The period of conquests and warlike expeditions was almost over. One hears of the ravages of Scandinavian pirates, and of marauding incursions by Moorish corsairs along the extended coast line of the Empire. They seem to have remained unpunished, for Charles gave little attention to the development of a navy. In the years from 808 to 810 there were operations on a large scale against a threatened Danish invasion of the Northeastern frontier of the Empire. Some actions of an indecisive character were fought, and the preparation of a fleet sufficient to meet the Danish flotilla of two hundred ships was taken in hand. The prospect, however, of more serious complications was dissolved by a domestic revolution in Denmark, and for the rest of the Emperor’s life peace prevailed between himself and the Danes. As time went on, the actual direction of military operations was left to the Emperor’s two elder sons, Charles and Pippin, who seem, on the whole, to have harmoniously worked together in carrying out their father’s plans. The enforced inactivity of the Emperor brought forward the need of providing for the future administration of his domains. His eldest son, another Pippin, of illegitimate birth, was not on the list of those from whom the future rulers were to be selected. Years before, in 792, he had been discovered in a plot to dethrone his father, and had been sent to a monastery. There were now but three heirs to the empire, Louis, in Aquitaine; a younger Pippin, in Italy, and Charles, in Germany, all intrusted with important charges by their father. In 806 a formal document was drawn up regulating the succession. Charles received the countries from whence the Franks had originated, Austrasia along with Neustria, and the East Frankish provinces; the younger brothers were to exercise independent power over the countries they already were administering. Besides this, Pippin was to take Bavaria, and Louis the Provençal districts and the largest parts of Burgundy. Charles directed that his sons should help one another against their enemies, internal and external; he also arranged the roads by which Italy should be approached in case of need, and provisions were made at the same time for securing independence in the fractions of the Empire. Among these dispositions, perhaps the most significant were that no “beneficium,” or assignment of lands, should be made in any of the two divisions, save to individuals who were residents there, and that no man expatriated for his crimes should be received by the ruler of another territory. The inner unity of the three realms and their independence from one another was the master idea of this whole testamentary arrangement. These provisions were made by the Emperor after he had advised with his nobles. They seem to have harmonized with his own sense of justice, and, strangely enough, the ideals of family life predominated in cases where, beyond all other considerations, political