XXXI.30 How the empire left the house of Charlemagne

, par Stewart

The empire, which, to the prejudice of the branch of Charles the Bald, had already been given to the bastards of the branch of Louis the German, [1] again passed into a foreign house with the election of Conrad, duke of Franconia, in the year 912. The branch that was reigning in France, and which could barely contest villages, was even less in a position to contest the empire. We have an agreement passed between Charles the Simple and the emperor Henry I, who had succeeded Conrad. It is called the Bonn compact. [2] These two princes went aboard a ship that had been positioned in the middle of the Rhine and swore an everlasting friendship. They made a rather good compromise. Charles took the title of king of Western France, and Henry king of Eastern France. Charles contracted with the king of Germania, and not with the emperor.

Notes

[1Arnoul and his son Louis IV.

[2In the year 926, recorded by Aubert le Mire, Codex donationum piarum, ch. xxvii.