CAPTURE OF FREDERICK THE HANDSOME AT MUEHLBERG 
 
 Germany, Frotttitfitc*, vol. t
 
 GERMANY 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 EARLIEST PERIOD 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FOURTH GERMAN EDITION 
 
 By MRS. GEORGE HORROCKS 
 
 >7ITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER OF RECENT EVENTS 
 
 By EDGAR SALTUS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PETER FENELON COLLIER 
 
 MDCCCXC1X
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Frontispiece Capture of Frederick the Handsome at Muehlberg 
 Nuremberg . . . . . . . . 
 
 Cologne .
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 FIRST PERIOD 
 HEATHEN ANTIQUITY 
 
 PART I 
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF THE ANCIENT 
 GERMANS 
 
 I. The Primitive Forests of Germany 
 
 BEFORE Germany was peopled, the country appears to 
 have been almost entirely covered with primitive for- 
 ests. When the Romans, not long before the birth 
 of Christ, became acquainted with these regions, they already 
 contained a numerous population, although at that period 
 but little of the ancient forests seems to have been cleared 
 away ; according to their account, the great Hercinian For- 
 est then extended from the Black Forest across the whole 
 of Germany, and the inhabitants, a mere hunter-race, only 
 practiced the arts of husbandry when driven by extreme 
 necessity. The forests were held sacred, and temples were 
 erected on consecrated lakes, hidden in their secluded depths 
 unprofaned by the hand of man. Similar sacred groves 
 were found by Herodotus in the country of the Budini to 
 the north of the Black Sea, and they were introduced by 
 Hyperboreans into Greece; for instance, the sacred grove 
 of Delphi, the famous Grecian oracle. In northern mythol- 
 ogy, the ash tree (ygdrasill) is emblematical of the whole 
 earth, and the first men, esche, ash, and erle, alder, also 
 take their names from trees; hence particular trees were 
 
 (6)
 
 6 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 held sacred throughout Germany, nor has this ancient 
 veneration yet entirely passed away. 
 
 The Romans regarded the forests of Germany with super- 
 stitious dread. There were said to be gigantic trees which, 
 when hollowed into boats, held thirty men, and through the 
 arches formed by their projecting roots a horseman could 
 ride at full speed. The buffalo, the bison, and the elk, once 
 numerous in these wilds, have now totally disappeared ; and 
 the bears, whose skins were the chief article of the dress of our 
 forefathers, the wolves, boars, and innumerable other large 
 game, daily become more scarce. The country possessed 
 neither towns, roads, nor bridges, and it is easily conceivable 
 that, dissatisfied with their meager forest fare, the people 
 continually migrated to and took possession of the fruitful 
 lands of neighboring nations. Solitude created a desire, or 
 romantic longing, in the breast of the ancient inhabitant 
 of these wilds, for what was distant and unknown, while the 
 habits of the chase rendered him enterprising and hardy. 
 The laws founded upon personal freedom, the virtuous man- 
 ners and cheerful temperament of the ancient German, orig- 
 inated in those mighty wastes, where, forced to trust to his 
 own resources, man necessarily became independent, and 
 was secure from the corruption incidental to crowded com- 
 munities. These wild forests also attached an idea of the 
 marvelous, so novel to the Romans, to the character of 
 the German, who, trained to war by the habits of the chase, 
 associated piety with ferocity, and would still listen to the 
 secret voice of Nature in the mysterious whisperings of the 
 forest, now disposing him to deep musings, now creating 
 strange forebodings, which were recognized as true prophetic 
 inspiration in the women and maidens. 
 
 When Germany was first Christianized, the monks under- 
 took to clear away the forests and to promote agriculture, 
 and as the migrations had then ceased, those of the inhabi- 
 tants who had remained in the country were gradually forced 
 by necessity to exchange the life of the hunter for that of the 
 peasant. Yet, notwithstanding this, and the great increase
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 7 
 
 of population during succeeding centuries, a very consider- 
 able portion of these primitive forests still remains, and the 
 stranger, who for the first time visits our country, still won- 
 ders at their extent ; nor have the great union of states and 
 the customs of city life been able to eradicate the ancient 
 forest freedom, the love of nature, and the loyal character 
 of our ancestors. 
 
 II. Origin of the Germans 
 
 WHO first trod the sacred forest? who for the first time 
 rested beneath the shade of the German oak? The earliest 
 account of the German people is very obscure. Civilized 
 nations, distinguished by mighty deeds, had already long 
 dwelt on the shores of the Mediterranean, while our north- 
 ern land was still unknown. History, though still in its 
 infancy, already recorded the vicissitudes of empires, while 
 in our dark forests legendary lore still held its superstitious 
 reign. Already had the sages of the East taught wisdom 
 beneath the palm, the merchants of Phoenicia and Carthage 
 weighed anchor and spread their purple sails on the distant 
 ocean, the Greek beautified the earth with magic art, and 
 the Roman founded his colossal and iron despotism, while 
 the German, ignorant and naked, was still reigning undis- 
 turbed over the denizens of the wild. The first authentic 
 account of the Germans dates scarcely a century before the 
 birth of Christ, when the Romans first came in conflict with 
 them. Before this period, their history is mere legendary 
 fable, which, however, a peculiar character pervades. From 
 this epoch the southern nations regarded them as a free and 
 warlike nation. It has been attempted to unravel the gene- 
 alogy of nations by referring them to the first book of Moses ; 
 and sometimes Gomer (Cimbri), with his sons, Ashkenaz 
 (the Saxon Ascan), Riphath (the Frankish Ripuarii), and 
 Togarmah (Germanii); sometimes Aram (Irmin, Hermi- 
 ones), with his sons, Uz (the Asiatics), Hul or Chul (the 
 Gauls), Gethen (Geten or Goths), and Masch (Massagetse),
 
 b THE HISTORY OF GERMAN! 
 
 have been supposed to be the ancestors of the German tribes ; 
 but these are mere nomenclatory hypotheses, by which we 
 can arrive at no certainty. To this class also belongs the 
 derivation of the Nibelungen from Niphilim. 
 
 There are clearer indications of an eastern origin, and 
 traces of an affinity between our language and that of ancient 
 India are still perceivable. "Wodan, who was worshiped by 
 the Germans as the father of the gods, is the Indian Buddha, 
 the father of the twelve Diti, who, for a thousand years, 
 fought against the Indian gods, and were driven into exile. 
 Many are of opinion that Buddha was the most ancient and 
 the only god of the Indians, until the religion of Brahma, 
 together with the division into castes (hereditary privileges), 
 was introduced, and the Brahmins, or caste of priests, 
 usurped the whole authority. It is certain that, after this, 
 the lower castes rebelled against the priests, and chose a new 
 Buddha for their god, who is still worshiped in some parts 
 of India. From the warlike castes, who thence migrated 
 northward, may have sprung those brave and warlike na- 
 tions met with, at a later period, hi the north, as worshipers 
 of Wodan, or Odin, from whom the German tribes trace 
 their descent. 1 
 
 In the oldest records of the German language, the Anten 
 or Inten are often spoken of as an ancient nation, and par- 
 ticular buildings and weapons are mentioned as ''works of 
 the Anten." The word is also traceable in the names of 
 places and people Ant, Ango, Ent, Eng, Int, Intto, Indo 
 and India, in the German of the Middle Ages, is written 
 Endia. See Mone's Derivations. The Grecian fable of 
 Deucalion. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha alone survived 
 
 1 The Grecian fable of the Titana is somewhat similar. Chronos and the 
 twelve Titans fought against Jupiter and the younger gods, and were destroyed 
 by the thunderbolts of Jove. Chronos fled to Boreas in the Caucasus, whose 
 highest mountain still bears the name of Elboreas. Prometheus, the eldeit 
 of the Titans, who stole the fire from heaven, was chained by offended Jupi- 
 ter, for a thousand years, to the rocks of the Caucasus. The nations that, in 
 the third century after Christ, under the name of Zenones, issued from the inte- 
 rior of Germany, and crossing the Danube overran Italy and Greece, were called 
 by the Greeks, "The descendants of the Titans."
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 9 
 
 the flood. They threw stones behind them, whence sprang 
 a new race of men, the Heraclidian wanderers, who peopled 
 the country to the west of the Caucasus. To this many 
 German legends bear resemblance. Tacitus heard, from the 
 Germans on the Rhine, that the common ancestor of then- 
 people was called Thuisko or Thuisto, and sprang out of the 
 earth. His son, Mammus, had three sons, from whom the 
 principal tribes of Germany, the Ingavones, Hermiones, and 
 Istavones, sprang. According to Pliny, the Cauci, Chaubi, 
 or Chauci (from Caucasus), whom we meet with later as the 
 Saxons, belong to the first. But the ancient Saxons had a 
 legend that their nation, with their first king Ascan (per- 
 haps Asian Khan, or Prince of Asia), originally sprang from 
 the Harz Mountains. According to an old legend of the 
 north, Buri, the father of the Asiatics, was licked out of a 
 rock of salt by the sacred cow. With this agrees the north- 
 ern legend, mentioned by Snorri, concerning the migration 
 of the Asiatics, whose progenitor, Buri, dwelt at Asgard 
 (Boreas in the Caucasus). His son, Bor, had three sons, 
 Wile, We, and Odin (Wodan). The last, being driven by 
 the gods out of the country, wandered through Gardaric 
 (Russia) and Saxony to Sweden, where he founded Sigtuna 
 (Upsala), as his new seat of government. 
 
 Other accounts of migrations seem to own a different 
 origin. The chronicler, Hunibald, describes the Franks as 
 fugitives, who wandered as far as the Rhine after the de- 
 struction of Troy, and who there founded Zante (so called 
 from the Trojan river Zanthus). The old Saxon chroniclers 
 ascribe the origin of the Saxons to deserters from the army 
 of Alexander the Great, who fled to the country of Hadel. 
 They have even discovered an affinity between the wander- 
 ings of Ulysses and of tineas after the fall of Troy and the 
 god Odin, and between his son, the first Saxon leader, 
 Ascan, and Ascanius, the son of ^3neas. The legends of 
 Hercules, who is said to have visited Germany, and to have 
 been honored there as a god, are even more obscure.
 
 10 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 III. The Dark Ages 
 
 THOSE tribes which, at a later period, were classed under 
 the general name of "Germans," were formerly known un- 
 der separate names, and it is now impossible to distinguish 
 them exactly from each other. According to the earliest 
 accounts of the Greeks, the Scythians, a simple-mannered 
 and brave people, divided into several tribes, dwelt to the 
 north of the Black Sea. It has been supposed that their 
 name signifies "marksmen," and that they were, if not all, 
 at least partly, Germans. Neither the Persian kings, nor 
 Alexander the Great, were able to subdue them. The 
 Greeks named the northern nations, on the other side of 
 the great chain of mountains extending from Caucasus, by 
 Haemus, to the Alps, and dividing the south from the north 
 of Europe, Hyperboreans, i.e., people who dwelt beyond 
 the abode of Boreas (the north wind). They also regarded 
 them as "the most long-lived and the most just among 
 mankind." 
 
 Somewhat later we hear of the Celts. They were sup- 
 posed to dwell to the west of the Scythians, and the inter- 
 mediate nation was named Celto Scythian. Their name has 
 been sometimes supposed to signify "Heroes," and they are 
 described as being extremely brave. The most remarkable 
 of the Celtic tribes were the Cimmerii or Cimbri, who, mi- 
 grating from the far west, from England and Denmark, 
 where traces of them have been discovered, invaded Asia 
 Minor and Italy. Their name was supposed to signify 
 "Warrior." 
 
 I do not venture to quote the numerous legends of these 
 northern tribes; in the first place, because they are merely 
 a confused heap of religious notions and historical facts; in 
 the second, because they have been only handed Jown to us 
 by strangers, or by poets, those patrons of the marvelous; 
 and thirdly, because it is impossible to distinguish how much 
 is essentially German in the legends of the Scythians, the 
 Hyperboreans, the Celts, and the Cimbri.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 11 
 
 Under the name of Scythian are evidently comprehended 
 not only the German, but also the Slavonian and Tartar 
 races, now dwelling eastward of us. 
 
 To the Hyperboreans apparently belonged, not only the 
 German, but also the Finnish races in Lapland, Finland, 
 Courland, Esthonia, Livonia, and Lithuania, who were 
 driven by the Germans to the icy northern cape, and to the 
 rocky inlets of the Baltic. 
 
 Although there were many tribes that, notwithstanding 
 their German origin, were generally comprised under the 
 name of Celti, yet this name in reality belongs to another 
 and a perfectly distinct nation, that migrated at an earlier 
 period, and of whose peculiar language slight indications 
 may still be traced in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brit- 
 tany. The Gauls, the Gaelic and Welsh tribes, are the 
 people whom we now commonly designate Welschen, Ital- 
 ians. Along the course of the Danube there are places that 
 still retain their ancient Gallic names, none of which are to 
 be met with further north. The Cimmerii who dwelt in 
 England, the Ambrones on the Rhone, the Umbri in Italy, 
 were all apparently of Gaelic origin; and yet the Cimbri, 
 conjointly with the Teutones, who dwelt at the mouths of 
 the Elbe, and migrated into Italy, were apparently of pure 
 German descent, and the Sicambri are well known to have 
 been German Franks. 
 
 The Greeks never distinguished the German tribes from 
 their neighbors by any particular name, and it was not until 
 after the birth of Christ that they are mentioned under the 
 new name of Germani by the Romans. The Latin word 
 Germanus means brother, but the word may also be a 
 German one, and signify a warrior, by which a number 
 of secondary meanings are admissible, for instance, guerre, 
 war; ger, a lance; heer, an army; ehre, honor; gewehr, 
 security. 
 
 These Latin names were again lost amid the migrations 
 of nations, when the Roman empire fell. Then innumerable 
 new names appear, but no general designation, so that it is
 
 12 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 matter of doubt whether several tribes belonged to the Ger- 
 man or Slavonian nations. After the great irruptions of the 
 different tribes, many of the lesser ones disappeared, and 
 were comprehended under the common designations of Goths, 
 Franks, Bavarians, Germans, Thuringians, Burgundians, 
 Longobardi, Angli, Saxons, Danes, Swedes, and Norwe- 
 gians. It was not until the reign of Charlemagne that all 
 these nations received the general denomination of Germans. 
 The word Thiot, Diet, in the old German tongue, signifies 
 the people. Before the time of Charlemagne, the Germans 
 did not compose one nation, but were divided into distinct 
 communities, allied by common descent, but politically inde- 
 pendent of each other; so that they could not be classed 
 under one name until they formed one nation. 
 
 IV. The Division of the Germans into Separate Tribes 
 
 THE bond by which the different nations of Germany 
 were united, was formerly, as now, of very frail tenure, 
 and even when drawn closer was ever liable to sever. The 
 reason obviously lies in the national character, which, of too 
 expansive a nature ever to be uniform, displays an infinite 
 variety of striking peculiarities, differing according to the 
 natural bias of the individual; hence, in ancient times, the 
 unalterable love of freedom, and the wild chivalric spirit 
 which animated our forefathers, who, equally independent 
 and regardless of their native country, achieved single- 
 handed the most daring exploits; hence, in our times, the 
 extraordinary variety of talented individuals engaged in 
 intellectual warfare as zealously as the German in times 
 of yore in bodily combat. The consciousness of great phys- 
 ical strength produced a spirit of independence and a native 
 indifference to danger which struck the Romans with aston- 
 ishment, and which, by inducing a blind reliance on their 
 own strength, caused the Teutons to weaken themselves by 
 internal feuds, or with listless apathy to view each other's 
 destruction. None pitied the vanquished. If nine fell, the
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 13 
 
 tenth was confident of gaining success by the prowess of his 
 single arm. The greater the slaughter of his brethren by 
 the enemy, the fewer the competitors for glory, and so much 
 the greater honor to the victor. Thus, instead of a neighbor 
 being assisted as a friend, he was only regarded as a rival 
 in heroic deeds ; so that the action that would now be con- 
 sidered as the vilest perfidy was deemed by our forefathers 
 the height of chivalric virtue; and it was not until the 
 Romans had taken great advantage of this error that they 
 discovered that their safety depended upon their acting in 
 unison. But when danger no longer threatened, their an- 
 cient prejudices again produced disunion, and it was only 
 when the evil was universally felt that they could be induced 
 to enter into a bond of mutual protection. The forest life of 
 the primitive Germans was one of the primary causes of this 
 want of union ; all intercourse in those immense and savage 
 tracts being restricted to the nearest neighbors, as neither 
 roads nor commerce existed as a means of communication 
 between the more distant tribes. 
 
 In the first century after Christ, two Romans, Tacitus 
 the historian, who makes honorable mention of our nation, 
 and Pliny the great naturalist, wrote a genealogical account 
 of the different tribes; which, according to Tacitus, de- 
 scended from Thuisko, whose son Mammus was the com- 
 mon ancestor of the Ingavones, Hermiones, and Istavones; 
 the first of whom are placed by Pliny on the North Sea ; the 
 second, in the interior of Germany; and the third, on the 
 Rhine. He moreover mentions two great German nations, 
 the Vendili on the Baltic, and the Peucini on the island of 
 Peuce, at the mouth of the Danube in Hungary. 
 
 Thuisko is evidently an epithet derived from Thuit, 
 Thiot, the people ; like Mannisko, from Mann, a man ; and 
 nothing further is discoverable beyond the subdivision of 
 these great nations into tribes. Whether Thuisko was also 
 honored as a god, and was identical with Wodan, is not of 
 much import with regard to the genealogy of these nations. 
 He has been supposed to be the same as the Egyptian god
 
 14 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Thoth-Hermes, to whom Odin bears much resemblance in 
 his works of invention, and the Romans in fact assimilate 
 him with Mercury or Hermes, a name resembling that of 
 the German deity Irmin, and that of the Hermiones. 
 
 About A.D. 1100, the monk Nestor, the earliest Russian 
 chronicler, divided the Veragri or Scandinavians, who con- 
 quered Russia, into Suiones, Urmanni, Inglani, and Gothi. 
 Could he have intended under these names to designate the 
 Swedes, the Normans, the inhabitants of Ingermanland and 
 Gothland, or did he refer to the yet earlier division of all the 
 German tribes, as recorded by Tacitus and Pliny? An old 
 manuscript in the Vatican library mentions Ermenius, Ingo, 
 and Esco as the ancestors of the Germans, who in the sixth 
 century are named by Nennius, the Englishman, Hisicio, 
 Armeno, and Mugio. 
 
 These ancient names were soon lost amid the migrations 
 of the tribes. In the north, the Ingavones gave place to the 
 Saxons; in the west, the Istavones to the Franks; in the 
 east and south, the Hermiones to the Goths, who, being 
 the most considerable of the migratory tribes, gained the 
 upper hand, and were consequently at enmity with each 
 other. The hatred existing between the brother-nations is 
 recorded in our old warlike legends, in which the Franks 
 are called the Nibelungen ; the Saxons, the Hegelingen ; and 
 the Goths, the Walfinger. 
 
 Gaupp has very ingeniously sought to refer all the Ger- 
 man tribes to two original sources, the Suevi and the Non- 
 Suevi, or High and Low Dutch. Under the denomination 
 pf Suevi he comprehends Suevi, Alemanni, Bavarians, Bur- 
 gundians, Goths, Alani, Vandals, Gepidae, originally wan- 
 dering shepherd tribes attracted by the superiority of. the 
 country, and consisting of nobles, freemen and slaves, who, 
 when converted to Christianity, embraced Arianism, which 
 formed a still stronger bond between them, and more broadly 
 distinguished them from the Non-Suevi, under which de- 
 nomination he classes the Franks, Saxons, Lombards, Thu- 
 ringians, and Frieslanders, who first practiced husbandry,
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 15 
 
 had settled dwellings, and were divided into only one class 
 of freemen, and two classes of bondsmen, Lazzi and Slavi or 
 Servi, and who professing Catholicism were united, by a 
 common faith, against the Arian Suevi. The whole of these 
 divisions are apparently correct, nor are they contradictory. 
 The Suevi collected into enormous masses, while the Non- 
 Suevi separated, on account of their having fixed habitations, 
 into numerous and much smaller tribes, of which the Romans 
 have specified an enormous number, which, taken in the 
 aggregate, may formerly have simply belonged to two great 
 sources, the Istavones and Ingavones, who, at a later period, 
 subdivided in a similar manner in Franconia and Saxony. 
 Among the Hermiones, Tacitus first mentions the Suevi, to 
 whom the Vendili or Peucini of Pliny doubtless belonged as 
 Gothic tribes in the east. Thus the old account perfectly 
 coincides with the modern mode of division. Many of the 
 tribes were totally exterminated by intestine wars or during 
 migration: many, on the contrary, raised themselves by 
 their bravery from insignificance to considerable power; 
 some incorporated themselves with nations to which they 
 did not originally belong, as, for instance, the Lombards, 
 who, severing themselves from the Suevi, united with the 
 Saxons; finally, an intermixture of races took place, as in 
 the case of the New Thuringians, who were some of Frank- 
 ish, others of Suevian (Varini) origin. 
 
 The German tribes may with great justice be compared 
 to a swarm of bees. The mere love of fighting occasioned 
 continual wars between them, either on the pretext of defend- 
 ing their frontiers from the aggressions of their neighbors, or 
 for the purpose of extending them ; and they had the custom 
 of sending the young men, whenever the population became 
 too numerous for the soil, annually forth to seek an existence 
 in foreign lands, so that the surplus of their warlike popula- 
 tion was unceasingly pouring across the frontiers. The 
 earliest and numerous migratory hordes, traveling from 
 north to south, were apparently also German adventurers, 
 such as the Cimmerii, Boii, and Senones ; and in later times,
 
 16 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the Cimbri and Teutones ; the Suevi, under Ariovistus ; the 
 Marcomanni, Quadi, Getae, and Bastarnae. The opposition 
 they met with from the Romans appears to have turned 
 them eastward; a circumstance which perhaps reveals the 
 origin of the immense empire founded by the Goth, Her- 
 manarich, between the Baltic and the Black Sea. These 
 fierce nations again poured with irresistible fury from the 
 north to the south and west; opposition proved unavailing, 
 and Goths, Alani, Vandals, Burgundians, Longobardi, Ale- 
 manni, Franks, Angli, and Saxons, spread like a torrent 
 over the whole Roman empire. It was some time after this 
 migration of these enormous multitudes before a large mass 
 could again collect for a similar purpose in Germany, where 
 they began to congregate into cities; when the surplus popu- 
 lation again took possession of the Slavonian countries, which 
 were conquered in the tunes of the crusades, and colonized 
 the shores of the Baltic. Since that period the destructive 
 religious wars prevented a too great increase of population, 
 and filled Holland and the distant colonies with thousands, 
 who fled thither from persecution at home; and within the 
 last century several hundred thousands of German advent- 
 urers have gradually settled .in America, on the Wolga, and 
 in other parts of the world. 
 
 In their native country, the Ancient Germans were dis- 
 tinguished by the epithet of "Free," from the bondsmen, 
 who apparently were not of German origin. These Sclavi 
 (Slavi, Slavonians or Servi, Serbi or Servii) were doubtless 
 prisoners taken from our Slavonian neighbors in the east. 
 The other bondsmen, who rented their property from and 
 were protected by a freeman, were called Lazzi, Lati, or 
 Liti, in Germany, and Aldi, among the Longobardi in Italy. 
 It is still uncertain whether, like the Sclavi or Servi, they 
 were originally a conquered people, or whether the name is 
 derived from the word lassen, to let (freigelassenen, those 
 let free), or from laz, the last or lowest. The Longobardian 
 Aldi evidently signifies the ancient (alien) and conquered 
 inhabitants of the country.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 
 
 V. The Suevian Tribes 
 
 SNORRI STURLESON, the earliest historian of the north, 
 who wrote in the German (Icelandish) tongue, divides the 
 ancient world into three parts, Asia, Suithiod, and Europe. 1 
 Tacitus also says that the Suevi possessed by far the greater 
 part of Germany. Greek ships that visited the shores of the 
 Baltic for the purpose of collecting amber, about three cen- 
 turies B.C., brought back accounts of the Suiones in modern 
 Sweden, of the mountain Sewo between Sweden and Nor- 
 way, and of the Suevian Sea, the Baltic. The ancient name 
 is still preserved in those of Swabia and Switzerland. The 
 Hungarians call all Germans Swabians. It is impossible 
 to discover whether the name was taken from see, the sea, 
 or from schweifen, to roam about; on account of their 
 nomad mode of existence, or from the long hanging haar 
 schweifen, tails of hair, worn by them tied together behind 
 the head, and which formed part of their national costume. 
 
 Fifty years B.C., when Julius Caesar for the first time 
 led his legions to the Rhine, he found the western Germans 
 (Non-Suevi) under great apprehension on account of the 
 numerical superiority of their eastern neighbors, the Suevi. 
 From them he learned that they were divided into a hundred 
 districts, each of which annually sent forth a thousand war- 
 riors, who migrated in one vast horde. A century later, 
 Tacitus mentions these hundred districts, but says that the 
 Semnones, the most ancient and the most considerable tribe 
 of the Suevi, was the only one so divided, exclusively of the 
 numerous other Suevian tribes. 
 
 The Semnones, and their allies the Boii, overran Greece 
 and Italy at a much earlier period, settled in the north of 
 Italy, and after a long and difficult struggle (the wars of the 
 Samnites) were vanquished by the Romans. Their name 
 resembles that of the royal race of Saming, the son of Odin, 
 
 1 Suithiod, the extensive country of the Suevi, lay between Asia and Europe.
 
 18 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the Samingri, in Norway. The same may be said of Sam- 
 land. Perhaps the name may also be traced in that of the 
 Cenni (Sens, Senn, shepherds in the Alps), who, Anno 
 Domini 300, joined the Catti and Hermunduri and opposed 
 the Romans. 
 
 A remarkable accordance exists between the names of 
 the places and of the nations situated on the extreme verge 
 of the north and the south of ancient Suithiod. In the north, 
 the Suiones or Swedes, the Samingri and Samlanders, with 
 the Guttones or Goths, Danes and Cimbri. In the south, 
 the Swabians and the Swiss, the Semnones and Cenni, with 
 the Getae as far as the Danube; the Cimmerii, Umbri, etc. 
 Besides these, there are the Gaelic names which are evidently 
 anterior to the German migrations. Snorri relates, that 
 Odin found Norway already peopled, and that a nation 
 called the Vani gave place to the German Vandali, who in 
 their turn were replaced by the Slavonian Vendi. Again, 
 we find in the south the names of Noricum (which may 
 perhaps be also traced in those of Nordlingen and Nurem- 
 berg), and Vindelicia, in Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augs- 
 burg; also in Venice, the Vendian boundary. In the north, 
 we find the worship of Thor, who was held in peculiar rever- 
 ence by the Gaelic and Finnish tribes, and who is anterior to 
 Odin ; and in the south, we meet with the Taurisci in the 
 Alps, the Thurgau, etc. There also exists some similarity 
 in name and language between the Lettish tribes in the 
 north, and the Latins (whence the Latin or Roman tongue) 
 in the south. 
 
 Tacitus mentions all the Suevian nations by the general 
 name of Hermiones, a name that again appears in that of 
 the Hermunduri, who dwelt in modern Thuringia, and in 
 that of Ariminum (Rimini), a city founded by the Samnites 
 in Italy. The German deity, Irmin, and the celebrated col- 
 umn of Irmen, a relic of paganism, destroyed by Charle- 
 magne, show the same connection, and again call to mind 
 the similarity between Hermes, Thoth, and Thuisko. 
 
 Besides the Hermunduri, other nations were said to be-
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 19 
 
 long to the Hermiones ; the Cherusci in the Harz Mountains, 
 the Catti in Hesse, the Longobardi on the Middle Elbe, the 
 Marcomanni and Quadi on the Danube, besides several petty 
 tribes in the direction of the Oder and the Baltic, who are 
 buried in complete obscurity. 
 
 Pliny distinguished the numerous Gothic tribes by the 
 generic names of Vendili on the Baltic, and Peucini on the 
 Danube, from the more westerly Hermiones. The Peucini 
 lay nearest to Asia, their native land, and took their name 
 from an island supposed to have been held sacred, and which 
 possibly may have had some connection with that of Samo- 
 thrace, where the religions of the north and of Greece inter- 
 mingled, or with the oracle of Delphi in Greece, which was 
 founded by Hyperboreans in the earlier ages of antiquity. 
 Zamolxis, the sage, who first taught the doctrine of the im- 
 mortality of the soul, dwelt, at a very remote period, among 
 the Getae, the principal nation of the Peucini. These Ger- 
 man tribes on the Danube were first subdued by Darius, the 
 Persian king, and afterward by Alexander the Great. They 
 consisted of Getae, Daci, and Bastarnae, and were in alliance 
 with the Marcomanni in Bohemia, Bohmen, or Bojenheim, 
 the ancient birthplace of the Boii. 
 
 The Quadi and Cenni defended the shores of the Danube 
 against the Romans, who, at an earlier period, met with 
 similar opposition from the Boii, and their constant allies, 
 the Senones. 
 
 When the northern Vendili, consisting of Goths, Van- 
 dals, Burgundians, Alani, Gepidae, Heruli, Rugii, etc., mi- 
 grated to the south, overspread the ancient Roman empire, 
 gave new inhabitants to Italy, France, Spain, and even to 
 the north of Africa, the whole of ancient Suithiod, from the 
 Elbe to the Vistula, was left bare, until repeopled by fresh 
 Slavonian settlers. 
 
 The Suevi, who remained in Upper Germany, received 
 the name of Alemanni, which is still preserved in that of the 
 Swabian Almanden, public property, and evidently means 
 all, or all sorts of men. The French call the Germans Alle-
 
 20 THE HISTORY OF GERMAN? 
 
 mands. The Bavarian Hessians, and a part of the Thurin- 
 gians, were also originally Suevi, and Austria, when retaken 
 by them from its Slavonian settlers, was again Germanized. 
 Thus the whole of modern southern Germany is Suevian, 
 and still makes use of the common High German or Dutch 
 (oberdeutsch) tongue, though the long separation has ren- 
 dered it very different to that spoken in the north of Sweden, 
 with which it was once nearly allied. 
 
 VI. The Tribes of Lower Germany 
 
 THE Istavones were the Franks on the Rhine; the Inga- 
 vones, the Saxons on the North Sea ; they always remained 
 in their ancient dwelling-places, although they also sent 
 forth immense hordes, which some centuries before Christ, 
 under the name of Cimbri and Teutones, spread terror 
 throughout Italy, and, at a later period, repeopled France 
 and England. To the Istavones, who afterward appear 
 as the Franks, belonged, most particularly, the Sicambri, 
 Tencteri, Usipetes, Ubii, Marsi, Ampsibari, Angrivarii, 
 Chamavi, Mattiaci, etc., on the Lower Rhine. The other 
 small tribes on the Upper Rhine, the Nemetes, Vangiones, 
 Triboci, Latobrigi, Rauraci ; and on the Moselle and in the 
 Netherlands, the Nervii, Treveri (Treves) and Belgse (Neth- 
 erlands), to which the Menapii, Marini, Gugerni, Eburones, 
 Caninefates, and Batavians also belonged; all of which were 
 certainly not of Suevian origin. 
 
 To the Ingavones belonged the Cimbri and Teutones, 
 who migrated to the south ; the Chauci, who afterward ap- 
 pear as the Saxons ; the Frisii, Fasi, Dulgibines, Ambrones, 
 Tubantes, etc. 
 
 Snorri says that Odin successively visited Saxony and 
 Sweden. The most celebrated of his sons was Yngwi-Freyr, 
 from whom the royal Swedish race, the Ynglinger, de- 
 scended. According to this writer, Odin first founded in 
 Sweden the sacred city of Sigtuna (Upsala), from Sigge, 
 one of his own names, which leads us to the Sicambri, and
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 21 
 
 to the legendary Frankish hero, Siegfried, who is also fa- 
 mous in the legends of the north, which in fact have gen- 
 erally originated from the Rhine. Odin is perhaps Ulysses, 
 of whom Tacitus says that he founded Asciburgium (Odin's 
 Asgard), on the Lower Rhine. Perhaps we must go back 
 yet further. The Ambrones and Sequani dwelt on the 
 Rhone and Saone, where, according to the Gaelic legend, 
 King Ambigat reigned, and sent the two sons of his sister 
 forth at the head of immense armies; Bellovesus to Italy, 
 where he founded Milan; and Sigovesus across the Rhine, 
 where, together with the Tectosagae (quod sagis tegerentur), 
 he settled in the until then unpeopled Hercynian forest. 
 
 The Frankish-Saxon Odin-Sigge is probably Sarnote 
 (Saxon Odin), who, in the form of abjuration anciently 
 prescribed to the German pagans on their -conversion to 
 Christianity, is particularly mentioned after Wodan. In 
 the temple at Upsala, the statue of the warlike Odin stood 
 before a great golden sun, which was perhaps symbolical 
 of the still more ancient Suevian-Gothic deity, Wodan 
 (Guodan, God). The great annual festival in the north 
 was called Sunarblot, Sonnen-blut (blood of the sun), Son- 
 nen-opfer (sacrifice of the sun). Among the ancient Per- 
 sians, Thaout meant sacred fire. Perhaps a more simple 
 Suevian-Gothic adoration of the sun (of the ancient "Wodan) 
 preceded the more polished worship of Odin. Perhaps the 
 Franks learned image worship in temples from the more 
 civilized Gauls, or from the Grecian and Phosnician mer- 
 chantmen, who visited those northern coasts. The twelve 
 Drotlar, whom Odin appointed supreme judges over the 
 Swedes, call to mind the Druids or Gallic priests. 
 
 VII. The Germans 
 
 THE character common to all the nomad tribes, or tribes 
 of wandering hunters and shepherds, at the period of their 
 settlement in Germany, soon obliterated all trace of differ- 
 ence in descent. There is an authentic account of the divis-
 
 22 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ion of the land, by the Suevi, into Almenden (public prop- 
 erty), belonging to whole tribes or communities, not to single 
 families, which, in course of time, was exchanged for the 
 Allodium, or private property, a mode of division which had 
 been introduced at an earlier period among the lower Ger- 
 mans. This gradual transition, however, does not prove the 
 existence of any essential difference between the German 
 tribes, in which man, not property, was the chief considera- 
 tion. All the Germans were warriors. Irman, in the Per- 
 sian tongue, signifies a guest or companion in arms; Ger- 
 manus, in Latin, a brother. They were all freemen and 
 equal, united by a strong fraternal bond. The whole of the 
 German tribes were early distinguished by their spirit of 
 equalization from the other hordes to the north of the Cau- 
 casus, the Slavi and Tartars, as well as from those to the 
 south, in Persia, Afghanistan, and Arabia, all of which, 
 with the patriarchal reverence of children to their father, 
 submitted to a single supremacy, and when, through in- 
 crease of population or by conquest, they had attained con- 
 siderable power, always erected magnificent palaces for their 
 sovereigns, whose magic splendor was the astonishment of 
 the world, and realized the fairy dreams of eastern imagina- 
 tion in the wonders of Babylon, Delhi, Bagdad, Ispahan and 
 Stamboul. The Germans, on the contrary, regarded each 
 other as brethren and equals, and even when they had be- 
 come numerous and powerful, and were united under great 
 leaders, always asserted their equality, and defended their 
 free constitution. Every one enjoyed personal freedom, and 
 had an exclusive right over his own property. In the pop- 
 ular assemblies of each district, the eldest man present pre- 
 sided, and the majority decided. It was only during war 
 that they obeyed a leader, whom they selected by raising 
 him on their shields. Even after the great migration, when 
 the Germans, for nearly a thousand years, had, with various 
 fortune, struggled against the Romans, and incessant war- 
 fare had consolidated the power of their leaders, we still find, 
 wherever the German tongue was spoken, from Iceland and
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 23 
 
 Norway to the Gothic settlements in Italy and Spain, their 
 ancient division into districts and their free constitution, 
 which continued to exist long after the birth of Christ, and 
 gave rise to the modern brotherhoods and societies of differ- 
 ent orders of knighthood, and to the guilds and corporations 
 of citizens. In England, Switzerland and Holland, ancient 
 German freedom reigned almost uninterruptedly up to the 
 present times, and in most of the other originally German 
 or Germanized countries it has been revived under new 
 constitutions. 
 
 The free intercourse between citizens, possessed of equal 
 privileges and bound by the same duties, was the soul of the 
 ancient German communities, and the foundation on which 
 their whole history rests. Their liberty is of more ancient 
 date than their servitude, for it owed its existence to the 
 national character of the German, and though seemingly 
 withered, still springs forth anew. "Liberty," said the Ro- 
 man poet Lucanus, "is the German's birthright." "It is a 
 privilege," wrote the Roman historian Florus, "which nat- 
 ure has granted to the Germans, and which the Greeks, with 
 all their art, knew not how to obtain." Hume, the great 
 English historian, says, "If our part of the world maintain 
 sentiments of liberty, honor, equity and valor superior to 
 the rest of mankind, it owes these advantages to the seeds 
 implanted by those generous barbarians." "Liberty," ob- 
 served Montesquieu, "that lovely thing, was discovered in 
 the wild forests of Germany." 
 
 VIII. Ancient German Heroism 
 
 THE Germans were distinguished from all other nations 
 by their blue eyes, light hair, and gigantic stature. They 
 are said to have been generally seven feet in height, far 
 overtopping the Gauls and Romans. Bones of an enormous 
 size have been found in the ancient burial-places of the Huns, 
 and people of extraordinary stature are even now to be met 
 with on the coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic, and
 
 24 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 among the German Alps. The gigantic shepherd of Sens 
 braving the Alpine regions of Berne and Unterwalden pre- 
 sents the truest image of our forefathers, whose strength 
 was a national inheritance. Caesar said that the Gauls fled 
 at the sight of the Germans, and the emperor Titus, when 
 commending them, said, "Their bodies are great, but their 
 souls are still greater!" 
 
 In the remotest ages, it was customary among the Ger- 
 mans to destroy weakly, sickly, or deformed children, to 
 drown in the morasses men whose bodies had been mutilated 
 (corpore infames), and when become useless from old age, 
 voluntarily to deprive themselves of life. An existence de- 
 void of strength and beauty appeared to them to be worth- 
 less, and according to their religion, the joys of heaven were 
 only granted to those who fell by the sword. Valerius Maxi- 
 mus relates that they sorrowed when dying on their beds, 
 and rejoiced while expiring on the field of battle. 
 
 In the north, the sick were, at their own request, pierced 
 with a lance, in order that a wound, and not disease, might 
 be the cause of their death. In Norway there was a rock 
 from which the old men threw themselves into the sea, after 
 dividing their wealth among their children at a parting feast. 
 
 The bodily vigor with which the Germans were endowed 
 was probably the result of the simplicity and purity of their 
 manners, added to their continual exercise in the open air. 
 "War, the chase, and sometimes, though rarely, agriculture, 
 were their only occupations. They despised, as effeminate, 
 the refinements of civilized life ; and as every wall appeared 
 to them a prison, they built no cities, and destroyed those of 
 the countries they invaded. To the south of the Danube, 
 in Switzerland and in Gaul, the Romans had built splendid 
 cities, communicating with each other by means of military 
 roads, all of which were razed to the ground by the Franks 
 and the Alemanni, and before long replaced by the low hut 
 of the f reeborn German, and the forest in which he loved 
 to dwell. No towns, with the exception of a few sacred 
 places, known by the name of Asenburgen, were to be found
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 25 
 
 in Germany before the tenth century after Christ ; the fron- 
 tier towns of the Boii, in the Southern Tyrol, which are men- 
 tioned two centuries before Christ, having been merely built 
 for defense during the wars, in imitation of those constructed 
 by the Romans. "With a mind free and bold, and a body 
 inured to fatigue, the natural results of his wild forest life, 
 the German was ever inspired with the almost hereditary 
 ambition of distinguishing himself by heroic deeds : no dan- 
 ger could appall, no opposition deter him. A chivalric and 
 unbending spirit pervaded the whole nation. "Who," asks 
 Seneca, "is braver than the German?" And Sidonius says, 
 "Death alone subdues them, not fear; they threaten even 
 in death; their courage survives them!" They were, con- 
 sequently, continually in arms. According to Libanius, they 
 sat down to their meals in full armor, and slept helmeted. 
 Weapons were the usual marriage gift between a bridal pair, 
 for the women also learned to use them. . They were even 
 held so sacred that it was customary to swear by them. 
 They are often mentioned in treaties of peace, and the old 
 song of Wieland in the Northern Edda has the words, "Thou 
 shalt swear to me by the deck of the ship, and by the rim of 
 the shield, by the withers of the horse, and by the point of 
 the sword." They were also considered as proofs of illus- 
 trious descent, and were handed down from one generation 
 to another. 
 
 Over-population and famine, but still oftener their war- 
 like propensities and thirst for adventure, seem to have been 
 the causes that induced the Germans to abandon their for- 
 ests ; and if we compare the expedition of Brennus to Delphi, 
 with the crusades ; the irruption of Crocus, the destroyer of 
 cities, with the venturous expeditions of the Normans to 
 Winland (America) and Greenland, they will all be found 
 to have been inspired by the same enthusiasm. In all, war- 
 like customs preponderated over peaceful arts; the people 
 were always armed, carried on private feuds, and preferred 
 the trial by single combat to the decision of the law. 
 
 A malady, caused by superabundant health and strength, 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 2
 
 26 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and unknown among other nations, was common among the 
 Germans, and in the north was called the Berserkerwuth. 
 Ber or bar signifies without. Serk, like the Scotch sark, a 
 gown or frock. In the mountainous Rhone country, a frock 
 is still called sarg. This malady, or rather madness, seized 
 them when at the height of their strength, more particularly 
 when excited by anger, when they spared neither friend nor 
 foe, and would even rave against themselves. Hence arose 
 the legend of the were- wolf, or of men who at certain hours 
 were changed into wolves. ' 
 
 IX. Ancient Fellowship in Arms 
 
 THE civil institutions, the customs and superstitions of 
 ancient Germany, arose from the peculiar and warlike form 
 of government necessary for the guidance of a nation ot free 
 warriors, who owned no laws save those of chivalry and 
 honor. This chivalric feeling is by no means sufficiently 
 explained by ascribing it to the character common to all the 
 wandering robber hordes, as it never rose in those of Asia to 
 such a degree of sublimity. The cause must then be sought 
 in the traits peculiarly characteristic of our race, which prob- 
 ably descended at a very remote period from some warrior 
 caste of Northern India, from which they, in a degree, in- 
 herited a spirit of equality and fraternization which, strength- 
 ened by the lapse of centuries, became at length indelibly 
 stamped on the national character. 
 
 The youthful warriors (Huns) generally took a mutual 
 pledge as brethren in arms, and elected a leader from among 
 their number by raising him on their shields, being guided 
 in their choice by superior skill or courage, instead of high 
 birth. It sometimes happened that a chief, already famous 
 for mighty deeds, collected the young men into an army 
 and placed himself at their head. The most implicit obedi- 
 ence was rendered to the chief, whom they were bound not 
 
 1 This lupomania is still prevalent in the countries to the north and northeast 
 of the Adriatic. Translator.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT^ GERMANS 27 
 
 to forsake even if he fell on the field, and if vanquished, to 
 die with him. It was a common custom for the survivors 
 to kill themselves, instead of seeking safety by flight, and it 
 is authentically recorded that they even caused themselves 
 to be buried alive in the tombs of their chieftains. 
 
 Many proofs of the severity of the laws by which these 
 barbarians were governed were afforded during their wars 
 with the Romans, and are still recorded by the traditionary 
 chroniclers of the North. The same severity is also percepti- 
 ble in the chivalric regulations of the knights of the Middle 
 Ages, for the lists and in the field. The Cimbri, in their con- 
 tempt for every stratagem of war, and for the Romans who 
 defended themselves behind their intrenchments, always in- 
 formed their opponents of the place and hour fixed for battle, 
 exactly as was in later times the custom when a feudal com- 
 bat took place, or as is now customary in dueling. The 
 Germans rode without saddles and ridiculed the Romans for 
 making use of them. By an ancient Danish law, whoever 
 fled from fewer than four foes forfeited his honor, and the 
 Norman laws were still more severe. The Jomsvikinger 
 band was only allowed to make use of blunted swords an ell 
 long, with which they were expected to overcome every foe. 
 There was an association of pirates in the north, who were 
 obliged by their laws to hoist their sails on the open sea dur- 
 ing storms, in defiance of the elements, even when shipwreck 
 was the sure result ; and daring courage, allied with spotless 
 honor and good faith, form the chief characteristics of all 
 the heroes in the ancient legendary accounts ; in the old song 
 of the Nibelungen, for instance. Every one was declared 
 infamous who made use of stratagem or took advantage of 
 weakness; all dishonorable and cowardly artifices, such as 
 falling on the enemy's rear, lying treacherously in ambus- 
 cade, making use of poisoned weapons, in short, whatever 
 might render the contest unequal, was condemned as Nid- 
 ingswerk, and forbidden under a heavy penalty. 
 
 Before iron and steel were used by the Germans for the 
 manufacture of coats of mail, they covered themselves with
 
 28 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the skins of wild animals, wearing on their heads those of 
 the bear, the horned buffalo or the antlered stag, whence 
 arose the custom of placing horns, wings, and other symbols 
 on iron helmets and escutcheons. The shields, generally 
 made long and narrow in order to guard the whole person, 
 were either painted, ornamented with figures, inlaid with gold 
 or silver, adorned with armorial bearings, or, when highly 
 finished, with a representation of some battle or famous 
 exploit. The colors of the dresses worn by the warriors 
 varied according to those on their escutcheon. Iron rings 
 placed round the body seem to have been the first approach 
 to the use of armor, which is, however, of very ancient date, 
 and was called Brinne, from brehen, to shine. The name 
 of Brennus, so common among the Boii, apparently signifies 
 "a man in armor." The Cimbri had numerous troops of 
 mailed cavalry. 
 
 Warriors who fell on the field of battle were burned on 
 funeral piles, together with their arms and the bodies of 
 their enemies, and immense mounds, known as the tombs 
 of the Huns, were raised over them. Naval chiefs were con- 
 sumed with their ships either on shore or on the open sea. 
 One of the heroes of the north, who had been brought on 
 shore mortally wounded, ordered all the booty and the dead 
 bodies of his enemies to be piled on the deck of his ship, 
 placed himself on the summit as on a throne, and sailed into 
 the midst of the ocean, where the whole was consumed. 
 
 Warlike deeds were celebrated in verse at every public 
 festival; around every hearth resounded the praises of the 
 fallen brave ; and song alone preserved the memory of past 
 deeds. The singers, who accompanied this legendary verse 
 with the music of the harp, were in the south called bards, 
 in the north scalds. Their songs were the forerunners of the 
 more elaborate productions of the Nibelungen, the German 
 legendary ballads, and the northern sagas. 
 
 In the popular religion war was regarded as a sacred and 
 imperative duty ; the gods were even supposed to ride daily 
 on the plain of Ida, and to battle with each other, after
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 29 
 
 which they held a joyous carousal in "Walhalla, or "the hall 
 of the dead," where the souls of warriors who had fallen 
 honorably by the sword were received and permitted, under 
 the name of Einheriar, to join in the battles and drinking 
 feasts of the gods. Thus a warrior's death was the aspira- 
 tion of every German, as that alone could unlock for him 
 the gates of that blessed abode. 
 
 X. Armed Communities 
 
 IN the early German settlements, the customs of war 
 were preserved even during peace time. The land was con- 
 sidered as lawful booty, and equally partitioned among the 
 people, who nevertheless preferred the sports of the chase to 
 agriculture. At stated times they assembled (in the open air 
 and armed, as if encamped in a foreign land) in order to de- 
 liberate on their public affairs. The place of assembly was 
 called Malstatt (from mal, time, and zeichen, a signal), or 
 the Thing, or Dingstatt (from dingen, to counsel), and was 
 generally distinguished by a great tree, either a sacred oak, 
 ash, or lime, or by enormous stones, which were sometimes 
 used as sacrificial altars, and sometimes as seats for the au- 
 dience and rostra for the orators. According to the popular 
 belief the gods held council (Thing), mounted on horseback, 
 beneath the ash Ygdrasill. Even in the dark records of an- 
 tiquity it is observable that the center of union in the great 
 alliances between nations was not a king, but a popular as- 
 sembly on some sacred spot. The different tribes appear to 
 have been held together by a very frail federative system, 
 and their chiefs seem to have merely represented our modern 
 committee. As the authority was never vested in one indi- 
 vidual, a plurality always existed, and the numbers three, 
 four, and twelve, are generally found to predominate. In 
 the north, Odin founded the government of the twelve Drot- 
 tars; a number which may have arisen from the Asiatic idea 
 of the twelve months or gods. It is certain that the people 
 had, either at the same time the right of deliberating on the
 
 30 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 public affairs, or very soon gained it ; for the same Ynglinga- 
 saga which speaks of the twelve Drottars also records the 
 meeting of the Swedish Bonden (free German peasantry) 
 at Upsala, which decided all public questions, and was the 
 exact counterpart of the meetings in the interior of Germany 
 as described by Tacitus. The free Norwegians held similar 
 assemblies at Throndheim. When the Galatas, or Gallo- 
 grseci, who, 276 B.C., invaded Greece under Brennus, settled 
 hi Asia Minor, they chose a place of general assembly called 
 Drynaimet, and divided their nation into twelve tetrarchies, 
 over each of which was set a tetrarch who possessed either 
 hierarchical or civil authority, a judge and a war chief, ex- 
 actly as, in the interior of Germany, the civil and military 
 authority was in later times divided between the landgrave 
 and the duke. The Salic law was drawn up by four coun- 
 selors chosen for that purpose out of a convocation of the 
 whole Frankish nation, who even when ruled by kings and 
 emperors retained the right of assembling in the Maifeld 
 (Mayfield) in order to counsel the government. At the time 
 of the Frankish conquest, the Saxons were divided into three 
 tribes, in Westphalia, Enger, and Eastphalia; each tribe 
 numbering twelve districts. They were also divided into 
 three classes, the nobles, the freeborn, and the freedmen. 
 Each class in each of these districts sent a representative, 
 altogether six and thirty, to the general assembly held at 
 Marklo, who, during peace, deliberated for the public weal. 
 In time of war a duke was elected, who enjoyed unlimited 
 power until peace was again concluded, when he resigned 
 his authority. The Frisii were also divided into several dis- 
 tricts, and held their annual popular assemblies at Upstales- 
 bome (Obergerichtsbaum, tree of judgment), beneath a 
 sacred tree. Until a very late period, the twelve freely 
 elected representatives of the districts formed the delibera- 
 tive assembly in Saterland. The number ten is elsewhere 
 found predominant. The Suevi, or Semnones, had a hun- 
 dred districts, each of which annually sent forth a thou- 
 sand warriors; and sixty thousand freeborn Nervii annually
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 31 
 
 elected a committee of six hundred, which managed all their 
 affairs. 
 
 The number ten also predominated in the great English 
 Anglo-Saxon Wittenagemot, or assembly of wise or aged 
 men. These assemblies were common to all the German 
 nations, the Suevi and Alemanni, the Danes, Burgundians, 
 Boii, Vandals, the Ostro and Visi-Goths, and an additional 
 proof of their primitive nature is furnished by their having 
 continued to exist, long after the introduction of Christianity, 
 under a monarchical and feudal form of government. Dur- 
 ing the great migrations, the name of the leader is often the 
 only one mentioned, so that the relation in which he stood to 
 the people has become a matter of uncertainty; but when- 
 ever his authority has been more fully spoken of, it is de- 
 scribed as having been dependent on the will of the people : 
 and even among those nations who wandered far and wide 
 for many years, the power of whose chiefs became conse- 
 quently more deeply rooted, as, for instance, among the 
 Goths, the ancient division into districts and the free assem- 
 bly of the people reappeared, as soon as they were perma- 
 nently settled in any of the countries conquered by them. 
 The only points of union in these federative states, in which 
 each of the districts was independent, consisted in the meet- 
 ing of the representatives in the general state assembly, and 
 in the election of a common leader in time of war. It is not 
 unusual to find many very small tribes completely independ- 
 ent ; and even in the great states, the small district assem- 
 blies were co-existent with the diets. 
 
 XI. Public Offices and Popular Assemblies 
 
 THE present representative assemblies of Schwyz, Unter- 
 walden, Uri, Glarus, and Appenzell, give the truest idea of 
 the ancient German mode of government, the clerk and 
 treasurer being the only modern additions. The Landam- 
 man, or magistrate, and the Landeshauptman, or captain- 
 general of the country, correspond with the representatives
 
 52 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of the primordial districts ; and the accounts of Tacitus and 
 Snorri prove that the power of the ancient rulers of the 
 people did not surpass the limited authority of the mod- 
 ern Landamman and Landhauptman. Tacitus says, "Ger- 
 manos non juberi, non regi, sed cuncta ex libidine agere"; 
 and he makes Ambiorix, the leader of the Lower Germans, 
 say, that among them the government was so arranged that 
 he had no more power over the people than they had over 
 him. Snorri relates that a Swedish king was forced, by the 
 popular assembly, whose decisions he had opposed, to desist 
 from an unjust war which he was carrying on against a 
 neighboring nation ; and that they threatened to throw him 
 into a morass, where many of his predecessors had already 
 been cast, on account of their opposition to the will of the 
 people. Ulphilas, the Gothic bishop, who, in the fourth 
 century, translated the Bible into German, says that these 
 people were governed by a Reiks, or judge, during peace, 
 and by a Thiudans, or leader, in time of war, the former 
 being chosen on account of his high birth, the latter on 
 account of his illustrious deeds; which agrees with the 
 account given by Tacitus, "reges ex nobilitate, duces ex 
 virtute sumunt; nee regibus infinita et libera potestas"; 
 the people, however, always retaining the highest authority 
 and the power of revoking their choice. The Reiks were 
 always priests belonging to an ancient race held sacred on 
 account of its supposed descent from the gods; as in the 
 north, where many families derived their origin from Odin. 
 The pre-eminence was always ceded to the hereditary high 
 priest, whose duty it was to preside over the public sacrifices 
 and ordeals, but whose authority merely rested on the super- 
 stition of the people, who, during war, always elected the 
 bravest man as their chief, while every freeborn man stated 
 his opinion unreservedly and without respect to rank in the 
 public council. The Burgundians called their high priest, 
 Sinist, or eldest, and their war-chiefs, Hendini. Other 
 names have a similar origin. Fiirst, prince, princeps; 
 Hersog, from heer, an army, and ziehen, to lead; dux, a
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 33 
 
 leader, duke. The word king is of later origin. The Ger- 
 man Konig is derived from Chun, race, lineage, and was 
 first used when families, distinguished from one generation 
 to another by their illustrious deeds, united the double au- 
 thority of judge and war-chief in themselves. The northern 
 Lagman, or lawyer; the English Alderman, alter man, or 
 old man; the Swiss Amman, or magistrate; the Belgian 
 Ruivart, from ruhe, peace, and wahren, to preserve, denote 
 the officers of a peaceful civil government. There are prob- 
 ably also titles still extant that bear traces of the ancient 
 form of government during war. The state assemblies were 
 generally convoked on the great festivals, and were attended 
 by all the members of the confederated provinces; besides 
 this, on every fourteenth night, the customary unconvoked 
 meeting was regularly held in each district, but when any 
 urgent affair rendered a sudden convocation necessary, an 
 arrow (the symbol of war) was sent from house to house, 
 or one neighbor either shouted to the other or sounded the 
 horn through the wide forests. This meeting extraordinary 
 was called a bidden council (Ding), or a cried council 
 (Schreygeding) . These assemblies were held at night, the 
 moon, or Mana, being the protecting divinity of the council 
 (Things). From Mana is derived the word man, which origi- 
 nally signified not only the male sex, but also the privileges 
 of an acting citizen. Hence also the word mahnen, to cite 
 before the tribunal ; Montag, Monday, or rather moon-night, 
 followed by Dienstag, or day of council (Thing), Tuesday. 
 The assemblies were held in the open air during the crescent 
 moon, when the people, armed as if for battle, offered sacri- 
 fices of oxen, on which they also feasted, drank beer, mead, 
 ir wine, and gave their opinions with perfect freedom. But 
 it was not until the morning that those who remained sober 
 formed themselves into a circle, and deliberated over the 
 councils of the night, "deliberant dum fingere nesciunt, con- 
 stituunt dum errare non possunt." Every man had an 
 equal right to speak, and the priest alone had the power 
 of commanding silence, in the name of the gods, whenever
 
 84 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the noise became overpowering; as at the present day in the 
 Swiss assemblies, the waibel, or beadle, dressed in the colors 
 of the country, calls out, "Peace by your oath!" Applause, 
 rattling of arms, or groaning, accompanied the words of the 
 speaker : the majority decided. The affairs of the state were 
 here debated upon, war was declared, peace concluded, and 
 judgment given. When no affairs of importance had to be 
 transacted, the people only feasted and drank, while they 
 sang the praises of fallen heroes. 
 
 XII. Public Property, Meres and Guilds 
 
 THE Germans only gradually exchanged their restless 
 nomad existence (in the Slavonic tongue they are still called 
 the Nemez, from ne mesa, without a boundary) for perma- 
 nent habitations. The Suevi, with their division into a hun- 
 dred Gauen or districts, were also comprehended in this 
 change, and notwithstanding their subsequent migrations, 
 this mode of division was retained; and even after their 
 adoption of the Alemannic mode of subdividing the land 
 into Allods (allodium), or private freehold estates, a con- 
 siderable tract of common land (almanden) always re- 
 mained for the benefit of the community. These tracts are 
 at the present day frequent in Swabia, where they are in 
 general used as sheep-runs. Meres were common to all the 
 German tribes, and their origin is intimately connected with 
 their free and military institutions. The largest tribes were 
 divided into communities of a hundred men each, which were 
 subdivided into tens. The whole of these communities were 
 mutually bound by an offensive and defensive alliance, while 
 the smaller divisions and the tens (Zehnmannerzahl, tien 
 tnanna tala) were yet more closely united, by an obligation 
 to assist each other in their private affairs as if they were 
 their own. Owing also to these communities being obliged to 
 become sureties for each other, they were called Freiburg- 
 Bchaften, from frei, free, and biirgen, to bail; corporations 
 or guilds for mutual security, the members of which were
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 35 
 
 called Gildebriider, Congildones, Eidhelfer, from Eid, an 
 oath, and helfen, to help, conjuratores, who by law were 
 accounted one and the same individual, whenever the actual 
 criminal could not be discovered. The confederation of ten 
 times ten, or of every hundred freeborn men, stood between 
 the Friborg and the great community, and often held a par- 
 ticular assembly, as, for instance, the Hundredisthing in Nor- 
 way. The chief man or president of a hundred was named 
 by the Franks, Tunginus, by the Longobardi, Sculdais, and 
 by the Anglo-Saxons, Hundredarius. In Swabia, the Hun- 
 dreda appears at a later period under the name of Zent (de- 
 cania). Even when the larger districts belonging to the 
 Alemanni fell under the jurisdiction of the Frankish counts, 
 many of the Zents in the mountainous country retained their 
 freedom ; among others, the peasantry of Leutkirch. As ten 
 denoted a Mere, and Zent a canton, a thousand evidently stood 
 for a district or Gau (pagus). The Suevi had a hundred 
 Gauen, each containing a thousand men. The division into 
 tens is most easily traced in the nation of the Visigoths, who 
 named the president over tens, Taichunfath; over hundreds, 
 Hundafath; and over thousands, Tiufath. The population 
 of the Meres doubtless increased. The Allods, at first large, 
 sufficed for the maintenance and settlement of the different 
 families, which gradually became more and more numerous, 
 and finally outgrew the land, especially in countries remark- 
 able for fertility, or favorable for commerce. Each individ- 
 ual possessed a freehold within the limits of his Mere ; but 
 highway and byway, forest and fell, fish and fowl, wood and 
 water, were the equal right of all. These common tracts, 
 however, have no connection with those that surround our 
 modern villages, which in general grew out of some enor- 
 mous private estate. The ancient Germans, whose institu- 
 tions were always founded on the principle of fraternization, 
 possessed several other free guilds, besides the armed band 
 of warriors already mentioned, who, like young swarms of 
 bees, were driven forth from the parent hive, in search of 
 a country wherein to settle ; for instance, the Opf er guilds,
 
 36 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 consecrated to the service of some particular god (like the 
 present Catholic brotherhoods, consisting of different grada- 
 tions, from the superior to the servant, devoted to the service 
 of some particular saint); the Singer guilds, scalds or bards; 
 the soothsayers, Wahrsagergilden or Seidmanner, in the north. 
 Probably also guilds of miners, armorers, and salt manufact- 
 urers (Halloren). The women also formed religious associa- 
 tions among themselves, connected with the worship of the 
 gods, and with prophesying. They also held festivals, at 
 which no man was allowed to be present, which gave rise 
 to the legend of the assembly of witches on the Blocksberg 
 on May-day eve ( Walpurgisnacht) . There were also bands 
 of female warriors; and accounts of Amazons, or warrior- 
 maids, called in the north Schildjungfrauen, or maidens 
 bearing shields, are frequently met with in the ancient 
 records of Germany. 
 
 XIII. The Allod or Freehold Property 
 
 IN whatever country the victorious Germans settled, the 
 land was always equally divided among the freeborn war- 
 riors. The hereditary estates held by their descendants were 
 termed Allods, from Od, an estate, and were so highly prized 
 that, in later times, small freeholders have been known to 
 refuse to part with their property in exchange for a large 
 fief, which obliged them to render feudal service to the king. 
 These hereditary estates were usually called Sonnenlehen, 
 because they were said to have been originally granted to 
 their possessors by the 'sun, whence the formula of later 
 times, "This estate received from God and the glorious ele- 
 ment of the suns. ' ' 
 
 As every freeborn man dwelt within the limits of his Al- 
 iod, the habitations lay at scattered distances, and neither 
 towns nor villages existed. The houses were built of wood, 
 and usually consisted of one large apartment, called the hall 
 or Saal, in the center of which stood the hearth, the house- 
 wife's seat of honor. In wealthy families, the women had
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 37 
 
 a separate house, the Frauenhaus (Frauenzimmer, Schrein, 
 a shrine; Gadem, a chamber); there were also a house for 
 sacrifice, dwellings for attendants and slaves, cellars, barns, 
 and stables. These houses were surrounded by gardens, 
 cornfields, meadows, and forests. The boundaries of the 
 Allods were carefully marked, and it was customary at the 
 setting of a landmark, which was either a stone or a tree, 
 to assemble all the children in the neighborhood on the spot, 
 and to box their ears, in order to impress the circumstance 
 and the locality more deeply on their minds. 1 An Allod 
 could only be alienated with the consent of the family. 
 Whatever the crimes of a freeborn man, the government 
 could not deprive him of his estate, which was regarded as 
 sacred, and as inseparable from the possessor, whose free- 
 dom, being derived from it, was alienable only with his prop- 
 erty. It was illegal for any one to enter an Allod without 
 the permission of the owner, who, if abused or maltreated 
 by a stranger in his own house, or within his own limits, 
 received double or treble indemnification. The state had 
 no right to seize the person of any individual, or that of his 
 guest, in his own house, a spot more sacred in the eyes of 
 the ancient Germans than our churches are in ours. Even 
 if the culprit had become the object of public vengeance by 
 his crimes, and had been declared out of the pale of the law, 
 no one ventured to cross his threshold, but the house was set 
 fire to from without. England now alone preserves this an- 
 cient privilege, and realizes the saying, "Every man's house 
 is his castle." The Allods were only hereditary in the male 
 line, females being excluded from the succession on account 
 of their being unable to exercise the privileges and duties of 
 a freeholder, but every member of the family had a right to 
 live in the house, and to be maintained on the produce of the 
 Allod, nor could a father disinherit his children. "When the 
 eldest son took sole possession of the estate, he was obliged 
 
 1 Until very lately, a somewhat similar custom, called "the bumping of the 
 boundary," the spectators being bumped together on the occasion, was still kept 
 up in some parts of England. Trans.
 
 38 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 to give to each of the other kinsfolk a portion of the personal 
 property, and to apply part of his revenues to their mainte- 
 nance. A family was called a Sippe, Sippschaft, or Mag- 
 schaft, and was divided into Schwertmagen, kinsmen who 
 carried swords, and Spillmagen, kinswomen who busied 
 themselves in spinning. The father being the legal repre- 
 sentative of the whole family, the slaves included, spoke for 
 them before the tribunal, and was their guardian, Mund, 
 mouth mundium, to whom they owed implicit obedience, 
 being under his jurisdiction, bann bannum; the kinsmen 
 remaining under his bann until they entered foreign service, 
 or married, when they became selbstmundig, independent, 
 and were freed from the bann; hence the word freien, to 
 marry. The property received on these occasions was called 
 Abban, appanage. Those who remained unmarried always 
 continued under the bann of the paternal estate, the limits 
 (Gehage) of which they were not permitted to quit; hence 
 the word Hagestolzer^ old bachelor, from hag, hedge, and 
 stolz, proud. The Spillmagen were always under tutelage ; 
 the bridegroom purchasing the right of guardianship from 
 the parents of the bride, who henceforward submitted to his 
 authority. 
 
 XIV. The Division into Classes 
 
 THE Suevian nations, when in their half nomad state, 
 recognized but one description of slaves, viz., the prisoners 
 taken in war, who were bound to serve them. But when 
 the allodial system was introduced, many of the slaves were 
 manumitted by the Frankish Saxon tribes, and furnished 
 with houses and land, on condition of performing certain 
 services, and of paying a certain tribute to their lord ; it also 
 sometimes happened that the inhabitants of a conquered 
 country were permitted to retain a part of their landed 
 property, for which they engaged to perform certain duties; 
 thus a new class of bondsmen was created, distinct from the 
 real slave, by their being merely dependent by their vassal-
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 39 
 
 age on the feudal lords. They were called by the Saxons, 
 Lazzi; by the Franks, Liti; whence the German Leute, 
 people ; and their property, in contradistinction to the Allod 
 (freehold), was called a Feod, or fief (fe-od, transferable 
 property). The word fe comes from Vieh, cattle, as the 
 Latin pecunia^ from pecus, the only transferable property 
 at first consisting of cattle ; hence also the people were called 
 Feodales, Vassi, Vasalli, and thus simply originated the 
 feudal system, which spread so widely at a later period. 
 Tacitus speaks commendably of the treatment of the 
 slaves in Germany. It is true that they were sometimes 
 killed by their masters in moments of irritation, but it was 
 illegal to strike or to ill-treat them. These slaves, at first 
 few, gradually increased in such number as at length to 
 necessitate the division of the large estates into numerous 
 fiefs, and the feudal system became general. The freeborn 
 man was named Germanus, Arimannus, Herimannus, Baro; 
 and, among the Saxons, was distinguished by the designa- 
 tion of Friling from the Edeling or nobleman. It is not 
 very clear in what nobility consisted in the pagan times; 
 that there were two kinds is however certain, one derived 
 from mythical descent, which naturally was restricted to a 
 few families; the other, gained by conquest. "When whole 
 nations migrated, every man of whatever class received an 
 Allod as his share of the newly conquered land; or when a 
 horde overran a country, whose inhabitants they either could 
 or would not completely reduce to submission, they tolerated 
 them as subordinates, manumitted their former slaves, and 
 promoting the freeborn to the rank of noble, created a purely 
 political class of nobility far outnumbering that of the hered- 
 itary nobles. It is remarkable that the name Edeling, in 
 the north, Oedling, is derived from Od, Allod, and therefore 
 simply means the possessor of an estate. For the same rea- 
 son, the Visigothic noble was entitled Garding, from the 
 word Gards, which, according to Ulphilas, signifies an es- 
 tate, as well as a garden. Perhaps the nobles were origi- 
 nally only the firstborn sons, or heirs to the estates, while
 
 40 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the Frilinge denoted the portionless younger sons; but no 
 sooner did the word Friling denote a separate class, than 
 pride of birth asserted its claims, and even the poor younger 
 sons of the nobility were called Edelinge. Yet it is nowhere 
 to be found that the Frilinge were oppressed or domineered 
 over by the Edelinge ; among the Saxons, on the contrary, 
 Edelinge, Frilinge, and even Lazzi, in equal numbers, and 
 with equal right, conducted the public affairs; and when 
 the Franks declared a war of extirpation against the Sax- 
 ons, the Edelinge attempted, by betraying the Frilinge and 
 Lazzi, to make friends of the Franks, and to get the whole 
 of the formerly equally divided power into their own hands. 
 Among the Germans, who acknowledged no law as bind- 
 ing, in the framing of which they had not either assisted or 
 to which they did not voluntarily and individually assent, 
 there always existed men, who, naturally fierce and stub- 
 born, resisted every law, and were unfettered by any moral 
 obligation. These men were called Wildfange (wild ani- 
 mals), and were treated as wolves or outlaws. They were 
 in the north Barserkers, ravishers, or lawless Huns, whose 
 wild daring caused them to be eagerly taken into foreign 
 service. The owner of an Allod who, through caprice, re- 
 mained at home and took no part in the state, was called 
 Biesterfrei, Verbiesterte, bestialized (or Versessen, possessed 
 by a demon), and was considered beyond the pale of the 
 law, inasmuch as he recognized none ; and if he committed 
 a crime, he was delivered up to public vengeance ; his well 
 was choked up, his house destroyed by fire or unroofed, and 
 then razed to the ground, but no one ventured to break open 
 the door. 
 
 XV. Single Combat and Fines (Wergeld) 
 
 IT is a remarkable fact that the ancient Germans had no 
 public, but only a private law ; all their oldest laws merely 
 referring to the mutual rights of the freeborn, and to those 
 of the freeborn over the unf ree ; the state assembly taking
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 41 
 
 cognizance of and deciding all public and private affairs: 
 beyond these decisions there was no law. 
 
 The laws chiefly aimed at providing security and indem- 
 nity. To every individual they secured his life, his liberty, 
 his honor, and his property ; or in case of injury and depri- 
 vation, an indemnity or commutation, of which there were 
 only two kinds, single combat and fines. In the earliest 
 times, every one avenged himself as he could, and it was 
 the especial duty of a family, a member of which had been 
 injured or murdered, to avenge him to the uttermost. Sin- 
 gle combat, according to law (and the ancient laws were 
 very strict in this particular), seems to have been intended 
 as a check upon a custom conducing to so much disorder 
 and bloodshed. According to the regulations, the advan- 
 tages of ground, light, sun, and weapons, were to be equal 
 on both sides ; no Nidingswerk or underhand means were to 
 be used, and no further vengeance was to be sought, how- 
 ever the combat, which was regarded as the judgment of 
 God, might terminate. The Wergeld or fine seems to have 
 been introduced at a later period, as, for instance, in cases 
 where no single combat could take place, or for lesser in- 
 juries, when the injured person was compensated by the 
 offender in cattle or weapons, according to the value of the 
 injured object; for this purpose he could be deprived of all 
 he possessed, except of his Allod, which, under all circum- 
 stances, was inalienable. There were even cases where the 
 offender, unable to make full restitution, was obliged to serve 
 the person he had injured for twenty years, and yet was 
 never deprived of his Allod. In course of time, this system 
 became more definite, and the value of the injured object 
 was estimated in eight different degrees. 
 
 In the first place, according to the sex of the injured 
 person. Injuries offered to women were not only estimated 
 doubly or trebly higher than those offered to men, but the 
 law in this respect also permitted private vengeance to be 
 taken, and the offender to be deprived of his liberty or of his 
 life.
 
 42 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Secondly, According to the rank of the injured person. 
 The head-man of a district was estimated very highly, on 
 account of the duties he had to perform. The noble was 
 valued higher than the freeborn, the freeborn higher than 
 the people, and they higher than the slaves. 
 
 Thirdly, According to the value of the injured object. 
 Honor and liberty were valued higher than life, person, or 
 property. Also all attacks on the property or person of an 
 individual, which in any way entailed dishonor, received a 
 much higher compensation. Rape, injuries to guests, em- 
 bassadors, hostages, and especially to strangers, besides theft, 
 robbing and insulting the dead, were doubly and trebly, nay, 
 sometimes nine times more severely punished. In bodily in- 
 juries, every limb and every devisable sort of wound had its 
 fixed value; toes and teeth were especially and individually 
 prized; and injuries done to property were as definitely regu- 
 lated ; every article that could come under the head of goods 
 and chattels having its comparative value. 
 
 Fourthly, According to the sex of the offender. A 
 woman was punished more severely than a man, because 
 she was considered less capable of the commission of a 
 crime, and because, when injured, she received a higher 
 indemnity. 
 
 Fifthly, According to the rank of the offender. When a 
 Friling committed a crime, he paid more than a Laz, and 
 a Laz more than a slave, according to the principle that he 
 who enjoys higher privileges has higher duties to perform. 
 
 Sixthly, According to the intention of the offender. An 
 unintentional injury was only lightly rated, and sometimes, 
 according to the circumstances, completely passed over, on 
 which account the mere intention of committing an injury 
 was almost as severely punished as if the injury had in 
 reality been committed. 
 
 Seventhly, According to the mode of injury. For in- 
 stance, whoever killed another with an iron weapon was 
 held less criminal than he who murdered another with a 
 piece of wood or with his hands.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 43 
 
 Eighthly, According to the place. Whoever injured an- 
 other in his own house, had to pay doubly or trebly higher 
 than if he had injured him elsewhere ; and the offense was 
 considered equally bad when committed on holy ground, in 
 the assembly of the people, or on the highroad. During 
 war time the Wergeld was trebled ; discipline and good order 
 being then of still higher importance. 
 
 However, notwithstanding the introduction of the "Wer- 
 geld, single combat remained in full force in matters of 
 honor and in doubtful cases ; when, by ordinary means, the 
 truth could not be discovered, the decision was left to God. 
 Besides the ordeal by single combat, customary between 
 freeborn men, there was also that by fire and water, to 
 which women and slaves were subjected; the hand or the 
 foot being held upon red-hot iron, or in boiling water. 
 
 The mundium or guardianship of the free owner of an 
 Allod over his family, his people (the conditionally unfree) 
 and his slaves (the personally unfree), whose reciprocal obli- 
 gations have already been explained, was also regulated by 
 the laws. 
 
 XVI. Courts of Justice and Laws 
 
 THE Germans had the axiom, "Where there is no ac- 
 cuser there is no judge." If the fine enforced by law were 
 voluntarily paid, the case was not brought before the court. 
 The master of a house, or a whole Sippschaft (kinsfolk), or 
 two, in cases in which both were concerned, judged all fam- 
 ily matters. The Friborg, Hundreda or Guild, took cogni- 
 zance of all matters relating to Meres and Guilds, and all 
 affairs of higher importance came before the great general 
 assembly, and were decided by the freeborn members. It 
 was not until a much later period, when the Christian mon- 
 archs increased in power, that the people were deprived of 
 the right of holding open courts of justice, and the judges 
 (Schopperi), who were bound by oath to administer justice, 
 were restricted to a limited number.
 
 44 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 In ancient times these courts were held in the open air, 
 where all transactions were conducted by word of mouth, 
 and they formed a principal part of the business of each 
 community. The priestly judge of peace sat in a chair, 
 staff in hand, with his legs crossed hi sign of impartiality 
 and tranquillity of mind, and his face turned toward the east 
 during the new moon, in order to imply that the administra- 
 tion of justice was as sure as the increase of that orb. On 
 the right hand stood the accuser, on the left the accused, en- 
 circled by the armed community, who pronounced the ver- 
 dict ; the kinsfolk and confederates of the Mere or Guild, to 
 which the accused belonged, standing around him, as con- 
 juratores; i.e., they swore that they knew him to be an 
 honorable man, and believed what he said. If the truth 
 could not be discovered, the ordeal decided the point ; but if 
 it were proved by witnesses, the sentence was pronounced 
 and executed. Corporeal punishment was unheard of among 
 them, "neque vincire ne verberare quidem permissum, " Tac. 
 Adam Von Bremen says of the ancient Saxons, "decollari 
 malunt, quam verberari." Prisons were equally unknown, 
 all injuries being expiated by the "Wergeld, except such as 
 were considered irreparable, which were punished by death. 
 The priest alone had the power of passing sentence on the 
 criminal in the name of God. Capital punishment was 
 awarded to all traitors, deserters, thieves, and adulterers; 
 in a word, all crimes against man's honor or dignity and 
 against female chastity. Beyond the sentence of being 
 burned alive in his house or decapitated, passed upon men, 
 and that of being hanged, drowned, or buried alive, passed 
 upon women and cowards, there was no other mode of pub- 
 lic punishment of death, and these were only awarded in 
 extreme cases. The laws appear to have been, like other 
 ancient customs, originally handed down by word of mouth; 
 and in order the more easily to retain them in the memory, 
 they were usually arranged in assonance and rhythm. Frag- 
 ments of ancient versified laws are still extant, and a num- 
 ber of assonances are still made use of in our laws, sucli as
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 45 
 
 Bank und Bett, bed and board; Bausch und Bogen, in the 
 lump; braun und blau, brown and blue; Dach und Fach 
 erhalten, to keep in repair ; dick und dunn, thick and thin ; 
 Erb und Eigen, heir and inheritance ; frank und frei, frank 
 and free; gang und gdbe, current; Gut und Blut, property 
 and person; Haus und -Ho/, house and land; Haut und 
 Haar, hide and hair ; Herz und Hand, heart and hand ; los 
 und ledig, free and single ; Hulle und Fulle, plenty ; Kind 
 und Kegel, child and toy; Land und Leute, land and peo- 
 ple ; Mann und Maus, man and mouse ; Nacht und Nebel, 
 night and mist ; Rath und That, word and deed ; Ruh und 
 Hast, rest and repose; richten und schlichten, to judge and 
 adjust; Schut und Schirm, shelter and defense; Stein und 
 Bein, stone and bone; Stock und Block, stock and block; 
 Weg und Steg, highway and byway; weit und breit, far 
 and wide; Wind und Wetter, wind and weather, etc. To 
 these also belong the significant numbers, to summons three 
 times, four roads, twelve confederates, fourteen nights, thirty 
 days' respite; besides a number of signs, as, for instance, the 
 right of fishing in a river extended as far as one could cast a 
 hammer (the symbol of the god Thor) from the bank; an- 
 other right extended as far as one could see a white horse, 
 or hear the blast of the huntsman's horn. Indemnity for a 
 wound was according to the distance the sound caused by 
 the splintered bone taken from it, when thrown into a hol- 
 low shield, could be heard. The priestly judge held in his 
 hand a staff (hence the scepter of a king), while adjudicat- 
 ing, which he broke asunder when passing sentence of death. 
 Grass and earth were emblematical of submission. Who- 
 ever was charged with the debt of a deceased kinsman, 
 which it was out of his power to pay, cleared himself by 
 going to the four corners of his house and throwing dust 
 behind him. A form of oath among men was by touching 
 their beards ; and among women, by touching their breast or 
 plaited hair. A bargain was concluded by shaking hands, 
 which was so commonly in use that "the German shake of 
 the hand" has become the proverbial sign of loyal cordiality.
 
 46 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 XVII. Hospitality 
 
 THIS virtue of ancient times was greatly esteemed by our 
 forefathers, who regarded as a crime the dismissal of the 
 peaceful wayfarer from their doors. A stranger no sooner 
 appeared than he was invited to take shelter beneath their 
 lowly roof, and offered food and a night's lodging; and it 
 was considered disgraceful first to inquire of him who he 
 was, whence he came, or whither he was going. As long 
 as he remained in the house he was a guest, and any injury 
 committed against him was severely punished by the law, 
 even though he were a fugitive criminal ; the master of the 
 house was bound to defend him to the death, and as he was 
 indemnified for every injury offered to his guest as if it were 
 offered to himself, he was also liable to be punished in his 
 stead if his guest committed a crime while dwelling beneath 
 his roof ; no one could dismiss a guest unless forced to do so 
 by poverty, when it was incumbent on him to accompany 
 him to the nearest dwelling, and there procure for him the 
 comforts which it was not in his own power to bestow. The 
 guest was presented on his departure with a parting gift, 
 and if able gave something in return. In later times, hospi- 
 tality and many other good customs fell into disuse, although 
 attempted to be enforced by law, by which it was ordained 
 that no one was obliged to harbor a guest longer than three 
 days, whence arose the saying, "A three days' guest is 
 everywhere cursed," for there is no doubt that, in later 
 times, this good old custom was very much abused. The 
 injurious treatment of a peaceful wayfarer on the public 
 road was punished with double severity than when the 
 offense was committed on a native. Every foreign way- 
 farer might pluck, as he went along, three fruits from a 
 tree, or take three sheaves from a field, or three fish from 
 a pond, if driven by necessity; whence came the saying, 
 "Three are free." To deliver a man, who had fled for pro- 
 tection to a neighboring tribe, to his pursuers, was consid-
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 47 
 
 ered an indelible disgrace, and was unheard of among the 
 Germans. The Gepidae preferred total destruction to the 
 commission of such an execrable crime as the violation of 
 the rights of hospitality. A Norwegian queen once fled for 
 safety to Sweden. The Norwegians demanded her surrender, 
 and the Swedish king even sent his warriors to take her by 
 force; but Hakon, one of his subjects, a wealthy peasant, 
 with whom she had taken refuge, opposed them sword in 
 hand, until she had reached a safer retreat. 
 
 The customs of hospitality greatly conduced to sociability, 
 friendship, and marriage; and it was from the wayfarers, 
 who carried intelligence of the occurrence of remarkable 
 events from one district to another, that the people gained 
 information of the changes that took place in distant 
 countries. 
 
 XVIII. Customs and Arts 
 
 As a numerous offspring was considered honorable, celi- 
 bacy was consequently a mark of disgrace. As soon as the 
 children were born, they were plunged into cold water; 
 their education was severe and hardy; they were taught 
 swimming, wrestling, endurance of hunger, heat, and cold, 
 the arts of the chase, and the use of weapons. It is recorded 
 of a leader of the Teutones that he was able to leap, with 
 the greatest ease, over six horses. A favorite amusement of 
 the Germans was the sword dance, in which the young men 
 danced naked, with the most expert and curious movements, 
 between sharp swords and the points of lances, without re- 
 ceiving the slightest injury. 1 As soon as a young man 
 attained sufficient strength, he was allowed to take part in 
 military expeditions, and was solemnly declared capable of 
 bearing arms. Among the Catti, every boy wore an iron 
 ring on his arm, which he durst not take off until he had 
 slain an enemy. 
 
 1 The Scotch Highlanders and the natives of Hindostan still practice a sword 
 dance bearing great similarity to that above described. Trans.
 
 48 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Tillage was performed by the slaves, and the domestic 
 concerns were managed by the women, while the freeborn 
 men thought only of war and wild adventure, which, in time 
 of peace, were, in some degree, replaced by the chase, of 
 which they were passionately fond, and for which their 
 enormous forests, well stocked with game, afforded free 
 scope. They tried their strength in the rough encounter 
 with the bear and the wild buffalo; and early introduced 
 the more gentle art of falconry. The white falcon was held 
 sacred, and was esteemed by its owner as his chiefest treas- 
 ure. At home, the warrior slept on the bearskin; hence, 
 whoever remained at home so long as to acquire a distaste 
 for exertion was termed a Barenhauter (Haut, a skin). 
 Tacitus expressly mentions that they whiled away their 
 leisure hours with gambling, which they carried to such a 
 pitch that, in the delirium of excitement, they would stake 
 their property and their persons on a throw of the dice. 
 From the earliest down to the present times, the Germans 
 have been reputed the greatest topers in the world. The 
 present fashion of toasting arose from an ancient pagan cus- 
 tom. At every public banquet, the great Bragabecher was 
 first drained, in honor of fallen heroes ; then the Minnebecher, 
 in honor of deceased kinsmen and ladye loves. Passing the 
 cup round, drinking to a person or for a wager, trials of su- 
 periority in the power of drinking, etc., are ancient customs 
 of guilds, that met for the purpose of carousing. Beer and 
 mead were first made in Germany, where the use of wine 
 was, nevertheless, early introduced. "When Helico for the 
 first time brought grapes across the Alps, the people rose 
 en masse, and resolved to migrate to the land where grew 
 this golden fruit, and many thousand Germans, on reaching 
 Italy, fell victims to excess. 
 
 The mother of the family ruled the entire household, and 
 was treated with the greatest deference by the women, slaves 
 and children. She superintended the cleanliness of the house, 
 the kitchens, the cellars, the table, and the beds ; the making 
 of the clothes, and the brewing of beer and mead; she was
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 49 
 
 also acquainted with surgery, and busied herself with the 
 preparation of balsams for the wounds of the men; and 
 finally, she was the family prophetess, and on important 
 occasions held communication with the gods, by means of 
 mysterious signs, and the casting of lots. "Whatever the 
 Germans did, had merely reference to the present moment; 
 even their arts aimed no further, and all their care was ex- 
 pended on their clothing and armor. Noble warriors fabri- 
 cated costly weapons, and noble ladies spun and wove cloth 
 for themselves and their households, an art brought by them 
 to a high degree of perfection. In the earlier ages, the 
 armor, weapons, shields, and war attire, drinking horns, 
 and other articles, were skillfully and curiously ornamented 
 with colors and various ingenious devices. In the north, 
 the ships were built in the form of different animals, gen- 
 erally in that of dragons, and were adorned with golden 
 images. Wealthy monarchs are said to have sometimes 
 used purple sails. All these arts, however, merely conduced 
 to temporary grandeur, and the Germans were totally un- 
 acquainted with works, such as public edifices, magnificent 
 temples, and lordly palaces, calculated to immortalize their 
 name. 
 
 XIX. Honor of Women 
 
 IN pagan times women were generally despised, and re- 
 garded as beings of an inferior order, but among the Ger- 
 mans, even in the earliest ages, they were considered as 
 standing equal in point of honor to the men, and in many 
 respects were even acknowledged to be superior (inesse quin 
 etiarn sanctum aliquid et providum putant, Tac.). The 
 honor in which women were held exercised so great an in- 
 fluence over the customs and character of the Germans, and 
 consequently over their arts and poetry, as to produce the 
 romance by which their productions are mainly distinguished 
 from those of the East, the Graeco-Roman or antique. 
 
 The reverence in which women were held depended on 
 the purity of their lives; hence by custom and by law they 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 3
 
 50 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 were judged not only by the outward honor they received, 
 but also by their inward innocence. Tacitus, when extolling 
 the unbending severity of German manners, and the sanctity 
 attached to chastity, says, "that much as the German merits 
 praise, his morality, as being the foundation of all his other 
 virtues, deserves the highest commendation ; nee ullam mo- 
 rum partem magis laudaveris." 
 
 Young maidens were brought up in the retirement of 
 their homes, where they busied themselves in domestic em- 
 ployments, and only associated with the men whenever a 
 guest arrived at the paternal abode. They did not marry so 
 early, nor did their constitutions develop so rapidly, as those 
 of the more luxurious inhabitants of southern climes ; and it 
 is still a fact, that the people of the north, especially those of 
 the mountainous regions who have remained faithful to the 
 hardy customs of their forefathers, do not arrive at puberty 
 so soon as the inhabitants of cities. A German maiden sel- 
 dom married before her twentieth year, or a man before his 
 thirtieth, and it was to this custom that the Romans attrib- 
 uted the blooming health and robust strength of our hardy 
 ancestors. 
 
 An insult offered to female modesty or honor was deemed 
 an unpardonable crime, and punished with death. The vir- 
 ginal wreath, worn by the bride on her wedding-day, was 
 apparently an ancient German custom; no maiden could 
 wear it whose honor was not spotless. Slander, if proved, 
 was punished with unusual severity; rape, under whatever 
 circumstances, was punished by the most degrading death, 
 and even late in the Middle Ages, we find decreed (in Schwa- 
 benspiegel's collection of laws), that in the house in which 
 such a crime had been committed, all it contained, even 
 down to the cattle, should be deprived of life, and the house 
 itself razed to the ground. The untamable ferocity of the 
 men often occasioned the commission of this crime, for that 
 reason the more strictly guarded against by the laws; and 
 the more ancient their date, the more certainly is the punish- 
 ment of death decreed by them. But among the Frisii, the
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 51 
 
 woman was placed between her parents and her ravisher ; if 
 she turned toward the latter, the crime was forgiven; but 
 if she turned to the former, the criminal was condemned to 
 death. 
 
 One of the best and wisest customs was that of daugh- 
 ters being portionless, so that a woman's attraction was her 
 virtue and beauty, and not her wealth. Tacitus relates that 
 the bride only brought some weapons, as a sign to the bride- 
 groom that he must in future protect her ; and that he, on 
 his part, paid to her father, brother or guardian, a sum fixed 
 by law, upon which the right of guardianship, or that em- 
 powering him to appear in her stead before the tribunal, was 
 handed over to him. The affianced pair shook hands, and 
 exchanged kisses and rings. In pagan times it was usual to 
 place a drawn and sharp sword for three nights, between a 
 newly married pair, from a religious superstition. The 
 Hochzeit, or wedding (from hohezeit, high time), was re- 
 garded, as its name denoted, as the highest point in life, and 
 was celebrated as publicly as possible, amid the shouts of the 
 guests. The day after the wedding, the husband presented 
 his wife with a gift, called the morning gift, of which she 
 could not be deprived; and if any one disputed her right, 
 she proved it by placing her hand on her breast, and swear- 
 ing it was her morning gift. It was also customary after 
 the wedding for the bride to exchange the virginal wreath 
 for a cap. 
 
 Marriages between Frilings and Lazzi were illegal, and 
 if they took place, the children lost caste, and were declared 
 bondmen. A freeborn man could marry his slave after 
 having given her her freedom ; but a freeborn woman who 
 united herself to a slave, being unable, on account of being 
 herself always under guardianship, to give him his freedom, 
 became a slave ; and in order to render this dishonorable act 
 impossible, it was punished with death. 
 
 Adultery was deemed another inexpiable crime. If the 
 husband did not kill the guilty wife with his own hand, she 
 was turned, naked and with shorn head, out of the house,
 
 53 
 
 and whipped by the women from village to village, until she 
 Bank from fatigue; a custom highly commended by Tacitus, 
 and which, until a very late period, was in force among the 
 Saxons (publicatse enim pudicitise nulla venia. Nemo enim 
 illic vitia ridet; nee corrumpere et corrumpi seculum voca- 
 tur, Tac.). The ancient Germans did not think the indul- 
 gence of these so-called weaknesses of the heart so urgent, 
 as, for their sake, to relax public morals, and to cause the 
 disorder of a whole nation. When better known to the Ro- 
 mans, and invariably told that their laws against adultery 
 were much too severe, and a sign of barbarism, the Bur- 
 gundian legislators took notice of this reproach, by adding 
 to the decree in which this crime was then, as formerly, un- 
 sparingly denounced as worthy of capital punishment, these 
 remarkable words, "rectius est enim, ut paucorum condem- 
 natione multitude corrigatur, quam sub specie incongruse in- 
 civilitatis intromittatur occasio, quse licentiam tribuat delin- 
 quendi"; and it was even said of the Goths and Vandals, 
 that they not only retained their own purity, but also re- 
 formed the corrupt manners of the Romans. 
 
 The women were indeed held in such esteem that the 
 fine or Wergeld for any injury committed against them was 
 much higher than one committed against the men; among 
 the Alemanni and Bavarians it was double the amount; 
 among the Franks and Thuringians treble, and still higher 
 if the injured woman were pregnant; among the Saxons, 
 maidens and not married women were guarded against in- 
 jury by a double fine. Every woman, possessed of sufficient 
 strength, was free to carry arms. Women were also allowed 
 to speak in council, and those noted for capacity and skill 
 often headed great and important enterprises. 
 
 Fidelity unto death was vowed in marriage, and, accord- 
 ing to Tacitus, a woman never took a second husband ; ' ' She 
 can have but one husband, as she can have but one body 
 and one life" ; "sic unum accipiunt maritum quomodo unum 
 corpus unamque vitam, ne ulla cogitatio ultra." Wela says 
 of the Getse, and Procopius of the Heruli, that the women
 
 53 
 
 killed themselves on their husbands' bodies; similar cases, 
 but not as of common occurrence, are met with in the 
 legends of the north, and it is a historical fact, that after 
 bloody battles, the German women killed themselves in 
 great numbers on the bodies of their slaughtered husbands. 
 
 XX. Wolen and Walkyren 
 
 THE immense strength and vigorous nature of the Ger- 
 man people, which in the men produced an intense desire 
 to distinguish themselves by bold and daring exploits, and, 
 when stimulated to excess, engendered the Beserkerwuth, a 
 species of wolf -like madness, aroused in the maidens and 
 women that- wonderful sort of inspiration, by which they 
 became involuntarily intimate with the mysteries of nature. 
 This inspiration, known in our times as animal magnetism, 
 was, in all probability, of common occurrence in those an- 
 cient times, and evinced itself in a much higher degree. In 
 the Middle Ages, this singular faculty was deemed witch- 
 craft, and was condemned as a diabolical art, on account of 
 the inability to explain it by natural means. There is now 
 no doubt of its being caused by a peculiarly irritable condi- 
 tion of the nervous system, which sometimes appears in per- 
 sons whose powers have been extremely reduced by sickness, 
 sometimes in those possessed of a superabundance of health 
 and strength. Clairvoyance, or the power possessed by a 
 person in a mesmeric state of examining the whole of the 
 internal organs of the body, and of involuntarily discover- 
 ing the proper remedy, was, at that period, frequent among 
 women, who were hence reputed to be possessed of the gift 
 of healing. This faculty also extended to that of seeing 
 what passed in remote places, and of foretelling approaching 
 events, and altogether bore a close resemblance to modern 
 mesmerism ; hence the German women were believed to pos- 
 sess the gift of prophecy, and were regarded as sacred, from 
 a belief of their being inspired by the gods. 
 
 The temple at Delphi, and, in fact, all the Grecian ora-
 
 54 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 cles, originated from these prophetesses, who, at a later 
 period, were frequently met with by the Romans in the in- 
 terior of Germany; the most celebrated among whom, Vel- 
 leda, was worshiped as a divinity by the whole German 
 nation, whom she unceasingly excited against the Romans. 
 
 These prophetesses were called "Wolen, and when they 
 foretold, or by their magic arts caused, evil, Hexen, in the 
 north, Trollen, witches, who practiced sorcery by means of 
 certain songs and drugs. These songs or incantations were 
 in existence long after the introduction of Christianity, and 
 were known by the name of Neitharte. It was believed 
 that by means of them the witch had the power of raising 
 storms, and of causing plagues. Caracalla, the Roman em- 
 peror, is said to have been deprived of his senses by these 
 German incantations. These rhymes were so well known 
 and so numerous, that in later times the repetition of them 
 was strictly and repeatedly forbidden by the Church. Magic 
 drugs or potions, especially love potions, were equally pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 The Walkyren, or celestial women (from Wai, a dead 
 man, and kuren, to choose), were believed to be heavenly 
 maidens, who hovered over every field of battle, and chose 
 expiring heroes for their companions in the eternal joys of 
 "Walhalla; a belief which caused German warriors to look 
 upon death as a nuptial festival in the skies. Earthly maid- 
 ens were also regarded as Walkyren, when they girded on 
 the sword and took part in the battle. 
 
 The poetical relation between the pagan warrior and his 
 celestial bride changed, in course of time, to that between 
 the Christian knight and his ladye-bright, who also was not 
 always an earthly dame, but the Holy Virgin or some saint. 
 Thus the romantic love, the enthusiastic service, vowed by 
 knights in honor of a celestial being, or of an unknown, 
 haughty, or eternally ungrateful dame, the Minnedienst and 
 gallantry (in its noble sense) of the Middle Ages, all origi- 
 nated from the beautiful fable of the Walkyren.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 55 
 
 XXI. Ancient German Poesy 
 
 IN writing, the Germans made use of singularly shaped 
 letters, called Runic, that resembled little crossed bits of 
 wood, or broken twigs thrown one upon the other; which, 
 in fact, they were originally intended to represent. It was, 
 at first, customary to augur from the position of such bits of 
 wood, each of which bore a different meaning, which was 
 retained by the Runic characters when used in writing, with 
 which magic was always associated. 
 
 Paper being at that period unknown, the Runic charac- 
 ters were either engraved on stone or cut in wood. One of 
 the Danish kings had a Runic writing, thirty ells in length, 
 cut on a rock. Even in the present times, tombstones bear- 
 ing Runic inscriptions are often met with. These characters 
 were commonly cut in soft wood, particularly beech-wood 
 (Buche, whence is derived the word Buck, a book, and 
 Buchstaben stab, a stick letters), an art generally prac- 
 ticed by the women, on account of their superior dexterity. 
 Many of these pieces of inscribed wood or Runic sticks have 
 been preserved. The laws were also inscribed upon wood in 
 these characters, and, on account of their lengthy contents, 
 sometimes covered whole beams (Balkeri) ; and, at the pres- 
 ent day, the books containing the laws are, in the north, 
 called Balken. 
 
 Poetry was highly esteemed by the Germans, who, by re- 
 citing the noble deeds of their ancestors, kept up the national 
 love of war and adventure. The bards, inspired by martial 
 enthusiasm, transformed the fabled enterprises of the gods 
 into legends recounting heroic exploits, in which the ele- 
 ments, the stars, and all the powers of nature bore a part. 
 Descriptions of great battles, prophecies of pending destruc- 
 tion, the triumph of the victor, or the lament of the con- 
 quered, form the subject of almost all the songs that have 
 descended to us from days of eld. 
 
 The harmony of two consonants, or alliteration; or of
 
 56 
 
 two vowels, or assonance; or that of the last syllable in a 
 verse, or rhythm ; were peculiar to German poetry. All the 
 ancient songs are also as remarkable for their proud and 
 daring spirit as for their sublime and graphic brevity, which 
 may be particularly observed throughout the northern Ed da. 
 Metaphor was so general, that a ship was commonly desig- 
 nated by a snake or a bird, a sword was termed fire, and 
 vice versa. Diodorus mentions the bold figures and hyper- 
 boles hi use among the northern Catti, as he designates the 
 Scandinavians. Tacitus also speaks of the poetical genius 
 of the Germans. The northern Saga describe the extraordi- 
 nary influence exercised by song over the sympathies of the 
 ancient warriors. The Danes formerly thought the com- 
 poser of the best poem alone worthy of the throne, and the 
 whole nation assembled, in order to judge of its merits. The 
 Icelanders once composed a song in ridicule of the Danes, 
 who felt the insult so deeply that a naval expedition was the 
 result. Poetry was so all-powerful in exciting or in allaying 
 the passions that a cruel Swedish king is said to have been 
 suddenly transformed, by a single song, from a depraved 
 and licentious despot into a just and valiant ruler. Love 
 and hatred, grief and joy, were alternately swayed by the 
 power of song. A celebrated Troll arriving at the court of 
 a Swedish king sang before him and his assembled nobles. 
 The first song excited such excessive delight that they 
 danced and shouted for joy; when he sang the second 
 they began to sorrow and weep; but scarcely had he sang 
 the third than, frantic with rage, they drew their swords 
 and slew one another. 
 
 Although the ancient melodies of Germany and Sweden 
 were essentially of a martial character, they possessed great 
 force and variety of sentiment, as may be seen in the Edda, 
 in which violent anger, heartrending grief, and jocose de- 
 light, follow in rapid succession.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 5? 
 
 XXII. Public Worship 
 
 THE gods were generally worshiped in sacred groves 
 and forests, or on heaths, whence, zum Walde fahren, to 
 go to the wood, wallfahren, to go on a pilgrimage, and the 
 name of "heathen," applied to unbelievers in Christianity. 
 Tacitus relates that, at certain periods, all the tribes of the 
 Senmones made a pilgrimage to a sacred grove, where hu- 
 man sacrifices were offered, and that whoever entered the 
 groves wore chains in sign of submission to the deity. 
 
 Public worship was also solemnized beneath the shade of 
 gigantic and solitary trees, on whose branches trophies and 
 the heads of sacrificed horses were hung. The Upstales- 
 boom, the point of reunion for the whole of Friesland; an 
 aged nut tree at Benevento, held sacred by the Longobards ; 
 the great oak at Geismar, in Hesse, which Saint Bonifacio 
 cut down ; and the pear tree on the Malserheath ; were once 
 sacred to the gods. The names of Altaich (old oak), Eich- 
 stadt (oak city), Dreieich (three oaks), Sieben eichen (seven 
 oaks), etc., have a similar origin; and, even at the present 
 day, there is scarcely a village throughout Germany without 
 its large tree, around which it was the custom, not long ago, 
 for the young people to dance. The trees of liberty intro- 
 duced during the French Revolution were merely fantastical 
 repetitions of the long-forgotten customs of antiquity. 
 
 The gods were also worshiped on holy mountains, and, 
 when Christianity was introduced, churches were generally 
 built on heights. Even in our days, the mass is annually 
 read, at the top of the Alps, to the assembled Senn shep- 
 herds. The procession of witches on the Blocksberg, the 
 highest summit of the Harz Mountains, is probably a super- 
 stition derived from the ancient worship formerly offered on 
 that spot to the god of spring. Not very long ago, the 
 Johannisfeuer, or fires of St. John, were still commonly 
 lighted on the tops of hills. Ancient altars have been found 
 on the Odilienberg in Alsace. There are several Donners-
 
 58 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 berge, mountains so called from the god of thunder. One 
 of the highest points of the Priesengebirge, famous in story, 
 the Reiftrager or Ringbearer, is quite bare, and surrounded 
 with a regular circle of enormous stones. The Groteberg at 
 Detmold is encircled with two great stone rings, and is the 
 same as the ancient Teutoburg in the wood, the burial place 
 of the legions of Varus. 
 
 Lakes, rivers, and springs were also held sacred. Tacitus 
 mentions a grove with a sacred lake in an island to the north 
 of Germany, apparently Zeeland. The image of the goddess 
 Hertha, in a chariot drawn by cows, was brought in solemn 
 procession to this lake, and there washed by slaves, who, 
 immediately after the ceremony, were drowned. There were 
 also places of sacrifice on the Bodensee, in the vicinity of the 
 falls of the Rhine, and near to Bregenz. Petrarch, the cele- 
 brated Italian poet, relates, that so late as the fourteenth 
 century, the female inhabitants of Cologne bathed in the 
 Rhine on St. John's day, in order to wash away their sins; 
 and that the superstitious custom of drawing water at mid- 
 night from holy wells was still practiced. The custom of 
 the Swiss, at a yet later period, of dipping their colors before 
 battle into running water, and of unf urling them before they 
 were dry, was without doubt an ancient heathen ceremony. 
 
 The erection of temples is of later date; they were only 
 known in the northern countries ; as, for instance, the great 
 temples at Upsala in Sweden, and at Lethra in Denmark. 
 The worship of images also dates later, and was only partial, 
 although it extended to Upper Germany, as has been already 
 seen in respect to the Bodensee. 
 
 There were three high festivals in the year, which were 
 held peculiarly sacred. On these occasions the whole nation 
 assembled in order to offer sacrifice. They were all called 
 Sunarblut, Sonnenopfer, sacrifice to the sun, or Suhnopfer, 
 sacrifice of atonement, whence came the word Sinist, the 
 title of the Burgundian high priest. But by far the holiest 
 time was that answering to our Christmas, and the twelve 
 darkest nights of the whole year, those during the winter
 
 solstice, after which the sun again approaches our hemi- 
 sphere: during this period, the gods and spirits were sup- 
 posed to descend upon the earth, while "Wodan himself 
 (Hermes, who, according to the Greeks, was the conductor 
 of the souls of the dead), or in his place the chief goddess, 
 Frau Hexe or Holle, led the midnight procession of spirits 
 hovering in the air. Hence originated the legend of the 
 wild huntsman. The great festival, held at this time 
 throughout the northern countries, was called the Yule 
 feast, traces of which are still to be met with in Scotland. 
 The second festival was celebrated in the spring; in the 
 north, during Easter; in the south, at Whitsuntide or on 
 St. John's day. The Franks held theirs at different times, 
 having the great annual assembly, first in March, and at a 
 later period in May. Great fires were lit (Easter fire in the 
 north; St. John's fire in the south), through which the cattle 
 were driven by way of purification, and in order to guard 
 them against the powers of evil. A festival was instituted 
 in honor of the first violet, around which they danced ; there 
 were also a feast of flowers, the president of which was, in 
 Sweden, called the Flower-king; in Denmark, the May- king, 
 etc. The image of Death or Winter was borne in solemn 
 procession to the river. Many of these customs of olden 
 times exist at the present day. 
 
 The third festival was held in the autumn, at the time of 
 our Kirchweih, or church consecration, and appears to have 
 been particularly dedicated to Thor, by whose horn it is des- 
 ignated on Runic stones. On this day wheaten cakes, in the 
 shape of horns, were baked in honor of the god, which now, 
 in some parts of northern Germany, are baked on the same 
 day, in honor of St. Martin. St. Martin's goose also apper- 
 tains to these ancient superstitions. 
 
 The Swedes every nine years celebrated a peculiarly sol- 
 emn feast, which lasted nine days, during which 99 men, 99 
 dogs, 99 cocks, and 99 hawks were sacrificed. A similar sac- 
 rifice was customary in Denmark, which, A.D. 926, was abol- 
 ished by the Emperor Henry the First.
 
 60 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 That these festivals were bloody, is at once proved by the 
 name Sonnenblut, and by the appellation of the priests, who 
 throughout the north were called Blutmanner, men of blood. 
 Warriors were held in high estimation who were also good 
 Blutmanner, and could sacrifice beasts, a duty incumbent on 
 every head of a family when no priest happened to be pres- 
 ent. The Blutmanner, whose office it was to assist the king 
 while offering sacrifices, were always twelve freeborn men, 
 chosen from the people. They killed the beast, and sprinkled 
 the sacred tree, the place of sacrifice, and all the bystanders 
 with the blood ; the flesh was then cooked and served at the 
 banquet, the head of the animal being hung upon the tree. As 
 they generally sacrificed and ate horses, the eating of horse- 
 flesh became a mark of distinction between the heathen and 
 the Christian. A Christian king was forced by the pagan 
 Swedes to eat horseflesh in sign of apostasy, and, at a later 
 period, every one who ate horseflesh was regarded as a 
 heathen, and was put to death. 
 
 It is equally certain that human sacrifices, though of rare 
 occurrence, were nevertheless offered. The great Swedish 
 and Danish sacrifices have already been mentioned. Tacitus 
 also speaks of human sacrifices. The Cimbri sacrificed their 
 Roman prisoners; and in times of dearth the Swedes sacri- 
 ficed their king ; but these were extraordinary cases. 
 
 Besides the great feasts and sacrifices, there were occa- 
 sionally a number of other religious observances. During a 
 storm the Swedes shot arrows into the air, in order to assist 
 the god of thunder in his combats with the giants. During 
 an eclipse of the sun the people crowded together and 
 shouted, in order to scare the wolf attempting to eat the 
 sun, which was supposed to be symbolical of the destruction 
 of the world, when Odin would be devoured by the wolf 
 Fenrir. In harvest time, a bunch of ears, tied up with rib- 
 bons, was left standing in the field for Odin's horse. On all 
 important occasions divine counsel was sought by the exam- 
 ination of favorable or unfavorable omens. Jacob Grimm 
 has, in his German Mythology, collected a number of these
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 61 
 
 omens which were superstitiously observed long after the 
 introduction of Christianity. 
 
 XXIII. Pagan Superstitions 
 
 THE learned Grimm has, with his usual laborious re- 
 search, proved that the religion of southern Germany was, 
 in the time of Tacitus, essentially the same as that of Scan- 
 dinavia shortly before the time of Snorri, and that all the 
 German nations, before their conversion to Christianity, 
 called their superior gods by the same names, and had the 
 same idea of nature, and consequently the same supersti- 
 tions, fables, and legends. 
 
 The religion of the north, however, appears to have been, 
 at a later period, of a higher and more polished order, and 
 certain religious differences seem to have attached them- 
 selves to various localities and tribes. The German relig- 
 ion, like all those of ancient times, gradually fell from the 
 simple adoration of one invisible Deity to the worship of the 
 sun, moon, stars, elements, and other powers of nature, 
 which, when the human race became more polished, were 
 ingeniously and poetically humanized; a progression of the 
 human imagination common to most nations, as may be 
 proved by closely investigating the religions of Greece, 
 Rome, and Asia. 
 
 The worship of the stars and of the elements was com- 
 mon to the Swabian nations, while that of the heroes, in 
 which gods were represented under the form of men, was 
 already practiced by the Frankish, Saxon, and particularly 
 by the Scandinavian tribes. When Christianity, advancing 
 step by step, uprooted pagan superstition, the worship of the 
 heroes took refuge with the fugitive Norwegians in Iceland, 
 where were preserved the sacred books of the Edda, in which 
 the purer natural religion, and even the first doctrine of the 
 existence of one invisible God, are again recognizable, among 
 the ingenious fables of the heroes. According to these books, 
 the most ancient god is Allfadur (Allfater, Father of all),
 
 02 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the indivisible and eternal Creator and Preserver, the Father 
 of the universe and of the inferior gods, whom he will sur- 
 vive, and who will one day destroy both them and the pres- 
 ent world, and create a new one in its stead. The three 
 Nornen, or goddesses of fate, the past, the present, and the 
 future (beneath whose rule all temporal concerns stand fixed, 
 and come but to pass away), are regarded as continually pro- 
 ceeding from him; while the whole of nature's creations, 
 both gods and men, are regarded as merely temporary efflu- 
 ences from the one great and supreme being. 
 
 Allfater reigned alone over boundless void, which, by the 
 power of his glance, split into two halves; one, Muspelheim, 
 the world of light ; the other, Nilfheim, or the abode of dark- 
 ness. The spirit of Light was Surtur; the spirit of Night, 
 Hela. Then Allfater commanded them to mingle, in order 
 to produce a third and middle world, and a fiery shower of 
 sparks fell from Muspelheim into the damp, cold Nilfheim, 
 and fire and water battled together, fizzing and boiling, until 
 from this fearful ferment two monsters sprang ; first, from 
 the dark and evil genius of Night came the giant Ymer, the 
 symbol of brute force ; then, from the light and good spirit 
 of fire, the divine cow, Audhumla, the symbol of nourishing 
 and preserving power. Ymer looked upon himself as the 
 monarch of the world, and from his right and left foot is- 
 sued a six-headed son, the father of the Hrymthursen, or 
 wicked ice-giants, who inherited the cold nature of their 
 progenitor, Night. The cow licked the good god, Buri, out 
 of a rock of salt, from whose son, Bor, descended the three 
 brothers, Odin, Wile, and We. These good gods slew the 
 wicked Ymer, and, tearing his body into pieces, created 
 the earth out of it. The giant's skull formed the vault of 
 heaven; his brains, the clouds; his hair, the forests; his 
 bones, the mountains; and his blood, the sea. But the gods 
 made the first man and woman out of two trees, the oak and 
 the alder. Henceforth men dwelt in the world, and good 
 gods ruled over it ; but the bad giants of the race of Ymer 
 still existed, and the gods, foolishly intermingling with them,
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 63 
 
 allowed Loki, one of the sons of the giants, to take his seat 
 among them as the god of evil, who was one day destined to 
 allure them to destruction. Thus the principle of evil was 
 not entirely subdued by the death of Ymer, but still contin- 
 ued to struggle throughout all nature against the spirit of 
 good. 
 
 XXIV. The Ancient Idea of Nature 
 
 ALTHOUGH the whole of nature was thus supposed to 
 have been created out of the body of the giant Ymer, it was 
 regarded as originally proceeding from the primary worlds 
 of light and darkness, still existing beyond its limits. Mus- 
 pelheim, the empire of Surtur, hung far above the heavens, 
 and the sun, moon and stars were merely streams of light 
 flowing downward from it. Far beneath the earth lay an- 
 cient Nilfheim, the kingdom of Hela, or hell, whose abode 
 was Helheim ; whose palace was Misery ; whose table, Hun- 
 ger; whose servant, Delay; whose threshold, Ruin; whose 
 bed, Sorrow; and whose color was Decay. Nine long nights 
 must the dead ride through dark valleys, when they reached 
 Gioll, the river of hell, and rode over the bridge into Nilf- 
 heim, where all went who, instead of falling by the sword, 
 died like cowards on their beds ; all those also who had been 
 thieves, or liars, or had acted dishonorably ; but the deepest 
 pit in Nilfheim was Huergelmir, completely built of snakes' 
 heads, unceasingly spitting poison on the damned. 
 
 Between the middle world and Muspelheim lay another, 
 inhabited by the good spirits of nature (Liosalfarheim, Licht- 
 alfheim), born of the elves of light; the wise and tender 
 genii of the elements, Fylgien, or guardian spirits; and the 
 Walkyren, who were also the clouds, the messengers of 
 Odin. Hence came the countless legends of elves and fair- 
 ies, beneficent toward mankind, especially toward the poor, 
 and children ; hence also the stories of wood and water Nixen 
 or nymphs ; of the fantastical loves of sylphs and Undinen, 
 and of river and tree elves. 
 
 The stars were sparks out of Muspelheim, directed by
 
 64 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Odin : thus the sun was called Odin's eye ; the constellation 
 of the Great Bear, Odin's chariot; and Jacob's Staff, the 
 distaff of the goddess Freya. Odin also created day and 
 night, and gave to the former, the horse Skinfari, the 
 golden-maned ; and to the latter, the horse Hrinfari, the 
 mane of dew. 
 
 Between the middle world and Nilfheim lay also another 
 world, Schwartalfaheim, belonging to the black elves, who 
 dwelt in the interior of the earth, particularly in moun- 
 tains. These are the Kobolds, who watch over subterranean 
 treasures and metals, and generally attempt to hurt and to 
 corrupt men. The numerous legends of the Venusberg, 
 Kyffhauserberg, Untersberg, Zobtenberg, Horselberg, etc., 
 prove that the mountains were supposed to be hollow, and to 
 contain treasures or seductive spirits ; and at a later period, 
 to be haunted by the souls of the dead. The legend of the 
 Tannhauser, who entered the Venusberg, and there dwelt in 
 joy and delight with the beauteous and mysterious moun- 
 tain queen, is very old, and equally so are the stories of the 
 mountain king, Riibezahl, who, under the form of a man, 
 tempted maidens into the interior of the Priesengebirge. 
 The water spirits were also supposed to be generally wicked, 
 though sometimes only sportive. The word necken, to 
 tease, came from Neck, Nickel, Nixe, the appellation of the 
 water spirits; whence the River Neckar also derived its 
 name. 
 
 Plants and animals were also connected in various de- 
 grees with the bright and black elves, by whom they were 
 animated, and caused good or evil. The middle world, or 
 earth, placed between these double worlds of light and dark- 
 ness, was called Mannheim, the home of man, and was di- 
 vided into an upper and a lower part; the former of which 
 was Asgard, the heaven of the gods, with the beautiful 
 "Walhalla, whose windows overlooked the paradise destined 
 for pious women and children ; and the latter was the earth. 
 The rainbow, the sign of union, was supposed to form a 
 bridge called Bifrost, joining earth to heaven, by means of
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 65 
 
 which the gods descended to the earth and the souls of men 
 mounted to Walhalla. The earth was believed to be round, 
 and to be surrounded by the ocean (Ymer's blood) or by the 
 great Mitgard snake, Jormungardur ; in the ocean dwelt 
 the god CEgir and innumerable sea nymphs. As animals, 
 plants, and metals were inhabited by elves and dwarfs, deli- 
 cate and diminutive but powerful and cunning spirits, the 
 mountains, seas, and ruder features of nature were naturally 
 the abode of the giant race of Ymer. The extreme north 
 was full of Hrymthursen or ice giants. Niord, the god of 
 the cold air, is especially the god of the north; Uller, the 
 god of winter; Kari, the god of the wind, and his sons, 
 frost, ice, and snow. The manner in which the giants were 
 identified with natural phenomena is visible in the following 
 poetical Saga: When Gerdha, the daughter of the giants, 
 closed her house door, heaven and earth were illumined by 
 the reflection of her beautiful white arms; signifying the 
 Northern Lights. As Hvenilda, the daughter of the giants, 
 carrying earth in her apron, was wading through the ocean, 
 the apron tore, and the earth, falling into the water, formed 
 the island of Hven. 
 
 XXV. The Gods 
 
 THE polytheism of the Germans arose from the inter- 
 mixture of this original idea of the cause of natural phenom- 
 ena, with those borrowed from history and domestic life, or 
 produced by their natural tendencies and lively imagina- 
 tions. AUfater, primarily the one invisible God, afterward 
 became the visible source of light, the sun, and finally, a 
 demigod, Odin. Thus, in the golden temple at Upsala, the 
 supreme deity of ancient Germany, who, from the Gulf of 
 Bothnia to the Bodensee, was worshiped as the Father of 
 till, the eternal God, in a word, as God, was first imaged as 
 a beaming sun, and was afterward represented standing 
 before this sun under the form of a human hero, Odin-Sigge. 
 The wolf saga in the Edda is also twofold. A wolf swal-
 
 06 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 lows the sun, another swallows the hero, Odin, but both are 
 one; hence the name of the year (as in the Greek, Awd/Jac), 
 Wolfgang, i.e., the sun passing before the wolf. The Saga 
 relates much of Odin that merely identifies him with man, 
 and renders him ridiculous, so that the ancient pure belief in 
 Wodan, Guodan, God, was almost forgotten, like the idea 
 of the supreme divinity among the Romans, effaced by the 
 image of the sensual and capricious Jupiter. 
 
 The idea of Allf ater produced those of light and fire ; of 
 Surtur, the sun, the Persian Ormuzd, who was perhaps iden- 
 tical with Irmin ; of Mannus, the father of all mankind ; of 
 Thaut, Thuisko, peculiarly the god of the Germans ; and of 
 Odin, the demigod, who, in the historical records, is spoken 
 of as a man, the founder of kingly races, and from whom 
 the Germans derived their customs, warlike habits, and 
 arts; hence he was the god of victory (Sigge), and especially 
 that of war and weapons ; the god of wisdom ; the inventor 
 of letters, sciences, and arts. The invention of poetry is also 
 ascribed to his having, in the form of an eagle, devoured the 
 honey containing the poetical inspiration; but when flying 
 back with it to Asgard, he was so closely pursued that he 
 let a part of it drop from behind on the summit of the Asen- 
 berg, the tasting of which produced the bad poets, while the 
 good ones were fed upon the honey that issued from his beak 
 on the Himmelsberg. Drollery and sublimity thus go hand 
 in hand throughout the Saga of Odin. 
 
 Odin's heavenly palace was the Walhalla, an enormous 
 hall ornamented with golden escutcheons and lances, to 
 which 540 doors led, each so wide that 800 heroes could march 
 through them abreast. Here came all the souls of warriors, 
 Einheriar (einig, ein Heer bildende Waffenbriider, singly 
 composing an army of companions in arms), who daily rode 
 with the gods on the great plains of Ida, and battled with 
 one another, in order to continue, after death, the heroic 
 deeds they joyed in during life, and every evening returned 
 to Walhalla, where, seated in a circle, they drank rich mead 
 from golden goblets, presented to them by the beauteous
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 67 
 
 Walkyren, and fed upon the flesh of the bear, Sahrimnir, 
 which always remained whole, whatever number of steaks 
 were cut from him, and upon the apples of Iduna, which 
 preserved them in eternal youth, while the scalds sang in 
 praise of the gods, of the charms of the Walkyren, and of 
 past glory ; Odin presiding over the feast, and rejoicing over 
 his countless armies of heroes. The windows of Walhalla 
 overlooked all the other heavens, which lay round about like 
 beautiful castles, where the gods dwelt singly with their 
 wives, and where the pious wives and children of mortals, 
 who could not enter Walhalla, but might dwell in its vicin- 
 ity, were transferred. Odin belonged to the world of light, 
 his wife Frigga to that of darkness, but she was raised by 
 her union with him to that of light. She was mother Earth, 
 and stands in the same relation to the female black elves and 
 Hela, as the goddesses of the earth, of Greece, Rome, and 
 Egypt, did to the infernal powers ; and, in the superstitions 
 of Christian times, she was styled Frau Holle (hell) or Frau 
 Bertha, who, in her amiable character, was the prophetess 
 of housewives and of households, and, in her fearful one, 
 the leader of the night chase. In short, she personated the 
 darkness of earth, and Odin the brightness of heaven; and 
 as Odin was always imagined to be riding on the eight- 
 legged horse, Sleipnir, Frigga is represented as seated in a 
 chariot drawn by cows; horses being sacred to him, and 
 cows to her. The image, washed in the lake, mentioned by 
 Tacitus, was hers. She was also probably identical with 
 Isis, of whom that writer says that she was carried about 
 in a ship. In 1133 a ship was drawn overland, in solemn 
 procession, with dancing and music, from Aix-la- Chapel le to 
 Maestricht, evidently a pagan custom, in which the proces- 
 sion accompanying the chariot or ship was probably intended 
 to represent the early migrations of the Germans. 
 
 Freyr and Freya were connected in the same manner as 
 Odin and Frigga. Freyr was the son of Odin, in a stricter 
 sense, the sun; and consequently the guardian of all the 
 white elves. Freya was the daughter of Niord, and there-
 
 68 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 fore belonged to the spirits of damp and darkness; she was 
 the moon, and the goddess of love ; and as Freyr, the sun, 
 rode on a golden bear, she rode on a silver one, having in 
 her train, Siofna, the first feelings of love, Lofna, happy 
 love, Wara, true love, Snotra, shame, and Gefion, inno- 
 cence ; and, although in this manner belonging to light, she 
 appears, from the above-mentioned Saga of the Venusberg 
 concerning love charms and philters, to be in close connec- 
 tion with the black elves, over whom she probably reigned, 
 as Freyr did over the white ones. 
 
 Thor or Dunar, the god of thunder, who was supposed to 
 be drawn by black goats through the air, bearing in his 
 hand Miolner, the hammer of destruction, and the great 
 drinking horn with which he once nearly drained the ocean, 
 thus causing the ebb and flow, bears much similarity to 
 Odin, and is apparently a Gaelic divinity of more ancient 
 date, who continued to be worshiped by the Galli under 
 the name of Taranes, and by the Finns and Lapps under 
 that of Tiermes, the supreme god. Tyr, the god of war, is 
 also identical with him, as well as Widar, the god of loco- 
 motion, who walked through and crushed everything with 
 his iron shoes. 
 
 The rest of the Asen are bright gods of light ; "Wali, the 
 spring; Balldr, beauty; Braga, the god of poetry; Saga, the 
 goddess of history; Iduna, immortality; Heimdall, the god 
 of the three classes, the nobles, the freeborn, and the slaves; 
 and Forsete, the god of peace and justice. The twelve Asen, 
 Thor, Balldr, Niord, Freyr, Tyr, Braga, Heimdall, Widar, 
 Wali, Uller, Forsete, and Loki, were chosen from among all 
 these various deities, and, assembled around Odin, assisted 
 in governing the world; they also signify the twelve mouths 
 of the year, and again appear in the seven days of the week : 
 Wednesday, Odin's day; Thursday Thor's day; Friday, 
 Freya's day.
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 69 
 
 XXVI. Historical Ideas 
 
 As the outward frame of the earth was supposed to have 
 been created out of the body of the giant Ymer, the ash tree, 
 Ygdrasill, was supposed to represent its external growth and 
 internal life. This tree reached from the bottom of Nilfheim 
 far beyond all the heavens; it had three roots, by each of 
 which there was a source; Urdarborn, the source of time; 
 Mimer's well, the source of wisdom; and Huergelmir, the 
 source of poison. Nidhoggur, the dragon, the father of all 
 the snakes in Huergelmir, unceasingly gnawed the roots. 
 The three Nornen or fates, the past, the present, and the 
 future, sat around the source of time. Far above, at the 
 top of the tree, perched an eagle, the symbol of perfection, 
 perhaps as the fire eagle, the self-animating phoenix, while a 
 squirrel ran busily up and down, making mischief between 
 the dragon below and the eagle above. As soon as the 
 dragon gnawed through the roots, the noble tree was to fall, 
 and time and all earthly things were to cease. This beauti- 
 ful world was not to endure forever; the gods, like men, 
 mere creatures of Allfater, were subject to evil and destruc- 
 tion. All that was earthly would pass away, but Allfater 
 would renovate earth and heaven. The ancient legends of 
 the gods conclude with this doctrine, and this conclusion of 
 the Ed da is in extraordinary agreement with that of the old 
 songs of the Nibelungen; in the former, the gods are de- 
 stroyed ; in the latter, men ; and both, in the true old Ger- 
 man heroic spirit, in expiation of a crime, but courageously 
 despising death and fighting to the last. Thus the heroes 
 and warriors imagined that all things would end in the man- 
 ner in which they aspired to die, sword in hand on the bat- 
 tlefield. The ancient notions of the Germans, with regard 
 to the intention of history and the moral to be deduced from 
 it, are most clearly expressed by the symbol of the ash tree, 
 the first Saga that speaks of the destruction of gods and 
 men ; nor can it be doubted that these ideas were continually
 
 70 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 present to the imagination of the Germans. The indiffer- 
 ence with which they met death, nay, the eagerness with 
 which they sought it, their high estimation of a virtuous and 
 honorable life, and the unfaltering bravery with which they 
 opposed irremediable destruction, are characteristics whose 
 Bource is easily traced in the spirit of their religion, the fun- 
 damental principle of which was to die nobly. To die on the 
 battlefield was sufficient atonement for any crime of which 
 they had been guilty. They allowed their gods to sin, but 
 made them die like heroes, which rendered them worthy of 
 a future and glorious resurrection. But their gods were 
 merely symbolical of themselves. Thus the oldest and first 
 song of the Ed da, the Voluspa, commences. A Wale ad- 
 vances into the circle of the gods, and in awful tones an- 
 nounces their fall and the destruction of the lordly Asgard, 
 at the general conflagration of the world. This event will 
 be caused by the gods, who will sin in common with the 
 wicked of Ymer's ancient race, and will consequently be 
 abandoned by the inward light which they derived from 
 Muspelheim. However, the golden age is still of long dura- 
 tion; vengeance does not soon overtake their crime. Then 
 the gods gamble in heaven, and, heated by play, do not per- 
 ceive the approach of three daughters of the giants, who 
 steal their golden Runic tables, upon which Allfater had 
 himself inscribed the laws of the universe. Then the golden 
 age is at an end. Care and anxiety take possession of the 
 gods, who, forgetful of their given word, kill Angurbode, 
 one of the three giantesses. Loki finds her out-torn heart, 
 and falls in love with her; and as until now he was ac- 
 counted one of the Asen, he goes over to the wicked giants 
 in order to plot the destruction of his former companions. 
 At the same time, a young wolf, Fenrir, which was brought 
 up in Asgard, grows to such an enormous size that the 
 Asen begin to feel uneasy. In vain they bind him; he 
 breaks every chain. At length they try to bind him with a 
 charm, but he does not allow the chain to be placed upon 
 him until they swear that it is not a charm. They for-
 
 ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF ANCIENT GERMANS 71 
 
 swear themselves, and Tyr has the courage to lay his hand 
 as security in the wolf's mouth, who instantly bites it off on 
 discovering the deception. The gods are no longer worthy 
 of life. Iduna, or immortality, is tempted from them by 
 a giant; however, they still possess Balldr, or enchanting 
 beauty ; but the ugly quarrel with him, and his only brother, 
 the blind Hodur, is unwittingly incited to kill him by Loki, 
 and his wife, Nana, burns herself upon his funeral pile. 
 Then the Asen take foul revenge on Loki, and, sinning 
 against sacred nature, bind him with the bowels of his only 
 son to three pointed rocks, and suspend over his head a 
 snake distilling poison. His convulsions produce the earth- 
 quakes. The end of all things is now at hand. The rage of 
 the gods and the wickedness of men increase. Enmity and 
 hate have universal rule; then come fear and woe, the 
 hatchet and sword age, the storm and wolf era. For three 
 years there is unbroken icy winter, the frightful Fimbul 
 weather, during which everything is buried in frozen sleep, 
 before the awful end. The earth begins to shake; the 
 dragon has gnawed through the roots; and the ash tree, 
 Ygdrasill, will fall and crush the whole world. The wolf, 
 Fenrir, madly struggles with his bonds, and bursts them. 
 Loki also breaks away from the rocks. Across the sea come 
 the giants, the Hrymthursen, in the ship Nagelfar, entirely 
 built of the nails of dead men fastened together, a proof of 
 the antiquity of the world. The Mitgard snake rises from 
 the ocean like a gigantic ghost, and they all besiege Asgard 
 from below. The Asen and all the Einheriar are armed and 
 fight their last glorious battle, nor do they despair of suc- 
 cess, until Muspelheim opens from above, and Surtur issues 
 in flames at the head of his fiery squadrons, beneath whom 
 the rainbow bridge, the symbol of union, breaks asunder, 
 and everything is lost. Heimdall and Loki kill themselves; 
 Thor slays the Mitgard snake, but dies of his poisoned 
 wounds; Freyr is burned by Surtur; Odin is swallowed 
 alive by the wolf Fenrir, whose open jaws reach from be- 
 neath the earth to heaven. Finally, the whole world is
 
 72 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 destroyed by the flames of Surtur, and becomes Ragnarok, 
 or the incense of the gods. After this, Allfater will create 
 a new world, devoid of evil. 
 
 PART II 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 
 
 XXVII. The Romans 
 
 IN the eighth century before Christ, Rome was peopled 
 by fugitives from different parts of the country. The 
 city was at first governed by kings, who might almost 
 be termed robber kings, on account of the depredations they 
 committed against neighboring nations. The Romans, how- 
 ever, strengthened by petty conquests, and rendered hardy 
 and independent by continual warfare, soon drove out their 
 kings, and founded a republic on the plan of the more an- 
 cient ones of Greece, whence they subsequently drew their 
 refinement and arts, while from the brave Alpine nations, 
 with whom they early came in collision, they acquired that 
 heroic spirit which, at a later period, rendered them as for- 
 midable to the Greeks as their superior science and knowl- 
 edge became to the Germans. 
 
 Rome was yet in her infancy when, four centuries B.C., 
 two immense German hordes, the Senones and Boii, crossed 
 the Alps, and settled in the fertile plains of Italy. Rome 
 was taken and burned, but quickly recovered from this first 
 attack, and the watchful cunning and steady courage of her 
 inhabitants soon proved fatal to the warriors of the north, 
 whose hardy habits had gradually degenerated in that luxu- 
 rious climate. Their impolitic division into small and inde- 
 pendent tribes was another cause of their ruin, and, after a 
 long and bloody struggle, part of them were, one after the 
 other, exterminated, and the rest incorporated with the now
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 73 
 
 aggrandized republic, whose warriors had exercised their 
 martial spirit, and improved their military tactics, during 
 this long and difficult war. In the second century B.C., 
 when Rome bore sway over the whole of Italy as far as the 
 Alps, and had even subdued the southern provinces of Gaul 
 on the Rhone, fresh hordes of barbarians, the Cimbri and 
 Teutones, crossed the Alps, and again threatened the Ro- 
 man power with destruction; but when, in their proud con- 
 tempt of Rome, they again imprudently divided, they fell a 
 prey to the sagacity and prodigious efforts of the Romans, 
 who, compelled by necessity, reformed the ancient republic, 
 and by conferring on the plebeians the privileges until now 
 monopolized by the ancient and haughty patricians, gave an 
 impulse to, and united the efforts of, every class; a measure 
 by which the safety of the mass could alone be secured, and 
 which added more citizens to Rome (for the inhabitants of 
 neighboring states became ambitious to gain that honorable 
 distinction) than she gained by the fame of her victories over 
 the Cimbri. 
 
 Thus Rome a second time owed the increase of her power 
 to German influence. Her insatiable ambition fed by con- 
 quest, she grasped at universal dominion, and after subduing 
 all the countries in her immediate vicinity, boldly planned 
 the reduction of the whole world. Greece, Asia Minor, the 
 northern coasts of Africa, the whole of southern and western 
 Europe, every Gallic and Celtic country, as far as Britain, 
 submitted to the Roman eagle, which was alone defied by 
 our elder brethren, the Persians, in the fastnesses of Asia, 
 and by the Germans beyond the Danube and the Rhine. 
 The fearful struggle between the Romans and the Germans, 
 which lasted, almost unbroken, for nearly five centuries after 
 the war with the Cimbri, extended along the shores of the 
 Black Sea, and followed the course of the Danube, and of 
 the Rhine as far as the Baltic. At one time, the Germans, 
 quitting their wild forests, would lay waste the Roman 
 frontier ; or at another, the Romans would march their well- 
 disciplined and ironclad legions to the Weser and the Elbe ; 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 1
 
 74 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and in this manner the war was carried on, with various 
 fortune, throughout whole centuries, until Rome, sated with 
 the spoils of countless nations, sank into the lap of luxury, 
 and her citizens, raised by unjust wars to unjust dominion, 
 lost their ancient love of honor and liberty. 
 
 The legions, flushed with victory, ruled despotically over 
 the helpless citizens, destroyed the ancient republic, and 
 raised their generals to the throne, who, during successive 
 centuries, turned the whole force of the mighty Roman em- 
 pire against Germany. Millions of ironclad men, picked 
 from every part of the world, well disciplined and practiced 
 in every species of warfare, flexible and obedient to the will 
 of their skillful leaders, thirsting for glory, or maddened by 
 jealousy and revenge, besieged Germany on every side, and 
 fell upon the poor half -naked native, whose only defense lay 
 in the dark forest depths and the untaught strength of his 
 arm. The event speaks for itself. These half-naked tribes, 
 after the longest and most glorious struggle for liberty re- 
 corded in the annals of mankind, after crushing the masters 
 of the world, and shattering their boundless empire, now 
 form a great and powerful nation, while the very name of 
 Roman is vanishing from the earth. 
 
 XXVIII. The Senones and the Boii in Italy 
 
 ON the upper Danube, in modern Swabia, dwelt the 
 Senones, and in modern Bavaria, their neighbors, the Boii. 
 In the fourth century B.C., Helico, a carpenter, came to 
 them, bringing with him the juicy grapes and golden fruit 
 of Italy, which they beheld for the first time, and greedily 
 desiring to possess a land that produced such luscious fruit, 
 they migrated in immense hordes, under a leader named 
 Brennus, and climbing the snow-topped Alps, descended 
 into the smiling valleys of the Po, whence they gradually 
 reached Rome, whose inhabitants, at that period, still weak, 
 and depending more on their cunning than their strength, 
 begged for peace, which was granted; but when, breaking
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 75 
 
 their oath, they suddenly fell upon the unsuspecting stran- 
 gers, Brennus, justly enraged, severely chastised their per- 
 fidy, and after totally defeating them, took the city [B.C. 389] 
 and burned it to the ground. The aged senators, unwilling 
 to survive the destruction of the city, had remained in the 
 senate house, seated in state in their white and purple robes, 
 with scepters in their hands; and when the Germans, armed 
 with sword and brand, rushed tumultuously into the hall, 
 they were seized with awe on beholding these venerable and 
 motionless figures, which they imagined to be spirits or stat- 
 ues, until one of them, wishing to discover whether they 
 were alive, took hold of the beard of one of the senators, 
 who, resenting the insult, struck him to the ground with his 
 scepter. The illusion was instantly dispelled, and the sena- 
 tors were murdered. The Capitol, which was commanded 
 by Manlius, and still held out, narrowly escaped being sur- 
 prised by the Germans, who, during the night, had scaled 
 the rock on which it was built, when the sleeping garrison 
 was aroused by the cackling of the geese, disturbed by their 
 approach. One thousand pounds of gold purchased the de- 
 parture of Brennus, who, with the insolence of a conqueror, 
 threw his sword into the scales, and bade them add its 
 weight to the ransom. 
 
 The Senones and Boii afterward settled in the north of 
 Italy, but did not long remain at peace with the Romans, 
 with whom they were so continually at war that every year 
 produced a fresh list of battles, victories, and defeats. In 
 these perpetual struggles with their belligerent neighbors, 
 the Romans quickly acquired the military skill and disci- 
 pline which in course of time rendered them so formidable, 
 and so superior to their once-dreaded opponents, who, had 
 they united in the pursuance of one settled plan of warfare, 
 might have crushed the Roman empire in the bud.
 
 76 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 XXIX. The Senones and the Boii in Greece and 
 Asia Minor 
 
 IN the third century before Christ, the same nations, 
 uniting with several others, migrated from the interior of 
 Germany into Greece. They consisted of Senones, Boii, 
 Cimbri, Teutobodiaci, etc., and had several leaders, among 
 whom was another Brennus. Flushed with success, and 
 greedy of plunder, they attempted to seize the treasures in 
 the sacred temple at Delphi. Their impious daring was 
 speedily chastised. A fearful whirlwind and storm sud- 
 denly arose; the earth quaked, the rocks fell, and, struck 
 with horror and dismay, the barbarians fled. Vast numbers 
 fell by the hands of the Greeks. Brennus was wounded, 
 and the remainder of his army, being weakened by pesti- 
 lence, and in danger of being captured, voluntarily burned 
 themselves alive, to the number of 20,000 men, together 
 with their booty, in their encampment. The soothsayers 
 foretelling disaster to another horde when on the point of 
 giving battle, they resolved to die like warriors, and after 
 killing their wives and children, rushed into the midst of the 
 enemy, and fell at the point of the sword. A third horde 
 had, meanwhile, crossed to Asia Minor; the land pleased 
 them, and settling there, they founded a nation, named, by 
 the Greeks and Romans, Gallo-Grsecians, or Galatians; the 
 same to which St. Paul addressed one of his Epistles. They 
 were distinguished by different names among themselves, 
 and were divided into no less than 195 petty tribes, which 
 were comprised under three heads within twelve districts, 
 and had a general place of assembly, called Drynaimet. 
 The twelve representatives of the districts, who formed the 
 supreme council, were assisted by three hundred men; a 
 hundred being chosen from each of the three heads or chief 
 tribes; a form of government perfectly similar to those met 
 with, at a later period, in Germany. In course of time, 
 however, some men contrived to get themselves elected
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 77 
 
 perpetual dukes of Galatia, and, at the time of the birth of 
 Christ, this nation had shared the fate of its Asiatic neigh- 
 bors, and had fallen under the Roman rule; but it always 
 retained its original language, which, according to St. Hie- 
 ronymus, was similar to the dialect spoken in the country 
 round Treves. Fourteen hundred years after the settlement 
 of these people in Asia, when the German crusaders passed 
 through Galatia, they were astonished to find that the in- 
 habitants spoke with the Bavarian accent. The greater 
 part of the settlers were originally Boii. 
 
 XXX. The Romans in the Alps 
 
 ROME gradually increased in power, and ere long threat- 
 ened destruction to the Senones and Boii in Upper Italy, 
 who consequently besought the assistance of their brethren 
 on the other side of the Alps. Accordingly, 200,000 Ger- 
 man warriors, named Gsesatse (guests, or geeiseten, iron- 
 clad), marched thence toward Rome; their leader, Brito- 
 mar, a Boii, vowing not to loosen his girdle until he had 
 taken the Capitol. The Romans twice suffered defeat, but 
 the whole of Italy rising in the common cause, an army, 
 consisting of 700,000 infantry and 70,000 cavalry, was 
 raised, and, commanded by the brave ^Emilius, made head 
 against the invading host, which it succeeded in surround- 
 ing near the River Telamon, where, after a desperate con- 
 flict, victory sided with the Romans; 40,000 of the barba- 
 rians were slain, and their chief, Britomar, was taken 
 prisoner [B.C. 225]. Another chief and all his followers 
 killed themselves in despair; and a third, Ariovistus, took 
 shelter in the mountains, where for two years he was sup- 
 ported by 20,000 Cenomanni and Heneti, but was finally 
 overcome by the Romans [B.C. 223]. In the following year 
 [B.C. 222], "Wiridomar led 30,000 Germans from the Rhine, 
 who were also defeated by the Romans. Wiridomar fell 
 by the hand of the consul, Marcellus. Hannibal, the great 
 Carthaginian general, who, with his gigantic elephants and
 
 78 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 dark Africans, traversed Spain, Gaul, and the Alps, with 
 the design of crushing the ambition of Rome, already threat- 
 ening to enslave the world, was received with open arms by 
 the Alpine tribes. Some of the Senones and Boii fought 
 under his command at Ticinum, where Cryxus, a descendant 
 of Brennus, lost his life. Ducarius, the leader of the Boii, 
 avenged the death of Wiridomar, by killing the consul Fla- 
 minius in single combat at the battle of Trasimene [B.C. 217], 
 on which occasion the Boii buried 25,000 Romans in a wood, 
 and used the skull of the consul Posthumus as a sacrificial 
 cup. Hannibal was, however, no sooner called to Carthage, 
 on account of the invasion of Africa by the Romans, than 
 fortune again sided with the latter, and after several des- 
 perate and bloody battles, in one of which 35,000, and in 
 another 40,000, of their number fell, the Germans were 
 forced to retreat. The Boii long and obstinately defended 
 the fortresses raised by them beyond the Lake of Como, but 
 were finally obliged to cede them, together with their strong- 
 est fort, Felsina, to the Romans, and to take refuge in the 
 mountains, whence they carried on a desultory and destruct- 
 ive warfare, until betrayed by their allies, the Cenomanni 
 and Heneti, whose knowledge of the country and of moun- 
 tain warfare proved of infinite service to the Romans ; and 
 at length, weakened by repeated losses, they were utterly 
 annihilated in a battle, in which 32,000 of them were slain 
 [B.C. 191]. This victory placed the whole of the southern 
 side of the Alps in the hands of the Romans, who by skill- 
 fully exciting the mutual jealousies of the pett} r mountain 
 tribes, some of which they took into their alliance and raised 
 to the rank of Roman citizens, and by systematically exter- 
 minating others that offered resistance, quickly opened a 
 route to the western side of the Alps, and, taking possession 
 of Gaul, made the beautiful country on the Rhone into a 
 Roman province, whence is derived its present name 
 Provence.
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 79 
 
 XXXI. The Getce and Bastarnce 
 
 IT is uncertain whether the Budini, mentioned by He- 
 rodotus, inhabited the west or the north of Russia. Their 
 name, blue eyes, light hair, and sacred forest lakes, indi- 
 cate an affinity with the Goths of later times [B.C. 500]. 
 The Getse dwelt near the mouths of the Danube, behind 
 them, further up the river, the Daci, and beyond them the 
 Pannonians, at the time of the invasion of Darius, king of 
 Persia, who, crossing the river, narrowly escaped total de- 
 struction on the steppes lying northward. His alliance was 
 sought by the Pannonians, who sent to him a tall and beau- 
 tiful girl, bearing on her head a vessel filled with water, and 
 spinning while she led a horse by a bridle on her arm ; on 
 observing his surprise, they informed him that they were 
 descended from the Teucri of Troy, and that all their women 
 were as industrious and as useful as the maiden he beheld. 
 On his penetrating deeper into the steppe, the Scythians 
 (probably of Thracian or German, Tartarian or Slavonian 
 origin) mockingly presented him with a bird, a mouse, a 
 frog, and five arrows, signs that implied, "Unless you can 
 hide yourself in the air like a bird, or under ground like a 
 mouse, or in the water like a frog, our arrows will slay you 
 before you reach our frontiers"; a threat they almost suc- 
 ceeded in executing, for, enticing the Persian army further 
 up the country, it was surrounded, and only rescued from 
 destruction by a successful stratagem. We learn from the 
 Greeks that the wise Zamolxis taught the doctrine of the 
 immortality of the soul to the Getse, whose king, Diceneus, 
 made him their legislator. Long after the disastrous expe- 
 dition of Darius, toward the close of the fourth century be- 
 fore Christ, Alexander the Great, when attempting to extend 
 his Grecian boundary as far as the Danube, overthrew the 
 Getse, and drove the Triballi, one of their tribes, from the 
 island of Peuce, which was probably held sacred by them.
 
 80 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Pliny names all the German tribes of the Danube, Peucini, 
 from this island. 
 
 The Romans had no sooner gained possession of the Alps, 
 than they sought to extend their dominion further eastward, 
 over Illyria, and to bring the German tribes of the Danube, 
 as well as the Greeks, into submission. The Illyrian queen, 
 the brave Teuta, whose ships spread terror and desolation 
 along the coasts of Italy, cut off the heads of their embassa- 
 dors and long bade them defiance, but being at length de- 
 feated, died of grief [B.C. 229]. Gentius, her third succes- 
 sor, struggled valiantly against them, and besought the 
 assistance of Perseus, the Grecian king, who, influenced by 
 avarice and indolence, left him to his fate, and he was forced 
 to yield [B.C. 167]. The embassadors sent on this occasion 
 to negotiate peace with the Romans were named Teuticus 
 and Bellus. The wretched Perseus, when too late, sought 
 to repair the consequences of his procrastination, and assem- 
 bled the GetsB and their northern neighbors, the Bastarnse, 
 in order to make head against the Romans. One of their 
 leaders was called Teutagonus. The avarice of the king, 
 however, proved stronger than his apprehensions, and he 
 refused the sum demanded by his allies; one of whom, 
 Clondicus, king of the Bastarnse, indignant at this base- 
 ness, devastated Thrace and returned to his own country, 
 without offering any opposition to the Romans, who grad- 
 ually subdued all the mountain tribes of Dalmatia and 
 Croatia, one of which, the Stoeni, rendered desperate by 
 defeat, preferred death to slavery. 
 
 XXXII. Irruption of the Cimbri and Teutones [B.C. 113] 
 
 IN the beginning of the second century before Christ, a 
 torrent of wandering hordes, the Cimbri and Teutones, de- 
 scended from the Danube to the Styrian Alps, giving out 
 that a flood had driven them from the North Sea, and that 
 they were in search of a country wherein to settle. During 
 their advance, they were joined by several of the southern
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 81 
 
 German tribes, among others, by the Boii, one of whose 
 leaders was named Bojorix. Their progress was extremely 
 slow, owing to their being accompanied by women and chil- 
 dren, cattle, and an immense number of wagons laden with 
 booty. The armed men alone mustered 300,000. The Cim- 
 bri had 15,000 horsemen, clad in polished steel armor, and 
 armed with broad swords and long lances, their helmets or- 
 namented with the horns of wild beasts, wings, and plumes 
 of feathers. These people were of gigantic stature, and their 
 long flowing golden hair, and fierce blue eyes, increased the 
 majesty of their appearance. The Romans, panicstruck at 
 their approach, dispatched an army to oppose the passage of 
 the strangers through the Alps, and to secure the allegiance 
 of their newly-acquired Alpine subjects. The wanderers re- 
 ceived the Roman deputation peacefully, and said that they 
 were only going into Gaul. But being treacherously misled 
 by Carbo, the Roman general, who suddenly fell upon them 
 during the night, while they were engaged in a narrow 
 mountain pass, not far from the city of Noreja, a dreadful 
 conflict took place, which terminated in the total discomfit- 
 ure of the whole Roman army; the few who escaped with 
 the general owing their safety to a storm, which suddenly 
 arose and rendered pursuit impossible. After this event, 
 the wanderers remained for several years in the Alps, slowly 
 advancing toward Gaul; the sturdy mountaineers every- 
 where swelling their ranks. On reaching Helvetia they 
 were joined by the inhabitants of two districts, the Tigurini 
 (Zurichers) and the Toygeni (Toggenburgers), headed by 
 the youthful Divico. The whole swarm now poured from 
 the mountains into Gaul, and took possession of the country 
 as far as the seacoast, the inhabitants flying for shelter 
 within the walls of their fortified cities, which were fruit- 
 lessly besieged. Their attempts to subdue the German 
 tribes, or Belgse, inhabiting the Netherlands, proved equally 
 futile. The Cimbri, either wearied by the protracted de- 
 fense made by the cities, or perhaps merely incited by their 
 roving and warlike habits, and attracted by the fertility of
 
 82 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the southern countries, forgot their first intention, and, while 
 the Teutones were busily engaged with the Belgee, resolved 
 to quit Gaul. On reaching the country near Marseilles, they 
 fell in with a Roman army guarding the frontier, and com- 
 manded by Silanus, from whom they demanded permission 
 to settle in Italy, which being refused, a battle took place, 
 in which the Romans were worsted. Another frontier army, 
 stationed near the Lake of Geneva, was attacked by Divico 
 at the head of the Helvetians, and so completely defeated 
 that all the Romans who escaped the slaughter were taken 
 prisoners and forced to crawl ignominiously under a lance, 
 placed horizontally on two low posts. 
 
 Another army, under Scaurus, sent to oppose them, was 
 also defeated, and the general taken prisoner. He was after- 
 ward slain by Bojorix, the youthful German chief, in a fit 
 of passion, excited by hearing the captive Roman proudly 
 foretell that Italy would never become the prey of the Ger- 
 man invader. 
 
 Shortly after these successes, they were rejoined by the 
 Teutones, and the Romans were only able to dispatch against 
 their now almost irresistible force a single and dispirited 
 army, commanded by two generals, Manlius and Ceepio, 
 who hated and finally abandoned each other. Csepio, by 
 plundering Gaul, imbittered the inhabitants against him, 
 and venturing unaided an engagement with the Germans, 
 was completely beaten [B.C. 105], and Manlius, who hastened 
 to his succor when too late, shared the same fate. In this 
 conflict, that took place on the banks of the Rhone, no quar- 
 ter was given ; every Roman was put to the sword, and the 
 immense booty that fell into the hands of the victors was 
 consecrated to the gods and cast into the river. The prov- 
 ince now lay open and defenseless ; victory had abandoned 
 the Roman eagle, and Rome, amazed and helpless, saw her- 
 self doomed to certain destruction; one step more, and all 
 Italy lay at the feet of the Germans, when, suddenly re- 
 nouncing their project, they poured across the Pyrenees into 
 Spain, then inhabited by the warlike Celtiberi, with whom
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 83 
 
 they waged a futile war of three years' duration, while the 
 Romans seized the unlooked-for opportunity to make fresh 
 preparations for defense. 
 
 Marius, a renowned general, by birth a peasant, intrusted 
 with the sole command, and armed with unlimited authority, 
 raised, as if by magic, a fresh and immense army from the 
 dregs of the populace, the slaves, and foreigners, which he 
 daily exercised in military tactics, and accustomed to the 
 endurance of the severest hardships, in which he set them 
 an example. On the return of the Cimbri and Teutones 
 from Spain [B.C. 102], he was strongly intrenched on the 
 Rhone, and firmly resolved to dispute the passage into Italy, 
 which three years before lay free and open before them. The 
 two hordes now judged it politic to separate, and while the 
 Teutones attacked Marius, the Cimbri entered the Tyrol, by 
 which country they intended to enter Italy. 
 
 XXXIII. The Destruction of the Teutones 
 
 THE Teutones, presenting themselves before the camp of 
 Marius, demanded land on which to settle in Italy, which 
 was contemptuously refused ; and, after vainly challenging 
 him to battle on the open field, they made a furious but in- 
 effectual attack upon the camp, whose strong walls and 
 ditches withstood their irregular mode of assault, and the 
 Romans soon became accustomed to the sight of their for- 
 midable opponents, who ere long, weary of the protracted 
 siege, resolved to leave the camp in their rear, and to con- 
 tinue their route toward Italy. Their column was six days 
 in defiling, nor did Marius obstruct their passage, although 
 mockingly asked whether he had any message for Rome. 
 As soon as their last ranks had disappeared, he broke up his 
 camp, in the hope, by making forced marches along bypaths, 
 of overtaking and surprising them in some favorable spot. 
 The Teutones, meanwhile, followed the course of an Alpine 
 torrent, and marched up the country to Aix, already cele- 
 brated for its medicinal waters, where they encamped in the
 
 g4 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 valley, and were amusing themselves with bathing, feast- 
 ing, drinking, and singing, when Marius suddenly appeared 
 on the neighboring heights. His soldiers, although fatigued 
 with a long march, were instantly ordered to erect a fortified 
 camp. Evening had already fallen, and Marius, anxious to 
 avoid a night attack, which might prove disastrous to him- 
 self, strictly prohibited any one to go down to the river to 
 slake his thirst, lest, by that means, an engagement with the 
 Teutones should be brought on ; but some of the men, unable 
 any longer to endure the thirst occasioned by a long day's 
 march, disobeyed, and, descending to the river, were at- 
 tacked by the Germans who were bathing. The alarm was 
 instantly given, and Germans and Romans rushed eagerly 
 to the spot. The Romans, dashing across the stream, at- 
 tacked the wagoned encampment, which was bravely de- 
 fended by the women, while the men rapidly assembled 
 from the more distant parts of the camp, and almost suc- 
 ceeded in obstructing the retreat of Marius, who at length, 
 though with great difficulty, regained the opposite bank. 
 The Germans spent the night in drinking and gambling, 
 and Marius, filled with horror as he listened to their wild 
 shouts re-echoing along the mountains, vowed to sacrifice 
 his daughter to the gods, if they granted him victory. The 
 following day was passed on both sides in tranquillity, the 
 Germans remaining peaceably in the valley, and Marius 
 awaiting more favorable omens from the gods, which no 
 sooner appeared than he prepared to attack the enemy on 
 the following morning, and sent, under cover of night, a 
 small chosen troop, commanded by his lieutenant, Marcellus, 
 to take up a position to the rear of the barbarians. At sun- 
 rise Marius issued from the camp, and drew up his army in 
 battle array, which was no sooner perceived by the enemy 
 than, eager for the fight, they crossed the stream and 
 stormed the hillside. The exertion of running so far, and 
 their repeated slips on the steep, smooth surface of the hill, 
 speedily rendered them weary and breathless, while the Ro- 
 mans, stationed in impenetrable masses on the edge of the
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 85 
 
 cliff, easily repelled every attempt made to dislodge them. 
 The immense numbers of the Germans now proved an addi- 
 tional source of disaster. Pressed upon from behind, unable 
 to find a firm footing on the slippery ground, or to use their 
 long lances and swords in the throng, their gigantic frames 
 exposed to the short keen weapons of the Romans, who now 
 pressed steadily down hill, while Marcellus fell upon their 
 rear and fearfully redoubled the massacre, as many dying 
 of suffocation as fell by the sword, they sought to extricate 
 themselves from the fatal position into which their reckless 
 daring and ignorance had hurried them, by flight. 
 
 The Teuton women defended the wagons to the last, 
 when they offered to capitulate on condition of their honor 
 being respected, which being refused, they murdered all 
 their children, and then killed themselves. Marius pre- 
 served the most valuable of the spoils to grace his triumph, 
 and collecting the remainder into an enormous pile, burned 
 it in honor of the gods. The spot on which this battle took 
 place, enriched by torrents of human blood and heaps of 
 slain, in the following year produced wines, which after- 
 ward became celebrated, and the gigantic bones of the 
 Teutones were long used for fencing in the vineyards. The 
 greater part of the fugitives were taken by the Gauls and 
 delivered to the Romans. Teutobach, the Teuton king, who 
 was discovered and taken prisoner in a neighboring forest, 
 was of such gigantic stature as to overtop all the other tro- 
 phies in the triumphal procession. He was the same who 
 is said to have leaped over six horses. 
 
 XXXIV. The Destruction of the Cimbri 
 
 THE Cimbri, meanwhile, traversed the narrow passes 
 leading from the Tyrol into Italy, and viewed with delight 
 the snow-capped mountains, which recalled to mind the win- 
 ters of their northern home. Half naked and seated on their 
 large shields, they slid down the glaciers, in those ancient 
 times one of the favorite amusements of the Scandinavian
 
 86 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 mountaineers. The fertile vales of Italy, where they ex- 
 pected to meet their brethren, the Teutonesj at length burst 
 upon their view, and were greeted with shouts of joy. An 
 army under Catulus, who had not ventured to oppose their 
 passage through the Alps, fled, on their approach, as far 
 as the river Adige, where, throwing up intrenchments on 
 both banks of the stream, they awaited the enemy, who, 
 encamping opposite the fortifications, tore up trees and built 
 enormous rafts, which they loaded with pieces of rock, and 
 floated down stream in such huge masses, and so quickly 
 one after the other, as to cause the bridge connecting the 
 two embankments to give way, and the river to overflow; 
 whereupon they raised such a fearful war-cry that the Ro- 
 mans intrenched on the further bank of the river, deaf to 
 the entreaties of their commander, fled panicstruck; while 
 their countrymen on the opposite bank, imprisoned within 
 their fortifications, defended themselves with such persever- 
 ing bravery that the Cimbri, struck with admiration, gave 
 them, unasked, peace and liberty. The wandering hordes, 
 intoxicated with success, now spread themselves over the 
 rich country around Verona, and madly reveling in the lux- 
 uries of the South, carelessly awaited the arrival of the Teu- 
 tones, instead of whom Marius appeared at the head of his 
 victorious army, strengthened by that of Catulus. The 
 Cimbri, unsuspicious of the truth, sent a deputation to de 
 mand land for themselves and the Teutones, to whom Marius 
 replied, "that their brethren had already land enough to rest 
 upon," and, in explanation of his words, showed them the 
 Teuton king in chains. In silent wrath, the Cimbrian em- 
 bassadors returned to their encampment, and on the follow- 
 ing day the youthful Bojorix, seated proudly on horseback, 
 appeared as a herald before the camp of Marius, according 
 to German custom, to challenge him to fix the time and place 
 for battle. With a sneer at their frank and loyal chivalry, 
 Marius named the third day, and the dusty plain of Vercelli. 
 The morning of the thirtieth of July, one hundred and 
 one years before Christ, broke. A thick fog covered the
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 87 
 
 whole country. The Cimbri were drawn up in a solid 
 square, each side of which measured 7,500 paces. The 
 foremost ranks were fastened together with chains, in or- 
 der to render it more difficult for the enemy to break through 
 them ; and as each man bore a shield that covered his body, 
 the whole mass resembled a wooden wall. Marius on his 
 side provided the long spears of his soldiers with grappling 
 hooks, with which to drag away the shields, the only de- 
 fense of the Germans against the Roman short sword. The 
 battle commenced, and the Roman cavalry, deceived by the 
 feigned flight of the Cimbrian horse, and blinded by the fog, 
 were drawn between them and the mass of infantry. In 
 this moment of danger, Marius entreated the gods for as- 
 sistance, and the sun suddenly beaming through the fog, 
 which a high wind began to dissipate, the Romans discov- 
 ered their perilous situation and retired, while Marius, joy- 
 fully exclaiming "The victory is ours!" made a vigorous 
 charge upon the infantry, who, dazzled by the bright sun- 
 beams which shone full in their faces, and suffocated by the 
 clouds of dust, were speedily deprived of their shields, and 
 a terrible carnage ensued. Unable to extricate themselves 
 from the chain that bound them together, and fainting be- 
 neath the excessive heat and pressure, the living were dragged 
 down by the dead. In this desperate situation, however, some 
 contrived to stand their ground, and with impotent rage con- 
 tinued the struggle, until the shades of night veiled the scene 
 of horror. Bojorix fell, sword in hand, with 90,000 of his 
 followers; 60,000 were taken prisoners, and numbers killed 
 themselves in despair. The women, dressed in black, with 
 their golden locks in disarray, long defended the wagons, 
 and slew every Teuton who fled from the enemy. "When 
 all was lost, they killed their children and then destroyed 
 themselves. The Romans even then did not gain possession 
 of the booty without a third battle with the dogs that guarded 
 the baggage. The Helvetii, who had not quitted the narrow 
 passes of the Alps, returned quietly to their own country on 
 learning the disastrous fate of their allies.
 
 88 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 The bravery evinced by the Germans so deeply impressed 
 the Romans that the terror they had inspired became pro- 
 verbial, and created a dim foreboding that their empire was 
 destined to fall by the hands of the sons of the North. From 
 this time, the Romans considered the Germans as, next to 
 themselves, the bravest people in the world; a belief that 
 was considerably strengthened during the subsequent wars, 
 and rendered the Romans less confident in their own power. 
 The wars with the Cimbri were also one of the primary 
 causes of the gradual decay of the Roman empire, on ac- 
 count of the opportunity they afforded for the usurpation 
 of the chief authority by plebeians, foreigners, and soldiers. 
 The Cimbri and Teutones may thus be said to have con- 
 quered even in death, and although without the participa- 
 tion of the rest of the Germans, and on a foreign soil, not 
 to have fallen in vain for their country. 
 
 XXXV. Mithridates The Insurrection of the Cimbrian 
 Slaves The Suevic Confederation 
 
 THE Alps remained long undisturbed after the occur- 
 rence of these memorable events. Rome, meanwhile, be- 
 came a prey to anarchy. Marius, supported by the soldiery, 
 attempted to seize the government, but after a furious strug- 
 gle was at length forced to yield to the young and haughty 
 Sylla. When imprisoned in the city of Minturnse, whither 
 ha had fled for safety, a Cimbrian slave, who was sent to 
 cut off his head, was so struck by the countenance of the 
 unarmed old man that the sword dropped from his hand, 
 and the citizens, moved by the incident, restored the aged 
 general to liberty. About the same period the Romans 
 waged war with Mithridates, king of Pontus, who had 
 boldly planned the deliverance of the nations subject to 
 Rome. His youth had been spent among the Germans be- 
 yond the Danube, with whom he afterward connected him 
 self by marrying his daughters to their chiefs, who assisted 
 him in his enterprise against the Romans, and formed the
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 89 
 
 chief strength of his army. But his brave and heroic spirit 
 was destined to sink before the Roman eagle, and after los- 
 ing three battles, being forced to seek safety by flight, a 
 German, according to the custom of his nation, yielded to 
 his desire, and deprived him of life [B.C. 63]. At the same 
 time a war of a far more fearful character was occasioned 
 in Italy by the insurrection of the slaves (who were prison- 
 ers, for the most part Germans taken in war), under their 
 leader, Spartacus. Gannicus commanded the Cimbri. For 
 three years they successfully repelled the veterans of Rome, 
 filled Italy with terror, and even threatened the imperial 
 city. But at length, rendered incautious by their rapacity 
 and rashness, and becoming disobedient to their sagacious 
 leader, they were all destroyed before they could succeed in 
 crossing the Alps [B.C. 71]. 
 
 The migration of the Cimbri and Teutones, which was 
 doubtless caused by pressure from the North, had occasioned 
 great disturbances throughout Germany, where a new power 
 had probably either formed in their rear, or after their de- 
 parture, as may be inferred from the fact that, shortly after 
 the Cimbrian wars, the Suevic confederation, which devas- 
 tated every country in its vicinity, and annually sent forth 
 a thousand warlike adventurers from each of its hundred dis- 
 tricts, is, for the first time, mentioned. While yet buried in 
 the depths of their wild forests, their name spread terror 
 through the Rhenish provinces and even reached the ears 
 of the Romans. The Rhenish Germans also owned their 
 inferiority to the Suevi, whom they considered superior to 
 the rest of mankind, and only comparable to the immortal 
 gods. Their separation from the western tribes, whom in- 
 stead of succoring they attacked, and drove into the hands 
 of the Romans, proved calamitous to Germany. Hemmed 
 hi on every side, they vainly sought to defend their liberty ; 
 and the tribes on the Upper Rhine that had united under 
 Ariovistus, with those on the Lower Rhine under Ambiorix, 
 were forced to yield to the victorious legions of the great 
 Caesar.
 
 90 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 XXXVI. Ariovistus 
 
 Two Gallic nations, the -<92dui and Sequani, dwelling on 
 either side of the river Saone, quarreled for supremacy, in- 
 stead of uniting against the Romans, who had already taken 
 possession of Provence, and were only watching for an op- 
 portunity to seize the whole of Gaul. The Sequani, being 
 worsted, called their neighbors from the Upper Rhine to 
 their assistance, the Tribocci from Strasburgh, the Nemeti 
 from Spires, the Vangiones from Worms, the Rauraci from 
 Basil, the Tulingi from Tuttlingen, the Latobrigi from Breis- 
 gau, the Marcomanni from the Danube, the Sedusii, Harudi, 
 and Narisci from between the Neckar and the Maine, in all 
 15,000 men, under the command of Ariovistus [B.C. 72], who, 
 uniting with the Sequani, at the first onset completely de- 
 feated the -<3Mui, when, instead of returning whence they 
 came, they resolved to settle in Gaul, and inviting multi- 
 tudes of their countrymen over the Rhine, ordered the Se- 
 quani to cede to them the third part of their land. The 
 Gauls, alarmed at this demand, sought assistance from the 
 Romans. Julius Caesar, the celebrated general, whose name 
 descended to a long line of emperors, was at that period com- 
 manding in Provence, and delighted at the opportunity thus 
 afforded for war and conquest, promised his aid and ordered 
 Ariovistus instantly to quit Gaul; to which the German 
 merely replied, "that the Romans were not concerned in 
 his affairs." On marching up the country, Caesar was in- 
 formed by his spies that the German women having prog- 
 nosticated evil to their nation on a certain day, the Germans 
 would, on that day, either refuse to fight, or, if forced to 
 do so, would be spiritless. Taking advantage of this cir- 
 cumstance, he attacked them on the day predicted, and they, 
 imagining their gods to be against them, were easily put to 
 the rout, and Ariovistus, whose two wives fell into the hands 
 of the Romans, escaped across the Rhine [B.C. 58].
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 91 
 
 XXXVII. Ccesar on the Rhine 
 
 ARIOVISTUS was no sooner driven away than the Gauls 
 discovered their error and found that they had only changed 
 masters. Caesar, after subduing the Helvetii, made the whole 
 of Gaul, notwithstanding the rebellious spirit of the inhabi- 
 tants, into a Roman province, and taking advantage of an 
 interval of peace, attempted to extend the Roman dominion 
 as far as the Rhine, the left bank of which had, for a con- 
 siderable period, been peopled by a multitude of German 
 tribes of greater or less importance. On the Moselle dwelt 
 the Treveri at Treves; further down the Rhine the Eburoni 
 and Tungri at Tungern ; the Gugerni between the Maes and 
 the Rhine ; the Menapii to the south, and the Batavi to the 
 north, of the mouth of the Rhine ; the Caninefati on the isl- 
 ands. Joining these, to the west were the Toxandri and Ma- 
 rini on the coast of the North Sea at Dunkirk ; to the south, 
 the Atrebati, Atuatici (fugitive Cimbri) ; the Condrusi, Coe- 
 resii, Poemones, the Nervii (a powerful people in Hainault), 
 the Veromandui at Vermandois, the Ambiani at Amiens, 
 the Bellovaci at Beauvais, the Suessiones at Soissons, the 
 Velocassi, Caleti, etc. Although all these people were gen- 
 erally denominated Belgae, each was distinct from and inde- 
 pendent of the other, nor were they even in alliance. They 
 did not all belong to the Frankish nation, several of them 
 having migrated from different parts of Germany. Contin- 
 ually at feud with each other, they had only momentarily 
 united in opposition to the Teutones. Fighting thus singly, 
 their valor was powerless against so formidable an antago- 
 nist as Caesar, who gradually subdued them, and easily 
 suppressed their subsequent attempts to shake off the yoke 
 [B.C. 57], 
 
 Shortly after this [B.C. 53] two nations, the Teucteri and 
 Usipetes, who had been driven out of their country by the 
 Suevi, crossed the Rhine, and demanded land from Caesar, 
 who, unwilling to tolerate so many warlike German tribes
 
 92 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 in Gaul, resolved to make a fearful example of them, in 
 order to deter others from crossing the frontier, and treach- 
 erously seizing the German leader, who had come into his 
 camp for the purpose of negotiating with him, suddenly at- 
 tacked his unsuspecting followers, and drove them into the 
 narrow tongue of land at the conflux of the Maes and the 
 Rhine, where the greater part were either slaughtered, 
 drowned, or taken prisoners. The remainder escaped to 
 their native country. Throughout the Roman empire, 
 there was but one man bold and honest enough to require 
 that Caesar should, for this scandalous breach of faith, be 
 delivered up to the Germans. This man was Cato. Not 
 long after this, Caesar threw a bridge across the Rhine at 
 Andernach, and marched into the country of the Sicambri, 
 who had refused to deliver up the fugitive Teucteri and 
 Usipetes. Unable to oppose him by force, the Sicambri 
 laid their own country waste, and fled with their wives, 
 children and property to the Wetterau, whence they watched 
 the movements of the enemy. The great Suevian confeder- 
 acy, meanwhile, flew to arms, and Caesar, after an eighteen 
 days' march through the silent forests, regained the Rhine 
 without having seen a single enemy. 
 
 XXXVIII. Ambiorix 
 
 DURING the winter preceding the year B.C. 54, a danger- 
 ous conspiracy was set on foot by the conquered Belgse, who 
 hoped to regain their freedom by simultaneously murdering 
 every Roman throughout the country. The plot was headed 
 by an old man from Treves named Induziomar, and by the 
 Eburoni, Ambiorix, and Cativolcus. The Romans had four 
 well-fortified winter camps in the different districts, which 
 it was resolved to attack on the self-same day. The strata- 
 gem, however, was only partially successful, but one of the 
 camps falling into the hands of the insurgents, and the brave 
 Induziomar was killed during the assault. The increased 
 vigilance of the Romans rendered any other attempt abor-
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 93 
 
 tive, and early in the spring [B.C. 54] Caesar appeared, his 
 ranks swelled by the Gallic tribes. The Ubii, a German 
 tribe, dwelling among the hills on the right bank of the 
 Rhine, being harassed by the Suevi, also joined him, and 
 eventually proved themselves the firmest and trustiest allies 
 of Rome, and the bitterest foes of their kindred tribes. It 
 was a common event for the Germans to be at feud, but for 
 a German tribe to shelter itself behind a more powerful ally 
 was deemed so deep a disgrace that the name of Ubii became 
 a term of reproach. Among the Treveri there were also sev- 
 eral men belonging to wealthy families, who, in the hope of 
 being able to usurp the supreme authority in their country 
 by the aid of Caesar, and of being created Roman governors 
 or prefects, enrolled themselves beneath his standard, headed 
 by the unworthy nephew of the patriotic Induziomar. The 
 Belgae no sooner came in sight of the immense army of the 
 Romans, led by their victorious general, than many of the 
 tribes, panicstruck, quitted the confederacy, and laid down 
 their arms ; but Caesar, fearing lest the more powerful Ger- 
 man tribes on the Upper Rhine might join the Belgae, unex- 
 pectedly crossed the river, and made an inroad up the coun- 
 try, which was again unsuccessful, and after traversing 
 uninhabited wilds, he hurried back to the forest of Ar- 
 dennes, in order to destroy Ambiorix, who, unaware of his 
 approach, was peacefully seated with his friends in front of 
 his solitary dwelling, when they were suddenly attacked 
 by the Romans. With desperate fury, he fought his way 
 through the forest, and the Belgae, believing him to be 
 dead, and despairing of success, dispersed. His friend, 
 Cativolcus, unable to survive his loss, killed himself. The 
 whole country was laid waste by fire and sword. The Si- 
 cambri, allured by the prospect of booty, now took advan- 
 tage of the general confusion and fell upon the Romans, 
 whom they stripped of some of their ill-gotten wealth. 
 Ambiorix also reappeared at the head of a small troop of 
 patriots, which he had collected in the thickets of the Ar- 
 dennes, and daily harassed and plundered the invaders. In
 
 94 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the following year [B.C. 53] success at first attended the 
 arms of the Belgian patriots, and the whole of Gaul rose 
 against the Romans ; but Caesar was again victorious, Gaul 
 was reduced into a Roman province, and the Belgae were 
 rendered tributary, and obliged to furnish a contingent to 
 Rome. 
 
 XXXIX. Boirebistas 
 
 THE intestine feuds of the warlike tribes to the north of 
 Mount Haemus, the Getae, Bastarnae, and Daci, were of in- 
 finite service to the Romans while engaged in subduing the 
 Alpine tribes, Illyria, and Greece. King Boirebistas, cross- 
 ing the Haemus at the head of the chief tribes of the Getae, 
 devastated Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria; but, instead of 
 turning his arms against the Romans, attacked the Boii, 
 and Taurisci, remaining on the frontiers of Austria and 
 Hungary, and, after a bloody battle, defeated their king 
 Critasiros and laid the country waste. The mountain tribes 
 of Illyria and Dalmatia, taking advantage of the quarrels 
 that broke out between Caesar and Pompey, Antony and 
 Augustus, rose" en masse, but, after a desperate struggle, 
 were again reduced to submission. Teutimus, the Dalma- 
 tian chief, long defended the mountain fastnesses ; and the 
 Taurisci, taking possession of the narrow passes of the Ty- 
 rol, slew every Roman who attempted to pass into Switzer- 
 land, at that time a Roman province. At length, after a 
 dreadful slaughter on both sides, the Romans advanced from 
 the Lake of Constance into the mountains, and systematic- 
 ally exterminated the inhabitants. Every man fell sword 
 in hand, and the women, maddened by despair, flung their 
 children into the faces of the enemy. The Roman historian 
 turns with horror from the monstrous crimes that blacken 
 the page in which the destruction of the ancient inhabitants 
 of the Tyrol by Tiberius, afterward emperor of Rome, is 
 recorded. About the period when Rome was erected into 
 an empire under Augustus at the time of the birth of Christ 
 all the countries to the south of the Danube, and westward
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 95 
 
 of the Rhine, were incorporated with it. The petty German 
 tribes of Frankish descent, on the Rhine, allured by the pros- 
 pect of gaining wealth and distinction, enrolled themselves 
 beneath the Roman standard. The Alpine tribes preferred 
 death to bondage, while others awaited, in feigned subjec- 
 tion, an opportunity for revolt. As a means of preserving 
 subordination, Caesar loaded the Germans, who entered his 
 army, with favors, and raised them to the highest honors. 
 It was to the bravery of his German mercenaries that he 
 owed his most brilliant victories over his rival Pompey. 
 From this period, Germans were always employed in the 
 Roman armies. The sons of the German nobility were also 
 sent as hostages to Rome, where they were educated, and 
 becoming enervated by luxury, caused these frontier tribes 
 gradually to relax from the hardy manners of their forefath- 
 ers. For still greater security, Roman colonies were planted 
 along the frontier, who raised cities and fortresses, and in- 
 troduced their religious rites, their markets, their laws, and 
 their luxuries among the inhabitants; so that within a very 
 short time all the countries, whose inhabitants were at first 
 merely tributary to or in alliance with Rome, were com- 
 pletely transformed into Roman provinces, with a new 
 language, new customs, and a new form of government. 
 
 XL. Drusus 
 
 AUGUSTUS, the first Roman emperor, dissatisfied with the 
 limits of the Gallic frontier, and ambitious of extending his 
 dominion beyond the wild forests on the right bank of the 
 Rhine, which had offered an invincible obstacle to Sigove- 
 sus, the ancient Celtic king, and to the legions of Caesar, 
 sent Drusus, his valiant stepson, at the head of a powerful 
 army, to conquer Germany. Between the Lower Rhine and 
 the Maine dwelt several petty tribes. The Mattiaci, north of 
 the Maine, on the Taunus Mountains; further north, down 
 the right bank of the Rhine, the Teucteri, Usipetes, Cattu- 
 anes, and Chamavi; behind them, toward the interior of
 
 96 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Germany, the Catti (Hessians); the Sicambri, who traced 
 their descent from the gods, in Sauerland, between the 
 Lahn, the Lippe, the "Weser, and the Rhine; the Bructeri, 
 in Munsterland (not the Friesland Brockmen) ; the Marsi, in 
 Osnabruck ; the Fosi, on the Fuhse in Hildesheim ; the Tul- 
 gibini, in the Duhlawald; the Ampsibari, on the Ems; the 
 Angrivarii, in Enger; the Casuarii, in ancient Hasegau; 
 the Tubantes, around Twenter, in ancient Twentegau; the 
 Cherusci, in Harzgau, whose name belonged to a confeder- 
 acy of several (gauen) districts, at the time of the Roman in- 
 vasion, and who were bounded to the east by the Hermun- 
 duri, on the Saal ; the Longobardi, on the Elbe ; the Angli, 
 Varini, etc., on the coasts of the Northern Ocean; beyond 
 the Belgae, the Frisii ; in the country of the Dithmarsi, the 
 Chauci; in Holstein, the Cimbri: all of which tribes were 
 now attacked by Drusus, who, invading the country of the 
 Frankish Usipetes, Teucteri, Mattiaci, and Sicambri [B.C. 12], 
 laid them waste by fire and sword. The Catti, who, shortly 
 anterior to these events, had separated from the Suevian 
 confederacy, refused to assist their suffering brethren, who 
 found equally powerful allies in the Saxon Bructeri and 
 Chauci; and Drusus, alarmed at their immense numbers, 
 prudently withdrawing from their neighborhood, took ship 
 and sailed to the country of the Frisii, who entered into al- 
 liance with him, and agreed to attack their neighbors the 
 Chauci, with whom they were at feud, and saved the Roman 
 fleet, which had stranded on the low coast. The autumnal 
 fogs and rains, however, caused the Romans to accelerate 
 their return southward, and the only advantage gained by 
 both these expeditions was the erection of a fort on the 
 Taunus, and of another at the mouth of the Ems. In the fol- 
 lowing year [B.C. 11] the six allied tribes making an irrup- 
 tion into the country of the Catti, who had refused to assist 
 them, Drusus seized the opportunity, and again devastated 
 their now defenseless districts as far as the Weser, where, 
 meeting with the Cherusci, the most warlike of the tribes 
 of Lower Germany, whose impenetrable forests barred his
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 97 
 
 further advance, he again retired, harassed by the tribes 
 which had returned victorious from their expedition against 
 the Catti. A great battle finally took place on the Lippe, in 
 which the extraordinary discipline and courage of the Ro- 
 mans alone enabled them to keep the field. On the bank of 
 this river, at the confluence of the Liese and the Gleene with 
 the Lippe, Drusus erected the important fortress of Aliso 
 (Liesborn), and extending thence a strong earthen wall across 
 the morasses as far as the Rhine, secured a military road 
 into the interior of Germany ; after which he recrossed the 
 Rhine, and built about fifty fortresses and towers along its 
 banks. 
 
 The ensuing campaign was carried on in the country of 
 the Catti [B.C. 10], where he succeeded in building some 
 roads and bridges, which proved serviceable in his next ex- 
 pedition against this people, whose Jand he laid waste as far 
 as the Suevian boundary ; when, fearing to offend that pow- 
 erful state, he turned northward, and pushed through the 
 Cheruscian forests as far as the Elbe, on whose opposite 
 bank he beheld a prophetess of gigantic stature, who, with 
 a threatening gesture, exclaimed, "Ah! insatiable Drusus! 
 to what do you aspire? Fate has forbidden your advance 
 through our unknown regions! Fly hence!" Terror-struck 
 at the omen, Drusus again retreated, but, before reaching 
 Aliso, his horse fell, and he was killed on the spot. He was 
 buried at Mayence, beneath the Eichelstein (from the Roman 
 eagle, aquila). To the present day the peasants of Lower 
 Germany curse in the name of Drus, whom they imagine to 
 be something worse than the devil. After his death his 
 brother, Tiberius [B.C. 8], invaded the country of the Usi- 
 petes and Teucteri, whom he subdued and threatened with 
 extermination, unless they persuaded the Sicambri to yield. 
 Upon this the chiefs of the Sicambri were sent to negotiate 
 conditions, but were treacherously seized by Tiberius, who 
 suddenly attacked and subdued the whole nation, whose im- 
 prisoned chiefs killed themselves, according to the custom of 
 their country. After committing this act of violence and 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 5
 
 98 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 fraud, Tiberius sought to gain the hearts of the Germans by 
 peaceable means, and by deceptive arts. For this purpose, 
 he invited the most influential men from the neighboring 
 districts, and giving them posts of honor in his army, loaded 
 them with gifts, and incited them to usurp the chief author- 
 ity in their several districts, and to rule despotically over 
 their fellow citizens. Few, however, attached themselves to 
 him. Domitius, another Roman general, who shortly after- 
 ward [B.C. 6] undertook an expedition to the Elbe, which he 
 reached, rendered the Roman name feared by his boldness, 
 and himself beloved by his gentleness and generosity. The 
 Belgae, on the coast, soon after revolted [A. D. 3], but were 
 again subdued, and, in the following year, Tiberius sailed 
 with a numerous fleet from the Northern Ocean up the Elbe, 
 on whose banks a sharp conflict took place with the Longo- 
 bardi, Senones, and Hermunduri [A.D. 4], in which he was 
 victorious. On this occasion, an aged warrior of the Se- 
 nones, approaching Tiberius, cordially offered him his hand, 
 rejoicing that in his old age he had beheld such a warlike 
 people as the Romans, a worthy opponent being the Ger- 
 man's greatest glory. Sentius, who was afterward prefect 
 of the Rhine, treated the people with such humanity that 
 they voluntarily adopted the customs and acquired the use- 
 ful arts of the Romans. 
 
 XLI. Varus in Germany 
 
 SENTIUS was succeeded by Yarus, a confidential friend 
 of the emperor Augustus; a man of high talent, and well 
 acquainted with the systematic government of the subdued 
 provinces. The remains of his magnificent villa, not far 
 from those of his celebrated friends, Horace and Maecsenas, 
 the favorites of the great Augustus, may still be seen in the 
 beautiful vale of Tivoli. This able and learned man, blinded 
 by his enthusiastic desire for the introduction of the customs 
 of Rome among the barbarous Germans, imagined that civ- 
 ilization must be welcomed with joy and gratitude, and for-
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 99 
 
 got that liberty is beyond price. As long as he remained 
 peaceably in his headquarters, which extended from the left 
 to the right bank of the Rhine, enriched the natives with 
 gifts, made them acquainted with the costly and luxurious 
 articles of the South, erected markets, and took their sons 
 into the imperial army, they loved and treated him as a 
 guest; but when, emboldened by success, he extended his 
 forces across the Weser into the land of the Cherusci, and 
 supported by Segestus, a treacherous chief of that nation, 
 began to tyrannize over them, by rigorously enforcing the 
 Roman laws, and chastising and executing the freeborn Ger- 
 mans, their goodwill changed into inveterate hatred, and 
 they determined to rid themselves of the despotic stranger. 
 Awed by the Roman army, which consisted of more than 
 30,000 picked men, encamped in impregnable intrenchments, 
 they long brooded in silence over their wrongs ; until a hand- 
 some athletic youth, named Armin, of the nation of the Che- 
 rusci, of noble descent and irreproachable life, skilled in the 
 art of war, which he had learned from the Romans, in whose 
 armies he had served with such distinction as to gain the 
 honors of knighthood, gifted with eloquence and inspired by 
 an enthusiastic love of liberty, appeared among his dispirited 
 countrymen, whose courage he quickly roused, and a gen- 
 eral conspiracy was set on foot in Lower Germany against 
 the Romans, whose destruction was planned in midnight 
 meetings in the silent depths of the forests, and Armin, 
 whose brother and nearest relatives favored the Romans, 
 became the leader and the soul of the confederacy. Not- 
 withstanding the secrecy with which these meetings were 
 held, they were discovered by Segestus, who, in the hope of 
 increasing his power, and of avenging himself upon Armin, 
 who had deprived him of his beautiful and patriotic daugh- 
 ter, Thusnelda, instantly betrayed the designs of his country- 
 men to Varus, who, confiding in his own power, and despis- 
 ing that of the Germans, treated the matter with contempt 
 and incredulity.
 
 100 THE HISTORY OP GERMANY 
 
 XLIL The Battle in the Teutoburg Forest 
 
 AUTUMN had fallen [A.D. 9], bringing the long rainy sea- 
 son characteristic of the North, when Armin began to carry 
 his long-cherished plan into execution. According to Dio 
 Cassius, he first induced Varus to send a considerable num- 
 ber of troops into different parts of the country, in order 
 to procure a winter supply of provisions, or to keep watch 
 over the neighboring tribes, which had not submitted to the 
 Romans, and then succeeded in drawing him with his whole 
 force out of the fortifications, by secretly inciting a some- 
 what distant tribe, whose name is not mentioned, to revolt. 
 Dio Cassius, whose account is by far the most precise, par- 
 ticularly mentions that Varus' road lay through the midst 
 of apparently friendly tribes, who, by Armin's advice, joined 
 him, in order to avert suspicion; and as there were no tribes 
 lying toward the interior of Germany who had yet been 
 subjected by the Romans, Varus could not therefore have 
 marched in that direction, nor was it likely that he would 
 undertake an expedition into those unknown regions at the 
 commencement of the winter season ; it is, consequently, far 
 more probable that the revolt broke out in the opposite direc- 
 tion, and obliged him to advance toward the Rhine. It was 
 also evidently the Catti who attacked him on his march 
 thither, while Armin fell upon his rear; a supposition con- 
 firmed by the circumstance of his having quitted the camp 
 at the head of the whole of his troops, accompanied by all 
 the baggage, women, and children, which would not have 
 been the case had he intended to maintain his headquarters 
 on the Weser, while making an expedition against a distant 
 tribe. According to Clostermeier and Ledebur, the summer 
 quarters of the Romans lay below Minden in Prussia, in the 
 vicinity of Reme, at the confluence of the "Weser and the 
 Werra, in the widest part of the valley of the "Weser. While 
 marching thence straight upon Aliso, Varus was accompa- 
 nied some distance by Armin, who, under pretense of taking
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 101 
 
 a shorter path, beguiled him into the narrow mountain 
 passes between the Weser and the cities of Herford and Sal- 
 zufeln, and, the instant the vanguard entered the forest, 
 gave the signal for the general insurrection. The Roman 
 soldiers, who had been distributed among the various dis- 
 tricts, were simultaneously murdered. The ambushed Ger- 
 mans poured in thousands from the surrounding forests, 
 breathing death and vengeance on their foes, against whom 
 heaven itself seemed to conspire. A dreadful storm arose; 
 the mountain torrents, swollen by the heavy rains, over- 
 flowed their banks; and while the Romans, encumbered 
 with baggage, and wearied by the toilsome march, passed 
 in long and irregular columns through the narrow valleys, 
 the fearful war-cry of the Germans was suddenly heard 
 above the roaring of the wind and waters. They halted, 
 panicstruck, and were in a moment assailed with stones, 
 arrows, and lances, while the Germans rushed like a torrent 
 from the heights, spreading terror and destruction around. 
 The well-disciplined Romans, quickly recovering from their 
 surprise, formed into larger masses, and offered a determined 
 resistance. The battle continued until nightfall, when they 
 gained a more open spot, where they intrenched themselves; 
 but surrounded by the enemy, and entirely without provis- 
 ions, defense was useless, and their only safety lay in flight. 
 Accordingly, at sunrise, after burning all their baggage, they 
 commenced their retreat, and after passing through an open 
 plain on the Werra in tolerable order, though not without 
 considerable loss, re-entered the forest-clad mountains at 
 Detmold, where, bewildered in an impassable valley, an 
 immense slaughter took place; according to Tacitus, in the 
 Teutoburg forest, "in saltu Teutoburgiensi, " probably in the 
 valley where the Berlebeche flows beneath the Groteberg or 
 Teut, whose summit is surrounded with a double Hunnish 
 ring of stones, and at whose feet lies the Teutehof, the owner 
 of which is named the Teutemaier. The survivors again suc- 
 ceeded in reaching an open spot, where a small encampment 
 was hastily thrown up for defense during the night. On the
 
 102 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 following morning, when not far from Aliso, fresh tribes, 
 probably the Catti, stopped their further progress, and they 
 were completely surrounded and annihilated between Oster- 
 holz, Schlangen, and Haustenbeck. Varus threw himself 
 upon his sword. A few of the Romans escaped to Aliso, but 
 afterward secretly abandoned that fort under the command 
 of Lucius Caeditius, and fought their way to the Rhine. ' 
 
 Armin now offered sacrifices to the gods, to whom he 
 consecrated the booty, the slain, and the chief prisoners. 
 He took bloody reprisals on the judges and lawyers, the 
 chief objects of his hatred: "Viper, speak!" was said to 
 one of them, as his tongue was being pierced. The rest 
 of the prisoners were iriade slaves. The news of this defeat 
 quickly spread, and the Romans, fearful lest the enemy, pur- 
 suing their victory, might cross the Rhine, hastily intrenched 
 themselves, and sent to Rome for assistance. The terror for- 
 merly inspired by the German name, by the memory of the 
 wars of the Cimbri and Teutones, and of the revolt of the 
 slaves, awoke afresh. The imperial German bodyguard, 
 and the Germans employed in the Roman service, were in- 
 stantly sent into distant provinces, and recruits were raised 
 in every part of the country for the formation of an immense 
 army destined for the protection of Gaul ; but so great was 
 the universal terror that the Romans refused to serve, until 
 forced under pain of death. These preparations proved, 
 however, unnecessary; the Germans satisfied with effacing 
 every trace of the Romans, by the destruction of the forts 
 and the military roads as far as the Rhine, which again be- 
 came the boundary of the Roman empire remaining peace- 
 ably within their frontiers. 
 
 XLIII. Germanicus on the Rhine 
 
 PEACE reigned a while. Tiberius was raised to the im- 
 perial throne [A.D. 14], and the son of Drusus, who after- 
 
 1 Clostermeier's account where Hermann overcame Varus. Lemgo, 1822, 
 contains a full description of the locality of this celebrated defeat.
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 103 
 
 ward received the surname of Germanicus, was placed at the 
 head of the forces on the Rhine, in the hope of revenging 
 the discomfiture of the Roman arms, and of reconquering 
 Germany. In the course of the year he suddenly fell upon 
 the Marsi, while they were holding a sacred feast, and lying 
 around the temple of Tanfana, 1 intoxicated and asleep. Im- 
 mense numbers were slain, but the neighboring tribes com- 
 ing to their assistance forced him to recross the Rhine. 
 
 The following year [A.D. 15], when he was setting out 
 on a campaign against the Catti, Sigismund, the son of 
 Segestus, came to implore his aid against Armin, who was 
 closely besieging his father, into whose hands Thusnelda 
 had fallen, and Germanicus, suddenly entering the country 
 of the Cherusci, freed Segestus and took possession of his 
 daughter. The youthful wife of Armin was far advanced 
 in pregnancy when led in the triumphal procession, and bore 
 her miserable fate without a tear; 8 her own father, whose 
 treason had been rewarded, and whose avarice had been 
 gratified by a gift of lands in Gaul, his life being no longer 
 secure in his own country, 8 gazing unmoved on the wretched- 
 ness of his child. The news of this disaster soon reached 
 Armin, who flew (volitabaf) throughout Germany, rousing 
 his countrymen to vengeance. Enraged at this insult to 
 Thusnelda, the Germans rose to a man, and even Inguio- 
 mar, the ancient friend of the Romans, joined Armin, who 
 soon again found himself at the head of a formidable army. 
 Germanicus, meanwhile, had prepared for war, and sailed 
 with a numerous fleet from the Northern Ocean to the Ems, 
 while an army was dispatched to the coasts, and a third, 
 commanded by Csecinna, advanced through the country of 
 the Marsi. Armin and his Germans now retreated with 
 
 1 A name that has had many derivations, the most probable of which seems 
 to be Fahne, or sacred standard, raised in Tann, or fir-wood. 
 
 2 Mariti magis quam parentis animo, neque victa in lacrymas, neque voce 
 supplex, compressis intra sinum manibus, gravidum uterum intuens. Tac. Ann. 
 
 3 The popular legends of Thusnelda are still extant, one of which relates 
 how, when concealed in the old fort of Schellenpyrmont, a faithful bird warned 
 her by his cries of the stealthy approach of the Romans.
 
 104 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 their families and property, and the whole country was laid 
 waste by the Romans, who advanced unopposed as far as 
 the recent scene of slaughter, where, with lamentations and 
 cries for vengeance, Germanicus caused the hones of the 
 legions of Varus to be buried. Meanwhile, the Germans 
 watched him from the mountains, intent upon destroying 
 him in the same defiles in which Varus had fallen; and 
 when he entered the narrow valleys, whose surrounding 
 heights afforded ambush for the enemy, Armin at the head 
 of a small troop retreated before him, until the whole army 
 had entered the pass and was hemmed in on every side. 
 The signal was given, and a dreadful slaughter ensued 
 [A.D. 16], but the cautious Romans, though defeated, escaped 
 annihilation by making an orderly retreat to the ships. A 
 part of the army that had been dispatched to the coasts of 
 Friesland was carried away by a flood on its march, and the 
 whole narrowly escaped destruction. Csecinna fared still 
 worse, being overtaken by Armin while retreating through 
 the country by the long bridges leading across the deep 
 morasses of Munsterland, which were fast falling to decay ; 
 and yet, although surrounded by dangers and apparently in- 
 surmountable difficulties, shut up in a narrow dell l through 
 which the Germans had turned the course of a mountain 
 torrent, and defending their camp while the water rose to 
 their knees and the tempest burst furiously over their heads, 
 the valiant Romans succeeded in cutting their way through 
 the enemy, and in escaping, though with considerable loss, 
 to the Rhine. The winter months were employed by the 
 Germans in besieging the fort of Aliso, but without success; 
 and in the following year [A.D. 17] Germanicus sailed with 
 a thousand ships up the Ems, and landing his army marched 
 to the "Weser, whose opposite banks were defended by the 
 Germans. On reaching the river, Flavius, the brother of 
 
 1 Probably in the forest-dad mountains of Caresf elt, where the ancient "bridges 
 of planks commenced, which in the fourteenth century still led across the mo- 
 rasses of Munsterland, in the country round Cologne, and were still called "the 
 long bridges," as in the time of Tacitus. They have been now for the most 
 part replaced by dams.
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 105 
 
 Armin, a Roman mercenary, stepping from the ranks, ad- 
 vanced to the riverside, and addressing his brother, described 
 in glowing terms the advantage of being a Roman citizen, 
 in the hope of inducing him to desert his people ; but Armin, 
 cursing him for a traitor, attempted to cross the stream with 
 the intention of killing him, but was withheld by his follow- 
 ers. The Romans now prepared for battle, and Armin, again 
 retreating, succeeded in surrounding and cutting to pieces 
 the Batavian horsemen in the Roman service, who had vent- 
 ured too far in pursuit. The next day the whole army ad- 
 vanced, but, on reaching the pass, Germanicus separated the 
 troops and pressed forward at the head of one division, leav- 
 ing the other at some distance to the rear, and the Germans, 
 rushing from their ambuscade, were consequently surrounded, 
 and, after a desperate conflict, entirely routed. This victory 
 was recorded by Germanicus on a magnificent monument 
 raised on the spot, although his loss was so considerable as 
 to oblige him to fall back on the Ems. Roused to frenzy 
 at the sigbt of this monument, and resolved to wipe off their 
 shame, tho Germans quickly rallied in pursuit, and another 
 battle ensued, so obstinately contested that night alone sepa- 
 rated the combatants, and the slaughter had been so terrible 
 that when day broke neither army was able to renew the 
 fight, and Germanicus, hastily retreating to his ships, set 
 sai ? .. jJisascer still pursued this ill-fated expedition ; a storm 
 arose in which most of the vessels were wrecked, and when, 
 shortly after this, Germanicus returned to Rome, the fort 
 on the Taunus was the only one throughout Germany in 
 the possession of the Romans. 
 
 XLIY. Marbod 
 
 WHILE these great events were taking place in the north 
 of Germany, the south did r. Dt remain quiet. The tribes in 
 the lower valleys of the Danube were continually at feud, 
 thus rendering it easy fcr the Romans to subdue, one by 
 one, those belonging to the Peucini, in the same manner that
 
 106 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Deldo, king of the Bastarnse, was overcome by Crassus ; and 
 Boirebistas, the exterminator of the Boii, the powerful ruler 
 of the Getse and Daci, was defeated by Tiberius and Piso; 
 on which account he was murdered by his subjects, the 
 Getse, by whom he had made himself hated ; but who, after 
 this event, quarreling among themselves, and being without 
 a leader, fell an easy prey to the Romans. It was about this 
 time, when Augustus was still emperor of Rome, that the 
 Suevian confederacy, from which the Catti first separated 
 themselves, was dissolved. Armin had, it is true, united 
 the Frankish and Saxon tribes of Northern Germany in a 
 temporary defensive alliance, and they carefully guarded 
 the Rhine; but. when the kingdom of the Getse fell, as well 
 as the Suevian confederacy, the Danube seemed no longer 
 tenable. It naturally followed that the inhabitants of the 
 exposed districts on the southern frontier voluntarily united 
 under one leader, who was intrusted with great authority, 
 in order to give unity and strength to their councils, the 
 Romans having taught them of what importance it was to 
 keep together in the fight, and to obey one commander. 
 Marbod, who, like Armin, had passed his youth among the 
 Romans, united the remaining Suevi of Upper Germany, 
 the Boii, and all the petty southern frontier tribes, and led 
 them far from the vicinity of the Romans into Bohemia, a 
 beautiful, fertile country, surrounded by a natural rampart 
 of mountains, where he was joined by the Getae, who had 
 fled from the East, and who aided him to subdue his Suevian 
 neighbors on the Maine and the Saal, who had refused to 
 league either with him or Armin. His people, collected 
 from so many different Sue vie and Gothic tribes, received 
 the appellation of Marcomanni (mark or boundary), and he 
 possessed the same power over them that was enjoyed by 
 the Margraves of later times, that of commander-in-chief, 
 with unlimited authority. He maintained a standing army 
 of 70,000 foot and 4,000 horse, exclusive of the armed popu- 
 lation. He had also a fortified castle in the interior of the 
 country. The Romans beheld this newly-erected power with
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 107 
 
 apprehension, and Tiberius marched against it at the head 
 of a formidable army ; but on his way, hearing of the revolt 
 of the Pannonians, he hastily concluded peace with Marbod, 
 who, more intent on his own aggrandizement than concerned 
 for the liberties of the people, abandoned his neighbors. 
 Commanded by Pinnes and Bato, they defended themselves, 
 with the courage of despair, against 200,000 Roman troops, 
 until Bato, seduced by Tiberius, betrayed Pinnes, but not 
 long after again opposed the Romans, and a second time, 
 yielding, the people shared the fate of the Taurisci, in the 
 Tyrol. At Arduba, the women flung themselves and their 
 children into the .burning houses, and into the river, rather 
 than fall into the hands of the enemy. These horrors, and 
 the heroic struggles of Armin, were beheld unmoved by 
 Marbod, who now openly manifested his intention of ally- 
 ing himself with the Romans, by whose assistance he hoped 
 to usurp supreme authority in Germany. In order to re- 
 mind him of his duty, Armin had presented him with the 
 head of Varus, as a mark of honor, but Marbod sent it with 
 a condoling message to the emperor Augustus. The Lower 
 Germans were imbittered against him by his want of sym- 
 pathy in the cause of liberty, while his very name was de- 
 tested by the other tribes, over whom, not content with rul- 
 ing despotically over the Marcomanni, he attempted to extend 
 his dominion, and, consequently, he no sooner attacked the 
 Senones and Longobardi, than the tribes of Lower Germany 
 flew to their aid, and a powerful league, headed by Armin, 
 was formed against him. Both sides assembled all their 
 forces, and a great battle ensued, in which almost all the 
 German tribes took part. Armin gained a complete victory, 
 and Marbod, retreating to Bohemia, sent to Rome for assist- 
 ance; but becoming intolerable to his own subjects, who 
 elected the Goth, Catualda, for their king, he escaped across 
 the Danube, and lived for eighteen years on the bounty of 
 the Romans.
 
 108 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 XLV. The Death of Armin 
 
 THUS Armin had saved his country from internal as well 
 as external danger. For ten years he had been general-in- 
 chief of the people, and his fame had spread throughout the 
 whole of Germany ; but as actions like his, before him un- 
 known among the Germans, were the offspring of extraor- 
 dinary circumstances, his fame naturally decreased in time 
 of peace, and it became easy for those who envied his honors 
 to instill the suspicion that he aimed at sovereignty into the 
 minds of a people so jealous of its freedom, a suspicion 
 strengthened by the example of Marbod, which served as 
 a pretext to his enemies ; and, at length, his own relations, 
 who were most strongly influenced by envy, conspired against 
 and murdered him, A.D. 21. From this moment the Ger- 
 mans no longer acted with unity, a circumstance of which 
 the Romans, anxious to preserve peace on their northern 
 frontier, did not take advantage. In the same year in which 
 A rmin was murdered, the Treveri, headed by Florus, re- 
 volted ; but the attempt failed, owing to their want of unity. 
 Some years later, A.D. 28, the Frisii shook off the Roman 
 yoke. The friendly manner in which this simple-minded 
 people had received the Romans had been ill-requited ; they 
 were treated as a conquered nation, and a tribute of ox-hides 
 imposed upon them, which was endured until Olennius be- 
 came prefect of the Rhine, and in the insolence of power 
 demanded not only common hides, but also those of the 
 buffalo, rare in Friesland, and moreover placed a strong 
 garrison in the country, in order to enforce payment. The 
 wretched people were consequently forced to sell all they 
 possessed houses, slaves, cattle, and even their children, 
 in order to procure the hides in sufficient quantities from 
 the neighboring nations. At length, rendered desperate by 
 necessity and suffering, they suddenly rose en masse, and 
 drove the Romans out of their country; an exploit which, 
 for the first time, made their name famous in history. Their
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 109 
 
 country retained its freedom, the Romans taking no revenge, 
 probably because the conquest of these poor people would 
 not have repaid the expense and danger of the war. Not 
 long after this, the Caninefati revolted, but without success. 
 The Cherusci were ruined by internal dissensions. The faith- 
 less relations of Armin attempted to introduce the Roman 
 customs, and to usurp the whole authority, but were resisted 
 by the people, A.D 47. The sen. of Flavius, surnamed Itali- 
 cus, on account of his having been born and bred in Italy, 
 was chosen king, but made himself so disliked by his Roman 
 manners that he was deposed; but, aided by the Longobardi, 
 he regained his throne, and the people gradually lost their 
 ancient power and love of honor. The Catti made continual 
 excursions across the Rhine, A,D. 50, until, rendered care- 
 less by sts "/cess, they were attacked and cut to pieces by the 
 Romans, when in a state of irtoxication. In the same year, 
 Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, led a great Roman 
 colony to the Rhine, and erected an important fortress on the 
 frontier, called, after her, Colonia Agrippina now Cologne. 
 
 On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Roman and 
 German frontier, was a narrow tract of country, which had 
 long remained uninhabited, partly on account of the migra- 
 tions, and partly on account of the wars. The Friedlanders, 
 whose population, as has ever been the case in Germany, 
 was too redundant for the land, coveted the possession of 
 this empty tract, and, in order to negotiate the matter, sent 
 Veritus and Malorix, two of their chief men, to Rome, where 
 they were well received. The magnificence of the capital 
 of the world did not tame the free and haughty spirit in- 
 spired by their forest homes. When, in the theater, the seat 
 of honor was not assigned to them, they took possession of 
 it, saying, "The German nation is the bravest hi the world, 
 and therefore the highest honors are its due. " Their request 
 was refused. 
 
 The petty tribe of the Ampsibari, driven out by the Catti 
 (who gradually sought to extend their limits), wandered along 
 the Rhine, and begged land of the Romans. Their request
 
 110 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 met with a haughty refusal ; and when rich possessions were 
 offered to Boiocal, their chief, who had served in the impe- 
 rial army, he nobly refused them, and, swearing to remain 
 true to his people, exclaimed, "We may want land on which 
 to live, but it is never wanting for those who die." He re- 
 turned with his tribe to Germany, where, being everywhere 
 rejected, part of it dispersed among different nations, and 
 the rest fell victims to hunger and misery. Soon after this, 
 a great war broke out between the Catti and the Hermun- 
 duri, who disputed the possession of the salt-springs of the 
 Saal, even at that period held in great estimation. The 
 Hermunduri were victorious in a pitched battle, and sacri- 
 ficed all their prisoners to the gods. During this year, 
 A.D. 58, a great subterranean fire broke out jn the banks 
 of the Rhine, with which the layers of peat found there may 
 perhaps have some connection. After the death of Nero, 
 the Roman tyrant, who paid very little attention to Ger- 
 many, several Roman generals strove for empire. Vitellius, 
 who commanded in Cologne, was the first who made use of 
 the Germans when attempting to seize the imperial crown. 
 He favored them so much as to allow them, when enrolled 
 beneath his standard, to wear the costume of their country. 
 After causing himself to be proclaimed emperor in Cologne, 
 he marched to Rome, where the appearance of his warriors 
 created great astonishment. He always carried about with 
 him a German prophetess, whose predictions were to warn 
 him of future events. An unsuccessful speculation, as he 
 was murdered. Vespasian became emperor. His son, Titus, 
 when subduing Judea, had also Germans in his army, whom 
 he praised highly, saying "that their souls were even greater 
 than their bodies." But there still were noble hearts that 
 throbbed with indignation at the baseness of their free-born 
 countrymen, in thus "selling themselves to the destroyers of 
 their fatherland.
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 111 
 
 XLYI. Civilis and Velleda 
 
 THERE lived a young man among the Batavians who 
 was called by the Romans Civilis, or the friend of the peo- 
 ple, and who had lost an eye in their service. Becoming 
 suspected on account of his love of freedom, he was thrown 
 into prison, together with his brothers, who were shortly 
 afterward beheaded. On his restoration to liberty, he swore 
 eternal enmity against his oppressors, and vowed, according 
 to the custom of his country, not to trim his beard or head 
 until he had taken ample vengeance on them. Finding that 
 his fellow countrymen groaned secretly beneath the Roman 
 yoke, which unity and energy on their part might easily cast 
 off, he appeared among them during a sacred feast at mid- 
 night in a forest, and with enthusiastic eloquence excited 
 them to open revolt. The standard of rebellion was raised, 
 and the Romans were simultaneously murdered throughout 
 the country ; an example that was quickly followed by the 
 Caninefati and Frisii. Victory followed victory, and one 
 by one every Belgian tribe, even the Treviri, encouraged 
 by the success of their neighbors, joined in driving out the 
 common enemy, or hi besieging him in his strongholds. The 
 Germans also in the imperial service deserted in troops to 
 the friends of liberty. The country of the Ubii was com- 
 pletely laid waste, and the most fearful vengeance was 
 wreaked upon all who had been faithless to their father- 
 land ; the city of Cologne, which submitted to the conquer- 
 ors, being alone spared, A.D. 69. 
 
 At this period, Vitellius and Vespasian were battling for 
 empire, and consequently the whole strength of the Romans 
 could not be poured upon Belgium, where the cause of free- 
 dom speedily progressed ; and although the fortress of Vetera 
 (Zante) was unsuccessfully besieged during the whole of the 
 winter, the affairs of the allies prospered, 1 and several other 
 
 1 The exact site is uncertain, but with great probability is placed, by Ledebur, 
 on the Velsberg ("Wellsaup) near Flaersheim.
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 German tribes evinced a disposition to make common cause 
 with Civilis, while Velleda, a maiden prophetess who dwelt 
 in a lonely tower in the Bructerian forest, and was regarded 
 with veneration throughout Germany, announced victory to 
 her people and destruction to the Romans. The most valu- 
 able part of the booty was always sent to her in sign of 
 honor, and she became as it were the inspiring genius of the 
 Germans in their struggle for freedom. The Gauls also 
 seized this opportunity to cast off the chain, and united their 
 forces with those of the Belgse, who, unluckily for their 
 cause, were persuaded by their new confederates to found 
 a great Gallic empire, which excited the jealousy of the 
 Germans on the other side of the Rhine, and cooled their 
 zeal, while the steady alliance of the Gauls could not be 
 counted upon, although for the present everything pros- 
 pered, and the flag of liberty ere long floated on the Alps, 
 and the Roman arms again suffered defeat in Helvetia. 
 
 The following year, A.D. 70, affairs took a different turn, 
 Vespasian overcame Yitellius, and civil dissension ceased. 
 Cerealis, a veteran general, whose name struck the Ger- 
 mans with terror, was dispatched into Gaul at the head of 
 a powerful army, and, on reaching Treves, easily subdued 
 the Gauls, who abandoned Civilis; while the people of Co- 
 logne murdered all the Germans who were in their city, 
 and delivered up to him the wife and child of Civilis, who 
 had been intrusted to their care. Notwithstanding these 
 disasters, the Belgae were not yet disheartened, and in the 
 first battle drove the enemy from the field. Another fol- 
 lowed, in which so many of the Germans went over to the 
 Romans that Civilis was forced to retreat, and throwing him- 
 self into the Batavian islands, opened the canals, and caused 
 a great inundation, by means of which he long bade defiance 
 to the enemy; but finding opposition unavailing, and honor- 
 able conditions being offered, he at length concluded peace. 
 His name was honored by both friends and enemies. Ac- 
 cording to a short account by Statius, Velleda was taken 
 prisoner by the Romans.
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 113 
 
 XLVII. Internal Dissensions Among the Germans 
 
 THESE disturbances were followed by a long peace on the 
 frontier. In the interior of Germany feuds broke out be- 
 tween the brother tribes, which afforded a delectable spec- 
 tacle to the Romans. The Catti fell upon the Cherusci, and 
 drove king Chariomer from the throne. There were also 
 disturbances among the Suevi, and Masyus, a king of the 
 Semnones, and the prophetess Ganna, who was almost as 
 famous as Velleda, fled to Rome, where they were honora- 
 bly received. Tacitus mentions the extermination of 60,000 
 Bructeri by their neighbors the Chamavri and the Angrivarii, 
 while the rest of the Germans looked on with indifference, 
 as a late and very remarkable event, and concludes his ac- 
 count with this exclamation, "May dissension ever reign 
 among the Germans, and thus prevent the danger with 
 which they threaten Rome!" Similar disturbances, occa- 
 sioned by military despotism and the discordant Gothic and 
 Suevic tribes who composed the nation, prevailed in the 
 kingdom of the Marcomanni. The Goths, under Catualda, 
 the successor of Marbod, oppressed the Suevi, who, rebelling, 
 drove them out and elected Vibilius, one of the Hermunduri, 
 for their king. Catualda went over to the Romans, and as- 
 sembled a great number of his adherents, to whom the Quadi, 
 dwelling in Moravia behind the Daci, associated themselves, 
 who were allowed to settle in Pannonia, which lay waste 
 and uninhabited, on condition of aiding the Romans against 
 their countrymen. Thus the new kingdom of the Quadi, on 
 the right bank of the Danube, served as a guard against that 
 of the Marcomanni, on the opposite bank. Catualda was 
 succeeded by Vannius, who, evincing an inclination to make 
 terms with the Marcomanni, was, at the instigation of the 
 Romans, seized by his own nephews, Sido and Wangio, who 
 were assisted by the Jazyges, the first Slavonian tribe that 
 crossed the^Danube. Roman policy triumphed. The united
 
 114 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Marcomanni and Quadi were beaten, Sido was rewarded 
 with the throne of Vibilius, and "Wangio with that of Van- 
 nius, for their devotion to the interests of Rome. But the 
 hatred of the Roman rule was deeply rooted among the Ger- 
 mans, and their friendship was more apparent than perma- 
 nent. No sooner was one nation subdued, or gained over by 
 the enemy, than another instantly rose to renew the struggle 
 for the glory and liberty of their fatherland. 
 
 XLVIII. Dezebal 
 
 THE ancient Dacian-Getic kingdom, which had been dis- 
 solved after the murder of Boirebistas, again rose. The 
 king, Durias, voluntarily abdicated hi favor of Dezebal, a 
 brave and intelligent man, his superior in the art of govern- 
 ment, who speedily united all the tribes, known earlier under 
 the general name of the Peucini, beneath his command. 
 Apprehensive of the event, the emperor Domitian sent Sa- 
 binus with a numerous army across the Danube, which was 
 annihilated by Dezebal, and the emperor, marching against 
 him in person, was also beaten, A.D. 89. The Marcomanni 
 and Quadi, ashamed of assisting the Romans against their 
 brethren, had, meanwhile, preserved a strict neutrality, and 
 Domitian, imagining that he could subdue them more easily 
 than the Daci, put their embassadors to death, and invaded 
 their country; but, emboldened by the example of Dezebal, 
 they offered him battle. A complete victory was gained, 
 which at once put an end to their base alliance with the Ro- 
 mans, and, uniting their forces to those of the Daci, they 
 became so formidable that Domitian sued for peace, and 
 agreed to pay Dezebal a heavy annual tribute, A.D. 90. 
 The weak Nerva succeeded Domitian, and Dezebal remained 
 In undisturbed tranquillity until the accession of the warlike 
 Trajan, when war once more broke out. Trajan, judging it 
 to be as dishonorable to allow the discomfiture of the Roman 
 arms in Dacia to remain unrevenged as it was impolitic to 
 tolerate so enterprising a neighbor, refused to pay the trib-
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 115 
 
 ute, A.D. 100, and marching at the head of a strong army 
 against the Dacians, conducted the war with such skill and 
 energy that Dezebal was finally overcome and forced to 
 conclude a shameful peace, A.D. 103. Filled with mortifi- 
 cation at his defeat, and with fears for his country, he once 
 more attempted to arm the neighboring tribes against Rome, 
 setting before them the danger to which they were exposed, 
 unless they united against their common enemy. His en- 
 treaties were vain, and he was forced to stem the torrent 
 unassisted and alone, A.D. 106. A long and obstinate strug- 
 gle ensued, and at length, completely defeated and driven to 
 desperation, he killed himself, after making a vain attempt 
 to poison the emperor. His treasures, which had been se- 
 cretly buried in the bed of the river Sargetia, were betrayed 
 to Trajan, who took possession of them, and Dacia became a 
 Roman province. A stone bridge, the wonder of the times, 
 was thrown across the Danube, in this part of immense 
 width, and records, together with the bas-reliefs of the beau- 
 tiful column still preserved at Rome, the name and warlike 
 deeds of Trajan. 
 
 XLIX. Roman Provinces on the Rhine and Danube 
 
 HADRIAN, the prudent and pacific successor of the war- 
 like Trajan, followed the plan commenced by Caesar, and 
 continued to Romanize the provinces lying on the frontiers of 
 Germany, besides completing their defense, by erecting for- 
 tifications along the left bank of the Rhine, and the right 
 bank of the Danube, virtually surrounding that frontier of 
 the empire with a chain of castles. At the most important 
 points, strongly fortified encampments, garrisoned by Roman 
 legions, connected by straight, high, damlike roads, and pro- 
 vided with watch-towers overlooking the distant country, 
 were constructed. The Rhine and the Danube generally 
 marked the boundary. Their banks were thickly studded 
 with castles and fortified towns, and their streams were trav- 
 ersed by bridges, the remains of which may still be seen at
 
 116 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Cologne and Mayence, besides the ruins of the one already 
 mentioned, built by Trajan over the Danube. 
 
 The Romans had thus already crossed both rivers, and 
 had built two gigantic tetes-de-pont to bar the further prog- 
 ress of the Germans. After the expulsion of the Dacians, 
 Trajan and Hadrian led powerful colonies into Maesia (mod- 
 ern Moldavia and Wallachia), in order to repeople that coun- 
 try with Romans, and to prevent the Germans from cross- 
 ing at the point where the Danube falls into the Black Sea. 
 The corner where the Black Forest penetrates into Basil 
 was a still more important position, on account of the obsti- 
 nacy with which the Germans defended the mountains be- 
 tween the Danube and the Rhine, which at once hindered 
 the junction of the Romans, and rendered them liable to 
 surprise on either side. Neither labor nor expense were 
 therefore spared in erecting the fortifications of the Black 
 Forest, which were completed by Hadrian, who built a great 
 wall that extended from Pfarring on the Danube to Mitten- 
 berg on the Maine, and is now known as the Teufelsmauer, 
 the Heidenmauer, or the Pfahlgraben. It appears to have 
 been completely fortified, and to have defended the whole of 
 the country lying to its rear. The roads of communication 
 between the forts were carried along the edge of the moun- 
 tains, instead of running through the valleys, in order to se- 
 cure the garrisons against ambush or sudden attacks in their 
 route through the forests. Modern tacticians have been 
 struck by the astonishing science displayed by the Romans 
 in their choice of positions for encampments, and lines for 
 mountain military roads, etc. German liberty could not 
 possibly exist within reach of these fortresses, and the whole 
 frontier lay waste and desolate, until by slow degrees re- 
 peopled and cultivated by Roman colonists, or by poor Ger- 
 man fugitives and deserters. These lands were called agri 
 decumates; it is uncertain whether on account of a tenth 
 paid by the cultivator, or from a Roman measure for mark- 
 ing out the fields, or from the usual plan of recruiting among 
 the peasantry. When the emperor Henry the First raised
 
 THE WARS WITH THE ROMANS 117 
 
 the first fortresses in Germany, one out of every ten peasants 
 was chosen to form the garrison of the fort, whom the rest 
 were obliged to maintain by their labor ; and it seems prob- 
 able that these agri were, in like manner, intended for the 
 maintenance of the Roman garrisons. 
 
 As countless legions were continually quartered on the 
 frontiers, the conquered tribes soon adopted the language, 
 customs, and luxurious manners of their masters, and a 
 number of Roman towns were either built behind the forts, 
 or the latter gradually swelled into cities. All the large 
 cities on both sides of the Rhine and the Danube were origi- 
 nally Roman ; the most considerable of which was Treves, 
 the capital of the whole of the northern province, celebrated 
 for its magnificent temples, palaces, amphitheaters, etc., the 
 ruins of which still exist. The remains of an immense aque- 
 duct are still to be seen at Mayence. Besides these, but few 
 traces of the ancient splendor of the Roman cities are now 
 visible above ground, but enormous foundations of walls, 
 mosaics, single statues, and quantities of coins have been 
 discovered beneath its surface. Numbers of old Roman 
 towers, easily distinguishable by their stones, which exactly 
 measure a Roman foot, still remain, and possibly owe their 
 preservation to their inutility. They were formerly single 
 watch towers, around which, in later times, towns and cities 
 sprang up. 
 
 The whole of the conquered country was placed under 
 the Roman form of government. The proconsul had unlim- 
 ited power and authority in the province, and was ordinarily 
 a general, on account of the continual war with the Germans. 
 The government was, consequently, completely military, and 
 as the regulations merely referred to the maintenance and 
 recruiting of the legions, the civilization introduced by the 
 Romans simply extended to the economy of the barracks and 
 markets. During peace, the levying continued; the feuds 
 between the German tribes, idleness, and curiosity, always 
 sending a crowd of fugitives or adventurers to the frontiers, 
 who entered into the Roman service and formed its bravest
 
 118 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 legions. Many of these deserters were attracted by the van- 
 ity of affecting Roman customs, which led them to despise 
 their native simplicity; others, by the hope of revenging 
 themselves on their former foes in Germany ; but by far the 
 greater number were instigated by mere love of fighting, 
 while all seemed alike unaware of the guilt they incurred by 
 aiding the stranger to lay their country desolate. The divis- 
 ion of the Roman frontier provinces was as follows : 
 
 The right bank of the Danube was divided into four 
 provinces: First, Rhastia, which extended from the sources 
 of the Rhine and the Danube to Salzburg and Ratisbon. 
 The capital of this great province, which was connected 
 with Italy by the Alpine passes, and with Helvetia and 
 Gaul by military roads, was Augusta Vindelicorum, now 
 Augsburg. The other considerable towns were, Brigan- 
 tium, now Bregenz, on the Bodenese; Campodunum, now 
 Kernpten; Regina Castra, now Ratisbon, etc. At a later 
 period, this province was divided into Upper Rhaetia, the 
 Alps, and Vindelicia, the country of the Lower Danube. 
 Second, Noricum, to the east of Rhsetia, with the cities 
 Juvavia, Salzburg; Lintia, Linz; Celeja, Cilly, etc. Third, 
 Pannonia, which extended from the Ems in the direction 
 of Hungary, where lay Vindobona or Juliobona, Vienna. 
 Fourth, Msesia, which stretched as far as the mouths of the 
 Danube, and formed throughout its whole extent the line of 
 boundary between the Roman empire and Germany. 
 
 The left bank of the Rhine was also divided into four 
 provinces: First, Helvetia, now Switzerland. Here were 
 built two magnificent cities, Vindonissa (the bridge on the 
 Aar) and Aventicum, "Wiflisburg, or Avenche; Augusta 
 Rauracorum, Basil. Second, Germania Prima, on the Upper 
 Rhine, with its capital Moguntia, Mayence; Argentoratum, 
 Strasburg; Tabernse, Rheinzabern; Nojomagus, Spires; Bor- 
 betomagus, "Worms, etc. Third, Germania Secunda, on the 
 Lower Rhine, with its capital, Colonia Agrippinse, Cologne; 
 and Confluentia, Coblentz ; Bonna, Bonn; Juliacum, Juliers; 
 Aquae, Aix-la-Chapelle, etc.; Bacharach has been derived
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 119 
 
 from Bacchi ara, a stone used as an altar to the Rhenish 
 Bacchus. Fourth, Belgica, with its capital, Augusta Tre- 
 virorum, Treves; and many cities whose French names still 
 betray their Latin origin, viz., Soissons, Augusta Suessio- 
 num; Vermandois, Augusta Verumanduorum ; Cambray, 
 Cameracum, etc. A catalogue of the roads raised by the 
 Romans in Germany during the earlier part of the third 
 century, now known as the Peutinger Table, has been dis- 
 covered. 
 
 PART III 
 THE MIGRATIONS 
 
 L. Revolt of the whole German Nation against Rome 
 
 THE conquest of Dacia turned the scale in the great 
 struggle between the two nations, and victory quitted 
 the standards of Rome for those of Germany. A 
 whole century had passed since the destruction of Velleda, 
 marked, on the western frontier, by no occurrences of more 
 importance than a few inconsiderable incursions. The Da- 
 cian war had scarcely affected the southern frontier. In 
 the far interior of Germany no Roman army had again pen- 
 etrated, and the Germans, rapidly increasing in number, 
 quickly regained their diminished strength. Rome, mean- 
 while, was fast falling to decay. The mighty empire tot- 
 tered beneath its own weight. The union of the numerous 
 and various countries and nations of which it was composed 
 could only be effected by the despotic extirpation of their 
 national characteristics, their courage and their worth. En- 
 slaved by luxury, and demoralized by a despotism based on 
 the degradation of the people, these degenerate nations hence- 
 forward supplied weak and worthless troops, who, although 
 superior in numbers and discipline, vainly sought to cope
 
 120 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 with the personal strength of their intrepid opponents, or to 
 protect the sinking empire. 
 
 To the increasing population of Germany, and the grow- 
 ing corruption of Rome, may be ascribed the great events 
 which took place during the second century after Christ, 
 when a sudden and terrific irruption burst like a torrent 
 from the interior of Germany, drawing after it fresh and 
 countless hordes, before whose irresistible might Rome was 
 at length forced to yield. This sudden irruption of the Ger- 
 man nations was undoubtedly, like that of the Cimbri and 
 Teutones, caused by movements in the north. The first im- 
 pulse was apparently given by the Goths on the Baltic, whose 
 descendants, at a later period, boasted of having gone, under 
 the command of Berig, from the island of Skanzia (Schonen, 
 the southern promontory of Sweden) to the south. But these 
 northern Goths could not have been very numerous, and the 
 enormous masses that poured in every direction across the 
 Danube and the Rhine into the Roman provinces must have 
 issued from the whole breadth and width of Germany, while 
 a very small portion could have come from the north. 
 
 It is a circumstance of much greater importance, that 
 from this period the countless minor tribes disappear, and 
 are replaced by the great German nations, the Franks, Ale- 
 manni, Saxons, and Goths, which could as easily have 
 sprung from the air, as from the cold and impoverished 
 north, and are the identical nations which, a century earlier, 
 inhabited the countries already mentioned. During the long 
 peace, they had increased in numbers, and had become more 
 civilized in their form of government, their laws, and their 
 religion; and, after a long silence, are again mentioned in 
 history as the same, but a more polished, people. All the 
 tribes of the Lower Rhine were gradually known only as 
 the Catti and the Sicambri ; all those on the Northern Ocean, 
 as the Frisii, Chauci, and Angli ; all those of Southern Ger- 
 many, as the Alemanni and Bojoarii; all those of Central 
 Germany, as the Hermunduri, Longobardi, and Burgundi- 
 ans; all those of Eastern Germany, as the Goths, Gepidse,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 1X1 
 
 and Vandali. The Franks and Saxons soon afterward ap- 
 pear in the place of the Sicambri and Chauci ; and all these 
 changes prove, that the small districts, formerly separate 
 from and independent of each other, had everywhere united, 
 and had formed into large communities. For instance, it 
 would not have been possible for the great nation of the 
 Franks to have sprung from the Sicambri alone. A union 
 of all the numerous minor tribes in the neighborhood, men- 
 tioned at an earlier period, but whose names have since dis- 
 appeared, must first have taken place. The cause of this 
 alliance is extremely obscure, but may have been induced 
 by several circumstances, such as common origin, the supe- 
 riority of a powerful tribe over its weaker neighbors, and 
 finally, the necessity of leaguing together on account of the 
 renewal of the war with Rome. 
 
 LI. The War of the Marcomanni 
 
 IT is a remarkable fact that the Roman empire was 
 simultaneously attacked, on the Rhine and Danube by the 
 Germans, and in Asia by the Parthi or Persians, A.D. 162. 
 The Rhenish tribes first rose. The Catti, formerly so incon- 
 siderable, suddenly invaded Rhsetia in immense numbers, 
 and advanced as far as the Alps, where they were opposed, 
 and, after an obstinate battle (several women being found 
 among the slain), defeated by Pertinax. About this time, 
 the Chauci appeared on the Northern Ocean, and, landing 
 from their pirate vessels, devastated the coasts of Gaul and 
 Britain. Shortly after these events, the Germans rushed in 
 enormous masses across the Danube, headed by the Marco- 
 manni, whose name was given to the war, accompanied or 
 followed by the Quadi, Bastarnae, and Hermunduri; the 
 Vandali and Goths, with numerous minor tribes, the Astin- 
 gi, Narisci, Burii, etc. ; and probably also the Slavonian Ja- 
 zyges, and Roxolani. These countless hordes first besieged 
 Aquileia, A.D. 166, a large fortified town on the Adriatic. 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 6
 
 122 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 The brave defense of this place, and the sudden appearance 
 of Marcus Aurelius, the wise and spirited emperor of Rome, 
 returning at the head of his victorious legions from the Par- 
 thian war, induced the Germans to retire across the Danube, 
 whence they soon returned, and again laid waste the Roman 
 provinces. A dreadful plague at the same time ravaged the 
 interior of the empire. 
 
 The emperor, undismayed by these calamities, collected 
 indiscriminately all who were capable of bearing arms, even 
 slaves and thieves, and marched to the Danube. It had 
 been foretold to him, that if he caused two lions to swim 
 across that river the enemy would flee; and he accordingly 
 did so, when the Germans, mistaking them for a couple of 
 dogs, killed them with their clubs. Two migrating Vandal 
 tribes were afterward persuaded by the emperor to assist 
 him against the other Germans, and after a desperate con- 
 test he was victorious over the Marcomanni and Jazyges. 
 The battle with the latter took place in the middle of the 
 frozen Danube. They were completely routed, and from 
 this single nation were regained no less than 100,000 Roman 
 prisoners ; a circumstance calculated to give an idea of the 
 magnitude of the war. The emperor followed up his victory 
 by an attack upon the Quadi, who, retreating far into the 
 interior, drew him gradually further into the vast wilder- 
 ness, where his army was threatened with starvation from 
 thirst, the long heats having dried up all the springs, and 
 their fate seemed inevitable, when their fainting strength 
 was revived by a sudden storm. A Christian legion, said 
 to have worked this miracle by their prayers, hence received 
 the name of the fiery legion. The Quadi were afterward 
 forced to make peace, A.D. 174, and the emperor, taking 
 advantage of the momentary tranquillity, restored the ruined 
 fortresses on the banks of the Danube, built several others, 
 and garrisoned them with 200,000 men. The Romans, pre- 
 suming on their strength, now neglected to fulfill all the con- 
 ditions of the peace, and began to annoy the Germans, who 
 8-gain revolted, and a battle was fought, which lasted an
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 123 
 
 entire day. Before the war was concluded Marcus Aurelius 
 died, and was succeeded by his son, Commodus, A.D. 180, a 
 licentious youth, who, anxious only to continue his debauch- 
 eries at Rome, instantly concluded a shameful peace with the 
 Germans. 
 
 LII. The Alemanni 
 
 THIS nation belonged to the ancient Suevi, and were the 
 ancestors of the Swabians. The petty tribes dwelling to 
 the south of the Catti and Hennunduri appear to have con- 
 federated with them, and early in the third century to have 
 formed a mighty nation, which passed the Heidenmauer, 
 destroyed the Roman cities and colonies, and made their 
 name feared throughout the whole of the Black Forest as 
 far as the Rhine. Although appearing under the name 
 of the Alemanni as one distinct and individual nation, they 
 were held by no firm political bond, and, as in earlier times, 
 were divided into several districts, each completely independ- 
 ent of the other, and governed by its own council, laws, judge, 
 or duke. Even in war time they oftener fought singly than 
 in unison, and only on particular occasions elected a tempo- 
 rary war-chief. They were bounded on the north by the 
 Catti and Hermunduri ; on the east by the Cenni (the an- 
 cient Senones, who had mingled with the Alemanni when 
 pursued by the Burgundians, who, issuing from Silesia, 
 gradually advanced toward the west) and the Boii Mar- 
 comanni (from whom descended the Bojoarii or Bavarians). 
 In front of them, behind the Rhine, lay Germania Prima, 
 Helvetia, and Rhsetia, against which they always, and with 
 increasing boldness, directed their attacks. 
 
 They first appeared in modern Swabia after the great 
 war of the Marcomanni, when peace reigned on the fron- 
 tiers. Caracalla, the Roman emperor, took them into high 
 favor, wore their dress and a light-colored wig in order to 
 resemble them the more closely, and is said to have been 
 deprived of his senses by the magical songs of the Ale- 
 mannic women ; often telling the Germans that they ought
 
 124 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 to come over and destroy the Roman empire, and then put- 
 ting the interpreters to death, lest the Romans should dis- 
 cover what he had said. This mad emperor, nevertheless, 
 often ill-treated his German friends. On one occasion he 
 sent for a number of the young Alemanni, under pretense 
 of enrolling them in his army, and then, with a scornful 
 laugh, ordered them to be put to death. A general insur- 
 rection, in which the Catti joined, was the immediate result. 
 The emperor was victorious, and, after the battle, asking the 
 captured women, "which they preferred, death or slavery?" 
 was answered by their murdering their children and then 
 destroying themselves, A.D. 213. 
 
 During the campaign of his successor, Alexander Severus, 
 hi Parthia, the Germans again crossed the Rhine, and occa- 
 sioned such universal terror that the emperor was obliged 
 to hasten his return to Italy, where he was greeted with 
 delight, but expired before the opening of the campaign, 
 A.D. 234. 
 
 The name of the next emperor is traced in German his- 
 tory in characters of blood. Public spirit no longer existed 
 in any part of the empire. The soldiers, numbers of whom 
 were Germans, usurped the chief authority and raised Maxi- 
 min, a Goth, a man of extraordinary bodily strength, and 
 accounted the bravest in the army, to the imperial throne. 
 In order to prove to his subjects that he had renounced his 
 former kindred, and was a thorough Roman, he instantly 
 continued the Rhenish campaign with unusual vigor, and 
 carried war and desolation into the very heart of his native 
 country. At the head of an innumerable army, which he 
 had himself conducted from the sands of Africa and the 
 steppes of Parthia, he marched triumphantly about four 
 hundred miles in different directions through Germany, 
 burning and destroying all before him. A great battle took 
 place in a now unknown morass or lake, in which the em- 
 peror narrowly escaped with his life. He is a proof of the 
 truth of the axiom, "that the renegade is ever his country's 
 bitterest foe." The ingratitude of the Romans fearfully
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 125 
 
 avenged his crimes, and lie J and his son, who is said to 
 have been the handsomest youth of his time, and who was 
 on the eve of wedding the noblest and most beautiful of the 
 Roman maidens, fell by their hands, A.D. 235. 
 
 LIIT. Alemannic Warriors 
 
 THE Alemanni invaded Gaul A.D. 253. A young warrior 
 inquiring of his mother how glory was to be gained, "There 
 are only two ways," she replied, "one by creating grandeur, 
 the other by destroying it. ' ' The latter possessed the higher 
 attraction, and leading a large army across the Rhine, A.D. 
 259, he utterly destroyed more than sixty Gallic cities, of 
 which not one stone was left upon the other. He subse- 
 quently fell into the hands of the Romans at Aries, and, im- 
 prisoned in an iron cage, was carried about the country, a 
 fit object of contumely and scorn. Gallienus, who was then 
 emperor, married Pi para, the beautiful daughter of a king 
 of the Marcomanni. Roman history, the only one that 
 touches upon these events, is neither graphic nor precise 
 in respect to them, and merely speaks of a battle, near the 
 Lake of Garda, where 300,000 of the Alpine Alemanni were 
 defeated by 12,000 Romans; and records that not many 
 years after the same nation again swarmed from the Rhine 
 and the Alps, until checked by the bravery and skill of 
 Probus, the warlike Roman emperor, who even, for a short 
 time, restored the Heidenmauer, and the fortresses of Ha- 
 drian, A.D. 277. 
 
 Christianity, meanwhile, progressed. Crocus is said to 
 have found some Christian clergy in Gaul, whom he obliged 
 to sacrifice to the gods. According to the legend, the em- 
 peror, Maximian, caused a whole legion, named the Thebaii, 
 with their leader, Mauritius, to be cut to pieces, A.D. 287, on 
 account of their profession of the Christian faith, with which 
 
 1 To this emperor is ascribed the transplantation of 11,000 British maidens 
 into Gaul, who, on their way, were killed by the arrows of the wild Saxons near 
 Cologne, on the Rhine. Legends of St. Ursula.
 
 126 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 he feared they might infect the rest of the troops. This event 
 took place at Sitten, or Sion, in Valais, on the spot where the 
 large monastery of St. Moritz now stands. About the same 
 period, at Augsburg, then a Roman city, St. Afra, a disso- 
 lute female, who had been suddenly converted to Christian- 
 ity, which she zealously preached, suffered the death of a 
 martyr, and was afterward canonized. Maximian, unable 
 to stem the torrent that threatened to overwhelm Italy, now 
 shared the imperial throne with Diocletian, who invaded 
 Swabia, while he opposed the Franks and Saxons on the 
 Lower Rhine ; but so little was effected that the civil feuds 
 among the Germans alone protected the Romans from de- 
 struction, A.D. 288. The Goths and Vandals pressed forci- 
 bly onward, opposed by the Thuringi, Burgundians, and 
 Alemanni. "Holy Jupiter!" exclaimed the Roman, Ma- 
 mertius, "at length they bathe in their own blood!" But 
 the exultation of the Romans was only momentary; Hel- 
 vetia was before long again invaded by the Alemanni, who, 
 during this irruption, destroyed all the works of the Romans, 
 particularly the magnificent cities of Vindonissa and Aventi- 
 cum, A.D. 303, which were so completely razed to the ground 
 that, fifty years later, a forest, known as the Helvetian Wil- 
 derness, covered their sites. The Alemanni were in such 
 force on the Upper Rhine that Constantine the Great, the 
 first emperor who professed Christianity, which he estab- 
 lished throughout the empire, owed his elevation to the 
 throne to their friendship, and particularly to that of their 
 leader, Crocus. Proclaimed emperor by the troops on the 
 Rhine, A.D. 306, he defeated his rival by. the assistance of 
 the Germans, whose services were afterward requited with 
 ingratitude, as will hereafter be related. After waging a 
 cruel war against the Franks, he erected a fortress, named 
 after him, Constance, on the Bodensee, with such a hostile 
 intention against the Alemanni that they finally joined the 
 Franks, but were defeated, and for some time after remained 
 in tranquillity. 
 
 Constantius, the son and successor of Constantine, being
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 127 
 
 furiously attacked by his father's bitter enemies, the Franks, 
 anxiously sought the alliance of the Alemanni, whose chief, 
 Chnodomar, a gigantic warrior, aided him in subduing- them 
 and their leader, Magnentius ; but scarcely were they van- 
 quished than the faithless emperor, uniting with a part of 
 them, attacked his allies, A.D. 353, who revenged his treach- 
 ery by devastating the Roman frontier. They were victori- 
 ous on the Alps, but were afterward defeated near the Bo- 
 densee by Arbetius, the Roman general, A.D. 355. Shortly 
 after this, the emperor Julian the Apostate, who commanded 
 on the Rhine, and his lieutenant, Barbatius, simultaneously 
 invaded Swabia, from opposite quarters; upon which the 
 Alemanni marched boldly between the invading armies as 
 far as Lyons, destroyed several cities on their route, and 
 then, returning to the Rhine, suddenly attacked Barbatius, 
 over whom they gained a complete victory, and retreated 
 to their own country laden with spoil. Julian raised the 
 fortress of Tres Tabernae, Zabern, as a rendezvous for the 
 troops, and collected a numerous army, which induced 
 the whole nation of the Alemanni to join the standard of 
 Chnodomar, who, mounted on a fiery horse, his helmet 
 adorned with red plumes, and an enormous lance in his 
 right hand, crossed the Alps at their head, and solemnly 
 demanded the cession of Alsace from the emperor, who dis- 
 missed his embassadors, and gave him battle near Stras- 
 burg. An immense slaughter ensued. As soon as victory 
 began to side with the Romans, the infantry of the Alemanni 
 obliged their princes and nobles to dismount and to fight on 
 foot, so that none could save themselves by flight. Chnodo- 
 mar, becoming entangled in a morass, was taken prisoner, 
 and two hundred of his companions in arms, who formed 
 his bodyguard, voluntarily yielded to the conqueror, in order 
 to share his fate. He was carried to Rome, where he died 
 of nostalgia. Julian then sailed up the Maine, wasting the 
 country of the Alemanni on the right bank as far as Spes- 
 sart, where the natives made a valiant defense behind an 
 impenetrable abatis. The greater part of the nation was.
 
 128 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 however, forced to submit, and to deliver up 20,000 Roman 
 prisoners, besides furnishing wood from their forests for the 
 reconstruction of the cities they had destroyed on the Rhine, 
 A.D. 357. The Alemanni were now hard pushed by Julian, 
 who, following up his victory, and contriving to render their 
 leaders suspected, and to set them at variance, took some 
 by stratagem, and made the rest submit by force. On their 
 again meeting, as was their custom, for the purpose of plan- 
 ning a conspiracy, during one of their midnight festivals, 
 he attacked them so suddenly that they escaped with great 
 difficulty by flight, A.D. 359. Vadomar, whom he invited 
 to a banquet and treacherously seized, afterward served in 
 Asia, and distinguished himself as a Roman general in the 
 Parthian war. After the departure of Julian, the Alemanni 
 regained courage, crossed the Rhine on the ice, and devastated 
 Gaul, but were surprised near Chalons, while bathing in the 
 Marne, by Jovinus, who put them to the rout, and hanged 
 their leader, A.D. 360. The following year they made an- 
 other incursion under Rhando, and attacked the city of 
 Mayence; upon which the emperor Valentinian, assisted 
 by Jovinus, invaded the Black Forest, A.D. 361, where he 
 was skillfully opposed by Viticabius, the sickly but energetic 
 son of Vadomar, and by Macrian, the equally sickly, but 
 intelligent leader of the Catti; the former of whom he caused 
 to be murdered. The latter defied his attempts. The Ale- 
 manni and Catti made a desperate defense on a high moun- 
 tain near Sulz, A.D. 368. The emperor, unable to reduce 
 them to submission, now incited the Burgundians against 
 them, and a quarrel, similar to that between the Catti and 
 Hermunduri, arose between them, on account of the salt- 
 works on their frontiers, and the Burgundians marched 
 against them to the number of 80,000 men. Upon this, 
 Macrian prudently made terms with them, and avoided a 
 battle; and the Romans, afraid of their new guests, break- 
 ing the treaty, the Burgundians murdered the Roman dele- 
 gates, A.D, 370, and returned to then* own country. The 
 indefatigable emperor then incited the Franks against the
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 129 
 
 Alemanni, while Macrian, with equal perseverance, sought 
 to confederate the whole of the northern Germans against 
 him. The emperor, discovering some of his letters to Hor- 
 tar, a conquered Alemannic prince, tortured him to death, 
 and nearly succeeded in capturing Macrian (in aquis Mat- 
 tiacis) at Wiesbaden, where he was lying sick, A.D. 371. 
 The repeated and bloody defeats suffered by the Romans 
 on the Danube, in their war with the Goths, now forced 
 them to withdraw from the Rhine, where the faithless Mel- 
 lobaudes, who favored the Romans, laid wait for Macrian 
 and murdered him. Two years after, A.D. 375, the Ale- 
 manni, under Priarius, invaded Alsace, but were defeated 
 and cut to pieces at Colmar by Mellobaudes. Although the 
 power of Rome was forever annihilated, the Alemanni were 
 forced to quit Gaul, and, wandering southward, peopled the 
 Alps, where their descendants, the Swiss, still dwell. In 
 the fourth century, Ausonius, the Roman poet, whose works 
 are still extant, immortalized the charms of Bissula, an Ale- 
 mannic maid. 
 
 LIV. The Franks 
 
 AMONG the Low German tribes, who fought under Armin, 
 appear the Catti and the Chauci, who, in the third century, 
 although the names of the individual tribes were not yet en- 
 tirely lost, were gradually included under the general denomi- 
 nation of Franks and Saxons. Frank signifies free, and the 
 tribes that confederated for the preservation of their freedom 
 were distinguished by this name. The experience gained in 
 the Roman war taught them the value of union, and their 
 ancient book of laws boasts in its preface that the confeder- 
 ated Franks were powerful enough completely to cast off the 
 galling Roman yoke (gens Francorum, firma pacis foadere, 
 quae Romanorum jugum durissimum de suis cervicibus ex- 
 cussit pugnando). Their name, although not mentioned by 
 the Roman historians until the third century after Christ, 
 may, with great probability, be ascribed to the time of 
 Civilis, who roused all the Lower Germans in the name
 
 130 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of Freedom, and, according to Tacitus, said expressly to the 
 people of Cologne," You will be free (frank) among the free" 
 (franken) ; liberi inter liberos eritis. Nazarius, the panegy- 
 rist of Constantine, says that all the Lower German tribes 
 had formed a strong league (conspiratione fcederatse societatis 
 exarserunt). The Franks, like the Alemanni, were for a long 
 period a simple federation of independent tribes, composed of 
 the Sicambri, Chamavri, Bructeri, Catti, Cherusci, etc., and 
 all the other petty Low German tribes, which, with the ex- 
 ception of a few that united with the Saxons, were, at a later 
 period, included under two heads, as Salic and Ripuarian 
 Franks. They had also among them many petty leaders or 
 dukes, who were even oftener at feud with one another than 
 those of the Alemanni. They are first mentioned as fight- 
 ing against the emperor Gallienus, by whom they were de- 
 feated, A.D. 256. They subsequently made a great irruption 
 into Gaul, A.D. 260, and thence penetrating into Spain (ac- 
 cording to Aurelius Victor, who merely mentions the fact), 
 destroyed the great city of Tarragona, and for twelve years 
 maintained their position on the other side of the Pyrenees, 
 whence they were driven by Posthumus. Their ships are 
 said, even at that early period, to have visited Africa. Au- 
 relian repelled a fresh irruption of the Franks into Gaul, 
 A.D. 265. After his death, A.D. 273, they again invaded 
 that country, and found a powerful opponent in his suc- 
 cessor, Probus, who defeated both them and the Alemanni, 
 A.D. 277, repaired the old Roman fortresses, walls, and 
 roads, and subdued the Gothic Lygii and Arii, whose prince, 
 Semnus, fell into his hands. He also reduced the Burgun- 
 dians and Vandals, in the interior of Germany, to submis- 
 sion, took Igillus, the Vandal prince, prisoner, and settled 
 the vanquished tribe in the country of Vandelsburg, in Brit- 
 ain; his policy being to remove the Germans to distant 
 countries, when he engaged them in the Roman service. He 
 valued the Germans at a gold piece a head, and carried on 
 a regular plan of kidnapping. He caused several thousand 
 Frankish men and youths to be transported to Asia, where
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 131 
 
 he settled them on the borders of the Black Sea. He re- 
 mained for some time on the Rhine, fortifying the banks and 
 adorning them with vineyards. The fortifications were after- 
 ward destroyed by the Franks and Alemanni, who carefully 
 preserved the vineyards from injury, and cultivated them 
 with the greatest assiduity. These improvements were fatal 
 to the emperor Probus, who was murdered by his own sol- 
 diers, impatient of the hard labor imposed upon them in the 
 cultivation of these vineyards. At the same time, the Franks, 
 who had been transported to Asia, being pressed beyond en- 
 durance, suddenly rose, and after murdering all the Romans 
 in their vicinity, seized a considerable fleet, which lay at 
 anchor in the Black Sea, sailed to the Archipelago, plun- 
 dered the wealthy maritime cities and landed in Sicily, where 
 they took the great city of Syracuse, and returned to their 
 ships laden with booty. Landing in Africa, they battled 
 with the Romans beneath the walls of Carthage, and being 
 worsted, retreated to their ships, sailed unopposed through 
 the Mediterranean, and coasting Spain and Gaul, as far as 
 the Northern Ocean, returned laden with wealth to their 
 native country. 
 
 LV. Prankish Upstarts and Traitors 
 
 AFTER the death of Probus, the Franks again crossed the 
 frontier, and attacked the emperor Maximian at Treves, where 
 he held his court, but were repulsed, and compelled to replace 
 their prince, Genobaudes, whom they had driven away, on 
 his throne. In the hope of winning them over, the emperor 
 ceded the waste country lying on the frontiers, and entered 
 into an alliance with them. This narrow-sighted policy pro- 
 duced most important results. The Franks, taking advan- 
 tage of their central position, aided the Romans against the 
 other Germans, or vice versd, as better suited their own 
 projects of aggrandizement, while they imperceptibly in* 
 creased in power and in political weight. 
 
 Constantino the Great, although a Christian, was cruel,
 
 132 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 false, and treacherous, and the instigator of treason in oth- 
 ers. When celebrating his victory over the Franks at Treves, 
 he caused a number of the prisoners, among others two Frank- 
 ish princes, Ascar and Ragais, to be thrown to the wild beasts 
 in the amphitheater, where, smiling in scorn, they met their 
 doom with the utmost intrepidity. The whole of the Ger- 
 mans, Franks, and Alemanni, enraged at this act of cruelty 
 and thirsting for revenge, united against the emperor, who, 
 entering their camp in disguise, gave them false information 
 of his departure, and of the place and time when he would 
 be most open to attack. The stratagem succeeded, and the 
 allied Germans were completely beaten, A.D. 310. He now 
 plotted their entire reduction, and pretending to be on the 
 point of undertaking an expedition against the Alemanni, 
 suddenly changed his course, and marching down the Rhine 
 unexpectedly attacked the Franks, A.D. 318. The erection 
 of a great bridge near Cologne afforded him for the future 
 free ingress into their country. (This bridge was standing 
 until 955, when it was broken up by order of Archbishop Bru- 
 no, and the stones were used in building the monastery of St. 
 Pantaleone. ) Notwithstanding this ill treatment, the Franks 
 again befriended the emperor, and flocking beneath his stand- 
 ard, aided in vanquishing Licinius, the competitor for the im- 
 perial throne. It was on this occasion that he invoked the 
 God of the Christians to grant him the victory, and in conse- 
 quence of his success embraced their religion. The impor- 
 tance to which the Frankish nation had already risen is 
 clearly demonstrated by the circumstance of a soldier named 
 Magnentius having set himself up as a candidate for the im- 
 perial throne, in opposition to Constantius, the successor of 
 Constantino. He was betrayed by Silvanus, one of his coun- 
 trymen, who deserted to the emperor with part of his follow- 
 ers at the decisive moment. On the eve of the great battle 
 of Mursa on the Drave, Magnentius entreated the gods for 
 victory, and after sacrificing a maiden on the altar, mixed 
 her blood with wine, which he distributed to the whole army. 
 His defeat was decisive, and he killed himself. His brother,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 133 
 
 Deventius, who had remained in Gaul, defended himself for 
 some time, but, finding opposition useless, also deprived him- 
 self of life, A.D. 353. Silvanus, after assisting hi driving his 
 fellow countrymen back to the frontier, incurred the sus- 
 picion of having connived at a fresh and unexpected irrup- 
 tion on their part, in which they destroyed forty cities, and 
 Constantius lending an ear to the insinuations of his secret 
 enemies, he was compelled to seek safety by flight, and re- 
 joined his countrymen, who received him with delight, and 
 solemnly proclaimed him emperor at Cologne. He was mur- 
 dered by a certain Nosicius, A.D. 356, a pretended deserter, 
 employed for that purpose by Constantius. The emperor 
 Julian also combated the Franks, who, for thirty days, fruit- 
 lessly besieged him in Sens, when dissension again broke out 
 among them. The ancient Sicambri, who dwelt close to the 
 Roman frontier, were pressed upon by then- neighbors the 
 Chamavri. Charietto, the leader of the Sicambri, aided by 
 Julian, defeated the Chamavri, and took their chief, Nelio- 
 gast, prisoner, A.D. 360. The whole frontier of the Nether- 
 lands was afterward held by the Sicambri as a Roman fief, 
 and they are henceforward known as the Salic Franks. 
 Charietto became their first prefect, and afforded great 
 assistance to the emperor against the Alemanni. He was 
 succeeded by Mellobaudes, who was also in alliance with 
 Rome. 
 
 Somewhat later, the Franks were governed by three 
 princes, Marcomir, Genobald, and Sunno; and it appears 
 that at that period a reaction took place in the feelings of 
 the people, who once more began to feel ashamed of the 
 treasonable part they enacted by thus affording assistance 
 to the enemies of their country. Their countryman, Arbo- 
 gastes, the zealous ally of Rome, was their most violent 
 opponent during their heroic struggle for freedom. 
 
 The emperor Maximus sent Quintinus at the head of a 
 powerful force into their country, where they lay in wait 
 for him in the forests, as is expressly related, armed with 
 poisoned arrows, and he suffered a discomfiture as complete
 
 134 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 as that of Varus, but few of the soldiers escaping to bear 
 news of the disaster. The conquerors followed up their vic- 
 tory by the invasion of Gaul, A.D. 388, when they were at 
 first opposed by Arbogastes, who soon after, changing his 
 plans, arbitrarily set up a new emperor, by name Eugenius, 
 a rhetorician, and negotiated for peace and alliance with 
 the invaders, whom he finally persuaded to lend their aid 
 to Eugenius, upon which a destructive war broke out be- 
 tween them and the rival emperor, Theodosius, who was 
 supported by the Goths. A great battle took place between 
 the two nations at Aquileia, in which the Goths were victo- 
 rious. Eugenius was executed, and Arbogastes fled to the 
 Alps, where he put an end to his life, A.D. 394. 
 
 The difference between the national character of the 
 Franks and that of the Alemanni is visible even at this 
 early period ; and to the close alliance that so long subsisted 
 between the Franks and the Romans may be justly ascribed 
 the traits which, at a later period, distinguished the former, 
 whose upstart warriors have ever been noted for treachery, 
 ambition, and love of luxury. "Choose the Frank for a 
 friend, but not for a neighbor," was even then a proverb. 
 Salvianus says, "The Franks, instead of deeming perjury 
 criminal, call it a mere fagon de parler." "They laugh, 
 and break their word," observes Vopiscus. A practice they 
 had probably acquired among other Roman customs, and 
 which was unknown to the other nations of Germany, who, 
 uncontaminated by an alliance with the enemies of their 
 country, ever retained their love of simplicity and truth. 
 
 LVI. The Saxons 
 
 THE Saxons dwelt beyond the Ffanks, and consisted of 
 the Chauci, Frisii, and the remnants of the tribes collected 
 on the coasts of the Northern Ocean and the Baltic. Their 
 name has been variously derived from the ancient Sacse ' on 
 
 1 Probably the Siks. Trans.
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 135 
 
 the Indus, from Sachs, race, or from Sassen, freeholders. 
 According to tradition, they came by sea (from the army of 
 Alexander the Great) to Hadel, where they landed, and buy- 
 ing from the Thuringi, who at that period stretched far down 
 toward the Northern Ocean, a gownful of earth, spread it 
 over a large territory, to which they laid claim, and then 
 inviting the Thuringian chiefs to meet them unarmed for 
 the purpose of negotiating the affair, murdered them during 
 the banquet with knives worn for that purpose, concealed 
 beneath their dresses. According to a legend somewhat 
 similar to that of the Edda, the Saxons and their first king 
 Ascan sprang from the rocks of the Harz Mountains; and 
 the proverb, "There are Saxons wherever pretty girls grow 
 out of the trees, ' ' is still in use. The ancient account of this 
 people is very obscure. Odin went from Saxony to Scandi- 
 navia, and his descendants at a later period from that coun- 
 try to England. In the beginning of the third century, the 
 Chauci were powerful by sea, and plundered the Roman 
 coasts ; and somewhat later, the Saxons were continually at 
 war with the Normans in Denmark and Norway. "When 
 the Roman empire was under the joint rule of Diocletian 
 and Maximian, the former of whom defended the Danube, 
 the latter the Rhine, the subjection of the Saxon pirates, 
 who had long and unopposed infested the northern seas, was 
 planned, and toward the close of the third century, Carau- 
 sius, an experienced sea captain, attacked and overcame 
 them. He subsequently entered into a strict alliance with 
 them, and set himself up as emperor, a title which he, for 
 some time, maintained by their assistance. 
 
 The connection between the Saxons and the Vindili, or 
 the Gothic tribes on the Baltic, is also buried in obscurity. 
 When the latter, migrating in a body to the south, left their 
 ancient place of abode completely unoccupied, they were suc- 
 ceeded by the Slavian tribes, who, settling there, became the 
 eastern neighbors of the Saxons. It is only known for cer- 
 tain, that a part of the Saxons accompanied the Longobardi 
 to Italy, but by far the greater number migrated to Eng-
 
 136 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 land. It was customary for the old men to remain at home, 
 while the surplus population, consisting of young and hardy 
 warriors, was annually sent forth to seek a settlement else- 
 where, and to win a new country by their swords. Godfrey 
 of Monmouth, the English chronicler, relates that the first 
 Saxons who visited England alleged this custom as the rea- 
 son of their migration. An annual meeting of all the chiefs 
 of the people was held at Marklo in Saxony, and the young 
 men, chosen by lot, were, according to law, obliged to bid an 
 eternal farewell to their native country. 
 
 LVII. The Goths 
 
 TOWARD the close of the second century, the great nation 
 of the Goths, accompanied by countless other northern tribes, 
 descended from the north to the coasts of the Black Sea. 
 Tradition records that the ancestors of the Goths sailed in 
 three ships, commanded by King Berig, from their ancient 
 home, Gothland in Sweden, to the German side of the Baltic, 
 and landed at Gothiscantzia (Dantzig). One of their ships 
 arriving later than the rest, the men on board of it received 
 the name of Gepidse, from the word gapan, to stare idly, to 
 delay, to gape. Gradually spreading along the coast, they 
 conquered the Ulmerugi and Vandali, but meeting with op- 
 position from the Saxons in their advance toward the west, 
 they turned southward, conquering the tribes or forcing 
 them along with them on their route, and at length reached 
 the Black Sea. Many of the Goths were, however, left in 
 the north, in the part of Sweden that still bears the name 
 of Gothland. The preponderance of the Gothic name over 
 those of the other eastern German tribes perhaps arose from 
 an ancient religious superstition, as well as from their intel- 
 lectual superiority. The civilized manners of the Greeks 
 and Romans, and, in later times, Christianity, rapidly spread 
 among them, and the regulations they introduced, during 
 the peace consequent on the cessation of migration, were fol- 
 lowed by all the other German tribes, and laid the founda-
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 137 
 
 tion of a new era. In other respects, the Goths had the 
 same form of government with the other Germans. Each 
 tribe was sometimes headed by an independent chief, who 
 was either a judge, a duke, or a king ; sometimes several of 
 these tribes obeyed a common head, or it happened that a 
 king, who had gained the upper hand, reigned over several 
 minor and tributary chiefs; but this sort of authority was 
 never of long continuance, and the tribes became once more 
 independent. At length, the chiefs of the most considerable 
 tribes succeeded in retaining during peace the authority in- 
 trusted to them during war, and rendered their dignity not 
 only perpetual, but also added to it a power which soon 
 threatened the ancient liberties of the people; the natural 
 result of protracted warfare and of encroaching military 
 rule. In the great Gothic migrations, the Goths seem to 
 have been the most considerable nation, and appear after 
 the Marcomanni, Quadi, Getse, Peucini, and Bastarnse, who 
 must have been gradually incorporated with them, as they 
 also were generally denominated Goths, and were divided 
 into Ostrogoths, of which the Gruthungri formed the most 
 considerable tribe, and Visigoths, the chief tribes of which 
 were the Therwingri and Taiphali. Connected with the 
 Goths were the Gepidaa, who are said to have accompanied 
 them; the Longobardi, from Denmark; the Heruli, also 
 from the Scandinavian north; the Vandali, from the Baltic; 
 the Rugii, from the island of Riigen ; the Burgundians, from 
 the Oder. The Alani, Hirri, and Scirri, are of dubious 
 origin ; and the Jazyges and Roxolani, who joined the Goths 
 in their march, were without doubt Sclavonians. 
 
 LYIII. Great Irruption against Rome 
 
 THE Goths were already known at the time of the war 
 with the Marcomanni, to whose rear they had been long set- 
 tled before they made a direct attack upon the Roman em- 
 pire. During the discussion of this project in the popular 
 assembly, three of their chiefs were struck by lightning, and
 
 138 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the unlucky omen caused its renunciation, A.D. 192. In the 
 commencement of the third century, they had become ex- 
 tremely powerful, and compelled the emperor Caracalla to 
 pay them an annual tribute ; and shortly after, Maximin, a 
 Goth by birth, was raised to the imperial throne, who, how- 
 ever, was so devoid of patriotism, as to include his fellow 
 countrymen in the fierce and cruel war carried on by him 
 against the western Germans. After his death, the tribute 
 was again exacted from the Romans, and the Goths invaded 
 Greece under Ostrogotha, Argaith, and Guntherich, A.D. 
 245. Ostrogotha subsequently became a powerful monarch. 
 Fastida, the great Vandal king, rendered insolent by his vic- 
 tories over the Burgundians, insisted upon the partition of 
 the kingdom of Ostrogotha, who vainly represented the folly 
 of the demand, and advised him to beware of attacking his 
 brethren, but Fastida, deaf to reason, persisted in his ambi- 
 tious schemes, and was overthrown. 
 
 A formidable Gothic army under Cniva now invaded 
 Msesia, A.D. 250, defeated the Romans in a great battle at 
 Bersea, and took possession of Philippopolis, where 100,000 
 men were put to the sword. During their march toward 
 Greece, the emperor Decius fell upon their rear and at- 
 tempted to cut them off ; a fierce struggle ensued, in which 
 Cniva proved victorious. The emperor and his son were 
 drowned in a lake, and Gallus, his successor, bribing him 
 to make peace by the payment of a large sum of money, the 
 Gothic chief departed, laden with booty. In 258, several 
 hordes, under different chiefs, crossed the Black Sea, and 
 after plundering and destroying the cities of Asia Minor, 
 returned to their country; and, reappearing the following 
 year, A.D. 259, stormed and sacked the city of Trapezus by 
 night. The cities of Nicsea and Nicomedia were burned to 
 the ground during a subsequent incursion, A.D. 260. In 266 
 they again crossed the Black Sea, under Respa, Veduco, 
 Thuro, and Bato, and overran the whole of Asia Minor, 
 plundering and devastating that rich and fertile country. 
 On their return home, laden with booty, they were attacked
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 139 
 
 in the Euxine and defeated by a Roman fleet. In the fol- 
 lowing year, 267, a numerous horde, under King Naulo- 
 bates, undertook a similar expedition, plundered the Asiatic 
 coasts, and afterward landed in Greece, where they destroyed 
 a number of magnificent cities. Athens, the seat of ancient 
 learning, was taken, and the stupendous collection of Greek 
 books contained in that city was on the point of being 
 burned, when an old man, rising up, advised them to leave 
 the Greeks all their books, "for," said he, "so long as they 
 use their pens with so much diligence, they will never un- 
 derstand the use of their swords. ' ' The emperor Gallienus, 
 after attacking and defeating them on their return home 
 overland, entered into alliance with them, and since that 
 period the Heruli were almost constantly engaged in the im- 
 perial service. Two years later, A.D. 269, two fresh expedi- 
 tions were undertaken by the Goths. An enormous horde 
 crossed the Black Sea with 6,000 ships, and landed on the 
 banks of the Danube, whence, being forced to retreat by the 
 Romans, they sailed into the Archipelago, and laid waste 
 the whole of Greece ; but, when attempting to return over- 
 land to the Danube, they encountered the emperor Claudius, 
 and being defeated at Naissus, took refuge on Mount Hcemus, 
 where, hemmed in on every side, they fell victims to hunger 
 and pestilence. Another horde, after coasting along Asia 
 Minor, landed in Cyprus, spreading desolation wherever they 
 appeared, and destroying all the cities. It was by them that 
 the celebrated ancient temple of Diana at Ephesus, reckoned 
 one of the seven wonders of the world, was burned. On 
 their return home through Greece they were also cut to 
 pieces. These considerable losses for some time checked the 
 inroads of the Goths;* and several warlike emperors succes- 
 sively mounting the throne, who personally conducted the 
 war on the Danube, they were compelled to remain within 
 their own limits. Aurelian, whose wars, although probably 
 some of the most remarkable that took place, are only lightly 
 mentioned in history, gained several signal victories over 
 them. While the Goths, as usual, made an incursion into
 
 140 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Greece, the Marcomanni and Vandali invaded Italy; the 
 former were defeated with immense slaughter by Aurelian in 
 Hungary ; the latter, meanwhile, advanced as far as Milan, 
 and caused such terror in Rome that extraordinary human 
 sacrifices were offered, in order to appease the anger of the 
 gods. Aurelian overtook the enemy at Placentia, where he 
 suffered a defeat; but the Romans, whose courage rose with 
 the danger, fought on subsequent occasions with such in- 
 trepidity, that after winning the battles of Fano and Pavia 
 they forced the Marcomanni to retreat. Aurelian 's triumph 
 was graced with singular trophies; besides the car of a 
 Gothic king, drawn by six stags, there were several Ama- 
 zons, who had been captured sword in hand, among whom 
 the youthful Hunilda, celebrated among the Romans for her 
 wit, was particularly distinguished. She afterward became 
 the wife of a man of rank named Bonosus, who, aided by 
 the Goths, aspired to the imperial throne, and, on discov- 
 ering the inutility of his attempt, deprived himself of life. 
 Aurelian owed his victories over the Goths to his German 
 mercenaries, chiefly Franks, some of whose generals are 
 mentioned by name, Hartmund, Haldegast, Hildomann, 
 Cariovist. The emperor Probus watched the Danube as 
 carefully as the Rhine, refortified the banks of both rivers, 
 and introduced the vine into Hungary. The emperor Gale- 
 rius valiantly opposed the Goths, and Constantine the Great 
 did not belie the cunning he had practiced on the Rhine, by 
 his conduct toward them. "When defeated and forced to 
 seek safety by flight by their king Ararich, he incited the 
 Slavonian Sarmatians against them, A.D. 331 ; but his proj- 
 ect being foiled by the sudden revolt of the Slavi against 
 their own nobles, whom they had no Sooner driven out of 
 the country than they concluded peace with the Germans, 
 he induced the Vandals to attack the Goths, and upon the 
 defeat of their king Vidumar by Geberich, the successor of 
 Ararich, he took them under his protection and employed 
 them in his service. At Constantinople, the new capital of 
 the eastern empire, there were no less than 40,000 Varin-
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 141 
 
 gians, or mercenaries, in his pay. Among the countless 
 Roman prisoners carried by the Goths into the interior of 
 their country, were several Christians, who succeeded in 
 converting a great part of the people to Christianity. The 
 Goths in the imperial service were also, for the most part, 
 Christians; and when, on the conversion of Constantino, 
 that religion was established throughout the empire, a grand 
 convocation of the whole of the Christian clergy was held at 
 Nice, in which the Catholic Church was recognized as the 
 only true one, A.D. 325. 
 
 Several Gothic bishops, present at this assembly, opposed 
 this decision, from a conviction of the incompatibility of 
 Catholicism with the pure doctrine of the Saviour. 
 
 LIX. The Great Empire of Hermanarich Origin of 
 
 the Huns 
 
 PEACE was no sooner established with Rome than inter- 
 nal feuds broke out among the Germans. The Ostrogoths 
 under Ararich and Geberich had already subjugated the 
 Burgundians, Alani, Vandals, and Gepidse. Geberich's suc- 
 cessor, Hermanarich (the royal family of the Ostrogoths was 
 called the Amali the immaculate?), also subdued the Heruli 
 and several Slavonian tribes, besides including the Visigoths 
 beneath his rule, although Athanarich, their prince or judge, 
 was permitted to retain something of his independence, and 
 was a viceroy rather than a subject. The empire of Her- 
 manarich spread from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and this 
 great king, of whom there unfortunately exists but a very 
 meager account, entered into an alliance with Rome, and 
 carried his victorious arms far to the northeast ; the treaty 
 being alone infringed by Athanarich, who waged a three 
 years' war against the emperor Valens, whose rival, Proco- 
 pius, was supported by the Visigoths. When Hermanarich 
 was very old, his empire was threatened by the Huns, an 
 immense swarm of misshapen barbarians, who gradually 
 advanced from the depths of Asia toward Europe. The
 
 142 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Slavonian tribes took advantage of the opportunity thus 
 afforded to free themselves from the Gothic yoke. The 
 prince of the Roxolani went over to the Huns, and his wife 
 Sanieth, being, by Hermanarich's command, torn to pieces 
 by horses, her brothers attempted to revenge her death on 
 the aged king, whom they grievously wounded, but did not 
 succeed in depriving of life, and who, when he beheld his 
 kingdom a prey to discord within, and threatened by the 
 Huns from without, when, helpless from his wounds and 
 the infirmities of old age, he was no longer able to ward off 
 defeat, voluntarily put an end to his existence in his one 
 hundred and tenth year. 
 
 The Huns (Monguls, Calmucks, wandering shepherd 
 tribes) were natives of the north of Asia, and inhabited 
 the immense steppes lying between Russia and China. 
 Divided into tribes and families, and unpossessed of either 
 cities or houses, they wandered from place to place, seeking 
 pasturage for their cattle, and dwelt in tents, in which they 
 also stabled their horses. From being constantly on horse- 
 back, their legs were weak and crooked. They were short 
 of stature, extremely broad-shouldered, with strong muscu- 
 lar arms ; had coarse protruding lips, small flat noses, yellow 
 complexions, and thick short necks ; in a word, they were 
 quite as hideous as the Calmucks of the present day. Their 
 horrid ugliness, immense numbers, activity on horseback, 
 and skill in archery, struck terror even into the hearts of 
 the brave Goths, who deemed them the descendants of 
 wicked demons; a superstition that greatly conduced to 
 their success. Hermanarich had no sooner taken his seat 
 among his ancestors in "Walhalla than his great empire was 
 dissolved. Part of the Ostrogoths remained faithful to his 
 son Hunimund, while the rest raised Winithar to the throne. 
 The pagan Visigoths attached themselves to Athanarich, 
 who belonged to the ancient race of the Balti, but those 
 who had embraced Christianity were ruled by their dukes 
 Fridigern and Alavius (Olaf). Dissension, meanwhile, pre- 
 vailed. Athanarich, accusing the Christian Goths of having
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 143 
 
 abandoned the ancient manners and customs of Germany for 
 those of Rome, fanatically persecuted them, and, on one oc- 
 casion, had an idol carried in procession before their houses, 
 and put all those to death who refused to fall down and 
 worship it. 
 
 Balamir, the great prince of the Huns, overcame Huni- 
 mund and marched against Winithar, who, after twice de- 
 feating him, fell in a third engagement, and the Ostrogoths 
 were constrained to fly. Part of them subsequently sub- 
 mitted to the Hun, who had married the beautiful Walda- 
 mara, the widow of Winithar, whose son Widerich, together 
 with Alatheus and Saphrax, two Ostrogothic chiefs, assem- 
 bled the remnant of the people and fled. The Visigoths, 
 who had beheld the defeat of their brethren unmoved, per- 
 ceived, when too late, the danger to which their supineness 
 exposed them, but boldly and resolutely taking the field, 
 marched in a body to oppose the passage of the Huns across 
 the Dniester; the enemy, however, crossing the river at an- 
 other point, surrounded and defeated them, and they were 
 driven behind the Pruth, where, for some time, they val- 
 iantly defended themselves behind a long wall which they 
 had hastily thrown up; but, at length, finding opposition 
 futile, they severally dispersed ; Fridigern and Alavius seek- 
 ing refuge within the Roman frontier, while Athanarich, 
 who viewed the Romans as the hereditary foes of his coun- 
 try and despised them on account of their being Christians, 
 and who, moreover, had taken a solemn oath to his father 
 never to set his foot on Roman ground, took shelter in the 
 valleys of Transylvania. 
 
 LX. Migration of the Goths into the Roman Empire 
 
 ON reaching the Danube, Fridigern and Alavius sent 
 Ulphilas (Wolflein, little wolf), the pious and learned 
 Gothic bishop, to entreat the emperor Valens for land on 
 the Roman side of the Danube, as an asylum from the 
 Huns. This bishop was the first translator of the Bible
 
 144 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 into German. Part of this translation is still extant, and 
 forms a curious record of the ancient Gothic language and 
 state of civilization. 1 He persuaded the emperor to allow 
 the Goths to pass the frontier, on the ground of its being 
 far more dangerous to repel them by force ; and his consent 
 was at length gained, on condition of their delivering up 
 their arms, and regularly paying for their provisions. The 
 superintendent, sent for this purpose to the Danube, took 
 advantage of their blind confidence in his honesty to cheat 
 them in every way, and, when their money was spent, de- 
 prived them of their beautiful women and children; in his 
 rapacity overlooking the fact that a great number of the 
 Goths had, in their impatience, crossed the river without 
 yielding up their arms. Deceit, ill-treatment, and the 
 scanty allowance of food, ere long forced them, although 
 the greater number were unarmed, to assume a threatening 
 posture, which caused the Romans to concentrate all the 
 forces quartered on the Danube on one point. "While the 
 banks were in this defenseless state, the Ostrogoths under 
 Alatheus and Saphrax arrived, and crossed the river unques- 
 tioned and unopposed. The Visigoths meanwhile advanced 
 as far as the great city of Marcianople, where the governor, 
 Lupicinus, invited the chiefs to a banquet. Their prolonged 
 absence from the camp caused the people to suspect foul play, 
 and they began to storm the closed gates of the city, upon 
 which the treacherous Roman instantly ordered his guests 
 to be put to death. In this strait, Fridigern, with great bold- 
 ness and presence of mind, calmly represented to him that, 
 if he and his companions were murdered, the city would in- 
 
 1 The so-called Codex Argenteus, an old Gothic translation of the Gospels, 
 written in silver characters on a purple ground, now preserved at Upsala in 
 Sweden, where it was brought in 1 648 by General Konigsmark, who had stolen 
 it from Prague. It came originally from the monastery of Werden, to which it 
 had probably been presented by some munificent Frankish chief, and doubtless 
 fell into the hands of the Franks when they seized the empire of the Visigoths. 
 The only question is, whether it is the genuine translation of Ulphilas. That 
 he translated the Bible is most certain. Still, may not the silver characters be 
 the invention of some other translator, and date about two centuries later? It 
 is possible ; but the fame of Ulphilas warrants its being at least a strict imita- 
 tion of the original work.
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 145 
 
 evitably be destroyed by their avenging countrymen, but 
 that, if they were set at liberty, they would quickly be ap- 
 peased. These reasons induced Lupicinus to allow them to 
 quit the city, and Fridigern, true to his word, caused the 
 Goths to retire. But suspicion and enmity had now re- 
 placed their former confidence, and they found themselves 
 abandoned to misery and want. The Romans repented of 
 having permitted the entrance of such a numerous horde 
 into their territory. Lupicinus at length resolved to have 
 recourse to arms, and marching with his whole force against 
 them, suffered a complete defeat. This victory placed the 
 country at the mercy of the Goths, who seized the weapons 
 and the produce of the land. The Ostro and Visi-Goths 
 united in one body, and were joined by the Varingi, or 
 Gothic mercenaries, who had been in the Roman service 
 since the time of Constantine, and were commanded by 
 Sueridus and Colias. They had been quartered at Adria- 
 nople, and the Romans, apprehending their desertion, in- 
 tended to have sent them to Asia Minor, but impolitically 
 refusing the payment of their arrears, they quitted the im- 
 perial service and went over to their countrymen. The in- 
 habitants of Mount Hoemus, and the rest of the population 
 who groaned beneath the heavy Roman yoke, hailed the 
 Goths as their deliverers, joyfully guided them through the 
 country, and delivered up to them the concealed treasure 
 and provisions. Their further advance was impeded by the 
 city of Adrianople, which long withstood the attack of as- 
 sailants ignorant of the mode of besieging fortified places. 
 "While they were thus engaged, the emperor Valens returned 
 from the Persian war, at the head of a great army, strength- 
 ened by innumerable Frankish auxiliaries under Richomer, 
 Mellobaudes, and Frigeridus. Even at that early period a 
 hatred existed between the Franks and the Saxons, which 
 until very lately remained unabated. Valens and the Franks 
 were at first victorious, but when the defeated Goths entered 
 into an alliance with the Alani and the Huns, who, at that 
 juncture, poured across the Danube, an engagement such as 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 7
 
 146 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Europe had never before witnessed, in which a million of 
 men strove, took place on the plains of Adrianople. The 
 Roman army was completely annihilated, and Valens, who 
 had been carried wounded into a hut, was there burned to 
 death, 9th August, 378. The Romans, burning to revenge 
 their defeat, now collected their whole force, and simultane- 
 ously murdered all the Goths that remained in Asia Minor, 
 whether Varingians or private individuals. Theodosius the 
 Great, the newly-elected emperor, a mighty warrior at the 
 head of a numerous and exasperated army, aided by 
 the Franks under Bauto and Arbogastes, wiped off the 
 disgrace that had befallen the Roman arms in the plains 
 of Adrianople by several brilliant victories, and chased the 
 invading hordes across the Danube, where they fell into 
 the hands of the merciless Huns. In the confusion of the 
 time, the brave Fridigern, who, until then, had kept the 
 Goths united, is lost sight of; and the aged Athanarich was 
 induced to quit his forest abode in order to form a rallying 
 point for his dispersing countrymen. The Huns, whom a 
 part of the Ostrogoths had already joined, appeared to him 
 more dangerous than the Romans, and, forgetful of his oath, 
 he sought an alliance with the latter, and strove to assemble 
 all the Visigoths within their territory ; a proposal gladly as- 
 sented to, as, by this means, the Visigoths became a bulwark 
 against the Huns. Theodosius treated Athanarich with great 
 honor, gave him a magnificent palace at Constantinople, and, 
 at his death, which took place soon after these events, fol- 
 lowed the aged warrior to his grave. The greater part of 
 the Visigoths remained in Greece in close alliance with the 
 Romans, and were again formed into a corps of mercenaries 
 or Varingians, commanded by their own chiefs, and gov- 
 erned by their own laws. Capable of a higher degree of 
 cultivation than the other German tribes, they ere long ac- 
 quired all that was elevated and refined in the Roman man- 
 ners, without becoming enervated by luxury or losing their 
 natural nobility of character, and were consequently so highly 
 esteemed by the Romans as to be preferred, on account of

 
 THE MIGRATIONS 147 
 
 their capacity, to the highest offices of state. The Roman 
 historians of that time even acknowledge that the Germans 
 were deemed men, and the Romans women. Their influ- 
 ence even extended to dress. The fops of that period wore 
 a light-colored wig, and the Roman senators did not disdain 
 to adopt the Gothic furs in the place of the ancient toga. 
 Saul, Gainas and Alaric are mentioned as warriors serving 
 in the imperial army, whose prowess gained the important 
 victory over Eugenius, the rival emperor, the traitor Arbo- 
 gastes, and the Franks. Christianity received a fresh im- 
 pulse through the alliance of the Goths with Rome. Fritigil, 
 a prince of the Marcomanni, visited Milan, during the reign 
 of Theodosius, in order to see St. Ambrose, the archbishop. 
 The Ostro-Gothic Gruthungri, who had retreated across the 
 Danube under Alatheus and Saphrax, alone refused to come 
 to terms, and again making an incursion for the purpose of 
 plunder, were defeated and driven back by Theodosius. 
 Alatheus fell on the field of battle. 
 
 The position of the empire, and the double danger to 
 which it was exposed from the Danube and the Rhine, con- 
 vinced Theodosius the Great of the expediency of dividing 
 the government, and he accordingly willed that the empire 
 should be divided after his death, which happened in 395, 
 between his sons, Honorius and Arcadius, the former of 
 whom reigned at Rome as Emperor of the West, and the 
 latter at Constantinople as Emperor of the East. 
 
 LXI. Alaric 
 
 MANY of the Gothic chiefs in the Roman empire raised 
 themselves to high distinction, more particularly Alaric, a 
 descendant of the Balti, who, on being elected king by the 
 majority of the Visigoths, instantly planned the most dar- 
 ing enterprises, and, suddenly invading Greece, plundered 
 and destroyed the most considerable cities, A.D. 396, sparing 
 Athens alone, owing to a superstitious notion that he beheld 
 Pallas, the patroness of the city, standing before the gates
 
 148 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Arcadius being unable to oppose him, Honorius sent Stilico, 
 a Vandal (who had been raised by Theodosius to the highest 
 dignities of state), to his assistance, who succeeded in inclos- 
 ing Alaric within the mountains of the Peloponnesus, but 
 afterward allowed him to retreat from a desire of injuring 
 Arcadius. A bitter jealousy had arisen between the eastern 
 and western empires, of which Alaric skillfully took advan- 
 tage, and fixed himself in Illyria, where, placed between 
 Rome and Constantinople, he lost no opportunity of promot- 
 ing his own interest in both quarters. At this time another 
 Goth, named Gainas, who had gained considerable power 
 in Constantinople, and was plotting the seizure of the im- 
 perial crown, happening to absent himself on a recruiting 
 expedition, the Romans suddenly attacked and murdered 
 all the Goths in the city, and Gainas being discomfited by 
 another Gothic army under Frajuta, that remained faithful 
 to the imperial standard, fled across the Danube, and fell 
 into the hands of Uldes, prince of the Huns, who put him 
 to death. Shortly after this event, Alaric undertook a great 
 invasion of Italy, and at the head of numerous German tribes 
 and of his aUies, the Alemanni, fell upon Aquileia, A.D. 400, 
 while Stilico was engaged in withdrawing all the troops from 
 Gaul in order to oppose him; but, notwithstanding his exer- 
 tions, Alaric, who continually received encouragement from 
 Constantinople, pressed gradually onward. During the sol- 
 emnization of Easter festival at Pollentia, the Goths were 
 suddenly attacked by Stilico, and a battle ensued, in which 
 Goth opposed Goth, A.D. 403, and Saul lost his life fighting 
 on the Roman side at the head of his mercenaries A sec- 
 ond and not less bloody engagement took place at Verona, 
 when Alaric, being forced to retreat, was again shut up in 
 the mountains by Stilico, who once more allowed him to 
 make terms. 
 
 Radagais, at the head of an enormous horde of pagan 
 Alemanni and other German tribes, now rushed from the 
 Upper Danube over the Alps, A.D. 405, swearing to offer 
 all the blood of the Romans in one great libation to his gods,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 149 
 
 and advanced as far as the Apennines, where, hemmed in 
 by the whole army of Stilico (who, by skillful treaties and 
 promises, had succeeded in combining beneath his standard 
 the Huns under Uldes, and a Gothic force under Sarus), he 
 and his followers were destroyed by famine, pestilence, and 
 the sword, near Fiesole in Tuscany. Alaric did not long 
 remain quiet. Stilico, his brave opponent, accused by Ho- 
 norius of carrying on a secret understanding with him, and 
 even of grasping at the purple, was put to death, together 
 with the wives and children of 30,000 Germans in his ser- 
 vice. The payment of the tribute, which had been agreed 
 to at the treaty of peace, was also refused, and Alaric, burn- 
 ing for revenge, quickly seized the favorable moment afforded 
 for the long-planned conquest of Italy, by the destruction of 
 Rome's best general; and being joined by the 30,000 widow- 
 ers, marched straight upon the imperial city, whose posses- 
 sion he deemed would secure to him that of the whole of 
 Italy, leaving Honorius, to his rear, shut up in Ravenna. 
 Terror-struck and helpless, the Romans entreated for peace, 
 which was granted by the invader on the payment of 5,000 
 pounds' weight of gold, 30,000 pounds' weight of silver, and 
 a proportionate quantity of the costly articles of commerce 
 which, at that period, flowed into Rome from every quarter 
 of the known world. Entreaties were unavailing. "What 
 will be left us?" asked they. "Life," was the stern reply. 
 "We are still numerous," they threatened. "Then come 
 out," rejoined the Goth, "the thicker the hay the easier it 
 is to mow!" The terms were enforced; the golden statue 
 of Victory was melted to meet the demand, and the Romans, 
 who still retained their heathen superstitions, foresaw in its 
 destruction the impending ruin of their city. Satisfied with 
 the booty thus gained, Alaric now left Rome in order to at- 
 tack Ravenna, and conferred the imperial dignity on one 
 Attalus, whom he sent to Africa to prepare for his arrival 
 in that country, and whom he afterward deposed for hav- 
 ing, aided by the Romans by whom he was accompanied, 
 attempted to assert his own independence. Honorius was
 
 150 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 aided in the defense of Ravenna, which was well fortified, 
 by a part of the Goths under Sarus, the hereditary enemy 
 of the Balti; Alaric, meanwhile, ruled unopposed in the 
 open country, and after annihilating the last Roman army, 
 united his forces with those of Ataulph, his son-in-law, who 
 had brought fresh tribes from Germany; but failing in his 
 attempts against Ravenna, he resolved to wreak full ven- 
 geance upon Rome. He is said to have presented three 
 hundred youths to the wealthiest Romans for slaves, who 
 secretly opened the city gates to him; but, however that 
 may be, it is certain that he took Rome by storm during 
 the night of the 24th of August, 409. For the first time 
 since the invasion of Brennus, the capital of the ancient 
 world beheld the enemy, who had so often been led in tri- 
 umph through her walls, enchained, thrown to the wild 
 beasts in her amphitheater, or doomed to cruel slavery, now 
 appear as a bloody and inflexible conqueror, armed with the 
 sword of vengeance, repaying all the crimes committed by 
 her against the liberties of nations, which, unatoned by her 
 first punishment, were afterward bitterly visited upon her. 
 Yet, although murder and pillage filled the city, Rome was 
 not destroyed, and the defenseless ones were spared. A 
 Goth, who discovered some valuable golden vessels in the 
 house of a pious maiden, when told that they had been left 
 with her for safety and belonged to the church of St. Peter, 
 left them untouched, and gave information of the discovery 
 to the other Goths, who came in multitudes to the spot, and 
 bore the golden ornaments in a solemn procession, in which 
 the people joined, to St. Peter's: the war-cry ceased; the 
 voices of the conquerors and conquered rose in unison, and 
 the pillage terminated in hymns of devotion. 1 Leaving 
 Rome, Alaric marched into Lower Italy with the intention 
 of visiting Africa, but his fleet was wrecked off Messina, 
 
 1 When Honorius was told at Ravenna that Roma was lost, he gave signs 
 of the deepest despair, believing that a pet bird of his called Roma was alluded 
 to, and was instantly consoled on discovering that it was merely the capital of 
 the world.
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 151 
 
 and he died suddenly, in his fifty- fourth year. The river 
 Busentom (Baseno) was diverted from its course by prison- 
 ers, and the Gothic monarch was buried with an immense 
 treasure in its bed ; after which, the stream was restored to 
 its natural course, and the secret of his burial-place, which 
 remained as unknown as the projects that died with him, 
 was sealed by the murder of the laborers. 
 
 LXII. The Vandals, Alani, Suevi, and Visigoths 
 in Spain 
 
 AFTER the destruction of Radagais, the tribes from which 
 his army had been raised, instead of invading Italy, moved 
 toward Gaul, whence the troops had been withdrawn. The 
 Vandals under Godegisel, the Alani under Respendial, and 
 a horde of Suevi under Hermanarich, crossed the Rhine dur- 
 ing the last days of the year 407, never to return, and, after 
 plundering Gaul for some time and unsuccessfully combat- 
 ing the Franks, suddenly traversed the Pyrenees and entered 
 Spain, where they were well received. The Basci, a rem- 
 nant of the ancient Celts, and the Iberi in the mountains, 
 offered no opposition, preferring poverty and freedom be- 
 neath the German rule to the splendid tyranny of Rome. 
 The Vandals under Gunderich, the successor of Godegisel, 
 ruled at Hispalis (Seville), and gave name to the province 
 of Andalusia. The Suevi inhabited Castile and Gallicia, 
 and the Alani settled on the Ebro. The departure of these 
 wild tribes from Gaul did not, however, relieve that province 
 from the horrors of war ; a new emperor, Constantino, who 
 had set himself up in Britain, crossed the Channel and was 
 supported by the Franks under Edobic, in opposition to 
 Sarus, who, aided by the Alemanni under Goar, and by 
 the Burgundians under Gunthachar, proclaimed Jovinus 
 emperor, A.D. 412. The dispute was settled by Constantino 
 being deprived of his throne and his life. 
 
 Honorius, desirous of freeing Italy from the Visigoths, 
 dexterously seized upon these events as a pretext, and solic-
 
 152 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ited the aid of Ataulph, the successor of -Alaric, against Jo- 
 vinus, flattering him with the possession' of Gaul and Spain 
 if he would quit Italy; but the strongest motive for concil- 
 iation between the Goth and the emperor was the passion 
 cherished by Ataulph for Placidia, Honorius's beautiful and 
 talented sister, who had been taken prisoner at Rome by 
 Alaric; he accordingly acceded to the emperor's proposal, 
 and abandoning Italy at the head of his whole nation, 
 marched against Jovinus and Sarus, whom he defeated; 
 and, after taking possession of the south of Gaul and of the 
 north of Spain, celebrated his nuptials with Placidia at Nar- 
 bonne, A.D. 414; the ceremony being performed by Sisegar, 
 the Gothic bishop, whom the king also appointed preceptor 
 to his children; a proof of the civilization to which the 
 Goths had already attained. A high bed was constructed, 
 around which all the booty gained by Ataulph and his late 
 father-in-law, Alaric, was heaped. Attalus, the deposed em- 
 peror, who was in his suite, composed songs for the occasion, 
 in which he pointed out to him the events that might possi- 
 bly result from the union of the mightiest of the German 
 princes with the sister of the Caesars, and the foundation of 
 a new Gothic-Roman empire on the ruins of the ancient one 
 was consequently projected. But the time had not yet ar- 
 rived, and it happened as was prophesied by Daniel: "In 
 the end of years they shall join themselves together ; for the 
 king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the 
 north to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the 
 power of her arm, neither shall he stand, nor his arm : but 
 she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he 
 that begat her, and he that strengthened her in these times," 
 ohap. xi. 6. 1 A forest known as la selva Gothesca now cov- 
 ers the site of the ancient city of Heraclea, in the south of 
 Prance, where Ataulph and Placidia held their splendid 
 court. The Goth, Sarus, having been cruelly put to death 
 
 1 According to Bishop Newton, this prophecy relates to the marriage of 
 Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of Egypt, with 
 Antiochus Theus, the third king of Syria. Trans.
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 153 
 
 by Ataulph, Dubios, a servant of the former, probably in- 
 cited by Sigerich, the brother of Sarus, murdered him at 
 Barcelona, A.D. 415. Sigerich usurped the Gothic throne, 
 and exterminated the whole race of the Balti. In pursuance 
 of a policy completely contrary to that of his predecessor, he 
 broke with Rome, perhaps with the intention of flattering 
 the national pride of the Goths. The beautiful Placidia was 
 sentenced to run on foot for twelve miles before the car of 
 the usurper, who a few days after fell by the hand of Wallia, 
 whom the Goths had raised to the throne, and who, renew- 
 ing the alliance with Rome, sent Placidia back to her native 
 country, with 800,000 measures of wheat. He carried on a 
 successful war in Spain, and subdued the Alani, whom he 
 incorporated with the Goths, which gave rise to the Gothic- 
 Alani nation, and to the name of the province of Catalonia. 
 Toulouse became the capital of the Visigothic empire under 
 Wallia, who left an only daughter, the mother of the cele- 
 brated Ricimer, who was closely connected with the family 
 of the Czesars (continued by Placidia, who married Constan- 
 tius, and gave birth to the emperor Valentinian the Third, 
 and to the infamous Honoria). The brave Theodorich, who 
 succeeded Wallia as king of the Goths, greatly extended his 
 dominions, and defeated Rechiar, the king of the Spanish 
 Suevi, but met with a powerful opponent in -<32tius the Ro- 
 man general, who attempted to reconquer Gaul. Aries and 
 Narbonne were vainly besieged by Theodorich, who, after a 
 long war, was finally obliged to league with Rechiar against 
 their common and far more formidable enemy, the Hun. 
 
 In the south of Spain, the Vandals bade defiance to the 
 attacks of both Goths and Romans, and rose to considerable 
 importance under Geiserich, the brother of Gunderich. Gei- 
 serich had married his son Hunerich to a daughter of Theo- 
 dorich, whom, on mere suspicion, he deprived of her nose 
 and ears, and, fearing the vengeance of the Visigoths for 
 this act of barbarity, invited the Huns, who were already 
 on their way thither, into Spain.
 
 154 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 LXIII. The Alemanni in Switzerland The Burgun- 
 dians in Alsace 
 
 TRANQUILLITY had for a short period once more visited 
 the Alps, and ruins, scattered along the path of the devas- 
 tating hordes, alone remained to tell the tale of bygone 
 splendor. Helvetia no longer existed ; the green forest waved 
 over heaps that were once cities, while the Alemanni, proud 
 of their freedom, fed their flocks, and built their scattered 
 cottages, in the sheltered valleys. Civilization and oppres- 
 sion had disappeared with the Romans, and Christianity was 
 unknown to the savage Swabains, who remained faithful to 
 their ancient religion and customs in the new settlement. 
 The lake into which the Rhine flows from the Alps was 
 probably again called by its ancient name, the Boden-see, 
 from Odin (Wodan, Buddha), to whom a place of worship 
 was erected on the shore. The Thurgau and Frickthal, from 
 their deities Thor and Frigga, lay in its vicinity. The name 
 of the Odenwald, between the Maine and the Neckar, has a 
 similar origin, and the freedom so long preserved in Switzer- 
 land is a proof that ancient German liberty co-existed with 
 paganism. Independent war-chiefs or dukes also appear amid 
 the obscurity of those times. The Alpine countries finally 
 received the name of Schweiz (Switzerland), identical with 
 that of Suevi or Swabia, whose inhabitants owned the same 
 origin. The people of Schweiz, Uri, Unterwalden, and Hasli, 
 have a tradition of their having been driven by famine out 
 of Sweden, which agrees with that of the Longobardi, and 
 the migration of the Goths; and it is possible that, at the 
 period of the commingling of different tribes, a Gothic or 
 Longobardic horde, straying among these mountains, mixed 
 with the Alemanni ; or perhaps the legend has been clothed 
 in a new form, and originally referred to the earliest immi- 
 grations of the Suevi. 
 
 The Burgundians (tribe of Bur?) originally dwelt on 
 the Riesengebirge, which was perhaps also an Asenburg,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 155 
 
 and connected the Caucasus with the north. Forced along 
 by the advancing Goths, the Burgundians turned toward 
 the west, and appeared to the rear of the Alemanni. At a 
 later period they joined the Vandali (originally Vindili), and 
 invaded Gaul, as has been already related, when Honorius, 
 for the sake of peace, finally bestowed upon them Alsace, as 
 a fief of the empire. Immense sacrificial altars, the remains 
 of which are still to be seen, were erected by them on the 
 Odilienberg, which was doubtless sacred to Odin, whose 
 name was subsequently changed to the Christian one of 
 Ottilia. The name of Worms, which the Burgundians, on 
 reaching the southern Alps, renewed in that of the city of 
 Bormio, has also reference to the ancient deity, Bor. This 
 comparatively small tribe bore a high traditionary fame 
 among the Germans, and holds a prominent place in the 
 songs of the Nibelungen, which is probably owing less to its 
 later history than to the religious veneration with which it 
 was anciently regarded. 
 
 LXIV. The Salic Law 
 
 IN the beginning of the fifth century, the history of the 
 Franks took a new and important turn ; the Roman armies 
 were completely driven out of Gaul by Stilico, and the coun- 
 try fell a prey to the Vandals, Burgundians, Alani, and 
 Suevi. The Franks, in order not to remain behindhand, 
 took possession of the neighboring lands as far as the Mo- 
 selle, and divided themselves into the Salii on the Moselle 
 and the Meuse, and the Ripuarii on the Lower Rhine. All 
 the ancient and various names of the tribes disappear in 
 these two, which are evidently derived from the Latin. 
 Salii, leapers, from saUre, had long been the appellation 
 of the Frankish mercenaries in the imperial service ; a name 
 not at all in unison with the ancient titles and nicknames of 
 the Roman legions and mercenary troops. The Salii were 
 the Franks who dwelt nearest to the Romans, whom they 
 for a long period served, and who, very probably, made use
 
 156 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of this name for the sake of a quibble, which may first of all 
 have been derived from the Saal (Yssel), and the Saal-land 
 (Ober-Yssel) in the Netherlands, where the Franks, tribu- 
 tary to the Romans, formerly dwelt. It has also been de- 
 duced from the Wurzburgian Saalgau (the subsequent Ostro- 
 Franci), and even from the Thuringian Saal (on account of 
 the ancient connection between the Thuringians and the 
 Franks), or from the word Saal, a hall (Allod). The name 
 of the Ripuarii is clearly Latin, from ripa, a bank, and was 
 the general appellation of the Franks who dwelt on the 
 banks of the Rhine. The Salii, who affected the Roman 
 party, were long at feud with the Ripuarii, who were more 
 German in their customs, and it is probable that at that 
 period the Bructeri, Cherusci, etc., tribes that dwelt further 
 eastward toward the Weser, and that were formerly ac- 
 counted Franks, formed a closer connection with the Saxons 
 (with whom they subsequently intermingled), when forced 
 to defend their ancient liberty and religion against the des- 
 potism and zealous Christian proselytism of the Franks. 
 The abandonment of Gaul by the Romans necessarily occa- 
 sioned a great change in the affairs of that country; the 
 Salii, no longer supported by Rome, became independent, 
 and their newly-acquired possessions, which extended as far 
 as the Moselle, afforded them an opportunity for remodeling 
 their government. Long accustomed to the rule of a war- 
 chief, and well acquainted with the advantages of union, as 
 well as jealous of the splendor and fame of the great king of 
 the Goths, * they elected a monarch after the demise of Geno- 
 bald, Sunno, and Marcomir, instead of continuing to be gov- 
 erned by various petty and independent princes, and raised 
 Faramund, the son of Marcomir, to the throne, A.D. 420. 
 Before submitting to the authority of the new monarch, they 
 solemnly guaranteed their ancient privileges, by the prescrip- 
 tion of certain conditions, whence originated the Salic law, 
 
 1 Sigebert of Gemblours says plainly that they wished to follow the example 
 of other nations: "Franci in communi deliberant, ut et ipsi sicut alias gentes 
 regnum habeant."
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 157 
 
 which was drawn up in writing. Up to this period, the laws 
 had been merely traditionary, but when the new settlements 
 within the Roman territory caused a wider extension of the 
 people, ancient customs were endangered by new, their priv- 
 ileges seemed likely to be encroached upon by the monarch, 
 and a written code became necessary. Four elders, chosen 
 by the people, were intrusted with the completion of this im- 
 portant work, as was afterward set forth in the preface of 
 Chi od wig, appended to this celebrated code. "The renowned 
 nation of the Franks, the chosen of God, strong in battle, 
 wise in council, mighty by their union, noble and virtuous, 
 of surpassing stature, bold, vigorous, and firm, caused the 
 Salic law to be drawn up, while they were yet pagans, by 
 the chiefs by whom they were at that period governed. Four 
 men were chosen from among the elders, named Wysogast, 
 Bodogast, Salogast, and Windogast, who came from the 
 countries then called Salagheven, Bodogheven, and Windo- 
 gheven. These four men met three times in the Malberg, 
 weighed the origin and peculiarities of all the laws, and then 
 laid them down in writing. But when, the long-haired, beau- 
 tiful Chlodwig, the first of the Frankish monarchs who re- 
 ceived Catholic baptism, lived, whatever seemed unfitting in 
 this code w.as expunged. Vivat Christus, who chose the 
 Franks unto himself, for this is the people that, by its 
 bravery and power, cast off the oppressive yoke of Rome." 
 Faramund was succeeded by Chlodis (Louis), whose suc- 
 cessor, Merowig, was, according to the legendary account, 
 suckled by a sea-monster, which attacked his mother on the 
 shore. Chlodis introduced the custom of wearing long hair, 
 which afterward became a sign of royalty, and was adopted 
 by his successors, hence named the long-haired kings. The 
 descendants of Merowig were the Merovingians. 
 
 LXV. Etzel 
 
 ABOUT this period a powerful leader arose among the 
 Huns, who was named by the Romans Attila, by the Ger-
 
 158 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 mans, Etzel ; the center of whose kingdom was in Hungary, 
 where his throne stood in an enormous wooden palace. He 
 united beneath his rule not only all the Huns, but also al' 
 the Ostro-Germanic tribes. The Ostrogoths, whose history 
 is very obscure at this period, were forced to follow their 
 example. They were governed by several leaders, and were 
 continually at war with the Sarmatians (Slavi). Fidicola, 
 one of their princes, had been defeated by the Sarmatians 
 shortly before the appearance of Etzel, in whose train were 
 Theodomir, the father of the celebrated Diettrich of Bern, 
 Widimir and Walamir, at the head of the Ostrogoths, and 
 Ardarich, king of the Gepidae. Etzel was one of those 
 mighty spirits, who, like Caesar and Napoleon, were born 
 to captivate every heart, to rule millions with a glance, and 
 to use their giant strength in crushing a world. Adored by 
 his followers, whom he led to victory, and a chieftain eagerly 
 hailed by the warlike nations, which, habituated to battle 
 and long estranged from their homes, were inimical to 
 peace, he was the cruel despoiler of all who opposed his 
 despotic rule. 
 
 Rome trembled at the approach of the destroyer, rightly 
 termed "The scourge of God," who seemed destined to 
 mete out the reward of the crimes accumulated during the 
 thousand years' reign of the ancient mistress of the world. 
 The Eastern empire first suffered. The whole of Greece was 
 laid waste, and Constantinople was alone delivered from de- 
 struction by the policy of Pulcheria, the mother of the help- 
 less emperor, Theodosius, who bribed the Huns, by the pay- 
 ment of an immense ransom, to spare the capital, and to 
 turn their course westward, A.D. 451. The storm now burst 
 upon Germany. Desolation, rapine, and slaughter marked 
 its advance toward Gaul. Obscure legendary accounts of 
 the horrors of that period are still extant. All the relics and 
 jewels belonging to the Church, still in its infancy, were 
 saved at Andecks, on the mountain, from the rapacity of 
 the invaders. Wimpfen owes its name to Wibpin ( Weiber- 
 pein, women's pain), all the women of this place having
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 159 
 
 been cruelly murdered by Attila's command, and several 
 Hunnenberge, Hunnengraben (fortifications against the 
 Huns), are still to be met with in Germany, although it is 
 uncertain whether they ought not to be ascribed to the Hun- 
 garians of later date, who were also called Huns. History 
 records but one attempt made to oppose the progress of 
 Attila on the right bank of the Rhine, the heroic opposition 
 of 10,000 Burgundians under Gunthachar, who fought and 
 fell like a second Leonidas. 1 The Franks under Merowig, 
 and the Alani under Sangipfan, vainly strove to stem the 
 torrent, and all the nations of the West, Germans and Ro- 
 mans, became at length aware that a great general confed- 
 eracy could alone preserve them from destruction. Placidia, 
 the experienced and strong-minded mother of the weak em- 
 peror, Valentinian, governed Rome, and JEtius, the famous 
 warrior, then commander- in-chief of the Roman forces, col- 
 lected the remaining strength of the empire and entered 
 Gaul, where he was joined by the Visigoths under Theo- 
 dorich, the Franks under Merowig, and the remnant of the 
 Alani. Claudebald, the brother of Merowig, went over to 
 Etzel with a part of the Franks. The protracted siege of 
 
 1 The circumstances attending this brilliant action are unknown, but evidently 
 form the groundwork of one of the songs of the Nibelungen, in which they have 
 received the following poetical embellishment. "Once upon a time there lived 
 a handsome Frankish warrior named Siegfried, or the Horned Knight, on account 
 of his whole body, with the exception of a small spot on his back, being as hard 
 as horn and perfectly invulnerable. This knight came to "Worms, and wooed 
 and won the beautiful Chriemhilda, the sister of Gunthachar. His wonderful 
 strength and dauntless courage soon raised the jealousy of all the Burgundian 
 knights, and one of them, Hagen the Grim, secretly encouraged by the king, 
 murdered him (one day when weary with following the chase, as he stooped to 
 quench his thirst at a brook) by running his sword through his back. Chriem- 
 hilda, inconsolable for his loss, became hateful to the Burgundians, who refused 
 to restore to her the great treasure won by Siegfried in the Netherlands, and 
 which Hagen sunk in the Rhine, where it still lies. Soon after this, Etzel, king 
 of the Huns, attracted by the fame of her great beauty, dispatched ambassadors 
 to Worms to ask her in marriage, with whom she returned into Hungary, and 
 was made queen. But her heart remained constant to the memory of Siegfried, 
 and demanded vengeance. Gunthachar, his brothers, Hagen the Grim, and a 
 crowd of Burgundian nobles, were invited to the court of Etzel, where, at the 
 instigation of the queen, they were put to the sword by the Huns and their Ger- 
 man allies, headed by the youthful and valiant Dieterich, the Ostrogoth, who 
 afterward filled Europe with his fame.
 
 160 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Orleans, which was desperately defended by the Romans, 
 long retarded the advance of the invader. At length, 
 pressed by famine, the garrison resolved to capitulate, if 
 their prayers for succor were unheard ; but before the prayer 
 was ended, clouds of dust appeared on the horizon annuncia- 
 tory of the approach of their allies, the Visigoths, and Etzel 
 was compelled to retreat, in order to draw up his innumer- 
 able horse near Chalons, on the broad plains of the Marne, 
 where the nations of the East and "West arrayed their 
 forces, and stood in momentary expectation of an action de- 
 cisive of the fate of Europe. Etzel was superior in the num- 
 bers, military skill, and confidence of his troops, while those 
 of his opponents were inspired by the memory of their an- 
 cient fame, by zeal for the cause of Christianity, and by the 
 danger which threatened their freedom and their homes. In 
 this contest, German opposed German, with the deadliest 
 hate; consequently whichever side might prove victorious, 
 the German was sure to suffer. The battle at length com- 
 menced on both sides, with equal animosity. The death of 
 the brave Theodorich was bloodily avenged by his son, 
 Thorismund, and the Visigoths gained a decisive victory. 
 After losing 200,000 men, Etzel retreated and the Western 
 empire was saved. An enormous funeral pile, composed of 
 horses' saddles, had been erected, on which Etzel had in- 
 tended to burn himself alive, if unable to escape. Thoris- 
 mund, raised on his reeking shield, was proclaimed king of 
 the Visigoths amid the shouts of the victors. But prosperity 
 speedily severed those whom adversity had united. JEtius, 
 jealous of the glory and power of Thorismund, drew off his 
 troops, and persuaded him to return to his country, giving 
 him, as indemnity for the anticipated booty, a golden charger, 
 weighing five hundredweight, set with precious jewels, sup- 
 posed to have been the tablet of Solomon's table, taken by the 
 Romans from the celebrated temple at Jerusalem. 
 
 Etzel, invited by Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, who, 
 for having offered to marry him, was imprisoned at Rome, 
 crossed the Alps into Italy, A.D. 452. For three months,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 161 
 
 Aquileia, ever the stumbling-block of the invader, detained 
 him, but was finally taken and destroyed. Many of the Ro- 
 mans fled for refuge to the little marshy islands of the Adri- 
 atic, on which they founded the city of Venice. Etzel came 
 in sight of Rome, whose destruction appeared inevitable, 
 when an unlooked-for incident averted her fate. Leo, the 
 bishop of Rome, an aged and dignified man, set forth to 
 meet the savage and rapacious Huns, at the head of the 
 Roman clergy, arrayed in priestly attire and chanting de- 
 votional hymns. None ventured to oppose the pious priests, 
 and they presented themselves before the king, who, influ- 
 enced by Leo's aspect and words, promised to spare the city 
 and instantly to retire. According to the legend, the appear- 
 ance of this saintly man so powerfully affected the mind of 
 the Hun that, in imagination, he beheld an enormous giant 
 tower above the head of the bishop, and, with a threatening 
 gesture, motion to him to retire. Etzel died on his way out 
 of Italy, according to some accounts, by the bursting of a 
 blood-vessel, according to others, by the hand of a maiden 
 named Ildegunda, who may have been confounded with 
 Chriemhilda; but the whole occurrence is involved in ob- 
 scurity. He was buried with great pomp ; the whole army 
 on horseback encircling his body, which was placed in a 
 golden coffin within a silver one, and the whole inclosed in 
 one of lead. Those who prepared his grave were put to 
 death, in order to render impossible the discovery of the 
 locality. The sons of Etzel did not inherit the genius of 
 their father ; bitter feuds, in which the Huns joined, arose 
 between them, and the Germans speedily found means to 
 throw off their yoke. Ardarich, king of the Gepidae, was 
 the first who raised the standard of rebellion. He was fol- 
 lowed by the Ostrogoths under the Amali, Walamir, Theo- 
 domir, and Widomir. A victory was won on the river 
 Netad in Hungary; and another was gained by Walamir 
 at the mouths of the Danube, when the Huns were forced 
 to retreat beyond the Black Sea. The Goths again threat- 
 ened the Eastern empire. Theodomir, bribed by the em-
 
 162 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 peror, sent his son, Theodorich, who was born on the day 
 of the last victory won by Walamir, as a hostage to Con- 
 stantinople, but still maintained his position on the Danube. 
 Widomir was also persuaded, by means of a large bribe, to 
 turn his course to the west, where his people intermingled 
 with the Visigoths. 
 
 LXVI. Geiserich 
 
 GEISERICH, or Genserich, had placed himself on the 
 Vandal throne by the murder of his brother Gunderich. 
 Although lame from a fall from horseback, he was noted 
 as being the most active of all the German leaders. Being 
 driven from the Pyrenees by the Visigoths, and invited into 
 Africa by Bonifacius, the faithless Roman governor, he re- 
 solved to quit the theater of war in Europe, and to erect a 
 new and splendid kingdom in the luxurious South. The 
 whole of his subjects, together with some of the Alani and 
 Goths, in all 80,000 men, had already assembled on the shore 
 for the purpose of embarkation, when he was informed that 
 Heringar, the king of the Suevi, was attacking him in the 
 rear, and, instantly returning, drove the enemy into a river, 
 in which the king was drowned. In May, A.D. 429, Geise- 
 rich sailed to Africa, where he conquered the whole of the 
 northern coast, and drove out the Romans who had invited 
 him thither. The large and well-fortified city of Carthage 
 became his capital, and all the other fortresses were demol- 
 ished, lest they might serve as strongholds for the Romans. 
 The natives were well treated, and public immorality was 
 checked ; prostitutes being compelled to marry, and adultery 
 punished by death; morality was, in fact, so strongly en- 
 forced by Geiserich that it was commonly said, "The Ro- 
 mans are licentious when compared with the Goths, but they 
 are worse when compared with the Vandals." Landed 
 estates in the vicinity of the capital were bestowed upon 
 the Vandals, with the view of hindering their dispersion 
 during peace, and of facilitating their assembling in case of
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 163 
 
 danger. With political foresight, Geiserich, whose favorite 
 title was that of Sea-king, sought to sway the Mediterranean, 
 named by his subjects the Vendilsee. The plans formed by 
 Alaric, whose early death prevented their completion, were 
 now carried into execution by the Vandal monarch, who, as 
 if by enchantment, created a powerful fleet, and, in 439, be- 
 sieged Palermo with the intention of conquering Sicily, his 
 vessels at the same time sweeping the Atlantic and plunder- 
 ing the coasts of Spain. Rome, at that period threatened by 
 the Huns, offered little or no opposition to his schemes. The 
 death of the gallant JEtius, her brave defender, who fell a 
 victim to court cabals, hastened her ruin. Valentinian was 
 murdered by Maximus, who forced the widowed Eudoxia to 
 become his wife, and seated himself on the imperial throne. 
 Eudoxia, animated by revenge, secretly invited Geiserich to 
 destroy Rome and to carry her away, and, in 455, he sailed 
 for that purpose with an enormous fleet to Italy, where he 
 landed and took Rome by storm, but spared both the city 
 and the inhabitants, and contented himself with a system- 
 atic pillage, which lasted fourteen days. The treasure was 
 appropriated to the maintenance and increase of his fleet; 
 and the splendors of Rome were transported to Africa to 
 adorn her ancient rival, Carthage. The ships were laden 
 with gold and jewels; even the golden roofs were carried 
 away. That the Vandals were not insensible to beauty and 
 art, and that the term of Vandalism has been wrongly used 
 in order to indicate coarse barbarity, the enemy of refine- 
 ment, science, and civilization, are clearly proved on refer- 
 ence to history, which records their having deprived Rome 
 of her finest marbles, and that a ship laden with them was 
 wrecked ; had they not appreciated the value of these statues, 
 as miracles of art, they would either have been wantonly de- 
 stroyed or passed by unheeded. Geiserich, preferring his 
 African kingdom to the possession of Italy, returned to 
 Carthage, accompanied by the empress Eudoxia, whom he 
 regarded as part of the booty. Her daughter, who was also 
 named Eudoxia, was given in marriage to his son, Hune-
 
 164 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 rich. The Vandals now ruled the seas, and annually devas- 
 tated the coasts of Spain, Italy, and Greece. The Romans 
 and Goths in Spain armed a great fleet against them, which 
 Geiserich attacked when lying in the harbors, and carried 
 away from the roads. Leo, emperor of the East, A.D. 460, 
 manned a formidable fleet at Constantinople, and sent it, 
 under the command of Basiliscus, against Carthage. Gei- 
 serich, instead of opposing it on the open sea, prudently re- 
 treated into the harbor, and as soon as the Greeks had drawn 
 up their ships in a close circle round the entrance, suddenly 
 sent fire ships among them, which destroyed the greater 
 part, and put the rest to flight, A.D. 468. Geiserich died, ten 
 years after this event, in extreme old age, A.D. 478. After 
 the migration of the Vandals to Africa, the Roman peasants, 
 headed by Merobaudes, the Roman poet, in whose honor col- 
 umns were raised, revolted against the Suevi, who, numeri- 
 cally weak, and shaken by disaster, gradually sank, while 
 the dominion of the Visigoths increased, and finally spread 
 over the whole of Spain. 
 
 LXVII. Odoachar 
 
 AFTER Geiserichs' departure from Rome, Ricimer, the 
 Sueve, grandson to Wallia, king of the Visigoths, and the 
 hereditary enemy of the Vandals, held undisputed sway in 
 Italy, and conducted all the measures taken against Gei- 
 serich by both the Western and Eastern empires. His au- 
 thority, however, was not displeasing to the weak emperors 
 of Constantinople, with whom he entered into alliance, be- 
 cause, satisfied with possessing the power without the title 
 of emperor, he bestowed it upon men whom he one after the 
 other deposed, as soon as they disobeyed his injunctions. 
 Majorian, Severus, Arthemius, whose daughter he married, 
 but whom he soon after disagreed with, and finally, Olyb- 
 rius, were successively proclaimed emperor, and kept hi awe 
 by his German troops, chiefly composed of Heruli and Rugii,
 
 THE MIGRATIONS 165 
 
 who had settled in the Alps to the northwest of Italy, A.D. 
 472. His death left the throne defenseless. 
 
 Odoachar, one of the Heruli (of whom when yet a youth 
 it had been foretold by St. Severinus that he would exchange 
 his rough furs for the imperial purple), was distinguished for 
 his boldness and valor, and soon caused himself to be elected 
 prince of his nation, and leader of the Roman mercenaries. 
 He first united with Childerich, the Frank, against the Ale- 
 manni, whose prince, Gibuld, he overthrew, A.D. 466. He 
 then planned the conquest of Rome, and easily succeeded in 
 dethroning Romulus Augustulus, an amiable but weak youth, 
 the last of the Roman emperors, when he caused himself to 
 be proclaimed king of Italy, probably as much from a super- 
 stitious dread of the fatal destiny which seemed attached to 
 those who bore the imperial title as from a desire of flatter- 
 ing his countrymen. A.D. 476. A.U.C. 1229. Order was 
 quickly established throughout the kingdom. The Germans 
 received a third of the landed property, and were distributed 
 among the Romans, who were allowed to retain their cus- 
 toms and laws. Ravenna, which became the capital, kept 
 the Tyrolean Rugii and Heruli in check. Thus was the fall, 
 of the Roman empire accomplished, after a struggle of eight 
 centuries against the Germans, from the time of the first 
 Brennus to that of Odoachar, by whom their colossal power 
 was finally crushed. Order was restored ; but it was long 
 before the ferment entirely ceased. After the fall of Rome, 
 the Latin tongue and the refinements of the South greatly 
 influenced its conquerors, and drew a broader line of distinc- 
 tion between them and their brethren who still inhabited the 
 wild and trackless forests; Christianity also caused a still 
 wider separation between the converted and the pagan na- 
 tions. These circumstances, combined with the hereditary 
 feuds and the restless, war-loving character of the Germans, 
 were turned to advantage by their kings, who, influenced 
 either by zeal for religion or by ambitious motives, carried 
 on the struggle, now terminated with Rome, among them- 
 selves.
 
 166 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE TRANSITION FROM PAGANISM TO CHRIS- 
 TIANITY 
 
 LXVIII. The Propagation of the Gospel 
 
 IN THE midst of the tumult of nations, rushing onward 
 in their migrations as madly as the raging waters of 
 the lordly Rhine beneath its black and aged cliffs, 
 Christianity, the spirit of eternal peace, appeared, like the 
 celestial bow hanging unmoved and calm, softly radiating 
 through its misty veil, over the dark and foaming abyss. 
 While the Roman empire, in the decline of age, shaken to 
 its very foundations by savage and invading hordes, was 
 slowly sinking to decay, while those mighty hordes, solely 
 intent on pillage, filled the world with horror and despair, 
 a mild and gentle spirit of love and peace sought refuge hi 
 the hearts of a few, as in a sanctuary, uninfluenced by 
 earthly power, gradually gained a mastery over the pas- 
 sions of mankind, and, by its invisible but benign influence, 
 spread peace around. The gospel was preached and pro- 
 claimed in the East and West by the apostles and followers 
 of the Saviour, who sealed their profession with a martyr's 
 death. 
 
 Small Christian communities disseminated themselves to 
 the utmost verge of the empire, and although cruelly perse- 
 cuted by the Roman emperors, Christianity rose again with 
 renovated strength, like the phoenix from the pyre. Before 
 its doctrines, replete with eternal truth, the dark fables of 
 paganism fell ; while the firmness shown by its adherents 
 in preferring a lingering death, torture, and the stake to a 
 renunciation of their faith 'mpressed even their persecutors
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 167 
 
 with a conviction of the truth of the religion they professed, 
 and aided its diffusion. In the commencement of the fourth 
 century, the new religion had taken such deep root in the 
 empire that the emperor Constantine deemed it politic to 
 adopt it, and, by so doing, rendered it the religion of the 
 state. Under the first Christian emperors, the German coun- 
 tries lying within their jurisdiction were entirely Christian- 
 ized, and the heathen temples were either converted into 
 churches or new places of worship were erected. 
 
 Before the conversion of Constantine, while war was rag- 
 ing on the Danube, a great number of the Goths were con- 
 verted by their Roman prisoners, and Christianity spread so 
 rapidly among them that Gothic bishops were present at the 
 great council of Nice, convoked by that emperor, and sev- 
 eral distinguished theologians shone among the earliest 
 Gothic bishops, one of whom, Ulphilas, as has already 
 been mentioned, produced a Gothic translation of the 
 Bible. In the progress of the migrations, all the Gothic 
 tribes, after their settlement in the Roman territory, em- 
 braced Christianity; an example shortly afterward followed 
 by the Franks, who imparted its doctrines to the other 
 nations of Germany. 
 
 LXIX. The Spirit of Christianity 
 
 THE fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion, "Love 
 thy neighbor as thyself," was a command of love by which 
 it was at once distinguished from the different religions, 
 founded upon egotism, practiced by the heathens. The 
 Jews, Greeks, and Romans, like the ancient priest-castes 
 of the East, that kept themselves apart from the rest of 
 the people, regarded themselves as chosen nations, all oth- 
 ers as barbarians, strangers, and enemies, whom they were 
 not only permitted but commanded to treat with cruelty or 
 to exterminate. Hence slavery was universally practiced. 
 The ancient Germans, who only respected the rights of those 
 with whom they were in immediate alliance, and the laws
 
 168 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of hospitality, were not free from a similar charge, and 
 habitually treated every stranger, nay, even their own coun- 
 trymen and nearest neighbors, as enemies, and made it their 
 chief occupation to attack and oppress each other. Chris- 
 tianity first taught equality and fraternal love. The spirit- 
 uality of its doctrines was also directly opposed to those 
 inculcated by paganism, which, referring merely to the ex- 
 ternal world, degraded men's minds by sensuality and super- 
 stition. To many of the nations of antiquity, the doctrine 
 of the immortality of the soul was utterly unknown, while 
 others formed their notions of a future state on the same 
 principle as the Germans, who imagined their heavenly 
 Walhalla to be merely a more joyous continuation of their 
 earthly existence. Christianity first taught the doctrines of 
 the Divine origin, and of the eternal duration of the soul. 
 Deeply impressed with the truth of these two great doctrines, 
 whole nations renounced their ancient superstitions and cus- 
 toms, and egotism, so deeply rooted in the nature of man, 
 alone opposed the fulfillment of the great injunction of uni- 
 versal love that has ever been so universally disobeyed. Na- 
 tions continued to butcher each other, nay, they even carried 
 on the butchery in the name of the very Saviour who en- 
 joined peace and love; while slavery not only continued, but 
 even gained ground among the Germans, who framed their 
 excuse on the humility inculcated by the gospel. But the 
 good seed had been sown, and gradually produced better 
 fruit. Centuries passed away; and, as the doctrine of 
 mercy, the knowledge of the common rights of man, of 
 the value of civilization and of peace, imperceptibly gained 
 ground, ancient barbarism disappeared. Although the pre- 
 cept of universal philanthropy taught by Christ found a slow 
 and difficult reception among the conquerors of the earth, 
 the second frim of Christianity, inward contemplation, met 
 with universal encouragement; souls oppressed by crime or 
 misfortune sought peace in the bosom of the church, or the 
 egotism and pride of man led to a haughty contempt of the 
 world, and immoderate mortification of the body. The Ro-
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 169 
 
 man, whose sense of guilt was sharpened by the ever-recur- 
 ring recollection of his ancient empire, now trampled beneath 
 the foot of the savage invader, sought to expiate the past and 
 to forget the present in the contemplation of eternity; while 
 to the German, hurried away by his fervid imagination and 
 enthusiastic zeal, Christianity presented a bright and joyous 
 view, and he regarded himself as a soldier of Christ, whose 
 glory he must seek to promote on earth by fighting and con- 
 quering in his cause. An inspiring and encouraging faith 
 also pervaded the doctrines of the first German theologians, 
 recluses, and ecclesiastical orders, whose renunciation of the 
 world, and disdain of its allurements, far from being the re- 
 sult of sorrow or remorse, originated in religious enthusiasm, 
 and an ecstatic contemplation of future and eternal joy. 
 
 LXX. The Catholic Doctrine 
 
 THE false interpretation of the figurative expressions with 
 which the Bible abounds has ever been owing to ignorance 
 or to willful perversion. In the earlier times of Christianity, 
 the new doctrine was tainted with paganism and the ancient 
 philosophy of Greece ; the former, in direct contradiction to 
 the words of the Saviour, requiring many outward forms, 
 while the philosophers sought to build some theory of their 
 own imagining on some fancied interpretation of the gospel. 
 Two of the religious sects, to which these various interpre- 
 tations gave rise, whose animosity greatly influenced the 
 history of the world, and whose dispute was settled by the 
 great council of Nice, convoked by the emperor Constantino, 
 A.D. 325, may be more particularly remarked. The sect of 
 the Arians, so named after their founder, Arius, maintained 
 that God only consisted of one person, and that Christ was 
 not God himself; while the opposite party professed that 
 Christ, the Son of God, was also God the Father, only ap- 
 pearing as a second person under his earthly form, but united 
 to the Godhead by the eternal Spirit. They also divided the 
 Godhead into three persons, God the Father, God the Son, 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 8
 
 170 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and God the Holy Ghost, and named them the Holy Trinity. 
 The latter sect triumphed, and took the appellation of Catholic 
 or universal. 
 
 The German bishops could not yet compete in learning 
 with the countless clergy of Greece and Rome. One of 
 them, named Theophilus, a Goth, distinguished himself at 
 Nice in defense of Arianism ; two others, Sunnia and Fre- 
 tela, asked the advice of St. Hieronymus on the subject. 
 Unila, Nicetas, and Theotimus are also mentioned as cele- 
 brated Gothic bishops, but the only Gothic book extant is 
 the Bible translation of Ulphilas. It is merely known that 
 all the Goths regarded Arianism as the simpler and better 
 doctrine, and that their zealous profession of it gave rise to 
 a Catholic alliance between the Greeks and Romans (which 
 the Franks, who, although Catholics, at first inclined to the 
 simpler doctrine, and objected to the worship of images, soon 
 afterward joined), which ultimately proved too powerful for 
 them, and greatly contributed to their calamities. An ex- 
 traordinary multiplicity of doctrines and ceremonies was 
 gradually introduced into the Catholic church. At first, 
 tradition had greater influence than dogma, or rather, ex- 
 amples were cited without the precepts they inculcated being 
 much commented upon. Piety was demonstrated by actions 
 of self-denial, of bold heroism, of fidelity unto death, etc., 
 which were transcribed and held up for imitation, and with 
 a little poetical embellishment were converted into legends, 
 which, in the first centuries after Christ, had already become 
 very numerous, and formed the chief literature of the times. 
 The naivete and profound thought that distinguish the le- 
 gends of Germany prove that Christianity was originally in 
 that country entirely practical, and free from subtle specula- 
 tions. Their moral is ever noble and elevated, and they in- 
 culcate every Christian virtue through the medium of inter- 
 esting and attractive tales, generally founded upon fact. At 
 a later period, the legends became less natural, and the moral 
 they inculcated more ecclesiastical. Simple practical Chris- 
 tianity was lost amid the artificial and complicated ceremonies
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 171 
 
 of the church, which were chiefly introduced by the exagger- 
 ated and perverted practice of worshiping the saints, and 
 men, instead of being roused by the example of the martyrs 
 to emulate their piety and virtue, instead of seeking to live 
 and to act in the same spirit by which they were animated, 
 actually began to worship their dead bodies, their ashes, and 
 their relics, to raise chapels and churches in their honor, and 
 to invoke them, as the heathens formerly did their household 
 deities, as the patrons and guardians of their country, their 
 nation, their houses, and their families. Still, notwithstand- 
 ing these heathenish practices of the church and the subtlety 
 of theologians, the living spirit of Christianity was not en- 
 tirely lost, and long breathed in the simple and unadulter- 
 ated forms of the church in Germany. A spirit of austerity 
 and of reverential awe, modified by a faith of almost child- 
 like simplicity, may be traced throughout our earliest le- 
 gends. The strict morality practiced by the German while 
 yet a heathen was now ratified by the commands of the 
 gospel, and more strictly enforced by religious zeal. The 
 legends of this period chiefly record the pious fidelity of men, 
 and the holy chastity of women, and clothe ancient German 
 virtue, as in the beautiful legend of Genoveva, in a more 
 religious garb. Christianity, while still in its infancy, pre- 
 sented a bright contrast with the dark religions of antiquity, 
 and inspired every mind with confidence. A light had burst 
 upon mankind; the dark clouds veiling futurity had passed 
 away, and the brightness of heaven was disclosed to view. 
 The combats of the gods and their carousals in Walhalla 
 were exchanged for the promises of Christian bliss, of spirit- 
 ual glorification. The ferocity of the warrior was tamed; 
 for a while the clash of the weapon and the din of war 
 ceased, while the iron-bound knee bent at the sound of the 
 vesper bell. Rapine and bloodshed had devastated Europe 
 for centuries, and the most sudden vicissitudes of fortune 
 had become common during the great migrations; to-day a 
 slave, to-morrow an emperor; now the ruler of the North, 
 now dragged in chains to the far South, the land of the dark
 
 172 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 African; and so general had been the suffering that the first 
 dream of the convert, the first hope of the Christian, was 
 that once again he might behold those from whom he had 
 been so cruelly torn ; a hope that forms the groundwork of 
 the interesting legend of St. Faustinianus, so deeply char- 
 acteristic of the age, and of all the legends of those times, 
 now so lightly esteemed, although valuable as historical 
 documents, and replete with beauty. 
 
 LXXI. Commencement of the Hierarchy 
 
 THE only Christian communities were scattered and op- 
 pressed ; and even when the whole Roman empire embraced 
 Christianity, no spiritual superior was allowed by the em- 
 peror. Each community had its priest, a certain number 
 of whom were controlled by a bishop. The bishops were 
 all of equal rank, and formed a council (concilium), which 
 was presided over by the emperor, and which deliberated 
 upon and fixed the doctrines of faith, the forms of worship, 
 and the ordinances of the church. 
 
 The necessity of unity in the church, the division and 
 gradual decay of the imperial power, afforded an opportu- 
 nity for ambitious churchmen to increase their authority, 
 and the bishops were ere long controlled by the patriarchs, 
 or heads of the church, four of whom were created; viz., 
 the patriarch for "Western Europe, who resided at Rome; 
 for Eastern Europe, at Constantinople; for Asia, at An- 
 tioch; for Africa, at Alexandria. The highest authority 
 was, however, in reality still exercised by the councils. In 
 the seventh century, the patriarchates of Antioch and Alex- 
 andria were destroyed by the Turks, by whoaa Mohamme- 
 danism, which speedily supplanted Christianity in Asia and 
 Africa, was introduced. 
 
 The long and violent contest carried on between the patri- 
 arch of Constantinople, whose power sank with that of the 
 Eastern empire, and his Roman rival, naturally roused the 
 eympathy and passions of the different nations that owned
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 173 
 
 their supremacy, and while Rome was supported by Ger- 
 many, the Eastern Romans, Greeks, Asiatics, ^.nd Slavi 
 sided with Constantinople. A difference, at first hardly 
 perceptible, in the dogma and form of the Greek church, 
 gradually produced a schism, which at length caused its 
 complete separation from that of Rome, whose patriarch 
 usurped the unlimited control of the church, and gave it a 
 monarchical form. The entire West, including the whole 
 of Germany and the northern countries, embraced the tenets 
 of the Roman church, whose authority mainly rested on the 
 interpretation of a certain verse in the New Testament, which 
 it was alleged proved the intention of the Saviour to found 
 the new church upon St. Peter, as upon a rock ; as a logical 
 sequel to this doctrine, this foundation stone was the martyr- 
 dom of St. Peter at Rome, where he preached the gospel. 
 The chair of the Roman patriarch was consequently called 
 that of St. Peter, whom he was supposed to succeed, and, 
 like whom, he was also supposed to hold the keys of heaven. 
 The pontiff, or pope (papa, father), was at first subordinate 
 to and protected by the temporal monarchs, and it was some 
 time before he usurped any temporal power, or ventured to 
 interfere in any great degree with the internal regulations 
 of the German church, whose bishops, although subject to 
 the decisions of the general council, held independent convo- 
 cations in their own country, and, having the first voice in 
 the national assembly, were united in one common national 
 interest, and had not yet become blindly submissive to Rome. 
 The archbishops (among whom those of Mayence and Rheims 
 were the first who extended their authority) had each several 
 bishops under their control. The common clergy were al- 
 ways chosen by the people, and slaves were not allowed to 
 enter into holy orders. In default of schools, the monas- 
 teries and the service under priests afforded the only means 
 of spiritual tuition. The priests were obliged to be confirmed 
 in their offices and to be ordained by the bishops, who, al- 
 though chosen by the priests, were confirmed in their dignity 
 by the people, the king, and the pope. In the same manner
 
 174 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 that the vote of the monarch became more influential, as 
 democratic power gradually decayed, monarchical power 
 at a later period yielded (in its turn) before the despotic 
 vote of the pope, who was at first very irregularly chosen, 
 his election being greatly influenced by the people of Rome, 
 until its final regulation in the eleventh century. The pope 
 was surrounded by a chosen number of dignitaries of the 
 church, who, according to statute, consisted of archbishops 
 and bishops, and who acted as counselors, officers, and leg- 
 ates, and, under the title of Cardinals, elected his successor. 
 As early as the eighth century, a similar regulation existed 
 in some of the bishoprics, the bishops being elected by a num- 
 ber of canons (canonici; Domherrn, from .Dora, church). 
 The popes, during their assumption of power, added their 
 decretals to the laws or canons of the church, compiled by 
 the council, and sanctioned by the monarch, which, grad- 
 ually creeping into the civil law, influenced both public and 
 private life. All pagan customs, with the exception of those 
 incorporated into the Roman ceremonies and belief, were in- 
 terdicted by the church, not by the state, under penalty of 
 public penance. Domestic life in Germany was also greatly 
 affected by the laws laid down by the church concerning 
 marriage between relatives, which was merely allowed to 
 be contracted by persons five or six degrees removed from 
 each other, and which was denounced as incest when uon- 
 tracted by persons more nearly allied by blood ; thus, many 
 things which, until then, had been considered lawful, were 
 now punished as criminal. By these means, the church ac- 
 quired a fearful degree of influence, yet further increased by 
 the sale of indulgences, or the remission of sin on payment 
 of a certain sum of money. An additional hold was gained 
 upon the people by means of the judiciary power exercised 
 by the monastic orders, and by the higher church dignitaries 
 over their dependents and slaves. 
 
 The clergy were generally maintained by tithes. Every 
 landowner, in obedience to the old Jewish law, gave a tenth 
 of his produce to the church, which was also enriched by
 
 FROM PAGANISM Td CHRISTIANITY 175 
 
 gifts to the saints, or by pious offerings, either voluntary, 
 or imposed by law. The churches and monasteries neces- 
 sarily required land for their support, and as extensive and 
 uncultivated tracts were, at that time, everywhere to be 
 met with, the clergy were at first remunerated with grants 
 by the monarch or the people, and speedily vied with the 
 laity in influence and magnificence. The superior knowl- 
 edge of the Roman priesthood, and more especially their 
 improvements in agriculture, early disposed the govern- 
 ments of Germany in their favor, and it was to the priests 
 and monks, who introduced the use of the plow while they 
 taught the gospel, that our rude forefathers owed the peace- 
 ful arts of tillage and the knowledge of a Saviour. It was 
 no unusual occurrence for pious or guilty men of rank to 
 bestow their Allods or freeholds upon the church, whose 
 dependents and slaves, secure from the ravages of war, were 
 ever blessed with peace, which, added to the consideration 
 in which the clergy were held on account of their knowledge 
 of agriculture, and to their being everywhere in possession 
 of the most productive soil, rendered it an enviable distinc- 
 tion to dwell beneath the shade of the crosier. 
 
 LXXIL The Monasteries 
 
 THE first ^ermits, or recluses (men who, shunning society, 
 and despising worldly pleasures and grandeur, dwelt in dark 
 caves, fed upon roots, and passed their lives in prayer and 
 meditation), are met with hi the vast deserts of Egypt, 
 whither they had either fled for safety during the bloody 
 persecutions of the Christians, or had resorted for devotional 
 purposes. St. Antony was the first hermit. Soon after him, 
 St. Pachomius founded the first community of recluses, A.D. 
 305, who bound themselves to the observance of the severest 
 rules. Women also formed similar communities ; and monas- 
 teries and nunneries soon became numerous. About the fifth 
 century, Benedict of Nursia founded a new and powerful 
 monkish order in Italy, distinguished as the Benedictins, or
 
 176 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 "Western monks, from the earlier Basilians (who took their 
 name from St. Basilius), or Greek monks. Although the 
 trinal vow, of obedience, poverty, and chastity, was com- 
 mon to all monkish orders, they were reasonable enough to 
 perceive the impossibility of enforcing it, and it is expressly 
 stated in the rules of the Benedictins, an order including all 
 the monks and nuns of the West, that those who found the 
 vow too severe might quit the cloister and return to the 
 world: "Si non potes servare, liber discede." Benedict also 
 ordained that the monks, instead of being idle, should work, 
 cultivate the land, write useful books, etc. ; a law which 
 proved extremely beneficial, and greatly tended to spread 
 the knowledge of agriculture, which received many useful 
 improvements from the monks, and of the cultivation of 
 useful plants, facilitated by the mutual intercourse between 
 adjacent monasteries; and it must be confessed that what- 
 ever has been handed down to us of the science and litera- 
 ture of Greece and Rome, of the history of the world and of 
 that of Christianity, is owing to the labors of the pious and 
 learned monks of those tunes, who preserved and copied the 
 manuscripts that escaped the destruction caused by the mi- 
 grations, and who penned the histories of their monasteries, 
 or recorded the political events of their times. 
 
 Rome was, at that period, the center of the learned world, 
 and the Latin tongue was, consequently, in general use in 
 the monasteries. An attempt made, in later times, to re- 
 place it by the language of the country, failed, owing to the 
 influence of the pope, whose power had already reached a 
 dangerous height, and by whom the use of the Latin tongue 
 was prescribed in all ecclesiastical matters as a means of in- 
 creasing the dependence of the laity upon the priesthood, and 
 of curbing the independent spirit of the Germans. The mon- 
 asteries and convents, governed by abbots and abbesses, origi- 
 nally under the control of the bishops, were no sooner enriched 
 by endowments of money or land, and rendered powerful by 
 the number of their dependents, than they asserted their in- 
 dependence, in which they were upheld by the popes, who
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 177 
 
 made use of these co-operative societies, whose influence 
 extended throughout Christendom, as a check upon the am- 
 bition of the bishops. 
 
 LXXIIL The Catholic Form of Worship 
 
 GOD, no longer adored on the mountain or in the forest, 
 was now worshiped in temples consecrated to his service. 
 The Christian or Byzantine style of architecture, so called 
 from having been first introduced at Byzantium (Constanti- 
 nople), was general throughout Germany until the Middle 
 Ages, when it attained a higher degree of perfection, and 
 was called the German or Gothic style. The introduction 
 of pictures and images into churches early became a source 
 of contention, and was as strongly censured by one party, 
 who feared lest the veneration in which they were held might 
 endanger the spiritual purity of the Christian faith, and de- 
 generate into idolatry, as it was strongly upheld by another, 
 who argued that they were merely venerated as visible rep- 
 resentations of the objects of their mental adoration, the 
 Saviour, the holy family, the martyrs, and their sufferings, 
 etc., and that the effect produced by an elevated style of 
 architecture, by sculpture, paintings, music, illuminations, 
 processions, and ceremonies, upon the senses, was highly 
 conducive to devotion. The latter opinion prevailed, and 
 the churches were gorgeously decorated. Vaulted roofs 
 and lofty towers lent an air of imposing grandeur to the 
 edifice, adorned within with columns, statues, and pictures. 
 In simple but deeply stirring hymns, the priests chanted 
 in the Latin tongue the praise of the Most High ; lamps and 
 waxen tapers burned day and night before the sacred pictures 
 and images; while holy water and incense, genuflections, 
 folding of the hands, the sign of the cross, the measured and 
 solemn movements of the richly attired priests before the 
 splendid altar, placed to the east, where shone the natal 
 star of Jesus, the harmony of the choristers, etc., added 
 solemnity to the scene. In the ceremonies and in the dress
 
 178 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of the priests much was borrowed from the pagan worship of 
 ancient Rome, and from the Jewish ceremonial. All impor- 
 tant affairs, for instance, those transacted in the national 
 assembly, opened with prayer. ' The elected monarch was 
 solemnly anointed and crowned ; the ordeal was still retained 
 in the laws ; in every important private affair counsel was 
 sought of God or of a saint by prayer, and by the casting 
 of lots ; much of the pagan belief in natural powers, omens, 
 etc., was also retained by the Christians in their various su- 
 perstitions, such as belief in magic, witchcraft, etc. The an- 
 cient feasts of the heathens were now replaced by, or rather 
 changed into, Christian festivals, the chief of which, Passion 
 "Week and Easter, in memory of the sufferings and resurrec- 
 tion of the Saviour, were partly borrowed from the ancient 
 Passover of the Jews, and partly from the spring festival of 
 the ancient Germans. "Whitsuntide, like Easter, was a mov- 
 able feast; Easter always falling on the first Sunday after 
 the first full moon during the equinox, sometimes earlier, 
 sometimes later ; "Whitsuntide always falling forty-nine days 
 after Easter. The church-ale (Kirmess, consecration of the 
 church), corresponding with the autumnal festival of the an- 
 cient Germans, was of equal importance ; and lastly, Christ- 
 mas, or the birth of Christ, fell in the middle of winter, and 
 was a repetition of the great Yule feast. Many of the nu- 
 merous other festivals, in honor of the Saviour, of the holy 
 Virgin, and of the saints, corresponded with those of pagan 
 times, to which several of the customs practiced at those 
 periods bear great resemblance ; for instance, the practice of 
 carrying palm branches and green boughs; St. John's fire; 
 St. Martin's goose ; horns, etc. Sunday was a regular festi- 
 val, on which, as on all others, peace, joy, and rest were 
 enjoined. Fasts, or the prohibition of meat, although taken 
 from a Jewish custom, accorded with the Christian spirit of 
 self-denial, and fell on several feast days, on every Friday, 
 and lasted several weeks before Passion "Week. 
 
 1 As in the English houses of parliament at the present day. Trans.
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 179 
 
 The institution of certain sacraments, or holy acts, such 
 as baptism, the confirmation or consecration of adults, the 
 marriage benediction, the last unction, and confession, which, 
 under pain of eternal condemnation and excommunication, 
 ordained that all crimes should be confessed to the priest, 
 who, bound to secrecy, awarded penance or gave absolution, 
 greatly influenced domestic life. The clergy, as they in- 
 creased in importance, arrogated to themselves the right of 
 excluding rebellious members from the church, the most 
 severe of all ecclesiastical punishments, which, formerly, 
 consisted merely of penance within or without the church, 
 corporeal chastisement, offerings, and fines. The supposed 
 sanctity of certain localities to which pilgrimages were made 
 (Wallfahrten, a name derived from the pagan custom of 
 visiting distant sacred forests), gave rise to another peculiar 
 mode of worship. The saints, supposed to preside over these 
 localities, were either invoked by people when in danger, 
 who, on such occasions, vowed to make a pilgrimage to their 
 sanctuaries, or they were visited by others in the hope of a 
 miracle being performed in their behalf, in order to free 
 them from mental or bodily ailments. Some of the saints 
 were held in such high estimation that their admirers 
 deemed it incumbent upon them to make a pilgrimage to 
 their graves at least once during their lives, and sometimes 
 imposed severe penance upon themselves, by going barefoot, 
 or crawling the whole way on their knees. 
 
 LXXIV. The Christian Kings 
 
 THE struggle between the migratory nations and those 
 among whom they attempted to settle, had, by necessitating 
 implicit obedience to the dukes or chiefs, greatly increased 
 their authority and gradually consolidated their power. The 
 servility of the Italians, accustomed to the despotic rule of 
 Rome, ere long inspired the German chieftains with a wish 
 to tame the independent spirit of their followers. The ex- 
 ample of a Jewish king, recorded in the Scriptures, at that
 
 180 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 period diligently studied, greatly tended to strengthen this 
 wish, and while fierce and warlike kings coveted the purple 
 of the Roman tyrant, gentle-minded and pious ones deemed 
 themselves, like David, the anointed of the Lord, and the 
 vicegerents of God upon earth. The ancient Jewish cere- 
 mony of anointing with oil was countenanced by the priest- 
 hood, on account of the opportunity it afforded of flattering 
 royalty, and of increasing their own power, they alone hav- 
 ing the right to perform this sacred function. These ideas, 
 however, were not prejudicial to the ancient privileges of the 
 people, the kings being still dependent upon them for their 
 election, and presiding, not ruling, over the general assem- 
 bly. When the throne became hereditary it was made so 
 with the consent of the people, and was by no means granted 
 from an inclination on their part to increase the royal prerog- 
 ative, but with an intention of diminishing it, by imposing 
 fresh conditions on each successor to the crown. Nor was 
 the person of the king considered inviolable; the crime of 
 murdering him being, in the Anglo-Saxon and Bavarian 
 laws, merely punishable by a fine of considerable amount. 
 The royal allotment of the conquered land was larger than 
 that of any of the freeborn warriors, and consisted of a large 
 Allod (freehold) or domain, where the king had his palace 
 (Hofburg) and held his court. He also possessed other Al- 
 lods, of smaller extent, in different parts of the country, on 
 which he had little Pfalzen (palaces) or country houses (vil- 
 las), which served as resting places for him and his house- 
 hold on his journeyings ; and on these occasions, in order to 
 render the charge of his maintenance less burdensome to the 
 people, the king and his court were supported by the reve- 
 nues of these lands, to which royal dues, such as tolls, mines, 
 fines, etc., were gradually added. Taxes and duties upon 
 freeholds, private property, person, or commerce, were ut- 
 terly unknown, the loyal nation presenting gifts of honor to 
 their monarch on occasions of national festivity or of royal 
 weddings, when a considerable tribute was often imposed 
 upon the conquered nations. The kings, chiefly enriched by
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 181 
 
 the pillage of the wealthy Roman provinces, expended great 
 part of their wealth upon their numerous followers, the 
 splendor of whose appearance contributed to their pomp and 
 magnificence, besides insuring respect for their authority 
 when presiding over the general assembly, and also served 
 as a means of alluring the youthful warriors into their serv- 
 ice, to which, dazzled by courtly splendor, and lured by am- 
 bition (the nobles and leaders of the army being chosen by 
 the monarch from their number), they willingly attached 
 themselves. 
 
 LXXV. State Assemblies, Dukes and Counts 
 
 THE new kingdoms retained much of the ancient Ger- 
 manic constitution; for instance, the division of freeborn 
 men into tens and hundreds. The tens (decanid) disap- 
 peared in course of time, and the hundreds (centend) be- 
 came cantons, several of which formed a Gau or province. 
 The popular assembly was, as in former times, held every 
 fourteen days, but, instead of the president being a judge 
 elected by the free voices of the people, he was a Graf or 
 count (comes), who was nominated by the king, and headed 
 the contingent furnished by the Gau in time of war. Every 
 post of honor, not only in the army and in the provinces, but 
 also in the court and around the royal person, being filled by 
 the Grafs, gave rise to different titles, such as, Pfalzgraf, 
 Waldgraf, Landgraf, Markgraf , etc. The word Graf (gra- 
 vid) has been falsely derived from grau (gray, old). Grimm 
 has rightly deduced it from Ravo (tectum), and makes it 
 synonymous with Gfeselle, a companion (from Saal, a hall), 
 which also signified a companion in the house and in the 
 field ; hence a Graf in Latin was always called Comes, and 
 had sometimes a proxy called Vicecomes ; whence are de- 
 rived the modern French and English titles of comte, vi- 
 comte, count, viscount. The army consisted of the whole 
 nation, headed by its Centners and Grafs. The great ex- 
 tent of the territory gained by conquerors, like Etzel, etc.,
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 who, in order to facilitate the government of their enormous 
 kingdoms, allowed the subdued nations to retain their former 
 rulers, on condition of their furnishing a contingent in the 
 field, gave rise to the ducal dignity. The Frankish mon- 
 archs pursued a similar policy toward the subjugated Ger- 
 manic tribes, either allowing them to be governed by their 
 own princes, or setting dukes over them ; but in either case 
 allowing them to retain their native laws, whether Aleman- 
 nic, Bavarian, Saxon, or Thuringian. All the Dukes, Grafs, 
 Centners, and the higher dignitaries of the church, were 
 bound to call the freemen of the state to a general assembly, 
 presided over by the monarch, once a year, and in extraordi- 
 nary cases, more frequently. These assemblies took cogni- 
 zance of the judiciary proceedings in which an appeal had 
 been made to their tribunal from the lower courts ; framed 
 and improved the laws ; elected and deposed the king, who 
 was responsible to them for his actions; declared war, and 
 concluded peace, unless civil war happened to be raging. 
 Each man's vote bore equal weight with that of the king; 
 each individual also possessed an equal right to state his 
 opinion, and to lay petitions before the court, beyond which 
 there was no appeal. The chief alterations in the laws re- 
 lated to the confirmation of the royal, ducal, and ecclesiasti- 
 cal power, which affected the whole state, and was conse- 
 quently decided by the assembly, which also regulated the 
 particular laws relating to dukedoms and provinces. These 
 state assemblies were, under different names, common to all 
 the Germanic kingdoms. The Anglo-Saxons named theirs 
 the Witenagemots (council of wise men, elders, or gray 
 heads), aged, wise or distinguished men being next in rank 
 to the dignitaries of the church and state. The Franks, 
 whose assemblies were held in the open air during the 
 month of March, styled them the fields of March. 
 
 The conduct of the war, as soon as declared, was in- 
 trusted to the king, who, on that occasion, received, as was 
 the case with the ancient German leaders, a great accession 
 of authority, and the strictest obedience was enforced to his
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 183 
 
 bann or right of compulsion. The Arimannia, from man- 
 nire, to cite, were the armed community convoked to the 
 national assembly during peace, which, in time of war, 
 formed a Landwehr (militia), called the arrier-ban (Heer- 
 bann, from Heer, an army, and bannire, to summon). The 
 monarch summoned the dukes; they, the counts; who, in 
 their turn, summoned the centners; and so on throughout 
 the several degrees. Each man served the same chief in the 
 field by whom he was governed in time of peace. Every 
 canton, county and dukedom furnished its contingent, which 
 was distinguished by a particular banner (Fanner, Panier, 
 a standard, whence comes the Banner-herr or banneret). 
 Every man provided himself with arms and provisions until 
 the conclusion of the campaign, which was settled before- 
 hand. Non-appearance in the field, and the still graver crime 
 of Heeresliz, or desertion on the field of battle, were severely 
 punished. Obedience was strictly enforced by the king and 
 the subordinate leaders, who had the right of inflicting in- 
 stant and summary punishment on the person of the crimi- 
 nal, a right they durst not exercise in tune of peace. The 
 civil laws were also thrice as severe during war time. 
 
 LXXVI. The Laws 
 
 THE example of the Romans, the increased extent of the 
 states, and the novelty of many of the new laws imposed 
 upon the people, gradually produced the necessity of possess- 
 ing written codes, which were to a certain degree" disadvan- 
 tageous to the people, who were rendered unfamiliar with 
 their contents as soon as the necessity of committing them 
 to memory ceased, while the facility with which the number 
 and intricacy of the laws could be increased soon required 
 them to be interpreted by lawyers or expositors of the law, 
 whose power depended on their knowledge and capacity. 
 The people were, consequently, on account of their igno- 
 rance, deprived of the right of judging in legal matters, upon 
 which, in ancient times, every freeman had a right freely to
 
 184 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 state his opinion and to vote, but which were now decided 
 by a select committee of the Rachimburgen, who, in difficult 
 cases, referred to the opinion of a learned professor or Sagi- 
 baro, who had no casting vote. The Rachimburgen were 
 members chosen from the national assembly. They were 
 continually changed, until the reign of Charlemagne, by 
 whom their office was rendered permanent, and they were 
 entitled Schoffen, whose nomination rested with the Grafs. 
 The system of Wergeld, or fining, was retained in the new 
 constitution, which was constructed upon the ancient one, 
 and which, owing to the constant insertion of new and often 
 contradictory laws, became at length extremely intricate and 
 confused. Many of the Roman civil laws were either en- 
 tirely or partially adopted into the civil code, and the Mosaic 
 ecclesiastical laws were mixed up with the ordinances of the 
 church, until, at length, the erection of states into hereditary 
 kingdoms, and the universal adoption of the feudal system, 
 rendered a new constitution and new laws necessary. The 
 most important alteration was the partial suppression of the 
 ancient perfect and pure "Wergeld system, which was re- 
 placed by the Roman laws regarding imprisonment, corpo- 
 real and capital punishment, the latter of which was sup- 
 posed to be upheld by the scriptural maxim of "An eye for 
 an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Actions injurious to ducal, 
 royal, or ecclesiastical dignity were especially punished by 
 corporeal chastisement and death: new crimes punished 
 by new laws. The old Wergeld system was still retained by 
 the people* with this single alteration, that the Wergeld was 
 now always paid in money. The highest coin current at 
 that period was the shilling (solidus). The trial by single 
 combat also still continued to be legal, and the other ordeals 
 were merely altered to suit them to the more enlightened 
 ideas of the age. 
 
 As everything modern originated from the South, and 
 everything ancient from the North, the codes of the southern 
 nations, the Ostro and Visi-Goths, for the most part contain 
 Roman laws imbued with the principles of Roman and bibli-
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 185 
 
 cal legislature, which exercised power over the life, person, 
 freedom, honor, and freehold property (Allod) of the crimi- 
 nal, while the codes of the northern nations, particularly 
 those of the Anglo-Saxons, still retain traces of their genuine 
 German origin. The Salic is the oldest written law, and 
 was first adapted to the new system by Chlodwig, almost all 
 of whose successors either added to or modified it. The orig- 
 inal manuscript was in German, but the only complete copy 
 now extant is in Latin, and besides containing the oldest 
 preface, records many of the barbarous customs of ancient 
 Germany, which, at that period, were still practiced. The 
 antiquity of the Thuringian code is proved by its barbarity; 
 it is still perfectly heathenish, and chiefly treats of revenge 
 for bloodshed, and of trials by single combat. The contrast 
 between the nations of Lower and Upper Germany, or the 
 Frankish Saxons and Goths, is perceptible throughout the 
 laws which have descended to our times ; those of the Franks, 
 Thuringians, and Longobardi, and those of the Saxons, 
 Anglo-Saxons, and Frisii, forming two connected codes, 
 widely differing from those of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, 
 and Burgundians, and those of the Alemanni and Bava- 
 rians. All the German nations anciently acted upon the 
 principle of judging every man by the laws of his native 
 country, for which reason the Franks allowed the different 
 tribes subdued by them, and incorporated into their king- 
 dom, to retain their national laws, merely introducing others 
 referring to the church and state, and to the new situation of 
 affairs in general. The Longobardi alone deviated from this 
 principle. Under the Merovingian dynasty, the several codes 
 of the Ripuarii, Alemanni, Thuringians, and Bavarians were 
 transcribed. In the fifth century, Dietrich von Bern gave a 
 code of laws to the Ostrogoths, and King Eurich one to the 
 Visigoths, in both of which much was borrowed from the 
 Roman law. The Burgundian code was drawn out during 
 the reign of Gundebald, and when the Franks took posses- 
 sion of Burgundy merely received some slight alterations. 
 The first code of the Longobardi was drawn up in the sev-
 
 186 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 enth century, during the reign of King Rotbaris, whose sue 
 cessors, and at a later period the Franks, added to it many 
 new and Roman laws. Originally the laws of the Longo- 
 bardi were essentiaDy German, nor were any others at first 
 tolerated in their country. 
 
 The Saxons and Frisii were, at the end of this period, 
 compelled by the Franks to commit their laws to writing 
 with the addition of the new Frankish ordinances. In Eng- 
 land,, the Anglo-Saxon law, in which the spirit of the gen- 
 uine old Germanic code has been faithfully preserved, was 
 gradually introduced by the kings. Latin transcripts of all 
 the codes of ancient Germany are still extant. 
 
 LXXYII. The Feudal System 
 
 FEUDAL tenure (or the manner in which slaves, emanci- 
 pated slaves or freed-men, and poor freemen, held part of an 
 Allod, for the use of which they rendered certain duties to 
 the owner, who, if the feoffee failed in fulfilling his engage- 
 ments, had the power of depriving him of the use of the 
 property, which was only lent upon certain conditions, and 
 not given away) was general among the Germans in pagan 
 times. Tacitus mentions that the German slaves who culti- 
 vated a small parcel of land formed a class distinct from the 
 household slaves. The wars, at a later period, introduced 
 another description of feudal tenure among the subdued 
 nations, who were constrained to pay tribute and to swear 
 allegiance to their conquerors, whenever the latter did not 
 take immediate possession of the lands; or, sometimes, a 
 whole nation held its lands in fief from another on a system 
 similar to that which bound the slave to the freeman. "When 
 the migrations had ceased, the feudal system was perfected 
 by the Frankish monarchs, who divided the extensive lands 
 they had gained in Gaul, as fiefs, among their armed fol- 
 lowers or dependents, who, by their services, had become 
 their Angetrauten (confidants, Antrustiones) or Getreuen 
 (fideles), who, either on account of the royal fiefs being as
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 187 
 
 large, and often larger, than the Allods of the freemen, or 
 on account of their holding offices as Grafs, were not only 
 admitted into the state assembly on an equality with the 
 freemen, but were also estimated higher in Wergeld. By 
 their success in war they gradually increased in wealth and 
 influence, and were at length formed into a class of nobles, 
 who bore precedence, as royal feudatories, over the ancient 
 nobility merely composed of freemen, the majority of whom, 
 either influenced by the ambition of shining at court, or anx- 
 ious to escape from poverty and debt, made a voluntary ces- 
 sion of their Allods to the monarch, to whom they swore al- 
 legiance as their liege lord, from whom they held their lands 
 in fee (feudum oblatum), and were thus received into the 
 class of nobles or vassals of the crown. In this manner the 
 feudal system gradually gained ground, and the freemen, 
 now the minority in point of numbers, bearing little weight 
 in the state assembly, oppressed by the airier-ban, which 
 continually summoned them to the field, the whole of their 
 little property either swallowed up by the necessary ex- 
 penses, or ruined by neglect, compelled to endure contempt, 
 tyranny, and poverty, and often deprived of their estates by 
 cabals, became completely subservient to the vassals, whom 
 increasing wealth and power had rendered proud and inso- 
 lent. Besides the crown vassals, there were also the church 
 feudatories, who held their land on similar conditions, and 
 the underf eudatories to the vassals, mesne-lords or valvasors. 
 All the crown vassals were originally Comites, companions 
 in arms; but the other Comites, or Graf en, before long 
 merely signified those who were distinguished by the offices 
 they held from the crowd of dependents, while the immedi- 
 ate personal servants, or ministeriales, were distinguished 
 from the indirect servants by their feudal tenure, which im- 
 posed certain duties upon them as vassals of the crown. 
 The ministeriales originally consisted of the Mareschalk, or 
 groom; the Truchsess, he who set the Truke or dish upon 
 the table ; the Mundschenk, or cup-bearer ; the Kammerer, or 
 chamberlains ; the Kuchenmeister, or master of the kitchen ;
 
 188 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the Kellermeister, or superintendent of the cellar; and the 
 Hausmaier, or major domus, who, on account of the minis- 
 teriales being composed of the chief vassals and of the heads 
 of the nobility, was naturally considered as the highest dig- 
 nitary of the state, and, being himself a noble, was the rep- 
 resentative of his class on all state occasions. At first, all 
 these ministeriales were merely common servants, and long 
 after the introduction of Christianity these offices were per- 
 formed by slaves; as the royal prerogative increased, these 
 offices gradually became of higher importance, and their 
 titles being eagerly sought by men of distinction, became 
 attached to the highest offices of state, to the ducal dignity, 
 and to the great fiefs. 
 
 The service rendered by the vassal was the only bond 
 between him and his lord. The fiefs, at first held only for 
 a certain time, were afterward held for life, and returned to 
 the mesne-lord upon the death of the feoffee, a grievance 
 that was speedily removed by the vassals, as soon as they 
 became powerful enough to compel the monarch to make the 
 fiefs hereditary. 
 
 LXXVIII. Migrations and New Languages 
 
 THE whole of eastern Germany, as far as the Elbe and 
 Saal, had been depopulated by the migrations of the Ger- 
 mans, who were replaced by the Slavian nations, the Wendi, 
 Sorbi and Bohemians, while the great hordes of the ancient 
 Ostro-Gerinanic or Gothic nations spread over the south and 
 west as far as Africa. The Saxons, Thuringians, and the 
 Bavarians, whose name now suddenly starts from its long 
 oblivion, the Alemanni in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, 
 and the Franks on the Rhine, retained their ancient posi- 
 tions in Germany until the migration of the Saxons to Eng- 
 land ; of the Franks, to northern and central Gaul ; of the 
 Burgundians, to the Rhone and the Alps ; of the Ostrogoths 
 and Longobardi, to Italy ; of the Visigoths, to the Pyrenees 
 and Spain ; and of the Vandals, to Africa.
 
 FROM PAGANISM TO CHRISTIANITY 189 
 
 All the tribes that settled within the limits of the Roman 
 empire at first formed a separate and warlike class of nobles, 
 who governed the inhabitants in the-despotic manner in which 
 the Turks governed the Greeks, but ere long mixed with the 
 Romans, and more or less adopted their language. This 
 change was more rapidly effected in Italy, where Roman 
 influence was most powerful, on account of the memory of 
 past grandeur and the policy of the popes, who sought to 
 render the Latin tongue universal, in order to facilitate the 
 subjection of the barbarians of the North to the crosier; and, 
 in fact, the Italian language retains more of the ancient Latin 
 tongue, and has been less adulterated with German, than any 
 other of "Western Europe. 
 
 In Spain, where the Germans formed the minority of the 
 population, the Latin tongue, which had been orientalized 
 by the Moors, who crossed over from Africa, was the com- 
 mon language of the country. In Gaul, the Franks retained 
 the pure German tongue until the time of Charlemagne ; but, 
 at a later period, when a separation took place between the 
 Roman West Franks and the Ostro-Franks of pure Ger- 
 manic descent, the Latin tongue was, through the influence 
 of the Roman clergy, generally adopted by the former. Va- 
 rious dialects of the new French tongue sprang up in Bur- 
 gundy, in the Visigothic South, in central Gaul, and in the 
 North, where the population was partly composed of Britons, 
 who had fled thither from the Saxon in England, and partly 
 of Normans from Scandinavia (Brittany and Normandy). In 
 England, which had never been entirely subdued by the Ro- 
 mans, the Latin tongue had not taken deep root, and was 
 quickly supplanted by that of the Angli and Saxons, who 
 migrated to that country, which at once accounts for the 
 great similarity that exists between English and German. 
 
 I shall merely trace the steps of the migrating Germanic 
 tribes until they mingle with the inhabitants of the country 
 in which they settled, and touch upon the affairs of England 
 and of the Scandinavian North in so far as they are illustra- 
 tive of those of Germany (whose influence has ever spread
 
 190 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 far beyond her natural limits, and after affecting the his- 
 tories of Italy, Spain, and France, after stamping an indeli- 
 ble character on the Middle Ages, has traveled with the 
 Spaniard and the Englishman to the far West, and spread 
 along the shores of the Mississippi, the La Plata, and the 
 Ganges, and over the boundless plains of New Holland), 
 lest in following the winding of the stream we may stray 
 too far from the source. Our mother country, invigorated 
 instead of weakened by the migrations, those great drains 
 of her strength, has imparted a noble heritage of moral and 
 physical power (which in former times proved invincible to 
 the assaults of Roman corruption) to the remotest branches 
 of the great nations she still fosters in her bosom. 
 
 PART V 
 
 THE CONTESTS BETWEEN THE GOTHS AND 
 FRANKS 
 
 LXXIX. Theodorich the Great 
 
 DIETRICH YON BERN (Verona), named by the 
 Romans Theodorich the Great, was sent by his 
 father, Theodomir, as a hostage to Constantinople, 
 where, notwithstanding his Roman education, he retained 
 the customs of his country, and, after his father's death, 
 succeeded to the Gothic throne. On the fall of the West- 
 ern empire, Zeno, emperor of Constantinople, set up a claim 
 to the possession of Italy, but being too weak to reconquer 
 that country, and being, at the same time, anxious to free 
 himself from the Goths, proposed to Theodorich to make 
 himself master of it in his name, to which the cunning Goth, 
 who secretly intended to gain the prize for himself, easily 
 acquiesced. On his line of march lay three nations: a Slavo-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 191 
 
 nian race, under King Babai, then devastating Greece, whom 
 he subdued ; the Gepidee, under King Gundarich, whom he 
 defeated on the right bank of the Danube ; and the Rugii, 
 in the mountains leading to Italy. Their king, Fava, had 
 just been overthrown by Odoachar, and his son, Frederich, 
 sought refuge and protection in the camp of Theodorich, 
 A.D. 487. The Ostrogothic army, encumbered with women 
 and children, and swelled by numbers of the Rugii and other 
 Germans, slowly wound its way through the mountain passes, 
 unopposed by Odoachar, who awaited its approach on the 
 Isonzo, not far from Aquileia on the Adriatic, where a bloody 
 engagement took place, which was followed by another near 
 Verona, A.D. 489, in both of which Theodorich was victori- 
 ous. Tufa, the commander of Odoachar's troops, deserted his 
 master, but both he and Frederich appear to have been dis- 
 appointed in their expectations of reward, as before long they 
 again suddenly changed sides, and Tufa betrayed a number 
 of Gothic nobles into the power of Odoachar, who had taken 
 shelter behind the fortifications of Ravenna, and who, a third 
 time venturing a battle on the open field near the Adda, was 
 once more compelled to retreat to the city, which, after en- 
 during a three years' siege, was at length forced by famine 
 to capitulate. Odoachar and his followers were murdered 
 at a banquet by order of Theodorich, who suspected them of 
 treason, A.D. 493. During this contest, the Burgundians, 
 under Gundebald, crossed the Alps and plundered the coun- 
 try to the rear of the Goths. Several thousand Romans, who 
 had fallen into their hands, were restored to liberty at the 
 entreaty of St. Epiphanius, who begged for mercy for them 
 in the name of Christ. The Burgundians were afterward 
 held in check by Theodorich, who fortified the Alpine passes, 
 humbled the Gepidae, the Heruli, and the Rugii, protected the 
 Alemanni in the mountains opposite Graubiindten, whither 
 they had fled from the Franks, and sent his general, Pitzia, 
 to the assistance of Mundo, who had formed a small robber 
 state, composed of people of every nation, and who was at 
 feud with the Bulgarians, a powerful Slavonian tribe menac-
 
 192 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ing Greece and Italy. The frontiers of his new kingdom 
 thus rendered secure from attack, Theodorich now turned 
 his thoughts to peace, and to the internal regulation of the 
 state, and astonished the world, so long habituated to scenes 
 of bloodshed and treason, with the unusual spectacle of a 
 rude warrior transformed into the wise legislator of a new 
 and flourishing empire. The population had been almost 
 entirely swept away by the devastating wars, and the third 
 part of the lands, which had already been seized by Odoachar 
 for his followers, sufficed for the settlement of the Goths. 
 The ancient laws and warlike constitution of Germany were 
 retained. The army was composed solely of the Gothic popu- 
 lation (the rest being prohibited to carry arms), commanded 
 by the Grafs. The Goths, being Arians, had their separate 
 church. They were recommended, by Theodorich, to imi- 
 tate the polished manners of the Romans, who retained two- 
 thirds of the lands, and generally the cities. The prohibition 
 to bear arms was the only change in their ancient privileges. 
 The Catholic religion was protected. All theological dis- 
 putes were put an end to by the practice of universal tol- 
 eration; and, on one occasion, when a Catholic, with the 
 intention of flattering the king, professed Arianism, Theodo- 
 rich condemned him to death, "for," said he, "he who can 
 betray his God will betray his king." The morality prac- 
 ticed by the Goths was, on the other hand, recommended to 
 the corrupt Romans. Protected by a thirty years' peace, 
 agriculture, manufactures, and commerce flourished; the 
 devastated provinces regained their former prosperity; and 
 the great work of draining the Pontine Marshes was com- 
 menced, and personally overlooked by Theodorich from his 
 fortress, part of which is still standing on the high rock of 
 Terracina. 
 
 In the year 500, during his visit to Rome (where he did 
 not fix his residence, probably owing to his desire to be with- 
 in reach of the northern frontier), he held public games, in 
 imitation of the ancients, and adorned the city with public 
 buildings. His council was composed of the most learned
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 193 
 
 men, among whom Cassiodorus, his historian and first min- 
 ister, and the philosopher Boetius, are pre-eminently distin- 
 guished. The latter, however, with his father-in-law, the 
 bishop Symmachus, and the pope Johannes, happening to 
 incur a strong suspicion of having abused the confidence 
 of the king, by plotting with Justinus the Greek emperor 
 against the Goths, the two former were executed, and the 
 pope was thrown into prison, where he died. Dietrich, al- 
 though a great war-chief and ruler like his predecessors, is 
 manifestly the first German monarch who sought to unite 
 these apparently dissimilar qualities with the attributes of a 
 scriptural king, of a shepherd chosen by God to lead his peo- 
 ple. Many of his letters, and the records of the judgments 
 pronounced by him, are still extant, and might serve as 
 models for any sovereign. They also prove the zeal with 
 which he strove to promulgate his conception of the duties 
 of a monarch, among other royal families, and among other 
 nations than his own; and although the German monarchs 
 continued to be elected by the people, and to be dependent 
 on the state assembly, yet the belief of the divine majesty 
 of kings, and of their being the representatives of God upon 
 earth, may be traced to this period. Dietrich, in his abhor- 
 rence of the cold, stern despotism of imperial Rome, had 
 conceived a far more elevated project, which he deemed the 
 noblest aim of every true-born German; viz., the union of 
 the states of Germany. In pursuance of this scheme, he 
 sought, by promoting intermarriages between the different 
 royal families of Germany, to unite them in one common 
 interest, and by this means to render peace general. For 
 this purpose, he married his daughters, Theodicusa and Os- 
 trogotha, to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and to Sigismund, 
 son of Gundebald, king of Burgundy; his sister, Amalfreda, 
 to Thrasimund, king of the Vandals; and Amalberga, her 
 daughter by a former husband, to Hermanfried, king of 
 Thuringia ; all of whom he sought, by his letters, to incline 
 to his project. The reverence he universally inspired, as the 
 father of kings, was so great that his fame spread even to 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 9
 
 194 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the distant nation of the Aesthri on the Baltic, who sent 
 him gifts. The union and pacification of the royal houses 
 of Germany was prevented, and his great plan destroyed, 
 by the jealousy of the Franks, who, although allied with 
 him by his marriage with Audifleda, the sister of Chlodwig, 
 the great Frankish monarch, continued to cherish their an- 
 cient enmity against the Goths. The kingdom of the Visi- 
 goths was invaded by Chlodwig. The brave Thorismund, 
 the conqueror of Attila, fell by the hand of his brother Theo- 
 dorich, who, in his turn, was murdered by the third brother, 
 Eurich, a prince famed for his valor and code of laws. Alaric, 
 his son and successor, being defeated and killed by the Franks 
 at the battle of Vougle, A.D. 507, Theodorich sent an Ostro- 
 gothic army, under the command of Ibbas, to the assistance 
 of his daughter, the widow of Alaric, and of her young son, 
 Amalarich. Ibbas defeated the Franks on the Rhone, and 
 compelled them to subscribe to a treaty of peace, by which 
 Gascony and Guyenne were ceded to them, and Languedoc 
 was left in the possession of the Visigoths. Gasalrich, Al- 
 aric's natural son, who had caused himself to be proclaimed 
 king of Barcelona, and had usurped the throne of Amala- 
 rich, was also defeated by Ibbas. 
 
 Theodorich the Great is said to have died of fright, A.D. 
 526, at sight of a fish's head placed before him at table, 
 which bore an imaginary resemblance to the countenance 
 of the innocent bishop Symmachus, whom he had murdered. 
 According to the popular tradition of Italy, the soul of this 
 great king was doomed to suffer eternal torment amid the 
 flames of --Etna 
 
 LXXX. Chlodwig 
 
 REMARKABLE events were, meanwhile, passing among 
 the Franks, who still remained divided, Childerich, the son 
 of Merowig, reigning over the Salii, and Sigismir, the son 
 of Claudebald, over the Ripuarii, at Cologne. The Franks, 
 outraged in their domestic honor by the voluptuous and li-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 195 
 
 centious Childerich, drove Mm from the kingdom and be- 
 stowed the crown upon -<3gidius, the last Roman governor 
 of Gaul ; a choice only possible among the Salii, who had 
 long been accustomed to serve under Roman generals. The 
 deposed monarch fled to his relative, Bisinus, king of Thu- 
 ringia. The Thuringians appear to have been originally 
 connected with the Franks, and at some later period to have 
 mixed with the Saxons and their Gothic neighbors, the Va- 
 rini and Angli. A faithful servant of the exiled king, named 
 Wiomad, undertook to restore his master to the throne, and 
 breaking a gold piece with him, half of which he was to 
 send in token of the time having arrived for his return to 
 his native country, insidiously attached himself to -*35gidius, 
 whom he persuaded to tax the Franks according to the Ro- 
 man custom ; an innovation which he rightly judged would 
 cause his expulsion. Childerich, meanwhile, repaid the hos- 
 pitality of Bisinus by debauching his wife, Basina, with 
 whom he carried on a clandestine intercourse. The broken 
 bit of gold was at length delivered to him by a trusty Frank, 
 and he secretly returned to his country, where he was gladly 
 received and replaced on the throne by the discontented Salii. 
 Basina, enslaved by passion, soon after escaped from Thu- 
 ringia to the court of her lover, who made her his wife, and 
 she became the mother of Chlodwig the Great. The Thu- 
 ringians, enraged at this breach of hospitality, invaded and 
 laid waste the country of the Salii, fearfully revenging on 
 the subjects who tolerated such disgraceful conduct in their 
 ruler the injury offered to their king. Two hundred Frank- 
 ish maidens were crushed beneath their chariot- wheels, as 
 an expiatory sacrifice to violated chastity. Childerich, aided 
 by Odoachar, subdued the Alemanni. His tomb, which was 
 discovered at Tournay in 1653, contained a golden bull's head 
 and several golden bees, evidently heathen symbols. 
 
 Chlodwig, brave, energetic, and warlike, turned his 
 thoughts to more ambitious projects than his father, and, 
 taking advantage of the distressed state of the Ripuarii, at 
 that time oppressed by the Alemanni, imposed an oath of
 
 196 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 fealty on their king, Sigebert, the son of Sigismir, and re>- 
 united the whole Frankish nation. He then attacked Si- 
 agrius, the son of JEgidius, who still maintained an inde- 
 pendent Roman government in central Gaul, and, after 
 gaining a decisive victory at Soissons, took possession of 
 the whole of Gaul as far as the Visigothic frontier. This 
 success attracted the attention of his German neighbors, the 
 Burgundians, Alemanni, and Visigoths, all of whom he at- 
 tempted to circumvent. Chlotilda, the daughter of Hilpe- 
 rich, king of Burgundy, who had been murdered by his 
 brother Gundebald, was at that time living in retirement 
 in a nunnery at Geneva. The fame of her beauty reached 
 the ears of Chlodwig, who resolved to get her into his pos- 
 session, and to set up a claim to the throne of Burgundy. 
 He accordingly dispatched the trusty Aurelian to Geneva, 
 where, disguised as a beggar, his feet were washed by the 
 royal nun. Dropping the monarch's ring into the water, 
 he discovered himself to her, and she joyfully consented to 
 wed the brave Chlodwig, upon which the beggar disappeared, 
 and in due time a splendid embassy arrived at the Burgun- 
 dian court to demand the bride. Chlotilda produced the 
 token, and Gundebald, fearing the consequence of a refusal, 
 gave his consent. She set out for the frontier in a chariot 
 drawn by oxen, burning and destroying the dwellings of the 
 Burgundians as she advanced, in revenge for the murder of 
 her father, and being closely pursued by Gundebald, fled on 
 a swift horse to the palace of Chlodwig. Her firstborn son 
 died in his infancy. On the birth of the second, she entreated 
 her husband to allow him to be baptized in the Christian faith, 
 to which she belonged. He consented, and the life of the 
 child was spared. 
 
 The execution of Chlodwig 5 s plans against Burgundy was 
 delayed by the revolt of the Alemanni, who viewed the in- 
 troduction of the feudal system into the provinces, and his 
 armed followers, with suspicion and dislike, as indicative of 
 a design upcn their national liberty and independence. United 
 under several leaders ; they attacked the Franks, who had also
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 197 
 
 anited beneath the standard of Chlodwig, at whose side 
 fought Sigebert of Cologne. The battle of Zulpich decided 
 the contest, A.D. 496. At one moment the enthusiastic spirit 
 of the Alemanni threatened to overpower the superior disci- 
 pline of the Franks, and Chlodwig, excited by the peril, in- 
 voked the God of his wife, and vowed to forsake the religion 
 of his fathers if he proved more powerful than Odin, the war- 
 god of the Alemanni. He was victorious, and the majority 
 of his subjects, converted by the supposed miracle in their 
 favor, were solemnly baptized with the king. The ceremony 
 took place at E-heims. The legend relates that the vial of 
 oil with which St. Remigius anointed the monarch's head 
 was brought for that purpose by an angel from heaven, and 
 that the saint exclaimed, while pouring the contents on the 
 head of the king as he knelt before him, "Bow down thine 
 head, O Sicamber, and adore what hitherto thou hast de- 
 stroyed; destroy what hitherto thou hast adored!" The 
 whole transaction was probably a wily invention on the 
 part of Chlodwig, who, hoping, by the assistance of the 
 priests, to bring his wild Franks into subjection, seized this 
 opportunity to convert them without endangering himself. 
 From this period, the Roman bishops, or popes, and the 
 FranMsh monarchs mutually supported each other, either 
 against the Arian Goths, the Greeks, or the German pagans. 
 Ere long, the whole of the Frankish nation embraced Chris- 
 tianity, and the Alemanni gradually became converts to the 
 God of victory. 
 
 Chlodwig, urged by the revengeful spirit of his queen, 
 and, moreover, anxious to secure the Alpine passes in Upper 
 Burgundy, at length declared war with that country, but 
 finding that Gundebald was too strongly posted for him to 
 hope for success, contented himself with receiving his oath 
 of allegiance, and incited by the Catholic bishops, who im- 
 patiently desired the extirpation of Arianism in Gaul, turned 
 his arms against the Visigoths, whom he expected to over- 
 come with greater facility. Alaric, the unworthy son of the 
 brave Eurich, fell in the battle of Poictiers by the hand of
 
 198 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the victorious king of the Franks, A.D. 507, by whom he 
 was justly held in contempt for the cowardice with which 
 he had delivered up to them his guest, Siagrius, who had 
 fled to him for safety. Theodorich the Great, king of the 
 Ostrogoths, now took up arms in defense of the youthful son 
 of Alaric, and a second engagement took place near Aries, 
 which proved disastrous to Chlodwig, who was forced to 
 retreat, after leaving 30,000 of his men on the field of bat- 
 tle. Finding himself compelled to leave the Visigoths in 
 peace, he fell upon Brittany, A.D. 509, and constrained the 
 Britons, its new inhabitants, who had been driven from 
 England by the Saxons, to do him homage. It was a fort- 
 unate circumstance for Chlodwig that his neighbors, instead 
 of uniting, fought singly, in self-defense. Had they confed- 
 erated against the Franks, the rising power of that nation 
 must have been completely checked. The ancient name of 
 Gaul was changed by this monarch to that of France. 
 
 Chlodwig, whose conquests and largesses had given him 
 unlimited control over his troops, and had consolidated his 
 power, now turned his attention to the internal regulation of 
 his kingdom, and sought, by the removal of the subordinate 
 kings, and by the more general adoption of the feudal sys- 
 tem, to keep the nation united beneath his jurisdiction in 
 time of peace as well as war. His treatment of his Mero- 
 vingian relatives, the subordinate kings, was one tissue of 
 treachery 'and cruelty. His ancient ally, Sigebert of Co- 
 logne, who was disabled by a wound received at the battle 
 of Ziilpich, was, at his instigation, murdered by his own son, 
 Chloderich, whom he deluded by promises, and also caused 
 to be put to death. He was stabbed in the back by an as- 
 sassin, when in the act of bending down to look into a chest 
 that contained his father's treasures, which he deluged with 
 his blood. Ragnachar of Cambray, and his brother, two of 
 the Merovingians, fell by Chlodwig's hand. Chararic of 
 Flanders and his son, a little child, were condemned to the 
 cloister. While being deprived of their long hair, the sym- 
 bol of royalty, the boy remarked, ' ' Our hair will soon grow
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 199 
 
 long again!" upon which Chlodwig, provident of the future, 
 caused them both to be murdered. 
 
 By means of the imposition of feudal service, the disci- 
 pline habitual in war time was continued during peace, and 
 shackled the freedom of the people. At the commencement 
 of this reign, the Franks were extremely republican in their 
 manners. It is related, that after the battle of Soissons the 
 booty had been equally divided among the troops. One of 
 the men, a common Frank, had received for his portion a 
 sacred jar, which he obstinately refused to restore when en- 
 treated to do so by one of the bishops, and upon its restitu- 
 tion being requested by Chlodwig, insolently replied, "that 
 he was only bound to obey him during battle, and not after- 
 ward," and broke the jar into pieces. Some time after this 
 occurrence, the king, who had not forgotten conduct which 
 he was legally unable to punish, took advantage of the army 
 being drawn up in battle array to ride up to the insolent 
 soldier and to cut him down under pretext of misbehavior. 
 
 The feudal system was universally adopted throughout 
 France before the conclusion of this reign. During peace, 
 Chlodwig was surrounded by his Antrustiones, or trusty fol- 
 lowers, whom he rewarded with rich lands in the conquered 
 provinces, and who formed a new order of nobles, from 
 whom he selected the Grafs. This class of nobility ere long 
 possessed all the honor, all the influence, and, by means of 
 the feudal system, all the wealth of the country, and leagu- 
 ing with the priests, at length succeeded in crushing popular 
 freedom. Thus Chlodwig, who died in 511, laid the ground- 
 work for a complete revolution in the internal policy of 
 Germany. 
 
 LXXXI. Gundebald 
 
 WHILE the Burgundians, weakened by the destruction of 
 Gunthachar, and pressed by the Huns, were driven to the 
 banks of the Rhone, Alsace, with their capital, "Worms, fell 
 into the hands of the Alemanni. In their new kingdom, 
 which, traversed by the Rhone, extended beyond Lyons,
 
 5iOO THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 they founded the city of Bormio (named after their ancient 
 capital, Worms), on the other side of the Alps, where they 
 bend toward Italy. The history of this new settlement is 
 somewhat obscure. The Burgundians are said to have been 
 converted to Christianity by a bishop who preached to them 
 for seven successive days. They were, at one time, in alli- 
 ance with JEtius, who granted the highlands to them. After 
 the fall of the Western empire, they treated with Constanti- 
 nople. In their new kingdom, two-thirds of the land was 
 allotted to them, the remaining third to the Romans, and 
 each nation was governed by its own laws. The land was 
 divided into Gauen, or districts, under the jurisdiction of 
 Grafs, whose authority was unlimited, while that of the 
 king or chief did not exceed that of a duke. The first king 
 of Upper Burgundy who succeeded Gunthachar was Gun- 
 dioch, a descendant of the Visigothic Balti. At his death, 
 the kingdom was divided between his four sons ; Hilperich, 
 who reigned at Geneva, Godegisel, at Besancon, Gundebald, 
 at Lyons, and Godemar, at Vienne. Harmony was not of 
 long duration. Gundebald, a man of higher talent and en- 
 terprise than his brethren, grasped at sole dominion (his 
 daring invasion of Italy, while Theodorich the Great was 
 engaged with Odoachar, has been already mentioned), and 
 quarreling with Hilperich, defeated and cruelly murdered 
 him, together with his family, with the exception of Chlo- 
 tilda, one of his daughters, who subsequently married Chlod- 
 wig, A.D. 499. After a short contest, he swore allegiance to 
 the Frankish monarch, but, emboldened by the lenity with 
 which he was treated, and trusting in the strength of his 
 mountain fastnesses, he again attacked his brothers, and, 
 after destroying the kingdom of Godegisel, once more re- 
 treated to his mountains on the approach of the Franks and 
 the Ostrogoths from opposite quarters, who finally concluded 
 peace with him, and Dietrich gave his daughter Ostrogotha 
 in marriage to Sigismund, the son of the usurper. Gunde- 
 bald was the reformer of his country. Gifted with more 
 than ordinary talent, and with a mind highly cultivated for
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 201 
 
 the age in which he lived, he saw the advantage, and inces- 
 santly aimed at the realization, of union in the state and the 
 increase of the royal prerogative, but, incautiously venturing 
 too far, he was vehemently opposed in his projects by the 
 Grafs of the districts, A.D. 502, who, on one occasion, at 
 Geneva, forced him to withdraw his code of laws, which 
 they replaced by another, entitled the Lex Gundebada, 
 which is still in existence, signed by thirty-six Grafs. Gun- 
 debald died in 516. 
 
 LXXXII. The Extension of France Under the Sons 
 of Chlodwig 
 
 THE superiority of the Franks over the other nations of 
 Germany was owing to both their natural and acquired ad- 
 vantages. Ingenious, brave, and enterprising, trained to 
 war, accustomed to victory, fired by ambition, and favored 
 by their position in the center of the German states, they 
 easily acquired and maintained a power with which, taken 
 singly, none of the other states was able to compete, and 
 which their religious zeal rendered peculiarly formidable to 
 the Saxons, while their central position, between the Ostro- 
 goths in Italy and the Visigoths in the Pyrenees, offered 
 every facility for taking advantage of the want of unity be- 
 tween the two nations. Nor were these circumstances over- 
 looked by the bishop of Rome, whose influence over the other 
 bishops of the West, and the Catholic populations of Italy, 
 Gaul, and Spain, was gradually increasing, and who accel- 
 erated the downfall of the Arian Goths by exciting the fanat- 
 ical spirit of the Franks and their allies against them. 
 
 Chlodwig divided France into four kingdoms, the largest 
 and most important of which, the Rhine country, Austria or 
 Austrasia, with its capital, Metz, was bestowed upon Theo- 
 dorich, his eldest son ; and Neustria, with its capital, Orleans, 
 on Chlodomir; while Childebert reigned at Paris, and Chlo- 
 tar at Soissons. The separation of Austria from Neustria 
 was subsequently widened by the different manners of the
 
 202 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 two nations, the former remaining faithful to the ancient 
 customs of Germany, while the latter adopted those of Rome. 
 Each of the sons of Chlodwig bore the title and exercised 
 the authority of king, although they were in a manner 
 dependent upon each other, and were bound together by 
 the union of the Frankish nation, the general state assem- 
 bly, the laws, and their own interest. This strange and 
 dangerous division of the kingdom of Chlodwig, destructive 
 to the power and unity of the state, arose from the political 
 inexperience of the Franks, whose kings were of very recent 
 date, and who had made no provision (beyond that of the 
 law common among the Salii, by which the inheritance was 
 equally divided between the sons) for the succession to the 
 throne. This law was also in practice among the Thurin- 
 gians and the Burgundians, and had, at a very remote 
 period, been common to all the Scandinavian nations. It 
 was retained by the Franks for more than three centuries 
 after the death of Chlodwig. 
 
 The kings of Neustria and Austria extended their posses- 
 sions by the sword. Chlodomir subdued the Burgundians, 
 and strengthened his dominion in the West, while Theodo- 
 rich and his son, Theobert, conquered Thuringia, drove the 
 Ostrogoths from the Alps, and compelled the dukes of the 
 Bojoarii to take the oath of allegiance. 
 
 Saxony, still as formidable as in ancient times, was the 
 only German state left undisturbed by the Franks, notwith- 
 standing the vicinity of their frontiers, which at some points 
 ran parallel; a circumstance highly obnoxious to France, 
 which, before long, strove to crush the neighboring state 
 with an unremitting animosity equaling that displayed by 
 Rome in her attacks upon the free nations of Germany. 
 
 LXXXIII. Fall of the Kingdoms of Thuringia and 
 Burgundy 
 
 THE origin of the Thuringii has been derived from the 
 Hermunduri or from the Therwingi. The name bears a re-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN QOTHS AND FRANKS 203 
 
 semblance to that of the god Thor. The derivation from the 
 name given to the Cherusci, who, according to Tacitus, were 
 called Thoren, fools (stulti), on account of the depravity of 
 their manners, is a mere play upon sounds. They seem, at a 
 later period, to have been connected with the Suevian Angli 
 and Varini (on the Werra), the latter of whom maintained 
 an independent monarchy until 595. 
 
 Bisinus, to whom Childerich had fled for safety, was re- 
 lated to the Merovingians, and this part of the Thuringian 
 nation appears to have been originally connected with the 
 Franks. The kingdom of Bisinus was divided between his 
 sons, Hermanfried, Berthar, and Baldrich ; the first of whom 
 married Amalberga, the daughter of Dietrich the Ostrogoth. 
 This wily princess contrived, by half covering his table, in 
 sign of his only possessing half a kingdom, to rouse the am- 
 bition of her husband, who surprised and killed Berthar, and 
 in order to strengthen himself against Baldrich, who was 
 more on his guard, entered into an alliance with Theodorich, 
 king of Austrasia, by whom Baldrich was subsequently de- 
 feated and slain. Hermanfried afterward refusing to divide 
 his ill- won kingdom with the Franks, they united with the 
 Saxons and defeated him in a pitched battle near Scheidin- 
 gen, A.D. 529. A plot, laid by Iring, a cunning Thuringian, 
 who attempted to sow discord between the allies by persuad- 
 ing the Franks to make peace with his nation and to deprive 
 the Saxons of their share of the booty, was discovered by 
 Hadegast, the old Saxon duke, who instantly attacked and 
 completely subdued the whole of Thuringia. Theodorich, 
 under pretense of an amicable settlement of affairs, invited 
 Hermanfried to Zulpich, where, while engaged in conversa- 
 tion with him on the castle wall, on which they were walk- 
 ing, he had him suddenly pushed, as if accidentally, down 
 the precipice. Thus ended the unfortunate dynasty of the 
 kings of Thuringia, A.D. 530. 
 
 The northern part of the country fell a prey to the Sax- 
 ons, and the Franks seized that to the south of the Unstrutt, 
 but during the subsequent disturbances in France, Thuringia
 
 204 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 regained much of her former independence, and was again 
 governed by heathen dukes, who paid an annual tribute of 
 five hundred pigs to the Australian monarch. 
 
 One noble and interesting character presents a bright 
 contrast with the coarse brutality that distinguished these 
 royal dynasties, that of Radegunda, the daughter of Ber- 
 thar, the only descendant of the royal house of Thuringia, 
 who was celebrated for her extraordinary beauty, and whose 
 possession was disputed by Theodorich of Metz and Chlotar 
 of Orleans, the latter of whom gained the prize. Regardless 
 of worldly splendor, Radegunda sought only to indulge in 
 seclusion her grief for her murdered family, and to spend 
 her days in prayer and in acts of beneficence. Chlotar, at 
 length weary of her piety, repudiated and imprisoned her in 
 a convent, where she was honored as a saint. Venantius 
 Fortunatus, the Latin poet, sang her praise in glowing verse. 
 Nicetius, bishop of Treves, and Sidonius, bishop of Mayence, 
 vainly emulated the attempts of this unfortunate princess to 
 moderate the savage passions of the brother kings. Theodo- 
 rich murdered Siwald, a descendant of a side-branch of the 
 Merovingian race, but spared his son, Garibald, then a 
 young child, and sent him to be educated at Rome. He 
 afterward made him duke of Bavaria. Garibald was the 
 father of the celebrated Theodolinda, and the founder of 
 the Agilofingian dynasty. The Bavarians (Bajuvarii) evi- 
 dently derive their name from the ancient country of the 
 Boii, and date from the Gothic migration. They are first 
 met with in history as seeking protection from the Franks and 
 Alemanni against the Avari, who then devastated the coun- 
 try in their advance westward, and from whom they were no 
 sooner delivered than they became insolent and rebellious. 
 The elevation of Garibald to the ducal dignity was probably 
 occasioned by a fresh invasion of Bavaria by the Avari. 
 Siegmund succeeded his father, Gundebald, on the throne of 
 Burgundy, and, on the death of his Ostrogothic queen, mar- 
 ried her waiting-woman, who, being mocked, on account of 
 the awkwardness with which she moved in her royal robes,
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 205 
 
 by her little stepson, Siegerich, revenged herself by persuad- 
 ing his father to murder him in his sleep. The Burgun- 
 dians, horror-struck at the deed, rebelled; the Franks, 
 headed by Chlodomir of Orleans, invaded the country, and 
 Siegmund, universally deserted by his subjects, fled to the 
 monastery of St. Maurice in Valais. His retreat was dis- 
 covered, and he was carried to Orleans, where he was mur- 
 dered, and his wife and child were drowned in a well, A.D. 
 524. His uncle Godemar, meanwhile, headed the Burgun- 
 dians against the Franks, and Chlodomir was defeated and 
 killed. Chlotilda, undeterred by the fate of her son, contin- 
 ued to incite his brothers against Burgundy. The brave 
 Godemar at length disappeared, after a last and desperate 
 battle, and the country, which however still continued to be 
 governed by its national laws, was annexed, by Childebert 
 and Chlotar, to France. 
 
 LXXXIV. Fall of the Kingdom of the Vandals 
 
 AFTER the death of Geiserich, Hunerich, his son, mounted 
 the throne, and instead of carrying into execution the ambi- 
 tious projects of his father, instantly concluded peace with 
 Rome. Conscious of the disgust with which he had inspired 
 his subjects by his vicious propensities, and suspecting that 
 they intended to depose him in favor of his brother, Theoclo- 
 rich, he caused him to be murdered, together with his wife 
 and children. His father, although an Arian, had treated 
 the Catholics with the greatest lenity, hi the hope of winning 
 them over. They were now cruelly persecuted by Hunerich, 
 who condemned lodocus, the patriarch of Carthage, to be 
 burned alive in the market-place, closed all the monasteries 
 and Catholic churches, and sentenced the priests, monks, 
 and nuns to be broken on the wheel or driven naked out of 
 the country. His wife, the pious Eudoxia, the Roman cap- 
 tive, fled for protection from his tyranny to the sepulcher at 
 Jerusalem. At length, the warlike Moors of Mount Atlas, 
 taking advantage of his unpopularity, poured in thousands
 
 206 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 from their valleys, and carried on a war of extermination 
 against the strangers of the North, A.D. 486. Hunerich was 
 succeeded by his nephews, Gundamund and Trasamund. 
 Amalfrida, the sister of Theodorich the Great, became the 
 wife of Trasamund, and brought over 5,000 Gothic nobles 
 to assist her husband against the victorious Moors. Trasa- 
 mund was succeeded by Hilderich, the son of Hunerich, who 
 imprisoned Amalfrida, put her Gothic followers to death, 
 and entered into an alliance with the emperor Justinian, his 
 hereditary foe. The Vandals before long discovered their 
 folly, and, deposing Hilderich, raised Gelimer, a distant 
 branch of the royal family, to the throne. But treason was 
 already at work. Godas the Goth, who had been intrusted 
 by Gelimer with the government of Sardinia, went over to 
 Justinian, who dispatched Belisarius, his celebrated general, 
 at the head of an army more than 100,000 strong, including 
 numbers of Huns and Heruli, to Africa, A.D. 533. Amma- 
 tas, Gelimer's brother, fell a victim to his own impetuosity 
 in the first battle, and the king, after bravely defending his 
 brother's body to the last, was finally compelled to retreat to 
 the mountains, instead of throwing himself into Carthage, 
 which yielded at discretion. Too weak singly to face the 
 enemy, Gelimer anxiously awaited the return of his friend, 
 Tzazon, whom he had sent, at the head of a Vandal force, 
 to Sardinia, where he was victorious over Godas. On his 
 return, Gelimer once more took the field, and another battle 
 was fought, in which Tzazon was killed, and the royal treas- 
 ure fell into the hands of the conqueror. Accompanied by a 
 few faithful adherents, Gelimer again fled to his mountain 
 stronghold. Pharos, a Herule in the imperial service, who 
 was sent to persuade him to yield and to enlist beneath the 
 imperial standard, vainly sought by bribe and flattery to 
 bring him to submission. The Vandal king replied that he 
 only wished for three things, a loaf, as it was long since 
 he had tasted bread, a sponge, with which to bathe his eyes, 
 scorched by the glare of the noontide sun on the bare rocks, 
 and a lute, to soothe his sorrows, all which Pharos brought
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTB* AND FRANKS 207 
 
 to him. At length his position became intolerable, and one 
 day seeing one of his nephews fighting, as if for life, with 
 another boy, for a small piece of dough, their last remnant 
 of food, he was completely discouraged, and surrendered to 
 Belisarius, who treated him with great respect, but made 
 him grace his triumphal entry into Constantinople, bound 
 with silver chains. The Vandal prisoners entered into the 
 imperial service, and were employed against the Persians. 
 Some thousands of their countrymen, who had scattered 
 themselves among the mountains, reassembled under Stot- 
 zas, and made common cause with the Moors against the 
 Romans. A long and harassing war ensued, during which 
 Stotzas was killed. He was succeeded in his command by 
 Gontharis, who retook Carthage, where he maintained him- 
 self for some time. The Romans, at length, succeeded in 
 putting him and the rest of the Vandals to the sword at a 
 great banquet, when they were helpless from intoxication. 
 
 LXXXV. The Ostrogothic WarVitigis 
 
 THE downfall of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy 
 was partly occasioned by similar causes. The death of Theo- 
 dorich the Great, the signal for disunion between the Goths 
 and Romans, was quickly turned to advantage by Justinian 
 on one side, and by the Franks on the other. Amalaswin- 
 tha, the learned daughter of Theodorich, and the widow of 
 Eutharis the Goth, took possession of the kingdom in the 
 name of her youthful son, Athalarich. Amalaswintha had 
 been educated at Rome, and was consequently anxious to 
 place her son beneath similar tutelage. A violent opposition 
 was raised to her schemes by a party in the kingdom, which, 
 under pretext of rescuing the young prince from the de- 
 grading effects of Roman effeminacy, encouraged him in 
 the grossest vice, and the queen, finding her life no longer 
 secure, had already entreated the emperor Justinian for a 
 place of refuge, when her son fell a victim to excess, and 
 her opponents raised Theodatus, the son of Amalfrida, to
 
 208 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the throne, who caused her to be suffocated in a bath. The 
 Romans, oppressed by the tyranny of the barbarous Gothic 
 party, now recalled with regret the comparatively mild gov- 
 ernment of Theodorich, once deemed by them so intolerable, 
 and anxiously sought assistance from the Greek emperor, 
 who, elated by his recent victory over the Vandals, acceded 
 to their petition, and, under pretext of avenging the murder 
 of Amalaswintha, turned his arms against the Goths, who 
 were doubly obnoxious, on account of their profession of 
 Arianism, to the Catholic Romans, by whom he was zeal- 
 ously aided, while the Franks, from political motives, offered 
 no opposition to his project. Theodatus, panic-struck at the 
 arrival of Belisarius in southern Italy, offered to exchange 
 his crown for a pension from the emperor ; a proposal ren- 
 dered null by his subjects, who, despising him for his cow- 
 ardice, convoked a general state assembly at Regeta, near 
 Rome, which deposed him and placed Vitigis on the throne, 
 by whose orders he was put to death. Vitigis, in the hope 
 of securing himself on the throne by an alliance with the last 
 of the Amali, A.D. 536, forced Malasuntha, the daughter of 
 Amalaswintha, to become his wife, and sent embassadors 
 into Asia with the intention of persuading the Persians to 
 attack the eastern frontier of Greece. He also entered into 
 alliance with the Alpine Alemanni and Burgundians, who to 
 the number of 150,000, almost all mailed cavalry, advanced 
 into northern Italy, where, instead of aiding him, they plun- 
 dered and laid waste the country. Belisarius, meanwhile, 
 approached, the Romans swelling his ranks as he advanced 
 upon Rome, whose gates were flung open by the inhabitants 
 to welcome his arrival, and to receive a Roman garrison. 
 Vitigis instantly besieged the faithless city, at the head of 
 the whole of his army. "Wooden scaling towers, drawn by 
 oxen, were placed close to the walls, which the Goths furi- 
 ously attacked, but were repulsed with great loss by Beli- 
 sarius, who, when all the common stones were exhausted, 
 flung several thousands of the marble statues, which at that 
 time adorned the city, upon the heads of the besiegers, who
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 209 
 
 fought with such extraordinary fury that 30,000 of them are 
 said, on one occasion, to have fallen in a skirmish that took 
 place beneath the walls. 
 
 Johannes, Belisarius' lieutenant, meanwhile, carried on 
 the war to the rear of the Goths, and being invited by the 
 injured Malasuntha to Ravenna, the Gothic capital, took 
 Ariminum, and garrisoned Milan, whose gates opened to 
 receive him on his passage to that city. News of these dis- 
 asters quickly reached the Gothic king, who, setting fire to 
 his camp, raised the siege of Rome, and marched in pursuit 
 of Johannes ; but, being unable to draw him out of the for- 
 tified walls of Ariminum, he suddenly attacked Milan, with 
 the intention of revenging himself upon the inhabitants, and 
 of attracting the procrastinating Burgundians and Alemanni 
 beneath his standard, by the hope of plunder. The city was 
 soon taken by stratagem ; and Vitigis, allowing the garrison 
 to march out unharmed, put 300,000 of the inhabitants to 
 the sword, and yielded the city a prey to his Burgundian 
 auxiliaries, who slew indiscriminately both Goths and Ro- 
 mans. Their king, Theodobert of Austrasia, who had been 
 simultaneously applied to for assistance by the Greeks and 
 the Goths, now invaded Italy with the intention of taking 
 possession of it for himself. Although for some time profess- 
 ing Christianity, he afforded another striking proof of the 
 ferocity of the times, by offering, according to pagan cus- 
 tom, a sacrifice of young children (those of the Goths) to the 
 river-god, and casting their bodies into the Po. The Franks, 
 armed with battle-axes, fell indifferently upon the Romans 
 and the Goths, both of whom had implored their protection. 
 Johannes was defeated, but a pestilence, breaking out among 
 them, so greatly reduced their number, that a retreat became 
 inevitable, and they quitted Italy at a moment when Vitigis 
 was closely besieged by Belisarius in Ravenna, where he 
 bravely defended himself, until at length, worn out by the 
 perseverance of the enemy and hopeless of success, the Goths 
 voluntarily offered to place the Greek general on the throne 
 of Italy. The offer was accepted, and Vitigis was betrayed
 
 210 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 into the hands of Belisarius, who entered Ravenna, but, true 
 to his allegiance, refused to be proclaimed king. The Gothic 
 women, indignant at the treachery and folly of the men, 
 contemptuously spat in their faces. Vitigis and several other 
 prisoners of distinction were taken to Constantinople, where 
 the emperor, struck with admiration by their bravery, treated 
 them with great honor. The extreme beauty of the Gothic 
 women is highly extolled by a Greek writer of that age, 
 A.D. 539. 
 
 LXXXVI. TotilasTejasFall of the Kingdom of 
 the Ostrogoths 
 
 BELISARIUS was, at this conjuncture, recalled from Italy, 
 fortunately for the rest of the Goths, who, placing Ildebald 
 on the throne, took the field against the Heruli and Rugii, 
 their hereditary foes, immense robber hordes of whom had 
 joined the Romans. Ildebald defeated their two chiefs, Vi- 
 talus the Roman, and Wisand the Herule, but was shortly 
 afterward killed, at a banquet, by a Goth, whose jealousy 
 he had excited. His head was cut off at one stroke and 
 rolled upon the table. Eurarich, one of the Rugii, succeeded 
 him on the Gothic throne and was also murdered. The 
 Goths then elected Totilas, A.D. 541, Ildebald's cousin, who 
 again attempted to drive the Greeks out of Italy. On his 
 march southward he is said to have encountered St. Benedict 
 on the Casino Mountains, who foretold to him the approach- 
 ing downfall of his kingdom. Undeterred by this prophecy, 
 he attacked and took Naples, and captured the great Gre- 
 cian fleet which had been sent to the assistance of the city, 
 and which lay at anchor in the bay. His treatment of the 
 famished Neapolitans was remarkable for a humanity rare 
 at that period, and he superintended in person the distribu- 
 tion of small quantities of food to each person, in order to 
 guard against the fatal consequences of eating too freely 
 when in a state of starvation. A Goth who had abused a 
 Roman maiden was, by his orders, put to death, and he
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 211 
 
 strove, by the practice of strict justice and of humanity, to 
 conciliate the people. But this wise policy was adopted when 
 too late for success. Belisarius again arrived from Greece at 
 the head of a powerful army; and Totilas, who, meanwhile, 
 had taken Rome by surprise, retreated northward, after de- 
 molishing the walls, which were rebuilt by Belisarius, who 
 placed the city in so complete a state of defense as to enable 
 it to withstand a three days' storming by the Goths, who, in 
 the course of the protracted siege, attacked and defeated the 
 army of Johannes and murdered all the inhabitants of Tiber 
 (Tivoli), in the vicinity of Rome, in revenge for their having 
 supplied Belisarius with information of their movements. 
 
 Belisarius, again recalled by the emperor, quitted Italy 
 for the last time, and Totilas once more took possession of 
 Rome. After defeating the allied army of the Greeks and 
 Romans under Verus, not far from Ravenna, he returned 
 southward, made himself master of the whole country, built 
 a fleet, conquered Sardinia and Corsica, and plundered the 
 Grecian coasts. Ancona alone remained in the hands of the 
 Greeks. Emboldened by success, he demanded the daugh- 
 ter of Theodobert in marriage, but met with a refusal, and 
 the Franks again attempted to gain possession of Upper Italy. 
 At the same time, the eunuch Narses, who had succeeded 
 Belisarius in the command of the imperial troops, of which 
 he had been deprived by the cabals of the jealous courtiers, 
 entered Italy from the north, and, re-enforcing his army 
 with the Heruli and Gepidse under Philemuth, and with 
 6,000 of the Longobardi, who for the first time entered Italy, 
 attacked the diminished forces of the Goths at Taginas, near 
 Ariminum. The battle raged for two days, when Totilas, 
 mortally wounded by the arrow of a GepidaB, fled from the 
 field, followed by the remnant of his army, and, after riding 
 84 stadia, fell dead from his horse, A.D. 552. His blood- 
 stained robe was presented, as a trophy, to Justinian. The 
 Goths now chose Tejas for their leader, who, resolving not 
 to fall unavenged, marched, sword in hand, through Italy, 
 murdering every Roman that crossed his path; Narses,
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 meanwhile, pursuing a similar plan toward the Goths, 
 whom he hoped to exterminate. The Goths, in revenge 
 for the surrender of Rome to the Greeks, murdered 500 
 children belonging to the first Roman families, whom they 
 had taken as hostages. At length, closely pursued by Nar- 
 ses, Tejas fled for safety to the beautiful valley that extends 
 from Salerno to the sea, where, strongly posted on the Monte 
 di Latte, he for some time kept the enemy at bay. Barri- 
 cading the entrance to the intrenchments with his body, the 
 brave Goth defended himself with one hand while guarding 
 himself with a long shield with the other, and, after a val- 
 iant defense, was killed when in the act of changing his 
 shield, bristled with arrows and lances, for the third time. 
 The Romans, struck with the bravery of their foe, granted 
 free egress to the thousand Goths that alone survived the 
 fight. The death of Theodobert took place about this period,, 
 and his son, Theodobald, remaining inactive, the Alemanni, 
 who dwelt in the mountains, deemed the occasion favorable, 
 on the dispersion of the Goths, for an invasion of Italy, and 
 attempted to carry into execution the project that was shortly 
 afterward undertaken with such signal success by the Longo- 
 bardi under more experienced leaders. They divided into 
 two enormous hordes, commanded by Leutharis and Butili- 
 nus, the former of which coasted the Mediterranean, the lat- 
 ter the Adriatic. These hordes were composed of foot-sol- 
 diers, armed with shields and swords, and merely clothed 
 with long trousers, the upper part of the body being naked, 
 from an idea that by that means they should suffer less from 
 the heat of the climate. The army under Leutharis was 
 destroyed by pestilence, and that under Butilinus was sur- 
 rounded and cut to pieces by Narses, five men alone escap- 
 ing the fate of their comrades, A.D. 554. In the following 
 year, Ragnaris, a Hun, headed 7,000 Goths against Narses, 
 whom he treacherously killed during a conference, a fate 
 which not long afterward awaited him at Conza. The tyran- 
 nical conduct of the Romans toward their former masters, 
 the German land-owners, now scattered throughout the
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 213 
 
 country, and the insolence of the German mercenaries, suf- 
 ficiently account for the futile revolts of the Goths under 
 Widinus and Amingus in Verona, A.D. 563, and of the 
 Heruli under Sinduval, a man whose bravery had chiefly 
 contributed to the victories gained by Narses, under whom 
 he had served, and who ended his life on the gallows, A.D. 
 566. According to the chronicle of Franke, some of the 
 fugitive Goths crossed Mount St. Gothard, and settled in a 
 wilderness on the spot where Uri now stands. 
 
 LXXXVII. Origin of the Longobardi Fate of the 
 Heruli and Gepidce 
 
 THE legendary account of the Longobardi or Langobardi 
 is as follows : A famine having been caused in Denmark by 
 a great flood, the people assembled in order to deliberate on 
 the best means of alleviating the general distress, and had 
 already come to the resolution of putting all the old men and 
 women to death for the sake of sparing the food for the 
 young and able, when a wise woman, named Gambara, pro- 
 posed that lots should be cast for the migration of a third of 
 the population. Her advice was followed, and the chosen 
 number of Danes, then known as Vinili, afterward as Longo- 
 bardi, on account of the prodigious length of their beards, 
 departed, under the command of Gambara's two sons, Ibor 
 and Ajo. Upon the Vandals refusing them permission to 
 settle in their neighborhood, war was declared. On the eve 
 of battle, Gambara besought the aid of Freya, while the 
 Vandals invoked Wodan, who promised to grant the victory 
 to whomever he first beheld at sunrise. At the appointed 
 hour, the Danish women, with their long hair hanging over 
 their faces, stationed themselves along the front of the army, 
 drawn up in battle array. The sun rose, and Wodan asked, 
 "Who are these with long beards?" Thus Wodan gave 
 them a new name, as well as victory. Their name has also 
 been derived from the word Hellebard, a halbert. They are 
 supposed to have formerly settled on the extensive corn-lands 

 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 now surrounding Magdeburg. Although conscious of their 
 common origin, they kept apart from the Suevian confeder- 
 acy, and notwithstanding their numerical inferiority, main- 
 tained their independence among the Saxons (some of whom 
 migrated with them to Italy) by means of their extraordi- 
 nary bravery, which is justly praised by Tacitus. Their 
 other legends are totally devoid of interest. Agelmund, one 
 of their kings, chanced to be riding along the banks of a 
 stream, into which seven boys, born at one birth, had been 
 cast. He stopped, and plunging his lance into the water, 
 drew out one who had grasped it. This boy became his suc- 
 cessor, and founded a royal dynasty. The family of the 
 "Welfs claims a similar origin. After the cessation of the mi- 
 grations, the Longobardi are first mentioned as a powerful 
 nation in the neighborhood of the Rugii, Scirri, and G-epidse, 
 and of the Slavian Bulgarians and Avari, in the mountains 
 of Austria. The Rugii and Scirri, after their subjection by 
 the Ostrogoths, are no longer met with in history, although 
 there is great probability that the Bavarians descended from 
 both these nations, and that the word Scirri may be traced 
 in the name of Scheyer. Jornandes, the Gothic historian, 
 mentions Edico and Wulfo, as princes of the Scirri during 
 the fifth century, and the same names, Ethico and Welf, 
 recur, at a later period, in the celebrated family of the Welfs. 
 The Heruli were remarkable for their obstinate adherence to 
 paganism, and for their extreme ferocity. As late as the 
 commencement of the sixth century, they put all their old 
 men to death, and the widows voluntarily burned them- 
 selves alive. Rumentruda, the daughter of Tato, king of 
 the Longobardi, fearing the revenge of the crippled brother 
 of Rudolf, king of the Heruli, whom she had mocked, caused 
 him to be murdered. Rudolf, burning for vengeance, at- 
 tacked the Longobardi, at the head of the Heruli, who, like 
 genuine Berserkers, fought perfectly naked, and on being 
 defeated were seized with such madness, that, coming in 
 their flight to a field of flax in full bloom, they imagined it 
 to be a lake and attempted to swim through. They after-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 215 
 
 ward entered into alliance with Constantinople, A.D. 500, 
 where their king, Graitis, received baptism, and was conse- 
 quently murdered on his return by his pagan subjects, who, 
 in order to strengthen their party, sent to Thule, Scandina- 
 via, their ancient birthplace, A.D. 528 (which, according to 
 an obscure tradition, was at that period inhabited by pirates, 
 also Heruli, who devastated the coasts of France and Spain), 
 for a king of the ancient mythical race, whose arrival being 
 delayed, the Christian party, aided by the emperor Justinian, 
 gained the upper hand and raised Swarta to the throne. At 
 length Todat arrived from Thule at the head of 500 young 
 men, and Swarta was deposed; but the pagan part of the na- 
 tion were unable to maintain their independence unassisted 
 and alone, and finally became incorporated with their allies 
 the Gepidse. The Christian Heruli long served with distinc- 
 tion under the Greek emperors, as mercenaries against the 
 Persians, Vandals, and Goths. 
 
 The Gepidse boast of having been the first nation (under 
 Ardarich, whose gold coins are mentioned in the Burgundian 
 code) that threw off the yoke of the Hun, and what little has 
 been recorded concerning them hi history speaks greatly to 
 their praise. Although continually at feud with the Ostro- 
 goths, they maintained their independence; and when Ilde- 
 chis, the son of Tatus, king of the Longobardi who had 
 been murdered by his nephew, "Wacho fled for protection to 
 their king Turisend, who put it to the vote \n the national 
 assembly whether they ought not to avoid a contest with 
 their powerful opponent and comply with his demand for 
 the delivery of their guest, the people unanimously replied, 
 "that annihilation was preferable to the violation of the laws 
 of hospitality." This magnanimous resolution was, notwith- 
 standing, powerless to save the life of the unfortunate Ilde- 
 chis, who was murdered by his enemies. Wacho was suc- 
 ceeded by Audoin, whose son, Alboin, killed Thurismund, 
 the son of Turisend, in battle, but, forgetting to carry away 
 his arms and returning home without a trophy, was deprived 
 of his seat, as one unworthy of the honor, at his father's
 
 216 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 table. In order to repair his negligence, he went openly to 
 Turisend and demanded the arms of his son. The aged 
 king entertained him with the greatest hospitality, and even 
 protected him from the anger of his subjects, whom he had 
 treated with the utmost insolence. Turisend died, and was 
 succeeded by his son, Kunimund, who was killed in battle 
 by Alboin (against whom he was seeking to revenge the se- 
 duction of his daughter, Rosamunda), and the whole nation 
 of the Gepidse was incorporated with that of the Longobardi, 
 A.D. 566. 
 
 LXXXVIII. Alboin in Italy 
 
 IN 552, a number of the Longobardi accompanied Narses 
 into Italy during his expedition ' against the Ostrogoths. 
 Some time after this, the services of Narses, like those of 
 the unfortunate Belisarius (who is said to have wandered 
 over the scenes of his former exploits, blind and starving), 
 were rewarded with ingratitude. Being tauntingly advised 
 by the Greek empress to carry a spindle instead of a sword, 
 he replied "that he would shortly spin her a thread, the end 
 of which she would not easily find," and invited the Longo- 
 bardi into Italy, that land ever coveted by the German, 
 which was probably doubly attractive to Alboin, owing to 
 the security afforded by the Alps against the increasing and 
 encroaching Slavonian hordes. Their ranks swelled by 20,000 
 of their ancient allies, the Saxons, the Longobardi descended 
 the lofty Alps, A.D. 568, and for the first time beheld the im- 
 mense plain, to which they were destined to give the name 
 of Lombardy, or the land of the Longobardi. Four years 
 were spent in warfare with the Romans, who defended them- 
 selves within their fortified towns, which, at first, offered an 
 insurmountable difficulty to these wild warriors, unacquainted 
 with the mode of conducting a siege ; while the Burgundians 
 and their duke Mummulus, who beheld with apprehension 
 the arrival of a numerous and warlike nation in the vicinity 
 of the western Alps, continually harassed, and probably 
 might eventually have succeeded in subduing them, had
 
 217 
 
 they been assisted by the Franks, who, fortunately for the 
 Longobardi, were at that time too busily engaged in civil 
 broils to be able to turn their attention to the affairs of their 
 neighbors. The whole country of the Po and the fortified 
 city of Pavia at length fell into the hands of Alboin, A.D. 
 572, who, warned by the fate of the Ostrogoths, occasioned 
 by the dispersion of their forces in central and southern 
 Italy, took up a strong position on the Po, and made Pavia 
 his capital, whence he could watch the movements of the 
 Burgundians, the Alemanni, and the Franks, while he kept 
 the Bulgarians and the Avari in check by the erection of 
 strong fortifications in the Frioul. Instead of treating the 
 conquered Romans with the generosity they had met with at 
 the hands of the Ostrogoths, he deprived them of the whole 
 of the land, and reduced them to a state of servitude, to 
 which they submitted without a struggle, although they had 
 formerly disdained the equality offered them by their Gothic 
 conquerors. 
 
 Shortly after these events Alboin fell a victim to his own 
 brutality. During a festival held at Pavia, when flushed 
 with success and wine, he forced Rosamunda, the daughter 
 of Kunimund, to drink from a cup formed from the scull of 
 her father. In order to revenge this insult and to gratify 
 her hatred against her father's murderer, Rosamunda, with- 
 out hesitation, sacrificed her honor for the attainment of her 
 purpose. One of her attendants had a lover, named Peredeo, 
 a strong and active man, whom she unwittingly ensnared, 
 and then threatened to denounce to the king, unless he con- 
 sented to deprive him of life. Peredeo, worked upon by the 
 wily queen, was conducted by her into the royal chamber, 
 where Alboin, unable to snatch his sword from the wall, to 
 which it had been artfully fastened by the queen, defended 
 himself for some time with a footstool against the attack of 
 his murderer. He was no sooner dead, than Helmichis, 
 Rosamunda' s confidant, married her, in the hope of gaining 
 the crown; but the Longobardi, enraged at the murder of 
 their king, attempting to seize their persons, they fled for 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 10
 
 218 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 safety to Longinus, the Greek governor of Ravenna, who, 
 struck by the great beauty of the queen, offered her his 
 hand. Rosamunda, habituated to crime and detesting the 
 tool of her revenge equally with its object, now administered 
 poison to Helmichis, who no sooner tasted the cup, than, dis- 
 covering her treachery, he forced her to drain it to the dregs, 
 and to share his fate, A.D. 573. 
 
 The Saxons, dissatisfied with the treatment they received 
 from the Longobardi, quitted Italy, and being defeated dur- 
 ing their passage across the Alps by the Burgundians under 
 Mummulus, were constrained to purchase freedom with the 
 sacrifice of their whole booty. A worse fate awaited them 
 on their arrival in their native country on the Bode (now 
 Swabia), which they found occupied by the Alemanni, who 
 had been invited thither by the Franks, and whose peaceful 
 offers being scornfully rejected, a war ensued, in which the 
 Saxons were completely worsted, and 30,000 of them slain. 
 
 LXXXIX. Theodolinda 
 
 AFTER the death of Alboin, the Longobardi raised Kleph 
 to the throne, who fell, in 575, by the hand of one of his 
 subjects, and an interregnum of ten years ensued, during 
 which the thirty-six Gauen were governed by an equal num- 
 ber of independent dukes, who invaded France, in 576, and 
 were defeated in the mountains by Mummulus. In the en- 
 suing year, three of these dukes, Amon, Zadan, and Rodan, 
 again invaded that country, but were defeated and obliged 
 to abandon their baggage on the Alps. They afterward 
 gained a victory over a Roman army under Baduarius, 
 A..D. 577. The dukes, apprehending a double invasion on 
 the part of France and Greece, A.D. 584, now elected an- 
 other king, Autharis, the son of Kleph, who restored peace 
 to the kingdom and made a treaty with Smaragdus, the 
 exarch of Ravenna. In order to strengthen himself against 
 France by an alliance with Bavaria he demanded Theodo- 
 linda, the beautiful and pious daughter of Garibald, in mar-
 
 219 
 
 riage, and accompanying the embassy in disguise, succeeded 
 in gaining her affections. On quitting her father's court, he 
 discovered his rank to her, by saying, as he struck his bat- 
 tle-ax into a tree, "Thus strikes the king of the Longobardi!" 
 Garibald, secretly influenced by the Franks, withdrew his 
 consent to the marriage, upon which Theodolinda fled across 
 the Alps to her royal lover, and the wedding was celebrated 
 at Verona. The Franks, enraged at the failure of their 
 scheme, accused Garibald of having connived at the flight 
 of his daughter, and a war ensued, in which Autharis, pro- 
 tected by his fortresses, was victorious. The Franks, har- 
 assed by internal dissensions, deferred their revenge, and 
 Autharis, turning his arms against the Romans, overran 
 Italy and raised a monument at Reggio. He died early, 
 A.D. 591, and the Longobardi, wrought upon by the beauty 
 and address of Theodolinda, intrusted her with the choice 
 of a successor to her bed and to the throne. A handsome 
 Thuringian named Agilulf, whose political principles coin- 
 cided with her own, became the object of her choice, and 
 on his bending to kiss her hand one day as she sat at table, 
 she said with a blush, "You have a right to kiss my cheek, 
 for you are my king!" The influence obtained by this queen 
 over the minds of the people was so unlimited that the same 
 nation which, in 579, had murdered four hundred Romans 
 for refusing to sacrifice to their gods, embraced Christianity 
 at her request. She was on friendly terms with the pope, 
 Gregory the Great, and not only concluded peace with the 
 Franks, but strengthened the alliance by promoting mar- 
 riages between the two nations. Under her peaceful reign, 
 the constitution of Lombardy was finally arranged. The 
 warlike form of government, consisting of dukes and their 
 subordinate chiefs or decani, who exercised the judiciary 
 power in time of peace, was at first retained. The Romans, 
 deprived of their freedom, managed the estates of their lords, 
 and held a particular office as Gastalden (Gast, guest; aid, 
 alt, old '), dependent, like that of the decani, on the dukes. 
 1 See Chapter IV. The word AldL
 
 220 THE HISTORY OF GERMAN? 
 
 The new kingdom extended from Savoy to the Friou], and 
 from the Southern Tyrol to Benevento. A part of Upper 
 Italy, the cities of Ravenna, Rome, and Naples, with Cala- 
 bria and Sicily, alone remained in the hands of the Greeks, 
 and formed an exarchate, of which Ravenna was the capi- 
 tal. The church, meanwhile, supported by Theodolinda, 
 increased in power, the pope exercising almost uncontrolled 
 authority at Rome. Frioul and Benevento, on the eastern 
 and southern frontiers, were governed by powerful and al- 
 most independent dukes. The republic of Venice, then in 
 its infancy, already emulated Greece in the knowledge and 
 practice of navigation, a science unknown to the Longo- 
 bardi, whose invasion of the country had driven fresh fugi- 
 tives to the little islands in the Lagune, first peopled by 
 refugees in the time of Attila. 
 
 Agilulf died, and Adelwald, his youthful son and suc- 
 cessor, rendering himself obnoxious, was murdered by his 
 subjects, A.D. 615, who, in gratitude for the benefits con- 
 ferred on them by Theodolinda, elected Ariowald, the hus- 
 band of her daughter, Gerberga, as her successor on the 
 throne, A.D. 625. 
 
 XC. The Crimes of the Merovingian* 
 
 THE success of the Frankish kings of the race of Mero- 
 wig, who by violence and fraud had risen from obscurity, 
 and had become the most powerful monarchs in Europe, led 
 to the indulgence of the deepest moral depravity. Their 
 policy, widely differing from that of the enlightened and 
 generous-minded Dietrich of Bern, was solely based on op- 
 pression and murder, and the bloody feuds between the 
 numerous descendants of Chlodwig, each of whom, dissat- 
 isfied with his portion, grasped at the whole of the immense 
 Inheritance, equaled in treachery and cold-blooded cruelty 
 the horrors they had already enacted in their wars with 
 neighboring nations. Some of these feuds may have arisen 
 from an idea of the political unity of the nation being nee-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 221 
 
 essary for its protection against foreign aggression, while 
 others may have been caused by a desire of gaining sole 
 possession of the enormous treasure, composed of the booty 
 taken from many nations, preserved at Paris, which is 
 beautifully and truly designated in the Nibelungenlied as 
 the source of all their corruption. On recurring to those 
 olden times, when the Frank, poor, ignorant, and barbar- 
 ous, suddenly came into possession of enormous wealth and 
 power, the scenes of horror that ensued, one brother turning 
 his hand against another, lest he should first fall a victim 
 to treachery, may almost be anticipated. The tragedy was 
 commenced after the deaths of Theodorich and Chlodomir, 
 two of the four sons of Chlodwig, by their brethren, Childe- 
 bert and Chlotar, who seized the inheritance of the sons of 
 Chlodomir, whose mother, Chrodogilda, being offered the 
 alternative of their death or of their seclusion, with shorn 
 heads, in a monastery, proudly replied, "Rather let them 
 die than be deprived of their royal right!" upon which they 
 were instantly stabbed by Chlotar; Childebert, moved to 
 pity, when too late, vainly attempting to rescue them from 
 his murderous grasp. On the death of Childebert, the whole 
 authority was vested in Chlotar, the close of whose reign is 
 marked by an incident which proves that a nation cannot be 
 rendered entirely and blindly subservient to the ambition of 
 its rulers. During the invasion of Saxony, the Franks sud- 
 denly protested against the injustice of the war, and threat- 
 ened to put their king to death unless he desisted from it; 
 but it was not until his tent had been destroyed by the en- 
 raged multitude that Chlotar yielded and terminated the 
 campaign. 
 
 Chlotar was succeeded by his four sons, A.D. 561, who 
 divided the kingdom ; Charibert reigning at Paris, Guntram 
 at Orleans, Sigebert at Metz, and Chilperich at Soissons. 
 The horrors committed by these four brethren cast the de- 
 pravity of the four sons of Chlodwig into the shade. Never 
 has one family amassed such a heritage of crime! The na- 
 tion, influenced by the changes consequent on the introduc-
 
 222 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 tion of the feudal system, either beheld with indifference or 
 favored the dissensions between their rulers, of which they 
 took advantage in order to obtain concessions and additional 
 privileges in return for their assistance (the majority of the 
 people having been deprived of their Allods, and the tenure 
 of the fiefs depending on the will of the sovereign, and being 
 alienable on the demise of the feoffee), although hi general 
 they required no stronger incentive than the hope of booty ; 
 while the clergy, ever on the watch for an opportunit} 7 of 
 increasing the power of the church at the expense of that 
 of the temporal sovereigns, participated in the guilt of this 
 royal house by promoting disunion between its various 
 branches. 
 
 XCI. Fredegunda 
 
 THE disorders in the family of Chlotar were commenced 
 by Charibert, king of Paris, who, in defiance of the interdict 
 pronounced against him by Bishop Germanus, took unto 
 himself four wives, a crime to which, in the superstition of 
 the times, his early death was attributed. Guntram, king 
 of Orleans, followed his example and took three wives. This 
 base polygamy was turned to advantage by Sigebert, king 
 of Metz, who, after gaining a victory over the Avari in the 
 east, raised himself above his brothers by an alliance with 
 the princess Brunehilda, the daughter of Athanagild, king 
 of the Visigoths, whose youthful charms and immense dowry 
 rilled all France with her fame, and the heart of Chilperich, 
 king of Soissons, with envy. This wretch had already sac- 
 rificed his wife Audodeva and her two children to his mis- 
 tress, Fredegunda, a woman celebrated for her beauty and 
 ferocity. Solely influenced by jealousy and avarice, he now 
 demanded the hand of Galaswintha, Brunehilda's sister, 
 whom, at the instigation of Fredegunda, he caused to be 
 murdered in her bed, soon after her arrival hi Soissons and 
 the reception of her rich dower, and a few days after the 
 commission of this crime proclaimed his artful mistress 
 queen. He then suddenly entered the territory of Sigebert,
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 223 
 
 in the hope of gaining possession of it by surprise, but met 
 with a sturdy opposition from the Austrasians, Sigebert's 
 true-born German subjects. During this contest, letters were 
 addressed by St. Radegunda from her convent to both the 
 brothers, adjuring them to peace, and reminding them of 
 the evils that had befallen her family, the bitter conse- 
 quences of disunion ; but her voice was unheard. The war 
 proved disastrous to Chilperich, whose son, Theodebert, was 
 killed in battle, and Sigebert had scarcely been seated by the 
 Neustrians on the throne of Paris than he was slain by as- 
 sassins in the pay of his treacherous brother, A.D. 576, who, 
 taking advantage of the consternation caused by this event, 
 re-entered the city, placed himself at the head of the Neu- 
 strians, drove out the now chiefless Austrasians, took the 
 unfortunate Brunehilda prisoner, and almost succeeded in 
 gaining possession of her son, Childebert, a child of three 
 years of age, whose life was saved by a trusty servant, 
 named Gundobald, who frustrated the search of the mur- 
 derers by secreting him in a game-bag, by which means he 
 contrived to escape with him to Austrasia, where he was 
 proclaimed king. Brunehilda, now a prisoner and in the 
 power of Fredegunda, the murderess of her sister and hus- 
 band, had already prepared for death, when a deliverer ap- 
 peared in the person of Merowich, the son of Chilperich, 
 who* happening to see the beautiful prisoner at Rouen, be- 
 came deeply enamored of her and drew her from her prison. 
 Influenced by gratitude for this proof of devotion, the queen 
 bestowed her hand upon him, and, aided by the faithful 
 bishop of Prsetextatus, who pronounced the nuptial benedic- 
 tion, the lovers escaped to Austrasia, where the great vas- 
 sals of the crown, unwilling to place their youthful sovereign 
 under the guardianship of a step-father, and unmoved by 
 the tears and entreaties of Brunehilda, refused to receive 
 her husband, who was, consequently, compelled to return to 
 Neustria, where, fearing his father's vengeance, he raised 
 an army, and being defeated by a ruse de guerre, preferred 
 receiving death from his companions in arms to the fate
 
 224 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 that awaited him, as a prisoner, at the hands of the hateful 
 Fredegunda. 
 
 This queen, whose propensities were as licentious as they 
 were bloody, had, in the meantime, carried on a criminal 
 intercourse with Landerich, her husband's major-domus, 
 which was by chance discovered by Chilperich, who, one 
 day entering her room eof tly when she was dressing, heard 
 her utter the name of Landerich, for whom she had mis- 
 taken him, but not daring to put her to death, was himself 
 shortly afterward deprived of life by her adherents, when 
 following the chase, A.D. 584. Chlotar the Second, the only 
 son of Fredegunda, who governed in his name, succeeded to 
 the throne. The peace-loving Guntram of Orleans, struck 
 with horror at the bloody deeds of this Megsera, sent embas- 
 sadors to Childebert of Australia, and an interview took 
 place between them on a bridge, when the childless old man, 
 tenderly embracing his nephew, declared him his heir, hop- 
 ing, by this means, to save his kingdom from the bloody 
 grasp of Fredegunda. The dotage of the aged king was, 
 meanwhile, turned to advantage by the great vassals and the 
 bishops of Neustria and Austrasia, who, during the minority 
 of Childebert, frequently made the old man the umpire of 
 their feuds, and found means to gain many great privileges. 
 The brave Mummulus, the most powerful of the Burgundian 
 chiefs, was, by the intrigues of his enemies, sentenced to 
 death by his ungrateful master, and the whole nation be- 
 came gradually infected with the egotism and cruelty char- 
 acteristic of the race of Merowig. 
 
 The increasing power of the great vassals for some time 
 kept the authority of Fredegunda and of Brunehilda in check, 
 but the latter at length succeeded in forming a party in Aus- 
 trasia, by which she was placed at the head of affairs. The 
 success attending her first enterprise, undertaken against the 
 Longobardi, at once gained the confidence of her warlike 
 subjects and confirmed her newly acquired power. With a 
 heart hardened by former adversity, she bloodily revenged 
 herself upon the nobles, the authors of her cruel fate, who,
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 225 
 
 after depriving her of her husband, Merowich, had compelled 
 her to part with Lupus, her only faithful adherent. These 
 occurrences are mentioned in the song of the Nibelungen as 
 the revenge of Chriemhilda. Fredegunda, enraged at her 
 success, attempted to assassinate her, but was frustrated in 
 her scheme, and her emissaries were put to death. She then, 
 in the hope of gaining the chief power in Neustria, secretly 
 caused the nobles to be murdered one by one, but, neverthe- 
 less, only reached her aim on the death of Guntram, A.D. 
 595, when she and her paramour, Landerich, set up a claim 
 to the throne of Burgundy, in opposition to that of Brune- 
 hilda and her son, Childebert, who, after his first campaign 
 against the Longobardi, had subdued the petty nation of the 
 Varini and incorporated it with that of Thuringia. 1 This 
 youthful monarch, basely deserted by the Burgundian no- 
 bles, whom Landerich had bribed by lavishing upon them 
 the accumulated treasure of the Merovingian kings, died 
 shortly after his defeat at Soissons, not without suspicion of 
 having been poisoned by Brunehilda, who coveted the pos- 
 session of the sole authority, in order to reign undisturbed 
 with her paramours. Childebert left two sons, Theudebert, 
 who inherited Austrasia, and its capital, Metz ; and Theude- 
 rich, who claimed Burgundy, and its capital, Orleans; the 
 possession of which was again disputed by Fredegunda. A 
 second battle took place on the Seine, in which Brunehilda 
 was victorious, whereupon Fredegunda, stimulated by re- 
 venge, stirred up the Avari and the Saxons, who invaded 
 Thuringia, A.D. 596, but, before the contest was decided, 
 her criminal existence reached its close. 
 
 1 Radigis, king of the Varini, had deserted his Anglo-Saxon bride for a 
 Prankish princess. The Anglo-Saxon, in revenge for this insult, landed on 
 the coast of Germany, and, after a long search, succeeded in taking her faith- 
 less bridegroom prisoner in a wood, when she compelled him to repudiate the 
 Frank and to marry her. This little incident was the cause of the ruin of th 
 whole nation, which was subdued by the avenging Franks. 

 
 226 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 XCII. Brunehilda 
 
 THEUDEBERT, after repulsing the Avari and the Saxons, 
 turned his arms against Chlotar, whom he defeated, after a 
 desperate engagement, in which 30,000 Franks fell. Brune- 
 hilda, deprived of one object of her hatred by the death of 
 her old enemy, Fredegunda, now sought to revenge herself 
 upon the Australian nobles by whom her influence had 
 formerly been impaired, and after causing -<Egila, the major- 
 domus, to be murdered, bestowed that office upon Protadius, 
 the paramour of her old age, whom she raised to the highest 
 dignities of state. Enraged at the disapprobation of her ty- 
 rannical and licentious inclinations manifested by her grand- 
 son Theudebert, she remorselessly flung the brand of discord 
 into her own family, by persuading Theuderich that his 
 brother, instead of being the son of Chlotar, owed his exist- 
 ence to a miller, and a quarrel had already broken out be- 
 tween them, when Uncelin, duke of Alemannia, raising a 
 sedition among the Germans, slew the Roman Protadius in 
 his camp, and brought about a reconciliation. Brunehilda, 
 furious at the restraint imposed upon her by Theuderich, 
 caused the bishop Desiderius, who had ventured to preach 
 repentance to her, to be stoned to death, and revenged the 
 reprobation with which the Irish saint, Columban, had de- 
 nounced her crimes, by driving him out of the country. This 
 artful wretch at length succeeded in setting her grandsons 
 completely at variance, by persuading the credulous Theu- 
 derich to deprive his brother, on the plea of his illegitimacy, 
 of the beautiful province of Alsace. Two dreadful conflicts 
 took place at Toul and Zulpich, the latter of which proved 
 fatal to Theudebert, who fell into the hands of his unnatural 
 grandmother and was confined in a monastery, where he was 
 shortly afterward murdered by her order, and the brains of 
 his little son, Merowich, were dashed out against a rock, A.D. 
 612. Theuderich, inspirited by this success, now invaded 
 Neustria, and Brunehilda was gloating on the prospect of
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 225 
 
 speedily sating her revenge on Chlotar the Second, whose 
 mother death had placed beyond her reach, when the retri- 
 bution so long delayed at length burst upon her head. Theu- 
 derich, struck by the beauty of Theutelana, the daughter 
 of Theudebert, was on the eve of marrying her, when his 
 grandmother, who dreaded the consequences of this alliance, 
 contradicted her former assertion of Theudebert's illegiti- 
 macy, in order to prove that the marriage was forbidden 
 by the church. The fratricide, filled with remorse at this 
 avowal, drew his sword and threatened the life of his hate- 
 ful grandmother, who soon after revenged herself by ad- 
 ministering poison to him. 
 
 Theuderich left four sons, still in their infancy. Sige- 
 bert, the eldest, was placed by Brunehilda, who intended to 
 govern in his name, on the throne of Austrasia, but her ex- 
 pectations were frustrated by Pipin von Landen, who, at the 
 head of a numerous party of discontented nobles, went over 
 to Chlotar the Second, who prudently convoked a general 
 assembly of the Frankish nobility, to which he submitted his 
 cause, and the means of putting an end to the feuds which 
 for so long a period had desolated his family. Brunehilda, 
 meanwhile, alarmed by this general desertion, fled from Metz 
 into the interior of Germany, whence she attempted to rouse 
 the jealousy of the Australians against the Neustrians. The 
 fidelity of Warnachar, her major-domus, appearing to waver, 
 she conspired against his life, but discovering her intention 
 he counterplotted with Chlotar, and when she recrossed the 
 Rhine at the head of a numerous army, and entered the broad 
 champaign around Chalons on the Marne (famous for the 
 meeting of conflicting nations in the time of Attila), where 
 she encountered Chlotar, her followers deserted her to a 
 man, and she was delivered up to her adversary, who, after 
 causing her to undergo the most excruciating torture for 
 three days, had her placed on a camel's back and paraded 
 through the camp ; the punishment being terminated by her 
 being tied by the hair of her head, by one arm and one foot, 
 to the tail of a wild horse. Thus miserably ended the life of
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the Visigothic princess, A.D. 613, whose arrival in France 
 was attended with such splendor, and hailed with such uni- 
 versal delight. Her crimes were visited upon her descend- 
 ants. Sigebert and his second brother, Corvus, were mur- 
 dered by order of Chlotar; Merowich, the third, being his 
 godson, was spared; and the fourth, Childebert, fled the 
 country and was never heard of more. Frideburga, a noble 
 maiden, daughter of Gunzo, duke of Alemannia, lost her 
 senses on hearing of the death of Sigebert, to whom she was 
 betrothed, and being restored to reason by St. Galus, the 
 disciple of St. Columban, he was, in reward, permitted to 
 found the monastery of St. Gall in the country of the pagan 
 Alemanni, by whom St. Columban had a short time previ- 
 ously been driven away for having ventured to throw three 
 of their deities (probably Wodan, Thor, and Frigga, who 
 gave name to the Bodensee, the Thurgau, and the Frick- 
 thal), whose images stood on the banks of the Bodensee, 
 into the lake. 
 
 The use of carriages was introduced into France by 
 Brunehilda, during whose reign the roads were made, long 
 known as the chaussees 1 de Brunehault, the only benefit she 
 ever conferred on her subjects. With her the legitimate line 
 of the Merovingians ceased, and the bastard brood of Frede- 
 gunda, Merovingians only in name, mounted the throne in 
 the person of Chlotar the Second, whose slothful effeminacy, 
 bigotry, and sensuality, were unredeemed by the energy 
 which so eminently characterized the lineal descendants of 
 Merowig. The great vassals of the crown and the bishops, 
 anxious to obtain a confirmation of the privileges they had 
 gained during these disturbances, now sought to establish 
 peace throughout the kingdom, reunited beneath the scepter 
 of Chlotar the Second, and convoking a general state assem- 
 bly at Paris, A.D. 625, compelled him to render the feofs 
 hereditary and to grant fresh privileges to the clergy, who 
 
 1 On the Feldberg, the highest summit of the Taunus, a large mass of stones, 
 called Brimehilda's bed, is still to be seen, whence this queen is said to have 
 often gazed on the delicious prospect.
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 229 
 
 henceforward shared with the people the right of electing 
 the bishops, whose office was merely confirmed by the king. 
 The power of the Hausmaier, or mayor of the palace, a 
 post of great importance whenever the scepter was in the 
 hands of women and children, had also risen during these 
 long disturbances, and had become, as will hereafter be seen, 
 the object to which the nobility most ambitiously aspired. 
 
 XCIII. Grimoald 
 
 THE Avari, a wild and savage race that had settled in 
 Hungary, advanced under the command of their prince, 
 Cacan, through the mountains of Illyria and Lombardy, 
 A.D. 611, and after slaying Gisulph, the grandduke, and all 
 his adherents in battle, laid siege to the city of Frioul, where 
 Romilda, the widow of Gisulph, had taken refuge. One day 
 when gazing from the battlements, the duchess beheld the 
 young khan, and becoming enamored of his beauty, offered, 
 regardless alike of honor and duty, to betray the city into 
 his hands on condition of being made his wife. The com- 
 pact was made and fulfilled. The city was delivered up, 
 and Cacan took Romilda with her four sons and four daugh- 
 ters into Hungary, where the marriage was celebrated; but 
 on the following morning, with a perfidy worthy of the hus- 
 band of such a woman, he caused her to be impaled alive. 
 Her daughters, Appa, who subsequently married a duke of 
 Alemannia, and Gaila, who wedded a duke of Bavaria, pre- 
 served their honor by the singular precaution of polluting 
 their persons with the putrid flesh of a fowl. The four sons 
 found means to escape. Grimoald, the youngest, who was 
 mounted behind his eldest brother Tafo, was thrown to the 
 ground during the flight, and Tafo, fearing lest he might be 
 taken alive by their pursuers, was in the act of transfixing 
 him with his lance, when, moved by the entreaties of the 
 boy, he changed his resolution, and replacing him on his 
 horse, continued his flight. Grimoald again fell and was 
 seized by an Avar, who mounted him on his horse with the
 
 230 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 intention of carrying him off, when the brave child, drawing 
 a dagger from the man's belt, suddenly stabbed him to the 
 heart, tossed him from the saddle, and galloped after his 
 brethren, whom he speedily rejoined. Tafo was hospitably 
 received by Ariowald, king of Lombardy, and succeeded his 
 father in the dukedom of Frioul. A certain Adalulf, whose 
 criminal advances had been scornfully rejected by Queen 
 Gundeberga, revenged himself by rousing the suspicion of 
 the king against Tafo, whom he falsely accused of carrying 
 on an illicit intercourse with the queen. Tafo was put to 
 death. The innocence of the queen was afterward fully 
 proved, and, on the death of Ariowald, she was treated by 
 the Lombards with the same respect that had formerly been 
 shown to her mother, Theodolinda, her second husband be- 
 ing left to her choice, which fell upon Rotharis, a man dis- 
 tinguished for prudence. He bestowed an admirable code 
 of laws upon Lombardy. On his death, A.D. 643, the Lom- 
 bards, wishful to show their devotion to the memory of their 
 beloved queen, Theodolinda, and of her virtuous race, raised 
 her brother, the Bavarian Aribert, to the throne, A.D. 654. 
 His sons, Bertarit and Godebert, disputed the succession, 
 661, and a struggle ensued between the rival parties, which 
 terminated at Benevento in favor of the Lombards. 
 
 The brave little Grimoald was adopted by Duke Arigil of 
 Benevento, and became a famous warrior. He greatly dis- 
 tinguished himself, under the command of his patron, against 
 the Greeks in Lower Italy, and, on succeeding to the throne 
 of Benevento, declared in favor of King Godebert. A man 
 who was secretly in the pay of King Bertarit succeeded, 
 however, in persuading the two friends that each was plot- 
 ting the other's destruction, alleging, in support of his asser- 
 tion, that each wore armor beneath his dress, through fear 
 of the other. The fear of assassination now induced them 
 in reality to take this precaution, which Grimoald no sooner 
 perceived than, confirmed in his suspicions, he slew his sup- 
 posed enemy, thinking to save his own life. Bertarit still 
 maintained his right, but the Lombards, persuaded of Gri-
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 231 
 
 moald's innocence, placed him on the throne. Constans, the 
 Greek emperor, taking advantage of the discord that pre- 
 vailed in Lombardy, marched thither in person from Naples 
 and laid siege to Benevento, which was, at that time, de- 
 fended by Romuald, whose father, Grimoald, was engaged 
 in the north, but who dispatched Sesuald, his trusty adher- 
 ent, at the head of some troops, to his assistance. Sesuald 
 fell into the hands of the emperor, who promised to load him 
 with honor and wealth, on condition of his giving Romuald 
 a false account of the death of Grimoald, and of persuading 
 him to capitulate; but the faithful man, when led to the 
 walls for that purpose, cried out, " Be firm 1 Grimoald ap- 
 proaches!" His head was instantly severed from his body 
 and cast into the city. It fell at the feet of Romuald, who 
 pressed it to his lips and deeply deplored his death. Instead 
 of awaiting the arrival of Grimoald, the emperor retreated 
 upon Naples. He was pursued, and a battle was on the 
 point of commencing, when Amalong, a gigantic Lombard, 
 lifting a Greek from his saddle with his lance, held him 
 poised in the air, and the rest of his countrymen, terror- 
 stricken at sight of this feat, fled to Sicily. Bertarit at 
 length, finding resistance futile, submitted to Grimoald, 
 who, either mistrusting him or being again misled, laid a 
 plan for murdering him in his bed, which was discovered by 
 one of Bertarit's servants, who aided his master to escape 
 and placed himself in his bed. Grimoald, struck by this 
 proof of fidelity, attempted to attach him to his own person, 
 but, finding his endeavors unsuccessful, yielded to his en- 
 treaties, and restored him to his master, who had taken 
 refuge in France. His cause was embraced by Chlotar the 
 Second, who took up arms against the Lombards, and was 
 defeated at Asti by Grimoald, who, feigning to desert his 
 camp, which he left well stored with provisions, suddenly 
 returned and put his feasting opponents to the sword, A.D. 
 665. In the following year, he defeated the Avari, who also 
 invaded Lombardy, by marching and countermarching his 
 little army, each time dressed in different colors, within sight
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of the enemy, so as to give them a false impression of his 
 numbers. Grimoald gave many new laws to his country. 
 In his old age he was remarkable for his bald head and 
 long white beard. 
 
 After his death, A.D. 671, the Lombards recalled the ex- 
 iled Bertarit, and Romuald contented himself with the pos- 
 session of Benevento. Cunibert, the son of Bertarit, was 
 greatly disquieted by the rebellious dukes, and his son, Liut- 
 prand, was set aside by Reginhart, a descendant of Gode- 
 bert. Aribert the Second, his son and successor, in order to 
 revenge himself upon Ansbrand, the guardian of Liutprand, 
 who had taken refuge in Bavaria, deprived his son of his eye- 
 sight, and mutilated his mother and daughter. Ansbrand 
 being assisted by the Bavarians and joined by the Lombards, 
 by whom Aribert was universally detested, in the first en- 
 counter the latter fled from his camp, but, unwilling to part 
 from his treasures, loaded himself so heavily with gold that, 
 when crossing the river Adige on horseback, he sank beneath 
 the weight and was drowned, A.D. 711. Ansbrand mounted 
 the throne, and was succeeded by his son Liutprand, who 
 gave laws to the Lombards favoring the emancipation of the 
 slaves, in order better to dispose the ancient Roman inhabi- 
 tants toward the Lombard rule. He also projected the con- 
 quest of the whole of Italy, where the Romans were at- 
 tempting to make their exarchate independent of the Greek 
 emperor; but an insurmountable obstacle presented itself at 
 Rome, where the pope, Gregory the Second, who disdained 
 to submit to a king of Lombardy, and was moreover desirous 
 of dividing Italy into petty sovereignties, in order to increase 
 his own independence, was powerfully supported by the 
 Franks, who, forgetful of the generosity of Liutprand in 
 assisting them against the Moors, compelled him to restore 
 Ravenna to the pope. Liutprand died in 744, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Rachis, whose brother, Aistulf, on coming to the 
 throne, attempted to carry out the plans of Liutprand, and 
 pressing hard upon Rome, was attacked and defeated by the 
 Franks.
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN QOTHS AND FRANKS 233 
 
 XCIV. Fall of the Suevian and Visigothic Kingdom 
 
 in Spain 
 
 AFTER the death of Theodorich the Great, the protector of 
 the Visigoths, Amalarich, their king, attempted to cement 
 the friendship of the Franks by an alliance with Chlotilda, 
 the daughter of Chlodwig, but the ancient hatred existing 
 between the two nations was too deeply rooted, and the 
 haughty princess, ill-treated by her husband, sent a cloth 
 stained with her blood as a token to her brothers, and Childe- 
 bert, hastening to avenge her wrongs, slew Amalarich near 
 Narbonne, A.D. 531. The Goths elected Theudis, and the 
 Franks were waylaid on their return to France, and defeated 
 by Theodisel, his general, who succeeded him on the throne, 
 and was assassinated in consequence of his licentious habits. 
 He was succeeded by JEgila, who was deposed by Athana- 
 gild, the father of the celebrated Brunehilda, whose succes- 
 sors were Liuba and Lowigild, a furious tyrant, against 
 whom the Basques, in the Pyrenees, rebelled. His son, Her- 
 menegild, married Ingundis, the daughter of Brunehilda, a 
 pious, gentle princess, and zealous Catholic. Her husband 
 had been reared in the same faith by his mother, Theodosia, 
 who was a Greek Catholic. Goiswinda, his step-mother, an 
 equally zealous Arian, enraged at the obstinacy with which 
 her daughter-in-law adhered to her religious tenets, caused 
 her to be thrown into a tun full of water, in order to baptize 
 her according to the form of her church. Hermenegild, re- 
 volted by this treatment of his young wife, refused to em- 
 brace Arianism, and rebelling against his father, joined the 
 ancient Roman Catholic inhabitants of Spain, the Suevi and 
 the Basques. The rebels were defeated; Andeca, king of 
 the Suevi, was confined in a monastery, and the whole na- 
 tion reduced to submission. Hermenegild surrendered him- 
 self to his father, who condemned and put him to death. 
 The Catholics worshiped him as a saint. Ingundis, while
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 attempting to escape by sea into France, fell into the hands 
 of the Greeks, and died in Africa, A.D. 585. 
 
 Fredegunda, delighted at this catastrophe, and hoping to 
 gain the Visigoths over to her party in opposition to that of 
 her arch-enemy, Brunehilda, offered her daughter, Rigundis, 
 in marriage to Reccared, Hermenegild's brother, and the 
 richly-dowered bride, sadly foreboding that the evil fate of 
 Ingundis might prove her own, set out for Spain, but before 
 she reached the Pyrenees, was despoiled and sent back by 
 Guntram's vassals; an insult which was afterward bloodily 
 revenged by Lowigild. Reccared, who succeeded his father, 
 favored the Catholics, and foreseeing that the Arian Visi- 
 goths must finally yield to their antagonists and share the 
 miserable fate of the Ostrogoths, made a public confession 
 of the Catholic faith. He afterward defeated a conspiracy 
 formed against him by the Arians, A.D. 590, headed by Goi- 
 swinda and her ally, Guntram, who had sent a Frankish 
 army under Desiderius, duke of Toulouse, into Spain, and 
 Goiswinda killed herself in despair. Reccared introduced 
 several new regulations into the government, which, by low- 
 ering the pride of the Gothic nobility, and by conferring 
 great privileges upon the Romans, essentially contributed to 
 the gradual extinction of the German language and free 
 constitution, and to the promotion of Italian ascendency, 
 which was materially assisted by the efforts of the Catholic 
 clergy, whose influence had greatly increased during the 
 long interregnum that occurred after the death of Alaric. 
 The subsequent rapid change of sovereigns on the throne, 
 and the schism in the church, had also added to the impor- 
 tance and pretensions of the bishops, who now held a casting 
 vote in the diet or council, which promulgated both civil and 
 ecclesiastical law, and formed among the Visigoths one and 
 the same assembly. Reccared died in 601. His son, Liuba, 
 was dethroned by Witherich, who, rendering himself obnox- 
 ious by his tyranny, was assassinated at a banquet. In this 
 manner sovereigns rapidly succeeded each other, all of whom 
 were unable to transmit the throne to their descendants
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 235 
 
 without a violent struggle, were murdered by their rebel- 
 lious subjects, or dethroned by a successful rival ; the eccle- 
 siastical and temporal lords, meanwhile, taking advantage 
 of the confusion that prevailed to gain a firm footing in the 
 state. The Basques were in almost continual revolt, and 
 the country lay open to the Franks, who, fortunately for 
 their neighbors, were at that period busily engaged in their 
 own civil dissensions. The most distinguished among the 
 Gothic princes of that time were Sigebert, who drove the 
 Greeks from their last strongholds in some of the maritime 
 towns, and who died in 620 ; Chindasuinth, who, by putting 
 500 nobles to death, annihilated the power of the ancient 
 aristocracy, A.D. 652; and Reccesuinth, who chastised the 
 Basques, and restrained the hierarchical power by reinstat- 
 ing that of the, dukes, A.D. 672. After him, Wamba the 
 "Wise was unanimously chosen king. During his reign, the 
 Moors, whom he successfully repulsed, first landed in Spain. 
 He was projecting the imposition of further restrictions on 
 the power of the bishops, when he fell a victim to their 
 treachery. A great rebellion of the Romans, under Paulus 
 the Greek, which may be regarded as a Roman reaction 
 against the declining Gothic empire, had been happily 
 quelled, when Erwig, a young man whom he had loaded 
 with benefits, administered a sleeping draught to him, and 
 the priests, during his stupor, deprived him of his long hair 
 (a loss which, according to the Gothic custom, rendered him 
 incapable of reigning), and consigned him to the cloister. 
 On regaining his senses, fearing lest the prosecution of his 
 claim might occasion a civil war, he had the rare self-denial 
 calmly to take the vow which separated him from the world. 
 Erwig, struck with remorse, followed his example. He was 
 succeeded by Egiza, A.D. 687, during whose reign the Moors 
 again invaded the coasts, but were repulsed by the brave 
 duke, Theodorich. "Witiza, the son of Egiza, succeeded his 
 father, and imposed fresh restrictions upon the clergy, A.D. 
 698. His unbridled licentiousness rendering him obnoxious 
 to the people, an insurrection broke out, and Roderick was
 
 236 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 elected in his stead, against whom the son of "Witiza and 
 Count Julianus conspired. 1 Roderick is said to have dis- 
 honored the daughter of Julianus, who, in revenge, invited 
 the Moors over from Africa. The whole of the north of that 
 country was, at that period, in the hands of those zealous 
 propagators of the religion of Mahomet, who had put an end 
 to the Greek dominion, which had been re-established there 
 by Belisarius. Taric, the Moorish chief, landed with a great 
 army on the celebrated rock which forms the most southern 
 point of Europe, and is named after him Gebel-al-Taric, 
 Gibraltar. Roderick marched against him, and although in 
 the commencement of the battle his army was weakened by 
 the desertion of Count Julian, who went over to Taric, the 
 engagement lasted eight days, from the 19th to the 26th of 
 July, A.D. 711. It took place near Zeres de la Frontera. 
 The victory was at length decided on the eighth day in favor 
 of the Moors, by the sudden disappearance of Roderick, 
 whose horse and crown were found on the bank of a river. 
 The flower of the Gothic nation strewed the field of battle. 
 The bodies of the nobles were distinguished by the golden 
 rings they bore, while those of the freemen bore silver ones, 
 and those of the bondmen copper ones. At Sidonia, a brave 
 defense was made by Egiza ; and, in Cordova, four hundred 
 Goths sustained a siege of three months in a church with 
 unexampled bravery. At length Toledo, the capital, fell 
 into the hands of the invaders, who soon became masters 
 of the whole country. The numerous Jewish population, 
 formerly cruelly oppressed by the Christians, now revenged 
 their sufferings by acting as spies and auxiliaries to the 
 enemy. The Goths, persuaded that the Moors, solely intent 
 on plunder, would shortly evacuate the country they de- 
 
 : One day as King Roderick was beholding the sports of the maids of honor 
 from a balcony of his palace, Cava, the daughter of Count Julian, accidentally 
 lost her footing and fell. The king, struck with her remarkable beauty, became 
 passionately enamored of her, and, being unsuccessful in his suit, offered her 
 violence. According to another legend, an ancient chest, which contained the 
 destruction of Spain, was opened with bold curiosity by Roderick, and the in- 
 stant that the lid flew up, the enemy entered and laid the country waste.
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 237 
 
 spoiled, did not exert their utmost energy in order to drive 
 them out, and were only convinced of their fatal error when 
 the enemy had settled in the land and opposition was un- 
 availing. Fresh armies continually crossed the Strait, re- 
 peopled the desolated provinces, built new cities, and plunged 
 the majority of the inhabitants into slavery. Among others, 
 thirty thousand Gothic maidens were carried away from 
 Spain, as a present to the caliph. A number of Gothic war- 
 riors took refuge in the mountains of Asturia and Gallicia, 
 and at a later period again emerged from their rocky 
 fastnesses. 
 
 XCV. Mahomet and the Arabians 
 
 THE Arabians, a people distinguished from the other Asi- 
 atic nations by superior elevation of character and fervor of 
 imagination, were destined to play a part in Asia and Africa, 
 after the fall of the Roman empire, similar to that enacted 
 by the Germans in Europe. Christianity, although spread 
 at an early period over Asia Minor and Arabia, became 
 gradually less adapted in its doctrines and form of worship 
 to the peculiar temperament of the Eastern nations. The 
 various characters impressed upon the Western and Eastern 
 churches by the deeply-searching intellect of the meditative 
 German, and by the subtle sophistry of the Greek philoso- 
 pher, were lost amid the burning wastes of Asia. The Asi- 
 atic, unacquainted with the higher intellectual necessities of 
 the European, with physical powers more rapidly and fully 
 developed than his moral faculties, with an imagination 
 warmer than the feelings of his heart, ignorant of liberty, 
 whether in polity, religion, or science, accustomed to cringe 
 beneath the despot's power, shackled in his religious creed 
 by severe laws, which governed not only the actions but the 
 thoughts of his every-day life, beheld Christianity in a very 
 different light to the European. Deprived of vitality, its 
 further development checked, to him it appeared a mere 
 dead letter, a stern and inflexible law. The religion of love
 
 238 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and liberty no sooner became one of passive obedience and 
 hard necessity than it lost its dominion over the minds of 
 the people, and its influence on government, society, man- 
 ners, and daily life. 
 
 Christianity was first imbued with an Asiatic character 
 by the Arabians, the most imaginative of the Eastern na- 
 tions. Mahomet, a man of energetic and creative intellect, 
 who represented himself as the messenger and prophet of 
 God, founded upon it a new doctrine, Islamism, or Moham- 
 medanism, adapted to the temperament of his countrymen, 
 and replaced the Bible by the Koran, which commands belief 
 in one God, recognizes Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, as his 
 prophets, announces the first duty of the true believer to be 
 the promulgation of this doctrine by fire and sword over the 
 whole world, and promises voluptuous joys in heaven to those 
 who fall in battle against unbelievers; an idea probably 
 drawn from the Walhalla of the North, as it is possible that 
 the mythology of the Goths and Vandals may not have been 
 entirely unknown in Arabia. After death, the Mahometan 
 heroes, attended by houris (exactly similar to the Walkyren), 
 caroused in eternal delight ; the only difference between the 
 Arabian paradise and that of the North being the absence of 
 warlike sports, the heroes being merely rewarded with sen- 
 sual pleasures. In 622 the Mahometan war of proselytism 
 commenced. The accordance of Islamism with the Asiatic 
 character, the heroic deeds of Mahomet, the valor and enthu- 
 siasm of his followers, and the promises of celestial bliss, all 
 conduced to the rapid propagation of the new religion, and 
 involuntarily biased the minds of their opponents in its 
 favor, even while still opposing them sword in hand. Islam- 
 ism, consequently, speedily predominated throughout Asia, 
 but was met by another spirit more powerful than its own in 
 Europe, against which it vainly battled. Mahomet subdued 
 the whole of Arabia, and became the caliph of the faithful. 
 His successors followed in his steps, and after conquering 
 Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the whole northern 
 coast of Africa, shook Constantinople, Sicily, and Spain,
 
 CONTESTS BETWEEN GOTHS AND FRANKS 239 
 
 everywhere compelling the conquered nations to embrace 
 Islamism. During the reign of the great caliph, "Walid, 
 Spain was conquered by Taric. 
 
 The foundation of a new and gigantic empire, animated 
 by a spirit hitherto unknown, unlimited in its aspirations, 
 and forcibly attempting to domineer the world, was not with- 
 out its influence on Germanized and Christianized Europe. 
 The appearance of the Moors and their new religion inter- 
 rupted the civil contests of the Germans, and forced them to 
 turn their attention and their arms to the South, in order 
 to defend France and all Christendom from the destruction 
 which threatened them from Spain. The long contests that 
 ensued steeled the heroism of the Germans, elevated their 
 minds, contracted by the petty feuds between kings and vas- 
 sals, and fired them with religious enthusiasm ; nor did the 
 benefit cease with the danger; the sciences introduced by 
 the Moors, more especially their natural philosophy, mathe- 
 matics, and mechanics, their knowledge and active pursuit 
 of commerce, their wealth, refined sense of the enjoyments 
 of life, and their fertile and vivid imagination, exercised a 
 powerful influence over the arts and social existence of the 
 Germans during several succeeding centuries. Their kings 
 imitated in their courts the pomp and splendor of the cal- 
 iphate, and the customs of chivalry attained to a high degree 
 of refinement, more particularly in Spain, where every action 
 was inspired and sanctified by religious enthusiasm, and 
 where the Moors emulated the Germans in the practice of 
 every knightly virtue. 
 
 XCVI. The Anglo-Saxons 
 
 ABOUT the period of the migration of the Suevi and the 
 Visigoths to Spain, of the Franks and the Burgundians to 
 Gaul, of the Ostrogoths, the Heruli, and, later, of the Longo- 
 bardi, to Italy, Britain was also newly peopled by Germans. 
 The Romans had been obliged to quit this island, never en- 
 tirely subdued by them, in order to defend their empire from
 
 240 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the irruptions of the barbarians, and the ancient inhabitants, 
 the Britons in the south and the Scots in the north, were dis- 
 puting its possession, when Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon 
 leaders, landed with a considerable force on the coast, A.D. 
 450, in search of a settlement, for which purpose they had 
 quitted their country, under oath never to return, as was 
 customary in Germany, whenever the population became too 
 numerous for the land. Being well received by Vortigern, 
 the British king, they entered into an alliance with him 
 against his enemies, the Scots, whom they speedily com- 
 pelled to retreat to their mountains. They settled in the 
 country, and Vortigern contracted a marriage with Rowena, 
 the beautiful daughter of Hengist. Their friendship, how- 
 ever, was not of long duration. The Saxons, coveting sole 
 possession of the land, treacherously murdered the Britons 
 during a conference, with knives concealed for that purpose 
 beneath their dresses. Fresh hordes continually arrived 
 from Saxony, and Hengist became king of Kent, A.D. 455, 
 the first Saxon kingdom founded in Britain, where, notwith- 
 standing the obstinate opposition of the Britons and Scots, 
 seven kingdoms were gradually founded. The Saxons, who 
 were accompanied in their migrations by numbers of the 
 Angli, received the general appellation of Anglo-Saxons, 
 and the name of Britain was changed to that of Angelland 
 or England. Some of the Britons took shelter in the moun- 
 tains of "Wales, and others, escaping to the coast of France, 
 gave name to Brittany. The Britons, ennobled by misfort- 
 une, gathered strength in their fall, and the legends and 
 poetry of that period celebrate their heroic deeds and wild 
 chivalry, more particularly those of King Arthur and his 
 knights. An incident, unimportant in itself, occasioned the 
 introduction of Christianity into England. Two young Angli 
 prisoners, who had been carried to Rome, were standing for 
 sale in the market-place, and the Romans, attracted by their 
 singular beauty, had collected around them, when Gregory 
 the Great, then in a private station, chancing to pass, also 
 Stopped, and asked to what nation they belonged, and on
 
 being told that they were Angli, said, "They are not Angli, 
 but Angeli, and we must endeavor that the praises of God be 
 sung in their country." ' Shortly after this incident, he was 
 raised to the papal chair, and sent a number of missionaries 
 to England, where the gospel was willingly received; and, 
 as conviction, untainted by intrigue or violence, had alone 
 induced conversion, the Anglo-Saxons became in conse- 
 quence distinguished by their zeal and enthusiasm in the 
 cause of religion, above any of the other German nations, 
 and the most celebrated preachers of the gospel went from 
 England to Scandinavia, Germany, and France. The seven 
 kingdoms retained the division into (Gauen) districts, the 
 only change in the constitution being the greater power as- 
 signed to the king and his adherents. In 825, Egbert, king 
 of Kent, united these seven states into one kingdom, that of 
 England, notwithstanding which, the people still retained 
 their ancient liberties, the inviolability of their homes, the 
 right of electing the aldermen (Alter mann, old man), their 
 public administration of justice, and their Witenagemot, or 
 popular assembly, presided over by the king, the origin of 
 parliament; principles which have been to the present day 
 preserved in the British constitution, the rock on which the 
 strength and glory of England rest, while the internal and 
 external decay of the power of Germany during past centu- 
 ries may be justly attributed to the gradual extinction of 
 her freedom. 
 
 Although recognizing a brother nation in that of Britain, 
 we must, in pursuance of our plan, here take our leave of 
 that great people, and confine ourselves solely to the history 
 of Germany. Still it ought never to be forgotten, whenever 
 the power and glory of England form the theme, that these 
 proud islanders own a common origin with ourselves, and 
 that the civil government of which they so justly boast 
 sprang from the ancient free constitution of our fatherland. 
 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 11
 
 242 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 PART VI 
 CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 XOVIL The Austrasian Mayors of the Palace 
 
 THE degenerate Merovingians, alike unworthy and in- 
 capable of ruling, weakened by family dissensions, 
 by their effeminacy, and by the system of monkish 
 education, gradually sank beneath the sway of the mayors 
 of the palace, who, as the hereditary representatives of the 
 vassals of the crown, from whose number they had origi- 
 nally been chosen, and whose interests they consequently 
 forwarded, found means to usurp the control of the state 
 in time of peace as well as of war, and, by craftily sur- 
 rounding the kings with the pomp and external show of 
 the power they wielded in their stead, by freeing them from 
 the burden of government, and by favoring their love of 
 idleness and pleasure, rendered themselves ever necessary 
 to and generally beloved by their nominal sovereigns. For- 
 bearing to place the crown on their own heads, from a fear 
 of becoming obnoxious to the majority of the people, and 
 of the security of their position being endangered by the 
 vassals, their jealous adherents, whom such a step would 
 inevitably change into ambitious rivals, it was not until 
 the mayoralty had been gradually and firmly established, 
 by dint of good fortune and of great talent, as a hereditary 
 dignity, that they ventured by slow and sure means to pre- 
 pare for its seizure. By countenancing the disputes for the 
 succession to the throne, and the murderous and treacherous 
 propensities of the Merovingians, whom they corrupted and 
 weakened from then* early childhood, both mentally and 
 physically, by indulgence and religious superstitions, they

 
 CHARLEMAGNE 243 
 
 succeeded in rendering them contemptible to their subjects, 
 while they removed every suspicion of the existence of their 
 ambitious projects by their apparent submission to their 
 puppet sovereigns, and gained the hearts of the nation by 
 flattering the vassals, by their impartial administration of 
 justice, by their warlike deeds, the glory of which redounded 
 to the honor of France, by their extension of the limits of 
 the state, and by their promotion of the public weal. 
 
 The supremacy of the Austrasians was closely bound up 
 with that of the mayors; both rising at the same time, and 
 mutually assisting each other. The true-born German Rhen- 
 ish Franks, Thuringians, Alemanni, and Bavarians, with 
 whom the Burgundians at first coalesced, presented a vivid 
 contrast, under the general denomination of Austrasians, to 
 the more Romanized Neustrians, who consisted of the "West 
 Franks, Romans, Goths, Basques, and Bretons. The Aus- 
 trasians, gifted with all the energy of the genuine German 
 character, and endowed with the valor and strength of their 
 ancestors, whose customs and language they faithfully re- 
 tained, despised and gradually became estranged from the 
 Neustrians on account of their weakness, licentiousness, and 
 treachery, and as the difference between their character and 
 language became more marked, a reciprocal and bitter hatred 
 arose between them. The Austrasians, happily governed by 
 able monarchs, covered themselves with glory and increased 
 their skill in warfare in their contests with the other nations 
 of Germany. It was also their mayors of the palace who 
 seized the supreme authority, which they alone held through 
 the favor of their countrymen. 
 
 XCVIII. Pipin von Landen 
 
 IN 622, Chlotar the Second made his son, Dagobert, king 
 of Austrasia, and the brave Pipin von Landen, the first of 
 the vassals who had rebelled against. Queen Brunehilda, be- 
 came his mayor of the palace. Pipin, whose family came 
 from the Netherlands, was the founder of the powerful race
 
 244 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of subsequent mayors, which two centuries later mounted 
 the imperial throne of Germany, and assumed the name of 
 Carlovingian, from Charlemagne, his most illustrious de- 
 scendant. Chlotar was still alive when a war broke out 
 between Dagobert and the Saxons, whose duke, Bertoald, 
 is said to have wounded him in battle in the head, upon 
 which he sent one of his blood-stained locks to his father, 
 who instantly marched into Saxony and took a most fearful 
 vengeance. Duke Bertoald fell in battle, and every prisoner 
 who was taller than the length of Chlotar 's sword was put 
 to death. Peace was at length concluded on condition of 
 their paying a tribute of five hundred stallions. The Saxons 
 were also much disturbed by the Normans. Sifrit, the Saxon 
 duke, while solemnizing his marriage with Giritta, a beauti- 
 ful Dane, was suddenly attacked and slain, and the bride 
 carried off by the pirate Haldan, a Swedish sea-king. 
 
 On the death of Chlotar, Dagobert became king of the 
 whole of France, A.D. 628. The wound he had received in 
 the Saxon war had disgusted him with warfare, and he lived 
 in voluptuous and splendid indolence at Paris, surrounded 
 by his three queens and numerous concubines ; a mode of 
 life he attempted to palliate by alleging the example of King 
 Solomon, and by lavishing wealth and favors on the clergy. 
 Among the numerous churches built by this king, that of 
 St. Denis, whom he elected as the patron saint of his king- 
 dom, is most remarkable. The incessant pilgrimages to the 
 shrine of St. Denis soon attracted commerce, and a large 
 market, the chief emporium of Europe, was erected in its 
 vicinity. About this time, Samo, a Frankish merchant, 
 who had gained great popularity among the Slavian Wendi, 
 was elected their king, and succeeding in uniting them be- 
 neath his rule, repulsed the Avari. Some Frankish mer- 
 chants happening to be killed while passing through his 
 territory, Dagobert seized that occurrence as a pretext for 
 attacking the new Slavian kingdom, and declared war 
 against him; but Samo offering a brave and determined 
 resistance, and defeating the Franks in a great battle, near
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 245 
 
 Wodgatisburg, which lasted three days, gained so much re- 
 nown that the Slavian Sorbi and their king, Dorwan, volun- 
 tarily submitted to him, A.D. 630. Pipin, who, until now, 
 had not taken part in the contest, proffered his services in 
 this moment of necessity, and wisely releasing the Saxons 
 from their tribute, besides yielding to the request of the 
 Thuringians, to place Radulf, their fellow countryman and 
 a pagan, at their head, united the heathen and Christian 
 Germans in a national war against the Slavi, in which he 
 was victorious. Samo's kingdom fell as rapidly as it had 
 been raised, and the Slavi were henceforward necessitated 
 to seek assistance from the Germans against the Avari. 
 
 Dagobert died, A.D. 638, and the kingdom was again 
 divided among his sons; Sigebert the Third reigning over 
 Austrasia, and Chlodwig the Second over Neustria. On 
 the death of Pipin, A.D. 639, who during these changes had 
 retained his mayoralty in Austrasia, his son, Grimoald, was 
 removed from his office (the influence possessed by his fam- 
 ily having already alarmed the jealousy of the king), and 
 Otto was created mayor in his stead ; upon this, the old party 
 of Pipin, and the dukes, Radulf of Thuringia and Fara of 
 Bavaria, asserted their independence, and Otto, marching 
 against them with Sigebert, slew Fara, but, being compelled 
 by Radulf to retreat, lost his ascendency over the vassals, 
 and Grimoald was recalled. No sooner was Sigebert dead 
 than Grimoald, regardless of the warnings of an aged monk, 
 ventured to place his son Childebert on the throne; but it 
 was still too early; the mutual jealousies of the Merovingians 
 and Carlovingians still presented too many advantages to 
 the clergy and the vassals, and Grimoald fell, with his un- 
 fortunate son, beneath the poniards of the rivals his ambition 
 had evoked. 
 
 XCIX. Pipin von Heristal 
 
 DAGOBERT the Second, the son of Sigebert, had been con- 
 fined by Grimoald in an Irish monastery, where he was al- 
 lowed to remain; the clergy and the vassals agreeing to
 
 246 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 reunite the whole of France under Chlodwig the Second, 
 who had been driven out of his senses by remorse for hav- 
 ing broken off the arm of St. Dionysius, in order to carry 
 it about with him as a relic; an action he was afterward 
 induced to regard as a deadly sin. Nanthilda, his mother, 
 who governed in his name under the direction of Floachat, 
 the mayor of the palace, swore to maintain all the clergy 
 and the vassals (who were already powerful enough to carry 
 on their machinations openly and in defiance of the people) 
 in their dignities and lands during her lifetime. The death 
 of Chlodwig, A.D. 656, occasioned fresh disturbances, the 
 kingdom being again divided among his sons. Chlotar the 
 Second was placed on the throne of Neustria, where Ebroin, 
 the mayor of the place, afterward raised himself to great 
 power. Chlotar died early. Childerich, who became king 
 of Austrasia, infringed the liberties of the people by causing 
 a freeman, of the name of Badillo, to be whipped, and was 
 murdered by his exasperated subjects, A.D. 673. Theodorich 
 the Third, who had been destined for the cloister, inherited 
 his brothers' kingdoms, over which Ebroin ruled in his 
 name. The Austrasians rebelled against him, and draw- 
 ing Dagobert the Second from his seclusion, attempted to 
 place him on the throne, to which two Merovingians, both 
 of whom were monks, disputed the succession. Ebroin was 
 at first unsuccessful, but escaping from a monastery in which 
 he had been imprisoned, was again victorious, and caused 
 Dagobert to be put to death. Pipin von Heristal, the grand- 
 son of one of the daughters of Pipin von Landen, now placed 
 himself at the head of the Austrasians, and Ebroin was de- 
 feated and killed. He was succeeded in the mayoralty by 
 the brave Berchar, who had in his camp Theodorich, the 
 legitimate sovereign, and the only remaining descendant of 
 the house of Merowig, against whom Pipin and the Austra- 
 sians were arrayed in open rebellion, in which they were 
 countenanced by the people, who, weary of intestine feuds, 
 and indifferent to legitimacy, were inclined to side with the 
 party that gave proof of greater bravery and capacity, which
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 247 
 
 explains the remarkable battle of Testri, in which victory 
 sided with the Carlovingians, A.D. 687. Pipin won this bat- 
 tle by stratagem. Setting fire to his own camp, he suddenly 
 fell upon the Neustrians, who had hastened to pillage it un- 
 der the impression of his having retired, and put them so 
 completely to rout that no further opposition was raised. 
 Although universally recognized as the only man capable 
 of reforming the state, he merely compelled Theodorich to 
 acknowledge him as mayor of the whole of France, and, 
 warned by the fate of Grimoald and Ebroin, permitted him 
 to retain the shadow of royalty while he held the substance. 
 Dating from this period, the Merovingians no longer inter- 
 meddled with the government. The monarch, a mere cipher, 
 shut up in his palace, contented himself with frivolous amuse- 
 ments, and showed himself occasionally to the people on the 
 Marzfeld, where, sumptuously attired and wearing his long 
 golden hair, he graciously received the gifts of his subjects, 
 or nodded approbation to the transactions conducted by the 
 mayor of the palace. Pipin survived two Merovingian 
 kings, the successors of Theodorich, whose death did not 
 lessen his power. His first care was the regulation of the 
 interior economy of the state, and he again regulated the 
 Marzfelder, or annual general state assemblies, which had 
 been for some tune neglected or irregularly held, and in 
 which the ancient democracy (the freemen) was now com- 
 pletely overruled by the new aristocracy formed by the 
 clergy and the vassals. The piety of the Bavarian Plec- 
 trudis, the wife of Pipin, secured to him the favor of the 
 church. The period had also now arrived for confirming 
 the external security of the state. The Franks, rendered 
 powerful by their union, no longer deigned to tolerate the 
 insolence of their neighbors and that of the rebellious tribes, 
 and the consequent insurrections of the Basques, Goths, and 
 Bretons in France were easily quelled by Pipin. The war 
 on the frontier of Austrasia proved more difficult ; particu- 
 larly that carried on in Friesland against Bathod, the pagan 
 king, who was vainly besieged in his impregnable peninsulas
 
 248 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and islands, the capital of which was Heligoland, at that 
 time a large island, now reduced by the encroaching waves 
 to a sea-girt rock. At the close of the sixth century, St. 
 Faro and the two Ewalds, and in the seventh century, Sui- 
 bert, vainly endeavored to convert the Saxons. The Thu- 
 ringians also obstinately resisted the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity by the Franks. Hetan, the son of Radulf, had 
 married St. Bilihilda, but his son, Gozbert, was induced 
 to apostatize by Gailana, his brother's widow, whom by 
 the ecclesiastical law he was prohibited to marry. This 
 circumstance occasioned the martyrdom of St. Kilian, who 
 was then preaching in Thuringia. An insurrection, secretly 
 incited by Pipin, broke out against Gozbert, who was killed 
 and his whole race exterminated. 
 
 Bavaria had been Christianized by Regintrudis, the Frank- 
 ish wife of the duke, Theodo, and by the saints, Rupert and 
 Emmeram, the former of whom destroyed the heathen altars 
 at Altotting, where the seven deities or planets were wor- 
 shiped, and founded the celebrated bishopric of Salzburg. 
 At first the wild mountaineers would not listen to him, and 
 said that the God of the Christians was poor, or he would 
 not let his worshipers suffer so much from want, and jeal- 
 ous, as he would not tolerate any other god besides himself; 
 but they speedily altered their opinion when they saw the 
 mines and salt-works progressing under the direction of the 
 saint. It is related of St. Emmeram, who founded the bish- 
 opric of Ratisbon, that, being accused by Uta, the daughter 
 of Theodo, as her seducer, in order to save the life of the 
 real criminal, he meekly suffered the punishment from mo- 
 tives of Christian charity, and that his innocence was proved 
 by a miracle after his death. 
 
 To these legendary times belong St. Ottilia and St. Gear ; 
 the former of whom was the daughter of Eticho, count of 
 Alsace, who, being born blind, received sight at her bap- 
 tism, and lived as a saint on the mountain near Strassburg, 
 called after her, the Ottilienberg. St. Goar, toward the 
 close of the sixth century, built a hut beneath the frightful
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 249 
 
 rocks of the Lurlei, in the narrowest part of the Rhine, in 
 order to save the shipwrecked, and to feed the starving wan- 
 derer. 1 Pipin's eventful life closed in 714, and in the same 
 year his son, Grimoald, was murdered in a church at Liege, 
 at the instigation of some of the jealous nobles. 
 
 C. Charles Martell 
 
 THE deaths of Pipin and of Grimoald occasioned fresh 
 confusion in France. Plectrudis, the widow of Pipin, who 
 had found means to usurp the chief authority, being anxious 
 to retain the mayoralty for her grandson, Theudoald, the 
 son of Grimoald, kept Charles, a natural son of Pipin, in 
 prison, fearing lest he might prove a dangerous opponent 
 to her designs. The Neustrians, who had unwillingly 
 brooked the authority of Pipin, now seized the favorable 
 moment. 
 
 Theodorich the Third was succeeded by Chlodwig the 
 Third, Childebert, and Dagobert the Third, A.D. 715, who 
 was succeeded by Chilperich the Second in Neustria, where 
 the nobles elected, in his name. Raganfried, as their mayor, 
 and instantly attacked Austrasia. The youthful Theudoald 
 was defeated, and shortly afterward died; and the Neu- 
 strians, the better to secure their victory, entered into an 
 alliance with Rathod of Friesland. The harassed Austra- 
 sians now bethought themselves of the imprisoned Charles, 
 who was no sooner set at liberty than he marched at their 
 head against the Frisii, but owing to the numerical insuffi- 
 ciency of his troops suffered a defeat, A.D. 716. The winter 
 was spent by him in inspiriting the Austrasians, and in col- 
 lecting a fresh and powerful army, with which in the ensu- 
 ing spring he defeated the Neustrians at Cambray, by mak- 
 
 1 The little town of St. Goar retained, in memory of the hospitality of this 
 saint, even to our times, the custom of placing a brass necklace around the neck 
 of the passing stranger, with the inquiry "whether he would be baptized with 
 water or with wine?" If with water, he was well besprinkled; if with wine, he 
 was offered a full golden goblet, which he emptied to the health of the emperor, 
 and in return placed his alms in the poor-box.
 
 250 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ing use of a curious stratagem. A single Australian rushing 
 into the enemy's camp, ran straight through it calling them 
 to arms, and while the astonished Neustrians were engaged 
 in running after him, Charles fell unexpectedly on their rear. 
 After the battle he hastened to Cologne, where, after de- 
 priving his proud stepmother of his father's treasure, he sent 
 her back to Bavaria, her native country. Having secured 
 the country to the rear, he now returned to Neustria, where 
 he set Chlotar the Fourth, a descendant of a side-branch 
 of the Merovingian family, up as king. Chilperich fled to 
 Eudo, duke of Aquitania, whose Basques and Goths, stimu- 
 lated by their ancient and hereditary enmity, marched in 
 great numbers against the Franks, A.D. 719, but, being com- 
 pletely beaten at Soissons, concluded peace with Charles, to 
 whom Eudo delivered Chilperich, whose life speedily drew 
 to its close when in the power of his victor. Charles, never- 
 theless, remained true to the policy of his family, and deprived 
 the jealous nobles of every pretext for revolt, by placing 
 Theodorich the Fourth, a son of Dagobert the Third, en the 
 throne. Thus were the hapless Merovingians raised and de- 
 posed at will. The Bavarians revolted against Charles, who 
 was again victorious, and married the beautiful Sunichilda, 
 the daughter of Grimoald, their duke, who, being killed by 
 his own people, he made her brother, Huebert, duke. Frei- 
 sing was at this period founded by St. Corbinian. 
 
 An immense army of the fanatical and hitherto invincible 
 Moors, led by the brave Abderrahman, after destroying the 
 Visigothic kingdom in Spain, poured across the Pyrenees 
 into France; a far more dangerous foe than Etzel and his 
 Huns, who, merely greedy of conquest, sought not to enslave 
 minds, like the enthusiastic children of the South, who, the 
 sword in one hand, the Koran in the other, Allah and Ma- 
 homet their war-cry, their aim the reduction of Europe 
 and the extirpation of Christianity, marched beneath the 
 Crescent, the standard of their prophet, against the hardy 
 sons of the North. 
 
 The frontiers of Spain were, at that time, guarded by
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 251 
 
 Eudo, duke of Aquitania, who had long aspired to independ- 
 ence. Neustria and Austrasia were at feud. France, torn 
 by internal dissensions, seemed on the point of sharing the 
 fate of Spain, when the destruction with which Europe and 
 Christianity were threatened was warded off by the intrepid 
 Charles. Eudo, who had at first hoped to make use of the 
 Moors in forwarding his designs against him, had given his 
 daughter in marriage to Munuz, one of their princes. Ab- 
 derrahman, struck with her beauty, indignantly asked Mu- 
 nuz, "how he had presumed to keep such a treasure for him- 
 self, instead of sending her to the caliph, ' ' struck off his head 
 for having ventured to profane such beauty, and sent the 
 noble lady to the caliph's harem at Damascus. Eudo at- 
 tempted to revenge this insult, but was defeated on the 
 Garonne, and compelled to fly for protection to Charles, be- 
 neath whose standard the whole arrier-ban of Austrasia, the 
 Netherlands, the Rhine, Thuringia, Swabia, and Bavaria 
 had assembled, while Luitprand, at the head of his Lom- 
 bards, crossed the Alps to aid in the defense of endangered 
 Christendom. A battle took place between Tours and Poi- 
 tiers, A.D. 732, in which the true-born German Austrasians, 
 the flower of the North, who by their weight bore down the 
 impetuous Moors, distinguished themselves by their unyield- 
 ing valor. Abderrahman was slain, and 375,000 of his fol- 
 lowers were left on the field. Europe was saved, and the 
 Crescent driven beyond the Pyrenees. Charles, who at the 
 head of his Austrasians had slain numbers of the enemy, 
 striking them on the head like an iron hammer, was hence- 
 forward revered as the hero and defender of Christianity, 
 and received the surname of Martell, or hammer, in memory 
 of his prowess. Six years after this event the ruinous con- 
 test was recommenced by the jealous Neustrians. Gothic 
 Provence attempted to assert its independence under Mau- 
 rontius, who called the Arabs to his aid against Martell, by 
 whom their power was again, and so completely, crushed 
 at Narbonne, A.D. 738, that they never again ventured across 
 the fatal Pyrenees, and Charles secured that frontier by in-
 
 252 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 corporating the remaining Visigoths into his kingdom. While 
 he was thus engaged in the South, the heathen Frisii and 
 Saxons invaded the northern frontier, but were defeated, 
 and Rathod was at length reduced to submission and com- 
 pelled to embrace Christianity. Not long before this event, 
 he had caused St. Wigbert to be put to death for having 
 slaughtered some sacred oxen. Charles Martell now sent 
 to him St. "Wolfram, by whom he was at length persuaded 
 to undergo the ceremony of baptism. A bath was accord- 
 ingly prepared, and Rathod, plunging one foot into the 
 water, was about to immerse his whole body, when, turn- 
 ing to the saint, he inquired whether his ancestors were in 
 heaven, and being answered, "No, in hell, for they were 
 heathens," withdrew his foot and declared that he pre- 
 ferred remaining with them. It is related of another of 
 the Frisii that he had himself several times baptized for 
 the sake of the gift bestowed, on the occasion, by the clergy 
 on the convert. Religion must be ever and unavoidably 
 desecrated when used as a political engine. Poppo, the suc- 
 cessor of Rathod, fell opposing the Christians; all attempts 
 to extirpate paganism in Friesland proved, nevertheless, un- 
 availing. 
 
 Charles Martell, although the savior of Christendom, 
 was by no means remarkable for piety. The contempt to 
 which his illegitimate birth had subjected him during his 
 youth, ever inclined him, as if from a spirit of defiance, to 
 side with bastards and younger sons, against rightful heirs 
 and elder brothers. He formed them into a bodyguard, made 
 them his boon companions, and enriched them not only with 
 temporal feofs, but also with gifts of bishoprics and abbeys. 
 Before the commencement of the great war with the Moors, 
 he had forced the clergy, under pain of forfeiting their pos- 
 sessions, to appear in person in the field (in those times every 
 man without distinction of rank or profession was bound to 
 carry arms), so that the clergy, enrolled in his service, were 
 already habituated to the license of a camp, and to the pleas- 
 ures of the chase. The feudal vassals and the clergy conse-
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 253 
 
 quently intermingled and formed one body. To these rough 
 times belongs the touching legend of St. Genoveva of Bra- 
 bant, the wife of Graf Siegfried, the lord of Andernach, 
 who, when marching against the invading Moors, intrusted 
 her to the care of Golo, his favorite. Inflamed by her beauty, 
 and enraged at the failure of his attempts upon her virtue, 
 Golo accused her of infidelity, and she was condemned to 
 death. The executioners, moved to compassion, spared her 
 life and that of her child, and she lived for a long time con- 
 cealed in a forest, in nakedness and solitude. The child was 
 suckled by a doe, and her life was miraculously sustained, 
 until Siegfried, one day, when following the chase, discov- 
 ered her in her grotto, and her innocence was proved. She 
 is still honored as a saint at Andernach. 
 
 CI. Pipin the Little 
 
 CHARLES MARTELL died in 741, leaving two sons, Carl- 
 mann and Pipin, and a daughter, Chiltruda, by his first 
 wife; and by his second, the Bavarian Sunichilda, a son 
 named Grippo, who was deprived of his share in the inherit- 
 ance and imprisoned by his elder brothers. Sunichilda took 
 refuge in a convent, and Chiltruda, influenced by affection 
 for her stepmother, escaped from her brothers to Bavaria, 
 where she married Odilo, the duke of that country, who, 
 with Hunoald of Aquitania, the Alemanni under Theude- 
 wald, and the Saxons under Theodorich, simultaneously at- 
 tacked the brave sons of Martell. They were defeated both 
 collectively and separately, Hunoald in 742, Odilo on the 
 Lech, by the Franks, who crossed the river and attacked 
 him during the night, in 743, the Saxons in 745, and the 
 Alemanni in 746. Their duke, Theudewald, and many other 
 prisoners of note were executed by order of Carlmann, who 
 passed sentence upon them at Cannstadt, but was subse- 
 quently haunted by such deep remorse for his cruelty that, 
 withdrawing to a monastery, he resigned the whole author- 
 ity to his younger brother, Pipin, surnamed the Little, on
 
 254 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 account of the shortness of his stature. His strength was 
 so prodigious that on one occasion he cut off a lion's head 
 with a single stroke of his sword. His first act, on the at- 
 tainment of undivided power, was the liberation of Grippo, 
 who, taking refuge among the Saxons and Frisii, induced 
 them to take up arms against his brother. Finding himself 
 unable to keep the field, he sought the protection of Thassilo, 
 the son of Odilo, who was then reigning in Bavaria, under 
 the tutelage of his mother, Chiltruda. Lanfried, duke of 
 Aleinannia, and Suitzo, another powerful Alemannian, lent 
 him their aid, but they were all defeated and taken prisoners 
 by Pipin, who again pardoned his brother. Grippo, discon- 
 tented and restless, fled anew to "Waisar, the son of Hunoald, 
 of Aquitania, who refused to receive him, and he attempted 
 to escape into Lombardy, but was intercepted in the Alps by 
 Frederick, the Graf of the French frontier, and striving to 
 force his way, fell, after a desperate struggle, with the whole 
 of his followers, A.D. 750. Pipin was, at the time of this 
 occurrence, engaged in a second campaign against the Sax- 
 ons, on whom he again imposed an annual tribute of three 
 hundred horses. 
 
 No less prudent in his policy than fortunate in the field, 
 Pipin now saw that the time had at length arrived for put- 
 ting the long-cherished projects of his ancestors into execu- 
 tion. Four generations of the Merovingians, degraded by 
 sloth, despised, neglected, and almost forgotten, had passed 
 away, while -the Carlo vingians possessed the real authority 
 and the popular esteem, and it became daily more evident 
 which of the two families was the more fitted for the throne. 
 Pipin, whose ancestors had consolidated their power by mak- 
 ing common cause with the vassals, now secured success by 
 gaining over the pope and the clergy. The pope, Zacharias, 
 at that time hard pressed by Aistulf , king of Lombardy, will- 
 ingly countenanced plans that favored his own interest, while 
 Pipin, in order the more deeply to impress upon him the value 
 of his support, designedly delayed his much wished-for as- 
 sistance, and, sending an embassador to Rome, proposed this
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 255 
 
 question to the pontiff, "Whether he was king who sat care- 
 lessly at home, or he who bore the burden of government?" 
 The pope instantly replied, "that the latter alone merited the 
 crown." Upon this, Pipin called a general state assembly 
 at Soissons, and the whole nation assenting to ihe pope's 
 verdict, Childerich, the last of the Merovingians, was torn 
 from the throne of his fathers, consigned, with shaven head, 
 to the cloister, and Pipin was unanimously proclaimed king. 
 St. Bonifacius placed the crown on his head, and anointed 
 him, according to ancient custom, like his predecessor 
 Chlodwig, with the sacred oil. At the same time the 
 general state assembly, held in March, was transferred to 
 May, A.D. 752, a change by which Bonifacius hoped to 
 obliterate every remembrance of paganism, and Pipin, 
 that of the Merovingians. 
 
 After the death of Zacharias, Pipin still retarded the 
 promised aid against the Lombards, in order to render 
 Stephen, the new pontiff, as tractable as his predecessor. 
 The pope at length, urged by necessity, crossed the Alps in 
 person, and prostrating himself at the feet of the French 
 monarch, humbly solicited his protection. Pipin, satisfied 
 with this act of humility, marched, accompanied by the 
 pope, into Italy, and forced Aistulf to accept the most dis- 
 graceful terms of peace, A.D. 754. The Lombards, however, 
 fully alive to the danger with which they were threatened by 
 the increasing power of the pope, and by his alliance with 
 France, resolved to struggle to the last, and Aistulf, break- 
 ing the treaty, again besieged Rome. Pipin again marched 
 to the relief of the city, A.D. 756, and the Lombards, after 
 suffering a complete defeat, were reduced to submission. 
 Aistulf was killed by the falling of his horse. Desiderius, a 
 court official, became king of Lombardy through French in- 
 fluence. His son Adelgis married a French princess, and 
 his daughter Desiderata was wedded to the youthful Charles, 
 afterward Charlemagne. Pipin, anxious to erect a strong 
 power, in opposition to that of the Lombards, in Italy itself, 
 gave the then existing exarchate or great territory of Ra-
 
 256 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 venna and Rome in fief to the pope, who, in return, named 
 him patrician and guardian of Rome. 
 
 Thus commenced the temporal power of the pope, whose 
 spiritual authority was, at the same tune, subservient to that 
 of the monarch; an alliance whose influence could not be 
 long resisted by any of the states independent of the empire, 
 or by any power still possessed by the people. Pipin was 
 also successful in his wars against the Saxons, whom he 
 again rendered tributary, and in that undertaken against 
 Waisar, duke of Aquitania, whom he pursued so long and 
 unremittingly in the Pyrenees that his subjects, the Basques, 
 at length put him to death for the sake of peace. Thassilo, 
 the youthful duke of Bavaria, impatient of the yoke imposed 
 by Pipin, refused to render feudal service in the field against 
 Waisar; a conduct which Pipin prudently overlooked. Pipin 
 died, shortly afterward, in 768. 
 
 Oil. St. Bonifacius 
 
 THE co-operative policy of the Frankish rulers and the 
 Roman bishops laid the foundation to what may be termed 
 the body of the church, while her spirituality was solely fos- 
 tered by the independent, free, and pure zeal of the Anglo- 
 Saxon and Irish monks. In the British isles, far beyond the 
 influence of the Roman hierarchy and of the feudal aristoc- 
 racy of France, Christianity had taken a democratic form, 
 and, unpolluted by the new spirit of political conquest and 
 of feudal tyranny, had blended with the ancient spirit of 
 popular freedom. Here were no imperious and covetous 
 feudal churchmen, too fully occupied with the pastime of 
 the chase, with war and politics, to be interested in the pro- 
 mulgation of the gospel, but humble, pious teachers of broth- 
 erly love, who, instead of shutting themselves within their 
 abbey walls, instead of accumulating wealth or seeking to 
 extend their temporal power, went forth, like the first 
 apostles, to guide their erring brethren, and to enlighten 
 the yet unconverted heathen, to whom, far from imposing
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 257 
 
 Christianity upon them with the bigoted zeal of conquering 
 despots, they preached the doctrine of eternal peace, compell- 
 ing no one to embrace the mild religion of Jesus, but gently 
 persuading them by precept and example of its truth and 
 beauty. The first Anglo-Saxon apostles strongly reprobated 
 the political corruption of the Frankish church, and the arro- 
 gant pretensions of the pope, against which St. Columban 
 wrote, and consequently fell into disgrace with the Frankish 
 court. The mayors of the palace, however, perceived at 
 length that the pious, disinterested Anglo-Saxons were cal- 
 culated, far better than the Franks, to succeed in converting 
 the heathen inhabitants of eastern Germany, on account of 
 their enthusiastic zeal and superior religious knowledge, 
 added to the circumstance of their being, in their character 
 of foreigners, less obnoxious to the Frisii, Saxons, Thurin- 
 gians, Alemanni, and Bavarians, who regarded the Franks 
 in the light of oppressors and deceivers; they therefore 
 countenanced the foreign monks, and repeatedly invited 
 them into the country. 
 
 During the seventh century, St. Fridolin founded the 
 monastery of Seckingen on the Upper Rhine ;* St. Columban 
 destroyed the pagan images at Bregenz on the Bodensee; 
 St. Gallus founded a hermitage, afterward the celebrated 
 monastery of St. Gall, in the depths of the forests, where he 
 was served by a bear ; St. Amandus destroyed the image of 
 Odin at Ghent; St. Eligius converted the Saxon prisoners; 
 the saints, Wigbert, Wolfram, Willebrand (the first bishop 
 of Utrecht, A.D. 799), preached among the Frisii; the saints, 
 Suidbert and Sturmio (a Bavarian by birth, and first abbot 
 of the great monastery of Fulda), among the Hessians; St. 
 Magnoald founded Fiissen in Swabia ; St. Theodore, Kemp- 
 ten; St. Offo, Offonszell; St. Landolin (who, for cutting 
 down a sacred fir tree and forming a cross out of it, was 
 murdered by the heathen Alemanni), Ettenheimmunster; 
 
 1 The people of Glarus made pilgrimages and paid contributions to it at an 
 early period, and the arms of that canton still retain the figure of Fridolin, in 
 the dresa of a wandering hermit.
 
 258 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and St. Pirmin, Reichenau. Besides these, in Thuringian 
 East Franconia and in Bavaria, St. Kilian suffered martyr- 
 dom at "Wurzburg; St. Sebaldus (according to tradition, a 
 Danish prince who fled on his wedding night and abandoned 
 earthly for heavenly love), died at Nuremberg; St. Corbin- 
 ian founded Freising; St. Emmeram, Ratisbon; and St. Ru- 
 pert, Salzburg. The foundation of the celebrated monaste- 
 ries in Alsace, Altaich, Benedictbeuren, Tegernsee, Priim, 
 and Lorsch also date during the eighth century. 
 
 , Winfried, an Anglo-Saxon, better known by his monkish 
 surname of St. Bonifacius, distinguished himself above all 
 these apostles, by his energy, zeal, and success. Zealously 
 imagim'ng that the temporal and spiritual rule of the church 
 ought to be universal, and that the power of the Romish- 
 Frankish church might consistently blend with the Christian 
 zeal and brotherly love of the Anglo-Saxon monks, he no 
 longer contented himself, like his predecessors, with convert- 
 ing the heathen and with founding hermitages in the forest 
 solitudes, but aiming at the reformation of the existing 
 FranMsh church, intermeddled with the proceedings of the 
 bishops and with the policy of the state. Pipin, who had 
 just concluded his alliance with the pope, A.D. 755, with the 
 intention of placing the Carlovingian dynasty on the throne 
 of Merowig, found a strenuous supporter in Bonifacius, the 
 enemy of schism under whatever form. The unity of the 
 kingdom of God upon earth, the fraternization of all man- 
 kind gathered beneath the care of one shepherd, the pope, 
 Christ's vicar upon earth, was his visionary scheme, and, in 
 his enthusiasm, entirely overlooking the diversity of nations 
 and languages, he sought to obviate that difficulty by ren- 
 dering the Latin tongue the only one authorized by the 
 church. This new and unnatural tyranny met with vehe- 
 ment opposition. Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg, the most en- 
 lightened man of the age, who had gained great and merited 
 fame by the peaceable conversion of the Slavi, in the moun- 
 tains of Carinthia and Carniola, and who on account of his 
 scientific and astronomical knowledge was denounced as a
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 259 
 
 sorcerer ' by the pope and his confederate, Bonifacius, A.D. 
 742, inquired mockingly of the latter, "whether the senseless 
 form made use of in baptism by a German priest ignorant of 
 the Latin tongue, 'Baptizo te in nomine Patria et Filia et 
 Spiritus Sancti,' was efficacious?" and was answered, "Yes, 
 because faith ought to be blind!" In Thuringia, Dortwin, 
 Berthar, Tanbrecht, and Hunred, and in Bavaria, Ariowulf, 
 Adelbert, and Clemens, distinguished themselves hi opposi- 
 tion to Bonifacius, who condemned them as heretics, and, 
 supported by Pipin and the pope, succeeded in his hierarchi- 
 cal schemes. 
 
 Bonifacius, moreover, zealously applied himself to the 
 conversion of the heathen, which was formally organized by 
 a synod, held at Lestines, A.D. 742, and a form of abjuration* 
 was drawn up, by which the German pagan renounced his 
 former religion and the specified superstitious customs. He 
 went personally among the heathen, preaching and convert- 
 ing with the energy and zeal that rendered him so famous. 
 He it was who cut down the great Donnereiche (oak of thun- 
 der) at Geismar, in Hesse. Zealously upholding the institu- 
 tions of his predecessors, he sent fresh preachers to the flocks 
 abandoned by their pastors. "With the intent of especially 
 promoting the conversion of the women, he sent for pious 
 nuns from England ; among others, St. Thecla, the foundress 
 of Kitzingen ; St. Lioba, that of Bischofsheim ; and St. Wal- 
 purgis, that of Heidenheim. The bishoprics of Wurzburg, 
 Freising, Eichstadt, Salzburg, and Ratisbon, were organ- 
 ized under his direction, he being, as archbishop of Mayence, 
 the head of the German church. In his seventieth year, be- 
 ing anxious to convert the pagans of Friesland, he visited 
 that country, where the Frisii, who viewed him as a deceit- 
 ful Frank, put him to death, A.D. 755. 
 
 1 The fame of Virgilius the sorcerer spread into Lombardy, and at a later 
 period, the Italians, ignorant of the existence of a bishop of Salzburg, made 
 Virgil, the Roman poet, the hero of the legend. 
 
 2 Ek forsacho diabole end allum diabol gelde end allum diaboles werkum end 
 wordum, Thunaer ende "Woden ende Saxnote, end allum them unholdum, the 
 hira genotas sint.
 
 260 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 CIII. Charlemagne 
 
 PIPIN left two sons, Carloman and Charles, the former 
 of whom inherited Neustria, the latter Austrasia. Charles 
 had already distinguished himself in the last wars of Pipin, 
 and the legends record the most extraordinary proofs of his 
 wonderful strength of mind and body when still a child. 
 Pipin, unwilling to allow the pope the supremacy in Italy, 
 upheld the now powerless Lombards, and gave the daughter 
 of Desiderius in marriage to Charles, hi defiance of the anger 
 of Pope Stephen, who had said, "That the noble Frank should 
 not defile himself with the unclean Lombard." Charles, not 
 finding Desiderata to his taste, divorced her. His brother 
 Carloman being accidentally killed, he seized Neustria, and 
 Gilberga, the widow of Carloman, and her two sons sought 
 refuge at the court of Desiderius, who was highly offended 
 at the treatment of his daughter. By this act of treachery 
 to his nephews, Charles became in 771 master of the whole 
 of France. Urged by uncontrollable ambition, he burst 
 through every barrier that opposed his entrance into the 
 great and brilliant course he was destined to run ; his fame, 
 like the sun at early morn, obscured by rolling clouds, shone 
 forth again with undimmed luster. His energetic and cre- 
 ative intellect, ever actively and simultaneously employed in 
 conducting his wars abroad and in improving the internal 
 condition of his empire, changed, during the forty-three 
 years of his reign, the aspect of affairs, not only throughout 
 Germany, but throughout the whole of Europe, and laid the 
 foundation, as will be seen in the course of this history, to a 
 new and important era. "With him the history of ancient 
 Germany closes. All the ancient free German states and 
 kingdoms were united within the limits of his immense em- 
 pire, whose erection impressed a new character on the differ- 
 ent nations of Germany. Antiquity sank into oblivion, and 
 the middle age commenced with the grand and brilliant 
 reign of Charlemagne, by which, however, we must not
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 261 
 
 allow ourselves to be blinded to the fault he committed in 
 failing to secure the national freedom as well as the exter- 
 nal grandeur of Germany. True to his father's policy, he 
 rooted the imperial power in the feudal system, and increased 
 the privileges of the nobility and clergy at the expense of 
 those of the people. His policy might possibly have taken 
 an opposite bias had he met with firm support from the peo- 
 ple, but at that period the nations of Germany were still at 
 enmity with each other; the Goths, Lombards, Alemanni, 
 Bavarians, and Thuringians, hated the French as their ty- 
 rants, and the pagan Saxons were struggling, as if for life, 
 against French dominion and the imposition of Christianity. 
 The unity of the empire could therefore only be achieved in 
 despite of the people, and Charles found his sole support 
 in the vassals, attracted by his victories and largesses, and 
 in the bishops and monks, who by representing the unity of 
 the empire, to the refractory nations, as a necessary conse- 
 quence of the unity of the church, and as one of the inten- 
 tions of the Christian religion, rendered themselves indispen- 
 sable. Had the people been more advanced in knowledge, 
 had they been able to comprehend the idea of unity, Charles 
 probably would not have given so great a preponderance to 
 the vassal lords and clergy, a preponderance which was only 
 too soon and too severely felt by his successors on the impe- 
 rial throne. Without having recourse to violent measures, 
 he could never have succeeded in uniting the nations of Ger- 
 many, in guaranteeing the empire from the attacks of its 
 foreign foes, the Moors, Slavi, Norsemen, Avari, and Hun- 
 garians, or in extirpating the barbarous customs of heathen 
 antiquity. The different German nations, at feud with one 
 another, partly pagan, partly Christian, would in course of 
 time have exterminated each other, while the Hungarians, 
 aided by the pagan Saxons, would probably have renewed 
 the savage times of Attila. The unity of the empire was a 
 boon required by the exigency of the times, and that by 
 means of it Charlemagne preserved Christendom from the 
 encroachments of paganism at that time still prevailing in
 
 263 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the East, and from those of Mohammedanism equally power- 
 ful in the South, besides refining the barbarous manners of 
 the age by the introduction of the arts of civilization and 
 of scholastic learning, forms his great and all- sufficing ex- 
 culpation. The Anglo-Saxons in England certainly attained 
 to a considerable degree of cultivation without sacrificing 
 their freedom, but, inclosed within the narrow limits of their 
 fortunate island, they had fewer difficulties to encounter than 
 Charles, who, placed in the midst of the broad continent, 
 was surrounded by open enemies and doubtful friends. 
 
 CIV. Fall of the Kingdom of Lombardy 
 
 THE attempt made by Desiderius to force the pope to 
 anoint the two sons of Carloman kings of France, served as 
 a pretext for Charles to cross the Alps and to annex the 
 whole of Italy to the empire. He accordingly crossed by 
 Mount Cenis, and his uncle, Bernard, by Mons Jovis, which, 
 from this circumstance, received the name of the great St. 
 Bernard; Desiderius, meanwhile, closely guarded the Alpine 
 passes, and checked the advance of the invading army : at 
 length a secret path that led into Lombardy was discovered 
 to Charles by a traitor, who, it is recorded, was permitted, 
 in reward, to sound a horn, and to each passer-by who re- 
 plied in the affirmative to his demand of whether he had 
 heard it, to give a box on the ear, in sign of vassalage. 
 The mountain passes were no sooner forced than opposition 
 ceased. Charlemagne's presence insured victory. The com- 
 mon herd, awed by the greatness of his fame, were rendered 
 powerless, before the contest commenced, by their belief in 
 his invincible prowess, which worked more wonders in favor 
 of his cause than that prowess itself. Tlie Lombards trem- 
 bled at the mere aspect of the hero, whose achievements lay 
 yet concealed within the bosom of futurity. Numbers de- 
 serted to the Franks, and Desiderius, shut up in Pavia, his 
 capital, was driven by famine to capitulate, after a siege of 
 seven months* duration. An ancient chronicle relates that
 
 . CHARLEMAGNE 263 
 
 Desiderius, when gazing from the battlements upon the 
 French squadrons, in expectation of perceiving Charles as 
 each advanced, and at length beholding him ride forward 
 armed cap-a-pie, conspicuous by his stature amid the sur- 
 rounding multitude, and mounted on an iron-clad charger, 
 was struck with such amazement at his awful aspect that he 
 mournfully exclaimed to those around him, "Let us descend 
 and hide ourselves beneath the earth from the angry glance 
 of such a powerful enemy, ' ' and forthwith yielded the city 
 to his opponent, who, judging him unworthy of a throne he 
 was unable to defend, secluded him in the monastery of Cor- 
 vey. His son, Adalgis, a brave man worthy of a better fate, 
 fled to Constantinople, and Charles placed the ancient iron 
 crown of Lombardy himself on his own head. The people 
 were permitted to retain their national privileges. The same 
 year, A.D. 774, he visited the pope at Rome, confirmed him 
 in the possession of the gifts of Pipin, received like him the 
 title of patrician, and renewed the alliance that had already 
 been formed by his father with the pontifical chair. Mean- 
 while the free-spirited Lombards revolted against the severe 
 yoke imposed upon them, and Adalgis, returning, made an- 
 other but fruitless attempt to regain his throne, A.D. 775. 
 Paul "Warnefried (Paulus Diaconus), the celebrated historian 
 of Lombardy, labored zealously in his cause, and having on 
 that account been sentenced to lose his eyes and hands, 
 Charles indignantly exclaimed, "Where shall we again find 
 hands able to record the events of history so beautifully as 
 his?" A.D. 776. 
 
 Two subsequent insurrections in Lombardy, A.D. 786, ex- 
 cited by the dukes of Friuli and of Benevento, were succes- 
 sively quelled by Charles, who, although engaged in a win- 
 ter campaign in Saxony, suddenly quitted that country and 
 fell upon Radogund, duke of Friuli, in the high mountains 
 at Tarvis, where he was celebrating the Easter festival. 
 Aregis, duke of Benevento, Charles's brother-in-law (his 
 wife, Amalberga, being daughter to Desiderius), was com- 
 pelled to deliver up his sons as hostages. The only article
 
 2 64 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 in the treaty of peace that he insisted upon was, "that he 
 should not be forced to see his hated relative. ' ' On his death 
 Charles sent his son, Grimoald, back to his native country, 
 and gave him the dukedom of Benevento to hold in fee. 
 Grimoald opposed the Greeks in Lower Italy. The empire 
 extended to the south as far as the island of Sardinia, which 
 had been conquered by Graf Burkhard. Pipin, the son of 
 Charlemagne, A.D. 807, was compelled to relinquish his at- 
 tempts upon Venice, and the island city proudly maintained 
 her liberty. 
 
 CV. The Saxon Wars 
 
 IN earlier times the Romans had incessarntly attempted 
 the subjugation of their free neighbors, the Germans, by 
 whom their empire was threatened from without, while it 
 was at the same time endangered within by the contrast be- 
 tween their free constitution and the despotism of the Roman 
 government. The Franks, equally despotic with their an- 
 cient masters, were also ceaseless in their endeavors to crush 
 the Saxons, who still retained their ancestral independence, 
 and the breach was still further widened by the national 
 hatred, which from time immemorial had been cherished be- 
 tween Frank and Saxon, and which in later times had been 
 strengthened by difference of religion, the Frank in his prose- 
 lyting zeal attempting to enforce the conversion of the Saxon 
 to Christianity, while the Saxon, who naturally regarded the 
 new religion as subversive of freedom, remained the more 
 obstinately attached to that of his fathers. Continual feuds 
 had deluged the banks of the Rhine with the blood of the 
 contending nations under the Merovingians. A short peace 
 took place under Dagobert, but the war was kindled afresh, 
 and its extinction baffled the most strenuous exertions of 
 Bonifacius. The physical strength, great endurance, and 
 enthusiastic valor of the Saxons, who were inspirited by the 
 love of their liberty, their country, and their religion, aided 
 by the dissensions that convulsed France, had up to this 
 period rendered the issue of their ancient struggle doubtful.
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 265 
 
 The Saxons, although often constrained by the warlike may- 
 ors of the palace to pay a dishonorable tribute, had never 
 been more than temporarily subdued. Affairs bore this as- 
 pect on the accession of Charles, who speedily turned his 
 chief attention to the subjection of his warlike neighbors, 
 the first necessary step in the furtherance of his plans for 
 the future protection of France against their aggressions, 
 for the union of all the nations of Germany, for checking 
 the progress of the Slavi in the East, and for the erection 01 
 one vast empire in the heart of Europe, whence civilization 
 and Christianity were to radiate as from one bright center, 
 and, calling the whole physical strength of his kingdom to 
 the aid of his genius, undeterred by the obstinacy with which, 
 he was opposed, by the dread of obscuring his fame by the 
 commission of monstrous acts of cruelty, by the numerous 
 wars in which he was constantly engaged, or by his paternal 
 concern for the internal welfare of the state, he was at length 
 rewarded, in his old age, with success, after a murderous 
 and unremitting war of two and thirty years, in which his 
 perseverance, power, exalted genius, and noble aim cast into 
 shade the heroic fortitude of the Saxons, who, worthy of 
 their ancestral fame, valiantly struggled, during more than 
 a quarter of a century, in defense of their ancient liberty and 
 religion, and crowned their very fall with glory. Wittekind, 
 duke of Westphalia, the brave Saxon leader, may not un- 
 felicitously be compared with Armin. Animated by a kin- 
 dred spirit, he fought on the same ground for a similar object 
 and with equal glory. His followers, inspirited by his enthu- 
 siasm, were ever ready for fresh revolt, after each bloody 
 defeat and' each extorted treaty; success attended their at- 
 tempts for freedom during the absence of Charles, whose 
 return ever reimposed a yet more galling chain, until at 
 length, humbled by the protracted struggle, they voluntarily 
 submitted and embraced Christianity. 
 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 13
 
 266 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 CVI. The Progress of the Saxon Wars 
 
 IN 772, Charles convoked a general state assembly at 
 Worms, in which the war with Saxony was unanimously 
 voted. Religion served as a pretext. The urbanity and 
 eloquence of St. Lebuin, who had previously been commis- 
 sioned to preach to the Saxons during their great national 
 festival at Marklo, having proved ineffectual, fire and sword 
 were the next means resorted to for their conversion. This 
 decision had been purposely committed to the nation by 
 Charles, who sought, by giving the war a national and re- 
 ligious character, to render it popular. At the head of the 
 great arrier-ban of the French, Charles crossed the Rhine 
 and marched victoriously as far as the Weser. His greatest 
 achievement, during this campaign, was the capture of the 
 Eresburg, where he destroyed the sacred column of Irmin. 1 
 
 Charles's absence in Italy, necessitated by the revolt of 
 Rotgaudus, the Lombard duke of Friuli, whom he reduced 
 to obedience, was instantly turned to advantage by the Sax- 
 ons, who broke into open insurrection, headed by Wittekind 
 of "Westphalia, the soul of the war, whose activity was emu- 
 lated by that of Alboin, duke of Eastphalia, A.D. 773. A 
 second invasion of Saxony ensued, and the triple alliance of 
 the two Phalias and of Enger was successively defeated by 
 Charles. The coasts alone remained unsubdued. No sooner, 
 however, was his presence again required in Italy by a fresh 
 revolt of the duke of Friuli, than Wittekind recommenced 
 the struggle ; a general levy took place, whole forests were 
 
 1 An old rhythm is still extant in "Westphalia, which, by some, is ascribed to 
 the period of this invasion, by others, to the more ancient one of the wars of 
 Armin against the Roman emperors. 
 
 Hermen, sla dermen, 
 
 Sla pipen, sla trummen. 
 
 De kaiser will kummen 
 
 Mit hamer und stangen, 
 
 Will Hermen uphangen. 
 
 The Eresburg occupied the present site of Stadtbergen on the Diemel, in th 
 district of Paderborn.
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 267 
 
 thrown down in order to form abatis throughout the coun- 
 try, and every man stood to arms. Charles reappeared, and 
 all again yielded before him. He remained encamped in the 
 heart of the country until a royal residence was erected at 
 Paderborn, whither he summoned the vassals of the crown 
 and the embassadors from foreign states, among whom ap- 
 peared a number of Moorish princes from Spain, who had 
 thrown off their allegiance to their mother-country, and came 
 to implore the aid of the mighty sovereign of France. The 
 Saxons also sent delegates to Paderborn, promised peace and 
 submission, and resigned their Allods and their freedom to 
 their conqueror. Wittekind alone, despising the favor of the 
 monarch, fled to Denmark, where, protected by Siegfried, 
 the pagan king, he awaited an opportunity to recommence 
 the struggle for liberty ; accordingly, Charles had no sooner 
 led his arrier-ban across the Pyrenees in order to awe the 
 Moors than Wittekind returned, and the Saxons, forgetful 
 of their newly-imposed allegiance, again rebelled and laid 
 the country waste up to the walls of Duits and Cologne, A.D. 
 778. Charles returned, and the following year directed his 
 whole force against them. Two great battles took place on 
 the Eller and in the Buchholz, in which the Saxons were 
 worsted, and Charles, fixing himself in the country, erected 
 numerous fortresses on the Elbe, in which he placed strong 
 garrisons of the French, and endeavored at the same tune to 
 gain over the people, more especially the nobility, by kind- 
 ness, affability, and promises. The hostages taken from the 
 Saxons during his previous campaigns had been purposely 
 educated in monasteries, and, on their return to their native 
 country, they peaceably forwarded the work of conversion. 
 Affairs seemed to prosper, and Charles deemed himself as 
 securely master of Saxony as Varus had formerly done in 
 the same country and under precisely similar circumstances. 
 But he was equally deceived. Enforced subjection ever pro- 
 duces dissimulation, and the Saxon, still mindful of his an- 
 cient freedom, beheld with secret rage the fortresses he had 
 been compelled to aid in erecting, and which he merely
 
 368 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 awaited an opportunity to destroy. Taught hypocrisy by 
 necessity and injured pride, he lulled his conqueror to repose, 
 in order to take a surer and more deadly aim. Whoever 
 conscientiously embraced Christianity was secretly branded 
 as a traitor, and destruction to the Frank was vowed in the 
 silent depths of the forest, in the name of the ancient deities 
 of Germany. The form of oath ran thus : 
 
 Hilli kroti "Woudana ilp osk un osken Pana Uitikin ok 
 Kelta of ten oiskena Karleui ten slaktenera. Ik tif ti in our 
 un ton scapa un tat Rofe. Ik slacte ti all tranca up tinen 
 iliken Artis beka. 
 
 Charles, far from suspecting the true state of affairs, 
 again quitted Saxony, and, with perfect confidence, com- 
 missioned his generals, Geil and Adalgis, to strengthen the 
 army under their command by an immense levy of Saxon 
 troops destined for the invasion of the territory of the Slavi 
 on the other side of the Elbe and Saal, who then threatened 
 France. The Saxons obeyed the call with great alacrity, 
 and soon outnumbered the French troops, who, in the com- 
 mencement of the campaign, A.D. 782, while carelessly cross- 
 ing the Sundel Mountain on the Weser (Hausberg between 
 Minden and Rinteln), were unexpectedly attacked by their 
 companions, by whom the slaughter in the Teutoburg forest 
 was renewed Geil and Adalgis, with the greater part of 
 their troops, being left on the field. 
 
 When the news of this terrible catastrophe, by which his 
 plans upon Slavonia and Saxony were at once rendered null, 
 reached Charles, he vowed to wreak a fearful revenge on the 
 rebels, and to regain by cruelty and severity the kingdom his 
 mildness had lost. Crossing the Rhine, he laid waste the 
 country by fire and sword, and exterminated all who refused 
 to embrace Christianity. Thousands were driven into the 
 rivers to be baptized or drowned. On the Eller at Verden 
 4,500 Saxons, taken in arms, were beheaded. Destruction 
 marched in the van. Desolation, carnage and flames marked 
 the path of the conqueror. Undismayed by the danger, the 
 Saxons rose to a man in defense of their national liberties.
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 269 
 
 Every deed of cruelty was doubly repaid, and victory began 
 to waver. At Detmold, "Wittekind headed the enthusiastic 
 patriots against Charles's superior forces, and a dreadful 
 battle was fought, in which the victory remained undecided. 
 In petty warfare, the Saxons proved invincible, and it was not 
 until they again hazarded a general engagement on the Hase 
 that Charles's superior tactics prevailed against them. When 
 at length he was once more securely fixed in the interior of 
 the country, prudence counseled milder measures, and while 
 he still devastated the northern districts, his subjects in the 
 Binnenland were treated with a gentleness which, seconded 
 by the exhaustion consequent on their numerous defeats, at 
 length induced a general submission. Wittekind and Alboin, 
 the stanch defenders of their country's rights, with implicit 
 confidence in the honor of their conqueror, came to Attigny 
 in France, and were there voluntarily baptized, A.D. 785. 
 According to the legendary account, Wittekind went, dis- 
 guised as a beggar, into the church at Wolmirstadt (so called 
 from Charles's once exclaiming, "Wohl mirl" Good luck to 
 me ! when victorious there over the Saxons), where a shining 
 white child appeared to him in the host, and convinced him 
 of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 CVII. Termination of the Saxon Wars 
 
 EVEN this peace proved but of short duration ; and that 
 nation must be justly deemed worthy of admiration which, 
 after such experience in suffering, still retained sufficient 
 courage and pride to persevere in the struggle for the preser- 
 vation of their ancient liberties and honor, and to prefer 
 misery, nay, annihilation, to the stain of subserviency. 
 Charles, deeming the North submissive, turned his atten- 
 tion southward, and while he was engaged in forcing the 
 powerful Avari to retreat into Hungary, and in preserving 
 a communication between the Adriatic and the Danube, his 
 fertile genius conceived the project of bringing the whole of 
 southern and northern Germany into yet more direct com-
 
 270 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 munication, by cutting through the country lying between 
 the Rednitz, whose waters flow through the Maine into the 
 Rhine, and the Altmiihl, which falls into the Danube. Had 
 this canal been completed, a communication by water would 
 have been opened throughout Germany, which must not only 
 have greatly facilitated the internal traffic of the different 
 provinces, but also have given a powerful impulse to general 
 commerce, by opening a line of communication between the 
 Black Sea and the Baltic. A canal 300 feet broad had 
 already been carried some distance, when the work was de- 
 stroyed by violent storms of ram, and the war with Saxony 
 again breaking out caused it to be entirely abandoned ; nor 
 was it undertaken again until our times, a thousand years 
 later. The Saxons, in the hope of receiving support from 
 the Avari, suddenly rose in arms in every part of the coun- 
 try, but, hearing of Charles's approach at the head of a for- 
 midable army, and the Avari remaining quiet, they as sud- 
 denly disbanded, and Charles, on his arrival, finding the 
 country tranquil and being unable to discover the authors 
 of the revolt, contented himself with taking hostages from 
 them, and with establishing his seat of government at Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, A.D. 794. For the future, however, he kept a 
 vigilant watch over their movements, and caused the coun- 
 try to be continually patrolled by his troops. The Nord- 
 Albinger, northward of the Elbe (modern Holstein), alone 
 obstinately refused to submit, and incessantly harassed the 
 troops sent to inspect the country. Many thousand Saxons 
 were torn from their homes and transplanted into Brabant 
 and Flanders as well as to Sachsenhausen, now a suburb of 
 Frankfort on the Maine. The remainder still defended them- 
 selves in their fastnesses on the coast, and again roused the 
 anger of the emperor, by putting his embassadors to the 
 Danish court to death, when passing through their country. 
 Anxious to insure their complete subjection, Charles entered 
 into alliance with the Slavian Obotrites, a Vendian race, 
 at Mecklenburg, whose prince, Thrasico, aided by the 
 Franks, attacked the northern Saxons, four thousand of
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 271 
 
 whom were slain at Suintana, A.D. 798. Submission wag 
 now inevitable, and Charles, in order to confirm his con- 
 quest, made use of the nobles, whose Wergeld he trebled, 
 and whom he loaded with favors, against the Frilir.gs and 
 Lazzi ; by which means he created an aristocracy similar to 
 that of the grand feudatories of France, which acted as a 
 sure check upon the people. In commemoration of this vic- 
 tory, a magnificent palace was erected at Paderborn, A.D. 
 799, whither flocked all the great vassals of the crown and 
 many a ladye fayre. The beautiful daughters of Charle- 
 magne daily graced the chase. Pope Leo came from Rome 
 to supplicate for aid against his rival Hadrian and the Anti- 
 frank party. The pope and the emperor embraced each 
 other near a spring once sacred to a heathen deity, in the 
 sight of the astonished and enraged Saxons. A monk from 
 Jerusalem brought holy relics. The great caliph of the East, 
 Haroun-al-Raschid, Charlemagne's worthy contemporary, 
 whom dislike of the petty Moorish usurpers of Spain had 
 rendered his ally, presented him with a costly tent, a curious 
 clock, fine cloth the produce of the Eastern loom, spices, and 
 an elephant. Four years later, after Charles's coronation at 
 Rome, he revisited Saxony, and finally regulated the affairs 
 of that country by the treaty of Selz (Konigshofen on the 
 Saal), A.D. 803, by which he ratified the ancient laws, the 
 privileges of the nobles, and declared the Saxons on an equal- 
 ity with the Franks. 
 
 "Wittekind was killed in a border fray by Count Gerold 
 of Swabia, A.D. 807, a proof of the insincerity of the concili- 
 ation. The murder might, possibly, have been politically 
 designed, Charles's aim being to deprive Saxony of her tem- 
 poral rulers, and to place her beneath the pastoral staff of 
 the church. 1 
 
 1 Geroldus dux Suevise percussft Witekindum Angrarorum regem, cujus 
 terram Carolus divisit in 8 episcopates. Corneri Chron.
 
 273 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 CVIII. The Wars in Spain 
 
 DISSENSION was rife among the Moors in Spain. The last 
 descendant of the caliphs of the house of the Omaijades fled 
 from Africa to that country, where the Moors still adhered 
 to him, and there founded the kingdom of Cordova. Some 
 of the emirs, however, who aimed at asserting their own 
 independence, refused their allegiance, and, uniting with 
 Ibnalarabi, lord of Saragossa, opposed his authority and im- 
 plored the assistance of Charlemagne, who, finding the op- 
 portunity favorable for another display of the superiority of 
 France, for annihilating the power of the Mahometans by 
 dissolving their union, for irremeably averting the danger 
 with which the empire might be threatened from that quar- 
 ter, and for extending the boundary of his dominions, speed- 
 ily led his airier-ban across the Pyrenees, A.D. 778. The 
 legends that refer to this war are replete with strange ad- 
 venture, and recount the glorious deeds of the famous Ro- 
 land, who was first in command under Charlemagne. The 
 emperor had reinstated Ibnalarabi at Saragossa, had erected 
 Catalonia, with its metropolis, Barcelona, into a dukedom 
 (that province being included within the French boundary), 
 and had received the oath of fealty from Alonzo, a petty 
 Gothic king, who dwelt in the mountains of Galicia and 
 Asturia, when the revolt in Saxony again required his pres- 
 ence in Germany, and compelled him to relinquish his proj- 
 ects upon Spain. While recrossing the Pyrenees, the Basques, 
 faithful to their ancient enmity against the Franks, fell upoij 
 his rear, and a great slaughter took place in the narrow 
 mountain passes near Ronceval, where Roland the Brave 
 was slain; his death was avenged by that of Lupus, the 
 Basque duke, who was executed by order of Charlemagne. 
 Roland has been celebrated by the poets of both olden and 
 modern times, and appears to have been the favorite hero of 
 the Franks, who long retained the custom of singing the 
 famous song of Roland, now unfortunately lost, when march-
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 273 
 
 ing to battle. The so-called pillars of Roland seen in differ- 
 ent towns are falsely supposed to refer to him. 
 
 In 799, Charlemagne undertook a naval expedition against 
 the Moors and deprived them of the Balearic Islands, Majorca 
 and Minorca. He might possibly have succeeded in driving 
 them out of Spain, had he not been called away by the affairs 
 of Saxony. 
 
 CIX. Tliassilo 
 
 THE ancient Agilofingian dynasty enjoyed considerable 
 eminence, and retained the ducal dignity in Bavaria until 
 the reign of Thassilo, who, cowardly, false, and base, justly 
 incurred the contempt of his subjects, and caused the down- 
 fall of his house, by his unworthy conduct. Although the 
 husband of Luitberga, a daughter of Desiderius, and, even 
 in the time of Pipin, the avowed enemy of the Carlovin- 
 gians, he deserted the Lombards at the most critical mo- 
 ment, and only ventured to attack Charles when he had suf- 
 fered defeat in Saxony. After refusing to perform feudal 
 service in the field, he declared himself independent and slew 
 the French count, Chrodbert, who was sent to oppose him. 
 Charles, upon this, taking advantage of the first moment of 
 tranquillity in Saxony, marched into Bavaria and surrounded 
 him in the valley of the Lech. The cowardly duke, instead 
 of defending himself with spirit, basely took a false oath of 
 fealty to the conqueror, and expressly recommended to his 
 subjects beforehand, "while they were swearing allegiance 
 to think the contrary." Charles pardoned his treachery, 
 took one of his sons as a hostage, and permitted him to 
 retain the ducal throne, A.D. 787. The following year he 
 plotted with the Avari, aided by whom he hoped to surprise 
 Charles, but having delayed openly to declare hostilities, on 
 account of the emperor being then at peace and holding a 
 great diet at Ingelheim, at which he had the audacity to 
 appear, his plans were detected, and he was tried in full 
 court and condemned to death. The sentence was com- 
 muted by Charles to imprisonment in a monastery. His
 
 274 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 fate was shared by his son, and Bavaria was subsequently 
 governed by French counts, to whom the Bavarians, who 
 had not even pretended to take part with the ruler they de- 
 spised, and who had remained firm in their allegiance to the 
 emperor, quietly submitted. 
 
 CX. The Wars with the Slavi 
 
 THE country eastward of the Elbe and Saal, abandoned 
 by the Gothic tribes, had been repeopled by the Slavi, one 
 of whose most noted tribes, the "Wendi, took possession of 
 northern Germany, where they first endured a severe strug- 
 gle with the Saxons, and afterward with the Franks. This 
 tribe comprised the Obotrites, who lay generally to the west 
 in Mecklenburg, and the WiM, who lay generally to the east 
 on the coasts of Pomerania. The latter already possessed 
 large commercial towns, one of which, on the mouth of the 
 Oder, the wealthy Wineta, the Venice of the North, was de- 
 stroyed as early as the eighth century, partly by the ravages 
 of the Norsemen, partly by those of the sea, and was replaced 
 by Julin (Wollin). The sacred towns of Arcona on Riigen 
 and Rhetra on the Priegnitz were celebrated among these 
 northern nations. 
 
 South of the Wendi, on the Saal and the Upper Elbe, 
 dwelt the Sorbi, of which the Daleminzii were the chief 
 tribe. The name coincides with that of the Serbii, who 
 dwelt in the vicinity of the Bulgarians, in the north of 
 Greece. Yet the Slavi in the Austrian mountains were 
 known from Trient to Venice as Wendi; hence Venice or 
 the Windian boundary. The names of Croatia and Ca- 
 rinthia were merely provincial. The ancient name of the 
 Vindelicii possibly reappears in that of these southern Wendi, 
 in the same manner that the Bohemians took their name from 
 the ancient Boii (Bojenheim), although they are named in 
 their own language Tschechen. To the rear of the Wendi 
 and the Sorbi dwelt the Lechen (Poles), and Tschechen (Bo- 
 hemians), two kindred tribes. In the eighth century Crocus
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 275 
 
 reigned in Bohemia. His daughter, Libussa, a prophetess, 
 having, as the legends relate, to make choice of a husband, 
 commanded search to be made for a man eating off an iron 
 table, and Przmisl, a peasant, being found eating bread on 
 a plow, became her husband and king of Bohemia. He 
 founded -the city of Prague. After Libussa's death, her 
 maid-servants, instigated by Wlasta, rebelled, built the city 
 of Die win (Magdeburg), and put every man who fell into 
 their hands to death. After a desperate struggle they were 
 finally subdued by Przmisl. This war of the Bohemian 
 maidens is detailed at greater length in some of the finest 
 of the ancient legends. History is silent on the subject, and 
 merely records that the wars, commenced at an earlier period 
 against the Slavi who dwelt to the east of Germany, were 
 continued by Charlemagne and increased in animosity after 
 the subjection of Saxony, which brought the whole eastern 
 frontier of the French empire everywhere in close contact 
 with the confines of the Slavian territory, where the want 
 of union among the Slavian tribes rendered their numbers 
 powerless against the collective force of the whole German 
 empire, wielded by a single arm. 
 
 The Saxon war for some time delayed the execution of 
 the emperor's projects against the Slavi, and it was not until 
 A..D. 789 that he invaded their territory and defeated the 
 Obotrites and Wilzi, who, being only momentarily intimi- 
 dated, did not long remain in a state of submission. Their 
 destruction, however, was speedily caused by their disunion. 
 The Obotrites, who lay nearest to the frontier, were disliked 
 by the other tribes, and Charles, sensible of the advantages 
 offered by their position for the furtherance of his designs, 
 entered into close alliance with them, and loaded them with 
 favors. He also made use of them against Saxony, and re- 
 warded their services with its eastern districts, the ancient 
 country of the Angli, now Mecklenburg. In 805 and 806, 
 he marched against the Sorbi, defeated their kings, Samela 
 and Misito, rendered them tributary, and laid the first stones 
 of the towns of Halle and Magdeburg, which latter place is
 
 276 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 supposed to have received its name from the circumstance of 
 his having there destroyed the images of the goddess of love 
 and her attendant nymphs. At this period, he also subdued 
 the Bohemians, on whom he imposed a tribute of one hun- 
 dred and twenty fatted oxen, and the Poles, whose king, 
 Lecho, is said to have fallen in battle. 
 
 CXI. The Wars with the Avari 
 
 THE Avari, a wild Tartar race, had followed the Longo- 
 bardi, and had settled in Hungary and Austria as far as the 
 Enns. They were incessantly at war with the Slavian Bo- 
 hemians and with the dukes of Friuli. Thassilo, uniting 
 with them against France, invaded and laid waste that 
 country, A.D. 789. In 791, the emperor descended the Dan- 
 ube with a fleet and a powerful army, defeated them, 
 drowned ten thousand men in the river, and devastated 
 their country as far as the Raab. At the same time, his 
 son, Pipin, made a successful inroad from Friuli into Hun- 
 gary. Charlemagne, not venturing to advance, now merely 
 sought to retain his newly-acquired domain, and, true to his 
 maxim of ever watching over a dubious possession in person, 
 besides anxious to impress the people with awe by a display 
 of his power and magnificence, held a synod at Ratisbon, 
 A.D. 792, in which he caused the doctrine of Felix, the Span- 
 ish bishop, to be condemned as heretical. Close upon the 
 frontier of Bohemia, and not far from that of Hungary, was 
 he thus pleased to show himself as the defender of Christian- 
 ity, in order to impose upon his dangerous enemies by the 
 united pomp of church and state. 
 
 Soon after this, the war with the Avari broke out anew. 
 Dissensions arose between their princes or khans. Tudun, 
 one of their number, visited Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 and there received baptism. The rest bade him defiance, but 
 were, in the midst of their broils, attacked by young Pipin 
 and by Erich, the brave duke of Friuli, assisted by the Slavi. 
 In Hungary, the Avari had erected circular fortifications,
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 
 
 one within the other, which they deemed impregnable, but 
 which after a long and indecisive struggle were, at length, 
 carried by storm by Duke Erich, A.D. 796. The enormous 
 booty found by the Franks, heaped up within them, was car- 
 ried to Aix-la-Chapelle by order of Charlemagne, who pre- 
 sented a moiety of it to the pope. In this war, Graf Gerold 
 and his Swabians distinguished themselves so greatly as to 
 gain from the emperor the honorable distinction of march- 
 ing first in order in every war for the future undertaken by 
 the state. Among these Swabians was a man from Thur- 
 gau, who spitted seven Avari at once on his enormous lance, 
 and who, on account of his gigantic strength, was named 
 Einheer, one of the Einherier or companions of Odin in Wal- 
 halla, according to the yet unforgotten pagan belief. The 
 Avari, however, remained still unsubdued, and vigorously 
 carried on the war. Tudun deserted the imperial cause. 
 Gerold was killed in battle, and Tudun was captured and 
 put to death. At length, weakened by continual disaster, 
 the Avari submitted, A.D. 799, some of them to the Germans, 
 the rest to their neighbors the Slavi. 
 
 Had Charlemagne been less continually occupied with 
 Saxony, he would have extended his dominions by the con- 
 quest of the Avari beyond the Raab, and might possibly 
 have reached Constantinople. A communication between 
 the West and the East, by the already-mentioned union of 
 the Maine with the Danube, might then have been carried 
 mto execution. For the present, he contented himself with 
 making Croat* a, the country recently torn from the Slavi, 
 the eastern boundary of the empire, and with settling several 
 Swabian and Bavarian colonies in modern Austria, whence 
 the name, Bavarian frontier, or Astarrichi. The inhabitants 
 of these boundaries were in an extremely peculiar position in 
 regard to each other; the Slavi had long found themselves 
 perplexed between Avari and Bavarians, heathens and Chris- 
 tians ; at length the nobles sided with the former, and the 
 people with the latter ; the war carried on with their enemies 
 abroad was consequently accompanied by revolutions at
 
 278 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 home. The peaceful conversion of the Slavian peasantry 
 was at first due to the humane exertions of Virgilius, bishop 
 of Salzburg, in the eighth century. Graf Gerold, already 
 mentioned as one of the ablest servants of Charlemagne, 
 afterward undertook the regulation of these mountainous 
 districts, aided the peasants in exterminating the pagan 
 nobility, granted them great privileges, and planted fresh 
 German colonies among them. Only one, probably a Gothic 
 tribe, the Gotscheer, had preserved its independence among 
 the Slavi, in the mountains of Croatia. 
 
 The celebrated ceremony which attended the election of 
 the duke in Carinthia, and was observed for centuries, dates 
 from this period. The Furstenstein, or prince's stone, is still 
 to be seen at Karnburg near Clagenfurt. A peasant, seat- 
 ing himself upon this stone, commanded the newly-elected 
 duke to be brought before him: "Who is he that so proudly 
 prances along?" asked the peasant, and the people shouted 
 in reply, "Our country's prince." "Is he also a righteous 
 judge, an increaser of the land, a defender of Christianity, 
 of widows, and orphans?" again asked the peasant, and the 
 people replied, "He is and will be!" The peasant then bade 
 the duke assume his dignity, and giving him a box on the 
 ear yielded his seat to him. This privilege was obtained by 
 the peasantry, when they first embraced Christianity, and, 
 after driving away their own nobility, accepted German 
 rulers. 
 
 CXII. The Wars with the Norsemen 
 
 NORSEMEN, or men of the North, was the general term 
 for all Scandinavians who quitted their native country to 
 seek for adventure, or to plunder by sea or by land. In an- 
 cient times all the German nations had migrated for these 
 purposes. Christianity put an end to the migrations in the 
 South, and the Scandinavians, the last of the pagan German 
 tribes, alone retained this ancient custom. Until now, Sax- 
 ony had proved a sufficient bulwark against the Norsemen, 
 but that country was no sooner conquered by Charlemagne
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 279 
 
 than the robbers and warriors of the North threatened France 
 herself. The Danes, the allies of the Saxons, afforded Wit- 
 tekind both shelter and support. Their king, Gottfried, at- 
 tacked the Obotrites, and was, with difficulty, repulsed by 
 the Franks. As a security against invasion, he separated the 
 Danish peninsula from Germany by a great wall and moat, 
 called the Danewirk, that had only one outlet. In 810, he 
 sailed with 200 ships to Friesland, where he landed and 
 threatened Aix-la-Chapelle, the capital of the empire. The 
 airier-ban was instantly summoned, and the emperor took 
 the field against the invading horde, but learning, on his 
 march, that they had slain their king for his arrogance and 
 tyranny, and had retreated to Denmark, he concluded peace 
 with Hemming, Gottfried's successor, and made the Eyder 
 the northern boundary of the empire. Graf Odo, in Itzehoe 
 or Hamburg, and the "Waldgraf Liderich, in Flanders, 
 guarded the northern coasts, but Charlemagne, being un- 
 possessed of a fleet, was unable to keep the bold Norsemen 
 in check at sea probably from his unwillingness to trust the 
 Saxons with so much power and these northern pirates even 
 infested the Mediterranean. The sight of their vessels, as 
 they crossed on the ocean, is said to have drawn tears from 
 the eyes of this great emperor, as he sat watching their 
 movements from his castle at Narbonne, in the south of 
 France, and foretold their future devastation of his empire. 
 
 CXIII. Charlemagne the First of the German Gcesars 
 
 SUCH were the warlike achievements of the greatest of 
 the Frankish monarchs, whose empire extended from the 
 Ebro to the Raab, from Benevento to the Eyder. Every 
 German race, except the English and the Scandinavians, 
 were, for the first time, united under one sovereign ; all the 
 western Romans, with part of the Slavi and Avari, owned 
 the same allegiance. The discordant component parts of 
 this gigantic empire, held together by a social compact 
 whose strength was doubled by the pressure from without,
 
 280 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 were scarcely influenced by the distinction that certainly still 
 existed between the Romans and the Germans, the conquered 
 and the conqueror, the adherents of royalty and the advo- 
 cates for the ancient democracy. The exclusive sway of the 
 Catholic religion, now that of the state, the enthusiasm of its 
 votaries, its spiritual power, its character, well adapted to 
 impress the minds of the illiterate, and its well-regulated 
 papal government, all tended to promote concord, while the 
 danger with which Mohammedanism threatened Christen- 
 dom from the South, united Romans and Germans in one 
 common cause, nay, even caused the ancient hereditary 
 feuds among the latter to be forgotten amid the general en- 
 thusiasm, which rendered them equally zealous, whether 
 arrayed in opposition to the Grecian empire or to the pagan 
 Slavi and Norsemen. England, naturally and politically in- 
 sulated, alone stood aloof, but manifested her sympathy by 
 sending forth her missionaries to aid in the work of conver- 
 sion carried on by the Franks in the East. 
 
 The distinctive peculiarities of the different tribes of Ger- 
 many, who were thus suddenly and for the first time united, 
 became gradually and naturally less prominent, while a sim- 
 ilarity in their national characters began to develop. Their 
 common hatred of the Moors, the Greeks, and the Slavi, 
 added another link to their bond of union. A state exclu- 
 sively German was also by no means the idea of the times, 
 the Romans having kept pace with the Germans, and the 
 church, far from being satisfied to rule within the narrow 
 limits of a German empire, aspired to universal dominion ; 
 still it must be conceded that the spirit of fraternization that 
 at this period prevailed throughout Germany, chiefly con- 
 duced to the internal harmony of the state, the extension of 
 whose limits, the wars and conquests, naturally recalled the 
 ancient Roman empire to remembrance, whose still unforgot- 
 ten splendor kindled anew a desire for pomp and pageantry, 
 and swelled alike the heart of the ruler and the subject with 
 the proud consciousness of power. The resemblance of the 
 new empire with that which had passed away, and the an-
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 281 
 
 cient reverence attached to the name of Rome, facilitated 
 their connection, and the new empire received the name of 
 Roman. This combination of circumstances produced the 
 idea of an empire whose temporal power and mode of forma- 
 tion should be a vivid image of that of ancient Rome, and 
 whose spiritual power should extend over the whole world, 
 and fraternize all nations, by uniting them in one faith and 
 under one sovereign. Thus originated the Holy Roman Em- 
 pire, which contained within itself two separate powers, the 
 church and the state, each of which owned a visible head, 
 the representative of God upon earth; the spiritual head be- 
 ing the pope, and the temporal head the emperor. "God," 
 it was said, "had given two swords wherewith to govern the 
 world, the one to the pope, the other to the emperor." The 
 spirit of the times favored this transformation in the affairs 
 of Europe. Charlemagne was in fact but the outward and 
 visible instrument destined to carry into effect the gradual 
 and hidden work of centuries. His greatness solely consisted 
 in his having comprehended and acted up to the spirit of the 
 times, by forcibly producing a union whence sprang a new 
 spirit, a new life, to which he gave free scope. For the sake 
 of unity, he certainly sacrificed the ancient liberties of the 
 people, which, until his time, had been upheld by the inde- 
 pendence of the several petty tribes and states. He gave 
 them unity, but deprived them of freedom; but Germany 
 was not then fitted for the simultaneous enjoyment of these 
 two great advantages. 
 
 Charlemagne, while engaged in these bloody wars, pre- 
 served a strict friendship with the pope, Hadrian, whom he 
 supported in his measures for the government of the church, 
 and who, in return, assisted his schemes by converting the 
 heathen, and by placing his wild followers under spiritual 
 subjection. When the threats of the sovereign were dis- 
 regarded, the eloquence of the churchman often prevailed 
 Hadrian di d, and his relatives, conspiring against his 
 successor, Leo the Third, ill-treated him in a tumult, 
 upon which he fled to Paderborn to sue the emperor for
 
 282 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 aid, A.D. 799. The restoration of the Roman empire was 
 there concerted between them, and, in the ensuing year, 
 Charlemagne appeared with a numerous retinue in Rome, 
 where, on Christmas eve, the crown, which for one thousand 
 and six years after represented the union and supremacy of 
 Germany, was placed upon his head by the pope, while the 
 assembled multitude shouted, "Charles Augustus, crowned 
 by God, great and pacific Caesar! Life and victory to the 
 Roman emperor!" A.D. 800. 
 
 Charlemagne's ambition soared still higher. In the hope 
 of gaining possession of the imperial throne of Greece, he 
 sent the bishops, Hatto of Basle and Hugo of Tours, to Con- 
 stantinople, to sue for the hand of Irene, the empress widow, 
 who, meanwhile, was deprived of the throne by Nicephorus. 
 This usurper, enraged at the ill-timed embassy, ill-treated 
 the bishops, a disgrace that was repaid by the contempt with 
 which his embassadors were treated at Selz, where Charle- 
 magne finally concluded peace with Saxony; at least so says 
 the loquacious monk of St. Gall. 
 
 CXIV. The Empire under Charlemagne 
 
 THE feudal system, which was first planned by Chlodwig, 
 who raised the armed adherents, immediately attached to his 
 person, above the freeborn Franks, was perfected by Charle- 
 magne, whose whole power rested upon it. The authority 
 of the mayors of the palace of the Carlovingian dynasty was 
 founded on the favor of the vassals, and their policy chiefly 
 consisted in converting freehold property into fiefs and in 
 rendering the fiefs heritable. The feudal system had by this 
 means already become so general as materially to lessen the 
 numbers and weaken the influence of the Frilings, and 
 Charlemagne was consequently enabled without difficulty 
 to bring it to full maturity, and, after his coronation as em- 
 peror, ta exact from every subject within his empire, without 
 distinction, an oath of allegiance, similar to that by which 
 the vassal (homo, Lent, vasall, servitor) bound himself to
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 283 
 
 his lord. By this step, he declared himself universal sover- 
 eign, whom every vassal of the empire was bound to serve 
 in person, and also possessor of the land and universal liege. 
 Whoever still remained free and retained possession of an 
 Allod was at least bound to appertain, both person and prop- 
 erty, to the empire, to be subject to the supremacy of the 
 emperor and to the authority of the counts (Graf en), whose 
 election now rested with the crown instead of with the peo- 
 ple, and who were now exclusively termed comites, or royal 
 followers. The Frilings became Frilings of the empire, over 
 whom the protection of the emperor was as compulsory as 
 his feudal right over his vassal. The treatment these Fri- 
 lings received was, however, such as to lead them to prefer 
 feudality to freedom; they were, in fact, so arbitrarily op- 
 pressed by the Grafs, and the already powerful vassals of the 
 crown, that Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's successor, vis- 
 ited the different parts of his empire for the especial purpose 
 of checking this injustice, but in vain. Many of the Fri- 
 lings were compelled to convert their Allods into fiefs, while 
 others did so voluntarily, in order to free themselves from 
 the arrier-ban, in which they were obliged to serve as long 
 as they retained their freedom. According to the old cus- 
 tom, the Frilings were forced to join the arrier-ban whenever 
 war broke out, and as Charlemagne was perpetually in the 
 field, those who remained at the conclusion of the war were 
 ruined by the neglect into which their property had fallen, 
 while the vassals in the personal service of some great lord, 
 or in that of the church, were either not summoned, or were 
 indemnified for their service by their spiritual or temporal 
 lieges; such oppressive freedom was naturally often gladly 
 exchanged for the more agreeable species of servitude. Still, 
 in the interior of Germany, many of the Frilings proudly 
 maintained their independence, and in Saxony and among 
 the Alemanni there were whole districts or tithings of free 
 peasants of the empire. These Frilings refused to serve in 
 the field under the customary Graf, on account of his ever 
 attempting to usurp feudal power in his district, and de-
 
 284 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 manded a Sendgraf, a Graf specially commissioned on ex- 
 traordinary occasions for a short period, immediately from 
 the emperor. Partly in order to replace the deficiency in the 
 arrier-ban, and partly to provide for the better security of 
 his person by the formation of a body-guard, Charlemagne 
 raised the Scaren, so called from Schaaren, troops, bands of 
 mercenaries, paid from his private revenues, and clothed in 
 red, whence the word "scarlet'* Schar, a troop, and Lack 
 or Laken, cloth. 
 
 The new method of administering justice was an addi- 
 tional fetter upon ancient popular freedom. The Germans 
 were no longer permitted to appear armed before the tribu- 
 nal ; and the judiciary power, formerly exercised by the as- 
 sembled community, now rested solely with the Grafs elected 
 by the crown. The numerous new laws, or Capitularies of 
 Charlemagne, compiled in Latin, being, independent of the 
 unknown language in which they were written, of too cir- 
 cumstantial a nature for the people to be able to retain them, 
 like their ancient laws, in their memories, rendered necessary 
 the formation, in each community, of a species of guild, com- 
 posed of men who had made the law their chief study, and 
 who, under the title of aldermen (scabini), were always 
 present, and sat next to the Graf, during the administration 
 of justice. Charlemagne had permitted the Franks, Goths, 
 Longobardi, Burgundians, Alemanni, Thuringians, Bava- 
 rians, Saxons, and Frisii, to retain part of their national 
 laws, after expunging those that referred to their ancient 
 liberties, and adding new feudal and ecclesiastical ordon- 
 nances, which also contained the separate contracts, dona- 
 tions, and privileges of each bishopric, monastery, and tem- 
 poral fief, and thereby produced a mass and a perplexing 
 variety of laws, which being too intricate for the compre- 
 hensions of the commonalty, consequently caused their total 
 exclusion from the administration of justice. Popular free- 
 dom, nevertheless, received its death-blow from Catholicism, 
 more especially in the interior of Germany, where the new 
 religion had taken firm root before the introduction of the
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 285 
 
 feudal system, which the Frankish lords did not venture to 
 enforce among the Swabians and Saxons, among whom 
 monasteries and bishoprics had met with an easy reception. 
 Never did the Germans voluntarily bend the knee to any save 
 to their God, in their zeal for whose service they bound them- 
 selves as vassals to, and held their lands in fief from, the 
 church; ere long, richly-endowed houses of God inthralled 
 the free community, and even the Frilings, who refused 
 vassalage to the church, were by law compelled, under pain 
 of death, to pay tithes. 
 
 The ancient liberties of the people and the insolence of 
 the nobles, who like Thassilo aspired to independence, were 
 equally suppressed by Charlemagne, who, putting an end to 
 the dukedoms, governed the empire by means of Grafs, who, 
 being less powerful, less endangered its unity, and by Send- 
 grafs (missi dominici), traveling envoys, who were charged 
 with the inspection of the provinces. Foreseeing that the 
 assemblies of the nobles might frustrate his projects, he sep- 
 arated that body, by holding especial ecclesiastical synods 
 and special assemblies of the vassals (Hoflager placita), 
 by which aristocratic two-chamber system the third class or 
 commoners were totally excluded from any share in the gov- 
 ernment, and it was only at the Field of May, or great orig- 
 inal assembly of the states, that the Frilings were admitted, 
 when their votes merely confirmed decisions already deter- 
 mined upon. He also took the precautionary measure of 
 holding any extraordinary meeting of the bishops and vas- 
 sals at different places and seasons, by which means he was 
 apparently ever present, and hindered conspiracies being laid 
 in unguarded parts of the country. His Capitularies fre- 
 quently mention the conjurations, conspiracies, or fraterni- 
 ties, and their severe punishment; among them, the secret 
 confederacies of the Saxons are most particularly pointed 
 out, whose prevention, requiring his presence in the country 
 or in its vicinity, caused him generally to convoke thither 
 the assemblies of the vassals.
 
 286 THE HISTORY OF GERMAN? 
 
 CXV. The Church under Charlemagne 
 
 CHAKLEMAGNE, habituated to command, was no less ab- 
 solute in ecclesiastical than in temporal matters, and never 
 again has the church, since her assumption of authority, 
 been so completely under the control of a temporal sover- 
 eign. In order to guard equally against the convocation of 
 general ecclesiastical assemblies independent of the laity, 
 and the union of the clergy and the people against the 
 crown, he presided as a layman at all ecclesiastical meet- 
 ings, which he convoked separately from the Fields of May 
 and the Placita. He consequently arbitrarily governed their 
 decisions, in which the voice of the people was necessarily 
 unheard. In the ecclesiastical assemblies, held in 792, at 
 Ratisbon, in 794, at Frankfurt, and in 815, at Mayence, he 
 laid down new regulations for the internal management of 
 the church. His word was law. Pope and clergy bent 
 submissively before him, and his rules of moral discipline 
 were strictly enforced among the monks and secular priests. 
 As a check upon the disorder introduced by Charles Martell, 
 and left unremedied by Bonifacius, he forbade the clergy to 
 carry, arms, to keep falcons, dogs, or fools, but, aware of 
 their invincible predilection for the chase, permitted them to 
 retain this amusement on condition of their converting the 
 skins of the animals they killed into binding for books, which 
 he hoped by these means to render more general. Modera- 
 tion, decency, and gravity of demeanor were enjoined upon 
 all priests, and the monks were obliged to find employment 
 in the fields and schools. He also interfered in doctrinal 
 matters. It was not the pope, but the emperor, who con- 
 demned Bishop Felix and his sect of Adoptians, A.D. 792, 
 who simply confessed the existence of two natures in the 
 Godhead, and regarded Christ as a man adopted by God as 
 his son. It was the emperor who, hi opposition to the pope, 
 condemned the worship of images and pictures, A.D. 794,
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 287 
 
 and interdicted, throughout his empire, the adoration of the 
 saints. 
 
 The interest of the church, moreover, induced her to sub- 
 mit to the decisions of the crown. Charlemagne, although 
 in name merely a layman, acting in reality as if he were 
 himself pope, and only intent upon her welfare, immeasur- 
 ably added to the power of that dignitary and to her unity. 
 The dangerous influence of the Lombards was forever de- 
 stroyed ; the donations of Pipin were confirmed, and secured 
 to the pope by the power of the empire, while the esteem in 
 which he was held by the emperor, the closeness of their 
 alliance, his influence over the numerous clergy spread 
 throughout the empire, and the recognition of his sanctity, 
 which empowered him to bestow the crown and a new title, 
 in the name of God, on the emperor, at once raised him next 
 in rank to that sovereign, to whose temporal power his 
 spiritual power alone ceded, nay, his authority ere long rose 
 so high, as, during succeeding centuries, to render it ques- 
 tionable whether precedence was not his due. Charlemagne 
 also widely extended the influence of the church, by the con- 
 version of several million heathen to Christianity, and by 
 the erection of powerful bishoprics in the interior of Ger- 
 many ; among others, that of Paderborn, one of his favorite 
 places of residence, and Bremen, distinguished as the out- 
 post by which Christendom was guarded against the pagan 
 North. 
 
 The jealousy that existed between the conquered Saxons, 
 Thuringians, Hessians, Bavarians, and Swabians, and, in 
 fact, between all the Germans and the Franks, cautioned 
 Charlemagne against placing Frankish Grafs over these 
 provinces, and he, accordingly, set over them bishops, whose 
 spiritual and apparently gentle rule bound them in fetters 
 stronger than those imposed by force. Upon these spiritual 
 lords he conferred the greatest possible temporal preroga- 
 tives and power, in order to render their authority equal to 
 that of the Grafs, and to enable them to act as a check upon 
 the native Grafs, whose allegiance appeared doubtful. Penal
 
 288 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 judicature, the power of life or death within their dioceses, 
 was, for these reasons, one of their prerogatives ; it was even 
 exercised by abbots, as, for instance, those of Fulda and St. 
 Gall, who thus united in their persons not only the authority 
 of the ancient judges of peace, but, in their capacity of feud- 
 atory lords over their armed vassals, that of the ancient 
 dukes. These measures, calculated to meet the exigency of 
 the times, at a later period greatly endangered the empire, by 
 giving a preponderance of wealth, prerogative and power to 
 the church. 
 
 Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon monk, Charlemagne's spiritual 
 guide, a man of comprehensive intellect and deep learning, 
 was his agent in the most important ecclesiastical affairs, 
 and particularly in the management of the academies, whose 
 foundation gave a fresh impulse to German civilization. 
 
 CXYI. The State of Learning under Charlemagne 
 
 THE academies founded beneath the despotic rule of 
 Charlemagne in aid of the church were the means of rais- 
 ing Germany from her ancient barbarous state. A kind of 
 academy, composed of the most learned and talented men 
 of the age, was established at the imperial court; among the 
 number were: Alcuin, the Anglo-Saxon, whose numerous 
 letters and other writings are still extant; Paul "Warnefried, 
 the celebrated historian of Lombardy; Angilbert, Peter of 
 Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia, Theodolfus, the pious bishop 
 Turpin, and young Eginhart, the two biographers of Charle- 
 magne, Riculf, Theodulf, Adelhard, "Wala, Wigo, Arno, 
 Sigulf, Fredegis, and Richbod. Alcuin generally resided at 
 Tours, where he founded a classical academy, which pro- 
 duced most of the above-mentioned scholars, and, at a later 
 period, many more. The society of these men was the fa- 
 vorite relaxation of the emperor, whenever a pause occurred 
 in war. Each branch of science became, in turn, the theme 
 of conversation ; etiquette was thrown aside, and each of the 
 academicians was distinguished by a name taken from the
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 289 
 
 Bible or from the Greek and Roman classics, which at that 
 time were carefully collected and diligently studied. Char- 
 lemagne was named King David; Wala, Jeremiah; Frede- 
 gis, Nathaniel; Alcuin, Horace; Angilbert, Homer; The- 
 odulf, Pindar; Eginhart, Calliopius, etc. Refinement and 
 learning long distinguished the family of the emperor, one 
 of whose grandsons, Nithard, became celebrated as a histo- 
 rian. Charlemagne was also the patron of poetry. By his 
 direction, a number of the ancient legends and ballads of 
 Germany were collected and committed to writing, some of 
 which were probably retouched at a later period, and are 
 those that have reached our times in fact, are all that 
 remain of ancient legendary lore; the Gothic legends, for 
 instance, particularly those of Dietrich, and those of the 
 Burgundians, of Etzel and Gonthachar, which, in the.Nibe- 
 lungenlied, were connected with those of the Franks and of 
 the North. The deeds of Charlemagne became the theme 
 of many later German and French poets. 
 
 Charlemagne also founded several monastic schools for 
 the diffusion of useful knowledge among the commonalty, 
 and more especially among the clergy. The most celebrated 
 were those of Fulda, Mayence, St. Gall, Reichenau, and 
 Weissenburg, which produced a crowd of distinguished 
 scholars. The emperor sometimes assisted in person at 
 these academies, and one day, perceiving the superior in- 
 telligence and industry of the commoners over the nobles, 
 vehemently expostulated with the latter, possibly foreseeing 
 in this circumstance the future downfall of the class for 
 whose establishment he had so zealously labored. Masters 
 for writing, arithmetic, singing, and music, were brought 
 from Italy, where Latinity and art had been preserved by 
 the clergy. At Paris, a concert was given by the emperor, 
 which decided the superiority of the Italian over the French 
 singers. A grammar of the German language was com- 
 posed. The first bell was cast at St. Gall by a monk named 
 Tancho, who is said to have received a hundredweight of 
 silver from the emperor, for the purpose of founding a seo- 
 GEEMANY. VOL. I. 13
 
 290 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ond one, but who kept the silver for his own use, and made 
 a bell of common metal, at whose first peal, by the decree of 
 Heaven, he fell dead. 
 
 Charlemagne, besides being a distinguished patron of 
 learning, was, for the times in which he lived, a great pro- 
 moter of agriculture, trade, and commerce. He improved 
 the calendar, and his Capitularies contained separate regula- 
 tions for each class. Notwithstanding the disinclination of 
 the Germans for commercial pursuits, he attempted to en- 
 courage them by granting extraordinary privileges to mer- 
 chants. The Jews, who, after the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 had been carried away captive by the Romans, and scattered 
 over the face of the earth, had, since Rome had fallen under 
 the dominion of Germany, busied themselves exclusively 
 with commerce, and Charlemagne, uninfluenced by the prej- 
 udices of the Christians, rewarded their skill and industry by 
 granting them every privilege demanded by humanity and 
 consistent with the advantage of the state. Roads were 
 built, and traveling merchants were protected by severe 
 laws. An alliance was formed with the commercial towns 
 of the Slavi on the Baltic, and with the Greeks, the former 
 of which carried on a traffic in slaves and furs, the latter in 
 precious stones, rich stuffs, and fruits. New markets, open 
 to foreign merchants, were erected in the interior of Ger- 
 many, at Bardewyk, Magdeburg, Erfurt, Forchheim, Ratis- 
 bon, and Lorch. The imperial palaces, more particularly 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, Heristal, Nimwegen, Diedenhofen, Rense, 
 Andernach, Priim, Ingelheim, Worms, Tribur, Paderborn, 
 and Salzburg, whose gardens, fields, vineyards, arable lands, 
 and forests were cultivated and managed by the emperor's 
 servants under his own superintendence, afforded proof of 
 his acquaintance with husbandry, by serving as models to 
 the whole empire for economy and good management. It 
 was here that he carried into practice the knowledge he had 
 acquired from the Romans and the Slavi, who were far in 
 advance of the Germans in the arts of husbandry, that he 
 cultivated the fruits and reared the animals of foreign coun-
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 291 
 
 tries, and made experiments for the improvement of agricul- 
 ture. To the inhabitants of these demesnes he gave a par- 
 ticular law, the Capitulare de Villis, which contained a 
 complete set of rules for the agriculturist, and served as 
 a manual for the rest of his subjects. 
 
 The only artificers at this period were women and serv- 
 ants. The daughters of Charlemagne and the daughters of 
 the peasants were equally engaged in weaving, embroidery 
 and housekeeping. The Capitularies prescribed rules to the 
 artisans, and were an evidence of the zeal with which Charle- 
 magne endeavored to introduce the refinements of the South 
 into Germany, and the variety of trades, from that of the 
 jeweler to that of the shoemaker, mentioned in them, prove 
 how greatly he had already contributed to the comfort and 
 elegance of domestic life. The use of richly-worked and 
 embroidered dresses, gay coats and flags, devices, carved 
 wainscoting, ornamental furniture in gold and silver, sculp- 
 tured drinking cups, splendid arms and coats of mail, glass 
 windows and musical instruments, ere long gave indication 
 of a love of splendor and of a higher degree of civilization 
 and social intercourse. Architecture was still neglected, 
 owing to the dislike of the Germans to the erection of cities 
 or even castles. The emperor's palaces at Aix-la-Chapelle 
 were considered so wonderful in the North that the people 
 compared them to the papal residence, and named them 
 "Little Rome." At Ingelheim, on the Rhine, stood an- 
 other palace, the remains of whose ruins fell not many years 
 ago. Some of the elegant columns that once formed part of 
 it may still be seen near the old well in the court of the cas- 
 tle of Heidelberg. Among other treasures, Charlemagne is 
 said to have possessed one golden and three silver tables, the 
 latter of which bore representations of ancient Rome, mod- 
 ern Rome, and the globe.
 
 292 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 CXVII. Charlemagne 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE is said to have been seven feet in height. 
 His crown, preserved at Vienna, is of gigantic size. Strong 
 and active in his person, he was a perfect adept in the tour- 
 nament and in the use of weapons. His arm was as irresist- 
 ible as his commanding genius. The ponderous iron lance 
 was wielded like a toy in his powerful grasp. In swimming 
 he was unequaled. By never indulging in excess or luxury, 
 his strength, maintained by daily exercise, endured to ex- 
 treme old age. "Warlike and majestic in his deportment, 
 every heart throbbed higher, every head bent with deference 
 and awe, at his presence. Wisdom and nobility sat en- 
 throned on his broad, open brow; every eye sank beneath 
 his piercing and commanding glance. His dress, generally 
 simple and warlike, consisted of a doublet composed of the 
 fur of the otter. When his courtiers first began to wear 
 sumptuous silken dresses, he led them one day mockingly 
 into the heavy rain, which quickly spoiled their gay attire. 
 On public and solemn occasions, he wore a short golden 
 gown, fastened with a girdle; gay-colored ribbons placed 
 crosswise over his trousers and stockings, uncut diamonds 
 on his shoes, and a mantle, generally either white or green. 
 The handle of his enormous sword bore his seal, and he was 
 wont to say, "With my sword I maintain, all, to which I 
 affix my seal. ' ' 
 
 He was married five times, and had five concubines. 
 Beauty and virtue guided his choice of a wife more than 
 high birth. It is related of Hildegarde, the Swabian, whom 
 he wedded shortly after his divorce from the Lombard 
 princess, that a servant, named Taland, enraged at the 
 contempt with which she treated his criminal advances, 
 accused her of infidelity to the emperor, who divorced her 
 also; upon which she retired to Rome, where for some time 
 she led a life of great sanctity, and devoted herself to the 
 care of the sick, until happening to meet with Taland, wan-
 
 CHARLEMAGNE 293 
 
 dering about blind, she restored him to sight, and the 
 wretched man, struck with remorse, confessed his crime 
 and led her back to her husband. The legends also mention 
 the beautiful daughters of Charlemagne, who sometimes ac- 
 companied him to the field of battle. His secretary, young 
 Eginhart, became deeply enamored of his daughter Emma, 
 and the youthful lovers, fearing his anger should he discover 
 their affection, only met at night. It happened that one 
 night, while Eginhart was in the princess's apartment, a 
 fall of snow took place. To return across the palace court 
 must lead to inevitable discovery by the traces of his foot- 
 steps. The moment called for resolution; woman's wit came 
 to the assistance of the perplexed lover, and the faithful and 
 prudent Emma, taking her lover on her back, bore him 
 across the court. The emperor, who chanced to be gazing 
 from his window, beheld this strange sight by the clear 
 moonlight, and the next morning sent for the young couple, 
 who stood before him in expectation of being sentenced to 
 death, when the generous father bestowed upon Eginhart 
 his daughter's hand, and the Odenwald in fief. The tomb 
 of Eginhart and Emma is still to be seen at Erbach. The 
 counts of Erbach claim from them their descent. Eginhart 
 became a celebrated historian, and it was chiefly through the 
 medium of his pen that the deeds of his great father-in-law 
 were handed down to posterity. Bertha, the second daugh- 
 ter, carried on a similar intrigue with young Engelbert, and, 
 without being formally married, became the mother of Nit- 
 hart, who distinguished himself as a historian. Odoin the 
 brave is named as the lover of the third daughter. Louis, 
 Charlemagne's successor, no sooner mounted the throne, 
 than he imprisoned his sisters in a convent and persecuted 
 their lovers. Odoin, too proud to flee, stood firm and fought 
 bravely to the last against his assassins. The lenity with 
 which Charlemagne treated his daughters and their lovers 
 unquestionably arose from a political motive. Had he wedded 
 them to men of distinction belonging to the old ducal fami- 
 lies, the empire must ere long have been partitioned between
 
 294 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 his sons-in-law. In order to avoid this, and to preserve the 
 unity of the state, by rendering rivalry impossible, he conse- 
 quently refused his daughters any share in the heritage or 
 legal marriages. 
 
 Charlemagne had three sons: Charles, who died early. 
 Pipin, a young man of talent, who, after serving in several 
 campaigns, particularly in those against the Avari and the 
 Lombards, rebelled against his father and died in prison. 
 His history is extremely obscure. Louis, the third son, un- 
 fortunately of weaker parts than his brethren, was the only 
 one who survived him. 
 
 This great emperor died in 814. He lies, or, more prop- 
 erly speaking, sits, buried at Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on his 
 tomb being opened by the emperor Otto the Third, he was 
 found sitting upright as on a throne, attired in his imperial 
 robes. So great was his renown, so great were the love and 
 veneration he inspired, that he was canonized, and pilgrim- 
 ages were made to his grave. The effect of his genius, far 
 from ceasing with his life, shed a luster over succeeding 
 centuries. Radiant with majesty and sanctity, the founder 
 of the new empire stood, as it were, on the threshold of that 
 great and brilliant era, his creation, the middle age, then 
 opening on the world. His fame, unsurpassed and unequaled 
 by that of succeeding emperors, dazzled posterity, and the 
 memory of his glory bestowed imperishable dignity on the 
 imperial crown, though subsequently placed on such un- 
 worthy brows. Hence the great emperor, his warriors, his 
 sages, and their mighty exploits, naturally formed the in- 
 exhaustible subject of the poetry of the Middle Ages, and his 
 reign has been immortalized by German, French and Span- 
 ish poets, in whose productions the great events of later 
 times, and the results of more modern civilization, are as- 
 cribed to it as the concentrating point of all that is sublime, 
 glorious, great, and beautiful. The Capitularies and letters 
 of Charlemagne himself, the numerous writings of Alcuin, 
 the historical work of Eginhart, a manuscript chronicle at 
 Paris, and the romantic account of the monk of St. Gall,
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 295 
 
 are the only sources of information concerning this emperor 
 now extant. The romance of Turpin and the Weaver are 
 mere fables. 
 
 PART VII 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 
 
 CXVIII. Odin 
 
 THE North, or Scandinavia, separated from Germany 
 by the Baltic, stretched far into the frigid zone. Den- 
 mark lay to its extreme south. From time immemo- 
 rial the fertile lowlands were cultivated by a hardy popula- 
 tion. Steep Alps separate Sweden from Norway. Ages ago, 
 along the extensive rocky coasts, called the Scheeren, and 
 along the streams flowing through the valleys, dwelt tribes 
 of Fins, who, at an unknown period, were driven into Fin- 
 land, and amid the eternal snows of Lapland, which they 
 still inhabit, by Germans, who crossed the Baltic and took 
 possession of the countries lying to the North. 
 
 The most ancient sources of Northern history are the 
 legendary accounts of celebrated royal dynasties, which, as 
 is usually the case in these sort of legends, drew their origin, 
 in the fabulous ages, from the supreme deity, and became 
 the first rulers over the people. Thus the Swedish, Norwe- 
 gian, Danish, and Anglo-Saxon kings claim as their com- 
 mon ancestor the great god, Odin, who is said to have 
 subdued the whole of Northern Germany and Scandinavia, 
 which he divided between his sons, giving Eastern Saxony 
 to Vegdeg, Western Saxony to Balldr, Franconia to Sigge, 
 Denmark to Skiold, Norway to Saming, and Sweden to 
 Yngwi-Freyr. With his own hands he raised the great 
 temple at Upsala in Sweden, where he was represented 
 under the figure of a warrior standing before an enormous
 
 296 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 flaming sun. Here was his earthly throne, whence he gave 
 laws to the whole North, and to him are ascribed the inven- 
 tion of religious ceremonies, magic, the Runic letters, poetry, 
 the institution of the popular assembly or Thing, and of the 
 administration of justice, heroism, the regulations of the 
 warriors or warlike retinue, which he composed of Berserk- 
 ers, and every important popular institution. For some time 
 after the death of Odin, his sons appear to have shared his 
 divine attributes. They were called Drottar or lords, a word, 
 in its full meaning, signifying God-kings, who possessed 
 power equaling that of Odin. The whole of Sweden was 
 under the jurisdiction of the temple-court at Upsala, the seat 
 of government of the Ynglinger (from Yngwi-Freyr) ; the 
 whole of Norway under that of the sacred city of Thrand- 
 heim, where the Saminger sat enthroned; and Denmark, 
 under that of the great temple of Lethra, which was guarded 
 by the Skioldunger. So far extend the ancient traditions of 
 the gods, which soon after assume a more worldly tone, and 
 treat of men. The laws and institutions of ancient Germany 
 appear to have spread over the North as well as the South. 
 The Swedish legends record that Dygwe, the seventh Yng- 
 linger after Yngwi-Freyr, was the first who exchanged the 
 title of Drottar for that of king. 
 
 CXIX. The Kings 
 
 THE lineal descendants of Odin maintained their author- 
 ity at Upsala, Thrandheim, and Lethra, and even after the 
 extinction of their race, the ancient veneration for these 
 sacred cities gave to the districts to which they belonged, 
 and to their kings, a sort of pre-eminence over the other dis- 
 tricts and their kings, which usually simply consisted in the 
 honor of presiding at the national festivals, except in cases 
 when this dignity chanced to be attained by some great war- 
 rior, who made use of the superstition of his countrymen to 
 increase his authority. Besides these sacred rnouarchs, there 
 arose numerous petty Fylker-kings, so named from the inde-
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 29? 
 
 pendent Fylker or districts over which they reigned. These 
 kings were, at first, side-branches of the race of Odin, and 
 united in their persons the offices of Lagmenn or guardians 
 of the laws, of Hof dingiar, presidents of the popular assembly 
 and administrators of justice (chiefs of the Thing), and of 
 Blotmenn, high priests of the altar; they were also Heer- 
 konige, or kings of the army by land, and sea-kings by 
 water. 
 
 The people consisted of free peasants or Bonden, who 
 possessed a heritable and inalienable Allod or Odol, free- 
 hold. They had the right of electing the king, and of hold- 
 ing their public councils or Things under his presidency. 
 Wealthy Bonden had their vassals or feudal tenants (Lendir- 
 menn), and servants or slaves (Tralle). Individual warriors, 
 who assembled followers and practiced piracy, received the 
 title of sea-kings, or, when they fixed their abode on a small 
 island or rock (Naes), that of Naes-kings. Other warriors 
 formed a republic of pirates, each of whom enjoyed equal 
 privileges and was subject to the same regulations, which 
 were often extremely severe. "War and piracy were the 
 daily occupation of the people. The kings were ever at feud. 
 Sometimes a king was murdered for attempting to tyrannize 
 over the people; or some mighty warrior was, for a short 
 time, successful in his attacks upon neighboring kings; or 
 part of the people migrated to the South. 
 
 The state of the North, about the middle of the first cent- 
 ury after Christ, is thus described in numerous legends, in 
 which, in the midst of the universal confusion, its three 
 great causes, the love of war, the attempts of the Tralle to 
 escape from thralldom, and the sturdy opposition of the Bon- 
 den to the arbitrary rule of the kings, may ever be traced. 
 This continual struggle necessarily produced a new order of 
 things; war was preferred to peace, the military ruled the 
 civil power, and the warriors tyrannized over the Bonden, 
 whose Allods were alienated by the kings, and the feudal 
 system was introduced. Superstition gave the sacred kings 
 the upper hand over the minor rulers, and, finally, the intro-
 
 29h 1HE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 duction of Christianity tended to bring the people into sub- 
 jection and to fix the throne on a firmer basis. 
 
 It is remarkable that the change in the government of 
 the three kingdoms proceeded from totally different causes. 
 In Denmark, where war was the ruling passion, the people 
 crowded beneath the banner of their kings, who easily ex- 
 tended the authority they thus acquired. In Sweden, the 
 people were inthralled by superstition, and the kings, un- 
 aided by the sword, exercised supreme power in Odin's sacred 
 temple. In Norway, the authority rested with the people, 
 and the Bonden, whose warlike deeds surpassed those of their 
 monarchs, held royalty in check; and it was only after a long 
 and cruel struggle, which, like a pestilence, swept away half 
 the population, that they at length fell beneath the arbitrary 
 rule of one warrior king. 
 
 GXX. The Danes 
 
 THE Danes bear a prominent part in the history of an- 
 cient Germany. As early as a century before Christ, they 
 appeared on the other side of the Pyrenees and Alps, under 
 the denomination of Cimbri, and, at a later date, sent forth 
 the hardy Longobardi. Invincible hi their own country, 
 they spread their conquering arms, at different periods, over 
 the whole of the North, where their power for some time 
 equaled that attained by the Franks in the South. Frotho, 
 the second king after Skiold, is said to have subdued upward 
 of a hundred of the minor kings who dwelt along the shores 
 of the Northern Ocean and the Baltic. He is described hi 
 the legends as a great lawgiver, and as so beloved by his 
 subjects, that, despairing to find his equal, they bore his 
 body about the country for three years ; at length they re- 
 solved to elect as his successor on the throne whoever com- 
 posed the best poem in his honor, and one Hiarne obtained 
 the prize. The sixth king after him was Dan Mykelati, who 
 gave his name to the country. Several new regulations are 
 ascribed to him, among others, the abolition of the burning
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 299 
 
 of the dead and the introduction of tumuli, in which the 
 dead bodies were placed unconsumed, and which gave name 
 to the subsequent age, that anterior to this king being known 
 as the Brandalter, or age of burning. The power of the race 
 of Odin appears to have ceased with him. His tenth succes- 
 sor was Hrolf, surnamed the Dwarf, on account of his di- 
 minutive stature. His commanding intellect insured the re- 
 spect of his subjects. At his decease the state was divided 
 among several minor kings, who preserved their independ- 
 ence until their subjection by Ivar Widfadmi (the far-spread- 
 ing) and his warriors, who also conquered many other coun- 
 tries. This king drove the Ynglinger out of Sweden, and 
 placed his brother on the throne of Upsala. After his death, 
 the kingdom became a prey to faction, and brethren and 
 sons strove for dominion. In the eighth century Gorm the 
 Old seized the supreme authority. During his reign the first 
 attempt to convert the Danes to Christianity was made by a 
 traveler, named Thorkill, who had embraced that religion 
 during his stay in France, and who, on his return to Den- 
 mark, produced such an effect by his preaching on the mind 
 of the aged king that he died of remorse for having spent 
 his long life in error and idolatry. The new doctrine was 
 rejected by the people. Gottrik, or Gottfried, the son of 
 Gorm, aided "Wittekind and the pagan Saxons, and was on 
 the point of attacking Aix-la-Chapelle, when he was mur- 
 dered by his subjects. Hemming, his successor, made peace 
 with the emperor. After fresh disturbances, Regnar Lod- 
 brok came to the throne. He was one of the greatest of the 
 Danish warriors, and his fame formed the theme of numer- 
 ous legends. His prowess was celebrated throughout the 
 whole of the North. His expedition against Ella, the Saxon 
 king in England, proved fatal to him. He was captured by 
 that prince, to whom he was unknown, and imprisoned in a 
 towei full of snakes, where with undaunted courage he re- 
 counted his deeds in song until life was extinct. He was a 
 zeaious heathen, and expelled his brother, Harald Klak, for 
 bis attachment to the new doctrine. Harald fled to the em-
 
 300 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 peror of Germany, Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, 
 and was baptized at Ingelheim. In the same year, A.D. 826, 
 St. Anscar, a pious monk, afterward known as the apostle of 
 the North, visited Denmark, and soon afterward Sweden, 
 where he preached the gospel at the peril of his life. In 834 
 the bishopric of Hamburg was founded as a means of accel- 
 erating the conversion of the North. 
 
 The history of this period is very obscure. The kings 
 strove for supremacy, some of them favoring Christianity 
 from interested motives, while the rest defended then* ancient 
 gods. Christianity, cruelly persecuted, spread but slowly, 
 and the German priests, in order to curry favor with the 
 people, either omitted part of the Catholic doctrine or assim- 
 ilated it with paganism. Thus the conversion was alwaj^s 
 commenced with the primsignung, or first mark with a 
 cross. Whoever was marked hi this manner could live as 
 he chose, either as a Christian or a heathen. The majority 
 of the people and their rulers still adhered to the worship of 
 Odin, and Hamburg was again destroyed during their de- 
 structive inroads into the German empire. 
 
 In 931, Gorm the Grim ruled Denmark, and persecuted 
 the Christians. His son Harald Blaatand (blue tooth) fa- 
 vored them, but, making himself hated by his despotism, 
 was murdered by a peasant. 1 His successor, the pagan 
 Svend, carried on extensive wars, particularly against the 
 lomsburger, a republic of warriors and pirates on the island 
 of Wollin near Pomerania, and against the "Wendi. In his 
 reign, another piratical horde, the Ascomanni or Schachtel- 
 manner (box-men), assembled and greatly endangered Sax- 
 ony. They were so numerous that the Saxons killed 20,000 
 of them in one battle. 
 
 Canute the Great, the most celebrated of the kings of the 
 North, the conqueror of Norway and England, was the pro- 
 
 1 Named Toki. The circumstances of this murder correspond minutely with 
 those of the murder of Gessler, the Swiss governor, by Tell. Even the name 
 is the same; Toki and Tell signifying, like the Latin Brutus, a simpleton. 
 Saxo Grammaticua.
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 301 
 
 moter of Christianity, which took firm root in Denmark. He 
 left new laws, extended the royal prerogative, and was the 
 founder of a new era, that of the middle ages, in the North. 
 Toward the close of the twelfth century, the history of Den- 
 mark was written in Latin by an erudite Dane, named Saxc 
 Grammaticus. 
 
 CXXI. The Swedes 
 
 DYGWE, the seventh Ynglinger, first assumed the title of 
 king. During the reign of his tenth successor, Eigill, a civil 
 war broke out ; the Tralle, headed by Tunni, one of their 
 class, revolted, and were in eight bloody battles victorious 
 over the Bonden, whom they completely expelled, together 
 with their king, and Tunni became sole sovereign. Eigill 
 fled to the court of Frotho, the great king of Denmark, and 
 the conqueror of the North, who, lending him his aid, over- 
 ran Sweden at the head of his veteran warriors, and, after 
 nine battles, in the last of which Tunni and the majority of 
 the brave Tralle were left dead on the field, restored Eigill 
 to the throne. 
 
 The petty Fylker-kings subsequently asserted their inde- 
 pendence. EigilPs sixth successor, Ingialldr, desiring to re- 
 gain the supreme authority, invited six of these kings to a 
 banquet, and, after inducing them to carouse deeply, set fire 
 to the house in which they slept. His punishment did not 
 tarry long. Ivar Widfadmi, the Dane, marched victoriously 
 through the North and arrived in Sweden. Ingialldr, sensi- 
 ble of the futility of opposition, but too proud to yield, invited 
 all his followers to a great banquet, and when they were 
 helpless from inebriety, set fire to the palace in which they 
 sat, and was destroyed with them. His son, Olaf, mean- 
 while, accompanied by numbers of the people, took refuge 
 in the northern mountains, and discovering a fertile and un- 
 inhabited country, settled there, and named it Wermeland. 
 Soon after their settlement, a famine, occasioned by the bad 
 cultivation of the ground, broke out among them, and they
 
 302 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 offered up their king as an expiatory sacrifice to the gods. 
 The descendants of Olaf, by their bravery and by their in 
 termarriages with the noblest families of Norway, rose ere 
 long to great power, and finally seized the monarchy. 
 
 Sweden was, meanwhile, long governed by kings of Dan- 
 ish origin, during whose reigns Christianity was first intro- 
 duced from Denmark. In 829, St. Anscar visited the coun- 
 try, but the new doctrine met with violent opposition. In 
 865, St. Rimbert made another short but useless attempt, and 
 paganism was not eradicated until 930, when Unno, bishop 
 of Bremen, who was succeeded in his pious mission by other 
 Germans, visited Sweden for that purpose. The last pagan 
 king of Upsala was Eric the Victorious. 
 
 About the year 1000, Olaf, surnamed the Schoos, or 
 bosom king, on account of his having been proclaimed and 
 raised in the arms of the people, was the founder of a new 
 era in Sweden. He was unanimously elected by the Fylker- 
 kings as their common sovereign. During his reign, Chris- 
 tianity was firmly established throughout his dominions. 
 
 CXXII. The Norwegians 
 
 NORWAY was subdivided among a crowd of Fylker, army, 
 sea, and Naes kings, who strove with each other by sea and 
 land. The independent spirit of the Bonden was long an in- 
 vincible obstacle to union ; in no other country has the people 
 been possessed of so much power, in no other has it been so 
 difficult for the kings and the military to bring the free peas- 
 antry into subjection. In the ninth century, one of the petty 
 kings, Harald Harfagra (with the beautiful locks), who is 
 said to have been a descendant of the expelled Ynglingers, 
 succeeded, after a long and desperate struggle, in usurping 
 dominion over the whole of Norway. His proffered love be- 
 ing treated with contempt by Gyda, the most beautiful and 
 the proudest of the maidens of Norway, who had vowed that 
 she would alone bestow her hand on him who presented her 
 With the whole of her country as a morning-gift, he swore
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 303 
 
 that he would not comb his beautiful hair until he had 
 gained the sole sovereignty, and, assembling a crowd of 
 youthful warriors beneath his standard, unexpectedly at- 
 tacked and subdued his neighbors, one by one. The fame 
 of his irresistible prowess quickly spread, and some of the 
 provinces voluntarily submitted to him. One of the petty 
 kings, rather than incur disgrace by flight or by defeat, 
 buried himself alive with his dependents and friends. At 
 length, the kings who still remained unsubdued made com- 
 mon cause, and a great battle was fought, in which Harald 
 was victorious. Subsequent rebellions proved vain; Har- 
 ald's power became gradually more firmly secured, and, 
 after the lapse of a few years, he grasped the scepter of Nor- 
 way. He now combed his locks and espoused the beauteous 
 Gyda. His throne, raised upon ruin and bloodshed, could 
 alone be supported by treachery and violence, and while he 
 caused the nobler and more resolute of the petty kings to be 
 murdered, he cajoled the more cowardly with rich gifts and 
 high but empty honors. He deprived them of their thrones 
 and their independence, placed them, in the capacity of Stadt- 
 holders or Jarls, over the provinces they formerly governed, 
 and by his despotic violence obtained for them far greater 
 power over the Bonden, whom he transformed into vassals, 
 and richer revenues than they had hitherto enjoyed. Pop- 
 ular freedom was annihilated at a blow ; every Odol (free- 
 hold) was declared crown property, and for the future held 
 in fief by its original possessor. This destruction of the old 
 German Allod and Gau system was unprecedentedly sudden 
 and violent, and the more astonishing from its happening to 
 the German tribe most jealous of its freedom ; nor was this 
 revolution in any way aided by the obedience inculcated by 
 the precepts of Christianity, Harald and the Norwegians 
 being 'still idolaters. Unwearied by the ceaseless warfare, 
 Harald ever pursued his aim with unremitting perseverance. 
 Rebellion was foreseen and crushed in the bud, and flight 
 alone secured the rebel from death; hence it naturally re- 
 sulted that the continual migrations gradually reduced the
 
 804 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 population of Norway to half its original number. On the 
 death of Harald, his empire, erected at the cost of so much 
 bloodshed, fell to pieces, but the people were too enfeebled 
 by tyranny to raise themselves entirely from their state of 
 subjection. The Bonden assembled for the purpose of elect- 
 ing a new king, and strife was about to ensue, when Hakon, 
 surnamed the Good, the son of Harald, who had been bred 
 up as a Christian in England, appeared, and peaceably ad- 
 dressing them, promised to revoke the tyrannical impositions 
 of his father, and especially to restore to each man the free 
 tenure of his Odol. Pleased with these promises, the people 
 elected him at Thrandheim, and he was subsequently pro- 
 claimed king throughout the Fylker. A new source of con- 
 tention arose from his attempting to introduce Christianity, 
 which the Bonden successfully resisted, and forced their king 
 to preside at their sacrificial feast, and to eat of the flesh of 
 the sacred horse. 
 
 In the latter part of the tenth century, Olaf Tryggvason, 
 who had been a bold pirate in his youth, and had become a 
 convert to Christianity, was elected king, and undertook the 
 work of conversion with a zeal worthy of Charlemagne. At 
 the great Things or assemblies, the Bonden, headed by their 
 Blotmenn, and sometimes by their idols, now confronted the 
 monarch, surrounded by the Christian bishops, and his bril- 
 liant train of warriors. The debate upon religion usually 
 lasted several days, and terminated in violence. Olaf finally 
 had recourse co arms, and the most dreadful scenes of slaugh- 
 ter ensued. He would sometimes unexpectedly invade se- 
 cluded valleys, or isolated tracts, whose inhabitants obsti- 
 nately rejected Christianity, and lay them waste by fire and 
 sword. The Bonden, meanwhile, were not idle ; the arrow, 
 the signal for a general rising, flew through the country, 
 and Hakon, one of the most powerful of the Jarls, who was 
 scarcely inferior to the king in talent and bravery, placed 
 himself at their head ; but his success was rendered null by 
 his ambition, arrogance, and licentiousness. The Bonden, 
 deeply injured by his forcible abduction of their wives and
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 305 
 
 daughters, or offended by his haughty demeanor, revolted 
 against and murdered him ; an event that proved little favor- 
 able to Olaf , who, being defeated by Eiric, the son of Hakon, 
 and by his allies, the Danes and Swedes, in a great sea-fight, 
 threw himself, together with all his followers, into the sea, 
 rather than incur the disgrace of captivity. Norway was 
 partitioned by the victors, but, in the beginning of the elev- 
 enth century, was again united under the scepter of Olaf the 
 Holy, who was canonized on account of his zeal in the work 
 of conversion. His first attempts for the conversion of his 
 heathen subjects, by means of instruction, failing, he had 
 recourse to persecution, and emulated his predecessor, Olaf 
 Tryggvason, in cruelty, laying whole villages of unbelievers 
 waste with fire and sword. At length, a casual occurrence 
 was the means of effecting a general conversion. A great 
 Thing was being held at Thrandheim, as usual, by moon- 
 light. 
 
 The Bonden stood, in immense numbers, forming a half 
 circle, armed and with threatening aspect, opposite the 
 king and his warriors. Olaf exerted his utmost eloquence 
 in the cause of Christianity, but the Bonden replied to his 
 arguments by saying, "A God whom we can neither see nor 
 touch, is no God," and pointing to a gigantic wooden image 
 of Thor, richly ornamented with gold, called upon the mon- 
 arch to show them his god. The king mocked the wooden 
 god, which had not the power of motion, and must be car- 
 ried by his worshipers. At that moment, the rising sun 
 illumined the eastern horizon. "Behold!" exclaimed the 
 enthusiastic monarch, "Behold! our God approaches!" as 
 he uttered these words, one of his followers split the image 
 with one blow of his battle-ax, and snakes and mice, which 
 had nestled inside, came rushing out, and the Bonden, mute 
 with awe, turned from the prostrate idol to bend in ado- 
 ration to the sun, which that day shone upon a Chris- 
 tian land. 
 
 Olaf was the founder of a new era in Norway, but did not 
 escape the punishment he merited for his numerous deeds of
 
 306 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 cruelty. At that period, Canute the Great undertook the 
 conquest of the North, and some of the Norwegians, thirst- 
 ing to revenge their slaughtered brethren, some ambitious 
 Jarls, and all, in fact, who hoped to profit by a revolution, 
 invited him into their country. Olaf , after being defeated 
 in a great sea-fight, fell a victim to treachery, and Norway 
 became a Danish province. 
 
 Snorri Sturleson, the great Norwegian historian, com- 
 piled his work in the Icelandic tongue, in the earlier half 
 of the thirteenth century. 
 
 CXX1II. Christianity and the Feudal System in the 
 
 North 
 
 SUBSEQUENTLY to this period, the history of the North 
 presents little worthy of remark until the time of the Refor- 
 mation, and will for the future be merely referred to in this 
 work when in relation with the affairs of Germany. The 
 three kingdoms, or generally two of them, appeal- to have 
 been sometimes forcibly united under one sovereign, at oth- 
 ers again ruled by independent kings, and a long list of 
 bloody broils between monarchs, and of contentions for the 
 succession to the throne, blacken the page, which is alone 
 rendered interesting by the repeated attempts made by the 
 peasantry, at different periods, in each of the three king- 
 doms, to rescue their privileges from the deadly grasp of 
 their kings or stadtholders, to abolish the tithes exacted by 
 the clergy, and to check the rising power of the vassals of 
 the crown, and the growing importance of the cities; but, 
 although these revolutions often proved fatal to the mon- 
 archs, the authority of the state, the church and the nobil- 
 ity was already too firmly based on the superstitious belief 
 of the Middle Ages to be shaken by the futile attempts of a 
 body of peasants for the restoration of the ancient German 
 system of government, which, however, still pervaded the 
 constitution of the three kingdoms, founded upon that of 
 the Franks.
 
 THE HISTORY Of THE NORTH 30? 
 
 The divine right of kings was the more easily recognized 
 from its accordance with the legendary superstition an- 
 ciently attached to the Drottars, the descendants of Odin. 
 A brilliant court, composed of a noble band of scalds or 
 bards, and of a warlike retinue, added splendor to royalty. 
 The monarch nominated his Jarls as stadtholders over the 
 Fylker and subordinate Herses over lesser tracts ; the former 
 of whom corresponded to the Grafs, the latter to the Cent- 
 ners, of the Franks. Sometimes it happened that a more 
 powerful Jarl was placed over several others, and eventually 
 received the Frankish title of duke. At the side of the tem- 
 poral governor or Jarl stood his spiritual colleague, the 
 bishop. The Fylker still retained the privilege of holding 
 popular assemblies, which the king, the Jarl, or the bishop 
 attended in person. At a time when the royal prerogative 
 was still held in check by these assemblies, the Lagmann, or 
 guardian of the national laws and privileges, confronted the 
 monarch at the head of the Bonden, by whom he was chosen 
 as the representative of their class ; a dignity at once sacred 
 and formidable. 
 
 The formation of a new class of nobility, composed of the 
 vassals of the crown, and the gradual rise of cities and com- 
 munities, greatly checked the power of the Bonden, and a 
 struggle naturally ensued, in which the peasantry, although 
 vanquished, finally retained, through their brilliant exploits 
 and unwearied perseverance, an honorable position in the 
 state. The great council of state which in each of the 
 three kingdoms replaced the general popular assemblies and 
 greatly diminished the authority of the sovereign was com- 
 posed of deputies, the representatives of the clergy, the no- 
 bility, the communities, and the peasantry; a prerogative 
 that was never enjoyed by the peasantry of the German 
 empire. 
 
 CXXIV. Iceland and Greenland 
 
 DURING the reign of Harald Harfagra, A.D. 863, the 
 island of Iceland, with its snow-capped mountains one of
 
 308 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 which, Hecla, was at that time vomiting fire was discovered 
 by a Norwegian vessel, driven northward out of its course, 
 which bore news of the discovery to Norway, where it was 
 hailed with delight by the people, who, oppressed by tyranny, 
 were at that period quitting their homes in thousands to seek 
 elsewhere an asylum for their threatened liberty. The first 
 settler, Ingolf, was speedily followed by such crowds of fugi- 
 tives that the island, notwithstanding its size, seemed likely 
 to be over-populated, and it was accordingly enacted, A.D. 
 873, that each new-comer should receive the portion of land 
 covered by the smoke arising from a burning heap of 
 fagots. 
 
 At first each tribe was headed by its own chief or 
 elder (Godar), but at a later period they were all in- 
 cluded in four provinces (Fiordungen), independent of each 
 other, according to the ancient German system, and an- 
 swering to the four cardinal points in their position on the 
 island. 
 
 The fraudulent plans of Olaf Tryggvason, for the posses- 
 sion of the island, were foiled by the decided refusal returned 
 to his flattering proposals by the national assembly. Chris- 
 tianity was first introduced in 981, by a Saxon priest named 
 Frederich, and in the year 1000 it had already become so 
 widely diffused that the Christian party succeeded in caus- 
 ing their religion to be proclaimed, in the public assembly, 
 that of the state ; this led to the dissolution of the Gau sys- 
 tem, and to the union of the island into one state, governed 
 by a Lagmann, whose dignity was not hereditary, and who 
 presided over the general assembly or Althing. This simple 
 republican form of government continued until 1261, when 
 the union of the island with Norway was managed by the 
 clergy and the Norwegian kings, with the concurrence of 
 the people, who were allowed to retain their own laws. 
 Since this period the island has sunk into insignificance. 
 The ancient German system of government was maintained 
 for a longer period and in greater purity in Iceland, while 
 she retained her independence, than in any other part of
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 309 
 
 Europe, and her historical importance now alone consists in 
 her possessing the only records in existence of the language 
 (which is still spoken by the inhabitants), the poetry, relig- 
 ion, and legends of the ancient North, by which the obscu- 
 rity of its history can be elucidated. The influence and fame 
 of Rome, which spread over Germany, casting into oblivion 
 remote and pagan times, scarce echoed to that distant shore, 
 whose hardy sons and cold ungenial clime alike disdained 
 the culture of the South, and where whose gods, now no 
 longer adored, still live in song. 
 
 Shortly after the discovery of Iceland, Greenland, the 
 northeastern part of the continent of America, was discov- 
 ered by the Norwegians, who thus claim the honor of the 
 discovery of America about five centuries earlier than that 
 of Columbus. Greenland, so named on account of the ver- 
 dure of the land and forests, must, at that period, have been 
 a fine country. The Norwegians, who had settled there in 
 great numbers, were carrying on a great traffic with Nor- 
 way, and the Jarls, placed over the new country by the 
 Norwegian monarchs, had become great and powerful, 1 
 when sudden destruction fell upon the colony; a fearful 
 frost spread from the north pole, and covered the country 
 with snow and ice, as it is to be seen at the present day. 
 The land, deserted by the Norwegians, was soon completely 
 forgotten, and entirely disappeared from history, until the 
 second discovery of America. 
 
 The Norwegians also sailed to the southwest of Iceland 
 and Greenland, and landed in a new country, which they 
 named Winland, from the vine which there grew wild. 
 They afterward made several expeditions to this coast, 
 which, doubtless, formed part of that of America, and re- 
 turned richly laden with its natural productions. 
 
 The Shetland, Orkney, and Faro Islands were, in the 
 ninth centurj", cultivated by the Norwegians, and governed 
 by Jarls. The Faro Islands are said to have been long re- 
 
 1 Snorri gives a detailed account of these facts.
 
 310 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 tained in paganism, by the cunning of old Tnind of Gote, a 
 sorcerer of legendary fame. 
 
 The distant expeditions undertaken by the Norwegians 
 prove their naval skill. They were the first who ventured 
 into the open sea. Other nations, until then, were only ac- 
 quainted with the navigation of the coasts. It is also evi- 
 dent, from their bold and distant voyages, that they pos- 
 sessed a sort of compass. The Northern navigators who 
 penetrated the Mediterranean, and settled in Greece and 
 Italy, taught then* art to the Southerns. All the terms made 
 use of in navigation at the present day by all the nations of 
 Europe may also be traced to a German origin. 
 
 CXXV. The Norsemen 
 
 THE daring expeditions and armed fraternities of the an- 
 cient Germans were common to all the Northern nations, and 
 ceased only with the ancient system of government. They 
 were continued to a much later period among the Scandina- 
 vians, and figure in history as the expeditions of the Norse- 
 men, the general appellation for all the Scandinavian nations 
 among the people of more southern latitudes. 
 
 The whole of the North swarmed with sea and Naes 
 kings, and piratical republics, who attacked alike foreign 
 and native ships, and landed indiscriminately on any coast 
 for battle or for plunder; nor was the authority of either the 
 monarch or the Fylker-kings respected by their subjects, 
 until some great and piratical expedition had added luster to 
 their name. These warlike and piratical expeditions received 
 an additional impulse when the monarchical power in each 
 of the three kingdoms became almost despotic and drove the 
 people, wild as the element with which they strove, to seek 
 refuge from tyranny at home on the ocean wave. During 
 the reign of Harald Harfagra, half the population of Nor- 
 way fled at times for safety to their ships. Immense num- 
 bers of these pirates wandered about the Northern Ocean, 
 striking their native shores with terror, while others, as has
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH 311 
 
 been already related, colonized the northern islands and 
 Greenland. Others, again, devastated the coasts of Saxony 
 and France, ventured up the rivers, and fought many a hard 
 battle with the Germans and Neustrians. A great multitude 
 of this description, led by Hollo and flying from Harald 
 Schonhaar, took possession of the northern coast of France, 
 hence named Normandy, and voluntarily embraced Chris- 
 tianity. Rollo received the name of Robert, and took the 
 oath of allegiance to the French monarch as first duke of 
 Normandy, A.D. 911, while his followers, a mere armed mul- 
 titude, naturally adopted the feudal system. Similar hordes 
 and the Danish kings, at the head of immense armies, in- 
 vaded, and, at different times, took possession of the whole 
 of England, peopled some of the provinces, and, although 
 finally obliged to yield to the ancient Anglo-Saxons, made a 
 deep and lasting impression on the British language, man- 
 ners, and constitution. At a later period, a duke of Nor- 
 mandy conquered and reigned over England, where he intro- 
 duced the feudal system, A.D. 1066. Other hordes ventured 
 into the Mediterranean, and opposed the Moors. Adventur- 
 ers from the North also founded a state in Sicily, and shortly 
 afterward the powerful kingdom of Naples. The expeditions 
 of the Norsemen to the East are equally remarkable. The 
 Danish and Swedish kings waged bloody wars with the 
 Wendi, whom they often subdued and rendered tributary. 
 All the Finnish races, on either side of the Baltic and within 
 the Gulf of Finland, were also subdued by the Swedes. In- 
 dications of solitary expeditions having been made into Rus- 
 sia, even in pagan times, for the purpose of discovering an- 
 cient Asgard, or Caucasus, still exist ^ the body-guard of the 
 Greek emperors was also formed from similar wanderers who 
 reached Constantinople, and who, like the Gothic body-guard 
 of earlier times, in the same city, were named Varingians, 
 and were always recruited by fresh adventurers, who trav- 
 ersed Russia or the seas. The Russians, at that period the 
 most barbarous of the Slavonian nations, became, by these 
 means, acquainted with the brave Norsemen; and their his-
 
 312 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 tory, according to the Chronicle of the monk Nestor, com- 
 mences with a unanimous resolution, on the part of the peo- 
 ple, to elect a Knees or ruler, but as none of the nation was 
 deemed worthy of the elevation, they invited the Norsemen 
 into the country, and elected a gigantic warrior, named 
 Ruric, a heathen, for their Knaes, who in this manner be- 
 came the founder of the Russian empire. Like the rest of 
 his countrymen throughout ancient Russia, he was named a 
 Warager, a term synonymous with that of Varingian.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 313 
 
 SECOND PERIOD 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 Zwei swert liez Got in ertrfche zu beschirmene dy cnstenheit, dem papste 
 das geistliche, dem keiser das werltliche. SACHSENSPIEGEL. 
 
 PART VIII 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 
 
 CXXVI. Louis the Pious and his Sons 
 
 THE Middle Ages commenced with the German empire. 
 The struggle between paganism and Christianity 
 ceased, and the church of the new era, which, for 
 seven succeeding centuries, has imposed its mysteries upon 
 the nations of Germany, was triumphantly raised hy the 
 newly-acquired power of the emperor and the pope. 
 
 The period immediately subsequent to the reign of Char- 
 lemagne was troubled and gloomy. The scepter wielded by 
 the Carlovingian monarchs, who had ever proved themselves 
 the greatest men of their times, was now held by the feeble 
 hand of Louis, the youngest, the most incapable, and the 
 only surviving son of the great emperor, who long and 
 deeply deplored the loss of Charles and Pipin. Pipin left a 
 son, named Bernhard, to whom Charlemagne intrusted the 
 government of Italy, and in whose favor, as successor to 
 the imperial crown, a strong party was formed at court by 
 the most influential among the nobility, headed by Wala, a 
 descendant of Charles Martell; but Charlemagne, equally 
 unbiased by their wishes as he was unmoved by his own 
 inclination, declared his son, Louis, his heir. This emperor 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 14
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 no sooner mounted the throne than he revenged himself on 
 Bernhard's party, confined Wala in a monastery, caused 
 Odoin the Brave, his sister's lover, to be assassinated, and 
 replaced his father's gay and witty courtiers with devotees, 
 by whom he was led to favor the interests of the pope. The 
 guiltless Bernhard, perceiving the danger with which he 
 was momentarily threatened, at first showed a disposition to 
 rebel, but instantly submitted on receiving through the Em- 
 press Irmingarde an assurance of pardon, and a safe con- 
 duct from Louis, and came unarmed to Chalons in order to 
 do homage to the faithless emperor, who caused his eyes 
 to be torn from their sockets in so barbarous a manner that 
 he expired within a few days. No sooner, however, had 
 Louis thus glutted his revenge than, struck with remorse for 
 his crime, rendered doubly poignant by grief for the death 
 of Irmingarde, A.D. 818, he evinced a desire to abdicate his 
 throne, and to seclude himself within a cloister, but was 
 dissuaded by the priests. The pope, Stephen, who had in- 
 stigated him against Bernhard, presented him with a crown, 
 in return for which he thrice humbly prostrated himself at 
 the feet of the pontiff, whose successor, Paschal, encouraged 
 by this act of humility, caused himself to be elected without 
 receiving the ratification of a sovereign before whom both 
 he and the clergy deemed it no longer necessary to cringe, 
 and who, bending deferentially before them, implicitly 
 yielded to their tyranny and imposed penances, from a su- 
 perstitious belief that the salvation of his soul depended on 
 an unconditional submission, and on unlimited grants to the 
 church. Wala said that the emperor took k>o deep a con- 
 cern in spiritual, and the pope, in temporal, matters. 
 
 Louis resembled his father in the gigantic size of his per- 
 son, and in his skill in warlike sports and exercises, but the 
 narrowness of his mind and his pusillanimity contrasted 
 strikingly with the genius of his great progenitor. Hence 
 arose the aversion manifested toward him by the laity, and 
 the arrogance of the clergy. Devoid of intellect, irresolute, 
 Yid weak, he was ever swayed by passion or prejudice to do
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 315 
 
 the wrong he dreaded, which was ever followed by remorse, 
 whose stings he sought to allay by a mean submission to his 
 spiritual advisers, who, far from favoring his desire for seclu- 
 sion, surrounded him with the most beautiful of the daugh- 
 ters of the nobility, and at length induced him to wed the 
 Bavarian, Jutta, of the race of the Welfi, A.D. 819, who, by 
 her skill and beauty, gained unbounded influence over him, 
 and whose policy being to render herself universally beloved, 
 conciliated Bernhard's adherents, and recalled "Wala, who, 
 meanwhile, had been chosen abbot of Corvey, to court, 
 Louis, on his part, performing a solemn penance at Altigny, 
 A.D. 822, and making a public protestation of repentance for 
 the murder of his relative, before the assembled Diet. 
 
 A trait, strongly characteristic of the times, recorded by 
 the Saxon annalist, strikingly demonstrates the objection 
 prevailing among the upholders of ancient German liberty 
 to the imposition of the new feudal system. Ethico, the 
 Alemann, the father of Jutta, forbade his son Henry to 
 hold any lands in fee from the Frankish monarch; but 
 Henry allowing himself to be persuaded by his sister to 
 hold as much land in fee as he could drive over with a 
 golden plow during the emperor's sleep, the old man's an- 
 cestral pride and love of the ancient rights of his family were 
 so deeply wounded that he concealed himself for the remainder 
 of his life in the Schwarzwald. 
 
 "While these events were taking place at court, the rebel- 
 lious Bretons and Basques, the Norsemen, Obotrites, the 
 Croatian Slavi, and Bulgarians, 1 were successfully driven 
 from the frontiers. Harald, the Danish king, came to the 
 court of Louis and was baptized. 2 He was afterward ex- 
 pelled by his subjects. St. Anscar, regardless of danger and 
 
 1 Balderich, duke of Friuli, was deprived in 827 of his dignity, on account of 
 his incapacity ; the dukedom was dissolved, and divided among Granzgrafen, or 
 governors of the frontier. 
 
 4 Archbishop Ebbo of Rheims was the first and most active of the mission- 
 aries in Holstein. His attempts, however, failed. Two of his disciples who 
 were by chance passing Windbergen in the country of the Dithmarsi on Wodan's 
 day were struck by lightning, and the people imagining this occurrence to be a 
 sign of the wrath of their ancient god, Ebbo lost all his followers.
 
 316 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 opposition, continued to carry on the work of conversion in 
 the North, and became the first bishop of Hamburg, A.D. 834. 
 
 In Spain, the Moors made unopposed an inroad into the 
 French territory ; and Graf Bonif acius of Corsica undertook 
 an expedition against Africa, whence, after fighting five bat- 
 tles near Carthage, he returned, crowned with glory. 
 
 Louis traveled through the empire, in order to visit the 
 churches. It was on this occasion that he founded the bish- 
 opric of Hildesheim. 1 Several new monasteries were also 
 founded during his reign, the most noted of which were 
 those of Corvey, A.D. 822, Hervorden, Murhard, Schwarzach, 
 Hirsau, Gandersheim, Quedlinburg, etc. At a synod held 
 at Paris he also reintroduced the worship of images and pict- 
 ures, A.D. 825, which had been prohibited by Charlemagne. 
 
 Louis had three sons by Irmingarde, Lothar, Pipin, and 
 Louis, between whom he divided his empire, before his sec- 
 ond marriage, in the manner they were to possess it after his 
 death. Lothar was to be invested with the imperial dignity, 
 and to possess Italy and the Rhine country as far as the sea, 
 while Pipin was to reign to the westward over France, and 
 Louis to the east over Germany. Jutta, however, bore a 
 fourth son, Charles, surnamed the Bald, who became the 
 favorite of the old emperor, and a new division of the em- 
 pire, A.D. 829, by which the eldest sons were wronged, was 
 made in his favor. An unnatural spectacle, that of the sons 
 rebelling against their father, was now beheld by the people, 
 who, although horror-struck at the cause of the war, willingly 
 lent their aid against a sovereign they despised. Temporal 
 power decayed, and the popes took advantage of the uni- 
 versal confusion to increase their influence and to extend 
 their dominion over the minds of the people. 
 
 "Wala, who resided with Lothar in Italy, equally opposed 
 the worthless old emperor and the division of the empire. 
 The union of the empire under one energetic sovereign was 
 
 1 According to the legend, Louis found a blooming rose-tree in the midst of 
 the snow, on the spot on which he afterward caused the cathedral of Hildesheim 
 to be erected.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 317 
 
 his most ardent wish, and he sought to rouse Lothar to emu- 
 late the great deeds of his grandsire ; but this prince, although 
 fond of power, was too spiritless for any undertaking demand- 
 ing intellect and energy, and Wala's grand plan degenerated 
 to wretched intrigues. The three brethren leagued together, 
 took their father prisoner at Compiegne, and accused their 
 stepmother, Jutta, of adultery with the Markgraf Bernhard 
 of Barcelona, and of having bunded the emperor by her mag- 
 ical arts, A.D. 830. Pipin and Louis, however, quickly de- 
 serted Lothar, who grasped at sole sovereignty, and leagued 
 with their father against him, A.D. 831. A negotiation took 
 place between the contending parties at Aix-la-Chapelle, at 
 which Lothar had the weakness to sue for pardon, and the 
 perfidy to condemn his friends and his faithful adviser, "Wala, 
 to death, with his own mouth. Wala escaped with his life, 
 but was dragged by the emperor, who feared his talents, 
 from one cloistered prison to another. Jutta was solemnly 
 declared innocent, and Graf Bernhard was compelled to quit 
 the court. 
 
 No sooner had Jutta gained this victory than she at- 
 tempted to secure the chief part of the immense inheritance 
 to her son Charles, a project which again induced Pipin and 
 Louis to league with Lothar for the exclusion of their half- 
 brother. The pope, Gregory IV., foreseeing that the life of 
 the emperor was drawing to its close, and that it was to the 
 interest of the church to favor the stronger party, became 
 their ally. Pipin was the first to quarrel with his father, 
 who deprived him of Aquitania, which he bestowed upon 
 Charles, and the three brethren marched against their par- 
 ent at the head of a powerful army, which encamped on the 
 Sigwaldsberg, near Colmar. The emperor was at Worms. 
 Long negotiations took place, and even the pope hesitated 
 to give the signal for attack, when Wala arrived on the 
 scene of action and decided the affair. The pope was sent 
 to the emperor to demand his submission, while the allegi- 
 ance of the imperial army was attempted to be shaken ; and 
 before Louis had come to a decision, his followers deserted
 
 318 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 him to a man, during the night of the 29th of June, 833, and 
 he was obliged to yield himself prisoner to his sons. The 
 field where this took place was known until a very late 
 period as the Field of Lies (Lugenfeld). Public opinion 
 condemned both father and sons, but the clergy and the 
 great vassals found (as at an earlier period under the Mero- 
 vingians) these family dissensions profitable, and on that 
 account encouraged and augmented the discord that pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 The emperor was carried to a monastery at Soissons, 
 where Lothar caused him to do penance, kneeling on a hair 
 cloth, and in that position to read a paper in which he ac- 
 cused himself of perjury, murder, and theft, of having been 
 deceived by Jutta's witchcraft, etc. He was also deprived 
 of his arms, in order to render him unworthy of bearing the 
 imperial dignity, but in spite of every threat he could not 
 be induced to take the vow that separated him from the 
 world, from a secret hope of a second release, 1 which did 
 not long tarry : the jealousy of Pipin and Louis was again 
 roused by Lothar's superior power, and they once more 
 leagued against him, under the pretext that they could not 
 countenance the ill-treatment of their father, whom Lothar 
 was forced to restore to liberty and to the throne, A.D. 834. 
 The released emperor now divided the empire between Pipin, 
 Louis, and Charles, to the exclusion of Lothar. The Nor- 
 mans attacked Priesland with fire and sword, 9 and the Moors 
 crossed the Spanish frontier, while a Moorish fleet landed in 
 Provence and plundered Marseilles; occurrences by which 
 the emperor, whose thoughts were solely occupied in pro- 
 viding an inheritance for his favorite son, by a new division, 
 remained unmoved. For this purpose he attempted to bribe 
 the Germans by a gift, deemed in those times of inestimable 
 
 1 Bishop Drogo, of Metz, a natural son of Charlemagne, ever evinced such 
 fidelity to the emperor that he made him his confidant and confessor, and died 
 in his arms. 
 
 2 The exiled Harald had received Rustriugerland from the emperor in fee, 
 but was killed by the Priaii, who believed that he had invited the Danes into 
 their country. Heligoland was also at this period taken by the Danes.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 319 
 
 value, the relics of St. Vitus, which he caused to be borne, 
 in 836, in a solemn procession from Paris to the monastery 
 of Corvey, founded by St. Anscar, in 826, in "Westphalia. 1 
 Countless multitudes accompanied the procession in its prog- 
 ress through the empire ; the Parisians wept at the departure 
 of the sacred bones, while the Saxons hailed their arrival with 
 festive joy. The sons of Louis, however, were not disturbed 
 in their plans by this occurrence. Lothar, who had with- 
 drawn to Italy, and whose adviser, "Wala, was dead, had 
 an interview at Trient with his brother Louis (surnamed the 
 German, or the Bavarian, in order to distinguish him from 
 his father), probably with the design of warning him against 
 Jutta's fresh projects. Jutta instantly accused Louis of con- 
 spiring with Lothar, and established an alliance between 
 Pipin and Charles, who agreed to divide the empire into 
 two equal parts, and to force Lothar and Louis to submit. 
 Shortly after this, Pipin died, and Jutta, perceiving her in- 
 ability to support the claims she had arrogated for her son, 
 entered into a negotiation with Lothar, who, with character- 
 istic perfidy, consented to divide the empire with Charles to 
 the exclusion of Louis, and of his nephew Pipin, the son of 
 his deceased brother. "While these wretched intrigues were 
 being carried on, the emperor expired, A.D. 840, on an island 
 in the Rhine, near Ingelheim, shouting with his latest breath, 
 like the huntsmen, "Hutz! Hutz!" in order to scare the devil 
 from his bedside. 
 
 Louis was no sooner dead than Charles discovered that 
 Lothar, instead of placing him on an equal footing, would 
 merely tolerate him as an inferior ; he accordingly deserted 
 him, and entered into a compact with Louis the German, 
 with whom he thought more easily to divide the empire, as 
 Louis laid no claim to the title of emperor. The new con- 
 
 1 This saint, at a still later period, greatly conduced to the conversion of the 
 Slavi, by the same honors being paid to him which were formerly a part of the 
 worship offered to Swantewit, their ancient deity ; and so late as a century ago, 
 the peasants in the country around Ratisbon annually offered cocks on the altar 
 of St. Vitus, as nad been their custom a thousand years earlier, when pagans, 
 to offer them on that of Swantowit.
 
 820 THE HISTORY OF GERMAN? 
 
 federates now took up arms against Lothar and young Pipin, 
 who were defeated in a great battle that took place on the 
 25th of June, 841, near Fontenay, in Burgundy. One hun- 
 dred thousand men fell in this worthless cause, and the no- 
 bility was so thinned that for long after it was deemed nec- 
 essary when a freeman wedded a noble lady to raise him to 
 her rank in order to repair the loss. 
 
 Lothar fled to Aix-la-Chapelle, turned the great silver 
 tables of Charlemagne into coin, and proclaimed throughout 
 Saxony that all the Edelings should be deprived of their 
 lands, and that the Frilings and Lazzi, who since the time 
 of Charlemagne had been subordinate to them, should be 
 restored to their ancient privileges. The Saxons rose in 
 crowds, formed the Stellinga (restorers) confederacy, and 
 expelled not only the Edelings, but also the priests, pagan- 
 ism being still rife among the commonalty. Victory, never- 
 theless, still favored the arms of Louis and Charles, who on 
 the 14th of February, 842, took a federative oath at Strass- 
 burg, which was loudly repeated by their respective armies; 
 by that of Louis the German, on the right bank of the Rhine, 
 in the German language, and by that of Charles, on the left 
 bank, in the Roman tongue. At the same time, the two 
 confederates had the cunning to call a synod of bishops, be- 
 fore which they accused their brother Lothar of protecting 
 paganism ; and, as the Stellinga was naturally held in abomi- 
 nation by all the temporal lords, who feared lest the example 
 of the Saxon peasantry might influence their vassals and en- 
 danger the feudal system, they flocked hi crowds beneath the 
 standard of the two brothers ; and Lothar, finding himself 
 solely upheld by the Saxons, deserted them with his usual 
 perfidy, and made his treacherous betrayal of them a means 
 of reconciliation with his brothers. While he was carrying 
 on this negotiation with them in France, Louis suddenly 
 marched into Saxony, and after defeating the confederates, 
 treated the chiefs of the Stellinga with unexampled cruelty, 
 causing fourteen of them to be hanged, one hundred and 
 forty to be beheaded, and innumerable others to have their
 
 THE OARLOVINOIANS 321 
 
 hands chopped off. Thus terminated the first great struggle 
 of one class against the others, of the nobility against the 
 peasantry. 
 
 The treaty of Verdun, A.D. 843, concluded between the 
 three brethren, rewarded Lothar's treachery with the impe- 
 rial crown, and an extensive territory, including the Neth- 
 erlands, the Rhine country, Burgundy, and Italy, which 
 received the name of Lothringia (Lotharingien, Lotharii 
 regnum). Louis the German received, as his portion, all 
 the country lying to the right of the new empire, and the 
 title of a German king; and Charles the Bald was created 
 king of France. 
 
 While these negotiations and the war with Saxony were 
 being carried on, the Norsemen reappeared and plundered 
 the coasts of the Baltic ; at the same time, the Moors landed 
 in the south and sacked the town of Aries; the Bretons also 
 again rebelled. Bernard, Markgraf of Barcelona, was seized 
 and executed by order of Charles the Bald,' under pretext of 
 disloyalty, but more probably on account of his former inter- 
 course with the empress Jutta. Lothar died in 855, and di- 
 vided Lothringia among his three sons, who did not long 
 survive him. The only one of any importance was the sec- 
 ond son, Lothar II., who, by divorcing his wife Thietberga, 
 and wedding the beautiful Walrade, afforded an opportunity 
 to the pope, Nicholas L, to exert his authority. The mar- 
 riage with "Walrade was, by his influence, annulled by the 
 council at Metz, A.D. 863, and Hugo the son of Walrade was 
 declared incapable of succeeding to the crown. Lothar, upon 
 this, divorced Walrade, but shortly afterward remarried her. 
 His brother, Louis II., protected Benevento (which at that 
 time was divided into the three little dukedoms of Bene- 
 vento, Salerno, and Capua, and had greatly sunk in impor- 
 tance) against the Moors, who had taken possession of Rome, 
 and had converted the church of St. Peter into a stable. 
 
 1 According to another account, Charles is said to have stabbed him with 
 his own hand, and to have spurned the corpse with his foot, although they 
 resembled each other so strongly that every one believed them to be father and 
 son.
 
 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Louis the German was, meanwhile, fully occupied in re- 
 pelling the attacks of the Slavi, who took advantage of the 
 internal dissensions in the empire to rise en masse on all 
 sides. The Obotrites set the example in the North. Louis 
 put their prince, Gozzomvil, to death, A.D. 844, and placed 
 an able man, named Tachulf, as Markgraf hi Thuringia. 
 This brave man long waged war with the Slavi, and it is 
 related of him that once, although desperately wounded, he 
 gave audience to the Slavian embassadors, seated on his war- 
 horse, without betraying a symptom of the pain he suffered. 
 The Germans, mistrusting him on account of his attempts to 
 conciliate the neighboring Sorbi, A.D. 849, ventured a battle 
 without him, and were defeated. The flying Thuringians 
 are said to have been welcomed by their wives with blows. 
 So intense was the hatred between the two nations that when 
 Chiztibor, the prince of the Sorbi, wished to make terms with 
 the Germans, he was murdered by his subjects, A.D. 858. 
 Tabamzivil, prince of the Obotrites, submitted, 862. 
 
 In the South, the Bulgarians attained considerable power 
 after the complete destruction of the kingdom of the Avari, 
 and advanced into the mountains of Croatia. The Mark- 
 graf, Berthold, was defeated by them, A.D. 818; the Mark- 
 graf, Hathod, succeeded in expelling them, but afterward 
 rebelling, was deprived of his government. The Slavian 
 Maharanen, or Moravians, also rose under their prince, 
 Rastiz, and began to spread over their confines ; they and 
 their allies, the Bohemians, were, however, so bravely re- 
 sisted by the Markgraf Ernst, who completely routed them, 
 that Carlmann, the son of Louis the German, wedded his 
 daughter Luitswinda. In 858, Carlmann had conceived the 
 project of a nearer alliance between the Slavi and the Ger- 
 mans, for which a good foundation had been laid in the 
 mountains by Graf Gerold and the bishop Yirgilius, and 
 for this reason attempted to render himself independent of 
 his father, who overcame him, and removed the Markgraf 
 Ernst, A.D. 863; upon this, Carlmann allied himself with 
 Rastiz of Moravia, but was again defeated by his father,
 
 THE CARLOVINQIANS 323 
 
 who nominated Gunthachar Markgraf of Austria ; but this 
 Markgraf making common cause with Rastiz, Carlmann 
 sought to make amends for his former derelictions by 
 marching against them on his father's behalf. He was 
 victorious, killed Gunthachar, and caused Rastiz, who was 
 betrayed into his hands by his nephew, Suatopluk, to be 
 deprived of sight, A.D. 870. Suatopluk was kept in honor- 
 able confinement at Ratisbon, where he lived in luxury and 
 appeared to be perfectly resigned to his fate. Meanwhile, 
 the German Markgrafs, "Wilhelm and Engelschalk, treated 
 the Moravians so arbitrarily'that they rebelled, and Suato- 
 pluk, under pretext of appeasing them, went among them, 
 but no sooner found himself once more among his country- 
 men, than, loading the Germans with imprecations, he caused 
 his escort to be assassinated. Two Bavarian armies, sent 
 into Moravia, were defeated, and Suatopluk not only pre- 
 served, but also extended his dominion, A.D. 872. 
 
 In the meantime, Louis the Younger, the second son of 
 Louis the German, formed an alliance in Saxony and Thu- 
 ringia, with Rathulf , the son of Tachulf, similar to that be- 
 tween Carlmann and Ernst, and kept the Sorbi and Bohe- 
 mians in check on this side of the empire. On one occasion 
 he surprised the Bohemians when engaged in a great wed- 
 ding procession, and carried off the bride; whence arose the 
 saying, ' '' No one knows who may lead home the bride. ' ' The 
 Bohemians again rose, during a fresh incursion of the Norse- 
 men into Germany, but were repulsed by Poppo, Rathulf 's 
 successor. Louis the German died in 876, leaving three 
 sons, 1 Carlmann, who inherited Bavaria and Carinthia, 
 Louis the Younger, who succeeded to the throne of Saxony 
 and Thuringia, and Charles the Thick, who reigned over 
 
 1 And two daughters, Hildegarde, who in her twenty-first year became 
 abbess of the convent founded by her father at Zurich, and Bertha, who suc- 
 ceeded her in that dignity. According to the legend, they dwelt in the castle 
 of Baldern, whence they were led by a stag bearing lighted candles on his 
 antlers, to the spot where the convent now stands. Their father is also said to 
 have resided at times at Baldern on the Albis.
 
 324 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Swabia. Carlmann died in 880, and left an illegitimate 
 son, named Arnulf, who became Markgraf of Carinthia. 
 
 The race of Lothar no sooner became extinct than a quar- 
 rel arose for the Lothringian inheritance, between Charles 
 the Bald of France and Louis the Younger of Germany, 
 and a bloody engagement took place near Andernach on the 
 Rhine," which proved disastrous to Charles, who died dur- 
 ing the following year, A.D. 876, leaving an only son, Louis 
 the Stammerer, who died in 879, and left three sons, of whom 
 the youngest, Charles the Simple, ere long only remained. 
 
 The natural result of these repeated and manifold divis- 
 ions, was that the Norsemen and Arabians redoubled their 
 daring attacks upon the empire; that in the East a powerful 
 Slavian kingdom, unopposed by Germany, arose; and that, 
 in the interior of the empire, the power of the pope on the 
 one hand, and that of the great vassals on the other, steadily 
 and surely increased, to the detriment of the imperial pre- 
 rogative. 
 
 CXXVII. The Incursions of the Norsemen 
 
 THE bold Norse pirates continued to disturb the empire; 
 their insolence surpassed all belief, for not content with plun- 
 dering the coasts, they advanced in their small vessels up 
 the rivers, and suddenly appeared far up the country before 
 an alarm could be given. Their path was marked by heaps 
 of dead and ruins. They unhesitatingly attacked even forti- 
 fied cities, of which they took and destroyed several in France, 
 and many a hard contest was fought by them against armies 
 greatly their superiors in number. They always fought on 
 foot, and with such extraordinary activity as easily to over- 
 come the heavy cavalry of the French. If defeated, or in 
 danger of being so, they hurried to their ships, which they 
 rowed with such rapidity as to render pursuit impossible. 
 
 4 Besides the gateway and other Roman remains, the fine ruins of an ancient 
 castle of the Austrasian kings are still to be seen at this town.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 325 
 
 So greatly and universally were they feared that prayers 
 were read in the churches for deliverance from them. 
 
 In 841, headed by Ascar, they burned Rouen. In 843 
 they advanced up the Loire, but were repulsed in their at- 
 tempt upon Tours. Undeterred by this check, they con- 
 tinued their depredations under their savage leader, Hast- 
 ing, along the northern coasts of France, after which they 
 ventured up the Garonne in order to plunder the south, and 
 defeated Totila, duke of Gascony, but were surprised at 
 Tarbes by the peasantry of Bigorre, and for the most part 
 slain. Notwithstanding this disaster, a Norse fleet ventured 
 further south in the following year, plundered Lisbon, ad- 
 vanced up the Guadalquivir into Andalusia, took Seville, 
 and returned laden with booty. The Moors believed them 
 to be evil wizards. Emboldened by this success, they reap- 
 peared in the Seine, and their leader, Regnar, took posses- 
 sion of Paris, whence Charles the Bald bribed him to depart 
 on payment of seven thousand pounds of silver, A.D. 845. 
 The Norsemen then turned eastward toward Germany, and 
 devastated Friesland. The emperor, Lothar, had the folly 
 again to give up Rustringerland, together with the fortress 
 of Dorstad, to Rorich, a son of Harald, who had formerly 
 held them, on condition of his guarding the country against 
 the inroads of his countrymen. The treaty was speedily 
 broken. Gottfried, Rorich's brother, again plundered Fries- 
 land, and advanced up the Loire as far as Tours, followed 
 by the dreaded Hasting, who once more took Paris, marched 
 into Burgundy, laid waste the whole country, and finally 
 took possession of Tours, A.D. 853, where much treasure had 
 been carried for safety, and which had formerly been the 
 aim of those pirate hordes. No energetic opposition was 
 made to his advance, and his departure was purchased by 
 Charles the Bald with 685 pounds of gold, and 3,250 pounds 
 of silver. Rome, ever clothed in fabled splendor by the im- 
 aginative pagans, now became the aim of the enterprising 
 Hasting, who sailed with a hundred ships through the Straits 
 of Gibraltar and plundered the coasts of Spain and Africa.
 
 326 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 On arriving in the harbor of Lucca, at that period a city of 
 considerable importance and strongly fortified, which he mis- 
 took for Rome, he found the inhabitants engaged hi the cele- 
 bration of the Christmas festival, and sending a deputation 
 of his followers into the city, under pretext of demanding 
 an honorable burial-place for their chieftain, whom they as- 
 serted to be dead, the unsuspecting Lombards permitted him 
 to be carried in solemn procession to the church, where, 
 springing from "his coffin, he stabbed the officiating bishop 
 to the heart, and at the head of his supposed mourners, all 
 well-armed freebooters, sacked the city and retreated to his 
 ships, heavily laden with booty and accompanied by a crowd 
 of prisoners, consisting of the most beautiful of the women 
 and maidens, whom he afterward had the barbarity to throw 
 into the sea, together with the plunder, in order to lighten 
 his vessels during a storm, a loss he repaired shortly after 
 by sailing up the Rhone, and laying the country waste on 
 both sides. Other Norse hordes also continually devastated 
 the north of France, and forced Charles the Bald to purchase 
 their departure with 3,000 pounds of gold, A.D. 860. In the 
 year 860, Hasting consented to be baptized, and to swear al- 
 legiance to Charles on condition of receiving the title of Count 
 of Chartres. 
 
 Two German warriors who undertook to guard the coasts 
 are particularly remarkable. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, 
 with the iron arm, seduced Judith, the youthful daughter 
 of Charles the Bald, who, nevertheless, was the widow of 
 two of the monarchs of England, of the father of Ethelwolf, 
 and of his son Ethelbold. The discovery of their intercourse 
 at first greatly enraged the French king, who was, however, 
 finally induced to accept him as his son-in-law, and to place 
 all the other minor Grafs in his neighborhood beneath his 
 jurisdiction. Robert, surnamed the Strong, a native of Sax- 
 ony, who had become Count of Maine, equally distinguished 
 himself against the Norsemen. He was the ancestor of Hugh 
 Capet, who gave a dynasty to France. He fell in a bloody 
 engagement hi which the Norsemen were worsted, not far
 
 THE CARLOV1NGIANS 327 
 
 from Anvers, in 866. For some time after this the country 
 remained undisturbed, the pirates having turned their atten- 
 tion to England, where Alfred, the wise king of that island, 
 anxious for their departure from his coasts, at length found 
 means to persuade their leader Hrolf (Rollo) to re-embark 
 for Germany, where, after defeating Count Reinbold of 
 Friesland, and taking Count Reichard of Hennegau pris- 
 oner, in 876, he laid the French territory waste, until bribed 
 by Charles to depart with a gift of 5,000 pounds of silver, 
 A.D. 878. Another Norman horde under Gottfried settled 
 at Ghent and took possession of the castle of Haslau. Gott- 
 fried formed an alliance with Hugo, the bastard of Lothrin- 
 gen, the son of "Walrade, and married his sister Gisela. Hugo 
 had, until now, vainly aspired to the possession of Lothrin- 
 gen, and had dwelt like a robber in the forests. The Slavi 
 appear to have been also drawn into the plot. Some time 
 before this, Ludolf had been nominated Graf of Saxony in 
 order the better to defend the coasts against the Norsemen; 
 his brother, Bruno, the founder of Braunschweig (Bruno's 
 Wyk), Brunswick, marched at the head of the Saxon arrier- 
 ban against Gottfried, but suffered a bloody defeat near Eb- 
 bekesdorf, in which he fell, together with two bishops and 
 twelve Grafs. This battle was foUowed by several others, 
 in which the Germans were victorious. Adam von Bremen 
 relates that the Frisii, incited by their bishop, Rembert, fell 
 upon the victorious Norsemen and slew upward of 10,000 of 
 them. According to the account of the monk Regino, the 
 German emperor, Louis the Younger, gained a great victory 
 at Thimiun (Thuin on the Sambre), A.D. 879, but did not fol- 
 low up his advantage, owing to his anxiety if possible to save 
 the life of his illegitimate son, Hugo, whom he believed a 
 prisoner, but who was afterward discovered among the slain. 
 According to other chroniclers, this battle took place in 880, 
 and the victor mentioned is Louis of France, the son of Louis 
 the Stammerer. 1 Both of these monarchs died in 882. The 
 
 1 Adam von Bremen clearly distinguishes the German Louis as victor shortly 
 ,before his death from the French Louis, who was at first victorious, but finally
 
 328 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Slavian nations, the Sorbi, Daleminzii, and Bohemians, who, 
 after the battle of Ebbekesdorf, had risen en masse and had 
 made an inroad into Germany, were successfully repulsed 
 by Poppo, duke of Thuringia. Unable to settle in German}', 
 the Norsemen, whom tyranny at home, as has already been 
 mentioned, had driven from their native land, visited other 
 countries, where they founded colonies and new kingdoms. 
 
 CXXVIII. Rise of the great Vassals and of the Popes 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE had arbitrarily removed the great dukes 
 from office, while he favored the lower orders of the nobility, 
 but under the weak rule of Louis the Pious, and during the 
 subsequent partition of the empire among his descendants, 
 their favorites took advantage of the discord that prevailed 
 among them to revive the title of Duke, and to arrogate to 
 themselves such exorbitant power that the kings were forced 
 to purchase the fidelity of their vassals by valuable gifts. 
 The dukes and Markgrafs, moreover, who defended the fron- 
 tiers against the Norsemen, the Moors, and the Slavi, attained 
 considerable power by their military achievements. 
 
 The dukes of Lombardy were almost independent of the 
 emperor. The national hatred of the Italians, and the ambi- 
 tion of the popes, supported them against Germany. They 
 had, however, to endure many desperate encounters with 
 the Moors. The dukes of Saxony and Thuringia became 
 powerful and insolent as soon as they had rendered them- 
 selves necessary to the emperor by their exploits against the 
 Norsemen and the Slavi. Ludolf, 1 duke of Saxony, pro- 
 
 defeated. Luthewicus Imperator (the Younger) cum paganis dimicans victor 
 exstitit et paullo post obiit. Luthewicus Franciae rex (the son of the Stam- 
 merer), victor et victus exstitit. In the Annals of Fulda, under the year 881, 
 the latter is merely mentioned. Regis Hludowici nepos Hludovicus cum Nord- 
 mannis dimicans nobiliter thriumphavit. 
 
 1 This duke, and his wife Oda, visited Rome, where he was highly favored 
 by the pope; he founded the convent of Gandersheim, of which, in 853, he 
 made his daughter, Hademoda, abbess. These were the first greetings of the 
 newly-rising powers, the hierarchy and the feudal aristocracy, behind the back 
 of the emperor.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 329 
 
 nounced his dignity hereditary, and was succeeded in it by 
 his son. Otto. Thuringia also retained its dukes, although 
 they were not all of the same race. Not long before this, 
 Count Baldwin, with the iron arm, had firmly rooted his 
 family in Flanders, where, then as now, the language was 
 half Gallic (Walloon, Neustrian) and half German, although 
 the country was a Neustrian or French fief. ' In Swabia, the 
 house of the Welfs had already attained considerable impor- 
 tance, although they enjoyed no dignity under the empire. 
 In Bavaria, Count Arbo aspired to independence, and en* 
 tered into an alliance with the Moravian Suatopluk (also 
 named Zwentibold), who, A.D. 884, greatly extended his ter- 
 ritory. He was, however, forced to submit. Burgundy, 
 now possessed by the Lothringians, now by the French 
 Carlovingians, asserted her independence after the death of 
 Louis the Stammerer, and raised one of the native Grafs, 
 Boso (who had seduced Irmengarde, the daughter of Louis 
 II., by whom he was invited to aspire' to that dignity), at 
 Montaille to the throne. His popularity with his country- 
 men rendered the attempts of the weak Carlovingians to dis- 
 possess him of his crown unavailing, and he was succeeded 
 by his son Louis. He was also upheld by the clergy, whose 
 unity was strengthened by each division of the power of the 
 temporal rulers. 
 
 Vice and unbounded insolence already marked the first 
 triumphs of the church. The history of the infamous Pope 
 Joan belongs to this epoch. She is said to have been a Ger- 
 man, named Jutta, Gerberta (several other names are also 
 ascribed to her), who was born at Ingelheim, and received 
 
 1 The German and French languages are, even at the present day, bounded 
 by a line running between two ranges of cities. Those on the German side are: 
 Gravelingen, Winnoxbergen, Cassel, Belle, Meessene, Meenen, Cortryc, Aude- 
 narde, Rense, Gerardsbergen (Grammont), Edingen (Enghien), Hal, Brussels, 
 Lyons, Thienen (Tirlemont), St. Truyden, Tongern, Maestricht, Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 Eupen, St. Vith, Reuland, Vianden, Diekirch, Arlon, and Luxembourg. Thoss 
 on the French side are : Calais, St. Omer, Lille, Tournay, Ath, Nivelles, Wawre, 
 Jodoigne, Hannut, Liege, Verviers Limburg, Malmedy, Houfialize, Bastoigne, 
 Etalle, Virton, and Longwy.
 
 330 THE HISTORY OF GERMAN* 
 
 an excellent education from her father, a man of deep learn- 
 ing. Becoming enamored of a monk at Fulda, she disguised 
 herself in male attire, took the oath of celibacy, and joined 
 her lover in his monastery. They subsequently traveled to- 
 gether as far as Greece, and Jutta appeared at Athens in the 
 character of a public teacher. Here her lover died. She, 
 however, gradually rose from one dignity to another, and 
 was finally elected pope, when she took another lover. Dur- 
 ing her pregnancy, according to the legend, an angel prom- 
 ised her forgiveness for her crime if she would consent to 
 publish her shame before the assembled people, and she was 
 accordingly delivered during a great and solemn procession. 
 She was named Pope John VIII. 
 
 Nicolas I., who filled the papal chair in 858, greatly ex- 
 tended the already firmly-rooted power of the church. His 
 annulment of the marriage of Lothar II. and Walrade, and 
 his declaration of the illegitimacy of their son, proved the 
 superiority of the authority of the pope over that of the em- 
 peror. As a means of placing the papal power on a firmer 
 basis, he either fabricated or sanctioned the fabrication of the 
 false decretals which issued from Mayence, a city which, 
 since the time of St. Bonif acius, had remained in close alli- 
 ance with Rome. It was one of the principal repositories of 
 theological learning, and it was hence that the German dea- 
 con, Benedictus Levita, promulgated a collection of church 
 ordinances or decretals, which declared the pope the abso- 
 lute sovereign of the church, set him above the councils, 
 made the nomination of all the bishops to depend upon him 
 alone, reserved to him the decision in all clerical matters, 
 and even in all trivial affairs left the appeal open to him. 
 In order to furnish these decretals with a respectable an- 
 tiquity, and to give them the validity of laws more vener- 
 able than the imperial dignity, their original composition 
 was falsely ascribed to St. Isidorus, a Spaniard, who lived 
 in the seventh century, and their authenticity was asserted 
 by Nicolas, who founded upon them the universal dominion 
 of the papal tiara. He died in 867, and was succeeded by
 
 THE CARLOVINQIAN8 331 
 
 Hadrian, who pursued the policy of his predecessor. The 
 popes, his successors, were weak and licentious. 
 
 There were, besides Benedictus Levita and his popish 
 party, several other German theologians, far more distin- 
 guished for learning, who were not all subservient to Rome. 
 The school founded by Alcuin had the reputation of being 
 free in its opinions and spirit. His disciples taught at May- 
 ence, Fulda, Corvey, St. Gall, Reichenau, Priim, "Weissen- 
 burg, etc., and in the monastic academies, and a dispute 
 arose between those most noted among them, which may 
 be regarded as the germ whence sprang the controversy of 
 later times between Catholicism, Lutherism, and Calvinism. 
 Paschasius Radbert, for instance, a monk of Corvey, an en* 
 thusiastic and imaginative man, defended the real presence 
 of Christ in the eucharist, the worship of the "Virgin Mary, 
 and that of images and pictures, in a word, all that influ- 
 enced the senses in the worship of God ; his doctrine became 
 the prevailing one in the Middle Ages; he it was who first 
 aroused that romantic enthusiasm which rendered the mother 
 of the Saviour the ideal of beauty, the mystic deity of every 
 heart. Rhabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mayence, the most 
 famous and the most learned of Alcuin's disciples, sought, 
 on the contrary, to develop the minds of his followers instead 
 of exciting their imaginations, and demanded, like Luther, 
 not only free inquiry, and the free use of reason and philoso- 
 phy, but also the introduction of the German language into 
 the church service. Gottschalk, finally, a monk of Fulda, 
 asserted, like Calvin, the predestination of each individual 
 to salvation or damnation, and completely denied the exist- 
 ence of free-will and of meritorious deeds. Rhabanus op- 
 posed both sectarians, but only succeeded in overcoming 
 Gottschalk. This poor monk, a native of Saxony, with an 
 imagination still fired by enthusiastic feelings, roused by his 
 late conversion to Christianity, obstinately adhered to a doc- 
 trine for which he pined twenty-one years in prison. Rad- 
 bert's poetical belief, on the other hand, gained, in union 
 with the false decretals, the victory over the free-spirited
 
 332 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 efforts of Rhabanus, and although several distinguished dis- 
 ciples of the latter continued to assert the right of free in- 
 quiry, and to demand the introduction of the German lan- 
 guage into the church service, they were unable to stem the 
 popular current, or to oppose the increasing power of the 
 popes, who alone tolerated a blind belief and the use of 
 the Latin tongue. 
 
 Among the last champions of mental freedom, Walafried 
 Strabo, abbot of Reichenau, distinguished himself, like his 
 master, Rhabanus, by a glossary in the German language, 
 and by manuals on general knowledge ; Atf ried of "Weissen- 
 burg, by the composition of an evangelical harmony in Ger- 
 man, the History of Christ in verse, which however does not 
 possess the poetical merit of "der Heliand," "the Saviour," 
 a poem that not long ago became known; Notker Labeo 
 of St. Gall, by his German Psalms, and Willeram, abbot of 
 Ebersberg, by a Paraphrase of the Song of Solomon. Rhe- 
 gino, abbot of Prum, wrote a universal chronicle, and be- 
 sides Eginhart, who has already been mentioned, an un- 
 known monk from St. Gall, and the so-called Saxon poet 
 (poeta Saxo), recorded the deeds of Charlemagne. Thega- 
 nus, bishop of Treves, was the biographer of Louis the 
 Pious, and the dissensions of his sons were chronicled by 
 Nithard, the grandson of Charlemagne. The Annals of 
 Fulda are also a celebrated German historical work of the 
 ninth century. There are, moreover, several biographies of 
 different saints and churchmen ; for instance, that of Wala. 
 
 It was at this period that the prophetess, Theoda of Con- 
 stance, who announced the near coming of Christ, was sen- 
 tenced by the council of Mayence to be beaten as an impostor 
 with stripes ; while the hermit Meinhard, who was murdered 
 by robbers' "in the dark forest," was canonized by the 
 church, and the celebrated monastery of Einsiedeln in Switz- 
 erland was raised over his tomb. 
 
 1 They were betrayed by ravens, as the murderers of Ibycus were by cranes.
 
 THE CABLOVINGIANS 333 
 
 CXXIX. Charles the Thick and Arnulf 
 
 CHARLES THE THICK, the youngest of the sons of Louis 
 the German, inherited in 882, on the death of his childless 
 brother, Louis the Younger, all the German and Lothringian 
 territory, with the exception of Burgundy; and in 884, also 
 France, properly the inheritance of Charles the Simple, 
 whose two elder brothers were dead, but who, being the 
 issue of a marriage pronounced illegal by the pope, and, on 
 account of his imbecility, being recognized by the French 
 themselves as incapable of succeeding to the throne, Charles 
 the Thick easily took possession of the country, and before 
 long reunited France with Germany, in which he was greatly 
 assisted by the pope, to whom he secretly made great conces- 
 sions, in order to be acknowledged by him as legitimate heir 
 to the crown. 
 
 Charles the Thick was good-natured and indolent. His 
 favorite project, the restoration of the empire as it stood 
 under Charlemagne, he sought to realize by means of bribes 
 and promises, treaties of peace and other transactions, per- 
 fectly in conformity with his character, in which he ever 
 unhesitatingly sacrificed honor to interest. The same means 
 that had succeeded with the pope he imagined would prove 
 equally successful in treating with the Norsemen, who, after 
 the death of Louis the Younger, renewed their depredations 
 under Gottfried, and laid the Rhine country waste. The 
 palace of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle was converted by 
 tnem into a stable. Bishop Wala fell bravely fighting at the 
 head of an unequal force before the gates of Metz. The 
 cities on the banks of the Rhine were burned to the ground, 
 and the whole country between Liege, Cologne and May- 
 ence laid desolate. At length Siegfried, the brother of Gott- 
 fried, was induced to withdraw his ravaging hordes by the 
 gift of 2,000 pounds of gold, and for the additional sum of 
 12,000 pounds of silver (to defray which Charles the Thick 
 seized all the treasures of the churches) consented to a truce
 
 834 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of twelve years. Gottfried was, moreover, formally invested 
 with Friesland as a fief of the empire. The Norsemen, how- 
 ever, notwithstanding these stipulations, continued their dep- 
 redations, advanced as far as the Moselle, and destroyed the 
 city of Treves, but were suddenly attacked in the forest of 
 Ardennes, by the charcoal men and peasants, and 10,000 
 of them cut to pieces, A.D. 883. Charles now became anx- 
 ious to free himself from his troublesome vassal in Friesland, 
 and the Markgraf Henry, who guarded the frontier at Grab- 
 feld against the Sorbi, brother to Poppo, duke of Thuringia, 
 the confidant of the emperor, invited Gottfried to a meeting, 
 at which he caused him to be treacherously murdered. 
 Gottfried's brother-in-law, the bastard Hugo, was also taken 
 prisoner and deprived of sight. These acts of violence and 
 treason were no sooner perpetrated than the Norsemen, glow- 
 ing with revenge, rushed like a torrent over the country and 
 laid it waste on every side, forcing their way in immense 
 hordes up the Rhine, the Maese, and the Seine. On the 
 Rhine they were opposed by Adalbert, of the race of Baben- 
 berg (Bamberg). The horde, meanwhile, that had advanced 
 up the Seine, quickly reached Paris, encamped upon Mont- 
 martre, and besieged the city for a year and a half, when 
 Charles at length marched to its relief at the head of a 
 numerous army, but, instead of trying the issue of a battle, 
 agreed to a most shameful treaty of peace, paid the Norse- 
 men a large sum of money, granted to them free entry into 
 Paris and the navigation of the Seme, besides confirming 
 them in the possession of Friesland, A.D. 887. In the east, 
 ne also allowed the Slavi to gain ground, and neglected to 
 support his nephew Arnulf , who could with difficulty defend 
 himself against Suatopluk, who continued to extend his do- 
 minions; at the same time, the sons of the old Markgrafs 
 Engelschalk and "Wilhelm declared war against each other, 
 and Aribo, a son of the former, went over to the Moravians. 
 Suatopluk was victorious on the Danube, and laid the coun- 
 try waste, until Charles appeared in person to beg for peace, 
 which was concluded in 884 on the Tulnerfeld. This mon-
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 335 
 
 arch proved himself as weak and despicable in his private as 
 in his public character, by carrying on a scandalous suit 
 against his wife Ricardis, whom he accused of an adulterous 
 connection with his chancellor, Bishop Luitward, and who 
 proved her innocence by ordeal, by passing unharmed 
 through fire in a waxen dress. 
 
 The great vassals of the empire, some of whom beheld in 
 the fall of a sovereign they justly despised that of the Carlo- 
 vingian dynasty and their own aggrandizement, while others 
 were influenced by their dislike of the treaties entered into 
 with foreign powers, the pope and the Norsemen, and by an 
 anxiety to make reparation for the loss of their national 
 honor, convoked a great diet at Tribur in the valley of the 
 Rhine, near Oppenheim, and deprived Charles of his crown, 
 A.D. 887, a degradation he survived but one year. 
 
 The Anti-Carlovingian party was partly successful. The 
 French made choice of Odo, Count of Paris, as successor to 
 the crown, while the Lower Burgundians in the Nether- 
 Rhone-land (Arelat) elected Baso, the son of Louis, and 
 the Upper Burgundians in the Western Alps, Count Rudolf, 
 a descendant of the "Welfs. In Italy the Dukes Guido of 
 Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli made themselves so inde- 
 pendent that they even set themselves up as competitors, 
 through the favor of the pope, for the imperial crown. The 
 Germans alone remained faithful to the Carlovingian house, 
 and elected, to the exclusion of Charles the Simple, who was 
 still alive, Arnulf, the young and energetic, but illegiti- 
 mate son of Carlmann, a brother of Charles the Thick, who 
 had greatly distinguished himself as duke of Bavaria against 
 the Slavi. The consideration in which he was held was so 
 great that Odo came to Worms to do homage to him as em- 
 peror, a ceremony with which Arnulf contented himself, the 
 Norsemen and Slavi affording him no opportunity for recall- 
 ing his rebellious subjects to their allegiance. 
 
 Fresh hostilities instantly broke out on the part of the 
 Norsemen, who made an irruption into Lothringia, and after 
 a bloody engagement defeated the Germans near Maestricht,
 
 336 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 where the archbishop of Mayence, who had marched against 
 them at the head of his vassals, fell. Arnulf now took the 
 field in person, and a dreadful battle ensued near Louvain, 
 where the Normans had encamped, in which Arnulf, per- 
 ceiving that the German cavalry were unable to cope with 
 the Norman foot-soldiers, who fought with unexampled dex- 
 terity, was the first to spring from his saddle; all the nobles 
 of the arrier-ban followed his example, and the contest be- 
 came a thick fray, in which the combatants strove hand to 
 hand. Victory sided with the Germans. Siegfried and 
 Gottfried fell on the field of battle, with several thousands 
 of their followers, whose bodies also choked up the course of 
 the Dyle, across which they had attempted to escape. Ar- 
 nulf, in gratitude for this deliverance, made a great pilgrim- 
 age, and ordained that this day, St. Gilgentag, the 1st of 
 September, should be kept as an annual festival. The Norse- 
 men, panic-struck by this fearful catastrophe, henceforward 
 avoided the Rhine, but made much more frequent inroads 
 into the west of France. 
 
 Arnulf had also fresh struggles to sustain against the 
 Slavi; the Obotrites crossed the frontiers and laid the coun- 
 try waste. The loyalty of Poppo and of the house of Baben- 
 berg, who had been in such close alliance with Charles the 
 Thick, and who now found themselves neglected, became 
 more than doubtful, 1 and Arnulf was constrained to remove 
 the former from his government. Engelschalk the Younger 
 also proved faithless, seduced one of Arnulf *s daughters, and 
 then took refuge in Moravia. He was subsequently par- 
 doned, and appointed to guard the Austrian frontier. 
 
 As a means of securing the eastern frontier of his empire, 
 Arnulf made peace and entered into an alliance with Suato- 
 pluk, prince of Moravia, who was a Christian, in the hope 
 that the foundation of a great Christian Slaviau kingdom 
 
 1 The murder of Arno, bishop of Wurzburg, is perhaps connected with these 
 circumstances. Arno joined Poppo at the head of his vassals against the Slavi, 
 but was, it appears, deserted by him when reading mass in the open air, and cut 
 to pieces with all his followers by the pagan Slavi. Hence arose the deadly 
 feud that so long existed between the Babenbergers and the Wurzburgers.
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 337 
 
 might eventually prove an effectual bulwark against the 
 irruptions of their heathen brethren in that quarter. The 
 Slavian Maharanen or Moravians had been converted to 
 Christianity by St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who had visited 
 them from Greece. Borzivoi, prince of Bohemia, being also 
 induced to receive baptism by Suatopluk, his pagan subjects 
 drove him from the throne, and he placed himself (with his 
 wife, St. Ludmilla) under the protection of Suatopluk and 
 Arnulf. Arnulf now gave Suatopluk Bohemia to hold in 
 fee and unlimited command on the eastern frontier. As a 
 proof of their amity, Suatopluk became sponsor to Arnulf 's 
 son, to whom he gave his name, Suatopluk, or Zwentibold; 
 their friendship proved, nevertheless, of but short duration. 
 The Moravian, perceiving that he could not retain his au- 
 thority over the Slavi so long as he preserved his amicable 
 relations with Germany, yielded to the national hatred, while 
 at the same time he gave fresh assurances of amity to the 
 emperor, A.D. 892. He was also supported in his projects 
 by a great conspiracy among the Germans. The thankless 
 Engelschalk again plotted treason, in which he was upheld 
 by Hildegarde, the maiden daughter of Louis the German, 
 the last of the legitimate descendants of Charlemagne, while 
 the Italians, who dreaded Arnulf's threatened presence in 
 their country, were not slow in their endeavors to incite the 
 Moravian to open rebellion. Arnulf, however, discovered 
 the conspiracy, caused Engelschalk to be deprived of sight, 
 and imprisoned Hildegarde at Chiemsee, but afterward re- 
 stored her to liberty. 
 
 An unexpected ally now came to Arnulf's assistance 
 against Suatopluk. At that period there appeared in an- 
 cient Pannonia, first peopled by the Longobardi, and at a 
 later date by the Avari, a nation named in their own lan- 
 guage Magyars, or Hungarians (strangers), from whom the 
 country derived its name, or Huns, as they were at that time 
 termed by the Germans, who imagined that they again be- 
 held in them the Huns of former times. They were pagans, 
 wild and savage in their habits, and extraordinary riders. 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 15
 
 338 THE HISTORY OP GERMANY 
 
 Leo, the Grecian emperor, had called them to his assistance 
 against the Bulgarians, and they at first settled under seven 
 leaders (among whom the most distinguished was one named 
 Arpad), each of whom erected a fort or Burg, in the country 
 known from that circumstance as Siebenburgen, but not 
 long after turned westward and threatened Moravia. Ar- 
 nulf formed an alliance with them, but never, as he has 
 been accused, invited them into Germany, and Suatopluk, 
 perceiving himself pressed on both sides, gladly remained at 
 peace, A.D. 894. 
 
 In Italy, Guido of Spoleto was victorious over Berengar 
 of Friuli, and in 891 was crowned emperor by the pope, Ste- 
 phen V. He died in 894, and his son, Lambert, also re- 
 ceived the imperial crown from Pope Formosus. Arnulf 
 had been acknowledged emperor throughout the North, but 
 not having been anointed or crowned by the pope, his right 
 was liable to be disputed by Guido, and being entreated by 
 both Berengar and Formosus, the latter of whom was held 
 in derision by the insolent Spoletan, he resolved to march at 
 the head of a powerful force into Italy. He has been blamed 
 for quitting Germany, at that period not entirely tranquil- 
 ized, and exposing himself and his army to the hot climate 
 and diseases of Italy, and to the treachery of the inhabi- 
 tants, which might easily have been turned upon themselves, 
 and never could have endangered him on this side of the 
 Alps. Arnulf's visit to Italy, the first so termed pilgrimage 
 to Rome, which was undertaken with the double aim of 
 having the ceremony of an imperial coronation performed 
 and of receiving the oath of fealty from his rebellious vas- 
 sals, has been regarded as a misfortune, because visits to 
 Rome became from this period customary, and ever proved 
 disastrous to the empire. But judgment ought to be given 
 according to the difference of times and circumstances. The 
 union between the people of Lombardy and of Rome was not 
 so close at that time as it became at a later period ; no Ital- 
 ian national interest had as yet sprung up in opposition to 
 that of Germany ; the Italians were uninfluenced by a desire
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 339 
 
 of separating themselves from the empire, as in later times, 
 but were rather inclined to assert their right over it. Guido, 
 who was connected with the Carlovingians, attempted to 
 turn the separation that had taken place between the north- 
 ern nations to advantage, and appropriated to himself the 
 title of emperor ; and, as far as these circumstances are con- 
 cerned, Arnulf's visit to Italy appears to be justified. The 
 visits undertaken at a later period to Rome were, on the 
 other hand, unjustifiable in every respect, by their imposing, 
 as will hereafter be seen, a foreign ruler on Lombardy and 
 Rome, whose union had become gradually stronger, and 
 whose erection into an independent state, to which they were 
 entitled by their geographical position and by their similar- 
 ity in language and manners, was ever prevented by fresh 
 invasions. 
 
 Arnulf crossed the Alps, A.D. 894. Ambrosius, Graf of 
 Lombardy, closing the gates of Bergamo against him, he 
 took the city by storm and hanged his faithless vassal at the 
 gate. His further progress was impeded by the treachery of 
 Odo, the French king, who took advantage of his absence to 
 arm against him, while Rudolf of Upper Burgundy actually 
 marched to the assistance of the Spoletans, and Arnulf was 
 thus reluctantly forced to retrace his steps. He undertook a 
 second expedition across the Alps in 896, and advanced into 
 Tuscany, where he was amicably received by Adalbert, the 
 faithless Markgraf, 1 and by Berengar, who no sooner found 
 themselves deceived in their expectation of making him sub- 
 servient to their own interest and of easily outwitting him, 
 than they assumed a threatening attitude. Arnulf, undis- 
 mayed by the dangers with which he was surrounded, in- 
 stantly marched upon Rome, whose gates were closed against 
 him by the Spoletans, who successfully repelled every attack 
 on the walls, and the emperor was on the point of retreating, 
 
 1 Bertha, the wife of Adalbert (who was blindly guided by her), a woman of 
 an intriguing disposition, was the daughter of Lothar II. and of Walrade. Her 
 first husband was Theobald, Count of Aries, by whom she had Hugo, afterward 
 king of Italy. Sigonius relates the manner in which all the intrigues of those 
 times in Italy and Burgundy were conducted by this woman.
 
 840 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 when his soldiers, enraged at the sarcasms of the Italians 
 who manned the walls, rushed furiously to the attack, and 
 carried the city by storm. Lambert's adherents fled, and the 
 rescued pope placed the imperial crown on Arnulf 's head. A 
 mode of vengeance to which the Italians have in every age 
 had recourse was now but too successfully attempted against 
 the life of the German hero; slow poison was administered, 
 and he expired at CEttingen, on his way back to Germany. 
 He was buried at Ratisbon. 
 
 On Arnulf 's death, Lambert regained the sovereignty of 
 Italy, and again reduced Berengar and Adalbert to submis- 
 sion. 1 He was assassinated in 898, and his adherents invited 
 Louis, the son of Boso, into Italy. This prince was a Carlo- 
 yingian, and grandson to Louis II., and at that time reigned 
 over Burgundy. Bertha, the ambitious wife of Adalbert, 
 who was residing at Lucca, and whose pride could not brook 
 the idea that her son Hugo was merely Count of Aries and 
 Louis's vassal, plotted his destruction. In order to lull his 
 suspicions, she gave him a friendly reception, but no sooner 
 beheld him entirely in her power than she betrayed him to 
 Berengar, who caused him to be deprived of sight, A.D. 905. 
 Hugo then made himself master of Lower Burgundy (Are- 
 lat), and after the assassination of Berengar, 925, was placed 
 by his mother on the throne of Italy. This country seemed 
 destined to be governed by women ; after the death of Ber- 
 tha, a wealthy Roman, named Theodora, seized the reins of 
 government, revived the ancient spirit of paganism, and 
 drew all in her licentious train. One of her lovers she caused 
 to be elected pope, as John X. Her daughter Marozia, who 
 surpassed her mother in lewdness, married successively two 
 of the sons of Bertha, first Guido, and then King Hugo, with 
 whom she lived in the most profligate manner. She kept 
 lovers, and he a harem of mistresses, to whom he gave the 
 names of different heathen goddesses. Her son, Octavian, 
 who became pope, as John XL, died suddenly, and Hugo 
 
 1 He took the latter prisoner in a stable, and said to him, "Your wife would 
 have made of you either a king or an ass, now you have become the latter. "
 
 THE CARLOVINOIANS 341 
 
 was driven from his throne, A.D. 947, by his stepson, Albe- 
 rich, the son of Guido and Marozia, who made Rome his 
 seat of government, while a grandson of Berengar, Berengar 
 II., reigned in Upper Italy. Hugo's former inheritance, and 
 the Arelat or Lower Burgundy, were united with Upper 
 Burgundy under Eudolf II. , and even his Italian kingdom 
 seemed forever lost to his remaining son, Lothar, whose 
 wife, the beautiful Adelheid, was destined to decide the 
 fate of Italy. 
 
 CXXX. The Babenberg Feud The Hungarians 
 
 AENTJLF had, during his lifetime, placed his son, Zwenti- 
 bold, on the throne of Lothringia, in order to guard the 
 frontiers of the empire against the Norsemen. This young 
 prince entered into alliance with Odo of Paris, whose daugh- 
 ter he married, and by his insolence drew upon himself the 
 dislike of the clergy. His ill-treatment of Rathod, arch- 
 bishop of Treves, also rendered him unpopular with the 
 commonalty. A rebellion broke out in Lothringia, and he 
 lost both his crown and his life in a battle that took place 
 on the Maese, A.D. 900. Odo's reign in France was also of 
 short duration. Charles the Simple was replaced on the 
 throne by the bishops and the vassals, who found their ad- 
 vantage in the imbecility of their monarch. Charles created 
 Regingar duke of Lothringia, and was forced to acknowledge 
 Rollo, duke of Normandy. 
 
 In Germany, the great vassals, and the bishops also, 
 usurped the direction of affairs. Louis, the second son of 
 Arnulf, surnamed the Child, on account of his being at that 
 time only in his seventh year, was, by the intrigues of Otto, 
 duke of Saxony, and of Hatto, archbishop of Mayence, who 
 sought to reign under his name, placed upon the imperial 
 throne. The power of the bishops had become exorbitant 
 without the aid of the popes, whose licentious conduct threat- 
 ened at this period to endanger the church. Hatto, a man 
 of daring courage and deep cunning, unprincipled and cruel,
 
 842 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 bore unlimited sway in France and in southern Germany, in 
 which he was upheld by Otto, who sought to strengthen 
 himself in Saxony, and to aggrandize his house by the aid 
 of the church. Adalbert, the opponent of the Norsemen, 
 Henry and Adelhart, the sons of Henry of Babenberg, find- 
 ing themselves neglected, and pressed from the north by the 
 Saxons, from the west by the bishops, set themselves up in 
 opposition. Rudolf, bishop of Wiirzburg, who was sup- 
 ported by Hatto, having obtained a considerable fief for his 
 family by the abuse of his spiritual authority, Adalbert had 
 recourse to arms, upon which Hatto, probably favored by 
 the ancient hatred of the rest of the vassals to the house of 
 Babenberg, succeeded in having him put out of the ban of 
 the empire. Henry was killed, and Adelhart was taken 
 prisoner and executed. Adalbert, meanwhile, made a vig- 
 orous resistance, and slew Graf Conrad, Bishop Rudolf's 
 brother, but was, ere long, closely besieged in his fortress of 
 Bamberg. Hatto, finding other means unavailing, treach- 
 erously offered his mediation, and promised him a free and 
 safe return to his fortress, if he would present himself before 
 the assembled diet. Trusting to the word of the wily priest, 
 the Graf issued from his fort, at whose foot he was met by 
 Hatto, who, in the most friendly manner, proposed their 
 breakfasting together within the fortress before setting off 
 on their journey. The Graf assented, and returned with 
 him to the fort; he then accompanied him to the diet, where 
 Hatto declared himself exempted from his promise by his 
 having restored the Graf unharmed to his fortress for the 
 purpose of taking his breakfast, and that he now was free to 
 act as he deemed proper. The assembled vassals, upon this, 
 unanimously sentenced Adalbert to death, and he was be- 
 headed. Conrad, Bishop Rudolf's nephew, was created duke 
 of Franconia. 1 This family of the "Wurzburg bishop was 
 surnamed the Rotenburgers, from Rotenburg on the Tauber ; 
 
 1 But simply missus super exercitum, the bishop assuming the civil author- 
 ity, and afterward arrogating to himself the whole ducal power.
 
 THE CARLOV1XG1ANS 343 
 
 their descendants acquired, at a later period, far greater 
 celebrity under the name of the Saliers. 
 
 The treacherous policy of Bishop Hatto, however, made 
 a deep impression upon the minds of the commonalty, among 
 whom loyalty was still held in higher honor than the sacred 
 head of the churchman, and historians relate that, while the 
 dukes overlooked the conduct of the bishop and yielded to 
 the outbreak of the popular dissatisfaction, Hatto's name 
 and the memory of his infamy were execrated and derided 
 in popular ballads throughout Germany. His name repre- 
 sented the idea of hierarchical lust of power and avarice, 
 and hence arose the legend that records his miserable death. 
 It is said that, during a famine, a number of peasants who 
 came to the bishop and begged for bread were by his order 
 shut up in a great barn and burned to death. From the 
 ruins there issued myriads of mice, which ceaselessly pur- 
 sued the wretched bishop, who vainly attempted to elude 
 them, and who at length, driven to despair, fled for safety 
 to a strong tower standing in the middle of the fthine near 
 Bingen, but here also the mice continued their pursuit, swam 
 across the water, and devoured him. The tower is still 
 standing, and is known at the present day as the Mause- 
 thurm or mouse-tower. 1 This example is a manifest proof 
 that the popular fictions were founded upon fact, and clearly 
 express the spirit of those times. 
 
 Salomon, 8 bishop of Constance, who made a similar at- 
 tempt to gain possession of an extensive feudal territory, was 
 abbot of twelve rich monasteries, and equaled a prince in the 
 number of his feudal retainers ; he fell into a feud with the 
 most powerful of the temporal lords of Swabia, Erchanger 
 and Berthold, who then exercised the ducal authority as 
 
 1 Musshusz is synonymous with Zeughaus (arsenal). Hence also the word 
 musket. This tower may have been an old store-place for weapons, and the 
 legend may merely have given a different interpretation to the original name. 
 
 9 This bishop had a very beautiful and learned daughter (aliquantis per 
 literata), who was educated in the convent at Zurich, and of whom the emperor 
 Arnulf became enamored. She, however, scorned to be an emperor's mistress, 
 and married a nobleman in Thurgau. Salomon was a handsome, dignified man, 
 extremely popular, and eloquent and impressive in the pulpit Chwrch History.
 
 344 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Kammerboten, or financial officers, which proved as deadly 
 as that carried on by the bishop of Wiirzburg against the 
 house of Babenberg. In the Netherlands, Graf Baldwin of 
 Flanders being opposed by Falko, the powerful archbishop 
 of Rheims, he caused him to be assassinated. 
 
 The wild Magyars maintained possession of Hungary. 
 After the death of Suatopluk, the kingdom of Moravia com- 
 pletely fell; the Bohemians again severed themselves from 
 the German empire and divided the possessions of Suatopluk 
 with the Hungarians, who, although governed after the 
 death of Arpad by a boy thirteen years of age, their king, 
 Zoldan, continually made fresh conquests along the Danube 
 under their numerous and valiant leaders. Suatopluk the 
 Younger fell in battle; his brother Moymir fled for protec- 
 tion to Duke Luitpold, the stanch defender of the German 
 frontiers. Cussal, the leader of the Hungarians, was de- 
 feated in two great battles on the Enns and near to Vienna, 
 and was left on the field, A.D. 900. Undismayed by these 
 disasters, the Hungarians attacked the Cariuthian Alps, 
 while the Obotrites under Crito made an inroad into Sax- 
 ony ; but being again repulsed, they made an incursion into 
 Italy and laid that country waste, A.D. 902. For a third 
 time they appeared in such force that Luitpold, the son of 
 Ernst, the former Markgraf , and the brother of Aribo, was 
 defeated and killed near Presburg, and Louis, who was pres- 
 ent in this battle, narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. 
 They next invaded Thuringia, A.D. 907, where the new 
 Markgraf, Burkhard, after making a valiant defense, also 
 fell. The following year, A.D. 909, they entered Franconia, 
 where the Markgraf Gebhard vainly attempted to stem their 
 progress, and was killed. The death of these leaders at once 
 proves the obstinate resistance made by the Germans, and 
 the numerical superiority of the enemy. The Hungarian 
 was irresistible in the fury of his onset, invincible in battle 
 by his contempt of death, untiring in pursuit, or secured 
 from it by the rapidity of his horse. His bloodthirstiness, 
 his inhuman treatment of the unarmed and helpless, his de-
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 345 
 
 structive and predatory habits, astonished and terrified the 
 milder German, who regarded him in the light of an evil 
 spirit, as the Goth had formerly regarded the Hun, until he 
 became habituated to him. The suddenness with which these 
 mounted hordes appeared in the heart of the country and 
 again vanished, greatly strengthened the belief in their su- 
 pernatural powers. They also acted with a sort of religious 
 fanaticism, from a belief that every enemy they slew would 
 be their vassal in a future state. They were so bloodthirsty, 
 that they would make use of the corpses of their opponents 
 as tables during their savage feasts. They bound the cap- 
 tured women and maidens with their own long hair, and 
 drove them in flocks to Hungary. 1 
 
 Louis the Child, dismayed by these repeated disasters, 
 concluded a treaty of peace with these people, and consented 
 to pay them a ten years' tribute. The Enns was declared 
 the boundary of Hungary, and the wild Arpads erected their 
 royal castle on the beautiful mountain on the Danube on 
 which the splendid monastery of Molk now stands. The 
 Germans were deeply sensible of the dishonor incurred by 
 this ignominious tribute, of the danger of their internal dis- 
 sensions, and of the misfortune of being governed by so im- 
 becile a monarch. It was even publicly preached from the 
 pulpit, "Woe to the land, whose king is a child!" The 
 youthful monarch died, A.D. 911, before he had even reigned, 
 and with him ended the race of Charlemagne in Germany. 
 
 CXXXI. Conrad the First 
 
 THE extinction of the Carlovingian line did not sever the 
 bond of union that existed between the different nations of 
 Germany, although a contention arose between them con- 
 
 1 One of the touching stories of the times relates that Ulrich, Graf of 
 Linzgau, being taken prisoner by the Hungarians, his beautiful wife, Wen- 
 delgarde, believing him to be dead, devoted the remainder of her life to prayers 
 and almsgiving. One day when distributing her daily alms to a crowd of beg- 
 gars, one of them fell on her neck and kissed her. Her attendants interposed, 
 but the criminal said, smiling, "Forbear; I have endured blows and misery 
 enough during my imprisonment ; I am Ulrich, your Lord."
 
 346 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 cerning the election of the new emperor, each claiming that 
 privilege for itself; and as the increase of the ducal power 
 had naturally led to a wider distinction between them, the 
 diet convoked for the purpose represented nations instead 
 of classes. There were consequently four nations and four 
 votes: the Franks under Duke Conrad, whose authority 
 nevertheless could not compete with that of the now vener- 
 able Hatto, archbishop of Mayence, who may be said to have 
 been, at that period, the pope in Germany; the Saxons, 
 Frieslanders, Thuringians, and some of the subdued Slavi, 
 under Duke Otto; the Swabians, with Switzerland and El- 
 sace, under different Grafs, who, as the immediate officers 
 of the crown, were named Kammerboten, in order to dis- 
 tinguish them from the Grafs nominated by the dukes ; the 
 Bavarians, with the Tyrolese and some of the subdued east- 
 ern Slavi, under Duke Arnulf the Bad, the son of the brave 
 Duke Luitpold. The Lothringians formed a fifth nation, 
 under their duke Regingar, but were at that period incorpo- 
 rated with France. 
 
 The first impulse of the diet was to bestow the crown on 
 the most powerful among the different competitors, and it 
 was accordingly offered to Otto of Saxony, who not only 
 possessed the most extensive territory and the most warlike 
 subjects, but whose authority, having descended to him from 
 his father and grandfather, was also the most firmly secured. 
 But both Otto and his ancient ally, the bishop Hatto, had 
 found the system they had hitherto pursued, of reigning in 
 the name of an imbecile monarch, so greatly conducive to 
 their interest that they were disinclined to abandon it. Otto 
 was a man who mistook the prudence inculcated by private 
 interest for wisdom, and his mind, narrow as the limits of 
 his dukedom, and solely intent upon the interests of his fam- 
 ily, was incapable of the comprehensive views requisite in a 
 German emperor, and indifferent to the welfare of the great 
 body of the nation. The examples of Boso, of Odo, of Rudolf 
 of Upper Burgundy, and of Berengar, who, favored by the 
 difference in descent of the people they governed, had all
 
 THE CARLOVINGIANS 347 
 
 succeeded in severing themselves from the empire, were ever 
 present to his imagination, and he believed that as, on the 
 other side of the Rhine, the Frank, the Burgundian, and 
 the Lombard, severally obeyed an independent sovereign, 
 the East Frank, the Saxon, the Swabian, and the Bavarian, 
 on this side of the Rhine, were also desirous of asserting a 
 similar independence, and that it would be easier and less 
 hazardous to found a hereditary dukedom in a powerful 
 and separate state than to maintain the imperial dignity, 
 undermined as it was by universal hostility. 
 
 The influence of Hatto and the consent of Otto placed 
 Conrad, duke of Franconia, on the imperial throne. Sprung 
 from a newly-risen family, a mere creature of the bishop, his 
 nobility as a feudal lord only dating from the period of the 
 Babenberg feud, he was regarded by the church as a pliable 
 tool, and by the dukes as little to be feared. His weakness 
 was quickly demonstrated by his inability to retain the rich 
 allods of the Carlovingian dynasty as heir to the imperial 
 crown, and his being constrained to share them with the rest 
 of the dukes ; he was, nevertheless, more fully sensible of the 
 dignity and of the duties of his station than those to whom 
 he owed his election probably expected. His first step was 
 to recall Regingar of Lothringia, who was oppressed by 
 France, to his allegiance as vassal of the empire. 
 
 Otto died in 912, and his son Henry, a high-spirited youth, 
 who had greatly distinguished himself against the Slavi, ere 
 long quarreled with the aged Bishop Hatto. According to 
 the legendary account, the bishop sent him a golden chain, 
 so skillfully contrived as to strangle its wearer. The truth is 
 that the ancient family feud between the house of Conrad 
 and that of Otto, which was connected with the Babenberg- 
 ers, again broke out, and that the emperor attempted again 
 to separate Thuringia, which Otto had governed since the 
 death of Burkhard, from Saxony, in order to hinder the over- 
 preponderance of that ducal house. Hatto, it is probable, 
 counseled this step, as a considerable portion of Thuringia 
 belonged to the diocese of Mayence, and a collision between
 
 348 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 him and the duke was therefore unavoidable. Henry flew to 
 arms, and expelled the adherents of the hishop from Thurin- 
 gia, which forced the emperor to take the field in the name 
 of the empire against his haughty vassal. This unfortunate 
 civil war was a signal for a fresh irruption of the Slavi and 
 Hungarians. During this year the Bohemians and Sorbi 
 also made an inroad into Thuringia and Bavaria, and in 913 
 the Hungarians advanced as far as Swabia, but being sur- 
 prised near CEtting by the Bavarians under Arnulf , who on 
 this occasion bloodily avenged his father's death, and by the 
 Swabians under the Kammerboten, Erchanger and Berthold, 
 they were all, with the exception of thirty of their number, 
 cut to pieces. Arnulf subsequently embraced a contrary line 
 of policy, married the daughter of Geisa, king of Hungary, 
 and entered into a confederacy with the Hungarian and the 
 Swabian Kammerboten, for the purpose of founding an in- 
 dependent state in the south of Germany, where he had 
 already strengthened himself by the appointment of several 
 Markgrafs, Rudiger of Pechlarn in Austria, Rathold in Ca- 
 rinthia, and Berthold in the Tyrol. He then instigated all 
 the enemies of the empire simultaneously to attack the 
 Franks and Saxons, at that crisis at war with each other, 
 A.D. 915, and while the Danes under Gorm the Old, and the 
 Obotrites, destroyed Hamburg, immense hordes of Hunga- 
 rians, Bohemians and Sorbi laid the country waste as far as 
 Bremen. 
 
 The emperor was, meanwhile, engaged with the Saxons. 
 On one occasion, Henry narrowly escaped being taken pris- 
 oner, being merely saved by the stratagem of his faithful 
 servant, Thiatmar, who caused the emperor to retreat by 
 falsely announcing to him the arrival of a body of auxiliaries. 
 At length a pitched battle was fought near Merseburg be- 
 tween Henry and Eberhard, A.D. 915, the emperor's brother, 
 in which the Franks 1 were defeated, and the superiority of 
 
 1 So great a slaughter took place that the Saxons said on the occasion 
 
 " 'Twere difficult to find a hell, 
 
 "Where so many Franks might dwell!"
 
 THE CARLOV1NOIANS 349 
 
 the Saxons remained, henceforward, unquestioned for more 
 than a century. The emperor was forced to negotiate with 
 the victor, whom he induced to protect the northern frontiers 
 of the empire while he applied himself in person to the re- 
 establishment of order in the south. 
 
 In Swabia, Salomon, bishop of Constance, who was sup- 
 ported by the commonalty, adhered to the imperial cause, 
 while the Kammerboten were unable to palliate their trea- 
 son, and were gradually driven to extremities. Erchanger, 
 relying upon aid from Arnulf and the Hungarians, usurped 
 the ducal crown and took the bishop prisoner. Salomon's 
 extreme popularity filled him with such rage that he caused 
 the feet of some shepherds, 1 who threw themselves on their 
 knees as the captured prelate passed by, to be chopped off. 
 His wife, Bertha, terror-stricken at the rashness of her hus- 
 band and foreseeing his destruction, received the prisoner 
 with every demonstration of humility, and secretly aided his 
 escape. He no sooner reappeared than the people flocked in 
 thousands around him : ' ' Heil Herro ! Heil Liebo ! " (" Hail, 
 master! Hail, beloved one!") they shouted, and in their 
 zeal attacked and defeated the traitors and their adherents. 
 Berthold vainly defended himself in his mountain stronghold 
 of Hohentwiel. The people so urgently demanded the death 
 of these traitors to their country that the emperor convoked 
 a general assembly at Albingen in Swabia, sentenced Er- 
 changer and Berthold to be publicly beheaded and nominated 
 Burkhard, A.D. 917, whose father and uncle had been assas- 
 sinated by order of Erchanger, as successor to the ducal 
 throne. Arnulf withdrew to his fortress at Salzburg, and 
 
 1 It appears that he aimed, like the bishops of Mayence and "Wurzburg, at 
 the possession of great temporal power, and became on that account the hated 
 rival of the Kammerboten, several of whom on one occasion visiting him, he 
 showed them an oven, in which a thousand loaves were baked at once ; an oat 
 kiln that contained three hundred curnocks ; vessels of gold and silver, *nd 
 costly glasses, which the Kammerboten in their envious rage cast upon the 
 ground. The bishop then told them, that he had wealthy shepherds in hia 
 mountains before whom they should deferentially uncover their heads, and 
 caused a couple of herdsmen to be attired like noblemen, to whom the Kammer- 
 boten unwittingly paid the honor demanded by the bishop, a deception that 
 greatly added to the bitterness of their hatred.
 
 350 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 quietly awaited more favorable times. His name was 
 branded with infamy by the people, who henceforth affixed 
 to it the epithet of "The Bad," and the Nibelungenlied has 
 perpetuated his detested memory. 
 
 Conrad died, in 918, without issue. On his death-bed, 
 mindful only of the welfare of the empire, he proved him- 
 self deserving even by his latest act of the crown he had so 
 worthily worn, by charging his brother Eberhard to forget 
 the ancient feud between their houses, and to deliver the 
 crown with his own hands to his enemy, the free-spirited 
 Henry, whom he judged alone capable of meeting all the 
 exigencies of the state. Eberhard obeyed his brother's in- 
 junctions, and the princes respected the will of their dying 
 sovereign. 
 
 PART IX 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 
 
 CXXXII. Henry the Fowler Origin of the Middle 
 
 Classes 
 
 THE princes, with the exception of Burkhard and of 
 Arnulf, assembled at Fritzlar, elected the absent 
 Henry king, and dispatched an embassy to inform 
 him of their decision. It is said that the young duke was at 
 the time among the Harz Mountains, and that the embassa- 
 dors found him in the homely attire of a sportsman in the 
 fowling floor. He obeyed the call of the nation without de- 
 lay, and without manifesting surprise. The error he had 
 committed in rebelling against the state, it was his firm pur- 
 pose to atone for by his conduct as emperor. Of a lofty and 
 majestic stature, although slight and youthful in form, pow- 
 erful and active in person, with a commanding and penetrat- 
 ing glance, his very appearance attracted popular favor; be-
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 351 
 
 sides these personal advantages, lie was prudent and learned, 
 and possessed a mind replete with intelligence. The influ- 
 ence of such a monarch on the progressive development of 
 society in Germany could not fail of producing results fully 
 equaling the improvements introduced by Charlemagne. 
 
 The youthful Henry, the first of the Saxon line, was pro- 
 claimed king of Germany at Fritzlar, A.D. 919, by the ma- 
 jority of votes, and, according to ancient custom, raised upon 
 the shield. 1 The archbishop of Mayence offered to anoint 
 him according to the usual ceremony, but Henry refused, 
 alleging that he was content to owe his election to the grace 
 of God and to the piety of the German princes, and that he 
 left the ceremony of anointment to those who wished to be 
 still more pious. 
 
 Before Henry could pursue his more elevated projects, the 
 assent of the southern Germans, who had not acknowledged 
 the choice of their northern compatriots, had to be gained. 
 Burkhard of Swabia, who had asserted his independence, 
 and who was at that time carrying on a bitter feud with 
 Rudolf," king of Burgundy, whom he had defeated, A.D. 
 919, in a bloody engagement near "Winterthur, was the first 
 against whom he directed the united forces of the empire, in 
 whose name he, at the same time, offered him peace and par- 
 don. Burkhard, seeing himself constrained to yield, took the 
 oath of fealty to the newly-elected king at Worms, but con- 
 tinued to act with almost his former unlimited authority in 
 Swabia, and even undertook an expedition into Italy in favor 
 of Rudolf, with whom he had become reconciled. The Ital- 
 ians, enraged at the wantonness with which he mocked them, 
 
 1 This custom appears to have been discontinued at a later period. Witte- 
 Ttind Ghron. 
 
 2 His wife, Bertha, was celebrated as a good housewife. Seals of hers are 
 still extant, on which she is represented seated on a throne spinning. She was 
 long regarded among the people as the protectress of domestic economy, and of 
 industrious maidens, and the memory of "the good old times when Bertha 
 span," continued to a late date. In 1818, her coffin was discovered at Peter- 
 lingen (Payerne) in "Waadtland, and was solemnly borne by young maidens to 
 the town church, where it was entombed. Meyer von Knonau.
 
 352 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 assassinated him. 1 Henry bestowed the dukedom of Swabia 
 on Hermann, one of his relations, to whom he gave Burk- 
 hard's widow in marriage. He also bestowed a portion of 
 the south of Alemannia on King Rudolf, in order to win him 
 over, and in return received from him the holy lance, with 
 which the side of the Saviour had been pierced as he hung 
 on the cross. Finding it no longer possible to dissolve the 
 dukedoms and great fiefs, Henry, in order to strengthen 
 the unity of the empire, introduced the novel policy of be- 
 stowing the dukedoms, as they fell vacant, on his relations 
 and personal adherents, and of allying the rest of the dukes 
 with himself by intermarriage, thus uniting the different 
 powerful houses in the state into one family. 
 
 Bavaria still remained in an unsettled state. Arnulf the 
 Bad, leagued with the Hungarians, against whom Henry 
 had great designs, had still much in his power, and Henry, 
 resolved at any price to dissolve this dangerous alliance, not 
 only concluded peace with this traitor on that condition, but 
 also married his son Henry to Judith, Arnulf's daughter, 
 A.D. 921. Arnulf deprived the rich churches of great part 
 of their treasures, and was consequently abhorred by the 
 clergy, the chroniclers of those times, who, chiefly on that 
 account, depicted his character in such unfavorable colors. 
 
 In France, Charles the Simple was still the tool and jest 
 of the vassals. His most dangerous enemy was Robert, 
 Count of Paris, brother to Odo, the late king. Both solicited 
 aid from Henry, but in a battle that shortly ensued near 
 Soissons, Count Robert losing his life and Charles being 
 defeated, Rudolf of Burgundy, one of Boso's nephews, set 
 himself up as king of France, and imprisoned Charles the 
 Simple, who craved assistance from the German monarch, 
 to whom he promised to perform homage as his liege lord.* 
 
 1 He had said, "If I do not make every Italian, who wears spurs, ride a 
 mare, my name is not Burkhard. " Sigonius. 
 
 8 Se et Franciam Henrico regi submittit, says Vincentius Bellovacensis. In 
 testimony of the sincerity of his promise, he sent the hand of St. Dionysius, the 
 patioii saint of France, set in gold and precious stones.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 353 
 
 Henry, meanwhile, contented himself with expelling Rudolf 
 from Lothringia, and after taking possession of Metz, be- 
 stowed that dukedom upon Gisilbrecht, the son of Regingar, 
 and reincorporated it with the empire. These successes now 
 roused the apprehensions of the Hungarians, who again 
 poured their invading hordes across the frontier. In 926, 
 they plundered St. Gall, but were routed near Seckingen by 
 the peasantry, headed by the country people of Hirminger, 
 who had been roused by alarm-fires; and again in Elsace, 
 by Count Liutfried: another horde was cut to pieces near 
 Bleiburg, in Carinthia, by Eberhard and the Count of Meran. 
 The Hungarian king, probably Zoldan, was, by chance, taken 
 prisoner during an incursion by the Germans, a circumstance 
 turned by Henry to a very judicious use. He restored the 
 captured prince to liberty, and also agreed to pay him a 
 yearly tribute, on condition of his entering into a solemn 
 truce for nine years. The experience of earlier times had 
 taught Henry that a completely new organization was neces- 
 sary in the management of military affairs in Germany, be- 
 fore this dangerous enemy could be rendered innoxious, and 
 as an undertaking of this nature required time, he prudently 
 resolved to incur a seeming disgrace, by means of which he 
 in fact secured the honor of the state. During this interval 
 of nine years he aimed at bringing the other enemies of the 
 empire, more particularly the Slavi, into subjection, and 
 making preparations for an expedition against Hungary by 
 which her power should receive a fatal blow. 
 
 In the meantime, Gisilbrecht, the youthful duke of Loth- 
 ringia, again rebelled, but was besieged and taken prisoner 
 in Zulpich by Henry, who, struck by his noble appearance, 
 restored to him his dukedom, and bestowed upon him his 
 daughter, Gerberga, in marriage. Rudolf of France also 
 sued for peace, being hard pressed by his powerful rival, 
 Hugo the Great or Wise, the son of Robert. Charles the 
 Simple was, on Henry's demand, restored to liberty, but 
 quickly fell anew into the power of his faithless vassals. 
 
 Peace was now established throughout the empire, and
 
 354 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 afforded Henry an opportunity for turning his attention to 
 the introduction of measures, in the interior economy of the 
 state, calculated to obviate for the future the dangers that 
 had hitherto threatened it from without. The best expedi- 
 ent against the irruptions of the Hungarians appeared to 
 him to be the circumvallation of the most important dis- 
 tricts, the erection of forts and of fortified cities. The most 
 important point, however, was to place the garrisons imme- 
 diately under him, as citizens of the state, commanded by his 
 immediate officers, instead of their being indirectly governed 
 by the feudal aristocracy, and by the clergy. As these gar- 
 risons were intended, not only for the protection of the walls, 
 but also for open warfare, he had them trained to fight in 
 rank and file, and formed them into a body of infantry, 
 whose solid masses were calculated to withstand the furious 
 onset of the Hungarian horse. These garrisons were solely 
 composed of the ancient freemen, and the whole measure 
 was, in fact, merely a reform of the ancient arrier-ban, which 
 no longer sufficed for the protection of the state, and whose 
 deficiency had long been supplied by the addition of vassals 
 under the command of their temporal or spiritual lieges, and 
 by the mercenaries or body-guards of the emperors. The an- 
 cient class of freemen, who originally composed the arrier- 
 ban, had been gradually converted into feudal vassals; but 
 they were at that time still so numerous as to enable Henry 
 to give them a completely new military organization, which 
 at once secured to them their freedom, hitherto endangered 
 by the preponderating power of the feudal aristocracy, and 
 rendered them a powerful support to the throne. By collect- 
 ing them into the cities, he afforded them a secure retreat 
 against the attempts of the Grafs, dukes, abbots, and bishops, 
 and created for himself a body of trusty friends, of whom it 
 would naturally be expected that they would ever side with 
 the emperor against the nobility. 
 
 This new regulation appears to have been founded on 
 the ancient mode of division. At first, out of every nine 
 freemen (which recalls the decania) one only was placed
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 355 
 
 within the new fortress, and the remaining eight were bound 
 (perhaps on account of their ancient association into corpora- 
 tions or guilds) to nourish and support him ; but the remain- 
 ing freemen, in the neighborhood of the new cities, appear 
 to have been also gradually collected within their walls, and 
 to have committed the cultivation of their lands in the vicin- 
 ity to their bondsmen. However that may be, the ancient 
 class of freemen completely disappeared, as the cities in- 
 creased in importance, and it was only among the wild 
 mountains, where no cities sprang up, that the centen or 
 cantons and whole districts or gauen of free peasantry were 
 to be met with. 
 
 Henry's original intention in the introduction of this new 
 system was, it is evident, solely to provide a military force 
 answering to the exigencies of the state ; still there is no rea- 
 son to suppose him blind to the great political advantage to 
 be derived from the formation of an independent class of 
 citizens, and that he had in reality premeditated a civil as 
 well as a military reformation may be concluded from the 
 fact of his having established fairs, markets, and public as- 
 semblies, which, of themselves, would be closely connected 
 with civil industry, within the walls of the cities; and, even 
 if these trading warriors were at first merely feudatories of 
 the emperor, they must naturally in the end have formed a 
 class of free citizens, the more so, as, attracted within the 
 cities by the advantages offered to them, their number rapidly 
 and annually increased. 
 
 The same military reasons which induced the emperor 
 Henry to enroll the ancient freemen into a regular corps of 
 infantry, and to form them into a civil corporation, caused 
 him also to metamorphose the feudal aristocracy into a regu- 
 lar troop of cavalry and a knightly institution. The wild 
 disorder with which the mounted vassals of the empire, the 
 dukes, grafs, bishops, and abbots, each distinguished by his 
 own banner, rushed to the attack, or vied with each other 
 in the fury of the assault, was now changed by Henry, who 
 was well versed in every knightly art, to the disciplined ma-
 
 356 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 neuvers of the line, and to that of fighting in close ranks, 
 so well calculated to withstand the furious onset of their 
 Hungarian foe. The discipline necessary for carrying these 
 new military tactics into practice among a nobility habitu- 
 ated to license could alone be enforced by motives of honor, 
 and Henry accordingly formed a chivalric institution, which 
 gave rise to new manners, and to an enthusiasm that im- 
 parted a new character to the age. The tournament, from 
 the ancient verb turnen, to wrestle or fight, a public contest 
 in every species of warfare, carried on by the knights in the 
 presence of noble dames and maidens, whose favor they 
 sought to gain by their prowess, and which chiefly con- 
 sisted of tilting and jousting either singly or in troops, the 
 day concluding with a banquet and a dance, was then insti- 
 tuted. In these tournaments the ancient heroism of the 
 Germans revived; they were in reality founded upon the 
 ancient pagan legends of the heroes who carried on an 
 eternal contest in their Walhalla, in order to win the smiles 
 of the "Walkyren, now represented by earth's well-born 
 dames. 
 
 The ancient spirit of brotherhood in arms, which had 
 been almost quenched by that of self-interest, by the desire 
 of acquiring feudal possessions, by the slavish subjection of 
 the vassals under their lieges, and by the intrigues of the 
 bishops, who intermeddled with ah 1 feudal matters, also re- 
 appeared. A great universal society of Christian knights, 
 bound to the observance of peculiar laws, whose highest aim 
 was to fight only for God (before long also for the ladies), 
 and who swore never to make use of dishonorable means 
 for success, but solely to live and to die for honor, was 
 formed ; an innovation which, although merely military in 
 its origin, speedily became of political importance, for, by 
 means of his knightly honor, the little vassal of a minor lord 
 was no longer viewed as a mere underling, but as a confed- 
 erate in the great universal chivalric fraternity. There were 
 also many freemen who sometimes gained their livelihood 
 by offering their services to different courts, or by robbing
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 35? 
 
 on the highways, and who were too proud to serve on foot; 
 Henry offered them free pardon, and formed them into a 
 body of light cavalry. In the cities, the free citizens, who 
 were originally intended only to serve as foot soldiery, ap- 
 pear ere long to have formed themselves into mounted troops, 
 and to have created a fresh body of infantry out of their ar- 
 tificers and apprentices. It is certain that every freeman 
 could pretend to knighthood. 
 
 Although the chivalric regulations ascribed to the em- 
 peror Henry, and to his most distinguished vassals, may 
 not be genuine, they offer nevertheless infallible proofs of 
 the most ancient spirit of knighthood. Henry ordained that 
 no one should be created a knight who either by word or by 
 deed injured the holy church; the Pfalzgraf Conrad added, 
 "no one who either by word or by deed injured the holy 
 German empire"; Hermann of Swabia, "no one who in- 
 jured a woman or a maiden"; Berthold, the brother of Ar- 
 nulf of Bavaria, "no one who had ever deceived another or 
 had broken his word"; Conrad of Franconia, "no one who 
 had ever run away from the field of battle." These appear 
 to have been, in fact, the first chivalric laws, for they spring 
 from the spirit of the times, while all the regulations con- 
 cerning nobility of birth, the number of ancestors, the exclu- 
 sion of all those who were engaged in trade, etc., are, it is 
 evident from their very nature, of a much later origin. 
 
 CXXXIII. Conquests in the Slavian Northeast Defeat 
 of the Hungarians 
 
 THE systematic reduction of the Slavian north of Ger- 
 many beneath his rule was one of the great projects of the 
 emperor; and, when the recollection of the unfortunate 
 Slavian nations, thinned by bloody defeats, deprived of 
 their ancient privileges, forcibly converted to Christianity, 
 and obliged to adopt the German language, strange and 
 unfamiliar to them, recurs, the barbarity of these measures 
 would naturally rouse indignation; still, the inquiry whether
 
 358 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 they were not induced by necessity or for safety is but just. 
 The Slavi had long made common cause with the Hunga- 
 rians, whom they assisted in their predatory excursions 
 against the Germans, whom they attacked in the rear, 
 while engaged in defending themselves against their 
 dreaded foe, and the consequent peril in which the 
 empire stood, together with the alternative of destroy- 
 ing or of being destroyed, rendered victory necessary at 
 whatever price. The whole of the empire, as far as Loth- 
 ringia and Bremen, was laid waste by the repeated inva- 
 sions of the lawless Hungarians and their Slavian allies. 
 The whole of Austria, as far as the Enns, had been severed 
 from the state by the conquering Hungarians, while the 
 Slavi attempted to spread themselves northward as far as 
 the Weser. Had the emperor spared the Slavi, and neg- 
 lected to disarm them during his truce with the Hunga- 
 rians, they would certainly have assisted them in their first 
 irruption, and might possibly have brought the empire to 
 the brink of destruction. The subjection of heathen nations 
 was, moreover, regarded in those times as a meritorious 
 work, inasmuch as they were, by that means, forced to 
 embrace Christianity. 
 
 The ancient Obotrites maintained themselves in Mecklen- 
 burg, protected by their forests and lakes, and by their oft- 
 tried valor, while the disunited Serbian tribes, the Hevelli 
 on the Havel, the Daleminzii on the Middle Elbe, and the 
 Redarii on the Prieguitz, whose territory chiefly consisted 
 of open country, and who, in the moment of danger, were 
 abandoned by their fellow tribes, could offer but a feeble 
 resistance. It was, therefore, upon them that Henry first 
 turned his arms. In 926, he marched against the Hevelli, 
 seized their capital, Brannibor (Brandenburg), converted 
 their country into a frontier of the empire, placed it un- 
 der the jurisdiction of a Saxon Markgraf, colonized it with 
 Christian Germans, and left no means untried in order to 
 Germanize the inhabitants. 
 
 In the following year, A.D. 927, he entered Bohemia,
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 359 
 
 and took possession of Prague, where, after the fall of the 
 Moravian kingdom of the Christian Borziwoi, his son, Spig- 
 nitew, who had relapsed into paganism, maintained himself 
 with the aid of the Hungarians, whom he assisted on every 
 occasion against the Germans. He was succeeded by his 
 brother Wratislaw, who wedded Drahomira, a pagan Hevel- 
 lian princess. Drahomira, inspired by her hereditary enmity 
 against the Germans, caused all the Christians, among oth- 
 ers her mother-in-law, St. Ludmilla, to be assassinated, and 
 Henry entered the country under pretext of avenging their 
 martyrdom. Drahomira sought safety in flight. Her son, 
 "Wenzel, afterward surnamed the Holy, took the oath of al- 
 legiance to the emperor, and was enabled, by the successes of 
 the Germans, to make use of peaceable means for the con- 
 version of his terror-stricken subjects. 
 
 The subjection of the Hevelli and of the Bohemians now 
 placed the Daleminzii at the mercy of the conqueror. Henry 
 invaded their country, A.D. 928, took Grona, their metropo- 
 lis, and built the fortress of Meissen on the Elbe. It appears 
 that the Slavian Parathani (inhabitants of Baireuth), who 
 are mentioned in the history of St. Emmeram, had, at an 
 earlier period, been converted by the monks of Ratisbon and 
 Nuremberg. The fortresses of Saalfeld, Orlamund, Rudol- 
 stadt, Leuchtenburg, Lobeda, Dornburg, Naumburg, were 
 erected on the Saal, now become the line of demarcation 
 between the Germans and the Slavi. Weimar also received 
 its name from Wenden Mark, or the Wendian frontier. 
 
 The Redarii had driven away their chief, Bernhard, who, 
 there is no doubt, had embraced Christianity. This brave 
 warrior was sent by Henry against his countrymen, who, 
 well aware of the fate that awaited them, made such a des- 
 perate resistance at Lunkin (Lenzen) that their whole army, 
 with the exception of eight hundred, who were made prison- 
 ers, fell on the field of battle, A.D. 930. Numbers flung 
 themselves in despair into a lake. This terrible defeat filled 
 the neighboring Slavian tribes with consternation. 
 
 The truce had now, A.D. 933, expired, and embassadors
 
 360 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 were sent from Hungary to demand the payment of the an- 
 cient tribute. According to the legendary account, Henry 
 caused a mutilated mangy dog to be thrown before them, 
 and declared a deadly war with their nation. The Hunga- 
 rians instantly crossed the frontier in two enormous hordes, 
 the lesser of which, 50,000 strong, was encountered by the 
 arrier-ban of Saxony and Thuringia near Sondershausen and 
 entirely routed. The other and more numerous body ad- 
 vanced along the Saal in the vicinity of Merseburg against 
 the emperor, and laid siege to the fortress of a certain "Wido, 
 who, according to Wittekind's account, had married a natu- 
 ral daughter of the emperor, and possessed immense treas- 
 ures. Henry, meanwhile, intrenched himself on a moun- 
 tain, since known as the Keuschberg, or mountain of 
 chastity, owing to the circumstance of no woman being: 
 permitted to enter the camp of the Christians, who strength- 
 ened themselves for the coming conflict by devotional exer- 
 cises. The news of the defeat of their countrymen at Son- 
 dershausen soon reached the Hungarians, who instantly 
 kindled enormous fires along the banks of the river, as 
 signals of recall to those of their number who were en- 
 gaged in plundering the country, and the battle commenced 
 with the coming morn. Henry addressed his troops, who 
 unanimously swore to die on the field or to annihilate their 
 foes. The picture of St. Michael, the defender of heaven, 
 was borne in the van, as the banner of the empire. A mur- 
 derous struggle commenced, the Hungarians shouting, "Hui! 
 Hui!" the Germans, "Kyrieleison!" Victory long wa- 
 vered, but was at length decided by the discipline and en- 
 thusiastic valor of the Germans. Thirty thousand Hunga- 
 rians remained on the field of battle; the remainder fled. 
 An immense number of Christian slaves were restored to 
 liberty. After the victory, Henry knelt, at the head of his 
 troops, on the field, and returned thanks to their patron 
 saint. The Hungarians appear to have been everywhere 
 cut down as soon as they were overtaken. Only seven of 
 their most distinguished chieftains were sent back alive to
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 361 
 
 their countiy, deprived of their hands, noses, and ears, with 
 the injunction for the future to remain peaceably at home. 
 The terror of the Hungarians now equaled that with which 
 they had formerly inspired the Germans. In the belief that 
 the angel Michael, whose gigantic picture they ever beheld 
 borne in the van of the German army, was the god of vic- 
 tory, they made golden wings similar to those with which 
 he was represented for their own idols. Germany remained 
 undisturbed in this quarter during the rest of this reign. An 
 annual festival, held in the village of Keuschberg, still cele- 
 brates the memory of this great victory. 1 
 
 Henry now turned his victorious arms against the Danes, 
 who had secretly invaded the empire. He pursued them as 
 far as the Slie, on whose banks he erected the fortress of 
 Schleswig, in which he placed a German garrison, and 
 forced, A.D. 934, Gorm the Old to abolish the horrid na- 
 tional sacrifice, in which ninety-nine men were offered on 
 the altars of the pagan deities. 
 
 The following year, A.D. 935, a friendly meeting took 
 place between him and the kings of France and Burgundy 
 on the Char, a tributary of the Maas. Henry afterward 
 planned a visit to Rome, but died without accomplishing 
 that project, A.D. 936, when at the height of his splendor 
 and renown. He was buried at Quedlinburg, his favorite 
 residence. 
 
 CXXXIV. Otto the First 
 
 OTTO, the son of Henry, was unanimously elected as 
 successor to the throne. The feeling of respect which the 
 newly-acquired greatness of the state instilled into the minds 
 of his subjects, conspired with his own love of magnificence 
 and display to render the coronation of this youthful prince 
 a scene of more than ordinary solemnity. The choice of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle as the theater on this grand occasion dem- 
 
 1 The hand of the emperor, and, underneath, a horseshoe, are still to be seen 
 there cut in the rock, a sign of victory, as may also be seen in other places, fo? 
 instance, on the battlefield of Wolfisholz. 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 16
 
 362 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 onstrated the high expectations universally inspired by this 
 new sovereign, on whom the spirit of Charlemagne seemed 
 to rest. The entire nation, the clergy, and the nobility, vied 
 with each other in surrounding their monarch with a splen- 
 dor equaling that with which the first emperor had been en- 
 vironed. The gigantic crown of Charlemagne, the scepter, 
 the sword, the cross, the sacred lance, and the golden man- 
 tle, now became objects of still deeper devotion. The arch- 
 bishop of Mayence held precedence, by the ancient respect 
 attached to his dignity, in the ceremony of anointing; the 
 temporal lords performed their various offices in person; 
 Gisilbrecht of Lothringia filled that of chamberlain, Eber- 
 hard of Franconia, that of carver, Hermann of Swabia, 
 that of cup-bearer, Arnulf of Bavaria, that of master of 
 the horse. These new and honorable offices were hence- 
 forward retained by the dukes. Editha, Otto's wife, the 
 daughter of Edmund, king of England, was also crowned. 
 Although Otto worthily maintained the dignity he inherited 
 from his father, he scarcely merits the title of Great. He 
 was not endowed with the winning frankness with which 
 his more simple-minded father had gained every heart. His 
 manner was cold and haughty ; he surrounded himself with 
 etiquette, and, although by no means wanting in personal 
 bravery, owed his success more to his craftiness and good 
 fortune than to his generosity and magnanimity. ' 
 
 The death of Henry was the signal for a general insurrec- 
 tion among the Slavians and Hungarians. The Redarii re- 
 volted, A.D. 936, but were again reduced to submission by 
 a Saxon army sent against them by the emperor, under the 
 command of Hermann Billung, 2 a brave and skillful leader. 
 In the following year the Hungarians made an inroad into 
 
 1 Wittekind says: "His demeanor was replete with majesty. His white hair 
 waved over his shoulders. His eyes were bright and sparkling, his beard of an 
 extraordinary length, his breast like that of a lion, and covered with hair. ' ' 
 
 8 According to the popular legend, Hermann was tending sheep near Stube- 
 keshorn, when the Emperor Otto chanced to cross the field. Hermann stopped 
 the carriage and refused to allow it to be driven over his father's meadow. The 
 emperor, pleased with the gigantic stature and high spirit of the shepherd boy, 
 took him into his service.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 363 
 
 Saxony, but were defeated by Otto in an unknown spot, 
 and pursued as far as Metz ; the rapidity of their movements 
 during their predatory incursion having led them across the 
 Rhine almost to the French frontier. 
 
 These events were followed by disturbances in the inte- 
 rior of the empire, and by family disputes. Henry had, by 
 his first marriage with the princess of Hatburg, a son named 
 Thankmar (or Tammo), to whom the succession rightfully 
 belonged, but, becoming enamored of the beautiful Matilda, 
 he divorced his wife, under pretext of her having been des- 
 tined for the cloister. He had three sons by Matilda, Otto, 
 Henry, and Bruno, the first of whom he named as his suc- 
 cessor on the throne, which Matilda coveted for her hand- 
 some and favorite' son, Henry. Great family dissensions 
 arose from these circumstances, not dissimilar to, and as 
 odious, although more fortunate in their result to the em- 
 peror, as those that disturbed the reign of Louis the Pious. 
 
 The fate of the luckless Thankmar excited a feeling 
 of commiseration equaling that with which Bernhard, the 
 grandson of Louis the Pious, had formerly been viewed. 
 Not content with having deprived him of the imperial throne, 
 Otto also seized his large maternal inheritance in Saxony, 
 and bestowed it upon the Markgraf Gero, who, together with 
 Billung, guarded the Slavian frontier. Thankmar rebelled, 
 and was upheld by the Saxons. He was also joined by Eber- 
 hard, duke of Franconia, the same who, at the desire of his 
 brother, the Emperor Conrad, transferred the crown to the 
 Saxon Henry. On the death of that emperor, he attempted 
 to assert his claim to the imperial dignity, being partly in- 
 fluenced by the hatred he bore to Otto, by whom he had 
 been injured. 1 The rebels also attempted to gain over Henry, 
 Otto's younger brother, whom Thankmar contrived to cany 
 
 1 Bruning, a Saxon vassal of the Franconian duke, was induced by his 
 hereditary and national dislike, to rebel against his liege, who, in revenge, razed 
 his castle of Elmeri to the ground, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. la 
 order to punish this cruelty, Otto laid a heavy fine upon the duke, and con- 
 demned the perpetrators of the dreadful deed (Eberhard's most trusty vassals) 
 to carry dogs.
 
 364 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 off from his castle of Badliki on the Ruhr. The emperor 
 marched against the insurgents; Thankmar was besieged 
 in the Eresburg, and slain at the foot of the altar, whither 
 he had fled for safety; Eberhard, abandoned by the greater 
 part of his followers, fell at the feet of the imprisoned Henry, 
 whom he besought to intercede in his behalf with the em- 
 peror. To his surprise, Henry replied that he was willing 
 to join with him in his designs against Otto, in order to de- 
 prive him of the crown, which he coveted for himself. For 
 the present the two confederates dissembled their projects, 
 and Eberhard made his submission to Otto with expressions 
 of the deepest contrition for his guilt. 
 
 Henry, meanwhile, strengthened the conspiracy by gain- 
 ing over to his party the sons of Arnulf of Bavaria, 1 who 
 had died not long before, Eberhard, Arnulf, Hermann, and 
 Louis, the archbishop Frederick of Mayence, who aimed at 
 the attainment of a pre-eminence in the state similar to that 
 formerly enjoyed by Hatto and Gisilbrecht of Lothringia. 
 Louis, surnamed "Over the Sea" a son of Charles the Sim- 
 ple, who, in his early youth, had taken refuge in England, 
 whence, after the decease of Rudolf of Burgundy, A.D. 936, 
 he had been recalled by Hugo, Count of Paris, surnamed 
 the Great, or the Wise, and placed on the throne of France 
 was also invited to join the rebels, but refused, and sought 
 to strengthen himself by an alliance with Otto. The con- 
 spirators now contrived to draw the emperor to the Rhine, 
 while Gisilbrecht gave the first signal for revolt, by rising 
 in open rebellion, and at the moment when a division of 
 Otto's Saxon army had crossed the Rhine at Zante, Henry, 
 
 1 He is said to have despoiled Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, to whom, when 
 in return he threatened him with the vengeance of heaven, he sent a goblet 
 filled with wine from his table in proof of his welfare. The bishop said to the 
 vassal who bore it, "Return whence you came, your master is dead": and so it 
 proved. According to another popular account, the devil broke his neck and 
 threw his body into the lake at Scheyern. An ancient manuscript preserved at 
 Tegern records : 
 
 "This is Arnulf duke of Bavaria, 
 
 Who still lies in the lake at Dscheiren, 
 
 Whose neck the devil broke 
 
 For his evil deeds."
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 365 
 
 who, under color of aiding his brother, had marched thither 
 at the head of his vassals, suddenly declared in favor of Gisil- 
 brecht, and fell upon them sword in hand. In this extrem- 
 ity, Otto fell upon his knees before the sacred lance, and in- 
 voked the aid of heaven. A Saxon, meanwhile, shouted in 
 Italian, "Run, run"; and the Italian mercenaries in the 
 Lothringian army, being seized with a sudden panic at the 
 cry, instantly ran away. A terrible slaughter ensued. Eber- 
 hard and the archbishop of Mayence, terrified by this unex- 
 pected disaster, did not venture to declare themselves, and 
 Henry, who had been wounded in the melee, fled to Merse- 
 burg, whither the emperor was enticed in order to relieve 
 Gisilbrecht in his quarters on the Rhine. At the same time, 
 the Slavi were secretly instigated to revolt. The plot was, 
 however, betrayed to the Markgraf Gero, who invited thirty 
 of the Slavian princes to a banquet, at which he caused them 
 to be assassinated when in a state of intoxication, A.D. 938, 
 and the Slavi attempting to revenge this act of treachery, 
 Otto was forced to raise the siege at Merseburg, and to 
 march to Gero's assistance. He, at the same time, par- 
 doned Henry, in the hope of separating him, by gentle and 
 conciliatory measures, from Eberhard and Gisilbrecht. 
 
 The Hungarians, who, at this time, made a fresh irrup- 
 tion into the empire, suffered two bloody defeats in the Harz 
 Mountains, near Stetteruburg and in the Dromling, a marshy 
 forest, whence their horses, weary with the heavy rain and 
 the nature of the ground, were unable to extricate them. 
 
 While Otto was engaged in opposing the Slavi, who had 
 entirely cut to pieces a Saxon army under Haika, and again 
 succeeded, after several severe engagements, the details of 
 which have not been recorded, in reducing them to sub- 
 mission, Gisilbrecht won over the French monarch. This 
 intelligence no sooner reached the ears of Otto than he 
 hastened to besiege Gisilbrecht in the castle of Chevre- 
 mont. Gisilbrecht secretly escaped, and Otto, being forced 
 by the state of affairs in Saxony to return to that country, 
 intrusted the defense of the western frontier to Immo, the
 
 366 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Lothringian Graf, and to the duke of Swabia, who had re- 
 mained firm in his allegiance. Louis crossed the frontier at 
 the head of a numerous army, invaded and wasted Elsace, 
 which was bravely defended by Hermann, who finally com- 
 pelled him to retreat. Eberhard, meanwhile, seized Breisach. 
 Immo was closely besieged. 1 Eberhard was on the point of 
 being proclaimed and anointed king at Metz. These events 
 quickly recalled Otto from Saxony, in order to lay siege to 
 Breisach, upon which the archbishop of Mayence, who, until 
 now, had pretended to favor his party, and who was in his 
 camp, suddenly threw off the mask, and went over with 
 his numerous adherents to the enemy, whose principal force 
 was assembled near Andernach, and was merely opposed by 
 a small body of troops commanded by the Graf Conrad Kurz- 
 bold, and by Udo, brother to Hermann of Swabia, the for- 
 mer of whom, perceiving that his opponents were spread 
 carelessly feasting on the banks of the Rhine, suddenly fell 
 upon them. A fearful slaughter ensued ; Eberhard fell after 
 a desperate struggle ; " Gisilbrecht was drowned in the Rhine; 
 Otto's party triumphed ; Breisach surrendered ; * the arch- 
 bishop of Mayence was taken prisoner; and Henry, who 
 had infringed the treaty and again joined the rebels, fled 
 into France. The rebellion was no sooner crushed than 
 
 1 The legend relates that Immo, being besieged by Gisilbrecht, ordered 
 beehives to be thrown among the besiegers, who were put to flight by the 
 enraged insects. 
 
 4 Eberhard, the monk of St. Gall, says, Conrad, surnamed Kurzbold, on 
 account of his strength and shortness of stature, surprised the two chiefs when 
 engaged in a game of chess ; with a single blow with his lance he foundered the 
 boat in which Gisilbrecht sought to escape across the river, and slew Eberhard 
 on the bank. Conrad was a woman-hater. His deeds are recorded in the 
 popular ballads of that period. 
 
 3 The poetical legend of the Eberstein belongs to these times. Otto besieged 
 Graf Eberhard in the castle of Eberstein in the valley of the Murg, and being 
 unable to carry the fortress by force, had recourse to artifice, and invited the 
 Graf to a banquet, secretly intending to surprise the fort during his absence. 
 Eberhard accepted the invitation, but, during the dance, being informed of the 
 plot by Hedwig, the emperor's sister, he stole away from the scene of festivity, 
 and repaired to his castle, where he had again armed himself before the arrival 
 of the emperor's troops. Otto, delighted with this trait of courage, pardoned the 
 Graf, and, as a pledge of his favor, bestowed upon him the hand of the beautiful 
 Hedwig.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 367 
 
 Otto carried his plans into effect. Louis of France had 
 found means, before the emperor was able to succor Loth 
 ringia, to seduce Gerberga, the widow of Gisilbrecht, whom 
 he married, in order to insure the possession of the country. 
 The emperor, however, set up Graf Otto, who, in his qual- 
 ity of guardian to Henry, the young son of Gisilbrecht, gov- 
 erned Lothringia, in opposition to him. Although Eberhard's 
 nearest of kin, and consequently his heir in Franconia, was 
 his nephew, Conrad the Red, ' Otto divided the dukedom, and 
 bestowed a part of the land upon his vassal, Graf Udo of 
 Swabia. Berthold,, the brother of Arnulf, was also created 
 duke of Bavaria, to the exclusion of his three nephews. 
 
 Gero, meanwhile, continued to oppose the Slavi, and again 
 took firm footing in Brandenburg after the assassination of 
 the last prince of the Hevelli by the traitor Tugumin, who 
 had been bribed to commit the deed by Gero, A.D. 940. Otto 
 invaded France in person, drove Louis as far as the Seine, 
 and made a treaty with Burgundy. After the death of Ru- 
 dolf II., king of that country, his son Conrad, who was still 
 in his minority, was placed in his hands. Henry and the 
 archbishop of Mayence sought and received pardon; never- 
 theless, when, in 941, Otto again took the field against the 
 Slavi, and his troops mutinied on account of the difficulty 
 of their position, Henry and his coadjutor, the archbishop, 
 placed themselves at the head of a fresh conspiracy against 
 the emperor, whom they intended to assassinate during the 
 celebration of Easter at Quedlinburg. The plot was discov- 
 ered; Henry fled, but threw himself in penitential garb 
 shortly afterward at the feet of his injured brother, who 
 once more pardoned him. 
 
 A short peace ensued. A personal meeting took place, 
 A.D. 942, at Vouzieres between Otto and Louis of France, 
 and peace was concluded. In 944, the emperor bestowed 
 Lothringia, on the death of Henry, the son of Gisilbrecht, 
 and that of his guardian, Otto, on Conrad the Red, together 
 
 1 Conrad was the son of a Count Werner and of a daughter of the emperor, 
 Conrad I.
 
 368 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 with the 'hand of his daughter Luitgarde; an alliance which 
 united the Franconian party to his family and Lothringia 
 to the empire. The old duke, Hermann of Swabia, expired 
 in the course of the same year, and Ludolf, the emperor's 
 eldest son, who had married Ida, the duke's only child, be- 
 came duke in his stead. In the following year the death 
 of Berthold of Bavaria also took place, and Henry, who 
 had already wedded Judith, Arnulf's beauteous widow, 
 was named as his successor, to the exclusion of the sons 
 of both Arnulf and Berthold. The emperor was, by these 
 means, himself duke of Saxony; his son, duke of Swabia; 
 his brother, duke of Bavaria ; his son-in-law, duke of Fran- 
 conia and Lothringia; and Conrad, the young king of Bur- 
 gundy, remained a hostage at his court. 
 
 In 944, war again broke out; the Hungarians invaded 
 the empire, but were defeated in Carinthia by Duke Berthold, 
 who died shortly afterward. France was also disturbed by 
 the struggle between the unfortunate Louis and the great 
 Count Hugo of Paris, who was aided by the Normans, for 
 the possession of the crown. Hugo had, up to this period, 
 been on friendly terms with Otto, whose sister Hedwig he 
 had received in marriage. Otto, under pretext of rescuing 
 Louis from the imprisonment in which he was held by Hugo, 
 to whom he had been delivered by the Normans, invaded 
 France, 1 A.D. 947, but was unsuccessful in his attacks against 
 Paris or Rouen, the capital of Normandy. Peace was at 
 length established between the contending parties by Con- 
 rad of Franconia. Hugo voluntarily submitted, and Lothar, 
 the son of Louis, succeeded to the throne on the death of his 
 father, A.D. 954. Both of the emperor's sisters had married 
 a competitor for the throne of France; Gerberga, Louis; 
 and Hedwig, Hugo. The son of the latter, Otto's nephew, 
 the celebrated Hugh Capet, was raised to the throne on the 
 extinction of the Carlovingian dynasty. 
 
 1 Hugo having said, vauntingly, that he would swallow seven Saxon bolts at 
 a gulp, Otto replied that he would strew the whole of France with the straw 
 hats worn by his soldiers when not in action.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 369 
 
 The war with the French Normans was scarcely concluded 
 than a fresh one arose between Otto and their brethren, the 
 Danes, whose king, Harald Blaatand, or Blue Tooth, con- 
 quered Schleswig, and restored the Danewirk. A sangui- 
 nary battle took place, in which Otto was victorious. He 
 afterward marched in triumph through Jutland as far as 
 the Ottensund, which received its name from him. Harald 
 was forced to submit to the rite of baptism, and to take the 
 oath of allegiance to the emperor, who restored the frontier, 
 and erected Schleswig, Biepen and Aarhus into bishoprics, 
 under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Hamburg, A.D. 
 948. A victory was, during the same year, gained over the 
 Hungarians by Henry of Bavaria, who, A.D. 950, for the 
 first time, invaded their territory, whence he returned laden 
 with immense booty, and with the wives and children of the 
 chiefs. It was about this time that Otto founded new bish- 
 oprics as a means of increasing his power in the conquered 
 territory of the Slavi, Havelberg in 946, and Brandenburg 
 in 948, within the march of Gero; in 946, he also founded 
 Oldenburg in "Wagria, which country had just been reduced 
 to submission by Hermann Billung, who had taken advan- 
 tage of the feud that had broken out between Selibur, prince 
 of the "Wagrians, and Mistevoi, prince of the Obotrites. The 
 latter was persuaded to embrace Christianity, and wedded 
 the sister of "Wago, bishop of Oldenburg. His son, "Wislau, 
 relapsed into paganism. After having thus succeeded in 
 extending and securing the frontiers of the empire, Otto 
 turned his attention upon Italy. 
 
 CXXXV. The Reincorporation of Italy with the Empire 
 
 BERENGAR II. had seized the government of Italy. Adel- 
 heid, the widow of Lothar, fell into his hands. The preten- 
 sions of this princess to the crown, which were upheld by a 
 strong, although, at that period, suppressed party, and her 
 extraordinary wit and beauty, induced Berengar to offer to 
 her the hand of his son, Adalbert, who, being refused, Beren-
 
 370 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 gar imprisoned her in a fortress on the lake of Como, * whence 
 she contrived to escape to the castle of Canossa, where she 
 concealed herself. Otto had, at this time, not long become 
 a widower ; he sought, moreover, to place the imperial power 
 on a firmer basis, by the addition of great feudal possessions, 
 and by family alliances. In pursuance of this policy, he had 
 only set governors, who were chosen from among his trusti- 
 est vassals," over Saxony, over which he reigned as heredi- 
 tary sovereign, and insured the allegiance of Franconia, 
 Swabia, and Bavaria, by the strict connection that subsisted 
 between his family and those of their dukes. An extensive 
 and hereditary feudal tenure in Italy had long been an ob- 
 ject of his ambition. The earnest solicitations of Adelheid 
 for assistance met, therefore, with a favorable reception, and, 
 A.D. 951, he hastened across the Alps to the relief of Canossa, 
 at that time closely besieged, and was rewarded with the 
 hand of the lovely Adelheid at Pavia. His son, Ludolf, 
 fearing to share a fate similar to that of the unfortunate 
 Thankmar, quarreled with his unwished-for stepmother," 
 and suddenly quitted his father, accompanied by the arch- 
 bishop of Mayence, who again plotted treason. Otto, sus- 
 pecting their designs, and anxious to prevent mischief, re- 
 turned upon this to Germany, and intrusted the conduct of 
 the war with Berengar to Conrad of Lothringia, who, fully 
 aware of the immense sacrifice necessary for the mainte- 
 nance of the emperor's prerogative in Italy, offered terms 
 of peace, and promised a full pardon and the possession of 
 his lands to Berengar. These terms offended the pride of 
 the emperor, who refused his compliance, and threatened 
 again to invade Italy in person; but his indignation was 
 speedily mollified by the submissive behavior of Berengar, 
 
 1 She is said to have escaped through a hole that was bored through the 
 wall by a priest, and during her flight was so closely pursued as to be compelled 
 to conceal herself in a field of standing corn. 
 
 8 The church bells of Magdeburg having been rung in honor of Hermann 
 Billung, by order of the archbishop, Adalbert, the emperor sentenced him to 
 furnish the imperial stables with as many horses as there had been bells rung 
 on that occasion. 
 
 a She was nineteen years younger than the emperor.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 371 
 
 who repaired to Germany, took the oath of allegiance at 
 Augsburg, and was permitted to retain undisturbed posses- 
 sion of his lands. A fresh and alarming conspiracy was, 
 meanwhile, secretly ripening; Ludolf, whose pride had al- 
 ready been deeply mortified, was now still more aggrieved 
 by the conduct of his uncle, Henry of Bavaria, who had en- 
 tered into a close connection with Adelheid, through whom 
 he governed the emperor. A dispute that arose between 
 the uncle and nephew concerning the boundaries of their 
 lands was decided in favor of the former, by the emperor, 
 who, in addition to the extensive dukedom of Bavaria, which 
 already comprehended Carinthia, bestowed upon him the 
 meres of Verona and Aquileia. 
 
 Ludolf's sister, the wife of Conrad the Red, to whom 
 Adelheid was greatly obnoxious, espoused the cause of her 
 brother, who also found an ally in her husband, whom the 
 emperor had irremediably offended by his invalidation of 
 the promise made by Conrad to Berengar. The scheme of 
 the conspirators, neither of whom, at first, dreamed of open 
 revolt, merely extended to the exclusion of Henry, to whom, 
 as the tool of Adelheid, they ascribed every evil design, from 
 the imperial council. This they openly declared to the em- 
 peror at Ingelheim, and threatened to imprison Henry if he 
 came thither. Otto, unable to oppose them on the Rhine, 
 where Conrad and Ludolf ruled in their right as dukes, made 
 no reply, but, on his return to Saxony, gave full vent to his 
 rage, and deposed the ungrateful nobles, A.D. 953. The 
 Lothringians instantly rebelled, and attempted to throw off 
 the German yoke, but were defeated by Conrad on the Maas : 
 the battle lasted a whole day. Flushed by this victory, Con- 
 rad turned against the emperor, who had advanced as far as 
 the Rhine, and who, aided by Henry of Bavaria, laid siege 
 to Mayence, whose archbishop favored the rebels, and which 
 was for some time defended by Ludolf and Conrad against 
 the united imperial forces. Terms of reconciliation were at 
 length proposed; the two princes came forth, and threw 
 themselves at the feet of their indignant parent, but refus-
 
 372 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ing to deliver up their adherents, whom Otto wished to bring 
 to execution, not so much from revenge as from political mo- 
 tives, in order to weaken their party, they returned to the 
 city without anything being concluded. Immediately after 
 this, the Bavarians, incited by Arnulf, the son of the late 
 duke, rose tumultuously in the camp against Henry, and 
 declared in favor of Ludolf and Conrad, who again quitted 
 Mayence, and took the field with this new addition to their 
 force, which received a fresh accession of strength by the 
 desertion of a part of the Saxons under the command of 
 Ekbert, a nephew of Hermann Billung. A fresh body of 
 troops, dispatched from Saxony by Hermann Billung, to the 
 assistance of the emperor, was waylaid and defeated by Lu- 
 dolf and Conrad. Their commander, "VVichmann, another 
 of Hermann's nephews, also joined the rebels. Otto, with 
 characteristic prudence, sought to weaken his opponents by 
 separating their forces, and, with that intent, created his 
 brother Bruno, the archbishop of Cologne, duke of Lothrin- 
 gia. Conrad took the bait, and instantly withdrew across 
 the Rhine, in order to dispute the possession of that coun- 
 try. Hermann, meanwhile, drew Ekbert and Wichmann 
 toward Saxony, in order still more to weaken Ludolf and 
 Arnulf, who suffered a defeat before Augsburg, which city 
 was valiantly defended by Bishop Ulrich and his vassals, 
 A.D. 954. The conspirators now invited the Hungarians 
 who, headed by their king, Pulzko (Bulgio), spoliated both 
 friend and foe into the country, under pretext of aiding 
 Conrad, who seized and plundered Metz. He was violently 
 opposed by Bruno's adherents, and at length became so ob- 
 noxious to the people, for having caused this new inroad of 
 the Hungarians, and so terrified at the cruelties practiced 
 by them, that he voluntarily quitted his unnatural allies, 
 who, after vainly besieging Kammarich, returned to their 
 native country through France and Italy, burning and plun- 
 dering as they advanced. 
 
 The Germans, alarmed by these disasters, and fearful of 
 the event, now abandoned the leaders of the rebellion, and
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 373 
 
 crowded around the emperor, who held a diet at Cinna 
 (Zeun), where Conrad and Frederick, archbishop of May- 
 ence, made their submission. Ludolf and Arnulf, never- 
 theless, obstinately continued to defend Ratisbon, where, 
 after a desperate resistance, Arnulf was killed when head- 
 ing a sally against the enemy, and Ludolf, finding it useless 
 to resist, took refuge in Swabia. Ulrich, bishop of Augs- 
 burg, attempted to bring about a reconciliation between the 
 emperor and his now penitent son, who, one day, when the 
 former was hunting, suddenly fell at his feet and begged 
 for pardon. He met with a favorable reception, but was 
 deprived of the government of Swabia. He was afterward 
 sent into Italy and intrusted with the command of an army 
 against Berenger, who had again revolted. He there met 
 with an early death. The dukedom of Swabia was bestowed 
 upon Burkhard, the son of the elder Burkhard, and a rela- 
 tive of Bishop Ulrich. The new duke, who had just attained 
 his majority, wedded Hedwig, the daughter of Henry, who 
 was reinstated in the dukedom of Bavaria. Conrad was de- 
 prived of Lothringia, which was partitioned between the 
 Grafs Gottfried and Frederick, the former of whom gov- 
 erned the upper, the latter the lower country, but were sub- 
 ordinate to Bruno, the archbishop of Cologne, the first noble 
 who bore the title of archduke. He was also the first church- 
 man who exercised such great temporal authority, so adverse 
 to the spirit by which the first preachers of the gospel were 
 guided; but Bruno was the emperor's brother, and Otto had 
 learned from experience the importance of intrusting the 
 ducal power solely to his nearest relatives and best-tried 
 friends. In 954, Bruno crowned his nephew Lothar, the 
 son of Louis Over-the-Sea, who had just expired, king of 
 France. 
 
 A powerful party in Bavaria, headed by the Count "Wer- 
 ner, brother to the fallen Arnulf, were induced by the hatred 
 they bore to Henry to have recourse to the Hungarians, 
 whom they invited into the country. Confident of success 
 on account of their enormous numerical strength, the arro-
 
 374 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 gant barbarians boasted that their horses should drain every 
 river in Germany. Augsburg, whose supposed treasures at- 
 tracted their cupidity, was besieged by them, but made a 
 brave defense under the command of Burkhard of Swabia. ' 
 Their king, Bulzko, was encamped at Giinsburg. Otto in- 
 stantly assembled the arrier-ban of the entire empire; the 
 Bohemians united their forces with his; the Saxons, at that 
 time engaged in opposing the Slavi, alone failed. The two 
 armies came within sight of each other on the Lech, near 
 Augsburg. Before the battle commenced, Otto addressed 
 his troops, as his father had done on a similar occasion, and 
 vowed, when referring to the victory won by Henry, to found 
 a bishopric at Merseburg, if God granted him success. It 
 was the 10th of August, 955. The sun poured with intense 
 heat upon the plain. The Hungarians rapidly crossed the 
 Lech, fell upon the rear of the German army, dispersed 
 the Bohemians, and were pressing hard upon the Swabians, 
 when the fortune of the day was again turned by Conrad, 
 who, anxious to retrieve his fault and to regain the confi- 
 dence of his master, performed miracles of valor at the head 
 of the Franconians. The emperor struggled sword in hand 
 in the thickest of the fight. A vast number of the enemy 
 were drowned in attempting to escape across the river. Con- 
 rad was mortally wounded in the neck by an arrow aimed at 
 him by one of the fugitives, when in the act of raising his 
 helmet in order to breathe more freely. A hundred thou- 
 sand Hungarians are said to have fallen on this occasion. 
 Two of their princes, Lehel and Bulcs, were, by the em- 
 peror's command, hanged on the gates of Augsburg. Ac- 
 cording to some writers, King Bulzko and four of the war- 
 chiefs were hanged before the gates of Ratisbon. 8 Werner 
 
 1 The chiefs drove the people into the trenches with long whips. One, 
 named Lehel, bore an enormous horn, whose note was the signal for the be- 
 siegers to assemble. During a sally made hy the weavers of Augsburg they 
 gained possession of the shield of the Hungarian king, which has ever since 
 been borne by their guild. 
 
 * Dollinger, a citizen of Ratisbon, greatly distinguished himself on a former 
 occasion, by overcoming, in single combat, a gigantic Hungarian, whom no one 
 ventured to attack. The memory of his valor has been handed down to our
 
 THA SAXON EMPERORS 375 
 
 was killed by the enraged Hungarians, but few of whom 
 escaped to their country, almost the whole of the fugitives 
 being slain or hunted down like wild beasts by the Bavarian 
 peasants. The adherents of the adverse party were merci- 
 lessly punished by Henry of Bavaria, who caused them to be 
 buried alive or burned in beds of quicklime. Herold, bishop 
 of Salzburg, was, by his orders, deprived of sight, and the 
 patriarch Lopus of Aquileia met with a still more wretched 
 fate. This was the last inroad attempted by the Hunga- 
 rians, who, for the future, remained within their frontier, on 
 their side equally undisturbed by the Germans. The booty 
 was so enormous that a peasant is said to have had a silver 
 plow made out of his share. The innumerable Hungarian 
 horses taken on this occasion also gave rise to the establish- 
 ment of the Keferloher horse fair. 
 
 Henry of Bavaria, Otto's brother, died in 955, and was 
 succeeded in the government of Bavaria and Carinthia by 
 his son Henry, surnamed the Wrangler. Burkhard, who 
 had succeeded Ludolf in the command of the Italian army, 
 also expired shortly after, and was succeeded in the duke- 
 dom of Swabia by his widow, Hedwig, Otto's niece, who was 
 celebrated for her beauty and learning. This is the first ex- 
 ample of an office relating to the empire being filled by a 
 woman. At Hohentwiel, her residence during her widow- 
 hood, she passed her days in study, and read Virgil with 
 her chancellor Eckhard, who afterward became chaplain 
 and counsellor to the emperor Otto II., and also served the 
 empress Adelheid. Franconia remained partitioned between 
 Otto, the son of Conrad, and his cousin Henry, Markgraf of 
 Sweinfurt, who was also grandson to the emperor Conrad I., 
 through his father Count Bardo, a son of Burkhard of Thu- 
 ringia, who had wedded one of that emperor's daughters. 
 
 times by a monument and by the popular ballads. The city of Lauingen also 
 boasts a similar incident. A shoemaker of Lauingen is said to have killed a 
 gigantic Hungarian, whom the Marshal of Calatin had refused to meet in single 
 combat. For this valiant deed, the Emperor Otto caused the black Moor's 
 head, borne by the family of Calatin, to be inserted in the arms of the city of 
 Lauingen, and merely allowed the Calatins to bear the figure of a female Moor 
 on their shield.
 
 376 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 The Slavi were again humbled. Ekbert and "Wichmann, 
 Hermann Billung's nephews, had after Ludolf 's defeat taken 
 refuge among these people and incited them to open rebel- 
 lion. In 954, the Uchri were reduced to submission by Graf 
 Gero, but in the following year almost every Slavian tribe in 
 the country revolted under Nakko and Stoinef, descendants 
 of the ancient royal Hevellian dynasty. Hermann Billung 
 was surrounded and besieged at Gartz, and although prom- 
 ised an unmolested retreat, the garrison was cut to pieces, 1 
 A.D. 955. This event called the emperor from the Lech, and 
 the Slavi were quickly repelled. Stoinef was assassinated 
 while attempting to flee. His head was, by the emperor's 
 order, placed upon a stake, and seventy "Wends were be- 
 headed in a circle around it. Nakko was also taken prisoner 
 and beheaded. Gero, meanwhile, zealously labored to con- 
 firm Germanic rule and Christianity simultaneously in the 
 Slavian territory, where, besides the tithes, the Grafs exacted 
 the Wogewotinza, the bishops, the Biscowotinza, two op- 
 pressive taxes ; to which was added socage, the cruel right 
 of the conqueror over the conquered, so contrary to the doc- 
 trine of Christian love and equality : hence the hatred with 
 which the clergy were beheld by the "Wends. The manner 
 in which these wretched people were treated is best described 
 by Ditmar of Merseburg, who remarks in his Chronicle, "The 
 submissive slave must eat hay like an ox, and be beaten like 
 an ass." In 957, Wichmann again incited the Rhedarii to 
 revolt, but without success. 
 
 "While these events were taking place in Germany, Beren- 
 gar remained unmolested in Italy, more particularly since the 
 death of Ludolf, by whom he had been narrowly watched. 
 Berengar aimed at the independent sovereignty of Italy, in 
 which he was upheld by the majority of the people, whose 
 national pride ill-brooked the despotic rule of either the clergy 
 or the Germans. The Lombard bishops, enraged at the re- 
 striction imposed upon them by Berengar, sought the protec- 
 
 1 Because a Saxon bestowed a box on the ear on a Wend, for attempting to 
 force from him his wife, who was also a Wend.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 377 
 
 tion of the pope, who applied for aid to the emperor. The 
 family disputes that had so lately troubled Otto's domestic 
 peace, the struggle with the Hungarians and the Slavi, had 
 at this juncture been brought to a favorable termination, 
 and the reincorporation of Italy with the empire again be- 
 came the object of his ambition; accordingly, after causing 
 his son, Otto II., to be crowned king of Germany at Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, and intrusting the government of the empire to his 
 brother, Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, and to his illegiti- 
 mate son, William, who had succeeded Frederick in the arch- 
 bishopric of Mayence, he crossed the Alps, A.D. 961, expelled 
 Berengar, and for the first time entered Rome, where the 
 pope, John XII. (a son of Alberich), was compelled to crown 
 him emperor, and an oath was imposed upon the Romans 
 rendering it illegal for them to elect a pope without the con- 
 sent of the emperor, who no sooner quitted the city than the 
 pope declared the oath null and void, and retracted his 
 former professions. Otto upon this returned, convoked a 
 Concilium, and deposed the pope, who was convicted of the 
 most disgraceful vices. 1 A popular commotion was the im- 
 mediate result, and Otto was alone saved by the intrepidity 
 of his troops. The pope was taken in adultery and struck 
 dead on the spot by the injured husband. The Romans, 
 without referring to the emperor, elected a new pope, Bene- 
 dict V., whom Otto cited to appear before him, with his own 
 hand broke his crosier, banished him to Hamburg, and raised 
 Leo VIII. in his stead to the papal chair. About the same 
 time, Berengar, after long and valiantly defending the moun- 
 tain fort of St. Leo, was compelled to surrender. He was 
 exiled to Bamberg, where he died. His son, Adalbert, fled 
 to Corsica. 
 
 In 965 Otto returned to Germany, and held Whitsuntide 
 
 1 This pope bestowed the sacred vessels, belonging to the church of St. 
 Peter, upon his mistresses, violated the most beautiful of the pilgrims who 
 visited Rome, drank publicly to the health of the devil, and, while gambling, 
 invoked the pagan deities. His granduncle, King Hugo, had the same inclina- 
 tion toward paganism. Marozia and her mother, Theodora, were descended 
 from an ancient Roman family, and, at that period, Rome still possessed count- 
 less monuments and relics of antiquity.
 
 378 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 at Cologne, where he was attended by all the German 
 princes, among whom appeared Lothar of France. Peace 
 and security reigned throughout the empire. Graf Wich- 
 mann, to whom the emperor had extended the pardon granted 
 to his brother Ekbert, alone sought to disturb the general 
 tranquillity, and again joined the pagan Danes, who were 
 attempting to gain a settlement in Pomerania, where, in the 
 time of Harald Blaatand, the infamous pirates' nest, the 
 Jomsburg, near Wollin, had been built. He may possibly 
 have inspired the Wendi with fresh courage. The Lusicri 
 and Selpuli in Lusatia commenced a sanguinary war against 
 Gero, by whom they were reduced to submission. The deep 
 affliction of this Graf, occasioned by the death of his nephew 
 and of his youthful son, both of whom fell in battle, induced 
 him on the termination of this war to resign his office, and to 
 make a pilgrimage to Rome, where he laid his sword, whose 
 notches bore witness to many a fight, at the foot of St. Peter's 
 shrine, and ended his days within the cloister, A.D. 965. He 
 was the founder of the convent of Gernrode. 
 
 The emperor pursued his ancient policy in his treatment 
 of this new conquest. The Lausitz was converted into a new 
 frontier, Eastern Saxony, and placed under the jurisdiction 
 of Hermann Billung. The bishoprics of Merseburg and Zeiz 
 were also founded, and, in common with all the other bishop- 
 rics, rendered dependent on the great archbishopric of Magde- 
 burg, a city greatly beautified by the emperor, with whom it 
 was a favorite residence. Bishop Bucco (Burkhard) of Hal- 
 berstadt, imagining himself injured by the erection of this 
 new archbishopric, A.D. 968, rebelled; he was taken prisoner; 
 but seizing the opportunity of pronouncing a sentence of ex- 
 communication against the emperor, who chanced to pass his 
 prison window, the latter ordered him to be set at liberty. 
 
 Otto preserved amicable relations with Bohemia, where, 
 A.D. 936, St. "Wenzel was assassinated by his pagan brother, 
 Boleslaw I., at a baptismal festival, to which he had been 
 insidiously invited. Boleslaw declared war against Ger- 
 many, and began to build fortified cities, for instance, Baut-
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 379 
 
 zen. 1 He was defeated, and compelled to embrace Chris- 
 tianity, by Hermann Billung. a Poland, at that time oppressed 
 by the Danes and by Wichmann, also entered into alliance 
 with Germany. Miseko, king of Poland, wedded Dobrowa, 
 A.D. 966, the daughter of Boleslaw of Bohemia, who intro- 
 duced Christianity among the Poles. Wichmann joined Seli- 
 bur, the pagan prince of the Obotrites, who was defeated, 
 and Rethel, a great Slavian sanctuary, demolished, with all 
 the heathen deities contained in it, by Hermann Billung. 
 Wichmann was also defeated by the Poles, into whose hands 
 he fell during his flight, completely worn out with fatigue 
 and hunger; he expired amid then* insults, after slaying 
 several of his pursuers. His death confirmed the alliance 
 between Poland and Germany, and Miseko founded the 
 bishopric of Posen, which was subordinate to the arch- 
 bishopric of Magdeburg. 
 
 Otto revisited Italy, A.D. 966, where Adalbert, the son of 
 Berengar, had raised an insurrection in Lombardy; he was 
 defeated on the Po by Burkhard of Swabia. Pope Leo VIII. 
 was dead; the new pope, John XIII., the emperor's creature, 
 who had been expelled from Rome by an adverse party, had 
 been reinstated by Pandolf, the valiant prince of Benevento, 
 the last Lombard who preserved his ancestral bravery and 
 fidelity amid the vices of Italy. Otto's first act, on his ar- 
 rival in Rome, was the infliction of a severe chastisement on 
 the refractory Romans; thirteen of the most distinguished 
 citizens were hanged. A fresh and closer treaty was con- 
 cluded between the emperor and the pope, to whose domin- 
 ions the territory of Ravenna, which had been severed from 
 them, was restored, in return for which he solemnly placed 
 the imperial diadem on the head of Otto II., an incident of 
 rare occurrence during the lifetime and in the presence of 
 the father. All opposition to the irresistible power of the 
 
 1 The Bohemian nobles showing an unwillingness to assist in building, 
 Boleslaw struck off the head of the first who ventured to refuse. 
 
 2 According to Hageck, he fell at the feet of the emperor and begged for 
 mercy. The punishment awarded to him was to hold the field-kettle, whea 
 they encamped, over the fire, and to bear it in his escutcheon.
 
 380 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 emperor had now ceased the whole of Upper and Central 
 Italy lay in silent submission at his feet. His first step was 
 the imposition of a new form of government upon Lombardy. 
 He replaced the great dukes, with the exception of his ally 
 Pandolf, by numerous petty Markgrafs, the majority of 
 whom were Germans by birth. He also settled a consider- 
 able number of Germans in the different cities, and thus cre- 
 ated a party ' favorable to the imperial cause that counter- 
 poised the rebellious spirit of the Lombards and Romans. 
 Pandolf of Benevento, surnamed Ironhead, and the petty 
 duke, Gisulf of Salerno, whose imbecility rendered him ever 
 inconstant to his allies, defended the frontiers of Upper and 
 Central Italy, against the Greeks, who still retained possession 
 of Lower Italy, and the Saracens, who had already settled in 
 Sicily. Otto and his empress, Adelheid, visited Pandolf, A.D. 
 968, who entertained them with great magnificence. During 
 his residence at Benevento, Otto undertook the conquest of 
 Lower Italy. Bari, the strongly-fortified Grecian metropolis, 
 offering a valiant and successful resistance, he had recourse 
 to his favorite policy, and dispatched his confidant, Luit- 
 prand, the celebrated historian, to the court of Nicephorus, 
 the Grecian emperor, in order to demand the hand of the 
 beautiful princess, Theuphano, daughter to Romanus the late 
 emperor, for his son Otto II., probably in the hope of receiv- 
 ing Italy as her dowry. His suit being contemptuously re- 
 fused, Otto undertook a second campaign, during the follow- 
 ing year, and chose with great judgment his line of march 
 along the Alps that separate Lower Italy into two parts, and 
 thus command Apulia to the east and Calabria to the west. 
 Having thus opened a path, he returned the same way, leav- 
 ing the conquest of the low country to Pandolf, who having 
 the misfortune to be taken prisoner before Bovino, and to be 
 sent to Constantinople, the Greeks, under the patrician En- 
 genius, crossed the frontier, laid waste the country in the 
 neighborhood of Capua and Benevento, and treated the in- 
 
 1 In Florence, known as the Schiatte, from the old German word Schlacht, 
 race, family.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 381 
 
 habitants with great cruelty. Otto, who was at that junc- 
 ture in Upper Italy, sent the Grafs Gunther and Siegfried to 
 oppose them ; a splendid victory was gained, and the victors, 
 animated by a spirit of revenge, deprived the Greek prison- 
 ers of their right hands, noses, and ears. In 970, the Sicilian 
 Saracens invaded the country, but were defeated at Chiara- 
 monte by Graf Gunther. At this time, the emperor Jo- 
 hannes, who, after the assassination of Nicephorus, had as- 
 cended the throne of Greece, restored Pandolf Ironhead to 
 liberty, concluded peace with Otto, and consented to the alli- 
 ance of Otto II. with the beautiful Theuphano, who was 
 escorted from Constantinople by the archbishop Gero of Co- 
 logne, Bruno's successor, at the head of a numerous body of 
 retainers. She was received in the palace of Pandolf at 
 Benevento by the emperor and the youthful bridegroom. 
 Her extraordinary beauty attracted universal admiration. 1 
 The marriage ceremony was celebrated with great magnifi- 
 cence at Rome, A.D. 972. This princess created an impor- 
 tant change in the manners of Germany by the introduction 
 of Grecian customs, which gradually spreading downward 
 from the court, where her influence was first felt, affected 
 the general habits of the people by the alterations introduced 
 in the monastic academies. The German court adopted much 
 of the pomp and etiquette of that of Greece. The number 
 of retainers increased with increasing luxury, and the plain 
 manners of the true-hearted German were exchanged for 
 the finesse and adulation of the courtier. The emperor also 
 adopted the Grecian title of Sacred Majesty (Sacra Majes- 
 tas). Lower Italy remained in the hands of the Greeks. 
 
 The emperor returned to Germany, A.D. 972, and besides 
 his lovely daughter-in-law, brought with him a vast quantity 
 of relics, with which he adorned the churches, most par- 
 ticularly that at Magdeburg, for which he had a peculiar 
 
 1 The trappings of the horse on which she rode were ornamented with 
 feathers and gold, her Grecian dress was resplendent with jewels and pearls, 
 and her hair was confined in a golden net. Yet all this splendor was outshone 
 by the beauty of her features and the brilliancy of her eyes.
 
 382 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 predilection, and which he intended to honor with his own 
 remains. He held a great court at Quedlinburg, where he 
 received the homage of the different nations over whom he 
 ruled, and, after beholding in peace the fruits of his long and 
 busy reign, expired, A.D. 973, at Menleben. He was buried, 
 according to his desire, at Magdeburg. He left the affairs of 
 the empire, whose frontiers he had considerably extended, in 
 a most prosperous condition. Christianity was zealously dis- 
 seminated amid the Scandinavians to the north by the arch- 
 bishopric of Hamburg, and amid the Slavi to the east by 
 that of Magdeburg. Bohemia was transformed into a Ger- 
 man dukedom. Poland and Denmark owed allegiance to 
 the empire. The sovereignty of Lower Italy was in rever- 
 sion. In the interior of the state, the power of the sovereign 
 was firmly based. The government of the most important 
 provinces, the dukedoms and Margraviates, was intrusted to 
 the trustiest adherents of the reigning house ; and by the ap- 
 pointment of Pfalzgrafs, who managed the imperial allods, 
 royal dues and revenues, in every part of the empire, the 
 dukes could, in case of necessity, be watched and kept in 
 awe. The office of Pfalzgraf dates from an earlier period, 
 it merely received additional importance during this reign. 
 The cities had also increased in number and wealth. The 
 discovery of the rich silver mines of the Harz greatly pro- 
 moted commerce. A nobleman, when riding through the 
 forest, perceived a piece of silver ore that had been uncov- 
 ered by his horse's hoof: the spot was investigated, and, A.D. 
 938, the first mine was opened in the interior of Germany. 
 
 CXXXVI. Otto the Second and Otto the Third 
 
 OTTO II. was short of stature, but strong and muscular, 
 and of an extremely ruddy complexion; his temperament was 
 fiery, but modified by the refined and learned education he 
 had received, and for which he was indebted to the care of 
 his mother, Adelheid; his wife, Theuphano, also sympa- 
 thized in his love of learning. Still, the Italian blood that
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 383 
 
 flowed in his veins estranged him too much from Germany, 
 and excited in him so strong an inclination for the south 
 that it became as impossible for his mind to be completely 
 absorbed by care for the empire, as it was for his rough, 
 but honest German subjects to adopt the pomp and refine- 
 ment of his court. 
 
 Swabia, on the death of the pious Hedwig, was inherited 
 by Otto, the son of Ludolf, between whom and Henry the 
 Wrangler, of Bavaria, the ancient feud that had arisen on 
 account of the extent of their frontiers between their fathers 
 was still carried on. The emperor decided the question in 
 Otto's favor, and the quarrelsome Henry instantly attempted 
 to rouse the ancient national hatred of the Bavarians, and to 
 stir them up to open revolt. He also entered into alliance 
 with Boleslaw of Bohemia, but was anticipated in his de- 
 signs by Otto, who threw him into prison, bestowed Bavaria 
 on Otto of Swabia, and Carinthia on a Graf, Henry Minor, 
 the son of Berthold, probably a Babenberger ; this Graf sided 
 with Henry of Bavaria, revolted, and was deposed, A.D. 974. 
 Carinthia was, consequently, also bestowed upon Otto. In 
 the following year, Harald, king of Denmark, suddenly in- 
 vaded Saxony, whence he was successfully repulsed. Shortly 
 after this event, Henry escaped from prison, again raised the 
 standard of rebellion, and was joined by the Bohemians, * but 
 again suffered defeat, and was retaken prisoner, A.D. 977. 
 
 In 978, war again broke out in the west, where Charles, 
 the brother of Lothar, king of France, attempted to gain 
 possession of Lothringia, but was repulsed by Otto, who 
 advanced as far as Paris, and burned the suburbs. The city, 
 nevertheless, withstood his attack ; a and on his return home- 
 ward, being surprised by the treacherous Count of Henne- 
 gau, he was compelled to come to terms with his opponents ; 
 
 1 A number of Bavarians, who were bathing not far from Pilsen, were sud- 
 denly attacked, when naked and defenseless, and cut to pieces by the Bohemians. 
 
 ' 2 Otto had vowed that he would cause the Parisians to hear a Te Deum such, 
 as never had been heard before, and he, accordingly, assembled all the clergy of 
 the vicinity upon Mont Martre, where he compelled them to aing. He is said 
 to have struck his lance into the city gate.
 
 384 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Charles was permitted to hold Lower Lothringia in fee of 
 the empire, and Upper Lothringia was granted to Frederick, 
 Count of Bar. 
 
 Otto, whose natural inclinations led him to Italy, was 
 speedily called there by the affairs of that country. Cre- 
 scentius had usurped the government in Rome, and at- 
 tempted to revive the memory of ancient times by causing 
 himself to be created consul. The pope, Benedict VII., was 
 assassinated by his orders, and replaced by a creature of his 
 own, Bonifacius VII., in opposition to whom the Tuscan 
 imperialists raised Benedict VIII. to the papal chair. Otto's 
 presence in Rome, A.D. 980, quickly restored order. Crescen- 
 tius was pardoned. Otto was visited during his stay in Rome 
 by Hugh Capet, Lothar's secret competitor for the throne of 
 France, whose claim was countenanced by the emperor, on 
 account of the ingratitude displayed by the French monarch 
 for the services formerly rendered to his ancestors by the 
 imperial house of Saxony. 
 
 Lower Italy next engaged the attention of the emperor, 
 who attempted to take forcible possession of his wife's por- 
 tion. The Greeks, until now unceasingly at war with the 
 Arabs, instantly united with them against their common 
 enemy. Naples and Tarentum were taken by Otto, and the 
 allies were defeated near Cotrona, A.D. 981; Abn al Casern, 
 the terror of Lower Italy, and numbers of the Arabs, were 
 left on the field of battle. The following campaign proved 
 disastrous to the emperor, who, while engaged in a conflict 
 with the Greeks on the seashore near Basantello, not far 
 from Tarentum, was suddenly attacked hi the rear by the 
 Arabs, and so completely routed that he was compelled to 
 fly for his life, and owed his escape entirely to the rapidity 
 of his horse. When wandering along the shore in moment- 
 ary expectation of being captured by the enemy, he caught 
 sight of a Grecian vessel, toward which he swam on horse- 
 back, in the hope of not being recognized by those on board. 
 He was taken up. A slave recognized him, but instead of 
 betraying him, passed him off as one of the emperor's cham-
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 385 
 
 berlains. The Greeks made for Rossano with the intention 
 of taking on board the treasures of the pretended chamber- 
 lain, who, the instant the vessel approached the shore, sud- 
 denly leaped into the sea and escaped. 1 Lower Italy re- 
 mained in the hands of the Greeks, and was governed by an 
 exarch. The Arabians also retained possession of Sicily. 
 Otto, duke of Swabia and Bavaria, dying during the cam- 
 paign in Italy, 2 the emperor bestowed the ducal crown of 
 Swabia on Conrad, the son of Udo, who was the brother of 
 Hermann of Swabia, and to whom Otto I. had given the 
 Rhinegau and the Wetterau to hold in fee. Bavaria was 
 restored to Henry Minor, and Carinthia was given to Otto 
 of Franconia, the son of Conrad the Red, who had fallen 
 valiantly fighting against the Hungarians. Henry the 
 Wrangler remained a prisoner. 
 
 Hermann Billung had been succeeded in Saxony by his 
 son, Bernhard. The Slavian frontiers were, however, di- 
 vided into several petty Margraviates, that of Zeiz or North- 
 ern Thuringia being governed by Gunther, that of Northern 
 Saxony or Brandenburg by Dietrich, that of the Lausitz by 
 
 1 This adventure has been variously related. According to one writer, he 
 slew forty Greek boatmen, with the assistance of a soldier named Probus, whom 
 he met with on the shore : another version records that he enticed the Greeks, 
 to whom he was personally known, to the shore, by requesting them to take on 
 board their vessel his wife and treasures, which had been placed for safety in 
 Rossano ; that he sent young men disguised as his wife's female attendants on 
 board the vessel, which they speedily seized. Every account, however, agrees 
 that Theuphano jeeringly inquired of the emperor whether her countrymen had 
 not put him into deadly fear ; for which the Germans never forgave her. The 
 fable-loving historian, Vincentius, makes a naval engagement, in 983, take place 
 between the emperor and the Greeks, in which they fought with such animosity 
 that the whole sea was stained with blood, and the emperor was victorious, but 
 received a mortal wound. According to other accounts, he died at Rome, not 
 of his wound, but of grief. He is also said to have been whipped to death on 
 Mount Garganus by the angels, among whom he had imprudently ventured while 
 they were there holding a conclave. It is impossible to unravel the meaning of 
 this strange fable. These examples will, however, suffice to give an idea of the 
 inaccuracy of the chronicles of these times. 
 
 4 It is said that, during this campaign, one of the emperor's daughters eloped 
 to Alba hi Montserrat with her seneschal, Graf Alram of Saxony, who was after- 
 ward pardoned and created the first Markgraf of Montserrat. The celebrated 
 golden altar, an invaluable work of art, that, in 1698, was stolen and melted by 
 the robber Nicolas List, was, during this campaign, taken from the Arabs and 
 sent to Liineburg. 
 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 17
 
 386 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Ditmar, and that of Misnia by Riddag. Violence and pil- 
 lage had become so frequent as to be considered legitimate 
 in this country. A certain Graf Dedo assembled a force in 
 Bohemia, surprised and plundered Zeiz, and carried off Oda, 
 the daughter of Dietrich of Brandenburg, the affianced bride 
 of Miseko, king of Poland. Dietrich emulated Gero in the 
 cruelty with which he treated the conquered Slavi. 
 
 Mistevoi, the valiant prince of the Obotrites, favored the 
 Christian religion, followed the banner of Otto II., and 
 served under liim in Italy ; on his return to his native coun- 
 try, he sued for the hand of Mechtildis, the sister of Bern- 
 hard of Saxony, and on being insulted by the jealous Diet- 
 rich, who called him a dog and unworthy of a Christian or 
 of a German bride, replied, "If we Slavi be dogs, we will 
 prove to you that we can bite." The pagan Slavi, who were 
 ever ripe for revolt, obeyed his call the more readily, on ac- 
 count of the death of Ditmar, who, with many others of their 
 tyrannical rulers, had fallen in the Italian war. An oath of 
 eternal enmity against the Germans and the priests was 
 taken before their idol, Radegast, and suddenly rising in 
 open rebellion, they assassinated all who fell into their 
 hands, A.D. 983, razed all the churches to the ground, and 
 completely destroyed the cities of Hamburg and Oldenburg, 
 besides those of Brandenburg and Havelburg. The lands of 
 Dietrich became one scene of desolation. Sixty priests were 
 flayed alive. The rebels were, nevertheless, completely 
 beaten by Dietrich and Riddag in a pitched battle near 
 Tangermiinde. The emperor, however, more just than his 
 father had been, deprived the cruel Dietrich of his govern- 
 ment, and bestowed it on Hodo. Riddag and his cousin, the 
 above-mentioned Graf Dedo, remained in Meissen, whence 
 Riddag was afterward expelled by the Bohemians. It was 
 regained by his cousin and successor, the brave Eckhart, 
 whose exploits were equaled by those of Bernhard Billung, 
 who had returned from Italy in order to oppose the Obotrites 
 on the western frontier. The obstinacy with which the 
 Slavi, notwithstanding their terrible defeats, still held out,
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 38T 
 
 is proved by the fact of Brandenburg having been first re- 
 taken in 994. 
 
 The peaceable conversion of the Bohemians and Poles 
 chiefly contributed to the gradual but complete subjection 
 of the Slavi on the frontiers. The independence of Bohemia 
 and Poland was only possible so long as the powerful Slavian 
 pagan states existed to their rear. This support was now 
 lost. Poland was already Christianized, and the bishop of 
 Prague, Adalbert, was a celebrated Bohemian saint. It was 
 also about this period that Christianity took firm footing in 
 Denmark, although not without fierce struggles. Harald 
 Blaatand, whom Otto I. had compelled to receive baptism, 
 was, when past his eightieth year, expelled by his son, Swein 
 Gabelbart, who favored paganism. He died of his wounds, 
 A.D. 986. ' Swein conquered the mere of Schleswig, and 
 caused the Graf Siegfried of Oldenburg, and several other 
 knights whom he had taken prisoners, to be deprived of their 
 hands and feet. Saxony and Poland, aided by the Christians 
 of Scandinavia, under the guidance of St. Poppo, a zealous 
 preacher, rose in arms against him. Erich, king of Sweden, 
 one of Poppo's disciples, greatly aided them, in the hope of 
 gaining possession of Denmark by means of the Christian 
 party : this project was realized, 9 and Poppo baptized count- 
 less numbers of the Danes in the Hilligbek (heiligen Bach\ 
 sacred fount, 8 between Schleswig and Flensburg. After the 
 
 1 Compare Dahlman's History of Denmark. The legendary account relates 
 that Swein of Palnatoke or Toko, the celebrated chief of the Jomsburgian pirates, 
 was the son of Harald, by whom he was not acknowledged, his mother having 
 been a common slave. Toko, imagining himself injured by this conduct, became 
 the monarch's mortal enemy. Harald took him prisoner, and compelled him to 
 show his skill, for which he was celebrated, as a marksman, by shooting at an 
 apple placed on the head of his son. "Why didat thou conceal another arrow 
 about thee?" demanded the king. "In order to have killed thee, " replied Toko, 
 "had I struck my child." The king then placed him in chains in his boat, but, 
 during a storm that arose on the lake, unbound him, hi order to be saved by his 
 well-known skill as an experienced boatman. Toko steered against a rock, sprang 
 on shore, and pushed the boat back into the lake. He afterward waylaid the 
 king and shot him. Saxo Grammaticus. 
 
 2 Swein is said to have been taken prisoner three times. He twice ransomed 
 himself by paying his weight in gold, and double that weight in silver. On the 
 third occasion, he obtained his liberty by the cession of the Danish crown. 
 
 3 Erich was merely primsignet, or provisionally signed with the cross, as was
 
 388 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 death of Erich, his son, Olaf Schooskonig, who completed 
 the peaceable conversion of Sweden, deemed it more politic 
 to treat amicably with Swein, and not only bestowed on him 
 the hand of his mother, Sigrida, but also restored him to the 
 Danish throne, and united with him against the great north- 
 ern hero, Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, whose successes, A.D. 
 995, over Hakon Jarl and the pagan party had roused the 
 jealousy of his neighbors. His bitterest enemies were the 
 pirates of Jomsburg and their other northern brethren, the 
 Ascomanni (so named from their great boats, or Aschen), 
 with whom the kings of Denmark and Sweden entered into 
 alliance, and defeated Olaf Tryggvason in a naval engage- 
 ment. ' 
 
 Great changes took place also, at this period, in France. 
 Lothar died, A.D. 986, and, in the following year, his only 
 son, Louis V. Charles of Lothringia, Lothar 's brother, as- 
 pired to the throne, but was excluded by the Capetian party. 
 The disesteem in which he was held on account of his licen- 
 tious habits, and the refusal of assistance from Germany, 
 where the emperor, dissatisfied with the conduct of Lothar, 
 no longer favored the Carlovingians, rendered him defense- 
 less; he fell into the hands of his rival, Hugh Capet, and 
 died in prison, A.D. 993. His son, Otto, the last of the Car- 
 lovingian race, died, neglected and despised, A.D. 1004. 
 
 The death of Otto II., which was occasioned by the hard- 
 ships he had undergone at Basantello, took place in Italy, 
 A.D. 983. His son, Otto III., a child three years of age, 
 was named as his successor, under the joint guardianship 
 of Theuphano and Adelheid, who gave him such a learned 
 education that he received the appellation of the " Wunder- 
 kind," on account of the precocity of his intellect. 
 
 then the custom before initiating the converts in the tenets of the church. Erich 
 believed that the God of the Christiana resembled all other gods, and was merely 
 somewhat stronger than those of the pagans, whom it was, nevertheless, also 
 necessary to worship. The zealous Poppo, resolving to convert the king by the 
 performance of a miracle, passed unharmed, in a waxen shirt, through a fiery 
 furnace, upon which the terrified people flocked in multitudes to the font. 
 1 See Chapter CXXII.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 389 
 
 Henry the "Wrangler, who aspired to the throne, and 
 seized the person of the young monarch, had already, by his 
 conduct, estranged from himself his countrymen the Saxons; 
 the memory of the cruelties practiced by his father also ren- 
 dered him unpopular in Bavaria, and he was speedily reduced 
 to submission by the Franconian party, at whose head stood 
 Willigis, the learned archbishop of Mayence. He was the 
 son of a wheelwright, and adopted a wheel for the arms of 
 the archbishopric, with these words, "Willigis, "Willigis, re- 
 member thy origin." Next in rank to this spiritual head of 
 the empire stood Conrad, duke of Franconia and Swabia, 
 and Henry, duke of Bavaria. Henry the Wrangler was 
 compelled to deliver up the emperor, and to take the oath of 
 allegiance to him, in consideration of which he was restored 
 to the dukedom of Bavaria, on the death of Henry Minor, 
 which was shortly afterward followed by that of Conrad, 
 who was succeeded in Franconia by his son Conrad, and in 
 Swabia by his nephew Hermann. The mere of Austria was 
 granted to Leopold I. , grandson to Adalbert of Babenberg, 
 whom Hatto had betrayed. This brave Markgraf displayed 
 so much activity that in 983 he had driven the Hungarians 
 from the Enns, taken their royal castle of Molk, and com- 
 pelled them to keep within the limits of modern Hungary. 
 Their king, Geisa, followed the example of the sovereigns of 
 Bohemia and Poland, and received baptism from the hands 
 of Pilgerin, bishop of Passau; he also sought to preserve 
 peaceful relations with the Germanic empire; Christianity, 
 nevertheless, first became the national religion during the 
 reign of his son, St. Stephen, who ascended the throne A.D. 
 997, and died A.D. 1038. This monarch married Gisela, the 
 daughter of Henry the "Wrangler, a union that strengthened 
 his alliance with Germany. 
 
 Leopold planted numerous German colonists in Lower 
 Austria, the country regained by him from the Hungarians, 
 which was visited by fresh missionaries, who there left im- 
 perishable records of their zeal. In the mountains, St. "Wolf- 
 gang performed his miracles on the shores of the lake that
 
 390 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 still bears his name ; and a monastery, in which the relics of 
 St. Colomannus, a Scotch missionary, who was murdered by 
 the pagans, were preserved, was raised over the ruins of the 
 royal castle of Molk. 
 
 The scepter of Germany was no sooner again held by a 
 child than the clergy and the great vassals of the empire 
 sought to regain the power of which they had been deprived 
 during the preceding reigns. The youthful emperor, guided 
 by his mother and grandmother, who greatly favored the 
 clergy, bestowed upon them rich lands and benefices. Peace 
 was, certainly, maintained throughout the empire, the dukes 
 contenting themselves with confirming their power in the 
 interior of the state, unopposed by the emperor. War was, 
 however, still carried on on the Slavian frontier, where Otto 
 was occasionally allowed to appear in person, in order to 
 gain his first spurs. Graf Arnold of Holland, at that period, 
 A.D. 993, also attempted the subjugation of the Western 
 Frisii, by whom he was defeated and slain. 
 
 Theuphano and Adelheid, whose thoughts were ever di- 
 rected toward Italy, 1 their native land, had not been idle in 
 their endeavors to rouse the ambition of the youthful Otto, 
 who, on attaining his majority, aspired to the sovereignty of 
 that country, where, after the death of Otto II., the Italian 
 party again rose in opposition to that of the emperor. Cre- 
 scentius, who had usurped unlimited power in Rome, caused 
 the pope, John XFV., to be assassinated, and expelled his 
 successor, John XV., who convoked an extraordinary coun- 
 cil at Rheims, A D. 995. Hugh Capet, the new French mon- 
 arch, who planned the foundation of a Gallican church, in- 
 dependent of that of Rome, had deposed Arnulf, archbishop 
 of Rheims, a nephew of Charles of Lothringia, for his zeal- 
 ous exertions in favor of his unfortunate Carlovingian rela- 
 tives. The German bishops and the pope, enraged at this 
 
 1 Adelheid fixed her residence in her widowhood at Pavia, where she was 
 visited by Theuphano when returning from a pilgrimage to the holy sepulcher 
 at Jerusalem. They separated after a bitter quarrel, and Theuphano died shortly 
 afterward at Nimwegen,
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 391 
 
 conduct, unanimously condemned him at the council at 
 Rheims, and he was compelled to yield. The pope expired 
 during the following year, and the emperor marched into 
 Italy for the purpose of regulating the affairs of the church. 
 Crescentius was speedily overcome and pardoned. Otto, 
 fired by youthful enthusiasm, imagined that the future 
 happiness of the world was to be secured by a closer 
 union of the imperial with the papal power, and with 
 his own hand, although himself scarcely out of his boy- 
 hood, placed the tiara on the head of Bruno, the son of 
 Otto of Carinthia, who was then in his four-and-twentieth 
 year, and who received the name of Gregory V. Bruno 
 was grandson to Conrad of Franconia, the hero of the Lech, 
 who had married Luitgarde, daughter to Otto I. St. Ad- 
 albert, who had come from Prague, A.D. 996, in order to 
 witness the ceremony, was enraptured at the sight of these 
 two noble youths. By his side stood Gerbert, Otto's precep- 
 tor, one of the most profound reasoners of the age, and the 
 energetic Bishop Notker of Liege, both of whom earnestly 
 sought to re-establish the fallen power of the church, while 
 the youthful pope, strong in his native purity, caused even 
 the Italians, in despite of their moral depravity, to foresee 
 the height to which the church might attain if governed by 
 German virtue. His first step was to lay France under an 
 interdict until the reinstallment of Arnulf into his archbish- 
 opric, which had been purposely delayed by Hugh Capet, 
 whose son Robert, his successor, evinced greater submission 
 to Rome. St. Adalbert visited Prussia, in order to preach 
 the gospel to the heathen inhabitants, by whom he was mur- 
 dered, A.D. 99?. His death was a bad omen, for scarcely 
 had the emperor quitted Rome than Crescentius again raised 
 the banner of insurrection, inflamed all the dark and fiend- 
 like passions of the Roman populace, already indignant at 
 the assumption of the tiara by a stranger, and elected an- 
 other Italian wretch, John XVI., pope. The emperor in- 
 stantly returned, and re-entering Rome, where his presence 
 alone sufficed to calm the uproar, caused the pretender to
 
 392 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the popedom to be deprived of sight, and to be led through 
 the city mounted on an ass. Crescentius, who had vainly 
 thrown himself into the Castle of St. Angelo, was executed, 
 A.D. 998. The well-founded hopes of the German party 
 were, however, doomed to be frustrated by Italian wiles, 
 and it is only left for us to imagine what Europe might 
 have become, had these two noble-minded youths been in- 
 trusted, for a longer period, with her temporal and spiritual 
 welfare. Gregory V. expired suddenly, A.D. 999. His death 
 was, with great justice, ascribed to poison. Gerbert became 
 his successor, under the name of Sylvester II. His deep 
 science and learning caused him to be generally regarded as 
 a wizard. The death of Gregory, the friend of his youth, 
 caused a deep dejection to prey upon the mind of the em- 
 peror, which was still more worked upon by the approach of 
 the year 1000, the period popularly fixed for the end of the 
 world, and by the exhortations of two Italian enthusiasts, 
 the saints Romuald and Nilus, who gained great power over 
 him, and who, being the fellow-countrymen of Crescentius, 
 reproved him most particularly for the severity with which 
 he had treated that traitor, which they denounced as a crime, 
 and he was at length induced to do penance for fourteen days 
 in a cavern, sacred to the archangel Michael, on the Monte 
 Gargano, in Apulia, and to perform a pilgrimage to the bones 
 of St. Adalbert at Gnesen, in Poland. He, nevertheless, 
 reappeared here in his character as emperor, by more strongly 
 cementing the amicable relations that already subsisted be- 
 tween Germany and Poland. Besides consecrating there a 
 church to St. Adalbert, and founding the archbishopric of 
 Gnesen, on which the bishoprics of Breslau, Cracau and Col- 
 berg (at a later period, Kamin) were rendered dependent, he 
 bestowed the title of king on Boleslaw Chrobry, the son of 
 Miseko and of the Bohemian Dobrowa, and gave his niece, 
 Rixa, 1 to his son Mieslaus, in marriage. He also, during the 
 
 1 She was the mother of Casimir, with whom she afterward took refuge im 
 France, where she caused him to be educated as a monk. He was recalled, 
 and placed upon the throne in his monkish garb. The Poles shaved their heads 
 in order to resemble him, a custom that afterward became a sign of rank.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 393 
 
 same year, visited Aix-la-Chapelle, where he caused the 
 tomb of Charlemagne to be opened. That monarch was dis- 
 covered seated on his throne. On his return to Rome, he 
 announced his intention of making her the capital of the 
 modern, as she had been that of the ancient world, but the 
 Romans were incapable of either comprehending his grand 
 projects, or of perceiving the advantage that must have ac- 
 crued to them had their city once more become an imperial 
 residence. The senseless and brutal populace again rose in 
 open insurrection. On one occasion, Otto, addressing them 
 from a tower, upbraided them for their folly, and induced 
 them to disperse. His death, which took place in 1002, was 
 ascribed to poison, ' but was more probably caused by small- 
 pox. In the following year, Pope Sylvester also expired, and 
 with him every hope that had been raised for the reformation 
 of the church, which again fell under Italian influence, and 
 the weak-minded successor to the throne of Germany became 
 her slave instead of her protector. 
 
 CXXXVII. Henry the Second, the Holy 
 
 OTTO dying childless, the succession to the throne was 
 again disputed. Henry of Bavaria, the son of Henry the 
 Wrangler, claimed it as the nearest of kin, and was supported 
 by the clergy on account of his piety, and his munificence 
 toward the church. The next competitor was Hermann of 
 Swabia, who, although of Franconian descent, was nearly 
 allied to the imperial house. He was, moreover, the wealth- 
 iest and most considerable of the German dukes, and en- 
 
 - Several chronicles relate that Stephania, the beautiful widow of Crescen- 
 tius, whom Otto had taken for hia mistress, caused his death by means of 
 poisoned gloves. But her name was Theodora, and she was, moreover, at that 
 time a grandmother. It is related of this emperor that his wife, Mary of Ara- 
 gon, was faithless to him, and having vainly attempted to win the affections of 
 a handsome Italian count, falsely accused him to the emperor, who condemned 
 him to death. The widow of the injured count appeared before his throne, and 
 offered to prove the innocence of her husband by undergoing the ordeal. She 
 passed through it unharmed, and the emperor, convinced of his injustice, sen- 
 tenced his wife to be publicly burned, A.D. 996.
 
 394 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 joyed far more popularity among the laity than his rival, 
 Henry. The third claimant was Eckhart of Meissen, who, 
 for the first time, made use of the unlimited power he enjoyed 
 as governor of the Slavian marches, where the population 
 was reduced to complete servitude, while the dukes or gov- 
 ernors of the German provinces were ever circumscribed in 
 their authority by the free spirit of the people. 
 
 Henry's party was considerably strengthened by the ad- 
 herence of Willigis, the pious archbishop of Mayence. Eck- 
 hart, his most dangerous opponent, lost his life before he 
 could carry his projects into execution. His indecorous treat- 
 ment of Sophia and Adelheid (the sisters of Otto III., who 
 actively forwarded the interests of his rival, Henry), into 
 whose dining apartment he forced his way, and destroyed 
 their meal, was avenged by the Saxon Grafs of Nordheim, 
 who attacked him during the night at Polde, A.D, 1002, and 
 succeeded in depriving him of life after a valiant defense. 
 Henry thereupon repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was 
 crowned. Hermann resigned his pretensions and submitted 
 to the new emperor. He died shortly afterward, leaving 
 Swabia to his son Hermann, who did not long survive him. 
 He was succeeded by Ernst, the son of Leopold of Austria, 
 and husband to Gisela, his sister, the daughter of Gerberga, 
 and granddaughter of Rudolf III. of Burgundy. Ernst was 
 killed when hunting, and left the dukedom to his son Ernst, 
 whose mother, Gisela, married Conrad, Graf of Franconia, 
 who afterward ascended the imperial throne. His cousin, 
 the Markgraf Henry of Schweinfurt, demanded, immedi- 
 ately after the coronation of the emperor, the dukedom of 
 Bavaria, which had become vacant by Henry's accession to 
 the throne, and which was also aspired to by Bruno, the em- 
 peror's brother. Both competitors met with a refusal from 
 Henry, who bestowed Bavaria upon his brother-in-law, 
 Henry, Count of Luxemburg, upon which the two rivals 
 entered into a conspiracy against him with Boleslaw II. of 
 Bohemia, who had not inherited the peaceable disposition of 
 his father. They were defeated by the emperor near Creu-
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 395 
 
 sen, A.D. 1003, and pardoned. Lothringia, on the extinction 
 of the Carlovingian race, fell to Gottfried of Verdun, the 
 nephew of Gisilbrecht, and Brabant to Lambert of Louvain, 
 the husband of Gerberga, the sister of Otto, the last of the 
 Carlovingians. 
 
 Affairs also wore a different aspect in the East ; Boleslaw 
 Chrobry of Poland, a great conqueror, reduced Kiow in Rus- 
 sia beneath his rule. In Bohemia, Boleslaw had broken his 
 oath of allegiance to the empire. The ancient race of Crocus 
 had degenerated. A rival race, that of the Wrssowez, was 
 at the head of the democratic and pagan party, but could 
 merely offer a weak opposition, by dint of petty stratagems, 
 to the more powerful Christian party. At length the assas- 
 sination of one of the Wrssowez, by the order of Boleslaw, 
 occasioned the formation of a conspiracy against him ; Boles- 
 law was enticed into Poland, where he fell into the hands of 
 the enraged Wrssowez, who deprived him of sight, and 
 placed Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia in the hands of Boles- 
 law of Poland. A great reaction ensued. Boleslaw, at the 
 head of the united Poles and Bohemians, invaded the Lausitz 
 and Meissen. After several severe campaigns, the emperor 
 at length succeeded in separating Bohemia from Poland, and 
 in placing Othelrich or Ulrich, the brother of the blind Boles- 
 law, on the throne of that dukedom. Othelrich was faith- 
 less and tyrannical. In order the more firmly to secure the 
 possession of the crown, he deprived his second brother, Ja- 
 romir, of sight. Boleslaw of Poland attempted to win him 
 over, and sent his son, Miseko, to negotiate with him. 
 Othelrich delivered him up to the emperor, who instantly 
 restored him to liberty. The war, nevertheless, was still 
 carried on. The emperor suffered a defeat, A.D. 1015, prob- 
 ably on the Bober, the half of his army that had crossed the 
 stream being suddenly attacked by the enemy. Miseko, in- 
 spirited by this success, attacked Meissen : the castle was set 
 on fire, but the conflagration was extinguished by the women, 
 who poured mead on the spreading flames. The emperor 
 afterward undertook a fresh expedition into Silesia, where
 
 396 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 he laid siege to the city of Nimptsch, 1 but without success. 
 Peace was finally concluded with Poland at Bautzen, A.D. 
 1018. In Meissen, the house of Wettin was raised to the 
 Margravial dignity, in the person of Dedi L, the brave op- 
 ponent of the Slavi. A war of extermination was also waged 
 against the Obotrites and the Wilzi by Bernhard II. of Sax- 
 ony, and Bernhard, Markgraf of Brandenburg, the son of the 
 deposed Dietrich. Mistevoi, prince of the Obotrites, whose 
 sway-extended over the whole of the Slavian north, weary at 
 length of the havoc of war, and anxious to secure peace for 
 his people, embraced Christianity. He was, in consequence, 
 expelled by his subjects. He died at Bardewik. In order 
 to strengthen himself against the Slavi, the emperor courted 
 the friendship of the Danes, to whom he gave permission to 
 found, for the first time, an independent archbishopric of 
 Lund. Up to this period, A.D. 1004, Denmark had been de- 
 pendent on the archbishopric of Hamburg, whose prelate, 
 Liemar, had excommunicated King Erich, on account of his 
 cruelty. 
 
 The Italians, unwearied in their struggle for independ- 
 ence, had, upon the death of Otto, again raised a king of 
 their own, Harduin, Markgraf of Ivrea, to the throne of 
 Italy. The bishops, who favored the claims of Henry, from 
 the same motive which caused them to be upheld by their 
 brethren in Germany, alone opposed him. Henry marched 
 into Italy, where he overcame every opponent, and was 
 crowned, A.D. 1005, at Pavia. This powerful city rebelled 
 against the foreign invader, and the citizens so closely be- 
 sieged the imperial palace, that Henry was compelled to 
 spring from a window, and lamed himself for life. A dread- 
 ful revenge was taken by his German troops. The emperor, 
 
 1 This city was named Nemezi, on account of its having been founded by 
 Germans. It is supposed to have been an ancient German sanctuary prior to 
 the times of the Slavi. Mane's Pagan Antiquity. In the middle of the valley 
 lying in the vicinity is the Zobtenberg, with its pagan monuments. The coun- 
 try round about was called Silensgau, and was, in fact, the heart of Silesia. 
 IHtmar of Mersebwrg. This chronicler also mentions, at that period, the city of 
 Breslau (Wrozislawa), a name derived from "Wratislau or Brzetislaw.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 397 
 
 who now beheld Italy with feelings of disgust, was shortly 
 after recalled into Germany by the outbreak of the Slavian 
 war, and Harduin again caused himself to be proclaimed 
 king. The audacity of the pretender once more drew Henry 
 into Italy ; the rebels were this time completely reduced to 
 submission, and he visited Rome, A.D. 1013, where the pope 
 confirmed his claim to the empire, and placed the crown on 
 his head, and on that of his wife, the pious Cunigunda. It 
 was on this occasion that the pope bestowed upon the em- 
 peror the golden ball, the emblem of the globe, over which 
 he was destined to rule. It was also at this period that 
 Henry created Berthold, Graf of "Walbek (who was supposed 
 to be a descendant of the ancient race of Wittekind), Graf of 
 Savoy. Henry revisited Italy, A.D. 1021, for the purpose 
 of reducing the Greeks in Lower Italy to subjection. Melo 
 of Lombardy, who had resisted their tyranny at Bari, was 
 constrained to flee. At the same time, the Arabs attacked 
 Salerno, whose duke, "Waimar, was unexpectedly saved by a 
 ship manned by forty Normans, who were returning from 
 the Holy Land. They were sent away laden with costly 
 gifts, and invited to return. Many of their countrymen 
 afterward emigrated to Lower Italy, under the command of 
 I)rengot and his four brethren, who joined Melo against 
 the Greeks and Arabs. Drengot fell in battle. His brother, 
 Rainulf, settled at Aversa, between Capua and Naples. 
 Pandulf , duke of Capua, however, leagued with the Greeks, 
 but was taken prisoner by Henry, whose presence alone 
 seemed to insure victory. An epidemic, at length, which 
 broke out in his camp, compelled him to return to Germany, 
 A.D. 1022. 
 
 Disturbances had, meanwhile, arisen in the Netherlands. 
 A robbery, committed upon some merchants by the Frisii, 
 had occasioned a feud between Dietrich, Graf of Holland, 
 and Gottfried of Lothringia, the latter of whom suffered a 
 heavy defeat at Merwe, A.D. 1018. Adalbero, a descendant 
 of the house of Luxemburg, which was highly favored by 
 the emperor through the influence of the empress, had, more-
 
 398 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 over, seized the archbishopric of Treves; 1 he was deposed by 
 the emperor, who, on the other hand, created Henry, the 
 brother of Cunigunda, duke of Bavaria. Another Adalbero, 
 Graf of the Murzthal, was nominated to the government of 
 Carinthia. Otto, the son of Conrad of Franconia, had in- 
 herited both Franconia and Carinthia, which were divided 
 between his sons, Henry and Conrad, each of whom had a 
 son named Conrad, who, displeased with the emperor's ver- 
 dict, opposed Adalbero and beat him at Ulm out of the field, 
 but found themselves unable to drive him out of his moun- 
 tain fastnesses. Conrad, the son of Conrad, retained the 
 dukedom of Franconia. Conrad, the son of Henry, who 
 merely enjoyed the title of Graf, wedded Gisela, through 
 whom he had a claim upon Burgundy, whose king, Rudolf, 
 had solemnly sworn that his dominions should be incorpo- 
 rated, on his demise, with the empire, A.D. 1018. 
 
 Henry was extremely devout, and was consequently idol- 
 ized by the clergy. 2 He held five councils in Germany, im- 
 proved and corrected ecclesiastical discipline, rebuilt the 
 churches that had been destroyed by the Slavi, and raised a 
 magnificent monument to his own memory by the foundation 
 of the bishopric of Bamberg, 8 which he enriched at the ex- 
 pense of the neighboring landowners, among whom was the 
 bishop of Wurzburg, who obstinately resisted his innova- 
 tions, until appeased by numerous gifts. The pope, Bene- 
 dict VIII., visited Bamberg, A.D. 1020, for the purpose of 
 consecrating the new establishment. The empress, Cuni- 
 gunda, was equally pious. The imperial pair had mutually 
 
 1 The rightful archbishop, Megingod, had, during the usurpation of Adalbero, 
 received the bishopric of Coblentz by way of indemnification. After his restora- 
 tion, this bishopric still remained attached to Treves. 
 
 4 It is related of him that he even wished to become a monk at Strasburg, 
 but had no sooner taken the oath of implicit obedience than he was commanded 
 by Bishop Werner to resume his crown. 
 
 3 It is supposed that he sought to expiate the criminal action of his ancestors 
 against Adalbert of Babenberg by the consecration of the lands unjustly seized 
 by them to the service of God. An idea in which he was upheld by Cunigunda. 
 It was on this account that the privileges granted to Bamberg were called Cuni- 
 gunda's silken threads, by which, it was said, the city was defended better than 
 by towers and walls.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 399 
 
 taken the vow of chastity, and remained childless. Cuni- 
 gunda's virtue, however, did not escape slander, and she vol- 
 untarily underwent the ordeal by fire, and walked unharmed 
 over glowing iron. Henry, when on his death-bed, named 
 as his successor Graf Conrad, the husband of Gisela, on ac- 
 count of his being the ablest descendant of the most powerful 
 race that remained in Germany after the extinction of that 
 of the Ottos, thus repaying, with equal magnanimity, the 
 generous conduct of Conrad I., when dying, toward the 
 house of Saxony. He expired A.D. 1024, and was interred 
 at Bamberg. 1 
 
 CXXXVIII. Immunities Increasing Importance of the 
 
 Churches and Cities, and Consequent Decrease 
 
 of the Ducal Power 
 
 CHARTERS and franchises had been lavishly distributed 
 by the Saxon emperors, for the purpose of creating a multi- 
 tude of minor nobles and corporations, independent of the 
 dukes, against whose power they served as a counterpoise. 
 This political motive had induced Charlemagne to favor the 
 bishops : their power was still more increased by the Ottos, 
 who did not yet foresee the danger to which it might, at some 
 future period, expose the state. The popes were, moreover, 
 too busily engaged with Italy and too powerless to excite the 
 jealousy of the emperors, in whose hands the church was a 
 mere tool. The numerous armed vassals subservient to the 
 bishops and abbots necessarily diminished the number of 
 those who owed allegiance to the dukes and Markgraf s ; and 
 the greater the extent of the lands beneath the sway of the 
 crosier, so much the less could, consequently, be under the 
 control of the temporal lords. To these motives may be as- 
 cribed the enormous donations to the church, the endowment 
 
 1 On his tombstone stands a figure of Justice with a pair of scales, the index 
 of which inclines a little to one side. As soon as the poise shall become equal 
 the world will be at an end.
 
 400 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of churchmen with temporal rights and power, the union of 
 the imperial office of Graf with the ecclesiastical dignity of 
 bishop, and the immunity or affranchisement from the su- 
 preme authority of the dukes. 
 
 The Sendgrafs, or commissioned officers of the crown, 
 created by Charlemagne, had, under the Ottos, been con- 
 verted into Pfalzgrafs, or administrators of the crown lands, 
 revenues, etc., in the different dukedoms, who, at the same 
 time, in some measure controlled the dukes. Besides them, 
 Markgrafs, who acted independently of the dukes, were 
 placed in the newly-conquered frontier provinces, and the 
 elevation within the dukedoms of powerful Grafs, who, al- 
 though nominally subservient to the dukes, equaled them in 
 wealth and influence, and could even compete with them 
 in political power, was also encouraged by the Saxon em- 
 perors, who thus blindly laid a mine destined to shake the 
 imperial throne. The dukes, whose power merely arose from 
 the office they held under the crown, and the independent 
 spirit of the nations to which they belonged, far less endan- 
 gered the power of the emperor than did the great families 
 of later date, who were hereditarily possessed of immensely 
 extensive lands. And while the emperors were thus endeav- 
 oring to hasten the decay of the ancient dukedoms, and to 
 consign the very names of the ancient nations to oblivion, 
 they were far from foreseeing that the time might arrive 
 when new names, that owed their origin to some unnoted 
 fort, would lay the whole empire at their feet. 
 
 The ancient division of the empire into dukedoms and 
 provinces (gaue) gradually gave place to one more complex, 
 caused either by the formation of ecclesiastical and temporal 
 feudal territories within the provinces and dukedoms, or by 
 the encroachment of one enormous feudal territory on sev- 
 eral of the provinces and even of the dukedoms, while the 
 ancient uniformity of condition was everywhere destroyed 
 by charters and franchises or immunities. 
 
 The last remnants of the ancient freemen, who had not 
 been gathered into the cities, had formed themselves into
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 401 
 
 communities of free peasantry, who, although recognizing a 
 duke or Graf in his judicial capacity as a delegate of the 
 crown, or a bishop as their spiritual guide, retained their 
 ancient privileges in all other respects. The repeated at- 
 tempts of the nobles to reduce them to a state of vassalage, 
 were, nevertheless, generally successful, and liberty at length 
 sought refuge amid the peasantry of Lower Saxony and Switz- 
 erland. In A.D. 922, the western Frisii had already been 
 reduced to vassalage by Dietrich of Holland, who also made 
 a similar attempt upon the liberties of the free eastern Frisii, 
 but met with armed resistance, and was repulsed in several 
 campaigns. 
 
 The eastern Frisii consisted of seven petty republics, 
 called the Seelands, united in the ancient German man- 
 ner; they held their general assemblies at the Upstales- 
 bome (Obergerichts baum, tree of justice), and were gov- 
 erned by their own laws, merely recognizing the archbishop 
 of Bremen as their patron, the only bond that united them 
 to the empire. Saxony also still preserved much of her an- 
 cient freedom. The Saxon Grafs, who still, as in times of 
 yore, held their provincial courts of justice in the open air, 
 with the elected aldermen or Schoppen, in the presence of 
 all the freemen of the province, were distinguished by the 
 epithet of Freegrafs, their courts of justice were also called 
 free courts, the aldermen, free aldermen or Freischoppen, 
 and the seat of justice, the Freistuhl or free seat. There 
 were also numerous free peasantry in Switzerland and in 
 Swabia, and, under Otto III., a bloody feud arose in the 
 Thurgau, owing to the attempts of the nobility and clergy 
 to reduce the people to a state of vassalage. The peasants, 
 headed by one of their class, Heinz von Stein, rose in open 
 insurrection, and, A.D. 992, a battle was fought near Dies- 
 senhofen, which, although the nobles were victorious, taught 
 the Alpine shepherds caution, and was merely a prelude to 
 the great struggle for freedom that arose at a later period. 
 Radbot, the founder of the Habsburg, may be said to have 
 inoculated his race with hatred to freedom by the violent
 
 402 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 reduction of his free peasantry to a state of vassalage, 1 
 A.D. 1018. 
 
 While territorial wealth and influence were thus usurped 
 by the clergy and the nobility, the ancient freemen, col- 
 lected within the cities, strained every nerve, not so much, 
 however, in order to protect as in order to extend their priv- 
 ileges, and to manifest their importance as the third power 
 in the state. The emperors, perceiving that the most effi- 
 cient remedy against the ascendency of the dukes lay in the 
 flourishing state of the cities, greatly aided their endeavors 
 by the grants and charters freely lavished upon them, and a 
 number of new cities consequently sprang up, into which all 
 the freemen, harassed by the feudal lords, quickly thronged. 
 These cities were liberally chartered by the Ottos. For in- 
 stance, they granted to townships, that had gradually grown 
 into cities, and were situated on the territory and within the 
 jurisdiction of either spiritual or temporal lords, the rights 
 belonging to free imperial towns, and placed them beneath 
 the imperial jurisdiction ; they also granted privileges to the 
 larger cities, such as the right of coinage, and that of exact- 
 ing customs, which were formerly alone conceded to the 
 bishops and the dukes. 
 
 The internal government and legislation of the cities were 
 equally favored by the charters granted to them by the 
 Ottos. The governor, nominated by the crown, only nomi- 
 nally held the supreme direction of affairs, and seldom even 
 resided in the town, but was generally one of the neighbor- 
 ing Grafs, who, contenting himself with receiving the gifts 
 of the citizens, and with being entertained by them, left them 
 completely at liberty. "Whenever the emperor chanced to visit 
 a town, the citizens vied with each other in paying him honor, 
 in return for which he conferred additional privileges upon 
 them. The imperial governor or Reichsvogt ( Waltbot, Oe- 
 
 1 Aided by his brother, the influential Bishop Werner of Strasburg, who 
 built the monastery of Muri with the wealth gained by the subjection of the 
 peasantry. Their grandfather Guntram the Rich, had already collected vast 
 treasures.
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 403 
 
 waltbote, messenger of power, in Latin, potestas, in Italian, 
 podesta missus regius, Sendgraf, royal messenger, Send- 
 schalk or seneschal), generally called the Burggrafor Burg- 
 vogt, commanded the city troops in war time, and exercised the 
 judicial office in the name of the emperor : these offices were 
 sometimes separate, but usually devolved upon one person. 
 The twelve aldermen or Schoppen, elected by the citizens, 
 were next in rank. Their president, the mayor or Schul- 
 theiss, at first merely took cognizance of petty civil matters, 
 but finally either filled the office of the governor, when ab- 
 sent, or was empowered to replace him by means of an im- 
 perial charter. The mayor and aldermen also formed the 
 town council, to which was committed the management of 
 the public affairs. In the great cities each parish had its 
 separate aldermen, who met in a general town council. All 
 the cities that had originally been governed by an imperial 
 officer remained immediately under the crown, and were dis- 
 tinguished as free imperial towns. Other cities, which had 
 sprung up around the imperial palaces, as, for instance, Ulm, 
 finally became imperial towns, although their citizens were 
 originally merely royal bondmen. Ducal and episcopal cities 
 arose by means of vassals who had settled in the vicinity of 
 a bishop's cathedral, or around the castle of a duke. These 
 also became gradually free towns, without being immedi- 
 ately under the crown, and were therefore merely distin- 
 guished as free towns. 
 
 The citizens everywhere consisted of the proprietors of 
 houses or of land, part of whom were the oldest Burgenses, 
 or burgesses, who had divided the ground on which the town 
 or city was to be raised among themselves, and had built 
 their houses on it ; or the proprietors of land in the vicinity 
 of the city ; or else the free landowners who withdrew into 
 the cities at a later period, and who still retained their 
 landed property. The ancient Burgenses, now cives or free 
 citizens of the empire, possessed all the power, and formed a 
 class superior to, and distinct from, that of the bondsmen, 
 who either acted as personal servants under the patronage
 
 404 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of the different burgher families, or were people who had 
 placed themselves under the protection of the community, 
 such as artificers, journeymen, porters, sailors, etc. The 
 tyranny of the petty landowners drove multitudes into the 
 cities; hence it necessarily happened that the bondsmen 
 were ten or twenty times superior in number to the ancient 
 burghers, who, being the sole proprietors of the privileges 
 and wealth of the city, treated the second class with all the 
 pride attached to free and noble birth, carefully avoided any 
 connection with them, denominated themselves, by way of 
 distinction, houses or people of gentle blood, formed them- 
 selves into an aristocratical association united by intermar- 
 riage and general commercial undertakings, and also re- 
 served to themselves the right of holding public meetings or 
 Richerzeche (corporations of the rich, Reichen, or of the free 
 citizens of the empire, Reichsbiirger9), while they strictly 
 forbade the formation of any kind of association among the 
 lower classes. The earlier the period, the more distinctly are 
 two different classes of city families to be distinguished, in 
 which the ancient distinction that existed between the Edel- 
 ings and the Frilings is still clearly recognizable. There was 
 also a third class of knights, probably settlers of a later date, 
 whose knighthood conferred upon them nobility and free- 
 dom, but who had not as yet intermixed with the old fami- 
 lies. The artificers, however, as they increased in numerical 
 strength, and distinguished themselves in the feuds that arose 
 between the different cities, gradually obtained greater privi- 
 leges. They divided themselves into guilds, and the assem- 
 bly of the heads of the different guilds, under the presidency 
 of a burgomaster, ere long threatened the burghers and their 
 mayor with civil broils, which, at a later period, actually 
 broke out between them. 
 
 The ancient burghers,, before taking the entire manage- 
 ment of the city affairs into their hands under the direction 
 of their mayor, had formed themselves into a mercantile cor- 
 poration or guild, endowed with peculiar privileges (under 
 Henry II.). Even in later times, the city government re-
 
 THE SAXON EMPERORS 405 
 
 tained its mercantile spirit, and the civil and commercial 
 polity generally remained inseparably united. Even in cases 
 where the burghers appear as landowners distinguished from 
 the merchants, whose wealth merely consisted in their float- 
 ing capital, their interests were ever united, and the mer- 
 chants seem to have been the younger sons of the landown- 
 ers, who sought a respectable employment, or immigrants 
 who settled in the towns, from whom the inhabitants ac- 
 quired their knowledge of commerce. The emperor and the 
 princes appear often to have been induced to favor the civil 
 liberty of the towns merely on account of commercial advan- 
 tage. Commerce made a rapid progress in Germany. It is 
 said that the city of Cologne, in the eleventh century, num- 
 bered upward of five hundred mercantile men within her 
 walls. Cologne, Hamburg, Schleswig, and Bremen were 
 staple-towns, and as soon as the piracy of the Norsemen, after 
 their conversion to Christianity, ceased, their ships and those 
 of the Frieslanders visited the northern seas. The ships of 
 Friesland touched at Greenland. The cities traded with all 
 the northern countries, most particularly with England. The 
 intermarriage by which the imperial house of Germany was 
 allied with that of Greece had rendered the emperors doubly 
 solicitous to open a line of commerce from the south. In 996, 
 Otto III. gave the Jews, Lombards and French permission 
 to traverse Germany with their wares : the most remarkable 
 among these traders were those of Cahors in Guyenne, the 
 Caorsini or Italian peddlers. 
 
 The age in which the Saxon emperors reigned is remark- 
 ably devoid of men of science and learning. The schools of 
 Alcuin and of Rhabanus Maurus had disappeared, while the 
 refinement borrowed from Italy and Greece had been only 
 partially adopted. The higher ecclesiastical dignities were 
 always held by the brothers and relatives of the highest and 
 most influential families, so that the elevation of "Willigis, a 
 man of low birth, to the archbishopric of Mayence, naturally 
 gave rise to much surprise and discontent. These dignita- 
 ries, moreover, merely interested themselves in increasing
 
 406 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 their possessions, and preferred war and the chase to study 
 and learning. The people were, naturally, still more igno- 
 rant than the clergy, and rendered wild and uncivilized by 
 the covetousness of the nobility, who sought to reduce them 
 to a state of vassalage, similar to that imposed upon the con- 
 quered Slavi. The natural inclinations of each individual are 
 necessarily stronger whenever the intellect is neglected ; the 
 warlike Gero, who laid down his sword and became a monk, 
 is but one example of the manners of the times, when men, 
 the greater portion of whose lives had been one continued 
 scene of violence and bloodshed, were driven by remorse to 
 expiate their crimes in seclusion and by prayer. 
 
 The celebrated Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II., exercised but 
 little influence on his times; that of the Grecian princess, 
 Theuphano, was equally limited, although ancient authors 
 were studied in some of the monasteries, and it is probable 
 that, at that time, several manuscripts were brought from 
 the south into Germany. For instance, the nun, Roswitha, 
 of Gandersheim, A.D. 980, discovered a manuscript copy of 
 the comedies of Terence, in which she took such great de- 
 light as to translate them elegantly into Latin. She also 
 composed a song in praise of the Ottos. The monk Eckehard 
 of St. Gall sang in Latin verse the adventures of Walther of 
 Aquitania, the first example of heroic poesy. Rather, the 
 Dutchman, who became bishop of Verona, distinguished 
 himself by some writings, in which he decried the igno- 
 rance, lewdness, and vice of the monks, for which he was 
 grievously persecuted. Besides these writers, the tenth cent- 
 ury could only boast of three great chroniclers : Luitprand, 
 bishop of Cremona, A.D. 946, who, being attached to the em- 
 bassy sent by Otto I. to Constantinople, recorded its fate, and 
 described the manners of the Grecian court; he also wrote a 
 chronicle and biography of the popes. Wittekind of Corvey, 
 A.D. 973, wrote an excellent history of Saxony. Ditmar, 
 bishop of Merseburg, 1 a descendant of the Salic race, wrote, 
 
 1 He thus describes himself with the pious simplicity of the times: "I am 
 but a little man. My left jawbone and the whole side of my face are disfigured
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 407 
 
 A.D. 1015, an equally famous account of the Saxon emperors, 
 and particularly mentions the Slavi, among whom he dwelt. 
 The alliance of the Ottos with Italy and Greece was more 
 favorable to the development of art than to the progression of 
 science. By their erection of numerous magnificent churches 
 in the Byzantine and Roman style of architecture, they gave 
 an impulse to art which, in the following century, produced 
 the true German or Gothic style, the transition to which is 
 exemplified in the celebrated cathedral at Strasburg, founded 
 in 1015 by Bishop Werner, and afterward finished on more 
 extensive plans. Nor does painting appear to have been 
 unpatronized. Luitprand asserts that the victory won by 
 Henry I. in the vicinity of Merseburg was represented with 
 such truth that the beholder imagined himself present on 
 the field of battle. Kugler, in his History of Art, says that 
 sculpture progressed more rapidly in Saxony than in Italy. 
 Music also was cultivated by Notker and other ecclesiastics. 
 
 PART X 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 
 
 CXXXIX. Conrad the Second 
 
 ON the death of Henry II. , the last of the Ottos, a 
 general assembly of the different nations belong- 
 ing to the empire was convoked. They gathered 
 from every quarter, and encamped in countless multitudes 
 on the great plain between Worms and Mayence, on either 
 side of the Rhine, A.D. 1024. The dukes appeared in person, 
 their banners followed by the Markgrafs, Grafs, and minor 
 
 with an incurable fistula. In my childhood I broke the bridge of my nose, which 
 gives me a comical appearance. Nor are my qualities of heart and mind supe- 
 rior. I am a miserable creature, given to anger, obstinate, envious, and, not- 
 withstanding the ridiculousness of my own person, apt to deride others, a glutton, 
 a hypocrite, a miser," etc.
 
 408 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 nobles, besides an innumerable throng of vassals. With equal 
 state came the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of the realm, 
 with their haughty retainers ; the broad land scarcely sufficed 
 for the number of noble-born Germans, met for the purpose 
 of electing a successor to their deceased monarch. On the 
 right bank of the Rhine were stationed the Saxons under 
 their duke, Bernhard, the Swabians under Duke Ernst, the 
 Bavarians under Duke Henry, the Carinthians under Duke 
 Adalbero, and the Bohemians under Duke Othelrich. On 
 the left bank were seen the Franconians under Duke Con- 
 rad, the Upper Lothringians under Duke Frederick, and the 
 Lower Lothringians under Duke Gottfried (Gozilo). 
 
 The house of Franconia, which, through the favor of 
 Bishop Hatto, had first enriched itself during the Babenberg 
 feud, and from which the emperor Conrad I. descended, had 
 fallen to the brave Conrad (who lost his life when opposing 
 the Hungarians), by his marriage with a daughter of that 
 emperor. The fidelity he had evinced toward the house of 
 Saxony was repaid to his son Otto, who was created duke 
 of Franconia and Carinthia, and both of whose grandsons 
 now set up a claim to the imperial throne ; Graf Conrad, the 
 husband of Gisela, the younger in years, but the son of 
 the elder brother, and moreover the one recommended by 
 Henry II., when on his death-bed, as his successor, and the 
 Duke Conrad, the elder in years, but the son of the younger 
 son, and less distinguished for talent. The family of these 
 two competitors for the crown was so illustrious that a still 
 more ancient origin was, by way of flattery, ascribed to it, 
 and it was deduced from the Merovingians, and named the 
 Salic race. 
 
 The election of one of the Conrads was unanimously re- 
 solved upon by all the great vassals of the empire, and both 
 of the competitors, on the declaration of this decision in their 
 favor, magnanimously agreed, for the sake of the state, to 
 yield submissively to the verdict about to be pronounced. 
 The Graf, accordingly, held a private conference with the 
 duke, and it was amicably stipulated between them that
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 409 
 
 the excluded one should be the first to swear allegiance to 
 his elected rival. The electors met, and the first vote, that 
 of Aribo, archbishop of Mayence, was given in favor of Con- 
 rad the elder; all the bishops added their suffrages, and 
 Conrad the younger was the first among the temporal lords 
 who rose and gave his vote in favor of the Graf, who was 
 with one joyous acclaim elected emperor by the rest of the 
 vassal princes, and the new sovereign, seating himself at 
 the side of his loyal-hearted cousin, was proclaimed emperor 
 by the shouting multitude. Frederick of Lothringia and the 
 archbishop of Cologne, the only malcontents, silently quitted 
 the assembly. Their departure was perceived by the Duke 
 Conrad, who, hurrying after them, led them amicably back. 
 How could they withstand the entreaties of a man who had 
 just sacrificed his ambitious hopes for the weal of the state? 
 Nor were the expectations of the nation in their elected mon- 
 arch deceived ; Conrad of Franconia was one of the noblest 
 sovereigns who ever swayed the scepter of Germany. 
 
 By his first decree, still preserved at Aix-la-Chapelle, he 
 rendered the fiefs of the petty vassals (the lesser nobility) 
 hereditary, a deeply calculated measure, by which he aimed 
 at creating a counterpoise in the state to the great vassals. ' 
 He visited the different provinces of the empire, in order to 
 arrange its internal economy, everywhere dealing impartial 
 justice. He was, however, speedily recalled by affairs re- 
 lating to the Burgundian succession, King Rudolf having 
 refused to fulfill the promise he had made to Henry, to the 
 newly-elected sovereign, who was fully aware of the impor- 
 tance of reincorporating Burgundy with the empire. His 
 persuasions, and those of Gisela, Conrad's wife and Rudolf's 
 granddaughter, were at length successful, and the aged king 
 renewed his plighted word. 
 
 On the decease of Henry II. the Italians asserted that the 
 hereditary right of the emperors to Italy had expired, and 
 
 1 Militum animos in hoc multum attraxit, quod antiqna beneflciap arenti 
 neraini posterorum auf erri sustiiiuit. Wippo. 
 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 18
 
 410 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 offered the crown to Hugh, the son of Robert, king of France. 
 Robert refused it, and a friendly interview took place be- 
 tween him and the emperor, on the little river Cher, at that 
 time the boundary of the empire. The Italians next made 
 choice of a son of "William, duke of Aquitania, who, in reply, 
 upbraided them for their treachery, so greatly did the French 
 still fear to irritate the German emperor. Conrad crossed 
 the Alps, A.D. 1026, and planted the banner of the empire 
 in the valley of Ronceval, near Piacenza. Rainer, Markgraf 
 of Tuscany, refusing to do homage, the emperor bestowed 
 his lands upon Bonifacius, the lord of Mantua, Modena, Fer- 
 rara, and Reggio, who thus became the most powerful of the 
 Italian princes. . Pavia rebelled and was vainly besieged by 
 Conrad, and riots, which were suppressed and punished, took 
 place in Ravenna and Rome during his presence in those 
 cities. A splendid court was held by him at Rome, where 
 he and his wife Gisela were solemnly crowned. He was also 
 visited here by two kings, Rudolf of Burgundy and Canute 
 the Great, who had succeeded his father Swein on the 
 thrones of Denmark and of England, and had conquered 
 Norway. This powerful monarch 1 had visited Rome in order 
 to see the wonders of the South. He married his daughter, 
 Cunihilda, to Henry, the son of Conrad, who became duke 
 of Bavaria on the extinction of the house of Luxemburg. 
 Canute held Schleswig in fee of the empire. After re-estab- 
 lishing peace in Lower Italy, Conrad extended the lands held 
 by the Normans on condition of their protecting the frontier. 
 He was shortly afterward recalled by a melancholy occur- 
 rence to the other side of the Alps. 
 
 The whole of Swabia was in an uproar. The Duke Ernst, 
 as the elder son of Gisela by her first marriage, believed him- 
 self justified in claiming Burgundy as his inheritance, in op- 
 position to his stepfather Conrad, although Rudolf, instead 
 of bequeathing his kingdom to the Salic family, had merely 
 reincorporated it with the empire. With him were united 
 
 1 His usual body-guard was composed of 6,000 men bearing gilt halberds.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 411 
 
 two Swabian Grafs of ancient race, Rudolf Welf, or Guelph, 1 
 the hereditary enemy of the Salic family, and Werner of 
 Kyburg. 
 
 During Conrad's absence in Italy, Ernst, "Welf, and 
 Werner attacked the adherents and invaded the lands of 
 the Salic family, which they laid waste without opposition, 
 and took possession of Solothurn. These events caused Con- 
 rad to hasten his return, and to convoke a great Diet at 
 Ulm, at which Ernst appeared at the head of his armed 
 Swabians. In vain did Gisela entreat him to submit, and 
 to return to his allegiance. His rebellious spirit, however, 
 was not shared by his vassals, who, when the matter came 
 to an issue, unanimously declared that the oath of allegiance 
 which bound them to their duke in no wise released them 
 from that which bound them to the emperor and to the state, 
 and that, if the duke were at feud with the empire, it was 
 their duty to aid the latter; and with one accord they aban- 
 doned their rebellious chieftains. Ernst, thus left at the 
 mercy of his opponents, was arrested and imprisoned on a 
 
 1 In the fifth century, Bdica and "Wulfo appear as princes of the Scirri. Un- 
 der Charlemagne there flourished a "Warm, count of Altorf, whose son and suc- 
 cessor, Isenbart, caused St. Otmar of St. Gall to be put to death in prison. He 
 saved the life of Charlemagne, who was attacked b^ a wild ox, when hunting, 
 and was rewarded with the hand of his sister Irmentraut. The legend relates 
 that one day, chancing to meet with an old woman who had given birth to three 
 children, he declared such an occurrence unnatural, and accused her of adultery. 
 The injured woman, in .reply, entreated Heaven that the Countess Irmentraut 
 might be delivered of as many children as there were months in the year. Her 
 prayer was heard, and Irmentraut bare twelve boys. Fearing her husband's 
 severity, she ordered a female attendant to cast eleven of them into the river. 
 The maid obeyed, but on her way thither was met by the Graf, who inquired of 
 her what she was carrying in her basket. "Welf en," "puppies," replied the 
 frightened girl. Isenbart then lifted the cloth from off the basket, and seeing 
 that the children were fine and healthy, acknowledged them for his own, and 
 had them secretly brought up. When they were grown up, he presented them 
 to their mother. It was owing to this circumstance that this family received the 
 name of Welf, or Guelph. 
 
 Welf I., one of the- twelve, was Isenbart's successor; his granddaughter, 
 Jutta or Judith, married the emperor Louis the Pious. Her father, Eticho (see 
 Chap. CXXVL), succeeded to the family honors. Since his time, the Welfian 
 house dwelt generally in retirement, on the Bodensee, at Altorf. It is probable 
 that the ancient enmity between this house and that of Saxony caused it to side 
 with the Babenbergers. Duke Ernst, the descendant of the ancient house of 
 Babenberg, now stood again opposed to the reigning imperial family.
 
 412 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 charge of high treason, in the fortress of Giebichenstein in 
 Saxony. "Welf was exiled. "Werner of Kyburg, A.D. 1087, 
 valiantly defended his castle for several months against the 
 imperial troops, but finding it at length untenable, contrived 
 to make his escape. Three years later, A.D. 1030, Conrad 
 restored his stepson to liberty, and, in the presence of his 
 mother Gisela, promised to replace him on the ducal throne 
 of Swabia, on condition of his betraying the secret of "Wer- 
 ner's retreat. "How can I betray my only true friend!" 
 replied the unfortunate duke. In consequence of this refusal 
 he was declared by his peers guilty of misprision of treason, 
 placed out of the ban of the empire, and reduced to complete 
 beggary. Driven to despair, he took refuge with his friend 
 Werner in the Black Forest, where they led a robber's life, 
 and were aided by Adalbert of Falkenstein, who gave them 
 his castle for a stronghold, whence they laid the whole coun- 
 try under contribution. The Swabians, headed by Graf Man- 
 gold of Veringen, besieged the fortress, surrounded the gar- 
 rison during a sally, and, after an obstinate struggle in 
 which Mangold fell, succeeded in cutting them to pieces. 
 Hermann, Ernst's younger brother, succeeded him as duke 
 of Swabia, A.D. 1037. The valor and wretched fate of Duke 
 Ernst 1 made a deep impression on the imagination of the 
 people, and he became the hero of many a ballad. The em- 
 peror was used to say of him, "Mad dogs never increase 
 their race!" 
 
 Other cares, meanwhile, divided the attention of the em- 
 
 1 In the following century, the adventures of Duke Ernst were ingeniously 
 and poetically intermixed with the Oriental ideas introduced by the Crusades, 
 and were detailed at length in a legend still extant among the popular ballads of 
 those times. The hero is there conducted into the East, where he is opposed by 
 all the most terrific creatures, men and beasts horrible to behold, intended as 
 allegorical representations of his actual misfortunes. Each monster personifies 
 an enemy or a betrayer. He reaches a black mountain, which signifies his 
 prison. He is borne by an old man aloft amid the clouds ; thus was he carried 
 away by his ambition. His ship is wrecked on the Magnet mountain; his col- 
 lision with the emperor. The nails fly out of his ship, and it falls to pieces ; his 
 abandonment by his vassals. These legends are not unworthy of note, inasmuch 
 as they prove the interest felt by the people in the fortunes of their chiefs, and 
 in themselves record the popular poetical taste.
 
 . THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 413 
 
 peror. Boleslaw had been succeeded on the throne of Po- 
 land by his son, Miseko, who again refused to take the oath 
 of allegiance to the empire, and, invading Saxony, laid the 
 country waste and carried off an immense number of women 
 and maidens. The seat of the bishopric of Zeiz, which was 
 most exposed to the inroads of the Poles, was, on that ac- 
 count, at this period removed to Naumburg. Conrad in- 
 vaded Poland, vainly besieged Bautzen, and wandered 
 fruitlessly in the vast unpeopled forests, A.D. 1029. In the 
 following year, Miseko again invaded the empire and exer- 
 cised unheard-of cruelties on the Elbe and Saal; his chief 
 victims were the wives of the nobility and other ladies of high 
 birth, whose only refuge was death. ' Othelrich of Bohemia, 
 and also Stephan of Hungary, invaded the empire, but were 
 successfully repulsed by Conrad, who also drove Adalbero 
 out of Carmthia," and bestowed that dukedom on his cousin 
 and noble-minded rival, Conrad, as his paternal inheritance. 
 The fortress of Enns, on the Hungarian frontier, was in- 
 trusted to Graf Ottocar, who erected the fort of Steyer, in 
 the country .hat afterward took thence the name of Steyer- 
 mark, or Styria, A.D. 1031. Shortly after these occurrences, 
 Miseko was deposed by the Poles, and, seeking protection 
 from Othelrich, was treacherously seized by his host and de- 
 livered up to the emperor, who generously restored him to 
 liberty, saying, "I will not buy an enemy from an enemy." 
 The Poles again accepted him for their king, and, won over 
 by the unexpected generosity with which he had been treated, 
 
 1 Matronas religiosas et nobilea armata manu sibi vindicavit. Solum tantorum 
 fuit levamen malorum exoptata mors. Annalista Saxo, A.D. 1030. 
 
 * To this epoch belongs the legend of St. Herama, a relative of the emperor 
 Henry II. Her husband, William, Graf of Friesach, being slain by Adalbero, 
 she lived in widowed retirement in the castled fort of Purgstall with her two 
 sons, William and Hartwig. Her castellan became enamored of her, and caused 
 an insurrection of the miners of Zeyringen, by whom her young sons were mur- 
 dered at his instigation, from an idea that he should be able to get the mother 
 by that means the more easily into his hands. St. Hemma left the castle secretly, 
 in a carriage drawn by oxen, which she allowed to go whither they would. They 
 stood still, at length, on the spot where she afterward caused the convent of 
 Gurk, of which she became abbess, to be erected, A.D. 1042: at a later period, 
 it was converted into a bishopric. The castellan sank, together with the castlt 
 of Purgstall, into a morass. Hoomayr'e Taschenbuch 0/1821.
 
 414 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 he concluded a permanent peace with the emperor, A.D. 1084. 
 Othelrich again rebelled, and was again reduced to submis- 
 sion. His son, Brzetislaw, carried off the' beautiful Jutta, a 
 relation of the emperor, from a convent at Ratisbon, and 
 made her his wife; an adventure that at first roused the 
 emperor's displeasure, but which afterward produced a rec- 
 onciliation. 
 
 About this time, Udo, the son of Mistevoi, was assassin- 
 ated by the Saxons. His son, Gottschalk, who had been 
 sent to a German monastery for his education, made his es- 
 cape, and placing himself at the head of his people, bloodily 
 revenged his father's death. But one day, when passing 
 through the wasted country, he was struck with remorse for 
 the misery he had caused, and voluntarily gave himself up 
 to the Saxons, A.D. 1036. The emperor, convinced of his 
 sincerity and of his anxiety for the confirmation of peace, 
 restored him to liberty ; upon which he attempted the con- 
 version of the Slavi, and consequently drew down upon him- 
 self their bitterest hatred. While these events were passing, 
 he became the son-in-law of Canute the Great, and the town 
 and fortress of Ratzeburg in western Poland being yielded 
 to the duke of Saxony, he acquired sufficient influence to 
 found the bishoprics of Ratzeburg and Mecklenburg. The 
 Liutizii, the head tribe of the Wilzi, in Pomerania, were 
 alone refractory. It was finally agreed between them and 
 the Saxons to leave the decision of their quarrel and the 
 choice between their different religions to the issue of single 
 combat. Victory sided with the pagan Liutizii ; and when 
 the Saxons, regardless of the stipulated terms, continued their 
 system of oppression, their opponents cried shame upon the 
 God of the Christians, and mutilated the figure on a crucifix. 
 This sacrilegious act was speedily avenged by the enraged 
 emperor, who laid their country waste with fire and sword, 
 and mutilated the prisoners, but was unsuccessful in his at- 
 tempt to penetrate as far as the coasts through their wild 
 forests and deep morasses. 
 
 The death of Rudolf, A.D. 1032, was the signal for feudal
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 415 
 
 strife in Burgundy. Odo, the French count of Champagne, 
 the son of Gisela's elder sister, set up a claim to the throne 
 in right of primogeniture, while Conrad claimed Burgundy, 
 not as a family inheritance, but as a state lapsed to the 
 crown, and caused himself to be crowned king of Burgundy 
 at Geneva, A.D. 1033. The whole of the country lying to 
 the south of Lothringia, along the Saone and the Rhone as 
 far as the sea, belonged to the kingdom of Burgundy: viz., 
 the dukedom of Lower Burgundy (Bourgogne), with its cap- 
 ital Tischaw or Dijon; the county of Upper Burgundy 
 (Franche Comte, free county), with the free imperial city 
 of Bisanz or Besangou; the county of "Walsh- Wien (Vienne) 
 or the Delphinat, so called on account of the surname of 
 Delphin borne by its counts, with its capital Graswalde or 
 Grenoble ; the county of Savoy, formerly divided from Ale- 
 mannia by the river Aar, and, at a later period, by the 
 Reuss, when Humbert the White-handed, count of Savoy, 
 extended his domains, and rendered himself almost an inde- 
 pendent sovereign during the reign of the weak Rudolf of 
 Burgundy; 1 further to the south, the county of Provence, 
 with its capital Aries, whence the whole of Lower Burgundy 
 received the name of the Arelat. Besides these were the 
 archbishopric of Walsch-Leyden (Lyons), and the bishoprics 
 of Walsch- Aachen (Aix), Parantaise, Valence, Marseille, 
 Avignon, Toulon, Chalons, Orense, Lausanne, Sion, etc. A 
 
 1 There is an apparent connection, since the treaty of Verdun, between the 
 frontiers that separate Burgundy from Alemannia, and the line traced by similar- 
 ity of language. The Burgundians, at that period, had adopted the Italian 
 tongue, while the Alemanni remained faithful to that of their fathers. This 
 latter line (that distinguished by similarity of language) may, at the present day, 
 be traced westward from Solothurn across the Jura to the Bieler Lake, to Thiel 
 and Broy, leaving Miirten, the eastern part of the city of Freiburg, Biirglen, 
 G-iffers, Passelb, Jaun, Sauen, to the left, touches the frontiers lying between 
 Berne and Valais, runs into the latter as far as Siders, keeping the valleys of 
 Leuk-Turtmann and of Matter to the left, and mounts the chain of the Roth- 
 horn, that separates Lysthal from Val di Challant. Eastward of this line, the 
 Alemannic and German.tonguis prevailed and are still in use, although Savoy 
 for some time claimed the country of the Alemanni as far as the Reuss. West- 
 ward of this line the Burgundian-Italian still prevails, except in the villages to 
 the south of Monte Rosa, whose inhabitants speak a peculiar German dialect, 
 and are, without doubt, the only remaining descendants of the ancient Bur- 
 gundians. Albert Schott.
 
 416 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 campaign was carried on in the depth of winter by the em- 
 peror, and notwithstanding, as Wippo relates, the horses' 
 hoofs were sometimes frozen into the ground, he laid the 
 whole of Champagne waste. 
 
 The Italians, discontented with the despotic rule of the 
 emperor, sought to strengthen their cause by an alliance 
 with the rebellious Odo, to whom Heribert, archbishop of 
 Milan, offered the throne of Lombardy. A second expedi- 
 tion into Italy, on the part of the emperor, was the immedi- 
 ate result. During his absence, Odo again invaded Lower 
 Lothringia, but was completely routed in the battle of Bar- 
 le-Duc, by the duke Gottfried (Gozilo), A.D. 1036. In Italy, 
 the emperor had gained fresh adherents in the Valvasors or 
 lower nobility, who were grievously oppressed by the spirit- 
 ual and temporal lords, and rose, sword in hand, A.D. 1035, 
 to claim the privileges granted by the emperor Conrad to the 
 German vassals at Aix-la-Chapelle. It chanced that Heri- 
 bert, archbishop of Milan, the most tyrannical of the petty 
 princes of Italy, who, up to the present period, had been the 
 most zealous partisan of the emperor, counted for that rea- 
 son on his protection ; but Conrad, faithful to his system of 
 supporting the lower nobility against the great vassals, threw 
 him, contrary to his expectation, into prison. In 1037, he 
 gave the new feudal code to his Italian vassals, by which 
 the estates of the petty vassals were rendered hereditary, the 
 alienation of a fief by the feudal lord without the consent of 
 the feoffee was forbidden, and the right of being judged by 
 their peers, and of an appeal to the emperor in disputes be- 
 tween them and their lieges, was secured to the petty vas- 
 sals. The concession of these privileges to the German no- 
 bility explains their adherence to his cause, particularly hi 
 the affair between him and Duke Ernst. His successors, 
 nevertheless, were ignorant of the art of forming the minor 
 nobility into one great mass, and thiey, consequently, re- 
 mained uninfluenced by any common bond, under the rule 
 of the great vassals, who gradually regained the power over 
 them of which they had been deprived by Conrad. The em-
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS ill 
 
 peror lengthened his stay in Italy, in order to confirm his 
 authority in that country. Parma rebelled, and was, by his 
 order, almost entirely demolished. His most active adherent 
 was the Markgraf Bonifacius, who had wedded Beatrix, the 
 daughter of Frederich of Lothringia. He entertained the 
 emperor sumptuously at Marengo and Vivinaja. Wine was 
 drawn in buckets attached by silver chains from the foun- 
 tains, etc. These festal scenes were interrupted by the break- 
 ing out of the plague, which carried off almost the whole of 
 Conrad's army. Hermann of Swabia, Conrad, duke of Ca- 
 rinthia, the emperor's cousin, Cunihilda, the bride of Henry, 
 the youthful heir to the crown, were among the victims, 
 A.D. 1038. 
 
 The feuds carried on between the Grafs and the other 
 great vassals in Burgundy now called the emperor into that 
 country. Reinhold, count of Franche Comte, who was at 
 enmity with him, was reduced to submission by Louis, count 
 of Miimpelgart, the emperor's stanch adherent. The right 
 of private warfare was upheld even more in France and Bur- 
 gundy than in Germany, and the clergy alone possessed the 
 power of checking the martial spirit that prevailed. An 
 abbot of Clugny, at length, declared himself commissioned 
 by Heaven to announce a universal and holy peace, which 
 was to be kept weekly, from Wednesday evening until Mon- 
 day morning, and again from Advent Sunday until the 
 eighth day after Epiphany, from Septuagesima until the 
 eighth day after Easter, under pain of excommunication. 
 During these intervals, feuds were thus strictly prohibited. 
 The truth of this pretended mission was gladly recognized 
 by both the temporal and spiritual lords, first in France, A.D. 
 1027, in Burgundy, A.D. 1032. and on two separate occasions, 
 in A.D. 1038 and 1041, by the emperor, by whom this holy 
 and universal peace was passed into a law, 1 the benefit of 
 
 1 Conrad, nevertheless, unlike his predecessor Henry IT., was no slave to 
 the church. When the pope, without referring to him, as to his superior, raised 
 the abbot of Reichenau to the episcopal dignity, he prohibited its acceptance, 
 and caused the brief to be burned.
 
 413 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 which was ere long felt throughout Germany. Conrad ex- 
 pired at Utrecht, A.D. 1039, during the solemnization of the 
 Whitsuntide festival. He was interred at Spires, where, A. D. 
 1030, he had laid the foundation-stone of the cathedral. His 
 son and successor, Henry, accompanied the funeral proces- 
 sion, and, while passing through the town, assisted in bear- 
 ing the coffin. 
 
 CXL. Henry the Third 
 
 EDUCATED by a father as intelligent as he was energetic 
 and warlike, and by a mother whose noble intellect had been 
 strengthened by misfortune, Henry early developed the qual- 
 ities befitting a statesman and a soldier. The popes even 
 were awed, and the power of the dukes completely reduced, 
 by this emperor, whose iron despotism surpassed that of any 
 of his predecessors. * Had his life been lengthened, the ducal 
 dignity, so greatly had he succeeded in depressing it, would 
 probably have been entirely abolished. , 
 
 He allowed the ducal throne of Swabia to remain for 
 some time unoccupied, and finally bestowed it on Otto, 
 Markgraf of Schweinf urt, in Eastern Franconia, a man of an 
 inert disposition. The nomination of Welf, the son of Welf 
 the elder, to the dukedom of Carinthia, cojiciliated the feudal 
 animosity of that house. Welf died, A.D. 1055, without issue, 
 and his family was continued, in default of heir male, by 
 Welf, the son of his sister Cunigunda, who had espoused 
 Azzo, an Italian Markgraf. The crown of Bavaria was pre- 
 sented by Henry to his wife, the empress Agnes. At that 
 time Graf, Berthold, a nephew of Radbot of Habsburg, dis- 
 tinguishing himself in the Breisgau, Henry promised him 
 the reversion of the ducal crown of Swabia on the death of 
 Otto. Bernhard of Saxony, although the only one who 
 maintained his ancient independence, made himself re- 
 spected by the emperor, who sought to diminish his power 
 
 1 "Omnia Caesar erat," was the graphic expression of Godellus, the monkish 
 historian of Limoges.
 
 THE FRANCON1AN, SALIC EMPERORS 419 
 
 by creating a counterpoise to him in the neighboring states, 
 and accordingly made Thuringia independent, and nomi- 
 nated Louis the Bearded as her Landgraf. He also sup- 
 ported Adalbert, the talented archbishop of Bremen, who 
 had twelve bishoprics under his jurisdiction, and, during his 
 residence in Germany, always fixed his seat of government 
 at Goslar, in the heart of Saxony, in order to keep that duke- 
 dom under his own eye. He also humbled the haughty and 
 dreaded archbishop of Mayence, by giving precedence to the 
 archbishop of Cologne, when solemnizing the coronation of 
 his youthful heir. 
 
 The Bohemians were the first to rise in open warfare. 
 Brzetislaw again attempted to regain his independence, in 
 which he was supported by Severus, bishop of Prague. 
 After a struggle that lasted for two years, he was finally 
 reduced to submission, A.D. 1042, and compelled to swear 
 fealty to the emperor on his bended knees at Ratisbon. His 
 son Spignitew, on mounting the throne, immediately ex- 
 pelled all the Germans, even his own mother, Jutta, from 
 Bohemia. 
 
 In the following year, the discontented Burgundians rose 
 in open insurrection, but were again subdued by Henry, who, 
 by his marriage with Agnes of Poitou, A.D. 1044, who was 
 closely connected with the most powerful of the Burgundian 
 families, at once settled all differences. 
 
 This was followed by disturbances in Hungary. Stephan 
 the Holy having died without issue, Gisela, his German 
 queen, placed his nephew, Peter, on the throne. The crimes 
 of this monarch, and the favor in which the Germans were 
 held at court, gave rise to a popular tumult. Peter was de- 
 posed, and Aba was elected king in his stead. A battle took 
 place between him and the emperor at Menfew, A.D. 1044. 
 The Germans had already been put to flight, when a storm 
 of wind suddenly arose, and whirling the sand of the plain 
 into the faces of the pursuing Hungarians, caused such con- 
 fusion that the Germans rallied and gained the victory. 
 Peter was replaced upon his throne at Stuhlweissenburg,
 
 420 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and Aba was assassinated. The Hungarians again revolted 
 on Henry's departure, deprived Peter of sight, and raised 
 Andreas to the throne. This induced a second expedition 
 into Hungary on the part of the emperor, whose army was 
 surrounded, when in a dangerous position, by the enemy, 
 and, after suffering dreadfully from famine, was finally en- 
 abled, by the dexterity of his maneuvers, to retreat across the 
 frontier, with the loss of all the sick, whom he was compelled 
 to abandon, and who were cut to pieces by the enraged peas- 
 antry. He returned, A.D. 1051, at the head of a more nu- 
 merous army, and although he recognized Andreas as king 
 of Hungary, compelled him to do him homage, and to accept 
 the Bavarian constitution, by which Hungary was, as at the 
 present day, divided into comitate or counties. The coun- 
 try between the Calenberg on the Danube, in the vicinity of 
 Vienna, and the Leitha, was also permanently severed from 
 Hungary, and united to the mere of Austria. 
 
 The greatest confusion, caused, on the present occasion, 
 by a schism or disunion of the church under several contem- 
 porary popes, reigned, meanwhile, in Italy. Benedict IX., 
 who had given way to the most unbridled license, was op- 
 posed by an anti-pope, Sylvester VII. Benedict, becoming 
 enamored of a beautiful girl of high birth, abdicated the 
 pontifical chair, in the hope of obtaining her in marriage, 
 but, being disappointed in his purpose, retook his dignity 
 and remained pope, although he had sold his right to the 
 triple crown to a third pope, Gregory VI. These three heads 
 of the church reigned simultaneously in Rome; Benedict in 
 the Lateran, Gregory in the Vatican, and Sylvester in St. 
 Maria Maggiore. In order to terminate this scandal, the 
 emperor visited Rome, A.D. 1046, and held a great ecclesi- 
 astical convocation at Sutri, by which he caused the three 
 popes to be deposed, and a German, Suidger of Meyendorf, 
 bishop of Bamberg, to be placed in the pontifical chair, under 
 the name of Clement II. All the imperial prerogatives, by 
 the exercise of this right of election on the part of the em- 
 peror, received fresh confirmation. Henry afterward visited
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 421 
 
 Apulia, and extended the Norman fief, held by the twelve 
 brave sons of Tancred, one of whom, named Drogo, who, 
 A.D. 1039, had defeated a numerous body of Grecian troops, 
 he created duke of Apulia. The revolt of the Lombards 
 against the new rulers of Lower Italy was the immediate 
 result, and Drogo was murdered. His brothers, Hunifrid 
 and Guiscard, nevertheless, maintained their authority in 
 Apulia, and Raimund, a descendant of the earlier Norman 
 settlers, was equally successful in Aversa. 
 
 Henry returned to Germany with the three popes in hig 
 train. Their German successor, Clement II., died A.D. 
 1049, probably from poison, and another German, Poppo, 
 bishop of Brixen, who was sent by the emperor to replace 
 him as Pope Damasus II., did not survive his elevation to 
 the pontifical chair three weeks. The emperor next elected 
 one of his own relatives, Bruno of Dachsburg, bishop of 
 Tull, as his successor, who, under the name of Leo IX., 
 distinguished himself by the force of his intellect, and by 
 his comprehensive plans for the reformation of the church, 
 in which he was zealously aided by a young man named 
 Hildebrand, the son of a blacksmith of Siena, who had ac- 
 companied Gregory VI. to Germany, and whom the new 
 pope, attracted by his high talents, had taken into his ser- 
 vice. It has been asserted that Leo was merely a tool in 
 the hands of this monk ; this could not be : the actions of 
 Leo originated in himself, and instead of owing his fame 
 to Hildebrand, the contrary was the fact it was he who 
 first raised Hildebrand from obscurity. The principal evil 
 in the church, besides the irregular election of the popes in 
 Rome herself, was the simony ' carried on throughout the 
 provinces. Each ecclesiastical dignity, from the highest to 
 the lowest, had its price, and, consequently, fell into the 
 most unworthy hands; bribery and corruption everywhere 
 prevailed. In order to put a stop to these evils, Leo, besides 
 rendering them liable by law to the severest punishments, 
 
 1 Simony, or the purchase of ecclesiastical benefices ; so named in reference 
 to Simon the magician, in the Acts of the Apostles, viii.
 
 i22 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 visited the different countries for the purpose of strictly and 
 personally investigating the conduct of the clergy. The 
 awestruck French clergy yielded implicitly to his commands 
 at a council convoked by him at Rheims. He met alone 
 with opposition from his own countrymen at another held 
 by him at Mayence ; and a year later, when he again hast- 
 ened northward, in order to promote peace between the 
 Hungarians, who had already embraced Christianity, and 
 the Germans, he was mocked in the German camp. "Was 
 the emperor jealous of the interference of a pope on whose 
 head he had himself placed the tiara? Heavily was Ger- 
 many destined to atone for her disrespect toward a German 
 pope! Not long after this Leo fell at variance with Robert 
 Guiscard, on account of his having laid the papal dominions 
 waste; seven hundred Swabians, the pope's body-guard, were 
 slain at Civetella, and the pope quitted the burning city and 
 gave himself up to the Normans, who fell weeping at his 
 feet, A.D. 1053. This excellent pope expired in the follow- 
 ing year. He was canonized by the church, and became 
 the guardian saint of the city of Benevento. On his de- 
 mise, Hildebrand hastened to Germany, in order to entreat 
 the emperor to elect a successor. His choice fell upon Geb- 
 hard, Graf of Calw, bishop of Eichstadt, Pope Victor II,, 
 who, at a council held at Florence, promised the world that 
 he would continue the reform commenced by Leo. 
 
 A petty war for the succession to the dukedom had, in 
 the meantime, broken out in Lothringia. Dietrich, the son 
 of Frederich, duke of Upper LolLiringia, died without issue, 
 A.D. 1043. The succession was claimed by Gottfried the 
 Bearded, duke of Lower Lothringia, who, on the donation 
 of the dukedom by the emperor to Adalbert, an Alsatian 
 count, took up arms against him and slew him in battle. 
 Gerhard, Adalbert's nephew, was upon this appointed to 
 succeed him by the emperor, who defeated the contuma- 
 cious duke, but, struck with admiration of the valor with 
 which he had defended himself, pardoned his aggression, 
 and sent him to Italy, to watch over his interests in that
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 423 
 
 country. Gottfried's allies, Baldwin Y. of Flanders, and 
 Dietrich IV. of Holland, who were necessarily sacrificed by 
 this arrangement, contrived to make head against the em- 
 peror during the summer months behind their morasses, but 
 were speedily reduced to submission on the setting in of win- 
 ter, A.D. 1048, when the rivers and canals were frozen over. 
 Baldwin, notwithstanding his having burned down the im- 
 perial town of Nimwegen, 1 was freely pardoned, and per- 
 mitted to hold Ghent, the Ottogau, CElsterland, Allost, 
 "Wars, and Southern Seeland, in fee of the empire. This 
 country was henceforth distinguished as Imperial Flan- 
 ders from the rest of Flanders, which was a French fief. 
 The emperor hoped, by this clemency, to attach these pow- 
 erful frontier Grafs to the empire, and to increase the dis- 
 taste felt by the German Flemings toward their foreign 
 rulers. His system was unfortunately unheeded by his 
 successors on the imperial throne, by whom the Flemings 
 were rarely supported against France. Dietrich of Hol- 
 land fell, A.D. 1049, in a senseless and sanguinary feud 
 with Cologne," which proved equally fatal to Florens L, 
 his brother and successor. It is remarkable to what an 
 early date the disunion in the German Netherlands may 
 be traced. 
 
 Gottfried of Lower Lothringia, unmindful of the clem- 
 ency with which he had been treated, proved faithless to 
 his trust in Italy, where he joined the malcontents, and 
 after wedding Beatrix, the widow of Bonifacius, made use 
 of the influence and wealth bestowed upon her family by 
 the emperor against their common benefactor. Henry, 
 
 1 Dietrich, Graf of Cleve, surnamed the Flyer on account of his extraordinary 
 activity, on one occasion saved the emperor's life during this feud, and received 
 in recompense the city and revenue of Nirawegen, on condition of paying an 
 annual tribute of three pieces of scarlet cloth, each fifty ells in length, to the 
 emperor. This tribute being discontinued by his successors, Frederich Barba- 
 rossa deprived them of both the city and its revenue. Knapp's History of Cleve. 
 
 2 This feud was occasioned by the death of a brother of the archbishop of 
 Cologne, who was slain by Dietrich at a tournament. He also cut to pieces 
 four hundred of the Cologne nobility and their allies at Dordrecht, where he was 
 himself slain by a poisoned arrow. Florens was murdered in his sleep during a 
 night attack.
 
 424 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 consequently, recrossed the Alps, and after defeating the 
 refractory duke, and taking Beatrix prisoner, returned 
 with her to Germany, where his presence was again re- 
 quired by the renewed pretensions of Henry, king of France, 
 upon Burgundy and Lothringia. His departure was in- 
 stantly turned to advantage by Gottfried, and his son, 
 Gottfried the younger, who regained their influence in 
 Italy. During an interview between Henry and the French 
 monarch at Ivois, A.D. 1056, the former threw down his 
 glove in token of challenge : it was refused by the French 
 king, who took refuge within his own dominions. 
 
 Another and more dangerous enemy now attacked the em- 
 pire. The Liutizii, notwithstanding the valiant defense made 
 against them by Bernhard of Saxony, William of Branden- 
 burg, son of the elder Bernhard, and Gottschalk, the Chris- 
 tian prince of the Obotrites, succeeded in gaining the upper 
 hand. William fell in a battle near Prizlawa. All the Chris- 
 tians taken prisoners on this occasion being drowned, the 
 Saxon princes, in reprisal, compelled their Slavian prison- 
 ers to throw themselves into the river. ' 
 
 During the same year, Germany was visited by earth- 
 quakes, plague, and famine, the forerunners of a still worse 
 evil, the death of the emperor, who fell sick and expired at 
 Bothfeld, in the Harz Mountains, in the vigor of life, A..D. 
 1056. He left the empire in the hands of the empress Agnes, 
 and of his son Henry, a child five years of age. Thus the 
 management of affairs that demanded the utmost energy 
 and sagacity devolved upon a woman and an infant. 
 
 A number of monks, who devoted their lives and talents 
 more to the promotion of learning and to the welfare of the 
 state, than to upholding the hierarchical schemes of the pope, 
 had been invited over by Henry from the British Isles, and 
 had founded numerous Scotch monasteries." Agnes, Henry's 
 
 1 Alle de se venghen, mosten sich sulven drenken. Old Saxon Chronicle. 
 
 2 The miracle performed by one of these Scottish saints is characteristic of 
 the reaction produced by the contrast of their temperance and sobriety with the 
 luxurious habits of the Roman clergy. Marguard, the first abbot of the Scotch 
 monastery at "Wurzburg, is said to have changed the wine of the carousing clergy 
 into water.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 425 
 
 learned empress, and his chancellor and historian "Wippo, 
 also greatly assisted him in carrying his plans for the ref- 
 ormation of the Romish priesthood into effect. Agnes was 
 regent of the empire during her son's minority. She was 
 a virtuous, pious woman, with a mind highly cultivated in- 
 deed, but totally deficient in the energy befitting her station, 
 the possession of which would have rendered her the heroine, 
 instead of the victim, of her tunes. Gentleness, love, persua- 
 sion, and the most disinterested sacrifice of herself, were the 
 means by which she sought to rule the wild and daring spirits 
 of the age. Well aware of the impossibility of bearing des- 
 potic sway, like her deceased husband, over the distant and 
 extensive provinces of the empire, without the intermediate 
 aid of dukes, and, moreover, anxious to convert the enmity 
 of those whose pretensions had been neglected into friend- 
 ship, she raised one after the other, the bitterest enemies of 
 her family, to the vacant ducal thrones. Another aim of 
 her short-sighted policy was by means of the dukes to keep 
 the haughty archbishops in check. Eudolf, the insolent 
 Graf of Rheinfelden, by whom her daughter Matilda had 
 been violated, received not only pardon for his crime, but 
 also Swabia and Burgundy in fee of the empire. The tur- 
 bulent Swabian nobles, ever at feud with one another, re- 
 quired a master. A Graf of Hohenzollern is -at this period, 
 A.D. 1058, for the first time mentioned in history as an actor 
 in one of these feuds. In order to satisfy the just preten- 
 sions of Graf Berthold, Agnes bestowed upon him the duke- 
 dom of Carinthia, and the county of Verona in Italy, A.D. 
 1060; besides which he possessed the Breisgau. His de- 
 scendants received the surname of the Zahringer, 1 from 
 
 1 The legendary origin of the Zahringer is thus related in the ancient Frei- 
 burgian Chronicle. Their ancestor was a charcoal burner in the Black Forest, 
 who, discovering by chance some silver in the earth with which he covered the 
 smoldering wood, gradually collected an immense treasure. An emperor who 
 had taken refuge on the Kaiserstuhl mountain in the Breisgau, fell into great 
 distress, and promising to bestow his daughter's hand on the person who would 
 come to his aid, the charcoal burner laid his ponderous riches at his feet, wedded 
 the princess, was created duke, and built the castle of Zahringen and the city of 
 Freiburg. Maddened by prosperity, he longed for human flesh, and caused a
 
 426 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Zehring, a province above Judenburg. She also bestowed 
 Bavaria on Otto, the brave Graf of Nordheim, and restored 
 Lothringia to the son of her hereditary enemy Gottfried, 
 Gottfried the Hunchback, a noble-minded man, who was 
 afterward almost the only one who served the Salic family 
 with fidelity. Besides Lothringia, he also possessed the ex- 
 tensive Tuscan margraviate in right of his wife Matilda, the 
 daughter of his own stepmother Beatrix. 
 
 The Frieslanders again figure in history during this 
 period. Bernhard of Saxony, and Adalbert, archbishop 
 of Bremen, enraged at the insubordination of these brave 
 peasants, who resisted their attempted imposition of a tax, 
 marched at the head of a numerous army into their coun- 
 try, but were completely put to the rout, and the camp of 
 the nobles was sacked by the victors, A.D. 1060. Henry, the 
 pious bishop of Augsburg, and Guibert, the talented arch- 
 bishop of Ravenna, were the empress's counselors. The 
 mildness of her government, however, did not shield her 
 character from the imputations which the opponents to the 
 imperial throne cast upon her and her counselors in order 
 to hasten their downfall. 
 
 CXLI. Ecclesiastical Government of the Empire 
 
 VICTOR II. died A.D. 1057, and the Italians placed the 
 tiara on the head of Stephen IX., the brother of Gottfried 
 the Hunchback, who also expired in the following year. 
 Their choice next fell upon Benedict X. This election 
 caused deep displeasure to Hildebrand, who still continued 
 his endeavors to raise the church to her former level by 
 means of the empire. He therefore earnestly petitioned the 
 "empress to nominate another pope, and Gerhard of Bur- 
 gundy, bishop of Florence, was accordingly sent by her to 
 fill the pontifical chair. 
 
 This pope entered into Hildebrand 's views for the ag- 
 
 'boy to be killed and roasted. While feasting on this unnatural food, he was 
 seized with remorse, and, in atonement for his crime, erected the monasteries 
 of St. Ruprecht, and of St. Peter in the Black Forest
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 427 
 
 grandizement of the church. The time had arrived for the 
 popedom to rise again from her impotent obscurity, and for 
 the realization of the gigantic idea of universal ecclesiastical 
 rule ; so intense was the devotional feeling of the times that 
 the church merely required an energetic head, and the em- 
 pire a weak ruler, for the temporal power of the latter to 
 pass into the hands of the former. This head appeared in 
 the person of the monk Hildebrand, at a time when the im- 
 perial scepter was swayed by a child. The character and 
 virtues of Hildebrand fitted him for the hero of the church 
 and of his age. His irreproachable life and morals, his en- 
 tire renunciation of all worldly pleasures, rendered him uni- 
 versally venerated. His mind, formed in monastic seclusion, 
 was firm and strong, and, inspired by his deep devotional 
 feelings, he cherished a lofty view of the destinies of the 
 world. Early recommended to the notice of the great and 
 powerful by the superiority of his talents, he was an adept 
 in transacting worldly affairs, had been actively engaged in 
 promoting the interests of the church, and, during his resi- 
 dence in Germany, had taken a just and comprehensive 
 view of the state of Christendom. Worldly knowledge, 
 pliability, and even dissimulation unholy means for the 
 attainment of a design, the offspring of a pure and lofty 
 mind were his chief characteristics, in common with the 
 rest of his countrymen. His surpassing eloquence, another 
 of his numerous gifts, did not equal in effect the indomitable 
 sternness which empowered him singly to enter the lists 
 against the whole world. Even during his lifetime, his 
 numerous enemies, created as much by the earnestness of 
 his zealous endeavors as by the harshness with which cir- 
 cumstances often compelled him to act, attempted to lower 
 his fame ; and in later times, the despotic rule usurped by a 
 church whose power was due to him has caused him to be 
 reproached as the originator of crimes which, in the purity 
 of his zeal for the reformation of the church, and through 
 her of the reformation and improvement of the universe, he 
 could not have foreseen.
 
 428 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 His great work commenced under Nicolas II., whose aj> 
 probation was the more readily secured, on account of its 
 having originated with the German popes, and on account 
 of the necessity of preserving peace and order, the continua- 
 tion of which was at this period endangered by the minority 
 of the emperor. Two men, his steady coadjutors, Petrus 
 Damiani, whose religious zeal and strict morality rendered 
 hun the idol of monks and devotees, and Lanfrauc, the cele- 
 brated theologian, his equal in learning, must also not re- 
 main unnoticed. 
 
 Two important acts passed by a council at Rome, A.D. 
 1059, were the first-fruits of Hildebrand's long-planned en- 
 deavors. By the former, the election of the pope was de- 
 clared for the future to be independent of the emperor, and 
 to be solely dependent on the votes of the cardinals, or eccle- 
 siastics of the highest rank, whose dignity arose from the 
 number of chapters or canonships attached to their sees. 
 By the latter, the pope was declared, like the emperor, lord 
 paramount over the feudatories in his dominions, and the 
 Normans were accordingly solemnly declared feudatories of 
 the pontifical chair, and freed from their allegiance to the 
 emperor. The independent spirit of Robert Guiscard of 
 Apulia, and of his brother Roger of Sicily, caused them 
 willingly to league with the pope in freeing themselves 
 from the shackles imposed upon them by the emperor. 
 The Greeks, Arabs, and Lombards in Lower Italy were 
 also at that period reduced by them to submission. It is 
 worthy of remark that Nicolas carefully avoided any inter- 
 ference with heretics, in order not to be hindered in his 
 more important operations for the aggrandizement of the 
 church. Berengar, a canon of Tours, although compelled 
 to abjure his heretical doctrine against transubstantiation, 
 that is, against the belief that the wine and bread made 
 use of in the sacrament was the real body and blood of 
 Christ, was treated with great lenity. 
 
 Nicolas II. died A.D. 1061. The election of Alexander 
 II. by the cardinals roused Agnes to a sense of her infringed
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 429 
 
 dignity, and declaring the election null and void without 
 her consent, she caused Honorius II. to be elected pope by 
 the German bishops at Basle. 
 
 One of the most distinguished men of that period was 
 Anno, archbishop of Cologne (a Graf of Pfullingen), a man 
 of an ambitious mind and stern temper, more fitted to bear 
 the scepter or the sword than the crosier. The precedence 
 given to him by Henry III. over the haughty archbishop of 
 Mayence had only served to inflame his ambition, and, in- 
 satiated by the power he possessed, he even grasped at the 
 regency of the empire. He has for that reason been unjustly 
 accused of attempting to separate the German church from 
 that of Rome; the accordance of his views with those of 
 Hildebrand clearly demonstrate the contrary. It is true 
 that he filled several important bishoprics with his adher- 
 ents. His brother Wezilo (Werner) was created archbishop 
 of Magdeburg; his grandson Cuiio (Conrad), archbishop of 
 Treves, and his other grandson, Bucco (Burkhard), bishop 
 of Halberstadt. The adherence of these prelates, however, 
 merely contributed to his temporal power. His principal ob- 
 ject, the only one worthy of his powers, but for the attain- 
 ment of which he had recourse to ignoble and barbarous 
 means, was to snatch the helm from the powerless hand of 
 the weak woman who guided the state. The life of the 
 youthful emperor had been already attempted. Otto, the 
 brother of William of Brandenburg, had been passed over 
 in the succession, and Udo, Graf of Stade, had been created 
 Markgraf in his stead. An insurrection ensued. Numbers 
 of the Saxons, to whom Henry III. had made himself ob- 
 noxious, entered into a conspiracy with Otto, whom they 
 intended to raise to the throne, against the emperor's life. 
 A duel that took place between Otto and Ekbert, Graf of 
 Brunswick, a zealous partisan of the imperial family, in 
 which both combatants fell, crushed the hopes of the Saxon 
 conspirators, A.D. 1057. Anno pursued a safer and more 
 certain plan. He hated Agnes and the bishop of Augsburg, 
 and viewed her government with contempt. His project of
 
 430 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ruling the empire in the name of the youthful monarch was 
 shared by Otto of Nordheim, the greatest general, and by 
 Ekbert, Markgraf of Meissen, the most valiant knight of the 
 age, who were moreover by their Saxon blood the hereditary 
 foes of the reigning dynasty. These three men formed a 
 plot to gain possession of the person of the emperor. The 
 empress and her son were invited by them to pass the Eas- 
 ter festival at Kaiserswerth, A.D. 1062. After the banquet, 
 under pretense of showing the child a fine boat, he was 
 taken to the Rhine, put on board a vessel, and taken away. 
 The courageous boy no sooner perceived the intention of his 
 conductors to separate him from his mother than he sprang 
 into the water, but was instantly followed by Ekbert, who 
 overtook and bore him back to the vessel. The entreaties 
 of the unfortunate empress for the restoration of her child 
 were unheeded by the treacherous vassals, who, although 
 pursued for some distance on both sides of the river by the 
 country people, succeeded in reaching Cologne with their 
 prisoner. The broken-hearted mother resigned the regency 
 and retired to an Italian convent. Her counselor, Henry, 
 bishop of Augsburg, was tortured to death. ' 
 
 In order to place his undertaking under more favorable 
 colors, Anno caused a decree to be passed by the assembled 
 vassals of the empire, empowering the bishop within whose 
 diocese the young emperor resided to act as regent of the 
 state ; a title he instantly assumed on account of the enforced 
 residence of his prisoner at Cologne. He caused him to be 
 strictly educated, compelling him to learn Latin like a chor- 
 ister, and to undergo the severest discipline. 
 
 The dispute between Honorius II. and Alexander II. called 
 Anno, as regent of the empire, into Italy ; in this character 
 he, at first, strongly opposed Hildebrand, but the interests 
 of the church ere long reconciled their differences; Anno 
 also rejected the pope nominated by the empress, lent his 
 countenance to the one elected by the cardinals, and Alex- 
 ander retained the tiara. 
 
 1 Coleis ligneo palo pertusis.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 431 
 
 During the absence of Anno, Henry had fallen into other 
 hands, and the ambitious primate of Cologne, at a later peri- 
 od, merely guided the affairs of state at two short and differ- 
 ent times. The city of Cologne, meanwhile, fully occupied 
 his attention. In 1063, or, according to other accounts, later, 
 a violent feud sprang up between him and the merchants, 
 affording an example of the struggle between rival interests, 
 which speedily broke out in several other episcopal cities. 
 An no's servants insolently took possession of a merchantman 
 that lay close inshore, heavily laden, and after lightening it 
 of its cargo, laid an embargo upon it as a pleasure-boat for 
 the archbishop. The son of the merchant to whom the ves- 
 sel belonged hastened with his men to the spot, and com- 
 pelled the archbishop's servants to retire. Anno ordered 
 peace to be preserved, but harshly refused to pass judgment 
 on the offenders; the people of Cologne, well aware of his 
 despotic temper, resolved to oppose violence by violence, and 
 rising en masse, stormed the episcopal palace, which they 
 utterly destroyed, and laid siege to the church of St. Peter, 
 within whose walls the archbishop had taken refuge. Anno 
 escaped by night, assembled a numerous army, and shortly 
 appeared before the gates of Cologne. The citizens, already 
 struck with remorse for their daring, and unable to contend 
 on equal terms with their old master, now sued for mercy, 
 and Anno, who, with his customary sternness, reserved 
 judgment for himself, was permitted to enter the town. 
 The merchants justly fearing his anger, six hundred of their 
 number left the city during the night, carrying with them 
 all their movable goods. The son of the merchant whose 
 opposition to his tyranny had given rise to the tumult, fell 
 into the hands of the archbishop, who caused him and his 
 adherents to be deprived of sight. 
 
 Anno greatly improved the city of Cologne, and adorned 
 it with churches. He was canonized after his death, and a 
 song in his praise, one of the best examples of the versifica- 
 tion of the Middle Ages, is still extant : the extreme tender- 
 ness and pathos of this poem strikingly contrast with the real
 
 432 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 character of its hero, whose stern inflexibility seems to have 
 imparted a similar character to Cologne, perceptible even in 
 her glorious attempt for the reformation of the church. 
 
 During the absence of Anno in Italy, Henry had fallen 
 into the hands of Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, Anno's 
 rival for the regency, to which the favor with which he had 
 been beheld by Henry III. , and the decree passed by Anno, 
 furnished him with a title; independently of this, he re- 
 garded himself as the most polished and learned man of 
 the times, as the only one capable of ruling the empire and 
 of rearing the monarch. A lineal descendant of the noble 
 house of "Wettin of Slavonia, handsome and dignified in per- 
 son, learned and witty, he regarded the gloomy sternness of 
 Anno and the coarse manners of the nobles with the con- 
 tempt natural to a man of refined taste and high birth, and 
 by the gentleness of his treatment ere long caused the 
 youthful monarch to rejoice at his good fortune in having 
 fallen into his custody. Henry was, however, entirely cor- 
 rupted by his new guardian. The sudden change from the 
 severity with which he had been treated by Anno, to the 
 unlimited liberty he enjoyed under Adalbert's roof, was of 
 itself pernicious. The gravity and study to which he had 
 been inured were now suddenly exchanged for the thought- 
 less gayety of a licentious court, where affairs of state were 
 treated as lightly as a jest. The most unbridled simony was 
 practiced by the archbishop, who thus sought to fill the most 
 important benefices with his partisans, and by means of a 
 new toy, or the caresses of beautiful courtesans, l or a fresh 
 amusement, the invention of the ready brain of his favorite, 
 the handsome Graf Werner, he easily obtained the letters, 
 signatures, and donations requisite for the success of his 
 plans. The worst result of the influence gained by Adalbert 
 over the mind of the young monarch was the contempt 
 with which he studiously inspired him for the dukes, and 
 more especially for the stupid German people, to whom Adal- 
 bert imagined himself to be so superior, as well as a dislike 
 1 Among whom were abbesses and nuns of high birth.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 433 
 
 of the Saxons, which he only too speedily imbibed. During 
 the reign of Henry III. the Saxons and the archbishop had 
 been at feud, and it was therefore of consequence to him to 
 have the monarch on his side, and Henry thus unwittingly 
 acquired an antipathy as unbecoming to him when emperor 
 as it in the sequel proved dangerous. 
 
 In 1063, Henry accompanied Adalbert in a campaign 
 against Hungary, where Bela, after rebelling against and 
 assassinating Andreas, had expelled his son Salomo, the 
 affianced bridegroom of Jutta, the emperor's sister- Adal- 
 bert restored Salomo to the Hungarian throne, on condition 
 of his holding it in fee of the empire, and bestowed upon 
 him the hand of Henry's sister. Hildebrand's anger was 
 greatly roused by this proceeding; Hungary, according to 
 him, being a papal fief. During the same year, Henry be- 
 held at Goslar the struggle for precedence in church during 
 divine service, between the bishop of Hildesheim and the 
 abbot of Fulda, on which occasion several men lost their 
 lives, so lawless were, at that period, the manners of the 
 clergy, who were equally unchecked by both Adalbert and 
 Anno, the former of whom cherished an ambitious hope of 
 elevating the see of Bremen to the patriarchate of the North, 
 and, in the name of the emperor, of rendering the temporal 
 lords submissive to his authority, an attempt which drew 
 upon him universal hatred. 
 
 In 1065, Henry was solemnly declared capable of bearing 
 arms. Scarcely was his sword girded on than he drew it 
 jestingly upon Anno, who was present; an action at once 
 indicative of dislike and levity. 
 
 CXLII. Henry the Fourth 
 
 HENRY IV., ever accompanied by Adalbert and Werner, 
 held his imperial court with his habitual splendor near Gos- 
 lar, at the Harzburg. The Saxons were treated with the 
 utmost scorn. The country people in the vicinity were op- 
 pressed with taxes and enforced labor, and the dislike with 
 GERMANY. VOL. I. 19
 
 434 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 which the Saxons were viewed by the monarch ere long be- 
 came as unbearable to them as his licentious habits, which 
 were, with reason, a scandal and a shame to the whole em- 
 pire. His mistresses were seen in public adorned with gold 
 and precious stones, taken from the consecrated vessels of 
 the churches, etc. The jealousy with which the vassals 
 of the empire beheld Adalbert was, nevertheless, the chief 
 motive of the conspiracy. Anno again suddenly intermed- 
 dled with state affairs, and convoking a general assembly at 
 Tribur, cited Henry to appear before it. On his refusal, the 
 conspirators surrounded the palace, and seized his person; 
 Adalbert narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, and re- 
 mained for three years in concealment, while the Saxons laid 
 his lands waste. Werner was slain. The courtiers were dis- 
 persed, and Henry was compelled to abjure his mode of life, 
 and to wed Bertha, the daughter of the Italian Markgraf 
 of Susa, to whom he had some time earlier been affianced ; 
 a noble-spirited woman who alone wanted beauty in order 
 easily to supplant the mistresses of the young emperor, who 
 returned with her in extreme displeasure to Goslar, A.D. 1066. 
 Anno was again at the head of affairs, but the whole 
 empire still presented a scene of anarchy ; the temporal and 
 spiritual lords disputed the possession of feudal territories, 
 and offices of church and state. Cuno, archbishop of Treves, 
 who owed his elevation to the intrigues of Anno, was pre- 
 cipitated down a mountain by the enraged citizens. The dis- 
 sensions that prevailed throughout the empire, and the free- 
 booting expeditions of the Saxon chiefs into the archbishopric 
 of Bremen, induced a fresh insurrection among the northern 
 Slavi, and the heathen party, headed by Plasso, Gottschalk's 
 brother-in-law, extirpated Christianity. The vain attempts 
 of Ordulf, the son of Bernhard, and, after his death, those of 
 his son Magnus, to oppose the inroads of the Slavi, merely 
 added to the misery of the Saxons, and imbittered their 
 hatred of their inactive and licentious emperor. Hamburg 
 and Mecklenburg were destroyed by the pagans, who sacri- 
 ficed John, bishop of Mecklenburg, to their deities, stoned St.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 435 
 
 Ansverus, the abbot of Ratzeburg, and twenty-eight monks, 
 to death, assassinated the noble Gottschalk at Lenzen, at the 
 foot of the altar, and turned his Danish wife out naked. 
 Plasso was murdered by his own followers, A.D. 1066, but 
 Cruco, prince of the Rugii, who succeeded him in his domin- 
 ions, attained to considerable power, being entirely unmo- 
 lested by the Saxons, whose attention was fully occupied by 
 their contests with the emperor. 
 
 In this year important changes took place in the North. 
 Canute the Great, king of Denmark, Norway, and England, 
 had espoused Emma, the princess of Normandy, the widow 
 of Ethelred and mother of Edmund Ironside, the last of the 
 Anglo-Saxon dynasty. She became the mother of Hardi- 
 canute, who, on the death of Canute, A.D. 1036, succeeded 
 to the thrones of Denmark and Norway; Harold Harefoot, 
 the son of Canute by a former marriage, inheriting that of 
 Britain. On the death of these princes, A.D. 1041, a general 
 revolution took place, and Denmark alone remained in the 
 possession of a nephew of Canute the Great, Suen Estridsen, 
 whose daughter, Siritha, wedded Gottschalk, the pious prince 
 of the Obotrites. Harald Haardrade (the Hard), a half- 
 brother of Magnus the Good, was raised to the throne of 
 Norway. The youth of this soldier of fortune had been spent 
 in search of adventure; he had commanded the Waringers 
 at Constantinople, had served with great gallantry against 
 the Turks and the Servii, had refused the hand of Zoe, the 
 Greek empress, for which he had been thrown into prison, 
 whence he escaped, married Elisifa, the daughter of Jaros- 
 law, the Russian czar, and finally returned to the North, to 
 mount the throne of Norway, where his brother Magnus 
 had already made terms with Hardicanute. The throne of 
 England was occupied by Edward the Confessor, a son of 
 Ethelred and of Emma, who was, consequently, half-brother 
 to Hardicanute, whose birth excited in his breast such un- 
 natural hatred toward his mother that he openly accused 
 her of having a bishop for her paramour, and condemned 
 her to undergo the ordeal by fire. She was accordingly com-
 
 436 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 pelled to pass over nine red-hot plowshares. Edward was 
 childless. His brother, Edmund Ironside, had left two sons, 
 who had been sent by Canute into Denmark, whence they 
 had escaped to Hungary, where they had been kindly re- 
 ceived by the king, Salomo. One of these sons, Edward, 
 had several children born to him in Hungary, among whom 
 was Edgar Atheling, the last scion of the ancient Anglo- 
 Saxon dynasty. Edgar was invited by his great-uncle, Ed- 
 ward the Confessor, to England, but proving incapable of 
 governing, Harold, the son of Goodwin, a powerful Anglo- 
 Saxon noble, was raised to the throne, and Edgar, on the 
 death of Edward the Confessor, sought the protection of 
 William, duke of Normandy, his maternal relative. Harald 
 Haardrade, of Norway, meanwhile took advantage of the 
 disturbances in England to attempt the conquest of that 
 country. Toste, the brother of Harold the Saxon, had, 
 through envy of his brother's accession to the crown, joined 
 Harald Haardrade, who landed in England at the head of a 
 powerful army, and a bloody engagement took place between 
 him and the English near Stamford, 1 in which both Harald 
 Haardrade and Toste were slain, and the Norwegian army 
 was almost annihilated. The losses of the English were also 
 so considerable in this engagement that William of Nor- 
 mandy took advantage of their weakness to make a descent 
 upon England under pretext of reinstating Edgar, but, in 
 reality, with the intention of taking possession of the coun- 
 try for himself. 
 
 The independent spirit of the Anglo-Saxon clergy had 
 been long beheld with uneasiness by the pope, who, in the 
 hope of increasing his influence in England, greatly favored 
 the Norman expedition. The emperor also permitted the 
 duke to raise soldiers within his states, and crowds of Ger- 
 mans flocked beneath his standard. He also promised to 
 
 1 The Norwegians, who consisted entirely of foot-soldiers, formed into a pha- 
 lanx on landing from their ships, and with their shields presented an impenetrable 
 front to the attacks of the Saxon horse, who being put to flight, the Norwegians 
 set off in pursuit, and breaking their serried ranks became an easy prey to the 
 English, who turned and cut them to pieces.
 
 THE FRANCONIAb, SALIC EMPERORS 437 
 
 make an inroad into France, in the event of an attack upon 
 Normandy during the absence of her duke, by the king of 
 that country, whom William greatly feared. Thus arose 
 the first treaty between England and Germany against 
 France. William sailed for England at the head of a gal- 
 lant and numerous army, and was opposed by Harold with 
 more courage than prudence. The celebrated battle of Hast- 
 ings, A.D. 1066, in which Harold, after an obstinate strug- 
 gle, was defeated and slain, decided the fate of England. 
 William, with a perfidy equaling that of Harold, consigned 
 the claims of Edgar to oblivion, placed the English crown on 
 his own head, and, after either expelling or assassinating the 
 Anglo-Saxon nobility, replaced them by those among his 
 own followers who had distinguished themselves in the field, 
 among whom were adventurers from almost every nation in 
 Europe. 1 The feudal system, introduced by William the 
 Conqueror and his new nobility, replaced the ancient Anglo- 
 Saxon Germanic commonwealth ; the Anglo-Saxon language 
 also became intermixed with numerous French words, which 
 the Normans had learned from their neighbors. 
 
 The imbecile Edgar did homage in person to the new 
 sovereign. His sister, Margaret, acted with greater spirit, 
 and, with a vast number of followers, emigrated into Scot- 
 land, where she was well received by the king, Malcolm, the 
 son of Duncan, who was murdered by Macbeth. Malcolm 
 made her his queen, and the Saxon tongue and customs in- 
 troduced by her followers were partially adopted by the wild 
 and hardy Scots. Margaret was canonized. Her daughter, 
 Matilda, wedded the son of her enemy, Henry I. of England, 
 and from her descends, in an unbroken line on the female 
 side, the present queen of England, while from Margaret, 
 
 1 Numbers of the Flemings accompanied William of Normandy to England; 
 Gilbert of Ghent, a near relation of Balduin, Graf of Flanders, was endowed with 
 the Barony of Gaunt, so named after him, and of Folkingham ; Walter Bee le 
 Flamand, Lord of Eresby ; Drogo de Severer, Lord of Holderness ; Cheebod le 
 Flamand, created Earl of Chester, who fell in battle and left no issue ; Walcher, 
 Earl of Northumberland, who was murdered by the people, and many others 
 mentioned by Gautrel in his Nouvelles Archiqes Historiques.
 
 438 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 upward, the race of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kings is, by 
 the old chroniclers, carried as far back as Odin. 
 
 While the North was thus convulsed, the imperial court 
 presented a continued scene of petty dissension. The em- 
 peror, still influenced by the prejudices of his youth, was 
 alternately swayed by conflicting passions, but at length, 
 notwithstanding the opposition of Anno and Bertha, recalled 
 Adalbert to court, A.D. 1069. The fidelity and patience of 
 the wretched empress merely contributed to increase the dis- 
 like manifested toward her by her husband, and to strengthen 
 his resolution to free himself from the tie that bound him to 
 her. Siegfried, archbishop of Mayence, offered to assist him 
 in procuring a divorce, on condition of receiving in return 
 the tithes of Thuringia, to which he had laid claim, and 
 which had been hitherto steadily refused by the Thuringians ; 
 and Henry made a public declaration at a diet held at "Worms, 
 of his unconquerable aversion to his unoffending wife, from 
 whom he demanded a separation on the plea of the marriage 
 having remained unconsummated. His plan being frustrated 
 by the arrival of Damiani, the pope's legate, in Germany, 
 whose eloquence even impressed his versatile mind, he at- 
 tempted to gain his end by still more unjustifiable means, 
 by exposing Bertha to the seductions of his courtiers. He 
 caused the most beautiful women and maidens to be carried 
 from their homes, and imprisoned within his palace, while 
 he surrounded the empress with the companions of his profli- 
 gacy, to the handsomest of whom he promised large sums 
 of money if successful in insnaring Bertha, who, neverthe- 
 less, escaped their wiles, and a chronicler of the times re- 
 lates that she and her maidens on one occasion, when the 
 emperor and his wicked companion were listening to their 
 conversation in the dusk of the evening, suddenly attacked 
 and beat them with rods; an incident that seems to have 
 instantly given her a place in Henry's affection, and 
 which is far from improbable, for, despite his deep de- 
 pravity, his heart was made of far too soft materials not 
 to be eventually touched by her invincible fidelity. Bertha
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 439 
 
 bore him several children, and shared his subsequent mis- 
 fortunes. 
 
 Henry belonged to that class of men whom sanguine, 
 lively, generous dispositions render truly amiable, when un- 
 influenced" by misguided passion, but who, unfitted by nat- 
 ure, are ever unsuccessful when required to govern them- 
 selves or others. The actions of such men, dependent upon 
 the impulse or caprice of the moment, must necessarily be 
 indifferently good or bad. Impatient of calm thought, or 
 cool judgment, their impetuous nature renders them incapa- 
 ble of following the dictates of their reason or of their con- 
 science. Dispositions of this kind are rarely understood, and 
 are usually attributed to want of character, and yet those 
 who at ~ne moment condemn them for the crimes induced 
 by the abuse of their weaknesses, are, in the next, struck 
 with admiration at traits of the most extraordinary mag- 
 nanimity, if not of real heroism; royal qualities, indeed, 
 but still unfit for the throne, where justice and equanimity 
 should reign, and where the sudden change in the sovereign 
 from good to bad, and vice versa, is more to be feared than 
 if he remained true to his vices. That the character of 
 Henry IV. was a compound of sensuality, insolence, levity, 
 choler, malice, revenge, treachery, and mean cowardice, 
 strangely intermingled with real piety, generosity, the most 
 devoted affection, the noblest sympathy, bold resolve, and 
 heroic bravery, may be clearly traced, when the insolence 
 of fortune, total abandonment in misfortune, the wicked- 
 ness or the success of his enemies, roused his evil passions, 
 or when, swayed by remorse for his own crimes, by the con- 
 sciousness of possessing nobler and better qualities, by com- 
 passion for the sufferings of his enemies, or of those whom 
 he had ill-treated, and by the fidelity of his friends, he sud- 
 denly inclined to virtue. 
 
 The dangerous and extreme severity with which he treated 
 the dukes appears to have arisen more from his youthful pro- 
 pensity, the love of displaying his power, than from the les- 
 sons of Adalbert, or his father's example; and this was
 
 440 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 evidently strengthened by a desire of avenging his abduc- 
 tion from Kaiserswerth and his imprisonment at Tribur, 
 which, as a monarch, and in the consciousness of his guilt, 
 he ought to have consigned to oblivion. Urged by his 
 hatred of the Saxons, he treated the duke Magnus and the 
 Margraves, as well as the bishops who adhered to An no's 
 party, with the greatest scorn, imposed heavy taxes on the 
 people, encouraged the Wendi in their attacks upon the coun- 
 try, as thereby doing him service, entered into a secret alli- 
 ance with the Danes under pretense of securing himself 
 against an inroad of the Saxons, and continually threatened 
 to render Thuringia dependent on the archbishopric of May- 
 ence. The Saxons, impatient of being thus treated like a 
 conquered nation, rested their hopes upon Otto of Nordheim, 
 duke of Bavaria, who was suddenly accused, by a man named 
 Egino, of having hired him to assassinate Henry, whose 
 knavery at that time was so well known as to induce a sus- 
 picion of his having himself fabricated the plot. The mat- 
 ter was adjudged to be decided by single combat, but 
 Otto, justly fearing treachery, absented himself, upon which 
 Henry declared him guilty, placed him out of the ban of the 
 empire, and taking possession of his dukedom of Bavaria, 
 gave it in fee to the "Welf . This Welf, who had been edu- 
 cated in Italy, and was a master in Italian wiles, was the 
 most ignoble of the princes of those times, and proved as 
 great a scandal to Henry's choice as he was ungrateful to 
 him for his favors. "With genuine cowardice, ever joining 
 the stronger party, he had the meanness to send back his 
 bride, the daughter of Otto, in disgrace to her father, who 
 went into Saxony, and confederating with Magnus, raised 
 a rebellion. Both were, however, under pretext of arrang- 
 ing terms of peace, seized, and Magnus was thrown intc. 
 prison. Otto was allowed to remain at liberty by the em- 
 peror, either from a feeling of the injustice with which he 
 had treated him or from a political motive. 
 
 The death of Adalbert, which, fortunately for the empire, 
 took place during this year, once more threw the reins of
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 441 
 
 government for a short period into the hands of Anno. 
 Henry, emboldened by his late success, now attempted to 
 reduce the rest of the dukes to submission. His first attack 
 was made upon the weakest, Berthold, whom he deprived 
 of the dukedom of Carinthia, hi order to bestow it upon 
 Ludolf, the son of the former duke. Rudolf of Swabia 
 was protected from a similar fate by his superior power, 
 and by his being doubly and closely connected with the 
 emperor by his marriage with Matilda, after whose death 
 he had espoused the sister of Bertha ; Agnes, who had pur- 
 posely quitted Italy for Germany, was enabled to bring 
 about a reconciliation between the contending relations. 
 
 Great disturbances also broke out in Flanders. The 
 count, Balduin VI., died in 1071, leaving his widow, 
 Richilda, with two infant sons, Arnulf and Balduin. 
 Richilda governed in the name of the former, but, ren- 
 dering herself hated by her tyranny, she was abandoned 
 by her subjects, who transferred their allegiance to Robert 
 the Friscian, her husband's brother. Richilda now implored 
 the aid of her feudal liege, Philip I. of France, who accord- 
 ingly entered Flanders at the head of a numerous army, but 
 was completely routed at Castel (Cassel) by Robert, who 
 was backed by the whole of the German population. Ri- 
 childa was taken prisoner, and her unfortunate son was put 
 to death. Robert, while too hotly pursuing the retreating 
 French, falling into their hands, Gottfried, bishop of Paris, 
 intervened between the contending parties, and peace was 
 concluded. Robert was restored to liberty, and received the 
 ducal crown of Flanders. Richilda was also set at liberty, 
 and Hennegau was bestowed upon her second son, Balduin, 
 A.D. 1072. A second attempt on her part to regain posses- 
 sion of Flanders proved abortive, and her party suffered a 
 bloody defeat at Brogneroy. 
 
 Henry, meanwhile, excited the hatred of the Saxons by 
 his insolence and tyranny. The country was kept in awe 
 by the strongly fortified Harzburg, and by numerous minor 
 fortresses, garrisoned with Franks and Swabians, who were
 
 442 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 supported by the pillage of the neighboring villages. A syn- 
 od, held by the emperor at Erfurt, in which he imposed the 
 tithes demanded by the archbishop of Mayence on Thuringia, 
 effectually imbittered the minds of the Saxon bishops against 
 him, and, A.D. 1073, a conspiracy, planned by Otto of Nord- 
 heim, was entered into by the Saxons. The chiefs in this 
 conspiracy were Graf Hermann, the brother of the captive 
 Duke Magnus, Udo von Stade, Margrave of Brandenburg, 
 Egbert, Margrave of Meissen, and Dedo, Margrave of the 
 Lausitz, the two sons of the Ekbert who had formerly seized 
 the person of the monarch, Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, 
 the son of Louis the Bearded, Frederick, the Pfalzgraf of 
 Saxony, the Grafs of Holstein, "Waldeck, Suplinburg, and 
 numerous others. Among the spiritual lords were, Wezilo, 
 of Magdeburg, Bucco, of Halberstadt, whose pursuits were 
 rather those of a warrior than of a bishop, Anno's nephew 
 and Henry's most violent opponent, and Benno of Meissen, 
 a peaceful missionary, a planter of the fruit-tree and the 
 vine, 1 besides all the other Saxon bishops, with the exception 
 of those of Bremen, Zeiz, and Osnabruck, who sided with 
 the emperor, and were consequently expelled from the coun- 
 try. Adela, the wife of the Margrave Dedo, an ambitious 
 and rancorous woman, was also ceaseless in her endeavors 
 to incite the Saxons, whose complaints against their emperor, 
 although just in the outset, were purposely exaggerated. 
 
 The object of the conspiracy of the princes, instead of be- 
 ing the relief of the people, merely aimed at securing their 
 own independence; a project that was, however, defeated by 
 the reciprocal jealousy between the rulers of Northern and 
 Southern Germany. The Saxon league at first laid its com- 
 plaints before Henry at Goslar, in the form of a petition for 
 redress, and the noble-spirited Otto of Nordheim offered to 
 be imprisoned in the place of his brother Magnus, on condi- 
 tion of his being restored to his dukedom. The deputation, 
 
 1 He first introduced the vine into Thuringia. He was also a patron of 
 music, and the author of the melody, "Ein Kindelein so lobelich. " See Hose's 
 Palceologw.
 
 THE FRANCON1AN, SALIC EMPERORS 443 
 
 after being allowed to remain during a whole day in the 
 anteroom, was at length scornfully dismissed by Henry. 
 The Saxons, provoked to violence by this conduct, were still 
 more excited by Otto of Nordheim, who loudly called upon 
 them to revenge the insult, and suddenly assembling to the 
 number of sixty thousand, they besieged the emperor in the 
 Harzburg. Overcome by fear, Henry sought safety by secret 
 flight, in which he was assisted by Berthold of Zahringen, 
 who accidentally happened to be present. The Harzburg 
 was taken by the Saxons, who, nevertheless, did not vent- 
 ure to destroy it; several other forts also fell into their 
 hands; the rest were gallantly defended by the imperial 
 garrisons. Magnus was set at liberty in exchange for sev- 
 enty Swabians, who were captured in a fort by his brother 
 Hermann ; a circumstance that gave rise to the Saxon prov- 
 erb, "One Saxon is worth seventy Swabians." 
 
 Henry fled to Hersfield, where, finding the Upper Ger- 
 mans, whom he had shortly before summoned for the pur- 
 pose of invading Poland, assembled, he resolved to make 
 head with them against the Saxons, and called a meeting 
 at Gerstungen, in which, although the Upper German 
 princes declared their unwillingness to enter into a con- 
 test with Saxony, the Saxon party attempted to work upon 
 the passions of Rudolf of Swabia, by means of a person 
 named Regingar, whom they caused to make the false as- 
 sertion of his having been hired by the emperor to assassin- 
 ate him. Ulric of Cosheim, Henry's true and valiant ad- 
 herent, challenged the accuser to single combat, which never 
 took place, Regingar being deprived of his senses before the 
 day appointed for the trial. The princes, meanwhile, with- 
 drew their allegiance from Henry, who, seeing himself uni 
 yersally abandoned, took refuge in Worms, where the brave 
 citizens, jealous of their new privileges, had, at that period, 
 just followed the example of their Cologne neighbors, by ex- 
 pelling from their city Adalbero, their bishop, a man of inor- 
 dinate corpulence. The emperor was received with every 
 demonstration of delight, the cities, as well as the free peas-
 
 444 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 antry, supporting him against the pretensions of the princes 
 and minor nobility ; and had Henry understood how to make 
 use of the means thus voluntarily put into his power, the vic- 
 tory would have easily been his : but ignorant of the strength 
 of his new adherents, and influenced by an undue fear of that 
 of the dukes, his cowardly behavior ere long cooled the zeal of 
 the citizens. He again suddenly appeared in the assembly 
 of the Upper German princes at Oppenheim, and throwing 
 himself at their feet, at length drew from them a lukewarm 
 promise of assistance against the Saxons. His troops, how- 
 ever, refusing to attack the enemy on the Werra, he was 
 compelled to sign a treaty of peace at Goslar, in which he 
 granted all the demands of the Saxons. The tithes were 
 abolished; every fortress, even that of the Harz, which 
 Henry vainly entreated might be spared, was razed to the 
 ground. The Saxons had even the barbarity to drag the 
 remains of a brother and of a son of the emperor from 
 the grave, in order to bestow upon them every mark of 
 indignity, A.D. 1073; an act of sacrilege so revolting to the 
 feelings of the times that every prince of the empire, those 
 of the Rhine country, and of Upper Germany, nay, even 
 the Bohemians, joined in a crusade against them, and Henry 
 quickly found himself at the head of an immense army. The 
 contempt with which the Saxons treated their brother nations, 
 and the petty hatred that had ever subsisted between the Up- 
 per and Lower Germans, greatly contributed to the universal 
 exasperation. The Saxons, fearing the event, offered to yield 
 to any terms, even to the reconstruction of the Harzburg ; but 
 Henry, inspirited by revenge, had sworn their ruin, and sud- 
 denly attacked them near Langensalza, on the Unstrutt. A 
 bloody battle ensued, which was decided by the valor of the 
 Swabians, under Rudolf. The Saxon nobles turned their 
 horses and fled; the infantry, deprived of every means of 
 escape, were cut down by thousands, and thus, while the 
 Saxon peasants alone suffered, numbers of the nobility in 
 the imperial army fell on this occasion ; among others, Ernst 
 of Babenberg, Margrave of Austria. The ancient privilege
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 445 
 
 of the Swabians to head the imperial army was again con- 
 firmed to them on the field of battle. 
 
 Rudolf, Welf, and Berthold, after this, fearing the rising 
 power of the emperor, withdrew; but notwithstanding the 
 consequent diminution of his forces, Henry succeeded in re- 
 ducing the Saxons (who had become a prey to internal dis- 
 sension, the peasantry being unable to forget the late das- 
 tardly conduct of the nobility, and who were, moreover, 
 threatened by the Danes and Wends) to submission, A.D. 
 1076. They laid down their arms at Spira, in Thuringia; 
 all the princes gave themselves up, and were thrown into 
 prison, with the exception of Otto of Nordheim, who, al- 
 though Henry's bitterest enemy, had ever been viewed by 
 him with more admiration than dislike. He was nominated 
 duke of Saxony. 
 
 CXLIII. Gregory the Seventh 
 
 ALEXANDER II. died, A.D. 1073, and Hildebrand, now 
 advanced in years, deemed it necessary, for the success of 
 his plans, to place the tiara on his own brows, under the 
 name of Gregory VII. The Saxon war favored his projects. 
 At first he sought to gain Henry's friendship, and Agnes 
 offered to use her influence in his favor, but he quickly per- 
 ceived how little dependence could be placed on the caprices of 
 that monarch, and resolved to act in future for himself alone. 
 
 This pope evinced the most extraordinary degree of activ- 
 ity. Although unsuccessful in Germany, he rendered the 
 papal authority respected throughout Spain, France, and 
 Hungary. He then proceeded to carry out his favorite 
 projects for the reformation of the church, by punishing 
 simony, encouraging morality, and depriving the laity of 
 the right of interference in spiritual matters. For this pur- 
 pose he published two edicts, which will ever be memorable 
 on account of their influence not only on the ensuing cent- 
 ury, but also on our own times. 
 
 His next step was to decree the celibacy of all the clergy. 
 Up to this period, A.D. 1074, the monks alone had practiced
 
 446 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 celibacy, the bishops and priests having wives and children. 
 Piety, and the renunciation of worldly joys, had arrived at 
 such a pitch of enthusiasm that chastity seemed to have be- 
 come a necessary quality in a priest, more especially since 
 the introduction of the worship of the Madonna, whose sup- 
 posed eternal virginity presented an idea of purity and sanc- 
 tity which swayed Christian minds the more powerfully on 
 account of the contrast it presented to the tenets of the 
 Mahometan religion, founded alone on license and sensual 
 gratification. The sufferings of Christ and those of the mar- 
 tyrs were eternally cited as proofs that the highest aim of 
 the Christian was to suffer and to practice self-denial; the 
 priests were, consequently, expected to set the first and high- 
 est example. They were (during their earthly pilgrimage) 
 to personate the saints and the holy angels. By this means 
 Gregory also hoped to strengthen the unity of the church. 
 As long as the bishops were allowed to marry, their families 
 took hereditary possession of the bishoprics, and sought, like 
 the nobility, to render themselves alike independent of both 
 pope and emperor. Celibacy at once controlled the ambition 
 of the clergy, and dissolving every tie between them, their 
 country, and their kindred, rendered them the servants of 
 the pope and of the church, and formed them into a class 
 distinct from the rest of mankind ; but Gregory falsely reck- 
 oned when founding this great institution. He expected too 
 much from human nature. Celibacy is at variance with laws 
 both human and divine, and nature vindicated herself by 
 broken vows, hypocrisy, and dark and secret crimes. The 
 priests, particularly those in Germany, strongly opposed this 
 decree, and when Siegfried of Mayence proposed the meas- 
 ure in an assembly of the German bishops at Erfurt, it was 
 opposed with such violence that his life was in danger. Alt- 
 mann, bishop of Passau, Gregory's most zealous partisan, 
 was expelled by his own chapter. ' Gregory upon this raised 
 
 1 Gregory rewarded him by placing his own miter on his head at Rome. 
 Altmann built the monastery of Gottweich, afterward celebrated for the erudi- 
 tion of the monks, on a lofty rock, as a sign that God is higher than all the 
 potentates of earth.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 447 
 
 a popular feeling against the uxorious clergy, by placing 
 them under excommunication, and by forbidding the people 
 to attend mass. His policy proved successful. It was in 
 vain that Otto, bishop of Constance, and Ulrich, of Ratis- 
 bon, justified the marriage of the clergy, by the citation of 
 passages from the Epistles of St. Paul, and from other parts 
 of the Bible ; it was in vain that they appealed to the laws 
 of nature ; the priest, in the opinion of the people, was to be 
 as free from earthly taint as an angel of light ; and natural 
 affection was denounced by them as a culpable and sensual 
 weakness. The German clergy were, before long, compelled 
 to obey the decree of their superior. 
 
 A second decree of equal importance followed. The pope 
 forbade the election of the bishops by the laity, and by thus 
 rendering the possession of benefices no longer dependent on 
 the caprice of the monarch and his courtiers, effectually pre- 
 vented simony. This decree further declared the church in- 
 dependent of the state, and the extensive lands, which, up 
 to this period, had been held as feofs of the crown through 
 the monarch's right of election, the property of the church. 
 The clergy alone were invested with the power of electing 
 the bishops, who were confirmed by the pope, the temporal 
 sovereign being without a voice in the matter. 
 
 Gregory also confirmed without delay the interdiction for- 
 merly pronounced against the doctrines of Rantram and of 
 Berengar of Tours, and laid down as an eternal truth, that 
 the body and blood of Christ were really present in the sacra- 
 mental bread and wine, and that the priest alone in fact, 
 every priest indifferently, whether personally worthy or un- 
 worthy was enabled, merely by virtue of his office, to trans- 
 form the host into the real body of the Saviour (transubstan- 
 tiatio). Moreover, in order to place the church, now power- 
 ful and independent, under one head, Gregory bestowed upon 
 himself, and all future popes, unlimited authority over the 
 councils, and declared every assembly of the clergy invalid 
 unless convoked by the pope. Like Charlemagne, who, 
 when he had firmly rooted his power, governed his exten-
 
 448 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 sive territory by means of Sendgrafs, Gregory dispatched his 
 legates, who, acting in his name, were infallible like him, 
 to the various European courts. He declared, "the pope is 
 through God and instead of God on earth, therefore all pow- 
 ers, whether temporal or spiritual, are subject to him. The 
 pope is the sun, the emperor the moon that shines with bor- 
 rowed light." 
 
 The Saxons had not failed to lay their complaints against 
 their sovereign before the pope, and Henry, by thoughtlessly 
 complaining to him of his rebellious subjects, gave him an 
 opportunity of setting himself up as umpire. Gregory, well 
 aware of the weak nature of the emperor and of his own 
 power, treated him without reserve, and openly accusing 
 him of simony, haughtily commanded him to come in per- 
 son to Rome, and excommunicated those among the bishops 
 who had been guilty of a similar crime. Henry, unacquainted 
 with Gregory's character, took the matter lightly, and held 
 a convocation of the German bishops at Worms, A.D. 1076, 
 by which Gregory was deposed. This called forth a still 
 more decisive step on the part of the bold pontiff, who placed 
 the emperor under an interdict, released his subjects from 
 their oath of allegiance, and declared him deprived of his 
 dignity. Henry at first treated the acts of the proud monk 
 with scorn, but was quickly struck with terror on perceiving 
 their instantaneous effect. With the exception of the inhab- 
 itants of the cities, whose commercial habits, and the free 
 peasantry, whose ancient Germanic constitution, had ever 
 been opposed to papacy, Henry was deserted to a man by 
 his subjects, who avoided him as one infected with the 
 plague. The Saxons, led by Otto of Nordheim, instantly 
 flew to arms. The foreign garrisons were driven out of the 
 country. Several of the imprisoned princes escaped. The 
 remainder, after a touching appeal from Henry for peace 
 and aid, were restored to liberty : but his evil hour had at 
 length arrived; all his enemies, even Welf, who owed him 
 such a debt of gratitude, found an excuse for their treason, 
 their revenge, or their rapacity, in the papal interdict, and
 
 THE FRAXCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 449 
 
 Henry, abandoned by all, was, notwithstanding his earnest 
 entreaties, declared, in a diet held at Oppenheim, deprived 
 of his dignity, until he had freed himself from the interdict, 
 and the pope was invited to visit Augsburg during the fol- 
 lowing year, in order to settle the affairs of Germany. The 
 election of Rudolf in Henry's stead was next attempted, and 
 in ordei to render it impossible for the unfortunate emperor 
 to free himself from the interdict, he was assigned a close 
 residence at Spires, and deprived of any mode of communi- 
 cation with Italy. In this desperate situation he found that 
 his only chance of safety lay in being beforehand with the 
 rebellious princes, by escaping to Italy, and imploring the 
 pope at any price to raise the interdict; and he accordingly 
 secretly set off with that intent, accompanied by Bertha, his 
 infant son, and a solitary knight, who, it is not known upon 
 what grounds, is said by the Swabian chronicler, Crusius, 
 to have been Frederick of Buren, the ancestor of the Hohen- 
 staufen family. The winter of this year, A.D. 1076, hap- 
 pened to be colder than had been known within the memory 
 of man, and the Rhine remained frozen over from St. Mar- 
 tin's day until the April of 1077. It was in this dreadful 
 weather, about Christmas time, that the imperial pilgrims, 
 each moment dreading discovery from Rudolf's spies, crossed 
 the pathless Alps, and reached Vevey on the Lake of Geneva 
 in safety. Here they were forcibly detained by Bertha's 
 mother and by her brother Amadeus, Graf of Savoy, from 
 whom they purchased a free passage by the cession of five 
 Burgundian bishoprics. They crossed the St. Bernard dur- 
 ing the depth of winter, and Bertha, whom neither danger 
 nor distress could separate from her husband, was drawn 
 over the ice seated on an ox-hide, while the most Christian 
 emperor climbed like a chamois hunter along the rocky, dan- 
 gerous paths. 
 
 On entering Lombardy he was unexpectedly met by num- 
 bers of the Italian princes and bishops, by whom he was def- 
 erentially greeted as emperor. Those among the Italians 
 who had at that time fallen under the papal interdict, par-
 
 450 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 ticularly the bishops of Milan and Ravenna, joined Henry, 
 and exhorted him to place himself at their head for the pur- 
 pose of dethroning the pope; but, still influenced by his awe 
 of the German princes, the dispirited emperor refused, and 
 resolved to remain faithful to his original intention of implor- 
 ing Gregory's pardon. The pope, who happened at this mo- 
 ment to be on his way to Augsburg, was not a little alarmed 
 on receiving the news of Henry's arrival in Italy, and for 
 the better security of his person threw himself into the fort- 
 ress of Canossa, whose gates were opened to him by his ally, 
 the Countess Matilda, who shortly before had become a widow. 
 Gottfried the Hunchback, Henry's most faithful adherent, 
 was secretly assassinated, 1 and Gregory, on account of his 
 intimacy with Matilda, who bestowed her wealth on the 
 church, was accused by his enemies of the crime. The ac- 
 cusation of an improper intercourse between him and Matilda 
 is, there is no doubt, false; Gregory's natural inclinations 
 rendered him no admirer of the sex, nor could any tempta- 
 tion have induced him to cast the slightest stain on his sacred 
 character. Superstitious zeal and piety bound Matilda to his 
 cause, and he fully appreciated the value of so powerful an 
 adherent. 
 
 Henry now entreated Matilda to intercede in his behalf, 
 and Gregory, at first surprised at his penitence when backed 
 by a body of armed partisans, quickly understood his posi- 
 tion, and assumed the greatest severity, commanding him 
 to come alone and as a penitent to Canossa. Henry obeyed, 
 and was allowed to enter the castle. The gates closed be- 
 hind him, and for three days and three nights he remained 
 bareheaded and barefoot, without food, exposed in a woolen 
 garment to the severe cold, between the double walls of the 
 fort, until the pope, moved by the earnest supplications of 
 those around him, especially by those of Matilda, called him 
 into his presence, and released him from the interdict, on 
 
 1 At Antwerp, A.D. 1076. The young Count Dietrich of Holland has been 
 accused of this murder, because, on the death of Gottfried, he took possession 
 of Holland, of which his uncle had been deprived.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 451 
 
 condition of his leaving to him the final settlement of affairs 
 in Germany, and of not resuming the title of emperor until 
 permission was granted so to do. A solemn mass was then 
 performed, and Gregory, taking the holy wafer into his 
 hands, broke it in half, saying, "If the crimes of which you 
 accused me at Worms be true, may the host that I now eat 
 cause me instantly to die." He then swallowed it, and turn- 
 ing to the emperor, said, "Now eat the other half, and make 
 a similar protestation of your innocence of the charges I 
 make against you." Henry refused, and after undergoing 
 every species of humiliation was dismissed by the triumphant 
 pope. 
 
 The Italians, indignant at his weak and cowardly con- 
 duct, now openly deserted him. Unable to endure their 
 scorn, he resolved to break the oath he had just taken, and 
 shut up Gregory so closely in the castle of Canossa as effect- 
 ually to put a stop to his further progress to Augsburg or his 
 return to Rome; at the same time the interdicted bishops 1 
 and Henry's partisans among the German laity, among 
 whom Eberhard, Graf of Nellenburg, may be chiefly distin- 
 guished, flocked beneath his standard. 
 
 CXLIV. The Papal Kings 
 
 THE German princes, meanwhile, vainly awaited the 
 arrival of the pope. At length came the news of Henry's 
 unexpected re-establishment, and Rudolf, yielding at once 
 to the press of circumstances, and to his ambition, threw off 
 his allegiance, and caused himself to be proclaimed emperor 
 at Mayence, where he was crowned by the archbishop. The 
 citizens of Mayence, Henry's partisans, viewed the ceremony 
 for some time in enforced silence, but a quarrel breaking out 
 during the tournament that followed, a general rise took 
 
 1 Among them, Benno of Osnabruck particularly distinguished himself as 
 Henry's most faithful friend and counselor. He had also done penance at 
 Canossa, but on a different occasion. Vide Moser's History of Osnabruck. 
 Another Benno, bishop of Meissen, favored the papal party.
 
 452 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 place, and, after a desperate affray between them and the 
 Swabian troops, Rudolf was compelled to quit the city; he 
 then proceeded to Worms, with the intention of securing 
 himself within the fort, but found the city gates closed 
 against him. This was the prelude to a general struggle 
 throughout Germany between his party and that of Henry, 
 which was rendered the more desperate by the refusal of the 
 interdicted bishops of Henry's party to cede their bishoprics 
 to the bishops who had been nominated to supersede them by- 
 Gregory. Henry found numerous adherents in the moun- 
 tains, and although "Welf had seized the passes, and laid the 
 country of the Grisons, where the emperor's party was up- 
 held by Dietmar, bishop of Chur, waste, Sieghart, the pa- 
 triarch of Aglar (Aquileia), opened Carniola to him; Mar- 
 quardt, the son of the lately expelled duke, Adalbero, drove 
 Berthold of Zahringen out of Carinthia. Henry also found 
 an ally in Wratislaw of Bohemia, and received great acces- 
 sions to his party from Welf's numerous enemies among 
 the Bavarian nobility. On reaching Ulm, he. held a public 
 court, and put Rudolf and his adherents out of the ban of 
 the empire. 
 
 The whole of Germany was divided into two parties, that 
 of the emperor and that of St. Peter, which gave rise to the 
 great division in the German nation which, at a later period, 
 attained such melancholy celebrity as the strife between the 
 Welfs and the "Waiblinger, or Guelphs and Ghibellines. 
 Swabia, where the people fluctuated between the duke and 
 the emperor, was in uproar. The nobility and the bishops 
 favored both sides ; the cities and free cantons all pronounced 
 in favor of the emperor. In Augsburg, Mathias Corsang 
 preached against, and Geroch in favor of, the pope; the lat- 
 ter was driven by the citizens out of the town. "Wurzburg 
 made a desperate defense against Rudolf, and twelve thou- 
 sand peasants from the cantons swelled the ranks of the im- 
 perial army. Franconia, A.D. 1078, was laid waste, and be- 
 came the seat of war. A pitched battle was fought between 
 the contending parties near Melrichstadt, in which the vie-
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 453 
 
 tory remained undecided, one wing of the imperial army, 
 commanded by Henry, routing the enemy, while the same 
 part was performed on the other side by Rudolf's Saxon 
 adherents, headed by Otto of Nordheim. Siegfried of May- 
 en ce, the wicked bishop of Worms, and the papal legate, fell 
 into Henry's hands ; Wezilo of Magdeburg was killed dur- 
 ing his flight. The brave Eberhard of Nellenburg and the 
 Swabian peasants, were, on the other hand, cut to pieces by 
 the Saxons ; a dreadful fate awaited every peasant who was 
 taken prisoner by the nobles, who had resolved, at whatever 
 price, to crush these dangerous defenders of liberty. 
 
 For a while either party rested. Berthold of Zahringen 
 died of grief, A.D. 1078, for the losses he had suffered in this 
 battle, into which he had been driven against his will. His 
 son, Berthold, favored Rudolf, whose daughter, Agnes, he 
 married. Rudolf was, nevertheless, superseded in the duke- 
 dom of Swabia by Frederick of Hohenstaufen, a Swabian 
 noble, who had given striking proofs of fidelity to the em- 
 peror, and by whom he was further raised by the gift of 
 his daughter Agnes in marriage. Frederick's name was von 
 Biiren, until the building of the castle of Staufen (on which 
 the whole glory of the German empire was destined to rest), 
 at the outlet of the Swabian Alp. 
 
 Gregory, greatly disconcerted by this turn in affairs, 
 temporized, in order to see on which side victory would de- 
 clare herself. The Saxon, irritated by this conduct, and, 
 moreover, incited by Gebhard, archbishop of Salzburg, who 
 had been deposed by Henry, addressed three letters to him, 
 which received the nickname of "the cock-crowing," being 
 intended, like the voice of St. Peter's cock, to move his suc- 
 cessor to remorse. A whole year passed in fruitless negotia- 
 tions. In the winter of 1080, Henry again attacked Rudolf, 
 and a second engagement took place near Fladenheim in 
 Thuringia, in which the invincible Otto of Nordheim again 
 proved victorious. This success decided Gregory in Rudolf's 
 favor, and he not only confirmed him in the title he had 
 usurped, but, as the genuine crown jewels of Charlemagne,
 
 454 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 and of Otto the Great, were in Henry's possession, also pre- 
 sented him with a new diadem, for which he was to hold 
 the empire as a papal fief : the inscription it bore ran thus, 
 "Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rudolpho." He then 
 again solemnly excommunicated Henry, who, on the other 
 hand, convoked a German concilium at Brixen, by which 
 Gregory was for a second time deposed, and the archbishop 
 of Ravenna was nominated in his stead, as Pope Clement 
 III., A.D. 1080. 
 
 During the same year, Henry invaded Saxony, burned 
 Erfurt, and a third engagement took place near Grona on 
 the Elster, in the great plain lying between Merseburg and 
 Leipzig, famous for the victory gained by Henry the Fowler 
 over the Hungarians, and, at a later period, the scene of 
 many a hard-fought battle. Otto of Nordheim was again 
 victorious ; Rudolf was mortally wounded, and in the strug- 
 gle was deprived of his right hand by Gottfried, a cousin of 
 Gottfried the Hunchback, whom he succeeded in the duke- 
 dom of Lower Lothringia; he afterward acquired great 
 celebrity under the name of Bouillon his maternal inheri- 
 tance. When dying, Rudolf exclaimed as he looked at his 
 mutilated limb, "This is the hand by which I swore alle- 
 giance to Henry." He was buried with regal honors at 
 Merseburg. On the capture of this city shortly after by 
 Henry, he was advised to destroy his tomb, to which he 
 replied, ' ' Would to God that all my enemies were as splen- 
 didly entombed. ' ' 
 
 The death of Rudolf left his party without a leader, and 
 rendered their late victory useless. Henry gained daily fresh 
 adherents, and was ere long enabled to leave the conduct of 
 the war in Germany to Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and to 
 visit Italy in person, for the purpose of humbling his old an- 
 tagonist, Gregory. He quickly crossed the Alps, overthrew 
 Matilda's party near Parma, and pushed on to Rome, to 
 which he laid siege for three years without success; at 
 length, Wiprecht von Groitsch, a Saxon knight, mounted 
 the walls, and took the city by storm, A.D. 1083. Gregory,
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 455 
 
 who had shut himself within the castle of St. Angelo, se- 
 cretly escaped to Salerno, where he was joyfully received by 
 the Normans. Henry, meanwhile, placed Clement III. in 
 the papal chair, and, after being solemnly crowned emperor, 
 returned to Germany. Gregory instantly returned to Rome 
 at the head of the wild Normans, who took the city, and. 
 deaf to his remonstrances, began the work of pillage. The 
 Romans, rendered desperate, collected in vast multitudes, 
 drove the enemy beyond the walls, and compelled the pope 
 again to seek shelter in Salerno, where he died, A.D. 1085. 
 His last words were worthy of his life: "Because I have 
 loved justice," exclaimed he, "and punished injustice, I die 
 an exile!" 
 
 In Germany the Saxons had proclaimed Hermann of 
 Luxemburg their king, at Eisleben. He received the nick- 
 name of "the garlic king," on account of the quantity of 
 garlic that grew around Eisleben. He was a man of mean 
 intellect, and completely subservient to Welf, Berthold von 
 Zahringen, and Leopold of Austria. Otto von Nordheim 
 was killed by a fall from his horse. Welf was beaten by 
 Frederick of Swabia at Hochstadt, and Leopold of Austria 
 and Altmann, bishop of Passau, by "Wratislaw of Bohemia 
 at Mauerberg. The free peasantry of Friesland, headed by 
 the archbishop of Bremen, fought on Henry's side; they 
 were put to the rout and cut to pieces by the Saxon Count 
 von Mansfeld, and the nobles again betrayed the hatred they 
 bore them by leaving their dead bodies unburied on the field. 
 
 In 1085, the emperor returned from his Italian expedition, 
 and, after several fruitless attempts at negotiation, again in- 
 vaded Saxony, and rapidly reduced his opponents, the newly 
 elected king, Hermann, Hart wig, the new archbishop of 
 Magdeburg, and his oldest and bitterest enemy, Bucco, to 
 submission. The two latter fled into Denmark, and, on 
 Henry's departure from Saxony, instantly returned thither 
 to plot anew against him. In 1086, Hermann marched upon 
 "Wurzbuig, in the design of uniting his forces with those of 
 "Welf in Upper Saxony, but being beaten at Pleichfeld by
 
 456 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 the emperor, he resigned his crown, A.D. 1087, from a con- 
 viction of the inutility of opposition. He was despised even 
 by his own menials. He was shortly afterward accidentally 
 killed by a woman, when storming his own castle by night, 
 in order to test the vigilance of his men. 
 
 The rebellious Saxons, who were still headed by Ekbert 
 von Meissen, and by Bucco, bishop of Halberstadt, pro- 
 claimed the former king. After the death of the brave Otto 
 von Nbrdheim, Ekbert, the powerful governor of the Sla- 
 vian frontier, the descendant of the house of Wettin whose 
 wealth and power were founded on rapine and oppression, 
 was Henry's most dangerous opponent; nor did he present 
 a solitary instance of the boundless ambition of the Slavian 
 Markgrafs, whose absolute sovereignty over their enslaved 
 subjects caused them insolently to grasp at the imperial 
 crown. But his attempt proved vain; "Welf, actuated by 
 jealousy, abandoned him in order to win for himself a king- 
 dom in the south of Italy. He married his youthful son to 
 the aged Countess Matilda, in the hope of annexing her pos- 
 sessions in Lornbardy to Bavaria. On the death of Gregory, 
 his party elected Victor III , and, on his death, Urban II., 
 pope. Clement III. was expelled; Gregory's plans were 
 carried out; and the emperor was continually excommu- 
 nicated. Henry suffered a fresh defeat at the castle of 
 Gleichen in Thuringia, not vrithstanding which fortune fa 
 vored him. Bucco was surprised and assassinated by the 
 citizens of Goslar, and Ekbert was killed by the servants of 
 the Princess Matilda (Henry's sister, the abbess of Quedlin- 
 berg, a woman of great power and influence), who discov- 
 ered him in a mill, A.D. 1088. Berthold, the son of Rudolf, 
 also died, and "Welf, discontented with the Countess Matilda, 
 who had bestowed her rich possessions on the pope, entreat- 
 ing for peace, the empire once more tasted its blessings, A.D. 
 1093. The contending parties retained their former posses- 
 sions, "Welf remaining duke of Bavaria, Magnus, duke of 
 Saxony, Frederick von Staufen, duke of Swabia, Berthold 
 von Zahringen, duke of Upper Aleniannia, or Switzerland,
 
 THE FBANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 457 
 
 Ludolf, duke of Carinthia. Gottfried de Bouillon, duke of 
 Lower Lothringia, while the Margrave Udo retained Bran- 
 denhurg, the Margrave Leopold, Austria, and the Land- 
 grave Louis, Thuringia. Hermann, a nephew of Berthold 
 von Zahringen, was nominated to the Margraviate of Baden, 
 and the important march of Meissen was bestowed upon the 
 gallant Wiprecht von Groitsch, who was, moreover, con- 
 firmed in the possession of the Lausitz, which he had seized 
 with the aid of Bohemia. "Wratislaw of Bohemia was raised 
 to the dignity of king, and his brother Conrad was created 
 Margrave of Moravia. 
 
 Boleslaw of Poland also took the title of king, and made 
 the important acquisition of Pomerania. Cruco, prince of 
 the Rugii, after besieging Buthue (the son of the unfortunate 
 Gottschalk, who had attempted the restoration of the king- 
 dom of the Obotrites), in Plon, and causing him to be mur- 
 dered, fell himself by the hand of Buthue's brother, the 
 Christian Henry. Cruco's beautiful wife, Slavina, who was 
 deeply enamored of the youthful Henry, entered into the 
 plot, and Cruco was deprived of his head at the banquet 
 table, by a single stroke of his adversary's sword, A.D. 1105. 
 The pagan Slavi united and made a determined resistance 
 against Henry on the one side, who, as the vassal of the 
 Saxon duke Magnus, received his aid, and against the Poles 
 on the other. Henry gained a decisive victory at Smilow, 
 and another at the mouth of the Trave, A.D. 1106. Pome- 
 rania was annexed to Poland. In Denmark, Sueno the Pious 
 had been succeeded by his son, Canute the Holy, who pre- 
 served peace with Germany. His opposition to the pretend- 
 ers to the imperial crown, and his severity toward his 
 subjects, caused them to revolt. He was besieged and as- 
 sassinated in a church, whither he had fled for refuge, 
 A.D. 1086. He was succeeded by his brother Olaf, and, 
 in 1095, by his second brother, Erich Evegod. Charles, 
 the son of Canute, fled into Germany, and was created 
 Count of Flanders. His virtues caused him, at a later 
 period, to share hip father's fate. He was murdered by 
 GERMANY. VOL. L 2f
 
 458 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 his faithless vassals. Canute and Charles were canonized 
 as martyrs. 
 
 All opposition had now ceased within the empire; the 
 pope, Urban II. , alone proved refractory, and Henry, in 
 order to punish his insolence, once more appeared in Italy. 
 Matilda's army was speedily vanquished, and Clement III. 
 reinstated in his dignity. Henry then returned to Germany, 
 leaving his son Conrad at the head of affairs in Italy. This 
 young man was incited to rebel against his parent by the 
 Countess Matilda, the ex-pope Urban, and Roger of Sicily, 
 who bestowed upon him the hand of his daughter, lolanta. 
 Love, ambition, the dread of being excommunicated, and of 
 forfeiting the imperial crown by fidelity to his father, led to 
 this rash and guilty determination, and, in 1095, he caused 
 himself to be solemnly crowned at Milan. His father, after 
 vainly attempting to win him from his purpose, disinherited 
 him, and he was constrained to limit his ambition to Italy, 
 where he was at the mercy of his adherents, who acted solely 
 with a view to their own aggrandizement. The conscious- 
 ness of his weakness and his remorse for his guilty conduct 
 brought him early to the grave, A.D. 1101. 
 
 CXLV. The Crusades 
 
 IT was about this period that an immense movement, 
 caused by the agitation of men's minds, took place through- 
 out Europe, and produced a second and enormous migration. 
 Fired by religious enthusiasm, countless multitudes collected 
 f rom various parts of Europe, in order to combat the infidels, 
 and in these crusades the spirit of the Middle Ages stood 
 fully developed, freed from the petty feuds that marked the 
 times. 
 
 As early as the reign of the Ottos, pilgrimages to the 
 holy sepulcher at Jerusalem had become frequent ; a black 
 garment, a long staff, a broad-brimmed hat ornamented with 
 the mussel shells found on the coasts of Palestine, and a 
 rosary from Jerusalem, formed the garb worn by the pil-
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 459 
 
 grims. The Arabs, the possessors of the holy city, respected 
 these peaceable wayfarers, and granted them permission .to 
 build churches and a hospital 1 in honor of John the Baptist. 
 The Arabian empire was, at that period, on the brink of de- 
 struction, and the caliphate was divided. The Ommaijadae 
 reigned in Spain, the Fatimites in Egypt, and the Abassidse 
 at Bagdad; the two last dynasties had already fallen be- 
 neath the rule of the Turks, who had at first served under 
 them as mercenary troops, whose sultans acted in the same 
 capacity to the caliph as the major-domo to the kings of 
 France. The great affluence of Christian pilgrims roused 
 the jealousy of the Jews, who until now had monopolized 
 the whole of Eastern commerce, which they feared might 
 gradually pass into the hands of the Christians. The suspi- 
 cion of their having persuaded Hakim, the caliph of Egypt, 
 to destroy the church erected over the holy sepulcher, and to 
 expell all the Christians from Jerusalem in 1010, occasioned 
 a general persecution of the Jews in France. Daher, the son 
 of Hakim, restoring matters to their former state, and insur- 
 ing the safety of the pilgrims and the freedom of commerce, 
 the holy sepulcher became an object of still deeper interest, 
 and the number of pilgrims greatly increased. St. Coloman- 
 nus, a Scotch pilgrim, being hanged in company with two 
 robbers, at Stockerau in Austria, the tree on which he hung 
 began to blossom, and the people, recognizing him by that 
 sign as a man of God, carried him to Molk and treated his 
 remains with the greatest honor. The fame of this pilgrim 
 was henceforward reflected upon all who bore the staff, and 
 before long not only the commonalty, but princes also be- 
 came humble wanderers. Robert of Normandy was the 
 first who visited Palestine, A.D. 1033. He was followed by 
 Litbert, bishop of Kamerich, A.D. 1054, and by St. Helena of 
 Sweden, A.D. 1060. The first great expedition was under- 
 taken, A.D. 1064, by Siegfried, archbishop of Mayence, and 
 the bishops of Bamberg, Ratisbon, and Utrecht, at the head 
 
 1 A hospital for pilgrims was built as early as the ninth century on Mount 
 Cenis, and another during the following century on Mount St. Bernard.
 
 460 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 of seven thousand pilgrims, of whom two thousand alone re- 
 turned. Their path was surrounded with danger. On one 
 occasion they were attacked by a body of twelve thousand 
 Arabs, one of whose sheiks came into the house in which the 
 bishops had taken refuge, and attempted to molest them, 
 upon which Gunther, the gigantic bishop of Bamberg, felled 
 him to the ground with one blow. The Christians, after a 
 valiant defense, were at length rescued from their perilous 
 situation by a tribe of friendly Arabs. Gunther died while on 
 his return to Germany. * Altmann performed the pilgrimage 
 on foot, before his elevation to the bishopric of Passau, and 
 Robert the Friscian also, in order to do penance for his sins, 
 A.D. 1082. 
 
 On the advance of the Turks upon Jerusalem, of which 
 they took possession, a dreadful persecution commenced, A.D. 
 1086, which roused the whole of Europe. Rage and conster- 
 nation filled every bosom, and one idea, that of invading the 
 Holy Land, and of freeing the sepulcher from pollution by 
 dint of arms, pervaded all classes. The spirit infused into 
 the church by Gregory VII. was one great motive of this 
 general enthusiasm, while the example of the Spaniards in- 
 fluenced the whole body of Christian chivalry. The valiant 
 descendants of the Visigoths had, since the commencement 
 of the eighth century, been engaged in ceaseless warfare 
 with the Moors, at first in defense of their liberty and their 
 religion, and at a later period for the recovery of Spain. It 
 was exactly at this conjuncture that Henry, count of Bur- 
 gundy, the son-in-law of Alfonso, king of Leon, the most 
 powerful of the petty Christian monarchs in Spam, con- 
 quered Portugal. The appearance of a remarkable French 
 pilgrim, Peter of Amiens, named the Hermit, however, 
 chiefly contributed to hasten the event. On his return from 
 Palestine with a petition from the persecuted patriarch of 
 Jerusalem, he asserted that he had also been commissioned 
 by Christ himself to save the holy sepulcher. Attired in his 
 
 1 Marianus Scotua.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 461 
 
 travel-soiled pilgrim's garb, and mounted on an ass, having 
 in one hand the letter, in the other a crucifix, he passed 
 through France and Italy, summoning, with enthusiastic 
 eloquence, people of every class and of every nation to unite 
 against the infidels. Multitudes obeyed. Urban II. placed 
 himself, as pope, at the head of the faithful, and, not ventur- 
 ing to appear in Germany, convoked a great meeting of the 
 clerg} T , first at Piacenza in Italy, and afterward at Clermont 
 in France, where he addressed the people in a broad green 
 field, graphically depicturing the sufferings of the church in 
 the East, the desecration of the sacred precincts, the tem- 
 ple converted into a Turkish stable, the holy sepulcher of 
 the Saviour defiled by dogs, his followers scorned, tortured, 
 and slain; and concluded by divulging the command from 
 heaven to revenge the cruelties practiced by the infidels, and 
 to rescue the sanctuary. Scarcely had he ceased, than a 
 deafening shout of "It is the will of God! it is the will of 
 God!" arose from the innumerable throng, and numbers 
 dedicated themselves to the service of Christ, in sign of 
 which they wore a red cross on one shoulder. 
 
 The lower classes, who in France were suffering from a 
 famine, occasioned by the failure of the crops for several 
 successive years, and who, moreover, may have beheld, in 
 this general arming in honor of God, a means of escaping 
 from the tyranny of the nobility, were first seized by the 
 spirit of religious enthusiasm; and shortly afterward, if not 
 at the same time, every serf who volunteered to serve in the 
 Holy Land was declared free and capable of bearing arms. 
 The first armament, consisting of fifteen thousand men, 
 marched, under the guidance of the knight Walther de Pe- 
 rejo, and his nephew, Walther Sensavehor, or Havenought 
 (who had spent the whole of his fortune on the expedition), 
 from the north of France, A.D. 1096, and solemnized Easter 
 festival at Cologne; on reaching Hungary, disputes arose 
 concerning their supplies, and they were almost entirely cut 
 to pieces in Bulgaria. The elder "Walther died ; the younger 
 reached Constantinople with the remnant of his followers.
 
 462 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Peter the Hermit followed with forty thousand men, among 
 whom were several Germans, took Semlin by storm, forced 
 his way through the Bulgarians, was attacked and beaten by 
 them at Nissa, and, after losing ten thousand men, appeared 
 before the gates of Constantinople with the remainder of the 
 pilgrims, bearing green palm branches in their hands. 
 
 The spirit of religious fanaticism, the seeds of which had 
 been so zealously sown by Peter the Hermit, spread, mean- 
 while, throughout Germany. Signs were beheld in the 
 heavens, and it was currently reported that Charlemagne 
 had risen from his grave, in order to place himself at the 
 head of the crusaders. Gottschalk, a priest from the Pfalz, 
 marched with fifteen thousand men into Hungary, and, after 
 laying the country waste, had the stupidity to allow himself 
 to be persuaded by Kolmany, the Hungarian king, to deliver 
 up his arms, on condition of receiving a free passage, which 
 was no sooner complied with than the faithless Hungarians 
 attacked and cut to pieces the whole of the defenseless Ger- 
 mans, at Meszburg (Mosony?). This expedition was suc- 
 ceeded by another of still greater magnitude, which, pro- 
 ceeding from France, passed through Germany, like the 
 rude Lawine, gaining strength and volume on its course. 
 Without a leader to guide its movements, this senseless mul- 
 titude followed in the direction taken by a goose and a goat 
 which were driven in advance. "William, surnamed the Car- 
 penter, a French knight, was the only person of any note 
 among the number; but when the Germans began to join 
 them, Volkmar the priest, and the Count Emicho von Lei- 
 ningen, who was influenced by remorse for the sins of his 
 youth, placed themselves at the head of this fresh body of 
 crusaders, who, acting on the notion that the infidels dwell- 
 ing in Europe should be exterminated before those in Asia 
 should be attacked, murdered twelve thousand Jews. In 
 Treves, many of these unfortunate men, driven to despair, 
 laid violent hands on their children and on themselves, and 
 multitudes embraced Christianity, from which they lapsed 
 the moment the peril had passed. Two hundred Jews fled
 
 THE FRANCON1AN, SALIC EMPERORS 463 
 
 from Cologne and took refuge in boats ; they were overtaken 
 and slain. In Mayence, the archbishop, Rudhart, took them 
 under his protection, and gave them the great hall of his 
 castle for an asylum ; the pilgrims, nevertheless, forced their 
 way in, and murdered seven hundred of them in the arch- 
 bishop's presence. At Spires the Jews valiantly defended 
 themselves. At Worms they all committed suicide. At 
 Magdeburg the archbishop, Ruprecht, amused himself by 
 attacking them during the celebration of the feast of taber- 
 nacles, and by seizing their property. The pilgrim band, 
 which is said to have consisted of two hundred thousand 
 souls, chiefly women, priests, and unarmed rabble, advanced 
 into Hungary, but suddenly, while engaged in the siege of 
 Meszburg, was, without any known cause, seized with a 
 panic, put to the rout, and almost entirely cut to pieces. 
 Emicho fled, covered with shame, to his native country. 
 But, notwithstanding this disaster, part of the pilgrims 
 reached Constantinople by other roads through Italy. 
 
 A number of Italians had also set off for the same place 
 by sea; the republics of Pisa, Genoa and Venice favoring 
 the crusade from motives of commercial advantage, as well 
 as from piety ; and thus by degrees an army of one hundred 
 thousand pilgrims collected beneath the walls of Constanti- 
 nople, under the banner of Peter the Hermit. The emperor 
 Alexius, weary of supplying their wants, sent them over to 
 Asia, where Peter intended to have awaited the arrival of 
 the great body of knights, which was to have quickly fol- 
 owed on his track ; but the French, impatient for war, and 
 greedy of booty, made predatory incursions on their own ac- 
 count into the Turkish territory ; and the Germans, animated 
 by their example, pillaged the country and garrisoned the 
 fort of Xerigordon, where they were ere long surrounded 
 by the Turks, to whom they were betrayed by their leader, 
 Reinold, and three thousand of them slain. The French 
 and Italian pilgrims were also cut to pieces, with the excep- 
 tion of three thousand, who made such a valiant defense in 
 an ancient fort that the Greeks spared their lives at Peter's
 
 464 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 earnest request. Peter escaped, but Walther Sensavehor was 
 slain. 
 
 This unsuccessful attempt of the lower orders among the 
 people was succeeded by a much more brilliant armament, 
 composed of chivalry, and led by princes. Godfred, duke 
 of Lower Lothringia (Brabant), surnamed Bouillon, from 
 his castle of that name, the ancient ally of the emperor, 
 Henry IV., and the successful antagonist of Rudolf, the 
 pretender to the crown, raised a body of ten thousand horse 
 and seventy thousand infantry. He was accompanied by his 
 brothers, Eustace and Baldwin, his cousin, Baldwin de Bourg, 
 Count Baldwin von Hennegau, etc. ; besides being joined by 
 Count Robert of Flanders, the son of the Friscian, afterward 
 known as Robert of Jerusalem; Hugh de Vermandois, the 
 brother of Philip, king of France ; Robert Shortshank, duke 
 of Normandy, the son of William the Conqueror; and the 
 aged one-eyed Count Raimund of Toulouse. The Nether- 
 landers under Godfred marched in excellent order and un- 
 molested through Hungary, while the French took the route 
 through Italy, A.D. 1096. The latter were joined en route 
 by the fair-haired Bohemund, the son of Robert Guiscard, 
 a man of gigantic stature, and by his cousin Tancred, the 
 most warlike among the Normans of their times. Ademar, 
 the venerable bishop of Puy, accompanied them as legate 
 from the holy see. The French went by sea, and conse- 
 quently were the first to reach Greece, where Hugh de Ver- 
 mandois no sooner landed than he was seized and thrown 
 into prison by the emperor Alexius, who only restored him 
 to liberty on condition of his doing homage to him as his 
 liege lord. Alexius, filled with inquietude for the safety of 
 his own empire, left no means untried to effectuate the con- 
 quest of the Holy Land in his own name, in order to reduce 
 it to its former state of dependence as a province of the an- 
 cient eastern empire. Godfred, on his arrival, learned with 
 rage and astonishment that the brother of the French mon- 
 arch had taken the oath of allegiance to the Greek emperor; 
 but quickly perceiving the necessity of gaining him as an
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 465 
 
 ally, he submitted to the same ceremony, and his example 
 was followed by all the other princes. Godfred was in re- 
 turn adopted by the emperor as Caesar; that is, as his son. 
 The whole of the crusaders (whose numbers, said to have 
 amounted to six hundred thousand men, are probably exag- 
 gerated) crossed over to Asia, and found the country around 
 Nicaea covered with the yet unburied remains of their un- 
 fortunate predecessors. Nicaea was taken by storm with 
 considerable loss, and given up to the Greeks. Here the 
 Normans separated from the main body, and taking a line 
 to the left, again divided, in order the more conveniently to 
 procure supplies; in this condition they were attacked by 
 the Turks, 1 and with great difficulty rescued by Godfred. 
 Desert tracts, and burning wastes, destructive alike to the 
 warriors and their steeds, now obstructed the advance of 
 the crusaders. The path was strewn with the dying and 
 the dead. Numbers of the pilgrims turned back in despair. 
 Godfred was dreadfully torn by a bear, from whose claws he 
 bravely rescued one of the unarmed pilgrims. His brother 
 Baldwin, who had been joined by a number of Dutch, Fris- 
 cians, and Flemish pirates, who for eight years had infested 
 the Mediterranean, marched in advance of the main army, 
 and took the important town of Edessa, where he was met 
 by a procession of Armenian Christians, bearing crosses and 
 banners, who, filled with astonishment at his prowess, sank 
 on their knees before him. The main body mean while reached 
 the celebrated city of Antioch, of which, thirteen years be- 
 fore, the Greek emperor had been deprived, and which still 
 retained its ancient splendor. Its walls long resisted the un- 
 taught valor of the warriors of the West, three hundred thou- 
 sand of whom are said to have laid siege to it. Hunger and 
 pestilence, however, gradually diminished their number, and, 
 in the beginning of 1098, seven hundred horses were all that 
 
 1 A great number of ladies who accompanied this expedition fell with the 
 camp into the hands of the Turks. Albert von Aix observes that they should 
 instantly have adorned themselves, in order to have enslaved their captors by 
 their beauty.
 
 466 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 remained within the Christian camp. These were mounted 
 by seven hundred knights, who attacked and overcame a 
 body of the enemy's cavalry, twenty-five thousand strong, 
 and captured one thousand horses. Godfred continued to 
 fight in advance, and is said, on one occasion, to have cut 
 a Turk so completely in half with a downward stroke that, 
 while one half of his body fell to the ground, the other was 
 borne away by his horse. The Mahometans made great 
 preparations in order to raise the siege of Antioch. The 
 means of retreating upon Constantinople were cut off, and 
 the Danish prince Sven and his bride Fiorina, 1 the daughter 
 of Duke Eudo of Burgundy, with one thousand five hundred 
 Danish knights, were cut to pieces. The great sultan of 
 Bagdad levied the whole force of the Mahometan East, 
 and dispatched his vizier, Kerbugha, at the head of an im- 
 mense army, to the relief of Antioch, but, before his arrival, 
 the city was betrayed to the Christians, in the June of 1098. 
 The pilgrims were now in their turn suddenly besieged by 
 Kerbugha, whose troops covered the whole country, and 
 rendered it impossible for them to bring supplies into the 
 already famished city. The distress soon became unbear- 
 able ; and numbers of the pilgrims secretly let themselves 
 down by ropes from the city walls, and fled to the sea-shore, 
 spreading a report that the city was already lost, and induc- 
 ing the captains of the Genoese ships, the last hope of the 
 crusaders, to return home ; upon which the emperor Alexius, 
 who was marching to their relief, in order to take possession 
 of Antioch in his own name, also turned back. The situa- 
 tion of Godfred and the pilgrims now appeared desperate, 
 hunger daily thinned their numbers, and the survivors wan- 
 dered up and down the city, wan, weak, and spiritless; but, 
 just when they were driven to the last extremity, a priest of 
 Provence, one Peter Barthelemy, announced that the apostle 
 Andrew had appeared to him, and revealed the spot in An- 
 
 1 She intended to have married him at Jerusalem. She bravely defended 
 herself to the last, although pierced by seven arrows.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 467 
 
 tioch where the real holy lance, with which Christ had been 
 pierced when hanging on the cross, lay buried ; that they 
 were to seek for it and to bear it before them to victory. 
 The rusted head of a lance was found in the place indicated, 
 and the confidence of the pilgrims once more returned. Peter 
 the Hermit went into Kerbugha's camp and threatened him 
 with destruction, unless he instantly embraced Christianity. 
 Kerbugha treated him as a mad man, and being, in his con- 
 tempt of the pilgrims, willing to spare unnecessary blood- 
 shed, resolved, instead of storming the city, to continue the 
 blockade. While he was carelessly engaged in a game of 
 chess, the crusaders planted a black banner on the highest 
 tower in Antioch, and marched in procession out of the gates, 
 headed by the bishop Ademar, bearing on high the holy lance. 
 They advanced in battle array singing hymns, and attacked 
 the Turks with such fury that half of the besiegers were al- 
 ready put to the rout before their comrades became aware 
 of their peril. The starving Christians took the immense 
 camp, killed one hundred thousand of the enemy, flung 
 themselves upon their Turkish horses, and pursued the fug- 
 itives to a considerable distance. After a public thanks- 
 giving, Bohemund was created Prince of Antioch, and it 
 was declared to the emperor Alexius that no further con- 
 quests should be made in his name, unless he speedity af- 
 forded them the promised aid. Hugh of France was sent 
 with this message as embassador to Constantinople ; but in- 
 stead of returning to the camp, proceeded to France, being 
 discontented with the treatment he had received from the 
 rest of the crusaders, by whom he was held in slight esteem. 
 The second embassador, Baldwin, count of Hennegau, was 
 attacked near Nicaea by the Turks, and all traces of him 
 were lost. 
 
 The Mahometans, terrified at this unexpected disaster, 
 no longer opposed the advance of the pilgrims, who were 
 joyfully greeted by the Syrian Christians; and the Arabian 
 emirs, who until now had groaned beneath the Turkish yoke, 
 offered to enter into a friendly alliance with them. But dis-
 
 4G8 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 sension broke out among the pilgrims themselves. Raimund 
 of Toulouse envied Bohemund the possession of Antioch, and 
 now, rather ungratefully it must be owned, Peter Barthelemy 
 was accused of having invented the fable of the holy lance 
 (which was now said to be a common bit of iron), in order 
 to answer the exigency of the moment. Peter, in order to 
 prove his innocence and the authenticity of the weapon, un- 
 derwent the ordeal by fire; with the lance in his hand, he 
 ran between two naming piles of wood, and, although he 
 came forth again alive, died shortly of the effects. A strong 
 re-enforcement, among which were Alain Fergent, duke of 
 Brittany, and Edgar Atheling, the last scion of the Anglo- 
 Saxon dynasty, here joined the crusaders ; a remarkable co- 
 incidence, Robert, the son of William the Conqueror, the 
 destroyer of the Saxon race, being in the same camp and 
 fighting in the same cause. The caliph of Egypt sent costly 
 gifts to the crusaders, with an offer of permitting the free 
 exercise of the Christian religion in Jerusalem. He would 
 gladly, with the aid of the crusaders, have driven the dreaded 
 Turks out of Syria ; but the crusaders had now almost reached 
 the termination of their long and wearisome pilgrimage, and 
 the conquest and actual possession of the holy sepulcher were 
 regarded by them as indispensable duties. The emir of Trip- 
 oli again took up arms and was defeated. The hermits and 
 the ancient Christians descended from Mount Lebanon to wel- 
 come the pilgrims. Nicopolis was at length reached, and as 
 every one was anxious to be the first to behold Jerusalem on 
 the following morning, they continued their march during 
 the whole night. It so happened that an eclipse of the moon 
 took place during this night, which caused great joy among 
 the pilgrims, who beheld in it an omen of the fall of the Ma- 
 hometan empire (whose emblem is the crescent moon). At 
 break of day on the 10th of June, 1099, they reached the 
 heights of Emaus, and suddenly beheld the holy city, the 
 long-wished-for object of their toil, and with one accord sink- 
 ing on their knees, they kissed the sacred soil, which they 
 only ventured to tread barefoot.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 469 
 
 The greatest difficulties had still to be overcome. The 
 number of the crusaders had diminished to one thousand 
 five hundred horse and twenty thousand foot; the country 
 around Jerusalem was an arid waste ; the city was strongly 
 garrisoned, and the harbor of Joppa, where a Genoese fleet 
 had just landed troops, was strictly blockaded by the Egyp- 
 tians. All communication with the sea was consequently 
 cut off; the Genoese, however, abandoned their ships and 
 advanced as far as Jerusalem, where their skill and handi- 
 craft materially assisted the knights in their rough attempts 
 at scaling the walls. They manufactured different machines, 
 particularly high towers, consisting of several stories, mounted 
 on wheels, which were pushed close to the walls upon which 
 the warriors were to mount. Most of these machines were 
 destroyed by the inextinguishable "Greek fire." The pil- 
 grims, in their enthusiasm, now recalled the fate of Jericho, 
 and, ranged in solemn procession, chanting hymns, marched 
 around the city, from whose walls they were, meanwhile, 
 treated with every mark of indignity by the garrison. Peter 
 the Hermit preached on the Mount of Olives, and the city 
 had sustained a two days' storm, when a knight, clad in 
 white armor, was beheld standing on the Mount of Olives, 
 like an angel of God, encouraging them to battle in his 
 cause. 
 
 The general enthusiasm now rose to fury, and two 
 brethren, Ludolf and Engelbert, closely followed by Duke 
 Godfred, were the first to mount the battlements ; and the 
 pilgrims rushing into the city, a deadly struggle took place 
 in the streets, in which seventy thousand of the Mahome- 
 tans were slain. The Jews were burned alive in their syna- 
 gogue; no quarter was given. Every infidel, of whatever 
 nation, age, or sex, was mercilessly killed. In the midst of 
 this disorder, Godfred, in penitential garb and with unsan- 
 daled feet, threw himself on his knees before the holy sepul- 
 cher, and the rest of the crusaders, imitating his example, 
 threw away their blood-stained weapons, and chanting peni- 
 tential hymns, marched in procession through streams of
 
 4:70 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 blood to the grave of the Saviour of mankind. Jerusalem 
 was taken on the 15th of July, 1099. * 
 
 The joy of united Christendom at this glorious liberation 
 of the holy sepulcher was still further increased by the dis- 
 covery of the wooden cross on which Christ had suffered. 
 This cross owed its first discovery to St. Helena, the mother 
 of Constantino the Great; it was afterward concealed dur- 
 ing times of danger, and ultimately again lost. Godfred, 
 the faithful hero of the church, was unanimously proclaimed 
 king of Jerusalem; but, although he accepted the dignity, 
 he refused to wear the golden diadem that was offered to 
 him, saying, "that it was not for him to wear a crown of 
 gold in the place where the Christ had worn one of thorns." 
 His brother Baldwin became prince of Edessa. His other 
 brother, Eustace, returned to Lothringia. Bobemund was 
 already prince of Antioch ; Tancred became count of Gali- 
 lee. Raimund of Toulouse, who coveted the possession of 
 Antioch, remained in Palestine, and aided the emperor 
 Alexius in his attempts to undermine the power of the rest 
 of the crusaders. Robert of Normandy returned home, and, 
 falling into the hands of his faithless brother, Henry, ended 
 his days in prison. Robert the Friscian also returned to his 
 native country, but, while engaged in a feud, fell from his 
 horse and was trodden to death. Tola, the wife of Baldwin 
 von Hennegau, who had disappeared, made a pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem, and, after wandering in fruitless search of him 
 over the half of Asia, reached her home in safety. 
 
 After giving laws, known as the ordonnances of the sepul- 
 cher, to his new kingdom, Godfred marched against his near- 
 est and most threatening opponent, the caliph of Egypt, whom, 
 although his superior in numbers, he defeated near Ascalon, 
 which, but for the treachery of Raimund, would also have 
 fallen into his hands. The city of Arsuf, on the sea-shore, 
 
 1 William of Tyre relates in cne of his legends that all the spirits of the cru- 
 saders who had fallen on 3ie wey appeared in the city on this occasion, and 
 fulfilled their vow at the same iame with their living comrades.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 471 
 
 was shortly afterward taken, 1 and he received a fresh re-en- 
 forcement of twenty thousand Italians, who were led thither 
 by Dagobert, archbishop of Pisa, who was probably secretly 
 commissioned by the pope, as he was nominated patriarch 
 of Jerusalem, and before long asserted the supremacy of the 
 church over the throne. Bohemund, too weak to cope with 
 his antagonists in Antioch, and betrayed by Raimund and 
 the Greeks, was imprisoned by the sultan of Iconium ; and, 
 shortly after these events, Godfred expired, A.D. 1100. He 
 was succeeded on the throne of Jerusalem by his brother 
 Baldwin, who resigned Edessa to his cousin Baldwin de 
 Bourg. The patriarch wished to place Bohemund, who had 
 just been captured by the sultan of Iconium, on the throne, 
 and Baldwin, opposed by intestinal factions and beset by the 
 Turks, 2 with difficulty retained the scepter in his grasp. The 
 glowing descriptions of the pilgrims who had returned from 
 the Holy Land during the previous year to Germany and 
 France, and the sacred relics they bore, had again roused 
 the enthusiasm of the people to such a pitch that fresh cru- 
 sades on a still more extensive scale, having for aim the 
 extirpation of Islamism from the earth, were undertaken. 
 Bagdad, the Turkish capital, was marked as the first object 
 of attack. 
 
 The first great armament consisted of Lombards under 
 
 1 Gerhard d'Avesnes, a Flemish knight, whose descendants reigned in Flan- 
 ders, was here taken prisoner, and suspended on a cross over the walls, where 
 he was exposed to the bolts of his besieging countrymen, whom he entreated to 
 desist in their attempt ; but being exhorted by Godfred to suffer martyrdom in 
 lionor of his Lord, who likewise suffered on the cross, he prepared for death, 
 and was pierced by ten arrows. Some time after the conquest of Arsuf, he 
 suddenly reappeared, alive and well. His wounds had not proved mortal, and 
 his life had been saved by some compassionate Arabs. Some of the wandering 
 Arab tribes, attracted by the report of his extraordinary strength, visited God- 
 fred, who, on one occasion, yielded to their importunity, and deprived some of 
 their camels of their heads with one stroke of his sword ; and on their express- 
 ing surprise at finding him, although a king, humbly seated on the bare ground, 
 he replied, "The earth will be my tomb when I am dead, why then should it 
 not serve me for a seat while I am alive?" 
 
 2 The conquest of Csesarea put the Genoese, who were among the crusaders, 
 in possession of the emerald dish, supposed to be the identical one made use of 
 by the Saviour at the last supper, and which, under the name of the Holy Gracd, 
 plays so important a part in the poetry of the Middle Ages.
 
 472 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Anselmo, archbishop of Milan, of French under Stephen of 
 Blois, and of a little troop of Germans under Conrad, who 
 is mentioned by the historians of the times as master of the 
 horse (stabularius) to the emperor, Henry IV. This army 
 reached Asia Minor in safety, and was joined by Raimund 
 of Toulouse, who hoped by their aid to get possession of An- 
 tioch, which was defended by Tancred in the name of the 
 imprisoned Bohemund ; but Anselmo, impatient to carry out 
 his plans for the reduction of Bagdad and the destruction of 
 the Turkish empire, incautiously led his army, amounting 
 to two hundred and sixty thousand men, into the burning 
 deserts and amid the pathless mountains, where their foot- 
 steps were dogged by all the Mahometan princes of Asia 
 Minor, who suddenly, when their numbers and strength were 
 reduced by the heat and by famine, fell upon and cut them 
 to pieces. Raimund, who had been nobly rescued from the 
 Turks by Conrad, fled the moment he beheld his benefactor 
 in danger. His example was followed by the Lombards and 
 the French, who, in order to hinder pursuit, left their camp 
 and women unprotected and at the mercy of the Turks, who 
 thus added upward of a thousand females to their harems. 
 A second French crusade, under William, count of Xevers, 
 consisting of fifteen thousand men, and an incredible num- 
 ber of women, followed on their footsteps, and, falling into 
 a Turkish ambuscade, shared a similar fate. William of 
 Nevers escaped and returned half -naked to Antioch. A 
 third and still more numerous body of French followed, 
 commanded by Hugh, the king's brother, who was anxious 
 to retrieve the dishonor of his former flight, and by William 
 of Poitou, duke of Aquitania, a celebrated troubadour (Min- 
 nesinger) and defender of the sex, who drew in his train im- 
 mense numbers of women of every rank. This crusade was 
 joined on its passage through Germany by Reinhold, duke 
 of Burgundy, the old Duke Welf of Bavaria, Dietrich (Thie- 
 mo), archbishop of Salzburg, the Margravine Ida of Austria, 
 and numerous other Germans, among whom were many 
 noble-born dames and maidens in the Margravine's suite.
 
 THE FRANCONIAN, SALIC EMPERORS 473 
 
 This immense but helpless multitude reached Asia Minor, 
 suffered the same hardships as their predecessors, and when 
 about to rush into the river Halys, in order to assuage their 
 thirst, was suddenly assailed by a shower of arrows ; a dread- 
 ful confusion ensued, which terminated in flight. William 
 of Poitou, the poet and defender of the sex, fled timidly away 
 and abandoned his fair followers to their fate, while Hugh 
 of France fought gallantly until wounded in the knee by an 
 arrow. He escaped only to die of his wound. The arch- 
 bishop, Thiemo, 1 was taken prisoner and tortured to death 
 for refusing to embrace Islamism. "Welf and Reinhold of 
 Burgundy escaped, and the poor Margravine Ida and her 
 women, abandoned by all their knights, were captured by 
 the Turks. It is said that Ida afterward espoused a Turk- 
 ish prince, and became the mother of the celebrated Zengis, 
 the terror of Christendom, 11 A.D. 1101. Reinhold of Burgundy 
 died of a pestilence, and the aged "Welf expired at Cyprus 
 on his way home. The rest of the crusaders collected under 
 the standard of Raimund of Toulouse, and took the city of 
 Tortosa, where Raimund fixed himself. Conrad was almost 
 the only one among the pilgrims who reached Jerusalem and 
 fulfilled his vow. Thus disastrously terminated this great 
 expedition, intended for the destruction and conquest of 
 Asia. 
 
 Baldwin I. of Jerusalem was now, A.D. 1102, thrown 
 upon his own resources. A battle took place between him 
 and the Egyptians, near Rama, in which he was defeated, 
 and the noble-hearted Gerhard d'Avesnes, who had so cou- 
 rageously resigned himself to a martyr's fate, lost his life. 
 The king and the remainder of his army took refuge in 
 
 1 He was celebrated as a sculptor and modeler. 
 
 2 Itam comitissam, matrem Leopold!, marchionis orientalis unus de principl- 
 bus Saracenorum rapuit et impurissime sibi matrimonia copulavit, ex eaque 
 sanguinem ilium sceleratissimum, utajunt, progenuit. Monachus Weinga/rtensis. 
 Other chroniclers record a similar legend. Ida, nevertheless, could not have 
 been Leopold's mother, but merely his stepmother, as he was thirty years old 
 at the time of this crusade. It is further certified by Eastern writers that Zengia 
 was seventeen years of age, and his father, Gasimeddaulah Acsonker, was dead 
 at this very period. See Hormayr, Tht Bavarians in the East.
 
 474 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 Rama, where they could not long maintain themselves. 
 Baldwin was saved by a grateful Arab, an emir, whose wife 
 had fallen into Baldwin's hands, and, being taken in labor 
 on the inarch, had been treated with the greatest care and 
 kindness. The rest were either slain or taken prisoners. 
 Conrad, who had prepared for his return home, could not 
 refrain from joining the expedition against Rama; when 
 that city was taken by the Arabs, he performed such prodi- 
 gies of valor that the infidels, struck with wonder and ad- 
 miration, offered him their hands in token of peace. 1 He 
 was most honorably treated, and finally restored to liberty. 
 The Egyptians did not follow up the advantage they had 
 gained; fresh misfortunes were, however, in store for the 
 Christians; a fleet, brought by the troubadour, William of 
 Poitou, was shattered by a storm, and Baldwin was dan- 
 gerously wounded with a lance by a Moorish spy. A quar- 
 rel broke out between Bohemund, who had escaped from 
 prison,' and the Greeks, who wanted the possession of Anti- 
 och ; causing a report of his death to be spread, he had him- 
 self borne in a coffin through the Grecian fleet that was on 
 the watch, and collected a great army in the "West for the 
 conquest of the Grecian empire, in reality the only means of 
 securing that of the Holy Land, but wasting his time and 
 strength before Durazzo, a town he was unable to carry, his 
 army disbanded, and he died broken-hearted, in his native 
 city of Tarentum, A.D. 1105. The enterprising citizens of 
 Genoa and Pisa, who, with the view of getting the whole 
 of the trade of the East in their hands, had assisted the 
 crusaders in the conquest of the maritime cities of Syria 
 (anciently those of Phoenicia), were far more active and 
 successful. In 1104, the Genoese already possessed the im- 
 portant town of Accon (Ptolemais). The siege of Tripolis, 
 which had been commenced by Raimund of Toulouse, lasted 
 for nearly ten years. In 1105, Raimund was besieged by 
 
 1 Albertua Aquensis. 
 
 8 By the secret aid of a princess, who had become deeply enamored of him. 
 Another account is that he was exchanged for a princess who had been captured.
 
 THE FRANCONIAK, SALIC EMPERORS 475 
 
 the Turks in his castle on the Pilgrim's Mountain, and was 
 suffocated by the smoke of the burning houses. His son, 
 Bertrand, swore to revenge his fate, and, assisted by the 
 Genoese and Pisanese, laid siege to Tripolis, which finally 
 fell into their hands in 1110; and an enormous library con- 
 tained in this city was barbarously burned by the victors. 1 
 In the same year Sidon also fell. In this siege the crusaders 
 were assisted by Sigmund Jorsalafar (Jerusalemfahrer, the 
 traveler to Jerusalem), a youth of seventeen, of remarkable 
 beauty, great-grandson of Harald Haardrade (who fell at 
 Stamford), at the head of ten thousand gigantic Norwegians, 
 armed with battle-axes.* The Christians suffered repeated 
 defeats in the interior of the country. The Turks of Bagdad 
 now rose up against them, as the Egyptians had formerly 
 done. Bohemund had scarcely escaped from prison, when 
 Baldwin of Edessa was taken prisoner. Tancred defended 
 Antioch and Edessa with wonderful perseverance and 
 bravery. He died in 1112; on his death-bed he placed the 
 hand of his wife, Cecilia, a daughter of the French king, in 
 that of the youthful Pontius, who had succeeded his father 
 Bertrand in the government of Tripolis. The following year 
 Baldwin suffered a fresh defeat, but was rescued by Roger 
 of Sicily, who governed Antioch in the name of the youthful 
 Bohemund, the son of Bohemund I. Peace, only interrupted 
 by slight disturbances, endured for a while. Baldwin I. 
 died in 1118, and was succeeded by Baldwin de Bourg, his 
 cousin, formerly prince of Edessa, who had not long before 
 
 1 The destruction of the great Christian library at Alexandria, by the caliph 
 Omar, caused a great outcry among the Christiana, who, on taking Tripoli, find- 
 ing that the first room in the library merely contained Korans, burned the whole 
 library, which contained three hundred thousand books, without inquiring what 
 the rest of the rooms contained. It is probable that many ancient Greek works 
 lay here concealed. 
 
 2 The Norwegians still retained so strong an impression of their ancient relig- 
 ion that, on entering the hippodrome at Constantinople, they believed that the 
 Grecian statues, with which it was adorned, were intended to represent their 
 Asen and legendary heroes Snorri. Shortly before this, Erich the Good (Eve- 
 god) made a pilgrimage to the holy sepulcher; he expired at Cyprus, A.D. 1105. 
 The origin of his pilgrimage was curious : a singer, who had the power of rous- 
 ing every passion by his art, had excited him to such a pitch of fury (Verserker- 
 wuth) that he slew several people, whose death he afterward resolved to expiate.
 
 476 THE HISTORY OF GERMANY 
 
 been restored to liberty. In 1119, Roger fell, opposing the 
 Turks; in 1123, Baldwin II. was again imprisoned by the 
 Turks; in 1124, a great Venetian fleet arrived, and seized 
 the beautiful harbor and city of Tyre, which the Venetians 
 coveted on account of its commercial advantages. Bohe- 
 mund II. fell in battle. Baldwin regained his liberty upon 
 certain conditions, but was no sooner free than he broke his 
 oath, and was ceaselessly engaged in petty warfare until 
 his death, in 1131. During his reign, two orders of knight- 
 hood were formed in Jerusalem; the Hospitalers of St. 
 John, who at first merely devoted themselves to the care of 
 the sick, and the knights of Solomon's Temple, or Templars, 
 who were bound by the vow of celibacy, exercised a spiritual 
 office, and devoted themselves to unceasing warfare against 
 the infidels, in which they were afterward imitated by the 
 knights of St. John. Both of these orders were filled by 
 Italian knights, the Germans taking but little part in them. 
 Unfortunately for the Holy Land, by far the greater part of 
 the foreign settlers were French, the Germans merely making 
 a crusade thither, and returning to their native country. 
 
 The crusades were not without influence in Europe ; the 
 power of the pope, the earthly representative of the God 
 before whom all the kings and nations of the West bent in 
 humble adoration, and that of the church founded by Greg- 
 ory VII., were rendered absolute by their means; while the 
 church was enriched by the immense wealth of those who 
 fell in the East : still, the change they gradually wrought, 
 by the introduction of new plants and animals, new modes 
 of dress, luxuries and manners, the novel and surprising 
 tenets and writings of the Greeks and Arabs, tended so 
 greatly to enlarge and enlighten the ideas of the western 
 nations, as, at a later period, to endanger the authority as- 
 sumed by the popes. 
 
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