Chapter II: Dissolution Op Charlemagne's Empire: Rise of the Kingdoms

OF FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY.

DIVISIONS IN THE EMPIRE.--The influence of _Charlemagne_ was permanent; not so his empire. It had one religion and one government, but it was discordant in language and in laws. The Gallo-Romans and the Italians spoke the Romance language, with variations of dialect. The Germans used the Teutonic tongue. Charlemagne left to the Lombards, to the Saxons, and to other peoples, their own special laws. The great bond of unity had been the force of his own character and the vigor of his administration. His death was, therefore, the signal for confusion and division. The tendency to dismemberment was aided by the ambition of the princes of the imperial family. The _Austrasian_ Franks, to whom Charlemagne belonged, craved unity. The _Gallo-Romans_ in the West, the _Teutons_ in the East, aspired after independence.

_Louis the Pious_ (814-840), Charlemagne's youngest son,--who, in consequence of the death of his elder brothers, was the sole successor of his father,--lacked the energy requisite for so difficult a place. He was better adapted to a cloister than to a throne. He had been crowned at _Aix_ before his father's death; but he consented to be crowned anew by Pope _Stephen IV_. at _Rheims_, in 816. His troubles began with a premature division of his states between his sons, _Lothar_, _Pipin_, and _Louis_. His nephew, _Bernhard_, who was to reign in Italy in subordination to his uncle, rebelled, but was captured and killed (818). In order to provide for his son _Charles the Bald_, whose mother _Judith_ he had married for his second wife, he made a new division in 829. The elder sons at once revolted against their father, and _Judith_ and her son were shut up in a cloister (830). _Louis_ the son repented, the Saxons and East Franks supported the emperor, and he was restored. In 833 he took away _Aquitaine_ from Pipin, and gave it to _Charles_. The rebellious sons again rose up against him. In company with Pope _Gregory IV_., who joined them, they took their father prisoner on the plains of Alsace, his troops having deserted him. The place was long known as the "Field of Lies." He was compelled by the bishops to confess his sins in the cathedral at _Soissons_, reading the list aloud. Once more _Louis_ was released, and forgave his sons; but partition after partition of territory, with continued discord, followed until his death. The quarrels of his surviving sons, _Lothar_, _Louis the German_, and _Charles the Bald_, brought on, in 841, the great battle of _Fontenailles_. The contest was occasioned by the ambition of _Lothar_, the eldest, who claimed for himself the whole imperial inheritance. There was great carnage, and _Lothar_ was defeated. The bishops present saw in the result a verdict of God in favor of his two adversaries. The result was the _Treaty of Verdun_ for the division of the empire.

TERMS OF THE TREATY OF VERDUN.--_Louis the German_ took the Eastern and German Franks, and _Charles the Bald_ the Western and Latinized Franks. _Lothar_, who retained the imperial title, received the middle portion of the Frank territory, including Italy and a long, narrow strip of territory between the dominions of his brothers, and extending to the North Sea. This land took later the name of _Lotharingia_, or _Lorraine_. It always had the character of a border-land. While _Louis's_ share comprised only German-speaking peoples, _Charles's_ kingdom was made up almost exclusively of Gallo-Roman inhabitants; while under _Lothar_ the two races were mingled. This division marks the birth of the _German_ and _French_ nations as such. The German-speaking peoples in the East, who were affiliated in language, customs, and spirit, more and more grew together into a nation. In like manner, the subjects of the Western kingdom more and more were resolved into a Franco-Roman nationality. _Lothar_ ruled at Aix-la-Chapelle, and was styled emperor; but each of the other kingdoms was independent, and the empire of Charlemagne was dissolved. Only for a short time, under _Charles the Fat_ (881-887), nearly the whole monarchy of Charlemagne was united under one scepter. When he was deposed it was again broken in pieces; and four distinct kingdoms emerged,--those of the Eastern and Western Franks, "the forerunners of Germany and France," and the kingdoms of Italy and of Burgundy, in South-eastern Gaul, which were sometimes united and sometimes separate. _Lotharingia_ was attached now to the Eastern and now to the Western Frank kingdom. In theory there was not a severance, but a sharing, of the common possession which had been the object of contention.

EASTERN CARLOVINGIANS.--_Charles the Fat_ was a weak and sluggish prince. He offered no effectual resistance to the destructive ravages of the Normans, or Scandinavian Northmen. He was deposed in 887, and died in the following year on an island in the Lake of Constance. His successor, the grandson of _Louis the German_, _Arnulf_, duke of Carinthia, became king of the Germans, (887-899) and emperor; and, after his short reign, the line of Louis died out in _Louis the Child_, the weak son of _Arnulf_ (900-911). The house of Charlemagne survived only among the Western Franks.

During the reign of Louis the Child, _Hatto_ (I.), archbishop of _Mentz_ and primate of Germany, was regent and guardian of the king. He was a bold defender of the unity of the empire. He was charged, truly or falsely, with taking the life of _Adalbert_, a Frank nobleman whom he had enticed into his castle. There was a popular tradition that the devil seized Hatto's corpse, and threw it into the crater of Mount Ætna. The mistake is often made of connecting the popular legend of the "Mouse-tower" at _Bingen_ on the Rhine, with him. It was told of a later Hatto (_Hatto II._), who was likewise archbishop of _Mentz_ (968). He was charged with shutting up the poor in a barn, in a time of famine, and of burning them there. As the story runs, he called them "rats who ate the corn." Numberless mice swam to the tower which he had built in the midst of the stream, and devoured him. _Southey_ has put the tale into a ballad,--"God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop."

KINGDOM OF FRANCE.--In 841 _Rouen_ fell into the hands of the Normans, and _Paris_ lay open to their attacks. In 861 _Charles the Bald_ invested a brave soldier, _Robert the Strong_, whose descent is not known, with the county of Paris, that he might resist the invaders. He held the country between the Seine and the Loire, under the name of the _Duchy of France_. The other _Francia_, east of the Rhine, continued to be an important part of Germany, the district called _Franconia_. Robert was the greatgrandfather of _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the kingdom of _France_. Under the imbecile _Charles the Fat_, the audacious Northmen (885-886) laid siege to _Paris_. It was _Odo_, or _Eudes_, count of Paris, who led the citizens in their heroic and successful resistance. Him the nobles of France chose to be their king. His family were called "Dukes of the French." Their duchy--_Western_ or _Latin Francia_--was the strongest state north of the Loire. The feudal lords were growing mightier, and the imperial or royal power was becoming weaker. After _Odo_ of Paris was elected to the Western kingdom, there followed a period of about a hundred years during which there was a king sometimes from his house and sometimes from the family of the Carlovingians. The latter still spoke German, and, when they had the power, reigned at _Laon_ in the northeastern corner of the kingdom. _Odo_ ruled from 888 until 898. He had to leave the southern part of France independent. During the last five years of his life he was obliged to contend with _Charles the Simple_ (893-929), who was elected king by the Carlovingian party of the north. The most noted of the Carlovingian kings at _Laon_ was _Louis_ "from beyond seas" (936-954), Charles's son, who had been carried to England for safety. His reign was a constant struggle with _Hugh the Great_, duke of the French, the nephew of King Odo. _Hugh_ would not accept the crown himself. On the death of _Louis V_. (986-987), the direct line of Charlemagne became extinct. The only Carlovingian heir was his uncle, _Charles_, _duke of Lorraine_. His claim the barons would not recognize, but elected _Hugh Capet_, duke of France, to be king, who, on the 1st (or the 3d) of July, 987, was solemnly crowned in the cathedral of Noyon, by the archbishop of Rheims. Just at this juncture, when the contest was between the dukes of the French and _Charles of Lorraine_, the Carlovingian claimant to the sovereignty, the adhesion and support of Duke _Richard_ of Normandy (943-996) was of decisive effect. The Normans had been on the side of _Laon_; now they turned the scale in favor of the elevation of the Duke of France. The German party at _Laon_ could not withstand the combined power of _Rouen_ and _Paris_. Thus with _Hugh Capet_, the founder of the Capetian line, the kingdom of _France_ began, having _Paris_ for its capital; and the name of _France_ came gradually to be applied to the greater part of Gaul. But when _Hugh Capet_ became king, the great feudal states were almost independent of the royal control. Eight were above the rest in power and extent. "The counts of _Flanders_, _Champagne_, and _Vermandois_, and the dukes of _Normandy_, _Brittany_, _Burgundy_, and _Aquitaine_, regarded themselves as the new king's peers or equals." _Lorraine_, _Arles_, and _Franche Comté_--parts of modern France--"held of the emperor, and were, in fact, German." _Hugh Capet's_ dukedom was divided by the Seine. He was lay abbot of St. Denis, the most important church in France.

THE GERMAN KINGDOM.--With the death of _Louis the Child_ (911) the German branch of the Carlovingian line was extinguished. The Germans had to choose a king from another family. Germany, like France, was now composed of great fiefs. But there were two parties, differing from one another in their character and manners. The one consisted of the older Alemannic and Austrasian unions, where the traces of Roman influence continued, where the large cities were situated, and the principal sees. Here were formed the duchies of _Swabia_ and _Bavaria_, and _Franconia_ (Austrasian France). To the other, consisting chiefly of the duchy of _Saxony_, were attached _Thuringia_ and a part of _Frisia_. In France the royal power, at the start, was so weak, that, not being dreaded, it was suffered to grow. In Germany the royal power was so strong that there was a constant effort to reduce it. Hence in France the result was centralization; in Germany the tendency was to division. In France the long continuance of the family of _Hugh Capet_ made the monarchy _hereditary_. In Germany the frequent changes of dynasty helped to make it _elective_.

CONRAD I.--When Louis died, _Conrad_ of Franconia (911-918) was chosen king by the clerical and secular nobles of the five duchies, in which the counts elevated themselves to the rank of dukes,--Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria. Germany thus became an elective kingdom; but since, as a rule, the sovereignty was continued in one family, the electoral principle was qualified by an hereditary element. _Conrad_ began the struggle against the great feudatories, which went on through the Middle Ages. The dukes always chafed under the rule of a king; yet, for the glory of the nation and for their own safety against attacks from abroad, they were anxious to preserve it from extinction. The _Hungarians_, to whom _Louis the Child_ had consented to pay tribute, renewed their incursions. They marched in force as far as _Bremen_. _Conrad_ had wished to reduce the power of Saxony, and to detach from it Thuringia. He was constantly at war with his own subjects. Yet on his death-bed he showed his disinterested regard to the interests of the kingdom. He called to him his brother _Eberhard_, and charged him to carry his crown and crown jewels to his enemy _Henry_, duke of the Saxons, who was most capable of defending the country against the Hungarian invaders.

ITALY.--After the empire of _Charles the Fat_ was broken up, a strong anti-German feeling was manifest in Italy. The people wanted the king of Italy, and, if possible, the emperor of the Romans, to be of their own nation. But they could not agree: there was a violent contest between the supporters of _Berengar_ of Friuli and the supporters of _Guido_ of Spoleto. _Arnulf_ came twice into Italy to quell the disturbance, and on his second visit, in 896, was crowned emperor. Civil war soon broke out again. Within twenty years the crown had been given to five different aspirants. They were Germans, or were Italians only in name. _Berengar I_. (888-924) was crowned emperor by the Pope, but had to fight against a competitor, _Rudolph_, king of Burgundy, whom the turbulent nobles set up in his place. _Berengar_ was finally defeated and assassinated. His grandson, _Berengar II_. (of Ivrea) (950-961), had to fly to Germany (943) to escape a competitor for the throne, _Hugh_, count of Provence, brother of _Ermengarde_, Berengar's step-mother, to whom she had given the crown. His relations with _Otto I_. (the Great) led to very important consequences, to be narrated hereafter.

STATE OF LEARNING IN THE TENTH CENTURY.--Under Charles the Bald, there were not wanting signs of intellectual activity. _John Scotus Erigena_,--or John Scot, Erinborn,--who was at the head of his palace-school, was an acute philosopher, who, in his speculations in the vein of New Platonism, tended to pantheistic doctrine. His opinions were condemned at the instance of _Hincmar_, the eminent archbishop of Rheims. But after the deposition of _Charles the Fat_ (887), there followed a period of darkness throughout the West. The universal political disorder was enough to account for this prevalent ignorance. But, in addition, the Latin language ceased to be spoken by the people, while the new vernacular tongues were not reduced to writing. Latin could only be learned in the schools; and these fell more and more into decay, in the confusion of the times. The mental stimulus which the study of the Latin had communicated, there was nothing, as yet, in the new languages to replace.

THE PAPACY IN THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.--While Italy was under the rule of _Justinian_ and his successors, the popes were subject to the tyranny of the Eastern emperors. After the Lombard conquest, their position, difficult as it was on account of the small protection afforded them from Constantinople, was favorable to the growth of their influence and authority. By their connection with _Pipin_ and _Charlemagne_, they were recognized as having a spiritual headship, the counterpart of the secular supremacy of the emperor. The election of the Pope was to be sanctioned by the emperor, and that of the emperor by the Pope. But _Charlemagne_ was supreme ruler over all classes and persons in Italy, as in his own immediate dominions. In the disorder that ensued upon his death, the imperial authority in all directions was reduced. The Frank bishops were frequently appealed to as umpires among the contending Carolingian princes. The growth of the power of the great bishops carried in it the exaltation of the highest bishop of all, the Roman pontiff. A _pallium_, or mantle, was sent by the Pope to all archbishops on their accession, and was considered to be a badge of the papal authority. In the earlier part of the ninth century, there appeared what are called the _pseudo-Isidorian decretals_, consisting of forged ecclesiastical documents purporting to belong to the early Christian centuries, which afforded a sanction to the highest claims of the chief rulers of the Church. These are universally known to be an invention; but, in that uncritical day, this was not suspected. They contained not much in behalf of hierarchical claims which had not, at one time or another, been actually asserted and maintained. In the spirit of the decretals Pope _Nicholas I._ (858-867) acted, when this energetic pontiff overruled the iniquitous decision of two German synods, and obliged _Lothar_, king of Lotharingia, to take back his lawful wife, _Theutberga_, whom he had divorced out of regard to a mistress, _Waldrada_. In the tenth century (904-962), when Italy, in the absence of imperial restraint, was torn by violent factions, the Papacy was for half a century disposed of by the _Tuscan_ party, and especially by two depraved women belonging to it, _Theodora_, and her daughter _Maria_ (or _Marozia_). The scandals belonging to this dismal period in the history of the papal institution are to be ascribed to the anarchy prevailing in Italy, and to the vileness of the individuals who usurped power at Rome.