PRANCE; 
tills powerful vafTal ; and the provinces of France were 
alternately laid wafte hy the arms of Louis and of Otho, 
of Hugo and of Richard. During five years the flames 
of civil war raged without intermiffion ; after which a 
permanent peace was eftablifhed ; and Louis prepared to 
aftert his authority over the revolted lords of Aquitain, 
when his defigns were broken by a fudden and accidental 
death : as he purfued a flying wolf in the chace, his 
horfe Humbled and threw him ; the injury prov'ed fatal; 
and on the 15th of October, 954, in the thirty-third year 
of his age, he clofed at Rheims a turbulent reign of nine¬ 
teen years. 
The life of Hugo duke of France had been fpent in an 
inceflant ftruggle to elevate himfelf above the condition 
of a fubjeCt; the path of greatnefs now lay open to his 
view ; yet he declined the eafy afeent, and raifed to the 
throne Lothaire the fon of Louis, then only in the four¬ 
teenth year of his age. The young prince was crowned 
at Rheims ; and the gift of Aquitain teflified his gratitude 
to Hugo. That province had long bellowed the title of 
duke on the counts of PoiCtiers; and William, the fecond 
of that family, refented the Hep which transferred his he¬ 
reditary honours to the duke of France. He refilled to ac- 
quiefee in the diftribution ; and the lords of Aquitain 
crowded to the independent ftandard of William. With 
a confiderable army, fanCtioned by the prefence of Lo¬ 
thaire, Hugo inftantly formed the fiege of PoiCtiers ; but 
his mind, incapable of perfonal fear, was adted upon by 
fuperftitious terror ; a clap of thunder broke with vio¬ 
lence over his tent, and he raifed the fiege. In his retreat 
he was attacked by the forces of William ; the adtion was 
fhort and decifive; count William was totally defeated, 
and efcaped with difficulty the fword of the vidlor. 
The fun of profperity had invariably gilded the career 
of Hugo; and this laft triumph over the count of Poictiers 
clofed a feries of memorable adlions: in 956 he funkinto 
the grave, efteemed by his countrymen, and regretted by 
his fovereign. To his eldeft fon Hugh, furnamed Capet, 
he affigned the cities and diocefes of Paris and Orleans, 
and recommended him to the protection of Richard duke 
of Normandy; and the three younger, Otho, Eudes, and 
Henry, fucceeded each other in the duchy of Burgundy. 
The ambition of Lothaire, in 956, had led him to in¬ 
vade the duchy of Normandy; and the duke, prefled by 
the fuperior forces of his antagonill, invited to his flip- 
port the rovers of the north. France was again afflicted 
by their depredatory incurfions : they refilled to fub fieri be 
to the peace which Richard had concluded; and their 
retreat was with difficulty purchafed by the treafiur.es of 
France and Normandy : yet Lothaire no fooner had dif- 
engaged himfelf from this diflrefs, than, ever relllefs, he 
attempted to opprefs his vaflal the young count of Flan¬ 
ders;-that nobleman was preserved by the interpofition 
of the Normans ; and the king, baffled in his endeavours 
to aggrandize himfelf by arms, flattered himfelf, by ad¬ 
vantageous alliances, with ihe hope,of relloring the waning 
grandeur of the houfe of Charlemagne. He efpoufed 
Emma the daughter of Lothaire king of Italy, and be¬ 
llowed-his lifter on Conrad king of Burgundy ; but the 
fhort refpite allowed by a peace was followed by years of 
defolating' war ; and the po.flefli.on of Lorrain was dif- 
p.uted, during four fucceffive campaigns, by the kings of 
Germany and France. Their fubjeCts might mutually 
regret the delhuCtive effeCis of ambition ; but the fuccefs 
of Oiho confirmed his authority, while the diftipppint- 
mentof Lothaire contributed to diminilh the little repu¬ 
tation he had acquired. 
Four years after, the death of Otho II. in 984, diflblved 
the alliance between France and Germany, and again re¬ 
vived-the hopes,-of Lothaire. That prince, under pre¬ 
tence of fupporting.the claim of Otho III. invaded Lor¬ 
rain, occupied Verdun, and aflaulied Cambray ; but while 
he indulged himfelf in the flattering idea of extending 
the limits of his kingdom, he was furprifed in the forty- 
Tixth-year pf his gge, and the thirty-fecond of his, reign, 
655 
March 2, 986, by the approach of death. He had al¬ 
ready a floriated his fon Louis to the throne ; and his own 
premature end, when his affairs had afTumed a mo,ft fa. 
vonrable appearance, was imputed to poifon ; and the 
name of Entma, his queen, has been fullied by the breath 
of fufpicion ; but the report probably originated in the 
malice of Charles, the brother of the deceafed monarch, 
who was always inimical to that princefs, and who pro¬ 
bably hoped to fubftantiate his pretentions to Lorrain, 
amidft a feene of anarchy and difcord. 
The throne was filled by Louis V. whofe weaknefsltas 
been characterized by the epithet of Faineant ; and his in¬ 
experienced age of nineteen, required the finpport of a 
mature and powerful guardian. Hugh Capet had been 
appointed to that important trull in the lalt moments of 
Lothaire ; and the fidelity which he had preferved to the 
father, was difplayed in the fliort and turbulent reign of 
the fon. But the mind of the headllrong youth was in¬ 
capable of inftruCtion ; he drove with contempt and in¬ 
famy his mother from his court; and the early death, 
which delivered his fubjeCts from the dominion of vice 
and folly, has been aferibed to her implacable refenpnent. 
Thus the lalt of the Carlovingian kings, odious as he was 
defpicable, funk into the grave ; and tire founder of a 
new dynalty feized the vacant throne, and by his wife and 
temperate counfels, reftored the power and grandeur of 
the French monarchy. 
From the ACCESSION of the HOUSE or CAPET, 
to the TERMINATION of the REIGN of 
CHARLES IV. 
Though the hand of death, in 987, had torn the dia¬ 
dem from the temples of the feeble Louis, to place it on 
the brows of Hugh Capet, yet Charles duke of Lorrain,, 
lincle to the deceafed king, and hereditary heir to the 
crown, exerted his utmoft endeavours to difpu.te the fine.-, 
ceffion. The necefiities of the Hate feem alone to have 
induced the people, opprefled by innumerable calamities, 
to prefer the merit and power of Hugh Capet, to the laft 
of the male line of Charlemagne. The courage and pj;owefs 
of the new fuccelTor were vilible in the rapid meafures he 
adopted. In a few days after the deceafe of Louis V. he 
was proclaimed king at Noyon, and was folem.nly crowned 
at Rheims. Had activity been among the qualities of 
Charles duke of Lorrain, he might probably have efta¬ 
bliflied his more plaufible pretenfions; but it was his 
misfortune to be characterized by a fpirit of procraftina- 
tion ; and though neither deficient in courage or capacity 
when once routed to arms, be continued to deliberate 
when he ought to have aCted, and fuffered his rival to 
take the field, before he ereCted the,ftandard of the houfe 
of Charlemagne, to collect, its fcattered partizans. Hugh, 
on the contrary, loft no time in collecting a powerful 
army ; 'prefled clofe on the rear of His adverfary ; and 
compelled him to a fpeedy and decifive adtion. The con¬ 
flict was fhort and bloody ; and the defeat of Charles was 
followed by his immediate fubmiflion. Hugh feized the 
favourable hour of victory; and to fecure the throne to 
his family, propofed, in an pflembly of the nobles, the 
alfociation of his fon Robert. His fuccefs enfured the ap¬ 
probation of the barons ; and Robert, on the ill of Jaw 
nuary 988, received at Orleans, the crown of France from 
the hands of the grclibiffiop of Sens. The prudence of 
Hugh, in the mean while, \\as inceflantly difplayed in the 
meafures he .pur.fued. Charles, and his contort, after 
another ineffectual attempt to recover the fucceffion, were 
doomed to end their days in an eafy confinement in the 
city of Orleans ; while their fon was allowed to enjoy his 
patrimonial,duchy of Lorrain. His death, w ithout iflhe, 
terminated for ever the male line of Charlemagne. 
Although Hugh Capet had ,110 longer any fears with 
regard to the fucceflion, yet his authority over a turbu¬ 
lent nobility was^feeble and precarious; his victory near 
PoiCtiers baa for a time checked their infolence, but it 
loon difplayed again in a feries of domeitic wars and 
bloedy 
