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136 succeeded Louis the Child, was too busy defending himself against the revolted nobles to dream of intervention in Burgundy. Not only had Rodolph II nothing to fear from this quarter, but he saw a favourable opportunity for retaliation.

On the side of Lorraine it was too late; the king of Burgundy had been forestalled by the King of France, Charles the Simple, who as early as November 911 had effected its conquest. Rodolph II indemnified himself, it would appear, by attempting to lay hands on the two Alemannic counties of Thurgau and Aargau, the districts lying on the eastern frontier of his kingdom, between the Aar, the Rhine, the Lake of Constance and the Reuss, He was, indeed, repulsed by the Duke of Swabia at Winterthür in 919, but none the less succeeded in preserving a substantial part of his conquests. Other events, however, called his attention and diverted his energies to new quarters.

The state of affairs in Italy was then extremely disturbed. After many rivalries and struggles, both the Lombard crown and the imperial diadem had been placed in 915 upon the head of Berengar of Friuli. But Berengar was far from having conciliated all sections, and at the end of 921 or the beginning of 922 a number of the disaffected offered the Lombard crown to Rodolph. The offer was a tempting one. Though separated from Lombardy by the wall of the Alps, Jurane Burgundy was still naturally brought into constant relations with it; the high road, which from St Maurice d'Agaune led by the Great St Bernard to Aosta and Vercelli, was habitually followed by pilgrims journeying from the north-west into Italy. Besides, owing to their origin, many nobles of weight in the Lombard plain, notably the Marquess of Ivrea, were in personal communication with King Rodolph. Finally, memories of the Emperor Lothar, who had been in possession of Italy as well as Burgundy, could not but survive and necessarily produced an effect upon men's minds.

Rodolph listened favourably to the overtures made him. He marched straight upon Pavia, the capital of the Lombard kingdom, entered the city, and induced the majority of the lay lords and bishops to recognise him as king (February 922). Berengar was defeated in a great battle fought at Fiorenzuola not far from Piacenza on 17 July 923, and forced to fly with all speed to Verona, where he was murdered a few months later (7 April 924). Yet before long Rodolph was forced to change his tone. With their usual instability, the Italian barons lost no tine in deserting him to call in a new claimant, Hugh of Arles, Marquess of Provence. Rodolph asked help of the Duke of Swabia, Burchard, whose daughter he had married a few years before, but the duke fell into an ambuscade and was killed (April 926) and Rodolph, disheartened, had no choice but to retrace his steps disconsolately across the Great St Bernard.

Events, however, were soon to convince him that his true interest lay