they cried, 'for we are now thy people!' but there were many
who, abhorring the Frank yoke, fled towards the south, and
threw themselves under the protection of the Ostrogothic king,
who had possessed himself of the ancient Rhætia and
Vindelicia."
T. Smith,
Arminius,
part 2, chapter 4.
The sons of Clovis pushed their conquests on the Germanic as
well as on the Gallic side of the Rhine. Theodoric, or
Theuderik, who reigned at Metz, with the aid of his brother
Clotaire, or Chlother, of Soissons, subjugated the
Thuringians, between A. D. 515 and 528. "How he [Theuderik]
acquired authority over the Alemans and the Bavarians is not
known. Perhaps in the subjugation of Thuringia he had taken
occasion to extend his sway over other nations; but from this
time forth we find not only these, but the Saxons more to the
north, regarded as the associates or tributaries of the
Eastern or Ripuarian Franks. From the Elbe to the Meuse, and
from the Northern Ocean to the sources of the Rhine, a region
comprising a great part of ancient Germany, the ascendency of
the Franks was practically acknowledged, and a kingdom was
formed [Austrasia--Oster-rike--the Eastern Kingdom] which was
destined to overshadow all the other Mérovingian states; The
various tribes which composed its Germanic accretions, remote
and exempt from the influences of the Roman civilization,
retained their fierce customs and their rude superstitions,
and continued to be governed by their hereditary dukes; but
their wild masses marched under the standards of the Franks,
and conceded to those formidable conquerors a certain degree
of political supremacy." When, in 558, Clotaire, by the death
of his brothers, became the sole king of the Franks, his
empire embraced all Roman Gaul, except Septimania, still held
by the Visigoths, and Brittany, but slightly subjected; "while
in ancient Germany, from the Rhine to the Weser, the powerful
duchies of the Alemans, the Thuringians, the Bavarians, the
Frisons, and the Saxons, were regarded not entirely as
subject, and yet as tributary provinces." During the next
century and a half, the feebleness of the Merovingians lost
their hold upon these German tributaries. "As early as the
time of Chlother II. the Langobards had recovered their
freedom; under Dagobert [622-638], the Saxons; under Sighebert
II. [638-656], the Thuringians; and now, during the late
broils [670-687], the Alemans, the Bavarians and the Frisons."
But the vigorous Mayors of the Palace, Pepin Heristal and Karl
Martel, applied themselves resolutely to the restoration of
the Frank supremacy, in Germany as well as in Aquitaine. Pepin
"found the task nearly impossible. Time and again he assailed the
Frisons, the Saxons, the Bavarians, and the Alemans, but could
bind them to no truce nor peace for any length of time. No
less than ten times the Frisons resumed their arms, while the
revolts of the others were so incessant that he was compelled
to abandon all hope of recovering the southern or Roman part
of Gaul, in order to direct his attention exclusively to the
Germans. The aid which he received from the Christian
missionaries rendered him more successful among them. Those
intrepid propagandists pierced where his armies could not. ...
The Franks and the Popes of Rome had a common interest in this
work of the conversion of the Germans, the Franks to restrain
irruptions, and the Popes to carry their spiritual sway over
Europe." Pepin left these unfinished German wars to his son
Karl, the Hammer, and Karl prosecuted them with characteristic
energy during his first years of power. "Almost every month he
was forced into some expedition beyond the Rhine. ... The
Alemans, the Bavarians, and the Frisons, he succeeded in
subjecting to a formal confession at least of the Frankish
supremacy; but the turbulent and implacable Saxons baffled his
most strenuous efforts. Their wild tribes had become, within a
few years, a powerful and numerous nation; they had
appropriated the lands of the Thuringians and Hassi, or Catti,
and joined to themselves other confederations and tribes; and,
stretching from the Rhine to the Elbe, offered their marshes
and forests a free asylum to all the persecuted sectaries of
Odhinn, to all the lovers of native and savage independence.
Six times in succession the armies of Karl penetrated the
wilderness they called their home, ravaging their fields and
burning their cabins, but the Saxon war was still renewed. He
left it to the energetic labors of other conquerors, to
Christian missionaries, ... to break the way of civilization
into those rude and darkened realms." Karl's sons Pepin and
Karloman crushed revolts of the Alemans, or Suabians, and the
Bavarians in 742, and Karloman humbled the Saxons in a great
campaign (744), compelling them in large numbers to submit to
Christian baptism. After that, Germany waited for its first
entire master--Charlemagne.
P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapters 12-15.
ALSO IN:
W. C. Perry,
The Franks,
chapters 2-6.
See, also,
FRANKS, and AUSTRASIA.
{1433 moved here for continuity}
FIFTH CENTURY.
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.
* Uncertain date.
A. D. 402.
Defeat of Alaric by Stilicho.
Birth of Phocion* (d. 317).
404.
Removal of the capital of the Western Empire from Rome to
Ravenna.*
Banishment of the Patriarch, John Chrysostom, from
Constantinople; burning of the Church of Saint Sophia.
406.
Barbarian inroad of Radagaisus into Italy.
Breaking of the Rhine barrier by German tribes;
overwhelming invasion of Gaul by Vandals, Alans, Suevi, and
Burgundians.
407.
Usurpation of Constantine in Britain and Gaul.
408.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Arcadius, and accession of
Theodosius II.
Execution of Stilicho at Ravenna;
massacre of barbarian hostages in Italy;
blockade of Rome by Alaric.
409.
Invasion of Spain by the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans.
410.
Siege, capture and pillage of Rome by Alaric; his death.
Abandonment of Britain by the Empire.
The barbarian attack upon Gaul joined by the Franks.
412.
Gaul entered by the Visigoths
Cyril made Patriarch of Alexandria.
414.
Title of Augusta taken by Pulcheria at Constantinople.
415.
Visigothic conquest of Spain begun.
Persecution of Jews at Alexandria; death of Hypatia.
418.
Founding of the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse in Aquitaine.
422.
War between Persia and the Eastern Empire
partition of Armenia.
423.
Death of Honorius, Emperor in the West;
usurpation of John the Notary.
425.
Accession of the Western Emperor, Valentinian III., under the
regency of Placidia; formal and legal separation of the
Eastern and Western Empires.
428.
Conquests of the Vandals in Spain.
Nestorius made Patriarch of Constantinople.
429.
Vandal conquests in Africa begun.
430.
Siege of Hippo Regius in Africa;
death of Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo.
431.
Third General Council of the Church, held at Ephesus.
433.
Beginning of the reign of Attila, king of the Huns. *
435.
Nestorius exiled to the Libyan desert.
439.
Carthage taken by the Vandals.
440.
Leo the Great elected Pope.
441.
Invasion of the Eastern Empire by Attila and the Huns.
443.
Conquest and settlement of Savoy by the Burgundians.
446.
Thermopylæ passed by the Huns;
humiliating purchase of peace with them by the Eastern
Emperor.
449.
Landing in Britain of the Jutes under Hengist and Horsa.*
Meeting of the so-called Robber Synod at Ephesus.
450.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II., and accession of
Pulcheria.
451.
Great defeat of the Huns at Chalons;
retreat of Attila from Gaul.
Fourth General Council of the Church, held at Chalcedon.
452.
Invasion of Italy by Attila; origin of Venice.
453.
Death of Attila; dissolution of his empire.
Death of Pulcheria, Empress in the East.
455.
Murder of Valentinian III., Emperor in the West;
usurpation of Maximus.
Rome pillaged by the Vandals.
Birth of Theodoric the Great (d. 526).
456.
Supremacy of Ricimer, commander of the barbarian mercenaries,
in the Western Empire; Avitus deposed.
457.
Marjorian, first of the imperial puppets of Ricimer, raised to
the throne of the Western Empire.
Accession of Leo I., Emperor in the East.
461.
Marjorian deposed; Severus made Emperor in the West.
Death of Pope Leo the Great and election of Pope Hilarius.
467.
Anthemius made Emperor in the West.
472.
Siege and storming of Rome by Ricimer;
death of Anthemius, and of Ricimer;
Olybrius and Glycerius successive emperors.
473.
Ostrogothic invasion of Italy diverted to Gaul.
474.
Julius Nepos Emperor in the West;
accession of Zeno in the Eastern Empire.
475.
Romulus Augustulus made Emperor in the West.
476.
Romulus Augustulus dethroned by Odoacer:
extinction for more than three centuries of the Western line
of emperors.
477.
Beginning of Saxon conquests in Britain.
480.
Birth of Saint Benedict (d. 543).
481.
Founding of the Frank kingdom by Clovis.
486.
Overthrow of the kingdom of Syagrius, the last Roman
sovereignty in Gaul.
488.
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, commissioned by the Eastern
Emperor to invade Italy.
489.
Defeat of Odoacer by Theodoric at Verona.
491.
Accession of Anastasius, Emperor in the East.
Capture of Anderida by the South Saxons.
492.
Election of Pope Gelasius I.
493.
Surrender of Odoacer at Ravenna;
his murder;
Theodoric king of Italy.
494. Landing of Cerdic and his band of Saxons in Britain. *
496.
Defeat of the Alemanni at Tolbiac by Clovis, king of the Franks;
baptism of Clovis.
{1434 moved here for continuity}
SIXTH CENTURY.
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.
* Uncertain date.
A. D. 504.
Expulsion of the Alemanni from the Middle Rhine by the Franks.
505.
Peace between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
507.
Overthrow of the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse by Clovis.
511.
Death of Clovis;
partition of the Frank kingdom among his sons.
Monophysite riot at Constantinople.
512.
Second Monophysite riot at Constantinople.
515.
Publication of the monastic rule of Saint Benedict.
518.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Anastasius, and accession of
Justin I.
519.
Cerdic and Cynric become kings of the West Saxons.
525.
Execution of Boethius and Symmachus by Theodoric, king of
Italy.
526.
Death of Theodoric and accession of Athalaric.
Great earthquake at Antioch.
War between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
527.
Accession of Justinian in the Eastern Empire.
528.
Conquest of Thuringia by the Franks.
529.
Defeat of the Persians, at Dara, by the Roman general
Belisarius.
Closing of the schools at Athens.
Publication of the Code of Justinian.
531.
Accession of Chosroes, or Nushirvan, to the throne of Persia.
532.
End of War between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
Nika sedition at Constantinople.
533.
Overthrow of the Vandal kingdom in Africa by Belisarius.
Publication of the Pandects of Justinian.
534.
Conquest of the Burgundians by the Franks.
535.
Recovery of Sicily from the Goths by Belisarius.
536.
Rome taken from the Goths by Belisarius for Justinian.
537.
Unsuccessful siege of Rome by the Goths.
539.
Destruction of Milan by the Goths.
Invasion of Italy by the Franks.
540.
Surrender of Ravenna to Belisarius;
his removal from command.
Invasion of Syria by Chosroes, king of Persia;
storming and sacking of Antioch.
Formal relinquishment of Gaul to the Franks by Justinian.
Vigilius made Pope.
541.
Gothic successes under Totila, in Italy.
End of the succession of. Roman Consuls.
Defense of the East by Belisarius.
542.
Great Plague in the Roman Empire.
543.
Surrender of Naples to Totila.
Death of Saint Benedict.
Invasion of Spain by the Franks.
544.
Belisarius again in command in Italy.
546.
Totila's siege, capture and pillage of Rome.
547.
The city of Rome totally deserted for six weeks.
Founding of the kingdom of Bernicia (afterward included in
Northumberland) in England.
Subjection of the Bavarians to the Franks.
548.
Death of the Eastern Empress, Theodora.
549.
Second siege and capture of Rome by Totila.
Beginning of the Lazic War.
552.
Totila defeated and killed by the imperial army under Narses.
553.
End of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy;
restoration of the imperial sovereignty.
Fifth General Council of the Church, at Constantinople.
Establishment of the Exarch at Ravenna, representing the
Emperor at Constantinople.
555.
Pelagius I. made Pope.
558.
Reunion of the Frank empire under Clothaire I.
560.
John III. made Pope.
563.
Founding of the monastery of Iona, in Scotland, by Saint Columba.
565.
Death of Belisarius and of the Eastern Emperor Justinian;
accession of Justin II.
566.
Conquest of the Gepidæ in Dacia by the Lombards and Avars.
567.
Division of the Frank dominion into the three kingdoms of
Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy.
568.
Invasion of Italy by the Lombards;
siege of Pavia.
570.
Birth of Mahomet. *
572.
Renewed war of the Eastern Empire with Persia.
573.
Murder of Alboin, king of the Lombards.
Subjugation of the Suevi by the Visigoths in Spain.
574.
Benedict I. made Pope.
578.
Accession of the Eastern Emperor Tiberius Constantinus.
Pelagius II. made Pope.
582.
Accession of Maurice, Emperor in the East.
588.
Kingdom of Northumberland, in England, founded by the union of
Bernicia and Deira under Æthelric.
589.
Abandonment of Arianism by the Goths in Spain.
590.
Gregory the Great elected Pope.
591.
Peace between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
597.
Mission of Saint Augustine to England.
Death of Saint Columba.
---------End of moved pages 1433 and 1434----------
{1436}
GERMANY: A. D. 687-800.
Rise of the Carolingians and the Empire of Charlemagne.
"Towards the close of the Merovingian period, ... the kingdom
of the Franks ... was divided into four great districts, or
kingdoms as they were called: Austrasia, or the eastern
kingdom, from the river Rhine to the Meuse, with Metz as its
principal city; Neustria, or the western kingdom, extending
from Austrasia to the ocean on the west, and to the Loire on
the south; Aquitaine, south of that river to the foot of the
Pyrenees; and Burgundy, from the Rhone to the Alps, including
Switzerland. These four kingdoms became, before the extinction
of the Merovingian race, consolidated into two,--viz., Austrasia
and Neustria, Eastern and Western Francia,--modern Germany
and modern France, roughly speaking,--of which the first was
to gain the pre-eminence, as it was the seat of the power of
that race of Charlemagne which seized upon the kingdoms of the
Merovingians. But in these kingdoms, while the family of
Clovis occupied them, the royal power became more and more
feeble as time went on, a condition which is illustrated by
the title given in history to these kings,--that of 'rois
fainéants.'... The most powerful officer of a Frankish king
was his steward, or, as he was called, the mayor of his
palace. ... In Austrasia the office had become hereditary in
the family of Pepin of Landen (a small village near Liège),
and under its guidance the degenerate children of Clovis in
that kingdom fought for the supremacy with those equally
degenerate in Neustria, at that time also under the real
control of another mayor of the palace, called Ebroin. The
result of this struggle, after much bloodshed and misery, was
reached in the year 687 at the battle of Testry, in which the
Austrasians completely defeated the Neustrians. ... The
Merovingian princes were still nominally kings, while all the
real power was in the hands of the descendants of Pepin of
Landen, mayors of the palace, and the policy of government was
as fully settled by them as if they had been kings de jure as
well as de facto. This family produced in its earlier days
some persons who have become among the most conspicuous
figures in history:--Pepin, the founder; Pepin le Gros, of
Héristal; Charles, his son, commonly called Martel, or the
Hammerer; Pepin le Bref, under whom the Carlovingian dynasty
was, by aid of the Pope, recognized as the lawful successor of
the Merovingians, even before the extinction of that race;
and, lastly, Charles, surnamed the Great, or Charlemagne, one
of the few men of the human race who, by common consent, have
occupied the foremost rank in history. ... The object of Pepin
of Héristal was two-fold,--to repress the disposition of the
turbulent nobles to encroach upon the royal authority, and to
bring again under the yoke of the Franks those tribes in
Germany who had revolted against the Frankish rule owing to
the weakness of the Merovingian government. He measurably
accomplished both objects. ... He seems to have had what
perhaps is the best test at all times of the claims of a man
to be a real statesman: some consciousness of the true nature
of his mission,--the establishment of order. ... His son and
successor, Charles Martel, was even more conspicuous for the
possession of this genius of statesmanship, but he exhibited
it in a somewhat different direction. He, too, strove to hold
the nobles in check, and to break the power of the Frisian and
the Saxon tribes; and he fought besides, fortunately for his
fame, one of the fifteen decisive battles in the history of
the world, that of Poitiers, in 732, by which the Saracens,
who had conquered Spain, and who had strong hopes of gaining
possession of the whole of Western Europe, were driven back
from Northern France, never to return. ... His son, Pepin le
Bref, is equally conspicuous with the rest in history, but in
a somewhat different way. He continued the never-ending wars
in Germany and in Gaul with the object of securing peace by
the sword, and with more or less success. But his career is
noteworthy principally because he completed the actual
deposition of the last of the Merovingian race, whose nominal
servants but real masters he and his predecessors, mayors of
the palace, had been, and because he sought and obtained the
sanction of the Church for this usurpation. ... The Pope's
position at this time was one of very great embarrassment.
Harassed by the Lombards, who were not only robbers, but who
were also Arians, and who admitted none of the Catholic clergy
to their councils,--with no succor from the Emperors at
Constantinople (whose subject he nominally was) against the
Lombards, and, indeed, in open revolt against them because as
bishop and patriarch of the West he had forbidden the
execution of the decree against the placing of images in the
churches,--for these and many such reasons he sorely needed
succor, and naturally in his necessity he turned to the
powerful King of the Franks. The coronation of Pepin le Bref,
first by St. Boniface, and then by the Pope himself, was the
first step in the fulfilment of the alliance on his part.
Pepin was soon called upon to do his share of the work. Twice
at the bidding of the Pope he descended from the Alps, and,
defeating the Lombards, was rewarded by him and the people of
Rome with the title of Patrician. ... On the death of Pepin,
the Lombards again took up arms and harassed the Church's
territory. Charlemagne, his successor, was called upon to come
to the rescue, and he swept the Lombard power in Italy out of
existence, annexing its territory to the Frankish kingdom, and
confirming the grant of the Exarchate and of the Pentapolis
which his father had made to the Popes. This was in the year
774. ... For twenty-five years Charlemagne ruled Rome
nominally as Patrician, under the supremacy, equally nominal,
of the Emperor at Constantinople. The true sovereign,
recognized as such, was the Pope or Bishop of Rome, but the
actual power was in the hands of the mob, who at one time
towards the close of the century, in the absence of both
Emperor and Patrician, assaulted the Pope while conducting a
procession, and forced him to abandon the city. This Pope,
Leo, with a fine instinct as to the quarter from which succor
could alone come, hurried to seek Charlemagne, who was then in
Germany engaged in one of his never-ending wars against the
Saxons. The appeal for aid was not made in vain, and Charles
descended once more from the Alps in the summer of 799, with
his Frankish hosts. On Christmas day, A. D. 800, in the Church
of St. Peter ... Pope Leo, during the mass, and after the
reading of the gospel, placed upon the brow of Charlemagne,
who had abandoned his northern furs for the dress of a Roman
patrician, the diadem of the Cæsars, and hailed him Imperator
Semper Augustus, while the multitude shouted, 'Carolo, Augusto
a Deo coronato magno et pacifico Imperatori Vita et Victoria.'
In that shout and from that moment one of the most fruitful
epochs of history begins."
C. J. Stillé,
Studies in Mediæval History,
chapter 3.
See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 768-814.
{1437}
GERMANY: A. D. 800.
Charlemagne's restoration of the Roman Empire.
"Three hundred and twenty-four years had passed since the last
Cæsar of the West resigned his power into the hands of the
senate, and left to his Eastern brother the sole headship of
the Roman world. To the latter Italy had from that time been
nominally subject; but it was only during one brief interval,
between the death of Totila the last Ostrogothic king and the
descent of Alboin the first Lombard, that his power had been
really effective. In the further provinces, Gaul, Spain,
Britain, it was only a memory. But the idea of a Roman Empire
as a necessary part of the world's order had not vanished: it
had been admitted by those who seemed to be destroying it; it
had been cherished by the Church; was still recalled by laws
and customs; was dear to the subject populations, who fondly
looked back to the days when slavery was at least mitigated by
peace and order. ... Both the extinction of the Western Empire
in [A.D. 476] ... and its revival in A. D. 800 have been very
generally misunderstood in modern times. ... When Odoacer
compelled the abdication of Romulus Augustulus, he did not
abolish the Western Empire as a separate power, but caused it
to be reunited with or sink into the Eastern, so that from
that time there was, as there had been before Diocletian, a
single undivided Roman Empire. In A. D. 800 the very memory of
the separate Western Empire, as it had stood from the death of
Theodosius till Odoacer, had, so far as appears, been long
since lost, and neither Leo nor Charles nor anyone among their
advisers dreamt of reviving it. They, too, like their
predecessors, held the Roman Empire to be one and indivisible,
and proposed by the coronation of the Frankish king, not to
proclaim a severance of the East and West, but to reverse the
act of Constantine, and make Old Rome again the civil as well
as the ecclesiastical capital of the Empire that bore her
name. ... Although therefore we must in practice speak during
the next seven centuries (down till A. D. 1453, when
Constantinople fell before the Mohammedan) of an Eastern and a
Western Empire, the phrase is in strictness incorrect, and was
one which either court ought to have repudiated. The
Byzantines always did repudiate it; the Latins usually;
although, yielding to facts, they sometimes condescended to
employ it themselves. But their theory was always the same.
Charles was held to be the legitimate successor, not of
Romulus Augustulus, but of Basil, Heraclius, Justinian,
Arcadius, and all the Eastern line. ... North Italy and Rome
ceased for ever to own the supremacy of Byzantium; and while
the Eastern princes paid a shameful tribute to the Mussulman,
the Frankish Emperor--as the recognised head of
Christendom--received from the patriarch of Jerusalem the keys
of the Holy Sepulchre and the banner of Calvary; the gift of
the Sepulchre itself, says Eginhard, from Aaron king of the
Persians [the Caliph Haroun el Rashid]. ... Four centuries
later, when Papacy and Empire had been forced into the mortal
struggle by which the fate of both was decided, three distinct
theories regarding the coronation of Charles will be found
advocated by three different parties, all of them plausible,
all of them to some extent misleading. The Swabian Emperors
held the crown to have been won by their great predecessor as
the prize of conquest, and drew the conclusion that the
citizens and bishop of Rome had no rights as against
themselves. The patriotic party among the Romans, appealing to
the early history of the Empire, declared that by nothing but the
voice of their senate and people could an Emperor be lawfully
created, he being only their chief magistrate, the temporary
depositary of their authority. The Popes pointed to the
indisputable fact that Leo imposed the crown, and argued that
as God's earthly vicar it was then his, and must always
continue to be their right to give to whomsoever they would an
office which was created to be the handmaid of their own. Of
these three it was the last view that eventually prevailed."
J. Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire,
chapter 4-5.
ALSO IN:
J. I. Mombert,
History of Charles the Great,
chapter 14.
See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 768-814.
GERMANY: A. D. 805.
Conquest of the Avars.
Creation of the Austrian March.
See AVARS, and AUSTRIA: A. D. 805-1246.
GERMANY: A. D. 814-843.
Division of the Empire of Charlemagne.
"There was a manifest conflict, during his later years, in the
court, in the councils, in the mind of Charlemagne [who died
in 814], between the King of the Franks and the Emperor of the
West; between the dissociating, independent Teutonic
principle, and the Roman principle of one code, one dominion,
one sovereign. The Church, though Teutonic in descent, was
Roman in the sentiment of unity. ... That unity had been
threatened by the proclaimed division of the realm between the
sons of Charlemagne. The old Teutonic usage of equal
distribution seemed doomed to prevail over the august unity of
the Roman Empire. What may appear more extraordinary, the
kingdom of Italy was the inferior appanage: it carried not
with it the Empire, which was still to retain a certain
supremacy; that was reserved for the Teutonic sovereign. It
might seem as if this were but the continuation of the Lombard
kingdom, which Charlemagne still held by the right of
conquest. It was bestowed on Pepin; after his death entrusted
to Bernhard, Pepin's illegitimate but only son. Wiser counsels
prevailed. The two elder sons of Charlemagne died without
issue; Louis the third son was summoned from his kingdom of
Aquitaine, and solemnly crowned [813] at Aix-la-Chapelle, as
successor to the whole Empire."
H. H. Milman,
History of Latin Christianity,
book 5, chapter 2 (volume 2).
{1438}
"Instead of being preoccupied with the care of keeping the
empire united, Louis divided it in the year 817 by giving
kingdoms to his three sons. The eldest, Lothaire, had Italy;
Louis, Bavaria; Pepin, Aquitaine. A nephew of the emperor,
Bernard, imagined himself wronged by this partition, and took
up arms to hold Italy. Vanquished without striking a blow, he
delivered himself up to his uncle, who caused his eyes to be
put out. He expired under that torture. Louis reproached
himself later for that cruel death, and to expiate it,
subjected himself to a public penance. In 823, there was born
to him a fourth son. To make him a sharer of his inheritance,
the emperor, annulling in 829 the partition of 817, gave him
Germany, thus depriving his elder sons of part of the
inheritance previously assigned them. This provoked the
resentment of those princes; they rose in rebellion against
their father, and the rest of the reign of Louis was only a
succession of impious contests with his turbulent sons. In
833, he deposed Pepin, and gave his kingdom of Aquitaine to
his youngest born, Charles. Twice deposed himself, and twice
restored, Louis only emerged from the cloister, for which he
was so well fitted, to repeat the same faults. When Louis the
Good-natured died in 840, it was not his cause only which he
had lost through his weakness, but that of the empire. Those
intestine quarrels presaged its dismemberment, which ere long
happened. The sons of Louis, to serve their own ambition, had
revived the national antipathies of the different races.
Lothaire placed himself at the head of the Italians; Louis
rallied the Germans round him, and Charles the Bald the Franks
of Gaul, who were henceforward called Frenchmen. Those three
peoples aspired to break up the union whose bond Charlemagne
had imposed upon them, as the three brothers aspired to form
each for himself a kingdom. The question was decided at the
great battle of Fontanet, near Auxerre, in 841. Lothaire, who
fought therein for the preservation of the empire and of his
authority, was conquered. By the treaty of Verdun [843--see
VERDUN, TREATY OF] it was decided that Louis should have
Germany to the east of the Rhine; Charles, France to the west
of the Scheld, the Meuse, the Saone, and the Rhone; finally,
Lothaire, Italy, with the long range of country comprised
between the Alps and the Cevennes, the Jura, the Saone, the
Rhine, and the Meuse, which from his name was called
Lotharingia. This designation is still to be traced in one of
the recently French provinces, Lorraine."
S. Menzies,
History of Europe from the Decadence of
the Western Empire to the Reformation,
chapter. 13.
GERMANY: A. D. 843.
Accession of Louis II.
GERMANY: A. D. 843-962.
Treaty of Verdun.
Definite separation from France.
The kingdom of the East Franks.
The partition of the empire of Charlemagne among his three
grandsons, by the Treaty of Verdun, A. D. 843, gave to Charles
the Bald a kingdom which nearly coincided with France, as
afterwards existing under that name, "before its Burgundian
and German annexations.
See VERDUN, TREATY OF;
also, FRANKS: A. D. 814-962.
It also founded a kingdom which roughly answered to the later
Germany before its great extension to the East at the expense
of the Slavonic nations. And as the Western kingdom was formed
by the addition of Aquitaine to the Western Francia, so the
Eastern kingdom was formed by the addition of the Eastern
Francia to Bavaria. Lewis of Bavaria [surnamed 'the German']
became king of a kingdom which we are tempted to call the
kingdom of Germany. Still it would as yet be premature to
speak of France at all, or even to speak of Germany, except in
the geographical sense. The two kingdoms are severally the
kingdoms of the Eastern and of the Western Franks. ... The
Kings had no special titles, and their dominions had no
special names recognized in formal use. Every king who ruled
over any part of the ancient Francia was a king of the Franks.
... The Eastern part of the Frankish dominions, the lot of
Lewis the German and his successors, is thus called the
Eastern Kingdom, the Teutonic Kingdom. Its king is the King of
the East-Franks, sometimes simply the King of the Eastern men,
sometimes the King of Germany. ... The title of King of
Germany is often found in the ninth century as a description,
but it was not a formal title. The Eastern king, like other
kings, for the most part simply calls himself' Rex,' till the
time came when his rank as King of Germany, or of the
East-Franks, became simply a step towards the higher title of
Emperor of the Romans. ... This Eastern or German kingdom, as
it came out of the division of 887 [after the deposition of
Charles III., called Charles the Fat,. who came to the throne
in 881, and who had, momentarily reunited all the Frankish
crowns, except that of Burgundy], had, from north to south,.
nearly the same extent as the Germany of later times. It
stretched from the Alps to the Eider. Its southern boundaries
were somewhat fluctuating. Verona and Aquileia are sometimes
counted as a German march, and the boundary between, Germany
and Burgundy, crossing the modern Switzerland, often changed.
To the north-east the kingdom hardly stretched beyond the
Elbe, except in the small Saxon land between the Elbe and the
Eider [called 'Saxony beyond the Elbe'--modern Holstein]. The
great extension of the German power over the Slavonic lands
beyond the Elbe had hardly yet begun. To the southeast lay the
two border-lands or marks; the Eastern Mark, which grew into
the later duchy of, Oesterreich or the modern Austria, and to
the south of it the mark of Kärnthen or Carinthia. But the
main part of the kingdom consisted of the great duchies of
Saxony, Eastern Francia, Alemannia, and Bavaria. Of these the
two names of Saxony and Bavaria must be carefully marked as
having widely different meanings from those which they bear on
the modern map. Ancient Saxony lies, speaking roughly, between
the Eider, the Elbe, and the Rhine, though it never actually
touches the last-named river. To the south of Saxony lies the
Eastern Francia, the centre and kernel of the German kingdom.
The Main and the Neckar both join the Rhine within its
borders. To the south of Francia lie Alemannia and Bavaria.
This last, it must be remembered, borders on Italy, with
Bötzen for its frontier town. Alemannia is the land in which
both the Rhine and the Danube take their source; it stretches
on both sides of the Bodensee or Lake of Constanz, with the
Rætian Alps as its southern boundary. For several ages to
come, there is no distinction, national or even provincial,
between the lands north and south of the Bodensee."
E. A. Freeman,
Historical Geography of Europe,
chapter 6, section 1.
ALSO IN:
Sir F. Palgrave,
History of Normandy and England,
volumes 1-2.
On the indefiniteness of the name of the Germanic kingdom in
this period,
See FRANCE: 9TH CENTURY.
GERMANY: A. D. 881.
Accession of Charles III. (called The Fat), afterwards King of
all the Franks and Emperor.
GERMANY: A. D. 888.
Accession of Arnulf, afterwards Emperor.
GERMANY: A. D. 899.
Accession of Louis III. (called The Child).
GERMANY: A. D. 911.
Election of Conrad I.
{1439}
GERMANY: A. D. 911-936.
Conrad the Franconian and Henry the Fowler.
Beginning of the Saxon line.
Hungarian invasion.
The building of towns.
In 911, on the death of Louis, surnamed the Child, the German
or East-Frank branch of the dynasty of Charlemagne had become
extinct. "There remained indeed Charles the Simple,
acknowledged as king in some parts of France, but rejected in
others, and possessing no personal claims to respect. The
Germans therefore wisely determined to chose a sovereign from
among themselves. They were at this time divided into five
nations, each under its own duke, and distinguished by
difference of laws, as well as of origin; the Franks, whose
territory, comprising Franconia and the modern Palatinate, was
considered as the cradle of the empire, and who seem to have
arrogated some superiority over the rest, the Suabians, the
Bavarians, the Saxons ... and the Lorrainers, who occupied the
left bank of the Rhine as far as its termination. The choice
of these nations in their general assembly fell upon Conrad,
duke of Franconia, according to some writers, or at least a
man of high rank, and descended through females from
Charlemagne. Conrad dying without male issue, the crown of
Germany was bestowed [A. D. 919] upon Henry the Fowler, duke
of Saxony, ancestor of the three Othos, who followed him in
direct succession. To Henry, and to the first Otho [A. D.
936-973], Germany was more indebted than to any sovereign
since Charlemagne."
H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 5.
"In 924, the Hungarians, who were as much dreaded as the angel
of destruction, re-appeared. They came from the grassy plains
of Hungary, mounted on small and ugly, but strong horses, and
swept along the Danube like a hailstorm. Wherever they came
they set fire to farms, hamlets, and towns, and killed all
living creatures or carried them off. And often they bound
their prisoners to the tails of their horses, and dragged them
along till they died from the dreadful torture. Their very
figures inspired disgust and terror, for their faces were
brown, and disfigured by scars to absolute hideousness; their
heads were shaven, and brutal ferocity and rapacity shone out
of their deep-set eyes. And though the Germans fought bravely,
these enemies always overmatched them, because they appeared
now here, now there, on their fleet horses, and fell upon
isolated districts before they were expected or could be
stopped. ... When on a sudden the terrible cry, 'The
Hungarians are coming, the Hungarians are coming,' resounded
through the land, all fled who could, as if the wild legions
of hell were marching through Saxony and Thuringia. King
Henry, however, would not fly, but encountered them in combat,
like a true knight. Yet he lost the battle, either because he
was ill, or because his soldiers were too few, and
unaccustomed to the enemy's mode of fighting, which enabled
them to conquer while they were fleeing. Henry was obliged to
shut himself up in the royal palace of Werla, near Goslar,
which he bravely defended. The Hungarians stormed it again and
again, but they could not scale the walls; while Henry's men
by a daring sally took a Hungarian chieftain prisoner, which
so terrified the besiegers that they concluded a truce for
nine years on condition that their chief should be released,
and that Henry should engage to pay a yearly tribute. Henry
submitted to the dishonourable sacrifice that he might husband
his strength for better times. ... How important it was to
have fortified places which could not be stormed by cavalry,
and therefore afforded a safe refuge to the neighbouring
peasantry, Henry recognised in 929, when the Hungarians
marched through Bavaria and Suabia to Lorraine, plundered the
time-honoured monastery of St. Gall, and burnt the suburbs of
Constance, but could not take the fortified town itself.
Henry, accordingly, published an order throughout the land,
that at suitable places large fortresses should be built, in
which every ninth man from the neighbouring district must take
garrison duty. Certainly living in towns was contrary to the
customs of the North Germans, and here and there there was
much resistance; but they soon recognised the wisdom of the
royal order, and worked night and day with such diligence that
there soon arose throughout the land towns with stately towers
and strong walls, behind whose battlements the armed burghers
defiantly awaited the Hungarians. Hamburg was then fortified,
Itzehoe built, the walls of Magdeburg, Halle, and Erfurt
extended, for these towns had stood since the time of
Charlemagne. Quedlinburg, Merseburg, Meissen, Wittenberg,
Goslar, Soest, Nordhausen, Duderstadt, Gronau, Pölde, were
rebuilt, and many others of which the old chroniclers say
nothing. Those who dwelt in the cities were called burghers,
and in order that they might not be idle they began to
practise many kinds of industry, and to barter their goods
with the peasants. The emperor encouraged the building of
towns, and granted emancipation to every slave who repaired to
a town, allowed the towns to hold fairs and markets, granted
to them the right of coining money and levying taxes, and gave
them many landed estates and forests. Under such encouragement
town life rapidly developed, and the emperor, in his disputes
with the lawless nobility, always received loyal support from
his disciplined burghers. After a few centuries the towns,
which had now generally become republics, under the name of
'free imperial towns,' became the seats of the perfection of
European trade, science, and culture. ... These incalculable
benefits are due to Henry's order to build towns."
A. W. Grübe,
Heroes of History and Legend,
chapter 8.
At the expiration of the nine years truce, the Hungarians
resumed their attacks, and were defeated by Henry in two
bloody battles.
GERMANY: A. D. 936-973.
Restoration of the Roman Empire by
Otho I. called the Great.
"Otho the Great, son and successor of Henry I., added the
kingdom of Italy to the conquests of his father, and procured
also the Imperial dignity for himself, and his successors in
Germany. Italy had become a distinct kingdom since the
revolution, which happened (888) at the death of the Emperor
Charles the Fat. Ten princes in succession occupied the throne
during the space of seventy-three years. Several of these
princes, such as Guy, Lambert, Arnulf, Louis of Burgundy, and
Berenger I., were invested with the Imperial dignity. Berenger
I., having been assassinated (924), this latter dignity ceased
entirely, and the city of Rome was even dismembered from the
kingdom of Italy. The sovereignty of that city was seized by
the famous Marozia, widow of a nobleman named Alberic. She
raised her son to the pontificate by the title of John XI.;
and the better to establish her dominion, she espoused Hugo
King of Italy (932), who became, in consequence of this
marriage, master of Rome. But Alberic, another son of Marozia,
soon stirred up the people against this aspiring princess and
her husband Hugo.
{1440}
Having driven Hugo from the throne, and shut up his mother in
prison, he assumed to himself the sovereign authority, under
the title of Patrician of the Romans. At his death (954) he
transmitted the sovereignty to his son Octavian, who, though
only nineteen years of age, caused himself to be elected pope,
by the title of John XII. This epoch was one most disastrous
for Italy. The weakness of the government excited factions
among the nobility, gave birth to anarchy, and fresh
opportunity for the depredations of the Hungarians and Arabs,
who, at this period, were the scourge of Italy, which they
ravaged with impunity. Pavia, the capital of the kingdom, was
taken, and burnt by the Hungarians. These troubles increased
on the accession of Berenger II. (950), grandson of Berenger
I. That prince associated his son Adelbert with him in the
royal dignity; and the public voice accused them of having
caused the death of King Lothaire, son and successor of Hugo.
Lothaire left a young widow, named Adelaide, daughter of
Rodolph II., King of Burgundy and Italy. To avoid the
importunities of Berenger II., who wished to compel her to
marry his son Adelbert, this princess called in the King of
Germany to her aid. Otho complied with the solicitations of
the distressed queen; and, on this occasion, undertook his
first expedition into Italy (951). The city of Pavia, and
several other places, having fallen into his hands, he made
himself be proclaimed King of Italy, and married the young
queen, his protégée. Berenger and his son, being driven for
shelter to their strongholds, had recourse to negociation.
They succeeded in obtaining for themselves a confirmation of
the royal title of Italy, on condition of doing homage for it
to the King of Germany. ... It appears that it was not without
the regret, and even contrary to the wish of Adelaide, that
Otho agreed to enter into terms of accommodation with
Berenger. ... Afterwards; however, he lent a favourable ear to
the complaints which Pope John XII. and some Italian noblemen
had addressed to him against Berenger and his son; and took
occasion, on their account, to conduct a new army into Italy
(961). Berenger, too feeble to oppose him, retired a second
time within his fortifications. Otho marched from Pavia to
Milan, and there made himself be crowned King of Italy; from
thence he passed to Rome, about the commencement of the
following year. Pope John XII., who had himself invited him,
and again implored his protection against Berenger, gave him,
at first, a very brilliant reception; and revived the Imperial
dignity in his favour, which had been dormant for thirty-eight
years. It was on the 2d of February, 962, that the Pope
consecrated and crowned him Emperor; but he had soon cause to
repent of this proceeding. Otho, immediately after his
coronation at Rome, undertook the siege of St. Leon, a
fortress in Umbria, where Berenger and his queen had taken
refuge. While engaged in the siege, he received frequent
intimations from Rome, of the misconduct and immoralities of
the Pope. The remonstrances which he thought it his duty to
make on this subject, offended the young pontiff, who
resolved, in consequence, to break off union with the Emperor.
Hurried on by the impetuosity of his character, he entered
into a negociation with Adelbert; and even persuaded him to
come to Rome, in order to concert with him measures of
defence. On the first news of this event, Otho put himself at
the head of a large detachment, with which he marched directly
to Rome. The Pope, however, did not think it advisable to wait
his approach, but fled with the King, his new ally. Otho, on
arriving at the capital, exacted a solemn oath from the clergy
and the people, that henceforth they would elect no pope
without his counsel, and that of the Emperor and his
successors. Having then assembled a council, he caused Pope
John XII. to be deposed; and Leo VIII. was elected in his
place. This latter Pontiff was maintained in the papacy, in
spite of all the efforts which his adversary made to regain
it. Berenger II., after having sustained a long siege at St.
Leon, fell at length (964) into the hands of the conqueror,
who sent him into exile at Bamberg, and compelled his son,
Adelbert, to take refuge in the court of Constantinople. All
Italy, to the extent of the ancient kingdom of the Lombards,
fell under the dominion of the Germans; only a few maritime
towns in Lower Italy, with the greater part of Apulia and
Calabria, still remained in the power of the Greeks. This
kingdom, together with the Imperial dignity, Otho transmitted
to his successors on the throne of Germany. From this time the
Germans held it to be an inviolable principle, that as the
Imperial dignity was strictly united with the royalty of
Italy, kings elected by the German nation should, at the same
time, in virtue of that election, become Kings of Italy and
Emperors. The practice of this triple coronation, viz., of
Germany, Italy, and Rome, continued for many centuries; and
from Otho the Great, till Maximilian I. (1508), no king of
Germany took the title of Emperor, until after he had been
formally crowned by the Pope."
C. W. Koch,
The Revolutions of Europe,
period 3.
"At the first glance it would seem as if the relation in which
Otho now stood to the pope was the same as that occupied by
Charlemagne; on a closer inspection, however; we find a wide
difference. Charlemagne's connexion with the see of Rome was
produced by mutual need; it was the result of long epochs of
political combination embracing the development of various
nations; their mutual understanding rested on an internal
necessity, before which all opposing views and interests gave
way. The sovereignty of Otho the Great, on the contrary,
rested on a principle fundamentally opposed to the
encroachment of spiritual influences. The alliance was
momentary; the disruption of it inevitable. But when, soon
after, the same pope who had invoked his aid, John XII.,
placed himself at the head of a rebellious faction, Otho was
compelled to cause him to be formally deposed, and to crush
the faction that supported him by repeated, exertions of
force, before he could obtain perfect obedience; he was
obliged to raise to the papal chair a pope on whose
co-operation he could rely. The popes have often asserted that
they transferred the empire to the Germans; and if they
confined this assertion to the Carolingian race, they are not
entirely wrong. The coronation of Charlemagne was the result
of their free determination. But if they allude to the German
emperors, properly so called, the contrary of their statement
is just as true; not only Carlmann and Otho the Great, but
their successors, constantly had to conquer the imperial
throne, and to defend it, when conquered, sword in hand.
{1441}
It has been said that the Germans would have done more wisely
if they had not meddled with the empire; or, at least, if they
had first worked out their own internal political
institutions, and then, with matured minds, taken part in the