A Short History of Germany

by Mary Platt Parmele

Who could be more fit to fill this august position at the head of Christendom than Charlemagne, the great conqueror of men and defender of the Holy Faith?

The coronation of Charlemagne, King of France and Germany, at Rome, in the year 800, was a revolt of the West against the sluggard Emperors at Byzantium; just as his father Pepin's had been, fifty years before, a revolt against the sluggard Kings of France.

Not for 800 years had there been such a commanding personality on the earth; not since Cæsar hurled his legions into Gaul and Britain had there been such a display of military genius and valor, and perhaps never before such a breadth of intelligence in controlling a vast and heterogeneous empire.

Thenceforth, Charlemagne and his successors (when crowned by the Pope) were the successors of the Cæsars and the temporal heads of the Holy Roman Empire. Excepting in name the once great empire had ceased to be Roman. The rude barbarian race which, in the time of Julius Cæsar, was buried in the forests of Central Europe, was at the head of Christendom; and under Charlemagne, a map of the German Empire was a map of Europe.

Charlemagne acknowledged the Pope who crowned him as his spiritual sovereign, while, on the other hand, the Pope bowed before the Emperor who appointed him as his temporal sovereign. It was a magnificent, all-embracing scheme of empire, of which the spiritual head was at Rome, and the temporal at Aix-la-Chapelle.

It seemed as if, by this dual supremacy, Charlemagne had provided for all possible exigencies of human government. He rested content, no doubt thinking he had embodied a perfect ideal in creating a system which should thus co-ordinate and embrace both the spiritual and temporal needs of an empire. But as soon as his controlling hand was removed unexpected dangers assailed his work.

In less than fifty years from his coronation his three grandsons had quarreled and torn the empire into as many parts. With this event France commenced a separate existence as a kingdom and the Imperial title belonged alone to Germany (treaty of Verdun, 843).

It was the strong, rough arm of the Goth which had hammered in pieces the Roman Empire and brought these tremendous results for the Teuton race; but it was the Frank which had survived as the governing power.

These Franks established a new system of land tenure, which combined the two opposing systems prevailing in North and South Germany. They proclaimed that the land belonged to the Crown. But the Crown, upon certain conditions, bestowed it upon landholders who were called barons. These barons might hold their land from generation to generation, so long as these conditions were fulfilled. They, in like manner, parceled out their lands into farms, which were held by the class below them upon like conditions of submission and fealty to them. The people bound themselves to furnish military service and food, and to work for their barons a specified number of days in the year, and to receive in return a certain protection, and a refuge within the castle of their chief. The baron was responsible to the count who was his superior, and the count to the King.

This was the feudal system, which was a net-work of reciprocal duties. No man, be he peasant or count, could call anything his own unless he discharged his obligations and responsibilities.