But soon the disheartening feebleness of the emperor became known. “In

822 he convoked a general assembly at Attigny consisting of the bishops,

abbots, and noblemen of his kingdom, and before them all made public

confession of his faults and submitted at their pleasure to penance

for all he had done, both to his nephew Bernhard or to others.” When

Theodosius humbled himself before St. Ambrose at Milan he presented a

grand spectacle to the world, and rose higher after the public avowal of

his faults. Louis’ confession at Attigny was less esteemed, and degraded

him because from a political body, an authority rivalling his own, he

received absolution. Thenceforth everyone knew how far he could venture

with such a man.

[Illustration: LOUIS LE DÉBONNAIRE

(From a French print of 1532)]

His second wife (819) was the beautiful and gifted Judith, the daughter

of the Bavarian chief, and by her he had a son whom he named Charles

(823). She, with her favourite, Bernhard, duke of Septimania, a skilful

and intriguing man, exercised great influence over both emperor and

empire. In 829 she prevailed upon her husband to give a portion to the

child she had borne him, and finally, in the Diet of Worms (829) he

established a kingdom for his son composed of Alamannia, Rætia, part of

Burgundy, Provence and Gotha (Septimania and the Spanish marks).

This division greatly enraged the eldest sons of Louis, as they

conceived themselves slighted thereby. The partisans of unity, who

saw the agreement of 817 compromised, and the nobles joined with the

discontented sons in the hope of overthrowing the influence of Judith and

Bernhard--an influence which diminished their credit. The revolt broke

out in an expedition against the Bretons, to whom Nomenoé had just given

independence. Lothair, Pepin of Aquitaine, and Ludwig of Bavaria took

arms against their father, made him prisoner and shut him up at Compiègne

with the monks hoping that they might induce him to adopt a monastic

life. At the same time they sent the empress and her son into a convent

(830). The constitution of 817 was re-established. Louis le Débonnaire,

however, obtained that the general assembly which was to make statutes

for this new state of affairs should be convoked at Nimeguen in the

midst of the Germans in whom he trusted. This trust was justified. The

Germans outnumbered the Roman Franks and carried the day (830). A wily

monk prevented discord among the three brothers, and Louis le Débonnaire,

now master once more, confirmed the gift he had made to his fourth son.

In 833 he did more, for, weary of Pepin’s perpetual intrigues, he took

Aquitaine from him and gave it to Charles. This was the signal for a

fresh revolt. The emperor’s sons marched against him, carrying with them

Pope Gregory IV, who had come to France to defend the division of 817.

Was Gregory for unity? Yes, but it was for a unity which resulted from

the act of 817, that is, for a weak emperor in view of whose weakness

religious unity had more strength. The army of Louis and that of his sons

met in the plain of Rothfeld, near Colmar in Alsace (833). His soldiers

abandoned him without a blow, and this treason gave the spot the name of

Lügenfeld, or Field of Lies. The conquerors insulted the age and rank of

their father by exposing him to public humiliation.[b]

HUMILIATION OF LOUIS

[Sidenote: [833-834 A.D.]]

A penance imposed by the church was laid upon the emperor in Soissons,

excluding him from the communion of believers, so that he could not

retain the reins of government. Although nobody doubted his imperial

dignity, yet the emperor was in a sad and melancholy frame of mind. It

is narrated that he had been told that his youngest son Charles had

been forced to become a monk, and that his consort had not only become

a nun, but had already died far away. He was cut off from all society,

and the story goes that he had already been persuaded to order the monks

surrounding him to say masses for the departed.

Such a situation is doubly painful to the wielder of supreme power, who

has often to perceive that the responsibility lies at his own door.

In such desperate isolation was the emperor Louis, when a message from

the ecclesiastical synod at Soissons reached him, reminding him of all

his transgressions and urging him not to imperil his very soul, seeing

that he had forfeited the secular power by the judgment of God and the

authority of the church.

Louis begged for time for consideration. When the day he had himself

appointed arrived, all the great ecclesiastics of Compiègne proceeded

to Soissons to remind him of those acts by which he had offended God,

given umbrage to the church, and brought disaster on the people. The

emperor listened without contradiction, and declared his readiness to

submit to the judgment of the church. At his request Lothair attended

with some of his chief adherents, in order to be present at the solemn

penance. This painful ordeal took place at the beginning of October, 833,

in the church of St. Médard at Soissons, in presence of Lothair and the

highest court dignitaries, and of a crowd which filled the church. Louis

made a general confession that he had not duly fulfilled the duties of

his office and had thereby sinned against God; that he had also set the

Christian church at nought, and thereby brought confusion to the people,

and that in expiation of these crimes he was ready to submit to public

and ecclesiastical penance in order now to receive absolution from those

to whom power was given on earth to bind and to absolve.

The ecclesiastical lords were not quite satisfied with this declaration;

they required of him an explicit confession of his misdeeds; they gave

utterance to their apprehensions that the emperor would return to his

former reprehensible conduct as he had done once before, three years ago.

Hereupon Louis in still stronger terms repeated that he had given offence

to the church, and that he purposed to be a model penitent; whereat

the ecclesiastical lords placed in his hands a list of his offences,

the contents of which are readily seen in the three heads--sacrilege,

perjury, and murder. It does not appear whether Louis acknowledged the

truth of these accusations in detail. Had he done so, the history of

his life would present the most repulsive spectacle, and be absolutely

incomprehensible.

Whilst speaking, he held the record of his sins in his hands; he then

returned it to the ecclesiastics, who laid it upon the altar. He

himself divested himself of his weapons and arms and assumed the dress

of a penitent. A dark, cheerless scene, symbolising the triumph of the

ecclesiastical party over secular interests. How could a prince stand up

against a court of justice such as this?

In order to take complete possession of the empire, Lothair repaired

to Aachen, where an attempt was again made to induce Louis to enter a

monastery. His answer was decisive; he declared it impossible for him to

take the vow so long as he was not free. His disposition is well known;

he was docile and yielding, but he doggedly clung to the quintessence of

his rights; he possessed the faculty of finding valid excuses, in order

to save himself from taking a final step. From the deepest abasement he

once more rose triumphant.

LOUIS RETURNS TO POWER

[Sidenote: [834 A.D.]]

The vicissitudes of these times furnish a most extraordinary spectacle.

The most vital issues at stake; the possession and the government of

the empire; the rights of clergy and laity, and the future of the realm

in both regards. But those persons principally and actively concerned,

the father and his sons, do not display any fixed purpose; they move in

opposite directions--the emperor Louis, resolute in the assertion of

his rights in general, but at every moment ready to give way in minor

details; Lothair, not unmindful of filial duty, but tempted by the

unexpected success of his revolt to aspire to despotic power; Ludwig,

surnamed the German, as on previous occasions, so also now, not without

sympathy for his father, yet all the time scheming how best to maintain

and increase the inheritance of which he had taken possession; Pepin,

in whose favour the whole movement had been undertaken, not minded to

await the course of events, or to renounce direct participation in the

sovereign power: he continued to date his documents according to the

years of his father’s reign, whilst his brother Ludwig was satisfied with

mentioning his father in his documents as the augustus and imperator.

In situations such as these, events become more powerful than men;

that is to say, general movements become more powerful than individual

intentions. At first it became evident that the two younger brothers

were not minded to submit to the elder’s dictation; they demanded from

him better treatment for their father. Lothair intimated to his brothers

that it was through them that their father had lost his authority; that

he himself was not to be blamed for exercising the rights of seniority;

and that his keeping his father, whose misfortunes deeply touched

him, a prisoner, was a course of action justified by the judgment of

the episcopate. All the formal reasons which were urged by him were

not however able to dispel the impression that the father’s power had

actually been usurped by the son. The whole civilised world became uneasy

and disquieted at the sight; and when Pepin and Ludwig began warlike

preparations, which could only be intended against Lothair, they were

able to count upon the support of the magnates and the people. Not minded

to be surprised in Aachen, Lothair collected his forces at Paris (the

Roman _Lutetia Parisiorum_), a city which even at that time was the

centre of all political and intellectual movements in the West Frankish

Empire, and where the first revolt against Louis had been prepared and

organised. But even while on his way thither Lothair perceived himself to

be threatened by the opposition on the part of one or another magnate;

and becoming aware that he would not be able to stand his ground in Paris

against the hosts of enemies who were advancing upon him from all sides,

and convinced that only in Burgundy would he find a secure citadel, he

proceeded thither with his faithful adherents, leaving his father behind

him in the monastery of St. Denis.

But meanwhile divergent opinions had spread abroad in Paris. As Louis

scrupled to follow the invitation to resume the imperial sway, so long

as he was under the ban of the church, it was an act of the highest

significance that all the bishops who were present in the capital

repaired to St. Denis to pronounce his absolution. They restored him his

arms and the imperial insignia.

Absolved by the ecclesiastics, and supported by the sympathy of the

nation, Louis again took possession of the imperial throne; he cordially

welcomed his two younger sons who returned to him with their followers,

and proceeded to Aachen, where Judith, who in spite of a safe-conduct

had had a perilous journey from Italy, joined him. Her son Charles was

also there. The emperor lived, as formerly, for the pleasures of the

chase and his own private affairs, and all external matters were once

more allowed to drift in the same old beaten track. But Lothair was

still in the field. He had gained no little prestige from the fact that

his relative, Hugo of Matfrid, who had been joined by Lantbert, count

of Nantes, had stood his ground when attacked by an imperial force of

greater numbers. As Nithard expresses it, they were forced, owing to

their small numbers and the danger threatening them, to hold together

and defend themselves with the utmost valour. Châlons-sur-Saône, held

by Lothair’s bitterest enemies, was likewise attacked and taken after

a short siege. How powerfully old animosities were aroused may be seen

in the fact that Lothair caused the sister of Bernhard of Septimania,

who lived in a convent there, to be seized and drowned in the Saône; he

wreaked vengeance on the sister for the brother’s enmity.

This double victory once more aroused Lothair’s hopes of subduing the

whole empire. But in view of the danger, the emperor gathered together

all his forces to take the field against him. In Langres he once more

received the offerings which it was customary to make to the emperor.

His son Ludwig joined him with the whole trans-Rhenish army. Pepin also

appeared with his array. A numerous and devoted force advanced against

Lothair, who, on his side, did not hesitate to move forward against his

father and two brothers. The armies met face to face at Calviacus, near

Blois. A great and decisive battle appeared to be imminent. But the

feeling of comradeship among the troops of both armies, who could not

forget that they formed one cohesive force--the “_Heerbann_”--prevented

the collision. The soldiers felt a natural repugnance to fight against

each other. It was chiefly this feeling of comradeship that had caused

the soldiery at Colmar to pass over from the side of the emperor to that

of his sons. But in their hearts they had always felt a certain sense of

shame at their conduct; they had forsaken their emperor to whom before

all others they owed allegiance; they would not again take this burden of

guilt upon their shoulders.

All Lothair’s attempts to persuade them to a second desertion signally

failed. The consciousness that it was the “_Heerbann_” upon which the

power of the empire depended, and that a battle could not fail to be

disastrous to the common weal, was in reality the controlling factor

which here, in a most dangerous crisis, led to a settlement. Lothair, who

could not hope for victory without the help of the “_Heerbann_,” decided

to accept the conditions offered, chief of which was that he should

retire to Italy, and leave the remainder of the realm to his father,

and interfere no longer. A meeting in the imperial camp was arranged,

and Louis, sitting between his two younger sons, received Lothair’s

allegiance.

This event was decisive; for in order to bind the two younger sons to

himself, the father had to make them a secure settlement for their

future; but at the same time they had to submit to an arrangement being

made with the youngest son, which they had until then most vehemently

opposed. One plan has been preserved to us, according to which a

tripartite division of the non-Italian territories of the empire between

Pepin, Charles, and Ludwig was projected, and in which the fact strikes

us that closely following the arrangement made by Charlemagne, Ludwig was

promised the Germanic territories, with however the saving clause that

it should be in the emperor’s power either to increase or diminish their

extent according to the measure of obedience paid him.

LAST YEARS OF LOUIS

[Sidenote: [834-837 A.D.]]

For the moment it was of paramount importance that the authority of the

emperor, which had been sorely shaken by the attitude of the clergy,

should be restored by a formal agreement with the latter. In a general

diet of the empire held at Thionville, the act of excommunication

was revoked in due form, and the decree pronounced that Louis should

henceforth be faithfully and obediently recognised as emperor. All the

ecclesiastics signed this declaration and afterwards proceeded to Metz,

where Drogo, the natural brother of the emperor, was bishop, and where

the emperor had spent the preceding Christmas, in order to proclaim

the renewal of allegiance. Ebbo was also present; he likewise had

signed the protocol and was one of the most conspicuous among those who

promulgated it. This done, the whole company returned to Thionville and

everything seemed to be arranged, when the emperor levelled an indictment

against Ebbo himself and new difficulties of general importance arose.

The emperor accused Ebbo of having wrested his arms from him by false

accusations, of having thrust him out of the church, and deprived him

of his realm. Ebbo hesitated to reply to these charges in the emperor’s

presence, though not from deference or shame; he had to consider his

hierarchical status; such a proceeding would run counter to the just

claims of a bishop to be judged only by an ecclesiastical tribunal.

Moreover, some of the other bishops advised him to avoid further

controversy, since it could not fail to be prejudicial to the episcopate

and afford occasion for calumny. With their assistance Ebbo drew up a

conciliatory document, which he signed and handed to the assembly.

Thereupon the synod pronounced judgment: Ebbo was to cease to discharge

the functions of a bishop. Ebbo’s adversaries considered his declaration

as an authentic and valid form of resignation.

It is a striking fact that this declaration was acted upon and that no

successor to Ebbo was appointed. It was considered sufficient to entrust

the duties of the office to a presbyter. The resignation was not regarded

as sufficiently valid to enable the synod to declare the see vacant. The

emperor had negotiations with Pope Gregory IV on the point. Let us record

the characteristic features of these events. Manifold claims, extending

from the present to the future, were in conflict, and the territorial

shape that the great empire should eventually adopt was involved.

Everything was in a state of unrest; not only were property and authority

constantly changing hands, but the highest principles of government were

involved in questions as to whether the emperor could be deposed or not,

and whether the clergy could maintain their autonomy under the emperor

now restored to power, or whether they must again surrender it. The pope,

closely as the matter affected him, hesitated to deliver an opinion on

the point. He refused to identify himself with the excommunication, but

from sympathy for the clergy would not endorse the sentence passed by the

emperor upon one of his chief adversaries.

As the fundamental doctrine, according to which the clergy could not be

cited before a secular tribunal, had initiated the proceedings against

the emperor Louis, so it was kept in view at the restoration of the

imperial power. The emperor had contrived to have that excommunication

declared null and void. He was unable to punish the chief instigator by

formal judgment of the court, but he managed to have him deprived of

his office. As in the conflict with his sons, so also in his struggle

with the bishops, he was able to regard himself as victor. Wala likewise

yielded; he had energetically promoted Lothair’s submission.

[Sidenote: [837-840 A.D.]]

The emperor Louis was permitted to enjoy a few years of peace, during

which he was the object of general respect. His chief care was to leave

his youngest son an adequate competence. To this son was appointed in the

year 837 a realm composed of north German and Roman elements extending

from the Weser to the Loire, having Paris for its centre, so that we have

four realms to take into account, namely, Germania, Italy, Aquitania,

and the territory appointed for Charles, which must properly be regarded

as Frankish. The death of Pepin, which took place in December, 838, was,

therefore, an event of paramount importance. Neither the emperor nor his

magnates were inclined to recognise his sons as his heirs. Lothair, who

had not only been promised the reversion of the empire in his own person,

but also the participation with Charles in the remaining provinces, was

won over to this view. Aquitania was now apportioned to Charles, but

with the prospect of a fresh division of the realm to the prejudice

of the German Ludwig, whom the emperor wished again to deprive of the

trans-Rhenish provinces he had hitherto possessed. The result was a

violent dispute between them tending towards a bloody issue.

At this moment, when everything appeared to be culminating in a fresh

crisis, Louis the Pious (or Débonnaire) died, on the 20th of June, 840.

A striking example of contrast between a great father and a less gifted,

though by no means an incapable, son.

Louis had won his spurs as a sort of viceroy to Charles, and certain

merits were his, particularly his conduct with regard to the mark of

Spain, though he always acted in dependence upon the higher controlling

authority. But the task of independently wielding the supreme power

after his father’s death was beyond his powers. He lacked the living

imagination which alone could weld together divergent elements, and thus

maintain the supreme power and secure the existence of the empire for the

future. At first he followed the impulses he received from Charlemagne’s

old advisers, but afterwards was guided by the contrary influences of the

second family, with which he had surrounded himself.

So he found himself entangled in the machinations of the factions which

were arising around him at the very outset of the conflict. He came into

open feud with his nearest relatives, of whom some followed one direction

and the others another. It is not probable that he failed through

excessive good nature; we have seen how he recoiled from the pressure

of hostile elements, calmly bore everything and yielded; but he never

yielded in the main point, but awaited the moment when he could reassert

his rights. Moreover, he never ceased thinking how to mete out punishment

to his enemies; he identified the empire with his own person.

But less important than the secular was the ecclesiastical complication

in which he became entangled. By not keeping the arrogance of the

secular magnates within proper limits, he aroused the pretensions of

the ecclesiastical hierarchy which, under his rule, reached their full

development. They were aimed not only at the existence but at the very

idea of empire. And perhaps one might be allowed to say everything

happened just as it was bound to happen. The elements that were striving

for independence were in existence. Louis was not the man to repel and

curb them to their old obedience. In attempting to do so he found that he

was the weaker, and he had, consequently, to experience the tortures that

disputed authority has to endure in times of faction. He was not able to

harmonise the tenure of supreme power with the claims of the right of

succession.

The epoch is characterised by the complication of the disputes for

succession and an attempt to raise the ecclesiastical power to a position

of preponderating prestige in the empire. It is Louis’ merit, that

neither in one case nor the other did he permit his authority to succumb.

He never allowed his jurisdiction over the clergy to be wrested from him,

and relying upon the good will of his people always managed to maintain

his tenure of the imperium. At his death he bequeathed the insignia of

the realm to his eldest son.[c]

QUARRELS OF HIS SUCCESSORS

[Sidenote: [840 A.D.]]

It was evident already during the lifetime of Louis the Pious that his

sons lived in mutual hatred and jealousy, and could not agree together

in harmony. From the first, the sons of the first marriage and their

half-brother were on a footing of envy and enmity, dissension also

reigned amongst the former because their aims and pursuits mutually

clashed. Ludwig, king of Bavaria, afterwards called the German, was both

more just and more benevolent in disposition; he had besides the wisest

intentions when the empire of Charles I was broken up, for he wished to

see the division made on a basis of national principle. But the eldest

brother, Lothair, was false and revengeful; and as he was at the same

time filled with an inexhaustible egotism, he was bent on excluding his

brothers as well as his nephews, by treachery, from all share in the

empire, or at any rate on overreaching them to the best of his ability.

[Illustration: NINTH-CENTURY CROSS-BOW]

Under such circumstances, the most violent friction between the brothers

was unavoidable. And this really came to pass immediately after the

death of the first Louis. In order to accomplish his ignoble designs,

the eldest brother Lothair endeavoured first of all to sow the seeds

of discord, in order to overwhelm first one brother by the help of the

other, and afterwards his ally. Intent on these designs, he set off

across the Alps as soon as he received the news of the death of his

father. Then he sent messengers through all the countries of the Frankish

Empire to announce that he had succeeded his father as emperor, and

demanding of all his vassals homage and fealty. What rights the emperor

held in opposition to the kings no one knew, and Lothair’s command that

they should swear allegiance to him in the former capacity was the best

means of puzzling the vassals and of gaining them over afterwards to

his side. The mighty knew as little of justice in those days as in many

subsequent periods; the might of the strongest was their law, and the

vassals had been accustomed, more especially during the civil wars of

Louis I’s time, to go over first to one party and then to the other,

in utter contempt of their oath of fealty, according to the favours or

frowns of fortune. Lothair had undertaken his progress across the Alps at

the head of a considerable army, and as he, on his arrival in Gaul, was

thought to be the stronger, on account of the weakening of his younger

brother Charles through war with his nephew, many of the vassals in

France ranged themselves on the side of the emperor. Promises were not

wanting, and soon he stood at the head of a powerful faction.

His most dangerous rival was Ludwig the German; and in order first to

annihilate him, Lothair endeavoured to persuade his half-brother Charles

to become his ally. To this end, he promised the latter to respect the

partition which his father had made during his lifetime. Believing that

he had thus won his brother over, he set forth from Worms at the head

of his army across the Rhine and drew near to Frankfort-on-Main. Ludwig

had fortified himself beforehand against his brother, and had tried more

especially to unite all Germans in opposition to Lothair. But great

confusion prevailed in Germany in both the domains of world-policy and

of politics in which the nation was interested. The Germans regarded

the Frankish kings with a certain amount of indifference; and thus,

more especially with regard to the north Germans, it concerned Ludwig

quite as much as his brother to organise a serious resistance among the

true Germans. They could not see why they should side with this brother

or with that, as the quarrel seemed to be only a matter of private

advantage. Therefore when Lothair had crossed the Rhine, Ludwig invested

Frankfort, and was resolved to oppose the advance of his brother; yet

the lukewarm attitude of the people made him anxious, and he was glad

to accept the overtures which Lothair made. Both were irresolute, and

therefore it was easily agreed to defer the decision. Lothair sought

to gain time in order to entangle his half-brother Charles still more

deeply, and Ludwig wished for a cessation of hostilities in order to work

up public spirit in Germany to take a warmer interest in his cause. The

emperor was actually successful in coming to an agreement with Charles;

and when he felt the ground safe on that side, he resolved to make a more

serious attack on Ludwig. Early in the year 841 he marched with a strong

army to cross the Rhine for the second time, after having by various

promises made a bid for the favour of the Germans. Ludwig’s efforts in

the same direction for the reasons given had not met with particular

success; the superiority in arms was on Lothair’s side, and Ludwig was

therefore forced to retreat before him.

CHARLES THE BALD AND LUDWIG THE GERMAN UNITE

[Sidenote: [840-841 A.D.]]

This turn in the fortunes of war was very dangerous to Germany’s

interests; for a decisive victory for Lothair would only have prolonged

the unnatural conditions of a Frankish universal empire and would have

postponed still further, amid the greatest complications, the separation

of the national states. Fortunately, however, Louis’ youngest son,

Charles surnamed the Bald, brought about a favourable change in the

situation, for his distrust of his eldest brother was awakened betimes

and caused him to take the offensive against him. Charles was able to

win over the sympathies of many vassals in Aquitania, and supported

by them he seized Paris. This _coup_ compelled Lothair to return to

France, and thus to give Ludwig a free hand again. At the same time both

Charles the Bald and Ludwig the German obtained a keener and clearer

insight into their true interests. They both perceived that the one might

found a French and the other a German empire without clashing with each

other, and that their common foe was their eldest brother. The latter

was furthermore plotting, under the cloak of the imperial dignity, to

maintain the empire of Charles I in its entirety, and to revive that

unfortunate combination of the most heterogeneous nations. Ludwig

thereupon proposed to his half-brother to enter into an alliance with

him, which the latter gladly accepted. Ludwig then resolved to cross the

Rhine and to join forces with Charles, in order to force Lothair to a

partition of the empire in accordance with the principle of homogeneous

nationalities.

The junction was duly effected in 841, and the two brothers emphatically

gave the emperor to understand that he must either consent to fulfil

their just demands with regard to the above-mentioned partition, or else

prepare to decide the matter by the force of arms. In the meanwhile,

however, Lothair had succeeded in winning over to his side his nephew,

Pepin of Aquitania, whom Charles the Bald had unjustly tried to

dispossess. In order to gain time to effect a junction with Pepin’s army,

he opened negotiations with Charles and Ludwig, which resulted in the

conclusion of an armistice. The opposing armies were already drawn up

close at hand; for Lothair had marched towards Auxerre, where Charles

and Ludwig were encamped, to meet his nephew Pepin. During the armistice

the junction of the fighting forces of Lothair and Pepin was effected,

whereupon the former immediately broke off the negotiations and accepted

the battle which the brothers proffered as an ordeal.

The decisive battle was fought at Fontenailles on June 25, 841. On the

right wing of the allied army of Charles and Ludwig stood the Germans,

and opposing them the emperor Lothair. It was there that hostilities

commenced; the fight was obstinate, but the troops of Lothair were

decidedly beaten by the Germans. The nephew Pepin held his position

better on the right wing, but after the defeat of Lothair the Germans

pressed Pepin hard, and he also was forced to yield. Charles the Bald

and Ludwig the German had therefore won a complete victory. This was a

most fortunate occurrence for the people, but it would have been still

more favourable had they known how to make use of their victory. Here,

however, they failed; for Charles and Ludwig, instead of pursuing the

remnants of the defeated army and by energetic measures extorting a

lasting peace, followed the advice of the clergy and commanded that the

next three days should be devoted to fasting and prayer, in order to

obtain counsel from heaven as to the next move to be made.

Lothair escaped to Aachen and Pepin to Aquitania. This necessitated the

division of the victorious forces, for Ludwig withdrew to the right bank

of the Rhine to protect Germany against Lothair, and Charles to Aquitania

to uphold it against Pepin. As soon as he arrived at Aachen, Lothair

resolved to adopt other means to carry through his plans.

The Saxons had made no attempt during the reign of Louis the Pious to

detach themselves from the empire, and to re-establish their original

constitution. The reason for this is probably to be sought in the

lenient measures adopted against them by Louis I, for otherwise his

weak government would seem to us to have afforded the most favourable

opportunity of throwing off the Frankish domination. But the bitterness

which had prevailed among the north Germans on account of the mighty

oppression of Charles I had by no means vanished, but was on the contrary

still tolerably widespread. The cunning Lothair made use of this

circumstance to gain the Saxons over to his party. Under the condition

that they should help him against his brother Ludwig, he promised to

restore to them their ancient constitution. The nobles in Saxony were

divided into two factions, adhering either to Lothair’s or Ludwig the

German’s cause. Then Lothair turned to the freemen and villeins, who in

proportion to the nobility naturally formed the majority; they listened

to his suggestions. Freedom, in the sense in which it is generally used

by modern historians, could not be granted by re-establishing the ancient

constitution of Saxony, for in olden times there was no freedom among the

Germans. But anger at the tithes with which Charles I had more especially

burdened the Saxon villeins, the oppression of the officials appointed by

the Frankish king, hatred of Christianity which was regarded as the cause

of both, and the abuse of their constitutional rights finally induced the

Saxon freemen and villeins to accept the perfidious proposals of Lothair.

Had the rebellion now being planned been successful, the separation of

north from south Germany would have been suddenly effected, and the

establishment of the unity of the German Empire thereby long deferred.

The alliance of the Saxons with Lothair was therefore in the highest

degree injurious to patriotic aims. In order further to strengthen his

might, the emperor endeavoured to win over the Normans also, and ignobly

promised to allow them to plunder various countries if they would come to

his assistance.

[Sidenote: [841-842 A.D.]]

Trusting in all these allies Lothair now determined to attack his brother

Ludwig, and gathered together an army near Worms. Charles the Bald

shrewdly recognised the danger of the situation, and advanced with his

forces to the Rhine to support Ludwig. Lothair was thereby constrained

to alter his tactics, and to force Charles to retreat before leading his

army to oppose Ludwig. He therefore marched into the interior of Gaul.

Charles thereupon retreated upon Paris where he entrenched. Lothair

determined nevertheless to attack him, but he failed to cross the Seine

owing to the rise of the river. After a renewal of peace negotiations,

which were once more fruitless, between the two brothers, Lothair marched

to meet his nephew Pepin in order again to join forces with him. This

he succeeded in doing farther up the Seine at Sens. Charles the Bald

proceeded hastily in the meanwhile to join Ludwig the German near the

Rhine, which Ludwig had already reached. The two armies effected their

junction at Strasburg in February, 842. From this time the brothers

firmly resolved to put an end to all hesitation and to the aimless

wandering hither and thither, and to bring the matter to a head. They

mutually swore an oath of loyalty and indissolubility in the presence of

their armies. Ludwig then addressed the assembled warriors, recounting

the wrongs they had endured at the hands of Lothair and asserting his

fixed determination to conclude an honourable alliance with Charles,

absolving his men from their allegiance to him should he break his oath.

At that time the national separation of the French and the Germans was

already very marked; for Ludwig made his speech in German, repeating

it in the Romance tongue in order that Charles’ warriors also should

understand it. Hereupon the two kings and their armies swore a solemn

oath of mutual loyalty and support.

LOTHAIR BROUGHT TO TERMS (842 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [842 A.D.]]

The camp was then broken up in order to bring on the crisis at once.

Lothair had now returned from Gaul to Aachen, whither his adversaries

marched with their armies. He endeavoured to entrench on the banks of the

Moselle and to oppose the passage of the enemy, but his dispositions for

the defence were miserably weak. The forces of Ludwig and Charles crossed

the river without the slightest difficulty, and Lothair so lost his head

as to take to flight hastily, never halting until he reached Lyons.

The victorious brothers proceeded to Aachen, which was still considered

as the seat of the whole empire. There they called upon the bishops to

decide between them, and Lothair; which they were only too ready to do,

declaring Lothair had grievously offended against both church and state,

and had besides shown himself to be quite incapable of governing the

empire, which should therefore pass over to Ludwig and Charles. As the

might of the strongest was thus confirmed by moral authority, Lothair

began to be seized at last with anxiety and seriously tried to come to

an agreement with his brothers. He therefore made proposals to them with

regard to the partition of the empire, which seemed reasonable and led

to further negotiations. It was impossible, however, owing to Lothair’s

new subterfuges, to effect a reconciliation at once; but in June, 842,

the three brothers held a meeting on the island of Ansilla on the Saône,

where they mutually took a solemn oath of peace, and arranged to meet

again on October 1st of the same year in Metz, when the division of the

empire should irrevocably be made by a tribunal of 120 arbitrators,

of which each of the brothers was to select forty from his most

distinguished men. This agreement is known as the Treaty of Ansilla, and

it was the forerunner of the Treaty of Verdun.

[Illustration: A KING OF THE NINTH CENTURY

(From an old print)]

The three brothers were all anxious to make the utmost use of the

interval which must elapse before the virtual conclusion of peace, in

consolidating their own power. Lothair, as revengeful and cruel as he was

craven, vented his rage, on his return to Aachen, on those of his vassals

who according to him were responsible for the disaster on the Moselle,

by confiscating many fiefs. Charles, on the other hand, tried to ruin his

nephew Pepin in Aquitania, although the latter, supposing any right of

inheritance over states to have existed, would have possessed a better

right than the uncle. The third brother resolved to put down the rising

in Saxony which threatened to become a danger to Germany. There is, it is

true, no historical evidence that the Saxon freemen and villeins had lent

any actual assistance to Lothair, the instigator of the insurrection;

but on the other hand, they proceeded all the more vigorously at home

to reorganise their established religion and constitution. Consequently

they expelled not only the Christian priests but also many nobles;

more particularly those who had been aware of the hopelessness of the

enterprise and who would not join the movement. It is possible that in

the course of events a freer tendency had been evolved, and that the

improvement of the position of the middle classes, and more especially of

the villeins or peasants, was the object of their endeavours. For many

centuries this numerous class, so oppressed by the Germans, had borne

their misery without any attempt to escape it; and yet it was inevitable

that by degrees even those of them who were without rights should awake

to a consciousness of their unworthy position, and should feel a wish to

improve it.

OPPRESSION OF THE SAXON FREEMEN

[Sidenote: [842-843 A.D.]]

During the reign of Louis the Pious there had already been a dangerous

rising of serfs in Flanders and in the northern maritime countries,

which according to the custom of lords paramount was not put down by

justice--that is, by an acknowledgment of the human rights possessed by

the miserable oppressed, called in law parlance beasts, and by a lenient

and reasonable improvement of their lot--but by the sword.

As a prototype of Napoleon, who held the municipalities responsible for

the individual actions which displeased him, Ludwig or rather his council

treated the lords of the serfs in the same way in order to guard against

similar uprisings in the future. The owner of the villein who took part

in a conspiracy was threatened with the king’s ban (60 _solidi_).

These facts must be taken as a sign of the times. They show that a

longing for freedom was beginning to stir in the bosom of the villein who

was without civil rights, and the movement in Saxony might have taken

this direction too, as already observed; but this was no struggle for

the restoration of an alleged former freedom, as the newer historians

would have it, but the opposite--an attempt to overthrow the tyranny

of the olden times. Such a condition of things would have stood in

direct opposition to the re-establishment of the old Saxon constitution,

which certainly was included in the plot, because that government

upheld serfdom; yet the Saxons included therein the ancestral religion,

their independence from the Franks, and exemption from tithes, and

therefore in that sense the struggle for freedom was compatible with the

re-establishment of the ancient constitution. It was customary in the

peasant rebellions in Germany to adopt a particular name, such as the

_bundschuh_, “lace-shoe.” The Saxon freemen and villeins called their

rising the _stellinga_. When a rebellion has for its goal the acquisition

of liberty, it is only natural that a king should tremble; but whether

this was really the case here or whether it was the natural dislike of

all Germans for the Carlovingian dynasty, that had oppressed not only

the Saxons and Frisians but also the Alamanni and the Bavarians, it is

certain that Ludwig feared the spread of the Saxon rising over Swabia and

Bavaria, and strained every nerve to subdue it. In order to accomplish

this he made use of such cruel means that his name, like that of his

grandfather Charles, deserves to be branded by history.

Even had the Saxons endangered the national aims of Germany by their

enterprise, and had Ludwig therefore had just claims to be held blameless

on that account for trying to put down the movement, yet it must never

be forgotten that the Saxons had been provoked by the most abominable

regulations, tithes, and other burdens unknown until that day, and that

they had been most cruelly wounded in all that they considered holy. As,

in addition, the Saxon freemen and villeins had been instigated to rebel

by a monarch who called himself emperor, and who according to existing

state treaties was to exercise lordship over his brothers, justice

imperiously demanded that the people who had been thus misled should be

treated with leniency; and that their resentment should be by degrees

allayed by relieving the burdens imposed upon them and by just treatment.

Instead of proceeding thus humanely, Ludwig made use of his power like

a cowardly despot, in order to inflict indescribable tortures on the

wretched Saxons. One hundred and forty men were beheaded, fourteen hanged

on the gallows, and others, according to ancient custom of the Romans,

were mutilated to render them incapable of fighting again. The inhumanity

was carried to such a pitch, so the chroniclers affirm, that the number

of mutilated Saxons was so great they could not be counted. In this way

was quiet restored in Saxony, but it was the quiet of the grave and of

silent execration which followed the callous destroyer, a true grandson

of the “great” Charles.

THE TREATY OF VERDUN (843 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [843 A.D.]]

In the meanwhile the time had come when, according to the Treaty of

Ansilla, the court of arbitration was to decide on the partition of

the empire. Charles and Ludwig therefore set forth at the beginning of

October to meet Lothair at Metz. Neither, however, trusted the other,

wherefore Ludwig and Charles kept an army in readiness near Worms,

while Lothair brought his to within eight hours of Metz. This caused a

renewed tension between the brothers; at last it was decided that the

arbitrators of both factions, for whose safety Ludwig and Charles feared

on account of the proximity of the hostile army, should meet in Coblenz.

The preliminaries for the partition were at once begun there; but it

soon became evident that the arbitrators hardly knew the geographical

position of the countries they had to divide, much less their relative

sizes and the characteristics of their internal conditions. There arose,

therefore, on both sides recriminations and complaints, then anger, fury,

and a fresh rupture. The discord assumed such proportions that it was

feared the negotiations would be broken off and war become inevitable.

The condition of the people was so wretched that public opinion, that of

the nobles at least, began gradually emphatically to demand patching up

of these unholy quarrels. Gaul had been devastated by military campaigns,

and as a natural consequence was overrun with bands of robbers. To add

to the misery, scarcity of crops had caused a food famine, and finally

news came that the _stellinga_ in Saxony, rendered desperate by Ludwig’s

cruelty, had taken up arms again after his departure. Taking all these

circumstances into consideration, the most distinguished men of all

factions declared resolutely and by common consent to the kings that the

conclusion of a definite lasting peace was of the most urgent necessity,

and that if the negotiations were again broken off they would not

participate in any new war.

At the same time it was proposed, in order to overcome all obstacles

to the partition, that the authorised representatives or arbitrators

should immediately travel over the length and breadth of the empire, in

order to acquire the necessary knowledge for the division of the same;

and also that an armistice of suitable duration should be concluded to

facilitate the preparations for the real conclusion of peace. The force

of circumstances obliged the kings to yield; the proposed commission was

undertaken in common, the armistice was extended till July, 843, and

another meeting for the conclusion of peace was fixed for that year.

While the arbitrators were journeying through the countries that were to

be divided, Ludwig returned once again to Saxony, in order to subdue the

renewed rising. The _stellinga_ made a brave resistance, but the superior

might of the king was bound to conquer, and callous cruelty again

disgraced the weapons of the blood-thirsty despot.

[Illustration: CHARLES THE BALD

(From a French print of 1832)]

In July 843 representatives of the three brothers met at last at Verdun,

in order to negotiate for peace. And it was there that the final treaty

was really signed in August of the same year. Its chief provisions were:

(1) Charles the Bald received Gaul and a part of Germany, which lies

between the mouth of the Schelde and its source on the left bank, and

thence to the Maas. The boundary of his kingdom stretched thence to the

Saône, and along the Rhone to its embouchure in the Mediterranean. (2)

Ludwig received all the German countries on the right bank of the Rhine

and on the left Speier, Worms, and Mainz, with the districts appertaining

thereto. (3) Lothair remained in possession of the title of emperor and

of all lands outside Italy which lie between the realms of Charles the

Bald and Ludwig. That was the essence of the famous Treaty of Verdun,

which was the foundation of the final establishment of the pure German

nation and of the unity of the empire.

As to the value of the treaty, it is at once evident that it was far

from adequate from the point of view of the interest of the people,

and was only an expedient of necessity, which the conflicting private

interests of the kings had called into existence. The elimination of all

independent nations, and the organised union of all the houses of each

race into one state was the greatest need of that period; but by the

Treaty of Verdun, Germany remained divided up, for the greatest parts of

the Rhine district and Belgium were severed from it.

In the same way the boundary question in the interior of the country

between Germans and the Slavs remained unsettled, and the demarcation

of the nation was therefore once more obliterated. The principal cause

of this regrettable evil was the unfortunate idea of the imperial

dignity which was to encompass the whole of Christendom. Lothair showed

himself so violently possessed by the idea of this dignity that he would

not under any circumstances give it up. Aachen was the capital of the

emperor, and Lothair insisted so obstinately on retaining possession of

the city that, willingly or unwillingly, a strip of land from the German

realm had to be conceded to him. Under those circumstances there was no

alternative between a new war and the dismemberment of Germany. Under

the prevailing conditions the former was neither feasible nor desirable;

moreover at that time national spirit showed itself in many of the

greatest men to be practically non-existent, and consequently to them the

organic unity of the nations was of little account--if they recognised it

at all. It was therefore not considered that the dismemberment of Germany

was any very great sacrifice to offer on the altar of peace.

And yet, however unsatisfactory the treaty of Verdun was for German

interests, it must be conceded that in view of the existing situation

even the partial union of the Germans into a separate empire of their

own was an incalculable advantage. The union of north and south Germany,

enforced by Charles I, could bear no fruits because the independent

national development was stunted by the enforced alliance of the Germans

with Romans, Gauls, and Italians. By the Treaty of Verdun the Germans,

on the other hand, were separated from the Guelfs, and even if important

purely Germanic stock was cut off, yet the majority still remained

combined in one independent state free to develop according to the

hereditary spirit.

Finally the empire given to Lothair by the dismemberment of Germany was

so contrary to all common sense in its situation and boundaries, that

a continuation of this singular arrangement was beyond the range of

probability. Lothair’s possessions outside Italy were separated from

his principal realm by the Alps; there was absolutely nothing in common

between the Italians and the Germans, and at the same time Lothair’s

portion on this side of the Alps only consisted of an extremely narrow

strip towards the sea, which nowhere offered a suitable protection. Part

of this strip of land was inhabited by romanised Germans or Guelfs, and

the remaining and greater part by pure Teutons; consequently it was only

to be expected that the Guelf portion would struggle to become united to

France and the Teutonic to the mother country. This is what actually came

to pass later; and therefore in the Treaty of Verdun were to be found the

elements for the establishment of a national Teutonic empire and unity.

We therefore now look upon that treaty as the foundation of both.[e]

Germany dates her national existence from the Treaty of Verdun. Eastern

or Teutonic was then forever separated from Western or Latin France,

which in later times gained exclusive possession of the name, the heart

of the Frankish dominions being known as Franconia. The oaths taken

respectively by the armies of Ludwig and Charles show that the two

languages were already distinct. The Frankish conquerors of Gaul were

largely latinised by intercourse with the former subjects of the cæsars;

and while the soldiers of Ludwig swore allegiance in old German, the oath

of Charles’ army bore an almost equal resemblance to Latin, Provençal,

and modern French. The Teutonic and Roman elements in European society

and speech were from that moment separate.[f]

FOOTNOTES

[139] [Though the Germans protested violently against gallicising their

Karl der Grosse and Ludwig der Fromme into Charlemagne and Louis de

Débonnaire, we prefer to keep the more familiar forms.]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII

THE BIRTH OF GERMAN NATIONALITY

[843-936 A.D.]

Although by the Treaty of Verdun the empire remained in some measure

united and the emperor had a certain pre-eminence over the king, he was

certainly not endowed with supreme prerogatives; the districts were

as distinct from each other as they once were in the divisions of the

Merovingians. The idea of imperial theocracy was gone, the customary

arrangement of succession of the Frankish monarchy had prevailed. This

victory was rife with consequences for the Frankish kingdom and all the

races ruled by the Franks.

Although it was not the interests of the people but those of the rulers

which had led to the Treaty of Verdun, it was of great importance for the

evolution and cultivation of nationality in the West. Whilst Ludwig’s

kingdom almost entirely consisted of German lands, Charles on the other

side had those parts of Gaul already permeated by the Roman character;

and out of the great German Roman Empire in the East Frankish kingdom

there arose a state whose people, albeit separated in clans, were similar

in language, customs, and thought, and their connection began to be shown

in their language.

In contradistinction to the Roman language of the learned clergy and the

Romanised tongue of their southern and western neighbours, they called

this language German, _i.e._, the “popular” tongue, and they called

themselves the German-speaking to distinguish themselves from the Romans.

The feeling of their union must necessarily have increased as they were

united in one kingdom and were separated by the bond of the kingdom from

other races. In like manner the Frankish Roman nationality was more

notably evolved in the West Frankish kingdom, after the union with the

purely German races was dissolved.

[Sidenote: [843-845 A.D.]]

The Germans therefore, like the French, and not without reason, regard

the Treaty of Verdun as the birth-hour of their nationality. After the

breaking up of the Carlovingian kingdom, the natural differences of the

various races did not reappear with their narrow, sharp distinctions, but

they began to form fresh nationalities upon a wider and more universal

basis, and this fact was productive of the most important results. There

was much to cause the delay of the further separation of the East and

West Frankish kingdom. The political elements which Charles had united

in his kingdom were by no means equally distributed over all districts,

and they had not gained the same force everywhere. The feudal system had

especially gained ground on Gallic soil and there attained to such power

that the freedom of the lower classes was quite stifled; all the lower

circles of the population were dependent on the powerful feudal princes.

The great vassals thereby became so strong that they soon instituted the

hereditariness of their fiefs, and the king only retained real power over

the crown possessions, having elsewhere only the rights of a chief feudal

lord. The royal power such as had been exercised by the Merovingians and

the first Carlovingians diminished more and more, and royalty was only

instituted here later, on quite a fresh basis.

It was different in the East Frankish kingdom. The freedom of the

communities had there taken root too deeply to be so easily displaced;

vassaldom only gradually gained ground and mostly only because the royal

feudal people were introduced to the people as officials. There was

therefore far more strength and union in the government; the king was

still the people’s king and he could call directly upon the fighting

power of the masses. This was chiefly why Ludwig the German was superior

to Charles the Bald and also to Lothair. In almost the same way,

Lothair’s kingdom consisted of German and Roman districts without any

national unity; it was therefore weak and unstable, albeit the chief

lands of the government and the first cities of the kingdom belonged to

him.[b]

THE REIGN OF LUDWIG THE GERMAN (843-876 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [845-853 A.D.]]

Ludwig’s[140] independent sovereignty commenced at a moment of great

national disaster. In the year 845 King Horik of Denmark, who had a large

fleet of Norse pirate vessels at his disposal, commenced a general attack

upon all the maritime provinces of the Frankish Empire. One division of

his fleet, amounting, it is said, to six hundred ships, sailed up the

mouth of the Elbe and made an unexpected assault upon Hamburg, the seat

of missionary activity in the Scandinavian north. The city was taken and

burned to the ground before the local levies (Heerbann) could hasten

from the surrounding country to its aid. Many of the inhabitants fell by

the Northmen’s swords, the rest were scattered or perished as they fled.

Bishop Anskar sought refuge for himself and his books and relics in the

desolate moorland between the Elbe and Weser. Another detachment of the

Norman fleet wrought hideous havoc in the kingdom of the West Franks;

Paris was committed to the flames and most of its inhabitants slaughtered

by the Northmen. King Charles the Bald went so far as to collect an army,

but he did not dare to confront the invaders; indeed, he was well content

to procure the withdrawal of the pirates--who dreaded the vengeance of

the patron saints of the churches they had plundered and burned far

more than the Frankish _arrière-ban_--by the payment of a considerable

sum of money. The Northmen carried home with them from their raid a

deadly pestilence, to which King Horik himself succumbed after grievous

suffering. Before his death he sent an embassy to Ludwig the German to

entreat his pardon for the destruction of Hamburg, at the same time

promising to restore the prisoners and booty.

The Northmen repeated their incursion no later than the following year.

They respected the dominions of Ludwig the German, but ravaged the whole

coast of western France as far as Bordeaux. The Saracens pillaged the

coasts of Italy at the same time; it seemed as though the Norman pirate

excursions had emboldened them to similar enterprises. From Africa their

fleet sailed to Rome and took the city on the right bank of the Tiber,

including the church of St. Peter. They then marched into south Italy,

pillaging and slaughtering as they went. On the return voyage a storm at

sea sent part of the fleet to the bottom of the Mediterranean, and the

Christian world saw the avenging hand of God in their destruction. On the

other hand, it was keenly alive to the shame of knowing that Rome and

other famous holy places had fallen into the hands of the infidels.

WAR WITH THE SLAVONIC TRIBES

At this time King Ludwig was engaged in war with the Slavonic tribes.

As early as the year 845 he had not been able to keep the Abodrites

in subjection except by force. At the beginning of 846 he conquered a

Slavonic tribe on the Elbe which we cannot more closely identify, and

then took the field against the Moravians, whose duke, Moimir, was

suspected of contemplating rebellion. Ludwig deposed the duke, and

nominated his nephew Ratislaw as his successor. On his return march the

king took the way through Bohemia, where, in mountainous ground and

the depths of the forest, he found himself suddenly assailed by the

Czechs, and the German army suffered severely before it could escape

from the ambush. Immediately afterwards the Bohemians, who up to this

time had been nominally subject to Frankish dominion, proceeded to

open hostilities against the kingdom of the East Franks, and Ludwig

consequently found himself under the necessity of undertaking a great

expedition against them in the year 849. He himself was prevented by

sickness from taking part in the campaign, and was obliged to send his

army into the field under the leadership of several counts who were at

variance among themselves. These commanders, after gaining some slight

preliminary advantages, suffered heavy loss in men amongst the forests of

Bohemia, and were actually compelled to give hostages to the Bohemians

to insure their own return home unmolested. This occurrence aroused the

profoundest indignation among the East Frank people, who had hitherto

gloried in their military reputation above all things.

Since neither of the three kingdoms had any lack of enemies, the three

brothers determined to maintain friendly sentiments towards each other

and to make common cause for defence against their foes, adjusting their

own small differences at a diet of princes (Fürstentag) to be held at

short intervals. They met thus for the first time at Diedenheim in 844,

then in 847 at Mersen on the Maas [Meuse], and at Mersen again in 851.

With them appeared their great vassals, temporal and spiritual. The

brothers swore to assist one another with counsel and deed against their

enemies, and they directed that their mutual agreement should be put

on record and made known among their subjects. But unhappily this act

of brotherly concord was deficient in honest purpose, for each one was

silently watching and suspecting the others, as though they had been his

worst enemies.

LUDWIG TURNS AGAINST CHARLES THE BALD (853-860 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [853-855 A.D.]]

Up to this time Ludwig had remained the most loyal of the three to this

friendly compact; but in the year 853 he allowed his greed of territory

to seduce him into an act of treachery towards Charles the Bald. The

Aquitanians, who had long struggled under the leadership of Pepin--son of

a brother of the three kings who had died young--against union with the

dominions of Charles the Bald, appealed to King Ludwig for aid after the

death of their prince, proposing that he should either become their king

himself or send one of his sons. The war with the Slavs was assuming ever

vaster proportions, and Ludwig was unable to quit Germany. He therefore

despatched his second son, Ludwig the Younger, with an army to Aquitaine.

Charles the Bald was hard pressed by the Northmen at that time, and could

only spare a small force to oppose the German troops. But the expedition

of the German monarch’s son to Aquitaine was not the success he had

anticipated. Only a fraction of the nobility took his part; another party

adhered to the son of their late ruler; others, again, held with Charles

the Bald. The whole attempt came to nothing. Ludwig was constrained to

seek safety in a retreat which bore a strong resemblance to flight. The

Aquitanians returned to their allegiance to Charles the Bald when he had

set his son, who was still a minor, over them as king, and thus assured

their country of a certain degree of independence.

The year 855 summoned King Ludwig to fresh martial enterprises. The

Moravians had become restless and menaced the eastern regions of the

kingdom with invasion. Ludwig undertook an expedition against Ratislaw,

their prince, but without effect, for the enemy took refuge in secure

fortified places behind lofty ramparts of earth. After the king had

withdrawn the Moravians pressed forward into Germany along the right

bank of the Danube, pillaging as they came. Ludwig could do little to

protect this part of the country, as the Slavs were stirring again in

the northeast. In the succeeding years he had to undertake various

small expeditions against the Daleminzians, who dwelt between the Elbe

and Mulde, and the Czechs of Bohemia. The results were in most cases

inconsiderable, but even in these minor campaigns the German losses in

fighting men were heavy. The greatest danger with which Ludwig was at

that time menaced loomed from the east. The whole Slavonic world was in a

ferment, and strove to gain breathing-space by pressing westwards.

[Sidenote: [858-860 A.D.]]

Under these circumstances we cannot but be surprised that Ludwig thought

the moment propitious for extensive military operations against Charles

the Bald. In the kingdom of the West Franks, a terrible state of things

prevailed, for not only did the Northmen ravage the most fertile

regions--especially the lowlands of the Loire--almost every year, but in

the interior of the kingdom the insubordinate nobles were at war with one

another and with the king. The malcontents of the western kingdom had

repeatedly turned their eyes towards the German king. When, therefore,

in the year 858, he received an appeal from many persons of consequence

in the kingdom of Charles the Bald to deliver them from the king’s

tyranny and to protect their country from the incursions of the heathen,

Ludwig gave up the idea of a campaign against the Slavs, for which he

had already made preparations, and marched his army to the west, veiling

his dastardly breach of the peace under many fine phrases. The emperor

Lothair had died a short time before, and the intervening kingdom of

Lorraine had descended to his son, Lothair II, a young and incapable

ruler, and Ludwig had therefore good reason to hope that he might be able

to reunite the major part of the dominions of Charlemagne under his own

sceptre. He advanced with his forces as far as Orleans while Charles the

Bald and his nephew Lothair were engaged in a joint struggle with the

Normans on the banks of the Loire. Imagining himself already in secure

possession of the western kingdom, the king dismissed the greater part of

his army, which according to ancient custom, could demand to return home

after three months service in the field. Then the temper of the people

suddenly changed. The bulk of the Austrasian clergy had remained loyal to

Charles the Bald, the temporal lords were ill pleased to see that Ludwig

governed the country with a strong hand, and the soldiers of his army

had been guilty of the grave error of allowing themselves to perpetrate

acts of violence against the country folk. Ludwig suddenly found himself

deserted by the Austrasian nobles, disaffection was rife about him on

every side, while troops of vassals were gathering round his brother

Charles. Suspecting treachery everywhere, he took his departure with all

possible speed, having reaped nothing from the whole campaign beyond a

considerable loss of prestige. After protracted negotiations a peace was

ultimately concluded between Charles and Ludwig at Coblenz in 860. The

latter was forced to rest content with being spared a public humiliation

and with the grant of a pardon to the Austrasian nobles who had done

homage to him.

THE END OF LOTHAIR

[Sidenote: [860-869 A.D.]]

From the year 860 onwards the affairs of Lorraine occupied the foreground

of political attention for both the German and Austrasian kings. In 855

the emperor Lothair died in the monastery of Prüm, into which he had

retired sick and world-weary. His unfilial conduct towards his father

appears to have weighed heavily upon his spirit and estranged the hearts

of others from him to such an extent that he never afterwards throve in

men’s esteem. In accordance with ancient Frankish usage his three sons

divided amongst them the dominions he had left. Italy and the imperial

dignity fell to Ludwig II,[141] the Rhone provinces to Charles, who

was yet a minor, and the most important share, Lorraine (Lotharingia)

proper and Friesland, to Lothair II. From the time that he was little

more than a boy the young king, Lothair, had lived with his father’s

connivance in a sort of marriage relation with a lady of rank, Waldrada

by name, who had borne him several sons. After his father’s death he

took to wife, not the love of his youth, but Thietberga, the daughter

of a distinguished Burgundian noble whose possessions lay in the Alpine

valleys between Italy and the kingdom of the West Franks. There was no

issue of the marriage, and the king conceived the desire to rid himself

of his consort that he might marry Waldrada and so secure the kingdom to

his children. With this object he caused all sorts of scandalous rumours

to be disseminated about Thietberga, implying that before her marriage

she had lived in incestuous intercourse with her own brother.

[Illustration: CHARLES THE BALD]

The time-serving clergy of Lorraine, with Archbishop Thietgand of Trèves

and Günther of Cologne at their head, were venal enough to grant a

divorce on the ground of these calumnious reports at a synod held at

Aachen in the year 860, and to condemn the queen to do penance in a

nunnery. Lothair thereupon celebrated his nuptials with Waldrada with

great pomp. But both his uncles, Charles the Bald and Ludwig were adverse

to the divorce, because if Lothair left no legitimate issue they would

be the heirs to his kingdom. At the instigation of Charles the Bald

Hincmar, the learned and disputatious archbishop of Rheims, published a

pamphlet exposing the whole tissue of falsehoods which had been invented

to Thietberga’s disadvantage and vehemently impugning the proceedings of

the synod of Aachen. The unhappy queen escaped from her nunnery and threw

herself upon the protection of Charles; she also appealed to the pope for

help. The papal chair was at that time occupied by Nicholas II, a mighty

prince of the church, who gladly embraced the opportunity thus offered of

summoning a king before his judgment-seat. He sent legates to Lorraine

to inquire into the king’s matrimonial affairs at a Frankish synod. But

the legates were not proof against bribery, and at a synod at Metz in the

year 863 they pronounced in favour of the king.

Nicholas, learning of the corruptibility of his agents, condemned the

conclusions of the synod of Metz in a Lateran synod and deposed the

archbishops of Trèves and Cologne. A lengthy and repulsive controversy

on the subject of the royal divorce ensued in Lorraine, finding an echo

even in the chambers where the women sat spinning. Lothair was forced to

bow to the pope’s will, and his consort Thietberga returned to his court.

But he presently began to live with Waldrada again, although he could

not procure the church’s sanction to a divorce and a marriage with his

mistress. This scandalous quarrel, which kept the mind of all the western

world in a state of agitation, was still dragging its length along when

Nicholas II died in 867. Lothair hoped that he might gain his end with

the new pope Adrian II, and with the object in view he undertook a

journey to Italy in 869. At his interview with the pope he swore, to the

horror of all pious souls, an oath notoriously false, declaring that in

recent years he had avoided all commerce with Waldrada. But the new pope,

who held the king in profound contempt on account of his corrupt morals,

also refused to grant the divorce, and could be brought to promise no

more than that he would inquire into the matter once again in a synod

which he would summon to meet at Rome. Lothair died of a raging fever

on his homeward way, and his devout contemporaries saw in his death the

divine judgment on his crime. His children were not recognised by the

law, and his dominions therefore passed to the other monarchs who were of

kin to him. His brother, the emperor Ludwig II, was childless, so that

Ludwig the German and Charles the Bald were the only heirs whom it was

necessary to take into account.

LUDWIG AND CHARLES DIVIDE LOTHAIR’S POSSESSIONS (870 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [870 A.D.]]

At the time of Lothair’s unlooked for decease the king of the East Franks

was engaged in a war against the Slavs. His eldest son, Carloman [or

Carlmann], had for years been warring on Ratislaw, prince of Moravia, and

had gained some successes. The Czechs also frequently made excursions

into Bavaria at this period, carrying the inhabitants of the country

away into captivity. Ludwig therefore resolved to attack the Czechs all

along the line in one great campaign. In the August of 869 his armies

were equipped and ready to march against the foe. His second son, Ludwig

the Younger, was to attack the Sorbs, he himself in concert with his son

Carloman was to reduce the Moravians to subjection once more. At this

juncture he suddenly fell sick of a serious malady at Ratisbon; and his

third son, Charles, as yet untried in arms, led the army to join Carloman

in his stead. The war was conducted with success at all points. The Sorbs

were compelled to submit. The German warriors attacked the Moravians

behind their apparently impassable earthworks, burned many places to the

ground, and returned home laden with spoil.

Meanwhile, Charles the Bald was making haste to take possession of

Lothair’s dominions. He had been busy with defensive measures against

the Norman pirates, when the news of his nephew’s death was brought to

him. The emperor Ludwig II, Lothair’s brother, was far away and his

forces were insignificant, and the reports of Ludwig’s illness sounded so

unfavourable that there seemed no chance of his recovery; so that Charles

the Bald hoped that he might succeed in making himself Lothair’s sole

heir. He hurried to Metz, where he had himself crowned king of Lorraine,

and thence proceeded to Aachen to receive the homage of the nobles. Very

few of the nobles, however, presented themselves. He then ventured to

encroach upon the kingdom of the East Franks, for he took possession of

Alsace, which Lothair had previously ceded to Ludwig in return for the

assurance of his support in his matrimonial quarrel.

But Charles the Bald was not destined long to enjoy his bloodless

victory; for Ludwig recovered and threatened him with war unless he

consented to a fraternal division of the dominions left by Lothair. Thus

came about the famous partition treaty, which was concluded at Mersen in

the year 870. By this treaty one-half of Lorraine fell to the western

kingdom, and the other to the eastern. The boundary line ran southwards

from the mouth of the Maas [Meuse], following the course of the river

for some distance until it reached Ourthe, then crossed to the middle

Moselle, just touched upon the Marne, and then ran along the Saône to

the level of the Lake of Geneva. Thus, east Lorraine, Alsace, and north

Burgundy, passed to Germany. The Treaty of Mersen was a corollary to the

Treaty of Verdun; all the purely Germanic elements of the population were

now combined with the eastern kingdom, and the way was prepared for the

formation of two great states and nations, the one Germanic and the other

Romance.

LAST YEARS OF LUDWIG THE GERMAN

[Sidenote: [870-876 A.D.]]

In the latter years of his life, King Ludwig was afflicted by the

same misfortune which he and his brothers had conspired to bring upon

their father; for his grown-up sons rebelled against him. He had

early conferred upon them a share in the sovereignty of parts of his

dominions, and after his kingdom had been considerably aggrandised by

the Treaty of Mersen, they demanded a corresponding extension of their

dominions. Carloman, the eldest, ruled Bavaria almost as an independent

kingdom, and therefore received a considerable accession of territory.

The younger sons, Ludwig and Charles, felt themselves aggrieved by this

proceeding, and refused to render obedience to their father any longer.

This occurrence took place at an unpropitious time for the king, as the

Moravian prince, Suatopluk, had just inflicted a crushing defeat upon

a Bavarian contingent. Under these circumstances Ludwig endeavoured to

come to a compromise with his sons. In a diet at Forchheim they were

reconciled to him, on condition that they should all share equally in

the heritage of Lorraine. Thereupon a great expedition against the

Moravians was undertaken in 872. But fortune did not favour the Germans.

A detachment of Saxons, at variance among themselves, was worsted in

battle and turned back in shameful rout, and another army, under the

command of Bishop Arno of Würzburg, came back with heavy loss and without

having accomplished its object. Carloman was attacked in the rear by the

Moravians, and forced to beat a retreat with heavy loss. The king himself

was unable to take part in the war, being busy with the affairs of Italy.

A grievous domestic trouble was soon added to these military reverses.

His two younger sons conceived the criminal design of dethroning their

father, and holding him in captivity. The project came to light as by a

miracle. Charles, burdened with an evil conscience, was seized with a

fit of the epileptic disease from which he suffered, and betrayed part

of his secret, probably during the convulsions. According to the ideas

of the time, it was believed that the devil had entered into him, and he

was taken to church, where the clergy tried to cure him by prayers and

exorcisms. The sight of his brother’s ravings wrought such an effect on

the mind of Ludwig the Younger that, stricken with remorse, he confessed

their design to his father. The king refrained from punishing his sons;

he was reconciled to them again, and left his dispositions for the

succession unaltered. Grown wise by such experiences, he thenceforth

granted his sons a fuller measure of independence in their subordinate

dominions.

About the end of Ludwig’s reign a peace was concluded with the Danes,

to his great satisfaction. After King Horik’s death his two sons

declared their willingness to enter into a compact with Ludwig, whom

they were prepared to honour as a father, to the effect that the Eider

should constitute the boundary between the two kingdoms, and that the

two nations should thenceforward live in peaceful intercourse with one

another. On this basis a peace was concluded, greatly to the benefit of

missionary enterprise in particular. The archiepiscopal see of Hamburg

and Bremen was at that time governed by Rimbert, a pupil of Anskar’s, who

worked in complete harmony with the spirit of his predecessor. He endured

the hardships of many sea-voyages, labouring to spread Christianity among

the Danes and Swedes.

In the following year the long war with the Moravians was also brought

to a close. A Moravian embassy appeared at Forchheim in 874 to sue for

peace. Prince Suatopluk undertook to render fealty to the king of Germany

and to pay a regular annual tribute. From a German province Moravia thus

became a feudal state under German suzerainty, an alteration which must

be reckoned almost as a defeat for Ludwig.

In the last year of Ludwig’s life an event took place to which he had

latterly devoted his whole attention. The Italian emperor Ludwig II died

and left no heir, and the throne of the Roman Empire thus fell vacant.

Both Ludwig and Charles the Bald laid claim to this dignity. Engelberga,

the widow of the deceased monarch, favoured the German king, who had made

an agreement with her at Trent in 872 to the effect that his eldest son

Carloman should be the successor of Ludwig II; Pope John VIII, on the

contrary, wished to confer the succession upon Charles the Bald. When the

news of Ludwig II’s death reached Rome the pope immediately despatched

an embassy to the king of the West Franks and invited him to come and be

crowned emperor. On the other hand a convocation of Lombard nobles, at

which the Empress Engelberga was present, declared in favour of the king

of Germany.

Charles the Bald outwitted his rival by the celerity of his action,

for no more than four weeks after he had received the tidings of the

emperor’s death he and his army stood upon Italian soil. But his way to

Rome was barred by the sons of Ludwig, for Charles was in Italy at the

time, and Carloman hurried thither from Bavaria with an army. By gross

imposture, however, Charles the Bald contrived to render his opponents

harmless; he concluded a compact with Carloman, according to which they

were both to leave Italy, taking their armies with them, and the fate

of that country was then to be decided by amicable agreement between

the two kings. When Carloman, relying on this compact, had withdrawn

from Italy, Charles the Bald hastened to Rome and there received the

imperial crown from the pope in return for lavish gifts and promises.

This clumsy fraud so enraged Ludwig the German that he undertook an

expedition against the kingdom of the West Franks, not with a view to

the conquest of the country but in order to compel his brother to come

back from Italy and make a fair arrangement with him. But the old king

himself was summoned home by mournful tidings; his wife Imma, the loyal

companion of so many years, had died after protracted suffering, and her

death plunged him into profound dejection. He nevertheless determined to

await his brother’s return and then march against him with his sons at

the head of a well-found army. But the projected expedition never came to

pass, for Ludwig died soon after, in August, 876. The momentous question

whether the imperial dignity and the sovereignty of Italy should pass to

the kingdom of the West Franks or that of the East Franks thus remained

undecided.

In retrospect the total result of the reign of Ludwig the German is

seen to be not unfavourable. Amidst severe struggles he maintained his

dominions intact at almost every point, and secured a valuable accession

of territory from those left by Lothair II. Moreover the first vehement

onslaught of the Slavonic races on the eastern division of the Frankish

Empire had been successfully repulsed.

THE SONS OF LUDWIG THE GERMAN; CHARLES THE FAT (876-887 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [876-877 A.D.]]

After the death of Ludwig his three sons undertook the government

conjointly. Carloman regarded Bavaria as his proper heritage, and hoped

to win Italy and the imperial crown into the bargain. Charles the Fat

reigned in Swabia, and Ludwig the Younger ruled over the northern

provinces of the kingdom. This tripartite division was agreed upon by

the three brothers at a meeting at Riess, but it had hardly time to take

effect, for the assaults of foes from without and other grave disasters

followed in such rapid succession that they were fully employed in

remedying immediate evils.

No sooner did Charles the Bald receive the welcome tidings of his

brother’s death than he made ready to rob his East Frankish nephews;

he was eager to seize upon the whole of the dominions left by Lothair

II, and to gain possession of the intervening kingdom of Lorraine as

well as of the imperial crown. Though his own country was at this time

suffering grievously at the hands of the Northmen, he led his army into

Lorraine and occupied the important cities of Cologne and Aachen. But he

had mistaken the character of Ludwig the younger, who was one of the last

vigorous offshoots of the mighty Carlovingian breed, a valiant soldier

and a sagacious leader. Charles allowed Ludwig to decoy him into giving

battle under disadvantageous conditions at Andernach, and suffered a

severe defeat, in which the greater part of the West Frankish army was

put to the sword and many nobles were taken prisoners or robbed of their

costly robes and jewels. Many of them were obliged to return home without

even their weapons, and their cowardly king saved himself by shameful

flight.

After Charles the Bald had come back to his kingdom the Norman pest began

anew. The pirates could only be induced to withdraw by the payment of a

huge sum of money, which Charles levied upon the whole country under the

name of the Norman Tax (_Normannensteuer_). Soon afterwards an urgent

appeal for help reached him from Italy, from the pope, who was suffering

at one and the same time under the oppression of the Saracens and of

the Italian nobles. The latter were at permanent feud with him, and

did not even respect the churches and the consecrated vessels. Charles

was not profoundly touched by the pope’s entreaties, but he was keenly

alive to the fear that some Italian noble might set the imperial crown

upon his own head, and therefore, in spite of the desperate state of

his own country, he resolved to make a fresh military expedition into

Italy. In the summer of 877 he held a convocation of lords temporal and

spiritual at Quierzy, to take counsel with them on the subject of the

Roman expedition. Most of them tried to dissuade him from it, urging

the miseries under which his own kingdom was suffering; but Charles,

nevertheless, started for Italy at the head of an army.

[Sidenote: [877-879 A.D.]]

Pope John VIII, who had but shortly before confirmed Charles’ election

to the imperial dignity at a synod held at Ravenna, hastened to Pavia

to meet him. There they were also met by the alarming news that King

Carloman had come in haste with an army from the kingdom of the East

Franks, and was already in upper Italy. The feeble monarch’s timorous

spirit made him welcome the further tidings which came from his own

country, to the effect that the nobles whom he had left behind in the

kingdom of the West Franks were conspiring against him. He hurried back

to his own dominions in hot haste, without waiting to confront his

adversary; and the pope had to go home with his purpose unachieved.

Death overtook the West Frankish monarch suddenly as he was crossing the

Alps. The rumour ran that Zedekiah, his Jewish physician in ordinary, had

poisoned him with a powder administered as medicine. Despised by all and

loved by none, the king departed this life in the forty-sixth year of

his age, a man wholly vile, as his contemporaries said, and one whom the

annalist of Fulda[c] calls “timorous as a hare.”

LUDWIG THE YOUNGER

Carloman meanwhile remained in upper Italy. When the news of the death

of Charles the Bald reached him he addressed a letter to the pope,

requesting him to bestow upon him the imperial dignity in return for the

customary promises. Negotiations on the subject had nearly come to their

conclusion when an infectious malady broke out among the German forces

and Carloman fell a victim to it. The army had to retreat hastily across

the Alps, carrying their sick king in a litter. This admirable prince was

not destined to recover. Like all the sons of Ludwig the German, he had

a tendency to brain disease and paralysis, inherited probably from their

mother Imma. From this time forward he lived on one of his estates at

Oetting in Bavaria. Later the unhappy man was smitten with a paralytic

stroke which deprived him of the power of speech and motion. He died in

the autumn of 880, after languishing for three years in a condition which

rendered him incapable of discharging any of the functions of government.

There was no issue of his marriage, but he had an illegitimate son, the

offspring of a liaison with a lady of rank, upon whom he had conferred

the Mark of Carinthia during his illness. All his contemporaries agree in

describing Carloman as a prince of great valour and exceptional ability,

and the decline of his powers in the prime of life as a great misfortune

for the empire.

[Illustration: A WEST FRANK]

From the year 877 onwards Ludwig the Younger, second son of Ludwig the

German, reigned practically alone, and ruled with great vigour and

sagacity. He first came to a good understanding with the kingdom of

the West Franks, where a son of Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer,

had ascended the throne. The weak health of the latter prevented him

from conducting the war in person, and he therefore endeavoured to come

to terms with the eastern kingdom. For this purpose he met Ludwig the

Younger at Fouron in the north of Lorraine, and in an interview at that

place ratified the treaty concluded with the king of the East Franks

at Mersen in 870 and resigned all pretensions to the imperial dignity.

Almost immediately after the king of the West Franks fell ill of a

grievous malady, of which he died in the following year, leaving as heirs

to his kingdom two sons still under age. Hence the ambitious King Ludwig

the Younger readily conceived the idea of winning the Austrasian crown

for himself and so uniting all the dominions of Charlemagne once more

under his own sceptre. The same idea suggested itself to many a West

Frankish noble. The influential abbot Gauzlin of St. Germains and Count

Conrad of Paris tried to convince their fellow-countrymen that Ludwig the

Younger, whose prowess in the battle of Andernach was still held in the

liveliest remembrance, ought to be chosen king. A large number of nobles,

having arrived in council at a resolution to this effect, sent messengers

to invite Ludwig to take possession of the country. He replied by

entering it at the head of an army, but failed to find favour in the eyes

of the people because he allowed his soldiers to pillage as ruthlessly

as the Normans had done. There was another party among the Austrasian

nobles, who desired to preserve the crown to the sons of Louis the

Stammerer. They therefore offered Ludwig the Younger compensation in

the form of the western part of Lorraine, which had fallen to the share

of the western kingdom in the Treaty of Mersen. He acquiesced in this

arrangement, and the crown was conferred on Louis and Carloman, the

sons of Louis the Stammerer, conjointly. But the misery of the western

kingdom was only just beginning. Boson, the ambitious count of Provence,

son-in-law of the emperor Ludwig II, rebelled and exalted his county

into an independent kingdom, and an important part of the monarchy was

thus lost. And, to add evil to evil, the Normans renewed their pirate

incursions.

[Sidenote: [879-882 A.D.]]

After the conclusion of the treaty Ludwig the Younger proceeded to

Bavaria, to secure the heritage of his brother, who, though sick to

death, was still alive; and deprived the impotent ruler of his dominion,

leaving him only his estates. Returning from Bavaria to the western

portion of his kingdom, he again conceived the idea of conquering

the neighbour state with which he had just concluded a treaty. He

marched into the country, and came everywhere upon the traces of Norse

devastations. Even the local nobles held aloof from him, and he realised

that this was no time for the Frankish Empire to rend its own flesh in

fratricidal strife, but that all its united forces ought to be directed

towards expelling the pirates from its borders. For this reason when he

found himself confronted by a West Frankish army he did not offer battle

but professed his readiness to renew the peace. A fresh compact was made

in 880, by which Ludwig again renounced his pretensions to the western

kingdom in return for the cession of some frontier districts in Lorraine.

By this agreement four Lorraine bishoprics--Liège, Cambray, Toul, and

Verdun--fell to the eastern kingdom. The boundary line now started from

the Schelde, and thence passed over to the Maas where that river makes

its way out of the Ardennes, then trended westwards in a wide sweep,

running about halfway between the Maas and Marne, and finally turned

towards the southern end of Alsace. By this treaty the whole of Lorraine

passed to Germany, and her predominance was thus assured for a long time

to come.

Ludwig the Younger promptly set to work to rid his territory of the

Northern pirates. The latter had established themselves at the mouth of

the Schelde, where they had constructed strong bulwarks, behind which

they were wont to place their ships in shelter while they perpetrated

their ravages upon the country. Godefrid, king of the Danes, was even

then making his way back to his ships, laden with rich spoils from a raid

inland. Ludwig overtook the robber horde on the march, and inflicted such

a severe defeat upon them that five thousand of the enemy were left on

the field and the remainder took to flight.

As the king was returning from the scene of his victory he was met by

tidings of disaster which plunged him into profound grief. A Saxon

levy (Heerbann) had succumbed to a surprise of the Northmen. The

latter had made an attack on the Elbe district, not far from Hamburg.

A Saxon detachment had hastened thither, but had been dispersed by

an unexpectedly high tide and so hemmed in between the arms of the

river that it fell a helpless victim to the Northmen, who assailed it

on all sides from their ships. Bruno, the commander and the king’s

brother-in-law, was slain, together with many bishops and counts, and

many nobles were carried into captivity.

From this time forward the king, once so energetic, gradually succumbed

to the malady to which his brother Carloman had fallen a victim. For two

years he was obliged to watch idly the miseries of his country from his

palace, confined to his couch by paralysis and incapable of leading an

army. He lived on till the year 882. He had married Liutgard, a daughter

of Liudolf, count of Saxony, from whom the royal house of Saxony claims

descent. His son, whom he had destined to succeed him, fell from a window

in Ratisbon in the year 879 and broke his neck. An illegitimate son, Hugo

by name, had already fallen in the battle against the Northmen on the

Schelde.

RAVAGES OF THE NORTHMEN

[Illustration: LUDWIG THE YOUNGER]

[Sidenote: [880-882 A.D.]]

During the two years in which Ludwig the Younger was slowly pining away

the kingdom became a scene of woe indeed. Charles the Fat, the third son

of Ludwig the German, might have been expected to assume the government

of the kingdom; but, unlike his energetic brothers, he was of feeble

intellect, and had suffered from epilepsy from his youth up. As long as

his brother was alive he concerned himself solely with the affairs of

Swabia and Italy, so that for two years Germany was practically without

a ruler. The state of the kingdom answered to this defect. The Northmen

came back to the Schelde and the mouth of the Rhine, and thence made

predatory excursions, directed indeed for the most part against the

Austrasian kingdom, but occasionally touching upon German territory. They

soon afterwards sailed up the Waal with a large fleet, got as far as

Xanten, and proceeded to establish themselves at Nimeguen, the imperial

seat of Charlemagne. This roused the sick king Ludwig to hasten with an

army to the Rhine; but, unable to expel the invaders by force of arms,

he was obliged to grant them permission to withdraw unmolested; and in

their retreat they set fire to the castle of Charlemagne. Only a portion

of the Norse host left for the winter, another portion overran the coasts

of the kingdom of the West Franks and spread hideous devastation through

the country. With the spring of 881 the swarms of Northmen again made

their appearance. This time their depredations were confined in the

main to the districts about the Schelde and Somme. And now once again

the sick king of Germany appeared on the scene with a detachment of his

army, and arranged a meeting with Louis, the king of the West Franks, to

take counsel with him for combined defence against the Northmen, for the

unhappy man was incapable of taking the command of his army in the field.

The sight of the horrors perpetrated by the Northmen so inflamed the

West Frank warriors and their youthful king that they flung themselves

upon the robber hordes and gained a brilliant victory at Saucourt on

the Somme in 881. Joy at this fortunate event inspired a contemporary

writer, a cleric without doubt, with the famous _Ludwigslied_, a noble

monument of old German poetry. The Northmen then left the territory of

the West Franks, but only to sail up the Meuse immediately and continue

their ravages on East Frankish soil, where the king’s illness gave them

little cause for fear. At Elsloo, not far from Maestricht, in the

vicinity of a royal palace, they constructed a great camp to protect

their ships, and thence undertook raids on the cities of the Rhine, as

yet untrodden ground to them, under the leadership of their chieftain

kings (_heerkönige_) Godefrid and Siegfrid. Cologne and Bonn were burned,

Aachen laid waste, the palace of Charlemagne there set on fire, and

the famous _Marienkirche_ turned into a stable; the abbeys of Malmedy,

Stablo, and Prüm then fell into their hands and were stripped of all

their treasures. Wherever the Northmen came they set the houses alight

and slaughtered the inhabitants. The country-folk often gathered together

in troops for self-defence, but they were generally surrounded by the

practised Northmen warriors, who regaled themselves with the torments

in which their victims perished. Smitten with the sight of so much

misery, the sick king sent an army to the Maas, but the news of his death

overtook it and it soon turned homewards.

[Sidenote: [882-884 A.D.]]

In the following year, 882, the Northmen laid waste the district along

the Moselle. The German king whom they had dreaded was no longer alive,

and they therefore gave themselves up without concern to the work of

plunder. In a little while the whole region between the Maas, Moselle,

and Rhine was a scene of wreck and blackened ruins; the cities of Trèves

and Metz were destroyed by fire. The archbishop of Trèves and the bishop

of Metz, together with a few of the neighbouring nobles, collected a

small army; but they were defeated, and the bishop of Metz himself fell

in the battle. The unhappy inhabitants of the country turned in despair

to Louis, the young king of the West Franks and the victor of Saucourt,

and declared themselves willing to elect him their king. This offer he

declined by a reference to existing treaties, but moved with compassion

he sent an army to expel the Normans. Never before had Germany fallen

upon such evil days.

At the time of Ludwig’s death Charles the Fat, the heir to his kingdom,

was in Italy, where he had spent most of his time during the period

of measureless misery which had laid his country waste. Pope John

VIII, under other circumstances no friend to the German branch of the

Carlovingians, had summoned him thither because he was the only prince

who, as wearer of the imperial crown, could guarantee at least the

possibility of protection to the church. After protracted negotiations

over the conditions upon which he was to receive the crown--dealing in

the main with the long-claimed papal territory and definite sovereign

rights therein--Charles the Fat had been crowned emperor at Rome in

February, 881. But the pope, who was so harassed by his quarrelsome

nobles and by the close neighbourhood of the Saracens that his life was

hardly safe, found himself in no better plight than before; for in spite

of all his urgent appeals Charles the Fat stayed in upper Italy and made

no preparations for coming to Rome. Pope John VIII met his end soon

afterwards, being assassinated at Rome in the year 882.[d]

CHARLES THE FAT (882-887 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [882-887 A.D.]]

Charles the Fat [or the Thick], youngest son of Ludwig the German,

inherited in 882, on the death of his childless brother, Ludwig the

Younger, all the German and Lorraine territory, with the exception of

Burgundy; and in 884, also France, properly the inheritance of Charles

the Simple, whose two elder brothers were dead, but who being the issue

of a marriage pronounced illegal by the pope, and, on account of his

imbecility, being recognised by the French themselves as incapable of

succeeding to the throne, Charles the Fat easily took possession of the

country, and before long reunited France with Germany, in which he was

greatly assisted by the pope, to whom he secretly made great concessions,

in order to be acknowledged by him as legitimate heir to the crown.

Charles the Fat was good-natured and indolent. His favourite project,

the restoration of the empire as it stood under Charlemagne, he sought

to realise by means of bribes and promises, treaties of peace, and other

transactions, perfectly in conformity with his character, in which he

ever unhesitatingly sacrificed honour to interest. The same means that

had succeeded with the pope he imagined would prove equally successful in

treating with the Northmen, who, after the death of Ludwig the Younger,

renewed their depredations under Godefrid, and laid the Rhine country

waste. The palace of Charlemagne at Aachen was converted by them into

a stable. Bishop Wala fell bravely fighting at the head of an unequal

force before the gates of Metz. The cities on the banks of the Rhine

were burned to the ground, and the whole country between Liège, Cologne,

and Mainz, laid desolate. At length Siegfrid, the brother of Godefrid,

was induced to withdraw his ravaging hordes by the gift of two thousand

pounds of gold, and for the additional sum of twelve thousand pounds

of silver (to defray which Charles the Fat seized all the treasures

of the churches) consented to a truce of twelve years. Godefrid was,

moreover, formally invested with Friesland as a fief of the empire. The

Northmen, however, notwithstanding these stipulations, continued their

depredations, advanced as far as the Moselle, and destroyed the city of

Trèves, but were suddenly attacked, in the forest of Ardennes, by the

charcoalmen and peasants, and ten thousand of them cut to pieces [883

A.D.]. Charles now became anxious to free himself from his troublesome

vassal in Friesland, and the Markgraf Henry, who guarded the frontier

at Grabfeld against the Sorbs, brother to Poppo, duke of Thuringia, the

confidant of the emperor, invited Godefrid to a meeting, at which he

caused him to be treacherously murdered. Godefrid’s brother-in-law, the

bastard Hugo, was also taken prisoner and deprived of sight. These acts

of violence and treason were no sooner perpetrated than the Northmen,

glowing with revenge, rushed like a torrent over the country and laid it

waste on every side, forcing their way in immense hordes up the Rhine,

the Maas, and the Seine. On the Rhine they were opposed by Adalbert, of

the race of Babenberg (Bamberg).[e]

In the autumn of the year 885 a great Norse fleet, consisting of ships

large and small, almost without number, and carrying an army of between

thirty and forty thousand men, sailed up the Seine as far as Paris, even

then a flourishing city. Under the leadership of Bishop Gauzlin and Count

Eudes of Paris, the inhabitants hastily repaired the old fortifications

and collected a little army of some hundreds, which was brought into the

city to defend it. The Northmen encamped round about Paris and made their

first attempt to storm the city in November, 885, by a violent assault

which lasted two days. The Normans were obliged to withdraw to collect

wood in the country round for the construction of new siege instruments.

In January, 886, they made a fresh assault which lasted for three days,

and were again repulsed by the garrison. The siege lasted into the summer

of 886. The besieged were reduced to more desperate straits still by a

flood which destroyed the Seine bridge, and thus caused the strong tower

situated on its farther side to fall into the hands of the Northmen.

After this Count Eudes stole through the cordon of the enemy to implore

help of the emperor. Charles had hitherto calmly left the city to its

fate; but now he summoned a diet and proclaimed a great advance upon

Paris. When, in the August of 886, a mighty army marched upon Paris, all

men expected that a great battle would be fought there under the eyes of

the emperor. Charles, however, preferred to purchase the withdrawal of

the enemy. The treaty which he concluded with the Northmen was an insult

to the former might of France. The enemy declared that they could not

withdraw during the winter season, and he therefore gave Burgundy to them

for winter quarters, and undertook to pay them seven hundred pounds in

gold in the following spring. And then the great German army marched home

without having struck a blow. This act of disgraceful cowardice enraged

the army and the nation, and deprived Charles of the last remnant of his

reputation. Moreover all kinds of evil reports were current concerning

him among the people. It was said that by the help of the pope he

intended to legitimise his illegitimate son Bernard, and to procure the

succession for him.[d]

In the east, he also allowed the Slavs to gain ground, and neglected

to support his nephew Arnulf, who could with difficulty defend himself

against Suatopluk, who continued to extend his dominions; at the same

time, the sons of the old markgrafs Engelschalk and Wilhelm declared war

against each other, and Aribo, a son of the former, went over to the

Moravians. Suatopluk was victorious on the Danube, and laid the country

waste, until Charles appeared in person to beg for peace, which was

concluded in 884 on the Tulnerfeld. This monarch proved himself as weak

and despicable in his private as in his public character, by carrying

on a scandalous suit against his wife, Ricardis, whom he accused of an

adulterous connection with his chancellor, Bishop Lintward, and who

proved her innocence by ordeal, by passing unharmed through fire in a

waxen dress.

The great vassals of the empire, some of whom beheld in the fall of a

sovereign they justly despised that of the Carlovingian dynasty and their

own aggrandisement, whilst others were influenced by their dislike of the

treaties entered into with foreign powers, the pope and the Northmen, and

by an anxiety to make reparation for the loss of their national honour,

convoked a great diet at Tribur in the valley of the Rhine, and deprived

Charles of his crown (887 A.D.), a degradation he survived but one year.

ARNULF (887-899 A.D.)

[Illustration: CHARLES THE SIMPLE

(From a French cut of 1832)]

[Sidenote: [887-892 A.D.]]

The Anti-Carlovingian party was partly successful. The French made choice

of Eudes, count of Paris, as successor to the crown, whilst the lower

Burgundians in the Nether-Rhone-land (Arles) elected Boson, the son of

Ludwig, and the upper Burgundians in the Western Alps, Count Rudolf, a

descendant of the Welfi. In Italy the dukes Guido of Spoleto and Berengar

of Friuli made themselves so independent, that they even set themselves

up as competitors, through the favour of the pope, for the imperial

crown. The Germans alone remained faithful to the Carlovingian house, and

elected, to the exclusion of Charles the Simple, who was still alive,

Arnulf, the young and energetic, but illegitimate son of Carloman, a

brother of Charles the Fat, who had greatly distinguished himself as duke

of Bavaria against the Slavs. The consideration in which he was held

was so great, that Eudes came to Worms to do homage to him as emperor,

a ceremony with which Arnulf contented himself, the Northmen and Slavs

affording him no opportunity for recalling his rebellious subjects to

their allegiance.

Fresh hostilities instantly broke out on the part of the Northmen, who

made an irruption into Lorraine, and after a bloody engagement defeated

the Germans near Maestricht, where the archbishop of Mainz, who had

marched against them at the head of his vassals, fell. Arnulf now took

the field in person, and a dreadful battle ensued near Lyons, where

the Northmen had encamped, in which Arnulf, perceiving that the German

cavalry were unable to cope with the Norse foot-soldiers, who fought with

unexampled dexterity, was the first to spring from his saddle; all the

nobles of the arrierban followed his example, and the contest became a

thick fray, in which the combatants strove hand to hand. Victory sided

with the Germans. Siegfrid and Godefrid fell on the field of battle, with

several thousands of their followers, whose bodies also choked up the

course of the Dyle, across which they had attempted to escape. Arnulf,

in gratitude for this deliverance, made a great pilgrimage, and ordained

that this day, St. Gilgentag, the 1st of September, should be kept as an

annual festival. The Northmen, panic-struck by this fearful catastrophe,

henceforward avoided the Rhine, but made much more frequent inroads into

the west of France.

Arnulf had also fresh struggles to sustain against the Slavs; the

Abodriti crossed the frontiers and laid the country waste. The loyalty of

Poppo and of the house of Babenberg, who had been in such close alliance

with Charles the Fat, and who now found themselves neglected, became more

than doubtful, and Arnulf was constrained to remove the former from his

government. Engelschalk the Younger also proved faithless, seduced one of

Arnulf’s daughters, and then took refuge in Moravia. He was subsequently

pardoned, and appointed to guard the Austrian frontier.

As a means of securing the eastern frontier of his empire, Arnulf made

peace and entered into an alliance with Suatopluk, prince of Moravia, who

was a Christian, in the hope that the foundation of a great Christian

Slavian kingdom might eventually prove an effectual bulwark against

the irruptions of their heathen brethren in that quarter. The Slavian

Maharanen or Moravians had been converted to Christianity by St. Cyril

and St. Methodius, who had visited them from Greece. Borziuoi, prince

of Bohemia, being also induced to receive baptism by Suatopluk, his

pagan subjects drove him from the throne, and he placed himself (with

his wife, St. Ludmilla) under the protection of Suatopluk and Arnulf.

Arnulf now gave Suatopluk Bohemia to hold in fee, and unlimited command

on the eastern frontier. As a proof of their amity, Suatopluk became

sponsor to Arnulf’s son, to whom he gave his name, Suatopluk, or

Zwentibold; their friendship proved, nevertheless, of but short duration.

The Moravian, perceiving that he could not retain his authority over

the Slavs so long as he preserved his amicable relations with Germany,

yielded to the national hatred, whilst at the same time he gave fresh

assurances of amity to the emperor (892 A.D.). He was also supported

in his projects by a great conspiracy among the Germans. The thankless

Engelschalk again plotted treason, in which he was upheld by Hildegarde,

the maiden daughter of Louis the German, the last of the legitimate

descendants of Charlemagne, whilst the Italians, who dreaded Arnulf’s

threatened presence in their country, were not slow in their endeavours

to incite the Moravian to open rebellion. Arnulf, however, discovered the

conspiracy, caused Engelschalk to be deprived of sight, and imprisoned

Hildegarde at Chiemsee, but afterwards restored, her to liberty.

[Sidenote: [892-894 A.D.]]

An unexpected ally now came to Arnulf’s assistance against Suatopluk.

At that period there appeared in ancient Pannonia, first peopled by

the Lombards, and at a later date by the Avars, a nation named in

their own language Magyars, or Hungarians (strangers), from whom the

country derived its name, or Huns, as they were at that time termed

by the Germans, who imagined that they again beheld in them the Huns

of former times. They were pagans, wild and savage in their habits,

and extraordinary riders. Leo, the Grecian emperor, had called them to

his assistance against the Bulgarians, and they at first settled under

seven leaders (among whom the most distinguished was one named Arpad),

each of whom erected a fort or _burg_, in the country known from that

circumstance as Siebenburgen, but not long after turned westward and

threatened Moravia. Arnulf formed an alliance with them, but never, as he

has been accused, invited them into Germany, and Suatopluk, perceiving

himself pressed on both sides, gladly remained at peace (894 A.D.).

ARNULF ENTERS ITALY

In Italy, Guido of Spoleto was victorious over Berengar of Friuli, and in

891 was crowned emperor by the pope, Stephen V. He died in 894, and his

son Lambert also received the imperial crown, from Pope Formosus. Arnulf

had been acknowledged emperor throughout the north, but not having been

anointed or crowned by the pope, his right was liable to be disputed by

Guido, and being entreated by both Berengar and Formosus, the latter

of whom was held in derision by the insolent Spoletan, he resolved to

march at the head of a powerful force into Italy. He has been blamed for

quitting Germany, at that period not entirely tranquillised, and exposing

himself and his army to the hot climate and diseases of Italy, and to

the treachery of the inhabitants, which might easily have been turned

upon themselves, and never could have endangered him on this side of the

Alps. Arnulf’s visit to Italy, the first so-termed pilgrimage to Rome

which was undertaken with the double aim of having the ceremony of an

imperial coronation performed and of receiving the oath of fealty from

his rebellious vassals, has been regarded as a misfortune, because visits

to Rome became from this period customary, and ever proved disastrous to

the empire. But judgment ought to be given according to the difference

of times and circumstances. The union between the people of Lombardy and

of Rome was not so close at that time as it became at a later period;

no Italian national interest had as yet sprung up in opposition to that

of Germany; the Italians were uninfluenced by a desire of separating

themselves from the empire, as in later times, but were rather inclined

to assert their right over it. Guido, who was connected with the

Carlovingians, attempted to turn the separation that had taken place

between the northern nations to advantage, and appropriated to himself

the title of emperor; and, as far as these circumstances are concerned,

Arnulf’s visit to Italy appears to be justified. The visits undertaken

at a later period to Rome were, on the other hand, unjustifiable in every

respect, by their imposing, as will hereafter be seen, a foreign ruler on

Lombardy and Rome, whose union had become gradually stronger, and whose

erection into an independent state, to which they were entitled by their

geographical position and by their similarity in language and manners,

was ever prevented by fresh invasions.

[Sidenote: [894-914 A.D.]]

Arnulf crossed the Alps, 894 A.D.. Ambrosius, graf of Lombardy, closing

the gates of Bergamo against him, he took the city by storm, and hanged

his faithless vassal at the gate. His further progress was impeded by the

treachery of Eudes, the French king, who took advantage of his absence

to arm against him, whilst Rudolf of upper Burgundy actually marched to

the assistance of the Spoletans, and Arnulf was thus reluctantly forced

to retrace his steps. He undertook a second expedition across the Alps

in 896, and advanced into Tuscany, where he was amicably received by

Adalbert, the faithless markgraf,[142] and by Berengar, who no sooner

found themselves deceived in their expectation of making him subservient

to their own interest and of easily outwitting him, than they assumed a

threatening attitude. Arnulf, undismayed by the dangers with which he

was surrounded, instantly marched upon Rome, whose gates were closed

against him by the Spoletans, who successfully repelled every attack

on the walls, and the emperor was on the point of retreating, when his

soldiers, enraged at the sarcasms of the Italians who manned the walls,

rushed furiously to the attack, and carried the city by storm. Lambert’s

adherents fled, and the rescued pope placed the imperial crown on

Arnulf’s head.[e] But Germany, divided and helpless, was in no condition

to maintain her power over the southern lands; Arnulf retreated in haste,

leaving Rome and Italy to sixty years of stormy independence. Arnulf died

in 899 at Öttingen and was buried at Ratisbon.[a]

On Arnulf’s retreat, Lambert regained the sovereignty of Italy, and again

reduced Berengar and Adalbert to submission.[143] He was assassinated

in 898, and his adherents invited Ludwig, the son of Boson, into Italy.

This prince was a Carlovingian, and grandson to Ludwig II, and at that

time reigned over Burgundy. Bertha, the ambitious wife of Adalbert, who

was residing at Lucca, and whose pride could not brook the idea that her

son Hugo was merely count of Arles, and Ludwig’s vassal, plotted his

destruction. In order to lull his suspicions, she gave him a friendly

reception, but no sooner beheld him entirely in her power than she

betrayed him to Berengar, who caused him to be deprived of sight (905

A.D.). Hugo then made himself master of lower Burgundy (Arelat), and

after the assassination of Berengar (925) was placed by his mother on the

throne of Italy. This country seemed destined to be governed by women;

after the death of Bertha, a wealthy Roman, named Theodora, seized the

reins of government, revived the ancient spirit of paganism, and drew all

in her licentious train. One of her lovers she caused to be elected pope,

as John X. Her daughter Marozia, who surpassed her mother in lewdness,

married successively two of the sons of Bertha, first Guido, and then

King Hugo, with whom she lived in the most profligate manner. She kept

lovers, and he a harem of mistresses, to whom he gave the names of

different heathen goddesses. Her son, Octavian, who became pope, as John

XI, died suddenly, and Hugo was driven from his throne (946 A.D.) by his

stepson, Alberic, the son of Guido and Marozia, who made Rome his seat

of government, whilst a grandson of Berengar, Berengar II, reigned in

upper Italy. Hugo’s former inheritance, and the Arelat or lower Burgundy,

were united with upper Burgundy under Rudolf II, and even his Italian

kingdom seemed forever lost to his remaining son, Lothair, whose wife,

the beautiful Adelheid, was destined to decide the fate of Italy.

THE BABENBERG FEUD

[Sidenote: [895-946 A.D.]]

Arnulf had, during his lifetime, placed his son, Zwentibold, on the

throne of Lorraine, in order to guard the frontiers of the empire against

the Normans. This young prince entered into alliance with Eudes of Paris,

whose daughter he married, and by his insolence drew upon himself the

dislike of the clergy. His ill treatment of Rathod, archbishop of Trèves,

also rendered him unpopular with the commonalty. A rebellion broke out in

Lorraine, and he lost both his crown and his life in a battle that took

place on the Maas (900 A.D.). Eudes’ reign in France was also of short

duration. Charles the Simple was replaced on the throne by the bishops

and the vassals, who found their advantage in the imbecility of their

monarch. Charles created Regingar duke of Lorraine, and was forced to

acknowledge Rollo, duke of Normandy.

In Germany the great vassals, and the bishops also, usurped the direction

of affairs. Ludwig, the second son of Arnulf, surnamed the Child, on

account of his being at that time only in his seventh year, was, by the

intrigues of Otto, duke of Saxony, and of Hatto, archbishop of Mainz

(Mayence), who sought to reign under his name, placed upon the imperial

throne. The power of the bishops had become exorbitant without the aid

of the popes, whose licentious conduct threatened at this period to

endanger the church. Hatto, a man of daring courage and deep cunning,

unprincipled and cruel, bore unlimited sway in France and in southern

Germany, in which he was upheld by Otto, who sought to strengthen

himself in Saxony, and to aggrandise his house by the aid of the church.

Adalbert, the opponent of the Northmen, Henry and Adelhart, the sons of

Henry of Babenberg, finding themselves neglected, and pressed from the

north by the Saxons, from the west by the bishops, set themselves up

in opposition. Rudolf, bishop of Würzburg, who was supported by Hatto,

having obtained a considerable fief for his family by the abuse of his

spiritual authority, Adalbert had recourse to arms, upon which Hatto,

probably favoured by the ancient hatred of the rest of the vassals to the

house of Babenberg, succeeded in having him put out of the ban of the

empire.

Henry was killed, and Adelhart was taken prisoner and executed. Adalbert,

meanwhile, made a vigorous resistance, and slew Graf Conrad, Bishop

Rudolf’s brother, but was, erelong, closely besieged in his fortress of

Bamberg. Hatto, finding other means unavailing, treacherously offered

his mediation, and promised him a free and safe return to his fortress,

if he would present himself before the assembled diet. Trusting to the

word of the wily priest, the graf issued from his fort, at whose foot

he was met by Hatto, who, in the most friendly manner, proposed their

breakfasting together within the fortress before setting off on their

journey. The graf assented, and returned with him to the fort; he then

accompanied him to the diet, where Hatto declared himself exempted from

his promise by his having restored the graf unharmed to his fortress

for the purpose of taking his breakfast, and that now he was free to

act as he deemed proper. The assembled vassals, upon this, unanimously

sentenced Adalbert to death, and he was beheaded. Conrad, Bishop Rudolf’s

nephew, was created duke of Franconia. This family of the Würzburg bishop

was surnamed the Rothenburgers, from Rothenburg on the Tauber; their

descendants acquired, at a later period, far greater celebrity under the

name of the Saliers.

The treacherous policy of Bishop Hatto, however, made a deep impression

upon the minds of the commonalty, among whom loyalty was still held in

higher honour than the sacred head of the churchman, and historians

relate that, whilst the dukes overlooked the conduct of the bishop and

yielded to the outbreak of the popular dissatisfaction, Hatto’s name and

the memory of his infamy were execrated and derided in popular ballads

throughout Germany. His name represented the idea of hierarchical lust of

power and avarice, and hence arose the legend that records his miserable

death. It is said that, during a famine, a number of peasants who came

to the bishop and begged for bread, were by his order shut up in a great

barn and burned to death. From the ruins there issued myriads of mice,

which ceaselessly pursued the wretched bishop, who vainly attempted to

elude them, and who at length, driven to despair, fled for safety to

a strong tower standing in the middle of the Rhine near Bingen, but

here also the mice continued their pursuit, swam across the water, and

devoured him. The tower is still standing, and is known at the present

day as the Mäuseturm or mouse-tower. This example is a manifest proof

that the popular fictions were founded upon fact, and clearly express the

spirit of those times.[c]

THE HUNGARIAN INVASIONS

[Sidenote: [900-908 A.D.]]