887 862-888 Duke of Carinthia, securely defended in his castle of Mosaburch, was already considered by the Germans as their Sovereign. Hence their malevolent delight when the Pope's sudden death deprived the Emperor of his support, and frustrated those plans in which, not merely Bernard's elevation to the throne, but even the preservation of his own life, might be involved. Destruction of occasioned All the sins and errors of his ancestors principle and his own were accumulating upon Charles the Emperor. He had been inviting that retributive conduct of justice which imparts such awful unity to the vingians. tremendous epic of Carlovingian history. On by the general the Carlo whom, or upon what institution or upon what laws, human or divine, had any member of the Carlovingian family a right to depend? Their good was rendered reprobate by their evil. They had destroyed the very notion of truth and honour: they had shed blood like water: they had confounded the boundaries of temporal and spiritual authority: they had laid their hands upon the Ark their empire was founded upon political and social treason. By their examples, their acts, their deeds, they had continually inculcated the lesson, that it was right for a servant to depose his master, a nephew to rise against an uncle, a son to dethrone a father, for a kinsman to profit by any advantage he might gain over a kinsman by force or by fraud, by deceit or by violencethe adult over the child, the mighty over the feeble, 887 the cunning over the unwary, and, most odious 862-888 of all, the sound and healthy over the sick and dying. When the stalwart Carloman, nerveless, motionless, speechless, fell stricken by the palsy, Charles had gallopped away from his brother's bedside, and, seizing the kingdom of Italy, cooperated in excluding Arnolph:-his own turn had come now. § 31. The burthensome and loathsome inflation of his miserable body increased fearfully. So swollen that he could not move without assistance, they were forced to lift him in and out of his chair. Notwithstanding this enduring physical affliction, we have seen how he exerted himself in the functions of government and against the Northmen no slackness could be imputed to him, no neglect, no cowardice, a King in council, a King in the field; but his maladies were now gaining upon him so rapidly, that his mind seemed dulled by the oppression of his frame. Irksome to his subjects who were tired of him, those sub- turn against jects recollecting nothing of the eagerness with peror. which they had courted his authority, a silent but universal and irresistible conspiracy pullulated throughout the empire, for the purpose of anticipating his death. Because he so truly deserved compassion, the people scorned and despised him. Arnolph of Carinthia advanced as the most exalted of the pretenders, yet scarcely yielding in eagerness to Eudes and Robert, the sons of 887. The people the Em 887-888 862-888 Robert-le-Fort. Treading close upon Eudes and Robert was the energetic and expectant Berenger, Berenger elbowed by Guido Duke of Spoleto-Raoul of Burgundy and Boso of Provence and Rainulph of Aquitaine, bold, eager and designing, pressing onwards, and the Counts of Armorica and Sancho Mitarra Duke of the Gascons, planning to render themselves independent of the Carlovingian Crown, upon whomsoever it might devolve. The Emperor's manifested intention on behalf of the bastard Bernard, added more point and vigour to the encreasing discontent; and the Germans, the Saxons, the Thuringians, the Franconians, the Bavarians, the Lombards, the Romans, who had so enthusiastically invoked Kaiser Karl when prosperously floating on the top of the tide, were now most bitterly inimical in the day of misfortune. 887. Nov. Charles § 32. All the Teutonic nations solicited Ardeposed by nolph to assume the royal authority. Small ex the Ger Arnolph mans, and ertion was required; and Charles accelerated the accepted in crisis by summoning a Diet at Tribur near May his stead. ence, in order to promote the object so earnestly, dearly, anxiously sought, his son Bernard's enthronization. When the Diet was convened, Arnolph, triumphing in the ruddy bloom and brilliancy of health and youthful vigour, presented himself at the head of his army: he had sworn allegiance to his uncle, and if he believed in the doctrines of his age, he perilled his salvation by 887-888 miserably the violation of his oath: what mattered? he was 862-888 absolved by the legislature of the realm. Teutons and Sclavonians, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Counts, Nobles, Knights, Priests and Laymen, vied with each other in hailing the Duke of Carinthia king of Germany. They thronged in to perform homage, a race who should be foremost :-the old story as in the Colmar camp, so in the Tribur council-chamber, the treachery of the Luegenfeld acted over again. Ere three days had elapsed, Charles all had deserted the bloated, helpless sufferer, not abandoned. merely as a Sovereign, but as a fellow-creature. Not a human being was left to perform for Charles the slightest offices which suffering nature requires: he might have starved had not the Archbishop of Mayence, Liutbert, sent him meat and drink. These supplies were so scanty and irregular, that all the cares and anxieties of Charles were absorbed in the horrid dread lest he should die of hunger: he begged his victuals from day to day. : inaugu Ratisbon. § 33. All the kingdoms, states, dominions, Arnolph prelates and powers subjected to the Carlovin- rated at gian domination, concurred in the sentence of deposition Arnolph, inaugurated at Ratisbon, was solemnly acknowledged as king by all Baioaria and Suabia and Franconia and Thuringia: indeed by all the nations of the German tongue, and all the Sclavonian dependencies of the Carlovingian Crown. 862-888 888 Charles pitifully besought the new King of Germany to have mercy on him and on poor Bernard, imploring protection for the youth; and the more to move Arnolph, he sent to him the relic, the particle of the true Cross, upon which, as Duke of Carinthia, he had taken the oath of fealty. Arnolph shewed for his uncle some touch of compassion, which cost him nothing: a few inconsiderable demesnes were assigned to the heart-broken, fallen monarch for his sustenance. But when the bounty was granted, king Arnolph knew it could not be needed long: about two months afterwards Charles was dead, having earned great pity and respect by the contrition he evinced, and the patient bearing of his his death misfortunes. On the morrow, they buried the 12 or 13 Jan. 888. Death of Charles-le- Cause of uncertain. body at Reichenau: the monks of Saint Gall, of which House the Emperor Charles was also a benefactor, were accustomed to sing his obit on the day of his funeral, the ides of January. But other dates are given, and the proximate cause of his death is uncertain; whether disease killed him, or sorrow, or poison, or violence, no one can tell. It was believed in France that Charles was strangled by his attendants, tired of the profitless and disagreeable care which nursing the cumbered disgusting beggar required. Many and excellent talents had been bestowed upon him, but he lost their fruits when living, and posterity has denied him the delusive honours |