The Historians' History of the World 07

From the year 877 onwards Ludwig the Younger, second son of Ludwig the German, reigned practically alone, and ruled with great vigour and sagacity. He first came to a good understanding with the kingdom of the West Franks, where a son of Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, had ascended the throne. The weak health of the latter prevented him from conducting the war in person, and he therefore endeavoured to come to terms with the eastern kingdom. For this purpose he met Ludwig the Younger at Fouron in the north of Lorraine, and in an interview at that place ratified the treaty concluded with the king of the East Franks at Mersen in 870 and resigned all pretensions to the imperial dignity. Almost immediately after the king of the West Franks fell ill of a grievous malady, of which he died in the following year, leaving as heirs to his kingdom two sons still under age. Hence the ambitious King Ludwig the Younger readily conceived the idea of winning the Austrasian crown for himself and so uniting all the dominions of Charlemagne once more under his own sceptre. The same idea suggested itself to many a West Frankish noble. The influential abbot Gauzlin of St. Germains and Count Conrad of Paris tried to convince their fellow-countrymen that Ludwig the Younger, whose prowess in the battle of Andernach was still held in the liveliest remembrance, ought to be chosen king. A large number of nobles, having arrived in council at a resolution to this effect, sent messengers to invite Ludwig to take possession of the country. He replied by entering it at the head of an army, but failed to find favour in the eyes of the people because he allowed his soldiers to pillage as ruthlessly as the Normans had done. There was another party among the Austrasian nobles, who desired to preserve the crown to the sons of Louis the Stammerer. They therefore offered Ludwig the Younger compensation in the form of the western part of Lorraine, which had fallen to the share of the western kingdom in the Treaty of Mersen. He acquiesced in this arrangement, and the crown was conferred on Louis and Carloman, the sons of Louis the Stammerer, conjointly. But the misery of the western kingdom was only just beginning. Boson, the ambitious count of Provence, son-in-law of the emperor Ludwig II, rebelled and exalted his county into an independent kingdom, and an important part of the monarchy was thus lost. And, to add evil to evil, the Normans renewed their pirate incursions.

[879-882 A.D.]

After the conclusion of the treaty Ludwig the Younger proceeded to Bavaria, to secure the heritage of his brother, who, though sick to death, was still alive; and deprived the impotent ruler of his dominion, leaving him only his estates. Returning from Bavaria to the western portion of his kingdom, he again conceived the idea of conquering the neighbour state with which he had just concluded a treaty. He marched into the country, and came everywhere upon the traces of Norse devastations. Even the local nobles held aloof from him, and he realised that this was no time for the Frankish Empire to rend its own flesh in fratricidal strife, but that all its united forces ought to be directed towards expelling the pirates from its borders. For this reason when he found himself confronted by a West Frankish army he did not offer battle but professed his readiness to renew the peace. A fresh compact was made in 880, by which Ludwig again renounced his pretensions to the western kingdom in return for the cession of some frontier districts in Lorraine. By this agreement four Lorraine bishoprics—Liège, Cambray, Toul, and Verdun—fell to the eastern kingdom. The boundary line now started from the Schelde, and thence passed over to the Maas where that river makes its way out of the Ardennes, then trended westwards in a wide sweep, running about halfway between the Maas and Marne, and finally turned towards the southern end of Alsace. By this treaty the whole of Lorraine passed to Germany, and her predominance was thus assured for a long time to come.

Ludwig the Younger promptly set to work to rid his territory of the Northern pirates. The latter had established themselves at the mouth of the Schelde, where they had constructed strong bulwarks, behind which they were wont to place their ships in shelter while they perpetrated their ravages upon the country. Godefrid, king of the Danes, was even then making his way back to his ships, laden with rich spoils from a raid inland. Ludwig overtook the robber horde on the march, and inflicted such a severe defeat upon them that five thousand of the enemy were left on the field and the remainder took to flight.