The Emperors Of The Carolingian Line
(814--911.)
Character of Ludwig the Pious. --His Subjection to the Priests.
--Injury to German Literature. --Division of the Empire.
--Treatment of his Nephew, Bernard. --Ludwig's Remorse. --The
Empress Judith and her Son. --Revolt of Ludwig's Sons. --His
Abdication and Death. --Compact of Karl the Bald and Ludwig the
German. --The French and German Languages. --The Low-German.
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--Lothar's Resistance. --The Partition of Verdun. --Germany and
France separated. --The Norsemen. --Internal Troubles. --Ludwig the
German's Sons. --His Death. --Division of Germany. --Karl the Fat.
--His Cowardice. --The Empire restored. --Karl's Death. --Duke
Arnulf made King. --He defeats the Norsemen and Bohemians. --His
Favors to the Church. --The "Isidorian Decretals." --Arnulf Crowned
Emperor. --His Death. --Ludwig the Child. --Invasions of the
Magyars. --End of the Carolingian line in Germany.
[Sidenote: 814. LUDWIG THE PIOUS.]
The last act of Charlemagne's life in ordering the manner of his son's
coronation,--which was imitated, a thousand years afterwards, by
Napoleon, who, in the presence of the Pope, Pius VII., himself set the
crown upon his own head--showed that he designed keeping the Imperial
power independent of that of the Church. But his son, Ludwig, was
already a submissive and willing dependent of Rome. During his reign as
king of Aquitaine he had covered the land with monasteries: he was the
pupil of monks, and his own inclination was for a monastic life. But at
Charlemagne's death he was the only legitimate heir to the throne. Being
therefore obliged to wear the Imperial purple, he exercised his
sovereignty chiefly in the interest of the Church. His first act was to
send to the Pope the treasures amassed by his father; his next, to
surround himself with prelates and priests, who soon learned to control
his policy. He was called "Ludwig the Pious," but in those days, when so
many worldly qualities were necessary to the ruler of the Empire, the
title was hardly one of praise. He appears to have been of a kindly
nature, and many of his acts show that he meant to be just; the
weakness of his character, however, too often made his good intentions
of no avail.
[Sidenote: 816.]
It was a great misfortune for Germany that Ludwig's piety took the form
of hostility to all learning except of a theological nature. So far as
he was able, he undid the great work of education commenced by
Charlemagne. The schools were given entirely into the hands of the
priests, and the character of the instruction was changed. He inflicted
an irreparable loss on all after ages by destroying the collection of
songs, ballads and legends of the German people, which Charlemagne had
taken such pains to gather and preserve. It is not believed that a
single copy escaped destruction, although some scholars suppose that a
fragment of the "Song of Hildebrand," written in the eighth century, may
have formed part of the collection. In the year 816, Ludwig was visited
in Rheims by the Pope, Stephen IV., who again crowned him Emperor in the
Cathedral, and thus restored the spiritual authority which Charlemagne
had tried to set aside. Ludwig's attempts to release the estates
belonging to the Bishops, monasteries and priesthood from the payment of
taxes, and the obligation to furnish soldiers in case of war, created so
much dissatisfaction among the nobles and people, that, at a diet held
the following year, he was summoned to divide the government of the
Empire among his three sons. He resisted at first, but was finally
forced to consent: his eldest son, Lothar, was crowned as Co-Emperor of
the Franks, Ludwig as king of Bavaria, and Pippin, his third son, as
king of Aquitaine.
In this division no notice was taken of Bernard, king of Lombardy, also
a grandson of Charlemagne. The latter at once entered into a conspiracy
with certain Frank nobles, to have his rights recognized; but, while
preparing for war, he was induced, under promises of his personal
safety, to visit the Emperor's court. There, after having revealed the
names of his fellow-conspirators, he was treacherously arrested, and his
eyes put out; in consequence of which treatment he died. The Empress,
Irmingarde, died soon afterwards, and Ludwig was so overcome both by
grief for her loss and remorse for having caused the death of his
nephew, that he was with great difficulty restrained from abdicating and
retiring into a monastery. It was not in the interest of the priesthood
to lose so powerful a friend, and they finally persuaded him to marry
again.
[Sidenote: 822. LUDWIG'S PENITENCE.]
His second wife was Judith, daughter of Welf, a Bavarian count, to whom
he was united in 819. Although this gave him another son, Karl,
afterwards known as Karl (Charles) the Bald, he appears to have found
very little peace of mind. At a diet held in 822, at Attigny, in France,
he appeared publicly in the sackcloth and ashes of a repentant sinner,
and made open confession of his misdeeds. This act showed his sincerity
as a man, but in those days it must have greatly diminished the
reverence which the people felt for him as their Emperor. The next year
his son Lothar, who, after Bernard's death, became also King of
Lombardy, visited Rome and was recrowned by the Pope. For a while,
Lothar made himself very popular by seeking out and correcting abuses in
the administration of the laws.
During the first fifteen years of Ludwig's reign, the boundaries of the
Empire were constantly disturbed by invasions of the Danes, the Slavonic
tribes in Prussia, and the Saracens in Spain, while the Basques and
Bretons became turbulent within the realm. All these revolts or
invasions were suppressed; the eastern frontier was not only held but
extended, and the military power of the Frank Empire was everywhere
recognized and feared. The Saxons and Frisians, who had been treated
with great mildness by Ludwig, gave no further trouble; in fact, the
whole population of the Empire became peaceable and orderly in
proportion as the higher civilization encouraged by Charlemagne was
developed among them.
The remainder of Ludwig's reign might have been untroubled, but for a
family difficulty. The Empress Judith demanded that her son, Karl,
should also have a kingdom, like his three step-brothers. An Imperial
Diet was therefore called together at Worms, in 829, and, in spite of
fierce opposition, a new kingdom was formed out of parts of Burgundy,
Switzerland and Suabia. The three sons, Lothar, Pippin and Ludwig,
acquiesced at first; but when a Spanish count, Bernard, was appointed
regent during Karl's minority, the two former began secretly to conspire
against their father. They took him captive in France, and endeavored,
but in vain, to force him to retire into a monastery. The sympathies of
the people were with him, and by their help he was able, the following
year, to regain his authority, and force his sons to submit.
[Sidenote: 833.]
Ludwig, however, manifested his preference for his last son, Karl, so
openly that in 833 his three other sons united against him, and a war
ensued which lasted nearly five years. Finally, when the two armies
stood face to face, on a plain near Colmar, in Alsatia, and a bloody
battle between father and sons seemed imminent, the Pope, Gregory IV.,
suddenly made his appearance. He offered his services as a mediator,
went to and fro, and at last treacherously carried all the Emperor's
chief supporters over to the camp of the sons. Ludwig, then sixty years
old and broken in strength and spirit, was forced to surrender. The
people gave the name of "The Field of Lies" to the scene of this event.
The old Emperor was compelled by his sons to give up his sword, to
appear as a penitent in Church, and to undergo such other degradations,
that the sympathies of the people were again aroused in his favor. They
rallied to his support from all sides: his authority was restored,
Lothar, the leader of the rebellion, fled to Italy, Pippin had died
shortly before, and Ludwig proffered his submission. The old man now had
a prospect of quiet; but the machinations of the Empress Judith on
behalf of her son, Karl, disturbed his last years. His son Ludwig was
marching against him for the second time, when he died, in 840, on an
island in the Rhine, near Ingelheim.
The death of Ludwig the Pious was the signal for a succession of
fratricidal wars. His youngest son, Karl the Bald, first united his
interests with those of his eldest step-brother, Lothar, but he soon
went over to Ludwig's side, while Lothar allied himself with the sons of
Pippin, in Aquitaine. A terrific battle was fought near Auxerre, in
France, in the summer of 841. Lothar was defeated, and Ludwig and Karl
then determined to divide the Empire between them. The following winter
they came together, with their nobles and armies, near Strasburg, and
vowed to keep faith with each other thenceforth. The language of France
and Germany, even among the descendants of the original Franks, was no
longer the same, and the oath which was drawn up for the occasion was
pronounced by Karl in German to the army of Ludwig, and by Ludwig in
French to the army of Karl. The text of it has been preserved, and it is
a very interesting illustration of the two languages, as they were
spoken a thousand years ago. We will quote the opening phrases:
LUDWIG (French). Pro Deo amur et (pro) Christian poblo
KARL (German). In Godes minna ind (in thes) Christianes folches
English. In God's love and (that of the) Christian folk
LUDWIG. et nostro comun salvament,-- dist di in avant,
KARL. ind unser bedhero gehaltnissi,--fon thesemo dage framordes,
English. and our mutual preservation,--from this day forth,
LUDWIG. -- in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, &c.
KARL. -- so fram so mir God gewiczi ind mahd furgibit, &c.
English. --as long as to me God knowledge and might gives, &c.
A. D. 843.)]
[Sidenote: 843.]
It is very easy to see, from this slight specimen, how much the language
of the Franks had been modified by the Gallic-Latin, and how much of the
original tongue (taking the Gothic Bible of Ulfila as an evidence of its
character) has been retained in German and English. About the same time
there was written in the Low-German, or Saxon dialect, a Gospel
narrative in verse, called the Heliand ("Saviour"), many lines of
which are almost identical with early English; as the following:
Slogun cald isarn
They drove cold iron
hardo mit hamuron
hard with hammers
thuru is hendi enti thuru is fuoti;
through his hands and through his feet;
is blod ran an ertha.
his blood ran on earth.
This separation of the languages is a sign of the difference in national
character which now split asunder the great empire of Charlemagne.
Lothar, after the solemn alliance between Karl the Bald and Ludwig,
resorted to desperate measures. He offered to give the Saxons their old
laws and even to allow them to return to their pagan faith, if they
would support his claims; he invited the Norsemen to Belgium and
Northern France; and, by retreating towards Italy when his brothers
approached him in force, and then returning when an opportunity favored,
he disturbed and wasted the best portions of the Empire. Finally the
Bishops intervened, and after a long time spent in negotiations, the
three rival brothers met in 843, and agreed to the famous "Partition of
Verdun" (so called from Verdun, near Metz, where it was signed), by
which the realm of Charlemagne was divided among them.
[Sidenote: 843. SEPARATION OF GERMANY AND FRANCE.]
Lothar, as the eldest, received Italy, together with a long, narrow
strip of territory extending to the North Sea, including part of
Burgundy, Switzerland, Eastern Belgium and Holland. All west of this,
embracing the greater part of France, was given to Karl the Bald; all
east, with a strip of territory west of the Rhine, from Basle to
Mayence, "for the sake of its wine," as the document stated, became the
kingdom of Ludwig, who was thenceforth called "The German." The
last-named also received Eastern Switzerland and Bavaria, to the Alps.
This division was almost as arbitrary and unnatural as that which Pippin
the Short attempted to make. Neither Karl's nor Ludwig's shares included
all the French or German territory; while Lothar's was a long, narrow
slice cut out of both, and attached to Italy, where a new race and
language were already developed out of the mixture of Romans, Goths and
Lombards. In fact, it became necessary to invent a name for the northern
part of Lothar's dominions, and that portion between Burgundy and
Holland was called, after him, Lotharingia. As Lothringen in German,
and Lorraine in French, the name still remains in existence.
Each of the three monarchs received unrestricted sway over his realm.
They agreed, however, upon a common line of policy in the interest of
the dynasty, and admitted the right of inheritance to each other's
sovereignty, in the absence of direct heirs. The Treaty of Verdun,
therefore, marks the beginning of Germany and France as distinct
nationalities; and now, after following the Germanic races over the
greater part of Europe for so many centuries, we come back to recommence
their history on the soil where we first found them. In fact, the word
Deutsch, "German," signifying of the people, now first came into
general use, to designate the language and the races--Franks, Alemanni,
Bavarians, Thuringians, Saxons, etc.--under Ludwig's rule. There was, as
yet, no political unity among these races; they were reciprocally
jealous, and often hostile; but, by contrast with the inhabitants of
France and Italy, they felt their blood-relationship as never before,
and a national spirit grew up, of a narrower but more natural character
than that which Charlemagne endeavored to establish.
Internal struggles awaited both the Roman Emperor, Lothar, and the Frank
king, Karl the Bald. The former was obliged to suppress revolts in
Provence and Italy; the latter in Brittany and Aquitaine, while the
Spanish Mark, beyond the Pyrenees, passed out of his hands. Ludwig the
German inherited a long peace at home, but a succession of wars with the
Wends and Bohemians along his eastern frontier. The Norsemen came down
upon his coasts, destroyed Hamburg, and sailed up the Elbe with 600
vessels, burning and plundering wherever they went. The necessity of
keeping an army almost constantly in the field gave the clergy and
nobility an opportunity of exacting better terms for their support; the
independent dukedoms, suppressed by Charlemagne, were gradually
re-established, and thus Ludwig diminished his own power while
protecting his territory from invasion.
[Sidenote: 858.]
The Emperor, Lothar, soon discovered that he had made a bad bargain. His
long and narrow empire was most difficult to govern, and in 855, weary
with his annoyances and his endless marches to and fro, he abdicated and
retired into a monastery, where he died within a week. The empire was
divided between his three sons: Ludwig received Italy and was crowned by
the Pope; to Karl was given the territory between the Rhone, the Alps
and the Mediterranean, and to Lothar II. the portion extending from the
Rhone to the North Sea. When the last of these died, in 869, Ludwig the
German and Karl the Bald divided his territory, the line running between
Verdun and Metz, then along the Vosges, and terminating at the Rhine
near Basle,--almost precisely the same boundary as that which France has
been forced to accept in 1871.
But the conditions of the oath taken by the two kings in 842 were not
observed by either. Karl the Bald was a tyrannical and unpopular
sovereign, and when he failed in preventing the Norsemen from ravaging
all Western France, the nobles determined to set him aside and invite
Ludwig to take his place. The latter consented, marched into France with
a large army, and was hailed as king; but when his army returned home,
and he trusted to the promised support of the Frank nobles, he found
that Karl had repurchased their allegiance, and there was no course left
to him but to retreat across the Rhine. The trouble was settled by a
meeting of the two kings, which took place at Coblentz, in 860.
Ludwig the German had also, like his father, serious trouble with his
sons, Karlmann and Ludwig. He had made the former Duke of Carinthia,
but ere long discovered that he had entered into a conspiracy with
Rastitz, king of the Moravian Slavonians. Karlmann was summoned to
Regensburg (Ratisbon), which was then Ludwig's capital, and was finally
obliged to lead an army against his secret ally, Rastitz, who was
conquered. A new war with Zwentebold, king of Bohemia, who was assisted
by the Sorbs, Wends, and other Slavonic tribes along the Elbe, broke out
soon afterwards. Karlmann led his father's forces against the enemy, and
after a struggle of four years forced Bohemia, in 873, to become
tributary to Germany.
[Sidenote: 876. DEATH OF LUDWIG THE GERMAN.]
In 875, the Emperor, Ludwig II. (Lothar's son), who ruled in Italy, died
without heirs. Karl the Bald and Ludwig the German immediately called
their troops into the field and commenced the march to Italy, in order
to divide the inheritance or fight for its sole possession. Ludwig sent
his sons, but their uncle, Karl the Bald, was before them. He was
acknowledged by the Lombard nobles at Pavia, and crowned in Rome by the
Pope, before it could be prevented. Ludwig determined upon an instant
invasion of France, but in the midst of the preparations he died at
Frankfort, in 876. He was seventy-one years old; as a child he had sat
on the knees of Charlemagne; as an independent king of Germany, he had
reigned thirty-six years, and with him the intelligence, prudence and
power which had distinguished the Carolingian line came to an end.
Again the kingdom was divided among three sons, Karlmann, Ludwig the
Younger, and Karl the Fat; and again there were civil wars. Karl the
Bald made haste to invade Germany before the brothers were in a
condition to oppose him; but he was met by Ludwig the Younger and
terribly defeated, near Andernach on the Rhine. The next year he died,
leaving one son, Ludwig the Stammerer, to succeed him.
The brothers, in accordance with a treaty made before their father's
death, thus divided Germany: Karlmann took Bavaria, Carinthia, the
provinces on the Danube, and the half-sovereignty over Bohemia and
Moravia; Ludwig the Younger became king over all Northern and Central
Germany, leaving Suabia (formerly Alemannia) for Karl the Fat.
Karlmann's first act was to take possession of Italy, which acknowledged
his rule. He was soon afterwards struck with apoplexy, and died in 880.
Karl the Fat had already crossed the Alps; he forced the Lombard nobles
to accept him, and was crowned Emperor at Rome, as Karl III., in 881.
Meanwhile the Germans had recognized Ludwig the Younger as Karlmann's
heir, and had given to Arnulf, the latter's illegitimate son, the Duchy
of Carinthia.
[Sidenote: 882.]
Ludwig the Younger died, childless, in 882, and thus Germany and Italy
became one empire under Karl the Fat. By this time Friesland and Holland
were suffering from the invasions of the Norsemen, who had built a
strong camp on the banks of the Meuse, and were beginning to threaten
Germany. Karl marched against them, but, after a siege of some weeks, he
shamefully purchased a truce by giving them territory in Holland, and
large sums in gold and silver, and by marrying a princess of the
Carolingian blood to Gottfried, their chieftain. They then sailed down
the Meuse, with 200 vessels laden with plunder.
All classes of the Germans were filled with rage and shame, at this
disgrace. The Dukes and Princes who were building up their local
governments profited by the state of affairs, to strengthen their power.
Karl was called to Italy to defend the Pope against the Saracens, and
when he returned to Germany in 884, he found a Count Hugo almost
independent in Lorraine, the Norsemen in possession of the Rhine nearly
as far as Cologne, and Arnulf of Carinthia engaged in a fierce war with
Zwentebold, king of Bohemia. Karl turned his forces against the last of
these, subdued him, and then, with the help of the Frisians, expelled
the Norsemen. The two grand-sons of Karl the Bald, Ludwig and Karlmann,
died about this time, and the only remaining one, Charles (afterwards
called the Silly), was still a young child. The Frank nobles therefore
offered the throne to Karl the Fat, who accepted it and thus restored,
for a short time, the Empire of Charlemagne.
Once more he proved himself shamefully unworthy of the power confided to
his hands. He suffered Paris to sustain a nine months' siege by the
Norsemen, before he marched to its assistance, and then, instead of
meeting the foemen in open field, he paid them a heavy ransom for the
city and allowed them to spend the following winter in Burgundy, and
plunder the land at their will. The result was a general conspiracy
against his rule, in Germany as well as in France. At the head of it was
Bishop Luitward, Karl's chancellor and confidential friend, who, being
detected, fled to Arnulf in Carinthia, and instigated the latter to
rise in rebellion. Arnulf was everywhere victorious: Karl the Fat,
deserted by his army and the dependent German nobles, was forced, in
887, to resign the throne and retire to an estate in Suabia, where he
died the following year.
[Sidenote: 887. ARNULF OF CARINTHIA KING.]
Duke Arnulf, the grandson of Ludwig the German, though not legitimately
born, now became king of Germany. Being accepted at Ratisbon and
afterwards at Frankfort by the representatives of the people, he was
able to keep them united under his rule, while the rest of the former
Frank Empire began to fall to pieces. As early as 879, a new kingdom,
called Burgundy, or Arelat, from its capital Arles, was formed between
the Rhone and the Alps; Berengar, the Lombard Duke of Friuli, in Italy,
usurped the inheritance of the Carolingian line there; Count Rudolf, a
great-grandson of Ludwig the Pious, established the kingdom of Upper
Burgundy, embracing a part of Eastern France, with Western Switzerland;
and Count Odo of Paris, who gallantly defended the city against the
Norsemen, was chosen king of France by a large party of the nobles.
King Arnulf, who seems to have possessed as much wisdom as bravery, did
not interfere with the pretensions of these new rulers, so long as they
forbore to trespass on his German territory, and he thereby secured the
friendship of all. He devoted himself to the liberation of Germany from
the repeated invasions of the Danes and Norsemen on the north, and the
Bohemians on the east. The former had entrenched themselves strongly
among the marshes near Louvain, where Arnulf's best troops, which were
cavalry, could not reach them. He set an example to his army by
dismounting and advancing on foot to the attack: the Germans followed
with such impetuosity that the Norse camp was taken, and nearly all its
defenders slaughtered. From that day Germany was free from Northern
invasion.
Arnulf next marched against his old enemy, Zwentebold (in some histories
the name is written Sviatopulk) of Bohemia. This king and his people
had recently been converted to Christianity by the missionary Methodius,
but it had made no change in their predatory habits. They were the more
easily conquered by Arnulf, because the Magyars, a branch of the Finnish
race who had pressed into Hungary from the east, attacked them at the
same time. The Magyars were called "Hungarians" by the Germans of that
day--as they are at present--because they had taken possession of the
territory which had been occupied by the Huns, more than four centuries
before; but they were a distinct race, resembling the Huns only in their
fierceness and daring. They were believed to be cannibals, who drank the
blood and devoured the hearts of their slain enemies; and the panic they
created throughout Germany was as great as that which went before Attila
and his barbarian hordes.
[Sidenote: 894.]
After the subjection of the Bohemians, Arnulf was summoned to Italy, in
the year 894, where he assisted Berengar, king of Lombardy, to maintain
his power against a rival. He then marched against Rudolf, king of Upper
Burgundy, who had been conspiring against him, and ravaged his land. By
this time, it appears, his personal ambition was excited by his
successes: he determined to become Emperor, and as a means of securing
the favor of the Pope, he granted the most extraordinary privileges to
the Church in Germany. He ordered that all civil officers should execute
the orders of the clerical tribunals; that excommunication should affect
the civil rights of those on whom it fell; that matters of dispute
between clergy and laymen should be decided by the Bishops, without
calling witnesses,--with other decrees of the same character, which
practically set the Church above the civil authorities.
The Popes, by this time, had embraced the idea of becoming temporal
sovereigns, and the dissensions among the rulers of the Carolingian line
already enabled them to secure a power, of which the former Bishops of
Rome had never dreamed. In the early part of the ninth century, the
so-called "Isidorian Decretals" (because they bore the name of Bishop
Isidor, of Seville) came to light. They were forged documents,
purporting to be decrees of the ancient Councils of the Church, which
claimed for the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) the office of Vicar of Christ
and Vicegerent of God upon earth, with supreme power not only over all
Bishops, priests and individual souls, but also over all civil
authorities. The policy of the Papal chair was determined by these
documents, and several centuries elapsed before their fictitious
character was discovered.
Arnulf, after these concessions to the Church, went to Italy in 895. He
found the Pope, Formosus, in the power of a Lombard prince, whom the
former had been compelled against his will, to crown as Emperor. Arnulf
took Rome by force of arms, liberated the Pope, and in return was
crowned Roman Emperor. He fell dangerously ill immediately afterwards,
and it was believed that he had been poisoned. Formosus, who died the
following year, was declared "accurst" by his successor, Stephen VII.,
and his body was dug up and cast into the Tiber, after it had lain nine
months in the grave.
[Sidenote: 899. LUDWIG THE CHILD.]
Arnulf returned to Germany as Emperor, but weak and broken in body and
mind. He never recovered from the effects of the poison, but lingered
for three years longer, seeing his Empire becoming more and more weak
and disorderly. He died in 899, leaving one son, Ludwig, only seven
years old. This son, known in history as "Ludwig the Child," was the
last of the Carolingian line in Germany. In France, the same line, now
represented by Charles the Silly, was also approaching its end.
At a Diet held at Forchheim (near Nuremberg), Ludwig the Child was
accepted as king of Germany, and solemnly crowned. On account of his
tender years, he was placed in charge of Archbishop Hatto of Mayence,
who was appointed, with Duke Otto of Saxony, to govern temporarily in
his stead. An insurrection in Lorraine was suppressed; but now a more
formidable danger approached from the East. The Hungarians invaded
Northern Italy in 899, and ravaged part of Bavaria on their return to
the Danube. Like the Huns, they destroyed everything in their way,
leaving a wilderness behind their march.
The Bavarians, with little assistance from the rest of Germany, fought
the Hungarians until 907, when their Duke, Luitpold, was slain in
battle, and his son Arnulf purchased peace by a heavy tribute. Then the
Hungarians invaded Thuringia, whose Duke, Burkhard, also fell fighting
against them, after which they plundered a part of Saxony. Finally, in
910, the whole strength of Germany was called into the field; Ludwig,
eighteen years old, took command, met the Hungarians on the banks of the
Inn, and was utterly defeated. He fled from the field, and was forced,
thenceforth, to pay tribute to Hungary. He died in 911, and Germany was
left without a hereditary ruler.