The Frankish Empire

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ITALY AND HER INVADERS HODGKIN

HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBUSHBR TO THB UNIVERSITY OH OXFORD

LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK

Sec l^ol. mi. l>. t6i)

ITALY AND

HER INVADERS 774-814 BY

THOMAS

HODGKIN

B.C.L., Oxford and Durham Litt.D., Dublin FBLLOW OF UNIVEBSITY COLLEOB, LONDON

VOLUME YIII Book IX.

THE PBANKI8H EMBIBE

WITH JllVSTBATlONS

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DOCC XOIX

( AT TDK CLAMKNtfON FRXSS tty Hn«Af It HAKt, M.A. rifiNttitt to ttitt UMivftioiity

CONTENTS.

BOOK IX. THK FRANKISH EMPIRE.

CHAPTER L THE PONTIFICATE OF HADRIAN.

FranUsh and Sysmtine Affairs. A. I>.

PARE

Authorities ..... i (j Peh. 772-20 Dec. 795. Pope Hadrian’s long pontificate. i 772-804 Charles the Great’s Thirty Years’War with the Saxons ..... 3-3 791-796 His war with the Avars .... 4-5 787-788 His war with Tassilo of Bavaria . . . s 778 His war in Spain. Eonoesvalles ... 5 Charles’s family relations .... 5-8 775 Byzantine affairs. Constantine V succeeded by Leo IV (the Khazar) .... 8 780 His death. Accession of Constantine VI and Irene ...■•• 9 781 Marriage treaty: the Emperor and the daughter of Charles . . • • • n-iS 787 Iconoolasm defeated. Second Nicene Council . 14 790 Charles condemns the worship of images. The Libri Oarolini . • • * >7 794 Council of Erankfiirt . ■ • • Hadrian declines to condemn the Second Nicene Council , , . . • *9

VI

Contents. C3HAPTEE H. THE POHTIFIOATB OE HADBIAN.

ItaUm Affairs. PAOR

Authorities. Erchempert,ChroniconSalernitanum 21-22 Charles, king of the Lombards . . * 22-24 Notes on Charles's correspondence withHadrian:— I. Hadrian’s complaints about Leo, arch¬ bishop of Eavenna . . . 24-28 II. The duchy of Spoleto: shall it * commend’ itself to Hadrian or to Charles ? . 28-31 IIL Case of Castellum relicitatis . . 3 ^^33 IV. Case of the Pope’s messengers, Gausfrid and Anastasius , . , V. Affair of Hrodgaud of Priuli and alleged anti-Prankish confederacy . . 36-^39 776 VL Overthrow of Hrodgaud. . . 39““4* 776-778 VIL Two years’ break in the correspondence 41-43 VIII. Hadrian alludes to the ‘Donation of Constantine ’ . . . 43"’44 IX, Distressed condition of Italy . . 45 X. Affairs of Istria , . . .46 XI. Affairs of Venetia . . 47 XII. Affairs of Eavenna . . . 47“S, 797-803

Contents. Eeign of Irene as sole Empress n. Aachm. Table of the Family of Charles the Great .... Situation of Aquae Grani (Aachen). Its hot springs ..... Charles’s palace and church . His personal appearance, habits, and literary tastes ..... His piety and rebuke of the worldliness of the clergy .... His family relations .... His fnendship for learned men List of fictitious names adopted by Charles and his friends .... Paulus Diaconus .... PetrusPisanus: his contest of wits with Paulus Alcuin ..... Angilbert ..... Angilbert’s poetry. A hunting scene at Aachen ..... Theodulf ..... Theodulfs poem ^ Ad Indices ’ Theodulfs poem ‘Ad Carolum Eegem.’ His satirical description of the courtiers Literary atmosphere of Charles’s court

PAGE 119-122 123 124-126 126-127 12 7-130 131-133 133-135 135 136 I37-I39 I39-14I 143-149 150-152 153 155 157-159 160-163 163

CHAPTEE V. POPE AND EMPEEOR.

Authorities . . . , . 165 27 Dec. 795 Elevation of Pope Leo HE . 166 His correspondence with Charles 167-169 His unpopularity at Eome . 170 Conspiracy of Paschalis and Campulus 170 25 Apr. 799 Savage attack by tke conspirators on the Pope 171-173 He escapes from his captors and takes refuge at Charles’s court 173-174 Connection of this visit with the revival of the imperial idea 176

Contents. A. D.

IX

PAGE

Alcuin utters the word ^ Imperator ’. Leo’s return to Eome Greek embassies to Aachen . Death of Gerold and Eric 800 Charles visits Neustria 4 June Death of his wife Liutgarda . 24 Nov. Charles’s fourth visit to Eome 3 Dec. The Pope exculpates himself from the charges brought against him by the conspirators Paschalis and Campulus condemned. 25 Dec. Charles the Great worships at St. Peter’s. Description of the building He is crowned by the Pope and saluted by the Eoman people as Augustus 801 He spends the winter in Italy and returns to Germany after Easter . Meaning of the transaction of Christmas Day, 800 ..... Charles’s reluctance to be thus crowned was not affected .... The Pope’s share in the ceremony formed a dangerous precedent

177 180 181 182 184 185 186 187 188 I9O-I94 194-196 197-198 198-200 200-204 203-205

OHAPTEE VI. CHABLSe AXD IBEirii.

Authorities . . ♦ • .206 Charles’s employments during the last four* teen years of his life . . . 206-207 The new oath of fidelity to be sworn by his subjects ..... 207 804 End of the Saxon war . . . 208 Second visit of Leo III to Charles’s court . 209 Wars with Denmark .... 209 Kelations with Constantinople. Scheme for marriage with Irene . . . 210-214 31 Oct. 802 Irene deposed. Nicephorus Emperor . 214-216 Charles serenely acquiesces in her downfall . 217

Contents.

X

CHAPTER VIL VENICE. A. D.

801-2

804 806

810

8 July

Authorities. Joannes Diaconus; Chronicon Altinate; Chronicon Gradense . . Character of Nicephorus • • • He sends an embassy to Charles . . The negotiations broken ofp . . . Venice in the eighth century . . . The young Duke Mauritius II murders John, patriarch of Grade . . . Mauritius and his father deposed • . Obelerius duke . . . . Venetia and Dalmatia subject to Charles . A Byzantine fleet in the Adriatic • . Venice submits to the Eastern Empire . Demolition of Heraclea . . . Pippin, king of Italy, invades Venetia and makes the Venetians tributary . . Legendary account of this invasion . . Foundation of the new Venice on the Eialto. Pippin’s Dalmatian expedition • . His death . . . • , His family ..... Another Byzantine embassy . . . Charles’s letter to Nicephorus . . Charles surrenders Venice and Dalmatia to the Eastern Emperor . . . Obelerius deposed, Agnellus, duke of Venice Importance of these transactions to later history of Venice . , .

218-220 220 221 222 223-228 228 229 229 231 232 232 233 235-237 237-240 241 242 242 243 244 244-245 246 247 248

CHAPTEE Vni. THE PINAL EECOGNITION,

Authorities .... 2 5 July,811 Defeat and death of Nicephorus Accession of Michael Ehangab6 His embassy recognises Charles as Emperor Affairs of Benevento, Wars with Spoleto

250 250 251 253

254-256

Contents.

XI PAGE

A. ».

Death of Grimwald I. Grimwald II accepts the Prankish sovereignty Connection of some Italian cities with the Eastern Empire ....

257

257-253

CHAPTER IX. CAEOLTTS MOETUtrS.

Authorities ..... 259 Charles’s scheme for the partition of his 260 Empire ..... 261 Deaths of the younger Charles and Pippin . ioSept.813 Coronation of Louis the Pious as Emperor . 263-266 267 Omens foretelling Charles’s death 268 28 Jan. 814 Death and burial of Charles the Great 269-270 Lamentations of his people . 271 His canonisation (1165) Note B. On the Entombment of Charles the Great ..... 273-275 CHAPTER X. THE niPE OP THE PEOPLE.

Authorities ..... Later Lombard laws: their increased mildness Oaths; women; slaves Judicial corruption .... Popular lawlessness .... Jealousy of foreigners Effect of the Prankish conquest Dukes replaced by counts Increased power of the Church The Capitularies of Charles the Great Ecclesiastical affairs .... Charles’s championship of the widow and orphan ..... The eightfold ban .... Institution of scdbini .... Institution of mi$$i dominid . Melancholy tone of the Capitularies . Inevitable feudalism».... Triumph of disruptive agencies after Charles’s death Conclusion

276 277 278-280 280 281-283 283-285 285 286 286-287 287 288 291 291- 292 292- 294 294-298 298-299 300 302 3 Bp. 86. ^ Epp. 84 and 85*

76

The Pofitificp alac(! in Champagne, or whether they set up for themselves as an independent kingdom?

Perhaps they will do

well if they can accomplish this.

We too, I and Jiiy

Bavarians, are not too deeply enamoured of the nde of these domineering Franks.’ But however insolent was the defiance thus thrown in the face of Pippin, that monarch, now waxing old and infirm, was too closely occupied by the long war with Aquitaine to have leisure to accept the challongtj of Tassilo. At his death in 768, Bavaria under its Agilolfing duke must be considered as having been practically independent, ' Hiltrudis, wife of Otilo.,

Tassilo was probably alrently ’ See vol. vii. p, 87 a.

Independent position of Tassilo.

-99

at that date married to Liutperga, daughter of De-

bk. ix.

siderius \ Then came the good queen Bertrada’s journey to Bertmda’s Ratisbon and to Pavia^ (770), the marriage-treaty which re^noiHashe concluded for her son with the delicate daughter of Desiderius, the short-lived league of friendship between Prank, Lombard and Bavarian, It seems that, as far as Charles and Tassilo were concerned, the way had been prepared for this reconcUiation by Sturmi, abbot ofsimmi Fulda, successor of the great Boniface. Intent on his obariea great work of the Christianisation of the Saxons, he siio into desired that the energies of the Frankish king bywltr^no whom that work had to be accomplished should not be frittered away on needless wars in the south of Germany. Himself a Bavarian by birth, he undertook a mission from Charles to his native prince, and was 7^9 so successful in his diplomacy that he established a peace between the two cousins which lasted for many years, and which apparently was not shaken by the repudiation of Desiderata, perhaps not even by the overthrow and exile of Desiderius®, One evidence of the long continuance of this friendship is furnished by the fact that in 778 he sent a detachment of soldiers to serve under Charles in that Spanish campaign which ended in the disaster of Roncesvalles ^ ‘ ‘ Probably in one of the “ sixty” years of the eighth century,’ says Abel (i. 58, n. 5), ‘not earlier than 764 and not later than 769.’ * See vol. vii. p. 313. * ‘ Vixit deincepa sanetus Sturmi in gratia venerandi regis Karoli omne tempus vitae suae, niis quoque temporibus, suscepM legatione inter Eiarolum regem Francorum et Thasilonem Noricae provinciae ducem, per plures annos inter ipos amicitiam statuit ’ (VitaS. Sturmi, 22 ; ap. Pertz, ii. 376). * Annales Laurissenses, s. a. 778.

Tassilo of Bavaria.

100

BK. IX. Oh. 8. Tassilo’s airs of senii-sove-

■ But during all this time Tassilo was assuming the style of an independent sovereign. He summoned synods, over which he presided; he left out the name of Charles and inserted his own in public documents; he even ventured to speak in them of ‘ the year of my kingship V

Through the whole of this period Bavaria

seems to have been prospering under his wise and states¬ manlike rule. In the East he subdued and converted to Christianity the I’ough Sclovenes of Carinthia; in the South he recovered, probably by friendly arrangement with Desiderius, the places in the valley of the Adige which had been taken from his aucestoi’s by Liutprand“. As a reward for his acknowledged services to Chris¬ tianity, Tassilo’s son Theodo (whfun he made the partner of his throne in 777) was in 770 baptized at Growing oHtrangement.

Kome by Hadrian On all this increase of reputation and territory, however, Charles was not likely to look with favouring eye, so long as he must entertain the painful thought that this fair Danubian laiul, which had owned the sovereignty of the weakest Merovings, was daily slipping

Embassy from Charles and Ha¬ drian to Tassilo, 781.

from his gi’asp.

On his second visit to Rome (781) he

appears to have discussed l^jivarian affairs with his Papal host, and the resixlt of tlioir con vernation was the despatch of a joint embassy to TjissiIo (two bishops sent by the Pope, a deacon and grand butler by the king), ‘ to remind Duke Tassilo of the oaths which he ' Abel, i, 62, n. i; Waltz, V»rf.*Uotich. lit. 106, n. i. * Abel, i. 69i n. 6: who reniarka that the fact of this retroceesion of territory being one of tiie conditions of the marriage of Liutperga is often stated too positivoiy. ' Annates Admunienses (apud Periz, ix. 572): only a twelftli* century authority (quoted by Abel, I. 132).

A hollow Truce,

lor

bad sworn long ago, and to warn him not to act

ix.

otherwise than as he had sworn to the lords Pippin and -— Charles. And when these ambassajiors in pursuance of their instructions had spoken with the aforesaid duke, so greatly was his heart softened, that he declared his willingness at once to proceed to the presence of the king ’ (who had by this time returned to Frank-land), ‘if such hostages could be given as would leave him no doubt of his safety.

On receipt

of these hostages he went promptly to the king at "Worms, swore the prescribed oath, and gave the twelve hostages who were required at his hands for the fulfilment of his promises, and whom Sindbert, bishop of Eatisbon, brought into the king’s presence. But the said duke returning to his home did not long remain in the faith which he had sworn h’ The hollow truce thus concluded lasted for six years, a hoiiow till Charles’s third visit to Rome. By this time he^^j-^’sv. had, as he thought, thoroughly subdued the Saxons. Widukind had been baptized, and for the time there was peace in North Germany. In Italy, too, Arichis of Benevento had without bloodshed been bi’ought to his knees, nor had his brother-in-law of Bavaria apparently stretched out a hand to help him. Yet Tassilo seems to have known that his position was insecure; he sent accordingly two envoys, Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and Hunric, abbot of Mond See, to beg the Pope to reconcile him with King Charles. The Pope seems to have honestly done his best to Papal bring about the desired reconciliation. He earnestly****^***"’”' besought Charles to renew friendly relations with his cousin of Bavaria. ‘The very thing that I desire,’answ^ered ’ Ann. Laurissenses, b. a., combined with Ann. EinhardL VOIi. VIII,

I

103

BK. IX.

Tassilo of Bavaria.

Charles: ‘ I have been long seeking for the re-establish -

—ment of peace between us, but have not been able to accomplish it.’ Tbe envoys were called in, but when the Pope proceeded to examine them as to the conditions which Tassilo was willing to accept, it appeared that they were in no sense plenipotentiaries, and had no other commission than simply to hear and cairy back to their master the words of the king and pontiff.

At

this Pope Hadrian, not without cause, lost his temper. ‘ Unstable and mendacious, false and fraudulent,’ were the words which burst from his lijis: and he proceetled to pronounce the anathema of the Oliurch on Tassilo and aU his followers unless he fulhlled to the letter the promise of obedience which he had sworn to Pippin a.n Biarries Desiderata, daughter of Desiderius, vii. 314 ; repudiates Desiderata, vii. 326 ; prompt measures for securing Carloman’s shave of the kingdom, (771), vii. 348; invades Italy (773), vii. 366-309; begins the siege of Pavia, vii, 369; takes Verona, vii. 369; his first visit to Home, vii. 373377; his appearance, vii. 376; bis < donation ’ to Hadrian, vii. 377-380 ; takes Pavia, vii. 380; his Saxon wars, viii. 2-4, 40; enters Italy (776) and defeats Hrodgaud of Friuli, viii. 40 ; his second visit to Borne (781), viii. 53-55, 100; negotiations with Con¬ stantinople for maiTiage of his daughter to Constantine, viii. n, 54, 71 ; his third visit to Rome (787), viii. 69-71; restores Grimwald of Benevento to his home, viii. So; his campaign against the Avars, viii. 87; Council of Frankfort, viii, 87 ; con¬ spiracy of Pippin the Hunchback, viii. 87; marriage treaty with Offa of Mercia, viii. 88,261; grief for the death of Hadrian, viii. 90; his wars with Tassilo of Bavaria, viii. 102-105; essentially a Bipuarian Frank, viii. 122; fanmy of, viii. 123; desmption of his life at Aachen, viii. 123-164; his personal appearance, dress, and diet^ylii. 127-X30; his literary tastes,

viii. 130-131,135; his relations with the clergy, viii. 131-133 » his family relations, viii. I33-I35» 160-161 ; called David by his friends, viii. 136; list of his courtiers with their nick¬ names, viii. 136 w; his rebuke of clerical worldliness, viii. 162; receives the banner of the City of Rome from Leo III, viii. 169; Leo III seeks refuge at his court (799)» ^47» his fouith visit to Borne (800-801), viii. 185-198; proclaimed Emperor, viii. 194; his alleged reluctance to accept the title, viii. 196, 200-205; legislative activity (802), viii. 207; Leo III again his guest (804), viii. 209; proposes marriage with Irene, viii. 211; his negotiations with the Emperor Nicephorus (803), viii. 231222; thesenegotiationsresumed (811), viii. 244-246; abandons Vcrietia and maritime Dalmatia to the Eastern Emperor, viii. 246-248; receives at last full recognition of his Imjierial title from the envoys of the Eastern Emperor, viii. 253 ; scheme for divi¬ sion of his empire (806), viii, 259261; mortality in his family, viii. 361; coronation of his son Louis (Rl 3), viii. 263-265; testamentary armn^e* ment, viii. 266 ; omens portending his death, viii. 266-267; last illness and death (January 28, 814), viii. 368; burial at Aachen, viii. 268-269 ; ‘Planctus Karoli/ viii. 370; ntory of his disentombment by Otho III, viii. 273-375; canonisation (1165), viii. 271; ‘Translatio’ of his remains, viii, 275. Charles, son of Charles the Great and Hildegard, brought to his father's camp in Italy, vii, 369; described by Angilbert, viii. 152; sent to harry Bardengau (609), viii. 178; anointed king by Leo Ilf (800), vii. 196; share assigned to him in his fathers scheme of partition, vill* 260; quarrel with his brother Pippin, and reocnoiliatlon, viii. 261; death (December 4, 8n)) viii. 361. Charles Martel, maw of the palace (717-741), son of Pippin of Heristal and Alpaida, vii. 48; his name, vii. 40; his life, vii. 49-63; his great victory over the Moors at Poictiers (732), vii. 53-55; wars with the Moors in Septimania and Provence, vii. 55-57; rules without a l