Early European History Part 58

Afterwards, on Christmas Day Charlemagne went to old St. Peter's Church, where the pope was saying Ma.s.s. As the king, dressed in the rich robes of a Roman patrician, knelt in prayer before the high altar, the pope suddenly placed on his head a golden crown, while all the people cried out with one voice, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans, crowned by G.o.d!"

REASONS FOR THE CORONATION

Although Charlemagne appears to have been surprised by the pope's act, we know that he wished to become emperor. The imperial t.i.tle would confer upon him greater dignity and honor, though not greater power, than he possessed as king of the Franks and of the Lombards. The pope, in turn, was glad to reward the man who had protected the Church and had done so much to spread the Catholic faith among the heathen. The Roman people also welcomed the coronation, because they felt that the time had come for Rome to a.s.sume her old place as the capital of the world. To reject the eastern ruler, in favor of the great Frankish king, was an emphatic method of a.s.serting Rome's independence of Constantinople.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CORONATION

The coronation of Charlemagne was one of the most important events in medieval history. It might be thought a small matter that he should take the imperial t.i.tle, when he already exercised imperial sway throughout western Europe. But Charlemagne's contemporaries believed that the old Roman Empire had now been revived, and a German king now sat on the throne once occupied by Augustus and Constantine. Henceforth there was established in the West a line of Roman emperors which lasted until the opening of the nineteenth century. [16]

CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE

Charlemagne's empire was not in any true sense a continuation of the Roman Empire. It did not include the dominions over which the emperors at Constantinople were to reign for centuries. Moreover, Charlemagne and his successors on the throne had little in common with the old rulers of Rome, who spoke Latin, administered Roman law, and regarded the Germans as among their most dangerous enemies. Charlemagne's empire was, in fact, largely a new creation.

108. DISRUPTION OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE, 814-870 A.D.

AFTER CHARLEMAGNE

The empire of Charlemagne did not long remain intact. So vast was its extent and so unlike were its inhabitants in race, language, and customs that it could be managed only by a ruler of the greatest energy and strength of will. Unfortunately, the successors of Charlemagne proved to be too weak for the task of maintaining peace and order. Western Europe now entered on a long period of confusion and violence, during which Charlemagne's possessions broke up into separate and warring kingdoms.

TREATY OF VERDUN, 843 A.D.

Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, who became emperor in 814 A.D., was a well-meaning but feeble ruler, better fitted for the quiet life of a monastery than for the throne. He could not control his rebellious sons, who, even during his lifetime, fought bitterly over their inheritance. The unnatural strife, which continued after his death, was temporarily settled by a treaty concluded at the city of Verdun. According to its terms Lothair, the eldest brother, received Italy and the imperial t.i.tle, together with a narrow stretch of land along the valleys of the Rhine and the Rhone, between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Louis and Charles, the other brothers, received kingdoms lying to the east and west, respectively, of Lothair's territory. The Treaty of Verdun may be said to mark the first stage in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire.

TREATY OF MERSEN, 870 A.D.

A second treaty, made at Mersen in Holland, was entered into by Louis and Charles, after the death of their brother Lothair. They divided between themselves Lothair's kingdom north of the Alps, leaving to his young son the possession of Italy and the empty t.i.tle of "emperor." The Treaty of Mersen may be said to mark the second stage in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. That empire, as such, had now ceased to exist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE FRANKISH DOMINIONS AS DIVIDED BY THE TREATIES OF VERDUN (843 A.D.) AND MERSEN (870 A.D.)]

IMPORTANCE OF THE TWO TREATIES

The territorial arrangements made by the treaties of Verdun and Mersen foreshadowed the future map of western Europe. The East Frankish kingdom of Louis, inhabited almost entirely by Germanic peoples, was to develop into modern Germany. The West Frankish kingdom of Charles, inhabited mainly by descendants of Romanized Gauls, was to become modern France.

Lothair's kingdom, separated into two parts by the Alps, never became a national state. Italy, indeed, might be united under one government, but the long, narrow strip north of the Alps had no unity of race, no common language, and no national boundaries. It was fated to be broken into fragments and to be fought over for centuries by its stronger neighbors.

Part of this territory now forms the small countries of Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, and another part, known as Alsace and Lorraine, [17]

still remains a bone of contention between France and Germany.

RENEWED BARBARIAN INVASIONS

Even had Charlemagne been followed by strong and able rulers, it would have been a difficult matter to hold the empire together in the face of the fresh series of barbarian inroads which began immediately after his death. The Mohammedans, though checked by the Franks at the battle of Tours, [18] continued to be dangerous enemies. They ravaged southern France, Sicily, and parts of Italy. The piratical Northmen from Denmark and Norway harried the coast of France and made inroads far beyond Paris.

They also penetrated into western Germany, sailing up the Rhine in their black s.h.i.+ps and destroying such important towns as Cologne and Aix-la- Chapelle. Meanwhile, eastern Germany lay exposed to the attacks of the Slavs, whom Charlemagne had defeated but not subdued. The Magyars, or Hungarians, were also dreaded foes. Their wild hors.e.m.e.n entered Europe from the plains of Asia and, like the Huns and Avars to whom they were probably related, spread devastation far and wide. A great part of Europe thus suffered from invasions almost as destructive as those which had brought ruin to the old Roman world.

109. GERMANY UNDER THE SAXON KINGS, 919-973 A.D.

THE GERMAN STEM-DUCHIES

The tenth century saw another movement toward the restoration of law and order. The civilizing work of Charlemagne was taken up by German kings, not of the old Prankish stock, but belonging to that Saxon people which had opposed Charlemagne so long and bitterly. Saxony was one of the five great territorial states, or stem-duchies, as they are usually called, into which Germany was then divided. [19] Germany at that time extended only as far east as the river Elbe, beyond which lay the territory occupied by half-civilized Slavic tribes.

ELECTIVE KINGs.h.i.+P OF GERMANY

The rulers of the stem-duchies enjoyed practical independence, though they had recognized some king of Germany ever since the Treaty of Verdun. Early in the tenth century the Carolingian dynasty died out in Germany, and the German n.o.bles then proceeded to elect their own kings. Their choice fell first upon Conrad, duke of Franconia, but he had little authority outside his own duchy. A stronger man was required to keep the peace among the turbulent n.o.bles and to repel the invaders of Germany. Such a man appeared in the person of Henry, duke of Saxony, who, after Conrad's death, was chosen king.

REIGN OF HENRY THE FOWLER, 919-936 A.D.

Henry I, called the Fowler, because he was fond of hunting birds, spent the greater part of his reign in wars against the Slavs, Magyars, and other invaders. He conquered from the Slavs the territory afterwards known as Brandenburg. This country was to furnish Germany, in later centuries, with its present dynasty--the Hohenzollerns. [20] He occupied the southern part of Denmark (Schleswig) and Christianized it. He also recovered for Germany Lorraine, a district which remained in German hands until the eighteenth century.

REIGN OF OTTO THE GREAT, 936-973 A.D.

Henry the Fowler was succeeded by his son, Otto I, whom history knows as Otto the Great. He well deserved the t.i.tle. Like Charlemagne, Otto presented the aspect of a born ruler. He is described as being tall and commanding in presence, strong and vigorous of body, and gifted with great charm of manner. In his bronzed face shone clear and sparkling eyes, and down his breast hung a long, thick beard. Though subject to violent outbursts of temper, he was liberal to his friends and just to his foes.

Otto was a man of immense energy and ambition, with a high conception of his duties as a sovereign. His reign forms one of the most notable epochs in German history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RING SEAL OF OTTO THE GREAT The inscription reads _Oddo Rex_.]

OTTO AND THE MAGYARS

Otto continued Henry's work of defending Germany from the foes which threatened to overrun that country. He won his most conspicuous success against the Magyars, who suffered a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on the banks of the river Lech in Bavaria (955 A.D.). These barbarians now ceased their raids and retired to the lands on the middle Danube which they had seized from the Slavs. Here they settled down, accepted Christianity from the Roman Church, and laid the foundations of the kingdom of Hungary. [21] As a protection against future Magyar inroads Otto established the East Mark.

This region afterwards rose to great importance under the name of Austria.

OTTO AND THE STEM-DUKES

Otto was an excellent ruler of Germany. He made it his business to strengthen the royal authority by weakening that of the stem-dukes. He had to fight against them on more than one occasion, for they regarded themselves almost as independent kings. Otto was able to keep them in check, but the rulers who followed him were less successful in this respect. The struggle between the kings and their powerful n.o.bles formed a constant feature of the medieval history of Germany.

110. OTTO THE GREAT AND THE RESTORATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 962 A.D.

CONDITION OF ITALY

Otto the Great is not to be remembered only as a German king. His reign was also noteworthy in the history of Italy. The country at this time was hopelessly divided between rival and contending peoples. The emperor at Constantinople controlled the southern extremity of the peninsula. The Mohammedans held Sicily and some cities on the mainland. The pope ruled at Rome and in the States of the Church. A so-called king of Italy still reigned in Lombardy, but he could not manage the powerful counts, dukes, and marquises, who were virtually independent within their own domains.

Even the imperial t.i.tle died out, and now there was no longer a Roman emperor in the West.

CORONATION OF OTTO THE GREAT, 962 A.D.

The deplorable condition of Italy invited interference from abroad.

Following in the footsteps of Charlemagne, Otto the Great led two expeditions across the Alps, a.s.sumed the "Iron Crown" [22] of Lombardy, and then proceeded to Rome, where he secured the pope (John XII) against the latter's enemies in that city. Otto's reward was the same as Charlemagne's. On Candlemas Day, (February 2d) 962 A.D., the grateful pope crowned him Roman emperor.

MEANING OF THE CORONATION

The coronation of Otto the Great seemed to his contemporaries a necessary and beneficial act. They still believed that the Roman Empire was suspended, not extinct; and that now, one hundred and fifty years after Charlemagne, the occasion was opportune to revive the name and power a.s.sociated with the golden age of the first Frankish emperor. Otto's ardent spirit, one may well believe, was fired with this vision of imperial sway and the renewal of a t.i.tle around which cl.u.s.tered so many memories of success and glory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, EUROPE IN THE AGE OF OTTO THE GREAT, 962 A.D.]

ULTIMATE RESULTS OF THE CORONATION

But the outcome of Otto's restoration of the Roman Empire was good neither for Italy nor for Germany. It became the rule, henceforth, that the man whom the German n.o.bles chose as their king had a claim, also, to the Italian crown and the imperial t.i.tle. The efforts of the German kings to make good this claim led to their constant interference in the affairs of Italy. They treated that country as a conquered province which had no right to a national life and an independent government under its own rulers. At the same time they neglected Germany and failed to keep their powerful territorial lords in subjection. Neither Italy nor Germany, in consequence, could become a unified, centralized state, such as was formed in France and England during the later Middle Ages.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

The empire of Charlemagne, restored by Otto the Great, came to be called in later centuries the "Holy Roman Empire." The t.i.tle points to the idea of a world monarchy--the Roman Empire--and a world religion--Roman Christianity--united in one inst.i.tution. This magnificent idea was never fully realized. The popes and emperors, instead of being bound to each other by the closest ties, were more generally enemies than friends. A large part of medieval history was to turn on this conflict between the Empire and the Papacy. [23]