In 828, in another quarter of the
Frankish Empire, Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany, was taking the offensive.
Frankish Empire, Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany, was taking the offensive.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
Feudalism
XIX, XX. Learning and Literature
XXI. Byzantine and Romanesque Arts
612-614
615–617
618-624
625-630
631-635
636-638
639—641
.
642643
644645
.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF LEADING EVENTS
646—650
INDEX
651–700
## p. xxxviii (#44) #########################################
Xxxviii
LIST OF MAPS.
VOLUME III.
(See separate portfolio. )
28 a. The Western Empire 843.
28 b. The Western Empire 870.
29. France in 987.
30. North-Western France in the eleventh century.
Inset: Environs of Paris.
31. Burgundy at the beginning of the eleventh century.
32. Italy at close of the tenth century.
Inset: Rome, approximate plan before A. D. 1084.
33. Germany in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
34. Eastern neighbours of Germany in the eleventh century.
35. The Vikings.
Inset: Ireland.
36. England circa A. D. 900.
37. Spain to illustrate the era of the Umayyads.
Inset: Spain at the death of Alfonso I.
## p. xxxix (#45) ###########################################
xxxix
CORRECTIONS IN MAPS
As the maps were partly executed before the war, some changes are required ;
these, with a few others, are given in the following list.
MAP 28 a. THE WESTERN EMPIRE 843
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Trier read Trèves
The shading of the dominions of Lothar should be extended over and be-
yond the Papal Lands so as to include the whole of the name ITALIA
MAP 28 B. THE WESTERN EMPIRE 870
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Trier read Trèves
MAP 29. FRANCE in 987
For DUCHY OF FRANCE [between Brittany and R. Seine) read MARCH OF
NEUSTRIA
For Ribagoree read Ribagorza
MAP 31. BURGUNDY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
For Bellay read Belley
MAP 32. ITALY AT CLOSE OF THE TENTA CENTURY
For Aquilea read Aquileia
For Caesena read Cesena
The shading of Apulia should be extended so as to include the coastland
of Lucania and the whole of Calabria.
Map 33. GERMANY IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Lyutizi read Lyutitzi
For Mainz read Mayence
For MISNIA read MEISSEN
For Regensburg read Ratisbon
For Strasburg read Strasbourg
For Trier read Trèves
MAP 34. EASTERN NEIGHBOURS OF GERMANY
For Lyutizi read Lyutitzi
MAP 35. THE VIKINGS
For Durstede read Dorestad
MAP 37. SPAIN
For Cerdagne read Cerdaña
For Ribagorze read Ribagorza
## p. xl (#46) ##############################################
5
。
## p. 1 (#47) ###############################################
CHAPTER I.
LOUIS THE PIOUS.
It was at his winter home at Doué, early in February 814, that Louis
of Aquitaine received the news of his father's death, which had been
immediately sent to him by his sisters and the magnates who had
espoused his cause. It is a difficult matter to discern through the
self-interested encomiums of biographers and the calumnies set afloat by
political opponents, the real character of the man who had now taken
over the burdensome heritage left by the Emperor Charles. Louis, who
was at this time thirty-six years old, was, in form and manners, a tall,
handsome man, broad-shouldered, with a strong voice, skilled in bodily
exercises, fond, as his ancestors were, of the chase, but less easily led
away by the seductions of passion and good cheer. With regard to his
mental qualities, he was a learned man, well acquainted with Latin, and
able even to compose verses in that language, having some knowledge of
Greek, and in particular, well versed in moral theology. He was modest
and unassuming, of a usually gentle temper, and he constantly shewed
himself capable of generosity and compassion even towards his enemies.
His piety, to which he owes the surname by which history has known
him from his own century to ours, appears to have been deep and
genuine. It was shewn not only by his zealous observance of fast and
festival and his prayerful habits, but by his sustained interest in the
affairs of the Church. During the time he spent in Aquitaine the reform
of the Septimanian monasteries by Benedict of Aniane had engaged a
large share of his attention. Throughout his reign his capitularies are
,
filled with measures dealing with the churches and monasteries. It must
not be forgotten, however, that in that age Church and State were so
closely connected that provisions of this description were absolutely
necessary to good administration, and that it would thus be a mistake to
look upon Louis as a mere “crowned monk. ” A king in Aquitaine from
781, and associated in the Empire in 813, he had become accustomed
to the prospect of his eventual succession. Though the news of Charles's
death took him by surprise, the new sovereign seems promptly to have
made such arrangements as the circumstances required, for after having
shewn all the signs of the deepest grief and ordered fitting prayer to be
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. I.
1
## p. 2 (#48) ###############################################
2
First Measures
made for the repose of the soul of the dead, he set out on his journey for
Aix-la-Chapelle in company with his wife and children and the chief
lords of his party. He was doubtless uneasy as to what measures were
being taken there by his father's former ministers, among them Wala,
the grandson of Charles Martel, who had wielded so great an influence
at the late Emperor's court. Such fears, however, were groundless, for
hardly had Louis reached the banks of the Loire than the lords of
Francia, hastening to meet him and take the oath of fealty to him, gave
him an enthusiastic welcome. The famous Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans,
having received timely notice, had even found leisure to compose certain
poems for the occasion, hailing the dawn of the new reign. Wala
himself came to meet his cousin at Herstall, before the Emperor, who
was going by Paris in order to visit the celebrated sanctuaries of
Saint-Denis and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, had entered Francia. Most of
the magnates hastened to follow his example.
At Herstall the new Emperor made some stay. There was at the
palace of Aix a clique of the discontented who relied, perhaps, on the
support of Charles's daughters, and whose chief offence in the eyes of
Louis seems to have been their disposition to pursue the dissolute way
of life which had been customary at the court of the late Emperor.
Wala, Lambert, Count of Nantes, and Count Garnier were sent on in
advance to secure order in the palace and to seize upon any from whom
resistance was to be feared. They were obliged to use force in carrying
out their mission, and some lives were lost. After Louis, on 27 Feb-
ruary, had made his solemn entry into Aix-la-Chapelle amidst the shouts
of the people, and had taken over the government, he continued the
same course, taking measures to put an end to the scandals, real or
alleged, which for the last few years had dishonoured the court. His
sisters, whose lapses from virtue, however, dated many years back, were
the first to be assailed. After dividing among them the property due
to them under Charles's will, he sent them into banishment at various
convents. Nothing is known of the fate of Gisela and Bertha, but
Theodrada was obliged to retire to her abbey of Argenteuil, and
Rothaid to Faremoutier. The Jewish and Christian merchants also,
who were found established in the palace, were summoned to depart
from it, as well as the superfluous women not required for the service
of the court. At the same time Louis kept with him his illegitimate
brothers, Hugh, Drogo and Theodoric. But the arrangements made
.
in the name of good morals were followed up at once by measures
directed against the descendants of Charles Martel. In spite of the
loyalty just shewn by Wala, his brother Adalard, Abbot of Corbie,
was exiled to the island of Noirmoutier, while another brother, Ber-
nier, was confined at Lérins, and their sister, Gundrada, at St, Rade-
gund of Poitiers. Wala himself, fearing a like fate, chose to retire to
Corbie.
## p. 3 (#49) ###############################################
Division of Territory
3
Apparently it was also a zeal for reform which inspired Louis at the
first general placitum held at Aix in August 814 to decide on sending
out to all parts of the kingdom missi charged with the duty of making
inquiry into “ the slightest actions of the counts and judges and even of
the missi previously despatched from the palace, in order to reform what
they found to have been unjustly done, and bring it into conformity
with justice, to restore their patrimony to the oppressed, and freedom to
those who had been unjustly reduced to servitude. ” It was a like
anxiety which impelled him next year for the protection of the native
inhabitants of the Spanish March, molested as they were by the Frankish
Counts, to take those measures which are to be found among the pro-
visions of certain of his capitularies.
At this placitum of Aix appeared the young king of Italy, Bernard,
who came to make oath of fealty to his uncle. The Emperor received
him kindly, bestowed rich gifts on him, and sent him back to Italy,
having confirmed him in his title of king while reserving to himself the
imperial sovereignty, as is shewn by the fact that even in Italy all
legislative acts emanate exclusively from the Emperor. He it is also
who, during Bernard's life, grants the confirmation of the privileges of
the great Italian abbeys. At the same time Louis assigned as kingdoms
to his two elder sons with much the same terms of dependence on
himself two portions of the Frankish Empire which still retained a
certain degree of autonomy, Bavaria to Lothar and Aquitaine to Pepin.
Both were, however, too young to exercise real power. Louis therefore
placed about each of them Frankish officials entrusted with the duty of
governing the country in their names. As to the Emperor's latest-born
son, Louis, he was too young to be put in even nominal charge of a
kingdom so that he remained under his father's care.
In spite, however, of the “cleansing” of the imperial palace, Louis
retained around him a certain number of his father's old servants and
advisers, such as Adalard the Count Palatine, and Hildebold, Archbishop
of Cologne. Some also who had been among his most faithful counsellors
in Aquitaine followed him to Francia. Bego, the husband of his daughter
Alpaïs, one of the companions of his youth, seems to have become
Count of Paris. Louis also retained as Chancellor Elisachar, the chief
of his Aquitanian clerks, a learned man and a patron of letters, to whom
perhaps may be owing the remarkable improvement traceable at this
time in the drawing up of the imperial diplomas. But the man who
seems to have played the chief part during the early years of the reign
was the Goth Witiza, St Benedict of Aniane, the reformer of the
Aquitanian monasteries. The Emperor had lost no time in summoning
him to his side at Aix,, and a large number of the diplomas issued
at this time from the imperial chancery were granted at his request.
Benedict had at first been installed as Abbot at Maursmünster in Alsace,
but the Emperor, evidently feeling that he was still too far away, had
CH. I.
1-2
## p. 4 (#50) ###############################################
4
Empire and Papacy
a
tha
hastened to build the monastery of Inden in the woods around Aix-la-
Chapelle and to set him at its head.
It was, no doubt, to the influence of the Abbot of Inden that the
measures were due which were taken a few years later (817) to establish
one uniform rule, that of St Benedict of Nursia, in all monasteries
throughout the Frankish Empire. Other regulations were to be applied
to the canons of cathedral churches, in order to complete the work
formerly begun by St Chrodegang; and in a long capitulary, de rebus
ecclesiasticis, the rights and duties of bishops and clerks were defined
with the special object of preserving them from the secularisation of
their property which had too often befallen them at the hands of the
lay power, since the days of Charles Martel.
The Emperor's care for the interests of the Church, and the im-
portance he attached to its good administration, were in harmony both
with the traditions set up by Charles and also with the universal con-
ception of an empire in which the civil and ecclesiastical powers were
intimately connected, although the imperial authority could not be
said to be subjected to that of the Church. As early as the first year of
his reign, Louis had had occasion to shew that he intended in this matter
to maintain his rights inviolate even against the Pope himself. A con-
spiracy among the Roman nobility against Leo III had been discovered
and punished by that Pope. The culprits had been put to death
without consulting the Emperor or his representative. Louis, con-
ceiving that his rights had been infringed by these indications of
independence, directed Bernard of Italy and Gerold, Count of the
Eastern March, to hold an inquiry into the affair. Two envoys from
the Holy See were obliged to accompany them to the Emperor bearing
the excuses and explanations of the Pope (815). In the same year a
revolt of the inhabitants of the Campagna against the papal authority
was by order of Bernard suppressed by Winichis, the Duke of Spoleto.
Leo III died on 12 June 816 and the Romans chose as his successor
in the Chair of Peter Stephen IV, a man of noble family who seems
to have been as much devoted to the Frankish monarchy as his pre-
decessor had been hostile to it. His first care was to exact from the
Romans an oath of fealty to the Emperor. At the same time he sent
an embassy to Louis with orders to announce the election to him, but
also to request an interview at a place suited to the Emperor's convenience.
Louis gladly consented and sent an invitation to Stephen to come to
meet him in France escorted by Bernard of Italy. It was at Rheims,
where Charlemagne had formerly had a meeting with Leo III, that the
Emperor awaited the Sovereign Pontiff. When Stephen drew near,
Louis went a mile out of the city to meet him, in his robes of state,
helped him to dismount from his horse, and led him in great pomp as
far as the Abbey of Saint-Remi a little beyond the city. On the
morrow he gave him a solemn reception in Rheims itself, and after several
>
а
## p. 5 (#51) ###############################################
Constitutio Romana
5
a
days spent in conferring about the interests of the Church, the ceremony
of the imperial coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The Pope significantly set on Louis's head a diadem which he had brought
with him from Rome and anointed him with the holy oil. The Empress
Ermengarde was also crowned and anointed, and a few days later
Stephen, accompanied by the imperial missi, again turned towards Rome,
perhaps bearing with him the diplomas by which Louis confirmed the
Roman Church in its privileges and possessions. Thus once more a
seal was set upon the alliance between the Papacy and the Empire.
At the same time, the subsequent relations of Louis the Pious with
the Holy See shew the Emperor's constant anxiety for the observance
of the twofold principle that the Emperor is the protector of the Pope,
but that in return for his protection he has the right to exercise his
sovereign authority throughout Italy, even in Rome itself, and, in
particular, to give his assent to the election of a new pontiff. On the
death of Stephen IV (24 January 817) Paschal I hastened to inform
Louis of his election and to renew with him the agreement arrived at
with his predecessors. The sending of Lothar to Italy as king with
the special mission of governing the country, and his coronation in 823
at the hands of Paschal I, were a further guarantee of the imperial
authority. Hence, no doubt, arose a certain discontent among the
Roman nobles and even among the Pope's entourage which shewed itself
in the execution of the primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law, the
nomenclator Leo, who were first blinded and then beheaded in the Lateran
palace, as guilty of having shewn themselves in all things too faithful to
the party of the young Emperor Lothar. Paschal was accused of
having allowed or even ordered this double execution, and two missi were
sent to Rome to hold an inquiry into the matter, an inquest which,
however, led to no result, for the Pope sent ambassadors of his own
to Louis, with instructions to clear their master by oath from the
accusations levelled against him.
On the death of Paschal I (824), as soon as the election of his suc-
cessor, Eugenius II, had been announced to Louis, then at Compiègne,
he sent Lothar to Italy to settle with the new Pope measures securing
the right exercise of the imperial jurisdiction in the papal state. This
mission of Lothar's led to the promulgation of the Constitutio Romana
of 824, intended to safeguard the rights “ of all living under the pro-
tection of the Emperor and the Pope. ” Missi sent by both authorities
were to superintend the administration of true justice. The Roman
judges were to continue their functions, but were to be subject to
imperial control. The Roman people were given leave to choose under
what law they would live, but were required to take an oath of fealty
to the Emperor. The measures thus taken and the settlement agreed
upon were confirmed in writing by the Pope, who pledged himself to
observe them. On his death, and after the brief pontificate of Valentine,
CH. I.
## p. 6 (#52) ###############################################
6
Neighbours of the Empire
Gregory IV was not, in fact, consecrated until the Emperor had signified
his approval of the election.
Outside his own dominions, if Louis appears to have made no
attempt to extend his power beyond the limits fixed by Charlemagne,
he did at least exert himself to maintain his supremacy over the
semi-vassal nations dwelling on all the frontiers of the Empire. For
the most part, however, these races seem to have sought to preserve
good relations with their powerful neighbour. The respect which, for
the first few years of the reign, they entertained for the successor of
Charlemagne is proved by the presence at all the great assemblies
of ambassadors from different nations bearing pacific messages. At
Compiègne, in 816, Slovenes and Obotrites appeared, and again at
Herstall (818) and at Frankfort (823); Bulgarian envoys on several
occasions; and in 823 two leaders who, among the Wiltzi, were con-
tending for power, begged the Emperor to act as arbitrator. Danes
were present at Paderborn (815), at Aix-la-Chapelle (817), at Compiègne
(823) and at Thionville (831). Louis even received Sardinians in 815
and Arabs in 816. As to the Eastern Empire, the Basileis seem always
to have shewn anxiety to keep on good terms with Louis. On various
occasions their ambassadors appeared at the great assemblies held by
him; at Aix (817) to settle a question concerning frontiers in Dalmatia ;
at Rouen in 824 to discuss what measures should be taken in the matter
of the controversy concerning images ; at Compiègne in 827 to renew
their professions of amity. It may be added that it was a Greek, the
priest George, who built for Louis the Pious the first hydraulic organ
ever used in Gaul.
Even from a military point of view, the reign of Louis the Pious
bore at first the appearance of being in some sort a continuation of that
of Charles, under a prince capable of repelling the attacks of his enemies.
In the north, the Danish race were at this time fairly easily held in awe.
One of the rivals then disputing for power, Harold, having been driven
out by his cousins, the sons of Godefrid, came in 814 to take shelter at
the court of Aix. In 815 the Saxon troops with the Obotrite“ friendlies”
made an attempt to restore this ally of the Franks to the throne, under
the leadership of the missus Baldric. Promises of submission were made
by the Danes, and hostages were handed over, but this was the only
result obtained. It was not until about 819 that a revolution recalled
Harold to the throne, whence his rivals had just been driven. He
retained it until a fresh revulsion of feeling forced him again to take
refuge at the court of Louis. On the other hand, in concert with Pope
Paschal, Louis had been endeavouring to convert the Danes to Christianity.
Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, was sent on this mission. Setting out in
company with Halitgar, Bishop of Cambrai, he united his labours with
those of Anskar and his companions who were already at work spreading
the Christian Faith in the district around the mouth of the Elbe, where
## p. 7 (#53) ###############################################
Eastern Frontiers
7
Saxons and Scandinavians came into contact with one another. The
monastery of Corvey or New Corbie (822) and the bishopric of Ham-
burg (831) were founded to safeguard Christianity in the country thus
evangelised. When in 826 the Danish prince Harold came to be
baptised at Mayence with several hundreds of his followers, the
ceremony was made the opportunity for splendid entertainments at
which the whole court was present, and was looked upon by the circle
surrounding the Emperor as a triumph. But attacks by way of the sea
were already beginning against the Frankish Empire. In 820 a band of
pirates had attempted to land, first in Frisia, and then on the shores of
the lower Seine, but being beaten off by the inhabitants they had been
forced to content themselves with retiring to pillage the island of Bouin
off the coast of La Vendée. In 829 a Scandinavian invasion of Saxony
had momentarily alarmed Louis, but had led to nothing. In short, it
may be said that for the first part of the reign Louis's dominions had
been exempt from the ravages of the Vikings, but the tempest which was
to rage so furiously a few years later was already seen to be gathering.
The Slavonic populations which bordered Frankish Germany on the
east were also kept within due bounds. In 816 the heorbann of the
Saxons and East Franks, called out against the rebellious Sorbs,
compelled them to renew their oaths of submission. Next year the
Frankish counts in charge of the frontier successfully beat off an attack
by Slavomir, the prince of the Obotrites, who, being made prisoner a
little later and accused before the Emperor by his own subjects, was
deposed, his place being given to his rival Ceadrag (818). The new
prince, however, before long deserted his former allies, joined forces
with the Danes, and unsuccessfully renewed the struggle with the
Franks. The latter found a more formidable opponent in the person of
Liudevit, a prince who had succeeded in reducing to his obedience part
of the population of Pannonia and was menacing the Frankish frontier
between the Drave and the Save. An expedition sent against him
under the Marquess of Friuli, Cadolah, was not successful. Cadolah died
during the campaign, and the Slovenes invaded the imperial territory
(820). It was only through an alliance with one of Liudevit's foes,
Bozna, the Grand Župan of the Croats, that the Franks in their turn
were enabled to spread destruction through the enemy's country, and to
force the tribes of Carniola and Carinthia, who had thrown off their
allegiance, to submit afresh. Liudevit himself made his submission next
year, and peace was maintained upon the eastern frontier till 827-8,
when an irruption of the Bulgarians into Pannonia necessitated another
Frankish expedition, headed this time by the Emperor's son Louis the
German. By way of compensation, unbroken peace reigned on the
extreme southern frontier of the dominions of Louis. The Lombard
populations of the south of Italy continued to be practically independent
of Frankish rule. Louis made no attempt to exert any effective
CH. I.
## p. 8 (#54) ###############################################
8
The Saracens
sovereignty over them. He contented himself with receiving from Prince
Grimoald of Benevento in 814 a promise to pay tribute and assurances
of submission, vague engagements which his successor Sico renewed
more than once without causing any change in the actual situation.
On the south-western frontier of the Empire a state of war, or at
least of perpetual skirmishing, went on between the Franks and either
the Saracens of Spain or the half-subdued inhabitants of the Pyrenees.
In 815 hostilities had broken out anew with the Emir Hakam I,
whom the Frankish historians call Abulaz. The following year the recall
of Séguin (Sigiwin), Duke of Gascony, led to a revolt of the Basques,
but the native chief whom the rebels had placed at their head was de-
feated and killed by the counts in the service of Louis the Pious. Two
years later (818) the Emperor felt himself strong enough to banish
Lupus son of Centullus, the national Duke of the Gascons, and in 819
an expedition under Pepin of Aquitaine resulted in an apparent and
temporary pacification of the province. On the other hand, at the
assembly at Quierzy in 820 it was decided to renew the war with the
Saracens of Spain. But the Frankish annalists mention only a plundering
raid beyond the Segre river (822), and in 824 the defeat of two Frankish
counts in the valley of Roncesvalles, as they were returning from an
expedition against Pampeluna. In 826 the revolt in the Spanish March
of a chief of Gothic extraction gave Louis the Pious graver cause for
disquiet. An army led by the Abbot Elisachar checked the rebels
for the moment, but they appealed to the Emir ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān, and
the Muslim troops sent under the command of Abū-Marwān penetrated
as far as the walls of Saragossa. At the Compiègne assembly held in
the summer of 827, the Emperor decided on sending a new Frankish
army beyond the Pyrenees, but its leaders, Matfrid, Count of Orleans,
and Hugh, Count of Tours, shewed such an entire lack of zeal and
interposed so many delays, that Abū-Marwān was able to ravage the
districts of Barcelona and Gerona with impunity. The progress of the
invaders was only checked by the energetic resistance of Barcelona, under
Count Bernard of Septimania, but they were able, nevertheless, to with-
draw unhindered with their booty.
In 828, in another quarter of the
Frankish Empire, Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany, was taking the offensive.
After having, at the head of his little flotilla, destroyed the pirate
Muslim ships in the neighbourhood of Corsica and Sardinia, he landed
in Africa and ravaged the country round Carthage.
To the extreme west of the Empire, the Bretons, whom even the
great Charles had never been able to subdue completely, continued from
time to time to send out pillaging expeditions into Frankish territory,
chiefly in the direction of Vannes. These were mere raids, up to the
time when their union under the leadership of a chief named Morvan
(Murmannus), to whom they gave the title of king, so far emboldened
the Bretons that they refused to pay homage or the annual tribute to
## p. 9 (#55) ###############################################
The Bretons
9
which they had heretofore been subject. Louis, having attempted in
vain to negotiate with the rebels, made up his mind to act, and
summoned the host of Francia, Burgundy, and even of Saxony and
Alemannia, to gather at Vannes in August 818. The Frankish troops
pushed their way into the enemy's territory without having to fight a
regular battle, as the Bretons, following their customary tactics, preferred
to disappear from sight and merely harass their enemy. The latter
could do no more than ravage the country, but Morvan was killed in a
skirmish. His countrymen then abandoned the struggle, and at the
end of a month the Emperor re-entered Angers, having exacted promises
of submission from the more powerful of the Breton chiefs. Their sub-
mission, however, did not last long. In 822, a certain Wihomarch
repeated Morvan's attempt. The expeditions led against him by the
Frankish counts of the march of Brittany or by the Emperor himself were
marked only by the wasting of the country, and produced no permanent
results. Not until 826 did a new system ensure a measure of tranquillity.
Louis then recognised the authority over the Bretons of a chief of their
own race, Nomenoë, to whom he gave the title of missus and who in
return did homage to him and took the oath of fealty. But the union
of Brittany under a single head was a dangerous measure.
Louis was
blind to its disadvantages, but they were destined to have disastrous
results in the reign of his successor.
Events within the realm were to begin the disorganisation of Louis's
government and ultimately bring about the disruption of the empire
founded by Charlemagne. In July 817 at the assembly of Aix-la-
Chapelle, the Emperor had decided to take measures to establish the
succession, or rather to cause the arrangements already made by himself
and a few of his confidential advisers to be ratified by the lay and
ecclesiastical magnates jointly. The Frankish principle by which the
dominions of a deceased sovereign were divided among his sons, was still
too living a thing (it lasted, indeed, as long as the Carolingian dynasty
itself) to allow of the exclusion of any one of Louis's sons from the suc-
cession. The principle had already been applied in 806, and Louis had
in some sort recognised it afresh by entrusting two of his sons with the
government of two of his kingdoms, while at the same time leaving a third
in the hands of Bernard of Italy. But on the other hand, the Emperor
and his chief advisers were no less firmly attached to the principle of the
unity of the Empire, “by ignoring which we should introduce confusion
into the Church, and offend Him in Whose Hands are the rights of all
kingdoms. ” “Would God, the Almighty,” wrote one of the most
illustrious of the thinkers upholding the system of the unity of the
Empire, Archbishop Agobard of Lyons, “that all men, united under a
single king, were governed by a single law! This would be the best
method of maintaining peace in the City of God and equity among
the nations. " And the wisest and most influential of the clergy in
a
CH. 1.
## p. 10 (#56) ##############################################
1
10
Divisio Imperii
the kingdom thought and spoke with Agobard, because they realised
the advantages which accrued to the Church from the government of a
single emperor in a realm where Church and State were so intimately
connected. Throughout these struggles, which disturbed the whole of
the reign of Louis the Pious, the party in favour of unity counted in its
ranks nearly all the political writers of the time, Agobard, Paschasius
Radbertus, Florus of Lyons. They have been accused of defending their
personal interests under cover of the principle, and it has been pointed
out that often the so-called party of unity was nothing but the coterie
which gathered round Lothar. It is probable enough that the conduct
of the sons of Louis and of the principal counts who took part with
each of them was dictated by motives purely personal, but if the more
important leaders of the ecclesiastical aristocracy are found supporting
Lothar, it must not be forgotten that Lothar stood for the unity of
the Empire for which the Church was working.
However this may be, the arrangements made at Aix, after three
days devoted to fasting and almsgiving in order to call down the
blessing and inspiration of God upon the assembly about to be opened,
might seem of a kind to reconcile diverse principles and interests. The
title of emperor was conferred upon Lothar, who became his father's
colleague in the general administration of the Frankish monarchy. His
coronation took place before the assembly amid the loud applause of the
crowd. The title of king was confirmed to his two brothers, and their
dominions received some augmentation. With Aquitaine, Pepin received
Gascony and the county of Toulouse, as well as the Burgundian counties
of Autun, Avallon and Nevers. Louis took Bavaria which Lothar had
held, with suzerainty over the Carinthians, the Bohemians and the Slavs.
The rest of the Empire was, on the death of Louis, to revert to Lothar,
who alone was to enjoy the title of Emperor. It is somewhat difficult to
say what was to be the position of the young kings with regard to Louis
the Pious. It is probable that in practice it was modified with the
lapse of time and the age of the princes. Indeed Louis, who may from
this time be called Louis the German, the name by which history knows
him, was not put in actual possession of his kingdom until 825. On
the other hand, the act of 817 dealt minutely with the relation in which
the brothers were to stand towards one another after the death of Louis
the Pious. Each was to be sovereign ruler within his own dominions.
.
To the king was to belong the proceeds of the revenue and taxes, and
he was to have full right to dispose of the dignities of bishoprics and
abbeys. At the same time the Emperor's supremacy is ensured by a
series of provisions. His two brothers are bound to consult him on all
occasions of importance; they may not make war or conclude treaties
without his consent. His sanction is also required for their marriage,
and they are forbidden to marry foreigners. They are to attend at the
Emperor's court every year to offer their gift, to confer with him on
## p. 11 (#57) ##############################################
Revolt of Bernard of Italy
11
public affairs, and to receive his instructions. Disputes between them
are to be determined by the general assembly of the Empire. This body
is also to pronounce in case of their being guilty of acts of violence or
oppression and having failed to make satisfaction in accordance with the
remonstrances which it shall be the duty of their elder brother to address
to them. If either of the two die leaving several lawful sons, the people
shall make their choice among them, but there shall be no further
division of territory. If, on the contrary, the deceased leave no legiti.
mate son, his apanage shall devolve on one of his brothers. Supplementary
provisions, derived, indeed, from the Divisio of 806, were added, for-
bidding the magnates to possess benefices in several kingdoms at once,
but allowing any free man to settle in any kingdom he chose, and to
marry there.
Such, in its main outlines, was the celebrated Divisio imperii of 817,
which we may fittingly analyse, as its provisions were often to be
appealed to during the struggle between the sons of Louis. Its object
was to avoid every occasion of strife. Yet one of its earliest effects was
to kindle a revolt, that of the young Bernard of Italy. He considered
himself threatened, or his counsellors persuaded him that he was
threatened, by one of the regulations of the act of Aix, laying down that
after the death of Louis, Italy should be subject to Lothar in the same
manner as it had been to Louis himself and to Charles. It is, however,
difficult to see more in this article than a provision for the maintenance
of the actual status quo. All our authorities agree in attributing the
responsibility for the revolt less to Bernard himself than to certain of his
intimates, the count Eggideus, the chamberlain Reginar (Rainier), and
Anselm, Archbishop of Milan. The Bishop of Orleans, the celebrated
poet Theodulf, was also counted among the young prince's partisans.
The rebels' plan, it was said, was to dethrone the Emperor and his
family, perhaps to put them to death, and to make Bernard sole ruler of
the Empire. Ratbold, Bishop of Verona, and Suppo, Count of Brescia,
who were the first to warn Louis of what was being plotted against him,
added that all Italy was ready to uphold Bernard, and that he was
master of the passes of the Alps. In reality, the rebellion seems in no
sense to bear the character of a national movement, which indeed would
hardly have been possible at this stage, and the numerous army, which
the Emperor hastily assembled, found no difficulty in occupying the
passes of Aosta and Susa. Louis in person put himself at the head of
the troops concentrating at Châlon. Bernard was alarmed, and finding
himself ill supported, made his submission, along with his chief partisans,
to the Frankish counts who had pushed on into Italy, and surrendered
himself into their custody. The prisoners were sent to Aix-la-Chapelle,
and the assembly held in that town at the beginning of 818 condemned
them to death. The Emperor granted them their lives, but commuted
their punishment to that of blinding. Bernard and his friend Count
CH. 1.
## p. 12 (#58) ##############################################
12
Penance of Attigny
Reginar died in a few days in consequence of the torture inflicted
(17 April 818). The young prince was not nineteen. Those of his
accomplices who were churchmen were deposed and confined in monasteries.
Theodulf, in particular, was exiled to Angers. It is probable that it
was this rising in favour of a spurious member of his family which led
the Emperor at this time to take precautionary measures against his
own illegitimate brothers, Hugh, Theodoric and Drogo (later, 826,
Archbishop of Metz), whom he compelled to enter monasteries.
The punishment suffered by Bernard, who was hardly more than a
lad, was out of all proportion to the risk which he had caused the
Emperor to run. It was an act of pure cruelty, and was generally and
severely criticised at the time. Louis himself judged that he had shewn
excessive severity. In 821 at the assembly at Thionville which followed
the rejoicings on the marriage of Lothar with Ermengarde, daughter of
Hugh, Count of Tours, he granted an amnesty to Bernard's former
accomplices, and restored their confiscated property. At the same time
he recalled from Aquitaine Adalard, another of the proscribed, and
replaced him at the head of the monastery of Corbie. Next year at
Attigny he took a further step in the same direction. He solemnly
humiliated himself in the presence of the chief clergy of his kingdom,
the Abbot Elisachar, Adalard and Archbishop Agobard, declaring
that he desired to do penance publicly for the cruelty he had shewn
both to Bernard and to Adalard and his brother Wala. The biographer
of Louis the Pious compares this public penance to that of Theodosius.
It was, in reality, extremely impolitic. The Emperor weakened himself
morally by this humiliation before the ecclesiastical aristocracy, who
looked upon the penance of Attigny as a victory won by themselves
over Louis, “who became,” says Paschasius Radbertus triumphantly,
“the humblest of men, he who had been so ill-counselled by his royal
pride, and who now made satisfaction to those whose eyes had been
offended by his crime. " His humiliation was also accompanied by
measures taken to secure the protection of property belonging to the
Church, and Agobard felt so sure of victory for the latter that he even
meditated claiming the restitution of all the ecclesiastical property
which had been usurped in preceding reigns. The penance of Attigny
was one great political mistake of Louis; his re-marriage was another.
Its consequences were to prove disastrous.
Louis's first wife, “his counsellor and helper in his government,” the
devout Empress Ermengarde, had died at Angers, just as her husband
was returning from his expedition into Brittany (3 Oct. 818). The
Emperor for some time gave himself up to despairing grief. It was even
feared that he would abdicate and retire into a monastery. However,
at the earnest request of his confidential advisers he decided on choosing
a second consort " who might be his helper in the government of his
palace and his kingdom. ” In 819 he chose from among his magnates'
## p. 13 (#59) ##############################################
Judith
13
daughters that of Count Welf, a maiden of a very noble Swabian house,
named Judith. Aegilwi, the new Empress's mother, belonged to one of
the great Saxon families which had always shewn itself faithful to Louis.
Contemporaries are unanimous in lauding not only the beauty of Judith,
which seems to have had most weight in determining the Emperor's
choice, but also her qualities of mind, her learning, her gentleness, her
piety, and the charm of her conversation. She seems to have possessed
great ascendancy over all who came in contact with her, especially over
her husband. In 823 she bore him a son who received the name of
Charles, and whom history knows as Charles the Bald. The ordinatio
of 817 had contemplated no such contingency, nor had the confirmation
of it which had been solemnly decreed at Nimeguen in 819. It was
plain, nevertheless, that whether during his father's lifetime or after his
death, the newborn prince would claim a share equal to that of his
brothers. From this point onwards, the history of the reign of Louis
the Pious becomes almost entirely that of the efforts made by him under
the influence of Judith to secure to the latest-born his portion of the
inheritance, and that of the counter-efforts of the three elder sons to
maintain the integrity of their own shares in virtue of the settlement of
817, and of the principle of unity round which the partisans of Lothar
rallied.
For some time events seemed to take the course provided for by the
settlement of 817. Pepin was put in possession of Aquitaine on his
marriage in 822 with Engeltrude, daughter of Theobert, Count of the
pagus Madriacensis, near the lower Seine, and Louis the German
was entrusted in 825 with the actual administration of his Bavarian
kingdom soon after the assembly at Aix. But in 829, after the assembly
of Worms, the Emperor, by an edict“ issued of his own will ” made a
new arrangement by which his youngest son was given part of Alemannia
with Alsace and Rhaetia and a portion of Burgundy, no doubt with the
title only of duke. All these districts formed part of Lothar's portion,
and he, though godfather of his young brother, could not fail to resent
such measures.
It appears probable that it was in order to remove him
from court that at this juncture he was sent on a new mission into
Italy. At the same time in signing charters he ceases to be designated
by his title of Emperor. But it was necessary to provide a protector
for young Charles, and for this office choice was made of Bernard
of Septimania, who also held the Spanish March and received the
title of Chamberlain. Son of a great man canonised by the Church,
William of Gellone, friend of St Benedict of Aniane, great-grandson of
Charles Martel, and defender of Barcelona at the time of the Saracenic
invasion, Bernard was already in right of his birth and his valour as well
as his position one of the chief personages of the Empire. Because he
was chamberlain Bernard was entrusted with the administration of the
palace and of the royal domains in general, and held “the next place
CH, I.
## p. 14 (#60) ##############################################
14
Family disunion; Pepin's revolt
after the Emperor. " His rise to power seems to have been marked, more-
over, by a change in the personnel of Louis's court. His enemies, through
the mouth of Paschasius Radbertus, accuse him of having “ turned the
palace upside down and scattered the imperial council,” and it is true
that Wala and other partisans of Lothar were set aside from the
administration of affairs to make way for new men, Odo, Count of
Orleans, William, Count of Blois, cousin of Bernard, Conrad and
Rudolf, brothers of the new Empress, Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, and Boso,
Abbot of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Fleury).
The displeasure of the magnates evicted from power or disappointed
in their ambitions was shewn as early as the following year (830).
Louis, perhaps by the advice of Bernard who was eager to strengthen
his position by military successes, had planned a new expedition against
the Bretons and summoned the host to meet at Rennes at Easter
(14 April). Many of the Franks proved little disposed to enter on a
campaign in spring, at an inclement season of the year. On the other
.
hand, Wala secretly informed Pepin that hostile designs were being
formed against him by Bernard, who under pretext of an expedition
into Brittany meditated nothing less than turning his arms against the
king of Aquitaine and stripping him of his possessions. Pepin was a
man of energy, but also of levity and impetuosity, and under pressure,
perhaps, from the Aquitanian lords who had gradually been substituted
for the Frankish counsellors placed round him by his father, either
believed, or feigned to believe the information, and came to an agree-
ment with his brother Louis and the partisans of Wala and Lothar
to march against the Emperor.
Louis the Pious, who was on his way to Rennes along the coast with
Judith and Bernard, was at Sithiu (Saint-Bertin) when the news of the
revolt reached him. He continued his journey as far as Saint-Riquier.
But the time had gone by for the Breton expedition. The majority of
the fideles who should have gathered at Rennes to take part in it had
met at Paris and made common cause with the rebels. Pepin, after
having occupied Orleans, had joined them at Verberie, N. E. of Senlis.
Louis the German had done likewise. As to Lothar, he was lingering
in Italy, perhaps to watch what turn events would take. But any
resistance was impossible for Louis, because the whole weight of military
force veas on the side of the conspirators. The latter declared that they
had no quarrel with the Emperor, but only with his wife, whom they
accused of a guilty connexion with Bernard. They demanded therefore
that Judith should be exiled and her accomplices punished. Louis,
sending Bernard for refuge to his city of Barcelona, and leaving the
Empress at Aix, went to meet the rebels, who were then at Compiègne
and surrendered himself into their hands. Judith, who had set out to
join him, fearing violence took shelter in the church of Notre-Dame at
Laon. Two of the counts who had espoused Pepin's cause, Warin of
## p. 15 (#61) ##############################################
Disloyalty of Lothar
15
Mâcon and Lambert of Nantes, came up and forcibly removed her.
After having detained her a prisoner for some time with her husband,
they finally shut her up in a convent at Poitiers. Her two brothers,
Conrad and Rudolf, were tonsured and relegated to Aquitanian monas-
teries.
In these circumstances, Lothar, dreading no doubt that he might
be ignored if a division should take place without him, arrived at
Compiègne and at once put himself at the head of the movement, his
first step being to resume his title of joint-Emperor. Louis the Pious
seemed inclined to dismiss Bernard and restore the former government.
Lothar's desires went beyond this, and he surrounded his father with
monks instructed to persuade him to embrace the religious life, for which
he had formerly shewn some inclination. But Louis did not fall in with
this project. He was secretly negotiating with Louis the German and
Pepin, promising them an increase of territory if they would abandon
the cause of Lothar. On their side, the two princes were no more
inclined to be Lothar's subjects than their father's. The Emperor and
his supporters succeeded in gathering a new assembly at Nimeguen in
the autumn, at which were present many of the Saxon and German
lords who were always loyal to Louis. The reaction beginning in favour
of the Emperor now shewed itself plainly. Louis was declared to be
re-established in his former authority. It was also decided to recall
Judith. On the other hand, several of the abettors of the revolt were
arrested. Wala was obliged to surrender the abbey of Corbie. The
Arch-Chaplain Hilduin, Abbot of St Denis, was banished to Paderborn.
Lothar, in alarm, accepted the pardon offered him by his father and
shewed himself at the assembly beside the Emperor in the character of
a dutiful son.
The assembly convoked at Aix-la-Chapelle (February 831) to pass
definitive sentence on the rebels, adjudged them the penalty of death,
which Louis the Pious commuted to imprisonment and exile, together
with confiscation of goods. Lothar himself was obliged to subscribe to
the condemnation of his former partisans. Thus Hilduin lost the
abbeys he had possessed and was banished to Corvey, Wala was impris-
oned in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Geneva, Matfrid and Elisachar
exiled. At the same time the Empress, after solemnly clearing herself
by oath from the accusations levelled against her, was declared restored
to her former position. Her brothers, Conrad and Rudolf, quitted the
monasteries in which they had been temporarily confined, and recovered
their dignities. Contrariwise the name of Lothar again disappears from
the parchments containing the imperial diplomas, the eldest son losing
his privileged position as joint-Emperor, and being reduced to that
of king of Italy, while in accordance with the promise he had made
them Louis the Pious increased the shares of his younger sons in the
inheritance. To Pepin's Aquitanian kingdom were annexed the districts
CH. 1.
## p. 16 (#62) ##############################################
16
Revolt of Louis the German
between the Loire and the Seine, and, to the north of the latter river,
the Meaux country, with the Amiénois and Ponthieu as far as the sea.
Louis of Bavaria saw his portion enlarged by the addition of Saxony
and Thuringia and the greater part of the pagi which make up modern
Belgium and the Netherlands. Charles, besides Alemannia, received Bur-
gundy, Provence and Gothia with a slice of Francia, and in particular,
the important province of Rheims. Nevertheless, as these arrangements
had no validity until Louis the Pious should have disappeared from the
scene, they made little or no change in the actual position of the three
princes, especially as the Emperor expressly reserved to himself the
power to give additional advantage to “any one of our three above-
mentioned sons, who, desirous of pleasing in the first place God, and
secondly ourselves, should distinguish himself by his obedience and
zeal” by withdrawing somewhat “from the portion of that one of his
brothers who shall have neglected to please us. " Yet the sentences
pronounced at Aix-la-Chapelle were to be of no lasting effect. At
Ingelheim, in the beginning of May, several of the former partisans of
Lothar were pardoned. Hilduin, in particular, regained his abbey
of St Denis. On the other hand, Bernard, though like Judith he had
purged himself by oath before the assembly at Thionville from the
accusations made against him, had not been reinstated in his office at
court. On the contrary, it would seem that Louis the Pious made
endeavours to reconcile himself with Lothar, perhaps under the influence
of Judith, who was ever ready to cherish the idea that her young son
might find a protector in his eldest brother. The Emperor was, besides,
in a fair way towards a breach with Pepin. The latter being summoned
to the assembly at Thionville (autumn 831) had delayed under various
pretexts to present himself, and when he did resolve to appear before
the Emperor at Aix (end of 831) his father received him with so small
a show of favour that Pepin either feared or pretended to fear for his
safety, and at the end of December secretly betook himself again to
Aquitaine, disregarding the prohibition, which had been laid
upon
him. Louis decided to take strong measures against him and called an
assembly to meet at Orleans in 832, to which Lothar and Louis the
German were both summoned. From Orleans an expedition was to be
sent south of the Loire.
But at the beginning of 832, the Emperor learned that Louis the
German, perhaps fearing to share the fate of Pepin, or instigated by
some of the leaders of the revolt of 830, was in a state of rebellion,
and at the head of his Bavarians, reinforced by a contingent of Slavs,
had invaded Alemannia (the apanage of Charles) where many of the
nobles had ranged themselves on his side. Relinquishing for the moment
his Aquitanian project, Louis summoned the host of the Franks and
Saxons to muster at Mayence. The leudes eagerly responded to his
appeal, and Louis the German, who was encamped at Lorsch, was
## p. 17 (#63) ##############################################
Provisions for Charles the Bald
17
obliged to recognise that he had no means of resisting the superior
forces at his father's disposal. He therefore retreated. The imperial
army slowly followed his line of march, and by the month of May had
reached Augsburg. Here it was that Louis the German came to seek
his father and make his submission to him, swearing never in future to
renew his attempts at revolt.
Louis then turned towards Aquitaine. From Frankfort, where he
was joined by Lothar, he convoked a new host to meet at Orleans on
1 September. Thence he crossed the Loire, and ravaging the country
as he went, reached Limoges. He halted for some time to the north of
this town, at the royal residence of Jonac in La Marche, where Pepin
came to him and in his turn submitted himself to him. But, shewing
more severity in his case than in that of Louis the German, the Emperor,
with the alleged object of reforming his morals, caused him to be arrested
and sent to Trèves. At the same time, disclosing his true purpose, he
annexed Aquitaine to the dominions of young Charles, to whom the
magnates present at the assembly at Jonac were required to swear
fealty. Bernard of Septimania himself, whose influence excited alarm,
was deprived of his honours and benefices, which were given to Berengar,
Count of Toulouse. But the Aquitanians, always jealous of their
independence, would not submit to be deprived of the prince whom they
had come to look upon as their own. They succeeded in liberating him
from the custody of his escort, and the Frankish troops, sent in pursuit
by Louis, were unable to recapture him. The imperial army was obliged
to turn northward, harassed by the Aquitanian insurgents, and their
winter march proved disastrous. When Louis at length reached Francia
again, leaving Aquitaine in arms behind him (January 833), it was only
to learn that his two other sons, Lothar and Louis the German, were
again in rebellion against him.
Lothar and Louis no doubt dreaded lest they should meet with the
same treatment as Pepin. Moreover they could not see without feelings
of jealousy the share of young Charles in the paternal heritage so
disproportionately augmented. Again, Lothar had found a new ally in
the person of the Pope, Gregory IV (elected in 827). The latter,
though hesitating at first, had ended by allowing himself to be caught
by the prospect of bringing peace to the Empire, and of securing for the
Papacy the position of a mediating power. He had therefore decided
on accompanying Lothar when he crossed the Alps to join his brother
of Germany, and had addressed a circular letter to the bishops of Gaul
and Germany, asking them to order fasts and prayers for the success of
his enterprise. This did not hinder the greater number of the prelates
from rallying round Louis who was at Worms where his army was
concentrating.
XIX, XX. Learning and Literature
XXI. Byzantine and Romanesque Arts
612-614
615–617
618-624
625-630
631-635
636-638
639—641
.
642643
644645
.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF LEADING EVENTS
646—650
INDEX
651–700
## p. xxxviii (#44) #########################################
Xxxviii
LIST OF MAPS.
VOLUME III.
(See separate portfolio. )
28 a. The Western Empire 843.
28 b. The Western Empire 870.
29. France in 987.
30. North-Western France in the eleventh century.
Inset: Environs of Paris.
31. Burgundy at the beginning of the eleventh century.
32. Italy at close of the tenth century.
Inset: Rome, approximate plan before A. D. 1084.
33. Germany in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
34. Eastern neighbours of Germany in the eleventh century.
35. The Vikings.
Inset: Ireland.
36. England circa A. D. 900.
37. Spain to illustrate the era of the Umayyads.
Inset: Spain at the death of Alfonso I.
## p. xxxix (#45) ###########################################
xxxix
CORRECTIONS IN MAPS
As the maps were partly executed before the war, some changes are required ;
these, with a few others, are given in the following list.
MAP 28 a. THE WESTERN EMPIRE 843
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Trier read Trèves
The shading of the dominions of Lothar should be extended over and be-
yond the Papal Lands so as to include the whole of the name ITALIA
MAP 28 B. THE WESTERN EMPIRE 870
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Trier read Trèves
MAP 29. FRANCE in 987
For DUCHY OF FRANCE [between Brittany and R. Seine) read MARCH OF
NEUSTRIA
For Ribagoree read Ribagorza
MAP 31. BURGUNDY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY
For Bellay read Belley
MAP 32. ITALY AT CLOSE OF THE TENTA CENTURY
For Aquilea read Aquileia
For Caesena read Cesena
The shading of Apulia should be extended so as to include the coastland
of Lucania and the whole of Calabria.
Map 33. GERMANY IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES
For Aachen read Aix-la-Chapelle
For Lyutizi read Lyutitzi
For Mainz read Mayence
For MISNIA read MEISSEN
For Regensburg read Ratisbon
For Strasburg read Strasbourg
For Trier read Trèves
MAP 34. EASTERN NEIGHBOURS OF GERMANY
For Lyutizi read Lyutitzi
MAP 35. THE VIKINGS
For Durstede read Dorestad
MAP 37. SPAIN
For Cerdagne read Cerdaña
For Ribagorze read Ribagorza
## p. xl (#46) ##############################################
5
。
## p. 1 (#47) ###############################################
CHAPTER I.
LOUIS THE PIOUS.
It was at his winter home at Doué, early in February 814, that Louis
of Aquitaine received the news of his father's death, which had been
immediately sent to him by his sisters and the magnates who had
espoused his cause. It is a difficult matter to discern through the
self-interested encomiums of biographers and the calumnies set afloat by
political opponents, the real character of the man who had now taken
over the burdensome heritage left by the Emperor Charles. Louis, who
was at this time thirty-six years old, was, in form and manners, a tall,
handsome man, broad-shouldered, with a strong voice, skilled in bodily
exercises, fond, as his ancestors were, of the chase, but less easily led
away by the seductions of passion and good cheer. With regard to his
mental qualities, he was a learned man, well acquainted with Latin, and
able even to compose verses in that language, having some knowledge of
Greek, and in particular, well versed in moral theology. He was modest
and unassuming, of a usually gentle temper, and he constantly shewed
himself capable of generosity and compassion even towards his enemies.
His piety, to which he owes the surname by which history has known
him from his own century to ours, appears to have been deep and
genuine. It was shewn not only by his zealous observance of fast and
festival and his prayerful habits, but by his sustained interest in the
affairs of the Church. During the time he spent in Aquitaine the reform
of the Septimanian monasteries by Benedict of Aniane had engaged a
large share of his attention. Throughout his reign his capitularies are
,
filled with measures dealing with the churches and monasteries. It must
not be forgotten, however, that in that age Church and State were so
closely connected that provisions of this description were absolutely
necessary to good administration, and that it would thus be a mistake to
look upon Louis as a mere “crowned monk. ” A king in Aquitaine from
781, and associated in the Empire in 813, he had become accustomed
to the prospect of his eventual succession. Though the news of Charles's
death took him by surprise, the new sovereign seems promptly to have
made such arrangements as the circumstances required, for after having
shewn all the signs of the deepest grief and ordered fitting prayer to be
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. I.
1
## p. 2 (#48) ###############################################
2
First Measures
made for the repose of the soul of the dead, he set out on his journey for
Aix-la-Chapelle in company with his wife and children and the chief
lords of his party. He was doubtless uneasy as to what measures were
being taken there by his father's former ministers, among them Wala,
the grandson of Charles Martel, who had wielded so great an influence
at the late Emperor's court. Such fears, however, were groundless, for
hardly had Louis reached the banks of the Loire than the lords of
Francia, hastening to meet him and take the oath of fealty to him, gave
him an enthusiastic welcome. The famous Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans,
having received timely notice, had even found leisure to compose certain
poems for the occasion, hailing the dawn of the new reign. Wala
himself came to meet his cousin at Herstall, before the Emperor, who
was going by Paris in order to visit the celebrated sanctuaries of
Saint-Denis and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, had entered Francia. Most of
the magnates hastened to follow his example.
At Herstall the new Emperor made some stay. There was at the
palace of Aix a clique of the discontented who relied, perhaps, on the
support of Charles's daughters, and whose chief offence in the eyes of
Louis seems to have been their disposition to pursue the dissolute way
of life which had been customary at the court of the late Emperor.
Wala, Lambert, Count of Nantes, and Count Garnier were sent on in
advance to secure order in the palace and to seize upon any from whom
resistance was to be feared. They were obliged to use force in carrying
out their mission, and some lives were lost. After Louis, on 27 Feb-
ruary, had made his solemn entry into Aix-la-Chapelle amidst the shouts
of the people, and had taken over the government, he continued the
same course, taking measures to put an end to the scandals, real or
alleged, which for the last few years had dishonoured the court. His
sisters, whose lapses from virtue, however, dated many years back, were
the first to be assailed. After dividing among them the property due
to them under Charles's will, he sent them into banishment at various
convents. Nothing is known of the fate of Gisela and Bertha, but
Theodrada was obliged to retire to her abbey of Argenteuil, and
Rothaid to Faremoutier. The Jewish and Christian merchants also,
who were found established in the palace, were summoned to depart
from it, as well as the superfluous women not required for the service
of the court. At the same time Louis kept with him his illegitimate
brothers, Hugh, Drogo and Theodoric. But the arrangements made
.
in the name of good morals were followed up at once by measures
directed against the descendants of Charles Martel. In spite of the
loyalty just shewn by Wala, his brother Adalard, Abbot of Corbie,
was exiled to the island of Noirmoutier, while another brother, Ber-
nier, was confined at Lérins, and their sister, Gundrada, at St, Rade-
gund of Poitiers. Wala himself, fearing a like fate, chose to retire to
Corbie.
## p. 3 (#49) ###############################################
Division of Territory
3
Apparently it was also a zeal for reform which inspired Louis at the
first general placitum held at Aix in August 814 to decide on sending
out to all parts of the kingdom missi charged with the duty of making
inquiry into “ the slightest actions of the counts and judges and even of
the missi previously despatched from the palace, in order to reform what
they found to have been unjustly done, and bring it into conformity
with justice, to restore their patrimony to the oppressed, and freedom to
those who had been unjustly reduced to servitude. ” It was a like
anxiety which impelled him next year for the protection of the native
inhabitants of the Spanish March, molested as they were by the Frankish
Counts, to take those measures which are to be found among the pro-
visions of certain of his capitularies.
At this placitum of Aix appeared the young king of Italy, Bernard,
who came to make oath of fealty to his uncle. The Emperor received
him kindly, bestowed rich gifts on him, and sent him back to Italy,
having confirmed him in his title of king while reserving to himself the
imperial sovereignty, as is shewn by the fact that even in Italy all
legislative acts emanate exclusively from the Emperor. He it is also
who, during Bernard's life, grants the confirmation of the privileges of
the great Italian abbeys. At the same time Louis assigned as kingdoms
to his two elder sons with much the same terms of dependence on
himself two portions of the Frankish Empire which still retained a
certain degree of autonomy, Bavaria to Lothar and Aquitaine to Pepin.
Both were, however, too young to exercise real power. Louis therefore
placed about each of them Frankish officials entrusted with the duty of
governing the country in their names. As to the Emperor's latest-born
son, Louis, he was too young to be put in even nominal charge of a
kingdom so that he remained under his father's care.
In spite, however, of the “cleansing” of the imperial palace, Louis
retained around him a certain number of his father's old servants and
advisers, such as Adalard the Count Palatine, and Hildebold, Archbishop
of Cologne. Some also who had been among his most faithful counsellors
in Aquitaine followed him to Francia. Bego, the husband of his daughter
Alpaïs, one of the companions of his youth, seems to have become
Count of Paris. Louis also retained as Chancellor Elisachar, the chief
of his Aquitanian clerks, a learned man and a patron of letters, to whom
perhaps may be owing the remarkable improvement traceable at this
time in the drawing up of the imperial diplomas. But the man who
seems to have played the chief part during the early years of the reign
was the Goth Witiza, St Benedict of Aniane, the reformer of the
Aquitanian monasteries. The Emperor had lost no time in summoning
him to his side at Aix,, and a large number of the diplomas issued
at this time from the imperial chancery were granted at his request.
Benedict had at first been installed as Abbot at Maursmünster in Alsace,
but the Emperor, evidently feeling that he was still too far away, had
CH. I.
1-2
## p. 4 (#50) ###############################################
4
Empire and Papacy
a
tha
hastened to build the monastery of Inden in the woods around Aix-la-
Chapelle and to set him at its head.
It was, no doubt, to the influence of the Abbot of Inden that the
measures were due which were taken a few years later (817) to establish
one uniform rule, that of St Benedict of Nursia, in all monasteries
throughout the Frankish Empire. Other regulations were to be applied
to the canons of cathedral churches, in order to complete the work
formerly begun by St Chrodegang; and in a long capitulary, de rebus
ecclesiasticis, the rights and duties of bishops and clerks were defined
with the special object of preserving them from the secularisation of
their property which had too often befallen them at the hands of the
lay power, since the days of Charles Martel.
The Emperor's care for the interests of the Church, and the im-
portance he attached to its good administration, were in harmony both
with the traditions set up by Charles and also with the universal con-
ception of an empire in which the civil and ecclesiastical powers were
intimately connected, although the imperial authority could not be
said to be subjected to that of the Church. As early as the first year of
his reign, Louis had had occasion to shew that he intended in this matter
to maintain his rights inviolate even against the Pope himself. A con-
spiracy among the Roman nobility against Leo III had been discovered
and punished by that Pope. The culprits had been put to death
without consulting the Emperor or his representative. Louis, con-
ceiving that his rights had been infringed by these indications of
independence, directed Bernard of Italy and Gerold, Count of the
Eastern March, to hold an inquiry into the affair. Two envoys from
the Holy See were obliged to accompany them to the Emperor bearing
the excuses and explanations of the Pope (815). In the same year a
revolt of the inhabitants of the Campagna against the papal authority
was by order of Bernard suppressed by Winichis, the Duke of Spoleto.
Leo III died on 12 June 816 and the Romans chose as his successor
in the Chair of Peter Stephen IV, a man of noble family who seems
to have been as much devoted to the Frankish monarchy as his pre-
decessor had been hostile to it. His first care was to exact from the
Romans an oath of fealty to the Emperor. At the same time he sent
an embassy to Louis with orders to announce the election to him, but
also to request an interview at a place suited to the Emperor's convenience.
Louis gladly consented and sent an invitation to Stephen to come to
meet him in France escorted by Bernard of Italy. It was at Rheims,
where Charlemagne had formerly had a meeting with Leo III, that the
Emperor awaited the Sovereign Pontiff. When Stephen drew near,
Louis went a mile out of the city to meet him, in his robes of state,
helped him to dismount from his horse, and led him in great pomp as
far as the Abbey of Saint-Remi a little beyond the city. On the
morrow he gave him a solemn reception in Rheims itself, and after several
>
а
## p. 5 (#51) ###############################################
Constitutio Romana
5
a
days spent in conferring about the interests of the Church, the ceremony
of the imperial coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre-Dame.
The Pope significantly set on Louis's head a diadem which he had brought
with him from Rome and anointed him with the holy oil. The Empress
Ermengarde was also crowned and anointed, and a few days later
Stephen, accompanied by the imperial missi, again turned towards Rome,
perhaps bearing with him the diplomas by which Louis confirmed the
Roman Church in its privileges and possessions. Thus once more a
seal was set upon the alliance between the Papacy and the Empire.
At the same time, the subsequent relations of Louis the Pious with
the Holy See shew the Emperor's constant anxiety for the observance
of the twofold principle that the Emperor is the protector of the Pope,
but that in return for his protection he has the right to exercise his
sovereign authority throughout Italy, even in Rome itself, and, in
particular, to give his assent to the election of a new pontiff. On the
death of Stephen IV (24 January 817) Paschal I hastened to inform
Louis of his election and to renew with him the agreement arrived at
with his predecessors. The sending of Lothar to Italy as king with
the special mission of governing the country, and his coronation in 823
at the hands of Paschal I, were a further guarantee of the imperial
authority. Hence, no doubt, arose a certain discontent among the
Roman nobles and even among the Pope's entourage which shewed itself
in the execution of the primicerius Theodore and his son-in-law, the
nomenclator Leo, who were first blinded and then beheaded in the Lateran
palace, as guilty of having shewn themselves in all things too faithful to
the party of the young Emperor Lothar. Paschal was accused of
having allowed or even ordered this double execution, and two missi were
sent to Rome to hold an inquiry into the matter, an inquest which,
however, led to no result, for the Pope sent ambassadors of his own
to Louis, with instructions to clear their master by oath from the
accusations levelled against him.
On the death of Paschal I (824), as soon as the election of his suc-
cessor, Eugenius II, had been announced to Louis, then at Compiègne,
he sent Lothar to Italy to settle with the new Pope measures securing
the right exercise of the imperial jurisdiction in the papal state. This
mission of Lothar's led to the promulgation of the Constitutio Romana
of 824, intended to safeguard the rights “ of all living under the pro-
tection of the Emperor and the Pope. ” Missi sent by both authorities
were to superintend the administration of true justice. The Roman
judges were to continue their functions, but were to be subject to
imperial control. The Roman people were given leave to choose under
what law they would live, but were required to take an oath of fealty
to the Emperor. The measures thus taken and the settlement agreed
upon were confirmed in writing by the Pope, who pledged himself to
observe them. On his death, and after the brief pontificate of Valentine,
CH. I.
## p. 6 (#52) ###############################################
6
Neighbours of the Empire
Gregory IV was not, in fact, consecrated until the Emperor had signified
his approval of the election.
Outside his own dominions, if Louis appears to have made no
attempt to extend his power beyond the limits fixed by Charlemagne,
he did at least exert himself to maintain his supremacy over the
semi-vassal nations dwelling on all the frontiers of the Empire. For
the most part, however, these races seem to have sought to preserve
good relations with their powerful neighbour. The respect which, for
the first few years of the reign, they entertained for the successor of
Charlemagne is proved by the presence at all the great assemblies
of ambassadors from different nations bearing pacific messages. At
Compiègne, in 816, Slovenes and Obotrites appeared, and again at
Herstall (818) and at Frankfort (823); Bulgarian envoys on several
occasions; and in 823 two leaders who, among the Wiltzi, were con-
tending for power, begged the Emperor to act as arbitrator. Danes
were present at Paderborn (815), at Aix-la-Chapelle (817), at Compiègne
(823) and at Thionville (831). Louis even received Sardinians in 815
and Arabs in 816. As to the Eastern Empire, the Basileis seem always
to have shewn anxiety to keep on good terms with Louis. On various
occasions their ambassadors appeared at the great assemblies held by
him; at Aix (817) to settle a question concerning frontiers in Dalmatia ;
at Rouen in 824 to discuss what measures should be taken in the matter
of the controversy concerning images ; at Compiègne in 827 to renew
their professions of amity. It may be added that it was a Greek, the
priest George, who built for Louis the Pious the first hydraulic organ
ever used in Gaul.
Even from a military point of view, the reign of Louis the Pious
bore at first the appearance of being in some sort a continuation of that
of Charles, under a prince capable of repelling the attacks of his enemies.
In the north, the Danish race were at this time fairly easily held in awe.
One of the rivals then disputing for power, Harold, having been driven
out by his cousins, the sons of Godefrid, came in 814 to take shelter at
the court of Aix. In 815 the Saxon troops with the Obotrite“ friendlies”
made an attempt to restore this ally of the Franks to the throne, under
the leadership of the missus Baldric. Promises of submission were made
by the Danes, and hostages were handed over, but this was the only
result obtained. It was not until about 819 that a revolution recalled
Harold to the throne, whence his rivals had just been driven. He
retained it until a fresh revulsion of feeling forced him again to take
refuge at the court of Louis. On the other hand, in concert with Pope
Paschal, Louis had been endeavouring to convert the Danes to Christianity.
Ebbo, Archbishop of Rheims, was sent on this mission. Setting out in
company with Halitgar, Bishop of Cambrai, he united his labours with
those of Anskar and his companions who were already at work spreading
the Christian Faith in the district around the mouth of the Elbe, where
## p. 7 (#53) ###############################################
Eastern Frontiers
7
Saxons and Scandinavians came into contact with one another. The
monastery of Corvey or New Corbie (822) and the bishopric of Ham-
burg (831) were founded to safeguard Christianity in the country thus
evangelised. When in 826 the Danish prince Harold came to be
baptised at Mayence with several hundreds of his followers, the
ceremony was made the opportunity for splendid entertainments at
which the whole court was present, and was looked upon by the circle
surrounding the Emperor as a triumph. But attacks by way of the sea
were already beginning against the Frankish Empire. In 820 a band of
pirates had attempted to land, first in Frisia, and then on the shores of
the lower Seine, but being beaten off by the inhabitants they had been
forced to content themselves with retiring to pillage the island of Bouin
off the coast of La Vendée. In 829 a Scandinavian invasion of Saxony
had momentarily alarmed Louis, but had led to nothing. In short, it
may be said that for the first part of the reign Louis's dominions had
been exempt from the ravages of the Vikings, but the tempest which was
to rage so furiously a few years later was already seen to be gathering.
The Slavonic populations which bordered Frankish Germany on the
east were also kept within due bounds. In 816 the heorbann of the
Saxons and East Franks, called out against the rebellious Sorbs,
compelled them to renew their oaths of submission. Next year the
Frankish counts in charge of the frontier successfully beat off an attack
by Slavomir, the prince of the Obotrites, who, being made prisoner a
little later and accused before the Emperor by his own subjects, was
deposed, his place being given to his rival Ceadrag (818). The new
prince, however, before long deserted his former allies, joined forces
with the Danes, and unsuccessfully renewed the struggle with the
Franks. The latter found a more formidable opponent in the person of
Liudevit, a prince who had succeeded in reducing to his obedience part
of the population of Pannonia and was menacing the Frankish frontier
between the Drave and the Save. An expedition sent against him
under the Marquess of Friuli, Cadolah, was not successful. Cadolah died
during the campaign, and the Slovenes invaded the imperial territory
(820). It was only through an alliance with one of Liudevit's foes,
Bozna, the Grand Župan of the Croats, that the Franks in their turn
were enabled to spread destruction through the enemy's country, and to
force the tribes of Carniola and Carinthia, who had thrown off their
allegiance, to submit afresh. Liudevit himself made his submission next
year, and peace was maintained upon the eastern frontier till 827-8,
when an irruption of the Bulgarians into Pannonia necessitated another
Frankish expedition, headed this time by the Emperor's son Louis the
German. By way of compensation, unbroken peace reigned on the
extreme southern frontier of the dominions of Louis. The Lombard
populations of the south of Italy continued to be practically independent
of Frankish rule. Louis made no attempt to exert any effective
CH. I.
## p. 8 (#54) ###############################################
8
The Saracens
sovereignty over them. He contented himself with receiving from Prince
Grimoald of Benevento in 814 a promise to pay tribute and assurances
of submission, vague engagements which his successor Sico renewed
more than once without causing any change in the actual situation.
On the south-western frontier of the Empire a state of war, or at
least of perpetual skirmishing, went on between the Franks and either
the Saracens of Spain or the half-subdued inhabitants of the Pyrenees.
In 815 hostilities had broken out anew with the Emir Hakam I,
whom the Frankish historians call Abulaz. The following year the recall
of Séguin (Sigiwin), Duke of Gascony, led to a revolt of the Basques,
but the native chief whom the rebels had placed at their head was de-
feated and killed by the counts in the service of Louis the Pious. Two
years later (818) the Emperor felt himself strong enough to banish
Lupus son of Centullus, the national Duke of the Gascons, and in 819
an expedition under Pepin of Aquitaine resulted in an apparent and
temporary pacification of the province. On the other hand, at the
assembly at Quierzy in 820 it was decided to renew the war with the
Saracens of Spain. But the Frankish annalists mention only a plundering
raid beyond the Segre river (822), and in 824 the defeat of two Frankish
counts in the valley of Roncesvalles, as they were returning from an
expedition against Pampeluna. In 826 the revolt in the Spanish March
of a chief of Gothic extraction gave Louis the Pious graver cause for
disquiet. An army led by the Abbot Elisachar checked the rebels
for the moment, but they appealed to the Emir ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmān, and
the Muslim troops sent under the command of Abū-Marwān penetrated
as far as the walls of Saragossa. At the Compiègne assembly held in
the summer of 827, the Emperor decided on sending a new Frankish
army beyond the Pyrenees, but its leaders, Matfrid, Count of Orleans,
and Hugh, Count of Tours, shewed such an entire lack of zeal and
interposed so many delays, that Abū-Marwān was able to ravage the
districts of Barcelona and Gerona with impunity. The progress of the
invaders was only checked by the energetic resistance of Barcelona, under
Count Bernard of Septimania, but they were able, nevertheless, to with-
draw unhindered with their booty.
In 828, in another quarter of the
Frankish Empire, Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany, was taking the offensive.
After having, at the head of his little flotilla, destroyed the pirate
Muslim ships in the neighbourhood of Corsica and Sardinia, he landed
in Africa and ravaged the country round Carthage.
To the extreme west of the Empire, the Bretons, whom even the
great Charles had never been able to subdue completely, continued from
time to time to send out pillaging expeditions into Frankish territory,
chiefly in the direction of Vannes. These were mere raids, up to the
time when their union under the leadership of a chief named Morvan
(Murmannus), to whom they gave the title of king, so far emboldened
the Bretons that they refused to pay homage or the annual tribute to
## p. 9 (#55) ###############################################
The Bretons
9
which they had heretofore been subject. Louis, having attempted in
vain to negotiate with the rebels, made up his mind to act, and
summoned the host of Francia, Burgundy, and even of Saxony and
Alemannia, to gather at Vannes in August 818. The Frankish troops
pushed their way into the enemy's territory without having to fight a
regular battle, as the Bretons, following their customary tactics, preferred
to disappear from sight and merely harass their enemy. The latter
could do no more than ravage the country, but Morvan was killed in a
skirmish. His countrymen then abandoned the struggle, and at the
end of a month the Emperor re-entered Angers, having exacted promises
of submission from the more powerful of the Breton chiefs. Their sub-
mission, however, did not last long. In 822, a certain Wihomarch
repeated Morvan's attempt. The expeditions led against him by the
Frankish counts of the march of Brittany or by the Emperor himself were
marked only by the wasting of the country, and produced no permanent
results. Not until 826 did a new system ensure a measure of tranquillity.
Louis then recognised the authority over the Bretons of a chief of their
own race, Nomenoë, to whom he gave the title of missus and who in
return did homage to him and took the oath of fealty. But the union
of Brittany under a single head was a dangerous measure.
Louis was
blind to its disadvantages, but they were destined to have disastrous
results in the reign of his successor.
Events within the realm were to begin the disorganisation of Louis's
government and ultimately bring about the disruption of the empire
founded by Charlemagne. In July 817 at the assembly of Aix-la-
Chapelle, the Emperor had decided to take measures to establish the
succession, or rather to cause the arrangements already made by himself
and a few of his confidential advisers to be ratified by the lay and
ecclesiastical magnates jointly. The Frankish principle by which the
dominions of a deceased sovereign were divided among his sons, was still
too living a thing (it lasted, indeed, as long as the Carolingian dynasty
itself) to allow of the exclusion of any one of Louis's sons from the suc-
cession. The principle had already been applied in 806, and Louis had
in some sort recognised it afresh by entrusting two of his sons with the
government of two of his kingdoms, while at the same time leaving a third
in the hands of Bernard of Italy. But on the other hand, the Emperor
and his chief advisers were no less firmly attached to the principle of the
unity of the Empire, “by ignoring which we should introduce confusion
into the Church, and offend Him in Whose Hands are the rights of all
kingdoms. ” “Would God, the Almighty,” wrote one of the most
illustrious of the thinkers upholding the system of the unity of the
Empire, Archbishop Agobard of Lyons, “that all men, united under a
single king, were governed by a single law! This would be the best
method of maintaining peace in the City of God and equity among
the nations. " And the wisest and most influential of the clergy in
a
CH. 1.
## p. 10 (#56) ##############################################
1
10
Divisio Imperii
the kingdom thought and spoke with Agobard, because they realised
the advantages which accrued to the Church from the government of a
single emperor in a realm where Church and State were so intimately
connected. Throughout these struggles, which disturbed the whole of
the reign of Louis the Pious, the party in favour of unity counted in its
ranks nearly all the political writers of the time, Agobard, Paschasius
Radbertus, Florus of Lyons. They have been accused of defending their
personal interests under cover of the principle, and it has been pointed
out that often the so-called party of unity was nothing but the coterie
which gathered round Lothar. It is probable enough that the conduct
of the sons of Louis and of the principal counts who took part with
each of them was dictated by motives purely personal, but if the more
important leaders of the ecclesiastical aristocracy are found supporting
Lothar, it must not be forgotten that Lothar stood for the unity of
the Empire for which the Church was working.
However this may be, the arrangements made at Aix, after three
days devoted to fasting and almsgiving in order to call down the
blessing and inspiration of God upon the assembly about to be opened,
might seem of a kind to reconcile diverse principles and interests. The
title of emperor was conferred upon Lothar, who became his father's
colleague in the general administration of the Frankish monarchy. His
coronation took place before the assembly amid the loud applause of the
crowd. The title of king was confirmed to his two brothers, and their
dominions received some augmentation. With Aquitaine, Pepin received
Gascony and the county of Toulouse, as well as the Burgundian counties
of Autun, Avallon and Nevers. Louis took Bavaria which Lothar had
held, with suzerainty over the Carinthians, the Bohemians and the Slavs.
The rest of the Empire was, on the death of Louis, to revert to Lothar,
who alone was to enjoy the title of Emperor. It is somewhat difficult to
say what was to be the position of the young kings with regard to Louis
the Pious. It is probable that in practice it was modified with the
lapse of time and the age of the princes. Indeed Louis, who may from
this time be called Louis the German, the name by which history knows
him, was not put in actual possession of his kingdom until 825. On
the other hand, the act of 817 dealt minutely with the relation in which
the brothers were to stand towards one another after the death of Louis
the Pious. Each was to be sovereign ruler within his own dominions.
.
To the king was to belong the proceeds of the revenue and taxes, and
he was to have full right to dispose of the dignities of bishoprics and
abbeys. At the same time the Emperor's supremacy is ensured by a
series of provisions. His two brothers are bound to consult him on all
occasions of importance; they may not make war or conclude treaties
without his consent. His sanction is also required for their marriage,
and they are forbidden to marry foreigners. They are to attend at the
Emperor's court every year to offer their gift, to confer with him on
## p. 11 (#57) ##############################################
Revolt of Bernard of Italy
11
public affairs, and to receive his instructions. Disputes between them
are to be determined by the general assembly of the Empire. This body
is also to pronounce in case of their being guilty of acts of violence or
oppression and having failed to make satisfaction in accordance with the
remonstrances which it shall be the duty of their elder brother to address
to them. If either of the two die leaving several lawful sons, the people
shall make their choice among them, but there shall be no further
division of territory. If, on the contrary, the deceased leave no legiti.
mate son, his apanage shall devolve on one of his brothers. Supplementary
provisions, derived, indeed, from the Divisio of 806, were added, for-
bidding the magnates to possess benefices in several kingdoms at once,
but allowing any free man to settle in any kingdom he chose, and to
marry there.
Such, in its main outlines, was the celebrated Divisio imperii of 817,
which we may fittingly analyse, as its provisions were often to be
appealed to during the struggle between the sons of Louis. Its object
was to avoid every occasion of strife. Yet one of its earliest effects was
to kindle a revolt, that of the young Bernard of Italy. He considered
himself threatened, or his counsellors persuaded him that he was
threatened, by one of the regulations of the act of Aix, laying down that
after the death of Louis, Italy should be subject to Lothar in the same
manner as it had been to Louis himself and to Charles. It is, however,
difficult to see more in this article than a provision for the maintenance
of the actual status quo. All our authorities agree in attributing the
responsibility for the revolt less to Bernard himself than to certain of his
intimates, the count Eggideus, the chamberlain Reginar (Rainier), and
Anselm, Archbishop of Milan. The Bishop of Orleans, the celebrated
poet Theodulf, was also counted among the young prince's partisans.
The rebels' plan, it was said, was to dethrone the Emperor and his
family, perhaps to put them to death, and to make Bernard sole ruler of
the Empire. Ratbold, Bishop of Verona, and Suppo, Count of Brescia,
who were the first to warn Louis of what was being plotted against him,
added that all Italy was ready to uphold Bernard, and that he was
master of the passes of the Alps. In reality, the rebellion seems in no
sense to bear the character of a national movement, which indeed would
hardly have been possible at this stage, and the numerous army, which
the Emperor hastily assembled, found no difficulty in occupying the
passes of Aosta and Susa. Louis in person put himself at the head of
the troops concentrating at Châlon. Bernard was alarmed, and finding
himself ill supported, made his submission, along with his chief partisans,
to the Frankish counts who had pushed on into Italy, and surrendered
himself into their custody. The prisoners were sent to Aix-la-Chapelle,
and the assembly held in that town at the beginning of 818 condemned
them to death. The Emperor granted them their lives, but commuted
their punishment to that of blinding. Bernard and his friend Count
CH. 1.
## p. 12 (#58) ##############################################
12
Penance of Attigny
Reginar died in a few days in consequence of the torture inflicted
(17 April 818). The young prince was not nineteen. Those of his
accomplices who were churchmen were deposed and confined in monasteries.
Theodulf, in particular, was exiled to Angers. It is probable that it
was this rising in favour of a spurious member of his family which led
the Emperor at this time to take precautionary measures against his
own illegitimate brothers, Hugh, Theodoric and Drogo (later, 826,
Archbishop of Metz), whom he compelled to enter monasteries.
The punishment suffered by Bernard, who was hardly more than a
lad, was out of all proportion to the risk which he had caused the
Emperor to run. It was an act of pure cruelty, and was generally and
severely criticised at the time. Louis himself judged that he had shewn
excessive severity. In 821 at the assembly at Thionville which followed
the rejoicings on the marriage of Lothar with Ermengarde, daughter of
Hugh, Count of Tours, he granted an amnesty to Bernard's former
accomplices, and restored their confiscated property. At the same time
he recalled from Aquitaine Adalard, another of the proscribed, and
replaced him at the head of the monastery of Corbie. Next year at
Attigny he took a further step in the same direction. He solemnly
humiliated himself in the presence of the chief clergy of his kingdom,
the Abbot Elisachar, Adalard and Archbishop Agobard, declaring
that he desired to do penance publicly for the cruelty he had shewn
both to Bernard and to Adalard and his brother Wala. The biographer
of Louis the Pious compares this public penance to that of Theodosius.
It was, in reality, extremely impolitic. The Emperor weakened himself
morally by this humiliation before the ecclesiastical aristocracy, who
looked upon the penance of Attigny as a victory won by themselves
over Louis, “who became,” says Paschasius Radbertus triumphantly,
“the humblest of men, he who had been so ill-counselled by his royal
pride, and who now made satisfaction to those whose eyes had been
offended by his crime. " His humiliation was also accompanied by
measures taken to secure the protection of property belonging to the
Church, and Agobard felt so sure of victory for the latter that he even
meditated claiming the restitution of all the ecclesiastical property
which had been usurped in preceding reigns. The penance of Attigny
was one great political mistake of Louis; his re-marriage was another.
Its consequences were to prove disastrous.
Louis's first wife, “his counsellor and helper in his government,” the
devout Empress Ermengarde, had died at Angers, just as her husband
was returning from his expedition into Brittany (3 Oct. 818). The
Emperor for some time gave himself up to despairing grief. It was even
feared that he would abdicate and retire into a monastery. However,
at the earnest request of his confidential advisers he decided on choosing
a second consort " who might be his helper in the government of his
palace and his kingdom. ” In 819 he chose from among his magnates'
## p. 13 (#59) ##############################################
Judith
13
daughters that of Count Welf, a maiden of a very noble Swabian house,
named Judith. Aegilwi, the new Empress's mother, belonged to one of
the great Saxon families which had always shewn itself faithful to Louis.
Contemporaries are unanimous in lauding not only the beauty of Judith,
which seems to have had most weight in determining the Emperor's
choice, but also her qualities of mind, her learning, her gentleness, her
piety, and the charm of her conversation. She seems to have possessed
great ascendancy over all who came in contact with her, especially over
her husband. In 823 she bore him a son who received the name of
Charles, and whom history knows as Charles the Bald. The ordinatio
of 817 had contemplated no such contingency, nor had the confirmation
of it which had been solemnly decreed at Nimeguen in 819. It was
plain, nevertheless, that whether during his father's lifetime or after his
death, the newborn prince would claim a share equal to that of his
brothers. From this point onwards, the history of the reign of Louis
the Pious becomes almost entirely that of the efforts made by him under
the influence of Judith to secure to the latest-born his portion of the
inheritance, and that of the counter-efforts of the three elder sons to
maintain the integrity of their own shares in virtue of the settlement of
817, and of the principle of unity round which the partisans of Lothar
rallied.
For some time events seemed to take the course provided for by the
settlement of 817. Pepin was put in possession of Aquitaine on his
marriage in 822 with Engeltrude, daughter of Theobert, Count of the
pagus Madriacensis, near the lower Seine, and Louis the German
was entrusted in 825 with the actual administration of his Bavarian
kingdom soon after the assembly at Aix. But in 829, after the assembly
of Worms, the Emperor, by an edict“ issued of his own will ” made a
new arrangement by which his youngest son was given part of Alemannia
with Alsace and Rhaetia and a portion of Burgundy, no doubt with the
title only of duke. All these districts formed part of Lothar's portion,
and he, though godfather of his young brother, could not fail to resent
such measures.
It appears probable that it was in order to remove him
from court that at this juncture he was sent on a new mission into
Italy. At the same time in signing charters he ceases to be designated
by his title of Emperor. But it was necessary to provide a protector
for young Charles, and for this office choice was made of Bernard
of Septimania, who also held the Spanish March and received the
title of Chamberlain. Son of a great man canonised by the Church,
William of Gellone, friend of St Benedict of Aniane, great-grandson of
Charles Martel, and defender of Barcelona at the time of the Saracenic
invasion, Bernard was already in right of his birth and his valour as well
as his position one of the chief personages of the Empire. Because he
was chamberlain Bernard was entrusted with the administration of the
palace and of the royal domains in general, and held “the next place
CH, I.
## p. 14 (#60) ##############################################
14
Family disunion; Pepin's revolt
after the Emperor. " His rise to power seems to have been marked, more-
over, by a change in the personnel of Louis's court. His enemies, through
the mouth of Paschasius Radbertus, accuse him of having “ turned the
palace upside down and scattered the imperial council,” and it is true
that Wala and other partisans of Lothar were set aside from the
administration of affairs to make way for new men, Odo, Count of
Orleans, William, Count of Blois, cousin of Bernard, Conrad and
Rudolf, brothers of the new Empress, Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, and Boso,
Abbot of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Fleury).
The displeasure of the magnates evicted from power or disappointed
in their ambitions was shewn as early as the following year (830).
Louis, perhaps by the advice of Bernard who was eager to strengthen
his position by military successes, had planned a new expedition against
the Bretons and summoned the host to meet at Rennes at Easter
(14 April). Many of the Franks proved little disposed to enter on a
campaign in spring, at an inclement season of the year. On the other
.
hand, Wala secretly informed Pepin that hostile designs were being
formed against him by Bernard, who under pretext of an expedition
into Brittany meditated nothing less than turning his arms against the
king of Aquitaine and stripping him of his possessions. Pepin was a
man of energy, but also of levity and impetuosity, and under pressure,
perhaps, from the Aquitanian lords who had gradually been substituted
for the Frankish counsellors placed round him by his father, either
believed, or feigned to believe the information, and came to an agree-
ment with his brother Louis and the partisans of Wala and Lothar
to march against the Emperor.
Louis the Pious, who was on his way to Rennes along the coast with
Judith and Bernard, was at Sithiu (Saint-Bertin) when the news of the
revolt reached him. He continued his journey as far as Saint-Riquier.
But the time had gone by for the Breton expedition. The majority of
the fideles who should have gathered at Rennes to take part in it had
met at Paris and made common cause with the rebels. Pepin, after
having occupied Orleans, had joined them at Verberie, N. E. of Senlis.
Louis the German had done likewise. As to Lothar, he was lingering
in Italy, perhaps to watch what turn events would take. But any
resistance was impossible for Louis, because the whole weight of military
force veas on the side of the conspirators. The latter declared that they
had no quarrel with the Emperor, but only with his wife, whom they
accused of a guilty connexion with Bernard. They demanded therefore
that Judith should be exiled and her accomplices punished. Louis,
sending Bernard for refuge to his city of Barcelona, and leaving the
Empress at Aix, went to meet the rebels, who were then at Compiègne
and surrendered himself into their hands. Judith, who had set out to
join him, fearing violence took shelter in the church of Notre-Dame at
Laon. Two of the counts who had espoused Pepin's cause, Warin of
## p. 15 (#61) ##############################################
Disloyalty of Lothar
15
Mâcon and Lambert of Nantes, came up and forcibly removed her.
After having detained her a prisoner for some time with her husband,
they finally shut her up in a convent at Poitiers. Her two brothers,
Conrad and Rudolf, were tonsured and relegated to Aquitanian monas-
teries.
In these circumstances, Lothar, dreading no doubt that he might
be ignored if a division should take place without him, arrived at
Compiègne and at once put himself at the head of the movement, his
first step being to resume his title of joint-Emperor. Louis the Pious
seemed inclined to dismiss Bernard and restore the former government.
Lothar's desires went beyond this, and he surrounded his father with
monks instructed to persuade him to embrace the religious life, for which
he had formerly shewn some inclination. But Louis did not fall in with
this project. He was secretly negotiating with Louis the German and
Pepin, promising them an increase of territory if they would abandon
the cause of Lothar. On their side, the two princes were no more
inclined to be Lothar's subjects than their father's. The Emperor and
his supporters succeeded in gathering a new assembly at Nimeguen in
the autumn, at which were present many of the Saxon and German
lords who were always loyal to Louis. The reaction beginning in favour
of the Emperor now shewed itself plainly. Louis was declared to be
re-established in his former authority. It was also decided to recall
Judith. On the other hand, several of the abettors of the revolt were
arrested. Wala was obliged to surrender the abbey of Corbie. The
Arch-Chaplain Hilduin, Abbot of St Denis, was banished to Paderborn.
Lothar, in alarm, accepted the pardon offered him by his father and
shewed himself at the assembly beside the Emperor in the character of
a dutiful son.
The assembly convoked at Aix-la-Chapelle (February 831) to pass
definitive sentence on the rebels, adjudged them the penalty of death,
which Louis the Pious commuted to imprisonment and exile, together
with confiscation of goods. Lothar himself was obliged to subscribe to
the condemnation of his former partisans. Thus Hilduin lost the
abbeys he had possessed and was banished to Corvey, Wala was impris-
oned in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Geneva, Matfrid and Elisachar
exiled. At the same time the Empress, after solemnly clearing herself
by oath from the accusations levelled against her, was declared restored
to her former position. Her brothers, Conrad and Rudolf, quitted the
monasteries in which they had been temporarily confined, and recovered
their dignities. Contrariwise the name of Lothar again disappears from
the parchments containing the imperial diplomas, the eldest son losing
his privileged position as joint-Emperor, and being reduced to that
of king of Italy, while in accordance with the promise he had made
them Louis the Pious increased the shares of his younger sons in the
inheritance. To Pepin's Aquitanian kingdom were annexed the districts
CH. 1.
## p. 16 (#62) ##############################################
16
Revolt of Louis the German
between the Loire and the Seine, and, to the north of the latter river,
the Meaux country, with the Amiénois and Ponthieu as far as the sea.
Louis of Bavaria saw his portion enlarged by the addition of Saxony
and Thuringia and the greater part of the pagi which make up modern
Belgium and the Netherlands. Charles, besides Alemannia, received Bur-
gundy, Provence and Gothia with a slice of Francia, and in particular,
the important province of Rheims. Nevertheless, as these arrangements
had no validity until Louis the Pious should have disappeared from the
scene, they made little or no change in the actual position of the three
princes, especially as the Emperor expressly reserved to himself the
power to give additional advantage to “any one of our three above-
mentioned sons, who, desirous of pleasing in the first place God, and
secondly ourselves, should distinguish himself by his obedience and
zeal” by withdrawing somewhat “from the portion of that one of his
brothers who shall have neglected to please us. " Yet the sentences
pronounced at Aix-la-Chapelle were to be of no lasting effect. At
Ingelheim, in the beginning of May, several of the former partisans of
Lothar were pardoned. Hilduin, in particular, regained his abbey
of St Denis. On the other hand, Bernard, though like Judith he had
purged himself by oath before the assembly at Thionville from the
accusations made against him, had not been reinstated in his office at
court. On the contrary, it would seem that Louis the Pious made
endeavours to reconcile himself with Lothar, perhaps under the influence
of Judith, who was ever ready to cherish the idea that her young son
might find a protector in his eldest brother. The Emperor was, besides,
in a fair way towards a breach with Pepin. The latter being summoned
to the assembly at Thionville (autumn 831) had delayed under various
pretexts to present himself, and when he did resolve to appear before
the Emperor at Aix (end of 831) his father received him with so small
a show of favour that Pepin either feared or pretended to fear for his
safety, and at the end of December secretly betook himself again to
Aquitaine, disregarding the prohibition, which had been laid
upon
him. Louis decided to take strong measures against him and called an
assembly to meet at Orleans in 832, to which Lothar and Louis the
German were both summoned. From Orleans an expedition was to be
sent south of the Loire.
But at the beginning of 832, the Emperor learned that Louis the
German, perhaps fearing to share the fate of Pepin, or instigated by
some of the leaders of the revolt of 830, was in a state of rebellion,
and at the head of his Bavarians, reinforced by a contingent of Slavs,
had invaded Alemannia (the apanage of Charles) where many of the
nobles had ranged themselves on his side. Relinquishing for the moment
his Aquitanian project, Louis summoned the host of the Franks and
Saxons to muster at Mayence. The leudes eagerly responded to his
appeal, and Louis the German, who was encamped at Lorsch, was
## p. 17 (#63) ##############################################
Provisions for Charles the Bald
17
obliged to recognise that he had no means of resisting the superior
forces at his father's disposal. He therefore retreated. The imperial
army slowly followed his line of march, and by the month of May had
reached Augsburg. Here it was that Louis the German came to seek
his father and make his submission to him, swearing never in future to
renew his attempts at revolt.
Louis then turned towards Aquitaine. From Frankfort, where he
was joined by Lothar, he convoked a new host to meet at Orleans on
1 September. Thence he crossed the Loire, and ravaging the country
as he went, reached Limoges. He halted for some time to the north of
this town, at the royal residence of Jonac in La Marche, where Pepin
came to him and in his turn submitted himself to him. But, shewing
more severity in his case than in that of Louis the German, the Emperor,
with the alleged object of reforming his morals, caused him to be arrested
and sent to Trèves. At the same time, disclosing his true purpose, he
annexed Aquitaine to the dominions of young Charles, to whom the
magnates present at the assembly at Jonac were required to swear
fealty. Bernard of Septimania himself, whose influence excited alarm,
was deprived of his honours and benefices, which were given to Berengar,
Count of Toulouse. But the Aquitanians, always jealous of their
independence, would not submit to be deprived of the prince whom they
had come to look upon as their own. They succeeded in liberating him
from the custody of his escort, and the Frankish troops, sent in pursuit
by Louis, were unable to recapture him. The imperial army was obliged
to turn northward, harassed by the Aquitanian insurgents, and their
winter march proved disastrous. When Louis at length reached Francia
again, leaving Aquitaine in arms behind him (January 833), it was only
to learn that his two other sons, Lothar and Louis the German, were
again in rebellion against him.
Lothar and Louis no doubt dreaded lest they should meet with the
same treatment as Pepin. Moreover they could not see without feelings
of jealousy the share of young Charles in the paternal heritage so
disproportionately augmented. Again, Lothar had found a new ally in
the person of the Pope, Gregory IV (elected in 827). The latter,
though hesitating at first, had ended by allowing himself to be caught
by the prospect of bringing peace to the Empire, and of securing for the
Papacy the position of a mediating power. He had therefore decided
on accompanying Lothar when he crossed the Alps to join his brother
of Germany, and had addressed a circular letter to the bishops of Gaul
and Germany, asking them to order fasts and prayers for the success of
his enterprise. This did not hinder the greater number of the prelates
from rallying round Louis who was at Worms where his army was
concentrating.
