No More Learning

Charles accused his nephew of
being a cause of double scandal to the Christian Church by the favour he
had shewn to the guilty connexion between Baldwin and Judith, and by
marrying Waldrada without waiting for the opinion of the Pope. He
called for the assembling of a general council to pronounce definitively on
both these questions. In the end, Lothar agreed, so far as Judith's case
was concerned, but in the matter of the divorce he declared that he
would await the decision of the Pope. Charles was obliged to be content
with this reply, and to take leave of his brother, having done nothing
more than renew the treaty of peace and alliance concluded in 860 at
Coblence.
The death of Charles of Provence (25 January 863) made little
change in the respective positions of the sovereigns. The dead man left
no children; his heirs therefore were his two brothers, for Louis II does
not appear to have recognised the treaty concluded in 858 between
Charles and Lothar II, by which the latter was to succeed to the whole of
the inheritance. Therefore the two rivals hastened to reach Provence,
each being eager to win over the magnates of the country to his own side.
The seemingly inevitable conflict was warded off, thanks to an agreement
which gave Provence, strictly so-called, as far as the Durance to the
Emperor, and to the king of Lorraine the Lyonnais and the Viennois,
that is to say the Duchy of Lyons, of which Gerard of Roussillon was
governor.
But the question of Theutberga was still not definitely settled, and
for the years that followed, it remained the subject of difficult negotia-
tions, on the one hand between the different Frankish sovereigns, and on
the other between these sovereigns and the Pope. The situation was
eminently favourable to a Pope of the character of Nicholas I, who, in
858 had taken the place of Benedict III on the papal throne. Being
petitioned to intervene at once by Theutberga, Lothar, and the
opponents of Lothar, he could take up the position of the arbiter of the
Christian world. Meanwhile, without deciding the question himself, he
resolved to hand over the settlement of it to a great council to be
held at Metz at which not only the bishops of Lorraine should be
present, but two representatives of the episcopate in each of the
ch. II.


## p. 42 (#88) ##############################################

42
Pope Nicholas I
kingdoms of France, Germany and Provence. The assembly was to be
presided over by two envoys from the Holy See, John, Bishop of Cervia,
and Radoald, Bishop of Porto. But Lothar's partisans were on the
alert, and were working to gain time. The papal letters carried by the
.
two legates were stolen from them by skilful thieves and they were forced
to apply for new ones. While they were waiting, and while, on the
other hand, Lothar's absence in Provence to take up the inheritance of
his brother delayed the calling of the Council, the emissaries of Gunther
and Theutgaud succeeded in bribing Radoald and his colleague. The
legates failed to convoke the foreign bishops, and the purely Lothar-
ingian synod held at Metz was a tool in the hands of Gunther. It
therefore confirmed the decisions of the assembly of Aix, basing them
on the ground of an alleged marriage between Lothar and Waldrada,
previous to his union with Theutberga (June 863).
This statement, improbable as being now produced for the first time,
did not suffice to appease the righteous anger of Nicholas I when he
learned by what methods the case had been conducted. He did not
hesitate to quash the decisions of the Council, to condemn Radoald and
John, and, irregular as the proceeding was, to depose Gunther and
Theutgaud by the exercise of his own authority. On the other hand,
Louis II, who had shewn some disposition, at first, to support the
Lotharingian bishops, now abandoned his brother, in spite of the
interview which he had just had with him at Orbe. Louis the German
and Charles the Bald, on the contrary, drew closer together. In February
865, they had an interview at Tusey, where, under colour of renewing
their mutual oaths of peace and concord, and of reprehending their
nephew, they arranged a treaty for the eventual partition of his lands.
The Lotharingian bishops became restive, and drew up a protest to
their brethren in Gaul and Provence, in which they declared themselves
ready to support their sovereign “ calumniated by the malignant. "
.
Lothar, equally alarmed, dreading an armed collision with his uncles,
and dreading no less that the Pope should pronounce him excommuni-
cate, thought it advisable to have recourse himself to the Holy
See, and by the mediation of the Emperor to announce to the
Pope that he was prepared to submit to his decision, provided that
a guarantee was given him that the integrity of his kingdom should be
respected.
Nicholas I was now become the mediator between kings and the
supreme judge of Christendom. He immediately despatched a legate,
Arsenius, Bishop of Orta, with orders to convey to the three sovereigns
the expression of the Pope's will. After an interview with Louis the
German at Frankfort, Arsenius reached Lothar's court at Gondreville
by the month of July 865, and in the Pope's name, called upon him
to take back Theutberga on pain of excommunication. Lothar was
obliged to promise obedience. Arsenius then betook himself to Attigny


## p. 43 (#89) ##############################################

Triumph of Nicholas I
43
to present to Charles the Bald letters from the Pope, exhorting him
to respect his nephew's territory. From thence he went back to Lor-
raine, bringing with him Theutberga whom he restored to her husband.
On 15 August he celebrated a solemn High Mass before the royal
pair who were invested with the insignia of sovereignty, before he began
his return journey to Rome, on which he was accompanied by Waldrada,
who, in her turn, was to answer for her actions before the Pope. The
legation had resulted in a triumph for Nicholas. In the presence of the
Pope's clearly expressed requirements, peace had been restored between
the kings, and Theutberga had regained her rank as queen. Thanks to
his own firmness and skill, the Pope had acted as supreme arbiter; not
only Lothar, but Charles the Bald and Louis the German had been
obliged to bow before him.
Nevertheless, in the succeeding years, it would appear that Lothar
conceived some hope of being able to re-open the divorce question and
attain his desired object. Waldrada had hardly arrived at Pavia, when
without the formality of a farewell, she succeeded in eluding the legate
and in returning to Lorraine, where she remained, in spite of the excom-
munication launched against her by Nicholas I. Besides this, Charles
the Bald's attitude towards his nephew became somewhat less uncom-
promising, doubtless on account of the temporary disgrace of Hincmar,
the most faithful champion of the cause of the indissolubility of mar-
riage. The king of the Western Franks even had a meeting with
Lothar at Ortivineas, perhaps Orvignes near Bar-le-Duc, when the two
princes agreed to take up the divorce question afresh by sending an
embassy to Rome under the direction of Egilo, the metropolitan of Sens.
But the Pope refused point-blank to fall in with their views, and replied
by addressing the bitterest reproaches to Charles, and above all to
Lothar, whom he forbade ever to dream of renewing his relations with
Waldrada. The death of Nicholas I (13 November 867) gave a new
aspect to affairs. His successor, Hadrian II, was a man of much less firm-
ness and consistency, almost of a timorous disposition, and much under
the influence of Louis II, that is, of Lothar's brother and ally. Thus,
while refusing to receive Theutberga, whom Lothar had thought of
compelling to accuse herself before the Pope, and while congratulating
Hincmar on his attitude throughout the affair, and again proclaiming
the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, the new Pope soon
relieved Waldrada from her sentence of excommunication. Lothar
resolved to go and plead his cause in person
Hadrian con-
sented to his taking this step, which Nicholas I had always refused to
sanction. The only consideration which could arouse Lothar's uneasiness
was the attitude of his uncles. The latter, indeed, despite a recent
letter from the Pope taking up the position of the defender of the
integrity of the kingdoms, had just come to an agreement at St Arnulf's
of Metz, that “in case God should bestow on them the kingdoms of
at Rome.
CH. II.


## p. 44 (#90) ##############################################

44
Death of Lothar II
215
!
1
а
their nephews, they would proceed to a fair and amitable division of
them” (867 or 868)'.
However, in the spring of 869, having extracted from Charles and
Louis some vague assurances that they would undertake nothing against
his kingdom during his absence, even if he married Waldrada, Lothar
set out on his journey with the intention of visiting the Emperor in order
to obtain his support at the papal court. Louis II was then at
Benevento, warring against the Saracens. At first he shewed himself
little disposed to interfere, but his wife, Engilberga, proved willing to
play the part of mediator, and, in the end, an interview took place at
Monte Cassino between Hadrian and Lothar. The latter received the
Eucharist from the hands of the Pope, less, perhaps, as the pledge of
pardon than as a kind of judgment of God.
« Receive this com-
munion,” the Pope is reported to have said to Lothar, “if thou art
innocent of the adultery condemned by Nicholas. If, on the contrary,
thy conscience accuse thee of guilt, or if thou art minded to fall back
into sin, refrain; otherwise by this Sacrament thou shalt be judged and
condemned. ” A dramatic colouring may have been thrown over the
incident, but when he left Monte Cassino, Lothar bore with him the
promise that the question should again be submitted to a Council. This,
for him, meant the hope of undoing the sentence of Nicholas I. Death,
which surprised him on his way back, at Piacenza, on 8 August 869,
put an end to his plans.
His successor, by right of inheritance, was, strictly speaking, the
Emperor Louis. But he was little known outside his Italian kingdom,
and appears not to have had many supporters in Lorraine, unless
perhaps in the duchy of Lyons, which was close to his Provençal pos-
sessions. In Lorraine proper, on the contrary, there were two opposed
parties, a German party and a French party, each supporting one of the
uncles of the dead king. But Louis the German was detained at Ratis-
bon by sickness.
Thus circumstances favoured Charles the Bald, who hastened to take
advantage of them by entering Lorraine. An embassy from the magnates,
which came to meet him at Attigny to remind him of the respect due
to the treaty which he had made with his brother at Metz, produced no
result. By way of Verdun he reached Metz, where in the presence of
the French and Lotharingian nobles, and of several prelates, among
them the Bishops of Toul, Liège, and Verdun, Charles was solemnly
crowned king of Lorraine in the cathedral of St Stephen on 9 September
869. When, a little later, he heard of the death of his wife Queen
Ermentrude (6 October), Charles sought to strengthen his position in the
country by taking first as his mistress and afterwards as his lawful wife
1 The date 867 is generally accepted. On the other hand, M. Calmette, in La
diplomatie carolingienne, pp. 195, 399, gives arguments of some force in favour
of 868.
1
5
3


## p. 45 (#91) ##############################################

Contest for Lorraine
45
(22 January 870) a noble lady named Richilda, a relation of Theutberga,
the former queen, belonging to one of the most important families in
Lorraine; on her brother Boso Charles heaped honours and benefices.
Neither Louis the German nor Louis II could do more than protest
against the annexation of Lorraine to the Western Kingdom, the former
in virtue of the Treaty of Metz, the latter in right of his near relation-
ship to the dead king. To the envoys of both, Charles the Bald had
returned evasive answers, while he was convoking the magnates of his
new kingdom at Gondreville to obtain from them the oath of fealty.
But those who attended the assembly were few in number. Louis the
German's party was recovering strength. Charles was made aware of it
when he attempted to substitute for the deposed Gunther in the see of
Cologne, a French candidate, Hilduin. The Archbishop of Mayence,
Liutbert, a faithful supporter of the king of Germany, set up in
opposition a certain Willibert who ultimately won the day. On the
other hand, Charles was more successful at Trèves, where he was able to
instal the candidate of his choice.
Meanwhile, Louis the German, having recovered, had collected an
army, and, calling on his brother to evacuate his conquest, marched in
his turn upon Lorraine, where his partisans came round him to do him
homage (spring 870). An armed struggle seemed imminent, but the
Carolingians had little love for fighting. Brisk negotiations began, in
which the principal part was taken by Liutbert, Archbishop of Mayence,
representing Louis, and Odo, Bishop of Beauvais, on behalf of Charles.
In the end, the diplomatists came to an agreement based on the partition
of Lorraine. The task of carrying it into effect was at first entrusted
to a commission of magnates, but difficulties were not long in arising.
It was decided that the two kings should meet. But the interview was
delayed by an accident which happened to Louis the German, through
a foor giving way, and only took place on 8 August at Meersen on the
banks of the Meuse. Here the manner of the division of Lothar II's former
dominions was definitely settled. The Divisio regni, the text of which
has been preserved in the Annals of Hincmar, shews that no atten-
tion was paid to natural boundaries, to language or even to existing
divisions, whether ecclesiastical or civil, since certain counties were cut
in two, e. g. the Ornois. An endeavour was made to divide between the
two sovereigns, as equally as possible, the sources of revenue, i. e. the
counties, bishoprics and abbeys. Louis received the bishoprics of
Cologne, Trèves, Metz, Strasbourg and Basle, with a portion of those of
Toul and Liège. Charles, besides a large share of the two last, was
given that of Cambrai, together with the metropolitan see of Besançon,
and the counties of Lyons and Vienne with the Vivarais, that is to say
the lands which Lothar had acquired after the death of Charles of
Provence. Without entering into details as to the division of the pagi
in the north part of the kingdom of Lorraine, from the mouths of the
CH. II.


## p. 46 (#92) ##############################################

46
Partition of Meersen
Rhine to Toul, it is substantially true to say that the course of the
Meuse and a part of that of the Moselle formed the border line between
the two kingdoms. Thence the frontier ran to the Saône valley, and the
limits thus fixed, although not lasting, had distinct influence later in
the Middle Ages.
Hardly was the treaty of Meersen concluded, when the brother-kings
of Gaul and Germany were confronted by deputies from the Pope and
the Emperor, protesting, in the name of the latter, against the conduct
of his uncles in thus robbing him of the inheritance which was his by
right. Hincmar replied by endeavouring to justify his master, and by
dwelling on the necessity of preserving peace in Lorraine; Charles, for
his part, bestowed fair words and rich gifts on the Pope. As to Louis
the German, he professed himself ready to make over what he had
acquired of Lothar's lands to Louis II. These assurances, however, were
not followed by any practical result, and Charles spent the latter part of
the year in completing the subjection of the southern part of his newly-
acquired dominions. Lyons was occupied without a struggle. Only
Vienne, which was defended by Bertha, wife of Gerard of Roussillon, who
was himself ensconced in a castle in the neighbourhood, made some
resistance, surrendering, however, in the end (24 December 870).
Charles was recalled to Francia by the rebellion of his son Carloman, who
had forsaken his father's expedition in order to collect bands of partisans
and ravage his kingdom. Louis the German was at the same time
engaged in a struggle with his two sons who had risen against him.
Charles confided the government of the Viennois and Provence to his
brother-in-law Boso as duke, and turned homewards.
In the meanwhile, a report spread through Gaul and Germany that
the Emperor Louis II had been taken prisoner and put to death by
Adelchis, Prince of Benevento. In reality the latter had merely subjected
his sovereign to a few days' captivity (August 871). But Louis the
German and Charles the Bald had lost no time in shewing that each
intended to appropriate for himself the inheritance left by the deceased ;
Louis by sending his son Charles the Fat beyond the Alps, in order to
gather adherents, and Charles by setting out himself at the head of an
army. However, he went no farther than Besançon, when the two com-
petitors were stopped by the news that the Emperor was still alive. But
during the three following years we find both brothers bent on eventually
securing the heritage of the king of Italy; Louis the German being
supported, it would seem, by the Empress Engilberga, while Charles the
Bald, who had rid himself of his rebellious son Carloman, whom he had
succeeded in making prisoner and whose eyes he had put out, was trying
to form a party among the Roman nobles and those surrounding the new
Pope, John VIII, who in December 872 had taken the place of Hadrian.
The death of Louis II at Brescia (12 August 875) led to an open
struggle between the two rivals.


## p. 47 (#93) ##############################################

The Emperor Louis II in Italy
47
For a long time the kingdom of Italy had stood considerably apart
from the other Carolingian states. Louis the Pious and Lothar had
already placed it in a somewhat special position by sending as their re-
presentatives there each his eldest son, already associated in the Empire,
and bearing the title of king. Since 855 the Emperor had been restricted
to the possession of Italy, where he had already received the royal title
in 844, and where his coronation as joint-Emperor had taken place
(Rome, April 850). Apart from matters concerning the inheritance of
his brothers, it does not seem that Louis II held that his office imposed
on him the duty of interfering in affairs beyond the Alps. The Emperor
had been obliged to devote his chief attention to his duties as king of
Italy, and the defence of the country entrusted to him against the attacks
of its enemies, particularly the Saracens. But circumstances were too
strong for him, and in spite of his activity and energy, Louis II was
fated to wear himself out in a struggle of thirty years, and yet neither
to leave undisputed authority to his successor, nor finally to expel the
Muslims from Italian soil. The royal power had never been very great
in the peninsula. The Frankish counts
, who had taken the place of the
Lombard lords, had quickly acquired the habit of independence. The
bishops and abbots had seen their temporal power grow in extent,
through numerous grants of lands and immunities. On the other
hand, three strong powers, outside the Papal state, had taken shape out
of the ancient duchies of Friuli and Spoleto, and in Tuscany. The
counts of Frankish origin were reviving the former Lombard title of
duke, or the Frankish one of marquess, and regular dynasties of princes,
by no means very amenable to the orders of the sovereign, were established
at Cividale, Lucca and Spoleto. The March of Friuli, set up between
the Livenza and the Isonzo to ward off the attacks of Slavs and Avars,
athough its ruler, no doubt, had extended his authority over other
countries beyond these limits, had, in the time of Lothar, been bestowed
on a certain Count Everard, husband of Gisela, the youngest daughter of
Louis the Pious. This man, coming originally from the districts along
the Meuse, where his family still remained powerful, was richly endowed
with counties and abbeys, and played a distinguished part in the wars
against the Serbs, dying in 864 or 865. His immediate successor was
his son, Unroch, who died young, and then his second son, Berengar, who
was destined to play a conspicuous part in Italy at the end of the
ninth century, and who seems from an early date to have thrown in his lot
in politics with the partisans of Louis the German and the Empress Engil-
berga. The ducal family established at Spoleto also came from Francia,
from the valley of the Moselle. It was descended from Guy, Count
of the March of Brittany under Louis the Pious. His son Lambert, who
at first bore the same title, derived from the March, was a devoted ad-
herent of Lothar, and, as such, had been banished to Italy where he died '.
I See supra, pp. 15, 19-20.
CH. II.


## p. 48 (#94) ##############################################

48
Italian vassals
a
TE
It is this Lambert's son, Guy (Guido) who appears as the first Frankish
Duke of Spoleto. Brother-in-law of Siconolf, Prince of Benevento, he
contrived to interfere skilfully in the wars among the Lombard princes,
betray his allies at well-chosen junctures, and add to his duchy various
cities, Sora, Atino, etc. , the spoil of Siconolf or his rivals. He died
about 858. His son Lambert shewed himself an intractable vassal, some-
times the ally of Louis II, and again at open war with him, or fugitive
at the court of the princes of Benevento. He was even temporarily
deprived of his duchy, which was transferred to a cousin of the Empress
Engilberga, Count Suppo. After the Emperor Louis's death, however,
Lambert is found again in possession of his duchy, and like his brother
Guy, Count of Camerino, is counted among the adherents of Charles the
Bald. In Tuscany the ducal family was of Bavarian origin, tracing its
descent from Count Boniface who, in the beginning of the ninth century
was established at Lucca and was also entrusted with the defence of Corsica.
His grandson, Adalbert, succeeded in consolidating his position by
marrying Rotilda, daughter of Guy of Spoleto. As to Southern Italy,
beyond the Sangro and the Volturno, the Lombard principalities there,
in spite of formal acts of submission, remained, like the Greek territories,
outside the Carolingian Empire. The power of the Princes of Bene-
vento was considerably diminished after the formation of the principality
of Salerno, cut off from the original duchy in 848. From the middle of
the ninth century, the Gastalds of Capua also affected to consider them-
selves independent of the prince reigning at Benevento. The Frankish
sovereign could hardly do otherwise than seek to foment these internal
dissensions and try to obtain from the combatants promises of vassalage
or even the delivery of hostages. But Louis II made no real attempt to
compel the submission of the Lombards of Benevento and Salerno, who
were firmly attached to their local dynasties and to their independence.
If he interfered on several occasions beyond the limits of the States of
the Church and the Duchy of Spoleto, it was not as suzerain, but as the
ally of the inhabitants in their struggle against the common enemies of
all Italy, the Saracens.
These latter, who came from Africa and Spain, were for more than
a hundred years to be to the peninsula nearly as great a scourge as the
Northmen were to Gaul and Germany. In 827 they had gained a foot-
hold in Sicily and four years afterwards (831), taking advantage of the
dissensions between the Byzantine governors, they seized Palermo and
Messina and made themselves masters of the whole island. In 837 the
Duke of Naples, Andrew, set the fatal example of calling them in as
allies in his struggle with Sicard of Benevento, to whom he was refusing
the tribute he had promised. Thenceforward, in spite of engagements
to the contrary, Italian dukes and Greek governors constantly took
Muslim pirates into their pay. Other bands having seized various
Greek cities such as Taranto, we get the pillage of the towns on the
+


## p. 49 (#95) ##############################################

The Saracens sack St Peter's
49
Adriatic, e. g. Ancona (839). In 840 the treachery of the Gastald
Pando handed over to them Bari, where they fixed themselves per-
manently, and it was the Saracens of Bari whom Radelchis of Benevento
employed as auxiliaries during his struggle with Siconolf of Salerno.
Other pirate crews attempted the siege of Naples, but the city offered a
determined resistance, and its duke, Sergius, at the head of a fleet
collected from the Campanian ports, won the naval victory of Licosa
over the invaders in 846. Repulsed from the Campanian shores, the
pirates fell upon the coast nearest to Rome. In order to keep them out
of the Tiber, Pope Gregory IV had built a fortress at its mouth. This
did not prevent the pirates from landing on the right bank of the river
and even pushing their ravages as far as the gates of Rome. Unable to
force their way in, they sacked the basilica of St Peter, which was then
outside the walls, profaning the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.
This sacrilege created a profound sensation throughout Christendom.
It was, indeed, related that a tempest destroyed the invaders with
the precious booty with which they were laden. But the truth appears
to be that Louis II, as he was advancing to the rescue of the city, met
with a check, and that the Saracens retired unmolested with their spoil.
A great expedition organised against them in the spring of the next
year (847) by Lothar I and Louis II had no important results. Louis,
however, took advantage of being in the south of Italy to put an
end by treaty to the contest between Radelchis and Siconolf, definitively
separating by a precise frontier line the two principalities of Bene-
vento and Salerno, The Roman suburbs had arisen from their ruins, and
Pope Leo IV (847-8) had built a wall round the basilica of St Peter
and the quarter on the right bank of the Tiber, enclosing what became
“the Leonine City. ” In 851-2 the Lombards again appealed to
Louis II. The latter delivered Benevento from the body of Saracens which
had settled down there, but being badly supported by his allies, he was
unable to take Bari, the Muslim garrison of which, as soon as the
Frankish army had withdrawn, re-commenced its devastating raids into
the surrounding country. It was at this time that the Saracens pillaged
the famous abbeys of Monte Cassino and St Vincent of Volturno. In
867 the Emperor made a fresh expedition against them, and laid siege to
Bari. But it was impossible to reduce the town without the help of
a squadron to blockade it from the sea. Louis II, therefore, attempted
to secure the aid of the Greek fleet by an alliance with the Basileus,
arranging for the marriage of his daughter Ermengarde with the son of
Basil, the Eastern Emperor. A Greek fleet did, indeed, appear off
Bari, but the marriage not having taken place, it drew off. Louis
was not discouraged, and made a general appeal to his subjects in the
maritime provinces, even to the half-subjected Slavs to the north of the
Adriatic. After many vicissitudes, the town was carried by assault
(2 February 871). But the Lombards of Benevento cordially detested
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. II,


## p. 50 (#96) ##############################################

50
Pope John VIII
their Frankish deliverers, and their prince, Adelchis, feared that the
Emperor might take advantage of his success to assert his sovereignty
over Southern Italy. In consequence of his hostility, he laid an ambush
which threw the Emperor a prisoner into his hands. Adelchis extorted
from his captive a promise not to re-enter Southern Italy. A report of
the Emperor's death was even current in Gaul and Germany. But
Louis II, being quickly set at liberty, obtained from the Pope a dispen-
sation from the oath he had sworn, and renewed the campaign next year
(873), without however having attained any advantage.
On 12 August
875 he was suddenly carried off by death.
Such was the state of affairs in Italy at the moment when Charles
the Bald and Louis the German were preparing to dispute with one
another the heritage left by their nephew. The succession question
which presented itself, was, it is true, a complicated one. The dead
Emperor left only a daughter. The territories which he had ruled, ought,
it would seem, to have been divided by agreement between his two uncles.
But if the imperial dignity had, since the time of Charlemagne, been
considered inalienable from his family, no rule of succession had yet been
established, even by custom, which could be applied to it. In practice,
it seemed to be bound up with the possession of Italy, and to require as
indispensable conditions the election of the candidate, at least in theory,
by the Roman people, and his consecration at the hands of the Pope.
Now Charles the Bald had on his side the sympathy of John VIII, who
claimed that he was only carrying out the wishes already expressed by
Nicholas I himself. Charles has been accused of having entangled the
Pope by means of offerings and grants. In reality, what John VIII
most desired seems to have been a strong and energetic Emperor
capable of taking up the task to which Louis II had devoted himself,
and of defending the Holy See against the Saracens. Rightly or
wrongly, he believed that he had found his ideal in Charles, who was, in
addition, well-educated and a lover of letters, and had besides for a long
time given his attention to Italy, whither he had been summoned by a
party of the magnates at the time of the false report of the death of
Louis II. His possession, too, of Provence and of the Viennois, made it
possible for him to interfere beyond the Alps more readily than his
brother of Germany could do. He took action, besides, with promptness
and decision. Hardly had the news of his nephew's death reached him
at Douzy near Sedan than he summoned an assembly of magnates at
Ponthion near Châlons to nominate his comrades on the expedition. He
crossed the Great St Bernard, and had scarcely arrived in Italy when he
was met by the envoys of the Pope bearing an invitation to him to come
to Rome to be crowned. Louis the German was not inclined to see his
brother go to this length without a protest. He despatched his two
sons in succession beyond the Alps with an army. Charles the Fat was
immediately obliged to beat a retreat. Carloman, more fortunate,


## p. 51 (#97) ##############################################

Imperiul coronation of Charles the Bald
51
a
succeeded in meeting Charles the Bald on the banks of the Brenta, and,
after the Carolingian manner, opened negotiations. Either, as the
German annalists say, his uncle got the better of him by deceitful
promises, or else he felt himself too weak to fight the matter out. He,
therefore, arranged a truce, and returned to Germany without a blow.
Meanwhile Louis the German had made an attack upon Lorraine,
having been called in by a disgraced chamberlain, Enguerand, who
had been deprived of his office for the benefit of the favourite Boso.
Ravaging the country terribly as he went, Louis reached the palace of
Attigny on 25 December 875, where he waited for adherents to come in.
But the defections on which he had counted did not take place, and the
invader, for want of sufficient support, was obliged to retreat and make
his way back to Mayence. Charles, meanwhile, had not allowed himself
to be turned from his object by the news from Lorraine. He was
bent on the Empire. He had reached Rome, and on Christmas Day
875 he received the imperial diadem from the hands of John VIII.
But he did not delay long in Rome, and having obtained from John
the title of Vicar of the Pope in Gaul for Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens,
he began his journey homewards on 5 January 876. On January 31
he was at Pavia, where he had himself solemnly elected and recog-
nised as king of Italy by an assembly of magnates. Leaving Boso
to govern this new kingdom, he again set forward, and was back at
Saint-Denis in time to keep Easter (15 April). In the month of June,
in company with the two papal legates who had come with him from
Italy, John, Bishop of Arezzo, and John, Bishop of Toscanella, he held a
great assembly of nobles and bishops at Ponthion, when he appeared
wearing the imperial ornaments. The council solemnly recognised the
new dignity which the Pope had conferred on the king of the West
Franks. Charles would have wished also to secure its assent to the
grant of the vicariate to Ansegis, but on this point he met with strong
resistance. To the same assembly came envoys from Louis the German,
demanding in his name an equitable partition of the territories formerly
ruled by Louis II. Charles appeared to recognise these pretensions as
well-founded. In his turn he sent an embassy to his brother and opened
negotiations. They were interrupted by the death of Louis the German,
at Frankfort (28 August 876).
The dead king left three sons.
In accordance with arrangements
which had been made beforehand but often modified in detail, the eldest,
Carloman, was to receive Bavaria and the East Mark, the second,
Louis, Saxony and Franconia, and the third, Charles the Fat, Ale-
mannia. These dispositions were according to precedent. It is thus
difficult to conceive by what right Charles the Bald professed to claim that
portion of Lorraine which by the Treaty of Meersen had been allocated
to his brother. None the less, it is certain that he hastened to send off
emissaries to the country, charged with the business of gaining supporters
CH. II.
4-2


## p. 52 (#98) ##############################################

52
Succession to Louis the German
for his cause, and then set out himself for Metz, Aix-la-Chapelle and
Cologne. But Louis the Younger, on his side, had raised an army in
Saxony and Thuringia, and sent deputies, although vainly, to call upon
his uncle to respect his rights. He himself had recourse to the judgment
of God, and when the ordeal proved favourable to his champions, he
crossed the Rhine at Andernach. In the meanwhile, fresh envoys
bearing proposals of peace sought Charles the Bald on his behalf. His
uncle feigned willingness to enter into negotiations. But during the night
of 7–8 October, he suddenly struck his camp and began a forward march,
hoping to surprise his sleeping enemies in the early dawn. The season,
however, was inclement, the roads were soaked with rain, and the
cavalry, which was the principal arm of Carolingian forces, could only
advance with difficulty. Besides this, a faithful adherent of Louis the
Younger in Charles's own camp, had succeeded in warning his master of
the coup-de-main about to be attempted against him. Thus the imperial
army, fatigued by the night march, found the enemy, whom they had
thought to surprise, on his guard. The result was a disastrous defeat
of the troops of Charles. Numerous prisoners and rich spoil fell to the
victor. But it would appear that Louis was not in a position to profit
by his advantage, for almost immediately we find him falling back on
Aix and Frankfort. Charles, for his part, made no second attempt
against him, and shortly afterwards, without any formal treaty having
been concluded, peace was restored between the two kings, marked by the
liberation of the prisoners taken at Andernach.
Charles the Bald was, besides, absorbed by other anxieties. If his
election had been the act of John VIII, the reason was that the Pope
needed his help in Italy against the Saracens. Not satisfied with promises
of troops and missi, he unceasingly demanded Charles's presence in
Italy. Two papal legates again approached Charles at Compiègne at the
beginning of 877, and finally drew from him a pledge that he would
cross the Alps in the course of the summer. The moment, however, was
not favourable, for the Northmen were shewing increased activity. In
876 a hundred of their ships had gone up the Seine and threatened the
rich abbey of St-Denis, driving the monks to flee to a safer retreat on the
banks of the Aisne. Charles the Bald decided to negotiate with them once
more, and on 7 May 877 he ordered the collection of a special impost, a
tributum Normannicum, destined to produce the five thousand pounds of
silver needed to purchase the withdrawal of the Northmen from the Seine.
On 14 June he assembled the magnates at Quierzy (Kiersy), where he
promulgated a celebrated capitulary which has been too long held to be
the charter constituting the feudal system, a legislative measure es-
tablishing the hereditary nature of fiefs, the deliberate completion of a
process of evolution which had been going on from 847, the date at
which the Capitulary of Meersen ordered every free man to choose a
lord for himself. In 847 what was really in question was a measure to
>
a


## p. 53 (#99) ##############################################

Assembly of Quierzy
53
facilitate the levy of the host. In 877 at Quierzy, a whole body of very
diverse measures were introduced, their object being to secure the good
government of the kingdom, and the proper administration of the
private property of the king during his absence, or even in case he should
happen to die while on his expedition. The prince, Louis (the Stam-
merer), was to take his father's place with the assistance of counsellors,
the choice of whom shews that the Emperor was not entirely free from
distrust of his heir. An article in the capitulary orders Louis not to
deprive the son of any count who should die during the campaign of the
honours enjoyed by the father. Here we have a seal set upon the custom
which was becoming more and more general, namely that the honours
held by the father should be continued to the son, but at the same time
we get the implicit recognition of the sovereign's right to dispose of the
fiefs which, in principle, he has granted for life only, a right which
Louis might possibly abuse.
Charles, accompanied by Richilda, set out at the end of June. He
brought with him only a small number of his chief vassals; others, of
whom Boso was one, were to join him a little later at the head of an
army which they had received orders to assemble. The Emperor took
the St Bernard route, and met John VIII who had advanced as far
as Vercelli to receive him. But, at the same time as Charles, Car-
loman of Bavaria had been crossing the Alps at the head of a powerful
army, and now made his appearance in the eastern part of Lombardy.
Charles, uneasy at this, hurried on the coronation of Richilda as
Empress, and sent her back to Gaul, demanding the hastening forward
of the reinforcements which he was awaiting. But his presentiments
were realised. The magnates had been irritated to see him depart
thus, giving up the struggle with the Northmen, which in the eyes of
the Frankish aristocracy was more important than the war against
the Saracens. On the other hand they no doubt considered that the
expedition was unlikely to provide them with many fiefs and benefices
to be conquered beyond the Alps. Thus they made no response to the
appeal addressed to them. Boso himself, who the year before, under the
influence of Berengar of Friuli and the German party, had married
Ermengarde, daughter of the late Emperor Louis II, was opposed to a
fresh expedition into Italy, and declined to enter upon the campaign.
Some of the most powerful nobles of the Western Kingdom, chosen by
Charles to command the relieving army, Bernard, Count of Auvergne,
and Bernard, Marquess of Gothia, followed the example set them.
Hincmar himself, discontented that the vicariate should have been
conferred on Ansegis, shewed himself less loyal than usual, and Prince
Louis openly abetted the movement. The one object of the discontented
seems to have been to compel Charles to return, and in this they
succeeded, for the Emperor lost no time in retracing his
Gaul. But on the road he fell sick and on 6 October, in a poor hovel,
way towards
CH. II.


## p. 54 (#100) #############################################

54
Death of Charles the Bald
2
poisoned, it was said, by his Jewish doctor Zedekiah, he ended, miserably
enough, his reign of thirty-seven years.
Historians have often pronounced adversely on the reign, influenced
by chroniclers of Louis the German, who accuse his adversary of cowardice
and incapacity. But it does not in fact appear that Charles was wanting
either in courage or energy. All his contemporaries describe him as a
learned man and a friend to letters. He has been reproached with not
having succeeded in exacting obedience from his vassals, nor in organising
resistance to the Northmen. But it would certainly have been a task
beyond human strength to resist the process of evolution, at once
economic and social, which gave birth to the feudal system and
transformed into hereditary fiefs the benefices which had been granted
for life or during pleasure by the early Carolingians. Where Charles the
Great had had subjects and functionaries, Charles the Bald has already
no more than vassals, and is forced to impoverish himself for their
behoof by incessant grants of honours and benefices, lest he should be
abandoned by nobles ever ready to transfer their oaths of fidelity to a
rival sovereign. Even the bishops, who were usually loyal, had no
scruples in taking Charles to task on various occasions, Hincmar being
first to set the example. Besides this, the civil wars, whether between
the kings or between turbulent counts, and the Northman invasions
compelled the free men to gather in groups around magnates or proceres
strong enough to protect them in time of need. Thus they commend
themselves to these lords, and in their turn become vassals. This
process was at first encouraged by the sovereign, as facilitating the
assembling of the host when necessary, and this it is which explains the
provisions in the capitulary of 847 ordering every free man to choose
himself a lord, the latter being charged with the office of leading his
men to war. But an important transformation had besides taken place
in the host. The infantry, which in the eighth century had formed the
chief strength of the Frankish armies, had given way to cavalry. By
the end of the ninth century, the Carolingian armies are almost wholly
composed of horse-soldiers. But the mounted warrior cannot be a mere
free man, for in order to maintain his steed and his handful of followers
he must hold some land or benefice from his lord. He has become the
knight, the miles, the last rank in the feudal hierarchy. Counts and
knights, however, when summoned by the king, shew no great eagerness
to respond to the appeal. Constantly the attempts made by Charles to
resist the Northmen are brought to nothing by the refusal of his vassals
to follow him. Even when the Frankish force is under arms, it is only a
sort of landwehr or militia, ill-adapted for fighting. The civilised Franks
have lost the warlike qualities of their half-barbarous forefathers. It is
not with such materials that a king or any other leader could expect to
succeed against the bands of the Scandinavians who were trained to
warfare and made it their habitual occupation.


## p. 55 (#101) #############################################

55
CHAPTER III.
THE CAROLINGIAN KINGDOMS (877-918).
The death of Charles the Bald did not ensure the triumph of Carlo-
man, who was soon forced by an epidemic which broke out in his army
to make the best of his way back to Germany. It seemed, however,
as if it would be the signal for renewed civil discord in Gaul. When Louis
the Stammerer received news at Orville near Laon of the pitiable end of
his father, he hastened, without the assent of the magnates, to distribute
to such of his partisans as happened to be around him, “honours,"
counties, estates and abbeys, thus violating an engagement made at
Quierzy. Accordingly, when he was about to go into Francia to receive
the oath of fidelity from his new subjects, he learned that the magnates,
rallying round Boso and the Abbot Hugh, and supported by the
widowed Empress Richilda, refused him obedience, and, as a sign of
their displeasure, were ravaging the country. Nevertheless, thanks,
no doubt, to the mediation of Hincmar, and after some time had been
spent in arranging terms, the rebels agreed to a settlement. Richilda
was reconciled to her step-son, handing over to him the royal insignia
and the deed by which Charles the Bald before his death had nominated
his heir. The magnates, whose rights the king promised to recognise,
all made their submission. The Abbot Hugh even became one of the
most influential counsellors of Louis the Stammerer. On 8 December,
after having sternly exhorted the new sovereign to respect the rights
of his vassals, Hincmar crowned him King of the West-Franks in the
church of Compiègne.
Louis, however, was not the man to carry out his father's imperialist
policy, in spite of the opportunity which occurred for it the next year.
Anarchy set in more fiercely than ever in Italy. Carloman had obtained
from his brothers the cession of their rights over the peninsula, in
exchange for those which he possessed over Lorraine in virtue of a
partition treaty concluded the year before (877), but he was in no
plight to attempt another expedition. Lambert, Duke of Spoleto,
and his brother-in-law Adalbert, Duke or Marquess of Tuscany, were
making open war upon John VIII, and plainly intended to bring back
сн. ПІ,


## p. 56 (#102) #############################################

56
Death of Louis the Stammerer
to Rome the political opponents whom the Pope had formerly expelled,
particularly the celebrated Formosus, Bishop of Porto. So John VIII
decided upon another attempt to make the Western Kingdom his ally.
After having bought a peace from the Saracens, who were still a menace
to the Papal States, he embarked on a Neapolitan vessel and landed at
Arles, where Boso, who had returned to his former duchy, and his wife
Ermengarde, welcomed him with assurances of devotion and in company
with him ascended the Rhone as far as Lyons. After somewhat laborious
negotiations with Louis the Stammerer, a council presided over by the
Pope met at Troyes, at the beginning of autumn. But there were
few practical results attained from the assembly; little was settled,
except a few points relating to discipline, and the confirmation of the
sentence of excommunication against Lambert, Adalbert, and their
supporters. John VIII would have wished to see Louis put himself
at the head of another expedition against the enemies of the Holy See,
whether rebel counts or Saracens: the king, however, seems not to
have had the least inclination for such a course, and John VIII was
forced to turn to that one among the magnates who, if only by his
connexion with Italy, seemed best fitted to take up the task which the
Carolingians refused to accept, namely Boso. It was in his company
that the Pope re-crossed the Alps, at the end of the year, calling a
great meeting of the bishops and lay lords of Northern Italy to assemble
at Pavia. In a letter which he addressed at this time to Engilberga,
widow of Louis II, he anticipated for her son-in-law the most brilliant
prospects. Ermengarde's husband might look forward to the Lombard
crown, perhaps even to the imperial one. But Boso himself did nothing
to forward the ambitious views of the Pontiff on his behalf. At Pavia,
under one pretext or another, he quitted John VIII and made his way
back to Gaul.
Louis the Stammerer, who had concluded a treaty at Fouron' with
his cousins of Germany for the partition of Louis II's inheritance, and
being free from anxiety in that quarter, had just resolved upon an
expedition against Bernard, Marquess of Gothia, who had not made his
submission at the beginning of the reign and still remained contumacious.
But a change came over the situation with the death of King Louis on
10 April 879. The leaders of the party, opposed to the Abbot Hugh
and to the magnates actually in power, made use of the event to appeal
for aid to the foreigner. At the instigation of one of the Welfs,
Conrad, Count of Paris, and of Joscelin, Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-
Prés, Louis of Saxony entered the kingdom from the west to dispute
possession of their father's inheritance with Louis III and Carloman,
the two young sons of Louis the Stammerer. He penetrated as far as
1 Three places in Belgium, in the province of Liège, bear the name of Fouron.
It cannot be positively ascertained at which of them the conferences took place which
led up to the treaty.


## p. 57 (#103) #############################################

Boso, King of Provence
57
a
Verdun, ravaging the country as he went. But those who took up
his cause were few in number. Envoys from the Abbot Hugh, from
Boso, and Theodoric, Count of Autun, who were at the head of affairs
in the Western Kingdom, had no great difficulty in persuading the king
of Germany to abandon his enterprise in return for a promise of the
cession of that part of Lorraine which by the Treaty of Meersen fell
to the share of Charles the Bald. In the month of September the
coronation of the two sons of Louis the Stammerer by his marriage
with Ansgarde, took place quietly at Ferrières. But Ansgarde had
been afterwards repudiated by her husband, who had taken a second
wife named Adelaide, the mother of his son Charles the Simple. The
legitimacy of Louis III and Carloman was not universally admitted,
discontent still existed, and before the end of 879 the Frankish kingdom
was threatened by a new danger. Boso, at the instance of his wife,
Ermengarde, who, by birth the daughter of an emperor, was dissatisfied
with her position as the wife of a duke, took advantage of the weakness
of the kings to re-establish for his own benefit the former kingdom
of Charles of Provence (that is, the counties of Lyons and Vienne with
Provence) and to have himself proclaimed king of it at an assembly of
bishops held at Mantaille, near Vienne. little later he was solemnly
crowned by the Archbishop, Aurelian, at Lyons (autumn of 879).
In the spring of 880 Conrad and Joscelin again called in Louis
of Saxony. This second attempt had no better success than the first,
and Louis was obliged to return to his own dominions after having
. concluded with his cousins the Treaty of Ribemont, which again
confirmed him in possession of the former kingdom of Lothar II. His
tenure of it, however, was somewhat insecure, since the Lyons and
Vienne districts were under Boso's control. The Archbishop of Besançon
appears to have recognised the usurper. In the north, Hugh, an
illegitimate son of Lothar II, had taken up arms and was also en-
deavouring to make himself independent. Confronted with these dangers,
and also with incessant attacks by the Danish pirates, the Carolingian
kings felt the necessity for union. By a treaty agreed to at Amiens
in the beginning of 880, Louis III was to have Francia and Neustria,
Carloman taking Aquitaine and Burgundy, with the task of making head
against Boso. None the less, the two kings were agreed in desiring an
interview at Gondreville with one of their cousins from Germany, and
taking concerted measures against the rebels. It was Charles the Fat,
the ruler of Alemannia, who, on his return from Italy whither he had
gone to secure his proclamation as king by an assembly of magnates
held at Ravenna, met Louis III and Carloman at this last fraternal
colloquium in June 880. The three sovereigns began by joining forces
against Hugh of Lorraine, whose brother-in-law, Count Theobald, was
defeated and compelled to take refuge in Provence. The allies then
directed their efforts against the latter country. The Count of
CH. INI.


## p. 58 (#104) #############################################

58
Charles the Fat in Rome
Mâcon, who adhered to Boso, was forced to surrender, and the Caro-
lingian kings, pursuing their advance without encountering any resistance, ,
laid siege to Vienne where the usurper had fortified himself. The
unlooked for defection of Charles the Fat put a stop to the campaign.
For a long time John VIII, compelled by the desertion of Boso to go
back to the policy of an alliance with Germany, had been demanding
the return of Charles to Italy. Suddenly abandoning the siege, the
king again crossed the Alps in order to go to Rome and there to receive
the imperial crown from the hands of the Pope (February 881) while his
cousins, unable to subdue Boso at once, returned to their dominions,
leaving the task of blockading Vienne to the Duke of Burgundy, Richard
the Justiciar, who was own brother, as it happened, to the rebel king of
Provence. Queen Ermengarde, who was defending the place, was obliged
to surrender a few months later (September 882).
Charles the Fat made no long stay at Rome. As early as February 881
he took the road leading northwards. It is true that the new Emperor
made a fresh expedition into Italy at the end of the same year, though
he got no farther than Ravenna. Here the Pope came to meet him
in order to try and obtain from him measures likely to protect the
patrimony of St Peter from the attacks of the dukes of Spoleto. But
the death of Louis of Saxony (20 January 882) now recalled the Emperor
to Germany. This event made Charles master of the whole Eastern
Kingdom, for Carloman of Bavaria, who by an agreement made in
879 with Louis had secured to the latter his whole inheritance, had
died in 880. Carloman's illegitimate son Arnulf had been by the terms
of the same treaty forced to content himself with the duchy of Carinthia.
Hugh of Lorraine, who still under pretext of claiming his paternal
heritage had again been indulging in acts of brigandage, had been
defeated by Louis some time before his death and constrained to take
refuge in Burgundy.
In the Western Kingdom, Louis III of France had died of a fall
from his horse on 5 August 882. Carloman, summoned from Burgundy,
received the magnates' oaths of fidelity at Quierzy and thus became
the sole sovereign of the Western Kingdom. His brief reign is wholly
taken up with fruitless struggles against the Northmen. On 12 December
884 he also was carried off by an accident while out hunting. Louis
the Stammerer's posthumous son, Charles, known later as the Simple,
was by reason of his youth unfit to reign. Thus the Frankish nobles
appealed to Charles the Fat, in whose hands were thus concentrated
all the kingdoms which had gone to make up the empire of Charles the
Great. But the Emperor, though a man of piety and learning, was very
far from possessing the activity and vigour demanded by a position
now more difficult than ever. For the ravages of the Northmen had re-
doubled in violence during the preceding years. Established permanently
in Flanders, they took advantage of their situation to ravage at once what


## p. 59 (#105) #############################################

The Northmen
59
was formerly Lorraine and the kingdoms of the East and West. A victory
gained over them at Thion on the Sambre by Louis of Saxony in 880,
had led to no results, for in the same year they burnt Nimeguen, while
another band made their way into Saxony. 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.