After the brief pontificate of
Boniface
VI which lasted only a
## p.
## p.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
The Abbot Joscelin had in
vain attempted to drive out those on the Scheldt, who from their fortified
camp at Courtrai made perpetual raids for pillage into the Western King-
dom. Nevertheless, King Louis III won over then at Saucourt in Ponthieu
a renowned victory, commemorated by a cantilène, a popular song in cele-
bration of it, in the German language which has come down to us. Yet
it did not hinder the Danes settled at Ghent from reaching the valley of
the Meuse and forming a new entrenched camp at Elsloo. During the
winter of 881-882 they burnt Liège, Tongres, Cologne, Bonn, Stavelot,
Prüm and Aix, and took possession of Trèves. Walo, the Bishop of
Metz, who with Bertulf, Archbishop of Trèves, had put himself at the
head of the defenders, was defeated and killed in April 882. At the
assembly held at Worms (May 882), Charles the Fat, who was returning
from Italy, determined to act with vigour, and gathered a numerous
army at the head of which he placed to second his efforts two tried
warriors, Arnulf of Carinthia, and Henry, Count or Duke of Thuringia.
But on the point of attacking the camp at Elsloo his courage failed.
He fell back on the dangerous method, already too often practised by
the Carolingians, of negotiating with the invaders. Of their leaders
Godefrid (Guðröðr) obtained Frisia as a fief on condition of receiving
baptism, and Sigefrid (Sigröðr) was paid to withdraw.
The chief part of the great Northman army then turned to attack
the Western Kingdom. By the autumn they were ravaging it up to
the gates of Rheims. The aged archbishop, Hincmar, was forced to
leave his metropolitan city and flee for refuge to Epernay, where he died
on 21 December 882. Carloman succeeded in checking the Danes more
than once on the banks of the Aisne and of the Vicogne, but the
invasion was not beaten off. Another fortified camp was formed by
the Northmen at Condé on the Scheldt. The bands which came forth
from it next year seized Amiens, and ravaged the district between the
Seine and the Oise without meeting with resistance. Carloman was
obliged to negotiate with them, and, thanks to the intervention of
Sigefrid, he obtained a pledge that the band in cantonments near
Amiens should evacuate the Western Kingdom in consideration of the
enormous sum of 12,000 pounds of silver (884). The engagement,
moreover, was respected. The main part of the great Northman army
crossed over to England, but other bands passed into the kingdom of
Lorraine, and a party among them settled down behind the woods and
marshes which covered the site of the present town of Louvain.
Such was the position of things at the time when Charles the Fat
became sole ruler of the Frankish Empire and the magnates of France
and Lorraine came to do homage to their new sovereign at Gondreville
CH, 111.
## p. 60 (#106) #############################################
60
Union under Charles the Fat
1
near Toul and Ponthion. The beginning of the reign was marked, besides,
by several victories gained over the Northmen who had penetrated into
Saxony. Other bands were defeated by Count Henry of Alemannia
and Liutbert, Archbishop of Mayence. But Hugh of Lorraine had
decided that the occasion was a good one for again putting forward
his claim to his father's kingdom, with the support of his brother-in-law,
the Northman Godefrid. Count Henry, whose task it was to resist them,
chose to employ treachery. Godefrid was imprudent enough to consent
to an interview in the course of which he was assassinated, and the
Franks succeeded in inflicting a check on his leaderless troops. Hugh,
being allured to Gondreville under pretext of negotiations, also fell into
an ambush. He was blinded, tonsured, and immured in the Abbey
of Prüm. His sister, Gisela, Godefrid's widow, was a little later to
die as Abbess of the Convent of Nivelles. This partial success was,
however, balanced by the defeat suffered in front of Louvain by the
army raised in Lorraine and in the Western Kingdom. Charles seemed
indeed to be losing his interest in this unceasing war. At the assembly
which he held at Frankfort at the beginning of the year 885, his only
care seemed to be to procure the recognition of his illegitimate son
Bernard's right to succeed him. His wishes, however, were opposed
by the magnates. Charles counted on the support of Pope Hadrian III,
the successor of John VIII who had been assassinated in 884, but
Hadrian died 8 July 885, and this event forced the Emperor finally
to give up his project. The successor of the dead Pope, Stephen V,.
had been elected without consulting Charles the Fat, and so much
was the Emperor displeased that he thought it necessary to cross the
Alps yet again. But he lingered in the north of the peninsula while
his confidential agent, the Arch-Chancellor Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli,
went to Rome to negotiate with the Pope. An outbreak of sedition
at Pavia nearly cost the Emperor his life, and he decided not to advance
farther, but to take the road for Gaul once more, whither he was recalled
by the imperious necessity of resisting the Northmen.
Carloman's death had liberated the bands with whom he had treated
at Amiens from their pledge to respect the Western Kingdom. Large
numbers of the Northmen who had crossed over into England came back
during the summer of 885 to rejoin their compatriots at Louvain who,
for their part, had got as far as the mouth of the Seine. Other com-
panies, coming from the Lower Scheldt, joined them there. On 25 July
they entered Rouen, and their feet, three hundred strong, carrying
some forty thousand men, began to push up the Seine. A Neustrian
army which attempted to bar the way to the invaders was obliged to
beat a retreat without having succeeded in defending the fortified bridge
which Charles the Bald had built at Pitres, and the great viking fleet,
reinforced by Danes from the Loire, arrived before Paris on 24 Novem-
ber, covering the river's surface for more than two leagues. The city
## p. 61 (#107) #############################################
Siege of Paris
61
а
of Paris at this time did not extend beyond the island of the Cité.
On
the right bank, however, and especially on the left, lay the suburbs with
their churches and abbeys, Saint-Merri and Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois
to the north, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Sainte-Geneviève to the south,
with the houses, gardens and vineyards surrounding them.
Of course
no wall enclosed these suburbs. The city itself had been without a ram-
part in the days of Charles the Bald, since the Roman fortifications there
as elsewhere had for long centuries fallen into ruins. Thus the Danes
had on several occasions descended on the town and pillaged it without
let or hindrance. The last of their incursions dated from 866. But
since then Paris had made preparation for resistance. Under the super-
intendence of Odo, the count, son of Robert the Strong, helped by
Bishop Joscelin, the old wall had been rebuilt. Two bridges establishing
communication between the island and both banks of the Seine barred
the way to the viking ships. One Sigefrid, who seems to have been in
command of the expedition, made a demand for himself and his
followers of free access to the upper valley of the Seine. Odo and
Joscelin refused. A general assault next morning was repulsed with loss,
and the Northmen were obliged to undertake a formal siege.
This lasted for long months, varied by attacks upon the bridges and
the works defending them on both banks of the river, and also by
pillaging expeditions into the neighbouring districts. But the Parisians
met the efforts of their assailants with indomitable energy and endurance.
On 16 April 886 Joscelin was carried off by sickness. Odo tried a
sortie in order to seek for reinforcements; it proved successful, and
he made use of his opportunity to send pressing appeals to the Emperor
and his counsellors. He then for the second time traversed the enemy
lines to re-enter the besieged city. Meanwhile, Charles, on his return
from Italy, had held a great assembly at Metz, and had then set out,
at a deliberate rate, to go to the succour of the Parisians. Having
reached Quierzy he sent forward his best warrior Count Henry of
Alemannia, at the head of a detachment of his men. But in attempting
to reconnoitre the enemy's camp, Henry fell, with his horse, into one
of the fosses dug by the besiegers, and was killed (28 August). His
death threw a gloom over his followers, and the relieving detachment
which he had been leading fell back. On 28 October the Emperor came
up in person before Paris, and the inhabitants could see his army on
the heights of Montmartre. But instead of crushing the heathen between
his troops and the city walls, Charles once more began negotiations with
them. Sigefrid consented to raise the siege, in return for a sum of
seven hundred pounds in silver, and permission for his followers to go
and winter in Burgundy, with the right to go up the Seine freely. The
At the end of the ninth century a fairly general movement took place to
restore the walls of cities so as to ensure them against a coup-de-main of the Northman
bands.
>
CH. III.
## p. 62 (#108) #############################################
62
Deposition of Charles the Fat
Parisians, however, refused to agree to this last condition and to allow
the viking vessels to pass under the fortified bridges which they had
defended with so much valour. The Danes were obliged to draw their
boats to land to get them above the city by the river bank, but, none
the less, they reached Burgundy, which they ravaged. Sens, in particular,
stood a siege of six months.
In the meanwhile the Emperor fell sick and returned to Alsace. During
the Easter season he held an assembly at Waiblingen near Stuttgart, at
which was present, among others, Berengar, Marquess of Friuli. From
thence he went to Kirchen in the Breisgau, where he was sought out by
Ermengarde, widow of Boso, with her young son Louis. Boso, in spite
of the capture of Vienne and the efforts of the Carolingian kings and their
lieutenants, had succeeded in maintaining his ground in the kingdom he
had created for himself, and died unsubdued (11 January 887). The son
whom he left, Louis, was still almost a child when his mother brought
him to the Emperor. Charles the Fat received him kindly, recognised his
right to succeed his father, and even went through some kind of ceremony
of adopting him. But the young prince was not long to be benefited
by his protection. The discontent of the magnates with the Emperor,
whom they accused of weakness and incapacity, and with the counsellor
by whom he was chiefly guided, his chancellor Liutward, Bishop of
Vercelli, grew greater every day. Charles endeavoured to placate them
by dismissing his chancellor, but their dissatisfaction still continued
undiminished, and at the end of 887 a revolt broke out, facilitated by
Charles's illness and physical incapacity. The rebels, in an assembly
held at Tribur near Darmstadt, formally deposed the Emperor. He
returned to Neidingen on the Danube near Constance, where he made
a pitiable end on 13 January 888, while his former vassals proclaimed in
his room Arnulf of Carinthia, son of Carloman of Bavaria, of illegitimate
birth, it is true, but well known for his warlike qualities, and, in the
eyes of the magnates, the only prince capable of defending the Empire,
or at least the kingdom of Germany, against the enemies threatening it
on every side.
The deposition of Charles the Fat marks the epoch of the final
dismemberment of the Empire of Charlemagne. Even contemporaries
were conscious of this. “Then,” said the Lotharingian chronicler,
Regino of Prüm, in a justly famous passage, “the kingdoms which had
been subject to the government of Charles split up into fragments,
breaking the bond which united them, and without waiting for their
natural lord, each one sought to create a king of its own, drawn from
within itself; which thing was the cause of long wars, not that there
were lacking Frankish princes worthy of empire by their noble birth,
their courage, and their wisdom, but because their equality in origin,
dignity and power was a fresh cause for discord. None of them in fact
was sufficiently raised above the rest to make them willing to submit
## p. 63 (#109) #############################################
Final division of the Empire
63
to his authority. " The West Franks elected as king Odo, the valiant de-
fender of Paris. In Italy Berengar, Marquess of Friuli, and Guy (Guido),
Duke of Spoleto, contended for the crown. Louis of Provence held the
valley of the Rhone as far as Lyons. Finally, a new claimant, the Welf
Rodolph, son of Conrad, Count of Auxerre, already duke of “the duchy
beyond the Jura” comprising the dioceses of Geneva, Lausanne and Sion,
claimed the ancient kingdom of Lorraine, without, however, succeeding
in building up more than a “ kingdom of Burgundy,” restricted to the
Helvetian pagi and the countries which formed the ancient diocese of
Besançon.
The expressions used by Regino must not, however, be understood
too literally. The kings whom the new nations “ drew from within
themselves were all of the Austrasian race and had their origin in
Francia, their families having been for hardly more than two or three
generations settled in their new counties. The dismemberment, which
began under Louis the Pious and was finally consummated in 888, was
by no means caused by a reaction of the different nations within the
Carolingian Empire against the political and administrative unity im-
posed by Charles the Great. The building up of new nationalities may
have been largely the work of the chances of the various partitions which
had taken place since the Treaty of Verdun. Nevertheless the fact that
Louis the German and his heirs had as their portion the populations
of Teutonic speech, and Charles the Bald and his successors those of the
Romance language, no doubt accentuated such consciousness as these
peoples might have of their individuality, a consciousness further
strengthened by the antagonism between the sovereigns. Italy, on
the other hand, had long been accustomed to live under a king of its
own, a little outside the sphere of the other Frankish kingdoms. Besides
these more remote causes, we must bear in mind the need which each
fraction of the Empire felt of having a protector, an effective head to
organise resistance against the Slavs, the Saracens or the Northmen. A
single Emperor must often be at too great a distance from the point
at which danger threatened. “ The idea of the Empire, the idea of the
Frankish kingdom recedes into the background, and gives place to an
attachment to the more restricted country of one's birth, to the race
to which one belongs? . ” Under the influence of geographical situation
and of language, or even through the chances of political alliances, new
groups had been formed, and each of these placed at its head the man
best fitted to defend it against the innumerable enemies who for half
a century had been devastating all parts of the Empire.
In spite of this separatist movement, the kinglets (reguli) set up in
888 still attributed a certain supremacy to Arnulf as the last representa-
tive of the Carolingian family. Odo sought his presence at Worms in
.
1 G. Monod. Du rôle de l'opposition des races dans la dissolution de l'Empire
carolingien, p. 13.
CH. III.
## p. 64 (#110) #############################################
64
Arnulf
order to place himself under his protection (August 888) before going
to Rheims to receive the crown of Western Francia. At Trent,
Berengar also took up the attitude of a vassal in order to obtain from
Arnulf the recognition of his Italian kingship. Rodolph of Burgundy
yielded to the threat of an expedition to be sent against him, and came
and made his submission at Ratisbon. A little later, at Worms, it was
the turn of young Louis of Provence (894). Doubtless no homage
strictly so called was performed, such as would establish between Arnulf
and the neighbouring sovereigns a relation of positive vassalage with
the reciprocal obligations it entailed. There was, however, a ceremony
analogous to that of homage, and the recognition of a kind of over-
lordship belonging, at any rate in theory, to the King of Germany.
Thus between Arnulf and the rulers of the states which had arisen from
the dismemberment of the Carolingian Empire peace seemed assured.
But it was less safe against enemies from without and against revolts
on the part of the German magnates. Though in 889 Arnulf had
received an embassy from the Northmen bearing pacific messages, the
struggle had begun again in 891. The Danes had invaded Lorraine
and had inflicted on Count Arnulf and Archbishop Sunderold of Mayence
the bloody defeat of La Gueule (26 June) balanced, it is true, by the
success won by King Arnulf in the same year on the banks of the Dyle.
On the other hand, the struggle against the Moravian kingdom founded
by a prince named Svátopluk (Zwentibold) was going on amidst alterna-
tions of success and failure. In 892 Arnulf, with the assistance of the
Slovene duke Braslav, led a successful expedition against the Moravians,
but he had been imprudent enough to call to his aid a troop of Hun-
garians, thus, as it were, pointing out to the Magyar immigrants from
Asia the road into the kingdom of Germany which a few years later
was to have such a fearful experience of them. Two years later (894)
(
the death of Svátopluk led to the recognition of Arnulf's authority
by his two sons, Moimir and Svátopluk II, and the civil war which
before long broke out between them enabled the Franks to intervene
successfully in Moravia. But like Charles the Fat, Arnulf was haunted
by the dream of wearing the imperial crown. At the opening of his
reign the fear of a revolt among the discontented magnates of Swabia
had alone prevented him from responding to the appeals made to him
by Pope Stephen V (890). Events in Italy now offered him the oppor-
tunity of renewing his attempts in that quarter.
The two rivals, Guy and Berengar, who after the deposition of
Charles the Fat disputed for the crown of Italy, were each recognised
as king by a certain number of adherents. A truce had been arranged
between them up to the beginning of the year 889. They used this
respite merely to seek support in foreign countries. Berengar, for twenty
years the faithful ally of the Eastern Carolingians, received reinforcements
from Germany. Guy, after an unsuccessful attempt to secure for himself
## p. 65 (#111) #############################################
Italian Rivals
65
the crown of the Western Kingdom, had recruited contingents in the
district of Burgundy round Dijon, which was his native land. The
Italian lords again took sides with one competitor or the other, with
the exception of the most powerful of them all, Adalbert, Marquess of
Tuscany, who contrived to maintain a prudent neutrality. War then
broke out afresh. A bloody battle—a rare event in the ninth century-
.
in which some 7000 men fought on either side was waged for a whole
day on the banks of the Trebbia. Berengar, thoroughly worsted, was
forced to retreat beyond the Po, where Verona, Cremona and Brescia
still remained faithful to him, and to abandon the struggle with Guy.
The latter seems not to have troubled himself to follow up his enemy's
flight. His victory gave him possession of the palace of Pavia, that is,
of the capital of the Italian kingdom. In the middle of February 889,
he held a great assembly of bishops there, to whom he solemnly promised
that church property and rights should be respected and maintained,
and that the plundering raids and usurpations of the magnates should
be put down. Then the prelates declared him king, and bestowed on
him the royal unction.
For more than half a century, the supreme title of Emperor had
seemed to be bound up with the possession of Italy. Guy therefore
approached Pope Stephen V, with whom he had hitherto been on good
terms, with a demand for the imperial crown. Stephen, however, was
not anxious to add to the power of the house of Spoleto, always a
menace to the papacy. A more distant Emperor seemed to offer a
fairer prospect of safety. He therefore sent a private summons to Arnulf.
But as the latter was unable to leave Germany, Stephen V was compelled
(11 February 891) to proceed to the consecration of Guy as Emperor. His
wife, Ageltrude, was crowned with him, and their son, Lambert, received
the title of king and joint-Emperor. Adalbert of Tuscany now resolved
on making his official submission to the new ruler. Berengar alone
persisted in refusing to recognise him, and maintained his independence
in his old domain, the March of Friuli. He even retained some supporters
outside its limits who objected to Guy's Burgundian origin and reproached
him with the favour which he shewed to certain of his compatriots who
had followed him from beyond the Alps, such as Anscar (Anscarius),
on whom he bestowed the March of Ivrea. Nevertheless the new
Emperor, in the beginning of May 891, held a great placitum at Pavia,
at which, to satisfy the demands of the prelates, he promulgated a long
capitulary enacting the measures necessary to protect church property.
On the same occasion, anxious, no doubt, to secure the support of the
clergy, he made numerous grants to the bishops.
In September Stephen V died. His successor was the Bishop of
Porto, Formosus, an energetic man, but one whose energy had gained
him many enemies. In particular he seems to have been on bad terms
with Guy, and doubtless considered an Italian Emperor a danger to the
0. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. III.
5
## p. 66 (#112) #############################################
66
Arnulf in Italy
Holy See. He therefore made a fresh appeal to Arnulf. The King of
Germany did not come in person, but he sent his illegitimate son,
Zwentibold, to whom he entrusted the task of “restoring order” beyond
the Alps with the assistance of Berengar of Friuli. Zwentibold allowed
himself to be daunted or bribed by Guy, and returned to Germany
without having accomplished anything (893). At the beginning of the
next year (894) Arnulf resolved to make a descent into Italy himself.
He carried Bergamo by assault, and massacred the garrison. Intimidated
by this example, Milan and Pavia opened their gates, and the majority
of the magnates joined in taking the oath of fidelity to Arnulf. The
latter, however, went no further than Piacenza, whence he turned
homewards. But on his way back he found the road barred close to
.
Ivrea by the troops of the Marquess Anscar, swelled by a contingent
sent by Rodolph, King of Burgundy. Arnulf, however, succeeded in
forcing a passage and turned his arms against Rodolph, but without
gaining any advantage, as the enemy took refuge in the mountains.
Zwentibold was placed at the head of a fresh expedition against the
regnum Jurense, but was no more successful.
In a word, the brief irruption of Arnulf into Italy had done nothing
to alter the situation. Guy remained Emperor. But just as he was
about to resume his struggle with Berengar, an attack of haemorrhage
carried him off. His successor was his son Lambert who had already
been his colleague in the government. But Lambert was young and
devoid of energy or authority. Disorder broke out more fiercely than
ever, and in the autumn of 895 Formosus again sent a pressing appeal
to Arnulf. Again the king of Germany set out, and on this occasion
pushed on to Rome. But the population was hostile to șim. The
resistance was organised by Ageltrude, Guy's widow, an energetic
Lombard of Benevento. Arnulf was obliged to carry the city by assault.
In February 896 Formosus crowned him Emperor in the basilica of
St Peter, and a few days later the Romans were compelled to take the
oath of fidelity to him. But his success was to be short-lived. Agel-
trude, who had taken refuge in her duchy of Spoleto, held out there in
the name of Lambert. Just as he was about to lead an expedition
against her, Arnulf fell sick. Thereupon he gave up the struggle and
took the road back to his dominions, where, moreover, other disturbances
called for his presence. Once he had gone, Lambert lost no time in
re-appearing in Pavia, where he again exercised royal power. He also
got possession of Milan in spite of the resistance of Manfred, the count
whom Arnulf had placed there, and again began hostilities with Berengar.
But the two rivals soon agreed upon a treaty, guaranteeing to Berengar
the district north of the Po and east of the Adda.
All the rest of Italy was left to Lambert, who again entered Rome
with Ageltrude in the beginning of 897. Formosus had died on 4 April
896.
After the brief pontificate of Boniface VI which lasted only a
## p. 67 (#113) #############################################
The Formosan troubles at Rome
67
fortnight, the Romans had elected Stephen VII. This Pope was a
personal enemy of Formosus and, perhaps in co-operation with Lambert,
undertook to indict his detested predecessor with a horrible travesty
of the forms of law. The corpse of Formosus—if an almost contem-
porary tradition is to be credited—was dragged from its tomb and
clothed in its pontifical vestments and a simulacrum of a judicial
trial was gone through. Accused of having infringed canonical rules
by his translation from Porto to Rome, of having violated an oath
taken to John VIII never to re-enter Rome, and, as a matter of course,
condemned, the dead Pope's body was stripped of its vestments and cast
into the Tiber. All the acts of Formosus, in particular the ordinations
performed by him, were declared null and void. This sinister con-
demnation brought about a revulsion of feeling, although opinion had
been generally somewhat hostile to Formosus. A revolt broke out in
Rome, Stephen VII was made prisoner and strangled; soine months of
confusion followed until finally, the election of John IX (June 898)
restored some measure of quiet. In agreement with Lambert, the new
Pope took steps to pacify opinion. The judgment pronounced against
Formosus was annulled, and the priests who had been deposed as having
been ordained by him were restored. A synod, held at Rome, busied
itself with measures to secure the good government of the Church and
the observance of canonical rule. The prescribed form for the election
of a supreme Pontiff was again laid down; the choice was to be made
'
by the clergy of Rome with the assent of the people and nobles in the
presence of an official delegated by the Emperor. A great assembly
held by Lambert at Ravenna also made provision for the safety of
Church property and for the protection of freemen against the oppres-
sions exercised by the counts. But on 15 October 898 the young king
lost his life through a hunting accident. Lambert left no heir and
Berengar profited by the situation to make himself master of the
kingdom of Italy without striking a blow. By 1 December Ageltrude
herself acknowledged him, receiving from him a deed confirming her in
possession of her property. With the accession of Berengar a new period
begins in the history of Italy, not less disturbed than the preceding one,
but almost entirely unconnected with the Carolingian Empire and the
Kings of Germany.
On his return from Italy in 894 Arnulf was also to find in the
western part of his dominions a situation of considerable difficulty.
At the diet of Worms in 895, resuming a project which the opposition
of his great vassals had forced him to lay aside in the preceding year,
he had caused his son Zwentibold to be proclaimed King of Lorraine.
Zwentibold was a brave and active prince, often entrusted by his father
with the command of military expeditions. Arnulf hoped by this means
to protect Lorraine against possible attempts by the rulers of Burgundy
or of the Western Kingdom, and at the same time to maintain order,
CH. III.
5-2
## p. 68 (#114) #############################################
68
Death of Arnulf
which was often disturbed by the rivalry of two hostile clans who were
contending for mastery in the country, that of Count Reginar, inac-
curately called the “ Long-necked,” and that of Count Matfrid. But
with regard to the latter object, Zwentibold, who was of a violent and
hasty temper, seems to have been but little fitted to play the part of
a pacificator. It was not long before he had given offence to the greater
part of the magnates. At the assembly of Worms (May 897) Arnulf
seemed for a moment to have restored peace between the King of
Lorraine and his counts. But no later than next year disorder broke
out afresh. Reginar, whom Zwentibold was attempting to deprive of
his honours, made an appeal to Charles the Simple, who advanced as far
as the neighbourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle. Thanks to the help of Franco,
the Bishop of Liège, Zwentibold succeeded in organising a resistance
sufficiently formidable to induce Charles to make peace and go
back
to his own kingdom.
The death of Arnulf (November or December 899) heightened the
confusion. He left a son, Louis the Child, born in 893, whose right
to the succession had been acknowledged by the assembly at Tribur
(897). On 4 February 900, an assembly at Forchheim in East Franconia
proclaimed him King of Germany. Some time afterwards in Lorraine
the party of Matfrid, with the support of the bishops who resented the
dissolute life of Zwentibold and the favour shewn by him to persons
of low condition, abandoned their sovereign and appealed to Louis the
Child. Zwentibold was killed in an encounter with the rebels on the
banks of the Meuse (13 August 900). Louis remained until his death
titular King of Lorraine, where he several times made his appearance,
but where feudalism of the strongest type was developing. A few years
later, civil war again broke out between Matfrid's family and the Frankish
Count Gebhard, on whom Louis had conferred the title of Duke and the
government of Lorraine. Nor did affairs proceed much better in the
other parts of the kingdom, to judge by the few and meagre chronicles
of the time. Outside, Louis had no longer the means of making good
any claim upon Italy, where Louis of Provence was contending with
Berengar for the imperial crown. Germany itself was wasted by the
feuds between the rival Franconian houses of the Conradins and Baben-
berg. The head of the latter, Adalbert, in 906 defeated and killed
Conrad the Old, head of the rival family, but being himself made
prisoner by the king's officers, he was accused of high treason and
executed in the same year (9 September). But the most terrible scourge
of Germany was that of the Hungarian invasions. It was in 892 that
the Hungarians, a people of Finnish origin who had been driven from
their settlements between the Don and the Dnieper, made their first
appearance in Germany as the allies of Arnulf in a war against the
Moravians. A few years later they established themselves permanently
on the banks of the Theiss. In 900 a band of them, returning from
## p. 69 (#115) #############################################
Death of Louis the Child
69
a plundering expedition into Italy, made its way into Bavaria, ravaged
the country and carried off a rich booty. The defeat of another band
by the Margrave Liutpold and Bishop Richer of Passau, as well as the
construction of the fortress of Ensburg, intended to serve as a bulwark
against them, were insufficient to keep them in check. Thenceforth not
a year passed without some part of Louis's kingdom being visited by
these bold horsemen, skilled in escaping from the more heavily armed
German troops, before whom they were wont to retreat, galling them as they
went, with Alights of arrows, and at a little distance forming up again
and continuing their ravages. In 901 they devastated Carinthia. In 906
they twice ravaged Saxony. Next year they inflicted a heavy defeat on
the Bavarians, killing the Margrave Liutpold. In 908 it was the turn of
Saxony and Thuringia, in 909 that of Alemannia. On their return,
however, Duke Arnulf the Bad of Bavaria inflicted a reverse upon them
on the Rott, but in 910 they, in their turn, defeated near Augsburg the
numerous army collected by Louis the Child.
It was in the autumn of the following year (911) that the life of this
last representative of the Eastern Carolingians came to an end at the
age of barely eighteen. He was buried in the Church of St Emmeram
at Ratisbon. In the early days of November the Frankish, Saxon,
Alemannian, and Bavarian lords met at Forchheim and elected as king
Conrad, Duke of Franconia, a man of Frankish race, and noble birth,
renowned for his valour. This prince's reign was hardly more fortunate
than that of his predecessor. Three expeditions in succession (912–913)
directed against Charles the Simple did not avail to drive the Western
King out of Lorraine. Rodolph, King of Burgundy, even took advantage
of the opportunity to seize upon Basle. Besides this, the Hungarians,
in spite of their defeat on the Inn at the hands of Duke Arnulf of
Bavaria in 913, continued their ravages in Saxony, Thuringia and
Swabia. In 917 they traversed the whole of the southern part of the
kingdom of Germany, plundered Basle and even penetrated into Alsace.
On the other hand, domestic discords still went on, and the chiefs of the
nascent feudal principalities were in a state of perpetual war either with
one another or with the sovereign. One of the most powerful vassals
about the king, Erchanger, the Count Palatine, had in 913 raised the
standard of revolt. Restored to favour for a short time in consequence
of the energetic help he gave to Duke Arnulf in the struggle with the
Hungarians, he lost no time in giving fresh offence to Conrad by
attacking one of his most influential counsellors, Solomon, Bishop of
Constance, whom he even kept for some days a prisoner. The sentence
of banishment pronounced on him in consequence did not prevent him
from continuing to keep the field with the help of his brother Berthold
and Count Burchard, or from defeating the royal troops next year by
Wahlwies near Lake Constance. To get the better of himn Conrad was
obliged to have him arrested for treason at the assembly of Hohen Altheim
CH. III.
## p. 70 (#116) #############################################
70
Conrad I of Germany
1
in Swabia and executed a few weeks later with his brother Berthold
(21 January 917). But one of the rebels, Count Burchard, succeeded
in maintaining possession of Swabia. . Conrad was hardly more successful
with regard to his other great vassals. One of the most powerful, Henry
of Saxony, gave signs from the very beginning of the reign of a hostile
a
temper' towards the new sovereign which manifested itself in 915 by an
open rebellion, marked by the defeat of the expeditions led against the
rebel by the Margrave Everard, brother of Conrad, and by the king himself.
In Bavaria, Duke Arnulf had also revolted in 914. Temporarily
worsted, and obliged to take refuge with his former foes, the Hungarians,
he had re-appeared next year in his duchy. He was forced to submit
and to surrender Ratisbon, but he took up the struggle afresh a little
later (917) and again became master of the whole of Bavaria.
Conrad and the magnates both lay and ecclesiastical who had
remained loyal to him held a great assembly at Hohen Altheim in 916
“ to strengthen the royal power,” when the severest penalties were
threatened against any who should “conspire against the life of the
king, take part with his adversaries or attempt to deprive him of the
government of the kingdom. ” When Conrad ended his short reign
(23 December 918), recommending the magnates to choose as his successor
his former enemy, Henry of Saxony, he was in a position to testify that
the magnates had seldom done anything else than transgress the precepts
laid down at Hohen Altheim. To split up the realm into great feudal
principalities, handed down from father to son and owning little or no
obedience to a sovereign always in theory elective,-this was the con-
stantly increasing evil from which Germany was to suffer throughout the
whole of the Middle Ages.
The appearance of tribal dukes was not a mere outburst of disorder.
a
Local leaders undertook the defence neglected by the central power, and
,
so duchies, founded upon common race and memories, appeared and grew
apart in reaction against Frankish hegemony. In Saxony, left to itself,
the Liudolfing Bruno headed from 880 the warfare against Danes and
Wends. Bavaria, troubled by Hungarians, found a Duke in Arnulf
c c. 907. Franconia, less harassed and more loyal to the Carolingians,
lacked traditions of unity, but in Conrad, the future king, Conradins
of the west triumphed over Babenberger rivals in the east. In Lorraine,
the Carolingian homeland, even less united, Reginar (a grandson of the
Emperor Lothar I) became Duke. Swabia found, under King Conrad I,
a Duke in Burchard. Thus everywhere, as local unity met local needs,
ducal dynasties arose.
;
।
1 The chroniclers of a later period explain this by relating that Conrad had owed
his crown only to its refusal by Otto, father of Henry, but the fact is doubtful.
th
th
## p. 71 (#117) #############################################
71
CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE, THE LAST CAROLINGIANS AND THE
ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. (888-987. )
DESERTED by Charles the Fat, on whom, through a strange illusion,
they had fixed all their hopes, the West-Franks in 887 again found
themselves as much at a loss to choose a king as they had been at the
death of Carloman in 884. The feeling of attachment to the Carolingian
house, whose exclusive right to the throne seemed to have been formerly
hallowed, as it were, by Pope Stephen II, was still so strong, especially
among the clergy, that the problem might well appear almost insoluble.
It was out of the question indeed, to view as a possible sovereign
the young Charles the Simple, the posthumous child of Louis II, the
Stammerer. Even Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims, who was later to be
his most faithful supporter, did not hesitate to admit that “ in the face
of the fearful dangers with which the Normans threatened the kingdom
it would have been imprudent to fix upon him then. ” Nor, at the first
moment, did anyone seem inclined towards Arnulf, illegitimate son of
Carloman and grandson of Louis the German, whom the East-Franks
had recently,ın November 887, put in the place of Charles the Fat.
In this cate of uncertainty, all eyes would naturally turn towards
Odo (Eudo), Count of Paris, whose distinguished conduct when, shortly
before, tá Normans had laid siege to his capital, seemed to mark him
out toil as the man best capable of defending the kingdom. ' Son of
Robe the Strong, Odo, then aged between twenty-five and thirty, had,
bye death of Hugh the Abbot (12 May 886), just entered into pos-
son of the March of Neustria which had been ruled by his father.
jeficiary of the rich abbeys of Saint-Martin of Tours, Cormery,
lleloin and Marmoutier, as well as Count of Anjou, Blois, Tours and
aris, and heir to the preponderating influence which Hugh the Abbot
ad acquired in the kingdom, in Odo the hour seemed to have brought
orth the man. He was proclaimed king by a strong party, consisting
ainly of Neustrians, and crowned at Compiègne on 29 February 888
, Walter, Archbishop of Sens.
Nevertheless, he was far from having gained the support of all sections.
1 the people of Francia it seemed a hardship to submit to this
cH. Tv.
## p. 72 (#118) #############################################
72
Accession of Odo
a
a
Neustrian, “a stranger to the royal race," whose interests differed widely
from theirs. The leading spirit in this party of opposition was, from
the outset, Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims.
From at least the time of Hincmar, the Archbishop of Rheims,
“primate among primates," had been one of the most conspicuous personages
in the kingdom. The personal ascendancy of Fulk, who came of a noble
family, was considerable; we find him openly rebuking Richilda, widow of
Charles the Bald, who was leading an irregular life, and it was he who in
885 acted as the spokesman of the nobles when Charles the Fat was
invited to enter the Western Kingdom ; again it was he who for the
next twelve years was to be the head of the Carolingian party in France.
Although on the deposition of Charles the Fat, Fulk had for a moment
played with the hope of raising to the throne his kinsman, Guy, Duke
of Spoleto, a member of a noble Austrasian family perhaps related to the
Carolingians', he now no longer hesitated to apply to Arnulf, just as
three years before he had applied to Charles the Fat. Accompanied by
two or three of his suffragans, he travelled to Worms (June 888) to
acquaint him with the position of affairs, the usurpation of Odo, the
youth of Charles the Simple, the dangers threatening the Western
Kingdom, and the claims which he (Arnulf) might make to the
succession. But Arnulf, hearing at this juncture that Odo “had just
covered himself with glory” by inflicting, at Montfaucon in the Argonne,
a severe defeat upon the Northmen (24 June 888), preferred negotiations
with the “usurper. ” To emphasise his own position of superiority, as
successor to the Emperor, he summoned him to Worms, where Odo
agreed to hold his crown of him. This was a fresh affirmation of the
unity of the Empire of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious without the
imperial title, but at the same time it gave a solemn sanction to the
kingship of Odo.
Even within his dominious, opposition to Odo gradually gave way.
Several of his opponents, among them Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had
submitted. But Fulk did not allow himself to be won over. Though
he had feigned to be reconciled (November 888), he was merely deferring
action till fortune should change sides. For this he had not long to
wait. The victory of Montfaucon proved to be a success which led to
nothing; the king was forced in 889 to purchase the retreat of a North-
man band ravaging the neighbourhood of Paris, and to allow another
to escape next year at Guerbigny near Noyon, and was finally surprised by
the pirates at Wallers, near Valenciennes, in 891 and routed in the
Vermandois. Several of the lords who had rallied to his cause were
beginning to abandon him: Baldwin, Count of Flanders, himself had
raised the standard of revolt (892). Fulk cleverly contrived to draw
together all the discontented and to rally them to the cause of Charles
1 Guy had even been crowned at Langres by its bishop, shortly before the
coronation of Odo, but had been obliged to beat a precipitate retreat.
## p. 73 (#119) #############################################
Carolingian Restoration
73
9
the Simple. The latter, only eight years old in 887, was now thirteen.
There were still nearly two years to wait for his majority which, in the
Carolingian family, was fixed at fifteen, but the Archbishop of Rheims
boldly pointed out “ that at least he had reached an age when he could
adopt the opinions of those who gave him good counsels. ” A plot was
set on foot, and on 28 January 893, while Odo was on an expedition
to Aquitaine, Charles was crowned in the basilica of Saint Remi at
Rheims.
Without loss of time, Fulk wrote to the Pope and to Arnulf to
put them in possession of the circumstances and to justify the course
he had taken. Arnulf was not hard to convince, when once his own
pre-eminence was recognised by the new king. But he avoided com-
promising himself by embracing too zealously the cause of either of the
candidates, and thought it better policy to pose as the sovereign arbiter
of their disputes. Before long, moreover, Charles, having reached the
end of his resources and being gradually forsaken by the majority of his
partisans, was reduced to negotiate, first on an equal footing, then as
a repentant rebel. At the beginning of 897, Qdo agreed to pardon
him, and Charles having presented himself to acknowledge him as king
and lord, " he gave him a part of the kingdom, and promised him even
more. ” These few enigmatic words convey all the information we have
as to the position created for Charles. What followed shewed at least
the meaning of his rival's promise. Odo having soon afterwards fallen
sick at La Fère, on the Oise, and feeling his end near, begged the lords
who were about him to recognise Charles as their king.
After his death, which took place on 1 January 898, the son of
Louis the Stammerer was in fact acclaimed on all hands; even Odo's
own brother, Robert, who had succeeded as Count of Paris, Anjou,
Blois, and Touraine, and ruled the whole of the March of Neustria,
declared for him.
It thus appeared that after what was practically an interregnum
peace might return to the French kingdom. But Charles was devoid of
the skill to conciliate his new subjects. His conduct, despite his
surname, the Simple, does not seem to have lacked energy or deter-
mination ; his faults were rather, it would seem, those of imprudence
and presumption.
The great event of his reign was the definitive establishment of the
Northmen in France, or rather, the placing of their settlement along the
lower Seine on a regular footing. One of their chiefs, the famous
Rollo, having been repulsed before Paris and again before Chartres,
Charles profited by the opportunity to enter into negotiations with him.
An interview took place in 911 at St-Clair-sur-Epte, on the highroad
from Paris to Rouen. Rollo made his submission, consented to accept
Christianity, and received as a fief the counties of Rouen, Lisieux and
Evreux with the country lying between the rivers Epte and Bresle and
CA. IV.
## p. 74 (#120) #############################################
74
Charles the Simple in Lorraine
the sea.
a
It was an ingenious method of putting an end to the Scandi-
navian incursions from that quarter'.
But it was especially on the eastern frontier of the kingdom that
Charles was able to give free scope to his enterprising spirit. The
subjects of Zwentibold, King of Lorraine, an illegitimate son of the
Emperor Arnulf, had in 898 revolted against him. Charles, called in
by a party among them, obtained some successes, but before long had
beaten a retreat. But when in September 911 Louis the Child, King of
the Germans, who in 900 had succeeded in getting possession of the
kingdom of Lorraine, died leaving no children, Charles saw that the
moment had come for more decisive interference. Conrad, Duke of
Franconia, Louis's successor in Germany, belonged to a family unpopular
in Lorraine ; Charles, on the contrary, as a Carolingian, could count
upon general sympathy. As early as November he was recognised by
the Lorrainers as king, and as soon as peace was secured on his western
border he was able, without encountering any difficulties, to come and
take possession of his new kingdom. We find him already there by
1 January 912, and thenceforward he seems to shew a marked preference
for dwelling there. He defended the country against two attacks by
Conrad, King of the Germans, and forced his successor, Henry I, to
recognise the rightfulness of his authority in an interview which he
had with him on a raft midway in the Rhine at Bonn on 7 November
921. His power, both in France and Lorraine, seemed to be firmly
established.
This was an illusion. For some time already discontent had been
secretly fermenting in the western part of France; the Neustrians were
doubtless irritated at seeing the king's exclusive preference for the lords
of Lorraine. What fanned their resentment to fury was seeing him
take as his confidential adviser a Lorrainer of undistinguished birth
named Hagano. In the first place, between 917 and 919, they re-
fused to join the royal ost to repel a Hungarian invasion, and in 922, as
Hagano continued to grow in favour, and great benefices and rich
abbeys were still heaped upon him, they broke into open revolt. Robert,
Marquess of Neustria, brother of the late king, Odo, was at the head of
the insurgents, and on Sunday, 30 June 922, he was crowned at
Rheims by Walter, Archbishop of Sens.
As a crowning misfortune, Charles, at that moment, lost his most
faithful supporter. Hervé, Archbishop of Rheims, who had succeeded
Fulk in 900 and had boldly undertaken his king's defence against the
revolted lords, died on 2 July 922, and King Robert contrived to secure
the archbishopric of Rheims, nominating to it one of his creatures, the
archdeacon Seulf. Charles gathered an army composed chiefly of
Lorrainers, and on 15 June 923 offered battle to his rival near Soissons.
jogh
i For a detailed account see infra, chap. XIII.
## p. 75 (#121) #############################################
Raoril's usurpation
75
Robert fell in the fight, but Charles was put to the rout, and attempted
in vain to win back a section of the insurgents to his side. The Duke
of Burgundy, Raoul (Radulf), son-in-law of King Robert, and, next
to the Marquess of Neustria, one of the most powerful nobles in the
kingdom, was crowned king on Sunday, 13 July 923, at the Church of
St Médard at Soissons by the same Archbishop Walter of Sens who
had already officiated at the coronations of Odo and of Robert'.
Charles's position was most serious. Still it was far from being
desperate; besides the kingdom of Lorraine which still held to him, he
could count upon the fidelity of Duke Rollo's Normans and of the
Aquitanians. He completed his own ruin by falling into the trap set
for him by King Raoul's brother-in-law, Herbert, Count of Vermandois.
The latter gave him to understand that he had left the Carolingian
party against his will, but that an opportunity now offered to repair his
fault and that Charles should join him as quickly as possible with only
a small escort so as to avoid arousing suspicion. His envoys vouched on
oath for his good faith. Charles went unsuspiciously to the place of
meeting and was made prisoner, being immured first in the fortress of
Château-Thierry, then in that of Péronne.
But the agreement between the new king and the nobles did not
last long. Herbert of Vermandois, who in making Charles prisoner
seems to have mainly intended to supply himself with a weapon which
could be used against Raoul, began by laying hands on the archbishopric
of Rheims, causing his little son Hugh, aged five, to be elected successor
to Seulf (925); he then attempted to secure the county of Laon for
another of his sons, Odo (927). As Raoul protested, he took Charles
from his prison and caused William Longsword, son of Rollo, Duke of
Normandy, to do him homage; then to keep up the odious farce, he
brought the Carolingian to Rheims, whence he vigorously pressed his
prisoner's claims upon the Pope. Finally, in 928, he got possession of
Laon.
1 For the sake of clearness in the narrative we give here the genealogy of the
descendants of Robert the Strong, down to Hugh Capet :
Robert the Strong,
Marquess of Neustria
d. 866
Odo
Robert
Marquess of Neustria
Marquess of Neustria
King of France 888-898
King of France 922-923
Hugh the Great
Emma=Raoul
dau. =Herbert II
Duke of the Franks
Duke of Burgundy Ct. of Vermandois
d. 956
King of France 923–936
Hugh Capet
ike of the Franks
ig of France 987-996
Otto
Duke of Burgundy
960–965
Odo (surnamed Henry)
a priest, then Duke of Burgundy
965-1002
cH. I.
## p. 76 (#122) #############################################
76
Hugh the Great
a
The death of Charles the Simple in his prison at Péronne (7 Oct.
929) deprived Herbert of a formidable weapon always at hand, and
Raoul having shortly afterwards won a brilliant victory at Limoges over
the Normans of the Loire, seemed stronger than ever.
The Aquitanian nobles recognised Raoul as king, and on the death
of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, his son and successor, William Long-
sword, came and did homage to him, while for a time his authority was
acknowledged even in the Lyonnais and the Viennois, both at that period
forming part theoretically of the kingdom of Burgundy. Herbert of
Vermandois still held out, but Raoul got the better of him ; entering
Rheims by the strong hand he promoted to the archepiscopal throne
the monk Artaud (Artald) in place of young Hugh (931), and with
the help of his brother-in-law Hugh the Great, son of the late King
Robert, he waged an unrelenting war against Herbert, burning his
strongholds, and besieging him in Château-Thierry (933-934).
Just, however, as a peace had been concluded between the king and
his powerful vassal, Raoul suddenly fell sick (autumn of 935). A few
months later he died (14 or 15 January 936).
66
The disappearance of Raoul, who died childless, once more imposed
upon the nobles the obligation of choosing a king. The most powerful
of their number was, without question, the Marquess of Neustria, Hugh
the Great, son of King Robert, nephew of King Odo and brother-in-
law of the prince who had just died. Heir to the whole of the former
March,” once entrusted to Robert the Strong, consisting of all the
counties lying between Normandy and Brittany, the Loire and the
Seine, Hugh was recognised throughout these districts if not as the
direct lord, at least as a suzerain who was respected and obeyed. The
petty local counts and viscounts, the future rulers of Angers, Blois,
Chartres or Le Mans, who were beginning on all hands to consolidate
their power, were his very submissive vassals. The numerous domains
which Hugh had reserved for himself, his titles as Abbot of St Martin
of Tours, of Marmoutier, and perhaps also of St Aignan of Orleans,
gave him, besides, opportunities of acting directly over the whole extent
of the Neustrian March. He was also Count of Paris, had possessions
in the district of Meaux, was titular Abbot of St Denis, of Morienval,
of St Valery, and of St Riquier and St Germain at Auxerre, and finally,
in addition to all this, bearing the somewhat vague, but imposing title
of “Duke of the Franks,” Hugh the Great was a person of the highest
importance.
But however great was the ascendancy of the “Duke of the Franks” |
he did not fail to meet with formidable opposition, the chief of ift
coming from the other brother-in-law of the late King Raoul, Herberiet,
Count of Vermandois. A direct descendant of Charlemagne, thrc jugh
his grandfather, Bernard, King of Italy (the same prince whose eyes
## p.
vain attempted to drive out those on the Scheldt, who from their fortified
camp at Courtrai made perpetual raids for pillage into the Western King-
dom. Nevertheless, King Louis III won over then at Saucourt in Ponthieu
a renowned victory, commemorated by a cantilène, a popular song in cele-
bration of it, in the German language which has come down to us. Yet
it did not hinder the Danes settled at Ghent from reaching the valley of
the Meuse and forming a new entrenched camp at Elsloo. During the
winter of 881-882 they burnt Liège, Tongres, Cologne, Bonn, Stavelot,
Prüm and Aix, and took possession of Trèves. Walo, the Bishop of
Metz, who with Bertulf, Archbishop of Trèves, had put himself at the
head of the defenders, was defeated and killed in April 882. At the
assembly held at Worms (May 882), Charles the Fat, who was returning
from Italy, determined to act with vigour, and gathered a numerous
army at the head of which he placed to second his efforts two tried
warriors, Arnulf of Carinthia, and Henry, Count or Duke of Thuringia.
But on the point of attacking the camp at Elsloo his courage failed.
He fell back on the dangerous method, already too often practised by
the Carolingians, of negotiating with the invaders. Of their leaders
Godefrid (Guðröðr) obtained Frisia as a fief on condition of receiving
baptism, and Sigefrid (Sigröðr) was paid to withdraw.
The chief part of the great Northman army then turned to attack
the Western Kingdom. By the autumn they were ravaging it up to
the gates of Rheims. The aged archbishop, Hincmar, was forced to
leave his metropolitan city and flee for refuge to Epernay, where he died
on 21 December 882. Carloman succeeded in checking the Danes more
than once on the banks of the Aisne and of the Vicogne, but the
invasion was not beaten off. Another fortified camp was formed by
the Northmen at Condé on the Scheldt. The bands which came forth
from it next year seized Amiens, and ravaged the district between the
Seine and the Oise without meeting with resistance. Carloman was
obliged to negotiate with them, and, thanks to the intervention of
Sigefrid, he obtained a pledge that the band in cantonments near
Amiens should evacuate the Western Kingdom in consideration of the
enormous sum of 12,000 pounds of silver (884). The engagement,
moreover, was respected. The main part of the great Northman army
crossed over to England, but other bands passed into the kingdom of
Lorraine, and a party among them settled down behind the woods and
marshes which covered the site of the present town of Louvain.
Such was the position of things at the time when Charles the Fat
became sole ruler of the Frankish Empire and the magnates of France
and Lorraine came to do homage to their new sovereign at Gondreville
CH, 111.
## p. 60 (#106) #############################################
60
Union under Charles the Fat
1
near Toul and Ponthion. The beginning of the reign was marked, besides,
by several victories gained over the Northmen who had penetrated into
Saxony. Other bands were defeated by Count Henry of Alemannia
and Liutbert, Archbishop of Mayence. But Hugh of Lorraine had
decided that the occasion was a good one for again putting forward
his claim to his father's kingdom, with the support of his brother-in-law,
the Northman Godefrid. Count Henry, whose task it was to resist them,
chose to employ treachery. Godefrid was imprudent enough to consent
to an interview in the course of which he was assassinated, and the
Franks succeeded in inflicting a check on his leaderless troops. Hugh,
being allured to Gondreville under pretext of negotiations, also fell into
an ambush. He was blinded, tonsured, and immured in the Abbey
of Prüm. His sister, Gisela, Godefrid's widow, was a little later to
die as Abbess of the Convent of Nivelles. This partial success was,
however, balanced by the defeat suffered in front of Louvain by the
army raised in Lorraine and in the Western Kingdom. Charles seemed
indeed to be losing his interest in this unceasing war. At the assembly
which he held at Frankfort at the beginning of the year 885, his only
care seemed to be to procure the recognition of his illegitimate son
Bernard's right to succeed him. His wishes, however, were opposed
by the magnates. Charles counted on the support of Pope Hadrian III,
the successor of John VIII who had been assassinated in 884, but
Hadrian died 8 July 885, and this event forced the Emperor finally
to give up his project. The successor of the dead Pope, Stephen V,.
had been elected without consulting Charles the Fat, and so much
was the Emperor displeased that he thought it necessary to cross the
Alps yet again. But he lingered in the north of the peninsula while
his confidential agent, the Arch-Chancellor Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli,
went to Rome to negotiate with the Pope. An outbreak of sedition
at Pavia nearly cost the Emperor his life, and he decided not to advance
farther, but to take the road for Gaul once more, whither he was recalled
by the imperious necessity of resisting the Northmen.
Carloman's death had liberated the bands with whom he had treated
at Amiens from their pledge to respect the Western Kingdom. Large
numbers of the Northmen who had crossed over into England came back
during the summer of 885 to rejoin their compatriots at Louvain who,
for their part, had got as far as the mouth of the Seine. Other com-
panies, coming from the Lower Scheldt, joined them there. On 25 July
they entered Rouen, and their feet, three hundred strong, carrying
some forty thousand men, began to push up the Seine. A Neustrian
army which attempted to bar the way to the invaders was obliged to
beat a retreat without having succeeded in defending the fortified bridge
which Charles the Bald had built at Pitres, and the great viking fleet,
reinforced by Danes from the Loire, arrived before Paris on 24 Novem-
ber, covering the river's surface for more than two leagues. The city
## p. 61 (#107) #############################################
Siege of Paris
61
а
of Paris at this time did not extend beyond the island of the Cité.
On
the right bank, however, and especially on the left, lay the suburbs with
their churches and abbeys, Saint-Merri and Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois
to the north, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Sainte-Geneviève to the south,
with the houses, gardens and vineyards surrounding them.
Of course
no wall enclosed these suburbs. The city itself had been without a ram-
part in the days of Charles the Bald, since the Roman fortifications there
as elsewhere had for long centuries fallen into ruins. Thus the Danes
had on several occasions descended on the town and pillaged it without
let or hindrance. The last of their incursions dated from 866. But
since then Paris had made preparation for resistance. Under the super-
intendence of Odo, the count, son of Robert the Strong, helped by
Bishop Joscelin, the old wall had been rebuilt. Two bridges establishing
communication between the island and both banks of the Seine barred
the way to the viking ships. One Sigefrid, who seems to have been in
command of the expedition, made a demand for himself and his
followers of free access to the upper valley of the Seine. Odo and
Joscelin refused. A general assault next morning was repulsed with loss,
and the Northmen were obliged to undertake a formal siege.
This lasted for long months, varied by attacks upon the bridges and
the works defending them on both banks of the river, and also by
pillaging expeditions into the neighbouring districts. But the Parisians
met the efforts of their assailants with indomitable energy and endurance.
On 16 April 886 Joscelin was carried off by sickness. Odo tried a
sortie in order to seek for reinforcements; it proved successful, and
he made use of his opportunity to send pressing appeals to the Emperor
and his counsellors. He then for the second time traversed the enemy
lines to re-enter the besieged city. Meanwhile, Charles, on his return
from Italy, had held a great assembly at Metz, and had then set out,
at a deliberate rate, to go to the succour of the Parisians. Having
reached Quierzy he sent forward his best warrior Count Henry of
Alemannia, at the head of a detachment of his men. But in attempting
to reconnoitre the enemy's camp, Henry fell, with his horse, into one
of the fosses dug by the besiegers, and was killed (28 August). His
death threw a gloom over his followers, and the relieving detachment
which he had been leading fell back. On 28 October the Emperor came
up in person before Paris, and the inhabitants could see his army on
the heights of Montmartre. But instead of crushing the heathen between
his troops and the city walls, Charles once more began negotiations with
them. Sigefrid consented to raise the siege, in return for a sum of
seven hundred pounds in silver, and permission for his followers to go
and winter in Burgundy, with the right to go up the Seine freely. The
At the end of the ninth century a fairly general movement took place to
restore the walls of cities so as to ensure them against a coup-de-main of the Northman
bands.
>
CH. III.
## p. 62 (#108) #############################################
62
Deposition of Charles the Fat
Parisians, however, refused to agree to this last condition and to allow
the viking vessels to pass under the fortified bridges which they had
defended with so much valour. The Danes were obliged to draw their
boats to land to get them above the city by the river bank, but, none
the less, they reached Burgundy, which they ravaged. Sens, in particular,
stood a siege of six months.
In the meanwhile the Emperor fell sick and returned to Alsace. During
the Easter season he held an assembly at Waiblingen near Stuttgart, at
which was present, among others, Berengar, Marquess of Friuli. From
thence he went to Kirchen in the Breisgau, where he was sought out by
Ermengarde, widow of Boso, with her young son Louis. Boso, in spite
of the capture of Vienne and the efforts of the Carolingian kings and their
lieutenants, had succeeded in maintaining his ground in the kingdom he
had created for himself, and died unsubdued (11 January 887). The son
whom he left, Louis, was still almost a child when his mother brought
him to the Emperor. Charles the Fat received him kindly, recognised his
right to succeed his father, and even went through some kind of ceremony
of adopting him. But the young prince was not long to be benefited
by his protection. The discontent of the magnates with the Emperor,
whom they accused of weakness and incapacity, and with the counsellor
by whom he was chiefly guided, his chancellor Liutward, Bishop of
Vercelli, grew greater every day. Charles endeavoured to placate them
by dismissing his chancellor, but their dissatisfaction still continued
undiminished, and at the end of 887 a revolt broke out, facilitated by
Charles's illness and physical incapacity. The rebels, in an assembly
held at Tribur near Darmstadt, formally deposed the Emperor. He
returned to Neidingen on the Danube near Constance, where he made
a pitiable end on 13 January 888, while his former vassals proclaimed in
his room Arnulf of Carinthia, son of Carloman of Bavaria, of illegitimate
birth, it is true, but well known for his warlike qualities, and, in the
eyes of the magnates, the only prince capable of defending the Empire,
or at least the kingdom of Germany, against the enemies threatening it
on every side.
The deposition of Charles the Fat marks the epoch of the final
dismemberment of the Empire of Charlemagne. Even contemporaries
were conscious of this. “Then,” said the Lotharingian chronicler,
Regino of Prüm, in a justly famous passage, “the kingdoms which had
been subject to the government of Charles split up into fragments,
breaking the bond which united them, and without waiting for their
natural lord, each one sought to create a king of its own, drawn from
within itself; which thing was the cause of long wars, not that there
were lacking Frankish princes worthy of empire by their noble birth,
their courage, and their wisdom, but because their equality in origin,
dignity and power was a fresh cause for discord. None of them in fact
was sufficiently raised above the rest to make them willing to submit
## p. 63 (#109) #############################################
Final division of the Empire
63
to his authority. " The West Franks elected as king Odo, the valiant de-
fender of Paris. In Italy Berengar, Marquess of Friuli, and Guy (Guido),
Duke of Spoleto, contended for the crown. Louis of Provence held the
valley of the Rhone as far as Lyons. Finally, a new claimant, the Welf
Rodolph, son of Conrad, Count of Auxerre, already duke of “the duchy
beyond the Jura” comprising the dioceses of Geneva, Lausanne and Sion,
claimed the ancient kingdom of Lorraine, without, however, succeeding
in building up more than a “ kingdom of Burgundy,” restricted to the
Helvetian pagi and the countries which formed the ancient diocese of
Besançon.
The expressions used by Regino must not, however, be understood
too literally. The kings whom the new nations “ drew from within
themselves were all of the Austrasian race and had their origin in
Francia, their families having been for hardly more than two or three
generations settled in their new counties. The dismemberment, which
began under Louis the Pious and was finally consummated in 888, was
by no means caused by a reaction of the different nations within the
Carolingian Empire against the political and administrative unity im-
posed by Charles the Great. The building up of new nationalities may
have been largely the work of the chances of the various partitions which
had taken place since the Treaty of Verdun. Nevertheless the fact that
Louis the German and his heirs had as their portion the populations
of Teutonic speech, and Charles the Bald and his successors those of the
Romance language, no doubt accentuated such consciousness as these
peoples might have of their individuality, a consciousness further
strengthened by the antagonism between the sovereigns. Italy, on
the other hand, had long been accustomed to live under a king of its
own, a little outside the sphere of the other Frankish kingdoms. Besides
these more remote causes, we must bear in mind the need which each
fraction of the Empire felt of having a protector, an effective head to
organise resistance against the Slavs, the Saracens or the Northmen. A
single Emperor must often be at too great a distance from the point
at which danger threatened. “ The idea of the Empire, the idea of the
Frankish kingdom recedes into the background, and gives place to an
attachment to the more restricted country of one's birth, to the race
to which one belongs? . ” Under the influence of geographical situation
and of language, or even through the chances of political alliances, new
groups had been formed, and each of these placed at its head the man
best fitted to defend it against the innumerable enemies who for half
a century had been devastating all parts of the Empire.
In spite of this separatist movement, the kinglets (reguli) set up in
888 still attributed a certain supremacy to Arnulf as the last representa-
tive of the Carolingian family. Odo sought his presence at Worms in
.
1 G. Monod. Du rôle de l'opposition des races dans la dissolution de l'Empire
carolingien, p. 13.
CH. III.
## p. 64 (#110) #############################################
64
Arnulf
order to place himself under his protection (August 888) before going
to Rheims to receive the crown of Western Francia. At Trent,
Berengar also took up the attitude of a vassal in order to obtain from
Arnulf the recognition of his Italian kingship. Rodolph of Burgundy
yielded to the threat of an expedition to be sent against him, and came
and made his submission at Ratisbon. A little later, at Worms, it was
the turn of young Louis of Provence (894). Doubtless no homage
strictly so called was performed, such as would establish between Arnulf
and the neighbouring sovereigns a relation of positive vassalage with
the reciprocal obligations it entailed. There was, however, a ceremony
analogous to that of homage, and the recognition of a kind of over-
lordship belonging, at any rate in theory, to the King of Germany.
Thus between Arnulf and the rulers of the states which had arisen from
the dismemberment of the Carolingian Empire peace seemed assured.
But it was less safe against enemies from without and against revolts
on the part of the German magnates. Though in 889 Arnulf had
received an embassy from the Northmen bearing pacific messages, the
struggle had begun again in 891. The Danes had invaded Lorraine
and had inflicted on Count Arnulf and Archbishop Sunderold of Mayence
the bloody defeat of La Gueule (26 June) balanced, it is true, by the
success won by King Arnulf in the same year on the banks of the Dyle.
On the other hand, the struggle against the Moravian kingdom founded
by a prince named Svátopluk (Zwentibold) was going on amidst alterna-
tions of success and failure. In 892 Arnulf, with the assistance of the
Slovene duke Braslav, led a successful expedition against the Moravians,
but he had been imprudent enough to call to his aid a troop of Hun-
garians, thus, as it were, pointing out to the Magyar immigrants from
Asia the road into the kingdom of Germany which a few years later
was to have such a fearful experience of them. Two years later (894)
(
the death of Svátopluk led to the recognition of Arnulf's authority
by his two sons, Moimir and Svátopluk II, and the civil war which
before long broke out between them enabled the Franks to intervene
successfully in Moravia. But like Charles the Fat, Arnulf was haunted
by the dream of wearing the imperial crown. At the opening of his
reign the fear of a revolt among the discontented magnates of Swabia
had alone prevented him from responding to the appeals made to him
by Pope Stephen V (890). Events in Italy now offered him the oppor-
tunity of renewing his attempts in that quarter.
The two rivals, Guy and Berengar, who after the deposition of
Charles the Fat disputed for the crown of Italy, were each recognised
as king by a certain number of adherents. A truce had been arranged
between them up to the beginning of the year 889. They used this
respite merely to seek support in foreign countries. Berengar, for twenty
years the faithful ally of the Eastern Carolingians, received reinforcements
from Germany. Guy, after an unsuccessful attempt to secure for himself
## p. 65 (#111) #############################################
Italian Rivals
65
the crown of the Western Kingdom, had recruited contingents in the
district of Burgundy round Dijon, which was his native land. The
Italian lords again took sides with one competitor or the other, with
the exception of the most powerful of them all, Adalbert, Marquess of
Tuscany, who contrived to maintain a prudent neutrality. War then
broke out afresh. A bloody battle—a rare event in the ninth century-
.
in which some 7000 men fought on either side was waged for a whole
day on the banks of the Trebbia. Berengar, thoroughly worsted, was
forced to retreat beyond the Po, where Verona, Cremona and Brescia
still remained faithful to him, and to abandon the struggle with Guy.
The latter seems not to have troubled himself to follow up his enemy's
flight. His victory gave him possession of the palace of Pavia, that is,
of the capital of the Italian kingdom. In the middle of February 889,
he held a great assembly of bishops there, to whom he solemnly promised
that church property and rights should be respected and maintained,
and that the plundering raids and usurpations of the magnates should
be put down. Then the prelates declared him king, and bestowed on
him the royal unction.
For more than half a century, the supreme title of Emperor had
seemed to be bound up with the possession of Italy. Guy therefore
approached Pope Stephen V, with whom he had hitherto been on good
terms, with a demand for the imperial crown. Stephen, however, was
not anxious to add to the power of the house of Spoleto, always a
menace to the papacy. A more distant Emperor seemed to offer a
fairer prospect of safety. He therefore sent a private summons to Arnulf.
But as the latter was unable to leave Germany, Stephen V was compelled
(11 February 891) to proceed to the consecration of Guy as Emperor. His
wife, Ageltrude, was crowned with him, and their son, Lambert, received
the title of king and joint-Emperor. Adalbert of Tuscany now resolved
on making his official submission to the new ruler. Berengar alone
persisted in refusing to recognise him, and maintained his independence
in his old domain, the March of Friuli. He even retained some supporters
outside its limits who objected to Guy's Burgundian origin and reproached
him with the favour which he shewed to certain of his compatriots who
had followed him from beyond the Alps, such as Anscar (Anscarius),
on whom he bestowed the March of Ivrea. Nevertheless the new
Emperor, in the beginning of May 891, held a great placitum at Pavia,
at which, to satisfy the demands of the prelates, he promulgated a long
capitulary enacting the measures necessary to protect church property.
On the same occasion, anxious, no doubt, to secure the support of the
clergy, he made numerous grants to the bishops.
In September Stephen V died. His successor was the Bishop of
Porto, Formosus, an energetic man, but one whose energy had gained
him many enemies. In particular he seems to have been on bad terms
with Guy, and doubtless considered an Italian Emperor a danger to the
0. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. III.
5
## p. 66 (#112) #############################################
66
Arnulf in Italy
Holy See. He therefore made a fresh appeal to Arnulf. The King of
Germany did not come in person, but he sent his illegitimate son,
Zwentibold, to whom he entrusted the task of “restoring order” beyond
the Alps with the assistance of Berengar of Friuli. Zwentibold allowed
himself to be daunted or bribed by Guy, and returned to Germany
without having accomplished anything (893). At the beginning of the
next year (894) Arnulf resolved to make a descent into Italy himself.
He carried Bergamo by assault, and massacred the garrison. Intimidated
by this example, Milan and Pavia opened their gates, and the majority
of the magnates joined in taking the oath of fidelity to Arnulf. The
latter, however, went no further than Piacenza, whence he turned
homewards. But on his way back he found the road barred close to
.
Ivrea by the troops of the Marquess Anscar, swelled by a contingent
sent by Rodolph, King of Burgundy. Arnulf, however, succeeded in
forcing a passage and turned his arms against Rodolph, but without
gaining any advantage, as the enemy took refuge in the mountains.
Zwentibold was placed at the head of a fresh expedition against the
regnum Jurense, but was no more successful.
In a word, the brief irruption of Arnulf into Italy had done nothing
to alter the situation. Guy remained Emperor. But just as he was
about to resume his struggle with Berengar, an attack of haemorrhage
carried him off. His successor was his son Lambert who had already
been his colleague in the government. But Lambert was young and
devoid of energy or authority. Disorder broke out more fiercely than
ever, and in the autumn of 895 Formosus again sent a pressing appeal
to Arnulf. Again the king of Germany set out, and on this occasion
pushed on to Rome. But the population was hostile to șim. The
resistance was organised by Ageltrude, Guy's widow, an energetic
Lombard of Benevento. Arnulf was obliged to carry the city by assault.
In February 896 Formosus crowned him Emperor in the basilica of
St Peter, and a few days later the Romans were compelled to take the
oath of fidelity to him. But his success was to be short-lived. Agel-
trude, who had taken refuge in her duchy of Spoleto, held out there in
the name of Lambert. Just as he was about to lead an expedition
against her, Arnulf fell sick. Thereupon he gave up the struggle and
took the road back to his dominions, where, moreover, other disturbances
called for his presence. Once he had gone, Lambert lost no time in
re-appearing in Pavia, where he again exercised royal power. He also
got possession of Milan in spite of the resistance of Manfred, the count
whom Arnulf had placed there, and again began hostilities with Berengar.
But the two rivals soon agreed upon a treaty, guaranteeing to Berengar
the district north of the Po and east of the Adda.
All the rest of Italy was left to Lambert, who again entered Rome
with Ageltrude in the beginning of 897. Formosus had died on 4 April
896.
After the brief pontificate of Boniface VI which lasted only a
## p. 67 (#113) #############################################
The Formosan troubles at Rome
67
fortnight, the Romans had elected Stephen VII. This Pope was a
personal enemy of Formosus and, perhaps in co-operation with Lambert,
undertook to indict his detested predecessor with a horrible travesty
of the forms of law. The corpse of Formosus—if an almost contem-
porary tradition is to be credited—was dragged from its tomb and
clothed in its pontifical vestments and a simulacrum of a judicial
trial was gone through. Accused of having infringed canonical rules
by his translation from Porto to Rome, of having violated an oath
taken to John VIII never to re-enter Rome, and, as a matter of course,
condemned, the dead Pope's body was stripped of its vestments and cast
into the Tiber. All the acts of Formosus, in particular the ordinations
performed by him, were declared null and void. This sinister con-
demnation brought about a revulsion of feeling, although opinion had
been generally somewhat hostile to Formosus. A revolt broke out in
Rome, Stephen VII was made prisoner and strangled; soine months of
confusion followed until finally, the election of John IX (June 898)
restored some measure of quiet. In agreement with Lambert, the new
Pope took steps to pacify opinion. The judgment pronounced against
Formosus was annulled, and the priests who had been deposed as having
been ordained by him were restored. A synod, held at Rome, busied
itself with measures to secure the good government of the Church and
the observance of canonical rule. The prescribed form for the election
of a supreme Pontiff was again laid down; the choice was to be made
'
by the clergy of Rome with the assent of the people and nobles in the
presence of an official delegated by the Emperor. A great assembly
held by Lambert at Ravenna also made provision for the safety of
Church property and for the protection of freemen against the oppres-
sions exercised by the counts. But on 15 October 898 the young king
lost his life through a hunting accident. Lambert left no heir and
Berengar profited by the situation to make himself master of the
kingdom of Italy without striking a blow. By 1 December Ageltrude
herself acknowledged him, receiving from him a deed confirming her in
possession of her property. With the accession of Berengar a new period
begins in the history of Italy, not less disturbed than the preceding one,
but almost entirely unconnected with the Carolingian Empire and the
Kings of Germany.
On his return from Italy in 894 Arnulf was also to find in the
western part of his dominions a situation of considerable difficulty.
At the diet of Worms in 895, resuming a project which the opposition
of his great vassals had forced him to lay aside in the preceding year,
he had caused his son Zwentibold to be proclaimed King of Lorraine.
Zwentibold was a brave and active prince, often entrusted by his father
with the command of military expeditions. Arnulf hoped by this means
to protect Lorraine against possible attempts by the rulers of Burgundy
or of the Western Kingdom, and at the same time to maintain order,
CH. III.
5-2
## p. 68 (#114) #############################################
68
Death of Arnulf
which was often disturbed by the rivalry of two hostile clans who were
contending for mastery in the country, that of Count Reginar, inac-
curately called the “ Long-necked,” and that of Count Matfrid. But
with regard to the latter object, Zwentibold, who was of a violent and
hasty temper, seems to have been but little fitted to play the part of
a pacificator. It was not long before he had given offence to the greater
part of the magnates. At the assembly of Worms (May 897) Arnulf
seemed for a moment to have restored peace between the King of
Lorraine and his counts. But no later than next year disorder broke
out afresh. Reginar, whom Zwentibold was attempting to deprive of
his honours, made an appeal to Charles the Simple, who advanced as far
as the neighbourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle. Thanks to the help of Franco,
the Bishop of Liège, Zwentibold succeeded in organising a resistance
sufficiently formidable to induce Charles to make peace and go
back
to his own kingdom.
The death of Arnulf (November or December 899) heightened the
confusion. He left a son, Louis the Child, born in 893, whose right
to the succession had been acknowledged by the assembly at Tribur
(897). On 4 February 900, an assembly at Forchheim in East Franconia
proclaimed him King of Germany. Some time afterwards in Lorraine
the party of Matfrid, with the support of the bishops who resented the
dissolute life of Zwentibold and the favour shewn by him to persons
of low condition, abandoned their sovereign and appealed to Louis the
Child. Zwentibold was killed in an encounter with the rebels on the
banks of the Meuse (13 August 900). Louis remained until his death
titular King of Lorraine, where he several times made his appearance,
but where feudalism of the strongest type was developing. A few years
later, civil war again broke out between Matfrid's family and the Frankish
Count Gebhard, on whom Louis had conferred the title of Duke and the
government of Lorraine. Nor did affairs proceed much better in the
other parts of the kingdom, to judge by the few and meagre chronicles
of the time. Outside, Louis had no longer the means of making good
any claim upon Italy, where Louis of Provence was contending with
Berengar for the imperial crown. Germany itself was wasted by the
feuds between the rival Franconian houses of the Conradins and Baben-
berg. The head of the latter, Adalbert, in 906 defeated and killed
Conrad the Old, head of the rival family, but being himself made
prisoner by the king's officers, he was accused of high treason and
executed in the same year (9 September). But the most terrible scourge
of Germany was that of the Hungarian invasions. It was in 892 that
the Hungarians, a people of Finnish origin who had been driven from
their settlements between the Don and the Dnieper, made their first
appearance in Germany as the allies of Arnulf in a war against the
Moravians. A few years later they established themselves permanently
on the banks of the Theiss. In 900 a band of them, returning from
## p. 69 (#115) #############################################
Death of Louis the Child
69
a plundering expedition into Italy, made its way into Bavaria, ravaged
the country and carried off a rich booty. The defeat of another band
by the Margrave Liutpold and Bishop Richer of Passau, as well as the
construction of the fortress of Ensburg, intended to serve as a bulwark
against them, were insufficient to keep them in check. Thenceforth not
a year passed without some part of Louis's kingdom being visited by
these bold horsemen, skilled in escaping from the more heavily armed
German troops, before whom they were wont to retreat, galling them as they
went, with Alights of arrows, and at a little distance forming up again
and continuing their ravages. In 901 they devastated Carinthia. In 906
they twice ravaged Saxony. Next year they inflicted a heavy defeat on
the Bavarians, killing the Margrave Liutpold. In 908 it was the turn of
Saxony and Thuringia, in 909 that of Alemannia. On their return,
however, Duke Arnulf the Bad of Bavaria inflicted a reverse upon them
on the Rott, but in 910 they, in their turn, defeated near Augsburg the
numerous army collected by Louis the Child.
It was in the autumn of the following year (911) that the life of this
last representative of the Eastern Carolingians came to an end at the
age of barely eighteen. He was buried in the Church of St Emmeram
at Ratisbon. In the early days of November the Frankish, Saxon,
Alemannian, and Bavarian lords met at Forchheim and elected as king
Conrad, Duke of Franconia, a man of Frankish race, and noble birth,
renowned for his valour. This prince's reign was hardly more fortunate
than that of his predecessor. Three expeditions in succession (912–913)
directed against Charles the Simple did not avail to drive the Western
King out of Lorraine. Rodolph, King of Burgundy, even took advantage
of the opportunity to seize upon Basle. Besides this, the Hungarians,
in spite of their defeat on the Inn at the hands of Duke Arnulf of
Bavaria in 913, continued their ravages in Saxony, Thuringia and
Swabia. In 917 they traversed the whole of the southern part of the
kingdom of Germany, plundered Basle and even penetrated into Alsace.
On the other hand, domestic discords still went on, and the chiefs of the
nascent feudal principalities were in a state of perpetual war either with
one another or with the sovereign. One of the most powerful vassals
about the king, Erchanger, the Count Palatine, had in 913 raised the
standard of revolt. Restored to favour for a short time in consequence
of the energetic help he gave to Duke Arnulf in the struggle with the
Hungarians, he lost no time in giving fresh offence to Conrad by
attacking one of his most influential counsellors, Solomon, Bishop of
Constance, whom he even kept for some days a prisoner. The sentence
of banishment pronounced on him in consequence did not prevent him
from continuing to keep the field with the help of his brother Berthold
and Count Burchard, or from defeating the royal troops next year by
Wahlwies near Lake Constance. To get the better of himn Conrad was
obliged to have him arrested for treason at the assembly of Hohen Altheim
CH. III.
## p. 70 (#116) #############################################
70
Conrad I of Germany
1
in Swabia and executed a few weeks later with his brother Berthold
(21 January 917). But one of the rebels, Count Burchard, succeeded
in maintaining possession of Swabia. . Conrad was hardly more successful
with regard to his other great vassals. One of the most powerful, Henry
of Saxony, gave signs from the very beginning of the reign of a hostile
a
temper' towards the new sovereign which manifested itself in 915 by an
open rebellion, marked by the defeat of the expeditions led against the
rebel by the Margrave Everard, brother of Conrad, and by the king himself.
In Bavaria, Duke Arnulf had also revolted in 914. Temporarily
worsted, and obliged to take refuge with his former foes, the Hungarians,
he had re-appeared next year in his duchy. He was forced to submit
and to surrender Ratisbon, but he took up the struggle afresh a little
later (917) and again became master of the whole of Bavaria.
Conrad and the magnates both lay and ecclesiastical who had
remained loyal to him held a great assembly at Hohen Altheim in 916
“ to strengthen the royal power,” when the severest penalties were
threatened against any who should “conspire against the life of the
king, take part with his adversaries or attempt to deprive him of the
government of the kingdom. ” When Conrad ended his short reign
(23 December 918), recommending the magnates to choose as his successor
his former enemy, Henry of Saxony, he was in a position to testify that
the magnates had seldom done anything else than transgress the precepts
laid down at Hohen Altheim. To split up the realm into great feudal
principalities, handed down from father to son and owning little or no
obedience to a sovereign always in theory elective,-this was the con-
stantly increasing evil from which Germany was to suffer throughout the
whole of the Middle Ages.
The appearance of tribal dukes was not a mere outburst of disorder.
a
Local leaders undertook the defence neglected by the central power, and
,
so duchies, founded upon common race and memories, appeared and grew
apart in reaction against Frankish hegemony. In Saxony, left to itself,
the Liudolfing Bruno headed from 880 the warfare against Danes and
Wends. Bavaria, troubled by Hungarians, found a Duke in Arnulf
c c. 907. Franconia, less harassed and more loyal to the Carolingians,
lacked traditions of unity, but in Conrad, the future king, Conradins
of the west triumphed over Babenberger rivals in the east. In Lorraine,
the Carolingian homeland, even less united, Reginar (a grandson of the
Emperor Lothar I) became Duke. Swabia found, under King Conrad I,
a Duke in Burchard. Thus everywhere, as local unity met local needs,
ducal dynasties arose.
;
।
1 The chroniclers of a later period explain this by relating that Conrad had owed
his crown only to its refusal by Otto, father of Henry, but the fact is doubtful.
th
th
## p. 71 (#117) #############################################
71
CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE, THE LAST CAROLINGIANS AND THE
ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. (888-987. )
DESERTED by Charles the Fat, on whom, through a strange illusion,
they had fixed all their hopes, the West-Franks in 887 again found
themselves as much at a loss to choose a king as they had been at the
death of Carloman in 884. The feeling of attachment to the Carolingian
house, whose exclusive right to the throne seemed to have been formerly
hallowed, as it were, by Pope Stephen II, was still so strong, especially
among the clergy, that the problem might well appear almost insoluble.
It was out of the question indeed, to view as a possible sovereign
the young Charles the Simple, the posthumous child of Louis II, the
Stammerer. Even Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims, who was later to be
his most faithful supporter, did not hesitate to admit that “ in the face
of the fearful dangers with which the Normans threatened the kingdom
it would have been imprudent to fix upon him then. ” Nor, at the first
moment, did anyone seem inclined towards Arnulf, illegitimate son of
Carloman and grandson of Louis the German, whom the East-Franks
had recently,ın November 887, put in the place of Charles the Fat.
In this cate of uncertainty, all eyes would naturally turn towards
Odo (Eudo), Count of Paris, whose distinguished conduct when, shortly
before, tá Normans had laid siege to his capital, seemed to mark him
out toil as the man best capable of defending the kingdom. ' Son of
Robe the Strong, Odo, then aged between twenty-five and thirty, had,
bye death of Hugh the Abbot (12 May 886), just entered into pos-
son of the March of Neustria which had been ruled by his father.
jeficiary of the rich abbeys of Saint-Martin of Tours, Cormery,
lleloin and Marmoutier, as well as Count of Anjou, Blois, Tours and
aris, and heir to the preponderating influence which Hugh the Abbot
ad acquired in the kingdom, in Odo the hour seemed to have brought
orth the man. He was proclaimed king by a strong party, consisting
ainly of Neustrians, and crowned at Compiègne on 29 February 888
, Walter, Archbishop of Sens.
Nevertheless, he was far from having gained the support of all sections.
1 the people of Francia it seemed a hardship to submit to this
cH. Tv.
## p. 72 (#118) #############################################
72
Accession of Odo
a
a
Neustrian, “a stranger to the royal race," whose interests differed widely
from theirs. The leading spirit in this party of opposition was, from
the outset, Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims.
From at least the time of Hincmar, the Archbishop of Rheims,
“primate among primates," had been one of the most conspicuous personages
in the kingdom. The personal ascendancy of Fulk, who came of a noble
family, was considerable; we find him openly rebuking Richilda, widow of
Charles the Bald, who was leading an irregular life, and it was he who in
885 acted as the spokesman of the nobles when Charles the Fat was
invited to enter the Western Kingdom ; again it was he who for the
next twelve years was to be the head of the Carolingian party in France.
Although on the deposition of Charles the Fat, Fulk had for a moment
played with the hope of raising to the throne his kinsman, Guy, Duke
of Spoleto, a member of a noble Austrasian family perhaps related to the
Carolingians', he now no longer hesitated to apply to Arnulf, just as
three years before he had applied to Charles the Fat. Accompanied by
two or three of his suffragans, he travelled to Worms (June 888) to
acquaint him with the position of affairs, the usurpation of Odo, the
youth of Charles the Simple, the dangers threatening the Western
Kingdom, and the claims which he (Arnulf) might make to the
succession. But Arnulf, hearing at this juncture that Odo “had just
covered himself with glory” by inflicting, at Montfaucon in the Argonne,
a severe defeat upon the Northmen (24 June 888), preferred negotiations
with the “usurper. ” To emphasise his own position of superiority, as
successor to the Emperor, he summoned him to Worms, where Odo
agreed to hold his crown of him. This was a fresh affirmation of the
unity of the Empire of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious without the
imperial title, but at the same time it gave a solemn sanction to the
kingship of Odo.
Even within his dominious, opposition to Odo gradually gave way.
Several of his opponents, among them Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had
submitted. But Fulk did not allow himself to be won over. Though
he had feigned to be reconciled (November 888), he was merely deferring
action till fortune should change sides. For this he had not long to
wait. The victory of Montfaucon proved to be a success which led to
nothing; the king was forced in 889 to purchase the retreat of a North-
man band ravaging the neighbourhood of Paris, and to allow another
to escape next year at Guerbigny near Noyon, and was finally surprised by
the pirates at Wallers, near Valenciennes, in 891 and routed in the
Vermandois. Several of the lords who had rallied to his cause were
beginning to abandon him: Baldwin, Count of Flanders, himself had
raised the standard of revolt (892). Fulk cleverly contrived to draw
together all the discontented and to rally them to the cause of Charles
1 Guy had even been crowned at Langres by its bishop, shortly before the
coronation of Odo, but had been obliged to beat a precipitate retreat.
## p. 73 (#119) #############################################
Carolingian Restoration
73
9
the Simple. The latter, only eight years old in 887, was now thirteen.
There were still nearly two years to wait for his majority which, in the
Carolingian family, was fixed at fifteen, but the Archbishop of Rheims
boldly pointed out “ that at least he had reached an age when he could
adopt the opinions of those who gave him good counsels. ” A plot was
set on foot, and on 28 January 893, while Odo was on an expedition
to Aquitaine, Charles was crowned in the basilica of Saint Remi at
Rheims.
Without loss of time, Fulk wrote to the Pope and to Arnulf to
put them in possession of the circumstances and to justify the course
he had taken. Arnulf was not hard to convince, when once his own
pre-eminence was recognised by the new king. But he avoided com-
promising himself by embracing too zealously the cause of either of the
candidates, and thought it better policy to pose as the sovereign arbiter
of their disputes. Before long, moreover, Charles, having reached the
end of his resources and being gradually forsaken by the majority of his
partisans, was reduced to negotiate, first on an equal footing, then as
a repentant rebel. At the beginning of 897, Qdo agreed to pardon
him, and Charles having presented himself to acknowledge him as king
and lord, " he gave him a part of the kingdom, and promised him even
more. ” These few enigmatic words convey all the information we have
as to the position created for Charles. What followed shewed at least
the meaning of his rival's promise. Odo having soon afterwards fallen
sick at La Fère, on the Oise, and feeling his end near, begged the lords
who were about him to recognise Charles as their king.
After his death, which took place on 1 January 898, the son of
Louis the Stammerer was in fact acclaimed on all hands; even Odo's
own brother, Robert, who had succeeded as Count of Paris, Anjou,
Blois, and Touraine, and ruled the whole of the March of Neustria,
declared for him.
It thus appeared that after what was practically an interregnum
peace might return to the French kingdom. But Charles was devoid of
the skill to conciliate his new subjects. His conduct, despite his
surname, the Simple, does not seem to have lacked energy or deter-
mination ; his faults were rather, it would seem, those of imprudence
and presumption.
The great event of his reign was the definitive establishment of the
Northmen in France, or rather, the placing of their settlement along the
lower Seine on a regular footing. One of their chiefs, the famous
Rollo, having been repulsed before Paris and again before Chartres,
Charles profited by the opportunity to enter into negotiations with him.
An interview took place in 911 at St-Clair-sur-Epte, on the highroad
from Paris to Rouen. Rollo made his submission, consented to accept
Christianity, and received as a fief the counties of Rouen, Lisieux and
Evreux with the country lying between the rivers Epte and Bresle and
CA. IV.
## p. 74 (#120) #############################################
74
Charles the Simple in Lorraine
the sea.
a
It was an ingenious method of putting an end to the Scandi-
navian incursions from that quarter'.
But it was especially on the eastern frontier of the kingdom that
Charles was able to give free scope to his enterprising spirit. The
subjects of Zwentibold, King of Lorraine, an illegitimate son of the
Emperor Arnulf, had in 898 revolted against him. Charles, called in
by a party among them, obtained some successes, but before long had
beaten a retreat. But when in September 911 Louis the Child, King of
the Germans, who in 900 had succeeded in getting possession of the
kingdom of Lorraine, died leaving no children, Charles saw that the
moment had come for more decisive interference. Conrad, Duke of
Franconia, Louis's successor in Germany, belonged to a family unpopular
in Lorraine ; Charles, on the contrary, as a Carolingian, could count
upon general sympathy. As early as November he was recognised by
the Lorrainers as king, and as soon as peace was secured on his western
border he was able, without encountering any difficulties, to come and
take possession of his new kingdom. We find him already there by
1 January 912, and thenceforward he seems to shew a marked preference
for dwelling there. He defended the country against two attacks by
Conrad, King of the Germans, and forced his successor, Henry I, to
recognise the rightfulness of his authority in an interview which he
had with him on a raft midway in the Rhine at Bonn on 7 November
921. His power, both in France and Lorraine, seemed to be firmly
established.
This was an illusion. For some time already discontent had been
secretly fermenting in the western part of France; the Neustrians were
doubtless irritated at seeing the king's exclusive preference for the lords
of Lorraine. What fanned their resentment to fury was seeing him
take as his confidential adviser a Lorrainer of undistinguished birth
named Hagano. In the first place, between 917 and 919, they re-
fused to join the royal ost to repel a Hungarian invasion, and in 922, as
Hagano continued to grow in favour, and great benefices and rich
abbeys were still heaped upon him, they broke into open revolt. Robert,
Marquess of Neustria, brother of the late king, Odo, was at the head of
the insurgents, and on Sunday, 30 June 922, he was crowned at
Rheims by Walter, Archbishop of Sens.
As a crowning misfortune, Charles, at that moment, lost his most
faithful supporter. Hervé, Archbishop of Rheims, who had succeeded
Fulk in 900 and had boldly undertaken his king's defence against the
revolted lords, died on 2 July 922, and King Robert contrived to secure
the archbishopric of Rheims, nominating to it one of his creatures, the
archdeacon Seulf. Charles gathered an army composed chiefly of
Lorrainers, and on 15 June 923 offered battle to his rival near Soissons.
jogh
i For a detailed account see infra, chap. XIII.
## p. 75 (#121) #############################################
Raoril's usurpation
75
Robert fell in the fight, but Charles was put to the rout, and attempted
in vain to win back a section of the insurgents to his side. The Duke
of Burgundy, Raoul (Radulf), son-in-law of King Robert, and, next
to the Marquess of Neustria, one of the most powerful nobles in the
kingdom, was crowned king on Sunday, 13 July 923, at the Church of
St Médard at Soissons by the same Archbishop Walter of Sens who
had already officiated at the coronations of Odo and of Robert'.
Charles's position was most serious. Still it was far from being
desperate; besides the kingdom of Lorraine which still held to him, he
could count upon the fidelity of Duke Rollo's Normans and of the
Aquitanians. He completed his own ruin by falling into the trap set
for him by King Raoul's brother-in-law, Herbert, Count of Vermandois.
The latter gave him to understand that he had left the Carolingian
party against his will, but that an opportunity now offered to repair his
fault and that Charles should join him as quickly as possible with only
a small escort so as to avoid arousing suspicion. His envoys vouched on
oath for his good faith. Charles went unsuspiciously to the place of
meeting and was made prisoner, being immured first in the fortress of
Château-Thierry, then in that of Péronne.
But the agreement between the new king and the nobles did not
last long. Herbert of Vermandois, who in making Charles prisoner
seems to have mainly intended to supply himself with a weapon which
could be used against Raoul, began by laying hands on the archbishopric
of Rheims, causing his little son Hugh, aged five, to be elected successor
to Seulf (925); he then attempted to secure the county of Laon for
another of his sons, Odo (927). As Raoul protested, he took Charles
from his prison and caused William Longsword, son of Rollo, Duke of
Normandy, to do him homage; then to keep up the odious farce, he
brought the Carolingian to Rheims, whence he vigorously pressed his
prisoner's claims upon the Pope. Finally, in 928, he got possession of
Laon.
1 For the sake of clearness in the narrative we give here the genealogy of the
descendants of Robert the Strong, down to Hugh Capet :
Robert the Strong,
Marquess of Neustria
d. 866
Odo
Robert
Marquess of Neustria
Marquess of Neustria
King of France 888-898
King of France 922-923
Hugh the Great
Emma=Raoul
dau. =Herbert II
Duke of the Franks
Duke of Burgundy Ct. of Vermandois
d. 956
King of France 923–936
Hugh Capet
ike of the Franks
ig of France 987-996
Otto
Duke of Burgundy
960–965
Odo (surnamed Henry)
a priest, then Duke of Burgundy
965-1002
cH. I.
## p. 76 (#122) #############################################
76
Hugh the Great
a
The death of Charles the Simple in his prison at Péronne (7 Oct.
929) deprived Herbert of a formidable weapon always at hand, and
Raoul having shortly afterwards won a brilliant victory at Limoges over
the Normans of the Loire, seemed stronger than ever.
The Aquitanian nobles recognised Raoul as king, and on the death
of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, his son and successor, William Long-
sword, came and did homage to him, while for a time his authority was
acknowledged even in the Lyonnais and the Viennois, both at that period
forming part theoretically of the kingdom of Burgundy. Herbert of
Vermandois still held out, but Raoul got the better of him ; entering
Rheims by the strong hand he promoted to the archepiscopal throne
the monk Artaud (Artald) in place of young Hugh (931), and with
the help of his brother-in-law Hugh the Great, son of the late King
Robert, he waged an unrelenting war against Herbert, burning his
strongholds, and besieging him in Château-Thierry (933-934).
Just, however, as a peace had been concluded between the king and
his powerful vassal, Raoul suddenly fell sick (autumn of 935). A few
months later he died (14 or 15 January 936).
66
The disappearance of Raoul, who died childless, once more imposed
upon the nobles the obligation of choosing a king. The most powerful
of their number was, without question, the Marquess of Neustria, Hugh
the Great, son of King Robert, nephew of King Odo and brother-in-
law of the prince who had just died. Heir to the whole of the former
March,” once entrusted to Robert the Strong, consisting of all the
counties lying between Normandy and Brittany, the Loire and the
Seine, Hugh was recognised throughout these districts if not as the
direct lord, at least as a suzerain who was respected and obeyed. The
petty local counts and viscounts, the future rulers of Angers, Blois,
Chartres or Le Mans, who were beginning on all hands to consolidate
their power, were his very submissive vassals. The numerous domains
which Hugh had reserved for himself, his titles as Abbot of St Martin
of Tours, of Marmoutier, and perhaps also of St Aignan of Orleans,
gave him, besides, opportunities of acting directly over the whole extent
of the Neustrian March. He was also Count of Paris, had possessions
in the district of Meaux, was titular Abbot of St Denis, of Morienval,
of St Valery, and of St Riquier and St Germain at Auxerre, and finally,
in addition to all this, bearing the somewhat vague, but imposing title
of “Duke of the Franks,” Hugh the Great was a person of the highest
importance.
But however great was the ascendancy of the “Duke of the Franks” |
he did not fail to meet with formidable opposition, the chief of ift
coming from the other brother-in-law of the late King Raoul, Herberiet,
Count of Vermandois. A direct descendant of Charlemagne, thrc jugh
his grandfather, Bernard, King of Italy (the same prince whose eyes
## p.
