Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/17

Rh LORRAINE the eastern and the western kingdom ever since Louis the German and Charles the Bald divided the realm of Lothair II. more ethnographically by the treaty of Meersen, August 8, 870. After the deposition in 887 of the em peror Charles III., who for a short time appeared at the head of the three reunited realms, the country still remained distinct, though the invasions of the Northmen and feudal disintegration creeping in from the west vied to tear it to pieces. Yet the emperor Arnulf, after his success against the Scandinavians, restored some order, and made his son Zwentebulch king over that part of the empire in 894. But he never overcame the difficulties inherent in a country peopled by Franks, Burgundians, Almains, Frisians, and Scandinavians, speaking various Romance and Teutonic dialects, the western group being evidently attracted by the growth of a French, the eastern by that of a German nationality. King Zwentebulch quarrelled with certain powerful lords, offended mortally the bishops, especially that of Treves, and finally lost his life in battle on the 13th August 900. In the days of Louis the Child, the last of the eastern Carolings, there rose to ducal dignity Reginar Long-neck, count of Haspengau, Hennegau, or Hainault, who owned a number of fiefs and monasteries in the diocese of Liege. He found it profitable to adhere to Charles, king of the Western Franks, especially after Louis s death in 911. His son Gisilbert from 915 began to rule the Lotharingians likewise in opposition to Conrad I. and Henry I., who were the successors of Louis the Child, with the exception, however, of Alsace and the Frisian districts, which now separated, definitively to remain with the German kingdom. By the treaty of Bonn (921) the Lotharingian duchy was ceded formally to France, until Henry I., profiting by the disunion between Charles the Simple and his rivals, subdued Gisilbert and his dominion (925), and about 928 returned it to him with the hand of his daughter as a member of the German kingdom, though rather more independent than other duchies. Its western frontier now appears to have extended up to the Dutch Zealands. Henry s son, the great Otto I., when his brother rebelled in conjunction with Eberhard and Gisilbert, the dukes of Franconia and Lotharingia, beat and annihilated these two vassals (939), and secured the latter country by a treaty with the French king Louis IV., who married Gisilbert s widow, entrusting it consecutively to his brother Henry, to a Duke Otto, and from 944 to Conrad the Red, his son-in-law. Chiefly with the help of the Lotharingians he invaded France in order to reinstate the king, who had been dethroned by his proud vassals. But a few years later, when Liudulf, the son of King Otto and the English Edith, and Duke Conrad, discontented with certain measures, rose against their father and lord, the ever- restless spirit of the Lotharingians broke out into new commotions. The stern king, however, suppressed them, removed both his son and his son-in-law from their offices, and appointed his youngest brother, the learned and statesmanlike Brun, archbishop of Cologne and chancellor of the realm, to be also duke or, as he is called, archduke of Lotharingia. Brun snatched what was still left of demesne lands and some wealthy abbeys like St Maximine near Treves from the rapacious nobles, who had entirely converted the offices of counts and other functionaries into hereditary property. He presided over their diets, enforced the public peace, and defended with their assistance the frontier lands of Germany against the pernicious influence of the death struggle fought between the last Carolings of Laon and the dukes of Paris. Quelling the insurrections of a younger Reginar in the lower or ripuarian regions, he admitted a faithful Count Frederick, who possessed much land in the Ardennes, at Verdun, and at Bar, to ducal dignit} r. Although the emperor, after Brun s early death, October 10, 965, took the border-land into his own hands, he connived, as it appears, at the beginning of a final division between an upper and a lower duchy, leaving the first to Frederick and his descendants, while the other, administered by a Duke Gottfrid, was again disturbed by a third Reginar and h!s brother Lambert of Louvain. When Otto II. actually restored their fiefs to them in 976, he nevertheless granted the lower duchy to Charles, a son of the Caroling Louis IV., and his own aunt Gerberga. Henceforth there are two duchies of Lorraine, the official name applying originally only to the first, but the two dignitaries being distinguished as Dvx Mosellanorum and Dux Ripuariorum, or later on Dux Metensis or Harrensit and DuxLovaniensis, de Brabantia, Bullionis, or de Limburg. Both territories now swarmed with ecclesiastical and temporal lords, who struggled to be independent, and, though nominally the subjects of the German kings and emperors, frequently held fiefs from the kings and the grand seigneurs of France. Between powerful vassals and encroaching neighbours the imperial delegate in the lower duchy could only be a still more powerful seigneur. But Duke Charles became -the captive of the bishop of Laon, and died in 994. His son, Duke Otto, dying childless (1004), left two sisters married to the counts of Louvain and Namur. Between 1012 and 1023 appears Duke Gottfrid I., son of a count of Verdun, and supporter of the emperor Henry II., who, fighting his way against the counts of Louvain, Namur, Luxemburg, and Holland, is succeeded by his brother Gozelo I., hitherto margrave of Antwerp, who since 1033, with the emperor s permission, ruled also Upper Lorraine, and defended the frontier bravely againstthe incursions of Count Odo of Blois, the adversary of Conrad II. At his death (1046) the upper duchy went to his second son Gottfrid, while the eldest, Gozelo II., succeeded in the lower, until he died childless (1046). But Gottfrid II. (the Bearded), an energetic but untrustworthy vassal, rebelled twice in alliance with King Henry I. of France and Count Baldwin V. of Flanders against the emperor Henry V., who opposed a union of the duchies in such hands. Lower Lorraine therefore was given (1046) to Count Frederick of Luxemburg, after whose death (1065) it was nevertheless held by Gottfrid, who in the mean time, being banished the country, had married Beatrice, the widow of Boniface of Tuscany, and acted a prominent part in the affairs of Italy. As duke of Spoleto and champion of the Holy See he rose to great importance during the turbulent minority of Henry IV. When lie died December 21, 1069, his son Gottfrid III., the Hunch backed, succeeded in the lower duchy, who for a short time was the husband to Matilda of Canossa, the daughter of Boniface and Beatrice. Soon, however, he turned his back on Italy and the pope, joined Henry IV., fought with the Saxon rebels and Robert of Flanders, and in the end was miserably murdered by an emissary of the count of Holland, February 26, 1076. Conrad, the emperor s young son, now held the duchy nominally till it was granted 1088 to Gottfrid IV., count of Bouillon, and son of Ida, a sister of Gottfrid III., and Count Eustace of Boulogne, the hero of the first crusade, who died king of Jerusalem in 1100. After him Henry, count of Limburg, obtained the country; but, adhering to the old emperor in his last struggles, he was removed by the son in May 1106 to make room for Gottfrid V., the great-grandson to Lambert I., count of Lorraine, a descendant of the first ducal house, which had been expelled by Otto the Great. Nevertheless he joined his predecessor in rebellion against the emperor (1114), but returned to his side in the war about the see of Lidge. Later on he opposed King Lothair III., who in turn supported Walram, son of Henry of Limburg, but died in peace with Conrad