888-912 occupied about three years:—no “great principles" were invoked, no "national interests" sought. 894-895 Important as the results became in their ultimate Charles receives in France from Ar nolph. consequences, the conflict between Eudes and Charles, when you approach the fray, dwindles into a complication of miserable feuds, destitute of sentiment or grandeur. § 13. The contest, though protracted, was vestiture of unequal-the Capet King, an experienced and tried warrior, supported by his brother Robert: Charles, a boy, destitute of any coadjutor upon whom he could rely.-The skirmishes, scarcely to be called campaigns, were principally carried on within the Vermandois territory. Charles, driven into Rheims and besieged by Count Robert, saw his cause speedily abandoned by his men; they stole out of the city, but upon favourable terms granted by Robert. The latter did not seek to drive his adversaries to extremities. Charles himself was allowed by Robert to depart in safety, and he visited the Court of King Arnolph, whose assistance he implored. Arnolph welcomed the son of Louis-le-Bégue kindly, and Charles was willing to receive investiture of the kingdom from him; a great triumph for the Slavo-Teutonic Senior. Arnolph commanded the Lotharingians to assist the expelled sovereign; but Eudes, an able tactitian, prevented Arnolph's troops from entering the kingdom, and Charles retreated to Burgundy. Their barbarian enemies 895-897 Charles by Arnolph before him. were, as usual, profiting by the civil war :-Mag- 888-912 yars pressing onwards, Northmen gnawing out the heart of the country. Arnolph, whose cha- Eudes and racter displays much magnificence, was impa- summoned tient to justify his ancestry-his aspirations were to appear grand; he was seeking to be Emperor, a real Emperor; he now attempted to exercise his authority for the commonweal, and, by producing concord to diminish the Empire's calamities. He summoned the two kings of France to appear before him. Eudes complied: Charles, according to his recent submission, was bound to obey the mandate; but he spurned the subjection he had sought. Arnolph's mediation therefore failed, and the contest was renewed with greater pertinacity. Eudes Charles Herbert of Vermandois changed sides again, 896-897 attaching himself to Charles; others followed his Successes of example. Eudes never faltered in demonstrating takes rehis royal rights. All the power belonging to the tharingia. Sovereign by the Frankish constitution, over the possessions, beneficiary or otherwise, of his vassals, Eudes exercised to the fullest extent: adherence to Charles he treated as felony: the nobles composing the party which supported Charles, he dispersed; he picked them out one by one. Peronne was taken, Saint-Quentin taken, till at last the Carlists had lost the whole of their towns and lands. Rheims alone held out against Eudes, who elsewhere enforced universal submission, even from Count Herbert; and 888-912 Charles took refuge under the wing of King Arnolph in Lotharingia, where he was protected, 896-897 though unsatisfactorily, by Arnolph's son, the turbulent King Zwentibold. Vigorous conduct of Charles. Despite of all troubles and traverses, the courage of Charles was unabated: a naturally vigorous character received an additional support from the buoyancy of youth; he was inventive and full of resource: and he determined upon a measure, hazardous, almost desperate, but which the pressure of his position might suggest or justify. The Northmen were habitually cruising in the Seine, and the chieftain now occupying the river was a certain Hunedeus. This name is of singular sound, it never occurs before-possibly the reading is corrupt, but the sudden apparition of "Hunedeus" is rendered more remarkable from the circumstance that others call him Rodo, or even Rollo. Destitute of any adviser whom he could love or trust, Charles could not fail to discern that the Frankish prelates and nobles constituting his party, acted, when they did give him their uncertain support, for their sakes, and not for his own; and he formed the scheme of strengthening himself upon the throne by Charles en- an alliance with the Pagan Northmen. Could support he induce the Danes to unite their interest to himself by deavours to over the gaining the interests of France, he would infuse new blood, and the kingdom would acquire new Northmen. 897-898 glory. The instinctive prescience, the shadow of 888-912 events cast before, is, in history, the observation of the causes which conduce to the future event; and the policy now attempted by Charles was afterwards consummated by his compact at Saint Clair-sur-Epte. "Hunedeus," upon the request of Charles, was baptized; and the treaties thus commenced would, had they been perfected, have then created Normandy. But their operation was suspended. Archbishop Fulco impeded the transaction to the utmost of his power. The apparent conversion of the Northmen he counted for nought: Hunedeus, clad in the neophyte's white garment, would be as much a Heathen Viking as before: he upbraided Charles with seeking such detestable aid. If he joined himself to the Pagans, he would be no better than a Pagan himself— better not reign at all than reign sub patrocinio diaboli. Had the Franks ever kept any oath which they swore on cross, relic, or shrine, the Archbishop's admonition would have been more cogent. Charles might have replied that Fulco's own oath-breakings excused his condonation of Danish unbelievers. 897 prosperous: sions made But, under existing circumstances, it was not Charles unpracticable for Charles to work out any effectual intercesor satisfactory results. The Danes spread them- to Eudes selves widely-more dissensions and troubles: a behalf. bitter feud raged between Raoul, Count of Cambrai, Baudouin-le-Chauve's brother, and Herbert on his 897-899 888-912 of Vermandois; Raoul was killed by Herbert when besieging Saint-Quentin; and the very few partisans whom Charles could muster, seeing that the Carlist cause was desperate, repaired on his behalf to Eudes. They became petitioners on the desolate young king's behalf;—would not the Capet recollect that their Seigneur was son of the Capet's Seigneur?-and they besought that King Eudes would allow unto the young prince some portion of his paternal kingdom. This appeal to the conscience of Eudes was not unavailing. Eudes agreed to the proposed pacification. He received Charles kindly, granted certain appanages to him, promised more, and made friends with Herbert and Baudouin. 899 Jan. 1. Death of Eudes, brave Eudes, during these transactions was preparing for death.-Scarcely exceeding forty years of age, exertions and anxieties had worn him out. He had long been exceedingly distressed by morbid sleeplessness: this affection caused occasional delirium, and he knew his case was hopeless. At La-Fère-sur-Oise the mortal attack came on. Languishing on his dying bed, he exhorted all who had access to him that they should observe and keep their faith to Charles. Eudes died on the feast of the Circumcision; and the first king of the third dynasty received an honourable sepulture, with his Merovingian and Carlovingian predecessors, in the royal Abbey of Saint-Denis. |