on the following day. The season was such that corn could not be raised, and the want of pasture occasioned the death of cattle.

10. Henry left the crown to his son Philip I., then seven years old, 1060 A. C., under the regency of Baldwin, count of Flanders. Philip was rather a spectator than an actor in the political events of his reign. He lived beyond the commencement of the first crusade, having swayed the sceptre during forty-eight years. His principal war was with Wilam of Normandy, now become king of England. From this date commenced a long hostility between the English and French monarchies.

ITALY.

11. In the division of the Western Empire among the sons of Louis the Debonaire, Italy, as we have seen, was assigned to Lothaire, with the title of emperor. His successor, as we have also seen, was Louis II., his son, who died in 875. The succeeding year, Charles the Bald, king of France, was proclaimed king of Italy by a diet at Pavia. But he retained this sovereignty only two years, his death occurring in 877.

Italy was afterwards ravaged by contending tyrants; but in 964, Otho, the Great, reunited it to the dominions of the German empire. A series of wars, however, continued during at least two centuries, occasioned by the invasions of the Normans, and the claims of the emperors, till Italy was divided into several independent states. These wars are too

unimportant and uninteresting to be noticed in this, or the following period. Italy, therefore, once the mistress of the world, must, for a time, be left out of the records of nations, except as her affairs shall be incidentally noticed in the history of Germany. Her independent sovereignties, formed at different times, as Naples, the estates of the Church, Tusca ny, Parma, Lombardy, the Genoese, and the Venetian territories, may, in some subsequent period, be duly noticed.

SA transaction, in which Otho II., the second German emperor after Italy was re-united to the empire, was engaged, may be here related. Several cities of Italy took occasion to throw off their allegiance to the emperor. Otho, hearing of it, soon entered Italy with an army, and adopted the following most cruel method to punish the authors of the tumults.

He invited the nobles of Rome to a grand entertainment in the Vatican palace and when the guests had placed themselves at the

table, he forbade them, under pain of death, to speak or move at what they should hear or see. Instantly they were surrounded by armed men, and while they sat trembling, the emperor composedly ordered the names of those concerned in the late disturbances to be read over, and the guilty to be put to death in the midst of the hall. After the bloody mandate was executed, he was all smiles and complaisance to the other guests, during the entertainment.

It may be recorded here, that it was during the present period, the foundation of the temporal power of the popes was laid. In 1080, Matilda, countess of Tuscany, bequeathed a large portion of her dominions to pope Gregory the VII. From that time the popes possessed great power in the states of Europe. Although the emperors (German) asserted their sovereignty over Italy and the popedom, and claimed the absolute right of electing the pope; yet it was with a constant resistance on the part of the Romans, and a general repugnance of the popes, when once established.

SPAIN.

12. The empire of Charlemagne, in Spain, comprised but a small part of that country. Indeed, all that the Christians, (including the native Spaniards and the French,) possessed, constituted only about a fourth of the kingdom, viz., Asturia, part of Castile and Catalonia, Navarre, and Arragon. Catalonia and Navarre were subdued by Charlemagne, but his successors seem to have taken no interest in the conquest; it probably soon reverted back to the Christians of Spain. All the remainder of the Peninsula, including Portugal, was occupied by the Moors.

Cordova, a luxurious and magnificent city, was the Moorish capital. It was a great school for the sciences, and the resort of the learned from all parts of the world. In the tenth century, their dominions were divided among a number of petty sovereigns, who were constantly at war with one another. Had the Christians availed themselves of this state of things, they might perhaps have then regained the whole kingdom; but they were unhappily contending among themselves, and it was sometimes the case, that the Christian princes formed alliances with the Moors against one another.

§ Taste and the sciences flourished in Cordova, and the south of Spain, when the rest of Europe had become involved in barbarism

and ignorance. Cordova, as the seat of government, enjoyed a 107 splendid period of two hundred years, reckoning from the middle of the eighth, to the middle of the tenth century. During that period, the Moorish portion of Spain boasted of a series of able princes, who gained the palm over all the nations of the West, both in arts and arms.

It was only after the Moorish princes became luxurious and effeminate, that the nation was divided into a number of petty states, the principal of which, were Toledo, Cordova, Valentia, and Seville.

To add to the divided state of Spain, both among the Moors and Christians, the country abounded with independent lords, who were warriors and champions by profession, making it their business to decide the quarrels of princes, or to volunteer their service and that of their vassals and attendants, on such occasions. Of this description of persons, termed knights-errant, the most distinguished was Rodrigo the Cid, who undertook to conquer the kingdom of New Castile, for his sovereign, Alphonso, king of Old Castile. Of the passion for knight errantry, however, it is proposed to speak in some other place.

The contentions among the petty kingdoms of Spain need not detain us here, nor will it be expedient to dwell on the subsequent history of Spain, until the expulsion of the Moors, and the union of the whole country under one head, towards the conclusion of the fifteenth century.

GERMANY.

13. Germany was known in ancient times, but it possessed no political importance till the era of Charlemagne. Previously, it was a rude and uncivilized country, and fluctuating in its government. Charlemagne may therefore be considered the reviver, if not the founder of the German empire. As a component part of his sovereignty, it has been already noticed so far down as the termination of the short reign, or rather usurpation, of Charles the Bald, of France, in 877. At that period, or perhaps a few years subsequent, it may be con sidered as having been effectually separated from France; and of all the dominions of Charlemagne, it has alone descended as an empire, and the representative of the sway which he once held over the nations of the West. The emperor of Germany is to this day, nominally at least, regarded as successor to the Emperors of Rome.

f Germany, is said to be compounded of the Celtic word ger, brave, and man, signifying a warlike people. In ancient times, it comprehended all the country from the Baltic to Helvetia, and from

the Rhine to the Vistula. The primitive inhabitants were most probably the Celts. But our information respecting Germany is scanty till the period of the Roman conquests in that country. Some ages before that time, the Goths, or Teutones, had migrated from the eastern part of Europe, along the Euxine, and established themselves on the shores of the Baltic, in Belgica, in the north of France, and the south of England; driving the original inhabitants into the northern and western regions.*

When Rome was in the zenith of its power, Germany seems to have been divided into a number of independent principalities; but the inhabitants frequently united in the defence of their common lberty, and many bloody battles established their reputation for bra very, before they sunk under the power and policy of their invaders. At length, however, their country was reduced to a state of provincial subjection to the masters of the world; and upon the decline of the Western Empire of Rome, Germany became a prey to the Franks, and a considerable part of it remained under the dominion of earls and marquisses, till Charlemagne extended his power, both military and civil, over the whole empire.

14. The successor of Charles the Bald, was Charles III, called the Fat, after an interregnum of three years, S81 A. C. France was also under his sway at the same time, but he was soon afterwards deposed, and reduced to the greatest extremities.

15. In 887, Arnold, a natural son of Carloman, and nephew of Charles III., was proclaimed emperor of Germany. In the course of his reign, he defeated the Normans, took Rome, and was crowned there by the pope. His son Louis III., became his successor in 899, when only seven years of age. He was the last emperor descended in the male line from Charlemagne.

§ The reign of Louis is said to have been so much agitated by divisions between the lords and the bishops, that the young emperor died of grief.

From the death of Louis, the empire became strictly elect ive, although, during the hereditary succession, the consent of the bishops and grandees had always been asked.

16. Conrad, duke of Franconia, was elected to fill the vacant throne in 912. He reigned seven years, during which time he quelled several revolts, and purchased peace of the barbarous Hungarians

§ The German grandees, who assembled at Worms, first offered the imperial diadem to Otho, duke of Saxony; but he declining it

* Webster's Elements, &c.

on account of his advanced age, persuaded them to apply the invitation to Conrad. The latter was of imperial descent by his mother, who was a daughter of Arnold. During his reign, the affairs of Germany were conducted with great prudence.

17. Upon the death of Conrad, the imperial dignity was bestowed on Henry I., surnamed the Fowler. This prince possessed great abilities, and introduced order and good government among his people. He built and embellished cities, reduced and conciliated many of the revolted lords, and conquered several tribes, as the Hungarians, Danes, Sclavonians, Bohemians, &c. He added Lorrain to his dominions.

§ Great as Henry was as a statesman, he manifested considerable zeal in propagating the Christian faith. A portion of the Vandals whom, he subdued, were, under his auspices, converted to this religion. He maintained no correspondence with the See of Rome, inasmuch as he had been consecrated by his own bishops.

18. His son Otho I., the great, was elected emperor, 936. He carried on the system of his father, in repressing the usurpations, of the lords. The conquest of Bohemia he began in 938, and finished in 950. In 961 he expelled Berenger II. and his son, Adalbert, from Italy, and caused himself to be crowned at Milan. The next year he was crowned by Pope John XII, and from that time he may be justly styled the emperor of the Romans. John afterwards revolted against him, but was soon deposed.

Otho was the greatest prince of his time. After an active and commendable reign of thirty years, he died of an apoplectic disorder, in 972. His remains were interred in the cathedral church of Magdebourg, where his tomb may be still distinguished by a Latin inscription.

§ Otho owed his ascendancy in Italy to the disorders and crimes of the Papacy. Being invited into that country by the Pope and the Italian states, while they were contending with Berenger, he defeated the latter, and in return for the honours which the Pope conferred upon him, he confirmed the donations made to the Holy See by Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis the Debonaire.

The treachery of the Pope, (John XII.) obliged the emperor, in two or three successive instances, to visit Italy to compose the disorders that took place. The last time, he executed exemplary vengeance on his enemies, by hanging one half of the senate. Calling together the Lateran Council, he created a new Pope, and obtained from the assembled bishops, a solemn acknowledgment of the absolute right of the emperor to elect to the papacy, to give the investiture of the crown of Italy, and to nominate to all vacant bishoprics. The power of parental affection is strikingly exhibited in the fol