolted tribes rendered it dangerous for Carloman and Pepin

to lead their forces too far in any one direction. As Hunold had been

saved by the revolt of the Swabians, so Otilo was now relieved from

the presence of the Franks by diversions made in his favour in two

other quarters; by the Saxons, who had fallen upon Thuringia; and by

Hunold, who, emboldened by impunity and the absence of the Franks, had

crossed the Loire and was devastating the land as far as Chartres. The

Saxons claimed the first attention of the Frankish leaders, since the

latter dared not march towards the south with so dangerous an enemy in

their rear. Carloman is said to have defeated the Saxon army, which

consisted in all probability of undisciplined marauders, in two great

battles, and to have carried off one of their leaders, named Theodoric,

into Austrasia. Pepin was, in the meantime, engaged with the Swabians

under Theobald, whom he soon reduced to obedience. Having thus, for

the time, secured their rear, the brother-warriors marched (in 745

A.D.), with united forces, against Hunold, who, conscious of his utter

inability to resist their undivided power, laid down his arms without a

contest, consented to give hostages, and to renew his brittle oaths of

fealty. Disgusted with his ill success, he soon afterwards resigned the

government in favour of his son Waifar, and retired to the monastery of

St. Philibert, in the island of Rhé, on the coast of Aquitaine.

[Sidenote: [745-747 A.D.]]

Though it is not easy to discover in what respect the Swabians were more

in fault in the war just mentioned than the other revolted nations, it

is evident that they incurred the special resentment of their Frankish

conquerors. All had broken their allegiance, and had sought to regain

by force the independence of which they had been forcibly deprived. Yet

while the Bavarians and Aquitanians were merely compelled to renew their

engagements on honourable terms, the treatment of the Swabians has left

an indelible blot on the character of Carloman.

This brave and once powerful people had retired, after their defeat by

Pepin, into the fastnesses of the Alps, but were soon compelled to make

their submission, and to resume their former allegiance. In 746, however,

they appear to have meditated a new revolt, and were accused of having

incited the Bavarians to try once more the fortune of war. Rendered

furious by the seemingly interminable nature of the contest, Carloman

appears to have thought himself justified in repaying faithlessness by

treachery of a far more heinous nature; and this is the only shadow of

an excuse which can be offered for his conduct. Having led his army to

Cannstadt in 746, he ordered Theobald, the Swabian duke, to join him with

all his forces, in obedience to the military ban. Theobald obeyed without

suspicion, supposing that he should be employed, in conjunction with the

rest of Carloman’s forces, against some common enemy. “And there,” says

the chronicler of Metz,[c] “a great prodigy took place, that one army

seized and bound another without any of the perils of war!” No sooner

had the two armies met together in an apparently friendly manner, than

Carloman ordered his Franks to surround the Alamanni (Swabians), and to

disarm and bind them. He then instituted an inquiry respecting the aid

afforded the Bavarians; and, having seized those chiefs who had assisted

Otilo “against the invincible princes, Carloman and Pepin, he mercifully

corrected each according to his deserts.” Lanfried II received the vacant

throne of Theobald, who, in all probability, was one of those who lost

their lives by Carloman’s merciful correction.

PEPIN SOLE RULER

[Sidenote: [747-748 A.D.]]

In the following year, the connection between the Carlovingian family and

the Roman church, which had grown continually closer, was still farther

strengthened by the voluntary abdication of Carloman, and his admission

into the monastic order. The reasons which induced this mighty prince and

successful warrior to take so singular a step are quite unknown. Remorse

for his recent treachery, disgust at the bloodshed he had caused and

witnessed, the sense of inferiority to his brother Pepin, and doubts as

to the continuance of fraternal harmony,--a natural tendency to religious

contemplation increased by the influence of Boniface, whose earnest

faith and spotless life could not but make a deep impression upon all

who knew him,--these and other causes will occur to the mind of everyone

as being, singly or in different combinations, adequate to the result.

Yet we can but guess at motives which were unknown to the generations

immediately succeeding him, and which he himself perhaps would have found

it difficult to define.

With the full concurrence of his brother Pepin, whose appetite for

worldly honours was by no means sated, Carloman set out for Rome[128]

with a numerous retinue of the chief men in his kingdom, taking with him

magnificent presents for the pope. He was received by Zacharias with

great distinction; and by his advice Carloman vowed obedience to the

rules of St. Benedict before Optatus, the abbot of Monte Cassino, and

founded a monastery to St. Silvester on the classic heights of Mount

Soracte. But he was far too much in earnest in his desire of solitude to

find the neighbourhood of Rome a suitable or agreeable residence. The

newly founded monastery was soon thronged with curious visitors, eager

to behold the princely monk who had given up all to follow Christ. He

therefore abandoned Mount Soracte, and, concealing as far as possible

his name and rank, enrolled himself among the Benedictine monks of Monte

Cassino.

As no stipulation had been made in favour of Carloman’s son Drogo, Pepin

now became sole ruler of the whole Frankish Empire. It is a no less

singular than pleasing fact that one of the very first uses which Pepin

made of his undivided authority was to release his brother Grifo from his

long imprisonment; singular, because it seems to imply that Carloman,

whose susceptibility to religious influences cannot be doubted, was the

only obstacle to this act of generosity and mercy. It is indeed open

to us to suppose that Carloman foresaw more clearly than his brother

the injurious consequences of Grifo’s restoration to freedom; for the

policy of this step was certainly more questionable than its generosity.

The liberated prince thought more of what was withheld than of what

was granted, and had never ceased to consider himself entitled to an

equal share of the dominions of his father. In 748, not long after his

release, while Pepin was holding a council of the bishops and seigneurs

at Düren, Grifo was forming a party among the younger men to support

his pretensions to the throne. In company with some of these he fled

to the Saxons, who were always ready to make common cause against the

hated Franks. Pepin, well aware of the extremely inflammable materials

by which his frontiers were surrounded, and dreading a renewal of the

conflagration he had so lately quenched in blood, immediately took

the field; marching through Thuringia, he attacked and defeated the

Nordo-Squavi, a Saxon tribe who lived on the river Wipper, between the

Bode and Saale. The Saxon leader Theodoric was taken prisoner for the

third time, and a considerable number of the captives taken on this

occasion were compelled to receive Christian baptism, according to the

usual policy of that age.

After fruitless negotiations between the brothers, Grifo endeavoured

to make a stand at the river Oker; failing in this, he fled to the

Bavarians, among whom an enemy of Pepin was sure to find a welcome.

After devastating the Saxon territory for forty days, and reimposing

the tribute formerly exacted by Clotaire, Pepin directed his march

towards Bavaria, in pursuit of his brother. Otilo, the former duke of

this country, was now dead, and had been succeeded by his son Tassilo,

who ruled under the influence of the Frankish princess Hiltrude. These

inveterate enemies of Pepin were also joined by a mighty Bavarian chief,

called Suitger, and the Swabian duke, Lanfried II. If we understand

rightly a passage in the annals of Metz, Grifo succeeded in depriving

Tassilo and his mother of the reins of government and making himself

master of Bavaria. Grifo, Suitger, and Lanfried united their forces,

but not venturing to await the attack of the Franks upon the Lech, as

Otilo had done on a former occasion, they retreated at once behind the

Inn, which had already proved so effectual a bulwark. Pepin, however,

no longer embarrassed by a variety of enemies, determined to bring the

matter to a final decision, and was already making preparations to cross

the Inn, when the leaders of the allied army, convinced of the futility

of braving the superior force of the Franks, voluntarily surrendered

themselves prisoners of war. The leniency with which the Bavarians were

treated seems to imply that favourable terms of surrender had been

granted, at any rate, to them. Tassilo received back his duchy, for

which he had to swear fealty to the Frankish ruler; while Alamannia was

finally incorporated with the Frankish dominions. The fate of Lanfried

II, the last of the Swabian dukes, is not known; but the character and

general policy of Pepin are a guarantee that he was not treated with

unnecessary harshness. Grifo was once more indebted to his brother for

life and liberty, and not only received full pardon, but was endowed

with twelve counties and the town of Le Mans--a fortune splendid enough

to have satisfied the desires of anyone who had not dreamed too much of

independence and royal authority.

The ill success which attended the efforts of Grifo,--whose claims but

a few years before would have rallied thousands of malcontents round

his standard,--and the rapid and easy suppression of the Swabian and

Bavarian revolts, afford us evidence that the once bitter opposition

of the seigneurs, both lay and clerical, to the establishment of the

Carlovingian throne, was finally overcome; and that Pepin possessed a

degree of settled authority which neither his father nor his grandfather

had enjoyed.

SECULARISATION

[Sidenote: [748-751 A.D.]]

[Illustration: A MEROVINGIAN FRANK]

It was during the mayoralty of Pepin, and not, as is generally assumed,

in that of Charles Martel, that the famous and important act of

secularisation took place. The practice into which Charles Martel had

been driven by his necessities, of bestowing ecclesiastical benefices

on laymen who assumed the priesthood with purely secular views, was

inconsistent with the peace and good order, and inimical to all the

higher interests, of the Christian church. As an exceptional state

of things, however, even rigid disciplinarians and pious churchmen

like Boniface had thought it expedient to yield a tacit assent to the

employment of church revenues for military purposes. But when, on the

one hand, the consequences of these irregular and violent expedients had

become, with the lapse of time, more clearly evident; and, on the other,

a stricter discipline, and a more religious and ecclesiastical spirit

had been diffused through the great body of the clergy by the labours

of Boniface and his school, it became more and more repugnant to the

feelings of all true friends of the church to see its highest offices

filled by masquerading laymen, who had nothing of the priest about

them but the name and dress. In this repugnance we have every reason to

believe that both Carloman and Pepin largely shared; and yet, though

not engaged in an internecine struggle like their father, they carried

on expensive wars, and needed large supplies of land and money. It was

not therefore to be expected that they should ease the church from all

participation in the public burdens, especially at a time when it had

absorbed a very large proportion of the national wealth. Under these

circumstances, a compromise was effected by the influence of Boniface at

the synod of Lestines. In this important council the assembled bishops

consented, in consideration of the urgent necessities of the state, to

make a voluntary surrender of a portion of the funds of the church; with

the stipulation that the civil rulers should, on their part, abstain

for the future from all arbitrary interference with its discipline and

property.

The vast funds which the “secularisation” placed at the disposal of

the Frankish princes contributed in no small degree to establish the

Carlovingian throne; for it enabled them to carry out to its full extent

the system of beneficial (or non-hereditary) grants, and to secure the

services of the powerful seigneurs, who were bound to the sovereign not

only by a sense of gratitude, but by the hope of future favours and the

fear of deprivation.

THE ANOINTING OF PEPIN (751 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [751 A.D.]]

A change took place at the period at which we have now arrived, which,

though easily and noiselessly made, and apparently but nominal, forms

an important era in Frankish history. It costs us an effort to remember

that Charles Martel, Carloman, and Pepin were not kings, but officers of

another, who still bore the royal title, and occasionally and exclusively

wore the crown and sat upon the throne. Carloman and Pepin, when they

were heading great armies, receiving oaths of allegiance from conquered

princes, and giving away duchies, were mayors of the palace of Childeric

III, a Merovingian king. Even they had thought the time not yet come for

calling themselves by their proper name, and had placed Childeric on the

throne. The king’s name was a tower of strength, which they who had met

and defeated every other enemy seemed to shrink from attacking.

The foundations of the Merovingian throne, indeed, had been thoroughly,

perhaps systematically, sapped. The king-making mayors had set up

monarchs and deposed them at their pleasure; they had even left the

throne vacant for a time, as if to prove whether the nation was yet

cured of its inveterate notion that none but a Merovingian could wear a

Frankish crown. There was but one step more to the throne, and that step

was taken at last when there was scarcely a man in the empire who had

either the power or the wish to prevent it.

In 751 A.D. Pepin assumed the name of king, with the full consent of the

nation and the sanction of the pope; and the last of the Merovingians was

shorn of his royal locks, the emblems of his power, and sent to end his

days in the monastery of St. Bertin, at Sithieu (St. Omer in Artois).

The immediate motive for the change is not apparent, and the remarkable

absence of all impatience on the part of Pepin to assume the royal name

seems to justify the notion that the _coup-de-grâce_ was given to the

Merovingian dynasty by another hand than his. It might have been still

deferred, but for the growing intimacy between the Carlovingians and the

pope.

All that has been transmitted to us is the fact that, in 750 (or 751),

an embassy, composed of Burchard, bishop of Würzberg, Fulrad, abbot of

St. Denis, and Pepin’s own chaplain, appeared at Rome at the papal court,

and laid the following question before Pope Zacharias for his decision:

Whether it was expedient that one who was possessed of no authority in

the land should continue to retain the name of king, or whether it should

be transferred to him who really exercised the royal power.

It is not to be imagined for a moment that Zacharias was unprepared with

his reply to this momentous question, which would certainly not have been

proposed had there been any doubt respecting the answer. The pope replied

that, he who really governed should also bear the royal name; and the

embassy returned to Pepin with this message, or, as some writers take a

pleasure in calling it, this “command.” A grand council of the nation

was assembled at Soissons (Augusta Suessionum) in the same year, and the

major-domus was unanimously elected sole king of the Franks, and soon

afterwards anointed and crowned, with his wife Bertrada, by his old and

faithful friend Boniface.

This solemn consecration by the use of holy oil, and other ceremonies,

observed for the first time at the coronation of the Carlovingian

king, were not without their important significance. The sentiment

of legitimacy was very strongly seated in the hearts of the Frankish

people. The dethroned family had exclusively supplied the nation with

their rulers from all time; no one could trace their origin, or point

to a Merovingian who was not either a king, or the kinsman of a king.

It was far otherwise with Pepin. He was the first of his race who had

not fought for the office of major-domus with competitors as noble as

himself. It was little more than a century since his namesake of Landen

had been dismissed from his office by the arbitrary will of Dagobert.

The extraordinary fertility of the Carlovingian family in warriors

and statesmen had hitherto enabled them to hold their own against all

gainsayers. But if the new dynasty was to rest on something more certain

and durable than the uninterrupted transmission of great bodily and

mental powers in a single family, it was of vital importance to the

Carlovingians to rear their throne upon foundations the depth of which

was beyond the ken of vulgar eyes. Such a foundation could be nothing

else than the sanction of heaven, and was to be sought in the Christian

church, in the fiat of God’s representative on earth, who could set apart

the Carlovingians as a chosen race, and bestow upon them a heavenly claim

to the obedience of their countrymen.

We have already referred to the successful efforts of Boniface and his

followers in the cause of Roman supremacy. The belief in the power of

the bishops of Rome, as successors of St. Peter, to bind and to loose,

to set up and to set down, had already taken root in the popular mind,

and rendered the sanction of the popes as efficacious a legitimiser as

the cloud of mystery and fable which enveloped the origin of the fallen

Merovingians.

So gradually was this change of dynasty effected, so skilfully was the

new throne founded on well-consolidated authority, warlike renown,

good government, and religious faith, that as far as we can learn from

history, not a single voice was raised against the aspiring mayor, when

his warriors, _more majorum_, raised him on the shield, and bore him

thrice through the joyful throng; and when Boniface anointed him with

holy oil, as king of the Franks “by the grace of God,” not a single

champion was found throughout that mighty empire, to draw his sword in

the cause of the last monarch of the house of Clovis.

Pepin was not long allowed to enjoy his new dignity in peace, but was

quickly called upon to exchange the amenities of the royal palace for the

toils and dangers of the battle-field.

The Saxons had already recovered from, and were desirous of avenging, the

chastisement inflicted upon them; and having rebelled “in their way,” [as

Fredegarius[d] says] were now marching upon the Rhine. But Pepin, who

had not ceased to be a general when he became a king, collected a large

army, with which he crossed the Rhine, and entering the territory of the

Saxons, wasted it with fire and sword, and carried back a large number of

captives into his own dominions.

It was on his return from this campaign that he received the news of

his brother Grifo’s death. This restless and unhappy prince--whom the

indelible notion of his right to a throne rendered incapable of enjoying

the noble fortune allotted to him by his brother--had fled to Waifar,

duke of Gascony, in the hope of inducing him to take up arms. But Waifar

was not in a condition to protect him; and when the ambassadors of

Pepin demanded that he should be given up, Grifo was obliged to seek

another asylum. The fugitive then directed his course to King Aistulf,

foreseeing, probably, that Pepin would be drawn into the feud between the

pope and the Lombards, the subjects of Aistulf, and therefore thinking

that he might already regard the latter as the enemy of his brother. As

he was passing the Alps, however, with a small retinue, he was set upon,

in the valley of St. Jean de Maurienne, by Count Theudes of Vienne and

the Transjuran Count Friedrich. Grifo was slain, but not until after a

desperate struggle, in which both the counts above mentioned also lost

their lives.

Pepin now retired to his royal residence at Dietenhoven (Thionville,

Villa Theudonis), on the Moselle, and spent the few months of peace that

followed the Saxon war in ordering the affairs of the church, which he

effected chiefly through the instrumentality of ecclesiastical synods.[b]

We may now profitably revert briefly to the affairs of the Lombards whom

we left just at the moment of Liutprand’s death in 744.[a]

LOMBARD AFFAIRS

[Sidenote: [744-751 A.D.]]

The influence of Charles Martel with his ally and friend Liutprand,

and the reverence which the latter entertained for the popes in their

spiritual character, had caused a temporary lull in the affairs of

Italy. But Liutprand died about two years after the accession of Pepin,

and was succeeded, first by his grandson Hildebrand, who reigned seven

months, and then by Ratchis, duke of Friuli, under whom the Lombards

renewed the war against Rome. In this emergency, Zacharias, who, like

many other popes, trusted greatly and with good reason to his personal

influence over the rude kings and warriors of the age, went himself to

Perugia (Perusia) to beg a peace from Ratchis. The result was favourable

to a degree beyond his highest expectations. The Lombard monarch not

only recalled his troops--which were already besieging the towns of

the Pentapolis--and granted a peace of forty years, but was so deeply

affected by the dignified demeanour and eloquent exhortations of the holy

father, that, like another Carloman, he renounced his earthly crown, and

sought a refuge from the cares of government in the quiet cloisters of

Monte Cassino.[b]

This is the story as told in the _Liber Pontificalis_,[i] but there are

reasons for thinking that Ratchis lost the favour of his own Lombards by

winning the smile of the pope, and that a revolution unseated him and

he was fortunate enough to be immured in a convent instead of meeting

the probable fate of his predecessor, Hildebrand, whose disappearance is

unexplained. It is a strange fact that Ratchis went to the same convent

where the ex-king Carloman lived.[a]

[Sidenote: [749-753 A.D.]]

Ratchis was succeeded in 749 by his brother Aistulf, a man by no means

so sensible to spiritual influences, and remarkable for his energy and

strength of purpose. In three years from his accession to the Lombard

throne, he succeeded in driving out Eutychius, the last exarch of the

Greek emperors, from the exarchate of Ravenna, and made himself master of

the city. Having thus secured the possession of the southern portion of

the Roman territory, he marched upon Rome itself; and when Pope Zacharias

died, March 15th, 752, it must have been with the melancholy conviction

that all his efforts to preserve the independence of Rome, and to further

the lofty claims of the papacy, were about to prove fruitless. Once

more was Hannibal at the gates; but, fortunately for the interest of

the threatened city, the successor of Zacharias, Stephen II, was a man

in every way equal to the situation. By a well-timed embassy and costly

presents, he stayed the uplifted arm of the Lombard for the moment, and,

as often happens in human affairs, by gaining time he gained everything.

After remaining quiet for a few months, Aistulf again resumed his

threatening attitude towards the Romans, and demanded a palpable proof of

their subjection to himself, in the shape of a poll-tax of a gold solidus

per head. A fresh embassy from the pope, which the Lombard king received

at Nepi (near Sutri, north of Rome), met with no success, and the holy

abbots of St. Vincent and St. Benedict, who composed it, returned to

their monasteries in despair. Nor was any greater effect produced by

the arrival of Joannes, the imperial _Silentiarius_, who was sent by

the Greek emperor from Constantinople. This pompous messenger brought

letters for the pope and King Aistulf, in which the latter was called

upon to desist from his present undertaking and to restore the whole

of the territory of which he had unjustly robbed the Grecian Empire.

The high-sounding language and haughty requirements of the Byzantines,

unsupported as they were by any material power, could make no impression

upon such a man as Aistulf, and he dismissed the imperial envoy with an

unmeaning answer.

The danger of Rome had now reached its highest point, and no deliverance

seemed nigh. “King Aistulf,” in the language of the papal biographer,[i]

“was inflamed with rage, and, like a roaring lion, never ceased to utter

the most dreadful threats against the Romans, declaring that he would

slay them all with the sword, if they did not submit themselves to his

rule.” An appeal which the pope had made to the Byzantine emperors for

protection was entirely fruitless, and the Romans were utterly unequal

to sustain unaided a contest with the warlike Lombards. It was in this

extremity that Stephen determined to test once more the value of that

close relation which it had been the object of so many popes to form

with the Frankish people, and more especially with the Carlovingian

family. He knew that it would be no easy matter to induce King Pepin or

his Franks to undertake an expedition into Italy with a force sufficient

for the object in view. He felt, too, that a mere letter from Pepin,

such as Charles Martel had sent to his good friend Liutprand, would be

of no avail to turn the ambitious Aistulf from his purpose. He therefore

adopted the resolution of crossing the Alps, throwing himself at the feet

of the Frankish monarch and thus giving him a convincing proof that the

very existence of the papacy was at stake.

THE POPE VISITS PEPIN

[Sidenote: [753-754 A.D.]]

With this view the holy father, seeing that all his entreaties “for the

fold which had been entrusted to him (Rome), and the lost sheep” (Istria

and the exarchate of Ravenna), were fruitless, started from Rome on the

14th of October, 753, in company with the abbot Droctigang and Duke

Autchar, whom Pepin had previously sent to Stephen with general promises

of support. He was also followed by a considerable number of the Roman

clergy and nobility. On his journey northwards he passed through the city

of Pavia, where Aistulf then was; and though the latter had forbidden him

to say a word about restoration of territory, he once more endeavoured,

by rich presents and earnest entreaties, to induce the king to give up

his conquests and forego his hostile purposes. He was warmly seconded by

Pepin’s envoys, and another epistle from the Greek emperor; but the mind

of the fierce Lombard remained unchanged. It is evident, indeed, that he

would have prevented Stephen by force from continuing his journey but

for the threats of the Frankish ambassadors. As it was he endeavoured to

intimidate the pope in the presence of Droctigang into a denial of his

wish to proceed to the court of Pepin; and only then dismissed him when

he saw that Stephen would yield to nothing but actual violence.

[Illustration: PEPIN

(From a French print of 1830)]

Pepin was still at his palace at Dietenhofen, when the intelligence

reached him that the pope, with a splendid retinue, had passed the Great

St. Bernard, and was hastening, according to agreement, to the monastery

of St. Maurice at Agaunum. It had been expected that the king himself

would be there to receive the illustrious fugitive; but Stephen on his

arrival found in his stead the abbot Fulrad and the duke Rothard, who

received the holy father with every mark of joy and reverence, and

conducted him to the palace of Ponthion, near Châlons, where he arrived

on the 6th of January, 754. As a still further mark of veneration, the

young prince Charles was sent forward to welcome Stephen at a distance

of about seventy miles from Ponthion;[129] and Pepin himself is said to

have gone out three miles on foot to meet him, and to have acted as his

marshal, walking by the side of his palfrey. The extraordinary honours

paid by Pepin to the aged exile proceeded partly, no doubt, from the

reverence and sympathy which his character and circumstances called

forth. But his conduct might also result from a wise regard to his own

interests, and a desire of inspiring his subjects with a mysterious awe

for the spiritual potentate at whose behest he had himself assumed the

crown.

The decisive conference between Pepin and Stephen took place at

Ponthion on the 16th of January. The pope appeared before the Frankish

monarch in the garb and posture of a suppliant, and received a promise

of protection, and the restoration of all the territory of which the

Lombards deprived him.

[Sidenote: [754-755 A.D.]]

The winter, during which no military operations could be undertaken, was

spent by Stephen at the monastery of St. Denis at Paris. The spectacle of

the harmony and friendship subsisting between the Roman pontiff and King

Pepin was calculated to produce a good effect on the Romance subjects

of the latter; who, on account of his German origin and tendencies,

was regarded with less attachment in Neustria and Burgundy than in his

Austrasian dominions.

This effect was increased by Stephen’s celebrating in person that solemn

act of consecration which he had already performed by proxy. At the

second coronation of Pepin, which took place with great solemnity and

pomp in the church of St. Denis on the 28th of July, 754, his queen,

Bertrada, and her two sons, Charles and Carloman, were also anointed with

the holy oil, and the two last were declared the rightful heirs of their

father’s empire. That nothing might be wanting on the part of the church

to set apart the Carlovingian family as the chosen of God, Stephen laid a

solemn obligation on the Franks, that “throughout all future ages neither

they nor their posterity should ever presume to appoint a king over

themselves from any other family.”

The title of _Patricius Romanorum_, which had first been worn by Clovis,

was bestowed by the pope upon the king and his sons. It is difficult to

understand how this dignity could at this period be imparted to any one

without the authority of the Byzantine emperor. Constantine (nicknamed

Copronymus) may indeed have taken the opportunity of the pope’s journey

to offer the patriciate to Pepin; but it is more consistent with the

circumstances we have described to suppose that Stephen was acting

irregularly and without authority in conferring a Roman title on the

Frankish king; and that he intended at the same time to give a palpable

proof of his independence of the emperor who had neglected to aid him,

and to point out Pepin as his future ally and protector.

On the 1st of March, 755,[130] Pepin summoned his council of state at

Bernacum (Braine), where the war against the Lombards was agreed to,

provided no other means could be found to reinstate the pope. In the

meantime ambassadors were despatched to Aistulf, with terms which show

that the Franks were by no means eager for the expedition. King Pepin

on this occasion styles himself “defender of the holy Roman church by

divine appointment,” and demands that the territories and towns should

be restored--not to the Byzantine emperor, to whom they at any rate

nominally belonged, but “to the blessed St. Peter and the church and

commonwealth of the Romans.”

It is at this crisis of affairs that Carloman, the brother of Pepin,

once more appears upon the stage, and in a singular character, viz., as

opponent of the pope. Aistulf, by what influence we are not informed,

prevailed upon him to make a journey to the Frankish court, for the

purpose of counteracting the effect of Stephen’s representations. He

met of course with no success, and was sent by Pepin and Stephen into a

monastery at Vienne, where he died in the same year.

PEPIN INVADES ITALY (755 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [755 A.D.]]

Aistulf on his part was equally determined, and war became inevitable.

He would make no promise concerning the conquered territory, but would

grant a safe conduct to Stephen back to his own diocese. The lateness

of the season allowed of no lengthened negotiations. Immediately after

the receipt of Aistulf’s answer Pepin began his march towards Italy,

accompanied by Stephen; and having sent forward a detachment to occupy

the passes of the Alps, he followed it with the whole force of the

empire. Passing through Lyons and Vienne, he made his way to Maurienne,

with the intention of crossing the Alps by the valley of Susa, at the

foot of Mont Cenis. This important pass, however, had been occupied by

Aistulf, who had pitched his camp there and was prepared to dispute the

passage. According to the chroniclers, he endeavoured to strengthen his

position by the same warlike machines which he had “wickedly designed for

the destruction of the Roman state and the apostolic chair.” The onward

march of the Franks was effectually checked for the moment.

Pepin pitched his camp on the river Arc. In a short time, however, a few

of his more adventurous soldiers made their way through the mountains

into the valley of Susa, where Aistulf lay. Their inferior numbers

emboldened the Lombards, who immediately attacked them. “The Franks,”

says Fredegarius,[d] “seeing that their own strength and resources

could not save them, invoked the aid of God and the holy apostle Peter;

whereupon the engagement began, and both sides fought bravely. But when

King Aistulf beheld the loss which his men were suffering, he betook

himself to flight, after having lost nearly the whole of his army,

with the dukes, counts, and chief men of the Lombards.” The main body

of Pepin’s army then passed the Alps without resistance, and spread

themselves over the plains of Italy as far as Pavia, in which the Lombard

king had taken refuge.

The terrible ravages of the invaders, who plundered and burned all the

towns and villages which lay along their route, and the imminent danger

which threatened himself and his royal city subdued for the moment the

stubborn spirit of Aistulf, and he earnestly besought the Frankish

prelates and nobles to intercede for him with their “merciful” sovereign.

He promised to restore Ravenna and all the other towns which he had

taken “from the holy see,” to keep faithfully to his allegiance to

Pepin, and never again to inflict any injury on the apostolic chair or

the Roman state. The pope himself, who had no desire to see the Franks

too powerful in Italy, earnestly begged his mighty protector “to shed no

more Christian blood, but to put an end to the strife by peaceful means.”

Pepin was by no means sorry to be spared the siege of Pavia, and having

received forty hostages and caused Aistulf to ratify his promises by the

most solemn oaths, he sent the pope with a splendid retinue to Rome, and

led his army homewards laden with booty.

SECOND WAR WITH THE LOMBARDS

[Sidenote: [755-756 A.D.]]

But Aistulf was not the man to sit down quietly under a defeat, or to

forego a long-cherished purpose. In the following year he renewed the

attack upon the Roman territory with a fury heightened by the desire of

vengeance. Rome itself was besieged, and the church of St. Peter on the

Vatican sacrilegiously defiled. Pope Stephen II,[n] from whose life and

letters we gain our knowledge of these circumstances, repeatedly wrote

to Pepin and his sons for aid, in the most urgent and at times indignant

terms. In one of his epistles, St. Peter himself is made to address them

as “his adopted sons,” and to chide the delay and indecision of the king.

After assuring them that not he (the apostle) only, but the “mother of

God, the ever-Virgin Mary,” and “thrones and dominions, and the whole

army of heaven, and the martyrs and confessors of Christ, and all who

are pleasing to God,” earnestly sought and conjured them to save the

holy see, the apostle promises, in case of their compliance, that he

will prepare for them “the highest and most glorious tabernacles” and

bestow on them “the rewards of eternal recompense and the infinite joys

of paradise.” “But if,” he adds, “which we do not expect, you should

make any delay, know that, for your neglect of my exhortation, you are

alienated from the kingdom of God and from eternal life.” When speaking

in his own person Stephen says, “Know that the apostle Peter holds firmly

in his hand the deed of gift which was granted by your hands.” Nor does

he neglect to remind the Frankish princes of their obligation to the

papacy and the return that they were expected to make. “Therefore,” he

says, “has the Lord, at the intercession of the apostle Peter and by

means of our lowliness, consecrated you as kings, that through you the

holy church might be exalted and the prince of the apostles regain his

lawful possessions.”

The boundless promises and awful denunciations of the pope might have

been alike unavailing, had not other and stronger motives inclined

the king to make a second expedition into Italy. The interests of his

dynasty were so closely connected with those of the Roman church, that

he could not desert the pope in this imminent peril without weakening

the foundations of his throne; and his honour as a warrior and a king

seemed to require that the Lombards should be punished for their breach

of faith. The influence of Boniface, too (who was still alive, though he

died before the end of the campaign), was no doubt exerted in behalf of

the papacy which he had done so much to raise. Pepin determined to save

the pope, but he did so at the imminent risk of causing a revolt among

his own vassals, who openly and loudly expressed their disapproval of the

war. “This war” (against the Lombards), says Einhard,[m] “was undertaken

with the greatest difficulty, for some of the chief men of the Franks

with whom he (Pepin) was accustomed to take counsel were so strongly

opposed to his wishes that they openly declared that they would desert

the king and return home.”

Pepin found means to pacify or overawe these turbulent dissentients, and

persisted in his determination again to save the head of the church from

his enemies.

In this second Italian expedition Pepin was accompanied by his nephew

Tassilo, who, in obedience to the war-ban of his liege lord, joined him

with the Bavarian troops. The Frankish army marched through Châlons and

Geneva to the same valley of Maurienne and to the passes of Mont Cenis,

which, as in the former year, were occupied by the troops of Aistulf.

The Franks, however, in spite of all resistance, made their way into

Italy, and took a fearful vengeance for the broken treaty, destroying

and burning everything within their reach, and giving no quarter to

their perfidious enemies. They then closely invested Pavia; and Aistulf,

convinced of his utter inability to cope with Pepin, again employed the

willing services of the Frankish seigneurs to negotiate a peace. Pepin on

his side accepted the overtures made to him with singular facility, but

obliged Aistulf to give fresh hostages, to renew his oaths, and, what

was more to the purpose, to deliver up a third of the royal treasure in

the city of Pavia.[131] Aistulf also agreed to renew an annual tribute,

which is said to have been paid for a long time previously to the

Frankish monarchs.

And thus a second time was the papacy delivered from a danger which went

nigh to nip its budding greatness, and reduce it to the rank of a Lombard

bishopric.

Aistulf died while hunting in a forest (probably in December, 756) before

he had had time to forget the rough lessons he had received and to

recover from his losses in blood and treasure.

A danger from another quarter, which threatened the development of the

papal power, was also warded off by the power and steadfastness of

Pepin. When the exarchate of Ravenna was overrun by the Lombards, it

was taken, not from the pope, but from the Greek emperor; and even the

towns and territories which were virtually under the sway of the papal

chair, were, nominally at least, portions of the Eastern Roman Empire.

As Stephen had never formally renounced his allegiance to the emperor,

he could receive even the Roman duchy only as a representative of his

sovereign, and to the other remains of the Roman Empire in Italy he had

no claim whatever. The Lombards had dispossessed the Greeks, and the

Franks had expelled the Lombards. It was therefore open to the conqueror

to bestow his new acquisition where he pleased; but, at all events, the

claim of the Greek emperor was stronger than that of his vassal the

bishop of Rome. We cannot wonder, then, when we read that ambassadors

from Constantinople came to meet Pepin in the neighbourhood of Pavia, and

begged him to restore Ravenna and the other towns of the exarchate to the

Roman emperor. “But they did not succeed,” says the chronicler,[j] “in

moving the steadfast heart of the king; on the contrary, he declared that

he would by no means allow these towns to be alienated from the rule of

the Roman chair, and that nothing should turn him from his resolution.”

Accordingly, he despatched the abbot Fulrad, with the plenipotentiary of

King Aistulf, to receive possession of the towns and strong places which

the Lombard had agreed to resign. The abbot was further instructed to

take with him a deputation of the most respectable inhabitants from these

towns, and in their company to carry the keys of their gates to Rome, and

lay them in St. Peter’s grave, together with a regular deed of gift to

the pope and his successors.

The independence of the holy see, as far as regarded the Greek Empire,

was thus secured, and a solid foundation laid for the temporal power of

the popes, who may now be said to have taken their place for the first

time among the sovereigns of Europe. [The growth of this power will be

more fully treated in volume under the Papacy.]

DESIDERIUS MADE LOMBARD KING

[Sidenote: [756-760 A.D.]]

The rising fortunes of the Roman pontiffs were still further favoured by

a disputed succession to the Lombard throne. On the death of Aistulf,

his brother Ratchis, who had formerly changed a crown for a cowl, was

desirous of returning to his previous dignity, and appears to have been

the popular candidate. Desiderius, duke of Tuscia (Tuscany), constable

of Aistulf, obtained the support of the pope. In order to secure this

valuable alliance, he had promised “to comply with all the holy father’s

wishes,” to deliver up other towns in Italy besides those mentioned in

Pepin’s deed of gift, and to make him many other rich presents. “Upon

this,” says the chronicler,[j] “the arch-shepherd took counsel with

the venerable abbot Fulrad, and sent his brothers, Diaconus Paulus and

Primicerius Christopher, in company with Abbot Fulrad, to Desiderius, in

Tuscia (Tuscany), who immediately confirmed his former promises with a

deed and a most fearful oath.”

After this prudent precaution, it was agreed at Rome that the cause of

Desiderius should be supported, even by force of arms if necessary,

against Ratchis. “But Almighty God ordered matters in such a manner

that Desiderius, with the aid of the pope, ascended the throne without

any further contest.” The promised towns, Faventia (Faenza), with the

fortresses Tiberiacum, Cavellum, and the whole duchy of Ferrara, were

claimed, and, according to some accounts, received, by the papal envoys;

though the next pope complains that Desiderius had not kept his promises.

Stephen II ended his eventful life on the 24th of April, 757 A.D.

PEPIN AND THE AQUITANIANS

With the exception of an unimportant expedition against the Saxons, in

which Pepin gained a victory on the river Lippe, and again at Sithieu,

near Dülmen on the Stever (in Westphalia), nothing of importance, in a

military point of view, appears to have been undertaken before 760; when,

according to some authors, Narbonne was taken from the Saracens, who were

now driven from all their possessions on the Gallic side of the Pyrenees.

[Sidenote: [760-766 A.D.]]

In 760, began a long series of annual expeditions against Aquitaine, a

country which had asserted a degree of independence highly offensive

to the Franks. The Aquitanian princes, too, are supposed to have been

peculiarly odious to Pepin, as offshoots from the Merovingian stock.

Waifar, the reigning duke, the son of that Hunold who had retired from

the world in disgust after his defeat by the Franks, inherited the

restless and haughty spirit of his father, and was ready to renew the

contest which Hunold had abandoned in despair. The ambitious desires

of Pepin, quickened by a personal dislike of Waifar, were seconded by

a strong mutual antipathy existing between his own subjects and the

Aquitanians. German blood did not enter largely into the composition

of the population of Aquitaine, and that small portion which did

flow in their veins was supplied by the Ostrogoths, a German tribe,

indeed, but one which differed very widely from their Frankish

kinsmen. The Aquitanians appear at this time to have possessed a

degree of civilisation unknown to the Franks, whom they regarded as

semi-barbarians; while the Franks, in turn, despised the delicacy

and refinement of their weaker neighbours. Their mutual dislikes and

jealousies were kept alive by a perpetual border warfare, which was

carried on (as formerly between England and her neighbours on the north

and west) by powerful individuals in either country, without regard to

the relations existing between their respective rulers. It was from

these causes that Pepin came to look upon the Aquitanians and their duke

in the same light as the Welsh were regarded by Edward I. The affected

independence of Waifar, and the continual inroads made by the Aquitanians

into his dominions, exasperated his feelings in the highest degree; and

he evidently sought the quarrel which occupied him for the remainder of

his life.

In 760, Pepin sent an embassy to Waifar, with demands which betrayed his

hostile intentions against that unfortunate prince. On this occasion,

too, the Frankish monarch came forward as a protector of the church.

He demanded of Waifar that he should give up all the ecclesiastical

property in his dominions which had been in any way alienated from the

church; restore the immunities which the lands of the clergy had formerly

enjoyed; and cease for the future from sending into them his officers and

tax-gatherers. Furthermore, he demanded that Waifar should pay a wergild

“for all the Goths whom he had lately put to death contrary to law;” and,

lastly, that he should deliver up all fugitives from the dominions of

Pepin who had sought refuge in Aquitaine.

Waifar had thus the option given him of submitting to become a mere

lieutenant of Pepin, or of having the whole force of the Frankish Empire

employed for his destruction. He chose the latter alternative, as every

high-spirited prince must have done under the circumstances; and the

war began at once. “All this,” says Einhard,[h] “Waifar refused to

do; and therefore Pepin collected an army from all quarters, although

unwillingly, and, as it were, under compulsion.” The Frankish army

marched through Troyes and Auxerre, and, crossing the Loire at the

village of Masua, and passing through Berri and Auvergne, devastated the

greater part of Aquitaine with fire and sword.

[Illustration: FRANKISH WEAPONS]

In the following year Waifar, who had formed an alliance with Hunibert,

count of Bourges, and Blandin, count of Auvergne, considered himself

strong enough to venture upon an inroad into the Frankish territory; and,

in company with these allies, he led his army, plundering and burning, as

far as Châlons on the Saône. Pepin’s rage at hearing that the Aquitanians

had dared to take the initiative, and had ravaged a large portion of

Neustria, and even burned his own palace at Melciacum, was further

increased by the knowledge that some of his own counts were aiding the

invaders. Hastily collecting his troops, he took a terrible revenge, and

showed the unusual exasperation of his feelings by putting his prisoners

to death, and allowing a great number of men, women, and children to

perish in the flames of the conquered towns.

The campaign of 763 is remarkable for the sudden defection of Tassilo,

duke of Bavaria and nephew of Pepin, who, during the march towards

Aquitaine, suddenly withdrew with his troops under pretence of illness,

with the firm resolve “never to see his uncle’s face again.” When about

twenty-one years of age, Tassilo had been compelled to swear fealty to

Pepin at the Campus Maius held at Compiègne in 757. Since that period he

had been kept continually near his uncle’s person, as if the latter was

not satisfied with the sincerity of his subservience. The defection of

Tassilo, at a time when the Frankish power was engaged in this desperate

and bitter contest with the Aquitanians, caused great anxiety to Pepin.

Waifar and his people were by 766 utterly exhausted by their exertions

and calamities, and, being without the means of continuing the war, lay

at the mercy of the conquerors. That unhappy prince himself, deserted

by the great mass of the Gascons, and hunted from hiding-place to

hiding-place like a wild beast, met with the common fate of unfortunate

monarchs; he was betrayed and murdered by his own followers in the forest

of Edobold in Périgord. The independence of Aquitaine fell with him, and

the country was subsequently governed by Frankish counts like the rest of

Pepin’s empire.

[Sidenote: [766-768 A.D.]]

The victor returned in triumph to his queen Bertrada (who was awaiting

him at Saintes), rejoicing, doubtless, in having at last attained the

object of so many toilsome years. His implacable and hated foe was no

more; the stiff-necked Aquitanians were at his feet; his southern border

was secure; and the whole empire was in an unwonted state of peace.

He had every reason to look forward with confidence to an interval at

least of quiet, which he might spend in domestic pleasures and in the

regulation of the internal affairs of the vast empire over which he ruled.

But where he had looked for repose and safety an enemy awaited him

more terrible than any whom he had encountered in the field. A short

time after he arrived at Saintes, he was attacked by a disease which

is variously described as fever and dropsy. Convinced that his case

was beyond all human aid, he set out with his wife and children to

Tours, and, entering the church of St. Martin, earnestly prayed for the

intercession of that patron saint of the Frankish kings. From thence he

proceeded to Paris, and passed some time in the monastery of St. Denis,

invoking the aid of God through his chosen servants. But when he saw that

it was the will of heaven that he should die, he provided for the future

welfare of his subjects; summoning the dukes and counts, the bishops and

clergy of his Frankish dominions, he divided the whole empire, with their

concurrence, between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. He died a few

days after the settlement of the discussion, on the 24th of September,

768, in the twenty-first year of his prosperous reign, and was buried by

his sons, with great pomp, in the church of St. Denis, at Paris.

Pepin was described by Alcuin, in the following generation, as an

“energetic and honourable” prince, “distinguished alike by his victories

and his virtues”; and although such epithets were used, more especially

in that age, without sufficient discrimination, there is every reason in

the present case to adopt them in their full significance. In the field,

indeed, he had fewer difficulties to deal with than his warlike father.

In all his military undertakings the odds were greatly in his favour;

and he had not the same opportunities as Charles Martel of showing what

he could effect by the mere force of superior genius. Yet, whatever

he was called upon to do, he did with energy and success. He quickly

brought the revolted German nations, the Bavarians and Swabians, to the

obedience to which the hammering of his predecessor had reduced them;

and he drove back the restless Saxons to their wild retreats. Twice he

led an army across the Alps against a brave and active enemy, and twice

returned victorious, after saving the distant city of Rome from imminent

destruction and securing the independence of the pope.

As a civil ruler he showed himself temperate and wise. Though greatly

superior in every respect to his brother, he took no unfair advantage

of him, but lived and acted with him in uninterrupted harmony. Though

his ambition induced him to assume the name of king, he did so without

haste or rashness, at a time and under circumstances in which the change

of dynasty was likely to cause the least amount of ill-feeling or

disturbance.

In his relations to the church he displayed both reverence and

self-respect. From conviction as well as policy, he was a staunch

supporter of Christianity and the Roman church: but he was no weak

fanatic; he cherished and advanced the clergy, and availed himself of

their superior learning in the conduct of his affairs; but he was by no

means inclined to give way to immoderate pretensions on their part. He

always remained their master, though a kind and considerate one; nor

did he scruple to make use of their overflowing coffers for the general

purposes of the state.

Of his private life we know scarcely anything at all; but we have

no reason to suppose that it was inconsistent with that respect for

religion, that love of order, justice, and moderation which he generally

manifested in his public acts. In his last campaigns against Waifar and

the Aquitanians alone does he seem to have been betrayed into a cruel and

vindictive line of conduct; and from them, as we have seen, he received

the greatest provocation.

With such high qualities, important transactions, and glorious deeds

connected with his name, we might wonder that the fame of Pepin is not

greater, did we not know the diminishing force of unfavourable contrast.

Unfortunately, for his renown at least, he had a father and a son still

greater than himself. Such a man would have risen like an alp from the

level plain of ordinary kings: as it is, he forms but a link in a long

chain of eminences, of which he is not the highest; and thus it has come

to pass that the tomb of one who ruled a mighty empire for twenty-five

years with invariable success, who founded a new dynasty of kings, and

established the popes on their earthly throne, is inscribed with the name

of his still more glorious successor; and all his high qualities and

glorious deeds appear to be forgotten in the fact that he was “_Pater

Caroli Magni!_”[b]

FOOTNOTES

[126] [Though Fredegarius[d] is silent on this point, Hodgkin[e] accepts

it.]

[127] [Hodgkin[e] says in one place the 21st; in another the 22nd of

October.]

[128] [The _Annales_ of Einhard[h] make this in the year 745, but

Hodgkin[e] says it clearly belongs to 746.]

[129] [“A meeting full of interest,” as Hodgkin[e] notes, for the

fourteen-year-old prince was the future Charlemagne.]

[130] [Oelsner[k] and others advocate 754 as the date of Pepin’s first

Italian campaign, but Abel,[l] Perry,[b] and Hodgkin[e] agree upon 755.]

[131] [This statement in the _Annales Mettenses_[c] alone is somewhat

doubtful.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

CHARLEMAGNE

[768-814 A.D.]

HIS BIOGRAPHY BY A CONTEMPORARY

[The chief source of our information concerning the personality

of Charles the Great, is the biography by Eginhard or Einhard,

who was intimately associated with the king and his family,

and was highly esteemed and trusted. Soon after the death of

his master he wrote the story of his life. The uniqueness of

the document, its charm of diction, and its intimacy make

it invaluable, while its brevity permits us to translate it

from the Latin and present it here entire. The reader must be

cautioned that, as a document of history, this account is not

always accurate in details. The following discrepancies might

be noted: Carloman reigned over three years instead of two;

the empire was not divided in the way stated between the two

brothers; indecisive battles like the engagement on the Berre

are given as decisive; and the names of popes are confounded

in places (Ranke). But in spite of these mistakes the general

picture of Charles by Einhard stands lifelike and doubtless

accurate in the main.]

[Sidenote: [751-771 A.D.]]

Haying made up my mind to set down in writing the life, the public

career, and in some sort the great exploits of my dear lord and

benefactor Charles, a king pre-eminent and of most just and glorious

fame, I have encompassed the matter with all the brevity at my command. I

have taken care that of all that might come to my notice nothing should

be omitted, also that I might not offend the most delicate minds by

narrating at too great a length each new particular; if indeed it may

in any way be contrived that a new and recent essay should not offend

those who sniff even at ancient chronicles compiled by authors the most

learned and the most lucid. Men there are, I doubt not, in great numbers,

servants of ease and disciples of letters, who are of opinion that the

state of the present age should not be held of such trifling account that

everything which is now happening should be condemned entirely to silence

and oblivion as if unworthy of commemoration. Such men wrapt in the love

of immortality had rather insert the shining deeds of others in any sort

of writing, than rob posterity of the fame of their own name by writing

nothing. Yet have I not thought well to refrain from writing of this

category, since I was aware that no one could set down more veraciously

than myself the things in which I myself took part, and which I knew to

be true with the knowledge of an eye-witness as they call it, nor could I

clearly know whether or no they would be recorded by another. Therefore

I judged it better to transmit in common to posterity records the same

as other written works, rather than suffer the most glorious life of a

king pre-eminent and the greatest of his age to perish in the shades of

oblivion together with victories most splendid and hard to be repeated by

men of modern times.

Another course (no light one, I fancy), sufficient in itself to urge me

to this composition, lurked in my mind. This was the tender care lavished

upon me, and my uninterrupted friendship with himself and his children

after I began to pass my life in his palace; for by this he bound me to

him with the closest ties, and made me a debtor to him alive or dead. So

that I might justly appear and be judged to be ungrateful if, unmindful

of all the benefits heaped upon me, I were to pass over in silence the

clear and brilliant deeds of one who deserved so well of me, if I were

to suffer his life as though he had never lived to remain without the

written praise that is its due, the writing and unfolding whereof needs

not my poor little wit, which is thin and slender--nay, which is all

but the merest nothing--but rather the eloquence of a Tully to the last

drop. Here, reader, you have the book containing a memorial of the most

eminent and the greatest man, wherein you shall see nothing but the deeds

wrought by this man to marvel at, unless it were that I, a foreigner[132]

very little versed in the Latin speech, should think myself able to write

properly and neatly in Latin, and should have fallen headlong into such

immodesty as to imagine that saying of Cicero may be despised wherein,

talking of Latin writers in the second book of the _Tusculans_, he is

reported to have said: “For one to commit his meditations to writing who

can neither place them orderly or illustrate them clearly, nor entice the

reader by any delightful device, is the office of a man who recklessly

abuseth both his free time and the profession of letters.”

This opinion of the noble orator had availed to deter me from my work,

had I not a prejudice in my mind in favour of rather suffering the

judgment of critics and making venture of my own small wit in writing,

than sparing myself and passing over the memory of so great a man.

The family of the Merovingians from which the Franks had been wont to

choose their king is said to have ended with the king Childeric, who was

dethroned by the command of Stephen the Roman pontiff; his hair was cut

off and he was thrust into a monastery. With him the line may seem to

have closed, yet for a long while it had lacked all vigour nor had any

member shown distinction in himself outside the empty title of king; for

the wealth and power of the kingdom had passed into the control of the

prefects of the palace who were known as “mayors of the household,” and

to whom belonged the supreme initiative; nor was anything left to the

king but to enjoy the royal title, the long hair, the drooping beard, to

sit back in a chair of state and simulate the air of a supreme ruler,

give audience to the ambassadors hailing from all parts of the earth and

on their departure to retail to them as if from the depths of his own

majesty the answers which he had been taught or told to make.

So that, except for the useless name of king and an uncertain subsidy for

living which the prefect of the palace would dole out to him as the mood

took him, he possessed no morsel to call his own unless it were one farm

and that of extremely slender profit. Here he would keep his house and

servants to minister to him the necessaries of life and to display the

respectful deference of a thin multitude of retainers.

Wherever he had to go, he travelled in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen

and with an oxherd for a charioteer in true country fashion. In this way

he would ride to his palace, to the public assembly of his people which

met every year to further the advantages of the kingdom, in this way he

would ride home again. The administration of the kingdom and all domestic

and foreign business were conducted by the mayor of the palace.

This was the office filled by Pepin, the father of King Charles, at

the time of Childeric’s deposition. It had already in some sort become

hereditary. For Pepin’s father Charles had also held it with distinction

and it had come down to him from his father Pepin. This Charles had put

down throughout all Frankland those tyrants who claimed for themselves an

independent sovereignty; also he had beaten the Saracens who aimed at the

occupation of Gaul, in two mighty battles, one in Aquitania not far from

the city of Poitiers, the other near Narbonne hard by the river Birra--a

sore defeat so that he compelled them to return into Spain. Thus the

office of mayor was an honour wont to be bestowed by the people on none

but those eminent in the nobility of their birth and in the magnitude of

their wealth.

When Pepin, the father of King Charles, had held for some years this

office which had come down to him and his brother Carloman from sire

to grandsire, the two having reigned jointly in most perfect harmony,

Carloman, I know not why, yet most likely because he was fired with a

passion for a life of contemplation, left the laborious administration

of a temporal kingdom and withdrew himself to the peace of Rome, where

he changed his habit, became a monk, built a monastery on Mount Soracte

touching the church of St. Silvester, and in company with the brothers

who had accompanied him thither drew a long and joyous draught of the

repose that he had coveted for some years. But as many companies of

Frankish noblemen were wont to make pilgrimage to Rome to fulfil their

vows and would not leave unvisited one who was their former sovereign,

they broke into that retirement which was his chief delight by their

frequent salutation and compelled him to change his domicile. For when

he saw that company of this sort stood in the light of his fixed intent,

he left the mountain, withdrew to the province of Samnium to the holy

Benedictine monastery on Mount Cassino, and there completed all that

remained of his worldly life in religious exercises.

But Pepin from being the mayor of the palace was made king through the

sanction of the Roman pontiff and governed the Franks alone for fifteen

years or more. Men were nearing the close of the Aquitanian War which he

had begun and continued to wage against Waifar, the duke of Aquitaine,

through nine long years, when he died of a dropsy at Paris, leaving two

sons, Charles and Carloman, who by the will of God succeeded to the

kingdom. The Franks solemnly convened a general assembly and appointed

them both kings with this preliminary condition, that they should divide

equally the whole realm and Charles was to take over for government that

part which had belonged to their father Pepin, and Carloman that part

which had been presided over by their uncle Carloman. The terms were

accepted on both sides, and a portion of the divided kingdom was received

by each in the measure that was his due. So this system was peaceably

preserved, although with grave difficulty, for many of the adherents

of Carloman strove hard to break up the bond of union, so much so that

there were certain people whose design was to plunge the brothers in

war. But the issue of events bore witness that there was more mistrust

than veritable danger in the matter, for when Carloman died his wife and

children together with some of the first nobility showed contempt for

the brother of her husband without any cause at all and fled to Italy to

place herself and her children under the protection of Desiderius, king

of the Lombards. The kingdom had been under joint administration for two

years, when Carloman succumbed to disease. On the death of his brother,

Charles was made king with the consent of all the Franks (771).

[Sidenote: [771-774 A.D.]]

I have determined to pass by the birth, infancy, and even boyhood[133] of

Charles, for nothing has ever been set down in writing about them nor is

anyone known to survive who can affirm that he has knowledge of them. So

I thought it foolish to write of them, and turned to unfold and display

the exploits and character and the rest of the life of that illustrious

man, omitting the part that is unknown. So that my tale is first of his

achievements at home and abroad, then of his habits and tastes, of the

administration of his kingdom, and finally of his death, nor will I omit

anything that is either worthy or necessary to be known.

First of all the wars he waged was the Aquitanian, which had been begun

and not finished by his father. It seemed possible to go through with it

rapidly, so while his brother was yet alive he asked for his help and

undertook the war. His brother it is true cheated him of the promised

aid, yet he would not desist from his eager pursuit of the campaign,

having once engaged upon the task, until by a certain long patience he

had brought to a perfect conclusion what he had striven hard to do.

Hunoldus, too, who after the death of Waifar had tried to seize Aquitaine

and renew a war by now well-nigh ended, was forced to flee from Aquitaine

and take refuge in Gascony. Charles however did not suffer him to stay

there, but crossing the river Garonne he commanded Loup the duke of the

Gascons to give up the fugitive; which were he not to do with all haste,

Charles would wrest him from the enemy by force of arms. But Loup, wise

counsellor that he was, not only gave up Hunoldus but also put himself

and the province over which he presided at the disposition of Charles

(769).

THE ITALIAN WAR (772-774 A.D.)