GERMANY FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD

PART V

THE CONTESTS BETWEEN THE GOTHS AND FRANKS

 

LXXIX. Theodorich the Great

 

DIETRICH VON 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 West­ern 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 Slavonian race, under King Babai, then devastating Greece, whom he subdued; the Gepidae, 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, AD 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, AD 489, in both of which Theodorich was victorious. Tufa, the commander of Odoachar's troops, deserted his master, but both he and Frederich appear to have been dis­appointed 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 enduring 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, AD 493. During this contest, the Burgundians, under Gundebald, crossed the Alps and plundered the coun­try 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 Graubundten, 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 menacing 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 population (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 imitate 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 disputes were put an end to by the practice of universal toleration; and, on one occasion, when a Catholic, with the intention of flattering the king, professed Arianism, Theodorich condemned him to death, "for," said he, "he who can betray his God will betray his king." The morality practiced 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 com­menced, 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 within 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 men, among whom Cassiodorus, his historian and first minister, and the philosopher Boetius, are pre-eminently distinguished. 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, although 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 peo­ple. 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 abhorrence 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 Ostrogotha, 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 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 ancient enmity against the Goths. The kingdom of the Visigoths was invaded by Chlodwig. The brave Thorismund, the conqueror of Attila, fell by the hand of his brother Theodorich, who, in his turn, was murdered by the third brother, Eurich, a prince famed for his valour and code of laws. Alaric, his son and successor, being defeated and killed by the Franks at the battle of Vougle, AD 507, Theodorich sent an Ostrogothic 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, Alaric's natural son, who had caused himself to be proclaimed king of Barcelona, and had usurped the throne of Amalarich, was also defeated by Ibbas.

Theodorich the Great is said to have died of fright, AD 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 Aetna.

 

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 licentious Childerich, drove him from the kingdom and be­stowed the crown upon Aegidius, 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 Thuringia. 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 neighbours, the Varini 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 bis native country, insidiously attached himself to Aegidius, whom he persuaded to tax the Franks according to the Roman custom; an innovation which he rightly judged would cause his expulsion. Childerich, meanwhile, repaid the hospitality 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 Thuringia to the court of her lover, who made her his wife, and she became the mother of Chlodwig the Great. The Thuringians, 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 Frankish 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 fealty on their king, Sigebert, the son of Sigismir, and reunited the whole Frankish nation. He then attacked Siagrius, the son of Aegidius, who still maintained an independent 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 neighbours, the Burgundians, Alemanni, and Visigoths, all of whom he at­tempted to circumvent. Chlotilda, the daughter of Hilperich, 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 possession, 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 Burgundian 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's plans against Burgundy was delayed by the revolt of the Alemanni, who viewed the introduction of the feudal system into the provinces, and his armed followers, with suspicion and dislike, as indicative of a design upon their national liberty and independence. United under several leaders, they attacked the Franks, who had also united beneath the standard of Chlodwig, at whose side fought Sigebert of Cologne. The battle of Zulpich decided the contest, AD 496. At one moment the enthusiastic spirit of the Alemanni threatened to overpower the superior discipline of the Franks, and Chlodwig, excited by the peril, invoked 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 favour, were solemnly baptized with the king. The ceremony took place at Rheims. 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 destroyed; 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 Frankish 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 Chris­tianity, 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 im­patiently desired the extirpation of Arianism in Gaul, turned his arms against the Visigoths, whom he expected to over­come with greater facility. Alaric, the unworthy son of the brave Eurich, fell in the battle of Poitiers by the hand of the victorious king of the Franks, AD 607, 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 Arles, which proved disastrous to Chlodwig, who was forced to retreat, after leaving 30,000 of his men on the field of bat­tle. Finding himself compelled to leave the Visigoths in peace, he fell upon Brittany, AD 509, and constrained the Britons, its new inhabitants, who had been driven from England by the Saxons, to do him homage. It was a fortunate circumstance for Chlodwig that his neighbours, instead of uniting, fought singly, in self-defense. Had they confed­erated 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 system, to keep the nation united beneath his jurisdiction in time of peace as well as war. His treatment of his Merovingian relatives, the subordinate kings, was one tissue of treachery and cruelty. His ancient ally, Sigebert of Cologne, who was disabled by a wound received at the battle of Zulpich, 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 assassin, 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 sym­bol of royalty, the boy remarked, Our, hair will soon grow long again!" upon which Chlodwig, provident of the future, caused them both to be murdered.

By means of the imposition of feudal service, the disci­pline 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 entreated to do so by one of the bishops, and upon its restitution being requested by Chlodwig, insolently replied, "that he was only bound to obey him during battle, and not afterward," 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 misbehaviour.

The feudal system was universally adopted throughout France before the conclusion of this reign. During peace, Chlodwig was surrounded by his Antrustiones, or trusty followers, 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 honour, all the influence, and, by means of the feudal system, all the wealth of the country, and leaguing with the priests, at length succeeded in crushing popular freedom. Thus Chlodwig, who died in 511, laid the ground­work for a complete revolution in the internal policy of Germany.

 

LXXXI. Gundehald

 

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, 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 alliance with Aetius, who granted the highlands to them. After the fall of the Western empire, they treated with Constanti­nople. 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 Gundioch, 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 enterprise 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 quarrelling with Hilperich, defeated and cruelly murdered him, together with his family, with the exception of Chlotilda, one of his daughters, who subsequently married Chlodwig, a AD 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 retreated 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. Gundebald was the reformer of his country. Gifted with more than ordinary talent, for the age in which he lived, he saw the advantage, and incessantly 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, AD 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. Gundebald 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 advantages. Ingenious, brave, and enterprising, trained to war, accustomed to victory, fired by ambition, and favoured 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 Ostrogoths in Italy and the Visigoths in the Pyrenees, offered every facility for taking advantage of the want of unity between the two nations. Nor were these circumstances over­looked 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 accelerated the downfall of the Arian Goths by exciting the fanatical 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 Theodorich, his eldest son; and Neustria, with its capital, Orleans, on Chlodomir; while Childebert reigned at Paris, and Chlotar at Soissons. The separation of Austria from Neustria was subsequently widened by the different manners of the 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 assem­bly, 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 Thuringians 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 possessions by the sword. Chlodomir subdued the Burgundians, and strengthened his dominion in the West, while Theodorich 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, notwithstanding the vicinity of their frontiers, which at some points ran parallel; a circumstance highly obnoxious to France, which, before long, strove to crush the neighbouring state with an unremitting animosity equalling 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 resemblance 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 related 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 ambition 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 defeated 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 Scheidingen, in 529. A plot, laid by Iring, a cunning Thuringian, who attempted to sow discord between the allies by persuad­ing 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 conversation with him on the castle wall, on which they were walking, he had him suddenly pushed, as if accidentally, down the precipice. Thus ended the unfortunate dynasty of the kings of Thuringia, in 530.

The northern part of the country fell a prey to the Saxons, and the Franks seized that to the south of the Unstrutt, but during the subsequent disturbances in France, Thuringia regained much of her former independence, and was again governed by heathen dukes, who paid an annual tribute of five hundred pigs to the Austrasian 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 Berthar, 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 splendour, 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 honoured 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. Theodo­rich 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 evidently 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 country 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, married her waiting-woman, who, being mocked, on account of the awkwardness with which she moved in her royal robes, by her little stepson, Siegerich, revenged herself by persuading his father to murder him in his sleep. The Burgundians, horrorstruck 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 discovered, and he was carried to Orleans, where he was murdered, and his wife and child were drowned in a well, in 524. His uncle Godemar, meanwhile, headed the Burgundians against the Franks, and Chlodomir was defeated and killed. Chlotilda, undeterred by the fate of her son, continued 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 ambitious 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 favour of his brother, Theodorich, 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, in the hope of winning them over. They were now cruelly persecuted by Himerich, who condemned Iodocus, 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 cap­tive, fled for protection from his tyranny to the sepulchre at Jerusalem. At length, the warlike Moors of Mount Atlas, taking advantage of his unpopularity, poured in thousands from their valleys, and carried on a war of extermination against the strangers of the North, AD 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. Trasa­mund 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, AD 533. Ammatas, 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 treas­ure 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 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 Stotzas, 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 himself 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 War—Vitigis

 

The downfall of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy was partly occasioned by similar causes. The death of Theodorich 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. Amalaswintha, 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 degrading 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 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 gov­ernment 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 zealously 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 rendered null by his subjects, who, despising him for his cowardice, 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, in 636, forced Malasuntha, the daughter of Amalaswintha, to become his wife, and sent ambassadors 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 plundered 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 furiously attacked, but were repulsed with great loss by Beli­sarius, 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 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 dis­asters 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 fortified 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 Romans. 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 profess­ing Christianity, he afforded another striking proof of the ferocity of the times, by offering, according to pagan custom, 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 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 honour. The extreme beauty of the Gothic women is highly extolled by a Greek writer of that age, AD 539.

 

LXXXVI. Totilas—Tejas—Fall 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, Vitalus 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, AD 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 approaching downfall of his kingdom. Undeterred by this prophecy, he attacked and took Naples, and captured the great Grecian 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 distribution 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 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 demolishing 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 daughter 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 Gepidae 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 Gepidae, 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 blood­stained 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, 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 Narses, 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. Barri­cading 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 valiant 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 favourable, 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 Longobardi under more experienced leaders. They divided into two enormous hordes, commanded by Leutharis and Butilinus, the former of which coasted the Mediterranean, the latter the Adriatic. These hordes were composed of foot-sol­diers, 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 surrounded and cut to pieces by ITarses, five men alone escaping the fate of their comrades, AD 554. In the following year, Ragnarig, 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 tyrannical conduct of the Romans toward their former masters, the German land-owners, now scattered throughout the country, and the insolence of the German mercenaries, sufficiently account for the futile revolts of the Goths under Widinus and Amingus in Verona, AD 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, AD 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 Gepidae

 

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, proposed 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 Longobardi, 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 neighbourhood, 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 Hellehard, a halbert. They are supposed to have formerly settled on the extensive corn-lands now surrounding Magdeburg. Although conscious of their common origin, they kept apart from the Suevian confeder­cy, and notwithstanding their numerical inferiority, maintained their independence among the Saxons (some of whom migrated with them to Italy) by means of their extraordinary 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 successor, and founded a royal dynasty. The family of the Welfs claims a similar origin. After the cessation of the mi­grations, the Longobardi are first mentioned as a powerful nation in the neighbourhood of the Rugii, Scirri, and Gepidae, 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 them­selves 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, at­tacked 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 afterward entered into alliance with Constantinople in 500, where their king, Graitis, received baptism, and was consequently murdered on his return by his pagan subjects, who, in order to strengthen their party, sent to Thule, Scandina­via, their ancient birthplace, (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 nation were unable to maintain their independence imassisted and alone, and finally became incorporated with their allies the Gepidae. The Christian Heruli long served with distinc­tion under the Greek emperors, as mercenaries against the Persians, Vandals, and Goths.

The Gepidae 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 in history speaks greatly to their praise. Although continually at feud with the Ostrogoths, they maintained their independence; and when Ildechis, 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 in 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, notwith­standing, powerless to save the life of the unfortunate Ildechis, who was murdered by his enemies. Wacho was succeeded 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 honour, at his father's 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 seduction of his daughter, Rosamunda), and the whole nation of the Gepidse was incorporated with that of the Longobardi, AD 566.

 

LXXXVIII. Alboin in Italy

 

In 552, a number of the Longobardi accompanied Farses 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 Longobardi 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, AD 568, and for the first time beheld the immense 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 themselves 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 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, AD 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 Hie 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, with­out hesitation, sacrificed her honour 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 con­sented 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 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, discovering her treachery, he forced her to drain it to the dregs, and to share his fate, AD 573.

The Saxons, dissatisfied with the treatment they received from the Longobardi, quitted Italy, and being defeated during 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 num­ber of independent dukes, who invaded France, in 576, and were defeated in the mountains by Mummulus. In the en­suing 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, AD 577. The dukes, apprehending a double invasion on the part of France and Greece, AD 684, now elected another 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 Theodo­linda, the beautiful and pious daughter of Garibald, in marriage, 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 battle-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, protected by his fortresses, was victorious. The Franks, har­assed 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, in 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 coin­cided 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 mar­riages 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.

The new kingdom extended from Savoy to the Frioul, and from the Southern Tyrol to Benevento. A part of Upper Italy, the cities of Ravenna, Rome, and Naples, with Cala­bria and Sicily, alone remained in the hands of the Greeks, and formed an exarchate, of which Ravenna was the capi­tal. 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 almost 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 Longobardi, whose invasion of the country had driven fresh fugitives to the little islands in the Lagune, first peopled by refugees in the time of Attila.

Agilulf died, and Adelwald, his youthful son and successor, rendering himself obnoxious, was murdered by his subjects, AD 615, who, in gratitude for the benefits conferred on them by Theodolinda, elected Ariowald, the hus­band of her daughter, Gerberga, as her successor on the throne, AD 625.

 

XC. The Crimes of the Merovingians

 

The success of the Frankish kings of the race of Merowig, 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 oppression and murder, and the bloody feuds between the numerous descendants of Chlodwig, each of whom, dissatisfied with his portion, grasped at the whole of the immense Inheritance, equalled in treachery and cold-blooded cruelty the horrors they had already enacted in their wars with neighbouring nations. Some of these feuds may have arisen from an idea of the political unity of the nation being necessary 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 barbar­ous, 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 Clodomir, two of the four sons of Chlodwig, by their brethren, Childebert 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 suddenly protested against the injustice of the war, and threat­ened to put their king to death unless he desisted from it; but it was not until his tent had been destroyed by the enraged multitude that Chlotar yielded and terminated the campaign.

Chlotar was succeeded by his four sons, AD 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 de­pravity of the four sons of Chlodwig into the shade. Never has one family amassed such a heritage of crime! The nation, influenced by the changes consequent in the introduction of the feudal system, either beheld with indifference or favoured 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 in general they required no stronger incentive than the hope of booty; while the clergy, ever on the watch for an opportunity 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 filled all France with her fame, and the heart of Chilperich, king of Soissons, with envy. This wretch had already sac­rificed his wife Audodeva and her two children to his mis­tress, 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 in Soissons and the reception of her rich dower, and a few days after the commission of this crime proclaimed his artful mistress queen. He the suddenly entered the territory of Sigebert 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, consequences of disunion; but her voice was unheard. The war proved disastrous to Chiperich, 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 assassins in the pay of his treacherous brother, AD 676, who, taking advantage of the consternation caused by this event, re-entered the city, placed himself at the head of the Neustrians, 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 murderers 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 hus­band, had already prepared for death, when a deliverer ap­peared in the person of Merowich, the son of Chilperich, who happening to see the beautiful prisoner at Rouen, be­came deeply enamoured 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 Pretextatus, who pronounced the nuptial benediction, the lovers escaped to Austrasia, where the great vassals of the crown, unwilling to place their youthful sovereign under the guardianship of a stepfather, 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 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 majordomus, which was by chance discovered by Chilperich, who, one day entering her room softly when she was dressing, heard her utter the name of Landerich, for whom she had mis­taken him, but not daring to put her to death, was himself shortly afterward deprived of life by her adherents, when following the chase, AD 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 Megaera, sent embassadors to Childebert of Austrasia, and an interview took place between them on a bridge, when the childless old man, tenderly embracing his nephew, declared him his heir, hop­ing, 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 became gradually infected with the egotism and cruelty char­acteristic 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 Austrasia, 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, 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, neverthe­less, only reached her aim on the death of Guntram, a AD 595, when she and her paramour, Landerich, set up a claim to the throne of Burgundy, in opposition to that of Brunehilda 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. This youthful monarch, basely deserted by the Burgundian no­bles, whom Landerich had bribed by lavishing upon them the accumulated treasures of the Merovingian kings, died shortly after his defeat at Soissons, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by Brunehilda, who coveted the possession 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 Theuderich, 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 re­venge, stirred up the Avari and the Saxons, who invaded Thuringia in 596, but, before the contest was decided, her criminal existence reached its close.

 

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. Brunehilda, deprived of one object of her hatred by the death of her old enemy, Fredegunda, now sought to revenge herself upon the Austrasian nobles by whom her influence had formerly been impaired, and after causing Aegila, the majordomus, 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 tyrannical and licentious inclinations manifested by her grand­son 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 exist­ence to a miller, and a quarrel had already broken out between 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 denounced 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 Theu­derich 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, AD 612. Theuderich, inspirited by this success, now invaded Neustria, and Brunehilda was gloating on the prospect of speedily sating her revenge on Chlotar the Second, whose mother death had placed beyond her reach, when the retribution so long delayed at length burst upon her head. Theuderich, 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 illegitimacy, 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 hateful grandmother, who soon after revenged herself by ad­ministering poison to him.

Theuderich left four sons, still in their infancy. Sigebert, the eldest, was placed by Brunehilda, who intended to govern in his name, on the throne of Austrasia, but her expectations 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 Austrasians against the Neustrians. The fidelity of Warnachar, her majordomus, 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 Visigothic princess whose arrival in France was attended with such splendour, and hailed with such universal delight. Her crimes were visited upon her descendants. Sigebert and his second brother, Corvus, were mur­dered 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 previously 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 Frickthal), 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 chaussées 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 Fredegunda, 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 Meroving. 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 sceptre of Chlotar the Second, and convoking a general state assembly at Paris, in 625, compelled him to render the feofs hereditary and to grant fresh privileges to the clergy, who 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 sceptre 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, AD 611, and after slaying Gisulph, the grand-duke, 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 enamoured of his beauty, offered, regardless alike of honour and duty, to betray the city into his hands on condition of being made his wife. The compact was made and fulfilled. The city was delivered up, and Cacan took Romilda with her four sons and four daugh­ters into Hungary, where the marriage was celebrated; but on the following morning, with a perfidy worthy of the hus­band 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, pre­served their honour 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 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 being left to her choice, which fell upon Rotharis, a man dis­tinguished for prudence. He bestowed an admirable code of laws upon Lombardy. On his death, AD 643, the Lom­bards, 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, AD 654. His sons, Bertarit and Godebert, disputed the succession, 661, and a struggle ensued between the rival parties, which terminated at Benevento in favour of the Lombards.

The brave little Grimoald was adopted by Duke Arigil of Benevento, and became a famous warrior. He greatly distinguished himself, under the command of his patron, against the Greeks in Lower Italy, and, on succeeding to the throne of Benevento, declared in favour of King Godebert. A man who was secretly in the pay of King Bertarit succeeded, however, in persuading the two friends that each was plot­ting the other's destruction, alleging, in support of his assertion, that each wore armour 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 supposed enemy, thinking to save his own life. Bertarit still maintain his right but the Lombards, persuaded of Grimoald's innocence, placed him on the throne. Constans, the Greek emperor, taking advantage of the discord that prevailed in Lombardy, marched thither in person from Naples and laid siege to Benevento, which was, at that time, defended by Romuald, whose father, Grimoald, was engaged in the north, but who dispatched Sesuald, his trusty adherent, at the head of some troops, to his assistance. Sesuald fell into the hands of the emperor, who promised to load him with honour 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! Grimoald approaches!" 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 entreaties, 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, AD 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 colours, within sight 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, AD 671, the Lombards recalled the exiled Bertarit, and Romuald contented himself with the pos­session of Benevento. Cunibert, the son of Bertarit, was greatly disquieted by the rebellious dukes, and his son, Liutprand, was set aside by Reginhart, a descendant of Godebert. 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 eye­sight, 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 en­counter 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, AD 711. Ansbrand mounted the throne, and was succeeded by his son Liutprand, who gave laws to the Lombards favouring the emancipation of the slaves, in order better to dispose the ancient Roman inhabi­tants toward the Lombard rule. He also projected the conquest of the whole of Italy, where the Romans were attempting 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 succeeded 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.

 

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 Childebert, hastening to avenge her wrongs, slew Amalarich near Narbonne, AD 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 Aegila, who was deposed by Athanagild, the father of the celebrated Brunehilda, whose successors were Liuba and Lowigild, a furious tyrant, against whom the Basques, in the Pyrenees, rebelled. His son, Hermenegild, married Ingimdis, 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, revolted by this treatment of his young wife, refused to em­brace 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 nation reduced to submission. Hermenegild surrendered himself to his father, who condemned and put him to death. The Catholics worshiped him as a saint. Ingundis, while attempting to escape by sea into Trance, fell into the hands of the Greeks, and died in Africa, AD 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 Visigoths 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, AD 590, headed by Goiswinda 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 lowering 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 importance 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 obnox­ious 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 without a violent struggle, were murdered by their rebellious subjects, or dethroned by a successful rival; the ecclesiastical 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 neighbours, 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; Chindasvinth, who, by putting 500 nobles to death, annihilated the power of the ancient aristocracy AD 652; and Reccesvinth, who chastised the Basques, and restrained the hierarchical power by reinstating that of the dukes, AD 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, AD 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, AD 698. His unbridled licentiousness rendering him obnoxious to the people, an insurrection broke out, and Roderick was elected in his stead, against whom the eon of Witiza and Count Julianus conspired. Roderick is said to have dishonoured 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 Jeres de la Frontera. The victory was at length decided on the eighth day in favour 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 despoiled, 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 unavailing. 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 warriors 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 Asi­atic nations by superior elevation of character and fervour 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 philosopher, were lost amid the burning wastes of Asia. The Asiatic, 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 stem and inflexible law. The religion of love 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, manners, and daily life.

Christianity was first imbued with an Asiatic character by the Arabians, the most imaginative of the Eastern nations. 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 Mohammedanism, 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 sen­sual pleasures. In 622 the Mahometan war of proselytism commenced. The accordance of Islamism with the Asiatic character, the heroic deeds of Mahomet, the valour and enthusiasm 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 favour, even while still opposing them sword in hand. Islamism, 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, took Constantinople, Sicily and Spain, 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 without its influence on Germanized and Christianized Europe. The appearance of the Moors and their new religion interrupted 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 vassals, 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, mathe­matics, 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 splendour of the caliphate, 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 Longobardi, to Italy, Britain was also newly peopled by Germans. The Romans had been obliged to quit this island, never entirely subdued by them, order to defend their empire from the irruptions of the barbarians, and the ancient inhabitants, the Britons in the south and the Scots in the north, were disputing its possession, when Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon leaders, landed with a considerable force on the coast, AD 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 compelled to retreat to their mountains. They settled in the country, and Vortigern contracted a marriage with Rowena, the beautiful daughter of Hengist. Their friendship, however, 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, AD 455, the first Saxon kingdom founded in Britain, where, notwith­standing 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 mountains of Wales, and others, escaping to the coast of France, gave name to Brittany. The Britons, ennobled by misfortune, 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 Homans, 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 endeavour 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 consequence 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 assigned 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 centuries 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.