courts. A change of dynasty was thus rendered inevitable, and the throne was certain to fall to the lot of the most powerful or most daring of the nominal vassals. This event, which had been long foreseen, took place on the death of Louis the Sluggard, the last of the Carlovingian dynasty, who died without issue at the early age of twenty (A. D. 987). Hugh Capet possessed already the centre of the kingdom; he was count of Paris, duke of France and Neustria, while his brother Henry held the dutchy of Burgundy. It was not difficult for so powerful a noble to form a party, by whose favor he was invested with the title, after having long enjoyed the power of royalty (A. D. 987). Charles of Lorraine, the late king's uncle, took up arms in defence of his hereditary rights; but he was betrayed to his rival by the bishop of Laon, and ended his days in prison. Hugh became the founder of the Capetian dynasty in France, a branch of which still retains possession of that crown. But for many years after the accession of Hugh Capet, France was an aristocratic republic rather than a monarchy, for the royal authority was merely nominal. The domains of the count of Paris were indeed annexed to the crown, and thus the Capetians had greater territorial possessions, and consequently greater influence, than the Carlovingians. But the peers of France, as the great feudatories were called, still preserved their independence: and their tacit assent to Hugh's usurpation was anything rather than a recognition of his authority. In the south of France, Languedoc, no notice was taken of Hugh's elevation; and the inhabitants for many years dated their public acts by the nominal reigns of the children of Charles of Lorraine.

SECTION III.-The Foundation of the Germanic Empire.

FROM the first foundation of the Germanic empire by the treaty of Verdun, the royal authority was extremely limited, and Louis, its monarch, was obliged to swear in a national assembly, held at Marone (A. D. 851), that "he would maintain the states in all their rights and privileges." His youngest son, Charles the Fat, was deposed by his subjects; and Arnold, the natural son of Prince Carloman, was elected to the vacant throne. The custom of electing emperors was thus established in Germany, and it continued almost to our own times. Arnold was succeeded by his son Louis; the states chose Conrad, duke of Franconia, as his successor, to the exclusion of Charles the Simple, king of France, the legitimate heir male of the Carlovingians. On the death of Conrad, the states elected Henry, surnamed the Fowler, as his successor (A. D. 919), the first of the Saxon dynasty of kings and

emperors.

Henry I., by his civil and military institutions, raised Germany to the highest rank among the states of Europe. Profiting by the intestine commotions of France, he conquered the province of Lorraine, which he divided into two dutchies, that of Upper Lorraine, or the Moselle, and that of Lower Lorraine, or Brabant. The former retained the name of Lorraine; it was long governed by the family of Gerard, duke of Alsace, whose descendants obtained the Germanic empire in the eighteenth century. Brabant was assigned to Godfrey, count of Louvain, whose descendants retained it, with the title of duke, until, on

the failure of male heirs, it passed by marriage into the hands of the dukes of Burgundy, who thus found means to render themselves masters of a great portion of the Netherlands. Henry successfully repelled the invasions of the Sclavonians and Hungarians; by the defeat of the latter he freed the Germans from the disgraceful tribute with which they had been compelled to purchase the forbearance of these barbarians, and the memory of his victory was annually commemorated by a grateful people for several succeeding centuries.

The great merits of Henry secured the election of his son Otho to the Germanic throne. His reign was disturbed by frequent revolts of the powerful feudatories; their faction and insubordination effectually prevented him from giving his subjects a code of laws, the great object of his ambition; he was forced to yield to the turbulent spirit of the times, and leave some more fortunate sovereign to gather the laurels of a legislator. One incident will serve to mark the character of the age better than any labored dissertation. During one of the national assemblies or diets, it was debated" whether children could inherit the property of their fathers during the lifetime of their grandfathers." After a long discussion, in which the point became more obscure than ever, it was gravely resolved to leave the matter to the decision of a duel. An equal number of combatants, chosen on both sides, entered the lists; the champions of the children prevailed, and thenceforward the law of inheritance was considered to be fixed.

Italy had been raised into a kingdom after the partition of the Carlovingian dynasty, and several of its princes had taken the imperial title; but the government of these feeble rulers exposed the peninsula to dreadful calamities; it was harassed by the private wars of the nobles, and devastated by invasions of the Hungarians and Saracens. Adelaide, the widow of Lothaire, king of Italy, menaced with the loss of her dominions by Berenger, or Berengarius the Younger, supplicated the aid of Otho, and her request was strenuously supported by Pope John XII. (A. D. 951). Otho passed into Italy, conquered several of the strongest cities, and gave his hand in marriage to the queen whom he had come to protect. Berenger was permitted to retain the crown of Italy on condition of doing homage to Otho; but the tyranny and faithlessness of this prince excited such commotions, that the German sovereign was once more summoned to cross the Alps by the united entreaties of the Italian princes and prelates. Otho entered Italy at the head of an army which his rival could not resist; he marched directly to Rome, where he was received with the greatest enthusiasm (A. D. 962). The pope revived in his favor the imperial title, which had been thirty-eight years in abeyance, proclaimed him Augustus, crowned him emperor of the Romans, and acknowledged him Supreme Head of the Church. But the pontiff's gratitude was not of long duration; enraged by the emperor's remonstrances against his vicious courses, he took advantage of Otho's absence in pursuit of Berenger to enter into alliance with Adelbert, the son of his ancient enemy, to form a secret league for the expulsion of the Germans from Italy.

Otho heard the intelligence of John's treachery with great indignation; he returned to Rome, held a council, in which the pope was accused of the most scandalous immoralities, and on his refusal to

appear, he was condemned as contumacious, deposed, and a new pontiff, Leo VIII., elected in his stead. All Italy, as far as the ancient kingdom of the Lombards extended, thus fell under the sway of the Germans; there were only some maritime places in Lower Italy which, with Apulia and Calabria, still remained subject to the Greeks. Otho transmitted this kingdom, with the imperial dignity, to his successors on the German throne; but from his reign to that of Maximilian I., no prince took the title of emperor until he had been consecrated by the pope. Maximilian designated himself "Emperor Elect" (A. D. 1508), and his example was followed by his successors down to our times.

Otho I. died after a prosperous reign (A. D. 975), and was succeeded by his son Otho II, His reign was occupied in sanguinary wars, which harassed Germany and Italy. Otho having married the Greek princess Theophano, claimed the provinces of Apulia and Calabria as her dowry. After a tedious struggle, the emperor was mortally wounded by a poisoned javelin in a battle with the Greeks (a. D. 983). His death is said to have been accelerated by indignation at the joy which Theophano showed for the victory of her countrymen, though it was obtained over her own husband.

Otho III., when elected successor to his father, was only twelve years of age; ambitious rivals prepared to dispute his title, but the affection of the Germans for his family enabled him to triumph over all opposition. His authority was more fiercely questioned in Italy, where Crescentius, an ambitious noble, became such a favorite with the Roman populace, that he deposed Pope Gregory, and gave the pontifical dignity to John XVI. Otho hastened to Italy, captured Rome, and put both Crescentius and John to death. These severities did not quell the turbulence of the Italians; fresh insurrections soon compelled the empe ror to return to the peninsula, where he was poisoned by the widow of Crescentius, whom he had seduced under a promise of marriage (a. D. 1002). He died without issue.

After some competition, the electors chose Henry, duke of Bavaria, descended from the Othos in the female liue, emperor of the West. His reign was disturbed by repeated insurrections, both in Germany and Italy; he succeeded in quelling them, but was so wearied by these repeated troubles, that he seriously designed to abdicate and retire into a monastery. The clergy took advantage of his piety and liberality to extort from him several rich donations, which proved, in an after age, the cause of much evil. His death (A. D. 1024) put an end to the Saxon dynasty.

Conrad II., duke of Franconia, being chosen by the electors, united the kingdom of Burgundy, or, as it was called, Arles, to the empire. But this was an acquisition of little real value; the great vassals of the kingdom, the counts and bishops, preserved the authority they had usurped in their respective districts, leaving the emperors a merely nominal sovereignty. It is even probable that the high authority possessed by the Burgundian lords, induced the German nobles to arrogate to themselves the same prerogatives. The power of the clergy was increasing even more rapidly than that of the nobles, for they extorted fresh privileges and grants from every successive sovereign; Conrad,

who was naturally of a generous disposition, impoverished the state by imitating the unwise liberality of his predecessors. Italy, during this reign and that of Conrad's son and successor, Henry III., continued to be distracted by rival factions; but Henry was an energetic supporter of the imperial authority; he deposed three rival popes, who claimed succession to St. Peter at the same time, and gave the pontifical chair to a German prelate, Clément II. He even exacted an oath from the Romans, that they would never elect a pope without having previously received the imperial sanction. The imperial power, wielded by an energetic monarch like Henry, was still formidable, but its resources were exhausted; and when a feebler sovereign attempted to exercise the sway over the church which his father had held, he found the papacy stronger than the empire.

The great struggle between the papal and imperial power began in the reign of Henry IV., whose long minority, for he succeeded his father when only five years old, necessarily weakened the influence of the sovereign. On the other hand, the circumstances of Europe, at this crisis, were peculiarly favorable to the policy of the popes. The Saxon line, restored in England by Edward the Confessor, had lost its nationality: Edward conferred the chief ecclesiastical dignities of his kingdom on foreigners, or persons remarkable for their foreign attachments; and thus those who wielded the power of the church in the island, were more like missionaries, laboring for the benefit of a distant see, than clergymen, attentive only to their flocks. In Spain, the new provinces wrested from the Moors, when the unity of their empire was destroyed by the subversion of the Ommiade khaliphs, became closely attached to the Roman see. The spread of Christianity in Norway, Poland, Russia, and the other northern states, gave additional vigor to the papal power; for the Northerns, with all the zeal of new converts, became eager to prove their sincerity by some enterprise in support of the pontiff, whom they regarded as the great director of their faith.

But the most potent allies obtained by the church were the Normans of England and Italy. William, the natural son of Robert, duke of Normandy, had been nominated heir of the English throne by Edward the Confessor, who had no right to make any such appointment. Harold, the son of Godwin, earl of Kent, was the favorite of the English people, and it was generally known that he would be elected to the throne on the death of the confessor. Unfortunately Harold's brother was detained as a hostage in Normandy, and in spite of the warnings of King Edward, he crossed the sea in order to obtain his deliverance. The vessel in which the Saxon chief crossed the channel was wrecked near the mouth of the Somme, and, according to the barbarous custom of the age, the court of Ponthieu seized upon the shipwrecked strangers, and threw them into prison, for the purpose of obtaining large ransom. Harold and his companions appealed to Duke William, who procured their liberation, and invited them to his court. A grand council of the Norman prelates and nobles was then convoked, in whose présence

• Many remarkable anecdotes are related of Conrad's generosity; one deserves to be recorded. A gentleman having lost his leg in the imperial service, Conrad ordered that his boot should be filled with gold coins, to defray the expenses of his

cure.

William required Harold to swear that he would support with all his might William's succession to the crown of England, so soon as a vacancy should be created by the death of Edward. Harold's life was in the duke's power, and he consented to take the oath, secretly resolving to violate its obligations. But an artifice was employed, which, in that superstitious age, was supposed to give the oath such sanctity as to render its violation an inexpiable crime. By the duke's orders, a chest was secretly conveyed into the place of meeting, filled with the bones and relics of the saints most honored in the surrounding country, and covered with a cloth of gold. A missal was laid upon the cloth, and at William's summons Harold came forward and took the required oath, the whole assembly joining in the imprecation, "So help you God, at his holy doom.” When the ceremony was concluded, the cloth of gold was removed, and Harold shuddered with superstitious horror when he found that his oath had been taken on the relics of saints and martyrs.

On Edward's death, Harold, notwithstanding his oath, allowed himself to be elected king by the English nobles and people; but the papal clergy refused to recognise his title, the pope issued a bull excommunicating Harold and his adherents, which he sent to Duke William, accompanied by a consecrated banner, and a ring, said to have contained one of St. Peter's hairs, set under a valuable diamond. Thus supported by the superstitious feelings of the period, William found no difficulty in levying a numerous army, with which he passed over into England. The fate of the kingdom was decided by the battle of Hastings, in which Harold and his bravest soldiers fell. William found little difficulty in completing the conquest of England, into which he introduced the inheritance of fiefs, and the severities of the feudal law. He deprived the native English nobles of their estates, which he shared among his own needy and rapacious followers, and he treated his new subjects with more than the cruelty that barbarous conquerors usually display toward the vanquished.

About the same time, some Norman adventurers laid the foundation of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, in southern Europe. The provinces that compose it were shared among the Lombard feudatories of the empire, the Greeks, and the Saracens, who harassed each other with mutual wars. About a hundred Normans landing on the coast (A. D. 1016), offered their services to the Lombard princes, and displayed so much valor, that they obtained from the duke of Naples a grant of territory, where they built the city of Aversa. Encouraged by their success, Tancred, with another body of Norman adventurers, undertook the conquest of Apulia, which was completed by his son, Robert Guiscard. This warrior subdued Calabria also, and took the title of duke of both provinces. To secure his possessions, he entered into alliance with the pope, securing to the pontiff homage, and an annual tribute, on condition of receiving investiture. Nicholas II., who then filled the chair of St. Peter, willingly ratified a treaty by which the papacy gained important advantages, at the price of an empty title; he stimulated Guiscard to undertake the conquest of Sicily also, an enterprise in which that adventurer completely succeeded. Thus, at the moment that the papacy was about to struggle for power with the empire, the former had been strengthened by the accession of powerful