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72 Neustrian, "a stranger to the royal race," whose interests differed widely from theirs. The leading spirit in this party of opposition was, from the outset, Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims.

From at least the time of Hincmar, the Archbishop of Rheims, "primate among primates," had been one of the most conspicuous personages in the kingdom. The personal ascendancy of Fulk, who came of a noble family, was considerable; we find him openly rebuking Richilda, widow of Charles the Bald, who was leading an irregular life, and it was he who in 885 acted as the spokesman of the nobles when Charles the Fat was invited to enter the Western Kingdom; again it was he who for the next twelve years was to be the head of the Carolingian party in France. Although on the deposition of Charles the Fat, Fulk had for a moment played with the hope of raising to the throne his kinsman, Guy, Duke of Spoleto, a member of a noble Austrasian family perhaps related to the Carolingians, he now no longer hesitated to apply to Arnulf, just as three years before he had applied to Charles the Fat. Accompanied by two or three of his suffragans, he travelled to Worms (June 888) to acquaint him with the position of affairs, the usurpation of Odo, the youth of Charles the Simple, the dangers threatening the Western Kingdom, and the claims which he (Arnulf) might make to the succession. But Arnulf, hearing at this juncture that Odo "had just covered himself with glory" by inflicting, at Montfaucon in the Argonne, a severe defeat upon the Northmen (24 June 888), preferred negotiations with the "usurper." To emphasise his own position of superiority, as successor to the Emperor, he summoned him to Worms, where Odo agreed to hold his crown of him. This was a fresh affirmation of the unity of the Empire of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious without the imperial title, but at the same time it gave a solemn sanction to the kingship of Odo.

Even within his dominions, opposition to Odo gradually gave way. Several of his opponents, among them Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had submitted. But Fulk did not allow himself to be won over. Though he had feigned to be reconciled (November 888), he was merely deferring action till fortune should change sides. For this he had not long to wait. The victory of Montfaucon proved to be a success which led to nothing; the king was forced in 889 to purchase the retreat of a North- man band ravaging the neighbourhood of Paris, and to allow another to escape next year at Guerbigny near Noyon, and was finally surprised by the pirates at Wallers, near Valenciennes, in 891 and routed in the Vermandois. Several of the lords who had rallied to his cause were beginning to abandon him: Baldwin, Count of Flanders, himself had raised the standard of revolt (892). Fulk cleverly contrived to draw together all the discontented and to rally them to the cause of Charles