XLIX. 911 in Ger many; 987 in France. A. D. 813. CHAP. vacancy, must have afcended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But the affociation of his fon Lewis the Pious afferts the independent right of monarchy and conqueft, and the emperor feems on this occafion to have forefeen and prevented the latent claims of the clergy. The royal youth was commanded to take the crown from the altar, and with his own hands to place it on his head, as a gift which he held from God, his father, and the nation ". The fame ceremony was repeated, though with lefs energy, in the fubfequent affociations of Lothaire and Lewis the fecond; the Carlovingian fceptre was tranfmitted from father to fon in a lineal defcent of four generations; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honour of crowning and anointing thefe hereditary princes who were already invested with their power and dominions. The pious Lewis furvived his brothers, and embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne; but the nations and the nobles, his bifhops and his children, quickly difcerned that this mighty mafs was no longer inspired by the fame foul; and the foundations were undermined to the centre, while the external furface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or battle, which consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire was divided by treaty between his three fons, who had violated every filial and fraternal duty. The Lothaire I. kingdoms of Germany and France were for ever feparated; the provinces of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps, the Meufe and the Rhine, Lewis the A. D. 814-840. A. D. 8.40---355. were affigned, with Italy, to the Imperial dignity CHA P. of Lothaire. In the partition of his fhare, Lor- XLIX. raine and Arles, two recent and tranfitory king A. D. 856-875. doms, were bestowed on the younger children; and Lewis the fecond, his eldest fon, was con- Lewis II. tent with the realm of Italy, the proper and fufficient patrimony of a Roman emperor. On his death without any male iffue, the vacant throne was difputed by his uncles and coufins, and the popes most dextroufly feized the occafion of judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of beftowing on the moft obfequious or most liberal, the Imperial office of advocate of the Roman church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the bald, the flammerer, the fat, and the fimple, diftinguished the tame and uniform features of a crowd of kings alike deferving of oblivion. By the failure of the collateral branches, the Divifion of whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat, A. D. 885. the last emperor of his family: his infanity authorifed the defertion of Germany, Italy, and France: he was depofed in a diet, and folicited his daily bread from the rebels, by whofe con tempt his life and liberty had been spared. According to the measure of their force the governors, the bifhops, and the lords, ufurped the fragments of the falling empire; and fome preference was fhewn to the female or illegitimate blood of Charlemagne. Of the greater part, the title and poffeffion were alike doubtful, and the the empire, XLIX. CHAP. merit was adequate to the contracted fcale of their dominions. Those who could appear with an army at the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the Vatican; but their modefty was more frequently fatisfied with the appellation of kings of Italy and the whole term of feventyfour years may be deemed a vacancy, from the abdication of Charles the Fat to the establishment of Otho the firft. Otho king of propriates empire, A. D. 62. 117 118 Otho was of the noble race of the dukes Germany re- of Saxony; and if he truly defcended from Witiftores and ap- kind, the adversary and profelyte of Charlemagne, the Western the pofterity of a vanquished people was exalted to reign over their conquerors. His father Henry the Fowler was elected, by the fuffrage of the nation, to fave and inftitute the kingdom of Germany. Its limits were enlarged on every fide by his fon, the first and greatest of the Othos. A portion of Gaul to the Weft of the Rhine, along the banks of the Meufe and the Mofelle, was affigned to the Germans, by whofe blood and language it has been tinged fince the time of Cæfar and Tacitus. Between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the fucceffors of Otho acquired a vain fupremacy over the broken kingdoms of Burgundy and Arles. In the north. Chriftianity was propagated by the fword of Otho, the conqueror and apoftle of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder: the marches of Brandenburgh and Slefwick were fortified with German colonies; and the king of Denmark the dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confeffed themselves XLIX. themselves his tributary vaffals. At the head of CHA P. a victorious army, he paffed the Alps, fubdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the pope, and for ever fixed the Imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From that memorable æra, two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by force and ratified by time. I. That the prince, who was elected in the German diet, acquired from that inftant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome. II. But that he might not legally affume the titles of emperor and Auguftus, till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman pontiff "". 120 ern and Eaft. The Imperial dignity of Charlemagne was an. Tranfaations nounced to the Eaft by the alteration of his ftyle; of the Weftand instead of faluting his fathers, the Greek ern empires. emperors, he prefumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellation of brother "2. Perhaps in his connection with Irene he afpired to the name of husband: his embaffy to Conftantinople spoke the language of peace and friendship, and might conceal a treaty of marriage with that ambitious princess, who had renounced the moft facred duties of a mother. The nature, the duration, the probable confequences of fuch an union between two diftant and diffonart empires, it is impoffible to conjecture; but the unanimous filence of the Latins may teach us to fufpect, that the report was invented by the enemies of Irene, to charge her with the guilt of betraying the church and state to the strangers of the Weft The French ambassadors were the VOL. IX. F 122 CHAP. fpectators, and had nearly been the victims, of XLIX. the confpiracy of Nicephorus, and the national hatred. Conftantinople was exasperated by the treafon and facrilege of ancient Rome: a proverb, "That the Franks were good friends and bad neighbours," was in every one's mouth; but it was dangerous to provoke a neighbour who might be tempted to reiterate, in the church of St. Sophia, the ceremony of his Imperial coronation. After a tedious journey of circuit and delay, the ambaffadors of Nicephorus found him in his camp; on the banks of the river Sala; and Charlemagne affected to confound their vanity by displaying, in a Franconian village, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine palace 111. The Greeks were fucceffively led through four halls of audience: in the firft they were ready to fall proftrate before a splen. did perfonage in a chair of state, till he informed them that he was only a fervant, the conftable, or mafter of the horfe of the emperor. The fame mistake, and the fame anfwer, were repeated in the apartments of the count palatine, the fteward, and the chamberlain; and their impatience was gradually heightened, till the doors of the prefence - chamber were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on his throne, enriched with the foreign luxury which he defpifed, and encircled with the love and. reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the limits of the Eaft and Weft |