e6 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



empire, having the supreme command over his two brothers, Pepin and 

 Louis, while the father divided liis lands among them all three. This 

 arrangement only served to create jealonsy between the brothers. Civil 

 war for a while seemed inevitable, when a new train of circumstances 

 united all the brothers against their father. 



At the death of the empress Irmengarde, Louis married Judith, a 

 Bavarian princess, who, in 823, bore him a fourth son, Charles the Bald. 

 The father wished also to bestow a kingdom on this new descendant, and 

 therefore undertook a new division. The elder sons were not disposed to 

 lose anything ; they raised the nation against their father, attacked him 

 with an army from three sides, and made him a prisoner, 830. By the 

 sympathy of several German princes, and the want of harmony between the 

 brothers, Louis was permitted to retain his crown. His sons seemingly 

 humbled themselves, but they soon again revolted. Louis was a second 

 time made prisoner by his sons, deprived of his authority, and, to complete 

 his degradation in the eyes of his subjects, compelled to perform a solemn 

 ecclesiastical penance. Much as this humiliating spectacle delighted 

 Lothaire, the other sons declared in favor of the father, and in 835 

 restored the crown to him. Despite liis bitter experience, he re-confirmed 

 the partition of the empire, and after the death of Pepin, still continued to 

 bestow his fondest favors on his son Charles, and even to show his prefer- 

 ence for Lothaire, whereby he prompted Louis to make a third rebellion 

 against his father, who in consequence died of a broken heart in 840. 



On the decease of Louis, Lothaire, now emperor, regarded himself as 

 the exclusive heir of the whole empire. But his younger brothers, with 

 their nephew Pepin, raised an army against him, and met him at Fontenay, 

 near Auxerre, 841 A.D. Lothaire lost the battle and fled, leaving 100,000 

 Franks dead upon the field. He now claimed the aid of the Saxons, but 

 his second battle at Strasburg was not more successful than the first ; and 

 the Saxon warriors were severely punished by Louis (the German). 

 Lothaire at length proposed terms of peace. A truce was concluded at 

 Verdun, 843, by which the empire was apportioned into three great 

 divisions, France, Italy, and Germany. Lothaire retained the title of 

 emperor, and received Italy and the long range of territory along the 

 Phone, Saone, Meuse, and Scheldt, to the Phine. Mayence, Worms, and 

 Speier, with the countries east of the Phine, fell to Louis, the German ; 

 while Charles the Bald received those countries lying west of the river 

 already mentioned, to the ocean, or France Proper. Pepin and Charles, 

 nephews of the three kings, were satisfied with Aquitania ; but even of this 

 district they were soon deprived by Charles the Bald. It does not appear 

 that in this arrangement any permanent separation of the family or empire 

 was contemplated. The Carolingian inheritance was, on the contrary, 

 considered as a mutual claim ; and so also was the Arriere-ban. Thus it 

 will be seen that the idea of one entire empire, with one regent, existed 

 still, and it seemed left entirely to circumstances to determine whether the 

 empire was completely divided, or might yet be consolidated under some 

 future monarch. Destiny, however, decided upon a perpetual division. 

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