and goodly exchange, equally advantageous to each of the contracting parties. On Charlemagne, of course, these forms of policy could not be lost. As Pepin intended to convey the empire to his children, he would make a point of sedulously instructing them in all the diplomatic arts of the age, in all the strategies by which power might be gained and retained, and in all the punctilios and observances by which outward homage may be paid, while the realities of dominion are laid hold of and appropriated.

The renown of Pepin speedily rang through the world. As he seemed dangerous, his neighbouring princes sought to propitiate him by gifts, favours, and treaties. Even Constantine, Emperor of the East, observing the rise of a rival, found it politic to send ambassadors, and to open negotiations with him. By this act, Charlemagne was brought into connexion with the magnificent traditional despotism of the East, learned its method, and became acquainted with its practices.

Deprived, as Charlemagne was, by the necessities of his times, of any defined, intentional, mental training, we can only form an idea of what his early life must have been, by considering the circumstances amid which he lived, the history enacted before his eyes, and shedding its influences into his mind. We know little or nothing directly of his "youth's doings," and can only estimate, from what we know was passing around him, the nature of the thoughts and aspirations which were growing up within him, training him for empire, and fitting him for working out, however unwittingly, the purposes of Providence. Hence, though we are relating no definite and well-ascertained fact regarding the early years of Charlemagne's life, we are tracing the progress of that practical education which made him what he was, and led him to do what he did.

Home and Married Life.

15

We have seen that he was well versed and trained in military and chivalric arts, in the manoeuvres of diplomacy, and in the practices of government; that he had seen court, camp, and church life; that he had been specially taught to look upon himself as destined to rule; that he had been introduced to an acquaintance with forms of etiquette and systems of sovereignty of various kinds, despotic, sacerdotal, kingly, and ducal; and that he had been practically instructed to use any or all of these, whichever seemed most likely to suit him at the time, for the elaboration of his own purposes, and the defeat of the intentions of others. More than this, he had enjoyed in the love of his mother Bertha, the affection of his sister Gisla, the fraternal competition of his brother Carloman, and the earnest counsels of his father, a considerable share, such as it was, of that too uncommon blessing-home education. To be sure, some portion of this instruction, and that which belongs to the sacredest elements of human life most of all, was not by any means of the best kind. We may specially instance Charlemagne's low estimate of marital relations. He had espoused, while yet young, a lady of good family, named Huniltrude. But when Pepin saw that the Lombardine king could only be managed by a marriage connexion, he advised, and his mother Bertha joined in the advice, that he should contract a politic marriage with the daughter of Desiderius, who had then become King of Lombardy. Desira did not relish the position in which she was thus placed, and the union was, as might have been expected, unhappy. Pepin died in 768, and Charlemagne became king. A new era began in his life. The hero-king and scholar had a work to perform. We shall follow him, in the next chapter, to empire and greatness.

HE empire over which Pepin had borne sway, and to which Charlemagne ultimately succeeded,

for in this place we need say nought of the brief and eventless co-reign of his brother Carloman, was very extensive. It consisted of three states,-viz., (1.) Austrasia, or the Eastern Empire, comprising within itself the northeast of Gaul and the south of Germany, so much, at least, as lies between the Tyrol and the Thuringerwald, the Rhine, and the Inn. (2.) Neustria, or the Western Empire, which included the north-west of Gaul, between the Waal and the Loire. (3.) Burgundy, or the Southern Empire, in which were comprehended Provençe and parts of Aquitania, Switzerland, and Alsace. In other words, it extended from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, and from the English Channel to the Noric Alps. The monarch of such a territory could not but be, in the then unsettled state of the European powers, important as an ally, formidable as an enemy, and worthy of jealous watching as either. Northern Europe was, as yet, only the cradle of valiant emigrant races, unconsolidated. under any form of government except that of military

His Accession to the Throne.

17

leaders. The south-west peninsula was peopled by a tribe of Visigoths, who zealously held out against the farther progress of the Saracens, whose religious ardour had carried them into Spain. Italy was, as it has too long unfortunately been, a divided country; the Longobards possessed the upper part, the Romans the middle, and the Greeks the lower portion and Sicily. Rome itself was in a state of semi-anarchy, the Pope, the senate, and the people being at variance with each other, at the same time that Charlemagne held the rank of a Roman patrician, wielded the war-legions of France, and was linked by marriage with the Longobards, the fiercest enemies of Rome. In Austria and Hungary the Avari, effeminate through luxury and indolence, had their treasure cities encircled by walls and moats, but undefended by strong arms or stout hearts. Eastern Germany was inhabited by various disunited and often contentious tribes of Sclaves and Vandals; in the north of Germany, the Saxons, a free and manly race, dwelt under the government of self-elected chiefs, and worshipped in the primeval forests their fathers' ancient gods; but South Germany was considerably under his dominion, and, with the exception of the Bavarians, seemed inclined to take kindly to the foreign yoke. England was a secluded and uninfluential island, subject to the incursions of the Danes, and not yet harmonised and united into one kingdom, under one king. There was no great empire near him, no formidable power around; for the Greek empire, although it still existed, was, at Charlemagne's accession, great in name only, not in reality; it was no longer the empire of Con stantine, but an effete life-simulating State.

Such, in brief terms, was the condition of Europe when Charlemagne, in his twenty-sixth year, succeeded to the

B

throne of his father, as before stated, in A.D. 768. At Pepin's death, the empire was divided between Charlemagne and Carloman, the former being sovereign of Austrasia and Neustria, the latter of Burgundy. The brothers had married. sisters, daughters of Desiderius, king of the Longobards. Charlemagne had, however, repudiated his wife, and her father had immediately resented the rejection of his daughter by exciting and encouraging revolt in his son-in-law's kingdom. Some of the nobles were, of course, anxious to be independent, and this favoured the design of Desiderius. The seeds of sedition are easily sown; and though no rising of importance took place in Charlemagne's allotment, the nobles and people of Aquitania made an attempt to throw off their allegiance to the empire. Carloman besought the aid of his brother, which was readily granted, as it might read a lesson to his own nobility of the power and determination with which he would resent any infringement of the regal dignity, any neglect of a subject's duty. While Charlemagne was in the field his brother fled, and left him to maintain the conflict alone against superior odds. valour with which he pursued his purpose, and the firmness with which he continued the dubious contest, convinced the nobility of the whole empire that he possessed military skill, energy, and resources sufficient, not only to curb revolt, but to extend conquest. Nor was he slow in perceiving that, on his part, some means should be adopted by which the nobles might be employed in foreign war, rather than in the fomenting of domestic discord.

The

On Carlomans death, in A.D. 771, he was invited to accept of the sovereignty of that portion of his late father's possessions, of which he would doubtless have made himself master, even though uninvited. Carloman's wife fled, with