06. The Mayors of the Palace
CHAPTER VI. The Mayors of the Palace (687-741)
When Clotaire, son of Fredegond, died, he left two sons. They did not, as their uncles and great-uncles had done, divide the land into two parts and each reign over one; but one of them, whose name was Dagobert, gathered together an army and made himself master of both Neustria and Austrasia. He gave to his brother land in the south part of the country, a part which no Frankish king had ever before even visited, so that the people felt great pride and pleasure in having a king to themselves. Dagobert took Paris for his chief town; he made himself a splendid court, took journeys through the country doing justice to his subjects, and made presents of lands and goods to the people whom he wished to have for friends. "His coming struck terror into bishops and chiefs, but filled the poor with joy," He encouraged the building of churches, and had copies of the old Frankish laws written out and sent about the kingdom.
After ten years he died, leaving two sons, one eight and the other four years old. The elder had already been made King of Austrasia, for the Austrasians had wished for a king to themselves, and Dagobert had sent them his elder son; the younger was King of Neustria. Of course while they were children these kings had no power, but they did not gain more as they grew up. There followed three more kings in Neustria and four in Anstrasia, none of whom could make themselves obeyed, or were considered as of any importance in the kingdom.
In both countries the chief man next to the king was called the Mayor of the Palace; he had the chief command in time of war, and sometimes had to hold a court and do justice. The Mayor of the Palace was chosen by the chiefs, and in Austrasia always took their side against the king; in Neustria he usually took the side of the king against the chiefs. As the kings' power grew less, that of the chiefs increased; the kings came to be known as Fainéant or Do-nothing kings, and the really important person was the Mayor of the Palace.
All the kings who had descended from Clovis were called Merwing or Merovingian kings, from the name of the chief family among the Frankish tribes. After the death of Dagobert there was no other Merovingian king of any power or importance. All the Merovingian kings had long yellow hair which was never cut, but which fell round their shoulders; and when they lost all power in the State this was their only distinction, and they used to be driven about Paris in carriages drawn by oxen, looking very splendid, but despised by every one who saw them, because they had no power and did nothing useful to any one, and so had no right to be kings.
The Fainéant kings settled nothing for themselves, but sat on their throne and pretended to rule, answering to the people who came to speak with them on business exactly what they had been told beforehand to say by the Mayor of the Palace. This went on for nearly a hundred years,and one particular family became more famous in Austrasia than any other, so that the Mayor of the Palace was always chosen from it. The men in this family were all wise, brave, and vigorous. At the time when Dagobert's little son became king of Austrasia, the Mayor of the Palace was named Pepin; and all through the reign of that king, and of several others who came after him, Pepin had more power in Austrasia than any one else, and both there and in Neustria behaved as if he were himself the king. He made war when he chose and against whom he chose, chiefly against the Germans who lived on the other side of the Rhine, and who were very wild and fierce, and sometimes attacked his land.
Pepin tried to keep them quiet in two ways; sometimes he marched against them with an army, sometimes he sent a body of monks to try and teach them to be Christians.
When Pepin died, his son Karl took for himself all that had belonged to his father. The Neustrians tried to escape from his power, but he was too strong for them, and they were obliged to obey him as they had obeyed Pepin.
Karl was poor, and soon saw that he would have to carry on great wars against the enemies of the Franks. He wanted money with which to make presents to the great chiefs, that they might like him, and be willing to fight in his battles. In those days there was no regular army( and no regular soldiers). When the king wanted to make war he called upon all his chiefs to go with him. Some of the chiefs to whom he had given land had promised in return that they would go out and fight his battles with a certain number of men whenever he wished it, and sometimes these chiefs had given part of their land to some of their friends in return for the same promise, so that a king could usually count upon a certain number of men when he went to war. Others of the chiefs had taken land for themselves,( as I said before,) and made no promise to any one; but they were usually willing to help the king, because war was a great amusement to them, and because they were anxious to keep enemies away from their country, and because they hoped to have some share in the goods and money which might be taken from the enemy. But Karl was not a king, the chiefs had made no promise to him, and it was all the more necessary for him to have some reward to offer to the soldiers who should fight for him.
Clovis had given land to his chiefs, but now all the land already belonged to some one, and Karl did not dare to take any away from the great chiefs, who would have turned against him and become dangerous enemies. But the bishops and clergy had great riches, and Karl thought that they did very little to deserve them, for as they grew rich they became selfish and idle, and did not think about teaching the people and doing their duty, but only how to make themselves grand and comfortable, so that no one respected them. Karl took away from them the rich lands that belonged to the Church, and gave them to his warriors.
Of course the clergy were very angry, and in many old books we may read all the bad things that they say of Karl; but the chiefs were pleased, and the men to whom the lands were given fought with Karl bravely against all their enemies. They had first to fight the Saxons, a race of Germans who lived on the farther side of the Rhine, some of whom had before this time gone to Britain and established themselves there as you have read in English histories. The Saxons were defeated, and Karl next prepared to defend himself against the Arabs, who came from Spain over the Pyrenees to try and make themselves masters of France.
The Arabs lived in Arabia, which is in Asia, on the east side of the Red Sea, and for many hundred years they had been poor people, living in tribes, never leaving their country, spending their time in hunting and taking care of their flocks, scarcely noticed at all by any other nation.
A hundred and fifty years before the time of which I am speaking, an Arabian merchant appeared among his countrymen and taught them a religion. It was not the Christian religion, for he was not a Christian himself, nor was it the religion of any other nation. He taught them his own ideas about God, and they believed that he was a prophet or a man sent by God on purpose to teach them. He believed it himself, and as his name was Mahomet, they called the religion he taught them Mahometanism and themselves Mahommedans, as the people who believe what Jesus Christ taught call themselves Christians. When they had learned what they believed to be true, they determined to make all the rest of the world believe it as well.
They left their own country and began to make war on the people round. The mild ignorant shepherds had turned into fierce soldiers; they conquered Persia, Egypt, part of Africa, Spain. Whenever they conquered a country, they asked the people whether or not they would become Mahommedans. If they said Yes, the Arabs treated them well, gave them good governors, and ruled them kindly. If they said No, the Mahommedans used them as slaves, made them pay tribute, or sums of money, and sometimes put them to death. Many of the nations conquered by the Arabs were too much afraid of them not to pretend to agree with them whether they really did so or not.
The Arabs had in this way become masters of Spain, and now they wished to conquer France; but when they had passed the Pyrenees and begun their march against a French town, they found Karl with his army ready to resist them. There was a great battle between the two armies, called the battle of Tours, and in the end Karl conquered the Mahommedans, killed, some say, three hundred thousand Arabs, and drove the rest out of France. He has been called Karl the Hammer, or in French Charles Martel, in memory of the blows which he gave his enemies on this occasion.
The rest of his life he passed in fighting, sometimes against the Saxons, sometimes against the people in the south of France. He was called Duke of the Franks. When he died he left his dukedom to be divided between his two sons.
