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Rh expense both of Francia and Burgundy. Robert attempted in vain in 959 to seize Dijon, but succeeded in securing the county of Meaux which by 962 was under his rule. His brother, Herbert II the Old, who succeeded him in 967, and proudly assumed the title of Count of the Franks, found himself ruler not only of the counties of Troyes and of Meaux but also those of Provins, Château-Thierry, Vertus, the Pertois, and perhaps of some neighbouring counties such as Brienne. The latter was, like that of Troyes, a dismembered portion of the Burgundian duchy from which, from the opening of the eleventh century, strip after strip was to be detached, as the county of Nevers, the county of Auxerre and the county of Sens, so that the power of the Duke of Burgundy came to be limited to the group consisting of the counties of Mâcon, Châlon, Autun, Beaune, Dijon, Semur, and Avallon.

The same movement towards disintegration may be observed in the tenth century throughout the whole kingdom of France, shewing itself more or less intensely in proportion as the rulers of the ancient duchies had succeeded in keeping a greater or less measure of control over their possessions as a whole. In Normandy and Flanders, for instance, unity is more firmly maintained than elsewhere, because, over the few counties which the duke or marquess does not keep under his direct control, he has contrived to set members of his own family who remain in submission to him. In Aquitaine, for reasons not apparent, the course of evolution is arrested halfway. In the course of the tenth century its unity seems about to break up, as the viscounts placed by the duke in Auvergne, Limousin, at Turenne and Thouars, with the Counts of Angoulême, Périgueux, and La Marche seem to be only waiting their opportunity to throw off the ducal suzerainty altogether. But despite this, the suzerainty continues intact and is almost everywhere effective, a fact all the more curious as the Duke of Aquitaine retained any of his domains outside the Poitevin region.

But, with more or less rapidity and completeness, all the great regional units shewed the same tendency towards dissolution. Francia escapes no more than the rest; but alongside of the county of Vermandois and the counties of Champagne, whether it were the result of chance or, as perhaps one may rather believe, of political wisdom, a whole series of episcopal lordships grow up in independence, which, by the mere fact that their holders are subject to an election requiring the royal confirmation, may prove a most important source of strength and protection to the monarchy. At Rheims as early as 940 Louis IV formally granted the archbishop the county with all its dependencies; about the same time the authority of the Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne was extended over the entire county of Châlons, and perhaps also that of the Bishop of Noyon over the whole of the Noyonnais. At about the same time (967) King Lothair solemnly committed the possession of the county of Langres into the hands of the Bishop of Langres.