[216] The isle of Rhe, near Rochelle, north of the mouth of the Garonne. [217] Galicia was a province in the extreme northwest of the Spanish peninsula. [218] Charles the Bald, who by the treaty of Verdun in 843, had obtained the western part of the empire built up by Charlemagne [see p. 154]. [219] Louis, a half-brother of Charles the Bald, who had received the eastern portion of Charlemagne's empire by the settlement of 843. [220] Frisia, or Friesland, was the northernmost part of the kingdom of Lothair. [221] That is, in Brittany. [222] Nomenoe was a native chief of the Britons. Charles the Bald made many efforts to reduce him to obedience, but with little success. In 848 or 849 he took the title of king. During his brief reign (which ended in 851) he invaded Charles's dominions and wrought almost as much destruction as did the Northmen themselves. [223] Tours, Blois, and Orleans were all situated within a range of a hundred miles along the lower Loire. [224] Chartres was some eighty miles northwest of Orleans. [225] About midway between Nantes and Tours. [226] Poitiers was about seventy miles southwest of Tours. [227] Valence was on the Rhone, nearly a hundred and fifty miles back from the Mediterranean coast. [228] The Northmen who ravaged France really had no kings, but only military chieftains. [229] Odo, or Eudes, was chosen king by the Frankish nobles and clergy in 888, to succeed the deposed Charles the Fat. He was not of the Carolingian family but a Robertian (son of Robert the Strong), and hence a forerunner of the Capetian line of kings regularly established on the French throne in 987 [see p. 177]. His election to the kingship was due in a large measure to his heroic conduct during the siege of Paris by the Northmen. [230] The tower blocked access to the city by the so-called "Great Bridge," which connected the right bank of the Seine with the island on which the city was built. The tower stood on the present site of the Chatelet. [231] In time Robert also became king. He reigned only from 922 to 923. [232] Abbot Ebolus was head of the monastery of St. Germain des Pres. [233] The Northmen were finally compelled to abandon their efforts against the tower. They then retired to the bank of the Seine near the abbey of Saint-Denys and from that place as a center ravaged all the country lying about Paris. In a short time they renewed the attack upon the city itself. [234] Charles the Fat, under whom during the years 885-887 the old empire of Charlemagne was for the last time united under a single sovereign. When Odo went to find him in 886 he was at Metz in Germany. German and Italian affairs interested him more than did those of the Franks.