The task of carrying it into effect was at first entrusted
to a commission of magnates, but difficulties were not long in arising.
to a commission of magnates, but difficulties were not long in arising.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
Charles the Bald attempted to provide against such
contingencies. At Verberie near Senlis (856), at Quierzy near Laon (857
and 858), at Brienne (858), he demanded of his magnates that they
should renew their oath of fealty. In 858 he thought he could
sufficiently depend on them to venture on a new expedition against
the Northmen, who had fortified themselves in the island of Oscellum.
Charles the Younger and Pepin II of Aquitaine had promised their
help. Lothar II himself came with a Lotharingian contingent to take a
share in the campaign (summer of 858). This was the moment which
Adalard and Odo chose for addressing a fresh appeal to Louis the
German. The latter, who was on the point of marching anew against
the Slavs, hesitated long, if we are to trust his chroniclers. Finally,
“strong in the purity of his intentions, he preferred to serve the interests
of the many rather than to submit to the tyranny of one man.
. . " Above
all, he considered the opportunity favourable. Lothar's absence left
the road across Alsace clear for him, and by 1 September 858 he
had established himself in the Western Kingdom, in the palace of Pon-
thion. Here he was joined by such of the magnates as had deserted
Charles the Bald before the fortified Northmen. Thence by way of
Châlons-sur-Marne, he reached first Sens, whither he was called by its
Archbishop Ganelon, and then Orleans, shewing plainly his intention of
holding out a hand to the rebels of Le Mans and Aquitaine.
Charles, for his part, on hearing of the invasion, had hastily raised
the siege of Oscellum, and was on the march for Lorraine. Louis, fearing
to have his retreat to Germany cut off, retraced his steps, whereupon
the armies of the two brothers found themselves face to face in the
neighbourhood of Brienne. But the Frankish counts, whose support
was essential for the final success of either party, had a deep and well-
founded distaste for pitched battles ; the question for them, was merely
the greater or less number of “ benefices” which they might hope to
obtain from one or the other adversary. Recourse was consequently had
to negotiation, when despite the numerous embassies sent by Charles to
Louis, the latter shewed himself the more skilful of the two. By dint of
promises, he succeeded in corrupting nearly all his brother's vassals.
Charles found himself constrained to throw up the game, and retire to
Burgundy, the one province where his supporters were still in a
majority. Louis, seeing nothing to be gained by pursuing him thither,
betook himself to the palace of Attigny, whence on 7 December he
issued a diploma as king of Western Francia, and where he spent his
time in dealing out honours and benefices to those who had come over
to his side. But in order to make his triumph secure, he still had to
.
be acknowledged and consecrated by the Church. The episcopate of
the Western Kingdom, however, remained faithful to Charles, whether
through attachment to the principles of peace and concord, or through
## p. 37 (#83) ##############################################
Faithless nobles
37
dread of a new system founded on the ambitions of the lay aristocracy,
who were ever ready to extort payment for their support out of the
estates of the ecclesiastical magnates. Only Ganelon of Sens, forgetting
that he owed his preferment to Charles's favour, had taken sides with the
new sovereign, thus leaving his name to become in tradition that of the
most notorious traitor of medieval epic. The bishops of the provinces
of Rheims and Rouen being summoned by Louis to attend a council at
Rheims, contrived under the skilful guidance of Hincmar to hinder the
meeting from being held ; protesting meanwhile their good intentions,
but declaring it necessary to summon a general assembly of the epis-
copate, and demanding guarantees for the safety of Church property.
The presence of Louis the German in the province of Rheims, where he
came to spend the Christmas season, and to take up his winter quarters,
made no difference in the Bishops' attitude.
However, Charles the Bald, with the help of the Abbot Hugh and
Count Conrad, had rallied all the supporters that remained to him at
Auxerre. On 9 January he suddenly left his retreat and marched against
his brother. Many of the German lords had set out to return to their own
country. The Western magnates, not seeing any sufficient advantage to
be gained under the new government, shewed no more hesitation in de-
serting it than they had in accepting it. At Jouy, near Soissons, where
the sudden appearance of his brother took Louis by surprise, the German
found himself left with so small a proportion of his quondam followers
that in his turn he was forced to retreat without striking a blow. By
the spring of 859 Charles had regained his authority. Naturally, he
made use of it to punish those who had betrayed him. Adalard lost his
Abbey of Saint-Bertin which was given to the Abbot Hugh, and Odo
lost his counties. What makes it plain that for the magnates the whole
affair was simply a question of material gain, is that in the negotiations
which Charles opened with Louis the point that he specially insisted on
was that the latter, in exchange for the renewal of their alliance, should
abandon to his discretion those magnates who had shared in the defection,
in order that he might deprive them of their estates. The negotiations,
moreover, proved long and thorny, despite the intervention of Lothar II.
Synods and embassies, even an interview between the two sovereigns, in
a boat midway across the Rhine, produced no results. It was not until
the colloquy held at St Castor in Coblence on 1 June 860, in the presence
of a large number of bishops, Hincmar being among them, that Louis
and Charles succeeded in coming to terms. Charles the Bald promised
to leave his magnates in possession of the fiefs which they had received
from Louis the German, reserving his right to deprive them of those
which he himself had previously bestowed on them. The oaths of peace
and concord made in 851 at Meersen were again sworn to. Louis made
a declaration to this effect in the German tongue, denouncing the
severest penalties on all who should violate the agreement, a declaration
CH. 11.
## p. 38 (#84) ##############################################
38
The divorce of Lothar II
afterwards repeated by Charles in the Romance language, and even in
German as far as the more important passages were concerned.
Briefly, it was a return to the status quo as it had been before the
sudden stroke attempted by Louis. A fresh match was about to be
played, the stake this time being the kingdom of Lothar II.
From about 860 to 870 the whole policy of the Carolingian kings
turns mainly on the question of the king of Lorraine's divorce and the
possible succession to his crown. In 855, Lothar had been compelled by
his father to marry Theutberga, a maiden of noble family, sister of a
lord named Hubert whose estates were situated on the upper valley of
the Rhone, and who seems about this time to have been made by the
Emperor governor “of the duchy between the Jura and the Alps
corresponding roughly to French Switzerland of to-day. The marriage
was evidently arranged with the object of ensuring for the young king
the support of a powerful family. But before it took place, Lothar had
had a mistress named Waldrada, by whom he had children, and this
woman seems to have acquired over him an extraordinary ascendency,
which contemporaries, as a matter of course, attribute to the use of
magic. From the very beginning of his reign, Lothar bent all his
energy towards the single end of ridding himself, by any possible means,
of the consort chosen by his father, and raising his former mistress to the
title and rank of a legitimate wife. Theutberga had not borne an heir
to Lothar and seems to have been considered incapable of doing so,
although this was not used as a weapon against her by her adversaries.
On the other hand, it was the consideration which determined the
attitude of the other sovereigns and helped to make the question of the
Lorraine divorce, it may almost be said, an international one. If
Lothar were to die childless, it would mean the partition of his in-
heritance among his relations, practically between his two uncles, for
his brother Charles, epileptic and near his end, was in no position to
interfere, while Louis II, himself without an heir, was too much occupied
in Southern Italy to be a very serious competitor.
Hostile measures against Theutberga had been taken almost at the
very beginning of the new king's reign. He hurled at his wife a charge
of incest with her brother Hubert. But a champion nominated by the
queen submitted himself on her behalf to the Judgment of God by the
ordeal of boiling water. The result was the solemn proclamation of
Theutberga's innocence, and Lothar II was obliged to yield to the
wishes of his nobles and take back his wife. Hubert, for his part, had
revolted, and under the pretext of defending his sister was indulging in
acts of brigandage in the upper valley of the Rhone. An expedition
sent against him by the king of Lorraine had produced no results.
Thus the cession made (859) by Lothar to his brother Louis II of the
three dioceses of Geneva, Lausanne and Sion had been designed, quite as
much to rid the kingdom of Lorraine of a turbulent noble as to conciliate
a
## p. 39 (#85) ##############################################
Hincmar intervenes
39
a
the good will of the Emperor. In the same way, Lothar had, the year
before, attempted to win over Charles of Provence, by ceding to him
the two dioceses of Belley and Tarentaise, in exchange, indeed, for a
treaty securing to him the inheritance of his young brother, in the
event, which seemed not unlikely, of the latter's dying childless. The
conflict of 858–9 had displayed Lothar's anxiety to keep on good terms
with both of his uncles by abstaining from interference on behalf of
either. At the same time an active campaign was being kept up against
Theutberga, organised by two prelates devoted to the king of Lorraine,
Theutgaud, Archbishop of Trèves, and Gunther, Archbishop of Cologne.
The latter even, with skilful treachery, contrived to become confessor to
the persecuted queen. In January 860, Lothar thought himself sure
enough of his position to convoke a council at Aix-la-Chapelle before
which he appeared, declaring that his wife herself acknowledged her
guilt, and petitioned to be allowed to take the veil. The bishops did
not profess themselves convinced, and demanded that a fresh assembly
should be held, to which were summoned foreign bishops and in par-
ticular Hincmar. But the latter did not respond to the invitation, and
it was at a synod composed exclusively of Lorrainers, and again held at
Aix, that Theutberga herself was present and read a confession, evidently
drawn up by Gunther and his accomplices, in which she acknowledged
herself guilty of the crimes imputed to her. On this occasion the
bishops were obliged to accept as valid the declaration thus made by the
queen and to condemn her. But they avoided coming to a decision on
the point which lay nearest to Lothar's heart, viz. the possibility of
his contracting another marriage. He was forced to content himself
with the imprisonment of Theutberga without advancing any further
towards the execution of his plans.
Some months later the dispute was re-opened. Hincmar stepped
into the lists by putting forth his voluminous treatise De divortio
Lotharii, in which he shewed clearly the weakness of the arguments used
against Theutberga, and pronounced confessions extorted by constraint
and violence null, while demanding that the question should be examined
in a general council of the bishops of the Franks. The treatise of the
Archbishop of Rheims was of exceptional importance, due not only
to the reputation which he enjoyed in the ecclesiastical world as a
theologian and canonist, but also to his political prominence in the
Western Kingdom as the adviser of Charles the Bald. The latter thus
took his place among the declared opponents of Lothar II's matrimonial
policy. He gave further proof of this attitude by affording shelter in his
kingdom to Hubert, who was forced to quit Lorraine, and to Theutberga,
who had succeeded in making her escape. Lothar, indeed, retorted
by offering a refuge to Judith, Charles's daughter, the widow of the
old English king Aethelwulf; she had just arranged to be carried off by
Baldwin Iron-arm, first Count of Flanders, son of Odoacer, whom she
CH. II.
## p. 40 (#86) ##############################################
40
Charles the Bald and his ambitions
a
married in spite of her father's opposition. And Charles at the same time
met with a check in Provence. Called in by a party of the magnates of
the country, he had imagined himself in a position to lay hands on his
nephew's kingdom. But Gerard of Roussillon was mounting guard over
the young prince, and in the face of his energetic opposition, Charles was
obliged to beat a retreat after having advanced as far as Burgundy
(861). At the same time Lothar was making advances to his other
uncle, Louis the German, whose friendship he endeavoured to make sure
of by ceding to him Alsace, or at least the prospect of possessing it
whenever the king of Lorraine should die. Lothar now thought himself
strong enough to convoke at Aix a fresh council, which this time
declared the marriage contracted with Theutberga null and void, and
consequently pronounced the king free to form a fresh union. Lothar,
before long, made use of this permission by marrying Waldrada and
having her solemnly crowned. But Theutberga, for her part, appealed
to the Pope to quash the sentences pronounced against her. Lothar
retorted by petitioning the sovereign pontiff to confirm the judgments
which had been given. At the same time, in concert with Louis the
German, he complained to the Pope of the conduct of Charles the Bald,
“who, without any show of right, was seeking to lay hands on the
inheritance of his nephews. ”
Meanwhile Charles was gaining power in his own kingdom. He had
just defeated the Bretons under their King Solomon, and suppressed a
revolt of his own son Louis the Stammerer, while the magnates who had
risen against him in 858–859 were one by one making their submission
to him. The invasions by the Northmen indeed were still going on.
Paris had again been pillaged in 861. The hordes of the viking
Weland, whom Charles had hoped to hire for money and employ
against their compatriots in the island of Oscellum, had made common
cause with the latter and had ravaged the Seine valley as far as Melun.
Charles had discovered a method of resisting them, and from the time
of the assembly at Pitres (862) began to put it into practice. It was to
have fortified works constructed along the rivers which the Normans
ascended, particularly bridges, which should bar the way to the invaders.
This new departure in tactics produced fairly good results during the
years that followed. In 862, Charles, in this way, cut off the retreat of
the bands which had forced their way into the Meaux country, and
compelled them to promise to give up the prisoners they had made and
to quit the kingdom. During the succeeding years, we find the king
taking measures to complete the defences of the valleys of the Seine and
Oise. It is true that these precautions did not hinder the Northmen
from again burning Paris in 865, and from penetrating as far as Melun
in 866. This time Charles could only rid himself of them by paying
them ransom. But on the other hand, the Marquess Robert the Strong
defeated the Northmen of the Loire on several occasions, and up to his
## p. 41 (#87) ##############################################
Death of Charles of Provence
41
death in the fight at Brissarthe (866) the valour of “the Maccabaeus of
France” opposed substantial resistance to the invaders of Anjou and
Maine.
In the affair of Lothar, neither Charles nor Hincmar would give way.
The king of Western Francia had shewn himself determined strenuously
to maintain the fight on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage, and
declared that he would hold no further intercourse with his nephew until
he should take back Theutberga. He repeated this resolution at the
interview which he had with his brother Louis at Savonnières near
Toul (November 862), to which Lothar had sent as his representatives
several of the bishops of his kingdom. Charles accused his nephew of
being a cause of double scandal to the Christian Church by the favour he
had shewn to the guilty connexion between Baldwin and Judith, and by
marrying Waldrada without waiting for the opinion of the Pope. He
called for the assembling of a general council to pronounce definitively on
both these questions. In the end, Lothar agreed, so far as Judith's case
was concerned, but in the matter of the divorce he declared that he
would await the decision of the Pope. Charles was obliged to be content
with this reply, and to take leave of his brother, having done nothing
more than renew the treaty of peace and alliance concluded in 860 at
Coblence.
The death of Charles of Provence (25 January 863) made little
change in the respective positions of the sovereigns. The dead man left
no children; his heirs therefore were his two brothers, for Louis II does
not appear to have recognised the treaty concluded in 858 between
Charles and Lothar II, by which the latter was to succeed to the whole of
the inheritance. Therefore the two rivals hastened to reach Provence,
each being eager to win over the magnates of the country to his own side.
The seemingly inevitable conflict was warded off, thanks to an agreement
which gave Provence, strictly so-called, as far as the Durance to the
Emperor, and to the king of Lorraine the Lyonnais and the Viennois,
that is to say the Duchy of Lyons, of which Gerard of Roussillon was
governor.
But the question of Theutberga was still not definitely settled, and
for the years that followed, it remained the subject of difficult negotia-
tions, on the one hand between the different Frankish sovereigns, and on
the other between these sovereigns and the Pope. The situation was
eminently favourable to a Pope of the character of Nicholas I, who, in
858 had taken the place of Benedict III on the papal throne. Being
petitioned to intervene at once by Theutberga, Lothar, and the
opponents of Lothar, he could take up the position of the arbiter of the
Christian world. Meanwhile, without deciding the question himself, he
resolved to hand over the settlement of it to a great council to be
held at Metz at which not only the bishops of Lorraine should be
present, but two representatives of the episcopate in each of the
ch. II.
## p. 42 (#88) ##############################################
42
Pope Nicholas I
kingdoms of France, Germany and Provence. The assembly was to be
presided over by two envoys from the Holy See, John, Bishop of Cervia,
and Radoald, Bishop of Porto. But Lothar's partisans were on the
alert, and were working to gain time. The papal letters carried by the
.
two legates were stolen from them by skilful thieves and they were forced
to apply for new ones. While they were waiting, and while, on the
other hand, Lothar's absence in Provence to take up the inheritance of
his brother delayed the calling of the Council, the emissaries of Gunther
and Theutgaud succeeded in bribing Radoald and his colleague. The
legates failed to convoke the foreign bishops, and the purely Lothar-
ingian synod held at Metz was a tool in the hands of Gunther. It
therefore confirmed the decisions of the assembly of Aix, basing them
on the ground of an alleged marriage between Lothar and Waldrada,
previous to his union with Theutberga (June 863).
This statement, improbable as being now produced for the first time,
did not suffice to appease the righteous anger of Nicholas I when he
learned by what methods the case had been conducted. He did not
hesitate to quash the decisions of the Council, to condemn Radoald and
John, and, irregular as the proceeding was, to depose Gunther and
Theutgaud by the exercise of his own authority. On the other hand,
Louis II, who had shewn some disposition, at first, to support the
Lotharingian bishops, now abandoned his brother, in spite of the
interview which he had just had with him at Orbe. Louis the German
and Charles the Bald, on the contrary, drew closer together. In February
865, they had an interview at Tusey, where, under colour of renewing
their mutual oaths of peace and concord, and of reprehending their
nephew, they arranged a treaty for the eventual partition of his lands.
The Lotharingian bishops became restive, and drew up a protest to
their brethren in Gaul and Provence, in which they declared themselves
ready to support their sovereign “ calumniated by the malignant. "
.
Lothar, equally alarmed, dreading an armed collision with his uncles,
and dreading no less that the Pope should pronounce him excommuni-
cate, thought it advisable to have recourse himself to the Holy
See, and by the mediation of the Emperor to announce to the
Pope that he was prepared to submit to his decision, provided that
a guarantee was given him that the integrity of his kingdom should be
respected.
Nicholas I was now become the mediator between kings and the
supreme judge of Christendom. He immediately despatched a legate,
Arsenius, Bishop of Orta, with orders to convey to the three sovereigns
the expression of the Pope's will. After an interview with Louis the
German at Frankfort, Arsenius reached Lothar's court at Gondreville
by the month of July 865, and in the Pope's name, called upon him
to take back Theutberga on pain of excommunication. Lothar was
obliged to promise obedience. Arsenius then betook himself to Attigny
## p. 43 (#89) ##############################################
Triumph of Nicholas I
43
to present to Charles the Bald letters from the Pope, exhorting him
to respect his nephew's territory. From thence he went back to Lor-
raine, bringing with him Theutberga whom he restored to her husband.
On 15 August he celebrated a solemn High Mass before the royal
pair who were invested with the insignia of sovereignty, before he began
his return journey to Rome, on which he was accompanied by Waldrada,
who, in her turn, was to answer for her actions before the Pope. The
legation had resulted in a triumph for Nicholas. In the presence of the
Pope's clearly expressed requirements, peace had been restored between
the kings, and Theutberga had regained her rank as queen. Thanks to
his own firmness and skill, the Pope had acted as supreme arbiter; not
only Lothar, but Charles the Bald and Louis the German had been
obliged to bow before him.
Nevertheless, in the succeeding years, it would appear that Lothar
conceived some hope of being able to re-open the divorce question and
attain his desired object. Waldrada had hardly arrived at Pavia, when
without the formality of a farewell, she succeeded in eluding the legate
and in returning to Lorraine, where she remained, in spite of the excom-
munication launched against her by Nicholas I. Besides this, Charles
the Bald's attitude towards his nephew became somewhat less uncom-
promising, doubtless on account of the temporary disgrace of Hincmar,
the most faithful champion of the cause of the indissolubility of mar-
riage. The king of the Western Franks even had a meeting with
Lothar at Ortivineas, perhaps Orvignes near Bar-le-Duc, when the two
princes agreed to take up the divorce question afresh by sending an
embassy to Rome under the direction of Egilo, the metropolitan of Sens.
But the Pope refused point-blank to fall in with their views, and replied
by addressing the bitterest reproaches to Charles, and above all to
Lothar, whom he forbade ever to dream of renewing his relations with
Waldrada. The death of Nicholas I (13 November 867) gave a new
aspect to affairs. His successor, Hadrian II, was a man of much less firm-
ness and consistency, almost of a timorous disposition, and much under
the influence of Louis II, that is, of Lothar's brother and ally. Thus,
while refusing to receive Theutberga, whom Lothar had thought of
compelling to accuse herself before the Pope, and while congratulating
Hincmar on his attitude throughout the affair, and again proclaiming
the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, the new Pope soon
relieved Waldrada from her sentence of excommunication. Lothar
resolved to go and plead his cause in person
Hadrian con-
sented to his taking this step, which Nicholas I had always refused to
sanction. The only consideration which could arouse Lothar's uneasiness
was the attitude of his uncles. The latter, indeed, despite a recent
letter from the Pope taking up the position of the defender of the
integrity of the kingdoms, had just come to an agreement at St Arnulf's
of Metz, that “in case God should bestow on them the kingdoms of
at Rome.
CH. II.
## p. 44 (#90) ##############################################
44
Death of Lothar II
215
!
1
а
their nephews, they would proceed to a fair and amitable division of
them” (867 or 868)'.
However, in the spring of 869, having extracted from Charles and
Louis some vague assurances that they would undertake nothing against
his kingdom during his absence, even if he married Waldrada, Lothar
set out on his journey with the intention of visiting the Emperor in order
to obtain his support at the papal court. Louis II was then at
Benevento, warring against the Saracens. At first he shewed himself
little disposed to interfere, but his wife, Engilberga, proved willing to
play the part of mediator, and, in the end, an interview took place at
Monte Cassino between Hadrian and Lothar. The latter received the
Eucharist from the hands of the Pope, less, perhaps, as the pledge of
pardon than as a kind of judgment of God.
« Receive this com-
munion,” the Pope is reported to have said to Lothar, “if thou art
innocent of the adultery condemned by Nicholas. If, on the contrary,
thy conscience accuse thee of guilt, or if thou art minded to fall back
into sin, refrain; otherwise by this Sacrament thou shalt be judged and
condemned. ” A dramatic colouring may have been thrown over the
incident, but when he left Monte Cassino, Lothar bore with him the
promise that the question should again be submitted to a Council. This,
for him, meant the hope of undoing the sentence of Nicholas I. Death,
which surprised him on his way back, at Piacenza, on 8 August 869,
put an end to his plans.
His successor, by right of inheritance, was, strictly speaking, the
Emperor Louis. But he was little known outside his Italian kingdom,
and appears not to have had many supporters in Lorraine, unless
perhaps in the duchy of Lyons, which was close to his Provençal pos-
sessions. In Lorraine proper, on the contrary, there were two opposed
parties, a German party and a French party, each supporting one of the
uncles of the dead king. But Louis the German was detained at Ratis-
bon by sickness.
Thus circumstances favoured Charles the Bald, who hastened to take
advantage of them by entering Lorraine. An embassy from the magnates,
which came to meet him at Attigny to remind him of the respect due
to the treaty which he had made with his brother at Metz, produced no
result. By way of Verdun he reached Metz, where in the presence of
the French and Lotharingian nobles, and of several prelates, among
them the Bishops of Toul, Liège, and Verdun, Charles was solemnly
crowned king of Lorraine in the cathedral of St Stephen on 9 September
869. When, a little later, he heard of the death of his wife Queen
Ermentrude (6 October), Charles sought to strengthen his position in the
country by taking first as his mistress and afterwards as his lawful wife
1 The date 867 is generally accepted. On the other hand, M. Calmette, in La
diplomatie carolingienne, pp. 195, 399, gives arguments of some force in favour
of 868.
1
5
3
## p. 45 (#91) ##############################################
Contest for Lorraine
45
(22 January 870) a noble lady named Richilda, a relation of Theutberga,
the former queen, belonging to one of the most important families in
Lorraine; on her brother Boso Charles heaped honours and benefices.
Neither Louis the German nor Louis II could do more than protest
against the annexation of Lorraine to the Western Kingdom, the former
in virtue of the Treaty of Metz, the latter in right of his near relation-
ship to the dead king. To the envoys of both, Charles the Bald had
returned evasive answers, while he was convoking the magnates of his
new kingdom at Gondreville to obtain from them the oath of fealty.
But those who attended the assembly were few in number. Louis the
German's party was recovering strength. Charles was made aware of it
when he attempted to substitute for the deposed Gunther in the see of
Cologne, a French candidate, Hilduin. The Archbishop of Mayence,
Liutbert, a faithful supporter of the king of Germany, set up in
opposition a certain Willibert who ultimately won the day. On the
other hand, Charles was more successful at Trèves, where he was able to
instal the candidate of his choice.
Meanwhile, Louis the German, having recovered, had collected an
army, and, calling on his brother to evacuate his conquest, marched in
his turn upon Lorraine, where his partisans came round him to do him
homage (spring 870). An armed struggle seemed imminent, but the
Carolingians had little love for fighting. Brisk negotiations began, in
which the principal part was taken by Liutbert, Archbishop of Mayence,
representing Louis, and Odo, Bishop of Beauvais, on behalf of Charles.
In the end, the diplomatists came to an agreement based on the partition
of Lorraine.
The task of carrying it into effect was at first entrusted
to a commission of magnates, but difficulties were not long in arising.
It was decided that the two kings should meet. But the interview was
delayed by an accident which happened to Louis the German, through
a foor giving way, and only took place on 8 August at Meersen on the
banks of the Meuse. Here the manner of the division of Lothar II's former
dominions was definitely settled. The Divisio regni, the text of which
has been preserved in the Annals of Hincmar, shews that no atten-
tion was paid to natural boundaries, to language or even to existing
divisions, whether ecclesiastical or civil, since certain counties were cut
in two, e. g. the Ornois. An endeavour was made to divide between the
two sovereigns, as equally as possible, the sources of revenue, i. e. the
counties, bishoprics and abbeys. Louis received the bishoprics of
Cologne, Trèves, Metz, Strasbourg and Basle, with a portion of those of
Toul and Liège. Charles, besides a large share of the two last, was
given that of Cambrai, together with the metropolitan see of Besançon,
and the counties of Lyons and Vienne with the Vivarais, that is to say
the lands which Lothar had acquired after the death of Charles of
Provence. Without entering into details as to the division of the pagi
in the north part of the kingdom of Lorraine, from the mouths of the
CH. II.
## p. 46 (#92) ##############################################
46
Partition of Meersen
Rhine to Toul, it is substantially true to say that the course of the
Meuse and a part of that of the Moselle formed the border line between
the two kingdoms. Thence the frontier ran to the Saône valley, and the
limits thus fixed, although not lasting, had distinct influence later in
the Middle Ages.
Hardly was the treaty of Meersen concluded, when the brother-kings
of Gaul and Germany were confronted by deputies from the Pope and
the Emperor, protesting, in the name of the latter, against the conduct
of his uncles in thus robbing him of the inheritance which was his by
right. Hincmar replied by endeavouring to justify his master, and by
dwelling on the necessity of preserving peace in Lorraine; Charles, for
his part, bestowed fair words and rich gifts on the Pope. As to Louis
the German, he professed himself ready to make over what he had
acquired of Lothar's lands to Louis II. These assurances, however, were
not followed by any practical result, and Charles spent the latter part of
the year in completing the subjection of the southern part of his newly-
acquired dominions. Lyons was occupied without a struggle. Only
Vienne, which was defended by Bertha, wife of Gerard of Roussillon, who
was himself ensconced in a castle in the neighbourhood, made some
resistance, surrendering, however, in the end (24 December 870).
Charles was recalled to Francia by the rebellion of his son Carloman, who
had forsaken his father's expedition in order to collect bands of partisans
and ravage his kingdom. Louis the German was at the same time
engaged in a struggle with his two sons who had risen against him.
Charles confided the government of the Viennois and Provence to his
brother-in-law Boso as duke, and turned homewards.
In the meanwhile, a report spread through Gaul and Germany that
the Emperor Louis II had been taken prisoner and put to death by
Adelchis, Prince of Benevento. In reality the latter had merely subjected
his sovereign to a few days' captivity (August 871). But Louis the
German and Charles the Bald had lost no time in shewing that each
intended to appropriate for himself the inheritance left by the deceased ;
Louis by sending his son Charles the Fat beyond the Alps, in order to
gather adherents, and Charles by setting out himself at the head of an
army. However, he went no farther than Besançon, when the two com-
petitors were stopped by the news that the Emperor was still alive. But
during the three following years we find both brothers bent on eventually
securing the heritage of the king of Italy; Louis the German being
supported, it would seem, by the Empress Engilberga, while Charles the
Bald, who had rid himself of his rebellious son Carloman, whom he had
succeeded in making prisoner and whose eyes he had put out, was trying
to form a party among the Roman nobles and those surrounding the new
Pope, John VIII, who in December 872 had taken the place of Hadrian.
The death of Louis II at Brescia (12 August 875) led to an open
struggle between the two rivals.
## p. 47 (#93) ##############################################
The Emperor Louis II in Italy
47
For a long time the kingdom of Italy had stood considerably apart
from the other Carolingian states. Louis the Pious and Lothar had
already placed it in a somewhat special position by sending as their re-
presentatives there each his eldest son, already associated in the Empire,
and bearing the title of king. Since 855 the Emperor had been restricted
to the possession of Italy, where he had already received the royal title
in 844, and where his coronation as joint-Emperor had taken place
(Rome, April 850). Apart from matters concerning the inheritance of
his brothers, it does not seem that Louis II held that his office imposed
on him the duty of interfering in affairs beyond the Alps. The Emperor
had been obliged to devote his chief attention to his duties as king of
Italy, and the defence of the country entrusted to him against the attacks
of its enemies, particularly the Saracens. But circumstances were too
strong for him, and in spite of his activity and energy, Louis II was
fated to wear himself out in a struggle of thirty years, and yet neither
to leave undisputed authority to his successor, nor finally to expel the
Muslims from Italian soil. The royal power had never been very great
in the peninsula. The Frankish counts
, who had taken the place of the
Lombard lords, had quickly acquired the habit of independence. The
bishops and abbots had seen their temporal power grow in extent,
through numerous grants of lands and immunities. On the other
hand, three strong powers, outside the Papal state, had taken shape out
of the ancient duchies of Friuli and Spoleto, and in Tuscany. The
counts of Frankish origin were reviving the former Lombard title of
duke, or the Frankish one of marquess, and regular dynasties of princes,
by no means very amenable to the orders of the sovereign, were established
at Cividale, Lucca and Spoleto. The March of Friuli, set up between
the Livenza and the Isonzo to ward off the attacks of Slavs and Avars,
athough its ruler, no doubt, had extended his authority over other
countries beyond these limits, had, in the time of Lothar, been bestowed
on a certain Count Everard, husband of Gisela, the youngest daughter of
Louis the Pious. This man, coming originally from the districts along
the Meuse, where his family still remained powerful, was richly endowed
with counties and abbeys, and played a distinguished part in the wars
against the Serbs, dying in 864 or 865. His immediate successor was
his son, Unroch, who died young, and then his second son, Berengar, who
was destined to play a conspicuous part in Italy at the end of the
ninth century, and who seems from an early date to have thrown in his lot
in politics with the partisans of Louis the German and the Empress Engil-
berga. The ducal family established at Spoleto also came from Francia,
from the valley of the Moselle. It was descended from Guy, Count
of the March of Brittany under Louis the Pious. His son Lambert, who
at first bore the same title, derived from the March, was a devoted ad-
herent of Lothar, and, as such, had been banished to Italy where he died '.
I See supra, pp. 15, 19-20.
CH. II.
## p. 48 (#94) ##############################################
48
Italian vassals
a
TE
It is this Lambert's son, Guy (Guido) who appears as the first Frankish
Duke of Spoleto. Brother-in-law of Siconolf, Prince of Benevento, he
contrived to interfere skilfully in the wars among the Lombard princes,
betray his allies at well-chosen junctures, and add to his duchy various
cities, Sora, Atino, etc. , the spoil of Siconolf or his rivals. He died
about 858. His son Lambert shewed himself an intractable vassal, some-
times the ally of Louis II, and again at open war with him, or fugitive
at the court of the princes of Benevento. He was even temporarily
deprived of his duchy, which was transferred to a cousin of the Empress
Engilberga, Count Suppo. After the Emperor Louis's death, however,
Lambert is found again in possession of his duchy, and like his brother
Guy, Count of Camerino, is counted among the adherents of Charles the
Bald. In Tuscany the ducal family was of Bavarian origin, tracing its
descent from Count Boniface who, in the beginning of the ninth century
was established at Lucca and was also entrusted with the defence of Corsica.
His grandson, Adalbert, succeeded in consolidating his position by
marrying Rotilda, daughter of Guy of Spoleto. As to Southern Italy,
beyond the Sangro and the Volturno, the Lombard principalities there,
in spite of formal acts of submission, remained, like the Greek territories,
outside the Carolingian Empire. The power of the Princes of Bene-
vento was considerably diminished after the formation of the principality
of Salerno, cut off from the original duchy in 848. From the middle of
the ninth century, the Gastalds of Capua also affected to consider them-
selves independent of the prince reigning at Benevento. The Frankish
sovereign could hardly do otherwise than seek to foment these internal
dissensions and try to obtain from the combatants promises of vassalage
or even the delivery of hostages. But Louis II made no real attempt to
compel the submission of the Lombards of Benevento and Salerno, who
were firmly attached to their local dynasties and to their independence.
If he interfered on several occasions beyond the limits of the States of
the Church and the Duchy of Spoleto, it was not as suzerain, but as the
ally of the inhabitants in their struggle against the common enemies of
all Italy, the Saracens.
These latter, who came from Africa and Spain, were for more than
a hundred years to be to the peninsula nearly as great a scourge as the
Northmen were to Gaul and Germany. In 827 they had gained a foot-
hold in Sicily and four years afterwards (831), taking advantage of the
dissensions between the Byzantine governors, they seized Palermo and
Messina and made themselves masters of the whole island. In 837 the
Duke of Naples, Andrew, set the fatal example of calling them in as
allies in his struggle with Sicard of Benevento, to whom he was refusing
the tribute he had promised. Thenceforward, in spite of engagements
to the contrary, Italian dukes and Greek governors constantly took
Muslim pirates into their pay. Other bands having seized various
Greek cities such as Taranto, we get the pillage of the towns on the
+
## p. 49 (#95) ##############################################
The Saracens sack St Peter's
49
Adriatic, e. g. Ancona (839). In 840 the treachery of the Gastald
Pando handed over to them Bari, where they fixed themselves per-
manently, and it was the Saracens of Bari whom Radelchis of Benevento
employed as auxiliaries during his struggle with Siconolf of Salerno.
Other pirate crews attempted the siege of Naples, but the city offered a
determined resistance, and its duke, Sergius, at the head of a fleet
collected from the Campanian ports, won the naval victory of Licosa
over the invaders in 846. Repulsed from the Campanian shores, the
pirates fell upon the coast nearest to Rome. In order to keep them out
of the Tiber, Pope Gregory IV had built a fortress at its mouth. This
did not prevent the pirates from landing on the right bank of the river
and even pushing their ravages as far as the gates of Rome. Unable to
force their way in, they sacked the basilica of St Peter, which was then
outside the walls, profaning the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.
This sacrilege created a profound sensation throughout Christendom.
It was, indeed, related that a tempest destroyed the invaders with
the precious booty with which they were laden. But the truth appears
to be that Louis II, as he was advancing to the rescue of the city, met
with a check, and that the Saracens retired unmolested with their spoil.
A great expedition organised against them in the spring of the next
year (847) by Lothar I and Louis II had no important results. Louis,
however, took advantage of being in the south of Italy to put an
end by treaty to the contest between Radelchis and Siconolf, definitively
separating by a precise frontier line the two principalities of Bene-
vento and Salerno, The Roman suburbs had arisen from their ruins, and
Pope Leo IV (847-8) had built a wall round the basilica of St Peter
and the quarter on the right bank of the Tiber, enclosing what became
“the Leonine City. ” In 851-2 the Lombards again appealed to
Louis II. The latter delivered Benevento from the body of Saracens which
had settled down there, but being badly supported by his allies, he was
unable to take Bari, the Muslim garrison of which, as soon as the
Frankish army had withdrawn, re-commenced its devastating raids into
the surrounding country. It was at this time that the Saracens pillaged
the famous abbeys of Monte Cassino and St Vincent of Volturno. In
867 the Emperor made a fresh expedition against them, and laid siege to
Bari. But it was impossible to reduce the town without the help of
a squadron to blockade it from the sea. Louis II, therefore, attempted
to secure the aid of the Greek fleet by an alliance with the Basileus,
arranging for the marriage of his daughter Ermengarde with the son of
Basil, the Eastern Emperor. A Greek fleet did, indeed, appear off
Bari, but the marriage not having taken place, it drew off. Louis
was not discouraged, and made a general appeal to his subjects in the
maritime provinces, even to the half-subjected Slavs to the north of the
Adriatic. After many vicissitudes, the town was carried by assault
(2 February 871). But the Lombards of Benevento cordially detested
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. II,
## p. 50 (#96) ##############################################
50
Pope John VIII
their Frankish deliverers, and their prince, Adelchis, feared that the
Emperor might take advantage of his success to assert his sovereignty
over Southern Italy. In consequence of his hostility, he laid an ambush
which threw the Emperor a prisoner into his hands. Adelchis extorted
from his captive a promise not to re-enter Southern Italy. A report of
the Emperor's death was even current in Gaul and Germany. But
Louis II, being quickly set at liberty, obtained from the Pope a dispen-
sation from the oath he had sworn, and renewed the campaign next year
(873), without however having attained any advantage. On 12 August
875 he was suddenly carried off by death.
Such was the state of affairs in Italy at the moment when Charles
the Bald and Louis the German were preparing to dispute with one
another the heritage left by their nephew. The succession question
which presented itself, was, it is true, a complicated one. The dead
Emperor left only a daughter. The territories which he had ruled, ought,
it would seem, to have been divided by agreement between his two uncles.
But if the imperial dignity had, since the time of Charlemagne, been
considered inalienable from his family, no rule of succession had yet been
established, even by custom, which could be applied to it. In practice,
it seemed to be bound up with the possession of Italy, and to require as
indispensable conditions the election of the candidate, at least in theory,
by the Roman people, and his consecration at the hands of the Pope.
Now Charles the Bald had on his side the sympathy of John VIII, who
claimed that he was only carrying out the wishes already expressed by
Nicholas I himself. Charles has been accused of having entangled the
Pope by means of offerings and grants. In reality, what John VIII
most desired seems to have been a strong and energetic Emperor
capable of taking up the task to which Louis II had devoted himself,
and of defending the Holy See against the Saracens. Rightly or
wrongly, he believed that he had found his ideal in Charles, who was, in
addition, well-educated and a lover of letters, and had besides for a long
time given his attention to Italy, whither he had been summoned by a
party of the magnates at the time of the false report of the death of
Louis II. His possession, too, of Provence and of the Viennois, made it
possible for him to interfere beyond the Alps more readily than his
brother of Germany could do. He took action, besides, with promptness
and decision. Hardly had the news of his nephew's death reached him
at Douzy near Sedan than he summoned an assembly of magnates at
Ponthion near Châlons to nominate his comrades on the expedition. He
crossed the Great St Bernard, and had scarcely arrived in Italy when he
was met by the envoys of the Pope bearing an invitation to him to come
to Rome to be crowned. Louis the German was not inclined to see his
brother go to this length without a protest. He despatched his two
sons in succession beyond the Alps with an army. Charles the Fat was
immediately obliged to beat a retreat. Carloman, more fortunate,
## p. 51 (#97) ##############################################
Imperiul coronation of Charles the Bald
51
a
succeeded in meeting Charles the Bald on the banks of the Brenta, and,
after the Carolingian manner, opened negotiations. Either, as the
German annalists say, his uncle got the better of him by deceitful
promises, or else he felt himself too weak to fight the matter out. He,
therefore, arranged a truce, and returned to Germany without a blow.
Meanwhile Louis the German had made an attack upon Lorraine,
having been called in by a disgraced chamberlain, Enguerand, who
had been deprived of his office for the benefit of the favourite Boso.
Ravaging the country terribly as he went, Louis reached the palace of
Attigny on 25 December 875, where he waited for adherents to come in.
But the defections on which he had counted did not take place, and the
invader, for want of sufficient support, was obliged to retreat and make
his way back to Mayence. Charles, meanwhile, had not allowed himself
to be turned from his object by the news from Lorraine. He was
bent on the Empire. He had reached Rome, and on Christmas Day
875 he received the imperial diadem from the hands of John VIII.
But he did not delay long in Rome, and having obtained from John
the title of Vicar of the Pope in Gaul for Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens,
he began his journey homewards on 5 January 876. On January 31
he was at Pavia, where he had himself solemnly elected and recog-
nised as king of Italy by an assembly of magnates. Leaving Boso
to govern this new kingdom, he again set forward, and was back at
Saint-Denis in time to keep Easter (15 April). In the month of June,
in company with the two papal legates who had come with him from
Italy, John, Bishop of Arezzo, and John, Bishop of Toscanella, he held a
great assembly of nobles and bishops at Ponthion, when he appeared
wearing the imperial ornaments. The council solemnly recognised the
new dignity which the Pope had conferred on the king of the West
Franks. Charles would have wished also to secure its assent to the
grant of the vicariate to Ansegis, but on this point he met with strong
resistance. To the same assembly came envoys from Louis the German,
demanding in his name an equitable partition of the territories formerly
ruled by Louis II. Charles appeared to recognise these pretensions as
well-founded. In his turn he sent an embassy to his brother and opened
negotiations. They were interrupted by the death of Louis the German,
at Frankfort (28 August 876).
The dead king left three sons.
In accordance with arrangements
which had been made beforehand but often modified in detail, the eldest,
Carloman, was to receive Bavaria and the East Mark, the second,
Louis, Saxony and Franconia, and the third, Charles the Fat, Ale-
mannia. These dispositions were according to precedent. It is thus
difficult to conceive by what right Charles the Bald professed to claim that
portion of Lorraine which by the Treaty of Meersen had been allocated
to his brother. None the less, it is certain that he hastened to send off
emissaries to the country, charged with the business of gaining supporters
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#98) ##############################################
52
Succession to Louis the German
for his cause, and then set out himself for Metz, Aix-la-Chapelle and
Cologne. But Louis the Younger, on his side, had raised an army in
Saxony and Thuringia, and sent deputies, although vainly, to call upon
his uncle to respect his rights. He himself had recourse to the judgment
of God, and when the ordeal proved favourable to his champions, he
crossed the Rhine at Andernach. In the meanwhile, fresh envoys
bearing proposals of peace sought Charles the Bald on his behalf. His
uncle feigned willingness to enter into negotiations. But during the night
of 7–8 October, he suddenly struck his camp and began a forward march,
hoping to surprise his sleeping enemies in the early dawn. The season,
however, was inclement, the roads were soaked with rain, and the
cavalry, which was the principal arm of Carolingian forces, could only
advance with difficulty. Besides this, a faithful adherent of Louis the
Younger in Charles's own camp, had succeeded in warning his master of
the coup-de-main about to be attempted against him. Thus the imperial
army, fatigued by the night march, found the enemy, whom they had
thought to surprise, on his guard. The result was a disastrous defeat
of the troops of Charles. Numerous prisoners and rich spoil fell to the
victor. But it would appear that Louis was not in a position to profit
by his advantage, for almost immediately we find him falling back on
Aix and Frankfort. Charles, for his part, made no second attempt
against him, and shortly afterwards, without any formal treaty having
been concluded, peace was restored between the two kings, marked by the
liberation of the prisoners taken at Andernach.
Charles the Bald was, besides, absorbed by other anxieties. If his
election had been the act of John VIII, the reason was that the Pope
needed his help in Italy against the Saracens. Not satisfied with promises
of troops and missi, he unceasingly demanded Charles's presence in
Italy. Two papal legates again approached Charles at Compiègne at the
beginning of 877, and finally drew from him a pledge that he would
cross the Alps in the course of the summer. The moment, however, was
not favourable, for the Northmen were shewing increased activity. In
876 a hundred of their ships had gone up the Seine and threatened the
rich abbey of St-Denis, driving the monks to flee to a safer retreat on the
banks of the Aisne. Charles the Bald decided to negotiate with them once
more, and on 7 May 877 he ordered the collection of a special impost, a
tributum Normannicum, destined to produce the five thousand pounds of
silver needed to purchase the withdrawal of the Northmen from the Seine.
On 14 June he assembled the magnates at Quierzy (Kiersy), where he
promulgated a celebrated capitulary which has been too long held to be
the charter constituting the feudal system, a legislative measure es-
tablishing the hereditary nature of fiefs, the deliberate completion of a
process of evolution which had been going on from 847, the date at
which the Capitulary of Meersen ordered every free man to choose a
lord for himself. In 847 what was really in question was a measure to
>
a
## p. 53 (#99) ##############################################
Assembly of Quierzy
53
facilitate the levy of the host. In 877 at Quierzy, a whole body of very
diverse measures were introduced, their object being to secure the good
government of the kingdom, and the proper administration of the
private property of the king during his absence, or even in case he should
happen to die while on his expedition. The prince, Louis (the Stam-
merer), was to take his father's place with the assistance of counsellors,
the choice of whom shews that the Emperor was not entirely free from
distrust of his heir. An article in the capitulary orders Louis not to
deprive the son of any count who should die during the campaign of the
honours enjoyed by the father. Here we have a seal set upon the custom
which was becoming more and more general, namely that the honours
held by the father should be continued to the son, but at the same time
we get the implicit recognition of the sovereign's right to dispose of the
fiefs which, in principle, he has granted for life only, a right which
Louis might possibly abuse.
Charles, accompanied by Richilda, set out at the end of June. He
brought with him only a small number of his chief vassals; others, of
whom Boso was one, were to join him a little later at the head of an
army which they had received orders to assemble. The Emperor took
the St Bernard route, and met John VIII who had advanced as far
as Vercelli to receive him. But, at the same time as Charles, Car-
loman of Bavaria had been crossing the Alps at the head of a powerful
army, and now made his appearance in the eastern part of Lombardy.
Charles, uneasy at this, hurried on the coronation of Richilda as
Empress, and sent her back to Gaul, demanding the hastening forward
of the reinforcements which he was awaiting. But his presentiments
were realised. The magnates had been irritated to see him depart
thus, giving up the struggle with the Northmen, which in the eyes of
the Frankish aristocracy was more important than the war against
the Saracens. On the other hand they no doubt considered that the
expedition was unlikely to provide them with many fiefs and benefices
to be conquered beyond the Alps. Thus they made no response to the
appeal addressed to them. Boso himself, who the year before, under the
influence of Berengar of Friuli and the German party, had married
Ermengarde, daughter of the late Emperor Louis II, was opposed to a
fresh expedition into Italy, and declined to enter upon the campaign.
Some of the most powerful nobles of the Western Kingdom, chosen by
Charles to command the relieving army, Bernard, Count of Auvergne,
and Bernard, Marquess of Gothia, followed the example set them.
Hincmar himself, discontented that the vicariate should have been
conferred on Ansegis, shewed himself less loyal than usual, and Prince
Louis openly abetted the movement. The one object of the discontented
seems to have been to compel Charles to return, and in this they
succeeded, for the Emperor lost no time in retracing his
Gaul. But on the road he fell sick and on 6 October, in a poor hovel,
way towards
CH. II.
## p. 54 (#100) #############################################
54
Death of Charles the Bald
2
poisoned, it was said, by his Jewish doctor Zedekiah, he ended, miserably
enough, his reign of thirty-seven years.
Historians have often pronounced adversely on the reign, influenced
by chroniclers of Louis the German, who accuse his adversary of cowardice
and incapacity. But it does not in fact appear that Charles was wanting
either in courage or energy.
contingencies. At Verberie near Senlis (856), at Quierzy near Laon (857
and 858), at Brienne (858), he demanded of his magnates that they
should renew their oath of fealty. In 858 he thought he could
sufficiently depend on them to venture on a new expedition against
the Northmen, who had fortified themselves in the island of Oscellum.
Charles the Younger and Pepin II of Aquitaine had promised their
help. Lothar II himself came with a Lotharingian contingent to take a
share in the campaign (summer of 858). This was the moment which
Adalard and Odo chose for addressing a fresh appeal to Louis the
German. The latter, who was on the point of marching anew against
the Slavs, hesitated long, if we are to trust his chroniclers. Finally,
“strong in the purity of his intentions, he preferred to serve the interests
of the many rather than to submit to the tyranny of one man.
. . " Above
all, he considered the opportunity favourable. Lothar's absence left
the road across Alsace clear for him, and by 1 September 858 he
had established himself in the Western Kingdom, in the palace of Pon-
thion. Here he was joined by such of the magnates as had deserted
Charles the Bald before the fortified Northmen. Thence by way of
Châlons-sur-Marne, he reached first Sens, whither he was called by its
Archbishop Ganelon, and then Orleans, shewing plainly his intention of
holding out a hand to the rebels of Le Mans and Aquitaine.
Charles, for his part, on hearing of the invasion, had hastily raised
the siege of Oscellum, and was on the march for Lorraine. Louis, fearing
to have his retreat to Germany cut off, retraced his steps, whereupon
the armies of the two brothers found themselves face to face in the
neighbourhood of Brienne. But the Frankish counts, whose support
was essential for the final success of either party, had a deep and well-
founded distaste for pitched battles ; the question for them, was merely
the greater or less number of “ benefices” which they might hope to
obtain from one or the other adversary. Recourse was consequently had
to negotiation, when despite the numerous embassies sent by Charles to
Louis, the latter shewed himself the more skilful of the two. By dint of
promises, he succeeded in corrupting nearly all his brother's vassals.
Charles found himself constrained to throw up the game, and retire to
Burgundy, the one province where his supporters were still in a
majority. Louis, seeing nothing to be gained by pursuing him thither,
betook himself to the palace of Attigny, whence on 7 December he
issued a diploma as king of Western Francia, and where he spent his
time in dealing out honours and benefices to those who had come over
to his side. But in order to make his triumph secure, he still had to
.
be acknowledged and consecrated by the Church. The episcopate of
the Western Kingdom, however, remained faithful to Charles, whether
through attachment to the principles of peace and concord, or through
## p. 37 (#83) ##############################################
Faithless nobles
37
dread of a new system founded on the ambitions of the lay aristocracy,
who were ever ready to extort payment for their support out of the
estates of the ecclesiastical magnates. Only Ganelon of Sens, forgetting
that he owed his preferment to Charles's favour, had taken sides with the
new sovereign, thus leaving his name to become in tradition that of the
most notorious traitor of medieval epic. The bishops of the provinces
of Rheims and Rouen being summoned by Louis to attend a council at
Rheims, contrived under the skilful guidance of Hincmar to hinder the
meeting from being held ; protesting meanwhile their good intentions,
but declaring it necessary to summon a general assembly of the epis-
copate, and demanding guarantees for the safety of Church property.
The presence of Louis the German in the province of Rheims, where he
came to spend the Christmas season, and to take up his winter quarters,
made no difference in the Bishops' attitude.
However, Charles the Bald, with the help of the Abbot Hugh and
Count Conrad, had rallied all the supporters that remained to him at
Auxerre. On 9 January he suddenly left his retreat and marched against
his brother. Many of the German lords had set out to return to their own
country. The Western magnates, not seeing any sufficient advantage to
be gained under the new government, shewed no more hesitation in de-
serting it than they had in accepting it. At Jouy, near Soissons, where
the sudden appearance of his brother took Louis by surprise, the German
found himself left with so small a proportion of his quondam followers
that in his turn he was forced to retreat without striking a blow. By
the spring of 859 Charles had regained his authority. Naturally, he
made use of it to punish those who had betrayed him. Adalard lost his
Abbey of Saint-Bertin which was given to the Abbot Hugh, and Odo
lost his counties. What makes it plain that for the magnates the whole
affair was simply a question of material gain, is that in the negotiations
which Charles opened with Louis the point that he specially insisted on
was that the latter, in exchange for the renewal of their alliance, should
abandon to his discretion those magnates who had shared in the defection,
in order that he might deprive them of their estates. The negotiations,
moreover, proved long and thorny, despite the intervention of Lothar II.
Synods and embassies, even an interview between the two sovereigns, in
a boat midway across the Rhine, produced no results. It was not until
the colloquy held at St Castor in Coblence on 1 June 860, in the presence
of a large number of bishops, Hincmar being among them, that Louis
and Charles succeeded in coming to terms. Charles the Bald promised
to leave his magnates in possession of the fiefs which they had received
from Louis the German, reserving his right to deprive them of those
which he himself had previously bestowed on them. The oaths of peace
and concord made in 851 at Meersen were again sworn to. Louis made
a declaration to this effect in the German tongue, denouncing the
severest penalties on all who should violate the agreement, a declaration
CH. 11.
## p. 38 (#84) ##############################################
38
The divorce of Lothar II
afterwards repeated by Charles in the Romance language, and even in
German as far as the more important passages were concerned.
Briefly, it was a return to the status quo as it had been before the
sudden stroke attempted by Louis. A fresh match was about to be
played, the stake this time being the kingdom of Lothar II.
From about 860 to 870 the whole policy of the Carolingian kings
turns mainly on the question of the king of Lorraine's divorce and the
possible succession to his crown. In 855, Lothar had been compelled by
his father to marry Theutberga, a maiden of noble family, sister of a
lord named Hubert whose estates were situated on the upper valley of
the Rhone, and who seems about this time to have been made by the
Emperor governor “of the duchy between the Jura and the Alps
corresponding roughly to French Switzerland of to-day. The marriage
was evidently arranged with the object of ensuring for the young king
the support of a powerful family. But before it took place, Lothar had
had a mistress named Waldrada, by whom he had children, and this
woman seems to have acquired over him an extraordinary ascendency,
which contemporaries, as a matter of course, attribute to the use of
magic. From the very beginning of his reign, Lothar bent all his
energy towards the single end of ridding himself, by any possible means,
of the consort chosen by his father, and raising his former mistress to the
title and rank of a legitimate wife. Theutberga had not borne an heir
to Lothar and seems to have been considered incapable of doing so,
although this was not used as a weapon against her by her adversaries.
On the other hand, it was the consideration which determined the
attitude of the other sovereigns and helped to make the question of the
Lorraine divorce, it may almost be said, an international one. If
Lothar were to die childless, it would mean the partition of his in-
heritance among his relations, practically between his two uncles, for
his brother Charles, epileptic and near his end, was in no position to
interfere, while Louis II, himself without an heir, was too much occupied
in Southern Italy to be a very serious competitor.
Hostile measures against Theutberga had been taken almost at the
very beginning of the new king's reign. He hurled at his wife a charge
of incest with her brother Hubert. But a champion nominated by the
queen submitted himself on her behalf to the Judgment of God by the
ordeal of boiling water. The result was the solemn proclamation of
Theutberga's innocence, and Lothar II was obliged to yield to the
wishes of his nobles and take back his wife. Hubert, for his part, had
revolted, and under the pretext of defending his sister was indulging in
acts of brigandage in the upper valley of the Rhone. An expedition
sent against him by the king of Lorraine had produced no results.
Thus the cession made (859) by Lothar to his brother Louis II of the
three dioceses of Geneva, Lausanne and Sion had been designed, quite as
much to rid the kingdom of Lorraine of a turbulent noble as to conciliate
a
## p. 39 (#85) ##############################################
Hincmar intervenes
39
a
the good will of the Emperor. In the same way, Lothar had, the year
before, attempted to win over Charles of Provence, by ceding to him
the two dioceses of Belley and Tarentaise, in exchange, indeed, for a
treaty securing to him the inheritance of his young brother, in the
event, which seemed not unlikely, of the latter's dying childless. The
conflict of 858–9 had displayed Lothar's anxiety to keep on good terms
with both of his uncles by abstaining from interference on behalf of
either. At the same time an active campaign was being kept up against
Theutberga, organised by two prelates devoted to the king of Lorraine,
Theutgaud, Archbishop of Trèves, and Gunther, Archbishop of Cologne.
The latter even, with skilful treachery, contrived to become confessor to
the persecuted queen. In January 860, Lothar thought himself sure
enough of his position to convoke a council at Aix-la-Chapelle before
which he appeared, declaring that his wife herself acknowledged her
guilt, and petitioned to be allowed to take the veil. The bishops did
not profess themselves convinced, and demanded that a fresh assembly
should be held, to which were summoned foreign bishops and in par-
ticular Hincmar. But the latter did not respond to the invitation, and
it was at a synod composed exclusively of Lorrainers, and again held at
Aix, that Theutberga herself was present and read a confession, evidently
drawn up by Gunther and his accomplices, in which she acknowledged
herself guilty of the crimes imputed to her. On this occasion the
bishops were obliged to accept as valid the declaration thus made by the
queen and to condemn her. But they avoided coming to a decision on
the point which lay nearest to Lothar's heart, viz. the possibility of
his contracting another marriage. He was forced to content himself
with the imprisonment of Theutberga without advancing any further
towards the execution of his plans.
Some months later the dispute was re-opened. Hincmar stepped
into the lists by putting forth his voluminous treatise De divortio
Lotharii, in which he shewed clearly the weakness of the arguments used
against Theutberga, and pronounced confessions extorted by constraint
and violence null, while demanding that the question should be examined
in a general council of the bishops of the Franks. The treatise of the
Archbishop of Rheims was of exceptional importance, due not only
to the reputation which he enjoyed in the ecclesiastical world as a
theologian and canonist, but also to his political prominence in the
Western Kingdom as the adviser of Charles the Bald. The latter thus
took his place among the declared opponents of Lothar II's matrimonial
policy. He gave further proof of this attitude by affording shelter in his
kingdom to Hubert, who was forced to quit Lorraine, and to Theutberga,
who had succeeded in making her escape. Lothar, indeed, retorted
by offering a refuge to Judith, Charles's daughter, the widow of the
old English king Aethelwulf; she had just arranged to be carried off by
Baldwin Iron-arm, first Count of Flanders, son of Odoacer, whom she
CH. II.
## p. 40 (#86) ##############################################
40
Charles the Bald and his ambitions
a
married in spite of her father's opposition. And Charles at the same time
met with a check in Provence. Called in by a party of the magnates of
the country, he had imagined himself in a position to lay hands on his
nephew's kingdom. But Gerard of Roussillon was mounting guard over
the young prince, and in the face of his energetic opposition, Charles was
obliged to beat a retreat after having advanced as far as Burgundy
(861). At the same time Lothar was making advances to his other
uncle, Louis the German, whose friendship he endeavoured to make sure
of by ceding to him Alsace, or at least the prospect of possessing it
whenever the king of Lorraine should die. Lothar now thought himself
strong enough to convoke at Aix a fresh council, which this time
declared the marriage contracted with Theutberga null and void, and
consequently pronounced the king free to form a fresh union. Lothar,
before long, made use of this permission by marrying Waldrada and
having her solemnly crowned. But Theutberga, for her part, appealed
to the Pope to quash the sentences pronounced against her. Lothar
retorted by petitioning the sovereign pontiff to confirm the judgments
which had been given. At the same time, in concert with Louis the
German, he complained to the Pope of the conduct of Charles the Bald,
“who, without any show of right, was seeking to lay hands on the
inheritance of his nephews. ”
Meanwhile Charles was gaining power in his own kingdom. He had
just defeated the Bretons under their King Solomon, and suppressed a
revolt of his own son Louis the Stammerer, while the magnates who had
risen against him in 858–859 were one by one making their submission
to him. The invasions by the Northmen indeed were still going on.
Paris had again been pillaged in 861. The hordes of the viking
Weland, whom Charles had hoped to hire for money and employ
against their compatriots in the island of Oscellum, had made common
cause with the latter and had ravaged the Seine valley as far as Melun.
Charles had discovered a method of resisting them, and from the time
of the assembly at Pitres (862) began to put it into practice. It was to
have fortified works constructed along the rivers which the Normans
ascended, particularly bridges, which should bar the way to the invaders.
This new departure in tactics produced fairly good results during the
years that followed. In 862, Charles, in this way, cut off the retreat of
the bands which had forced their way into the Meaux country, and
compelled them to promise to give up the prisoners they had made and
to quit the kingdom. During the succeeding years, we find the king
taking measures to complete the defences of the valleys of the Seine and
Oise. It is true that these precautions did not hinder the Northmen
from again burning Paris in 865, and from penetrating as far as Melun
in 866. This time Charles could only rid himself of them by paying
them ransom. But on the other hand, the Marquess Robert the Strong
defeated the Northmen of the Loire on several occasions, and up to his
## p. 41 (#87) ##############################################
Death of Charles of Provence
41
death in the fight at Brissarthe (866) the valour of “the Maccabaeus of
France” opposed substantial resistance to the invaders of Anjou and
Maine.
In the affair of Lothar, neither Charles nor Hincmar would give way.
The king of Western Francia had shewn himself determined strenuously
to maintain the fight on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage, and
declared that he would hold no further intercourse with his nephew until
he should take back Theutberga. He repeated this resolution at the
interview which he had with his brother Louis at Savonnières near
Toul (November 862), to which Lothar had sent as his representatives
several of the bishops of his kingdom. Charles accused his nephew of
being a cause of double scandal to the Christian Church by the favour he
had shewn to the guilty connexion between Baldwin and Judith, and by
marrying Waldrada without waiting for the opinion of the Pope. He
called for the assembling of a general council to pronounce definitively on
both these questions. In the end, Lothar agreed, so far as Judith's case
was concerned, but in the matter of the divorce he declared that he
would await the decision of the Pope. Charles was obliged to be content
with this reply, and to take leave of his brother, having done nothing
more than renew the treaty of peace and alliance concluded in 860 at
Coblence.
The death of Charles of Provence (25 January 863) made little
change in the respective positions of the sovereigns. The dead man left
no children; his heirs therefore were his two brothers, for Louis II does
not appear to have recognised the treaty concluded in 858 between
Charles and Lothar II, by which the latter was to succeed to the whole of
the inheritance. Therefore the two rivals hastened to reach Provence,
each being eager to win over the magnates of the country to his own side.
The seemingly inevitable conflict was warded off, thanks to an agreement
which gave Provence, strictly so-called, as far as the Durance to the
Emperor, and to the king of Lorraine the Lyonnais and the Viennois,
that is to say the Duchy of Lyons, of which Gerard of Roussillon was
governor.
But the question of Theutberga was still not definitely settled, and
for the years that followed, it remained the subject of difficult negotia-
tions, on the one hand between the different Frankish sovereigns, and on
the other between these sovereigns and the Pope. The situation was
eminently favourable to a Pope of the character of Nicholas I, who, in
858 had taken the place of Benedict III on the papal throne. Being
petitioned to intervene at once by Theutberga, Lothar, and the
opponents of Lothar, he could take up the position of the arbiter of the
Christian world. Meanwhile, without deciding the question himself, he
resolved to hand over the settlement of it to a great council to be
held at Metz at which not only the bishops of Lorraine should be
present, but two representatives of the episcopate in each of the
ch. II.
## p. 42 (#88) ##############################################
42
Pope Nicholas I
kingdoms of France, Germany and Provence. The assembly was to be
presided over by two envoys from the Holy See, John, Bishop of Cervia,
and Radoald, Bishop of Porto. But Lothar's partisans were on the
alert, and were working to gain time. The papal letters carried by the
.
two legates were stolen from them by skilful thieves and they were forced
to apply for new ones. While they were waiting, and while, on the
other hand, Lothar's absence in Provence to take up the inheritance of
his brother delayed the calling of the Council, the emissaries of Gunther
and Theutgaud succeeded in bribing Radoald and his colleague. The
legates failed to convoke the foreign bishops, and the purely Lothar-
ingian synod held at Metz was a tool in the hands of Gunther. It
therefore confirmed the decisions of the assembly of Aix, basing them
on the ground of an alleged marriage between Lothar and Waldrada,
previous to his union with Theutberga (June 863).
This statement, improbable as being now produced for the first time,
did not suffice to appease the righteous anger of Nicholas I when he
learned by what methods the case had been conducted. He did not
hesitate to quash the decisions of the Council, to condemn Radoald and
John, and, irregular as the proceeding was, to depose Gunther and
Theutgaud by the exercise of his own authority. On the other hand,
Louis II, who had shewn some disposition, at first, to support the
Lotharingian bishops, now abandoned his brother, in spite of the
interview which he had just had with him at Orbe. Louis the German
and Charles the Bald, on the contrary, drew closer together. In February
865, they had an interview at Tusey, where, under colour of renewing
their mutual oaths of peace and concord, and of reprehending their
nephew, they arranged a treaty for the eventual partition of his lands.
The Lotharingian bishops became restive, and drew up a protest to
their brethren in Gaul and Provence, in which they declared themselves
ready to support their sovereign “ calumniated by the malignant. "
.
Lothar, equally alarmed, dreading an armed collision with his uncles,
and dreading no less that the Pope should pronounce him excommuni-
cate, thought it advisable to have recourse himself to the Holy
See, and by the mediation of the Emperor to announce to the
Pope that he was prepared to submit to his decision, provided that
a guarantee was given him that the integrity of his kingdom should be
respected.
Nicholas I was now become the mediator between kings and the
supreme judge of Christendom. He immediately despatched a legate,
Arsenius, Bishop of Orta, with orders to convey to the three sovereigns
the expression of the Pope's will. After an interview with Louis the
German at Frankfort, Arsenius reached Lothar's court at Gondreville
by the month of July 865, and in the Pope's name, called upon him
to take back Theutberga on pain of excommunication. Lothar was
obliged to promise obedience. Arsenius then betook himself to Attigny
## p. 43 (#89) ##############################################
Triumph of Nicholas I
43
to present to Charles the Bald letters from the Pope, exhorting him
to respect his nephew's territory. From thence he went back to Lor-
raine, bringing with him Theutberga whom he restored to her husband.
On 15 August he celebrated a solemn High Mass before the royal
pair who were invested with the insignia of sovereignty, before he began
his return journey to Rome, on which he was accompanied by Waldrada,
who, in her turn, was to answer for her actions before the Pope. The
legation had resulted in a triumph for Nicholas. In the presence of the
Pope's clearly expressed requirements, peace had been restored between
the kings, and Theutberga had regained her rank as queen. Thanks to
his own firmness and skill, the Pope had acted as supreme arbiter; not
only Lothar, but Charles the Bald and Louis the German had been
obliged to bow before him.
Nevertheless, in the succeeding years, it would appear that Lothar
conceived some hope of being able to re-open the divorce question and
attain his desired object. Waldrada had hardly arrived at Pavia, when
without the formality of a farewell, she succeeded in eluding the legate
and in returning to Lorraine, where she remained, in spite of the excom-
munication launched against her by Nicholas I. Besides this, Charles
the Bald's attitude towards his nephew became somewhat less uncom-
promising, doubtless on account of the temporary disgrace of Hincmar,
the most faithful champion of the cause of the indissolubility of mar-
riage. The king of the Western Franks even had a meeting with
Lothar at Ortivineas, perhaps Orvignes near Bar-le-Duc, when the two
princes agreed to take up the divorce question afresh by sending an
embassy to Rome under the direction of Egilo, the metropolitan of Sens.
But the Pope refused point-blank to fall in with their views, and replied
by addressing the bitterest reproaches to Charles, and above all to
Lothar, whom he forbade ever to dream of renewing his relations with
Waldrada. The death of Nicholas I (13 November 867) gave a new
aspect to affairs. His successor, Hadrian II, was a man of much less firm-
ness and consistency, almost of a timorous disposition, and much under
the influence of Louis II, that is, of Lothar's brother and ally. Thus,
while refusing to receive Theutberga, whom Lothar had thought of
compelling to accuse herself before the Pope, and while congratulating
Hincmar on his attitude throughout the affair, and again proclaiming
the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, the new Pope soon
relieved Waldrada from her sentence of excommunication. Lothar
resolved to go and plead his cause in person
Hadrian con-
sented to his taking this step, which Nicholas I had always refused to
sanction. The only consideration which could arouse Lothar's uneasiness
was the attitude of his uncles. The latter, indeed, despite a recent
letter from the Pope taking up the position of the defender of the
integrity of the kingdoms, had just come to an agreement at St Arnulf's
of Metz, that “in case God should bestow on them the kingdoms of
at Rome.
CH. II.
## p. 44 (#90) ##############################################
44
Death of Lothar II
215
!
1
а
their nephews, they would proceed to a fair and amitable division of
them” (867 or 868)'.
However, in the spring of 869, having extracted from Charles and
Louis some vague assurances that they would undertake nothing against
his kingdom during his absence, even if he married Waldrada, Lothar
set out on his journey with the intention of visiting the Emperor in order
to obtain his support at the papal court. Louis II was then at
Benevento, warring against the Saracens. At first he shewed himself
little disposed to interfere, but his wife, Engilberga, proved willing to
play the part of mediator, and, in the end, an interview took place at
Monte Cassino between Hadrian and Lothar. The latter received the
Eucharist from the hands of the Pope, less, perhaps, as the pledge of
pardon than as a kind of judgment of God.
« Receive this com-
munion,” the Pope is reported to have said to Lothar, “if thou art
innocent of the adultery condemned by Nicholas. If, on the contrary,
thy conscience accuse thee of guilt, or if thou art minded to fall back
into sin, refrain; otherwise by this Sacrament thou shalt be judged and
condemned. ” A dramatic colouring may have been thrown over the
incident, but when he left Monte Cassino, Lothar bore with him the
promise that the question should again be submitted to a Council. This,
for him, meant the hope of undoing the sentence of Nicholas I. Death,
which surprised him on his way back, at Piacenza, on 8 August 869,
put an end to his plans.
His successor, by right of inheritance, was, strictly speaking, the
Emperor Louis. But he was little known outside his Italian kingdom,
and appears not to have had many supporters in Lorraine, unless
perhaps in the duchy of Lyons, which was close to his Provençal pos-
sessions. In Lorraine proper, on the contrary, there were two opposed
parties, a German party and a French party, each supporting one of the
uncles of the dead king. But Louis the German was detained at Ratis-
bon by sickness.
Thus circumstances favoured Charles the Bald, who hastened to take
advantage of them by entering Lorraine. An embassy from the magnates,
which came to meet him at Attigny to remind him of the respect due
to the treaty which he had made with his brother at Metz, produced no
result. By way of Verdun he reached Metz, where in the presence of
the French and Lotharingian nobles, and of several prelates, among
them the Bishops of Toul, Liège, and Verdun, Charles was solemnly
crowned king of Lorraine in the cathedral of St Stephen on 9 September
869. When, a little later, he heard of the death of his wife Queen
Ermentrude (6 October), Charles sought to strengthen his position in the
country by taking first as his mistress and afterwards as his lawful wife
1 The date 867 is generally accepted. On the other hand, M. Calmette, in La
diplomatie carolingienne, pp. 195, 399, gives arguments of some force in favour
of 868.
1
5
3
## p. 45 (#91) ##############################################
Contest for Lorraine
45
(22 January 870) a noble lady named Richilda, a relation of Theutberga,
the former queen, belonging to one of the most important families in
Lorraine; on her brother Boso Charles heaped honours and benefices.
Neither Louis the German nor Louis II could do more than protest
against the annexation of Lorraine to the Western Kingdom, the former
in virtue of the Treaty of Metz, the latter in right of his near relation-
ship to the dead king. To the envoys of both, Charles the Bald had
returned evasive answers, while he was convoking the magnates of his
new kingdom at Gondreville to obtain from them the oath of fealty.
But those who attended the assembly were few in number. Louis the
German's party was recovering strength. Charles was made aware of it
when he attempted to substitute for the deposed Gunther in the see of
Cologne, a French candidate, Hilduin. The Archbishop of Mayence,
Liutbert, a faithful supporter of the king of Germany, set up in
opposition a certain Willibert who ultimately won the day. On the
other hand, Charles was more successful at Trèves, where he was able to
instal the candidate of his choice.
Meanwhile, Louis the German, having recovered, had collected an
army, and, calling on his brother to evacuate his conquest, marched in
his turn upon Lorraine, where his partisans came round him to do him
homage (spring 870). An armed struggle seemed imminent, but the
Carolingians had little love for fighting. Brisk negotiations began, in
which the principal part was taken by Liutbert, Archbishop of Mayence,
representing Louis, and Odo, Bishop of Beauvais, on behalf of Charles.
In the end, the diplomatists came to an agreement based on the partition
of Lorraine.
The task of carrying it into effect was at first entrusted
to a commission of magnates, but difficulties were not long in arising.
It was decided that the two kings should meet. But the interview was
delayed by an accident which happened to Louis the German, through
a foor giving way, and only took place on 8 August at Meersen on the
banks of the Meuse. Here the manner of the division of Lothar II's former
dominions was definitely settled. The Divisio regni, the text of which
has been preserved in the Annals of Hincmar, shews that no atten-
tion was paid to natural boundaries, to language or even to existing
divisions, whether ecclesiastical or civil, since certain counties were cut
in two, e. g. the Ornois. An endeavour was made to divide between the
two sovereigns, as equally as possible, the sources of revenue, i. e. the
counties, bishoprics and abbeys. Louis received the bishoprics of
Cologne, Trèves, Metz, Strasbourg and Basle, with a portion of those of
Toul and Liège. Charles, besides a large share of the two last, was
given that of Cambrai, together with the metropolitan see of Besançon,
and the counties of Lyons and Vienne with the Vivarais, that is to say
the lands which Lothar had acquired after the death of Charles of
Provence. Without entering into details as to the division of the pagi
in the north part of the kingdom of Lorraine, from the mouths of the
CH. II.
## p. 46 (#92) ##############################################
46
Partition of Meersen
Rhine to Toul, it is substantially true to say that the course of the
Meuse and a part of that of the Moselle formed the border line between
the two kingdoms. Thence the frontier ran to the Saône valley, and the
limits thus fixed, although not lasting, had distinct influence later in
the Middle Ages.
Hardly was the treaty of Meersen concluded, when the brother-kings
of Gaul and Germany were confronted by deputies from the Pope and
the Emperor, protesting, in the name of the latter, against the conduct
of his uncles in thus robbing him of the inheritance which was his by
right. Hincmar replied by endeavouring to justify his master, and by
dwelling on the necessity of preserving peace in Lorraine; Charles, for
his part, bestowed fair words and rich gifts on the Pope. As to Louis
the German, he professed himself ready to make over what he had
acquired of Lothar's lands to Louis II. These assurances, however, were
not followed by any practical result, and Charles spent the latter part of
the year in completing the subjection of the southern part of his newly-
acquired dominions. Lyons was occupied without a struggle. Only
Vienne, which was defended by Bertha, wife of Gerard of Roussillon, who
was himself ensconced in a castle in the neighbourhood, made some
resistance, surrendering, however, in the end (24 December 870).
Charles was recalled to Francia by the rebellion of his son Carloman, who
had forsaken his father's expedition in order to collect bands of partisans
and ravage his kingdom. Louis the German was at the same time
engaged in a struggle with his two sons who had risen against him.
Charles confided the government of the Viennois and Provence to his
brother-in-law Boso as duke, and turned homewards.
In the meanwhile, a report spread through Gaul and Germany that
the Emperor Louis II had been taken prisoner and put to death by
Adelchis, Prince of Benevento. In reality the latter had merely subjected
his sovereign to a few days' captivity (August 871). But Louis the
German and Charles the Bald had lost no time in shewing that each
intended to appropriate for himself the inheritance left by the deceased ;
Louis by sending his son Charles the Fat beyond the Alps, in order to
gather adherents, and Charles by setting out himself at the head of an
army. However, he went no farther than Besançon, when the two com-
petitors were stopped by the news that the Emperor was still alive. But
during the three following years we find both brothers bent on eventually
securing the heritage of the king of Italy; Louis the German being
supported, it would seem, by the Empress Engilberga, while Charles the
Bald, who had rid himself of his rebellious son Carloman, whom he had
succeeded in making prisoner and whose eyes he had put out, was trying
to form a party among the Roman nobles and those surrounding the new
Pope, John VIII, who in December 872 had taken the place of Hadrian.
The death of Louis II at Brescia (12 August 875) led to an open
struggle between the two rivals.
## p. 47 (#93) ##############################################
The Emperor Louis II in Italy
47
For a long time the kingdom of Italy had stood considerably apart
from the other Carolingian states. Louis the Pious and Lothar had
already placed it in a somewhat special position by sending as their re-
presentatives there each his eldest son, already associated in the Empire,
and bearing the title of king. Since 855 the Emperor had been restricted
to the possession of Italy, where he had already received the royal title
in 844, and where his coronation as joint-Emperor had taken place
(Rome, April 850). Apart from matters concerning the inheritance of
his brothers, it does not seem that Louis II held that his office imposed
on him the duty of interfering in affairs beyond the Alps. The Emperor
had been obliged to devote his chief attention to his duties as king of
Italy, and the defence of the country entrusted to him against the attacks
of its enemies, particularly the Saracens. But circumstances were too
strong for him, and in spite of his activity and energy, Louis II was
fated to wear himself out in a struggle of thirty years, and yet neither
to leave undisputed authority to his successor, nor finally to expel the
Muslims from Italian soil. The royal power had never been very great
in the peninsula. The Frankish counts
, who had taken the place of the
Lombard lords, had quickly acquired the habit of independence. The
bishops and abbots had seen their temporal power grow in extent,
through numerous grants of lands and immunities. On the other
hand, three strong powers, outside the Papal state, had taken shape out
of the ancient duchies of Friuli and Spoleto, and in Tuscany. The
counts of Frankish origin were reviving the former Lombard title of
duke, or the Frankish one of marquess, and regular dynasties of princes,
by no means very amenable to the orders of the sovereign, were established
at Cividale, Lucca and Spoleto. The March of Friuli, set up between
the Livenza and the Isonzo to ward off the attacks of Slavs and Avars,
athough its ruler, no doubt, had extended his authority over other
countries beyond these limits, had, in the time of Lothar, been bestowed
on a certain Count Everard, husband of Gisela, the youngest daughter of
Louis the Pious. This man, coming originally from the districts along
the Meuse, where his family still remained powerful, was richly endowed
with counties and abbeys, and played a distinguished part in the wars
against the Serbs, dying in 864 or 865. His immediate successor was
his son, Unroch, who died young, and then his second son, Berengar, who
was destined to play a conspicuous part in Italy at the end of the
ninth century, and who seems from an early date to have thrown in his lot
in politics with the partisans of Louis the German and the Empress Engil-
berga. The ducal family established at Spoleto also came from Francia,
from the valley of the Moselle. It was descended from Guy, Count
of the March of Brittany under Louis the Pious. His son Lambert, who
at first bore the same title, derived from the March, was a devoted ad-
herent of Lothar, and, as such, had been banished to Italy where he died '.
I See supra, pp. 15, 19-20.
CH. II.
## p. 48 (#94) ##############################################
48
Italian vassals
a
TE
It is this Lambert's son, Guy (Guido) who appears as the first Frankish
Duke of Spoleto. Brother-in-law of Siconolf, Prince of Benevento, he
contrived to interfere skilfully in the wars among the Lombard princes,
betray his allies at well-chosen junctures, and add to his duchy various
cities, Sora, Atino, etc. , the spoil of Siconolf or his rivals. He died
about 858. His son Lambert shewed himself an intractable vassal, some-
times the ally of Louis II, and again at open war with him, or fugitive
at the court of the princes of Benevento. He was even temporarily
deprived of his duchy, which was transferred to a cousin of the Empress
Engilberga, Count Suppo. After the Emperor Louis's death, however,
Lambert is found again in possession of his duchy, and like his brother
Guy, Count of Camerino, is counted among the adherents of Charles the
Bald. In Tuscany the ducal family was of Bavarian origin, tracing its
descent from Count Boniface who, in the beginning of the ninth century
was established at Lucca and was also entrusted with the defence of Corsica.
His grandson, Adalbert, succeeded in consolidating his position by
marrying Rotilda, daughter of Guy of Spoleto. As to Southern Italy,
beyond the Sangro and the Volturno, the Lombard principalities there,
in spite of formal acts of submission, remained, like the Greek territories,
outside the Carolingian Empire. The power of the Princes of Bene-
vento was considerably diminished after the formation of the principality
of Salerno, cut off from the original duchy in 848. From the middle of
the ninth century, the Gastalds of Capua also affected to consider them-
selves independent of the prince reigning at Benevento. The Frankish
sovereign could hardly do otherwise than seek to foment these internal
dissensions and try to obtain from the combatants promises of vassalage
or even the delivery of hostages. But Louis II made no real attempt to
compel the submission of the Lombards of Benevento and Salerno, who
were firmly attached to their local dynasties and to their independence.
If he interfered on several occasions beyond the limits of the States of
the Church and the Duchy of Spoleto, it was not as suzerain, but as the
ally of the inhabitants in their struggle against the common enemies of
all Italy, the Saracens.
These latter, who came from Africa and Spain, were for more than
a hundred years to be to the peninsula nearly as great a scourge as the
Northmen were to Gaul and Germany. In 827 they had gained a foot-
hold in Sicily and four years afterwards (831), taking advantage of the
dissensions between the Byzantine governors, they seized Palermo and
Messina and made themselves masters of the whole island. In 837 the
Duke of Naples, Andrew, set the fatal example of calling them in as
allies in his struggle with Sicard of Benevento, to whom he was refusing
the tribute he had promised. Thenceforward, in spite of engagements
to the contrary, Italian dukes and Greek governors constantly took
Muslim pirates into their pay. Other bands having seized various
Greek cities such as Taranto, we get the pillage of the towns on the
+
## p. 49 (#95) ##############################################
The Saracens sack St Peter's
49
Adriatic, e. g. Ancona (839). In 840 the treachery of the Gastald
Pando handed over to them Bari, where they fixed themselves per-
manently, and it was the Saracens of Bari whom Radelchis of Benevento
employed as auxiliaries during his struggle with Siconolf of Salerno.
Other pirate crews attempted the siege of Naples, but the city offered a
determined resistance, and its duke, Sergius, at the head of a fleet
collected from the Campanian ports, won the naval victory of Licosa
over the invaders in 846. Repulsed from the Campanian shores, the
pirates fell upon the coast nearest to Rome. In order to keep them out
of the Tiber, Pope Gregory IV had built a fortress at its mouth. This
did not prevent the pirates from landing on the right bank of the river
and even pushing their ravages as far as the gates of Rome. Unable to
force their way in, they sacked the basilica of St Peter, which was then
outside the walls, profaning the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.
This sacrilege created a profound sensation throughout Christendom.
It was, indeed, related that a tempest destroyed the invaders with
the precious booty with which they were laden. But the truth appears
to be that Louis II, as he was advancing to the rescue of the city, met
with a check, and that the Saracens retired unmolested with their spoil.
A great expedition organised against them in the spring of the next
year (847) by Lothar I and Louis II had no important results. Louis,
however, took advantage of being in the south of Italy to put an
end by treaty to the contest between Radelchis and Siconolf, definitively
separating by a precise frontier line the two principalities of Bene-
vento and Salerno, The Roman suburbs had arisen from their ruins, and
Pope Leo IV (847-8) had built a wall round the basilica of St Peter
and the quarter on the right bank of the Tiber, enclosing what became
“the Leonine City. ” In 851-2 the Lombards again appealed to
Louis II. The latter delivered Benevento from the body of Saracens which
had settled down there, but being badly supported by his allies, he was
unable to take Bari, the Muslim garrison of which, as soon as the
Frankish army had withdrawn, re-commenced its devastating raids into
the surrounding country. It was at this time that the Saracens pillaged
the famous abbeys of Monte Cassino and St Vincent of Volturno. In
867 the Emperor made a fresh expedition against them, and laid siege to
Bari. But it was impossible to reduce the town without the help of
a squadron to blockade it from the sea. Louis II, therefore, attempted
to secure the aid of the Greek fleet by an alliance with the Basileus,
arranging for the marriage of his daughter Ermengarde with the son of
Basil, the Eastern Emperor. A Greek fleet did, indeed, appear off
Bari, but the marriage not having taken place, it drew off. Louis
was not discouraged, and made a general appeal to his subjects in the
maritime provinces, even to the half-subjected Slavs to the north of the
Adriatic. After many vicissitudes, the town was carried by assault
(2 February 871). But the Lombards of Benevento cordially detested
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. II,
## p. 50 (#96) ##############################################
50
Pope John VIII
their Frankish deliverers, and their prince, Adelchis, feared that the
Emperor might take advantage of his success to assert his sovereignty
over Southern Italy. In consequence of his hostility, he laid an ambush
which threw the Emperor a prisoner into his hands. Adelchis extorted
from his captive a promise not to re-enter Southern Italy. A report of
the Emperor's death was even current in Gaul and Germany. But
Louis II, being quickly set at liberty, obtained from the Pope a dispen-
sation from the oath he had sworn, and renewed the campaign next year
(873), without however having attained any advantage. On 12 August
875 he was suddenly carried off by death.
Such was the state of affairs in Italy at the moment when Charles
the Bald and Louis the German were preparing to dispute with one
another the heritage left by their nephew. The succession question
which presented itself, was, it is true, a complicated one. The dead
Emperor left only a daughter. The territories which he had ruled, ought,
it would seem, to have been divided by agreement between his two uncles.
But if the imperial dignity had, since the time of Charlemagne, been
considered inalienable from his family, no rule of succession had yet been
established, even by custom, which could be applied to it. In practice,
it seemed to be bound up with the possession of Italy, and to require as
indispensable conditions the election of the candidate, at least in theory,
by the Roman people, and his consecration at the hands of the Pope.
Now Charles the Bald had on his side the sympathy of John VIII, who
claimed that he was only carrying out the wishes already expressed by
Nicholas I himself. Charles has been accused of having entangled the
Pope by means of offerings and grants. In reality, what John VIII
most desired seems to have been a strong and energetic Emperor
capable of taking up the task to which Louis II had devoted himself,
and of defending the Holy See against the Saracens. Rightly or
wrongly, he believed that he had found his ideal in Charles, who was, in
addition, well-educated and a lover of letters, and had besides for a long
time given his attention to Italy, whither he had been summoned by a
party of the magnates at the time of the false report of the death of
Louis II. His possession, too, of Provence and of the Viennois, made it
possible for him to interfere beyond the Alps more readily than his
brother of Germany could do. He took action, besides, with promptness
and decision. Hardly had the news of his nephew's death reached him
at Douzy near Sedan than he summoned an assembly of magnates at
Ponthion near Châlons to nominate his comrades on the expedition. He
crossed the Great St Bernard, and had scarcely arrived in Italy when he
was met by the envoys of the Pope bearing an invitation to him to come
to Rome to be crowned. Louis the German was not inclined to see his
brother go to this length without a protest. He despatched his two
sons in succession beyond the Alps with an army. Charles the Fat was
immediately obliged to beat a retreat. Carloman, more fortunate,
## p. 51 (#97) ##############################################
Imperiul coronation of Charles the Bald
51
a
succeeded in meeting Charles the Bald on the banks of the Brenta, and,
after the Carolingian manner, opened negotiations. Either, as the
German annalists say, his uncle got the better of him by deceitful
promises, or else he felt himself too weak to fight the matter out. He,
therefore, arranged a truce, and returned to Germany without a blow.
Meanwhile Louis the German had made an attack upon Lorraine,
having been called in by a disgraced chamberlain, Enguerand, who
had been deprived of his office for the benefit of the favourite Boso.
Ravaging the country terribly as he went, Louis reached the palace of
Attigny on 25 December 875, where he waited for adherents to come in.
But the defections on which he had counted did not take place, and the
invader, for want of sufficient support, was obliged to retreat and make
his way back to Mayence. Charles, meanwhile, had not allowed himself
to be turned from his object by the news from Lorraine. He was
bent on the Empire. He had reached Rome, and on Christmas Day
875 he received the imperial diadem from the hands of John VIII.
But he did not delay long in Rome, and having obtained from John
the title of Vicar of the Pope in Gaul for Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens,
he began his journey homewards on 5 January 876. On January 31
he was at Pavia, where he had himself solemnly elected and recog-
nised as king of Italy by an assembly of magnates. Leaving Boso
to govern this new kingdom, he again set forward, and was back at
Saint-Denis in time to keep Easter (15 April). In the month of June,
in company with the two papal legates who had come with him from
Italy, John, Bishop of Arezzo, and John, Bishop of Toscanella, he held a
great assembly of nobles and bishops at Ponthion, when he appeared
wearing the imperial ornaments. The council solemnly recognised the
new dignity which the Pope had conferred on the king of the West
Franks. Charles would have wished also to secure its assent to the
grant of the vicariate to Ansegis, but on this point he met with strong
resistance. To the same assembly came envoys from Louis the German,
demanding in his name an equitable partition of the territories formerly
ruled by Louis II. Charles appeared to recognise these pretensions as
well-founded. In his turn he sent an embassy to his brother and opened
negotiations. They were interrupted by the death of Louis the German,
at Frankfort (28 August 876).
The dead king left three sons.
In accordance with arrangements
which had been made beforehand but often modified in detail, the eldest,
Carloman, was to receive Bavaria and the East Mark, the second,
Louis, Saxony and Franconia, and the third, Charles the Fat, Ale-
mannia. These dispositions were according to precedent. It is thus
difficult to conceive by what right Charles the Bald professed to claim that
portion of Lorraine which by the Treaty of Meersen had been allocated
to his brother. None the less, it is certain that he hastened to send off
emissaries to the country, charged with the business of gaining supporters
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#98) ##############################################
52
Succession to Louis the German
for his cause, and then set out himself for Metz, Aix-la-Chapelle and
Cologne. But Louis the Younger, on his side, had raised an army in
Saxony and Thuringia, and sent deputies, although vainly, to call upon
his uncle to respect his rights. He himself had recourse to the judgment
of God, and when the ordeal proved favourable to his champions, he
crossed the Rhine at Andernach. In the meanwhile, fresh envoys
bearing proposals of peace sought Charles the Bald on his behalf. His
uncle feigned willingness to enter into negotiations. But during the night
of 7–8 October, he suddenly struck his camp and began a forward march,
hoping to surprise his sleeping enemies in the early dawn. The season,
however, was inclement, the roads were soaked with rain, and the
cavalry, which was the principal arm of Carolingian forces, could only
advance with difficulty. Besides this, a faithful adherent of Louis the
Younger in Charles's own camp, had succeeded in warning his master of
the coup-de-main about to be attempted against him. Thus the imperial
army, fatigued by the night march, found the enemy, whom they had
thought to surprise, on his guard. The result was a disastrous defeat
of the troops of Charles. Numerous prisoners and rich spoil fell to the
victor. But it would appear that Louis was not in a position to profit
by his advantage, for almost immediately we find him falling back on
Aix and Frankfort. Charles, for his part, made no second attempt
against him, and shortly afterwards, without any formal treaty having
been concluded, peace was restored between the two kings, marked by the
liberation of the prisoners taken at Andernach.
Charles the Bald was, besides, absorbed by other anxieties. If his
election had been the act of John VIII, the reason was that the Pope
needed his help in Italy against the Saracens. Not satisfied with promises
of troops and missi, he unceasingly demanded Charles's presence in
Italy. Two papal legates again approached Charles at Compiègne at the
beginning of 877, and finally drew from him a pledge that he would
cross the Alps in the course of the summer. The moment, however, was
not favourable, for the Northmen were shewing increased activity. In
876 a hundred of their ships had gone up the Seine and threatened the
rich abbey of St-Denis, driving the monks to flee to a safer retreat on the
banks of the Aisne. Charles the Bald decided to negotiate with them once
more, and on 7 May 877 he ordered the collection of a special impost, a
tributum Normannicum, destined to produce the five thousand pounds of
silver needed to purchase the withdrawal of the Northmen from the Seine.
On 14 June he assembled the magnates at Quierzy (Kiersy), where he
promulgated a celebrated capitulary which has been too long held to be
the charter constituting the feudal system, a legislative measure es-
tablishing the hereditary nature of fiefs, the deliberate completion of a
process of evolution which had been going on from 847, the date at
which the Capitulary of Meersen ordered every free man to choose a
lord for himself. In 847 what was really in question was a measure to
>
a
## p. 53 (#99) ##############################################
Assembly of Quierzy
53
facilitate the levy of the host. In 877 at Quierzy, a whole body of very
diverse measures were introduced, their object being to secure the good
government of the kingdom, and the proper administration of the
private property of the king during his absence, or even in case he should
happen to die while on his expedition. The prince, Louis (the Stam-
merer), was to take his father's place with the assistance of counsellors,
the choice of whom shews that the Emperor was not entirely free from
distrust of his heir. An article in the capitulary orders Louis not to
deprive the son of any count who should die during the campaign of the
honours enjoyed by the father. Here we have a seal set upon the custom
which was becoming more and more general, namely that the honours
held by the father should be continued to the son, but at the same time
we get the implicit recognition of the sovereign's right to dispose of the
fiefs which, in principle, he has granted for life only, a right which
Louis might possibly abuse.
Charles, accompanied by Richilda, set out at the end of June. He
brought with him only a small number of his chief vassals; others, of
whom Boso was one, were to join him a little later at the head of an
army which they had received orders to assemble. The Emperor took
the St Bernard route, and met John VIII who had advanced as far
as Vercelli to receive him. But, at the same time as Charles, Car-
loman of Bavaria had been crossing the Alps at the head of a powerful
army, and now made his appearance in the eastern part of Lombardy.
Charles, uneasy at this, hurried on the coronation of Richilda as
Empress, and sent her back to Gaul, demanding the hastening forward
of the reinforcements which he was awaiting. But his presentiments
were realised. The magnates had been irritated to see him depart
thus, giving up the struggle with the Northmen, which in the eyes of
the Frankish aristocracy was more important than the war against
the Saracens. On the other hand they no doubt considered that the
expedition was unlikely to provide them with many fiefs and benefices
to be conquered beyond the Alps. Thus they made no response to the
appeal addressed to them. Boso himself, who the year before, under the
influence of Berengar of Friuli and the German party, had married
Ermengarde, daughter of the late Emperor Louis II, was opposed to a
fresh expedition into Italy, and declined to enter upon the campaign.
Some of the most powerful nobles of the Western Kingdom, chosen by
Charles to command the relieving army, Bernard, Count of Auvergne,
and Bernard, Marquess of Gothia, followed the example set them.
Hincmar himself, discontented that the vicariate should have been
conferred on Ansegis, shewed himself less loyal than usual, and Prince
Louis openly abetted the movement. The one object of the discontented
seems to have been to compel Charles to return, and in this they
succeeded, for the Emperor lost no time in retracing his
Gaul. But on the road he fell sick and on 6 October, in a poor hovel,
way towards
CH. II.
## p. 54 (#100) #############################################
54
Death of Charles the Bald
2
poisoned, it was said, by his Jewish doctor Zedekiah, he ended, miserably
enough, his reign of thirty-seven years.
Historians have often pronounced adversely on the reign, influenced
by chroniclers of Louis the German, who accuse his adversary of cowardice
and incapacity. But it does not in fact appear that Charles was wanting
either in courage or energy.
