Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/167

 FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 155 kingdom by an illegitimate kinsman Arnulf of Carinthia, who also was emperor for a time, but his line came to an end with his son in 911. The middle kingdom had been divided between the East and the West Franks by Charles the Bald and Lewis the German, on the extinction of Lothar's family. Meanwhile the Carolingians in the west were a little more prosperous. Charles the Bald managed to appropriate Italy and the Imperial Crown on the death of Lothar's son, The West who had succeeded him as emperor. Seven years Franks - after his death there was none of his stock to succeed to the crown except a five-year-old grandson, afterwards known as Charles the Simple. The child was set aside and the crown was seized by Charles the Fat. When Charles the Fat died the child was again set aside and Odo or Eudes, Count of Paris, was elected King of the Franks, that is the West Franks. When he died in 899, Charles the Simple was allowed to succeed. A hundred years after the death of Charlemagne, the only one of his house who was still ruling nominally was Charles the Simple in the kingdom of the West Franks, now distinctively known as Francia, France. On the failure of the Carolingian line in the eastern or German kingdom, the Crown was bestowed by election on Conrad, Duke of Franconia ; and the principle of election The to the kingdom of Germany began to be recognised. ' German Italy, however, had been severed both from the East King -' and the West Franks. After Charles the Fat it was only at intervals that any one was definitely recognised as emperor; and among those who were recognised at all, Arnulf was the only Carolingian. Italy in fact fell a prey to the rivalries of the great dukes, who attempted to restore a Lombard dominion when the Franks were no longer able to hold them in check. A Carolingian continued to be King of France until 987, but the real rulers were the dukes of France or counts of Paris — Robert the brother of Odo, who had reigned as France and king, and his descendants. In 987 Hugh Capet, the Germany, grandson of Robert, was elected king, and estab- tenth centuI T- lished a dynasty which reigned without a break for eight hundred