No More Learning

If I have committed a fault it arises from
my having been misled. My pardon will, I hope, be easily obtained from
the royal piety, since even from the point of view of justice the fault is
a venial one.
With
my whole heart I assure thee of my attachment
hoping that thou wilt deign to continue to me thy confidence. ”
i Genealogy of Capetian kings after Hugh Capet (cf. p. 75):
Odo I=(1) Bertha (2)=(1) Robert I the Pious (2)=Constance
C. of Blois d. of Conrad 996-1031
d. of William
K. of Burgundy
Ct. of Provence
Hugh
Henry (=Anne
Adela
Robert
Co-regent
1031-1060 | of Russia m. (1) Richard JII
D. of Burgundy
d. 1025
D. of Normandy
d. 1075
(2) Baldwin V
1
C. of Flanders
d. 1066
Bertha=(1)PhilipI(2)=(2) Bertrada(1)=Fulk Rechin Hugh= Adelaide
d. of 1060-1108 of Montfort C. of Anjou d. 1101 heiress
Florence
of Ver-
C. of
mandois
Holland
1
Henry
Louis VI
the Fat
1108-1137
Hugh I
D. of Burgundy
abd. 1078
d. 1093
Odo (Eudes) 1
Borel
D. of Burgundy
d. 1102
Henry
First Count
of Portugal
d. 1112


## p. 117 (#163) ############################################

Feudal deference
117
In a word, it seems as if for the great feudatories there could be no
worse misfortune than a formal rupture with their sovereign. In this
connexion nothing is more characteristic than the attitude of perhaps
the most powerful vassal of Robert the Pious, the celebrated Count
of Blois, Odo II, when in about 1022 a dispute arose between him
and the king touching the succession in Champagne. Finding what
he considers his right attacked by the king, Odo defends himself with a
strong hand. On this account Robert considers him guilty of forfeiture,
and seeks to have his fiefs declared escheated. At once Odo is terrified,
and writes his sovereign a letter full of respect and deference, expressing
astonishment only at the measure which the king demands. “For if
birth be considered, it is clear, thanks be to God, that I am capable
of inheriting the fief; if the nature of the fief which thou hast given
me be considered, it is certain that it forms part, not of thy fisc, but of
the property which, under thy favour, comes to me from my ancestors
by hereditary right; if the value of my services be considered, thou
knowest how, as long as I was in favour with thee, I served thee at thy
court, in the ost and on foreign soil. And if, since thou hast turned
away thy favour from me, ånd hast attempted to take from me the fief
which thou gavest me, I have committed towards thee, in defence of
myself and of my fief, acts of a nature to displease thee, I have done
so when harassed by insults and compelled by necessity. How, in fact,
could I fail to defend my fief? I protest by God and my own soul,
that I should prefer death to being deprived of my fief. And if thou
wilt refrain from seeking to strip me of it, there is nothing in the
world which I shall more desire than to enjoy and to deserve thy favour.
For the conflict between us, at the same time that it is grievous to me,
takes from thee, lord, that which constitutes the root and the fruit of
thy office, I mean justice and peace. Thus I appeal to that clemency
which is natural to thee, and evil counsels alone can deprive thee of,
imploring thee to desist from persecuting me, and to allow me to be
reconciled to thee, either through thy familiars, or by the mediation
of princes. ” Such a letter proves, better than any reasonings, how
great was the power which respect for royalty and for the obliga-
tions of a vassal to his lord, still exercised over minds imbued with
tradition.
Moreover, none of the great feudatories who shared the government
of the kingdom among them would have been strong enough to over-
throw the Capetian dynasty. Independently of the rivalries between
great houses, in which their strength was exhausted, the princes found
themselves, from the middle of the eleventh century, a little sooner or
a little later according to the province they ruled, involved in a struggle
with internal difficulties which often paralysed their efforts.
One of the feudal states for which the history is the best known is the
ch. v.


## p. 118 (#164) ############################################

118
Feudal disintegration in Anjou
county of Anjou. It has already been seen' how under the two counts,
Fulk Nerra (987–1040) and Geoffrey Martel (1040–1060), the county of
Anjou, spreading beyond its frontiers on all sides, had been steadily
enlarged at the expense of its neighbours. The count's authority was
everywhere strong and respected, and as he had his lay vassals and clergy
well in hand, they had a general awe of him. And yet the germs of dis-
integration were already present. Indeed, in order to provide for the
protection of their territories, and above all to have a basis of attack
against their neighbours, the counts of Anjou had, from the end of the
tenth century, been led to cover their country with a network of strong-
holds. But to construct the great stone keeps (donjons) which at that
time were beginning to take the place of mere wooden buildings, and
to guard them, time, men and money were needed. Therefore, quite
naturally, the counts had not hesitated to grant them out as fiefs, leaving
to their vassals the task of completing and defending them. As a result,
within a short time, the county had come to be filled, not merely with
castles, but with a multitude of lords-castellans handing on the domain
and the fortress from father to son.
In this way, Fulk Nerra, about 994, built the castle of Langeais, and
almost immediately we note that Langeais becomes the seat of a new
feudal family. Hamelin I, lord of Langeais, comes into view about
1030, and when he dies (c. 1065] his fief passes to his descendants. A
few years after Fulk built the castle of Montrevault, and immediately
invested Stephen, brother-in-law of Hubert, the late Bishop of Angers,
with it. Here again a new lordship had been founded, as Stephen had
married his daughter Emma to Raoul, Viscount of Le Mans, who succeeded
his father-in-law, and took the title of Viscount of Grand Montrevault,
while close by, on land which had also been received as a fief from Fulk
Nerra by a certain Roger the Old, the fortress and family of Petit
Montrevault had grown up.
About the same time Fulk had founded
the castle of Montreuil-Bellay, and again he had without delay enfeoffed
it to his vassal Bellay. A little later Geoffrey Martel had built the castles
of Durtal and Mateflon and enfeoffed them to two of his knights. In
the same way lords-castellans had been installed at Passavant before 1026;
at Maulevrier, at Faye-la-Vineuse, at Sainte-Maure and at Trèves before
1040, all of these being castles built by the count. Everywhere great
families had arisen: here, that of Briollay who had received the castle as a
fief from Fulk Nerra, there, that of Beaupréau, founded by Jocelyn of
Rennes, a soldier of fortune, no doubt singled out by Fulk Nerra. At
this time also had their origin the houses of Chemillé, of Montsoreau, of
Blaison, of Montjean, of Craon, of Jarzé, of Rillé, of Thouarcé and
others. Established in their castles, which secured to them the dominion
of the surrounding flat country, and by that very fact, forming a higher
class among the barons, daily strengthening their position by the marriages
1 See supra, p. 108.


## p. 119 (#165) ############################################

Anarchy in Anjou
119
which they concluded among themselves leading to the concentration of
several castles in a single pair of hands, the great vassals were only waiting
an opportunity to shew their independence. This was supplied by a
dispute which arose over the succession.
Geoffrey Martel, dying childless in 1060, had left his county to his
eldest nephew, Geoffrey the Bearded, already Count of Gâtinais, where-
upon the younger nephew, Fulk Rechin, declaring himself aggrieved, rose
in rebellion without delay. Geoffrey the Bearded by his unskilful policy
precipitated the crisis; a discontented party growing up in the country
gathered itself round Fulk; in the end, Geoffrey was seized and thrown
into prison while Fulk gained his own recognition as Count (1068). But
in the course of the conflict, which lasted several years, the passions of the
great barons who had been called on to take sides in it had been given
free play; for months together Fulk was obliged to struggle with the
rebels, to go and besiege them in their castles, and to repress their ravages.
When at last he succeeded in gaining general recognition, the country, as
he himself acknowledges in one of his charters, was a mere heap of ruins.
Even the general submission was only apparent. After 1068 revolts
still broke out in all parts of the county. Thus on the death of
Sulpicius, lord of Amboise and Chaumont, it was in obedience to
threats that Fulk set at liberty Hugh, son and successor of the deceased,
who had been given up to him as a hostage. Soon after, the count
decided to commit the custody of his castle at Amboise called “The
Domicile” to a certain Aimeri of Courron. This choice was distasteful
to Hugh's men, five of whom slipped into the donjon, surprised the
watchman whom they made prisoner, and planted their master's standard
on the tower. Hugh, meanwhile, retired to a fortified mansion which
he possessed in the town, and set himself to harass the count's troops.
At last Fulk came up, and not daring to try conclusions with his
adversary, preferred a compromise with him. Their agreement did not
last long, as the unsubdued vassal was merely watching his opportunity
to rebel afresh. Suddenly, in 1106, one day when the castellan of “The
Domicile,” Hugh du Gué, was out hunting in the direction of Romor-
antin, Hugh of Amboise surprised the castle and destroyed it. The
struggle began again: Fulk Rechin, calling to his aid several of his
vassals, Aubrey, lord of Montrésor, and Jocelyn and Hugh, sons of the
lord of Sainte-Maure, flung himself upon St-Cyr, one of the hereditary
possessions of the house of Chaumont and Amboise. Hugh of Amboise,
supported by his brother-in-law John, lord of Lignières, retorted by
pillaging the suburbs of Tours, and the environs of Loches, Montrichard,
and Montrésor. In all directions the same situation was reproduced;
one day it was the lord of Alluyes, Saint-Christophe and Vallières who
rebelled, another day it was the lord of Maillé; again he of Lion
d'Angers; in 1097, he of Rochecorbon. A regular campaign was
required against Bartholomew, lord of l’lle-Bouchard, a fortress had
CH. V,


## p. 120 (#166) ############################################

120
Feudal anarchy in Normandy
a
: Ei
to be built at Champigny-sur-Veude, which, by the way, Bartholomew
seized and set on fire, taking the garrison prisoners.
Fulk was incapable of resisting so many rebels. Following the
example of Philip I, he handed over his military powers to his son,
Geoffrey Martel the Younger. Zealous, feared by the barons, in
sympathy with churchmen, the young count entered boldly on the
struggle with those who still held out. With his father he took
La Chartre and burnt Thouars, and was about to lay siege to Candé.
But he was killed in 1106, and with him disappeared the only man who
might have proved a serious obstacle to baronial independence.
In the other provinces the situation seems to have been almost the
same. In Normandy, on the accession of William the Bastard, the
mutterings of revolt were heard. Defeated at Val-es-Dunes in 1047,
the rebels were forced to submit, but on the smallest opportunity fresh
defections occurred. Shut up in their castles, the rebellious vassals
defied their sovereign. The revolt of William Busac, lord of Eu, about
1048, and above all, that of William of Arques in 1053 are, in this
respect, thoroughly characteristic. The latter fortified himself on a
height and awaited, unmoved, the arrival of the ducal army. It
attempted in vain to storm his fortress; its position was inaccessible,
and the duke was obliged to abandon the idea of taking it by force.
In the end, however, he reduced it, because the King of France, hastening
up to the relief of the rebel, allowed himself to be deplorably defeated.
William of Arques, however, held out to the very last extremity and
stood a siege of several weeks before he was reduced by famine.
In 1077, it was Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror's own son,
who gave the signal for revolt. This spendthrift complained of want of
money. “I have not even the means," he said to his father, “ of giving
largesse to my vassals. I have had enough of being in thy pay. I am
I
determined now at length to enter into possession of my inheritance, so
that I may reward my followers. " He demanded that the Norman
duchy should be handed over to him, to be held as a fief under his
father. Enraged at the refusal he received, he abruptly quitted the
Conqueror's court, drawing after him the lords of Bellême, Breteuil,
Montbrai and Moulins-la-Marche, and wandered through France in
quest of allies and succours. Finally he shut himself up in the castle of
Gerberoy, in the Beauvaisis but on the borders of Normandy', welcoming
all the discontented who came to him, and fortified in his donjon, he
bade defiance to the wrath of his father. Once again a whole army had
to be levied to subdue him. Philip I of France was called on to lend
his aid. But the two allied kings met with the most desperate resistance;
for three weeks they tried in vain to take the place by surprise. Robert,
in the end, made a sortie; William the Conqueror, thrown from the
es
**
1 See supra, p. 112.
21


## p. 121 (#167) ############################################

The great fiefs: Flanders
121
saddle, was all but made prisoner; William, his younger son, was
wounded; the whole besieging army was ignominiously put to flight
(January 1079), and nothing remained for the Conqueror but to
give a favourable hearing to his rebel son's promises of submission
on his father's pledging himself to leave Normandy to him at his
death.
As soon as William the Conqueror had closed his eyes (9 September
1087) and Robert had become Duke of Normandy the barons rose,
seized some ducal castles, and spread desolation through the land. The
anarchy soon reached its height when the rupture between Robert and
his brother William occurred. Thenceforward revolt never ceased within
the duchy. Aided by the King of England who sent them subsidies,
the rebels fortified themselves behind the walls of their castles and braved
the duke's troops; in November 1090 the rebellion spread even to the
citizens of Rouen. Weak and fitful as he was in character, even Robert
was forced to spend his time in besieging the castles of his feudatories,
who, luckily for him, agreed no better with one another than with their
duke. In 1088 he besieged and took St Céneri, in 1090 Brionne; in 1091
he besieged Courci-sur-Dive, and then Mont-St-Michel, where his brother
Henry had fortified himself; in 1094 he besieged Bréval.
Thus incessantly occupied in defending their authority in their own
territories, the Dukes of Normandy, like the Counts of Anjou and like
all the other great feudatories of the kingdom, found themselves in a
position which made it impossible for them seriously to threaten the
power of the Capetian sovereign. Each ruler, absorbed by the internal
difficulties with which he had to struggle, followed a shifting policy
of temporary expedients. The period is essentially one of isolation, of
purely local activity.
Since France was thus split up into fragments, it would be in vain to
attempt to give a comprehensive view of it. The more general aspects
of civilization, the feudal and religious life of the eleventh century, both
in France and in the other countries of Western Europe, will be examined
in succeeding chapters. But some information must be given touching
the characteristics of each of the great fiefs into which France was then
divided, e. g. in what manner these states were organised, what authority
belonged to the ruler of each of them, who and what were those counts
and dukes whose power often counterbalanced that of the king. Owing
to the lack of good detailed works on the period, something must
necessarily be wanting in any attempt to satisfy curiosity on all these
points.
Flanders. On the northern frontier of the kingdom the county of
Flanders is one of the fiefs which presents itself to us under a most
singular aspect. Vassal both of the King of France for the greater
part of his lands, and of the Emperor for the islands of Zeeland, the
CH. V.


## p. 122 (#168) ############################################

122
Flanders
66
“Quatre-Métiers,” and the district of Alost, the Count of Flanders in
reality enjoyed almost complete independence. Kings,” says a chroni-
cler of the period, William of Poitiers, “feared and respected him ;
dukes, marquesses and bishops trembled before his power. From the
beginning of the tenth century he was considered to have the largest
income in the whole kingdom, and in the middle of the eleventh century
an Archbishop of Rheims could still speak of his immense riches, “such
that it would be difficult to find another mortal possessed of the like. ”
Great was the ascendancy exercised by Baldwin V of Lille (1036-1067);
as guardian of Philip I, King of France, he administered the government
of the kingdom from 1060 to 1066, and by marrying his eldest son to
the Countess of Hainault he succeeded in extending the authority of his
house as far as the Ardennes (1050). Robert the Frisian (1071-1093)
bore himself like a sovereign prince, he had an international policy, and
we find him making an alliance with Denmark in order to counterbalance
the commercial influence of England. He gave one of his daughters in
marriage to Knut, King of Denmark, and in conjunction with him
prepared for a descent upon the British Isles.
The count was even strong enough, it appears, to give Flanders
immunity, to a large extent, from the general anarchy. By procuring
his own recognition as advocate or protector of all the monasteries in
his states, by monopolising for his own benefit the institution of the
“Peace of God” which the Church was then striving to spread', by
substituting himself for the bishops in the office of guardian of this
Peace, the count imposed himself throughout Flanders as lord and
supreme judge in his state. He peremptorily claimed the right of
authorising the building of castles, he proclaimed himself the official
defender of the widow, the orphan, the merchant and the cleric, and
he rigorously punished robbery on the highways and outrages upon
He had a regularly organised administration to second his
efforts. His domains were divided into castellanies or circumscriptions,
each centring in a castle. In each of these castles was placed a military
chief, the castellan or viscount, along with a notary who levied the
dues of the castellany, transmitting them to the notary-in-chief or
chancellor of Flanders, who drew into a common treasury
all the revenues
of the country.
Thus it is not strange that Flanders should have attained earlier
than other provinces to a degree of prosperity well worthy of remark.
As regards agriculture, we find the counts themselves giving an impulse
to important enterprises of clearing and draining in the districts border-
ing on the sea, while in the interior the monastic foundations contributed
largely to the extension of cultivation and of grazing lands. At the
same time the cloth industry was so far developed that the home-grown
1 See Huberti, L. , Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden und Landfrieden,
and Vol. v.
women.


## p. 123 (#169) ############################################

Champagne and Blois
123
wool no longer sufficed to occupy the workmen. Wool from neighbour-
ing countries was sent in great quantities to the Flemish fairs, and
already commerce was bringing Flanders into contact with England,
Germany, and Scandinavia.
Champagne and Blois. The contrast with the territories of the
Counts of Champagne is striking. Here there is no unity; the lands
ruled by the count have no cohesion whatever; only the chances of
succession which at the opening of the eleventh century caused the
counties of Troyes and Meaux to pass into the hands of Odo II, Count
of Blois, Tours and Chartres (996-1037).
The count's power, naturally, suffered from the scattered position of
his lands. The first to unite under his authority the two principalities
of Blois and Champagne, Odo II, has left in history only a reputation
for blundering activity and perpetual mutability. In Touraine, in place
of steadily resisting the encroaching policy of the Counts of Anjou', we
find him rushing headlong into one wild enterprise after another, in-
vading Lorraine on the morrow of his defeat by Fulk Nerra at Pontlevoy
in 1016, then joining with reckless eagerness in the chimerical projects
of Robert the Pious for dismembering the inheritance of the Emperor
Henry II (1024), and upon the death of Rodolph III, Alinging himself
upon the kingdom of Burgundy (1032). We shall see how the
adventurer fared, how Odo, after a brilliant and rapid campaign, found
himself face to face with the Emperor Conrad, threatened not only by
him but by Henry I King of France, whose enmity, by a triumph of
unskilful handling, he had brought upon himself. A prompt retreat
alone saved him. But it was only to throw himself into a new project;
he at once invaded Lorraine, carrying fire and sword through the country;
he began negotiations with the Italian prelates with a view to obtaining
the Lombard crown, and even dreamed of an expedition to Aix-la-
Chapelle to snatch the imperial sceptre from his rival. But the army
of Lorraine had assembled to bar his way; a battle was fought on
15 November 1037, in the neighbourhood of Bar, and Odo met with a
pitiful end on the field of carnage where his stripped and mutilated body
was found next day.
With the successors of Odo II came almost complete obscurity.
The counties of Champagne and Blois, separated for a brief interval by
his death, then re-united up to 1090 under the rule of Theobald III, go
on in an uneventful course, diminished by the loss of Touraine, which
the Counts of Anjou succeed in definitely annexing.
Burgundy. The history of the duchy of Burgundy in the eleventh
century is hardly less obscure. Its Dukes, Robert I, son of King Robert
the Pious, Hugh and Odo Borel seem to have been insignificantenough, with
neither domains, nor money, nor a policy. Although theoretically they
1 See supra, p. 108.
Chapter vi, pp. 143–4.
CH. V.


## p. 124 (#170) ############################################

124
Burgundy
were masters of very extensive territories, they saw the greater part of
their possessions slip from under their control to form genuine little
semi-independent principalities, such, for example, as the counties of
Châlon-sur-Saône and Mâcon, or else ecclesiastical lordships such as the
Abbey of Molesme which, before fifty years from its foundation (1075),
came to possess immense domains all over the north of Burgundy as
well as in southern Champagne.
There is thus no reason for surprise that the Dukes of Burgundy in
the eleventh century should play rather a petty part. Robert I (1032–
1076) seems, unlike a duke, to have been the type of an unscrupulous
petty tyrant such as at this period the lords of the smaller castles too
often were. His life was spent in pillaging the lands of his vassals, and
especially those of the Church. He carried off the crops of the Bishop of
Autun, seized upon the tithes of the churches of his diocese, and swooped
down upon the cellars of the canons of St Stephen of Dijon. His
reputation as a robber was so well established throughout his country
that about 1055 Hardouin, Bishop of Langres, dares not adventure himself
in the neighbourhood of Dijon to dedicate the Church of Sennecey,
fearing, says a charter, “to be exposed to the violence of the Duke. " He
hesitates at no crime to satisfy his appetites and his desire for vengeance;
breaks into the abbey of St-Germain at Auxerre by armed force, has
his young brother-in-law, Joceran, assassinated, and with his own hand
kills his father-in-law, Dalmatius, lord of Semur.
His grandson and successor, Hugh I (1076-1079), was far from
imitating the example set him, but he was quite as incapable as Robert
of establishing any real control over Burgundy, and after having taken
part in a distant expedition into Spain to succour Sancho I of Aragon
he suddenly carried his contempt for the world so far as to exchange
a soldier's restless life for cloistered peace, becoming a monk at the age
of twenty-three.
Odo Borel, Hugh's brother (1079-1102), returned to the family
tradition and became a highway robber. We have on this subject a
curious anecdote, related by an eye-witness, Eadmer, chaplain to Anselm,
Archbishop of Canterbury. As Anselm was passing through Burgundy
in 1097 on his way to Rome, the duke was informed of his approach
and of the chance it afforded of booty worth taking. Allured by the
account, Odo, mounting his horse immediately, took Anselm and his
escort by surprise. “Where is the Archbishop ? ” he cried in a
threatening tone. Yet at the last moment, confronted by the calm and
venerable demeanour of the prelate, some remnant of shame held him
back, and instead of falling on him he stood confounded, not knowing
what to say. “My lord Duke," said Anselm to him, “suffer me to
embrace thee. ” In his confusion the duke could only reply “ willingly,
for I am delighted at thy coming and ready to serve thee. ” It is
possible that the good Eadmer has manipulated the incident somewhat,
>


## p. 125 (#171) ############################################

Anjou
125
yet it is a significant anecdote: evidently the Duke of Burgundy was
looked upon as a common bandit.
Anjou. The county of Anjou presents us with a case intermediary
between Flanders which was strong, and already partly centralised,
and that of Burgundy which was split up and in a state of dis-
integration.
It has already been related in detail how, from the middle of the
eleventh century onwards, the Count was engaged in the interior of his
state in combating a crowd of turbulent barons strongly ensconced in
their castles? . But in spite of this temporary weakening of the count's
authority, the Angevin lands form even in the second half of the eleventh
century a coherent whole of which the count is the effective head.
Controlling the episcopal see of Angers which could not be filled up
without his consent, and finding commonly in the Bishop a devoted and
active helper ready to brave Archbishops, Legates, Councils and Popes
at his side, secure of the loyalty of the greater number of the secular
clergy, master of the chief abbeys also, besides being, as it would seem,
rich in lands and revenues, the count, in spite of everything, remains an
imposing figure. Under Fulk Rechin (1067-1109), when the spirit
of independence among the lesser Angevin fief holders was at its height,
the great lords of the county, such as those of Thouarcé or Trèves, were
to be found contending for the offices about the count's court which was
organised, apparently, on the model of the royal court, in a regular
fashion, with a seneschal, a constable and a chaplain (who was also
charged with the work of the chancery), chamberlains, cellarers, etc.
Nothing, however, more plainly shews the space which the Counts of
Anjou filled in the minds of contemporaries than the considerable body
of literature which, throughout the eleventh century and up to the middle
of the twelfth gathered round them, by means of which we have come to
know them better, perhaps, than even most of their contemporaries did.
Few figures, for instance, are stranger or more characteristic of the time
than that of Fulk Nerra, whose long reign (987-1040) corresponds with
the most glorious part of the formative period of the county. He
appears before us as a man ardent and fierce of mood, giving free course
to his ambition and cupidity, and governed by a passion for war, then
suddenly checking himself at the thought of eternal retribution, and
trying by some gift or some penance to obtain pardon from God or the
Saints whom his violence must needs have offended. One charter shews
him to us too much engrossed in warfare to give a thought to ecclesiastical
affairs; in another there is an allusion to his fierce, hasty temper incapable
of bearing any contradiction. Does he find himself hampered by a rival?
He will not shew himself scrupulous in the choice of means of getting
rid of him. In 1025 he lured the Count of Maine, Herbert Wake-dog
· See supra, p. 118 sq.
CH. V.


## p. 126 (#172) ############################################

126
A type of the great baron: Fulk Nerra
into an ambush, giving him a rendezvous at Saintes, which, he said, he
intended to grant him as a fief in order to put an end to a dispute which
had arisen between them. Herbert presented himself unsuspectingly, and
was seized and thrown into prison, while the gentle Hildegarde, the
Countess of Anjou, planned a similar fate for his wife. Less dexterous
than her husband, she missed her stroke, but Herbert remained two
years under lock and key and was only set at liberty after the deepest
humiliations. A few years before, in 1008, the count of the palace,
Hugh of Beauvais, being an obstacle to his designs, Fulk posted cut-
throats to wait for him while he was hunting in company with the king
and had him stabbed under the very eyes of the sovereign.
Elsewhere, on the contrary, we find him, stricken with fear, making
a donation to the Church of St Maurice of Angers, “for the salvation
of his sinful soul and to obtain pardon for the terrible massacre of
Christians whom he had caused to perish at the battle of Conquereuil,”
which he had fought in 992 against the Count of Rennes. A charter shews
him in 996, just as Tours had been taken, forcing his way into the cloister
of St Martin, and suddenly, when he saw the canons wreathing the shrine
and the crucifix with thorns, and shutting the gates of their church, coming
in haste, humbled and barefoot, to make satisfaction before the tomb of
the Saint whom he had insulted. In 1026, when he took Saumur, being
carried away, at first, by his fury, he pillaged and burnt everything, not
even sparing the church of St Florent; then, his rude type of piety
suddenly re-asserting itself, he cried out “Saint Florent, let thy church
be burned, I will build thee a finer dwelling at Angers. " But as the
Saint refused to be won over by fair promises, and as the boat on which
Fulk had had his body shipped refused to stir, the count burst out
furiously against “this impious fellow, this clown, who declines the honour
of being buried at Angers. "
His violence is great, but his penances are not less striking; in 1002 or
1003 he set out for Jerusalem. Hardly had he returned when he defiled
himself afresh by the murder of Hugh of Beauvais, and again there was
a journey to the Holy Land from which neither the perils of an eventful
voyage nor the hostility of the infidel could deter him (1008 ? ). Finally,
at the end of 1039 when he was nearly seventy years old, he did not
hesitate for the sake of his salvation once again to brave the fatigues
and dangers of a last pilgrimage to our Saviour's tomb.
All this shews a nature fiery and even savage but constantly influenced
by the dread of Heaven's vengeance, and legend has copiously embroidered
both aspects. This violent-tempered man has been turned into the type
of the most revolting ferocity, he has been depicted as stabbing his wife,
giving up Angers itself to the flames, forcing his rebellious son, the proud
and fiery Geoffrey Martel, to go several miles with a saddle on his back,
and then when he humbly dragged himself along the ground towards
him, brutally thrusting him away with his foot, uttering cries of triumph.


## p. 127 (#173) ############################################

Normandy
127
He has been made the type of the brave and cunning warrior, capable
of performing the most extraordinary feats; for instance, he is represented
as overhearing, through a partition wall, talk of an attempt upon his
capital, plotted during his absence by the sons of Conan, Count of Rennes.
Instantly he gallops without stopping from Orleans to Angers where he
cuts his enemies to pieces, and hastens back to Orleans with such speed
that there has not even been time to remark his absence. He has been
made to figure as the defender of the Pope whom by his marvellous exploits
he saves from the fiercest robbers and from the formidable Crescentius
himself. Finally, he has been credited with so subtle a brain as to know
how to avoid all the traps which the utmost ingenuity of the Infidels
could set for him to hinder his approach to the Sepulchre of Christ.
Out of this man, on whom the fear of Heaven's wrath would sometimes
fall, legend has made the ideal type of the repentant sinner. Not three
times, but four or five times he is represented to have performed the
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and is pictured as having himself dragged
half-naked, with a cord round his neck, through the streets of Jerusalem,
scourged by two grooms, and crying aloud “Lord, have pity upon the
traitor ! ” Does not all this exaggeration of the good as well as the evil
in him, these legendary, almost epic, touches, do more to convince us
than any argument could, of the strange importance which the Angevins
of the period attributed to the person of the count? In comparison with
the shadowy figures of the kings who succeed one another on the throne
of France, that of a Fulk Nerra stands out in high relief against a drab
background of level history.
Normandy. It has been useful, in order to give something like a
life-like conception of the great feudatories of the eleventh century, to
spend some time over one of the few personalities of the time which we
are in a position to know at least in its main outlines. In dealing with
the Dukes of Normandy, we may be the briefer because many details con-
cerning them belong to the chapters devoted to the history of England.
More than any other feudal principality, Normandy had derived from
the very nature of its history a real political unity. It was not the fact
that the chief Norman counties were held as fiefs by members of the
duke's own family which secured to the duke, as some continue to repeat,
a power greater than was enjoyed elsewhere, for we have already seen
that family feeling had no effect in preventing revolts. But the duke
had been able to keep a considerable domain in his own hands, and there
were hardly any abbeys in his duchy to which he had not the right of
nomination, many were part of his property and he freely imposed his
own creatures upon them. His word was law throughout the ecclesiastical
province of Rouen, and he disposed at his pleasure of all its episcopal
sees. Without differing notably from what prevailed elsewhere, the
administrative organisation of the duchy was perhaps more stable and
regular. The ducal domain was divided into a certain number of
CH. V.


## p. 128 (#174) ############################################

128
Brittany
a
a
viscounties, with a castle in each of them where a viscount had his seat,
who was invested at once with administrative, judicial, and military
functions. Military obligations were strictly regulated, each baronial
estate owing a certain number of days' service in the field. In a word,
Normandy constituted a real state which was, besides, fortunate enough
to have at its head throughout the eleventh century, with the exception
of Robert Curthose, a succession of brilliant rulers.
Brittany. As under the Carolingians, Brittany continued to form
an isolated province, almost a nation apart. Having its own language,
a religion more impregnated here than elsewhere with paganism, special
customs of its own, and manners ruder and coarser than was usual
elsewhere, Brittany in the eyes even of contemporaries seemed a foreign
and barbarous land. A priest, called by his duties to these inhospitable
regions, looked upon himself as a missionary going forth to evangelise
savages, or as a banished man, while the idea of Ovid in his Pontic exile
suggested itself readily to such minds as had given themselves to the
cultivation of letters.
But in spite of its well-marked characteristics, Brittany did not form
a very strong political entity. Already a severe struggle was in progress
between the Gallo-Roman population along the March of Rennes, and
the Celtic people of Armorica, each group representing its own distinct
language. Inother respects, the antagonism took the form ofarivalry between
the great houses which contended for the dignity of Duke of Brittany.
Which among the counts, he of Rennes, or of Nantes, or of Cornouailles
had the right to suzerainty? In the eleventh century it seemed for a
moment as if the chances of inheritance were about to allow the unifi-
cation of Brittany to become a fact, and as if the duke might be able to
add to the theoretical suzerainty which his title gave him, a direct
control over all the Breton counties. Hoel, Count of Cornouailles, after
inheriting in 1063 the county of Nantes on the death of his mother
Judith of Cornouailles, found himself in 1066 inheritor of the counties
of Rennes and Vannes in right of his wife Havoise, sole heiress of her
brother the Breton Duke, Conan II. But in order to complete the
unification of the duchy it was necessary that the duke should succeed
in making himself obeyed on the northern slope of the rocky mass of
Brittany. Now the Léon country escaped his control, and he was to
exhaust himself in vain efforts to reduce Eon of Penthièvre and his
descendants who ruled over the dioceses of Dol, Alet, Saint-Brieuc and
Tréguier, and even disputed the ducal dignity with the Counts of Rennes.
At a loss for money, and forced to alienate their domains to meet their
expenses, neither Hoel (1066-1084), nor his son and successor, Alan
Fergent (1084-1112), succeeded in turning Brittany into a unified
province.
Aquitaine and Gascony. The destiny of the countries south of the
Loire has all the appearance of a striking paradox. While everywhere
1
1
!
1
1


## p. 129 (#175) ############################################

Aquitaine and Gascony
129
else the tendency is to the minutest subdivision, the Dukes of Aquitaine,
by a policy almost miraculously skilful, succeed not only in maintaining
effective control over the unhomogeneous lands between the Loire and
the Garonne (with the exception of Berry and the Bourbonnais) but in
making good their hold on Gascony which they never again lose, and
even for a time in occupying the county of Toulouse and exacting
obedience from it. Direct rulers of Poitou, of which district they
continue to style themselves counts at the same time that they are
known as Dukes of Aquitaine, rulers also of Saintonge (which was for
a short time a fief of the Count of Anjou) the dynasty of the Williams
a
who succeed one another in the eleventh century on the Poitevin throne,
successfully retained the Counts of Angoulême and la Marche and the
Viscount of Limoges in the strictest vassalage, while they compelled
obedience from the other counts and viscounts in their dominions.
Everywhere or almost everywhere, thanks to perpetual expeditions from
one end of his state to the other, the duke presents himself as the real
suzerain, ever ready for action or intervention in case of need. In
episcopal elections he has contrived to preserve his rights, at Limoges,
for instance, as at Poitiers and Saintes, or at Bordeaux after he has taken
possession of that town; in the greater part of the episcopal cities he
plays an active, sometimes decisive part, often having the last word in
the election of bishops.
Few of the rulers of the feudal chiefs at this time knew as they did
how to act as the real heads of the state or could manoeuvre more
cleverly to extend and maintain their authority. Although praised by
a contemporary chronicler, Adémar of Chabannes, for having succeeded
in reducing all his vassals to complete obedience, William V (995 or
996–1030) appears to have been above all things a peaceful prince,
a lover of learning and belles lettres, for which indeed Adémar eulogises
him in a hyperbolical strain, comparing him to Augustus and Theodosius,
and at the same time to Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. But among
his successors, Guy-Geoffrey, called also William VIII (1058–1086), and
William IX (1086–1126) were born politicians, unburdened with scruples,
moreover, and ready to use all means to attain their ends. By naked
usurpation, helped out by a sudden stroke of arms and by astute
diplomacy, Guy-Geoffrey succeeded in obtaining possession of the duchy
of Gascony, which had fallen vacant in 1039 by the death of his half-
brother, Odo, and so ably was his undertaking carried out that Gascony
was subdued almost on the spot. His son William IX nearly succeeded
in doing as much with regard to the county of Toulouse, some sixty years
later, in 1097 or 1098. Profiting by the absence of the Count, Raymond
of St-Gilles, on Crusade, he claimed the county in the name of his wife
Philippa, the daughter of a former Count of Toulouse, William IV;
and notwithstanding that the possessions of Crusaders were placed under
the guardianship of the Church and accounted sacred, he invaded his
&
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. V.
9


## p. 130 (#176) ############################################

130
Languedoc
neighbour's territory and immediately took possession of the lands that
he coveted. In 1100, on the return of Raymond of St-Gilles, he was
forced to restore his conquest. The struggle was only postponed; on the
death of Bertrand, son of Raymond, in 1112, he was again to conquer
the county of Toulouse, and, this time, refuse to surrender his prey.
.
It took Alphonse-Jourdain, the rightful heir, ten years of desperate
strife to gain his point and tear the booty from his terrible neighbour.
This same William IX is besides the very type of a feudal “bel
esprit,” possessed of a pretty wit and apt at celebrating his endless amours
and intrigues in graceful, profligate verse, but he was shameless and brazen,
trampling the principles of morality underfoot as old-fashioned prejudices,
provided that he could indulge his passions. The carrying-off of
Maubergeon, the beautiful wife of the Viscount of Châtellerault, whom
he claimed to marry without further formalities, in the life-time of his
lawful wife, Philippa, and of the Viscount himself, gives one the measure
of the man.
If we may believe the chronicler, William of Malmesbury,
he replied with jests to the prelates who exhorted him to change his
manner of living: “I will repudiate the Viscountess as soon as your hair
requires a comb,” he said to the Bishop of Angoulême, Gerard, who was
bald. Being excommunicated for his evil courses, he one day met Peter,
Bishop of Poitiers. “Give me absolution or I will kill you,” he cried,
raising his sword. “Strike,” replied the bishop, offering his neck. “No,”
replied William, “I do not love you well enough to send you straight to
Paradise,” and he contented himself with exiling him.
Languedoc. Less fortunate and much less skilful than the Dukes of
Aquitaine, the Counts of Toulouse nevertheless succeeded in the eleventh
century in collecting in their own hands a considerable group of fiefs, all
contiguous: they included fiefs within the Empire as well as in France,
and stretched from the Garonne to the Alps from the day when Raymond
of Saint-Gilles, Marquess of Gothia, had succeeded both his brother
William IV in the county of Toulouse (1088) and Bertrand of Arles in
the Marquessate of Provence (1094). But even taking Languedoc alone
(the county of Toulouse and the Marquessate of Gothia) the unity of the
state was only personal and weak, and was always on the point of breaking
down. A law of succession which prescribed division between the direct
heirs male necessarily involved the division of the component fiefs; besides
this, the chiefs of the house of Toulouse had not the continuity of policy
necessary if the counts, barons, and citizens, who, within the confines of
the principality, were ever seeking to secure a more and more complete
independence, were to be held in subjection. They had also to reckon
with the rivalry and ambition of two neighbours: the Dukes of Aquitaine,
who, as we have seen, sought to lay hands upon the county of Toulouse,
and the Counts of Barcelona, who, rulers of Roussillon and in theory
vassals of the French crown, were ever ready to contend with the house
of Saint-Gilles for the possession of the March of Gothia.
11


## p. 131 (#177) ############################################

Moral weight of the higher clergy
131
To sum up, if the strength of the feudal tie and the energy or
diplomacy of some of the great feudatories prevented France from
crumbling into a mere dust-heap of fiefs, contiguous but unconnected,
the evil from which the nation was suffering was, none the less, dangerous
and deep-seated. The realm was frittered away into principalities which
seemed every day to grow further and further apart.
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.