Western Civilization.p

The Beginnings of the Feudal Age141

and-a-half grains for every seed planted were probably
normal. Distances were huge and major population
centers were connected, as they would be for centuries
to come, by primitive tracks. Local magnates and local
loyalties began to assert themselves while Charlemagne
was still alive. Neither his lines of communication nor
his military resources were able to hold them fully in
check. After his death the division of the empire among
his three grandsons only made matters worse.

Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious (reigned

814–840) had hoped to pass on the empire intact,

though the Salic law required that it be split equally

among his heirs. He had three sons by his first mar-

riage: Lothair, Pepin, and Louis “the German.” A fourth

son, Charles “the Bald,” was born to his second wife,

Judith of Bavaria, in 823. Lothair was the intended

heir, but Judith instigated a civil war among the broth-

ers in the hope of securing a kingdom for her son. Af-

ter the emperor’s death in 840, the surviving heirs

divided his lands by the Treaty of Verdun (843).

Lothair took the central portion including Italy, the

Rhineland, and the Low Countries. Charles (d. 877)

held most of what is now France, and Louis (d. 875)

was given Bavaria, Austria, and the eastern part of Ger-

many. Pepin had died in 838. When Lothair died in

855 the middle kingdom was divided again among his

three sons and quickly ceased to be a major factor in

European politics. By 870 transalpine Europe was di-

vided into a West Frankish kingdom (France) under

Charles, and an East Frankish kingdom (Germany) un-

der Louis, while Italy became the playground of re-

gional factions and Byzantine generals.

None of these states possessed the resources to

mount a credible defense against the raiders. Cash re-

mained scarce, and the kings that followed Charles the

Bald and Louis the German were not always inspiring

leaders. Militarily, the problem was not unlike that

faced by the Roman emperors in the second and third

centuries, but its scale was far greater and complicated

by the decentralization of political power within the

empire. Each of the successor kingdoms faced attacks

along borders that extended for thousands of miles.

The attacks might come by land or by sea. Their objec-

tive was unknown, and the size of the forces involved

could not be anticipated. Post-Carolingian Europe was

poor and sparsely settled. Peasant communities could

not defend themselves against such formidable enemies

as the Vikings, and the old Frankish system of levies

was slow and cumbersome. By the time infantry was

mobilized and marched to the point of contact, the

enemy would be gone. Fortunately for the Europeans,

Scandinavians and North Africans tended to fight on

foot without benefit of the massed infantry tactics

known to antiquity. The Magyars were a typical

nomadic light cavalry. If they could be intercepted,

all of these foes were vulnerable to attack by heavily

armed and armored horsemen, the prototypes of the

medieval knight.

From the technological point of view, the

knight and his way of fighting was enhanced by

DOCUMENT 8.1

The Great Raids

The following is extracted from the Annals of Xanten, a

chronicle thought to have been written in the archdiocese of

Cologne at about the time of the events it describes. The year is

846, with the final sentence coming from the entry for 847.

Frisia includes most of the northern Netherlands and the

coastal region of northwest Germany. Lothaire was the

grandson of Charlemagne who ruled the middle part of his em-

pire known as Lotharingia. The passage reveals the sense of

helplessness and isolation induced by disasters on every front.

According to their custom the Northmen plun-

dered Eastern and Western Frisia and burned the

town of Dordrecht with two other villages, before

the eyes of Lothaire, who was then in the castle of

Nimwegen, but could not punish the crime. The

Northmen, with their boats filled with immense

booty, including both men and goods, returned to

their own country.

At the same time, as no one can mention or

hear without great sadness, the mother of all

churches, the basilica of the apostle Peter, was

taken and plundered by the Moors or Saracens,

who had already occupied the region of Beneven-

tum. The Saracens, moreover, slaughtered all the

Christians whom they found outside the walls of

Rome, either within or without this church. They

also carried men and women away prisoners. They

tore down, among many others, the altar of the

blessed Peter, and their crimes from day to day

bring sorrow to Christians. Pope Sergius departed

life this year.

After the death of Sergius no mention of the

apostolic see has come in any way to our ears.

Robinson, James Harvey, ed. Readings in European History,

vol. 1. Boston: Ginn, 1904.