The Historians' History of the World 07

Ludwig’s[140] independent sovereignty commenced at a moment of great national disaster. In the year 845 King Horik of Denmark, who had a large fleet of Norse pirate vessels at his disposal, commenced a general attack upon all the maritime provinces of the Frankish Empire. One division of his fleet, amounting, it is said, to six hundred ships, sailed up the mouth of the Elbe and made an unexpected assault upon Hamburg, the seat of missionary activity in the Scandinavian north. The city was taken and burned to the ground before the local levies (Heerbann) could hasten from the surrounding country to its aid. Many of the inhabitants fell by the Northmen’s swords, the rest were scattered or perished as they fled. Bishop Anskar sought refuge for himself and his books and relics in the desolate moorland between the Elbe and Weser. Another detachment of the Norman fleet wrought hideous havoc in the kingdom of the West Franks; Paris was committed to the flames and most of its inhabitants slaughtered by the Northmen. King Charles the Bald went so far as to collect an army, but he did not dare to confront the invaders; indeed, he was well content to procure the withdrawal of the pirates—who dreaded the vengeance of the patron saints of the churches they had plundered and burned far more than the Frankish arrière-ban

—by the payment of a considerable sum of money. The Northmen carried home with them from their raid a deadly pestilence, to which King Horik himself succumbed after grievous suffering. Before his death he sent an embassy to Ludwig the German to entreat his pardon for the destruction of Hamburg, at the same time promising to restore the prisoners and booty.

The Northmen repeated their incursion no later than the following year. They respected the dominions of Ludwig the German, but ravaged the whole coast of western France as far as Bordeaux. The Saracens pillaged the coasts of Italy at the same time; it seemed as though the Norman pirate excursions had emboldened them to similar enterprises. From Africa their fleet sailed to Rome and took the city on the right bank of the Tiber, including the church of St. Peter. They then marched into south Italy, pillaging and slaughtering as they went. On the return voyage a storm at sea sent part of the fleet to the bottom of the Mediterranean, and the Christian world saw the avenging hand of God in their destruction. On the other hand, it was keenly alive to the shame of knowing that Rome and other famous holy places had fallen into the hands of the infidels.

WAR WITH THE SLAVONIC TRIBES

At this time King Ludwig was engaged in war with the Slavonic tribes. As early as the year 845 he had not been able to keep the Abodrites in subjection except by force. At the beginning of 846 he conquered a Slavonic tribe on the Elbe which we cannot more closely identify, and then took the field against the Moravians, whose duke, Moimir, was suspected of contemplating rebellion. Ludwig deposed the duke, and nominated his nephew Ratislaw as his successor. On his return march the king took the way through Bohemia, where, in mountainous ground and the depths of the forest, he found himself suddenly assailed by the Czechs, and the German army suffered severely before it could escape from the ambush. Immediately afterwards the Bohemians, who up to this time had been nominally subject to Frankish dominion, proceeded to open hostilities against the kingdom of the East Franks, and Ludwig consequently found himself under the necessity of undertaking a great expedition against them in the year 849. He himself was prevented by sickness from taking part in the campaign, and was obliged to send his army into the field under the leadership of several counts who were at variance among themselves. These commanders, after gaining some slight preliminary advantages, suffered heavy loss in men amongst the forests of Bohemia, and were actually compelled to give hostages to the Bohemians to insure their own return home unmolested. This occurrence aroused the profoundest indignation among the East Frank people, who had hitherto gloried in their military reputation above all things.