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NINTH CENTURY.

(800-900.)

In the early part of the century the most influential powers are the EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE, the EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE, and the Caliphates of the SARACENS.

EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE. The most striking movement of the century is the breaking up of the great Empire of Charlemagne, after the death of that monarch in 814. As the result of this dismemberment, we find the empire, in the latter part of the century, divided into the separate kingdoms of the WESTERN FRANKS and the EASTERN FRANKS (from which afterwards arose the kingdoms of France and Germany), ITALY, BURGUNDY, and a border-land of undetermined boundaries, between the Eastern and Western Franks, known as LOTHARINGIA. These are the elements from which sprang most of the greater kingdoms of Western Europe.

EASTERN EMPIRE. The Eastern Empire suffers losses from encroachments of the Slaves in the north, and also loses to the Saracens Crete, Sardinia, and the greater part of Sicily.

SARACENS. The power of the Saracens declines. They acquire Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and the greater part of Sicily.

GERMANY. See above, under EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
ITALY. See above, under EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
FRANKS. See above, under EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.

ENGLAND. The various petty kingdoms in Britain are united by Egbert early in the century, forming the kingdom of England. England is engaged in struggles with the Danes, who invade the country.

SCANDINAVIAN NATIONS. In this century we have the kingdoms of DENMARK, SWEDEN, and NORWAY. The ravaging expeditions of the Norsemen form a marked characteristic of the century.

RUSSIA begins to be of importance.

SCOTLAND is formed by the union of the PICTS and SCOTS.

FINNISH MAGYARS (HUNGARIANS) begin to be of importance in the last part of the century.

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE

THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.

THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST.

HE century opens with the coronation of Charlemagne, on Christmas day, 800, as Emperor of the West; and he may be regarded as the chief regenerator of Western Europe after the dissolution of the Roman Empire.

The possessions which had descended to him from his. father were small compared with those which he had won by conquest, and at the date of his coronation he was ruler of a territory not inferior in extent to that of the old Roman Empire, being master of all Germany and Gaul, the greater part of Italy, and a little of Spain. Under him the Frankish dominion reaches its highest point.

The day of the Nativity of our Lord, the king came into the basilica of the blessed St. Peter, apostle, to attend the celebration of Mass. At the moment when, in his place before the altar, he was bowing down to pray, Pope Leo placed on his head a crown, and all the Roman people shouted, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans!" After this proclamation the pontiff prostrated himself before him and paid him adoration, according to the custom established in the

days of the old emperors; and thenceforward, Charles, giving up the title of Patrician, bore that of Emperor and Augustus. EGINHARD.

The coronation of Charles is not only the central event of the Middle Ages, it is also one of those very few events of which, taking them singly, it may be said that if they had not happened, the history of the world would have been different. In one sense, indeed, it has scarcely a parallel. The assassins of Julius Cæsar thought that they had saved Rome from monarchy, but monarchy came inevitably in the next generation. The conversion of Constantine changed the face of the world, but Christianity was spreading fast, and its ultimate triumph was only a question of time. Had Columbus never spread his sails, the secret of the Western sea would yet have been pierced by some later voyager. Had Charles V. broken his safeconduct to Luther, the voice silenced at Wittenberg would have been taken up by echoes elsewhere. But if the Roman Empire had not been restored in the West in the person of Charles, it would never have been restored at all, and the inexhaustible train of consequences for good and for evil that followed could not have been. — JAMES BRYCE.

A beautiful empire flourished under a brilliant diadem; there was but one prince and one people; every town had judges and laws. The zeal of the priests was sustained by frequent councils; young people repeatedly read the Holy Scriptures, and the minds of children were formed to the study of letters. Love, on the one hand, on the other, fear, everywhere kept up good order. Thus the Frankish nation shone in the eyes of the whole world. Foreign kingdoms, the Greeks, the barbarians, and the Senate of Latium sent embassies to it.

The race of Romulus, Rome herself, the mother of kingdoms, was subject to this nation; it was there that its chief, sustained by the help of Christ, received the diadem by apostolic gift. FLORUS.

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The worldly, political, and national elements are brilliantly represented in his [Charlemagne's] reign: the imperial dignity was restored and endowed with unprecedented power; and the Pope of Rome was subservient to him, like any other bishop of his dominions. Science of every description was fostered, ancient Roman writers imitated, old German heroic legends collected. But with all this Charlemagne looked upon his imperial mission as more particularly a religious one. - VON SYBEL.

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Down to the sea the haughty land is his.
Castles and towers with their embattled walls
Lay low before him. . . . At his ease
Beneath a pine, beside an eglantine,

In a great arm-chair, all of solid gold,

Sits Charles the King, who holds sweet France in fee.

His beard is white, and snowy white his hair.

So fair his features, and so proud his mien,

No one need ask, "Which is the Emperor?"

Chanson de Roland.

And then appeared Charles himself, that man of steel, with his head encased in a helmet of steel (iron), his hands garnished with gauntlets of steel, his heart of steel and his shoulders of marble protected by a cuirass of steel, and his left hand armed with a lance of steel which he held aloft in the air; for as to his right hand, he kept that continually on the hilt of his invincible sword. . . All those who went before the monarch, all those who marched at his side, all those who followed after, even the whole mass of the army, had armor of the like sort, so far as the means of each permitted. The fields and highways were covered with steel; the points of steel reflected the rays of the sun; and this steel, so hard, was borne by a people with hearts still harder. - Old Chronicle.

The emperor [Charlemagne] was of a ruddy complexion, with brown hair; of a well-made, handsome form, but a stern visage. His height was about eight of his own feet, which were very long. He was of a strong, robust make; his legs and thighs very stout, and his sinews firm. His face was thirteen inches long; his beard a palm; his nose half a palm; his forehead a foot over. His lion-like eyes flashed fire like carbuncles; his eyebrows were half a palm over. When he was angry, it was a terror to look upon him. He required eight spans for his girdle, besides what hung loose. He ate sparingly of bread; but a whole quarter of lamb, two fowls, a goose, or a large portion of pork, a peacock, a crane, or a whole hare. He drank moderately of wine and water. He was so strong that he could, at a single blow, cleave asunder an armed soldier on horseback, from the head to the waist, and the horse likewise. He easily vaulted over four horses harnessed together, and could raise an armed man from the ground to his head, as he stood erect upon his hand. —TURPIN'S Chronicle.

Whether we regard him as a warrior or as a legislator, as a patron

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