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78 late King Raoul: then he drew him in his wake to Paris. But Louis proved to have the same high and independent spirit, the same energetic temper as his father. He shewed this markedly by reviving Charles the Simple's claims to Lorraine, which, in the reign of Raoul, had been re-taken by the king of Germany (925) and reduced to a duchy. Louis invaded it in 938 at the request of its duke, Gilbert (Giselbert). But the results of this firm and decided course were the same as in the case of Charles the Simple. The party of opposition gathered again around Hugh the Great and Herbert of Vermandois, whom a common hostility drew together. The Carolingian's chief support lay in Artaud, Archbishop of Rheims.

The rebels marched straight upon Rheims. The place made but a faint resistance, Hugh the Great and Herbert entering it after brief delay. Artaud was driven from his see and sent to the monastery of St Basle, while Herbert procured the consecration in his stead of his own son Hugh, the same candidate whom a few years earlier King Raoul had replaced by Artaud. The rebels proceeded to besiege Laon. Louis defended himself vigorously. In company with Artaud, who had fled from his monastery, he advanced to raise the blockade of Laon. But his bold attempt upon Lorraine had resulted in drawing Otto, the new King of Germany, towards Hugh the Great and Herbert. At their request he entered France, stopping at the palace of Attigny to receive their homage, and for a short time even pitching his camp on the banks of the Seine (940).

Defeated in the Ardennes by Hugh and Herbert, forced to flee into the kingdom of Burgundy, cut off from Artaud (who had been deposed in a synod held at Rheims, and again shut up in the monastery of St Basle, while his rival Hugh obtained the confirmation of his dignity from the Holy See), King Louis seemed to be in a desperate position (941). But at this moment came one of those sudden reversals of policy which so frequently occur in the history of the tenth century. From the moment when he seemed likely to prevail, Hugh the Great was deserted by Otto, who had every interest in maintaining the actual state of instability and uncertainty in France. Louis and Otto had an interview at Visé on the Meuse, in the month of November 942, at which their reconciliation was sealed. Simultaneously, Pope Stephen VIII raised his voice in favour of the Carolingian, ordering all the inhabitants of the kingdom to recognise Louis afresh as king, and declaring that "if they did not attend to his warnings and continued to pursue the king in arms, he would pronounce them excommunicate." Hugh the Great consented to make his submission. Soon afterwards the death of Herbert of Vermandois was to rid Louis of one of his most dangerous enemies (943).

An accident very nearly caused the settlement to fall through. Louis, like his father, was taken in an ambush in Normandy and handed