Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries changes along this linguistic boundary appear to have been unimportant. The five intervening centuries are characterized by a slight westerly advance of German. From the sixteenth century to our time, however, the easterly spread of French has been considerable. This change is particularly noticeable in southern Lorraine, as if to show that the gap between the heights of the Moselle and the northern Middle Vosges had provided an outlet for the overflow of the language on German soil.
Compared with Lorraine, Alsace has the advantage of greater definiteness as a geographical unit. It is the region of the valley of the Ill which ends at the wall of the Vosges Mountains on the west. Its easterly extension attains the banks of the Rhine. This elongated plain appears throughout history as a corridor through which races of men marched and countermarched. The Alpine race provided it with early inhabitants. Barbarians of northern lineage also swarmed into its fields. Romans subjugated the land in the course of imperial colonization. The province subsequently passed under Germanic and Frankish sway.
The entry of Alsace into linguistic history may be reckoned from the year 842, when the celebrated oaths of Strassburg were exchanged in Romance and Teutonic languages by Louis the German and Charles the Bald, respectively. This solemn function was a precautionary measure taken by the two brothers to safeguard their territory against the coveting of their senior, Lothaire, to whom Charlemagne had bequeathed the area which, for a time, was known as Lotharii Regnum, and which comprised modern Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence and a portion of Italy. The main point of interest in the territorial division which marked the passing of Charlemagne, lies in the fact that the future division of central Europe into nations of French, German and Italian speech was outlined at this period. Strassburg, the chief city of the borderland between areas of French and German speech, was a bilingual center at this early date. The versions of the oaths taken on February 18, 842, by the royal brothers, as handed down by Nithard, Charlemagne’s grandson and a contemporary historian, show a formative stage in French and German. The document has been aptly called the birth certificate of French. Louis the German spoke the following words in the lingua romana, which was then the speech of Romanized Gaul:
Pro Deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, dist di in avant, in duant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai io cist meon fradre Karlo, et in adjudha, et in cadhuna cosa, si cum on, per dreit, son fradre salvar dist, in o quid il mi altresi fazet; et ab Ludher nul plaid numquam prindrai qui, meon vol, cist meon fradre Karlo in damno sit.[28]
Charles the Bald used the lingua teudisca as follows:
In Godes minna ind in thes christianes folches ind unser bedhero gealtnissi, fon thesemo dage frammordes, so fram so mir Got gewizci indi madh furgibit, so haldih tesan minan bruodher, soso man mit rehtu sinan bruodher scal, in thiu, thaz er mig sosoma duo; indi mit Ludheren in non-heiniu thing ne gegango the minan willon imo ce scadhen werhen.
Ever since this event Alsace has occupied the European historical stage as a bone of contention between German-speaking peoples and their rivals of French speech. A year had hardly elapsed after this exchange of pledges, when the division of the Frankish Empire between the grandsons of Charles the Great was formally settled by the treaty of Verdun. Lothaire, the eldest brother, was awarded Alsace and Lorraine. From this time on, Alsace became a part of the lands of German speech which form a compact block in central Europe. In 1469, however, Sigismund of Austria mortgaged his land holdings in Upper Alsace to Charles of Burgundy who thereby assumed jurisdiction over the districts affected by the mortgage. The treaty of St. Omer which contains the terms of this transaction paved the way for subsequent French intervention in both Alsace and Lorraine. Accordingly, a few years later, by the treaty of Nancy (1473), Charles of Burgundy was recognized by René II of Lorraine as the “protector” of Lorraine.
It was only in the seventeenth century, however, that France obtained a definite foothold in Alsace and Lorraine. In 1648, the country won by treaty settlement her long contested rights in Alsace. The treaties of Nimwegen (1679) and Ryswick (1697) confirmed Louis XIV in his possession of the major portion of Alsace. By that time French influence had acquired a paramount share in both of the border provinces. Lorraine, however, was not formally ceded to France until the treaty of Vienna was signed in 1738. French sovereignty over Alsace was confirmed again by the treaty of Lunéville, in 1801, and by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It was to last until 1871. In that year Alsace and Lorraine became part of the newly constituted German Empire, the cession being determined by Arts. I to IV of the treaty of Frankfort.
The preceding paragraphs show that the earliest form of French and German nationality assumed shape immediately after the treaty of Verdun and at about the time when the language spoken in these countries began to present similarity to the forms used at present. In the partition of Charlemagne’s empire only two of the three divisions were to survive. The western evolved finally into modern France. The easternmost became Germany. Lying between the two, Lothringia naturally became the coveted morsel which crumbled to pieces in the struggle waged for its possession.