FRANCE. 
Jiatl twice retired from the victorious arms of Charles to 
the court of the king of Denmark. His return inflamed 
the fpirit of his countrymen; his counfels guided, his 
courage animated, them ; the dilfenfions ot the royal 
generals feemed to enfure their defeat: the defponding 
Franks beheld before them a hoft of enraged barbarians; 
beiiind, the rapid dream of the Wefer. Their deliverance 
was however atchieved in 782, by the incredible diligence 
of Charles ; the Salons were again beaten, and the im¬ 
placable monarch burning for revenge, penetrated into 
the heart of their country. Witikind again contrived to 
elude the royal refentment, but his confederates were 
made the vitrims of offended majefly ; 4500 of thele 
champions of freedom purpled with their blood the pol¬ 
luted waters of the Wefer; and Charles, by this unpre¬ 
cedented execution, relinquilhed his claim to humanity 
■without attaining the fubmiflion of Saxony. The emo¬ 
tions of rage were for a moment fufpended by thofe of 
fear; but they foon burft forth with accumulated vio¬ 
lence ; and the ineffectual victories of three fucceflive 
years induced Charles, fatigued with the unavailing effu- 
fion of human blood, to attempt that by policy which he 
had fruitlefsly endeavoured to atchieve by force. In 
785, he perfuaded Witikind and fomeof the mod power, 
ful chiefs to an interview ■ he urged to them the impend¬ 
ing ruin of their country; and prevailed on them, by the 
powerful arguments of interert and flattery, to embrace 
the Chriftian faith, and to difpofe the minds of their 
countrymen to cultivate the arts of peace. 
The revolt of the Saxons had been all along fupported 
and encouraged by the faithlefs Taflilon ; and the king 
of the Franks, at the head of a formidable army, was 
now determined to chaftife a kinfman, whom no treaties 
could bind. The deftruftion of Taflilon appeared in¬ 
evitable ; and Charles had already penetrated to the 
banks of the Lech, when the duke, in 787, privately en¬ 
tered the camp, and threw' himfelf at his feet. The ab- 
jetl pofture of the prince excited the compaffion of the 
monarch, and he was difmifTed, only to fwell the account 
of his ingratitude and treachery. Flis hoftile negociations 
next extended to the Huns, the emperor of the Greeks, 
and the fugitive Adalgife,; his intrigues fomented thedif- 
contents of the factious nobles of Aquitan and Lombardy ; 
but his fubjeTs dreaded in his rath defigns their own de- 
ftrnflion ; they revealed the fecret of this perfidy to 
Charles ; and Taflilon, as he fearlefsly entered the diet of 
Ingelheim, w'as arretted by the command of the French 
monarch. The evidence of his guilt was inconteftible; 
be was condemned, with his two fons, to lofe his head ; 
the punifliment was commuted into monaftic confine¬ 
ment ; and the principality of Bavaria was, in 788, an¬ 
nexed to the dominions of the Franks. 
The fate of Taflilon could not deter his confederates 
the Huns, nor the emperor of the eaft ; but their enter- 
prifes only ferved to augment the glory of Charles, and 
his commanding genius triumphed over the Huns in the 
fields of Bavaria, and over the Greeks in the plains of 
Italy. The latter renounced for ever the fortunes of 
Adalgife, and the vain hope of reftoring the kingdom of 
the Lombards; but the former ftill continued their de- 
fultory incurfions, and provoked Charles to retaliate the 
calamities they had inflicted on Bavaria. At the head 
of a formidable army, in 791, he entered the country of 
the Huns, forced their entrenchments, and penetrated as 
far as Raal on the Danube ; an epidemic diforder, how¬ 
ever, with the approach of winter, compelled'hirn to re¬ 
tire ; and his tranfient exultation was loon interrupted by 
a calamity of a domeftic nature. His eldelt fon Pepin, 
impatient to tafte the joys of empire, and envious of the 
eftablilhment of his younger brothers, compired againft: 
the life of his father ; the unnatural projeft was revealed 
by a pried, who had accidentally fallen afleep in the 
church w here the confpirators alfembled ; he was awaked 
by a number of voices, and found the affociates delibe¬ 
rating on their laft meafures. Charles wasfummonedfrom 
Co,5 
his bed to learn the horrid guilt of his fon ; but the ten¬ 
der feelings of a father checked the hand of jnflice, and 
doomed Pepin to expiate his crime by a life of religious 
penitence. 
The refilefs fpirit of the Huns, in the mean time, again 
called them to arms ; the impatient Saxons once more 
threw off the yoke ; the Moors with their numbers 
darkened the plains of Spain ; and while Charles flattered 
himfelf with the vain hope of tranquillity, his conquefl 3 
were fltaken, and his kingdom alfailed on every fide. In- 
ftead of endeavouring inflantly to repel the attacks of 
his enemies, he waited to feize the favourable moment; 
the Moors were foon recalled by the vidtories of Alonfo 
the Cliafte, king of Leon, and Charles marched in per- 
fon to chaftife the Saxons and the Huns. The former 
confented again to receive the Chriftian religion, and to 
deliver one-third of their army to the fervice of the 
vidtor ; the latter defended their freedom and country 
with incredible obftinacy. Although often defeated, 
their love of independence was invincible ; and the war 
was only concluded by the death of the prince, and the 
almofi annihilation of the people. One tribe alone, in 
798, was induced to fubmit to the rites of baptifm, and 
to acknowledge the fovereignty of the king of the Franks. 
The diffenflons of the Moorifh chiefs invited Charles to 
the conqueft of the iflands of Majorca and Minorca ; but 
the fatisfadfion attending this expedition was more than 
balanced by the tumults which reigned at Rome. After 
the death of Adrian, his nephew afpired to the apoftolic 
chair ; but Leo the Third, a pried of the La'teran, was 
preferred by the voice of the electors. For four years, 
the difappointed candidate nourilhed the fecret delire of 
revenge; and, on the day of a proceftion, a furious band 
of confpirators affailed the facred perfon of the pope. 
Leo efcaped to the Vatican, and was protedted by the 
duke of Spoleto, then general of the French forces. 
Charles fympathized in his diftrefs, and invited the Ro¬ 
man pontiff to his camp of Paderborn, in We'ftphalia; 
with a numerous efcort he difpatched the holy fufferer to 
Rome, and declared his intention foon to vilit the facred 
city, and to redrefs the grievances of the fucceflor of St. 
Peter. In the mean while a new invalion of the Normans 
afflidted the dominions of Charles which bordered on the 
fea. Thefe hardy adventurers, in 799, defeending from 
the fnovvy mountains of Norway, explored every fhore 
that promifed them fpoil. Their naval achievements 
called for the prefence of the king himfelf; and the 
French monarch reftrained his impatience to avenge the 
injuries of the pope, till he had endeavoured to provide 
for the fecurity of his own fubjedts, and to reftrain the 
depredations of the northern pirates, by conftiudfing 
forts at the mouths of all the navigable rivers. To 
this mode of defence he added a regular militia, and ap¬ 
pointed fquadrons, at proper ftations, to cruife aaiainft 
the invaders. 
The zealous monarch now prepared to pafs the Alps, 
on his fourth and laft pilgrimage to Rome. On his ar- 
rival, in the year Soa, Leo was permitted to clear him¬ 
felf by oath, of the crimes which had been imputed to 
him ; and the facrilegious attempt againft his life was 
punifhed by the exile of his enemies. It was on the fef- 
tival of Chriftmas that Charles appeared in the church of 
St. Peter; and after he had devoutly aflifted at mafs, tjte 
pope placed the imperial crown on his head, and the dome 
refounded with the acclamations, " Long life to Charles 
the Auguft, crowned by the hand of God ! Long life and 
victory to the great and pacific emperor of the Romans. 15 ' 
From henceforth Charles, in ail his negociations, took 
the name of Charlemagne. 
Among the ambalfadors who congratulated the fortune 
of the emperor of the Franks, thole of the caliph Harun- 
Al-Ralhid, in 803, contributed to the fplencous of his 
achievements by the ceffion of the hoiy fepulehre, and 
the city of Jerufalem. A more important negociatiors 
was entrufted to the minifters of Irene, the emorefsof 
3 the 
