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CHAP.
I.

A new king Didier, or Desiderius, came to reign over that people. He had sought the aid of the Pope to attain his elevation. He promised in return to be a protector to the Church. But the Pope found it neces sary to seek once more Pepin's protection and interference. His envoys reaching Paris in the autumn of 768, found that Pepin had just expired.

In the division of the empire between the sons of Pepin, as in that which took place between those of Charles Martel, a distinction was made between those territories which were immediately under Frankish rule, and those which obeyed native dukes. Such were Bavaria and Aquitaine. Whilst the sons of Charles Martel parcelled out Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy amongst them, they joined their forces, when marching into Aquitaine or Bavaria, of which they no doubt shared the homage and the tribute. The kind of partition, which took place between the sons of Pepin may be judged from the circumstance of the elder, Charles, being crowned at Noyon, whilst he passed his first Christmas at Aix, and his first Easter at Rouen. His younger brother Carloman was crowned at Soissons, and afterwards died at a villa near Rheims, whilst his chief residence and possessions were in Burgundy. Charles in fact was monarch of the Frank and German leudes and beneficiaries, Carloman of the Gallo-Roman, or the Latin.

Hunald of Aquitaine refusing the amount of submission that Charles demanded, the latter summoned his brother Carloman, in order that they should make a joint expedition against the froward duke. But Carloman's Burgundian barons (barones) did not like to second the Austrasians in crushing the south. They deserted the expedition, and Charles was obliged to prosecute the war alone against Hunald. This he did. with effect, driving him behind the Garonne, and compelling Lupo, Duke of Gascony, to deliver up the

I.

fugitive. Charles repaired the Frank fortress of CHAP. Fronsac on the Dordogne, thus inaugurating his reign with victory.

The feud, that threatened to arise between the brothers, was appeased by their mother Bertha, who exerted herself and took long journeys to reconcile not only her sons with each other but both of them with the King of Lombardy, and the Duke of Bavaria. Rome had fallen into horrible confusion, owing in a great measure to the conduct of Pepin, who had broken the power of the Lombards, yet substituted in their stead no other power over the Roman territory. The consequence was that some barons of the vicinity got possession of Rome, and caused a creature of their own to be elevated to the popedom. Some of the churchmen, indignant at this, sought the aid, not of the remote Frank sovereign, but of Didier King of the Lombards. Didier gave directions to his feudatories to march upon Rome and to aid Christopher and Sergius, the churchmen who had had recourse to him, to remove the intrusive Pope. This was accomplished; and Stephen the Third became Pontiff. A letter exists written by Stephen soon after his accession, to complain that the Frank party in Rome was hostile to him, and that Christopher and Sergius, the chiefs of the party, with Dodo the envoy of Carloman, had sought to kill the Pope, who was only saved by the intervention of Didier. When such was the intelligence which reached Charles from Rome, it is not surprising that he listened to the advice of his mother Bertha, and consented to espouse the daughter of Desiderius, leaving Italy to Lombard patronage. The marriage indeed had been scarcely decided, when a very different letter arrived from Pope Stephen denouncing the alliance as profane, the Lombard race as leprous, and marriage with it a crime. Charles paid little attention to a Pope so fickle. Stephen the Third, therefore, was left to struggle between the Frank

I.

CHAP. party, represented by Christopher and Sergius, and the Lombard faction, represented by Paul Affiarta, one of the chamberlains. In the absence of the Franks, and the division of their empire, the latter had of course the advantage, and on an occasion when Desiderius came in arms to Rome, he caused Christopher and Sergius to be seized and their eyes put out.

Several concurrent events, however, soon restored Frank interest and influence in Italy. Carloman expired towards the close of 771, and Charles was by universal acclamation hailed sole king of the race, Carloman's widow and young son flying to the Lombard court, where they were well received. About the same time, Charles took a dislike to his Lombard wife, and sent her back to her friends. Pope Stephen died, and the church party brought about the election of Adrian, a spirited pontiff, who was a decided enemy of the Lombards. The first act of the new pope was to cause Paul Affiarta to be put to death. And when Didier marched to Rome, to avenge the murder, the pope manned the walls, and sent an embassy to Charles, praying to be delivered from the tyranny of the Lombards.

Charles devoted the summer of 772 to his first expedition against the Saxons, in which he took their stronghold of Æresburg, and burned their great idol, the Irmensul. But in the ensuing year, he obeyed the call of Adrian, summoned his Champ de Mai* at Geneva, and marched himself over the Mont Cenis, whilst his uncle Bernard marched, it is said, over the mountain which bears his name, to take the Lombards in the rear. Didier shut himself up in Pavia. But Charles turned his first efforts against Verona, and suc

* When the Franks fought on foot, they mustered for their annual expedition in March, and their meeting was a Champ de Mars. When they began to war on horseback, it

was necessary to fix the time of meeting later, in order that forage might be found; and hence the meeting became a Champ de Mai.

ceeded in capturing there the widow and children of his brother Carloman. He then returned to invest Pavia. Didier was better prepared than his predecessor to stand a siege, which was accordingly protracted through the winter months. Charles took advantage of the delay to visit Rome. He was received with the greatest pomp, the pontiff awaiting him at the porch of St. Peter's. Each day was marked by some festal solemnity. It was not till the fourth day that Adrian reminded Charles of Pepin's donation of the Exarchate. Charles immediately ordered his chaplain to draw up a fresh deed of gift, much more ample, as it is recorded, than that of Pepin.* This large endowment of the church was completed by the capture of the Lombard king in Pavia, and his subsequent captivity.

What the popes aimed at was for that time an impossibility. They laboured to erect a purely moral power in an age of universal violence, without its being protected or upheld by any military organisation or force. Lombard support the popes spurned, because the Lombard made use of his influence to despoil churches, and appoint prelates. The Franks were more reverent; but their power was too remote to awe the great nobles, who were already beginning to divide Italy. Charles left many of the Lombard dukes in possession of their duchies. Hildebrand of Spoleto seems to have accepted his under the suzerainty of the pope. But how could the pontiff maintain authority over those military chieftains, when he was unable to command the obedience of his own clergy? In the very year of Charlemagne's visit to Rome, Adrian writes to

The following is the outline drawn by Anastasius :

"Sicut in eadem donatione continere mostrata, id est, a Lunis cum insula Corsica deinde in Suriano, deinde in Monte Bardone, id est in Verceto, deinde in Parma, deinde in

Rhegio, et exinde in Mantua atque
monte Silicis simulque et universum
Exarchatum Ravennatium, sicut an-
tiquitus erat, atque Provincias Ve-
netiarum et Histriæ, necnon et
cunctum Ducatum Spoletinum et
Beneventanum."

CHAP.

I.

CHAP. complain of Leo Archbishop of Ravenna, that he kept I. the towns of Romagna, maintained his own authority in them, and appointed judges independent of the Roman see.*

The early policy of Charlemagne was to leave the dukes the authority they had acquired, and thus to favour the rise of the great princely aristocracy. But as the ideas of imperialism became developed in his government, and when he proposed erecting kingdoms for his sons, he removed and destroyed dukes altogether, rendered their appointment temporary, and, at the same time, diminished their authority. For this reason, he caused Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, to be formally condemned in a solemn assembly, and abolished the dukedom altogether. That of Aquitaine was on a subsequent occasion, and for the same cause, abolished. Latterly, he limited the dukes to a mere military command, sending missi into the different provinces to hold courts or assemblies of justice, and, at the same time, to administer the imperial property in fisc lands. The revenue of Charlemagne chiefly consisted of judicial fines, and of the revenue of estates belonging to the crown. Both these revenues the missi were charged with collecting. There are several letters written by Pope Leo the Third, complaining that the imperial missi, instead of allowing the papal dukes to collect the revenue, carried it off themselves, paying no respect to the papal authority or presence. It is evident, indeed, from these letters, that whatever the extent of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Exarchate given to the popes, Charlemagne retained in his own hands, or in those of his officers, the judicial authority, and the fiscal rights of a temporal sovereign.

The most serious military efforts of Charlemagne were directed towards Germany, where not one, but est oblita et regno Francorum subjugata."

* So that people said, "Quod vobis profuit, quod Longobarda gens,

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