CHAP. IV. external subjection, but it was never thoroughly incor First glimpse of Modern France. 839. 841. porated, far less occupied. Paris, in Merovingian times, was one royal city out of four or five. Under the Karlings Italy and Saxony were first acquired, Aquitaine and Bavaria were for the first time really incorporated. The capital of the Frankish realm, as distinguished from the Roman Empire, was Aachen. The languages of the Empire were Latin and Teutonic; the Romance dialects were still only provincial varieties of Latin. Charles the Great more than once contemplated a division of his Empire, but not one of his proposed divisions at all answered to modern France. Modern France makes its first indistinct appearance in the division on the death of Lewis the Pious. Then, for the first time, Northern and Southern Gaul, Neustria and Aquitaine, were united as the Kingdom of Charles the Bald. Their union was purely accidental. Charles was already King of Neustria, when his father, wishing to enlarge the dominions of his favourite son, added the Kingdom of Aquitaine, which had fallen vacant by the death of his brother Pippin. The hold of Charles and his successors on Aquitaine was exceedingly weak, but the nominal right continued, and, ages afterwards, it became a reality. The Kingdom thus formed by the union of Neustria and Aquitaine was the first germ of modern France. It roughly answers to its geographical extent, and, what is still more to the purpose, we see that a new nation was springing up within it. The language of the people was beginning to be recognized. At the famous treaty of Strassburg, the Austrasian soldiers of 1 1 One writer, Erchempert (Hist. Langobardorum, 11. Pertz, iii. 245), sees only Aquitaine, and leaves out Neustria. "Ab hoc Francorum divisum est regnum, quoniam Lutharius Aquensem et Italicum, Ludoguicus autem Baioarium, Karlus vero, ex aliâ ortus genitrice, Aquitaneum regebat imperium." Observe that Lotharingia here becomes the "Empire of Aachen," and that Saxony and the rest of Germany are merged in Bavaria, as Neustria is in Aquitaine. The form Ludoguicus, with the gu for the w, is worth noting philologically. ORIGIN OF MODERN FRANCE. 175 of Gaul. 843. Lewis swear in Old-High-Dutch, the Neustrian soldiers CHAP. IV. of Charles swear in Romance.1 The language of the oath First glimpses is something which we can no longer call Latin, and of the which we certainly cannot yet call French. Thus this Romance precious document shows us the existence of a Gaul which has ceased to be either Celtic, Latin, or Teutonic; it shows in short that one most important step had been taken towards the creation of modern France. The final settlement of Verdun confirmed the existence of the new Kingdom. The Empire was divided into three Kingdoms, the Western, the Eastern, and the narrow debateable ground between them, known as Lotharingia. This last Kingdom fell to pieces, while the Kingdoms on each side of it grew, flourished, and contended for its fragments. These are the two Kingdoms of the East and the West Franks, which it is already hardly possible to avoid calling by the familiar names of Germany and France. 1360. Neustria and Aquitaine were never again formally separated till the Peace of Bretigny in the fourteenth century. Neustria and Austrasia were never again united Union unexcept during the ephemeral reign of Charles the Fat. That the Fat. 885-888. 3 1 "Lingua Romana," according to Nithard (iii. 5. Pertz, ii. 666). In the next century the language became nationalized, and in Richer (iv. 100, cf. i. zo, iii. 85) it appears as “ lingua Gallica," which becomes its usual later name. lingua I leave to professed philologists to fix the exact relation of the " Romana" of Nithard to French and to Provençal respectively. For my purpose it is enough that it is Romance as distinguished both from Latin and from Teutonic. 2 "Francia Teutonica, Francia Orientalis," Francia Latina, Francia Occidentalis." (See especially Bruno, Bell. Sax. 36, ap. Pertz, vii. 342.) So Liudprand (i. 14, 16), “Franciam quam Romanam dicunt." Sometimes "Occidentales" (see the extract from Richer, p. 173) is equivalent to French, and "Orientales" (Dudo, 130 B) to German, even without the addition of Franci. 3 That is, Aquitaine was, up to the Peace of Bretigny, always held in nominal vassalage to France, but, except during the momentary occupation when Philip the Fair had outwitted Edmund of Lancaster, no Parisian King was immediate sovereign of Bourdeaux till Aquitaine finally lost its independence in the fifteenth century. der Charles CHAP. IV. external subjection, but it was never thoroughly incor First glimpse of Modern France. 839. 841. porated, far less occupied. Paris, in Merovingian times, was one royal city out of four or five. Under the Karlings Italy and Saxony were first acquired, Aquitaine and Bavaria were for the first time really incorporated. The capital of the Frankish realm, as distinguished from the Roman Empire, was Aachen. The languages of the Empire were Latin and Teutonic; the Romance dialects were still only provincial varieties of Latin. Charles the Great more than once contemplated a division of his Empire, but not one of his proposed divisions at all answered to modern France. Modern France makes its first indistinct appearance in the division on the death of Lewis the Pious. Then, for the first time, Northern and Southern Gaul, Neustria and Aquitaine, were united as the Kingdom of Charles the Bald. Their union was purely accidental. Charles was already King of Neustria, when his father, wishing to enlarge the dominions of his favourite son, added the Kingdom of Aquitaine, which had fallen vacant by the death of his brother Pippin. The hold of Charles and his successors on Aquitaine was exceedingly weak, but the nominal right continued, and, ages afterwards, it became a reality. The Kingdom thus formed by the union of Neustria and Aquitaine was the first germ of modern France. It roughly answers to its geographical extent, and, what is still more to the purpose, we see that a new nation was springing up within it. The language of the people was beginning to be recognized. At the famous treaty of Strassburg, the Austrasian soldiers of 1 One writer, Erchempert (Hist. Langobardorum, 11. Pertz, iii. 245), sees only Aquitaine, and leaves out Neustria. "Ab hoc Francorum divisum est regnum, quoniam Lutharius Aquensem et Italicum, Ludoguicus autem Baioarium, Karlus vero, ex aliâ ortus genitrice, Aquitaneum regebat imperium." Observe that Lotharingia here becomes the "Empire of Aachen," and that Saxony and the rest of Germany are merged in Bavaria, as Neustria is in Aquitaine. The form Ludoguicus, with the gu for the w, is worth noting philologically. ORIGIN OF MODERN FRANCE. of Gaul. 175 843. Lewis swear in Old-High-Dutch, the Neustrian soldiers CHAP. IV. of Charles swear in Romance.1 The language of the oath First glimpses is something which we can no longer call Latin, and of the which we certainly cannot yet call French. Thus this Romance precious document shows us the existence of a Gaul which has ceased to be either Celtic, Latin, or Teutonic; it shows in short that one most important step had been taken towards the creation of modern France. The final settlement of Verdun confirmed the existence of the new Kingdom. The Empire was divided into three Kingdoms, the Western, the Eastern, and the narrow debateable ground between them, known as Lotharingia. This last Kingdom fell to pieces, while the Kingdoms on each side of it grew, flourished, and contended for its fragments. These are the two Kingdoms of the East and the West Franks, which it is already hardly possible to avoid calling by the familiar names of Germany and France. 1360. Neustria and Aquitaine were never again formally separated till the Peace of Bretigny in the fourteenth century.3 Neustria and Austrasia were never again united Union unexcept during the ephemeral reign of Charles the Fat. That the Fat. 1 "Lingua Romana," according to Nithard (iii. 5. Pertz, ii. 666). In the next century the language became nationalized, and in Richer (iv. 100, cf. i. 20, iii. 85) it appears as “ lingua Gallica," which becomes its usual later name. I leave to professed philologists to fix the exact relation of the "lingua Romana" of Nithard to French and to Provençal respectively. For my purpose it is enough that it is Romance as distinguished both from Latin and from Teutonic. 2 “Francia Teutonica, Francia Orientalis," Francia Latina, Francia Occidentalis." (See especially Bruno, Bell. Sax. 36, ap. Pertz, vii. 342.) So Liudprand (i. 14, 16), “Franciam quam Romanam dicunt.' Sometimes “Occidentales" (see the extract from Richer, p. 173) is equivalent to French, and "Orientales" (Dudo, 130 B) to German, even without the addition of Franci. 3 That is, Aquitaine was, up to the Peace of Bretigny, always held in nominal vassalage to France, but, except during the momentary occupation when Philip the Fair had outwitted Edmund of Lancaster, no Parisian King was immediate sovereign of Bourdeaux till Aquitaine finally lost its independence in the fifteenth century. der Charles 885-888. CHAP. IV. Emperor, the last who reigned over both the Eastern and the Western Franks,' was deposed by common consent of Division of his various Kingdoms. Four Kingdoms now appeared,2 the Empire. which we can now call by no names but those of Germany, 888. of East and West of Paris. Italy, France, and Burgundy. And now a more important step still was taken in the direction of modern France. Kingdoms The West Franks-we may now almost call them French— took to themselves a new dynasty and a new capital. The Franks. division of 843 first introduced us to a Romance-that Growing importance is, substantially a Celtic-France, as distinguished from the elder Teutonic Francia of the old Frankish Kings. The division of 888 first introduces us to a Capetian and a Parisian France. Since the death of the Great Charles, the city on the Seine, the old home of Julian, had been gradually rising in consequence. It plays an important part during the reign of his son Lewis the Pious. Characteristically enough, Paris first appears in Carolingian history as the scene of a conspiracy against her Teutonic master. There it was that the rebels assembled who seized and imprisoned, and at last deposed, the Paris the pious Emperor. Later in the ninth century Paris acquired wark a more honourable renown; she became the bulwark of against the Gaul against the inroads of the Northmen. The pirates soon found out the importance of the position of the city in any attack or defence of Gaul on her northern side. 830. chief bul Northmen. 1 Charles the Fat is commonly said to have reunited the whole Empire of Charles the Great, and he certainly reigned over Germany, Italy, Lotharingia, and West-France, but he never obtained the immediate sovereignty of the Kingdom of Burgundy, founded by Boso in 879. Boso was succeeded by Rudolf. 2 The division is nowhere better set forth than in our own Chronicles, A. 887. It is worth noticing that not one of the Kingdoms has a name. “Earnulf wunode on þam lande be æstan Rine; and Hroðulf þa feng to þam middel rice and Opa to þam west dæle and Beorngar and Wiða to Langbeardna lande." "The City of Revolutions begins her real history by the first French Revolution." Palgrave, i. 282. (References to "Palgrave" will, for the future, mean the "History of Normandy and England," not the "English Commonwealth.") |