a certain degree. A study of the records and chronicles of the time does not lead to this conclusion. On the contrary, they prove beyond a question, that the personages and the party which were most influential in awarding the crown definitively to Hugh Capet were precisely Belgian or Lorrain, and attached moreover to German interests. Hitherto the Carlovingian princes had maintained their hold and influence in their own circumscribed territories by the support of the archiepiscopal church of Rheims, which maintained its jealousy both of the Duke of Paris and of the German emperor, labouring at the same time to save and to recover its church property, as best it might, from the counts ever ready to despoil it. It has been recorded how Adalbero, son of Godfrey, Count of the Ardennes, was promoted to that see, and how he laboured to reform and restore it. The prelate Adalbero was not what his predecessor had been, a devoted partisan of the Carlovingian princes. He saw that they were too weak to protect the Church, especially that of Rheims, which, situated between the frontiers of two great nations, was continually the spoil of both. Adalbero, connected with all the German noblesse and princely families of Lorraine, was for preserving that province for the young Emperor Otho; and his letters of exhortation written by Gerbert, addressed to all the prelates and counts of the border region, entreat them to resist all the efforts of Lothaire and Louis, whilst recommending that they should make a friend of Hugh, Duke of France. Policy so hostile to them on the part of the prelate of Rheims, excited the inveterate enmity of the Carlovingian princes; and, at length, Louis marched to reduce Rheims with an army that Adalbero could not for the moment resist, for he gave hostages to answer for his conduct before an assembly that was to be convened. CHAP. II. CHAP. II. The prelate did this, apparently, in connivance with Hugh Capet, between whom and Adalbero there was in all probability an early agreement to aim at the setting aside of the Carlovingians, and the division between the German emperor and Hugh Capet of the countries between France and Lorraine. The great obstacle to the completion of such a scheme, young King Louis, was at this very time carried off by illness, which came so opportune for the designs of his foes, that they are all and severally accused of having brought it about by poison. The meeting of chiefs and prelates already summoned at Compiegne to hear Louis' accusation of Adalbero took place. But no accuser appeared. Charles the uncle of Louis held aloof. By his conduct as lord of Cambray, which dignity he had accepted under the suzerainty of the emperor, he had alienated the clergy, the French or Franci, both of Laon and of the duchy of France, as well as public opinion in general. He had made a lowly marriage, lived a dissipated life, and was, in fine, without a friend. Hugh Capet took upon himself to absolve Adalbero of the crime laid to his charge, that crime being treason to the Carlovingian family, which was then in the thoughts and purposes of all. of all. It was, however, judged right to defer the final decision, and to appoint another meeting at Senlis, where, after due reflection and deliberation, a solemn resolve might be made. In the interval between the assemblies, Charles came to remonstrate with Adalbero. The prelate repelled him as one given to the worst vices and the worst associates. When the second meeting took place at Senlis, Adalbero represented Charles as unworthy of the crown, which he declared had never been hereditary. And, no doubt, Adalbero, as Archbishop of Rheims, had in view the example of Hatto, Archbishop of Mayence, who, on the extinction of the German Carlovingians, had rendered the crown of the empire elective, and attributed to the Church and its metropolitan the chief influence in the election. Hugh Capet was therefore unanimously declared king in the midsummer of 987, and was solemnly crowned soon after at Noyon. CHAP. II. CHAP. III. THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. CHAP. HUGH, ROBERT, HENRY, AND PHILIP. THE destined monarchy of France was exceedingly slow to germ. Much depended on the spot, and upon the soil, in which it was to take root; and these were long to prepare and to fix. The heroism and ability of Robert the Strong and his descendants, exerted during a century and a half, no more than sufficed to place the crown, and that but a nominal one, on the head of Hugh Capet. This attained, the family slumbered for another century upon their new found throne, more like the princes in which a royal race dies out, than like those which inaugurate and give the first impulse and renown to a dynasty. What rendered the insignificance of early France. and of its kings more remarkable, was that at the same time there sprung up, on the other side of the Rhine, a succession of great and glorious monarchs, heroes, legislators and organisers, who constituted Germany the first empire in Europe, making Rome itself and its pontificate dependent upon their will and subsidiary to their grandeur. The genius of Charlemagne descended to Henry the Fowler and the Othos: and yet, in consequence of their falling into the imperial track, and seeking in their policy a resuscitation of the past rather than a development of the present, they left an edifice of weak construction and perishable materials; whilst at the same time the inglorious and imbecile Capets were, by merely slumbering on the throne, enabling the future monarchy and dynasty of France to grow up together, and send down roots which withstood the storms and the wear of centuries. Who could have foreseen the different fate and relative importance of the French monarchy and of the German empire, contemplating both in the eleventh century, the latter all grandeur and glory, the former scarcely attracting the notice of the chronicler? The quiet, the inglorious, the almost effortless rise of the new monarchy, was proof that its formation and future grandeur were more the result of circumstances than the work of man. It was indeed a natural crystallisation of the confused elements of ruined Gaul, mingled with all that the Teutonic race had brought to renew it, but which had also fallen into premature dissolution. No sooner was the centre found round which the elements could naturally group, than the monarchy was formed. That centre was Paris, a spot which Julian and Clovis had marked as the seat of empire, but which ecclesiastical division always thrust into the second rank. As long as Paris was thus ignored, or treated as subordinate to Sens, to Rouen, or to Rheims, the seats of powerful archbishops, there existed a Neustria, not a France. But when the Normans had taken possession of the Lower Seine, Paris became the great bulwark against them. In the middle of the ninth century, the sanctity of its monasteries or the wealth of its cathedral was what gave importance to a town. Towards the close of the same century a strong position, capable of enabling a brave population to defend themselves against an enemy, became the prime consideration. People began to look to chiefs, not to saints. And Paris, Tours, and Angers, barring the ascent of Seine and Loire to the Pagan northmen, were more revered for СПАР. III. |