= FRANCE, , 
Bidegably lefs than what it now 
is, as we Rave abov ve, dee. 
feribed i its boundaries. One’ of. 
Pare 
Mar- 
being glad to retire into private life. s wife 
converted to Chriftianity, but his zeal for religion had n 
effe& in reftraining the: bounds of his ambition. He em- 
ployed the remainder of his li the andizement of 
e in ag 
himfelf, and in extending his seer meee meray an aad 
an which he 
In his attacks on Armorica Bretagne], he did not prove 
Rrecefsfal and,’ as we have feen, this part of the country 
was not camied to sae crown of France till the clofe of the 
the 
the ie of the Franks. 
urned his een to the reduction of the 
rthern province which, inftead of being decided by the 
chance of a fingle battle, appears to = been flowly ef- 
fected he the gradual operation of war and treaties; and. 
Clovis acquired each objet of his ambition by fuch efforts 
as were fully adequate to its real value. «“ His favage cha- 
nature; yet fom 
ue rance, by 
merits of a serie converfion.”? 
at this time, poffeffed all the country from the fore 
Vofges to to the fea of Marfeilles on the oné ei and to the 
Alps on the other. This vaft tra& of country eh at- 
tempted to fubdue ; but, ea all his fio, he was ed 
to give up the enterprifé, an e prefent contented 
with forming an alliance ei and acceptin g military fervice 
bad the king of Burgundy. “The next expedition of Clovis 
againit Vifigoths, whofe: territories extended to 
éonfiderable diftances on each fide of the Pyrenean moun-. 
tains, — the pretence of contending with the errors of 
Avisni Alaric, the shee of the Vifigoths, a young man 
Touloufe furrendered the 
next {pring, and the royal treafures of the Vifi ae were 
-tranfported to Paris. Other confiderable places ell into the 
s of Clovis, who was foon after ftoppe Aa his career of aga’ 
who had 
St. * Mastin in the -city of 
the cathedral cloathed 4 4in alk the -bad 
sfucceeded;- under ae oe was ast the E ing of Pesfia: 
to: jetzt yatifm. ~The whole power of fent. him prefents, gave him a title to Jerufalem, and the. 
the ‘king. nyetted: in: captains of‘ the king’s Holy Land, ‘ealling. him is lieutenant, and he was at length 
guard, who -were «.coiimonly called ‘‘* Maire’ du Pélais,” proclaimed emperor, in the year 800. It may be wor 
who,’ for many generations, ’held the Fretich fovereigns’ of speloriioae that Pepin had introduced fs fyftem ys 
hs fab fubjefton, leaving them but little more than the annual p in which the clergy an d nobles were 
title of king, Of thefe mayors Pepin and Charles Martel 
r. Gibbon, “ and. the virtues of Henry abe — the line of C 
or oe which fee 
ftation he acquitted himfe o well, as to render his nam 
cas to fubfequent peer 
‘oes, both foreign and domeftic, he determined to affume. 
a title of king, after -havin 
defir 
{pond with the unanimous wifhe 
bility were, apeileal bound by an oa 
Childeri the no 
at. the nation might 
unite in Pa fame sang the cageare| and title 
On this Pepin was crowned in and was the. firft monarch 
of the fecond race of French ieeerai 3 having driven fi 
the throne of his anceftors Childeri c III. whom he ‘confined 
or the remainder of oe 
lovi 
3 the aiid pails of oe Stephen ITI, againft 
he pope, unable to 
see we: a. ra crofled the. Al 
conten the aid aad pntetion of Pepi 
with all the refpe&i due to his char cee e 
in the abbey of St. Dennis, and attended by th 
perfon, during a dangerous illnefs. On his recovery, 
en 
folemnly placed the diadem on the head of his Ponefatton 
fto e regal unétion on his two fons Charles and. 
3 
ly, 
had Pepin left the country, when “Aftolphus bike ie 
treaty -which he had es basse to fign with every ma 
of folemnit 
e 
were fo brilliant that he ity obtain 
ealled on to dethaat on public affairs, ad the wants of 
the 
When he had fubdued 
of king. : 
in different monafteries, and fet 
Pa 
