Charles Martel received the ambassadors with the distinguished honour due to the dignity of the sender, and the importance of their mission; and willingly accepted at their hands the significant offerings they brought. When they were prepared to return, he loaded them with costly presents, and ordered Grimo, the abbot of Corbey, and Sigebert, a monk of St. Denis, to accompany them to Rome, and bear his answer to Pope Gregory. Rome was once more delivered from destruction by the intervention of Charles, and his influence with Liutprand.
And thus were the last days of the great Frankish hero and Gregory III employed in marking out a line of policy respecting each other, and the great temporal and spiritual interests committed to them, which, being zealously followed up by their successors, led in the sequel to the most important and brilliant results. They both died nearly at the same time, in the same year, 741 A.D., in which the events above described took place. The restless activity of Charles Martel had prematurely worn him out. Conscious of the rapid decline of his powers, he began to set his house in order; and he had scarcely time to portion out his vast empire among his sons, and to make his peace with heaven in the church of the patron saint, when he was seized by a fever in his palace at Cariciacum (Quierzy) on the Oise; where he died on the 15th (or 21st)[127] of October, 741 A.D., at the early age of fifty. He was buried in the church of Denis.
Charles Martel may be reckoned in the number of those great men who have been deprived of more than half the glory due to them, “because they want the sacred poet.” Deeds which, in the full light of history, would have appeared sufficient to make a dozen warriors immortal, are despatched by the Frankish chroniclers in a few dry words. His greatness, indeed, shines forth even from their meagre notices; but we feel, as we read them, that had a Cæsar or a Livy unfolded his character and described his exploits,—instead of a poor pedantic monk like Fredegarius,[d] a rival might be found for the Cæsars, the Scipios, and the Hannibals.
CARLOMAN AND PEPIN THE SHORT
[741-742 A.D.]
Charles Martel left two sons, Carloman and Pepin, by his first wife, of whom nothing is known, and a third, Grifo, by the captive Bavarian princess Swanahild, who is sometimes called his second wife and sometimes his concubine. In the first partition of his dominions, which was made known before his death, he apportioned Austrasia, Swabia (Alamannia), and Thuringia, the German provinces, to his eldest son, Carloman; Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, to Pepin, the chief inheritor of his glory. In this arrangement the son of Swanahild was wisely passed over; but the entreaties of his beautiful spouse induced Charles, at the very end of his life, to set apart a portion from each of the two kingdoms above mentioned for Grifo; an unfortunate step, which only brought destruction on him who received the fatal gift.
The mischievous effects of the new partition showed themselves immediately. The subjects of Grifo, among whom alone he could look for sympathy and support, were discontented at being arbitrarily separated from the rest of the empire; and the ill-feeling of the seigneurs and people in all parts of the country appears to have been enhanced by the prejudice existing against Swanahild, both as a foreigner and on account of the great influence she exercised over the heart of Charles. So strong, indeed, was the feeling of the Franks upon the subject, that we may fairly doubt whether Carloman and Pepin themselves, had they been so inclined, would have been able to secure to their brother the possession of the territory allotted to him.
Whatever sentiments the two eldest brothers previously entertained towards Grifo, they were soon rendered openly hostile by the flight of their sister Hiltrude to the court of Bavaria, and her unauthorised marriage with Otilo, the duke of that country. Swanahild and Grifo, who were naturally looked upon as the instigators of this unwelcome alliance, shut themselves up in the fortress of Laon; but being entirely without resources, they yielded up the place and themselves as soon as Carloman and Pepin appeared with an army before its walls. The favourite wife of the mighty Charles Martel was sent into a nunnery at Chelles, and Grifo was imprisoned in the castle of Neufchâteau, in the forest of Ardennes.
Having placed a Merovingian named Childeric on the throne,—which their father for some time before his death had left unoccupied,—the young princes marched an army towards Aquitaine; for Hunold the son of Eudes, the sworn vassal of Charles Martel, had manifested his rebellious intentions by throwing Lantfred, the Frankish ambassador, into prison. Crossing the Loire, they devastated Aquitania as far as Bourges; and were on the point of overrunning the whole country, when the intelligence of the still more serious rebellion of the Swabians compelled them suddenly to break off their campaign in the south, and return to the heart of their dominions. Preparations of unusual magnitude had been made for the war by the dukes of Swabia and Bavaria, who had invited the Saxon and Slavonian tribes to make common cause against the Franks. The sudden return of the Frankish army, however, frustrated their half-completed plans. In the autumn of the same year, Carloman crossed the Rhine, fell upon the Swabian duke Theobald before his Bavarian allies were ready to take the field, and compelled him to renew his oath of allegiance, and to give hostages for its observance.
[742-745 A.D.]