THE HISTORY of CHARLEMAGNE

BOOK XII.

FROM THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES IN THE SPANISH MARCH,

TO THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN LUIDGARDE.

797 TO 800.

The successful irruption on the part of the Saracens, mentioned in another place, had not only served the temporary purpose of carrying terror and destruction into the heart of the ancient Septimania, but had also procured more solid advantages to the Mohammedan princes of Spain, by shaking the Spanish March, or defensible frontier which Charlemagne had pushed forward far within the limits of the original conquests of the Moors. Barcelona, Huesca, and the entire seashore of Catalonia had now fallen into their hands; and it would seem that this line of coast became the great place of refuge for all those predatory armaments with which the Saracens now swept the whole extent of the Mediterranean. Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and even the coasts of Italy were all in turn made the subject of attack; and Majorca and Minorca remained for some time in the hands of the Moors.

Charlemagne, as the greatest and most zealous of the Christian monarchs at that period in Europe, was applied to by the sufferers; and he was never appealed to in vain. Notwithstanding a fresh insurrection in Brittany, and the war which he was then still waging with the Saxons, the monarch of the Franks made the most immense exertions to aid his Christian brethren in their struggles against the aggressions of the infidel. The Bretons were speedily subdued; and while he himself remained to direct the operations of his army in Saxony, he dispatched a strong force to expel the Moors from the Balearic Isles,—an expedition which was crowned with the most triumphant success.

CHARLEMAGNE AND ALPHONSO THE CHASTE, KING OF SPAIN

At the same time, domestic dissensions among the Arab princes of Spain encouraged him to renew the war upon the Catalonian frontier; and the desire of assisting the Gothic Christians of the Asturias in their struggle against the Saracens gave vigor to his determination, and promptitude to his endeavors. Issem, the son of Abderaman, the Moavite, had expelled his brother Abdallah from the Moorish territories in Spain, and had driven him into exile in Africa. A number of the Saracens, however, of Catalonia and Arragon, retained their affection for the exiled prince; and either from private ambition or from attachment to Abdallah, Zatun, who, on the capture of Barcelona from the Franks, had been named governor of that city, sought the French sovereign at Aix-la-Chapelle, and surrendered the territory which he had been appointed to defend.

Although this act of treachery was not committed without an express stipulation that the territories thus yielded were still to be intrusted to Zatun, yet, according to the Frankish accounts, his homage to Charlemagne was complete; and the opportunity now afforded of diverting a part of the Moorish forces from the war with the Spanish Christians, and of regaining the eastern portion of the Spanish March, was not lost upon the monarch of the Franks. His son Louis, King of Aquitaine, then in his twentieth year, a period of existence when the springs of enterprise and zeal are unoppressed by the heavy load which all the difficulties and obstacles of life soon cast upon them, was commanded to march into Catalonia, and take possession of the country, which the Saracen irruption had snatched from the power of France.

Louis, however, notwithstanding his youth, wanted entirely the active vigor of Charlemagne; and though he made frequent expeditions into Spain, obtained some successes, took Lerida, and finally recovered the Spanish March, Huesca baffled his efforts more than once; and a marked difference was to be seen in all his proceedings, from the rapid and sweeping energy which had borne forward his progenitors to conquest and to empire. It has been frequently asserted, that the young King of Aquitaine either advanced in person to the assistance of Alphonso, the Christian monarch of Spain, or sent a large detachment to his aid : but as neither the annalists of Charlemagne nor the especial biographers of Louis himself make any mention of such a circumstance, it must not be admitted as an historical fact. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that a great and effectual diversion was operated in favor of Alphonso by the warfare carried on by Louis in Catalonia; and much of the success of that great monarch, in his struggles with the infidel strangers, who, locust-like, had invaded his land, may be attributed to the divided state of the Moorish councils and armies. Thus, while the Gothic Christians, going on from conquest to conquest, succeeded in establishing a united and independent kingdom, and while Alphonso, triumphant at the very gates of Lisbon, despatched part of the spoil of the Moors to Charlemagne, less indeed as a gift than as a proof of victory, and an inducement to co-operation, the monarch of the Franks used every means to retain the Saracen forces on the frontier, and promote the divisions which existed in their empire.

Many opportunities for effecting this purpose presented themselves. Abdallah, the exiled brother of Issem, sought the court of the Frankish sovereign, and, according to his own request, was sent back with honor to Spain, in order to head, the party of his adherents. Zatun, the Emir of Barcelona, soon forgetting his engagements with the Christians, returned to the domination of his former lord, and called back the Saracen power into the Spanish March. A new war instantly succeeded; and after a lingering siege of two years, Barcelona was recaptured by the Franks, and the defensive frontier of France, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, was restored to the state in which Charlemagne had left it. All these wars in the north of Spain acted as a continual drain upon the Moorish forces, and enabled Alphonso to contend with some degree of equality against their power. At the same time, the Spanish March was restored, and the passes of the Pyrenees were defended, by the care of Louis, with fortresses the remains of which, either real or imaginary, are shown to the present day.

These objects being attained, Charlemagne made no other effort on the side of Spain. It is true, he might have urged his conquest farther, and possibly, taking advantage of the weakness of all parties in the Peninsula, might have added that territory also to those which he already possessed. Some persons have censured him for not making the attempt; and indeed, had either conquest or conversion been his sole object in any of his enterprises, the situation of Spain would have invited his march. But in all his wars, either the security of himself or his allies had been an ingredient in his motives. Such inducements did not extet in the case of Spain : Alphonso was already well able to defend himself, especially after a vigorous diversion had given him the means of establishing his power on a firm basis; and the Pyrenees formed a sufficient frontier barrier for the French territory, as long as the Spanish March was preserved. No motive, therefore, but simple ambition could have carried Charlemagne back to Spain after these objects were accomplished; and the ambition of that great man was always mingled with something which elevated it far above the oidinary passion of vulgar conquerors.

Having, both in regard to the Saxons and the Saracens of Spain, violated the exact march of chronology for the sake of brevity and perspicuity, I may be permitted also to conclude the warfare with the Huns in this place, and to dispose of various other occurrences of minor consequence, in order that the more important events which were preparing in Italy may be noticed with separate distinctness.

WARFARE WITH THE HUNS

The active hostilities which, from time to time, took place against the Avars, like those carried on with the Saracens, were no longer conducted by Charlemagne in person; and the annalists of the time, who principally directed their attention to the proceedings of the monarchy leave in very great obscurityy both the motives for renewing the war and the circumstances which took place in its course. It is certain, however, that very shortly after the last victorious expedition of Pepin King of Italy, Thudun, the Hunnish chief, who had abandoned his religion and betrayed his country, unscrupulously violated the oaths which he had taken to Charlemagne; and, probably, with a view to render himself master of the whole territory, took arms, and prepared to offer a more desperate resistance than the Franks had hitherto encountered. Two of Charlemagne's officers, one named Count Gerold, and the other Herric, Duke of Friuli, collected their forces with all speed, and being already posted on the frontier, hastened severally forward into Hungary, in hopes of suppressing the revolt before time and preparation had rendered it general and dangerous. It is probable that the desire of taking their enemy by surprise engendered some degree of negligence on the part of both the Frankish generals. Advancing from opposite sides of the country, the one, the Duke of Friuli, was led into an ambuscade and killed, with all his followers; while Count Gerold suddenly found himself in presence of a Hunnish army, and was slain as he was addressing his army, preparatory to a general battle, the event of which is doubtful.

From that period the course of the warfare against the Huns remains obscure; but that Charlemagne did not suffer the death of his generals to remain unavenged, nor the hostilities against the Avars to linger, is evident from various circumstances; and in the year 803 we find him at Ratisbon, writing for the return of his army from Hungary. That army returned completely victorious; and the Huns, now permanently subdued, embraced the Christian religion, and did general homage to the Frankish sovereign.

The fate of Thudun is not known. Some accountsf declare that he was taken and executed for the breach of the vows which he had before lighted to the monarch of the Franks, but there is every reason to believe this statement to be perfectly erroneous; and, at the final subjection of his nation, we hear of a prince named Zudun, or Zodan,| Duke of Fanonia, who, with the rest of his countrymen, claimed and received the clemency of the king. That the individual who did so was the same who had before submitted in the year 795 is not only probable, but almost certain.

Although Charlemagne had to treat with the Hunnish people as a conqueror with the conquered; and although the state ot weakness to which they had been reduced by the warfare they had themselves begun with the Franks left them no powers of resistance though their country was little better than an empty desert, and their armies scattered like dust before the wind, yet we do not find that the monarch took any base or unworthy advantage of their prostrate situation. He required some time to deliberate, we are told, upon the arrangements to be entered into with the vanquished people; but, at length, he dismissed those who had sought him at Ratisbon with kindness and honor. No precise information, indeed, exists in regard to the degree of submission which he demanded, or in respect to the influence he exercised in the government of the conquered country. But that he left the nation all their native laws and old forms of administration is clear; though we may infer, from the circumstance of his ratification having bieen afterward required for the nomination of a Chagan, that his assent was requisite on the elevation of any individual to the supreme dignity of the state. To spread the Christian religion universally among the people, and to ensure the purity of the doctrine taught, appears to have been the only interference which Charlemagne exercised in the domestic affairs of the Avars. But, at the same time, it would seem, that, in accordance with the advice of Alcuin, he exempted them from the payment of tithes to the priests whom he sent among them, and defended them with ready zeal from the attacks of external enemies.

For nearly thirty years Charles the Great had reigned over the Franks, seeing his dominions, his power, and his fame increase every hour. His court was not only the refuge of the unfortunate, but was the resort of ambassadors from all nations; and a history of the various embassies, and their causes, which from time to time reached his presence, would afford no incomplete picture of the general progress of the world during his life. Besides the envoys twice sent by Alphonso, the Gothic King of Spain, bearing rich presents, and instructed to call their monarch the faithful vassalf of the French king, a number of other messengers presented themselves at his court during the years 797-8-9, the most important of whom were those either directly or indirectly, despatched by the empire of the East.

IRENE, THE BYZANTINE EMPRESS, AND CHARLEMAGNE

For many years Irene, the beautiful Athenian girl who had been bestowed on Leo the Isaurian, had continued, after the death of her husband, to sway with delegated power the sceptre of the East, as the guardian of her son; but, after a time, her authority became irksome, both to the prince, whom she strove still to enthral, after the period of pupilage was over, and to the people, from whom she exacted an undue submission. The Armenian guards of the emperor, the countrymen of the wife which she herself had given him, were the first to oppose her encroachments; the youthful Constantine seconded their efforts, resumed the power which had been entrusted to his mother, and consigned her once more to a private station. But power to man or woman is like blood to the lion—once tasted, it brings a consuming thirst for more. What Irene could not accomplish by boldness she undertook by art. She submitted with apparent resignation; and while she attempted by flattery and caresses to regain the affection of her son, she laid within the walls of his palace a deep intrigue for his destruction. One of the first steps of the young emperor, after he had taken the staff of rule into his own hands, was to seek the friendship of the great monarch of the Franks; and he transmitted to the patrician Nicetas, who then governed Sicily, an epistle, to be sent forward to Charlemagne, in order to bring about a closer alliance than had hitherto existed between the courts of France and Constantinople. In compliance with the emperor's commands, Nicetas instantly dispatched the letter by an envoy named Theoctistes, who found the monarch at Aix-la-Chapelle. He was immediately admitted to an audience, and acquitted himself of his charge; but his embassy proved fruitless; for, while still upon his journey, a change had taken place in the Eastern capital. The plots of Irene had been successful: Constantino VI indeed, suspecting some design against his liberty, had made his escape for a time from Constantinople; but his flight did not place him beyond the influence of his mother's cabals. His officers and attendants were the creatures of her will; and fears lest their treason should be betrayed by its instigator gave them courage to accomplish their crime. Constantine was carried back by force to his capital, to his palace, and to the chamber of his birth, wherein his own servants, by the commands of his own mother, deprived him for ever of the light of day.

When any singular natural phenomenon follows or precedes the great actions or mighty crimes of human beings, the superstitious vanity which teaches man to regard himself as the prime object of all creation easily points out a sympathy in the inanimate world with the interests of mankind. Thus, an extraordinary darkness which pervaded the mater part of Europe during seventeen daysfafter the unnatural crime of Irene, was universally attributed, in those times, to her cruel ambition. Undaunted, however, by omens, the empress, now acknowledged sole ruler of the East, hastened to socore her power as far as human cunning might prevail. To court the sovereigns around her to peace or alliance, till such time as her authority was established at home, was one great object; and the next ambassadors from Constantinople which appeared at the court of Charlemagne were Theophilus and Michel, sumamed Ganglianos, two men of high station and distinction, who came charged, apparently, with the unimportant task of soliciting the enlargement of Sisinius, an officer who had been captured in Italy, on the defeat of Adalgisus. He was, it is true, the brother of Tarisius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had been the secretary and favourite of the empress; but the patrician Michel and his companion were intrusted, in reality, with a more important mission—that of communicating to the monarch of the Franks the cruel treason which had been perpetrated on the person of the unhappy Constantine, and of negotiating a peace between Constantinople and France.

The envoys stated, that the fallen emperor had been blinded by his attendants, on account of his depravities and tyranny; and Charlemagne, whether he believed the tale or not,—though it is probable, from his annals perpetuating the same story, that he did,—entered willingly into the alliance proposed by Irene; and, at her request, sent back to his native country the unfortunate Sisinius.

CHARLEMAGNE AND HAROUN AL RASCHID

About this time, which in the life of, Charlemagne was a period of negotiations, his first communication was opened with the great ruler of Asia. The throne of the caliphs had, some time before, passed to the family of the Abbassides, and the mightiest of that family now governed the eastern continent. Haroun al Raschid, so well known in both real and fabulous history, first signalized his arms against the empress of Constantinople, while yet she wielded the scepter in the name of her son. He also, at that period, acted only as deputy for his father Mohadi. But after having advanced to the shores of the Bosphorus, and having treated with Irene for the security of her territories, he retired on receiving seventy thousand dinars of gold; and assumed, soon afterward, the sovereign power, on the death of his father and his brother. Custom, with most of the oriental nations, is very readily fixed into a law, known among some of them by the name of adeth, or canoun; and, once established, is regarded as a kind of covenant, which is as binding as if written. Whether this understanding existed in the time of Haroun al Raschid or not I do not know, but the seventy thousand dinars of gold, after having once been given, soon grew into an annual tribute, which the Greek empire found less expensive to pay than to neglect. Either by the conveyance of this tribute, or by the expeditions to which its occasional cessation gave rise, a constant intercourse of some kind was maintained between Constantinople and Bagdad. Various other means of communication also existed, both in the wanderings of the Jews, who were at this period spread over, and tolerated in all lands, and in the nascent efforts of commerce on the chores of the Mediterranean.

There were then but two great monarchs in the world; and the ears of the caliph were filled with the wars and enterprises of the sovereign of the Franks, who was either an open adversary or but a cold ally of the Greeks, on whom he himself trampled, and who was also the continual enemy of the Omaiades of Spain, whom the Abbassi contemned as heretics, and hated as rivals. The caliph beheld in the European king the same bold and daring spirit, the same rapid energy, the same indefatigable zeal, the same magnificent designs, by which ha himself was animated, and similarity of mind, free from rivalry of interests, produced admiration, respect, and affection. The feelings were the same in the breast of Charlemagne; and reciprocal regard soon produced a more direct communion. At length, in 797, one of those wandering strangers who are so frequently to be found in the courts of monarchs undertook to conduct ambassadors from the French king to the presence of the caliph. Three envoys were accordingly sent under the conduct of Isaac the Hebrew, as he is called by the annalists; and were charged to offer the presents and the friendship of the French sovereign to the ruler of Asia. The Frankish ambassadors reached the court of the caliph in safety; and, having acquitted themselves of their mission, and received the gift of an elephant, which they had been instructed to request, prepared to return to Europe. The change of climate, however, proved fatal to the Franks; and Isaac the Jew, leaving the bones of his companions in Asia, returned alone, bringing with him the elephant and other presents from the oriental sovereign, together with the proud but flattering assurance from the mighty follower of Mohammed, that he regarded the friendship of Charlemagne more than that of all the monarchs of the universe.

Such were the feelings of Haroun al Raschid towards the sovereign of the Francs, and such was the state of intercourse between them when the patriarch of Jerusalem, moved by what circumstances we do not know, despatched a monk of Mount Olivet to the court of France, bearing his benediction, and various relics from the holy places of the East, to the great promoter of Christianity in Europe.

Long prior to that period (about the year 637) Jerusadem had fallen under the yoke of the Saracens and the Christians of the Hebrew capital had been doomed for a long time to a general capitation-tax of two pieces of gold for each individual of the impoverished population. Three-fourths of the town also, had been usurped by the infidels; and whether the patriarch, in his embassy to Charlemagne, sought to mitigate the sufferings of his flock by securing intercession with the caliph, or was actuated solely by reverence for the many deeds of charity which the French monarch performed in favor of the pilgrims to the holy shrine, and the poor Christians of the African and Syrian coast, his conduct was at all events, attended with the most beneficial effects to the faithful inhabitants of the holy city.

The messenger of the patriarch was received with honor and kindness; and, anxious to spread comfort and consolation to every quarter of the world, Charlemagne suffered him not to depart without an effort to ameliorate the situation of the Asiatic Christians. Zacharias, one of the ecclesiastics of his palace, was ordered to accompany the Syrian monk to the presence of the caliph, and to use all the influence of the name of Charlemagne, in order to procure the favor of the Mohammedan monarch for his Christian subjects. At the same time, the sovereign of the Franks, sent innumerable rich offerings to the shrine of the holy sepulchre, together with alms for the consolation of pilgrims and travellers.

Charlemagne had not calculated wrongly on the magnanimity or the friendship of Haroun. The monarch of the East not only interposed from that moment the shield of his protection between the Christians of Jerusalem and the oppression of his vicegerents, but he placed it in the power of Charlemagne himself to providie for their wants, their safety, and their comfort.

In reply to the message of the French monarch, the caliph sent back the priests who had been despatched to his court, bearing to Charlemagne the keys of the holy places, together with a standard, as the mark of sovereignty in Jerusalem.

Nor was this gift unimportant, either in the eyes of him who gave, or of him who received; for it must be remembered that the Mohammedans look upon the holy city with reverence little, if at all, inferior to that with which it is regarded by the Christians.

From that time forward, during the whole reigign of Haroun al Raschid, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to use the words of William of Tyre, seemed to live more under the domination of Charles than iunder that of their original sovereign. But Charlemagne made no vain, no ambitious, and no offensive use of the power with which the caliph entrusted him. He attempted to establish no claim of permanent domination—to revive no ancient pretensions to the city; he interfered not with the Moslem—he exercised no act of dominion, but for the consolation of the Christians of the place, and for the comfort and protection of the pilgrims to the holy shrine. For those objects, indeed, he spared neither care, nor trouble, nor expanse; and we find, that during his whole life, in the midst of a thousand other labours, and surrounded by anxieties without number, he never forgot or neglected his charitable exertions for the Christians of the East. Alms, assistance, and protection evinced his kindness and his zeal, during his life; and, long after his deaths a monastery, an hospital, and a library consoled the pilgrim, and perpetuated his bounty.

Haroun al Raschid esteemed the moderation as much as the talents of the French monarch; and the very temperate use of authority, which has caused the gift of the holy city to be, doubted by modem historiants, secured him the regard of his great contemporary. Other embassies followed, from the Asiatic to the European court. A variety of magnificent presents attested the continued esteem of the caliph for his Christian friend; and unbroken amity and undiminished admiration reigned between the two greatest monarchs of the age, during the whole course of their mutual reign. The carriage of such objects as the presents sent from Bagdad to France was, of course, attended with no small inconvenience; and the neglected state of the science of navigation rendered the journeys of the ambassadors long and dangerous. Between three and four years were generaly consumed in a mission from one capital to another and, indeed, it happened more than once that even after arriving within the dominions of the Frankish monarch, the envoys had still to seek him over a tract nearly as extensive as that which they had before crossed. Where a much greater degree of civilization exists in the monarch thanin his subjects, where his mind must conceive every great undertaking, and his eye must see it executed, without relying on the inferior spirits that toil, with the pace of pigmies, after his giant footsteps, it is seldom, of course, that he can enjoy repose in any one place for a considerable length of time. But at the period in the life of Charlemagne which we are now considering, his journeys were more frequent, long and difficult than at any previous epoch.

THE NORMANS AND CHARLEMAGNE

Besides the unconcluded war which was still raging with the Saxons, and which, as we have seen, occupied so much of his attention, other dangers threatened his kingdom, in such a manner as to render the preparations necessary for defence more extensive and general than had hitherto been called for by any event of his reign. The same natural causes which had impelled the nations of the north, in succession, to invade the more fruitful and cultivated countries of the south of Europe, were now acting upon the Danes or Normans; and the same advantages of seacoast and easy ports, which had given a maritime character to the early expeditions of the Saxons, tended to lead this new horde of barbarians to carry on their warfare on the waves.

Long before the present period, the Normans had begun to essay their strength upon the sea; and in the absence of domestic arts, as the population of the country increased without the means of supply, the desire of wandering and the necessity of plunder drove them forth to seek in other lands the wealth they possessed not in their own.

Repelled in their first attempts upon Saxony by the Abrodites and other allies of France, which Charlemagne had placed on the borders of Germany, the Normans spread themselves over the ocean; and, by entering rapidly the mouths of the prin- cipal rivers, and making fierce and sudden descents upon the banks, they had now more than once carried terror and desolation into parts of France which had previously been exempt from the horrors of war.

Nothing was heard but complaints, and cries, and petitions for protection from the inhabitants of the coast; and the first moment that his presence could be spared by the armies warring in Saxony, Charlemagne hastened in person to examine the evil, and prepare a remedy. Scarcely had the spring of the year 800 appeared when the monarch set out from his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, traversing the whole of France, followed the coast of the Bay of Biscay, which had been particularly infested by the Norman pirates; established fortresses and garrisons to defend the shore; and, causing an immense number of small vessels to be built, he stationed them well manned and armed, in the mouths of all the principal rivers of France and Germany. Thus, the Normans found themselves opposed at every point; and, in an extraordinjary short space of time, the whole coast which had been subject to their depredations was in a complete state of defence. Driven back in every effort to land, they abandoned for the time their attempts upon the shores of France, and contented themselves with ravaging some of the small islands scattered on the borders of the German Sea. During this journey round the coast, Charlemagne is said to have arrived at one of the ports at the moment that the Norman pirates appeared. The invaders, however, learning the presence of the monarch, set all sail, and bore away; but Charlemagne remained gazing upon their departing vessels, while the tears were seen to roll over his cheeks. "I weep not, my friends", he said, turning to the nobles, who looked on in surprise, "because I fear myself those miserable savages; but I weep that they should dare to show themselves upon my coast while I am living; for I foresee the evils they will bring upon my people when I am dead."

Charlemagne, finding the entire success of the plan he had adopted against the Normans, pursued the same system in regard to Italy, and to the French provinces on the shores of the Mediterranean. These were as much threatened and as often plundered by the Moors as the northern and western portions of his territory were by the Danes; and the same scheme of defence, adapted to both, produced equally happy effects. The mouths of the Rhone, the entrance of the Tiber, and all the ports of Provence and Italy were furnished with armed vessels, continually prepared to repel and to revenge invasion; and the Saracens, with the exception of the capture and pillage of Civita Vecchia, gained no further advantage on the shores of Italy.

As soon as he had concluded the preparations necessary to defend the coast of France, Charlemagne returned to the monastery of St. Richarius, near Abbeville, probably with the design of holding the general assembly of the nation, and proceeding immediately towards Rome. The illness of his queen, Luidgarde, however, opposed a temporary obstacle to the execution of this purpose. With that domestic tenderness which formed a fine and endearing point in the character of the great monarch, Charlemagne accompanied the dying queen to Tours; knelt with her at the shrine of the saint whose virtues she fancied might restore her to health; closed her eyes, after skill and prayers had proved impotent to save her, and rendered the last sad offices to the clay of her whom he had loved.