Chapter X: The Era of the Later Carolingians (2)

The election of Hugh Capet as king of France in 987 marked the establishment of the so-called Capetian line of monarchs, which occupied the French throne in all not far from eight centuries--a record not equaled by any other royal house in European history. The circumstances of the election were interesting and significant. For more than a hundred years there had been keen rivalry between the Carolingian kings and one of the great ducal houses of the Franks, known as the Robertians. In the disorder which so generally prevailed in France in the ninth and tenth centuries, powerful families possessing extensive lands and having large numbers of vassals and serfs were able to make themselves practically independent of the royal power. The greatest of these families was the Robertians, the descendants of Robert the Strong, father of the Odo who distinguished himself at the siege of Paris in 885-886 [see p. 170]. Between 888 and 987 circumstances brought it about three different times that members of the Robertian house were elevated to the Frankish throne (Odo, 888-898; Robert I., 922-923; and Rudolph--related to the Robertians by marriage only,--923-936). The rest of the time the throne was occupied by Carolingians (Charles the Simple, 898-922; Louis IV., 936-954; Lothair, 954-986; and Louis V., 986-987). With the death of the young king Louis V., in 987, the last direct descendant of Charlemagne passed away and the question of the succession was left for solution by the nobles and higher clergy of the realm. As soon as the king was dead, such of these magnates as were assembled at the court to attend the funeral bound themselves by oath to take no action until a general meeting could be held at Senlis (a few miles north of Paris) late in May, 987. The proceedings of this general meeting are related in the passage below. Apparently it had already been pretty generally agreed that the man to be elected was Hugh Capet, great-grandson of Robert the Strong and the present head of the famous Robertian house, and the speech of Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims, of which Richer gives a resume, was enough to ensure this result. There was but one other claimant of importance. That was the late king's uncle, Charles of Lower Lorraine. He was not a man of force and Adalbero easily disposed of his candidacy, though the rejected prince was subsequently able to make his successful rival a good deal of trouble. Hugh owed his election to his large material resources, the military prestige of his ancestors, the active support of the Church, and the lack of direct heirs of the Carolingian dynasty.

Richer, the chronicler whose account of the election is given below, was a monk living at Rheims at the time when the events occurred which he describes. His "Four Books of Histories," discovered only in 1833, is almost our only considerable source of information on Frankish affairs in the later tenth century. In his writing he endeavored to round out his work into a real history and to give more than the bare outline of events characteristic of the mediaeval annalists. In this he was only partially successful, being at fault mainly in indulging in too much rhetoric and in allowing partisan motives sometimes to guide him in what he said. His partisanship was on the side of the fallen Carolingians. The period covered by the "Histories" is 888-995; they are therefore roughly continuous chronologically with the Annals of Saint Bertin [see p. 164].

Source--Richer, _Historiarum Libri IV._ ["Four Books of
Histories"], Bk. IV., Chaps. 11-12. Text in _Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. III., pp.
633-634.

Meanwhile, at the appointed time the magnates of Gaul who had taken
the oath came together at Senlis. When they had all taken their
places in the assembly and the duke[246] had given the sign, the
archbishop[247] spoke to them as follows:[248]

[Sidenote: Adalbero's speech at Senlis]

"King Louis, of divine memory, having been removed from the world,
and having left no heirs, it devolves upon us to take serious
counsel as to the choice of a successor, so that the state may not
suffer any injury through neglect and the lack of a leader. On a
former occasion[249] we thought it advisable to postpone that
deliberation in order that each of you might be able to come here
and, in the presence of the assembly, voice the sentiment which God
should have inspired in you, and that from all these different
expressions of opinion we might be able to find out what is the
general will.

[Sidenote: Election, not heredity, the true basis of Frankish
kingship]

"Here we are assembled. Let us see to it, by our prudence and
honor, that hatred shall not destroy reason, that love shall not
interfere with truth. We are aware that Charles[250] has his
partisans, who claim that the throne belongs to him by right of
birth. But if we look into the matter, the throne is not acquired
by hereditary right, and no one ought to be placed at the head of
the kingdom unless he is distinguished, not only by nobility of
body, but also by strength of mind--only such a one as honor and
generosity recommend.[251] We read in the annals of rulers of
illustrious descent who were deposed on account of their
unworthiness and replaced by others of the same, or even lesser,
rank.[252]

[Sidenote: Objections to Charles of Lorraine]

[Sidenote: Election of Hugh Capet urged]

"What dignity shall we gain by making Charles king? He is not
guided by honor, nor is he possessed of strength. Then, too, he has
compromised himself so far as to have become the dependent of a
foreign king[253] and to have married a girl taken from among his
own vassals. How could the great duke endure that a woman of the
low rank of vassal should become queen and rule over him? How could
he tender services to this woman, when his equals, and even his
superiors, in birth bend the knee before him and place their hands
under his feet? Think of this seriously and you will see that
Charles must be rejected for his own faults rather than on account
of any wrong done by others. Make a decision, therefore, for the
welfare rather than for the injury of the state. If you wish ill to
your country, choose Charles to be king; if you have regard for its
prosperity, choose Hugh, the illustrious duke.... Elect, then, the
duke, a man who is recommended by his conduct, by his nobility, and
by his military following. In him you will find a defender, not
only of the state, but also of your private interests. His
large-heartedness will make him a father to you all. Who has ever
fled to him for protection without receiving it? Who that has been
deserted by his friends has he ever failed to restore to his
rights?"

[Sidenote: The beginning of his reign]

This speech was applauded and concurred in by all, and by unanimous
consent the duke was raised to the throne. He was crowned at
Noyon[254] on the first of June[255] by the archbishop and the
other bishops as king of the Gauls, the Bretons, the Normans, the
Aquitanians, the Goths, the Spaniards and the Gascons.[256]
Surrounded by the nobles of the king, he issued decrees and made
laws according to royal custom, judging and disposing of all
matters with success.

FOOTNOTES:

[197] After the battle of Fontenay, June 25, 841, Charles and Louis had separated and Lothair had formed the design of attacking and conquering first one and then the other. He made an expedition against Charles, but was unable to accomplish anything before his two enemies again drew together at Strassburg.

[198] The name "Francia" was as yet confined to the country lying between the Loire and the Scheldt.

[199] This Pepin was a son of Pepin, the brother of Charles, Louis, and Lothair. Upon the death of the elder Pepin in 838 his part of the empire--the great region between the Loire and the Pyrenees, known as Aquitaine--had been taken possession of by Charles, without regard for the two surviving sons. It was natural, therefore, that in the struggle which ensued between Charles and Louis on the one side and Lothair on the other, young Pepin should have given such aid as he could to the latter.

[200] On the upper Moselle.

[201] This refers to the battle of Fontenay.

[202] The translation of this oath is as follows: "For the love of God, and for the sake as well of our peoples as of ourselves, I promise that from this day forth, as God shall grant me wisdom and strength, I will treat this my brother as one's brother ought to be treated, provided that he shall do the same by me. And with Lothair I will not willingly enter into any dealings which may injure this my brother."

[203] This oath, taken by the followers of the two kings, may be thus translated: "If Louis [or Charles] shall observe the oath which he has sworn to his brother Charles [or Louis], and Charles [or Louis], our lord, on his side, should be untrue to his oath, and we should be unable to hold him to it, neither we nor any whom we can deter, shall give him any support." The oath taken by the two armies was the same, with only the names of the kings interchanged.

[204] This name in the course of time became simply "Francia," then "France." In the eastern kingdom, "Francia" gradually became restricted to the region about the Main, or "Franconia."

[205] It was commonly known as "Lotharii regnum," later as "Lotharingia," and eventually (a fragment of the kingdom only) as "Lorraine."

[206] Emerton, _Mediaeval Europe_ (Boston, 1903), p. 30.

[207] This statement is only approximately true. In reality Friesland (Frisia) and a strip up the east bank of the Rhine almost to the mouth of the Moselle went to Lothair.

[208] See p. 152, note 2.

[209] Gregory IV. (827-844) was succeeded in the papal office by Sergius II. (844-847).

[210] By the treaty of Verdun in 843 Charles the Bald had been given Aquitaine, along with the other distinctively Frankish regions of western Europe. His nephew Pepin, however, who had never been reconciled to Charles's taking possession of Aquitaine in 838, called himself king of that country and made stubborn resistance to his uncle's claims of sovereignty [see p. 156].

[211] The Wends were a Slavonic people living in the lower valley of the Oder.

[212] By "the heathen" are meant the Norse pirates from Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula. On their invasions see p. 163.

[213] This Saracen attack upon Rome was made by some Arab pirates who in the Mediterranean were playing much the same role of destruction as were the Northmen on the Atlantic coasts. A league of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi defeated the pirates in 849, and delivered Rome from her oppressors long enough for new fortifications to be constructed. Walls were built at this time to include the quarter of St. Peter's--a district known to this day as the "Leonine City" in memory of Leo IV., who in 847 succeeded Sergius as pope [see above text under date 850].

[214] Fulda was an important monastery on one of the upper branches of the Weser, northeast of Mainz.

[215] An octave, in the sense here meant, is the week (strictly eight days) following a church festival; in this case, the eight days following the anniversary of Christ's birth, or Christmas.

[216] The isle of Rhe, near Rochelle, north of the mouth of the Garonne.

[217] Galicia was a province in the extreme northwest of the Spanish peninsula.

[218] Charles the Bald, who by the treaty of Verdun in 843, had obtained the western part of the empire built up by Charlemagne [see p. 154].

[219] Louis, a half-brother of Charles the Bald, who had received the eastern portion of Charlemagne's empire by the settlement of 843.

[220] Frisia, or Friesland, was the northernmost part of the kingdom of Lothair.

[221] That is, in Brittany.

[222] Nomenoe was a native chief of the Britons. Charles the Bald made many efforts to reduce him to obedience, but with little success. In 848 or 849 he took the title of king. During his brief reign (which ended in 851) he invaded Charles's dominions and wrought almost as much destruction as did the Northmen themselves.

[223] Tours, Blois, and Orleans were all situated within a range of a hundred miles along the lower Loire.

[224] Chartres was some eighty miles northwest of Orleans.

[225] About midway between Nantes and Tours.

[226] Poitiers was about seventy miles southwest of Tours.

[227] Valence was on the Rhone, nearly a hundred and fifty miles back from the Mediterranean coast.

[228] The Northmen who ravaged France really had no kings, but only military chieftains.

[229] Odo, or Eudes, was chosen king by the Frankish nobles and clergy in 888, to succeed the deposed Charles the Fat. He was not of the Carolingian family but a Robertian (son of Robert the Strong), and hence a forerunner of the Capetian line of kings regularly established on the French throne in 987 [see p. 177]. His election to the kingship was due in a large measure to his heroic conduct during the siege of Paris by the Northmen.

[230] The tower blocked access to the city by the so-called "Great Bridge," which connected the right bank of the Seine with the island on which the city was built. The tower stood on the present site of the Chatelet.

[231] In time Robert also became king. He reigned only from 922 to 923.

[232] Abbot Ebolus was head of the monastery of St. Germain des Pres.

[233] The Northmen were finally compelled to abandon their efforts against the tower. They then retired to the bank of the Seine near the abbey of Saint-Denys and from that place as a center ravaged all the country lying about Paris. In a short time they renewed the attack upon the city itself.

[234] Charles the Fat, under whom during the years 885-887 the old empire of Charlemagne was for the last time united under a single sovereign. When Odo went to find him in 886 he was at Metz in Germany. German and Italian affairs interested him more than did those of the Franks.

[235] Sens was about a hundred miles southeast of Paris. Charles abandoned the region about Sens to the Northmen to plunder during the winter of 886-887. His very lame excuse for doing this was that the people of the district did not properly recognize his authority and were deserving of such punishment.

[236] The twelve month siege of Paris thus brought to an end had many noteworthy results. Chief among these was the increased prestige of Odo as a national leader and of Paris as a national stronghold. Prior to this time Paris had not been a place of importance, even though Clovis had made it his capital. In the period of Charlemagne it was distinctly a minor city and it gained little in prominence under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald. The great Carolingian capitals were Laon and Compiegne. The siege of 885-886, however, made it apparent that Paris occupied a strategic position, commanding the valley of the Seine, and that the inland city was one of the true bulwarks of the kingdom. Thereafter the place grew rapidly in population and prestige, and when Odo became king (in 888) it was made his capital. As time went on it grew to be the heart of the French kingdom and came to guide the destinies of France as no other city of modern times has guided a nation.

[237] He was deposed in 887, largely because of his utter failure to take any active measures to defend the Franks against their Danish enemies. From Paris he went to Germany where he died, January 13, 888, at a small town on the Danube.

[238] After the famous siege of Paris in 885-886 the Northmen, or Normans as they may now be called, continued to ravage France just as they had done before that event. In 910 one of their greatest chieftains, Rollo, appeared before Paris and prepared to take the city. In this project he was unsuccessful, but his warriors caused so much devastation in the surrounding country that Charles the Simple, who was now king, decided to try negotiations. A meeting was held at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte where, in the presence of the Norman warriors and the Frankish magnates, Charles and Rollo entered into the first treaty looking toward a permanent settlement of Northmen on Frankish territory. Rollo promised to desist from his attacks upon Frankland and to become a Christian. Charles agreed to give over to the Normans a region which they in fact already held, with Rouen as its center, and extending from the Epte River on the east to the sea on the west. The arrangement was dictated by good sense and proved a fortunate one for all parties concerned.

[239] Robert was Odo's brother. "Duke of the Franks" was a title, at first purely military, but fast developing to the point where it was to culminate in its bearer becoming the first Capetian king [see p. 177].

[240] See p. 138, note 4.

[241] If the offender had a lord, this lord would be expected to produce his accused vassal at court.

[242] That is, the old blood-feud of the Germans.

[243] The office of _missus_ had by this time fallen pretty much into decay. Many of the _missi_ were at the same time counts--a combination of authority directly opposed to the earlier theory of the administrative system. The _missus_ had been supposed to supervise the counts and restrain them from disloyalty to the king and from indulgence in arbitrary or oppressive measures of local government.

[244] The viscount (_vicecomes_) was the count's deputy. By Carloman's time there were sometimes several of these in a county. They were at first appointed by the count, but toward the end of the ninth century they became hereditary.

[245] The _vicarii_ and _centenarii_ were local assistants of the count in administrative and judicial affairs. In Merovingian times their precise duties are not clear, but under the Carolingians the two terms tended to become synonyms. The _centenarius_, or hundredman, was charged mainly with the administration of justice in the smallest local division, i.e., the hundred. In theory he was elected by the people of the hundred, but in practice he was usually appointed by the count.

[246] Hugh Capet, whose title prior to 987 was "Duke of the Franks."

[247] Adalbero, archbishop of Rheims.

[248] We are not to suppose that Richer here gives a literal reproduction of Adalbero's speech, but so far as we can tell the main points are carefully stated.

[249] At the funeral of Louis.

[250] Charles of Lower Lorraine, uncle of Louis V.

[251] The elective principle here asserted had prevailed in the choice of French and German kings for nearly a century. The kings chosen, however, usually came from one family, as the Carolingians in France.

[252] Almost exactly a century earlier there had been such a case among the Franks, when Charles the Fat was deposed and Odo, the defender of Paris, elevated to the throne (888).

[253] Charles had been made duke of Lower Lorraine by the German emperor. This passage in Adalbero's speech looks like something of an appeal to Frankish pride, or as we would say in these days, to national sentiment. Still it must be remembered that while a sense of common interest was undoubtedly beginning to develop among the peoples represented in the assembly at Senlis, these peoples were still far too diverse to be spoken of accurately as making up a unified nationality. Adalbero was indulging in a political harangue and piling up arguments for effect, without much regard for their real weight.

[254] Noyon was a church center about fifty miles north of Paris. That the coronation really occurred at this place has been questioned by some, but there seems to be small reason for doubting Richer's statement in the matter.

[255] M. Pfister in Lavisse, _Histoire de France_, Vol. II., p. 412, asserts that the coronation occurred July 3, 987.

[256] This method of describing the extent of the new king's dominion shows how far from consolidated the so-called Frankish kingdom really was. The royal domain proper, that is, the land over which the king had immediate control, was limited to a long fertile strip extending from the Somme to a point south of Orleans, including the important towns of Paris, Orleans, Etampes, Senlis, and Compiegne. Even this was not continuous, but was cut into here and there by the estates of practically independent feudal lords. By far the greater portion of modern France (the name in 987 was only beginning to be applied to the whole country) consisted of great counties and duchies, owing comparatively little allegiance to the king and usually rendering even less than they owed. Of these the most important was the county (later duchy) of Normandy, the county of Bretagne (Brittany), the county of Flanders, the county of Anjou, the county of Blois, the duchy of Burgundy, the duchy of Aquitaine, the county of Toulouse, the county of Gascony, and the county of Barcelona (south of the Pyrenees). The "Goths" referred to by Richer were the inhabitants of the "march," or border county, of Gothia along the Mediterranean coast between the lower Rhone and the Pyrenees (old Septimania).