Discord, War, and Enmity.

19

her two sons, to her father; and now the court of the Longobards contained two women whose wrongs called for vengeance on the head of Charlemagne. Desiderius set himself

to gratify at once their anxious thirst and his own ambition in a somewhat circuitous manner. Pope Stephen IV., who had been opposed to the union of the regal families of Pepin and Desiderius, died in the early part of 772, and was succeeded by Pope Adrian I. Desiderius seized the opportunity of this new accession to demand from the Popedom the anointment of Carloman's two sons as the true and real heirs to their father's kingdom, threatening war as the consequence of a refusal. Adrian did refuse, advised Charlemagne of the course pursued by his father-in-law, and sought help to maintain the papal authority, and to mar the designs of his enemy, whose defeat would, of course, serve Charlemagne's interest as well as his own. Charlemagne promised that as soon as possible he would devote himself to the humiliation of the haughty claimant of his dominion, and the insubordinate enemy of the Pope in Upper Italy.

Meanwhile, however, he had provided full occupation for himself, his nobles, and his armies, by declaring war against the Saxons. This he did at an imperial diet, held at Worms in 772, where he enlarged upon the predatory character of the Saxons, the shamefulness of the heathen worship they practised, and the merit which would be due to the Frankish empire if they could be converted to Christianity. Conversions were then more frequently made by the sword of a temporal king than by "the sword of the Spirit;" as if a religion which could be donned to order might not as easily be doffed by a countermand from a stronger power. Having declared war ostensibly to bring the Saxons under the dominion of "the true and saving

faith," he made his first irruption into their territories about the middle of that same year. It was a short, successful, and briskly conducted campaign. Leaving Worms, he entered Hesse, advanced to the banks of the Weser, took Eresberg, [Statberg,] destroyed the statue of Irmin, an object peculiarly venerable in the eyes of the Saxons, and compelled them to conclude a peace, giving twelve chiefs as their hostage for its fulfilment.

At the very moment of his victory, ominous tidings reached him from Rome. The plot on which Desiderius had resolved had begun to effect its purpose; the Pope being embroiled, had asked Charlemagne for such help as he needed, and as it was easy to see that it was his own quarrel forced upon a third party, he could not refuse. Girding up his loins, therefore, he determined upon graciously aiding the Pope to maintain his supremacy, at the same time that he would settle his own dispute with his father-in-law, and might mayhap extend his own influence, if not his own dominion, in the Italian peninsula.

Desiderius, on hearing of the hostile approach of Charlemagne, who, having hurried from Germany, had crossed the Alps by the pass of Susa, and entered Italy,-resolved to employ tactics more than valour in the attainment of his end. He accordingly retreated towards Pavia, and fortified himself there, in the hope that sickness, scarcity, and impatience would cause all the evils of a defeat to his enemy. Charlemagne, however, had no notion of being so readily fatigued; so, leaving orders for the preservation of a strict. blockade, he set out to attend the Easter festival at Rome, A.D. 774. There he was received by the Pope with the highest honour and the most lavish sycophancy. In return, he confirmed the gift of the Exarchate of Ravenna and the

Early Difficulties.

21

Pentapolis, which Pepin his father had made to the Pope, and obtained, on his part, the right of confirming the elections to the papal chair. These things having been arranged, Charlemagne returned to Pavia, which soon after capitulated, and Desiderius, being made prisoner, was immured in the monastery of Corvey, in France, where he, not long thereafter, died. The conqueror claimed the Longobardian crown, and annexed its territories to his own dominions.

While Charlemagne was employed in Italy, the Saxons, presuming upon his finding occupation there, invaded his empire. Calling a diet at Duren, near Aix-la-Chapelle, he decided upon proceeding against them at once, made an incursion beyond the Weser, and thoroughly discomfited them for a time. No sooner was this matter somewhat settled, than he required to repair to Lombardy, where his viceroy, Duke Rotgand, had revolted. This insurrection. he quelled almost in the hour of its birth-so sudden and energetic were the measures adopted by him—and he immediately set out again to Saxony, driving the inhabitants before him, compelling submission, and demanding promises of adhesion to Christianity. At this time he built a fortress on the Lippe, where many of the Saxons consented to be baptized. So well had he overrun the country, that in 777, the majority of the people had pledged their allegiance, and he was able to hold the meeting of his warriors (Champ de Mai) in Paderborn. Here he received as petitioners the governors of the Spanish cities of Saragossa and Huesca, who sought protection from the tyranny of the Saracen King Abderam. He hated, although-perhaps we should say because he imitated, the Islamites, and was much rejoiced at finding a plausible cause of offence. He declared

war against them, and expressed his determination to use their own weapon of conversion-the sword-upon themselves. Many independent Christian chiefs attached themselves to his standard, and having crossed the Pyrenees, he in a short time, 778, subjugated the whole country as far as the Ebro, which he thereafter adopted as the march or boundary of the Frankish empire. It was on his return. from this expedition that the ambuscade of Roncesvalles, so famous in legend and song, occurred. While the main army, like a huge serpentine monster, wound its way through the defiles of the Pyrenees, the rear-guard became disjoined from it, and was mercilessly massacred. The hero of Ariosto-Roland-the nephew of Charlemagne, the Warden of Brittany, together with many of the nobles of the empire, fell that day, and have had their names embalmed in the lays of the troubadours and the romances of later times.* It can scarcely be said that this expedition was, on the whole, a decided success, while its fatal termination saddened Charlemagne's heart, and dispirited his nobles.

But "uneasy is the head that wears a crown." Wittekind, the celebrated Saxon leader,-who had fled, dismayed by the prowess and skill of the armies of Charlemagne,—had returned from his refuge in the Danish court, and had reexcited his compatriots to renew their attempts to avoid the yoke of the Frankish King; and several "passages of arms" had taken place between the nobles of France and the chiefs of Saxony, in which the former were seldom victorious. Exasperated at last, when, in 782, the latter had despoiled the whole country as far as Cologne, Charlemagne set out him

* See Pulci's Morgante Maggiore; Boiardo's Orlando Inamorata ; Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; Merivale's Orlando in Roncesvalles in' Poems," Vol. ii. &c. &c.

Domestic Troubles.

23

self again, with the design of securing the total extirpation of these stubborn Pagans; and after several campaigns, so harassed and assailed them, that they again promised submission, and he unwillingly granted peace, taking the precaution, however, of erecting a chain of fortresses along the banks of the Elbe, as points of strength and resort in case of another rebellion.

Indulging the hope of security which these proceedings had a tendency to excite, and desirous of surrounding himself with vassal kings likely to submit to his orders, and protect the outskirts of the empire, he set off to Rome with Louis and Pepin, his two sons by his second wife, to have them consecrated sovereigns of Aquitania and Italy. This was done. But Charlemagne had another son Pepin, by his first wife, who did not relish this supplantment, and so far resented it, as to head a conspiracy against his father; this was, however, discovered before any overt act had been attempted, and Pepin (the elder) was consigned to the living grave of a monastery, in which he ended his days.

The Saxons had no great reverence for treaties when the power of enforcement seemed to be wanting. While the governors of Saxony were met upon Mount Suntel, near the Weser, to organise an excursion against the Sorbians, who had carried off some booty in a foray, the Saxons fell upon them, and destroyed almost the whole army assembled there. Charlemagne's patience was exhausted; rage and fury overcame prudence, and he burst into the country, laid it desolate far and wide, and caused 4500 imprisoned Saxons to be massacred near Verden-on-the-Aller. For a time despair paralysed the foe; but gradually the voice of vengeance was heard screaming its sibillations in the ear, and rage and madness urged them on to make one last great effort for