7. The barbarian invasions from the east and the north brought in the Northmen, Slavs, and the Hungarians, while the Saracens were attacking Italy and southern France.[385:1] Before the ninth century closed, the territorial unity of the Empire of Charles the Great was broken up. Charles the Bald (875-877) ruled France as king, held Italy as Emperor, and sought to gain control of Germany but was prevented by death from doing so. Charles the Fat (881-888) held Germany as king, controlled Italy as Emperor, and was invited to assume the French crown because Charles the Simple, a weak-minded boy of six, could not cope with the marauding Northmen. Charles the Fat, the last legitimate East Frankish male descendant of Charles the Great, accepted the proffered throne (885) and thus reunited all the parts of the Empire of Charles the Great except Burgundy. But Charles the Fat was too weak to hold the reins of government over so vast an area. He bought off the Northmen by a disgraceful treaty (886) to the disgust of the French, was driven out of Italy (887), and then, deposed and deserted by his German subjects, he crawled off to an unregrettable death on his Swabian estates (888).[386:1] This was the last union of France and Germany under one ruler until Napoleon the Great carved out his vast Empire in western Europe. When the line of the Carolingian rulers, called into existence by papal coronation in 800, ended with the death of the last legitimate descendant in the male line, Charles the Fat, in 888, a new problem confronted western Europe. The right of appointing a new Emperor reverted to Rome and the Pope. The Empire of Charles the Great fell asunder and from it emerged four kingdoms.[386:2] West France chose Odo of Eudes as king. East France, or Germany, elected Arnulf. The kingdom of Burgundy was divided between two rival rulers. Italy, except the southern part which was still loyal to Constantinople, was also divided between the parties of Berengar of Friuli[386:3] and Guido of Spoleto.[386:4] The former was chosen king by the estates of Lombardy, the latter was crowned Emperor by the Pope Stephen VI. and not long afterwards, to insure the permanency of the imperial title in his family, had his son Lambert crowned co-Emperor in 894 by Pope Formosus.[386:5]