CHAP. III an empty title to a contestant for the crown who could not save the Roman territory from the Saracens, while his own palace in France was in the hands of his rival. A. D. 800-888 The struggle for the Rhine frontier Lewis II, though in fact little more than an Italian king, had held the great dukes in abeyance, and had almost driven the invader from the land. His death revealed the weakness of the Empire and the vigor of the Papacy; for while Charles the Bald was contending with his brother for the possession of his own kingdom, John VIII, with an energy and ability which make him comparable to Gregory the Great, animated the Italian magnates and organized a navy for the defence of Italy. But with all his genius for war and diplomacy, the great pontiff could not stay the tide of anarchy which was now sweeping over Europe and bursting forth with new fury in Italy itself. The death of Lewis the German, on August 28, 876, opened a new question, which was, at recurrent intervals, to disturb the peace of Europe for many centuries. Resolved to claim, as emperor and as heir of his nephew Lewis II, not only all of Italy, but also the right to Lotharingia, Charles the Bald, accompanied by the papal legates, advanced toward the Rhine, with the intention of seizing three strategic points,— Mainz, Worms, and Speyer, thus making the Rhine the frontier of France. It was the first assertion of that doctrine of "natural limits" which has never ceased to influence the foreign policy of the French. Lewis the Younger advanced to meet the invader, but proposed a pacific settlement of his uncle's claim. Determined to fix his frontier by conquest, Charles led his army by a long detour to Andernach, where he expected to surprise his nephew; but Lewis was secretly warned of his intention, and, on October 8, 876, inflicted upon the exhausted troops of Charles a terrible defeat. Rendered ill by his inconsequent campaign, Charles the Bald never fully recovered from this fatal blow. Urged by the Pope to come to his help against the Saracens, he disclosed his weakness by purchasing peace from the Norman A. D. 800-888 invaders, for which he imposed upon his people a special tax, CHAP. III and by extensive concessions to his nobles, to whom he promised in the Capitulary of Quierzy of June 14, 877, that their benefices should be conditionally hereditary in their families. sionment of Charles the Having thus bargained for his freedom to perform his The disilluduty as emperor, Charles crossed the Alps with the intention of undertaking the defence of Italy, but only to be con- Bald fronted by his nephew, Carloman, who had appeared with a large army to vindicate his rights to his inheritance. Unable to withstand his opponent, the Emperor started to recross the Alps when he learned that his nobles, notwithstanding his generous concessions, were in open rebellion. Discontented with the despotic manners which Charles had assumed since his coronation as emperor, and with his neglect of the public needs of France terrorized by the Norman invaders, his people, not unjustly, regarded him as delinquent in abandoning his kingdom for the defence of Italy. The unhappy Emperor now felt with crushing force the vanity of his empty honors. Repudiated by a powerful party in Italy, unable to face the army of Carloman, disavowed in his own household even by his brother-in-law Boso and his son Louis, and coldly regarded even by his once devoted Hincmar, ill in body and distracted in mind, Charles sank on his journey beneath the weight of his misfortunes, and died on October 6, less than two years after his coronation. His son, Louis the Stammerer, who succeeded him as King of France, realizing the impossibility of ruling both France and Italy in that time of general turbulence, had the good sense to decline the pursuit of the imperial phantom, and to devote his energies to the defence of his kingdom from the Danes. It was in the midst of this great crisis of invasion that the final blight fell upon the Carlovingian dynasty. Louis the Stammerer survived his father only two years, and his young sons soon followed him, leaving only his posthumous child, Charles the Simple. Carloman, dying in 880, had no de Charles the Fat becomes A. D. 800-888 CHAP. III scendant, except his natural son Arnulf. Crowned Emperor at Rome, on February 12, 881, Charles the Fat finally claimed possession of all the kingdoms. Reuniting in his person all the dominions of Charles the Great, Christendom looked to him for a champion, and the Empire for a defender; but, though earnestly besought to drive the Saracens out of Italy and the Danes out of Germany and France, Charles preferred to purchase the withdrawal of the Vikings by payments of silver. Finding invasion a profitable industry, they repeated their incursions, until the Emperor offered to establish the Danish chief Godfred in a duchy at the mouths of the Rhine. Having thus obtained a foothold, the insolent vassal soon demanded the possession of Bonn and Coblenz, because his duchy had no vineyards; and other Danes harried France to the gates of Paris, which escaped destruction only by the valor of Count Eudes. Charles the Fat finally attempted to raise an army, but abandoned his campaign, resumed his futile negotiations, offered new bribes to the Danes, and permitted them to ravage Burgundy. The general dissolution This last transaction exhausted the patience of the Empire. Arnulf, the illegitimate nephew of Charles the Fat, placing himself at the head of a revolt, in 887, threatened to march to Frankfort and depose his unwieldy uncle. Unable to rally an army for his defence, the ponderous Charles yielded his crown to Arnulf, demanding only a modest retreat in Suabia in which to pass the remainder of his days; and a few months later, on January 13, 888, the unhappy monarch ended his unprofitable life. By the abdication of Charles the Fat the unity of the Carlovingian Empire was once more lost, this time never to be restored. The entire period between 888 and 919 was marked by strife, division, and unfruitfulness. Arnulf assumed the kingship of Germany, and the dukes and counts of that kingdom, recognizing his vigor and ability, rallied about him; but in other parts of the Empire ambitious nobles stepped forward to claim authority and repel his imperial pretensions. Eudes, Count of Paris, who had saved that city A. D. 800-888 from the Danes, though he possessed no hereditary claim, I CHAP. III was crowned King of France; Berengar, Duke of Friuli, was made King of Italy; Rudolf, a local count, became King of Upper Burgundy; while the kingdom of Arles, or Lower Burgundy, fell to Lewis, son of Duke Boso, who had married the only daughter of the Emperor Lewis II. Thus, the Carlovingian Empire fell into five fragments, never again to be united. AUTHORITIES In addition to the collections of documents already named, the Documents following are useful for the present chapter: Theophanes, Chronographia, printed in Migne, No. 1865, and separately with a Latin version by P. Goar, Paris, 1655, and newly edited by de Boor, 1883-1887, supplements the Western documents with the Byzantine records. Th. Sickel, Acta Regum et Imperatorum Karolinorum, Vienna, 1867, supplements Böhmer's Regesten and contains, pp. 72, 76, a description of the chancellery of the Franks under the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings and emperors, with an account of the chancellors of Charles the Great. The Vita Caroli of Einhard is contained in the Monumenta Carolina of Jaffé. Boretius, Monumenta Germaniae, 1881-1883, Leges I, contains the "Capitularia Regum Francorum.” The important Capitulary of 802 is translated in Henderson, Select Documents, pp. 189, 201. Altmann und Bernheim, Ausgewählte Urkunden, Berlin, 1891, contains the text of many documents of this period. Hincmar, De Ordine Palatii, found in Migne, and published separately, casts much light upon the Carlovingian court. The regular collections of treaties now begin to be useful, but no complete and consecutive body of texts is yet available. Among the digests are Barbeyrac, Histoire des Anciens Traitez, Amsterdam and The Hague, 1739; and Gatti, Ristretto della Storia dei principali trattati di pace della divisione dell' Imperio, Rome, 1824. Full texts are given in Dumont, Corps universel diplomatique, Amsterdam and The Hague, 1726-1731. Rousset's supplement to Dumont, -vols. I and II, – contains the text of several treaties after 838; but in both Dumont and Rousset there are many omissions. On the coronation and reign of Charles the Great, see Kleinclausz, Literature L'Empire carolingien, ses origines et ses transformations, Paris, 1902. СНАР. ІІІ A. D. 800-888 The coronation is critically studied by Ohr, Die Kaiserkrönung Karls des Grossen, Tübingen, 1904; W. Sickel, Die Kaiserwahl Karls des Grossen, in the Mittheilungen des österreichischen Instituts, Bd. XX; W. Sickel, Die Kaiserkrönungen von Karl bis Berengar, in the Historische Zeitschrift, Neue Folge, Bd. XLVI, erstes Heft, 1898, pp. 1, 37; and Sackur, Ein römischer Majestätsprozess und die Kaiserkrönung Karls des Grossen in the Historische Zeitschrift, Neue Folge, Bd. LI, 1901, pp. 385, 406. On the legality of Charles' election as Emperor, consult also Lécrivain, Le Sénat romain. The relations of the Carlovingian Empire, the Papacy, and Byzantium are discussed in Venediger, Versuch einer Darlegung der Beziehungen Karl des Grossen zum byzantinischen Reich, Halle, 1872; Gasquet, L'Empire byzantin et la monarchie franque, Paris, 1885; Harnack, Das Karolingische und das byzantinische Reich in ihren politischen Beziehungen, Göttingen, 1880; Ostermann, Karl der Grosse und das byzantinische Reich, Berlin, 1895; Norden, Das Papsttum und Byzanz, Berlin, 1903. On the general history of the Carlovingian Empire, see in addition to Kleinclausz, L'Empire carolingien, Döllinger, Das Kaiserthum Karls des Grossen und seiner Nachfolger, Munich, 1865; Mühlbacher, Deutsche Geschichte unter den Karolingern, Innsbruck, 1896; Fisher, The Mediaeval Empire, London, 1898. The institution of the missi dominici is discussed in Krause, Geschichte des Instituts der Missi Dominici in the Mittheilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Bd. XI, 2e Abtheilung, 1890, pp. 193, 300. On the diplomatic relations with Venice, see Fanta, Die Verträge der Kaiser mit Venedig bis zum Jahre 988, in the Mittheilungen des Instituts f. österr. Geschichte, Bd. I. On the reign of Lewis the Pious, see Willems, L'élément historique dans le coronement de Looïs, Louvain, 1896; Himly, Wala et Louis le Débonnaire, Paris, 1849; Monnier, Histoire des luttes politiques et religieuses dans les temps carlovingiens, Paris, 1852; Fustel de Coulanges, Les transformations de la royauté à l'époque carolingienne, Paris, 1892. The date of the "Donation of Constantine" is exhaustively considered by Scheffer-Boichorst in the Mittheilungen des Instituts f. Österr. Geschichte, Bd. X, 1889, pp. 302, 325, and Bd. XI, 1890, pp. 128, 146. See also Martens, Beleuchtung der neusten Kontroversen, pp. 151, 158. The subdivision of the Empire and the diplomacy of the later Carlovingians are treated in Gasté, Les serments de Strassbourg, Strasburg, 1888; Schwartz, Der Bruderkrieg der Söhne Ludwigs des Frommen und der Vertrag zu Verdun, Fulda, 1843; Pouzet, La succession de Charlemagne et le Traité de Verdun, Paris, 1890; Doizé, Le gouvernement |