Aure to the Ocean. To this was afterwards added the country between the Andelle and Epte, with Brittany. In return, the Norman was baptized by the name of Robert, and entering the Christian communion, did homage by the title of Duke of Normandy, 912. His country afforded greater security than the rest of France: labourers returned, population increased, towns were rebuilt, monasteries and churches repaired, and laws enacted for the punishment of the evil-doer. Besides the Normans, the Saracens from Africa made frequent incursions into France, and established a colony at Fraxinet (now La Garde) in Provence, where they continued independent for many centuries. Read: Crichton's Scandinavia, Ancient and Modern, 2 vols, in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library.

GERMANY.

LOUIS THE GERMAN, son of Louis the Debonnaire who received Germany as his heritage, had not only to combat against the Normans, but all the Sclavonic tribes on the eastern frontiers of his dominions. To repel their ravages, it was necessary, in Germany as well as in France, to create officers (margraves) charged with the duty of guarding the frontiers against all invaders. From 846 to 874, the barbarians on the eastern borders were in a state of almost continual insurrection; in the latter year, however, most of the Sclavonic tribes swore fealty to Louis at the diet of Forcheim. These wars did not prevent the German monarch from observing what was passing in the other Carlovingian states. After the death of Lothaire and his son, to whom Lorraine had been allotted, he divided this province with Charles the Bald; thereby augmenting his kingdom by the cities of Basle, Strasburg, Metz, Cologne, Treves, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis II., another of Lothaire's children, who possessed Italy with the title of emperor, dying in 875, Louis the German, as the eldest survivor of the Carlovingian dynasty, was desirous to obtain his dominions; but in this he was anticipated by the activity of Charles the Bald.

In the following year, Louis the German expired, leaving three sons to share his dominions. Carloman had Bavaria, with Carinthia, Austria, Moravia, and Bohemia; Louis the Young received Eastern France, Thuringia, Saxony, Frisia, and part of Lorraine; and Charles the Fat obtained Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland. But this arrangement was soon disturbed, first by the death of Carloman, and next by the decease of Louis of Saxony. Charles the Fat, in consequence, reunited without much trouble all the Germanic states, to which he added Italy, with the dignity of the imperial throne. In his reign the Normans ravaged all the country south of the Rhine from the sea to Mentz; Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle with other cities were reduced to ashes; the palace of Charlemagne was converted into a stable, and for eight years remained in that degraded condition. To remove these formidable enemies, Charles raised a numerous army, and besieged them in their camp at Maestrich, but just as they were on the point of surrendering, he offered to give them 2400 pounds of silver to evacuate a position no longer tenable. In 884, his difficulties were increased by the death of Carloman and the offer of the throne of France. But how could he protect his new kingdom, when he had proved himself unable to maintain the honour of the five other crowns which had fallen to him? The Normans continued their incursions, and besieged Paris, which was nobly defended by Eudes. The imbecility of the emperor

becoming every day more evident, he was deposed at the diet of Tribur on the Rhine, 887.

Arnulph was the newly-elected king of Germany. His policy was a continuation of the imperial system: he sought to bring back Italy and Burgundy to his obedience, to revive the homage of the French monarch, and to be crowned emperor. At the diet of Worms in 888, and also in 893, he received the fealty of the various competitors for the crown of France. He made a vigorous resistance to the Norman invaders, and in a battle fought near the Dyle routed them with great slaughter, two kings being killed and thirteen standards captured, 896. The Sclavonians also were reduced to seek peace by the decisive measures of the new sovereign. Of the fruit of his expeditions into Italy he retained little more than the imperial title; and not long after his return to Germany, he expired at Ratisbon, 899, where his tomb may still be seen.

ITALY.

On the death of Charlemagne, A. D. 814, BERNARD the son of Pepin obtained the kingdom of Italy; but rebelling against his uncle Louis, who inherited the empire, he was condemned to lose his eyes,-a punishment which was so cruelly inflicted as to cause his death, 817. The son and lieutenant of Lothaire, afterwards Louis II., who kept the Romans in obedience, compelled also the Dukes of Benevento to respect the imperial authority, and drove the Saracens from Apulia. In 844, his father resigned to him the Italian provinces. This peninsula was incessantly menaced by Sclavonian tribes in the direction of Friuli, by the Mohammedans on the southern shores, by the Normans, whose vessels approached even the coasts of Tuscany, and also by the Greeks, who were always ready to support the rebellious dukes of Benevento, Friuli, and Spoleto, the princes of Salerno, or the counts of Capua. The Aglabite Saracens of Africa had possessed Messina and Palermo since the year 832; from which ports they ravaged all maritime Italy, and threatened Rome, the suburbs of which they destroyed by fire. But Gregory IV. fortified against them the city of Ostia, and Leo IV., surrounding with walls the churches of the apostles Peter and Paul on the Vatican mount, formed a new quarter, called by the inhabitants the Leonine city, and which protected Rome on the Tuscan side. Some time afterwards, the people of Amalfi, Naples, and Gaeta, who were enacting on a smaller scale the part which Genoa and Venice performed somewhat later, entered into a league against the infidels, and, by the destruction of their fleet, checked their plundering expeditions for several years. But the Saracens re-appeared more formidable than ever; and when two competitors disputed the duchy of Benevento, Louis, hoping to terminate their differences, divided it between them, giving to one, Benevento with the eastern slope of the Apennines, to the other, Salerno with the western declivity. He thus weakened the only power that could have effectually guarded the shores of Southern Italy. Soon, in fact, all the cities and monasteries were pillaged by the Saracens, who advanced even to the convent of Mount Cassino, the abbot of which was forced to pay a ransom of three thousand gold pieces. In selfdefence Louis was compelled to make an appeal to all the military population of Italy; though an alliance with the Greek emperor, who

CARLOVINGIAN EMPERORS AND KINGS OF ITALY.

1. CHARLEMAGNE, k. of the Franks, 768; of the Lombards, 774; crowned emp. at Rome, 800, † 814.

14. BERENGER

I. d. of Friuli,
k. of Italy, 888;
emp. 906, † 924.

Gisela,m. Adel-
bert, marq. of
Ivrea.
1

Zwentibald, nat. son k.

18. BERENGER II.

sent him two hundred vessels, was more useful to him. Bari was recovered from the Saracens, and Otranto besieged; but the treachery and rebellion of the Duke of Benevento neutralized this success; and when Louis died in 875, Southern Italy, divided between the Greeks, Saracens, and dukes of Benevento, who had transferred their allegiance to the Byzantine court, was entirely detached from the Frank monarchy. In the central portion of the peninsula, the pope, who had become a temporal prince in consequence of the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne, no longer sought from their successors the confirmation of his election before seating himself in St. Peter's chair. Lastly, in the northern section were several powerful feudal princes, whose ambition harassed those fine provinces for nearly a century.

Louis the German, being the eldest surviving prince of the Carlovingian dynasty, claimed Italy; but was anticipated by Charles the Bald, who had passed the Alps with a numerous army, and hastened to Rome, where the pope and citizens appeared to be the sole persons invested with the right of conferring the imperial dignity. Subsequent events placed that country, with the rest of the Frank empire, in the hands of Charles the Fat, again to be divided on the deposition of this monarch in 888. Guy, duke of Spoleto, and Berenger, duke of Benevento, disputed the crown of Italy, the river Adige forming the boundary of their respective dominions. Guy, who was proclaimed king at the diet of Pavia, went to Rome and was crowned Emperor and King of the Romans, having associated his son Lambert in the imperial dignity, 891. Arnulph of Germany did not look with indifference on the progress of affairs southward of the Alps, and to vindicate his claims to the titles usurped by Guy, crossed the mountains and advanced as far as Piacenza, without gaining the object of his expedition, 894. Two years later he proceeded to Rome, and was consecrated emperor by Pope Formosus. After the retreat of the German, Lambert effected a reconciliation with Berenger, who preserved the title of king, which had been conferred on him by the Lombard nobles, immediately after the death of Charles the Fat.

BRITAIN.

From the mission of Augustin to the accession of Egbert, king of Wessex, the history of Britain offers little worthy of the historian's notice, except the quarrels of the petty rulers, the erection of numerous convents, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome, and the levying of Peterpence, a tax of one penny on each family to be paid annually to the Roman see.

EGBERT, A. D. 800, who had been elected king of Wessex, added the tributary states of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and East Anglia to his dominions, and compelled the independent sovereigns of Northumbria and Mercia to pay tribute. From this period England may be considered as forming a single kingdom,—a happy change to a nation which, by its insular position, seemed protected against foreign invasion. But that which might have been considered as an advantage became the primary cause of its ruin; and the Anglo-Saxon monarchy was doomed to support in succession the yoke of the Northmen of Denmark and of the Neustrian Normans. The descents of the Danes, begun in 793, were

resumed in 832, but were checked by the victories of Egbert. These inroads became more terrible and more frequent when, after Ethelwolf's death in 857, the partition of his territory and the quarrels of the several princes exposed this island, like France, to those pirates. Here permanent settlements were founded by the Danes earlier than on the Continent; and, supported by the alliances of the Welsh and Scotch, they subjugated at first East Anglia, and finally the whole kingdom.

ALFRED, A. D. 871.- One great man sufficed to check the conquests of the Danes for nearly a century. Alfred, the youngest of Ethelwolf's sons, carried to the throne all the virtues of a philosopher with the qualities of a hero. Seven years of misfortune taught him wisdom and moderation. After the disastrous result of the battle of Wilton, 871, everything appeared lost, when the victory of Edindon in Wiltshire restored to him the heritage of his brother, then in possession of the foreigner, 878. The Danes of East Anglia and Northumbria recognised his authority and embraced the Christian faith, to which course they were influenced by the example of Gothrun their ruler. The country being now at peace, Alfred turned his mind to the civilisation and security of his people. London, which he enlarged and fortified, became the capital and naval arsenal of the kingdom; and the ships constructed in its port served to protect the distant coasts and harbours, or were employed in promoting commerce. Prosperity began to reappear under this prince, who was equally capable of maintaining the national peace by his laws and by his sword. To facilitate the administration of justice, Alfred introduced or revived the division of the whole kingdom into counties, hundreds, and tithings; the laws of Ina, Offa, and Ethelbert were collected and remodelled; and the clergy, ashamed of their ignorance, applied to study, that they might gratify a monarch who founded schools and invited the most learned of all nations to his court. But his great designs perished with him A. D. 901; and the rival of Charlemagne was not more fortunate than his model.

Character of Alfred.

Alfred is celebrated not only for the fifty-six battles which he fought in defence of his kingdom, but also for the efforts he made to civilize his subjects. In his court were seen Asser, the learned Welshman, Grimbald of Rheims, John Erigena (the Irishman), and Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury. He left several compositions of his own in prose and verse, remarkable for their imagination and that pomp of figure peculiar to the ancient Germanic languages. He translated the Consolations of Philosophy by Boethius, and greatly enhanced the value of the original work by his commentaries; he also rendered into Anglo-Saxon the fables of Æsop, the Ecclesiastical History of the venerable Bede, the Geography of Orosius, to which he annexed much important matter on Germany, and on a voyage towards the Arctic Pole.* In addition to his other accomplishments he cultivated poetry with a success that places him on a level with any of the bards of his own time. His private character has been thus summed up ;-"He was humble to all, affable in conversation, mild in transacting business, venerable in aspect, serene in countenance, moderate even in his walk, sincere, upright, calm, temperate, and charitable,' to which may be added the traditional epithet of "truth-teller." All his life Alfred was occupied in devising means for the happiness of his subjects, while his own was almost hourly interrupted by an excruciating pain, which did not quit him from his twentieth year to the day of his death.

The mission which Alfred sent to the Christians of India, is of itself a proof of the geographical knowledge of this prince.