Chapter X: The Era of the Later Carolingians (1)

24. The Oaths of Strassburg (842)

The broad empire of Germanic peoples built up by Charlemagne was extremely difficult to hold together. Even before the death of its masterful creator, in 814, it was already showing signs of breaking up, and after that event the process of dissolution set in rapidly. It will not do to look upon this falling to pieces as caused entirely by the weakness of Charlemagne's successors. The trouble lay deeper, in the natural love of independence common to all the Germans, in the wide differences that had come to exist among Saxons, Lombards, Bavarians, Franks, and other peoples in the empire, and finally in the prevailing ill-advised principle of royal succession by which the territories making up the empire, like those composing the old Frankish kingdom, were regarded as personal property to be divided among the sovereign's sons, just as was the practice respecting private possessions. As a consequence of these things the generation following the death of Charlemagne was a period of much confusion in western Europe. The trouble first reached an acute stage in 817 when Emperor Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son and successor, was constrained to make a division of the empire among his three sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis. The Emperor expressly stipulated that despite this arrangement there was to be still "one sole empire, and not three"; but it is obvious that the imperial unity was at least pretty seriously threatened, and when, in 823, Louis's second wife, Judith of Bavaria, gave birth to a son and immediately set up in his behalf an urgent demand for a share of the empire, civil war among the rival claimants could not be averted. In the struggle that followed the distracted Emperor completely lost his throne for a time (833). Thereafter he was ready to accept almost any arrangement that would enable him to live out his remaining days in peace. When he died, in 840, two of the sons, Louis the German and Judith's child, who came to be known as Charles the Bald, combined against their brother Lothair (Pepin had died in 838) with the purpose of wresting from him the imperial crown, which the father, shortly before his death, had bestowed upon him. At least they were determined that this mark of favor from the father should not give the older brother any superiority over them. In the summer of 841 the issue was put to the test in a great battle at Fontenay, a little distance east of Orleans, with the result that Lothair was badly defeated. In February of the following year Louis and Charles, knowing that Lothair was still far from regarding himself as conquered, bound themselves by oath at Strassburg, in the valley of the Rhine, to keep up their joint opposition until they should be entirely successful.

The pledges exchanged on this occasion are as interesting to the student of language as to the historian. The army which accompanied Louis was composed of men of almost pure Germanic blood and speech, while that with Charles was made up of men from what is now southern and western France, where the people represented a mixture of Frankish and old Roman and Gallic stocks. As a consequence Louis took the oath in the _lingua romana_ for the benefit of Charles's soldiers, and Charles reciprocated by taking it in the _lingua teudisca_, in order that the Germans might understand it. Then the followers of the two kings took oath, each in his own language, that if their own king should violate his agreement they would not support him in acts of hostility against the other brother, provided the latter had been true to his word. The _lingua romana_ employed marks a stage in the development of the so-called Romance languages of to-day--French, Spanish, and Italian--just as the _lingua teudisca_ approaches the character of modern Teutonic languages--German, Dutch, and English. The oaths and the accompanying address of the kings are the earliest examples we have of the languages used by the common people of the early Middle Ages. Latin was of course the language of literature, records, and correspondence, matters with which ordinary people had little or nothing to do. The necessity under which the two kings found themselves of using two quite different modes of speech in order to be understood by all the soldiers is evidence that already by the middle of the ninth century the Romance and Germanic languages were becoming essentially distinct. It was prophetic, too, of the fast approaching cleavage of the northern and southern peoples politically.

Nithardus, whose account of the exchange of oaths at Strassburg is translated below, was an active participant in the events of the first half of the ninth century. He was born about 790, his mother being Charlemagne's daughter Bertha and his father the noted courtier and poet Angilbert. In the later years of Charlemagne's reign, and probably under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald, he was in charge of the defense of the northwest coasts against the Northmen. He fought for Charles the Bald at Fontenay and was frequently employed in those troublous years between 840 and 843 in the fruitless negotiations among the rival sons of Louis. Neither the date nor the manner of his death is known. There are traditions that he was killed in 858 or 859 while fighting the Northmen; but other stories just as well founded tell us that he became disgusted with the turmoil of the world, retired to a monastery, and there died about 853. His history of the wars of the sons of Louis the Pious (covering the period 840-843) was undertaken at the request of Charles the Bald. The first three books were written in 842, the fourth in 843. Aside from a rather too favorable attitude toward Charles, the work is very trustworthy, and the claim is even made by some that among all of the historians of the Carolingian period, not even Einhard excepted, no one surpassed Nithardus in spirit, method, and insight. It may further be noted that Nithardus was the first historical writer of any importance in the Middle Ages who was not some sort of official in the Church.

Source--Nithardus, _Historiarum Libri IV._ ["Four Books of
Histories"], Bk. III., Chaps. 4-5. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae
Historica, Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. II., pp. 665-666.

[Sidenote: Movements of the hostile parties in 841-842]

Lothair was given to understand that Louis and Charles were
supporting each other with considerable armies.[197] Seeing that
his plans were crushed in every direction, he made a long but
profitless expedition and abandoned the country about Tours. At
length he returned into France,[198] worn out with fatigue, as was
also his army. Pepin,[199] bitterly repenting that he had been on
Lothair's side, withdrew into Aquitaine. Charles, learning that
Otger, bishop of Mainz, objected to the proposed passage of Louis
by way of Mainz to join his brother, set out by way of the city of
Toul[200] and entered Alsace at Saverne. When Otger heard of this,
he and his supporters abandoned the river and sought places where
they might hide themselves as speedily as possible. On the
fifteenth of February Louis and Charles came together in the city
formerly called Argentoratum, now known as Strassburg, and there
they took the mutual oaths which are given herewith, Louis in the
_lingua romana_ and Charles in the _lingua teudisca_. Before the
exchange of oaths they addressed the assembled people, each in his
own language, and Louis, being the elder, thus began:

[Sidenote: The speech of Louis the German]

"How often, since the death of our father, Lothair has pursued my
brother and myself and tried to destroy us, is known to you all.
So, then, when neither brotherly love, nor Christian feeling, nor
any reason whatever could bring about a peace between us upon fair
conditions, we were at last compelled to bring the matter before
God, determined to abide by whatever issue He might decree. And we,
as you know, came off victorious;[201] our brother was beaten, and
with his followers got away, each as best he could. Then we, moved
by brotherly love and having compassion on our Christian people,
were not willing to pursue and destroy them; but, still, as before,
we begged that justice might be done to each. He, however, after
all this, not content with the judgment of God, has not ceased to
pursue me and my brother with hostile purpose, and to harass our
peoples with fire, plunder, and murder. Wherefore we have been
compelled to hold this meeting, and, since we feared that you might
doubt whether our faith was fixed and our alliance secure, we have
determined to make our oaths thereto in your presence. And we do
this, not from any unfair greed, but in order that, if God, with
your help, shall grant us peace, we may the better provide for the
common welfare. But if, which God forbid, I shall dare to violate
the oath which I shall swear to my brother, then I absolve each one
of you from your allegiance and from the oath which you have sworn
to me."

After Charles had made the same speech in the _lingua romana_,
Louis, as the elder of the two, swore first to be faithful to his
alliance:

[Sidenote: The oath of Louis]

_Pro Deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament,
dist di in avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si
salvaraeio cist meon fradre Karlo et in adiudha et in cadhuna cosa,
si cum om per dreit son fradra salvar dist, in o quid il mi altresi
fazet; et ab Ludher nul plaid numquam prindrai, qui meon vol cist
meon fradre Karle in damno sit._[202]

When Louis had taken this oath, Charles swore the same thing in the
_lingua teudisca_:

[Sidenote: The oath of Charles]

_In Godes minna ind in thes christianes folches ind unser bedhero
gealtnissi, fon thesemo dage frammordes, so fram so mir Got gewizci
indi madh furgibit, so haldih tesan minan bruodher, soso man mit
rehtu sinan bruodher scal, in thiu, thaz er mig sosoma duo; indi
mit Ludheren in nohheiniu thing ne gegango, the minan willon imo
ce scadhen werhen._

The oath which the subjects of the two kings then took, each
[people] in its own language, reads thus in the _lingua romana_:

[Sidenote: The oath taken by the subjects of the two kings]

_Si Lodhwigs sagrament qua son fradre Karlo jurat, conservat, et
Karlus meos sendra, de suo part, non lo stanit, si io returnar non
lint pois, ne io ne neuls cui eo returnar int pois, in nulla aiudha
contra Lodhuwig nun li iver._[203]

And in the _lingua teudisca_:

_Oba Karl then eid then, er sineno bruodher Ludhuwige gesuor,
geleistit, indi Ludhuwig min herro then er imo gesuor, forbrihchit,
obih ina es irwenden ne mag, noh ih no thero nohhein then ih es
irwended mag, widhar Karle imo ce follusti ne wirdhic._

25. The Treaty of Verdun (843)

After the meeting at Strassburg, Charles and Louis advanced against Lothair, who now abandoned Aachen and retreated southward past Chalons-sur-Marne toward Lyons. When the brothers had come into the vicinity of Chalons-sur-Saone, they were met by ambassadors from Lothair who declared that he was weary of the struggle and was ready to make peace if only his imperial dignity should be properly recognized and the share of the kingdom awarded to him should be somewhat the largest of the three. Charles and Louis accepted their brother's overtures and June 15, 842, the three met on an island in the Saone and signed preliminary articles of peace. It was agreed that a board of a hundred and twenty prominent men should assemble October 1 at Metz, on the Moselle, and make a definite division of the kingdom. This body, with the three royal brothers, met at the appointed time, but adjourned to Worms, and subsequently to Verdun, on the upper Meuse, in order to have the use of maps at the latter place. The treaty which resulted during the following year was one of the most important in all mediaeval times. Unfortunately the text of it has not survived, but all its more important provisions are well known from the writings of the chroniclers of the period. Two such accounts of the treaty, brief but valuable, are given below.

Louis had been the real sovereign of Bavaria for sixteen years and to his kingdom were now added all the German districts on the right bank of the Rhine (except Friesland), together with Mainz, Worms, and Speyer on the left bank, under the general name of _Francia Orientalis_. Charles retained the western countries--Aquitaine, Gascony, Septimania, the Spanish March, Burgundy west of the Saone, Neustria, Brittany, and Flanders--designated collectively as _Francia Occidentalis_.[204] The intervening belt of lands, including the two capitals Rome and Aachen, and extending from Terracina in Italy to the North Sea, went to Lothair.[205] With it went the more or less nominal imperial dignity. In general, Louis's portion represented the coming Germany and Charles's the future France. But that of Lothair was utterly lacking in either geographical or racial unity and was destined not long to be held together. Parts of it, particularly modern Alsace and Lorraine, have remained to this day a bone of contention between the states on the east and west. "The partition of 843," says Professor Emerton, "involved, so far as we know, nothing new in the relations of the three brothers to each other. The theory of the empire was preserved, but the meaning of it disappeared. There is no mention of any actual superiority of the Emperor (Lothair) over his brothers, and there is nothing to show that the imperial name was anything but an empty title, a memory of something great which men could not quite let die, but which for a hundred years to come was to be powerless for good or evil."[206] The empire itself was never afterwards united under the rule of one man, except for two years (885-887) in the time of Charles the Fat.

Sources--(a) _Annales Bertiniani_ ["Annals of Saint Bertin"].
Translated from text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica,
Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. I., p. 440.

(b) _Rudolfi Fuldensis Annales_ ["Annals of Rudolph of
Fulda"]. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_
(Pertz ed.), Vol. I., p. 362.

[Sidenote: A statement from the annals of Saint Bertin]

(a)

Charles set out to find his brothers, and they met at Verdun. By
the division there made Louis received for his share all the
country beyond the Rhine,[207] and on this side Speyer, Worms,
Mainz, and the territories belonging to these cities. Lothair
received that which is between the Scheldt and the Rhine toward the
sea, and that lying beyond Cambresis, Hainault, and the counties
adjoining on this side of the Meuse, down to the confluence of the
Saone and Rhone, and thence along the Rhone to the sea, together
with the adjacent counties. Charles received all the remainder,
extending to Spain. And when the oath was exchanged they went their
several ways.

[Sidenote: Another from those of Rudolph of Fulda]

(b)

The realm had from early times been divided in three portions, and
in the month of August the three kings, coming together at Verdun
in Gaul, redivided it among themselves. Louis received the eastern
part, Charles the western. Lothair, who was older than his
brothers, received the middle portion. After peace was firmly
established and oaths exchanged, each brother returned to his
dominion to control and protect it. Charles, presuming to regard
Aquitaine as belonging properly to his share, was given much
trouble by his nephew Pepin,[208] who annoyed him by frequent
incursions and caused great loss.

26. A Chronicle of the Frankish Kingdom in the Ninth Century

The following passages from the Annals of Xanten are here given for two purposes--to show something of the character of the period of the Carolingian decline, and to illustrate the peculiar features of the mediaeval chronicle. Numerous names, places, and events neither very clearly understood now, nor important if they were understood, occur in the text, and some of these it is not deemed worth while to attempt to explain in the foot-notes. The selection is valuable for the general impressions it gives rather than for the detailed facts which it contains, though some of the latter are interesting enough.

Annals as a type of historical writing first assumed considerable importance in western Europe in the time of Charles Martel and Charlemagne. Their origin, like that of most forms of mediaeval literary production, can be traced directly to the influence of the Church. The annals began as mere occasional notes jotted down by the monks upon the "Easter tables," which were circulated among the monasteries so that the sacred festival might not fail to be observed at the proper date. The Easter tables were really a sort of calendar, and as they were placed on parchment having a broad margin it was very natural that the monks should begin to write in the margin opposite the various years some of the things that had happened in those years. An Easter table might pass through a considerable number of hands and so have events recorded upon it by a good many different men. All sorts of things were thus made note of--some important, some unimportant--and of course it is not necessary to suppose that everything written down was actually true. Many mistakes were possible, especially as the writer often had only his memory, or perhaps mere hearsay, to rely upon. And when, as frequently happened, these scattered Easter tables were brought together in some monastery and there revised, fitted together, and written out in one continuous chronicle, there were chances at every turn for serious errors to creep in. The compilers were sometimes guilty of wilful misrepresentation, but more often their fault was only their ignorance, credulity, and lack of critical discernment. In these annals there was no attempt to write history as we now understand it; that is, the chroniclers did not undertake to work out the causes and results and relations of things. They merely recorded year by year such happenings as caught their attention--the succession of a new pope, the death of a bishop, the coronation of a king, a battle, a hail-storm, an eclipse, the birth of a two-headed calf--all sorts of unimportant, and from our standpoint ridiculous, items being thrown in along with matters of world-wide moment. Heterogeneous as they are, however, the large collections of annals that have come down to us have been used by modern historians with the greatest profit, and but for them we should know far less than we do about the Middle Ages, and especially about the people and events of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.

The Annals of Xanten here quoted are the work originally of a number of ninth century monks. The fragments from which they were ultimately compiled are thought to have been brought together at Cologne, or at least in that vicinity. They cover especially the years 831-873.

Source--_Annales Xantenses_ ["Annals of Xanten"]. Text in
_Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol.
II., p. 227. Adapted from translation in James H. Robinson,
_Readings in European History_ (New York, 1904), Vol. I., pp.
158-162.

=844.= Pope Gregory departed this world and Pope Sergius followed
in his place.[209] Count Bernhard was killed by Charles. Pepin,
king of Aquitaine, together with his son and the son of Bernhard,
routed the army of Charles,[210] and there fell the abbot Hugo. At
the same time King Louis advanced with his army against the
Wends,[211] one of whose kings, Gestimus by name, was killed; the
rest came to Louis and pledged him their fidelity, which, however,
they broke as soon as he was gone. Thereafter Lothair, Louis, and
Charles came together for council in Diedenhofen, and after a
conference they went their several ways in peace.

[Sidenote: The Northmen in Frisia and Gaul]

=845.= Twice in the canton of Worms there was an earthquake; the
first in the night following Palm Sunday, the second in the holy
night of Christ's Resurrection. In the same year the heathen[212]
broke in upon the Christians at many points, but more than twelve
thousand of them were killed by the Frisians. Another party of
invaders devastated Gaul; of these more than six hundred men
perished. Yet, owing to his indolence, Charles agreed to give them
many thousand pounds of gold and silver if they would leave Gaul,
and this they did. Nevertheless the cloisters of most of the saints
were destroyed and many of the Christians were led away captive.

After this had taken place King Louis once more led a force against
the Wends. When the heathen had learned this they sent ambassadors,
as well as gifts and hostages, to Saxony, and asked for peace.
Louis then granted peace and returned home from Saxony. Thereafter
the robbers were afflicted by a terrible pestilence, during which
the chief sinner among them, by the name of Reginheri, who had
plundered the Christians and the holy places, was struck down by
the hand of God. They then took counsel and threw lots to determine
from which of their gods they should seek safety; but the lots did
not fall out happily, and on the advice of one of their Christian
prisoners that they should cast their lot before the God of the
Christians, they did so, and the lot fell happily. Then their king,
by the name of Rorik, together with all the heathen people,
refrained from meat and drink for fourteen days, when the plague
ceased, and they sent back all their Christian prisoners to their
country.

[Sidenote: The Northmen again in Frisia]

=846.= According to their custom, the Northmen plundered eastern
and western Frisia and burned the town of Dordrecht, with two other
villages, before the eyes of Lothair, who was then in the castle of
Nimwegen, but could not punish the crime. The Northmen, with their
boats filled with immense booty, including both men and goods,
returned to their own country.

In the same year Louis sent an expedition from Saxony against the
Wends across the Elbe. He personally, however, went with his army
against the Bohemians, whom we call Beuwinitha, but with great
risk.... Charles advanced against the Britons, but accomplished
nothing.

[Sidenote: Rome attacked by the Saracens]

At this same time, as no one can mention or hear without great
sadness, the mother of all churches, the basilica of the apostle
Peter, was taken and plundered by the Moors, or Saracens, who had
already occupied the region of Beneventum.[213] The Saracens,
moreover, slaughtered all the Christians whom they found outside
the walls of Rome, either within or without this church. They also
carried men and women away prisoners. They tore down, among many
others, the altar of the blessed Peter, and their crimes from day
to day bring sorrow to Christians. Pope Sergius departed life this
year.

=847.= After the death of Sergius no mention of the apostolic see
has come in any way to our ears. Rabanus [Maurus], master and abbot
of Fulda,[214] was solemnly chosen archbishop as the successor of
Bishop Otger, who had died. Moreover, the Northmen here and there
plundered the Christians and engaged in a battle with the counts
Sigir and Liuthar. They continued up the Rhine as far as Dordrecht,
and nine miles farther to Meginhard, when they turned back, having
taken their booty.

[Sidenote: An outbreak of heresy repressed]

=848.= On the fourth of February, towards evening, it lightened and
there was thunder heard. The heathen, as was their custom,
inflicted injury on the Christians. In the same year King Louis
held an assembly of the people near Mainz. At this synod a heresy
was brought forward by a few monks in regard to predestination.
These were convicted and beaten, to their shame, before all the
people. They were sent back to Gaul whence they had come, and,
thanks be to God, the condition of the Church remained uninjured.

=849.= While King Louis was ill, his army of Bavaria took its way
against the Bohemians. Many of these were killed and the remainder
withdrew, much humiliated, into their own country. The heathen from
the North wrought havoc in Christendom as usual and grew greater in
strength; but it is painful to say more of this matter.

[Sidenote: Further ravages by the Northmen and the Saracens]

=850.= On January 1st of that season, in the octave of the
Lord,[215] towards evening, a great deal of thunder was heard and a
mighty flash of lightning seen; and an overflow of water afflicted
the human race during this winter. In the following summer an all
too great heat of the sun burned the earth. Leo, pope of the
apostolic see, an extraordinary man, built a fortification around
the church of St. Peter the apostle. The Moors, however, devastated
here and there the coast towns in Italy. The Norman Rorik, brother
of the above-mentioned younger Heriold, who earlier had fled
dishonored from Lothair, again took Dordrecht and did much evil
treacherously to the Christians. In the same year so great a peace
existed between the two brothers--Emperor Lothair and King
Louis--that they spent many days together in Osning [Westphalia]
and there hunted, so that many were astonished thereat; and they
went each his way in peace.

[Sidenote: The Northmen again in Frisia and Saxony]

=851.= The bodies of certain saints were sent from Rome to
Saxony--that of Alexander, one of seven brethren, and those of
Romanus and Emerentiana. In the same year the very noble Empress,
Irmingard by name, wife of the Emperor Lothair, departed this
world. The Normans inflicted much harm in Frisia and about the
Rhine. A mighty army of them collected by the River Elbe against
the Saxons, and some of the Saxon towns were besieged, others
burned, and most terribly did they oppress the Christians. A
meeting of our kings took place on the Maas [Meuse].

=852.= The steel of the heathen glistened; excessive heat; a famine
followed. There was not fodder enough for the animals. The
pasturage for the swine was more than sufficient.

=853.= A great famine in Saxony, so that many were forced to live
on horse meat.

[Sidenote: The Northmen burn the church of St. Martin at Tours]

=854.= The Normans, in addition to the very many evils which they
were everywhere inflicting upon the Christians, burned the church
of St. Martin, bishop of Tours, where his body rests.

=855.= In the spring Louis, the eastern king, sent his son of the
same name to Aquitaine to obtain possession of the heritage of his
uncle Pepin.

=856.= The Normans again chose a king of the same name as the
preceding one, and related to him, and the Danes made a fresh
incursion by sea, with renewed forces, against the Christians.

=857.= A great sickness prevailed among the people. This produced a
terrible foulness, so that the limbs were separated from the body
even before death came.

=858.= Louis, the eastern king, held an assembly of the people of
his territory in Worms.

=859.= On the first of January, as the early Mass was being said, a
single earthquake occurred in Worms and a triple one in Mainz
before daybreak.

=860.= On the fifth of February thunder was heard. The king
returned from Gaul after the whole empire had gone to destruction,
and was in no way bettered.

[Sidenote: Sacred relics brought together at the Freckenhorst]

=861.= The holy bishop Luitbert piously furnished the cloister
which is called the Freckenhorst with many relics of the saints,
namely, of the martyrs Boniface and Maximus, and of the confessors
Eonius and Antonius, and added a portion of the manger of the Lord
and of His grave, and likewise of the dust of the Lord's feet as He
ascended to heaven. In this year the winter was long and the
above-mentioned kings again had a secret consultation on the island
near Coblenz, and they laid waste everything round about.

27. The Northmen in the Country of the Franks.

Under the general name of Northmen in the ninth and tenth centuries were included all those peoples of pure Teutonic stock who inhabited the two neighboring peninsulas of Denmark and Scandinavia. In this period, and after, they played a very conspicuous part in the history of western Europe--at first as piratical invaders along the Atlantic coast, and subsequently as settlers in new lands and as conquerors and state-builders. _Northmen_ was the name by which the people of the continent generally knew them, but to the Irish they were known as _Ostmen_ or _Eastmen_, and to the English as _Danes_, while the name which they applied to themselves was _Vikings_ ["Creekmen"]. Their prolonged invasions and plunderings, which fill so large a place in the ninth and tenth century chronicles of England and France, were the result of several causes and conditions: (1) their natural love of adventure, common to all early Germanic peoples; (2) the fact that the population of their home countries had become larger than the limited resources of these northern regions would support; (3) the proximity of the sea on every side, with its fiords and inlets inviting the adventurer to embark for new shores; and (4) the discontent of the nobles, or jarls, with the growing rigor of kingly government. In consequence of these and other influences large numbers of the people became pirates, with no other occupation than the plundering of the more civilized and wealthier countries to the east, west, and south. Those from Sweden visited most commonly the coasts of Russia, those from Norway went generally to Scotland and Ireland, and those from Denmark to England and France. In fast-sailing vessels carrying sixty or seventy men, and under the leadership of "kings of the sea" who never "sought refuge under a roof, nor emptied their drinking-horns at a fireside," they darted along the shores, ascended rivers, converted islands into temporary fortresses, and from thence sallied forth in every direction to burn and pillage and carry off all the booty upon which they could lay hands. So swift and irresistible were their operations that they frequently met with not the slightest show of opposition from the terrified inhabitants.

It was natural that Frankland, with its numerous large rivers flowing into the ocean and leading through fertile valleys dotted with towns and rich abbeys, should early have attracted the marauders; and in fact they made their appearance there as early as the year 800. Before the end of Charlemagne's reign they had pillaged Frisia, and a monkish writer of the time tells us that upon one occasion the great Emperor burst into tears and declared that he was overwhelmed with sorrow as he looked forward and saw what evils they would bring upon his offspring and people. Whether or not this story is true, certain it is that before the ninth century was far advanced incursions of the barbarians--"the heathen," as the chroniclers generally call them--had come to be almost annual events. In 841 Rouen was plundered and burned; in 843 Nantes was besieged, the bishop killed, and many captives carried off; in 845 the invaders appeared at Paris and were prevented from attacking the place only by being bribed; and so the story goes, until by 846 we find the annalists beginning their melancholy record of the year's events with the matter-of-course statement that, "according to their custom," the Northmen plundered such and such a region [see p. 159]. Below are a few passages taken from the Annals of Saint-Bertin, the poem of Abbo on the siege of Paris, and the Chronicle of Saint-Denys, which show something of the character of the Northmen's part in early French history, first as mere invaders and afterwards as permanent settlers.

The Annals of Saint-Bertin are so called because they have been copied from an old manuscript found in the monastery of that name. The period which they cover is 741-882. Several writers evidently had a hand in their compilation. The portion between the dates 836 and 861 is attributed to Prudence, bishop of Troyes, and that between 861 and 882 to Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims.

Abbo, the author of the second selection given below, was a monk of St. Germain des Pres, at Paris. He wrote a poem in which he undertook to give an account of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885 and 886, and of the struggles of the Frankish people with the invaders to the year 896. As literature the poem has small value, but for the historian it possesses some importance.

The account of Rollo's conversion comes from a history of the Normans written in the twelfth century by William of Jumieges. The work covers the period 851-1137, its earlier portions (to 996) being based on an older history written by Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, in the eleventh century. The Chronicle of St.-Denys was composed at a later time and served to preserve most of the history recorded by Dudo and William of Jumieges.

Sources--(a) _Annales Bertiniani_ ["Annals of St. Bertin"].
Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.),
Vol. I., pp. 439-454.

(b) Abbonis Monachi S. Germani Parisiensis, _De Bellis
Parisiacae Urbis, et Odonis Comitis, post Regis, adversus
Northmannos urbem ipsam obsidentes, sub Carolo Crasso Imp. ac
Rege Francorum_ [Abbo's "Wars of Count Odo with the Northmen
in the Reign of Charles the Fat"]. Text in Bouquet, _Recueil
des Historiens des Gaules et de la France_, Vol. VIII., pp.
4-26.

(c) _Chronique de Saint-Denys d'apres Dudo et Guillaume de
Jumieges_ ["Chronicle of St. Denys based on Dudo and William
of Jumieges"], Vol. III., p. 105.

(a) THE EARLIER RAVAGES OF THE NORTHMEN

=843=. Pirates of the Northmen's race came to Nantes, killed the
bishop and many of the clergy and laymen, both men and women, and
pillaged the city. Thence they set out to plunder the lands of
lower Aquitaine. At length they arrived at a certain island[216]
and carried materials thither from the mainland to build themselves
houses; and they settled there for the winter, as if that were to
be their permanent dwelling-place.

=844.= The Northmen ascended the Garonne as far as Toulouse and
pillaged the lands along both banks with impunity. Some, after
leaving this region went into Galicia[217] and perished, part of
them by the attacks of the cross-bowmen who had come to resist
them, part by being overwhelmed by a storm at sea. But others of
them went farther into Spain and engaged in long and desperate
combats with the Saracens; defeated in the end, they withdrew.

[Sidenote: The Northmen bought off at Paris]

=845.= The Northmen with a hundred ships entered the Seine on the
twentieth of March and, after ravaging first one bank and then the
other, came without meeting any resistance to Paris. Charles[218]
resolved to hold out against them; but seeing the impossibility of
gaining a victory, he made with them a certain agreement and by a
gift of 7,000 livres he bought them off from advancing farther and
persuaded them to return.

Euric, king of the Northmen, advanced, with six hundred vessels,
along the course of the River Elbe to attack Louis of Germany.[219]
The Saxons prepared to meet him, gave battle, and with the aid of
our Lord Jesus Christ won the victory.

The Northmen returned [from Paris] down the Seine and coming to the
ocean pillaged, destroyed, and burned all the regions along the
coast.

=846.= The Danish pirates landed in Frisia.[220] They were able to
force from the people whatever contributions they wished and, being
victors in battle, they remained masters of almost the entire
province.

=847.= The Northmen made their appearance in the part of Gaul
inhabited by the Britons[221] and won three victories.
Nomenoe,[222] although defeated, at length succeeded in buying
them off with presents and getting them out of his country.

[Sidenote: The burning of Tours]

=853-854.= The Danish pirates, making their way into the country
eastward from the city of Nantes, arrived without opposition,
November eighth, before Tours. This they burned, together with the
church of St. Martin and the neighboring places. But that incursion
had been foreseen with certainty and the body of St. Martin had
been removed to Cormery, a monastery of that church, and from there
to the city of Orleans. The pirates went on to the chateau of
Blois[223] and burned it, proposing then to proceed to Orleans and
destroy that city in the same fashion. But Agius, bishop of
Orleans, and Burchard, bishop of Chartres,[224] had gathered
soldiers and ships to meet them; so they abandoned their design and
returned to the lower Loire, though the following year [855] they
ascended it anew to the city of Angers.[225]

=855.= They left their ships behind and undertook to go overland to
the city of Poitiers;[226] but the Aquitanians came to meet them
and defeated them, so that not more than 300 escaped.

[Sidenote: Orleans pillaged]

=856.= On the eighteenth of April, the Danish pirates came to the
city of Orleans, pillaged it, and went away without meeting
opposition. Other Danish pirates came into the Seine about the
middle of August and, after plundering and ruining the towns on the
two banks of the river, and even the monasteries and villages
farther back, came to a well located place near the Seine called
Jeufosse, and, there quietly passed the winter.

=859.= The Danish pirates having made a long sea-voyage (for they
had sailed between Spain and Africa) entered the Rhone, where they
pillaged many cities and monasteries and established themselves on
the island called Camargue.... They devastated everything before
them as far as the city of Valence.[227] Then after ravaging all
these regions they returned to the island where they had fixed
their habitation. Thence they went on toward Italy, capturing and
plundering Pisa and other cities.

[Sidenote: The Northmen arrive at the city]

(b) THE SIEGE OF PARIS

=885.= The Northmen came to Paris with 700 sailing ships, not
counting those of smaller size which are commonly called barques.
At one stretch the Seine was lined with the vessels for more than
two leagues, so that one might ask in astonishment in what cavern
the river had been swallowed up, since it was not to be seen. The
second day after the fleet of the Northmen arrived under the walls
of the city, Siegfred, who was then king only in name[228] but who
was in command of the expedition, came to the dwelling of the
illustrious bishop. He bowed his head and said: "Gauzelin, have
compassion on yourself and on your flock. We beseech you to listen
to us, in order that you may escape death. Allow us only the
freedom of the city. We will do no harm and we will see to it that
whatever belongs either to you or to Odo shall be strictly
respected." Count Odo, who later became king, was then the defender
of the city.[229] The bishop replied to Siegfred, "Paris has been
entrusted to us by the Emperor Charles, who, after God, king and
lord of the powerful, rules over almost all the world. He has put
it in our care, not at all that the kingdom may be ruined by our
misconduct, but that he may keep it and be assured of its peace.
If, like us, you had been given the duty of defending these walls,
and if you should have done that which you ask us to do, what
treatment do you think you would deserve?" Siegfred replied, "I
should deserve that my head be cut off and thrown to the dogs.
Nevertheless, if you do not listen to my demand, on the morrow our
war machines will destroy you with poisoned arrows. You will be the
prey of famine and of pestilence and these evils will renew
themselves perpetually every year." So saying, he departed and
gathered together his comrades.

[Sidenote: The attack upon the tower]

[Sidenote: Fierce fighting]

[Sidenote: The bravery of Count Odo]

In the morning the Northmen, boarding their ships, approached the
tower and attacked it.[230] They shook it with their engines and
stormed it with arrows. The city resounded with clamor, the people
were aroused, the bridges trembled. All came together to defend the
tower. There Odo, his brother Robert,[231] and the Count Ragenar
distinguished themselves for bravery; likewise the courageous Abbot
Ebolus,[232] the nephew of the bishop. A keen arrow wounded the
prelate, while at his side the young warrior Frederick was struck
by a sword. Frederick died, but the old man, thanks to God,
survived. There perished many Franks; after receiving wounds they
were lavish of life. At last the enemy withdrew, carrying off their
dead. The evening came. The tower had been sorely tried, but its
foundations were still solid, as were also the narrow _baies_ which
surmounted them. The people spent the night repairing it with
boards. By the next day, on the old citadel had been erected a new
tower of wood, a half higher than the former one. At sunrise the
Danes caught their first glimpse of it. Once more the latter
engaged with the Christians in violent combat. On every side arrows
sped and blood flowed. With the arrows mingled the stones hurled
by slings and war-machines; the air was filled with them. The tower
which had been built during the night groaned under the strokes of
the darts, the city shook with the struggle, the people ran hither
and thither, the bells jangled. The warriors rushed together to
defend the tottering tower and to repel the fierce assault. Among
these warriors two, a count and an abbot [Ebolus], surpassed all
the rest in courage. The former was the redoubtable Odo who never
experienced defeat and who continually revived the spirits of the
worn-out defenders. He ran along the ramparts and hurled back the
enemy. On those who were secreting themselves so as to undermine
the tower he poured oil, wax, and pitch, which, being mixed and
heated, burned the Danes and tore off their scalps. Some of them
died; others threw themselves into the river to escape the awful
substance....[233]

Meanwhile Paris was suffering not only from the sword outside but
also from a pestilence within which brought death to many noble
men. Within the walls there was not ground in which to bury the
dead.... Odo, the future king, was sent to Charles, emperor of the
Franks,[234] to implore help for the stricken city.

[Sidenote: Odo's mission to Emperor Charles the Fat]

One day Odo suddenly appeared in splendor in the midst of three
bands of warriors. The sun made his armor glisten and greeted him
before it illuminated the country around. The Parisians saw their
beloved chief at a distance, but the enemy, hoping to prevent his
gaining entrance to the tower, crossed the Seine and took up their
position on the bank. Nevertheless Odo, his horse at a gallop, got
past the Northmen and reached the tower, whose gates Ebolus opened
to him. The enemy pursued fiercely the comrades of the count who
were trying to keep up with him and get refuge in the tower. [The
Danes were defeated in the attack.]

[Sidenote: Terms of peace arranged by Charles]

Now came the Emperor Charles, surrounded by soldiers of all
nations, even as the sky is adorned with resplendent stars. A great
throng, speaking many languages, accompanied him. He established
his camp at the foot of the heights of Montmartre, near the tower.
He allowed the Northmen to have the country of Sens to
plunder;[235] and in the spring he gave them 700 pounds of silver
on condition that by the month of March they leave France for their
own kingdom.[236] Then Charles returned, destined to an early
death.[237]

[Sidenote: Rollo receives Normandy from Charles the Simple]

(c) THE BAPTISM OF ROLLO AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NORMANS IN
FRANCE[238]

The king had at first wished to give to Rollo the province of
Flanders, but the Norman rejected it as being too marshy. Rollo
refused to kiss the foot of Charles when he received from him the
duchy of Normandy. "He who receives such a gift," said the bishops
to him, "ought to kiss the foot of the king." "Never," replied he,
"will I bend the knee to any one, or kiss anybody's foot."
Nevertheless, impelled by the entreaties of the Franks, he ordered
one of his warriors to perform the act in his stead. This man
seized the foot of the king and lifted it to his lips, kissing it
without bending and so causing the king to tumble over backwards.
At that there was a loud burst of laughter and a great commotion in
the crowd of onlookers. King Charles, Robert, Duke of the
Franks,[239] the counts and magnates, and the bishops and abbots,
bound themselves by the oath of the Catholic faith to Rollo,
swearing by their lives and their bodies and by the honor of all
the kingdom, that he might hold the land and transmit it to his
heirs from generation to generation throughout all time to come.
When these things had been satisfactorily performed, the king
returned in good spirits into his dominion, and Rollo with Duke
Robert set out for Rouen.

[Sidenote: Rollo becomes a Christian]

In the year of our Lord 912 Rollo was baptized in holy water in the
name of the sacred Trinity by Franco, archbishop of Rouen. Duke
Robert, who was his godfather, gave to him his name. Rollo
devotedly honored God and the Holy Church with his gifts.... The
pagans, seeing that their chieftain had become a Christian,
abandoned their idols, received the name of Christ, and with one
accord desired to be baptized. Meanwhile the Norman duke made ready
for a splendid wedding and married the daughter of the king
[Gisela] according to Christian rites.

[Sidenote: His work in Normandy]

Rollo gave assurance of security to all those who wished to dwell
in his country. The land he divided among his followers, and, as it
had been a long time unused, he improved it by the construction of
new buildings. It was peopled by the Norman warriors and by
immigrants from outside regions. The duke established for his
subjects certain inviolable rights and laws, confirmed and
published by the will of the leading men, and he compelled all his
people to live peaceably together. He rebuilt the churches, which
had been entirely ruined; he restored the temples, which had been
destroyed by the ravages of the pagans; he repaired and added to
the walls and fortifications of the cities; he subdued the Britons
who rebelled against him; and with the provisions obtained from
them he supplied all the country that had been granted to him.

28. Later Carolingian Efforts to Preserve Order

The ninth century is chiefly significant in Frankish history as an era of decline of monarchy and increase of the powers and independence of local officials and magnates. Already by Charlemagne's death, in 814, the disruptive forces were at work, and under the relatively weak successors of the great Emperor the course of decentralization went on until by the death of Charles the Bald, in 877, the royal authority had been reduced to a condition of insignificance. This century was the formative period _par excellence_ of the feudal system--a type of social and economic organization which the conditions of the time rendered inevitable and under which great monarchies tended to be dissolved into a multitude of petty local states. Large landholders began to regard themselves as practically independent; royal officials, particularly the counts, refused to be parted from their positions and used them primarily to enhance their own personal authority; the churches and monasteries stretched their royal grants of immunity so far as almost to refuse to acknowledge any obligations to the central government. In these and other ways the Carolingian monarchy was shorn of its powers, and as it was quite lacking in money, lands, and soldiers who could be depended on, there was little left for it to do but to legislate and ordain without much prospect of being able to enforce its laws and ordinances. The rapidity with which the kings of the period were losing their grip on the situation comes out very clearly from a study of the capitularies which they issued from time to time. In general these capitularies, especially after about 840, testify to the disorder everywhere prevailing, the usurpations of the royal officials, and the popular contempt of the royal authority, and reiterate commands for the preservation of order until they become fairly wearisome to the reader. Royalty was at a bad pass and its weakness is reflected unmistakably in its attempts to govern by mere edict without any backing of enforcing power. In 843, 853, 856, 857, and many other years of Charles the Bald's reign, elaborate decrees were issued prohibiting brigandage and lawlessness, but with the tell-tale provision that violators were to be "admonished with Christian love to repent," or that they were to be punished "as far as the local officials could remember them," or that the royal agents were themselves to take oath not to become highway robbers! Sometimes the king openly confessed his weakness and proceeded to implore, rather than to command, his subjects to obey him.

The capitulary quoted below belongs to the last year of the short reign of Carloman (882-884), son of Louis the Stammerer and grandson of Charles the Bald. It makes a considerable show of power, ordaining the punishment of criminals as confidently as if there had really been means to assure its enforcement. But in truth all the provisions in it had been embodied in capitularies of Carloman's predecessors with scarcely perceptible effect, and there was certainly no reason to expect better results now. With the nobles practicing, if not asserting, independence, the churches and monasteries heeding the royal authority hardly at all, the country being ravaged by Northmen and the people turning to the great magnates for the protection they could no longer get from the king, and the counts and _missi dominici_ making their lands and offices the basis for hereditary local authority, the king had come to be almost powerless in the great realm where less than a hundred years before Charlemagne's word, for all practical purposes, was law. Even Charlemagne himself, however, could have done little to avert the state of anarchy which conditions too strong for any sovereign to cope with had brought about.

Source--Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges_
(Boretius ed.), Vol. II., pp. 371-375.

[Sidenote: The keeping of the peace enjoined]

=1.= According to the custom of our predecessors, we desire that in
our palace shall prevail the worship of God, the honor of the king,
piety, concord, and a condition of peace; and that that peace
established in our palace by the sanction of our predecessors shall
extend to, and be observed throughout, our entire kingdom.

=2.= We desire that all those who live at our court, and all who
come there, shall live peaceably. If any one, in breach of the
peace, is guilty of violence, let him be brought to a hearing at
our palace, by the authority of the king and by the order of our
_missus_, as it was ordained by the capitularies of our
predecessors, that he may be punished according to a legal judgment
and may pay a triple composition with the royal ban.[240]

=3.= If the offender has no lord, or if he flees from our court,
our _missus_ shall go to find him and shall order him, in our name,
to appear at the palace.[241] If he should be so rash as to disdain
to come, let him be brought by force. If he spurns both us and our
_missus_, and while refusing to obey summons is killed in
resisting, and any of his relatives or friends undertake to
exercise against our agents who have killed him the right of
vengeance,[242] we will oppose them there and will give our agents
all the aid of our royal authority.

[Sidenote: The bishop's part in repressing crime]

=5.= The bishop of the diocese in which the crime shall have been
committed ought, through the priest of the place, to give three
successive invitations to the offender to repent and to make
reparation for his fault in order to set himself right with God and
the church that he has injured. If he scorns and rejects this
summons and invitation, let the bishop wield upon him the pastoral
rod, that is to say, the sentence of excommunication; and let him
separate him from the communion of the Holy Church until he shall
have given the satisfaction that is required.

[Sidenote: Obligations of lay officials to restrain violence]

=9.= In order that violence be entirely brought to an end and order
restored, it is necessary that the bishop's authority should be
supplemented by that of the public officials. Therefore we and our
faithful have judged it expedient that the _missi dominici_ should
discharge faithfully the duties of their office.[243] The count
shall enjoin to the viscount,[244] to his _vicarii_ and
_centenarii_,[245] and to all the public officials, as well as to
all Franks who have a knowledge of the law, that all should give as
much aid as they can to the Church, both on their own account and
in accord with the requests of the clergy, every time they shall be
called upon by the bishop, the officers of the bishop, or even by
the needy. They should do this for the love of God, the peace of
the Holy Church, and the fidelity that they owe to us.

29. The Election of Hugh Capet (987).