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14 after the Emperor." His rise to power seems to have been marked, moreover, by a change in the personnel of Louis's court. His enemies, through the mouth of Paschasius Radbertus, accuse him of having "turned the palace upside down and scattered the imperial council," and it is true that Wala and other partisans of Lothar were set aside from the administration of affairs to make way for new men, Odo, Count of Orleans, William, Count of Blois, cousin of Bernard, Conrad and Rudolf, brothers of the new Empress, Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, and Boso, Abbot of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Fleury).

The displeasure of the magnates evicted from power or disappointed in their ambitions was shewn as early as the following year (830). Louis, perhaps by the advice of Bernard who was eager to strengthen his position by military successes, had planned a new expedition against the Bretons and summoned the host to meet at Rennes at Easter (14 April). Many of the Franks proved little disposed to enter on a campaign in spring, at an inclement season of the year. On the other hand, Wala secretly informed Pepin that hostile designs were being formed against him by Bernard, who under pretext of an expedition into Brittany meditated nothing less than turning his arms against the king of Aquitaine and stripping him of his possessions. Pepin was a man of energy, but also of levity and impetuosity, and under pressure, perhaps, from the Aquitanian lords who had gradually been substituted for the Frankish counsellors placed round him by his father, either believed, or feigned to believe the information, and came to an agree- ment with his brother Louis and the partisans of Wala and Lothar to march against the Emperor.

Louis the Pious, who was on his way to Rennes along the coast with Judith and Bernard, was at Sithiu (Saint-Bertin) when the news of the revolt reached him. He continued his journey as far as Saint-Riquier. But the time had gone by for the Breton expedition. The majority of the fideles who should have gathered at Rennes to take part in it had met at Paris and made common cause with the rebels. Pepin, after having occupied Orleans, had joined them at Verberie, N.E. of Senlis. Louis the German had done likewise. As to Lothar, he was lingering in Italy, perhaps to watch what turn events would take. But any resistance was impossible for Louis, because the whole weight of military force was on the side of the conspirators. The latter declared that they had no quarrel with the Emperor, but only with his wife, whom they accused of a guilty connexion with Bernard. They demanded therefore that Judith should be exiled and her accomplices punished. Louis, sending Bernard for refuge to his city of Barcelona, and leaving the Empress at Aix, went to meet the rebels, who were then at Compiègne and surrendered himself into their hands. Judith, who had set out to join him, fearing violence took shelter in the church of Notre-Dame at Laon. Two of the counts who had espoused Pepin's cause, Warin of