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Rh succeeded in meeting Charles the Bald on the banks of the Brenta, and, after the Carolingian manner, opened negotiations. Either, as the German annalists say, his uncle got the better of him by deceitful promises, or else he felt himself too weak to fight the matter out. He, therefore, arranged a truce, and returned to Germany without a blow.

Meanwhile Louis the German had made an attack upon Lorraine, having been called in by a disgraced chamberlain, Enguerand, who had been deprived of his office for the benefit of the favourite Boso. Ravaging the country terribly as he went, Louis reached the palace of Attigny on 25 December 875, where he waited for adherents to come in. But the defections on which he had counted did not take place, and the invader, for want of sufficient support, was obliged to retreat and make his way back to Mayence. Charles, meanwhile, had not allowed himself to be turned from his object by the news from Lorraine. He was bent on the Empire. He had reached Rome, and on Christmas Day 875 he received the imperial diadem from the hands of John VIII. But he did not delay long in Rome, and having obtained from John the title of Vicar of the Pope in Gaul for Ansegis, Archbishop of Sens, he began his journey homewards on 5 January 876. On January 31 he was at Pavia, where he had himself solemnly elected and recognised as king of Italy by an assembly of magnates. Leaving Boso to govern this new kingdom, he again set forward, and was back at Saint-Denis in time to keep Easter (15 April). In the month of June, in company with the two papal legates who had come with him from Italy, John, Bishop of Arezzo, and John, Bishop of Toscanella, he held a great assembly of nobles and bishops at Ponthion, when he appeared wearing the imperial ornaments. The council solemnly recognised the new dignity which the Pope had conferred on the king of the West Franks. Charles would have wished also to secure its assent to the grant of the vicariate to Ansegis, but on this point he met with strong resistance. To the same assembly came envoys from Louis the German, demanding in his name an equitable partition of the territories formerly ruled by Louis II. Charles appeared to recognise these pretensions as well-founded. In his turn he sent an embassy to his brother and opened negotiations. They were interrupted by the death of Louis the German, at Frankfort (28 August 876).

The dead king left three sons. In accordance with arrangements which had been made beforehand but often modified in detail, the eldest, Carloman, was to receive Bavaria and the East Mark, the second, Louis, Saxony and Franconia, and the third, Charles the Fat, Alemannia. These dispositions were according to precedent. It is thus difficult to conceive by what right Charles the Bald professed to claim that portion of Lorraine which by the Treaty of Meersen had been allocated to his brother. None the less, it is certain that he hastened to send off emissaries to the country, charged with the business of gaining supporters