court of Charles the Bald, and afterwards by intercourse with his step-mother Judith who was the daughter of that king. However this may be, the policy of Alfred was in many essential particulars identical with that of the great emperor. We find the same indomitable spirit of resistance to barbarian invaders; the same disposition to compromise, on terms of suzerainty, with powerful chiefs holding independent sections of territory; the same efforts for the civilization both of native subjects and of foreigners who had established themselves within or on the borders of their proper dominion, for the restoration of union and order, and the encouragement of learning; the same enlightened cooporation with the church. Alfred's sphere of action, indeed, was more circumscribed; but these volumes contain abundant evidence that in all the nobler qualities of the mind and heart,-unselfishness, patriotism, love of his people, deep religious feeling,—in all the moral virtues and in intellectual powers, - the Anglo-Saxon king was immeasurably superior to the Frank emperor.

On the death of Charlemagne, his only surviving son, Lewis,le Debonnaire of the French, the pius of the Latin writers-inherited all his father's dominions, except Italy, which his elder brother Pepin had governed with the title of king, his son Bernard succeeding him on his death shortly before that of Charlemagne. The Italian people, ever impatient of the yoke of German domination, had encouraged the young prince, on the accession of the new emperor, to aspire at the establishment of a national and independent sovereignty; but the enterprise failing, Bernard was thrown into captivity and miserably perished under circumstances of cruelty which cast a stain on the character of his uncle; and though he was not directly culpable, caused him afterwards the deepest remorse and a most painful expiation.

All the dominions of Charlemagne were thus united under the sole government of Lewis; and the early years of his reign were otherwise prosperous. The insurrections of the tributary nations, who had flown to arms on the death of the late emperor, were speedily quelled. The integrity of the empire was secured, ambassadors from the Greek emperor and the caliph of Cordova offered their congratulations; and the mission of Anscaire into Sweden for the conversion of the pagans of Scandinavia, with the foundation of an episcopal see at Hamburgh, evinced the piety of

4

Lewis and extended his influence in the north of Europe. The imperial household was purified from the scandals which the lax morality of Charlemagne had introduced. The reformations of the church, commenced by him, were enforced with a rigour of discipline long unknown, and, as Lewis inherited his father's love of letters, his court was frequented by learned men.

The people oppressed by Charlemagne found in his son an upright and lenient judge. "Thus," says an eloquent writer, "the inheritance of conquest and spoliations fell into the hands of a simple and just man; who chose at any cost to make reparation. The barbarians who recognised his sanctity, submitted their disputes to his arbitration. He sat on the judgment seat in the midst of his people, like an easy and confiding father. He went about repairing, comforting, restoring; and it appeared as if he would have willingly given away the whole empire in making reimbursement."

Lewis le Debonnaire was by no means wanting in either courage or military conduct, and in his early years he had successfully led the Frankish armies against the Saracens in Spain ; but he was deficient in the sterner qualities necessary for holding the helm of the state with a firm hand in those unsettled times. It was his misfortune to reign under circumstances when a powerful genius seconded by an energetic character could hardly have arrested the developement of the germs of separation which were springing up on all sides. He had to combat two principles of dissolution which were entailed on the inheritance of Charlemagne, to reconcile the political unity and central government of the imperial monarchy with the forms of succession which were the custom of the Franks from the time of Clovis. The struggle was beyond his strength. His too facile disposition made him the tool of intriguing churchmen, the slave of turbulent nobles, and, worst of all, the victim of the ambition of his own unnatural

sons.

Lewis's first and most fatal error was pregnant with all the disastrous consequences which, in the sequel of his own reign and during the remainder of the century, desolated Europe.

(4) Charlemagne had many concubines, and his daughters led very irregular lives.

Scarcely was he seated on the throne of the united kingdoms which composed the empire of Charlemagne, than, following the vicious precedent of the Frankish sovereigns, he associated his eldest son Lothaire in the title of emperor with the government of Italy, giving to his second son, Lewis the German, the kingdom of Bavaria; and to Pepin, his third son, the kingdom of Aquitaine. The suzerainty of the lesser kingdoms was reserved to Lothaire as the eldest brother and emperor, and the act of creation was accompanied with a solemn protest against its being construed into a dismemberment of the empire and by oaths of fidelity from Lewis and Pepin to Lothaire ;-a protest which proved empty words, oaths which were a solemn mockery.

Lewis's second marriage, shortly afterwards, with Judith, an accomplished but intriguing princess, was another imprudence; and the birth of a son by that union, called Charles the Bald, increased the complication of affairs. The customs of the age and the uxoriousness of a weak monarch concurred in requiring that this favourite son should also be invested with royal dignity; and as the appanage of the young prince was severed from the territories assigned to his brothers; fresh seeds of discord were planted in the family of Lewis.

Our slight sketch of the course of affairs at this period will only admit a rapid glance at the principal events and influences which foreshadowed and prepared the way for the great crisis in European affairs which was now imminent, and we are spared the task of following the page of history while it describes the calamities which the civil wars, fomented by the ambition, the rivalry, and the intrigues of the sons of Hermengarde, inflicted on Europe and on their too easy father during the closing years of his reign. But it is impossible not to pause for a moment before the tragic spectacle of the discrowned dishonored monarch seeking refuge from the insults of his people in the camp of his rebellious sons, his queen and child torn from his embraces, and a suppliant in vain, like another king Lear, to those on whom nature, duty and gratitude imposed the strongest obligations for reverence and honour.

The imprudence of the act which, in dividing, had utterly shattered the sovereign power, was only equalled by the weakness of

the abject humiliation with which the unhappy Lewis submitted himself to the judgment of the Frankish bishops assembled at Compiegne. His tender conscience touched with remorse for the involuntary share which he had taken in the murder of his nephew Bernard, he was the more disposed to plead guilty to the long list of political offences,-headed by that very serious charge,on which he was arraigned. Condemned to a public penance, deposed from his sovereign rank and stripp'd of the ensigns of imperial dignity, Lewis was led to a convent, the asylum which the reverential spirit of that age, amidst all its barbarism, assigned to fallen royalty. In a more advanced state of society, revolutionary tribunals ventured to inflict a keener sentence-while exile appears to be the penalty with which modern civilization. has learnt to be satisfied in dealing with the errors or malversation of kings.

The degradation of Lewis had made him an object of disgust to his barons and of contempt to his people. But the sad spectacle which had not touched the hearts of his sons soon roused the feelings of his subjects to the commiseration of fallen greatness.— The bishops were satisfied with his submission to their judgment; the ascendancy of the church had been signally exhibited; and in an assembly at Thionville they annulled the sentence of the emperor's degradation. Lewis was restored to his rank and to the exercise of his sovereign authority, but his spirit was broken and his career nearly ended.

The influence of Judith prevailed with him, in the first moments of his just indignation, to deprive Lothaire and Lewis, his son Pepin being now dead-of their dominions and to confer the whole on Charles. But still placable and forgiving, he was again reconciled with Lothaire, and a year before his death at the diet of Worms, he divided them between Lothaire and Charles, except Bavaria which was left to Lewis the German. On his death-bed he sent a crown and a sword to Lothaire, charging him to be faithful to Judith and Charles. Lewis he forgave though he was again in arms in consequence of the emperor's last disposition of his dominions; "But let him look to himself," he said, "who despising God's command has brought his father's grey hairs to the grave." The unity of the empire ceased with Lewis le Debonnaire. In the course of the century it was more than once

re-established for short intervals; but henceforth it was the shadow of a great name. The glory was departed.

The partition of his dominions made by the late emperor gave the eastern provinces beyond the Meuse, the Jura and the Rhone to his eldest son Lothaire already dignified with the title of emperor, and king of Italy; and the western kingdoms of Neustria and Aquitaine, with the rest of France (except Provence which as part of the kingdom of Burgundy belonged to Lothaire) to Charles the Bald. Lewis the German retained his original kingdom of Bavaria; while Pepin II, on the death of his father of that namethe third son of Lewis Debonnaire by Hermengarde-made pretensions to the kingdom of Aquitaine which his father had held.

The death of Lewis, in 840, was the signal for the renewal of the jealousies and animosities which had distracted his reign. The title of emperor appeared to confer on Lothaire the suzerainty of the crowns of Neustria and Bavaria, and inflated with magnificent ideas of his prerogative he assumed a tone of superiority which the kings Charles and Lewis were not disposed to brook. The attempt of Lothaire to resuscitate the empire was indeed a bootless enterprise. He had not only to resist the ambition of his two powerful brothers, but the spirit of the age was opposed to universal empire and becoming favourable to national monarchies; so that the instinct of the people coincided with the personal interests of the two kings, whose independence appeared incompatible with the existence of an empire. Nor was this all; for the difference of race was another element in the struggle which ensued. It may be viewed in some measure, as a contest between the two great races of the conquerors and the vanquished, of the Franks of Germany and Gaul against the Romans of Italy, and the Roman-Gaulish population of the Narbonnese province and Aquitaine. They fought under the standards of the grandsons of Charlemagne, accepted as national kings, to overthrow the system which he founded, when by the establishment of an imperial throne he confounded all nationalities and centred all power in the chief of the conquering race.

In this great quarrel, involving such various principles and interests, Pepin II ranged himself on the side of the emperor; and the pope, as an Italian prince and the centre of a system