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64 order to place himself under his protection (August 888) before going to Rheins to receive the crown of Western Francia. At Trent, Berengar also took up the attitude of a vassal in order to obtain from Arnulf the recognition of his Italian kingship. Rodolph of Burgundy yielded to the threat of an expedition to be sent against him, and came and made his submission at Ratisbon. A little later, at Worms, it was the turn of young Louis of Provence (894). Doubtless no homage strictly so called was performed, such as would establish between Arnulf and the neighbouring sovereigns a relation of positive vassalage with the reciprocal obligations it entailed. There was, however, a ceremony analogous to that of homage, and the recognition of a kind of overlordship belonging, at any rate in theory, to the King of Germany. Thus between Arnulf and the rulers of the states which had arisen from the dismemberment of the Carolingian Empire peace seemed assured. But it was less safe against enemies from without and against revolts on the part of the German magnates. Though in 889 Arnulf had received an embassy from the Northmen bearing pacific messages, the struggle had begun again in 891. The Danes had invaded Lorraine and had inflicted on Count Arnulf and Archbishop Sunderold of Mayence the bloody defeat of La Gueule (26 June) balanced, it is true, by the success won by King Arnulf in the same year on the banks of the Dyle. On the other hand, the struggle against the Moravian kingdom founded by a prince named Svátopluk (Zwentibold) was going on amidst alternations of success and failure. In 892 Arnulf, with the assistance of the Slovene duke Braslav, led a successful expedition against the Moravians, but he had been imprudent enough to call to his aid a troop of Hungarians, thus, as it were, pointing out to the Magyar immigrants from Asia the road into the kingdom of Germany which a few years later was to have such a fearful experience of them. Two years later (894) the death of Svátopluk led to the recognition of Arnulf's authority by his two sons, Moimir and Svátopluk II, and the civil war which before long broke out between them enabled the Franks to intervene successfully in Moravia. But like Charles the Fat, Arnulf was haunted by the dream of wearing the imperial crown. At the opening of his reign the fear of a revolt among the discontented magnates of Swabia had alone prevented him from responding to the appeals made to him by Pope Stephen V (890). Events in Italy now offered him the opportunity of renewing his attempts in that quarter.

The two rivals, Guy and Berengar, who after the deposition of Charles the Fat disputed for the crown of Italy, were each recognised as king by a certain number of adherents. A truce had been arranged between them up to the beginning of the year 889. They used this respite merely to seek support in foreign countries. Berengar, for twenty years the faithful ally of the Eastern Carolingiants, received reinforcements from Germany. Guy, after all unsuccessful attempt to secure for himself