The Reign Of Charlemagne

(768--814.)



The Partition made by Pippin the Short. --Death of Karloman.

--Appearance and Character of Charlemagne. --His Place in History.

--The Carolingian Dynasty. --His Work as a Statesman. --Conquest of

Lombardy. --Visit to Rome. --First Saxon Campaign. --The Chief,

Wittekind. --Assembly at Paderborn. --Expedition to Spain. --Defeat

at Roncesvalles. --Revolt of the Saxons. --Secon Visit to Rome.

--Execution of Saxon Nobles, and Third War. --Subjection of

Bavaria. --Victory over the Avars. --Final Submission of the

Saxons. --Visit of Pope Leo III. --Charlemagne crowned Roman

Emperor. --The Plan of Temporal and Spiritual Empire. --Intercourse

with Haroun Alraschid. --Trouble with the Saracens. --Extent of

Charlemagne's Empire. --His Encouragement of Learning and the Arts.

--The Scholars at his Court. --Changes in the System of Government.

--Loss of Popular Freedom. --Charlemagne's Habits. --The Norsemen.

--His Son, Ludwig, crowned Emperor. --Charlemagne's Death.





[Sidenote: 771.]



When King Pippin the Short felt that his end was near, he called an

assembly of Dukes, nobles and priests, which was held at St. Denis, for

the purpose of installing his sons, Karl and Karloman, as his

successors. As he had observed how rapidly the French and German halves

of his empire were separating themselves from each other, in language,

habits and national character, he determined to change the former

boundary between "Austria" and "Neustria," which ran nearly north and

south, and to substitute an arbitrary line running east and west. This

division was accepted by the assembly, but its unpractical character was

manifested as soon as Karl and Karloman began to reign. There was

nothing but trouble for three years, at the end of which time the latter

died, leaving Karl, in 771, sole monarch of the Frank Empire.



This great man, who, looking backwards, saw not his equal in history

until he beheld Julius Caesar, now began his splendid single reign of

forty-three years. We must henceforth call him Charlemagne, the French

form of the Latin Carolus Magnus, Karl the Great, since by that name

he is known in all English history. He was at this time twenty-nine

years old, and in the pride of perfect strength and manly beauty. He was

nearly seven feet high, admirably proportioned, and so developed by

toil, the chase and warlike exercises that few men of his time equalled

him in muscular strength. His face was noble and commanding, his hair

blonde or light brown, and his eyes a clear, sparkling blue. He

performed the severest duties of his office with a quiet dignity which

heightened the impression of his intellectual power; he was terrible and

inflexible in crushing all who attempted to interfere with his work; but

at the chase, the banquet, or in the circle of his family and friends,

no one was more frank, joyous and kindly than he.



[Sidenote: 771. CHARLEMAGNE.]



His dynasty is called in history, after him, the Carolingian, although

Pippin of Landen was its founder. The name of Charlemagne is extended

backwards over the Royal Stewards, his ancestors, and after him over a

century of successors who gradually faded out like the Merovingian line.

He stands alone, midway between the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, as

the one supreme historical landmark. The task of his life was to extend,

secure, regulate and develop the power of a great empire, much of which

was still in a state of semi-barbarism. He was no imitator of the Roman

Emperors: his genius, as a statesman, lay in his ability to understand

that new forms of government, and a new development of civilization, had

become necessary. Like all strong and far-seeing rulers, he was

despotic, and often fiercely cruel. Those who interfered with his

plans--even the members of his own family--were relentlessly sacrificed.

On the other hand, although he strengthened the power of the nobility,

he never neglected the protection of the people; half his days were

devoted to war, yet he encouraged learning, literature and the arts; and

while he crushed the independence of the races he gave them a higher

civilization in its stead.



Charlemagne first marched against the turbulent Saxons, but before they

were reduced to order he was called to Italy by the appeal of Pope

Adrian for help against the Longobards. The king of the latter,

Desiderius, was the father of Hermingarde, Charlemagne's second wife,

whom he had repudiated and sent home soon after his accession to the

throne. Karloman's widow had also claimed the protection of Desiderius,

and she, with her sons, was living at the latter's court. But these ties

had no weight with Charlemagne; he collected a large army at Geneva,

crossed the Alps by the pass of St. Bernard, conquered all Northern

Italy, and besieged Desiderius in Pavia. He then marched to Rome, where

Pope Adrian received him as a liberator. A procession of the clergy and

people went forth to welcome him, chanting, "Blessed is he that comes in

the name of the Lord!" He took part in the ceremonies of Easter, 774,

which were celebrated with great pomp in the Cathedral of St. Peter.



[Sidenote: 775.]



In May Pavia fell into Charlemagne's hands. Desiderius was sent into a

monastery, the widow and children of Karloman disappeared, and the

kingdom of the Longobards, embracing all Northern and Central Italy, was

annexed to the empire of the Franks. The people were allowed to retain

both their laws and their dukes, or local rulers, but, in spite of these

privileges, they soon rose in revolt against their conqueror.

Charlemagne had returned to finish his work with the Saxons, when in 776

this revolt called him back to Italy. The movement was temporarily

suppressed, and he hastened to Germany to resume his interrupted task.



The Saxons were the only remaining German people who resisted both the

Frank rule and the introduction of Christianity. They held all of what

is now Westphalia, Hannover and Brunswick, to the river Elbe, and were

still strong, in spite of their constant and wasting wars. During his

first campaign, in 772, Charlemagne had overrun Westphalia, taken

possession of the fortified camp of the Saxons, and destroyed the

"Irmin-pillar," which seems to have been a monument erected to

commemorate the defeat of Varus by Hermann. The people submitted, and

promised allegiance; but the following year, aroused by the appeals of

their duke or chieftain, Wittekind, they rebelled in a body. The

Frisians joined them, the priests and missionaries were slaughtered or

expelled, and all the former Saxon territory, nearly to the Rhine, was

retaken by Wittekind.



Charlemagne collected a large army and renewed the war in 775. He

pressed forward as far as the river Weser, when, carelessly dividing his

forces, one half of them were cut to pieces, and he was obliged to

retreat. His second expedition to Italy, at this time, was made with all

possible haste, and a new army was ready on his return. Westphalia was

now wasted with fire and sword, and the people generally submitted,

although they were compelled to be baptized as Christians. In May, 777,

Charlemagne held an assembly of the people at Paderborn: nearly all the

Saxon nobles attended, and swore fealty to him, while many of them

submitted to the rite of baptism.



[Sidenote: 777. ASSEMBLY AT PADERBORN.]



At this assembly suddenly appeared a deputation of Saracen princes from

Spain, who sought Charlemagne's help against the tyranny of the Caliph

of Cordova. He was induced by religious or ambitious motives to consent,

neglecting for the time the great work he had undertaken in his own

Empire. In the summer of 778 he crossed the Pyrenees, took the cities of

Pampeluna and Saragossa, and delivered all Spain north of the Ebro river

from the hands of the Saracen Caliph. This territory was attached to the

Empire as the Spanish Mark, or province: it was inhabited both by

Saracens and Franks, who dwelt side by side and became more or less

united in language, habits and manners.



On his return to France, Charlemagne was attacked by a large force of

the native Basques, in the pass of Roncesvalles, in the Pyrenees. His

warriors, taken by surprise in the narrow ravine and crushed by rocks

rolled down upon them from above, could make little resistance, and the

rear column, with all the plunder gathered in Spain, fell into the

enemy's hands. Here was slain the famous paladin, Roland, the Count of

Brittany, who became the theme of poets down to the time of Ariosto.

Charlemagne was so infuriated by his defeat that he hanged the Duke of

Aquitaine, on the charge of treachery, because his territory included a

part of the lands of the Basques.



Upon the heels of this disaster came the news that the Saxons had again

arisen under the lead of Wittekind, destroyed their churches, murdered

the priests, and carried fire and sword to the very walls of Cologne and

Coblentz. Charlemagne sent his best troops, by forced marches, in

advance of his coming, but he was not able to take the field until the

following spring. During 779 and a part of 780, after much labor and

many battles, he seemed to have subdued the stubborn race, the most of

whom accepted Christian baptism for the third time. Charlemagne

thereupon went to Italy once more, in order to restore order among the

Longobards, whose local chiefs were becoming restless in his absence.

His two young sons, Pippin and Ludwig, were crowned by Pope Adrian as

kings of Longobardia, or Lombardy (which then embraced the greater part

of Northern and Central Italy), and Aquitaine.



[Sidenote: 783.]



After his return to Germany, he convoked a parliament, or popular

assembly, at Paderborn, in 782, partly in order to give the Saxons a

stronger impression of the power of the Empire. The people seemed quiet,

and he was deceived by their bearing; for, after he had left them to

return to the Rhine, they rose again, headed by Wittekind, who had been

for some years a fugitive in Denmark. Three of Charlemagne's chief

officials, who immediately hastened to the scene of trouble with such

troops as they could collect, met Wittekind in the Teutoburger Forest,

not far from the field where Varus and his legions were destroyed. A

similar fate awaited them: the Frank army was so completely cut to

pieces that but few escaped to tell the tale.



Charlemagne marched immediately into the Saxon land: the rebels

dispersed at his approach and Wittekind again became a fugitive. The

Saxon nobles humbly renewed their submission, and tried to throw the

whole responsibility of the rebellion upon Wittekind. Charlemagne was

not satisfied: he had been mortified in his pride as a monarch, and for

once he cast aside his usual moderation and prudence. He demanded that

4,500 Saxons, no doubt the most prominent among the people, should be

given up to him, and then ordered them all to be beheaded on the same

day. This deed of blood, instead of intimidating the Saxons, provoked

them to fury. They arose as one man, and in 783 defeated Charlemagne

near Detmold. He retreated to Paderborn, received reinforcements, and

was enabled to venture a second battle, in which he was victorious. He

remained for two years longer in Thuringia and Saxony, during which time

he undertook a winter campaign, for which the people were not prepared.

By the summer of 785, the Saxons, finding their homes destroyed and

themselves rapidly diminishing in numbers, yielded to the mercy of the

conqueror. Wittekind, who, the legend says, had stolen in disguise into

Charlemagne's camp, was so impressed by the bearing of the king and the

pomp of the religious services, that he also submitted and received

baptism. One account states that Charlemagne named him Duke of the

Saxons and was thenceforth his friend; another, that he sank into

obscurity.



[Sidenote: 788. SUBJECTION OF BAVARIA.]



Charlemagne was now free to make another journey to Italy, where he

suppressed some fresh troubles among the Lombards (as we must henceforth

style the Longobards), and forced Aragis, the Duke of Benevento, to

render his submission. Then, for the first time, he turned his attention

to the Bavarians, whose Duke, Tassilo, had preserved an armed neutrality

during the previous wars, but was suspected of secretly conspiring with

the Lombards, Byzantines, and even the Avars, for help to enable him to

throw off the Frank yoke. At a general diet of the whole empire, held in

Worms in 787, Tassilo did not appear, and Charlemagne made this a

pretext for invading Bavaria.



Three armies, in Italy, Suabia and Thuringia, were set in motion at the

same time, and resistance appeared so hopeless that Tassilo surrendered

at once. Charlemagne pardoned him at first, under stipulations of

stricter dependence, but he was convicted of conspiracy at a diet held

the following year, when he and his sons were found guilty and sent into

a monastery. His dynasty came to an end, and Bavaria was portioned out

among a number of Frank Counts, the people, nevertheless, being allowed

to retain their own political institutions.



The incorporation of Bavaria with the Frank empire brought a new task to

Charlemagne. The Avars, who had gradually extended their rule across the

Alps, nearly to the Adriatic, were strong and dangerous neighbors. In

791 he entered their territory and laid it waste, as far as the river

Raab; then, having lost all his horses on the march, he was obliged to

return. At home, a new trouble awaited him. His son, Pippin, whom he had

installed as king of Lombardy, was discovered to be at the head of a

conspiracy to usurp his own throne. Pippin was terribly flogged, and

then sent into a monastery for the rest of his days; his

fellow-conspirators were executed.



When Charlemagne applied his system of military conscription to the

Saxons, to recruit his army before renewing the war with the Avars, they

rose once more in rebellion, slew his agents, burned the churches, and

drove out the priests, who had made themselves hated by their despotism

and by claiming a tenth part of the produce of the land. Charlemagne was

thus obliged to subdue them and to fight the Avars, at the same time.

The double war lasted until 796, when the residence of the Avar Khan,

with the intrenched "ring" or fort, containing all the treasures

amassed by the tribe during the raids of two hundred years, was

captured. All the country, as far eastward as the rivers Theiss and

Raab, was wasted and almost depopulated. The remnant of the Avars

acknowledged themselves Frank subjects, but for greater security,

Charlemagne established Bavarian colonies in the fertile land along the

Danube. The latter formed a province, called the East-Mark, which became

the foundation upon which Austria (the East-kingdom) afterwards rose.



[Sidenote: 799.]



The Saxons were subjected--or seemed to be--about the same time. Many of

the people retreated into Holstein, which was then called

North-Albingia; but Charlemagne allied himself with a branch of the

Slavonic Wends, defeated them there, and took possession of their

territory. He built fortresses at Halle, Magdeburg, and Buechen, near

Hamburg, colonized 10,000 Saxons among the Franks, and replaced them by

an equal number of the latter. Then he established Christianity for the

fifth time, by ordering that all who failed to present themselves for

baptism should be put to death. The indomitable spirit of the people

still led to occasional outbreaks, but these became weaker and weaker,

and finally ceased as the new faith struck deeper root.



In the year 799, Pope Leo III. suddenly appeared in Charlemagne's camp

at Paderborn, a fugitive from a conspiracy of the Roman nobles, by which

his life was threatened. He was received with all possible honors, and

after some time spent in secret councils, was sent back to Rome with a

strong escort. In the autumn of the following year, Charlemagne followed

him. A civil and ecclesiastical assembly was held at Rome, and

pronounced the Pope free from the charges made against him; then (no

doubt according to previous agreement) on Christmas-Day, 800, Leo III.

crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor, in the Cathedral of St. Peter's.

The people greeted him with cries of "Life and victory to Carolo

Augusto, crowned by God, the great, the peace-bringing Emperor of the

Romans!"



If, by this step, the Pope seemed to forget the aspirations of the

Church for temporal power, on the other hand he rendered himself forever

independent of his nominal subjection to the Byzantine Emperors. For

Charlemagne, the new dignity gave his rule its full and final authority.

The people, in whose traditions the grandeur of the old Roman Empire

were still kept alive, now beheld it renewed in their ruler and

themselves. Charlemagne stood at the head of an Empire which was to

include all Christendom, and to imitate, in its civil organization, the

spiritual rule of the Church. On the one side were kingdoms, duchies,

countships and the communities of the people, all subject to him; on the

other side, bishoprics, monasteries and their dependencies, churches and

individual souls, subject to the Pope. The latter acknowledged the

Emperor as his temporal sovereign: the Emperor acknowledged the Pope as

his spiritual sovereign. The idea was grand, and at that time did not

seem impossible to fulfil; but the further course of history shows how

hostile the two principles may become, when they both grasp at the same

power.



[Sidenote: 800. CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE.]



The Greek Emperors at Constantinople were not strong enough to protest

against this bestowal of a dignity which they claimed for themselves. A

long series of negotiations followed, the result of which was that the

Emperor Nicephorus, in 812, acknowledged Charlemagne's title. The

latter, immediately after his coronation in Rome, drew up a new oath of

allegiance, which he required to be taken by the whole male population

of the Empire. About this time, he entered into friendly relations with

the famous Caliph, Haroun Alraschid of Bagdad. They sent embassies,

bearing magnificent presents, to each other's courts, and at

Charlemagne's request, Haroun took the holy places in Palestine under

his special protection, and allowed the Christians to visit them.



With the Saracens in Spain, however, the Emperor had constant trouble.

They made repeated incursions across the Ebro, into the Spanish Mark,

and ravaged the shores of Majorca, Minorca and Corsica, which belonged

to the Frank Empire. Moreover, the extension of his frontier on the east

brought Charlemagne into collision with the Slavonic tribes in the

territory now belonging to Prussia beyond the Elbe, Saxony and Bohemia.

He easily defeated them, but could not check their plundering and roving

propensities. In the year 808, Holstein as far as the Elbe was invaded

by the Danish king, Gottfried, who, after returning home with much

booty, commenced the construction of that line of defence along the

Eider river, called the Dannewerk, which exists to this day.



Charlemagne had before this conquered and annexed Friesland. His Empire

thus included all France, Switzerland and Germany, stretching eastward

along the Danube to Presburg, with Spain to the Ebro, and Italy to the

Garigliano river, the later boundary between Rome and Naples. There were

no wars serious enough to call him into the field during the latter

years of his reign, and he devoted his time to the encouragement of

learning and the arts. He established schools, fostered new branches of

industry, and sought to build up the higher civilization which follows

peace and order. He was very fond of the German language, and by his

orders a complete collection was made of the songs and poetical legends

of the people. Forsaking Paris, which had been the Frank capital for

nearly three centuries, he removed his Court to Aix-la-Chapelle and

Ingelheim, near the Rhine, founded the city of Frankfort on the Main,

and converted, before he died, all that war-wasted region into a

peaceful and populous country.



[Sidenote: 810.]



No ruler before Charlemagne, and none for at least four centuries after

him, did so much to increase and perpetuate the learning of his time.

During his meals, some one always read aloud to him out of old

chronicles or theological works. He spoke Latin fluently, and had a good

knowledge of Greek. In order to become a good writer, he carried his

tablets about with him, and even slept with them under his pillow. The

men whom he assembled at his Court were the most intelligent of that

age. His chaplain and chief counsellor was Alcuin, an English monk, and

a man of great learning. His secretary, Einhard (or Eginhard) wrote a

history of the Emperor's life and times. Among his other friends were

Paul Diaconus, a learned Lombard, and the chronicler, Bishop Turpin.

These men formed, with Charlemagne, a literary society, which held

regular meetings to discuss matters of science, politics and literature.



Under Charlemagne the political institutions of the Merovingian kings,

as well as those which existed among the German races, were materially

changed. As far as possible, he set aside the Dukes, each of whom, up to

that time, was the head of a tribe or division of the people, and broke

up their half-independent states into districts, governed by Counts.

These districts were divided into "hundreds," as in the old Germanic

times, each in charge of a noble, who every week acted as judge in

smaller civil or criminal cases. The Counts, in conjunction with from

seven to twelve magistrates, held monthly courts wherein cases which

concerned life, freedom or landed property were decided. They were also

obliged to furnish a certain number of soldiers when called upon. The

same obligation rested upon the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of the

monasteries, all of whom, together with the Counts, were called Vassals

of the Empire.



[Sidenote: 810. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.]



The free men, in case of war, were compelled to serve as horsemen or

foot-soldiers, according to their wealth, either three or five of the

very poorest furnishing one well-equipped man. The soldiers were not

only not paid, but each was obliged to bear his own expenses; so the

burden fell very heavily upon this class of the people. In order to

escape it, large numbers of the poorer freemen voluntarily became

dependents of the nobility or clergy, who in return equipped and

supported them. The national assemblies were still annually held, but

the people, in becoming dependents, gradually lost their ancient

authority, and their votes ceased to control the course of events. The

only part they played in the assemblies was to bring tribute to the

Emperor, to whom they paid no taxes, and whose court was kept up partly

from their offerings and partly from the revenues of the "domains" or

crown-lands. Thus, while Charlemagne introduced throughout his whole

empire a unity of government and an order unknown before, while he

anticipated Prussia in making all his people liable, at any time, to

military service, on the other hand he was slowly and unconsciously

changing the free Germans into a race of lords and serfs.



It is not likely, either, that the people themselves saw the tendency of

his government. Their respect and love for him increased, as the

comparative peace of the Empire allowed him to turn to interests which

more immediately concerned their lives. In his ordinary habits he was as

simple as they. His daughters spun and wove the flax for his plain linen

garments; personally he looked after his orchards and vegetable gardens,

set the schools an example by learning to improve his own reading and

writing, treated high and low with equal frankness and heartiness, and,

even in his old age, surpassed all around him in feats of strength or

endurance. There seemed to be no serfdom in bowing to a man so

magnificently endowed by nature and so favored by fortune.



One event came to embitter his last days. The Scandinavian Goths, now

known as Norsemen, were beginning to build their "sea-dragons" and

sally forth on voyages of plunder and conquest. They laid waste the

shores of Holland and Northern France, and the legend says that

Charlemagne burst into tears of rage and shame, on perceiving his

inability to subdue them or prevent their incursions. One of his last

acts was to order the construction of a fleet at Boulogne, but when it

was ready the Norse Vikings suddenly appeared in the Mediterranean and

ravaged the southern coast of France. Charlemagne began too late to make

the Germans either a naval or a commercial people: his attempt to unite

the Main and Danube by a canal also failed, but the very design shows

his wise foresight and his energy.



[Sidenote: 813.]



Towards the end of the year 813, feeling his death approaching, he

called an Imperial Diet together at Aix-la-Chapelle, to recognize his

son Ludwig as his successor. After this was done, he conducted Ludwig to

the Cathedral, made him vow to be just and God-fearing in his rule, and

then bade him take the Imperial crown from the altar and set it upon his

head. On the 28th of January, 814, Charlemagne died, and was buried in

the Cathedral, where his ashes still repose.