When Charlemagne returned to Aix-la-Chapelle he was taken ill for the first time in his life. He regarded his ailment, however, as nothing worse than a slight feverish attack, and resumed his official duties in a few days. For the first time his people began to realize that he was mortal, and to ask themselves what might happen to the Empire if he were taken away.
Of Charlemagne’s three sons, the two eldest, Carl and Pepin, had proved themselves heroes in the field. Of these two, Carl, who most closely resembled his father in face and figure, was his favorite. To his great disappointment, however, he was forced to admit to himself that Ludwig, the youngest, should the emergency occur, would be unfitted to be his successor, and unqualified to assure the perpetuity of the Empire. And what was this great Empire? It was bounded on the north by the Eider and the Baltic, on the south by the Tiber and the Mediterranean, on the east by the Elbe and the Raab, and on the west by the Ebro and the Atlantic, recalling the extent and power of the old Roman Empire under Cæsar and Augustus.
Charlemagne long and anxiously considered the situation before he decided to call an assembly of the dignitaries of State and Church and submit his plans for the division of the sovereignty. These plans provided for the assignment of the young Carl to the principal part of the Frankish Empire, the predominating German nations; Pepin to the Italian, and Ludwig to those possessions which at a subsequent period became the principal part of France.
The circle of those nearest the heart of the great Emperor gradually grew smaller. His mother, Bertha, had already been dead twenty years. This rare woman, who in her will provided ample chests of linen to poor weavers and spinners, enjoyed his love and filial care to the very last. The Academy still numbered many excellent scholars in its membership; but there was no one to fill the place of that wise teacher and close friend, Alcuin, who died about this time. In 810 the Emperor’s eldest daughter, Rotrud, died. Hardly had he recovered from this blow when news came of the death of Pepin, after a brief illness.
Alas! of what avail are human plans? Too often they are like the dust scattered by the wind. The Emperor bore his grief manfully, and labored with his customary devotion in his affairs of State and at the academy. In these last days he began with extraordinary enthusiasm to write a German grammar. Unfortunately it was not finished, and the only fragments left of it are the names which he gave to the months and the winds.
The next year (811) was not finished before fresh tidings of sorrow came. Carl, the Emperor’s favorite son, was snatched away by death in the very prime of his life, as his brother Pepin had been shortly before. Still the Emperor wasted no time in mourning. He attended to his duties as usual; but after this last blow his face never wore a smile again.
The only remaining son was the one who had shown himself the least capable. What solicitude for the future of his race and Empire must have overwhelmed the Emperor!
OTTO THIRD in the crypt of Charlemagne
In the year 813 Charlemagne summoned the notables of the Empire to an assembly at Aix-la-Chapelle. He announced to them that he had arranged a definite settlement of the boundary question with Greece, Denmark, and the Moors, which gave great satisfaction to them. Thereupon he proclaimed his son Ludwig King of the Franks, and added that he also wished, with their consent, to invest him with the dignity of Roman Emperor. They gave their consent, but there were grief in the hearts and tears in the eyes of many of them.