THE HISTORY of CHARLEMAGNE

BOOK X.

FROM THE CONSPIRACY OF PEPIN THE HUNCHBACK,

TO THE FINAL SUBJUGATION OF THE SAXONS.

792 TO 804.

When Charlemagne first undertook to revenge the aggression which the Huns had committed in their irruptions into Bavaria, internal tranquility and external peace, offered the fairest opportunity for the endeavor, and the clearest prospect of success. But, before he could enter upon a second campaign, unexpected dangers assailed him on all sides. The first, and the most imminent of these dangers, as it menaced his own person, as well as the security of his dominions, arose in a conspiracy formed by several of his nobles, who had again occasion to complain of the cruelty of the Queen Fastrada. How that cruelty was exercised is not stated on this occasion, any more than on that of the conspiracy of Hartrad in 785; but it is easy to conceive many ways in which a harsh and imperious woman might bring the government of her husband into hatred with his people, though it is difficult to comprehend how such a monarch as Charlemagne permitted his power to be abused by any one to whom it was partially delegated.

It is probable that the conspiracy was long in embryo, and that both real grievances, and restless ambition, added day by day to the numbers implicated. At length the discontent extended to a sufficient number of nobles to render success probable, and nothing farther was required but a chief to give dignity to the enterprise, and to direct the efforts of the conspirators. That chief was unfortunately too soon found, and found in the family of the monarch himself. In very early years, as I have before mentioned, Charlemagne had connected himself with a woman of inferior rank, named Himiltruda, but solely by the ties of illicit love. By her he had one son, named Pepin, who grew up with a shrewd keen mind, an irritable temper, and great personal deformity. Whether from any doubts in regard to paternity, or from some other cause, cannot be told, but Charlemagne so little regarded this child as one of his family, that he gave the same name which he bore to one of his legitimate sons. He educated him, however, and kept him at his court; but it is easy to conceive that, in a bad and irritable mind, the grief which his inferior share of love and authority must have produced, might easily be perverted to hatred towards his father, and malignant envy towards his more happy brothers.

THE CONSPIRACY OF PEPIN THE HUNCHBACK

The conspirators who had planned the subversion of their sovereign's throne, found it no difficult matter to bring Pepin the Hunchback, as he was called, to abet their schemes; and, as very frequently happens, the additional criminality of the child who revolted against his father, brought an aggravation of crime to all. To the plot for rising against their sovereign's authority, was added the design of taking his life, and that of all his legitimate sons. What share of private benefit was to accrue to each of the inferior conspirators is not known; but Pepin was to be raised to the throne of France, upon the dead bodies of his father and his brethren.

Pepin feigned an illness, in order to absent himself from the court; and the last arrangements were concluded for the proposed revolt and massacre; but it so happened that a certain monk, named Fardulphus, who had been brought by Charlemagne from Lombardy, shortly after the fall of Pavia, overheard by accident the unnatural resolution of the son, and the bloody designs of the conspirators; and instantly hastened to give information of their purpose.

His account was clear and distinct. The whole of the traitors were arrested and brought to trial; their crime was fully proved; and death was the sentence of all. The sword and the cord were the punishments inflicted on the conspirators in general. One only was spared, in whose case the ties of blood, and perhaps the belief that he had been made an instrument by more designing men, outweighed the cruel justice which demanded impartiality of infliction. Pepin was condemned to eternal seclusion in a monastery; and if we may credit the description of him given by the monk of St Gall, he carried to the cloister the same bitter and disappointed malignity, which had led him to conspire against his father and his king.

The sentence on Pepin and his accomplices was, of course, pronounced by a more impartial tribunal than the palace judgment seat of the offended monarch. The general assembly of the Prankish people was called, to take cognizance of the detected conspiracy, and, for the second time, awarded the extreme penalty of the law, for the crime of high treason.

CONSTITUTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES OF THE FRANCS UNDER CHARLEMAGNE

Since the death of Charles Martel, a great change had taken place in the functions of this assembly, the constitution of which, during the first years of the French monarchy, probably varied with everything else, according to the character and power of the sovereign, and the circumstances of the times. Charles Martel, confident in his own superior vigor of mind and body, despising the clergy, who were then in almost as degraded a state as the kings, and fearful of fixing his authority on the support of the nobles, which had often proved the most unstable of all foundations, dispensed as much as possible with all assemblies of the people; and if he did not formally abolish them, suffered them to fall into desuetude. Pepin, on the contrary, with the object of a crown before his eyes, made use of the ancient meetings of the nation to obtain his purpose; but, jealous of the authority, which he had only shared with a view to confirm, he circumscribed afterwards the powers of the assemblies, and suffered them only to deliberate upon church discipline and general policy. Charlemagne, seated in the hearts of his people,—a nobler throne than the bucklers which raised his father to the acme of his fortune,—trusted the nation that trusted him; and, striving to wield the mighty sceptre of his own genius solely for the benefit of his subjects, neither feared nor encountered opposition to measures, which were conceived in the spirit of disinterested beneficence, and framed with wisdom far superior to his age.

Under his administration, the diets, or general assemblies of the people, constituted as before of all the nobles, both secular and ecclesiastical, exercised immense power. They formed the great council of state, destined to advise with the monarch on all questions of peace or war; and, indeed, on the whole conduct, of his empire. They framed the laws, and enacted the imposts for the following year; acted as the principal court of appeal for the whole people; and possessed all the prerogatives of the highest judicial as well as legislative body.

At these meetings in general, the ambassadors from foreign powers were received; and after the many conquests of Charlemagne, when the national assembly contained representatives from almost every continental country—from the shores of the Baltic to the British Channel, from beyond the Pyrenees to the depths of Panonia—the splendor and singularity of the scene was such as to call forth many a glowing description from the pens of admiring contemporaries. At these assemblies, also, were presented those peculiar tributes, or fines, which vassals were required to pay by the tenure of their lands, and which were called annua, or dona annualia. Here, too, were received the general dues, collected throughout the kingdom, and the tribute, by which conquered nations acknowledged their dependence, while they retained their separate form of government.

In the first ages of the French monarchy, these assemblies were held, usually, only once in the year; but in the beginning of the second race of kings, (though at what period is not precisely known,) two meetings took place annually. The first of these, however, still remained the most important : regulating every thing for the ensuing year that foresight could accomplish; while the second took heed of all which by accident, or from press of business, had been neglected in the first.

COUNTS OF THE PALACE

Such was the vast machine which Charlemagne employed, in the beneficent purpose of governing his people, for their own advantage. But, notwithstanding the great power which he ascribed to these assemblies, we find that he himself, without their concurrence, often made war or peace; and added laws to those which they had enacted. Thus, while he called the nation, for its own benefit, to participate in the exercise of the authority which his predecessors had assumed, he relinquished no particle of real power himself; and, indeed, the whole of his reign evinces, that if the monarch had confidence in his people, the people had confidence in their monarch; and that, showing his reliance on the nation by consulting them whenever it was possible, he was despotic through the affections of his subjects.

Nevertheless, although the diet served the king as a great and general council on all subjects of universal interest, and in regard to all permanent institutions, there were many sudden emergencies and minor details, on which it could not be consulted; and which, in after ages, have been generally submitted by sovereigns to particular advisers, forming their privy council.

On these occasions, Charlemagne either acted by his own judgment, or by the advice of some of the most prudent of his officers and attendants, who happened to be with him at the time. These he called to a private consultation, whether the question was warlike or political; but there does not appear to have existed any permanent and regular council, to assist the King in matters of general administration.

In regard to the dispensation of justice, however, a regular court was established in the royal palace, at which the King himself frequently presided. The principal officers of this court were called Counts of the Palace, or, in other words, Palace Judges. Of their functions in general, I have given a more detailed account before; and shall only repeat, that to them was a general appeal from all other courts throughout the country, though the right of judging in the first instance also belonged to them, if occasion required such a proceeding. Under the first race of French monarchs, one of these cotints sufficed, and the duties were either small, or were neglected; but in the reign of Charlemagne,—who considered promptitude of decision as an essential part of justice—these officers were considerably multiplied. So much was this the case, that continual access could be had to judgment; and, to use the words of Mably, the business of a courtier was then not to offer flattery, but to administer the law. In aid of these counts, were a number of counsellors, called Scabini Palatii; and, with their assistance, the palatines held continual sittings in the royal residence, where causes of erery kind were argued and decided, so that redress could never be retarded, nor offences remain long unpunished.

To this court, however, such conspiracies as those of Tassilo, Hartrad, and Pepin, were not submitted, although it would seem that their reference to a general assembly of the nation depended more on the impartial feeling of the monarch, than on the acknowledged incompetency of his palace court. It never appears that the national assembly was less severe in its judgment against traitors, than the most bigoted advocates of authority could have been; for, in all cases, we find that the indignant clamor with which the people doomed to death those who conspired against their King, showed at once how little the nation in general sympathized with the treason of individuals. Mercy, however, has always been one of the peculiar prerogatives of royalty; and Pepin, as well as Tassilo, though condemned by his countrymen, was pardoned by the voice of Charlemagne himself.

The service of the Lombard priest, who, by the loyal promptitude of his information, had saved the state, was not forgotten by the gratitude of the monarch. A year passed away, indeed, before it received its reward; but, at the end of that time, the abbacy of St Denis became vacant; and Fardulphus, so lately a poor and unknown clerk, was raised to one of the richest dignities in the Gallic church.

REVOLT OF SAXONY

To a mind like that of Charlemagne, the conspiracy of his subjects and the treason of his son, were in themselves profoundly painful; but other griefs and disappointments now fell thick upon the monarch of the Francs; and it seemed as if the whole labor of his life were to be done away at once, and to commence anew. Whether the secret negotiations of Pepin and his confederates had extended to Saxony or not, cannot be discovered, but scarcely had Charlemagne encountered the sad news of his son's treachery, and undergone the bitter task of judging his crime, ere he received intelligence that the people on whom he had spent so much time, and labor, and blood, to subdue and civilize, had suddenly broken the oaths they had taken, driven forth the teachers he had sent them, destroyed the churches he had built, and spilt the blood of his officers, wherever they could be found.

After the repeated defeats which they had received, while singly opposed to the monarch of the Francs, the Saxons had not ventured upon so bold an insurrection, as that which they now undertook, without having assured themselves of support. For this purpose, they had entered into a general league with all the Pagan nations round about; and having allied themselves with the Huns, whom they had been led to subdue, they no longer feared to renew the struggle, which, they imagined, disunion and want of allies had hitherto alone rendered ineffectual. The first symptom of their revolt was, as usual, a general return to paganism, and their first effort, an attack upon the troops which Theoderic, the cousin of Charlemagne, was leading back from the campaign against the Huns. A great part of the forces under his command consisted of Saxons and Frisons, and were consequently enemies, rather than fellow-soldiers. The rest, comprising several thousand Francs, taken by surprise, and overpowered by numbers, were cut to pieces to a man.

Such was the first news which reached Charlemagne after the discovery of Pepin's conspiracy; and scarcely had it been received, when another unexpected attack was announced to him. When the French monarch, as I have shown in the history of the campaign against the Avars, commanded his son Pepin, King of Italy, to lead his armies into Hungary, that young prince was already embroiled in hostilities with Grimwald, Duke of Beneventum, concerning the cities of Salernum, Acherontia, and Consia, which Grimwald, on receiving the investiture of the duchy, had promised to dismantle, but which he still held fortified and garrisoned. The young King of Italy, laying aside the affairs of his own government, instantly hastened, as before stated, to obey his father's commands, entered Hungary, defeated the Avars, and worked an important co-operation with the troops of Charlemagne. In return for this prompt and effectual obedience, Charlemagne, early in the winter, despatched his son Louis, King of Aquitaine, with all the forces he could muster, to the aid of his brother in Italy. The King of Aquitaine, in hastening to share the glory of the war against Grimwald, had probably left the frontiers of his province somewhat exposed, so that the Saracens of Spain judged it a convenient opportunity to avenge the aggression which had been made upon their territory, and to recover a part of the ground which had been lost.

FRANCE INVADED BY THE SARACENS

An active and warlike prince then possessed the principal Mahomedan power in Spain; and placing at the head of his army Abdelmelec, an officer of a mind similar to his own, he ordered him to break in upon the Spanish march of Charlemagne, on the side of Gerona. This was accordingly done, and, with the usual rapidity of Saracen conquest, the Moors were at the gates of Narbonne before any force was ready to oppose them. The suburbst of that city were plundered and burnt, and the whole country round laid waste. The invaders then again turned towards Carcasson, and were marching on in their desolating course, when they were encountered by the army of Wilhelm, Duke of Toulouse, one of the Counts of the March, who, with inferior forces, instantly resolved to give them battle. But, in this instance, the Francs met with an enemy equal to themselves in courage and skill, and superior in numbers. The forces of the Counts of the March were totally defeated; an immense number were slain; Wilhelm himself only escaped by a rapid flight; and the Saracens returned to Spain, loaded with booty and captives.

The breach of a great barrier he had taken immense pains to establish between Christian France and Mahomedan Spain—the total revolt of a country which he had spent half his life to subdue—the conspiracy of his own son against his existence,— such were the misfortunes that, almost at once, assailed the monarch of the Francs. But a glorious record of the greatness of his mind has been preserved by one who was an eye witness to his private life; and it may be boldly stated, on the authority of Eginhard, that, while Charlemagne never showed a sign of exultation in all his mighty successes, he never suffered a reverse to impair his confidence, or disturb his serenity.

Louis and Pepin, immediately on hearing of the conspiracy against the life of their father, hastened to his support and consolation; but finding the evil past, Pepin returned at once to Italy, with directions for carrying on the war against the Beneventines, while Louis, after a short stay, proceeded to Aquitaine, in order to guard against any new irruption of the Saracens. No great operations took place in either of these wars for some time. That with the Beneventines proceeded with some degree of activity; but, while Pepin ravaged the territories of Grimwald, famine and pestilence wielded a more fatal sword in the heart of his own camp. The Saracen invasion, on the other hand, was not renewed; and Charlemagne was left free to carry on the war against the Huns and the Saxons.

PROJECT FOR THE UNION OF THE RHINE AND THE DANUBE

His first effort was against the latter people; for the Avars had suffered too much from their recent defeats, to attempt a renewal of active hostilities for some time. Nevertheless, it may be necessary, before proceeding to conduct the Saxon war to its conclusion, to notice an undertaking of great magnitude, the expediency of which had been shown by the former campaign against the Avars, and which a prospect of renewed hostilities hastened in endeavor. In the course of the Hungarian war, Charlemagne had experienced so much benefit from the power of transporting his provisions, and a part of his army by water, that the great and magnificent scheme of establishing the same easy means of communication from one side of Europe to the other, suggested itself to his mighty mind.

It would be attributing too much to him, great as he was, to suppose that the first idea of the enterprise was suggested by any other thing than the desire of facilitating his military operations: but, at the same time, anxious as he always evinced himself for the revival of arts and sciences, the encouragement of manufactures, and the diffusion of commerce, it would be yielding too little credit to his greatness of mind to conceive, that such motives did not mingle with the course of his design, hasten it in its progress, and strengthen it against the difficulties of execution. Whatever might be the origin of his intention, and whatever collateral purposes might combine to urge the attempt, it is certain, that during his stay at Ratisbon, the project of joining the Danube and the Rhine occupied him deeply. The proximity of the two small rivers, the Rednitz and the Altmuth— the one of which falling into the Mein near Bamberg, communicates with the Rhine, while the other joins the Danube near Kelheim—seemed to offer great facility for its execution; and the state of the Danube in that day, very different from what it appears at present, held forth the greatest prospect of advantage. In the spring, Charlemagne had himself laid out the plan of the proposed undertaking; and ordered the works to be commenced but towards the autumn, he proceeded himself, by water, to the spot where they were in progress, ascending the stream of the Danube and the Altmuth, from Ratisbon to the proposed point of junction. The whole autumn was consumed by the monarch in superintending the execution of his design, and encouraging by his presence the host of workmen employed. As winter approached, he crossed the narrow space between the two streams; and, embarking on the Rednitz, by sailing down its course into the Mein, which easily conducted him to Frankfort, at once proved the advantages that might be derived from the passage, if the junction of the rivers could be effected. To this, however, obstacles were opposed, which were in that day insurmountable. Tremendous rains continued to fall during the autumn; and acting upon a light, unstable soil, destroyed during the night nearly the whole fruit of the labours of the day. As the season advanced, diseases broke out, and difficulties multiplied; and, at length, after having carried the works two thousand paces in length, and three hundred in width, the attempt was abandoned. The conception, however, was worthy of Charlemagne; and the vestiges of that great endeavor may still be seen near the little village of Graben, a splendid monument of that magnificent mind, which, in the midst of a barbarous age, devised so vast an enterprize.

DEATH OF THE QUEEN FASTRADA. WARS WITH SAXONY

At Frankfort, to which Charlemagne proceeded after this ineffectual attempt, was held the general council, some of the proceedings of which I have already alluded to; and there, also, died the Queen Fastrada, whose deeds had served to darken the splendor of her husband's character, and whose epitaph remains to show the emptiness of epitaphs in all ages.

It may be now necessary, without following any farther chronologically the war against the Saxons, to conduct the history of the struggle between them and Charlemagne to its conclusion; which may be done in a few words. As soon as the Council of Frankfort had terminated its sittings, the monarch of the Francs prepared to re-enter Saxony, and to repress the revolt which had taken place in that country. He divided his army into two parts, and, directing one under the command of his son Charles to pass by Cologne into the lower part of the Saxon territory, he himself led the other division, by the eastern provinces, towards a place called Sintfield, where a large Saxon force lay, with the intention of giving him battle. A sudden terror, however, seized them at the aspect of the monarch, and instead of having recourse to arms, they immediately surrendered themselves prisoners at discretion, implored and received the clemency they had so often abused, and gave hostages for the faith which was soon again to be violated.

Scarcely was the revolt suppressed than it once more broke out; and though no new chieftain sprang up to lead the Saxons, and to concentrate their eflforts, they still waged a long and desolating warfare with the Francs, the history of which is but a catalogue of insurrections and repressions, without any incident of interest to render the detail either amusing or useful.

Charlemagne still pursued his purpose with unconquerable perseverance. If, from their proximity to France, their predatory barbarism, their utter faithlessness, their obstinate courage, and their savage cunning, as well as from the want of all natural barriers against them, and the impossibility of raising artificial ones sufficient to repel their incursions, the Saxons had been found by Charlemagne, at the beginning of his reign, the most dangerous enemies of his nation, he now felt himself far more called upon to subdue them utterly, since they had learned from the Francs themselves the art of war.

The conquest of the Saxons was not a matter of choice, but of necessity, involving at once the existence of the transrhenane provinces of France, the safety of all her northern allies, and her position amongst nations. To this war, therefore, Charlemagne in person devoted all his energies; and, at length, after having in vain attempted, by chastisement and by kindness, by force and by instruction, to tranquillize the whole of Saxony, he fell upon the extreme, but successful, measure, of transporting an immense number from the most turbulent tribes of the Saxons to a great distance from their native country. He accordingly entered Saxony early in the year 804, and, collecting his whole forces at the source of the Lippe, he detached several large bodies, which swept both banks of the Elbe of their inhabitants. Men, women, and children, were alike carried away, and spread over the face of France; and a great number were also transferred to Brabant and various parts of Flanders, where, at the time of the compilation of the Chronicle of St Denis, their language and many of their customs were still preserved.

Only one event took place during the course of these latter wars which is at all worthy of particular remark,—this was the first hostile collision between the Normans and the Francs. Some officers of Charlemagne accompanying his ambassador towards Sigifrid, King of Denmark, were met and slain by the piratical Northmen, and, as usual with savage nations, one aggression was immediately followed by another. The Normans, almost as soon as they had perpetrated the murder of the French ambassador, marched in a large body to attack the nation of Abodrites,—the firmest allies which the crown of France possessed amongst all the northern nations.

Thrasicon, Duke of the Abodrites, however, with Eberwin, an officer of Charlemagne, instantly opposed their progress with activity, vigor, and success. A severe conflict took place, in which many fell; but the principal loss was on the side of the Normans, who were routed and dispersed with terrible slaughter. These events took place some time previous to the last severe measure by which Charlemagne terminated the Saxon war; but on the depopulation of the banks of the Elbe by the transportation of the Saxons, the good services of the Abodrites were not forgotten. The vacant country was bestowed upon that friendly tribe; and Charlemagne thus at once recompensed his most faithful allies, and placed a host of brave and warlike friends between his own dominions and the savage countries of the north.

It has been asserted—though without even a show of reason to support the assertion—that the conquest of Saxony by Charlemagne called the ferocious Normans upon the rest of Europe. Without applying to this idea the harsh term of absurd, a few words may suffice to show, that the subjugation of the Saxons, while it removed one immense swarm of predatory barbarians, did not in the least facilitate the progress of those which followed; but had, in fact, the most opposite effect.

That the Normans never invaded the South by land, is sufficiently well known. All their expeditions were naval, made from their own coasts, and not at all depending upon what nation possessed the German territory; so that the Abodrites were a full and sufficient protection for the northern frontier of the Frankish dominions; and the subjection of the Saxons gave no facilities to the Normans in that direction. On the other hand, it is more than probable, that, had the Saxons not been subdued, the irruptions of the Normans would have been attended with far more terrible and desolating effects. The Saxons, under the government of the Frankish Emperors,— while in other circumstances they might have been the friends and allies of the Normans, proved their first enemies, and the strongest barrier to their progress in the north of Europe. Scarcely forty years after the death of Charlemagne, the pirates of the north, landing on the coast of Saxony, suffered a most signal defeat from the Frisons and Saxons, whom the great monarch had conquered and civilized; and in 873 and 876, they were again and again overthrown in battle by the same Frisons. But had the Saxons not been so subdued and civilized, what would have been the probable result of their proximity to the Normans? Those two nations were, in fact, but two succeeding waves, in the long tide of barbarian invasion from the north. They were the last and most feeble of those waves, it is true; but had they been suffered to unite and roll on together, they might once more have overwhelmed Europe. Nor was it unlikely that they should unite. The great Saxon confederation offered a model, their proximity a means, and conquest and plunder an object akin to the habits and desires of both; while religion, manners, and national character, afforded a bond of union, and a strong assimilating principle.

Charlemagne conquered the Saxons, as the inveterate enemies of his nation; he attempted to civilize them, for the purposes of peace and security; and he strove to convert them, as a means of civilization. His objects, as a great king and a great patriot, were personal and national; but he no less conferred a signal and lasting benefit upon Europe at large, by subduing even one of those barbarian nations which had more or less desolated every land, and revelled in the blood of every people. That it was the natural tendency of all the northern nations to coalesce, for the purpose of conquest and plunder, is sufficiently evinced by the history of the Francs, the Saxons, and the Normans themselves.