No More Learning

From this general disintegration of the kingdom, the clergy, and
especially the bishops, escaped only with the greatest difficulty. Too
many members of the episcopate belonged both by birth and tendencies
to the feudal classes for them to furnish the elements of a reaction or
even to desire it. But there were a few among the mass, who were in a
position, either through greater openness of mind, or more genuine
culture, to see things from a higher point of view, who succeeded in
imposing their ideas above all local divisions, and, while the royal
authority seemed bankrupt, were able to exercise in the kingdom some
sort of preponderating moral influence. The most illustrious examples
are those of two bishops of Chartres, Bishop Fulbert in the time of King
Robert, and Bishop Ivo in the time of Philip I.
With Fulbert the whole kingdom seems to have been in perpetual
consultation on all manner of questions, even those in appearance most
trivial. Does a point in feudal law need clearing up ? is there a canonical
difficulty to be solved ? or a feeling of curiosity to be satisfied ? recourse
is had to him. About 1020 the Duke of Aquitaine, William the Great,
asks him to expound the mutual obligations of suzerain and vassal, and
the bishop at once sends him a precise and clear reply, which, he says at
the end, he would like to have drawn out further, “if he had not been
absorbed by a thousand other occupations and by his anxiety about the
re-building of his city and his church which had just been destroyed by
a terrible fire. ” Some years later the public mind throughout the
kingdom had been much exercised by a “rain of blood" on the coast of
Poitou. King Robert, at the request of the Duke of Aquitaine that he
would seek enlightenment from his clergy as to this terrifying miracle,
at once writes off to Fulbert, and at the same time to the Bishop of
Bourges, seeking an explanation and details concerning previous
occurrences of the phenomenon. Without delay Fulbert undertakes
the search, re-reads Livy, Valerius Maximus, Orosius, and Gregory of
Tours and sends off a letter with full particulars. Next comes the
scholasticus of St Hilary's of Poitiers, his former pupil, who overwhelms
him with questions of every kind and demands with special insistence
whether bishops may serve in the army. In reply, his kind master sends
him a regular dissertation.
But these are only his lighter cares; he has to guide the king in his
policy and warn him of the blunders he makes. About 1010 Robert
was on the point of convoking a great assembly to proclaim the Peace of
a
CB. V.
9-2


## p. 132 (#178) ############################################

132
Two bishops: Fulbert and Ivo of Chartres
God at Orleans which at that time was under an interdict. Immediately
Fulbert takes up his pen and writes to the king: “Amidst the numerous
occupations which demand my attention, my anxiety touching thy
person, my lord, holds an important place. Thus when I learn that
thou dost act wisely I rejoice; when I learn that thou doest ill I am
grieved and in fear. ” He is glad that the king should be thinking on
peace, but that with this object he should convoke an assembly at Orleans,
"a city ravaged by fire, profaned by sacrilege, and above all, condemned
to excommunication,” this astonishes and confounds him. To hold an
assembly in a town where, legally, neither the king nor the bishops
could communicate, was at that time nothing short of a scandal! And
the pious bishop concludes his letter with wise and firm advice.
A few years earlier, in 1008, the Count of the Palace, Hugh of
Beauvais, the bosom friend of King Robert, had been killed, as we have
related, under the very eyes of the sovereign, by assassins placed in
ambush by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, who immediately gave them
asylum in his dominions. Such was the scandal, that Fulk was near
being proceeded against for high treason, while a synod of bishops
sitting at Chelles wished at all events to pronounce him excommunicate
on the spot. Here again Fulbert intervenes, he enjoins clemency upon
all, obtains a delay of three weeks, and of his own accord writes to Fulk,
though he is neither his diocesan nor his relation, a letter full of kind-
ness, but also of firmness, summoning him to give up the assassins within
a fixed time and to come himself at once and make humble submission.
In the days of Ivo the good understanding between the king and
the Bishop of Chartres was broken. But amidst all the religious and
political difficulties in which Philip was involved, and with him the
whole kingdom, the bishop's influence is only the more evident. In
personal correspondence with the Popes, who consult him, or to whom
on his own initiative he sends opinions always listened to with deference,
in correspondence with the papal legates whom he informs by his
counsels, Ivo seems the real head of the Church in France. In the
question so hotly debated on both sides as to the king's marriage with
Bertrada of Montfort', Ivo did not hesitate to speak his mind to the
king without circumlocution, he sharply rebuked the over-complaisant
bishops, acted as leader of the rest, and personally came to an agreement
with the Pope and his legates as to the course to be pursued. He writes
in 1092 to the king who had summoned him to be present at the
solemnisation of his marriage with Bertrada: “I neither can nor will go, so
long as no general council has pronounced a divorce between you and your
lawful wife, and declared the marriage which you wish to contract canoni-
cal. ” The king succeeded in getting this adulterous union celebrated, and
in spite of warnings he refused to put an end to it. Pope Urban II
>
1 See supra, p. 113


## p. 133 (#179) ############################################

Political interventions of prelates
133
addressed to the bishops and archbishops a letter enjoining them to
excommunicate this impious man, if he refused to repent. Ivo then
appeared as arbiter of the situation. “ These pontifical letters," he
writes to the king's seneschal, “ ought to have been published already,
but out of love for the king I have had them kept back, because I am
determined, as far as is in my power, to prevent a rising of the kingdom
against him. ”
He was fully informed of all that was said or done of any importance;
in 1094 he knew that the king meant to deceive the Pope, and had
sent messengers to Rome; he warned Urban II, putting him on his
guard against the lies which they were charged to convey to him.
Later on, in the time of Pope Paschal II, it was he who finally preached
moderation with success, who arranged everything with the Pope for the
“reconciliation ” of the king. There is no ecclesiastical business in the
.
kingdom of which he does not carefully keep abreast, ready, if it be useful,
to intervene to support his candidate for a post, and to give advice
to bishop or lord. Not only does he denounce to the Pope the impious
audacity of Ralph (Ranulf) Flambard, Bishop of Durham, who in 1102
had seized on the bishopric of Lisieux in the name of one of his sons,
but he calls on the Archbishop of Rouen and the other bishops of the
province to put an end to these disorders. He does even more, he writes
to the Count of Meulan to urge him to make representations without
delay, on his behalf, to the King of England whose duty it is not to
tolerate such a scandal.
At a period when religion, though ordinarily of a very rude type,
was spreading in all directions, and when the gravest political questions
which came up were those of Church policy, a prelate who, like Ivo of
Chartres, knew how to speak out and to gain the ear of popes, kings,
bishops and lords, certainly exercised in France a power of action stronger
and more pregnant with results than the obscure ministers of a weak,
discredited king.
CH. V.


## p. 134 (#180) ############################################

134
CHAPTER VI.
THE KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY.
A.
The kingdom of Burgundy down to the annexation of the
kingdom of Provence.
The unity of the Empire, momentarily restored under Charles the Fat,
had, as we have seen, been once more and finally shattered in 888. As in
843, the long strip of territory lying between the Scheldt, the mouth of
the Meuse, the Saône and the Cevennes on one hand, and the Rhine and
the Alps on the other, was not re-included in France; but the German
king was no more capable than his neighbour of keeping it as a whole
under his authority. The entire district south of the Vosges slipped
from his grasp, and for a moment he was even in danger of seeing
a rival put in possession of the whole of the former kingdom of
Lothar I.
In fact, very shortly after the Emperor Charles the Fat, abandoned
on all hands, and deposed at Tribur, had made a wretched end at
Neidingen, several of the great lay lords and churchmen of the ancient
duchy of Jurane Burgundy assembled in the basilica of St Maurice
d'Agaune, probably about the end of January 888, and proclaimed the
Count and Marquess Rodolph king. Rodolph was a person of no small
importance. His grandfather, Conrad the Elder, brother of the Empress
Judith, count and duke in Alemannia, and his uncle, Hugh the Abbot,
had played a prominent part in the time of Charles the Bald, while his
father, Conrad, originally Count of Auxerre, had taken service with the
sons of the Emperor Lothar about 861, and had received from the
Emperor Louis II the government of the three Transjurane dioceses of
Geneva, Lausanne and Sion, as well as the abbey of St Maurice d’Agaune.
Rodolph had succeeded to this Jurane duchy which now chose and pro-
claimed him king.
The significance of the declaration was at first far from clear. Still,
in the minds of Rodolph and his supporters it must necessarily have
involved more than a mere change of style. The Empire, momentarily
united, was once more falling apart into its earlier divisions, and


## p. 135 (#181) ############################################

Rodolph I
135
there being no one capable of assuming the Carolingian heritage in its
entirety, the state of things was being reproduced which had formerly
resulted from the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Such seems to have been
the idea which actuated the electors assembled at St Maurice d'Agaune ;
and Rodolph, without forming a very precise estimate of the situation,
left the western kingdom to Odo and the eastern to Arnulf, and set
to work at once to secure for himself the former kingdom of Lothar II
in its integrity.
At first it seemed that circumstances were in the new king's
favour. Accepted without difficulty in the counties of the diocese of
Besançon, Rodolph proceeded to occupy Alsace and a large part of
Lorraine. In an assembly which met at Toul the bishop of that town
crowned him king of Lorraine. But all his supporters fell away on the
appearance in the country of Arnulf, the new king of Germany, and
Rodolph, after in vain attempting to resist his army, had no choice but
to treat with his rival. He went to seek Arnulf at Ratisbon, and after
lengthy negotiations obtained from him the recognition of his kingship
over the Jurane duchy and the diocese of Besançon, on condition of
his surrendering all claims to Alsace and Lorraine (October 888). Thus
by force of circumstances the earlier conception of Rodolph's kingship
was taking a new form ; the restoration of the kingdom of Lorraine was
no longer thought of; a new kingdom, the “ kingdom of Burgundy,” had
come into being.
It was only with reluctance that Arnulf had recognised the existence
of this new kingdom. A Caroling, though illegitimate, he might seem
to have inherited from Charles the Fat a claim to rule over the whole of
the former empire of Charlemagne. Not satisfied that Rodolph should
have been forced to humble himself before him by journeying to Ratis-
bon to seek the confirmation of his royal dignity, he attempted to go
back
upon the recognition that he had granted. In 894, as he was
returning from an expedition to Lombardy, he made a hostile irruption
into the Valais, ravaging the country and vainly attempting to come to
close quarters with Rodolph, who, a few weeks earlier, had sent assistance
to the citizens of Ivrea, a town which the king of Germany had been
unsuccessfully besieging. Rodolph took refuge in the mountains and
evaded all pursuit. Nor could Zwentibold, Arnulf's illegitimate son,
who was sent against him at the head of a fresh army, succeed in reach-
ing him. The dispossession of the king of Burgundy was then resolved
on, and in 895 in an assembly held at Worms, Arnulf created Zwentibold
“king in Burgundy and in the whole of the kingdom formerly held by
Lothar II. ” But these claims were not prosecuted ; Rodolph maintained
his position, and on his death (25 October 911 or 912) his son Rodolph II
succeeded unchallenged to his kingdom.
Germany, indeed, since the death of Arnulf in 899 had been struggling
in the grip of terrible anarchy. Conrad of Franconia, who in 911 had
CH. VI.


## p. 136 (#182) ############################################

136
Rodolph II
succeeded Louis the Child, was too busy defending himself against the
revolted nobles to dream of intervention in Burgundy. Not only had
Rodolph II nothing to fear from this quarter, but he saw a favourable
opportunity for retaliation.
On the side of Lorraine it was too late ; the king of Burgundy had
been forestalled by the King of France, Charles the Simple, who as early
as November 911 had effected its conquest. Rodolph II indemnified
himself, it would appear, by attempting to lay hands on the two
Alemannic counties of Thurgau and Aargau, the districts lying on the
eastern frontier of his kingdom, between the Aar, the Rhine, the Lake
of Constance and the Reuss. He was, indeed, repulsed by the Duke of
Swabia at Winterthür in 919, but none the less succeeded in preserving
a substantial part of his conquests. Other events, however, called his
attention and diverted his energies to new quarters.
The state of affairs in Italy was then extremely disturbed. After
many rivalries and struggles, both the Lombard crown and the imperial
diadem had been placed in 915 upon the head of Berengar of Friuli.
But Berengar was far from having conciliated all sections, and at the end
of 921 or the beginning of 922 a number of the disaffected offered the
Lombard crown to Rodolph. The offer was a tempting one. Though
separated from Lombardy by the wall of the Alps, Jurane Burgundy
was still naturally brought into constant relations with it; the high
road, which from St Maurice d’Agaune led by the Great St Bernard to
Aosta and Vercelli, was habitually followed by pilgrims journeying from
the north-west into Italy. Besides, owing to their origin, many nobles
of weight in the Lombard plain, notably the Marquess of Ivrea, were in
personal communication with King Rodolph. Finally, memories of the
Emperor Lothar, who had been in possession of Italy as well as Bur-
gundy, could not but survive and necessarily produced an effect upon
men's minds.
Rodolph listened favourably to the overtures made him. He marched
straight upon Pavia, the capital of the Lombard kingdom, entered
the city, and induced the majority of the lay lords and bishops to
recognise him as king (February 922). Berengar was defeated in a great
battle fought at Fiorenzuola not far from Piacenza on 17 July 923, and
forced to fly with all speed to Verona, where he was murdered a few
months later (7 April 924). Yet before long Rodolph was forced to
change his tone. With their usual instability, the Italian barons lost
no time in deserting him to call in a new claimant, Hugh of Arles,
Marquess of Provence. Rodolph asked help of the Duke of Swabia,
Burchard, whose daughter he had married a few years before, but the
duke fell into an ambuscade and was killed (April 926) and Rodolph,
disheartened, had no choice but to retrace his steps disconsolately across
the Great St Bernard.
Events, however, were soon to convince him that his true interest lay


## p. 137 (#183) ############################################

Boso of Provence
137
in renouncing the Lombard crown and coming to an understanding with
his rival in order to seek the satisfaction of his ambition in another
direction.
B. The kingdom of Provence down to its annexation to the
kingdom of Burgundy.
The wide region lying to the south of Burgundy, between the Alps,
the Mediterranean and the Cevennes, had been for several years without
a ruler, and was in such a state of confusion and uncertainty as was
likely to tempt King Rodolph to seek his advantage there.
In the middle of the ninth century (855) a kingdom had been formed
there for the benefit of Charles, third son of the Emperor Lothar. On
the death of the young king (863) the inheritance had been divided
between his two brothers, and was soon after occupied by Charles the
Bald, who entrusted its administration to his vassal Boso (870). The
latter, who was of Frankish origin, was among the most influential per-
sonages of the Western Kingdom ; his sister, Richilda, had been first the
mistress and later the wife of the king; he himself, apparently, was an
ambitious man, energetic, skilful, and unscrupulous. In 876 he married
Ermengarde, daughter of the Emperor Louis II, and secured the favour
of Pope John VIII who, on the death of Charles the Bald in October
877, even thought for a moment of drawing him to Italy. Later, on
the death of Louis the Stammerer, Boso openly revolted and ventured
on having himself crowned king at Mantaille (15 October 879).
Before this date, Boso had been in possession of Provence and of the
counties of Vienne and Lyons, and he now obtained recognition as king
in the Tarentaise as well as in the Uzège and Vivarais districts and even
in the dioceses of Besançon and Autun.
But his attempt was pre-
mature; the united Carolingians, Louis III and Carloman, supported
by an army promptly despatched by Charles the Fat, invaded the
country in 880; the war was a tedious one, but at last in September 882
Vienne yielded, and Boso, driven from the Viennois, remained in
obscurity till his death (11 January 887).
For more than three years the fate of the “kingdom of Provence
remained in suspense. From the beginning of 888 the public records
are dated “in such a year after the death of Boso” “ after the death
of Charles” (the Fat). The kingdom of Burgundy had been formed,
yet neither Rodolph, its king, nor Odo, King of France, nor Arnulf,
King of Germany, all too fully engaged elsewhere, ever thought of laying
claim to the vacant throne of Provence.
But if Arnulf were unable to undertake the occupation of the king-
dom of Provence, at least it was plainly his interest to further the setting
up of a king who would recognise his overlordship and might also serve
as a counterpoise to the ambitious and encroaching Rodolph. Now Boso
2
or
CA. VI.


## p. 138 (#184) ############################################

138
Louis the Blind
had left a son, still quite young, named Louis, who having been protected
and even adopted by Charles the Fat, might be looked upon as the right-
ful heir of the Provençal throne. His mother, Ermengarde, set herself
energetically to bring about his coronation ; in May 889 she repaired to
Arnulf's court, and by means of rich gifts secured his help. Louis's claims,
supported also by the Pope, Stephen V, were generally recognised, and
towards the end of 890 he was proclaimed king in an assembly held at
Valence, and brought under his rule the greater part of the territory
lying to the south of Rodolph's dominions.
But the exact nature of his kingship can hardly even be conjectured
from contemporary records. We hear of him only as having journeyed
about his kingdom and granted privileges to churches. Moreover, from
the year 900 his energies are diverted to the other side of the Alps,
whither he is invited by the lords of Italy, who, weary of their king,
Berengar, offer him the crown. Louis closed with their proposals, as,
later on, Rodolph II was to do, marched at once upon Pavia, and there
assumed the crown as king of Italy, about the beginning of October 900.
Then, continuing his march, he entered Piacenza and Bologna, and in
February 901 received the imperial crown at Rome from the hands of
Pope Benedict IV. Some few engagements with Berengar's troops
were enough to secure to him the adhesion of the majority of the
nobles.
But if Italy was quickly won, it was quickly lost. Driven from
Pavia, which Berengar succeeded in re-entering (902), Louis in 905
made a fresh attempt to thrust out his rival. But he was surprised
at Verona on 21 July 905', and made prisoner by Berengar who put out
his eyes, and sent him back beyond the Alps.
Thenceforward, the unhappy Louis the Blind drags out a wretched
existence within his own dominions. While continuing to bear the
empty title of Emperor, he remained shut up in his town and palace of
Vienne, leaving the business of government to his cousin Hugh of Arles,
Marquess of Provence, who, holding both the March of Provence and the
county of Vienne, acts as master throughout the kingdom. We find
him for instance interfering in the affairs of the Lyonnais, although this
district had a count of its own, and again in the business of the church
of Valence, the bishop of which see is described as his vassal. Again,
if any question of alliance with a neighbouring king arises, it is he who
intervenes. At the beginning of 924 he has an interview with Raoul,
King of France, in the Autunois on the banks of the Loire. In the
same year the Hungarians, who for some time had been devastating the
Lombard plain, crossed the Alps and threatened at once the kingdoms
1 This date, accepted by M. Poupardin (Le Royaume de Provence, p. 186) and
contested by M. Segre (Archivio storico italiano, vol. xxxvIII. 1906, pp. 442–48)
seems to us to have been established by M. Schiaparelli (Bullettino dell'Istituto
storico italiano, 1908, no. 29, pp. 129–157).


## p. 139 (#185) ############################################

Union of Provence with Burgundy
139
of Rodolph II and Louis the Blind. Again it is Hugh of Arles who
opens communications with Rodolph and concerts with him a common
plan of action against the dreaded barbarians. The two princes joined
their forces to stay the course of the robber bands by penning them
up in a defile, whence, however, they escaped. Hugh and Rodolph
together pursued them to the Rhone and drove them into Gothia.
This concord between Hugh of Arles and King Rodolph was not to
be lasting. We have already seen how Rodolph, called in by the lords
of Lombardy and crowned king of Italy in 922, had the very next year
been abandoned by a large number of his supporters who had offered the
kingdom to the Marquess of Provence. The latter had then come into
collision with Berengar's troops, and had been obliged to pledge himself
to attempt nothing further against him. But when in 926 Rodolph
definitively withdrew from Italy, Hugh embarked from Provence and
landed near Pisa. In the beginning of July 926, at Pavia, he received in
his turn the crown which he was to succeed in retaining for twenty
years without encountering any rival of importance.
About a year later Louis the Blind died. Of his children only one
seemed capable of reigning, Charles Constantine, often held illegitimatel;
he was Count of Vienne, a district which he had been virtually ruling
since the departure of Hugh. But the new king of Italy, who was still all-
powerful in the kingdom of Provence, was not disposed to favour him.
For several years this state of uncertainty prevailed, and charters were
again dated either by the regnal year of the dead sovereign, or, according
to a formula widely used in times of interregnum, “God reigning, and a
king being awaited. ”
About 933 events occurred which cleared up the situation. “At this
time,” says the Lombard historian Liud prand,“ the Italians sent into
Burgundy to Rodolph's court to recall him. When King Hugh heard
of it, he despatched envoys to him and gave him all the lands that he
had held in Gaul before he ascended the throne, taking an oath of King
Rodolph that he would never return to Italy. ” This obscure passage is
our only source of information as to the agreement arrived at between
the two sovereigns. What was its exact purport it is impossible to say,
but the whole history of the succeeding years goes to prove that the
cession then made consisted of the sovereign rights which Hugh had
practically exercised for many long years in the dominions of Louis the
Blind. It amounted, in fact, to the union of the kingdom of Provence
with that of Burgundy.
1 See Previté-Orton, EHR, 1914, p. 705, for the legitimacy of this prince.
? It would seem that this treaty (possibly c. 931) was not at once effective,
Conrad not being king in the Viennois until c. 940, and in Provence until c. 948 on
the death of King Hugh. See Previté-Orton, EHR, 1917, p. 347; cf. also infra,
P. 156.
CH. v1.


## p. 140 (#186) ############################################

140
The German protectorate
1
1
tells us,
a
C. The kingdom of Burgundy and its annexation to the Empire.
Rodolph II did not long survive this treaty. He died on 12 or
13 July 937, leaving the government to his young son Conrad, in after
years called the Peaceful, and then aged about fifteen at most.
The youth and weakness of the new king were sure to be a temptation
to his neighbours. Apparently Hugh of Arles, King of Italy, planned
how he might turn the situation to account, for as early as 12 December
937, we find him on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, where he took to
wife Bertha, mother of young Conrad and widow of Rodolph II. Soon
afterwards, he married his son Lothar to Bertha's daughter, Adelaide.
The new King of Germany, Otto I, who in 937 had just succeeded
his father, Henry I, could not look unmoved on these manoeuvres.
Without loss of time he set out for Burgundy, and, as his biographer
“ received into his possession the king and the kingdom. ” In
reality it was a bold and sudden stroke ; Otto, cutting matters short,
had simply made young Conrad prisoner. For about four years he
kept him under a strong guard, taking him about with him on all his
journeys and expeditions, and when he released him, at about the end
of 942, he had made sure of his fidelity.
Thenceforward the king of Burgundy seems to be no more than a vassal
of the German king. When in 946 Otto went to the help of Louis IV
d'Outremer, against the aggressions of Hugh the Great, Conrad with
his contingent of troops accompanied him. In May 960 we find him at
Otto's court at Kloppen in the neighbourhood of Mannheim. Gradually
the bonds that unite the king of Germany and the king of Burgundy
were drawn closer; in 951 Otto married Adelaide, sister of Conrad,
and widow of Lothar, King of Italy; ten years later he was crowned
king of Italy at Pavia, and (2 February 962) received the imperial
crown at Rome. From this time onward, apparently, he looks upon the
kingdom of Burgundy as a sort of appendage to his own dominions ; not
only does he continue to keep Conrad always in his train (we find him
for instance in 967 at Verona), but he makes it his business to expel
the Saracens settled at Le Frainet (Fraxinetum) in the district of
St-Tropez, and in January 968 makes known his intention of going in
person to fight with them in Provence.
Under Rodolph III, son and successor of Conrad, the dependent posi-
tion of the king of Burgundy in relation to the Emperor, becomes more
and more marked. Rodolph III, on whom even during his life-time his
contemporaries chose to bestow the title of the “Sluggard (ignavus)," does
not seem, at least in the early part of his career, to have been lacking
in either energy or decision.
Aged about twenty-five at the time of his
accession (993), he attempted to re-establish in his kingdom an authority
1 See supra, Chapter iv.
p. 79.


## p. 141 (#187) ############################################

The Count Otto-William
141
which, owing to the increasing strength of the nobles, was becoming
daily more precarious. A terrible rebellion was the result, against
which all the king's efforts broke helplessly. Incapable of subduing the
revolt, he was obliged to have recourse to the German sovereign. The
aged empress, Adelaide, widow of Otto I and aunt of young Rodolph III,
hastened to him in 999 and journeyed with him through the country,
endeavouring to pacify the nobles.
At the end of the same year, 999, she died, and hardly had two years
passed when the Emperor Otto III followed her to the grave (23 January
1002). Under his successor, Henry II of Bavaria, German policy soon
shewed itself aggressive and encroaching. In 1006 Henry seized the
town of Basle, which he kept for several years; soon afterwards he
exacted from Rodolph an oath that before he died he would name him
his heir, and ten years later events occurred which placed the king of
Burgundy completely at his mercy.
For reasons which are still to some extent obscure, the “ Count of
Burgundy,” Otto-William, and a large group of the lords had just
broken out into revolt against Rodolph. In his character of “count of
Burgundy " Otto-William was master of the whole district correspond-
ing to the diocese of Besançon, and as he held at the same time the
county of Mâcon in the kingdom of France, and was brother-in-law of
the powerful bishop Bruno of Langres, and father-in-law of Landry,
Count of Nevers, of William the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, and of
William II, Count of Provence, he was the most important person in the
kingdom of Burgundy. As a contemporary chronicler Thietmar, Bishop
of Merseburg, says while the events were yet recent, “ Otto-William
though“ nominally a vassal of the king” had a mind to live as "the
sovereign master of his own territories. "
The dispute broke out on the occasion of the nomination of a new
archbishop to the see of Besançon. Archbishop Hector had just died,
and immediately rival claimants had appeared, Rodolph seeking to have
Bertaud, a clerk of his chapel, nominated, and Count Otto-William
opposing this candidature in the interest of a certain Walter. The
real question was, who was to be master in the episcopal city, the
king or his vassal ? Ostensibly the king won the day; Bertaud was
elected, perhaps even consecrated. But Otto-William did not submit.
He drove Bertaud out of Besançon, installed Walter by force, and, as
the same Bishop Thietmar relates, carried his insolence so far as to
have Bertaud hunted by his hounds in order to mark the deep contempt
with which this intruder inspired him. “And,” adds the chronicler, “ as
the prelate, worn out with fatigue, heard them baying at his heels, he
turned round, and making the sign of the cross in the direction in which
he had just left the print of his foot, let himself fall to the ground,
expecting to be torn to pieces by the pack. But those savage dogs, on
sniffing the ground thus hallowed by the sign of the cross, felt them-
99
CH 1.


## p. 142 (#188) ############################################

142
German intervention
selves suddenly stopped, as if by an irresistible force, and turning back,
left God's true servant to find his way through the woods to a more
hospitable region. ”
Otto-William was triumphant. Rodolph, having exhausted all his
resources, was obliged to ask help of Henry II. An interview took
place at Strasbourg in the early summer of 1016. Rodolph made his
appearance with his wife, Ermengarde, and two of her sons who did
homage to the Emperor. Rodolph himself, not satisfied with renewing
the engagement to which he had already sworn, to leave his kingdom on
his death to Henry, recognised him even then as his successor and swore
not to undertake any business of importance without first consulting him.
As to Otto-William, he was declared to have incurred forfeiture, and
his fiefs were granted by the Emperor to some of the lords about his
court.
Next came the carrying out of this programme, a matter which
bristled with difficulties. The Emperor himself undertook the despoil-
ing of the Count of Burgundy. But entrenched within their fortresses,
Otto-William and his partisans successfully resisted capture. Henry
could only ravage the country, and being recalled by other events to the
northern point of his dominions, was obliged to retreat without having
accomplished anything. Thus the imperial intervention had not availed
to restore Rodolph's authority. Again abandoned to his own resources,
and incapable of making head against the rebels, the king of Burgundy
gave ear to the proposals of the latter, who offered to submit on con-
dition that the engagements of the Treaty of Strasbourg were annulled.
Just at first, Rodolph appeared to yield. But the Emperor certainly
lent no countenance to the expedient, the result of which would be
disastrous to himself, and as early as February 1018 he compelled
the king of Burgundy, his wife, his step-sons and the chief nobles of
his kingdom solemnly to renew the arrangement of Strasbourg? He
then directed a fresh expedition against the county of Burgundy. It
is not known, however, whether its results were any better than those of
the expedition of 1016.
A few years later, when Henry II died (13 July 1024) Rodolph
attempted to shake off the Germanic suzerainty, by claiming that former
agreements were ipso facto invalidated by Henry's death. The latter's
.
successor, Conrad II of Franconia, at once made it his business per-
emptorily to demand what he looked upon as his rights, and Rodolph
1 This account of the years 1016-18, which are of the first importance in the
history of Burgundy, departs very notably from that given by the latest learned
authority who has devoted attention to the question, M. René Poupardin, in his
study, Le royaume de Bourgogne, pp. 126-134. Our account is founded on a fresh
study of the text of Thietmar of Merseburg and of Alpert, whose meaning appears
to us not to have been always clearly brought out till now. The text of Alpert is,
moreover, evidently inexact as to most of the points. Although a contemporary, he
has made himself the echo of loose reports denied by other authors.
#


## p. 143 (#189) ############################################

The succession to Rodolph III
143
was forced to submit. He even went as a docile vassal to Rome, to be
present at the imperial coronation of the new prince (26 March 1027),
and a few months later, at Basle, he solemnly renewed the conventions of
Strasbourg and Mayence.
Rodolph III himself only survived this new treaty a few years. On
5 or 6 Sept. 1032 he died, without legitimate children, after having sent
the insignia of his authority to the Emperor.
It seemed as though the Emperor Conrad had nothing to do but
come and take possession of his new kingdom. The chief opponent
of his policy in Rodolph's lifetime, Otto-William, Count of Burgundy,
had died several years before in 1026, and the principal nobles of the
kingdom had in 1027 come with their king. to Basle to ratify the con-
ventions of Strasbourg and Mayence. The course of events, however,
was not to be so smooth.
Already, for some time Odo II, Count of Chartres, Blois, Tours, Troyes,
Meaux and Provins, the most formidable and turbulent of the king of
France's vassals, had been intriguing with the Burgundian lords to be
recognised as the successor of King Rodolph. He had even attempted,
though without success, to inveigle the latter into naming him as his
heir, to the exclusion of his imperial rival. He put himself forward in
his character of nephew of the king of Burgundy, his mother being
Rodolph's sister, whereas the Emperor Conrad was only the husband of
that king's niece
No sooner had Rodolph closed his eyes, than Odo II, profiting by the
Emperor's detention at the other end of his dominions, owing to a war
against the Poles, promptly crossed the Burgundian frontier, seized upon
several fortresses in the very heart of the kingdom, such as Morat and
Neuchâtel, and thence marching upon Vienne, forced the Archbishop,
Léger, to open the gates and, with a view to being crowned, made sure of
!
!
1
For the sake of greater clearness, a short table of the family of the kings
of Burgundy, so far as they concern our narrative, is subjoined :
Rodolph I
King of Burgundy 888-911 or 912
Rodolph II
King of Burgundy 911 or 912-937
Conrad the Pacific
King of Burgundy
937-993
Adelaide=Otto I
King of Germany
and Emperor
Gisela
= Henry,
Duke of
Bavaria
Rodolph III Bertha (1)=Odo I Gerberga=Herman Otto II
King of Burgundy
Count of
Duke of Swabia Emperor
993–1032
Blois
Henry II
Елmperor
Odo II
Count of Blois
Gisela=Conrad II Otto III
Emperor Emperor
CH, P1,


## p. 144 (#190) ############################################

144
The rival claimants
his adhesion. The expedition thus rapidly carried out, with a decision
all the more remarkable as Odo II had at that very moment to reckon
with the hostility of the king of France against whom he had rebelled'.
certainly had the result of deciding a large number of the Burgundian
lords, whether willingly or unwillingly, to declare for the Count of Blois.
The Archbishop of Lyons and the Count of Geneva pronounced against
the Emperor. It was high time for the latter to intervene.
Having secured the submission of the Polish duke, Mesco II, Conrad
hastened back and in the depth of winter marched without stopping upon
Basle (January 1033). From thence he quickly reached Soleure and then
the monastery of Payerne, to the east of Lake Neuchâtel. He took ad-
vantage of the Feast of Candlemas (2 February) to have himself solemnly
elected and crowned there as king of Burgundy by the nobles who
favoured his cause and had come to meet him. From thence he ad-
vanced to lay siege to Morat, which was held by the partisans of the
Count of Blois. But the cold was so intense and the resistance of the
besieged so determined that Conrad was forced to abandon the enterprise
and fall back upon Zurich, and from thence return to Swabia until the
season should be more favourable.
Luckily for the Emperor, Odo was obliged during the spring
of 1033 to make head against Henry I, King of France, who for
the second time had made an attempt upon Sens”, and he was for several
months quite unable to follow up his early successes in Burgundy.
Some months later hostilities were resumed between Conrad and his
rival, but already the latter had begun to cherish new projects, and
instead of entering Burgundy he invaded Lorraine and threatened Toul.
Conrad replied by an invasion of Champagne. Both parties, having
.
grown weary of the fruitless struggle, decided on opening negotiations.
A meeting took place; according to the German chroniclers Odo took an
oath to abandon all claims upon Burgundy, to evacuate the fortresses
he still held there, and to give hostages for the fulfilment of these
promises; finally, he undertook to give the nobles of Lorraine, who
had suffered by his ravages, every satisfaction which the imperial court
should require.
These promises, if they were really made, were too specious to be
sincere. As soon as the Emperor had withdrawn in order to suppress
a revolt of the Lyutitzi on the borders of Pomerania, Odo renewed
his destructive expeditions through Lorraine. Conrad realised that he
must first of all make a good ending of his work in Burgundy; he
gained the help of Humbert Whitehands, Count of Aosta; he was there-
fore able in May 1034 to make a junction at Geneva with some Italian
troops brought to him by Boniface, Marquess of Tuscany; without
1 See supra, Chapter v. pp. 106-7, 123.
See supra, Chapter v. pp. 107, 123.


## p. 145 (#191) ############################################

Success of the Emperor Conrad II
145
difficulty he reduced most of the strongholds in the northern part of the
Burgundian kingdom, forced the Count of Geneva and the Archbishop
of Lyons to acknowledge his authority, and again caused the crown to
be placed solemnly upon his head at à curia coronata held at Geneva.
Morat still held out for the Count of Blois ; it was taken by storm and
given up to pillage. The cause of the Count of Blois was now lost beyond
redemption in Burgundy, and Conrad, recognised by all, or practically
all, could promise himself secure possession of his new kingdom.
Meanwhile, Odo, no more successful in his enterprise against
Lorraine than in his Burgundian expedition, was soon to meet his death
before the walls of Bar (15 November 1037).
From the day that the submission of the kingdom of Burgundy to
the Emperor Conrad became an accomplished fact, the history of the
kingdom may be said to come to an end. Yet it is not well to take
literally the assertions of late chroniclers who sum up the course of
events in such terms as these : “ The Burgundians, not departing from
their habitual insolence towards their king, Rodolph, delivered up to
the Emperor Conrad the kingdom of Burgundy, which kingdom had,
from the time of the Emperor Arnulf, for more than 130 years, been
governed by its own kings, and thus Burgundy was again reduced to a
province. ” But there was really a short period of transition; in fact at
an assembly held (1038) at Soleure, Conrad, doubtless feeling the need of
having a permanent representative in the kingdom, decided on handing
it over to his son Henry. Whatever may have been said on the subject,
it appears that Henry was in fact recognised as king of Burgundy;
the great lords took a direct oath of fealty to him, and the Emperor
doubtless granted him the dignity of an under-kingship, with which the
Carolingian sovereigns had so often invested their sons.
But this form of administration did not last long. As early
as 4 June 1039 King Conrad died, and now Henry III, the young
king of Burgundy, found the kingdoms of Germany and Italy added
to his first realm. The title of king of Burgundy was now, however,
only an empty form. The domains which the sovereign had at his
disposal in Burgundy were so insignificant that during the latter years
of Rodolph III the chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg could write in
reference to him : “ There is no other king who governs thus; he
possesses nothing but his title and his crown, and gives away bishoprics
to those who are selected by the nobles. What he possesses for his own
use is of small account, he lives at the expense of the prelates, and
cannot even defend them or others who are in any way oppressed by
their neighbours. Thus they have no resource, if they are to live in
peace, but to come and commend themselves to the lords and serve
them as if they were kings. ”
The very name of “Kingdom of Burgundy” covered a whole series of
territories without unity, without mutual ties, and over which the king's
a
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH, VI.
10


## p. 146 (#192) ############################################

146
Independence of great vassals
a
6
8
control was quite illusory. Rodolph III, in his latter years, hardly ever
so much as shewed himself outside the districts bounded by the valleys
of the Saône and the Doubs and between the Jura and the upper course
of the Rhône. The greater part of the lords, shutting themselves up
within their own domains, made a show of ignoring the king's authority,
or else merely deferred their revolt because, knowing the king near
at hand, they might fear being constrained by him. “O king! ” ex-
claimed the Chancellor Wipo to Henry III a few years later, “ Bur-
gundy demands thee; arise and come quickly. When the master tarries
long absent, the fidelity of new subjects is apt to waver. The old
proverb is profoundly true 'Out of sight, out of mind. ' Although
Burgundy is now, thanks to thee, at peace, she desires to view in thy
person the author of this peace and to feast her eyes upon the counten-
ance of her king. Appear, and let thy presence bring back serenity to
this kingdom. Formerly, thou didst with difficulty subdue it; profit
now by its readiness to serve thee. ”
As a matter of fact, Burgundy could spare her king very well,
and the efforts made by Henry III to render his government in these
parts a little more effective were to be unavailing. Despite his frequent
visits, and the attempts that he made to reduce to obedience his rebel-
lious vassals, notably the Counts of Burgundy and Genevois, Henry III
accomplished nothing lasting. On his death (1056), his widow, the
Empress Agnes, tried as fruitlessly to restore the royal power by sending
Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Duke of Swabia, to represent her in the kingdom.
Later on, Henry IV, when he had attained his majority, and after him
Henry V in his struggle with the Papacy, met with hardly anything but
indifference or hostility in Burgundy as a whole. Henry V's successor,
Lothar of Supplinburg, himself supplies the proof of the purely
nominal character of his authority in these distant provinces, when, on
summoning the lords of Burgundy and Provence to join an expedition
which he was preparing for Italy, he exclaims: “At sundry times we
have written to you to demand the tribute of your homage and sub-
mission. But you paid no heed, thus emphasizing in an indecorous
manner your contempt for our supreme power. We intend to labour
henceforward to restore in your country our authority, which has been
so much diminished among you as to be almost completely forgotten. . . .
Thus we command you to appear at Piacenza, on the Feast of
St Michael, with your contingent of armed men. '
This summons was to produce no result. The Emperors tried by every
means to make their power a reality. Following the example of the
Empress Agnes, who had sent Rudolf of Rheinfelden to represent her,
Lothar of Supplinburg, and afterwards Frederick Barbarossa were to
try the experiment of delegating their authority to various princes
of the Swiss house of Zähringen whom they appointed “rectors” or
viceroys. This rectorate, soon to be called the Duchy of Burgundia


## p. 147 (#193) ############################################

Later history
147
Minor (lesser Burgundy), was, however, only effective to the east of the
Jura, that is, practically over modern Switzerland, and it disappeared in
1217 on the extinction of the elder line of Zähringen. In 1215
Frederick II was to try a return to the same policy, making choice of
William of Baux, Prince of Orange, then in 1220 of William, Marquess
of Montferrat; from 1237 onwards, he was to be represented by im-
perial vicars. We shall see the Emperors make an appearance, in an
intermittent fashion, in the kingdom and sometimes seeming to re-possess
themselves of a more or less real authority in this or that district.
Frederick Barbarossa, in particular, after his marriage with Beatrice,
the heiress of the county of Burgundy, will appear as unquestioned
master in the diocese of Besançon, and be crowned king of Arles in
1178; Frederick II will for a time recover a real power of action in
Provence and the Lyonnais; and again in the fourteenth century,
Henry VII, strong in the support of the princes of Savoy, will rally to
his standard large numbers of the nobles of the kingdom. Charles IV
will characteristically go through the empty form of coronation in 1365,
But these will be isolated exceptions, leading to nothing.
Incapable of enforcing their authority, the Emperors, from the latter
part of the twelfth century onwards, more than once will even meditate
restoring the kingdom of Arles, as it is now most frequently called, to
its former independence,' reserving the right to exact from its new king
the recognition of their suzerainty. Henry VI will offer it to his prisoner,
Richard Cæur de Lion in 1193 ; Philip of Swabia to his competitor,
Otto of Brunswick in 1207; Rudolf of Habsburg will consider en-
trusting it in 1274 to a prince of his family, and later on to an Angevin
prince, an idea to be revived by Henry VII in 1310.
But all these efforts prove vain. For long centuries the kingdom of
Arles remains in theory attached to the Empire, but little by little, this
kingdom, over which the German sovereigns could never secure effective
control, will crumble to pieces in their hands. Out of its eastern
portion the Swiss confederation and the duchy of Savoy will be formed ;
the kings of France, in the course of the fourteenth century, will succeed
in regaining their authority over the Vivarais, the Lyonnais, the Valen-
tinois and Diois, and Dauphiné, successively. To these, a century later,
will be added Provence, which had already been long in French hands.
CH. VI.
10_2


## p. 148 (#194) ############################################

148
CHAPTER VII.
ITALY IN THE TENTH CENTURY.
The death of the Emperor Lambert in October 898 dealt a blow to
the royal power in North Italy, the Regnum Italicum of the tenth century.
In place of the born ruler, who had mastered his own vassals and made
himself protector of the Papacy, there succeeded Berengar, mild and
cheatable. Berengar, too, was weak in resources. His own domains lay
awkwardly in the extreme north-east, in Friuli and the modern Veneto, not
like Lambert's in the centre; and he had not like Lambert the support
of a large group of the great nobles and bishops who formed the real
source of power in Italy. Two magnates in especial were equally faith-
less and formidable, Adalbert the Rich, Marquess of Tuscany, in the
centre, and Adalbert, Marquess of Ivrea, on the western frontier. In vain
did Berengar marry his daughter Gisela to Adalbert of Ivrea and give
the Tuscan his freedom from the prison to which Lambert had consigned
him for revolt. A plot was hatching, when disaster befel king and
kingdom.
Already in 898 the Hungarians, or Magyars', had raided the present
Veneto from their newly-won settlements on the river Theiss. In 899 a
larger swarm made its way from Aquileia to Pavia. Berengar, always a
gallant warrior, strove to rise to the occasion. From the whole Regnum
Italicum his vassals came to the number of 15,000 men-at-arms. Before
them the outnumbered Magyars fled back, but were overtaken at the
river Brenta. Their horses were worn out, they could not escape,
and the
tradition, perhaps influenced by a sense of tragedy, tells of their proffers
refused by the haughty Christians. Yet on 24 September they surprised
their heedless foes and scattered them with fearful slaughter. For nearly
a year the Lombard plain lay at their mercy, though few fortified cities
were taken and they did not cross the Apennines. Amid his faithless
vassals, with his land desolated, Berengar submitted to pay blackmail,
which at least kept the Magyars his friends if it did not save Lombardy
from occasional incursions. The only mitigation of the calamity was
the defeat of the Hungarians on the water when in 900 they assaulted
Venice under her doge Pietro Tribuno.
i See Vol. 1. Chapter xu. (A).


## p. 149 (#195) ############################################

Berengar I and Louis III
149
a
Berengar had lost men, wealth and prestige, he was too clearly
profitless for his subjects, and the death at Hungarian hands of many
bishops and counts left the greatest magnates greater than ever. The
plot against him, already begun, gathered strength. It was headed by
Adalbert II the Rich of Tuscany, whose wife Bertha, the widow of a Pro-
vençal count, was daughter of Lothar II of Lorraine and thus grand-
daughter of the Emperor Lothar I; and its object was to restore
Lothar I's line to Italy in the person of Louis of Provence, grandson of
the Emperor Louis II. The Spoletan party, the Empress Ageltrude, and
Pope John IX, the old partisan of Lambert, were, it seems, won to the
plan, and the hand of the Byzantine princess Anna, daughter of Leo VI,
was obtained for the pretender. When Louis came to Italy in Sep-
tember 900, Berengar, faced by a general defection, could only retreat
beyond the Mincio, while his rival, surrounded by the magnates, pro-
ceeded to Rome to receive the imperial crown in February 901 from the
new Pope Benedict IV. But Louis had no great capacity, and the
magnates were fickle of set purpose, for, says the chronicler Liudprand
in a classic passage, they preferred two kings to play off one against the
other. In 902 a counter-change was brought about. Berengar advanced
to Pavia, and Loạis, who had been unable to get away quickly enough,
was allowed to withdraw on taking an oath never to return. Within
three years (905), however, Bertha once more tempted her kinsman to
invade Italy. He was to be furnished, perhaps, with a Byzantine subsidy'.
Once more Berengar fled east, this time to Bavaria, for Adalard, Bishop
of Verona, his chief stronghold, called in his rival. Louis heedlessly
thought himself secure and was surprised and captured (21 July) by
Berengar to whom the Veronese citizens, though not their bishop, were
always loyal. No risks were taken by the victor, and Louis was sent
back to Provence blind and helpless. By an atrocity unlike his usual
dealings Berengar at last secured an undisputed throne. Real control .
over great nobles and bishops he was never to obtain.
While the Regnum Italicum lay invertebrate in the hands of the
magnates, South Italy was even more disordered and tormented. For
sixty years the land had suffered from the intolerable scourge of Saracen
ravages. While a robber colony, established almost impregnably on the
river Garigliano, spread desolation in the heart of Italy over the Terra
di Lavoro and the Roman Campagna, the true base of the Muslims lay
in Sicily. There the mixed Berber and Arab population, who had
swarmed in under the Aghlabid dynasty of ķairawān, were on the point
of completing the conquest of the Christian and Greek eastern portion of
>
At least the Pseudo-Symeon Magister states (Ann. Leon. Basil. fil. cap. 14) that
the eunuch Rhodophylus in 904 was taking 100 lbs. of gold “to the Franks. ”
But
the other narrators, e. g. John Cameniates, De excidio Thessalonicae, cap.