XLIX. dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of CHAP. their province, their liberty, and their lives. Harsh and rigorous would have been fuch treatment of ambitious governors, who had too faithfully copied *the mayors of the palace. But a recent difcovery 197 has proved that these unhappy princes were the last and lawful heirs of the blood and fceptre of Clovis, a younger branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Their ancient king dom was reduced to the dutchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fefenzac and Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees: their race was propagated till the beginning of the fixteenth century; and, after furviving their Carlovingian tyrants, they were referved to feel the injuftice, or the favours, of a third dynasty. By the re-union of Aquitain, France was enlarged to its present boundaries, with the additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the Rhine. II. The Saracens had been expelled Spain. from France by the grandfather and father of Charlemagne; but they ftill poffeffed the greatest part of SPAIN, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civil divisions, an Arabian emir of Saragoffa implored his protection in the diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the expedition, restored the emir, and, without dif 107 Of a charter granted to the monaftery of Alaon (A. D. 845) by Charles the Bald, which deduces this royal pedigree. I doubt whether fome fubfequent links of the ixth and xth centuries are equally firm; yet the whole is approved and defended by M. Gaillard (tom. ii. p. 60-81.203 26.), who affirms, that the family of Montefquieu (not of the prefident de Montefquieu) is descended in the female line, from Clotaire and Clovis→→→→ an innocent pretenfion! XLIX. Italy. ་ CHAP. tinction of faith, impartially crushed the resistance of the Chriftians, and rewarded the obedience and fervice of the Mahometans. In his abfence he inftituted the Spanish march 103, which extended from the Pyrenees to the river Ebro: Barcelona was the refidence of the French governor; he poffeffed the counties of Roufillon and Catalonia; and the infant kingdoms of Navarre and Arragon were fubject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards, and patrician of Rome, he reigned over the greatest part of ITALY 109, a tract of a、 thousand miles from the Alps to the borders of Calabria. The dutchy of Beneventum, a Lombard fief, had spread, at the expence of the Greeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in the flavery of his country; affumed the independent title of prince; and opposed his fword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence was firm, his fubmiffion was not inglorious, and the emperor was content with an eafy tribute, the demolition of his fortreffes, and the acknowledgment, on his coins, of a fupreme lord. The artful flattery of his fon Grimoald added the appellation of father, but he afferted his dignity with prudence, and Bene 108 The governors or counts of the Spanish march revolted from Charles the Simple about the year goo; and a poor pittance, the Roufillon, has been recovered in 1642 by the kings of France (Longuerue, Defcription de la France, tom. i. p. 220-222.). Yet the Roufillon contains 188,900 fubjects, and annually pays 2,600,coo livres (Necker, Admin.ftration des Finances, tom i. p. 278, 273.); more people perhaps, and doubtlefs more money, than the march of Charlemagne. 09 Schmidt, Hift. des Allemands, tem. ii. p. 200, &c. ventum, ventum infenfibly escaped from the French yoke". CHAP. IV. Charlemagne was the first who united GERMANY under the fame fceptre. The name of Oriental France is preferved in the circle of Franconia; and the people of Heffe and Thuringia were recently incorporated with the victors, by the conformity of religion and government. The Alemanni, fo formidable to the Romans, were the faithful vaffals and confederates of the Franks; and their country was infcribed within the modern limits of Alface, Swabia, and Switzerland. The Bavarians, with a fimilar indulgence of their laws and manners, were lefs patient of a master: the repeated treasons of Tafillo juftified the abolition of her hereditary dukes; and their power was fhared among the counts, who judged and guarded that important frontier. But the north of Germany, from the Rhine and beyond the Elbe, was ftill hoftile and Pa gan; nor was it till after a war of thirty-three years that the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries were extirpated the foundation of eight bifhoprics, of Munster, Ofnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen, Verden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either fide of the Wefer, the bounds of ancient Saxony; these epifcopal feats were the first schools and cities of that favage land; and the religion and humanity of the children atoned, in fome degree, for the maffacre of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the Slavi, or Sclavonians, of fimilar manners, and various denominations, overfpread 110 See Giannone, tom. i. p. 374, 375. and the Annals of Muratori. XLIX Germany. XLIX. Their CHAP. the modern dominions of Pruffia, Poland, and Bohemia, and fome tranfient marks of obedience have tempted the French hiftorian to extend the empire to the Baltic and the Vistula. The con queft or converfion of those countries is of a more recent age; but the first union of Bohemia with the Germanic body may be juftly afcribed to the Hungary. arms of Charlemagne. V. He retaliated on the Avars, or Huns of Pannonia, the fame calamities which they had inflicted on the nations. rings, the wooden fortifications which encircled their districts and villages, were broken down by the triple effort of a French army, that was poured into their country by land and water, through the Carpathian mountains and along the plain of the Danube. After a bloody conflict of eight years, the lofs of fome French generals was avenged by the flaughter of the most noble Huns: the relics of the nation fubmitted: the royal refidence of the chagan was left defolate and unknown and the treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty years, enriched the victorious troops, or decorated the churches of Italy and Gaul "". After the reduction of Pannonia, the empire of Charlemagne was bounded only by the conflux of the Danube with the Teyfs and the Save the provinces of Iftria, Liburnia, and Dal * Quot prælia in eo gesta! quantum fanguinis effufum fit! Teftatur vacua omni habitatione Pannonia, et locus in quo regia Cagani fuit ita defertus, ut ne veftigium quidem humanæ habitationis appareat, Tota in hoc bello Hunnorum nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, omnis pecunia et congesti ex longo tempore thefauri direpti funt. matia, XLIX. matia, were an easy, though unprofitable, accef. CHAP fion; and it was an effect of his moderation, that he left the maritime cities under the real or nominal fovereignty of the Greeks. But these distant poffeffions added more to the reputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did he risk any ecclefiaftical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians from their vagrant life and idolatrous worship. Some canals of communication between the rivers, the Saône and the Meufe, the Rhine and the Danube, were faintly attempted ". Their execution would have vivified the empire; and more coft and labour were often wafted in the ftructure of a cathedral. 112 bours and If we retrace the outlines of this geographical His neighpicture, it will be feen that the empire of the enemies. Franks extended, between eaft and weft, from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and fouth, from the dutchy of Beneventum to the river Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany and Denmark. The perfonal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by the diftrefs and divifion of the rest of Europe. The iflands of Great Britain and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or Scottish origin; and, after the loss of Spain, the Christian and Go 112 The junction of the Rhine and Danube was undertaken only for the fervice of the Pannonian war (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 312-315.). The canal, which would have been only two leagues in length, and of which fome traces are ftill extant in Swabia, was interrupted by exceffive rains, military avocations, and fuperftitious fears (Schæpflin, Hift. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. p. 256. Molimina fluvjo. rum, &c. jungendorum, p. 59–62.). |