A Source Book of Mediaeval History Part 21

[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 Roch.e.l.le, 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 t.i.tle 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 n.o.bles 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 kings.h.i.+p 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 t.i.tle, 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 va.s.sal 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 a.s.sistants 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 t.i.tle 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 a.s.serted 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.