Outlines of Universal History Part 18

| | | +--Matilda, _m._ CONRAD the Peaceful.

| | | | | +--RUDOLPH III, 993-1032 | | | +--LOTHAR, 954-986.

| | | | | +--LOUIS V, 986-987.

| | | +--Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, _d._ 994.

| +--Carloman, 768-771.

RIVAL KINGS OF FRANCE NOT OF THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE.

Robert the Strong, _d._ 866.

| +--EUDES, king 887-893.

| +--ROBERT, king 922-923.

| +--Emma, _m._ RUDOLPH of Burgundy; king 923-926.

| +--Hugh the Great (father of Hugh Capet).

PERIOD II. FROM THE CARLOVINGIAN LINE OF FRANK KINGS TO THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE. (_A.D. 751-962._)

CHAPTER I. THE CARLOVINGIAN EMPIRE TO THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE (A.D. 814).

PIPIN THE SHORT.--The great event of the eighth century was the organization and spread of the dominion of the _Franks_, and the transfer to them of the Roman Empire of the West. Three Frank princes--_Charles Martel_, _Pipin the Short_, and _Charlemagne_, or _Karl the Great_--were the main instruments in bringing in this new epoch in European history. They followed a similar course, as regards the wars which they undertook, and their general policy. _Charles Martel_, the conqueror of the Saracens at _Poitiers_, rendered great services to the Church; but he provoked the lasting displeasure of the ecclesiastics by his seizures of church property. He rewarded his soldiers with archbishoprics. _Pipin_, however, was earnestly supported by the clergy. He had the confidence and favor of the Franks, and in 751, with the concurrence of Pope _Zacharias_, deposed _Childeric III._, and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king. The long hair of _Childeric_, the badge of the Frank kings, was shorn, and he was placed in a monastery. In 752 _Pipin_ was anointed and crowned at _Soissons_ by _Boniface_, the bishop of _Mentz_, who exerted himself to restore order and discipline in the Frank Church, which had fallen into disorder in the times of Charles Martel.

PIPIN IN ITALY.--The controversy with the Greeks about the use of images had alienated the popes from the Eastern Empire. The encroachments of the Lombards threatened Rome itself, and were a constant menace to the independence of its bishops. Pope _Stephen III_. resorted to _Pipin_ for help against these aggressive neighbors; and, in 754, _Stephen_ solemnly repeated, in the cathedral of St. Denis, the ceremony of his coronation. The Carlovingian usurpation was thus hallowed in the eyes of the people by the sanction of the Church. The alliance between the Papacy and the Franks, so essential to both, was cemented. Pipin crossed the Alps in 754, and humbled _Aistulf_, the Lombard king; but, as Aistulf still kept up his hostility to the Pope, Pipin once more led his forces into Italy, and compelled him to become tributary to the Frank kingdom, and to cede to him the territory which he had won from the Greek Empire,--the exarchate of _Ravenna_ and the _Pentapolis_, or the lands and cities between the Apennines and the Adriatic, from _Ferrara_ to _Ancona_. This territory the Frank king formally presented to St. Peter. Thus there was founded the temporal kingdom of the popes in Italy. _Pipin_ was called _Patricius_ of Rome, which made him its virtual sovereign, although the office and t.i.tle implied the continued supremacy of the Eastern Empire. He united under him all the conquests which had been made by _Clovis_ and his successors. His sway extended over _Aquitaine_ and as far as the Pyrenees. It was the rule of the _Teutonic_ North over the more _Latin_ South, which had no liking for the Frank sovereignty.

CHARLEMAGNE: THE SAXONS AND SARACENS.--_Pipin_ died in 768. By the death of his younger son, Carloman, his older son, _Charles_, in 771 became the sole king of the Franks. Charlemagne is more properly designated _Karl the Great_, for he was a German in blood and speech, and in all his ways. He stands in the foremost rank of conquerors and rulers. His prodigious energy and activity as a warrior may be judged by the number of his campaigns, in which he was uniformly successful. The eastern frontier of his dominions was threatened by the _Saxons_, the _Danes_, the _Slaves_, the _Bavarians_, the _Avars_. He made eighteen expeditions against the Saxons, three against the Danes, one against the Bavarians, four against the Slaves, four against the Avars. Adding to these his campaigns against the Saracens, Lombards, and other peoples, the number of his military expeditions is not less than fifty-three. In all but two of his marches against the Saxons, however, he accomplished his purpose without a battle. That he was ambitious of conquest and of fame, is evident. That he had the rough ways of his German ancestors, and was unsparing in war, is equally certain. Yet he was not less eminent in wisdom than in vigor; and his reign, on the whole, was righteous as well as glorious. The two most formidable enemies of Charlemagne were the _Saxons_ and the _Saracens_. The Saxon war "was checkered by grave disasters, and pursued with undismayed and unrelenting determination, in which he spared neither himself nor others. It lasted continuously--with its stubborn and ever-recurring resistance, its cruel devastations, its winter campaigns, its merciless acts of vengeance--as the effort which called forth all Charles's energy for thirty-two years" (772-804). The Saxons were heathen. The conquest of them was the more difficult because it involved the forced introduction of Christianity in the room of their old religion. More than once, when they seemed to be subdued, they broke out in pa.s.sionate and united revolt. Their fiercest leader in insurrection was _Witikind_. A last and terrible uprising, in consequence of the slaughter of forty-five hundred Saxons on the _Aller_ as a punishment for breach of treaty, was put down in 785, when _Witikind_ submitted, and consented to receive Christian baptism. During the progress of the Saxon war, at the call of the Arab governor of _Saragossa_ for aid against the caliph _Abderrahman_, Charles marched into Spain, and conquered Saragossa and the whole land as far as the _Ebro_. On his return, in the valley of _Ronceveaux_, the Frank rear guard was surprised and destroyed by the _Basques_. There fell the Frank hero _Roland_, whose gallant deeds were a favorite subject of mediaeval romances. The duchy of _Bavaria_ was abolished after a second revolt of its duke, _Ta.s.silo_ (788). One of the most brilliant of Charlemagne's wars was that against the Hunnic _Avars_ (791). Their land between the _Ems_ and _Raab_ he annexed to his empire. Bavarian colonists were planted in it. Enormous treasures which they had gathered, in their incursions, from all Europe, were captured, with their "Ring," or palace-camp. The Slavonic tribes were kept in awe. _Brittany_ was subjugated in 811. In the closing years of Charles's reign, the _Danes_ became more and more aggressive and formidable. He visited the northern coasts, made _Boulogne_ and _Ghent_ his harbors and a.r.s.enals, and built fleets for defense against the audacious invaders.

CHARLEMAGNE IN ITALY.--Some of the most memorable incidents in Charlemagne's career are connected with Italy. While he was busy in the Saxon war, he had been summoned to protect Pope _Hadrian I_. (772-795) from the attack of the Lombards. To please his mother, _Charles_ had married, but he had afterwards divorced, the daughter of the Lombard king _Desiderius_. She was the first in the series of Charlemagne's wives, who, it is said, were nine in number. By the divorce he incurred the resentment of Desiderius, who required the Pope to anoint the sons of _Carloman_ as kings of the Franks. In 772 Charlemagne crossed the Alps by the Mont Cenis and the St. Bernard, captured _Pavia_, and shut up Desiderius in a Frank monastery. The king of the Franks became king of the _Lombards_, and lord of all Italy, except the _Venetian Islands_ and the southern extremity of _Calabria_, which remained subject to the Greeks. The German king and the Pope were now, in point of fact, dominant in the West. A woman, _Irene_, who had put out the eyes of her son that she herself might reign, sat on the throne at Constantinople. This was a fair pretext for throwing off the Byzantine rule, which afforded no protection to Italians. Once more _Charles_ visited Italy, to restore to the papal chair _Leo III._, who had been expelled by an adverse party, and, at Charles's camp at _Paderborn_, had implored his a.s.sistance. On Christmas Day in the year 800, during the celebration of ma.s.s in the old Basilica of St. Peter, _Leo III._ advanced to _Charlemagne_, and placed a crown on his head, saluting him, amid the acclamations of the people, as Roman emperor.

MEANING OF CHARLES'S CORONATION.--The coronation of Charlemagne made him the successor of Augustus and of Constantine. It was not imagined that the empire had ever ceased to be. The Byzantine emperors had been acknowledged in form as the rulers of the West: not even now was it conceived that the empire was divided. In the imagination and feeling of men, the creation of the Caesars remained an indivisible unity. The new emperor in the West could therefore only be regarded as a rival and usurper by the Byzantine rulers; but Charlemagne professed a friendly feeling, and addressed them as his brothers,--as if they and he were exercising a joint sovereignty. In point of fact, there had come to be a new center of wide-spread dominion in Western Europe. The diversity in beliefs and rites between Roman Christianity and that of the Greeks had been growing. The popes and Charlemagne were united by mutual sympathy and common interests. The a.s.sumption by him of the imperial t.i.tle at their instance, and by the call of the Roman people, was the natural issue of all the circ.u.mstances.

CHARLES'S SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.--Charlemagne showed himself a statesman bent on organization and social improvement. There was a system of local officers. The border districts of the kingdom were made into _Marks_, under _Margraves_ or _Marquesses_, for defense against the outlying tribes. One of them, to the east of Bavaria, was afterwards called _Austria_. _Dukes_ governed provinces, some of which afterwards became kingdoms. Their power the emperor tried to reduce. The empire was divided into districts, in each of which a _Count_ (_Graf_) ruled, with inferior officers, either territorial or in cities. _Bishops_ had large domains, and great privileges and immunities. The officers held their places at the king's pleasure: they became possessed of landed estates, and the tendency was, for the offices to become hereditary.

The old German word _Graf_ is of uncertain derivation, but means the same as _count_ (from the Latin _comes_). _Mark_ is a word found in all the Teutonic languages. From the signification of _boundary_, it came to be applied, like its synonym _march_, to a frontier district. A _margrave_ (_Mark-Graf_) was a _mark-count_, or an officer ruling for the king in such a district. A _viscount_ (_vicecomes_) was an officer subordinate to a _count_. _Pfalz_, meaning originally _palace_ (from the Latin _palatium_), was the term for any one of the king's estates. The _palsgrave_ (_Pfalz-Graf_) was first his representative in charge of one of these domains. The _stallgrave_ (_Stall-Graf_) corresponded to the _constable_ (_comes stabuli_) in English and French. It signifies the officer in charge of the king's _stables_, the groom. He had a military command. A later designation of the same office is _marshal_ (from two old German words, one of which means a _horse_, as seen in our word _mare_, having the same etymology, and the other means a _servant_).

Imperial deputies, or _missi_, lay and ecclesiastical together, visited all parts of the kingdom to examine and report as to their condition, to hold courts, and to redress wrongs. There were appeals from them to the imperial tribunal, over which the _Palsgrave_ presided. Twice in the year great _a.s.semblies_ were held of the chiefs and people, to give advice as to the framing of laws. The enactments of these a.s.semblies are collected in the _Capitularies_ of the Frank kings. In the Church, Charlemagne tried to secure order, which had sadly fallen away, and had given place to confusion and worldliness. He himself exercised high ecclesiastical prerogatives, especially after he became emperor.

LEARNING AND CULTURE.--One of the chief distinctions of Charlemagne is the encouragement which he gave to learning. In his own palace at _Aachen_ (_Aix_), he collected scholars from different quarters. Of these the most eminent is _Alcuin_, from the school of York in England. He was familiar with many of the Latin writers, and while at the head of the school in the palace, and later, when abbot of St. Martin in _Tours_, exerted a strong influence in promoting study. _Charlemagne_ himself spoke Latin with facility, but not until late in life did he try to learn to write. It was his custom to be read to while he sat at meals. Augustine's _City of G.o.d_ was one of the books of which he was fond. In the great sees and monasteries, schools were founded, the benefits of which were very soon felt.

CHARLES'S PERSONAL TRAITS.--Charlemagne was seven feet in height, and of n.o.ble presence. His eyes were large and animated, and his voice clear, but not so strong as his frame would have led one to expect. His bearing was manly and dignified. He was exceedingly fond of riding, hunting, and of swimming. _Eginhard_, his friend and biographer, says of him, "In all his undertakings and enterprises, there was nothing he shrank from because of the toil, and nothing that he feared because of the danger." He died, at the age of seventy, on Jan. 28, 814. He had built at _Aix la Chapelle_ a stately church, the columns and marbles of which were brought from Ravenna and Rome. Beneath its floor, under the dome, was his tomb. There he was placed in a sitting posture, in his royal robes, with the crown on his head, and his horn, sword, and book of the Gospels on his knee. In this posture his majestic figure was found when his tomb was opened by _Otto III_., near the end of the tenth century. The marble chair in which the dead monarch sat is still in the cathedral at _Aix_: the other relics are at _Vienna_. The splendor of Charlemagne's reign made it a favorite theme of romance among the poets of Italy: a ma.s.s of poetic legends gathered about it.

EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE.--Charlemagne's empire comprised all Gaul, and Spain to the Ebro, all that was then Germany, and the greater part of Italy. Slavonic nations along the Elbe were his allies. Pannonia, Dacia, Istria, Liburnia, Dalmatia,--except the sea-coast towns, which were held by the Greeks,--were subject to him. He had numerous other allies and friends. Even _Harunal-Rashid_, the famous Caliph of Bagdad, held him in high honor. Among the most valued presents which were said to have come from the Caliph were an elephant, and a curious water-clock, which was so made, that, at the end of the hours, twelve hors.e.m.e.n came out of twelve windows, and closed up twelve other windows. This gift filled the inmates of the palace at _Aix_ with wonder.

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.--The number of free Franks diminished under Charlemagne. They were thinned out in the wars, or sunk into va.s.salage. The warnings and rebukes in the Capitularies, or body of laws, show that the upper clergy were often sensual and greedy of gain. The bishops would often lead in person their contingent of troops, until they were forbidden to do so by law. Nine-tenths of the population of Gaul were slaves. Charlemagne made _Alcuin_ the present of an estate on which there were twenty thousand slaves. Especially in times of scarcity, as in 805 and 806, their lot was a miserable one. At such times, they fled in crowds to the monasteries. The social state was that of feudalism "in all but the development of that independence in the greater lords, which was delayed by the strength of Karl, but fostered, at the same time, by his wars and his policy towards the higher clergy."

CONVERSION OF GERMANY: BONIFACE.--The most active missionaries in the seventh and eighth centuries were, from the British islands. At first they were from Ireland and Scotland. _Columban_, who died in 615, and his pupil Gallus, labored, not without success, among the _Alemanni_. Gallus established himself as a hermit near Lake Constance. He founded the Abbey of _St. Gall_. The Saxon missionaries from England were still more effective. The most eminent of these was _Winfrid_, who received from Rome the name of _Bonifacius_ (680-755). He converted the _Hessians_, and founded monasteries, among them the great monastery of _Fulda_. There his disciple, _Sturm_, "through a long series of years, directed the energies of four thousand monks, by whose unsparing labors the wilderness was gradually reclaimed, and brought into a state of cultivation." _Boniface_ had proved the impotence of the heathen G.o.ds by felling with the axe an aged oak at _Geismar_, which was held sacred by their worshipers. Among the _Thuringians_, _Bavarians_, and other tribes, he extirpated paganism by peaceful means. He organized the German Church under the guidance of the popes, and, in 743, was made archbishop of _Meniz_, and primate. But his Christian ardor moved him to carry the gospel in person to the savage _Frisians_, by whom he was slain. He thus crowned his long career with martyrdom.

CONVERSION OF THE SCANDINAVIANS.--The apostle of the Scandinavians was _Ansgar_ (801-865). The archbishopric of _Hamburg_ was founded for him by _Louis the Pious_, with the papal consent; but, as Hamburg was soon plundered by pirates, he became bishop of _Bremen_ (849). In that region he preached with success. Two visits he made to _Sweden_, the first with little permanent result; but, at the second visit (855), the new faith was tolerated, and took root. The triumph of the religion of the cross, which _Ansgar_ had planted in _Denmark_, was secured there when _Canute_ became king of England. The first Christian king in Sweden was _Olaf Schooskonig_ (1008). In _Norway_, Christianity was much resisted; but when _Olaf the Thick_, who was a devoted adherent of the Christian faith, had perished in battle (1033), his people, who held him in honor, fell in with the church arrangements which he had ordained; and he became _St. Olaf_, the patron saint of Norway.

THE BENEDICTINES.--_Benedict_, born at _Nursia_, in _Umbria_, in 480, the founder of the monastery of _Monte Ca.s.sino_, north-west of Naples, was the most influential agent in organizing monasticism in Western Europe. He was too wise to adopt the extreme asceticism that had often prevailed in the East, and his judicious regulations combined manual labor with study and devotion.

They not only came to be the law for the mult.i.tude of monasteries of his own order, but also served as the general pattern, on the basis of which numerous other orders in later times were const.i.tuted. His societies of monks were at first made up of laics, but afterwards of priests. The three vows of the monk were _chast.i.ty_, including abstinence from marriage; _poverty_, or the renunciation of personal possessions; and _obedience_ to superiors. The Benedictine cloisters long continued to be asylums for the distressed, schools of education for the clergy, and teachers of agriculture and the useful arts to the people in the regions where they were planted. Their abbots rose to great dignity and influence, and stood on a level with the highest ecclesiastics.

CHAPTER II. DISSOLUTION OP CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE: RISE OF THE KINGDOMS OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY.

DIVISIONS IN THE EMPIRE.--The influence of _Charlemagne_ was permanent; not so his empire. It had one religion and one government, but it was discordant in language and in laws. The Gallo-Romans and the Italians spoke the Romance language, with variations of dialect. The Germans used the Teutonic tongue. Charlemagne left to the Lombards, to the Saxons, and to other peoples, their own special laws. The great bond of unity had been the force of his own character and the vigor of his administration. His death was, therefore, the signal for confusion and division. The tendency to dismemberment was aided by the ambition of the princes of the imperial family. The _Austrasian_ Franks, to whom Charlemagne belonged, craved unity. The _Gallo-Romans_ in the West, the _Teutons_ in the East, aspired after independence.

_Louis the Pious_ (814-840), Charlemagne's youngest son,--who, in consequence of the death of his elder brothers, was the sole successor of his father,--lacked the energy requisite for so difficult a place. He was better adapted to a cloister than to a throne. He had been crowned at _Aix_ before his father's death; but he consented to be crowned anew by Pope _Stephen IV_. at _Rheims_, in 816. His troubles began with a premature division of his states between his sons, _Lothar_, _Pipin_, and _Louis_. His nephew, _Bernhard_, who was to reign in Italy in subordination to his uncle, rebelled, but was captured and killed (818). In order to provide for his son _Charles the Bald_, whose mother _Judith_ he had married for his second wife, he made a new division in 829. The elder sons at once revolted against their father, and _Judith_ and her son were shut up in a cloister (830). _Louis_ the son repented, the Saxons and East Franks supported the emperor, and he was restored. In 833 he took away _Aquitaine_ from Pipin, and gave it to _Charles_. The rebellious sons again rose up against him. In company with Pope _Gregory IV_., who joined them, they took their father prisoner on the plains of Alsace, his troops having deserted him. The place was long known as the "Field of Lies." He was compelled by the bishops to confess his sins in the cathedral at _Soissons_, reading the list aloud. Once more _Louis_ was released, and forgave his sons; but part.i.tion after part.i.tion of territory, with continued discord, followed until his death. The quarrels of his surviving sons, _Lothar_, _Louis the German_, and _Charles the Bald_, brought on, in 841, the great battle of _Fontenailles_. The contest was occasioned by the ambition of _Lothar_, the eldest, who claimed for himself the whole imperial inheritance. There was great carnage, and _Lothar_ was defeated. The bishops present saw in the result a verdict of G.o.d in favor of his two adversaries. The result was the _Treaty of Verdun_ for the division of the empire.

TERMS OF THE TREATY OF VERDUN.--_Louis the German_ took the Eastern and German Franks, and _Charles the Bald_ the Western and Latinized Franks. _Lothar_, who retained the imperial t.i.tle, received the middle portion of the Frank territory, including Italy and a long, narrow strip of territory between the dominions of his brothers, and extending to the North Sea. This land took later the name of _Lotharingia_, or _Lorraine_. It always had the character of a border-land. While _Louis's_ share comprised only German-speaking peoples, _Charles's_ kingdom was made up almost exclusively of Gallo-Roman inhabitants; while under _Lothar_ the two races were mingled. This division marks the birth of the _German_ and _French_ nations as such. The German-speaking peoples in the East, who were affiliated in language, customs, and spirit, more and more grew together into a nation. In like manner, the subjects of the Western kingdom more and more were resolved into a Franco-Roman nationality. _Lothar_ ruled at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was styled emperor; but each of the other kingdoms was independent, and the empire of Charlemagne was dissolved. Only for a short time, under _Charles the Fat_ (881-887), nearly the whole monarchy of Charlemagne was united under one scepter. When he was deposed it was again broken in pieces; and four distinct kingdoms emerged,--those of the Eastern and Western Franks, "the forerunners of Germany and France," and the kingdoms of Italy and of Burgundy, in South-eastern Gaul, which were sometimes united and sometimes separate. _Lotharingia_ was attached now to the Eastern and now to the Western Frank kingdom. In theory there was not a severance, but a sharing, of the common possession which had been the object of contention.

EASTERN CARLOVINGIANS.--_Charles the Fat_ was a weak and sluggish prince. He offered no effectual resistance to the destructive ravages of the Normans, or Scandinavian Northmen. He was deposed in 887, and died in the following year on an island in the Lake of Constance. His successor, the grandson of _Louis the German_, _Arnulf_, duke of Carinthia, became king of the Germans, (887-899) and emperor; and, after his short reign, the line of Louis died out in _Louis the Child_, the weak son of _Arnulf_ (900-911). The house of Charlemagne survived only among the Western Franks.

During the reign of Louis the Child, _Hatto_ (I.), archbishop of _Mentz_ and primate of Germany, was regent and guardian of the king. He was a bold defender of the unity of the empire. He was charged, truly or falsely, with taking the life of _Adalbert_, a Frank n.o.bleman whom he had enticed into his castle. There was a popular tradition that the devil seized Hatto's corpse, and threw it into the crater of Mount aetna. The mistake is often made of connecting the popular legend of the "Mouse-tower" at _Bingen_ on the Rhine, with him. It was told of a later Hatto (_Hatto II._), who was likewise archbishop of _Mentz_ (968). He was charged with shutting up the poor in a barn, in a time of famine, and of burning them there. As the story runs, he called them "rats who ate the corn."

Numberless mice swam to the tower which he had built in the midst of the stream, and devoured him. _Southey_ has put the tale into a ballad,--"G.o.d's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop."

KINGDOM OF FRANCE.--In 841 _Rouen_ fell into the hands of the Normans, and _Paris_ lay open to their attacks. In 861 _Charles the Bald_ invested a brave soldier, _Robert the Strong_, whose descent is not known, with the county of Paris, that he might resist the invaders. He held the country between the Seine and the Loire, under the name of the _Duchy of France_. The other _Francia_, east of the Rhine, continued to be an important part of Germany, the district called _Franconia_. Robert was the greatgrandfather of _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the kingdom of _France_. Under the imbecile _Charles the Fat_, the audacious Northmen (885-886) laid siege to _Paris_. It was _Odo_, or _Eudes_, count of Paris, who led the citizens in their heroic and successful resistance. Him the n.o.bles of France chose to be their king. His family were called "Dukes of the French." Their duchy--_Western_ or _Latin Francia_--was the strongest state north of the Loire. The feudal lords were growing mightier, and the imperial or royal power was becoming weaker. After _Odo_ of Paris was elected to the Western kingdom, there followed a period of about a hundred years during which there was a king sometimes from his house and sometimes from the family of the Carlovingians. The latter still spoke German, and, when they had the power, reigned at _Laon_ in the northeastern corner of the kingdom. _Odo_ ruled from 888 until 898. He had to leave the southern part of France independent. During the last five years of his life he was obliged to contend with _Charles the Simple_ (893-929), who was elected king by the Carlovingian party of the north. The most noted of the Carlovingian kings at _Laon_ was _Louis_ "from beyond seas"

(936-954), Charles's son, who had been carried to England for safety. His reign was a constant struggle with _Hugh the Great_, duke of the French, the nephew of King Odo. _Hugh_ would not accept the crown himself. On the death of _Louis V_. (986-987), the direct line of Charlemagne became extinct. The only Carlovingian heir was his uncle, _Charles_, _duke of Lorraine_. His claim the barons would not recognize, but elected _Hugh Capet_, duke of France, to be king, who, on the 1st (or the 3d) of July, 987, was solemnly crowned in the cathedral of Noyon, by the archbishop of Rheims. Just at this juncture, when the contest was between the dukes of the French and _Charles of Lorraine_, the Carlovingian claimant to the sovereignty, the adhesion and support of Duke _Richard_ of Normandy (943-996) was of decisive effect. The Normans had been on the side of _Laon_; now they turned the scale in favor of the elevation of the Duke of France. The German party at _Laon_ could not withstand the combined power of _Rouen_ and _Paris_. Thus with _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the Capetian line, the kingdom of _France_ began, having _Paris_ for its capital; and the name of _France_ came gradually to be applied to the greater part of Gaul. But when _Hugh Capet_ became king, the great feudal states were almost independent of the royal control. Eight were above the rest in power and extent. "The counts of _Flanders_, _Champagne_, and _Vermandois_, and the dukes of _Normandy_, _Brittany_, _Burgundy_, and _Aquitaine_, regarded themselves as the new king's peers or equals." _Lorraine_, _Arles_, and _Franche Comte_--parts of modern France--"held of the emperor, and were, in fact, German." _Hugh Capet's_ dukedom was divided by the Seine. He was lay abbot of St. Denis, the most important church in France.

THE GERMAN KINGDOM.--With the death of _Louis the Child_ (911) the German branch of the Carlovingian line was extinguished. The Germans had to choose a king from another family. Germany, like France, was now composed of great fiefs. But there were two parties, differing from one another in their character and manners. The one consisted of the older Alemannic and Austrasian unions, where the traces of Roman influence continued, where the large cities were situated, and the princ.i.p.al sees. Here were formed the duchies of _Swabia_ and _Bavaria_, and _Franconia_ (Austrasian France). To the other, consisting chiefly of the duchy of _Saxony_, were attached _Thuringia_ and a part of _Frisia_. In France the royal power, at the start, was so weak, that, not being dreaded, it was suffered to grow. In Germany the royal power was so strong that there was a constant effort to reduce it. Hence in France the result was centralization; in Germany the tendency was to division. In France the long continuance of the family of _Hugh Capet_ made the monarchy _hereditary_. In Germany the frequent changes of dynasty helped to make it _elective_.

CONRAD I.--When Louis died, _Conrad_ of Franconia (911-918) was chosen king by the clerical and secular n.o.bles of the five duchies, in which the counts elevated themselves to the rank of dukes,--Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria. Germany thus became an elective kingdom; but since, as a rule, the sovereignty was continued in one family, the electoral principle was qualified by an hereditary element. _Conrad_ began the struggle against the great feudatories, which went on through the Middle Ages. The dukes always chafed under the rule of a king; yet, for the glory of the nation and for their own safety against attacks from abroad, they were anxious to preserve it from extinction. The _Hungarians_, to whom _Louis the Child_ had consented to pay tribute, renewed their incursions. They marched in force as far as _Bremen_. _Conrad_ had wished to reduce the power of Saxony, and to detach from it Thuringia. He was constantly at war with his own subjects. Yet on his death-bed he showed his disinterested regard to the interests of the kingdom. He called to him his brother _Eberhard_, and charged him to carry his crown and crown jewels to his enemy _Henry_, duke of the Saxons, who was most capable of defending the country against the Hungarian invaders.

ITALY.--After the empire of _Charles the Fat_ was broken up, a strong anti-German feeling was manifest in Italy. The people wanted the king of Italy, and, if possible, the emperor of the Romans, to be of their own nation. But they could not agree: there was a violent contest between the supporters of _Berengar_ of Friuli and the supporters of _Guido_ of Spoleto. _Arnulf_ came twice into Italy to quell the disturbance, and on his second visit, in 896, was crowned emperor. Civil war soon broke out again. Within twenty years the crown had been given to five different aspirants. They were Germans, or were Italians only in name. _Berengar I_. (888-924) was crowned emperor by the Pope, but had to fight against a compet.i.tor, _Rudolph_, king of Burgundy, whom the turbulent n.o.bles set up in his place. _Berengar_ was finally defeated and a.s.sa.s.sinated. His grandson, _Berengar II_. (of Ivrea) (950-961), had to fly to Germany (943) to escape a compet.i.tor for the throne, _Hugh_, count of Provence, brother of _Ermengarde_, Berengar's step-mother, to whom she had given the crown. His relations with _Otto I_. (the Great) led to very important consequences, to be narrated hereafter.

STATE OF LEARNING IN THE TENTH CENTURY.--Under Charles the Bald, there were not wanting signs of intellectual activity. _John Scotus Erigena_,--or John Scot, Erinborn,--who was at the head of his palace-school, was an acute philosopher, who, in his speculations in the vein of New Platonism, tended to pantheistic doctrine. His opinions were condemned at the instance of _Hincmar_, the eminent archbishop of Rheims. But after the deposition of _Charles the Fat_ (887), there followed a period of darkness throughout the West. The universal political disorder was enough to account for this prevalent ignorance. But, in addition, the Latin language ceased to be spoken by the people, while the new vernacular tongues were not reduced to writing. Latin could only be learned in the schools; and these fell more and more into decay, in the confusion of the times. The mental stimulus which the study of the Latin had communicated, there was nothing, as yet, in the new languages to replace.

THE PAPACY IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.--While Italy was under the rule of _Justinian_ and his successors, the popes were subject to the tyranny of the Eastern emperors. After the Lombard conquest, their position, difficult as it was on account of the small protection afforded them from Constantinople, was favorable to the growth of their influence and authority. By their connection with _Pipin_ and _Charlemagne_, they were recognized as having a spiritual headship, the counterpart of the secular supremacy of the emperor. The election of the Pope was to be sanctioned by the emperor, and that of the emperor by the Pope. But _Charlemagne_ was supreme ruler over all cla.s.ses and persons in Italy, as in his own immediate dominions. In the disorder that ensued upon his death, the imperial authority in all directions was reduced. The Frank bishops were frequently appealed to as umpires among the contending Carolingian princes. The growth of the power of the great bishops carried in it the exaltation of the highest bishop of all, the Roman pontiff. A _pallium_, or mantle, was sent by the Pope to all archbishops on their accession, and was considered to be a badge of the papal authority. In the earlier part of the ninth century, there appeared what are called the _pseudo-Isidorian decretals_, consisting of forged ecclesiastical doc.u.ments purporting to belong to the early Christian centuries, which afforded a sanction to the highest claims of the chief rulers of the Church. These are universally known to be an invention; but, in that uncritical day, this was not suspected. They contained not much in behalf of hierarchical claims which had not, at one time or another, been actually a.s.serted and maintained. In the spirit of the decretals Pope _Nicholas I._ (858-867) acted, when this energetic pontiff overruled the iniquitous decision of two German synods, and obliged _Lothar_, king of Lotharingia, to take back his lawful wife, _Theutberga_, whom he had divorced out of regard to a mistress, _Waldrada_. In the tenth century (904-962), when Italy, in the absence of imperial restraint, was torn by violent factions, the Papacy was for half a century disposed of by the _Tuscan_ party, and especially by two depraved women belonging to it, _Theodora_, and her daughter _Maria_ (or _Marozia_). The scandals belonging to this dismal period in the history of the papal inst.i.tution are to be ascribed to the anarchy prevailing in Italy, and to the vileness of the individuals who usurped power at Rome.

CHAPTER III. INVASIONS OF THE NORTHMEN AND OTHERS: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

INCURSIONS OF THE NORTHMEN.--The _Scandinavians_, or _Northmen_, were a Teutonic people, by whom were gradually formed the kingdoms of _Denmark_, _Norway_, and _Sweden_. Their incursions, prior to _Charlemagne_, were towards the Rhine, but at length a.s.sumed more the character of piracy. They coasted along the sh.o.r.es in their little fleets, and lay in wait for their enemies in creeks and bays; whence they were called _vikings_, or children of the bays. By degrees they ventured out farther on the sea, and became bolder in their depredations. They sent their light vessels along the rivers of France, and established themselves in bands of five or six hundred at convenient stations, whence they sallied out to plunder the neighboring cities and country places. They did not _cause_, but they _hastened_, the fall of the Frank Empire. In 841 they burned _Rouen_; in 843 they plundered _Nantes_, _Saintes_, and _Bordeaux_. _Hastings_, a famous leader of these hardy sea-robbers, sailed along the coast of the Spanish peninsula, took _Lisbon_ and pillaged it, and burned _Seville_. Making a descent upon _Tuscany_, he captured, by stratagem, and plundered the city of _Luna_, which he at first mistook for Rome. In 853 the daring rovers captured _Tours_, and burned the Abbey of St. Martin; and, three years later, they appeared at _Orleans_. In 857 they burned the churches of _Paris_, and carried away as captive the abbot of St. Denis. As pagans they had no scruple about attacking churches and abbeys, to which fugitives resorted for safety and for the hiding of their treasures. _Robert the Strong_ fell in fighting these marauders (866). Their devastations continued down to the year 911, in the reign of _Charles the Simple_; then the same arrangement was made which the Romans had adopted in relation to the Germanic invaders. By the advice of his n.o.bles, _Charles_ decided to abandon to the Northmen, territory where they could settle, and which they could cultivate as their own. Rolf, or _Rollo_, one of their most formidable chiefs, accepted the offer; and the Northmen established themselves (911) in the district known afterwards as _Normandy_. _Rollo_ received baptism, wore the t.i.tle of duke, and thus became the liege of King _Charles_, who reigned at _Laon_, and whom he loyally served. Later the Normans joined hands with _ducal_ France, and helped _Paris_ to throw off its dependence on _royal_ France and the house of Charlemagne which had ruled at _Laon_. It was by Norman help that the duchy of France was raised to the rank of a kingdom, and _Hugh Capet_, in the room of being a va.s.sal of kings of German lineage, became the founder of French sovereigns. Under the Normans, tillage flourished; and the feudal system was established with greater regularity than elsewhere.

THE DANES IN ENGLAND.--When, in 827, _Egbert_, the king of _Wess.e.x_, united all the Saxons in England under his rule, the Danish attacks had already begun. In his later years these ravages increased. _Alfred_ (871-901) was reduced to such straits in 878, that, with a few followers, he hid himself among the swamps and woods of Somersetshire. It was then, according to the legend, that he was scolded by the woman, who, not knowing him, had set him to watch her cakes, but found that he, absorbed in other thoughts, had allowed them to burn. Later, _Alfred_ gained advantages over the Danes; but, in the treaty that was made with them, they received, as va.s.sals of the West Saxon king, _East Anglia_, and part of _Ess.e.x_ and _Mercia_. Already they had a lodgment in _Northumberland_, so that the larger part of England had fallen into Danish hands. The names of towns ending in _by_, as _Whitby_, are of Danish origin. _Alfred_ compiled a body of laws called _dooms_, founded monasteries, and fostered learning. He himself translated many books from the Latin. His bravery in conflict with the Danes enabled him to spend his last years in quiet. _Athelstan_, the grandson of _Alfred_ (925-940), was victorious over the Danes, and over the Scotch and Welsh of the North. Under _Edgar_ (959-975), the power of England was at its height. He kept up a strong fleet; but, in the time of _Aethelred II_. (the Unready), the Danish invasions were renewed. He and his bad advisers adopted the practice of buying off the invaders at a large price. In 994 _Swegen_ invaded the country. He had been baptized, but had gone back to heathenism. In 1013 England was completely conquered by him. _Aethelred_ fled to _Duke Richard the Good_ of Normandy.

CANUTE.--The son of Aethelred, _Edmund_, surnamed _Ironside_, after the death of _Swegen_, kept up the war with his son c.n.u.t, or _Canute_. After fighting six pitched battles with him, _Edmund_ consented to divide the kingdom with him; but in the same year (1016) the English king died. _Canute_ (1017-1035) now became king of all England. He had professed Christianity, and unexpectedly proved himself, after his accession, to be a good ruler. One of the legends about him is, that he once had a seat placed for himself by the seash.o.r.e, and ordered the rising tide not to dare to wet his feet. Not being obeyed by the dashing waves, he said, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." After that he never wore his crown, but left it on the image of Jesus on the cross. _Canute_ inherited the crown of _Denmark_, and won _Norway_ and part of _Sweden_; so that he was the most powerful prince of his time. His sons, however, did not rule well; and in 1042 the English chose for king one of their own people, _Edward_, called _the Confessor_, the son of _Aethelred_. In the time of Canute, the power of the Danes, and of the Northmen generally, was at its height. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England were ruled by them; and Scandinavian princes by descent governed in Normandy and in Russia. Although a most vigorous race, the Northmen showed a wonderful facility in adopting the language and manners of the people among whom they settled. The effect of their migrations was to diminish the strength and importance of their native countries which they had left.