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Rh eldest son Lothair (Lothar) to succeed him. The latter, then aged about fourteen, was crowned at Rheims on 12 November 954.

Delivered ere long from the embarrassing patronage of Hugh the Great, whom death removed on 17 June 956, Lothair, a few years later, thought himself strong enough to resume the policy of his father and grandfather in Lorraine. He gave secret encouragement to the nobles of that country who were in revolt against Otto II, the new King of Germany, and in 978 attempted by a sudden stroke to recover the ground lost in that direction since the days of Raoul. He secretly raised an army and marched upon Aix-la-Chapelle, where he counted on surprising Otto. The stroke miscarried. Otto, warned in time, had been able to escape. Lothair entered Aix, installed himself in the old Carolingian palace, and by way of a threat, turned round to the east the brazen eagle with outspread wings which stood on the top of the palace. But provisions failed, and three days afterwards he was obliged to beat a retreat. Otto, in revenge, threw himself upon the French kingdom, destroyed Compiègne and Attigny, took Laon and pitched his camp upon the heights of Montmartre. He was only able to burn the suburbs of Paris, and then after having a victorious Alleluia chanted by his priests he fell back upon the Aisne (November 978). Lothair only just failed to cut off his passage across the river, and even succeeded in massacring his camp-followers and taking his baggage. This barren struggle was not, on the whole, of advantage to either sovereign. An agreement took place; in July 980 Lothair and Otto met at Margut on the Chiers on the frontier of the two kingdoms, when they embraced and swore mutual friendship.

It was a reconciliation in appearance only, and a few months later Otto eagerly welcomed the overtures of Hugh the Great's son, Hugh Capet, Duke of the Franks. The death of Otto on 7 December 983 deferred the final rupture. But dark intrigues, of which the Archbishopric of Rheims was the centre, were soon to be woven round the unfortunate Carolingian.

The Archbishop of Rheims, Adalbero, belonged to one of the most important families of Lorraine. One of his brothers was Count of Verdun and of the Luxembourg district. Talented, learned, alert and ambitious, his sympathies as well as his family interests bound him to the Ottonian house. In the same way Gerbert the scholasticus, the future Pope Sylvester II, whom a close friendship united to Adalbero, owed the foundation of his fortune and his success in life to Otto I and Otto II. As he had long been a vassal of Otto II, from whom he had received the rich abbey of Bobbio, his devotion was assured in advance to young Otto III who had just succeeded, and to his mother the Empress Theophano. Lothair having thought well to form an alliance with Henry, Duke of Bavaria, young Otto's rival, Adalbero and Gerbert