the Elbe, and from the Baltic to the Adriatic, and were divided into several tribes, whose common language, constitution, religion, and manners, evinced a kindred origin. The Slavonians are first mentioned in history at that period when they came into warlike contact with the German tribes; but since that time, with a very trifling exception, the Elbe has remained the boundary between the German and Slavonian tribes.

The German tribe of the Franks, during the last storms which convulsed the Roman empire, were located at the Middle Rhine. Childeric led this tribe to the Lower Rhine. He was succeeded, in 481, by his son, Chlodowig, who destroyed the last of the Roman forces in Gallia, by the victory of Soissons, in 486, and founded the empire of the Franks in Gaul. In 491, Chlodowig subdued the Thuringians and Alemans. Having taken possession of their territory upon the Rhine, he was baptized in 496, and died at Paris in 511.

Merovingian Dynasty.] Under his successors, the Merovingians, the empire of the Franks fell into decay, and only rose again in 687, when the dignity of Major Domo became hereditary in the family of Pipin of Herstal, in the three kingdoms into which it had been divided, viz. Austria, Neustria, and Burgundy. Three men of decided talent for war and government suceeded each other in this family: viz. Pipin of Herstal, Charles Martel, and Pipin the Short. Under Pipin of Herstal, the Alemanni, Bavarians, and Frises, were subdued. Charles Martel, in 714, again taught the Alemanni, Bavarians, Frises, and Saxons, the superior power of the Franks. The last Merovingian king, Childeric III., was dethroned by a Diet held at Soissons, in 752, and compelled to retire into a convent. On this occasion, Pipin was raised to the throne by the election of the people and the nobles; and he and his two sons, Charles and Carloman, were anointed by Pope Stephen II. Pipin died on the 24th September, 768.

Carlovingian Dynasty.] Immediately after his father's death, Charles mounted the throne of Austria; the death of his brother, Carloman, in 771, gave him also the possession of that of Neustria, to which he was elected by the people in preference to his nephews, who thereupon retired with their mother, a Longobardian princess, to the court of Desiderius, king of the Longobards, where several discontented Franks had assembled.

One great plan runs through the whole policy of Charlemagne's reign of 46 years, his design, namely, to unite all the nations of German origin into one great political body, under one chief,-to re-establish their preponderance, in this manner, over the neighbouring States,-to civilize them by the introduction of sciences and arts,—and, by abolishing the power of the independent dukes, to unite all the branches of the government in his own person.

In 772, Charlemagne began the war against the Saxons, who had so long struggled with his predecessors. The national hatred of the Franks and Saxons had existed for centuries; and Charlemagne aimed at breaking at once and for ever the power of the Saxons, and securing his advantage by the introduction of Christianity. But it cost this conqueror a struggle of thirty years to tame the spirit, and overturn the power, of that gallant people.

His arms obtained an easier victory over the Longobards. Having crossed the Alps, in 774, he besieged Desiderius in his own capital of Pavia, which surrendered to him; and Desiderius dying shortly after this event, in a convent, the Longobards swore allegiance to his con

queror, who united his Crown with that of the Franks, but left the Longobards in the unmolested possession of their own constitution and laws. He confirmed to Pope Hadrian, in 774, the donation made by his father, Pipin; and, in 778, conquered Spain, as far as the Ebro, and gave to this district the name of the Spanish March.

During the war with the Saxons, their chief, Witt kind, was compelled to receive baptism in 785; but, so hostile were the people in general to the dominion of the Franks, and to the tithes they were directed to pay the clergy, that they maintained a perpetual struggle with their conquerors, till 803, when at last a peace was concluded upon the conditions that the Saxons and Franks were to form one nation, with equal laws and rights, and that all were to be baptized, and to remain equally exempt from every tribute, except the payment of tithes to the clergy. Before this period, duke Tarsilo of Bavaria, who had entered into an alliance with the Avares, having been subjected in 788, was sent to a convent, and the dignity of duke abolished in Bavaria, which was thenceforth placed under the administration of counts. The Avares were likewise subdued, and their country, from the confluence of the Raab with the Danube, united with Germany, in 796, under the name of the East March. The Slavonians on the Baltic, on the right banks of the Elbe, and in Bohemia, were likewise conquered, and some of them made tributary; their lands, however, were not annexed to Germany, for Charlemagne intended to make the Elbe the natural eastern limits of that country. In the latter years of his life, having to resist the Normans, who came as pirates from the coasts of Jutland, he fortified the boundaries of his empire at the Eider.

Pope Leo III. having called Charlemagne to his aid in putting down the rebellion of some powerful Roman nobles, he went to Rome. At this period, the Grecian emperors still claimed the imperatorship of Rome, of which Charles, as Patricius, was the protector. After having reinstated Pope Leo, he celebrated Christmas in the church of St. Peter; on which occasion, while kneeling at the altar, Pope Leo placed the imperial crown on his head, and the assembled people proclaimed him emperor. Thus the imperial dignity, which had lain in abeyance since 476, was revived in the person of Charlemagne-the first German prince who wore the Roman diadem. After this event, he dropt the title of Patricius, and the court of Byzantium acknowledged him in his new dignity. The empire of Charlemagne thus extended from the Tiber to the Eider, from the Ebro in Spain to the German Ocean, and from the Atlantic to the Elbe and the river Raab in Hungary.

Charlemagne was not a mere statesman and a soldier: he united to his high talents in these characters, a genuine love of the liberal sciences and arts, and did every thing in his power to promote their cultivation in his dominions. He founded several bishoprics, and endowed numerous convents as places of education. Men of learning and science were appointed to these prebends, not as idle sinecures, but as a reward for their activity, and as affording them an ampler field for the exercise of talents so useful to their fellow-citizens. With the same view, he founded an academy, of which he was himself a member, and at the head of which he placed the celebrated Alcuin, with whom, however peculiar his taste, no contemporary Byzantine author can be compared. At Charlemagne's court there lived, besides various other celebrated scholars Egin

hard the secretary and biographer of the Emperor, Paulinus of Aquilega, Theodolphus, and the Longobard, Paul Warnefried, who has left us a collection of Latin sermons, and some historical works. It is true, that the whole circle of philosophical knowledge then lay within the narrow boundaries of the Trivium, by which was meant the three sciences of music, arithmetic, and geometry, and the Quadrivium, which included grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, and astronomy; but in those times, when the civilization of a rude and barbarous nation was attended with so great difficulties, what Charlemagne attempted and actually effected, cannot be valued too highly. He likewise brought the clergy under a better discipline; and to satisfy himself, that the Grafen or countsthe judges appointed by him-performed their duties faithfully, and administered the law justly, he sent from time to time, royal commissioners into the different provinces of his empire, with power to inquire into, and report upon the conduct of the governors and the clergy,-to receive any complaints which might be preferred against them, and generally, to communicate to the king a true report of the situation of the respective provinces. Charlemagne allowed the German tribes to use their own laws; and promulgated various new laws adapted to the spirit of the time, which were called capitularii.

A hand capable of wielding the reins of government, with equal or even superior energy, was required after Charlemagne's death, to keep together the vast empire which he had formed; but the only one of his sons who survived him, Louis le debonnaire, though good natured and highly devout, possessed none of the great qualities of his father. In 817, he divided the empire between his three sons, Lothar, Pipin, and Louis; but having afterwards by a second marriage a fourth son, Charles the Bald, he was prevailed upon by his wife to alter the first division in favour of his youngest son. This occasioned, in 829, a rebellion on the part of the elder sons against their father, which was several times renewed, and in the course of which he became more than once their prisoner. Previous, however, to his own death in 840, his son Pipin died; whereupon, as Lothar and Charles intended to reject their brother Louis' claim at the division of the empire, he made war against them. This civil dissension was accommodated by the celebrated treaty of Verdun, concluded in August 843, by which Lothar, as emperor, obtained Italy and Lorraine,-Charles, France properly so called, and Louis, all Germany, on the right side of the Rhine, and the towns of Mentz, Worms, and Spires, with their respective territories on the banks of that river. Thus Germany became, by this treaty, an independent kingdom, separated from the rest of the monarchy of the Franks.

Louis-now called Louis the German-maintained a hard struggle, from 876, with the Slavonians and Normans. To protect the boundaries

Eginhard, who died in 839, had so endeared himself to Charles by his talents and his love of science, that the emperor gave him his daughter in marriage, and the love of the illustrious pair has formed the subject of several romances and ballads. Eginhard is the most ancient German historian. The life of Charlemagne, written by him with great detail, and in a good style, was printed in 1711. Eginhard's Annals of France, from 741, to 829, were newly edited at Utrecht, in 1711. There are existing several letters of his, of which an edition was published at Frankfort, in 1714. A plan is ascribed to him to unite the German Ocean with the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, by two canals, of which one was to effect a communication between the Moselle and Saone, and the other between the Rhine and Danube.

of his kingdom, he established Markgrafen, or lords of the marches; he also granted permission to his more powerful vassals, to build strong castles in the midst of their possessions; but the more rapidly the number of these castles increased, the more dangerous they became for the German kings, as they promoted the independence and pride of the chiefs, and enabled them to maintain their private feuds, and set the public law at defiance for centuries. After Louis' death, in 826, his three sons, Carloman, Louis the younger, and Charles le Gros, having divided the kingdom into three parts: viz. Bavaria, Franconia, and Alemannia, were attacked by their uncle Charles the Bald. Carloman died in 880,

and Louis in 882, after the first had been elected king of Italy, whereupon Charles-who succeeded him in this dignity-united all the German countries, and was also recognised as king of France. But Charlemagne's spirit rested not upon him, and the German nation, in 887, took the Crown from him, and elected Arnulph of Carinthia, an illegitimate son of Carloman, king of Germany. His reign was a scene of constant warfare. After his death in 899, his son, Louis the child-then only six years of age-was elected king by the Germans. Under his reign, the wealthy vassals began to grow more and more powerful, and Germany suffered by the invasion of the Hungarians. With Louis, who died on the 24th September, 911, the Carlovingian race was extinguished in Germany; and Conrad I., one of the counts of eastern Franconia having been elected king, Germany, from this period, remained an elective empire. Conrad's short reign, from 911 to 919, was stormy; but before his death, he magnanimously urged the election of duke Henry of Saxony, the most powerful and gallant of the German princes, although he had always been his personal enemy.

House of Saxony.] With Henry I. begun the house of Saxony in Germany. He was successful in his wars against the Hungarians, and other external enemies of the State, and successfully curbed the ambitious vassals; he also endeavoured to induce the Germans to live in towns-a mode of life to which they were very adverse-by granting considerable privileges to the cities. He was succeeded in 936, by his son Otto I., under whose reign, the form of the German State gained more and more consistency. Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Suabia, Lorraine, and Thuringia, were at this period the German dukedoms. The markgraves of Misnia, and Austria, now began to gain greater authority; and the Ratzgrafen, or palatines, a title given to the inspectors of the royal castles, and the Burgrafen, or commanders of the strong castles, had lands assigned to them for their services.

Otto was, in 951, crowned king of Lombardy; at Pavia, in 961, king of Italy, by the archbishop of Milan; and on the 2d February, 962, he received the imperial crown at Rome from the hands of pope John XII. The union with Italy shed a ray of Italian civilization over Germany; but the constant civil contentions of the former country, deprived it of its most noble youth, and the whole fate of the latter country might perhaps have taken another direction, and the Roman bishop never have obtained so much influence over Germany, if Otto had avoided this union with Italy at a period when the Germans were so much hated and feared. The reign of Otto II. from 973, to 983, witnessed an unceasing conflict in Germany and Italy. His son Otto III. would probably have transported his residence to Italy, having been crowned emperor at Rome in 996, and being fond of that country and its civilization; but he

died young on the 24th of January, 1002, having been poisoned, it is suspected, by an Italian lady. With him the house of Saxony ceased to occupy the imperial throne.

Henry of Bavaria, and Conrad II.] Duke Henry of Bavaria was elected in 1002, and died in 1024, after a stormy reign, without leaving a male heir, whereupon the Germans placed the Franconian duke, Conrad II. on the throne. His reign was distinguished by an energetic and successful government. He regained Italy, and was crowned in 1027 at Rome. Conrad's new constitution, promulgated at Milan on the 28th of May, 1037, established the hereditary succession of the smaller fiefs or estates of the vassals in the male line; a measure which led the way to the hereditary succession of the larger fiefs or ducal dignities.

Henry III.] Henry III., Conrad's son, succeeded his father in 1039. He supported vigorously the imperial rights in the nomination to the See of Rome. Three popes contending one against another, were deposed by him; and three times he appointed German bishops to the papal see.

Henry IV.] Henry III. died too early for his great plans, and during the minority of his son Henry IV., matters assumed a quite different aspect. Upon the education and wavering character of the young prince, Bishop Adelbert of Bremen had exercised great influence; and the foundation of the clerical hierarchy in his reign, was an important result of that training. Pope Nicholas II., in 1059, in a council held at Rome, had declared that the right of electing to the popedom, was vested exclusively in the 7 cardinal bishops of Rome, and the 28 cardinal priests. Nicholas attempted at the same time farther to invade the royal prerogatives, by giving the investiture of Capua, Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily, to the Norman princes of Lower Italy, by which policy he attached them to the Roman see. Gregory VII. accomplished what Nicholas had begun. He even maintained, that the German empire, as well as every other Christian realm, were tributary fiefs of the see of Rome, and that the pope was lord paramount of his vassal the emperor! In consistency with these doctrines, when the discontented Saxons complained of Henry at Rome, Gregory summoned the king before him, threatening him at the same time with the anathema if he refused to obey. Henry I., the son of an emperor, by whom three popes had been deposed, answered this insolence by deposing Gregory; whereupon the latter pronounced the anathema, relieving the Germans from their allegiance to him, in 1076. Hated and forsaken by his German vassals, Henry was now obliged to go to Italy, and after an abject penance of three days at Canossa, where Gregory was then on a visit to the countess Matilda, he obtained absolution from his hands, but upon conditions so revolting, that Henry shortly afterwards declared them null and void, as having been forced upon him. Gregory now attempted to elevate duke Rudolph of Suabia to the German throne; but the duke was deadly wounded in the third battle with Henry. A council of German bishops held at Brixen, in 1080, now deposed the pope, and elected Clement III., whom Henry conducted to Italy; whereupon Gregory fled to Salerno, where he died in exile, in 1085. Two new popes were successively opposed to Clement: the latter of whom, Urban II., excited Henry's son, Conrad, to rebellion against his father, who thereupon named his younger son, Henry, his successor. But he also was induced by pope Pascalis II. to take up arms against his father, whom he made prisoner,