Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/495

Rh .-ro- igian ngs. FRANKISII 1;i:~IGDo.u.] a vehement ambition, she persuaded her husband to murder Berthar ; and she would have caused the death of Baderich also, but that he knew her design and rose against the guilty pair. Ilermanfried sent to Theodoric, the East Frankish king, and offered to reward him if he would form an alliance against Baderich. The offer was gladly accepted, and in a battle which followed Baderich was slain. No reward, however, was given, and ’I‘heodoric, indignant at being thus treated, vowed to be avenged. IIe allied him- self with the 11orthern neighbours of the Thuringians——the Saxons ; and with their united forces they completely sub- dued the country. Theodorie himself murdered Herman- fried by pushing him off the wall of Ziilpich, where they were carrying on an apparently friendly conversation, the Thuringian king having received an assurance that he would be treated with honour. Thereupon the murderer divided between himself and the Saxons the territory of the Thuringians, annexing the southern half to the Frankish kingdom. His son, Theudebert, not only maintained this conquest but added to it, after the downfall of the Gothic kingdom in Italy, that of Bavaria. The Alenianni were also n1ade altogether subject to his rule. Thus the Saxons and the F risians alone retained their independence. The rights of the Franks in Germany were at ﬁrst vigor- ously asserted; but a change soon can1e. The Merovingian kings carried on so many ﬁerce wars with each other that they had little time to look after their -subjects i11 the remote east; moreover, the rise of a great new aristocracy steadily undermined the royal power. This aristocracy was made up of the class directly associated with the king by military or court duties. They were rewarded by im- mense grants of land, which they held in the ﬁrst instance subject to the condition of rendering faithful service, but the possession of which, in most cases, became in the end absolute and hereditary. Nowhere was the new aristocracy s) powerful as in Austrasia, the eastern division of the F rankish monarchy. In Neustria, the western division, where the sovereign had to deal for the most part with a race which for ﬁve centuries had been accustomed to the despotic government of Rome, he had little difficulty in Inaintaining his supremacy; for the Franks settled in different districts could not but be more or less influenced by the feeling of the native population. Besides, they lived at great distances from one another, so that it was difficult to hold popular €lSSO!11l)ll!:S of any kind, and the powers which belonged to them were naturally transferred to the head of the state. Hence, even when the Hero- vingian kings of Neustria were driven i11to the back- ground, and the mayors of the palace governed, the latter had high authority, and exercised it, as a rule, in the interests of the crown. In Austrasia the conditions were wholly different. There the Franks were the pre- dominant element; and the distances were not so great but that an assembly could be rapidly summoned on every occasion of real used. Thus the important landowners of Austrasia were able to hold together, and to iimit the powers of the sovereign on the one hand and of the ordinary freemen on the other. And the mayor of the palace, who was their nominee, and could at any moment be dismissed if he displeased them, usually acted as their representative and leader. Kings under the authority of an aristocracy of this kind are not likely to be troublesome to unruly subjects; especially kings of such feeble personal character as those who, from the ﬁrst half of the 7th century, nominally held the sceptre of the mighty Chlodwig. The German Confederations which he and his immediate descend- ants_ had conquered soon became virtually free. They contnmed to acknowledge F rankish supremacy; but the acknowledgment was only formal. At the head of each GERMANY 477 confederation was its own herzog or duke. These rulers were at first appointed by the F rankish kings, or received their sanction; but in course of time the office became hereditary in particular families. This was the case, longer than anywhere else, in Bavaria, where the ancient Agilolting family held the ducal dignity from the earliest days of Frankish authority down to the time of Charles the Great. The dukes were far from being absolute sovereigns, for in Germany the freemen had retained many of their primeval rights. The assemblies of the hundred and of the con- federation still exercised great authority. As among the Austrasian Franks, however, although in a less degree, the leading landowners constantly encroached upon the powers both of the poorer freemen and of the head of the state. In the time of the great dukes of the Franks, who arose Frankish to infuse new life into the decaying monarchy, there was ‘l”l“=9- another profound change in the position of the Germans. After the battle of Testri, in 687, in which Pippin of Heristal decided that the F rankish kingdom should not then fall to pieces, a11d that, in the reunited state, the Aus- trasian Franks should have the supremacy, the German dukes began to ﬁnd that they were likely again to have a master. He made war on them, and forced them to some extent to return to the allegiance which they had all but forgotten. His successor, Charles Bfartel, asserted his rights with not less vigour, and added East Friesland for the ﬁrst time to the monarchy. The high importance of the efforts of these two illustrious rulers was seen in the struggle of Charles Martel with the Arabs. Had the F rankish kingdom been dissolved, they would have had little difficulty in overrunning Europe; but having under him a state more or less organized, Charles was able to rally around him powerful warriors fron1 all the districts he governed, Germany among the rest. And so, at the memorable battle of Poitiers, he saved Christendom. Other favourable results of the policy of Charles and his father were that new and vigorous life streamed towards the Gallic part of the kingdom from Germany, while the Germans were brought into closer contact than before with the higher and more reﬁned civilization of the Gauls. Pippin the Short, the ﬁrst king of the Carolingian line, although his chief fame was won in his wars with Aqui- tania and with Lombardy, did not neglect Germany, in which he strove to assert an authority more thorough and extensive than had been exercised even by the early i[erovingi-an sovereigns. After all, however, even these powerful F rankish con- querors had but imperfect success in Germany. When they were present with their formidable armies, they could com- mand obedience; when engaged, as they often were, in distant parts of the vast Frankisl1 territory, they could 11ot trust to the fulﬁlment of the fair promises they had exacted. One of the chief causes of their ill—success was the continued independence of the Saxons. the northern half of Thuringia, this warlike race had been extending its power. They were still heathens, and main- tained all the old customs and institutions of primitive Ger- many. As in ancient times, they appointed a herzog only when an officer of this class was needed, i11 time of war ; at ordinary times the chiefs elected by the freemen ruled in asso- ciation with the popular assemblies. They cherished bitter hatred towards the Franks, whom they justly regarded as the enemies both of their liberties and of their religion 3 and their hatred found expression, not only in expeditions into Frankish territory, but in help willingly rendered to every German confederation which wished to throw oil‘ the Frankish yoke. No rebellion against the dukes of the Franks, or against King Pippin, took place in Germany without the Saxons coming forward to aid the rebels. This was perfectly understood by the Frankish rulers, who tried Ever since they had acquired Saxons.