Period of the Conquest

Charlemagne’s military work, whoever follows it from its origins, embraces the longest period of wars that history ever offers in its most distant annals; however, that its duration, starting from the expedition of Aquitaine up to the retrenchment of the Slavic populations, and the war against the Huns and the Bohemians, was forty-six years. The expeditions of Alexander the Macedonian, swift to the par of an impetuous stream, end with this green and superb life that is drunk in the cup of Alcide; the military life of Caesar, including also the order of the Gauls, did not extend beyond eighteen years; Hannibal and Scipio before him, and all those other famous names, waged more or less long and difficult wars, but none were produced so continuously from north to noon. The Romans alone,

Now this life so tiring of glory proceeded from Charlemagne’s personal nature, from his vigorous nature, or was she a [216]necessity of his politics, an ineluctable fatality of the work he conceived? This work, so always active, was not so much individual as a family legacy, and a necessary consequence of his condition, but that one never wants to separate Charlemagne’s life as a conqueror, from the story of Carlo Martello and Pippin. And what was in fact the intent that this new lineage of Austrian prefects proposed itself? The crown. Now an usurpation did not accomplish otherwise without great labor, nor without great effort destroying an ancient cult, even if it were a superstition; and the fact of the exaltation of the Carolingians is, in fact, a kind of invasion of the Austrasian stock on the territory of Neustria; the Merovingians, effeminate, they are thrown out of the throne by vigorous men who come from the banks of the Rhine and the Meuse. The Austrasian race, of tall stature, who spent their lives in the Germanic provinces, is run by their prefects, and soon commands the beaches of Neustria, I ask the mongrel kings, corrupted by their Roman-style living too much, in their villas in Compiegne, Palayeau, Querzì all’Oisa and in the abbeys of San Dionigi, of both San Germano, or San Martino di Tours; and together with the mongrelized kings, he also tames the broken Franks. of Palayeau, of Querzì all’Oisa and in the abbeys of San Dionigi, of both San Germano, or of San Martino di Tours; and together with the mongrelized kings, he also tames the broken Franks. of Palayeau, of Querzì all’Oisa and in the abbeys of San Dionigi, of both San Germano, or of San Martino di Tours; and together with the mongrelized kings, he also tames the broken Franks.

Except that this domination is accomplished only on condition that the peoples are continually led to conquest and war; here begins the glorious work of Carlo Martello, who makes himself famous for his marvelous victory at Tours or Poitiers. He frees Aquitaine, throws the Infidels back beyond the Pyrenees, and this is the first of the great benefits of the prefects of the Austrasian stock. Carlo Martello, head of the Caroline lineage, still retains the native, imperious, wild type of the banks of the Rhine and Meuse; he thinks only of his warriors, and disdains any mixture with the Neustrii. Brave companions followed him in his war against the Saracens, with him they liberated those rich provinces, or what to give them? rewards in lands and benefits [242]which they will later be cultivated by the colonists. Carlo Martello therefore unscrupulously seizes the ecclesiastical lands, and shares them among his own, in which we see the fierce Germanic power that triumphs, without mixing anything else in this sylvan nature, in this rural and barbarian type, which is remain, above all, a warrior.

Pippin comes, and he is already tempering the nature of his and his mayor [217]mandate; It is true that he still remains Austrian and retains the pre-eminence of his arms over the populations that inhabit the banks of the Seine and the Loire, but we still see him go little by little approaching the customs, Roman ideas and customs of ‘Neustri. Otherwise he is not as inexorable in war as Carlo Martello, his concerns are not only for his warriors; but since he is at heart to found a dynasty, he sees that he will not be recognized as king except by the authority of the pope and of the Church, he sees that he will not be able to impress on his forehead the sacred character which sublimated before the eyes of all the lineage de ‘Merovei, if not extending the hand to the bishops, to the bishops who rule in the sacred basilicas; he knows all this by admirable instinct, and works aiming at this end. In which he does not at all abandon his warrior mission, which he ought, first of all, to support the race of Austrasia, to which his father led from the Thuringian woods. For it the conquest begins; Pippin must make his tests; all the wars that Charlemagne later waged were initiated by his father; in the South he represses the Aquitans; he crossed the Alps twice to fight the Lombards, and obtained great fruit there from a change of lineage, passing the iron crown from Astolfo to Desiderio. The first suggestion of the Saxon race is also due to Pippin; he travels the Reno and Vesero to impose taxes; he prepares the broad roads of the Carolina conquest, so that at his death an immeasurable load to support he leaves to Charlemagne, his worthy heir

The principles of this kingdom are uncertain compared to the great things that precede it, and it is not that Charlemagne is not in the prime of life, but that when his father descends into the tomb, he is already twenty-six years old; his complexion, as we recount it with the Chronicles of San Dionigi, is very strong; mighty his arm; he accompanied his father in almost all wars; as a child he played with the javelin and with the key, and they carried him on a long shield; in short, he is the worthy son of a prefect and a king. But what prevents him from giving to his first exploits all his ardor of conquest and all the power of his predatory genius, is the division of the throne with Charlemagne; in the exercise of a common and assigned power he does not find himself at ease, because the spirits, even in the midst of the sublime, do not attempt great enterprises, except when they are absolute masters of the field and can dispose of it at their own level; if they are not fully arbitrators of the mayor, they do not know how to exercise it and disdain it. So it happened to Charlemagne, until he reigned in conserve with Charlemagne; then his restless excitement [218]and his jealousies towards his brother; Carlomanno dies, and you see him then run with his forests of spears collected in the royal domains; see those proud Austrasians not recognizing the sons of Charlemagne, and chasing them into a cloister, having them shaved in the way that his father had already shaved the Merovingians, and defending himself right to his end, becoming lord of the two crowns of Austrasia and Neustria, this conjunction of forces which is indispensable to him. Nor is power much to him, except when it is whole in his hand.

It is not for this reason that he did not begin his military work while Charlemagne still reigned in common with him. The Aquitans, aiming to separate themselves from the Frankish dominion, had gathered around their dukes, nor did this proceed only from antipathy to race, and from those hatreds of nation to nation, or tribe to tribes which nevertheless burned in those times of barbarism, but in this revolt of the southern Aquitaine there was also a political reason, because faithful, as they always were, to the Merovingians, they still had many partisans among them, and the dukes of Aquitaine themselves, according to the traditions , formed a collateral branch of the lineage of the Merovei. In this state of affairs, Charlemagne does not mind moving immediately towards the cities of the South, preceded by the memory of his grandfather Carlo Martello, the winner of Poitiers or Tours, and in less than six months he gets those people right. He submits the Pyrenees more, he orders the lands of the Loire and the Garonne militarily, knowing full well that he cannot acquire valid authority over his warriors, if not gratifying them with victory and donations of land. From now on the peoples of Aquitaine are no longer an obstacle to him, but rather a help in the new war that he is about to wage, and we see them always lined up under his banners.

The first war in Lombardy was impetuous and rapid. It is true that Pippin was twice in Milan and in Ravenna, but he nevertheless did not destroy the Lombard nationality, and those kings nevertheless remained powerful under their iron crown. Now where does it happen that Charlemagne so easily succeeds in bringing down this same nation almost in a single season? Perhaps in this nature of man there was something more firm, more imperative, more superb, than in that of his father and his grandfather? Anyway: the times were better prepared; for peoples there are certain ages of decay, from which they cannot be preserved; the Lombard monarchy was already falling into ruin, and Charlemagne only hastened a collapse that would have occurred even without him [243] . When he crossed the Alps, the Lombards [219]they were no longer that conquering nation, of which Paolo Diacono left us that most proud painting; there were no longer those stout men, with black hair, which waving on their cheeks, mingled with their long and thick beard; with living in the cities of Italy they had grown weak and effeminate; they wore robes of silk with a drag in the manner of the Greeks, they hardly supported the shield, and trade with the Byzantine empire had deprived them of their ancient martial aspect. Senzachè, they were divided among themselves by competitions and jealousies; obedience was no longer complete as before; the supreme feudal lords had separated from the iron crown; Puglia, Benevento, Friuli did not recognize all of Desiderio in re de ‘Lombards by conforming titles; the nation was lost, scattered! The transfer of the lordship from Astolfo into Desiderio, carried out by Pepin, also benefited the interests of Charlemagne, having cooled in the feudal service and civil wars of city against city. Now add to all this a fierce army, which from the top of the Alps hurls itself into the midst of this effeminate race, with vigorous men, led by captains of such universal cry, such as Charlemagne and Bernardo, who begin the war in grand style. d’Annibale and the Romans, and take the Lombards from the side and from the front.

Then when they are in Italy, the Franks not only use the ways of war, but also hold certain seeds of discord in the hand, which they are spreading fruitfully; Charlemagne planted beforehand with one foot on Rome, the other on Milan, and found the ancient Italic nation always in contrast with the Lombards; the representatives of which are the popes, and of these he shoulders in his conflict against Desiderius. It is not too much thought that the popes were at that time as the symbol of ancient Lazio, of the Roman homeland [244], after which the Lombards were nothing but usurpers and conquerors; they wanted to free Italy from it, and Charlemagne was the instrument they took for this purpose. Now this Longobardic monarchy dissolves in a single campaign, and only two sieges are enough for this, that of Pavia and the other of Verona, and this because it was effectively in ruins at the time when the Franks reached beyond the Alps. , and would have fallen for other reasons, even without Charlemagne. There are times so predisposed that men are nothing but the arm of that mysterious providence, which is nothing else [220]it is finally if not the great foreknowledge of the times. Each nation has its periods of grandeur and fatality; one people disappears, and another appears all luxuriant with strength and youth; the new building rises on the fallen building: yes this is true, that the mosaics of Ravenna served to adorn the basilica of Aquisgrana. And then see how easily Charlemagne disposes of Desire; and he converts him into a monk, and together with him disperses the Lombard leaders in the monasteries, nor does anyone resist his will. At the time the ancient capital of Charlemagne, a dead and silent city, also ceded its magnificence and splendor to other thriving and powerful cities today

The wars against the Saxons also seem to be marked by a special character; they lasted not only for the thirty-three years, which included Charlemagne’s expeditions to Saxony; but like the war in Lombardy, which had already begun under Pepin, they too only came to an end under his son; and what a son! yes, you would say Charlemagne has the load of putting the last hand on the cockpit drawing. Twice the short-stature king crossed the Alps, and Charlemagne comes to gird the iron crown in Milan; Pippin explained his military insignia on the Vesero to impose tributes on the Saxons, and it was up to Charlemagne to disperse this people and make it disappear, so to speak, from Germany. The war against the Saxons has nothing in order, at first she confines herself to sudden raids by those peoples who come to harass the domination of the Franks on the Rhine: how many sweats, how many efforts to tame them! One of the great ways to reach those ends of depression, which Charlemagne constantly aimed at, was Christian preaching. In Rome, the Franks had the pope as their help in conquering Lombardy; on the Reno and on the Veser the bishops and the holy missionaries prepare the way for frank domination. San Bonifacio and Levino were instruments of civilization and conquest. When Charlemagne wants this or that people to dominate, he establishes bishops, establishes monasteries, sends industrious missionaries to convert them, and while he supports his podestà on the pastoral care of bishops, he adorns his crown with the cross, knowing full well that everything that is Christian will become his,

We also want to take into account the military activity of Charlemagne, who has nothing comparable to that alacrity, to those ever continuous wars that brought his champions to all points of Saxony. It is beautiful to see all the strength of unity both in the war and in the administration of a reunion with that divided republic, with those scattered tribes. The Saxons thus crushed, break [221]like the hetarchy that divides England, they are without ties between them, their leaders are scattered, they deal one by one with Charlemagne. There are two reasons that extinguish the peoples, either an overabundance of strength that makes them tear apart in civil wars (and such was the social condition of the Saxons), or the moral weakening of that first vigor that ensures victory, and this is the sign they reached were the Lombards. The strength of Charlemagne, on the contrary, is constituted by the joining which he makes in his hand the unity and the ever increasing vigor of power; without equal, as he is, around him, he has nothing but followers to war. The resistance of Vittichindo, his opponent, takes on another form; the latter is by chance great like him, but he does not otherwise reign over the whole nation of the Saxons; the other leaders who surround him are his equal, and he congregates the tribes, but only for moral force, and they acclaim him as a great man of war, but he is neither king nor emperor like Charlemagne, and this is the reason why he is finally tamed.

Nevertheless, we cannot help but become attached to this Saxon nationality, and in reading history, we do not know why, our gaze turns melancholy towards all these peoples who resist and then fall after a long conflict. The annals of the vanquished exert a mysterious force on us; that alternation of greatness and misfortune leads us to reflect on ourselves and on the designs of divine providence; in the bending of all before a man, he often likes to contemplate the long and vigorous resistance of the one who falls; torment that tightens the heart, as if you saw the bowels of a victim throbbing. This sense moved us in the wars against the Saxons: and who did not applaud the great nature of Vittichindo? you love him like Arminius in the war of the Romans, and like those leaders of the Gauls who resist from city to city, armed hand, against Caesar and his ancient praetorians. Every century brings some people or some monarchy of them, and no one dares to equal himself with the immortals, says Homer; sentence true in part, applied to nations as well as to men; everything is subject to the inexorable law of death.

The expeditions beyond the Pyrenees, as they took place in the continuous wars of Louis King of Aquitaine, are for this very reason marked with a less Carolingic imprint than the others. In the conquest of Lombardy, I have already said, the ancient Italic nation must be taken into account; in fact Charlemagne is there helped by the ancient population subject to the Lombards, and represented or supported by the popes. In the war against the Saracens of Spain, the same help; the Saracens camped [222]on those lands, in that form that the Turks are now encamped in Constantinople and in Syria, and as they were for a long time on the territory of Algiers. The Tartar nations, always on horseback, never form anything other than a people superimposed on another, the ancient races live under the new; and therefore, as it seems undoubted, Charlemagne’s expeditions as far as the Ebro were supported by the ancient Christian populations, by the Goths who occupied the cities and countryside from the Loire almost to the Pillars of Hercules. Won the fact that the active and military part of the Saracens was won in some battle, as to say at Poitiers, the ancient nation of the Goths was all awake, and Charlemagne’s expedition to Spain, was the first cause of the complete emancipation that followed few centuries later. The Franks were able, however, through the vicissitudes, to be driven out of Spain, for war has its fate, and its sinister fighting; but still the belief was maintained in those ancient Christians that with little effort they could free themselves from the dominion of the infidels, whence those assaults by the Counts of Castile, those sudden raids by the Goths, who descended from the mountains of Asturias, to confront the Moorish domination.

For this respect especially, it can be said precisely that Charlemagne’s expeditions favored the impulse of civilization, as well as in themselves they did not carry this noble germ. The leaders who followed the emperor to war, had no cult to rule them out of barbarism; those accounts which he placed in the military marches, all Germanic down to the capegli, were by no means more advanced than the Saxons, the Alemanni and the Saracens, and instead of bringing civilization to certain districts, they threw there, as it were, a new layer of barbarism, and the Austrasiians did anything but favor the enlightenment and the movement of civilization in Aquitaine and Lombardy. And therefore they did not have in themselves two causes which admirably drive forward the progress and greatness of peoples, to say we want unity and authority.

To reduce the many words into one, the conquests of Charlemagne cannot otherwise be considered under the aspect of civilization, that his mind still retained something wild in the likeness of the Germanic forests; his work is indeed exterminated because it keeps his barbaric imprint; it does not bring civilization, but it does receive it; however, that the empire he founded, is nothing other than the realization [223]of the Roman concept. In fact, what is the empire of the West, if not always a reminiscence of the eternal city? Everything contributes to this work, and in the great nations that surround it, there is no action of resistance; the empire of Constantinople is a worn-out civilization, which still gives light, yes, but which has nothing more than its first vigor; the Saracens are no longer in their period of conquest; after the flow comes the reflux; whence we see a wide path opening up before Charlemagne, who arrives at a good point, in a time, one might say, made according to his design; and he gathers under his curb the nations, as it were, awaited in Austrasia and Neustria; he picks up and patches up the minutiae, and makes them into unity, and then sanctifies it with his confederation with Rome. Although strong so as to be able to remain Germano, and he becomes a Roman, knowing full well that with the sword one can make himself materially master of authority, but that he cannot preserve it, except through the use and increase of moral strength; by his customs he still belongs to his ancient forests, and by his thinking he wants to approach that civilization which he discovers from afar as a horizon of splendor and light; nor in vain did he visit Rome and travel to Italy, for when he puts on the imperial cloak, he knows well how much strength the cross which he carries on his crown is about to give him. and through his thinking he wants to approach that civilization which he discovers from afar as a horizon of splendor and light; nor in vain did he visit Rome and travel to Italy, for when he puts on the imperial cloak, he knows how much strength the cross which he carries on his crown is about to give him. and through his thinking he wants to approach that civilization which he discovers from afar as a horizon of splendor and light; nor in vain did he visit Rome and travel to Italy, for when he puts on the imperial cloak, he knows well how much strength the cross which he carries on his crown is about to give him.

Nevertheless war is still the first of his affections, such is his original nature, nor does he forget it; the Carlinghi live for nothing but victory; they want to reassert the conquests, they want to share the lands. Looking back at his legislation, we will soon see that Charlemagne’s capitulars also refer to his wars, which absorb, so to speak, his life. It is curious to see these three generations of strong men from Carlo Martello to Charlemagne, all having the same intent and carrying it out with their stupendous firmness! Covered that he is in the mantle of the Caesars, the latter waits (such is his tiring load) to hold under his scepter the peoples he conquered; but keeping them in awe aggravates him with greater toil and sweat than conquest itself. Upon examining closely the great expeditions of Lombardy, Saxony and Spain, we see that they are completed, as it were, in the end of a season. Charlemagne crosses the Alps, and here he is a few months later in Pavia; it passes the Pyrenees, and here it is in Pamplona; it passes the Rhine, rushes to Saxony, and spreads its ranks on the Veser; whereas keeping in check, repressing the vanquished, is a continuous work, a hardship, an everyday cure; he must carry arms incessantly to all points of the empire, and to finish it he finds himself forced to fierce parties, such as the camps of the counts it passes the Rhine, rushes to Saxony, and spreads its ranks on the Veser; whereas keeping in check, repressing the vanquished, is a continuous work, a hardship, an everyday cure; he must carry arms incessantly to all points of the empire, and to finish it he finds himself forced to fierce parties, such as the camps of the counts it passes the Rhine, rushes to Saxony, and spreads its ranks on the Veser; whereas keeping in check, repressing the vanquished, is a continuous work, a hardship, an everyday cure; he must carry arms incessantly to all points of the empire, and to finish it he finds himself forced to fierce parties, such as the camps of the counts [224]on the extreme borders, the despair of the vanquished, and a manner of coercion so inexorable, that it causes entire masses of people to be severed.

In which enormous expeditions Charlemagne touches only two defeats: one in Germany, when his accounts are surprised by the Saxons and broken in a general assault; the other in Roncesvalles, in the mountains where Orlando and Olivieri perished. It should be noted that in these two fatal routes Charlemagne did not command; they happen to his lieutenants and not to him; for none of the enemies dares to attack him from the front, nor to resist him soon; misfortunes happened outside his presence, which he could neither foresee nor prevent. The emperor of the West such is by vigor of body and mind to obviate everything, foresee everything, to repair the defeats of his lieutenants. Perfect are the elements by which his armies are composed, whose warp is Germanic; he has very strong horses, weapons in hand of the best temper, inclined by instinct to vast strategic concepts, even when he does not use the Roman method which makes conquered peoples serve the subjugation of another people; hence the Lombards are seen marching in the war against the Saxons, the Bavarians crossing the Pyrenees and military in the Frank armies at the sieges of Pamplona and Barcelona; at noon he raises camps of Alemannic people; to the north it leads Italians, Goths, Cantabrians: this method is still imitated by all conquerors. In fact we did not see us ten centuries later, noble Polish breasts, breathing the air of Andalusia, and the the Bavarians pass the Pyrenees and military in the Frank armies at the sieges of Pamplona and Barcelona; at noon he raises camps of Alemannic people; to the north it leads Italians, Goths, Cantabrians: this method is still imitated by all conquerors. In fact we did not see us ten centuries later, noble Polish breasts, breathing the air of Andalusia, and the the Bavarians pass the Pyrenees and military in the Frankish armies at the sieges of Pamplona and Barcelona; at noon he raises camps of Alemannic people; to the north it leads Italians, Goths, Cantabrians: this method is still imitated by all conquerors. In fact we did not see us ten centuries later, noble Polish breasts, breathing the air of Andalusia, and thesierre [245] crossed at a career pace by well-fed horses on the banks of the Odera and Vistula? Chronicles report that Charlemagne also used another element to secure his conquests. The fourth century, as a time of irruptions, had thrown, as if to say, a layer of Tartars and Vandals over the ancient peoples who inhabited the soil; now Charlemagne could indeed accomplish such great things in such a limited period, calling those ancient nations to himself and to emancipation.

Now, how did this work come to fall, and how did the bundle untie almost as quickly as it was tightened? Three kingdoms struggled to found the Nacelle monarchy from Carlo Martello to Charlemagne, and this is the shining era: we could say that three lives, of Lodovico the Pious, of Carlo the Bald, and of Luigi the Balbo, well try to tear it down. This proceeds not so much from the personal nature of the principles as from the circumstances, and mainly from the natural reaction that occurs after a period of conquest. Nothing can be done against the nature of things; well it is [225]It is true that some extraordinary spirits arise from time to time, who, drawing on the customs and history of peoples, approach and unite them in spite of them; these men, exception of nature, iron-handed men, give back to the nations, and will give the same laws and the same forms of government to the north and south, and to impose the same codes on the people burned by the sun, and on that frozen and numb from the ice. As long as this mighty hand holds the scattered elements, she can compress them; but let the victory abandon it, and you will then see all these nations rushing to their independence, their own nature, their instinct, their history; this is what happened after Charlemagne’s death. The department made by Lodovico Pio, who was so censured, was imposed on him by the force of events; that battle of Fontenoi, in which three brothers were seen at war with each other, was nothing other than the signification of the three nations, which, angry at their too long and forced union, came to tear themselves apart; loose was the bundle of conquest, and each people returned to its original nature.

Germany alone remained of the Caroline system. Neustria and a portion of Austrasia took the name of France, retaining hardly any reminiscence of Charlemagne; which France hurried to the best of the Alemannic lineage, to elect its counts of Paris as king, since the ever increasing power of Charles Martel, Pippin and Charlemagne, was nothing more than a new invasion of Gauls, on the other hand of the German nation. The Alemannic lineage was then also removed from our borders for the exaltation of the Capets, the Frankish counts of Paris, whence it happens that the institutions of Charlemagne still survive in Germany, while no trace remains under the third lineage in France. Properly speaking: what was Germanic became Germanic, what Frank was, Frank remained. Then the barbarian populations thrown back by Charlemagne rushed to their turn to put this empire into pieces which had inexorably made them bend under his sword. In this universal turmoil, for the time being Neustria becomes a duchy dependent on the Normans, descendants and auxiliaries of those Saxons whom the emperor fought for thirty-three years. A great lesson in politics to all the conquerors who draw on the terms marked by God himself: the limits of the peoples are the mountains, the rivers, the climates, the customs; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. to break up this empire which had inexorably made them bend under his sword. In this universal turmoil, for the time being Neustria becomes a duchy dependent on the Normans, descendants and auxiliaries of those Saxons whom the emperor fought for thirty-three years. A great lesson in politics to all the conquerors who make force on the terms marked by God himself: the limits of the peoples are the mountains, the rivers, the climates, the customs; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. to break up this empire which had inexorably made them bend under his sword. In this universal turmoil, for the time being Neustria becomes a duchy dependent on the Normans, descendants and auxiliaries of those Saxons whom the emperor fought for thirty-three years. A great lesson in politics to all the conquerors who draw on the terms marked by God himself: the limits of the peoples are the mountains, the rivers, the climates, the customs; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. In this universal turmoil, for the time being Neustria becomes a duchy dependent on the Normans, descendants and auxiliaries of those Saxons whom the emperor fought for thirty-three years. A great lesson in politics to all the conquerors who make use of the terms marked by God himself: the limits of the peoples are the mountains, the rivers, the climates, the customs; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. In this universal turmoil, for the time being Neustria becomes a duchy dependent on the Normans, descendants and auxiliaries of those Saxons whom the emperor fought for thirty-three years. A great lesson in politics to all the conquerors who make use of the terms marked by God himself: the limits of the peoples are the mountains, the rivers, the climates, the customs; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. the costumes; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed. the costumes; those who despise them to erect a gigantic building almost always see them ruined on their heads. In all ages there is some tower of Babel, and the children of men are always punished for having been too bold and willed.

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The inclinations of Charlemagne, as they are sometimes universal, almost always remain Germanic; he exercises his authority especially over Alemagna and Italy, although these two extremities of the empire hold hands; whence it happens that his wars against the Huns, the Schiavoni, the Bavarians, also took on a half Alemannic and half Italian color; his armies are half Germanic half Lombard; he proceeds on two wings, like an eagle explaining the breadth of his vanni; Germany without the Alps and Italy without Tyrol are unsafe points, from which Charlemagne inflexibly unites them. The concern of the emperor in the southern wars is not the same. The expedition beyond the Pyrenees is evidently a reaction against the move of the Saracens, detained in Poitiers; and this rapid rush into Spain is somewhat divergent from Charlemagne’s military system: he goes there only once, stopping at the Ebro, and soon returns to Aachen, and puts so much neglect there, that he leaves his rear guard defeated. in Roncesvalles; beyond the Loire he is no longer in his circle. But he carefully watches over Italy, because he believes it to be indispensable to the safety of Germany, and while he leaves Aquitaine and Spain to his son Lodovico, he follows step by step every event of Pepin in Italy, and backs him up. with his weapons. beyond the Loire he is no longer in his circle. But he carefully watches over Italy, because he believes it to be indispensable to the safety of Germany, and while he leaves Aquitaine and Spain to his son Lodovico, he follows step by step every event of Pepin in Italy, and backs him up. with his weapons. beyond the Loire he is no longer in his circle. But he carefully watches over Italy, because he believes it to be indispensable to the safety of Germany, and while he leaves Aquitaine and Spain to his son Lodovico, he follows every event of Pipino in Italy step by step, and supports him. with his weapons.

After so much effort and so much care Charlemagne has the pain of seeing how the empire that he believed so strong, can mortally pierce itself; it is not already attacked on dry land, nor in the peaks of the mountains, nor in the plains, for no one knows it; but the fleets cover the seas, and what will the emperor’s descendants oppose to them? That great mind is thus caught unawares; a new enemy force arrives, and he is not parried in defense; He continually struggles to get ready, and orders ships and boats to be coupled, but he was not born for this, who Austrian as he is, and chief of Austrian lineage, will not know how to contrast with the Normans and the Saracens, as daring sailors as they are. . Here are the reasons for his great sadness, for the despair he gives to see, and of which Eginard and the monk of St. Gallen become interpreters: already old he is saddened by the fragility of his work, and he knows well how it must fall, nor does he have desperation equal to that of the dying man who sees the work of his life. The Normans and the Saxons will soon move their agile and intrepid flotillas towards those coasts, and Paris itself will be besieged by the Normans.

Thus eight centuries from then, another empire collapsed for almost the same reasons; Napoleon had conceived a work in the cockpit proportions; and also had his advanced guards, his prefects on the Elbe, [227]his dukes of Dalmatia and Istria, the kings of Bavaria, of Saxony for vassals; his young viceroy of Italy, a faithful lieutenant who crossed the mountains of Tyrol, while he moved towards the Danube. Now well, this mighty mind recognized its fall from the very causes which perished the work of Charlemagne; the sons of the Saxons and the Normans, thrown back to the island of the Bretons, expelled from the continent, opposed him too their fleets, their squads; lord of the center of Europe, Napoleon did not know his conquests, because another people was in possession of the sea. The fall of the Carlinghi was marked by the same character; the conquest oppressed the world in such a way that a riation of the vanquished against the tralignati victorious was to be expected.