250 



A. D. 800. 



ter two dukes of Venice *, and a duke of ladera in Dalmatia, are faid 

 to have received at his hands a contirmation of their dignities. 



Amidft the devaftations and flaughters of a reign of forty -feven years, 

 pafled in perpetual warfare, Charles paid fome attention to learning and 

 icience, and apparently alfo to commerce, though he Ihowed grenft ig- 

 norance of the principles of it, when he allowed the priefts to make a 

 canon, declaring all intereil for the nfe of money to be finful. The 

 fairs of Aquifgranum (Aix la Chapelle) and Troye were frequented 

 during his reign by traders from mod parts of Europe : and the weight 

 ufed at the later has been generally adopted, and is now ufed by us for 

 weighing gold and filver. He colleded what was then efleemed a great 

 library, and he founded the univerlities of Paris and Pavia, which fet 

 the example to fimilar inftitutions, wherein the lamp of fcience, though 

 it burnt but very dimly during feveral dark ages, was at lead preferved 

 from utter extindion. He ftudied aftronomy under the Englifh philo- 

 fopher and poet Alcuin ; and his tafte for geography may be prefumed 

 from his three filver plates, on one of which was engraved a map of 

 Conftantinople, on another Rome, and on the third and largefl the three 

 parts of the world, viz. Europe, Afia, and Africa, each inclofed in a 

 circle. To curb the maritime depredations of the Normans and Sara- 

 cens he kept fome fhips on the Ocean and the Mediterranean ; and he 

 reftored the light-houfe at Bononia {Boulogne), that it might dired his 

 fliips in the night. His attempts to join the Meufe with the Saone, and 

 the Rhine with the Danube, though intended only for the purpofes of 

 war, if they could have been rendered efFedual and permanent, would 

 have been ufeful to inland navigation. {^Eginharti Vita Caroli magni. — 

 Aimon. Gejl. Franc. L. iv, cc. 68-102.] 



808 — Charlemagne, having fubdued the remains of the old Saxons 

 on the north fide of the Elbe, ereded two callles on the banks of that 

 river to curb the Slavi and other hoflile tribes. In two years after, one 

 of them, called Hochbuchi, Hocburi, or Hamburgh, was taken and de- 

 ftroyed, and next year it was rebuilt. \_Eginha?-ti Aruiales ad an — Alberti 

 Stadcnfis Chron. ad «//.] After many tmimportant revolutions of de- 

 flrudion and renovation, the caftle gave birth to a town, which has 

 grown up to be the celebrated and important commercial city of Ham- 

 burgh f . 



813 — In- the later end of the reign of Charlemagne the merchants 

 of Lyons, Marfcille, and Avignon, confiding in the power and tame of 

 their fovereign, and the friendfhip fubfifting between him and Harun 

 al Rafhid, the powerful and famous fovereign of the Eafl, joined in fit- 



* They are called Willcrus and Beatiis by Ai- f Hamburgli, like oilier cities which have ac- 



monius. [/,. iv, c. 94.] But I fee no fuch names, quired fame and opulence, has fome fables of an 



'.or any conjunft dukes, in the catalogue of the earlier origin than what can be warranted by hif- 



rfukcE or doges of Venice. tory, 4 



