Читать книгу History of the Origin of Representative Government in Europe - Guizot François - Страница 118

IV. Charles the Bald (840-877). The dissolution which had commenced under Louis the Debonnair continued under his son Charles the Bald. His three brothers, [Footnote 12] relying alternately upon the pretensions of the clergy and of the large landholders, disputed with him for the vast empire of Charlemagne.

[Footnote 12: Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis the Germanic, the three elder sons of Louis the Debonnair.]

The bloody battle of Fontenay, fought on the 25th of June, 841, made Charles the Bald king of Neustria and Aquitaine, that is, of France. His reign is nothing but a continual alternation, a scene of futile efforts to prevent the dismemberment of his dominions and of his power. At one time, he robs the clergy in order to satisfy the avidity of the great landholders, whose support he is anxious to gain; at another time, he spoils the landholders in order to appease the clergy, of whose assistance he stands in need. His capitulars contain hardly anything but these impotent alternations. The hereditary succession of benefices and appointments became triumphant, and every chieftain laid the foundation of his own independence.