William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King StephenWilliam, of Malmesbury
History
William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen
William, of Malmesbury
Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Great Britain -- History -- To 1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
Ethelwulf, confiding in these two supporters, provided effectually for
external emergencies, and did not neglect the interior concerns of
his kingdom. For after the subjugation of his enemies, turning to the
establishment of God’s worship, he granted every tenth hide of land
within his kingdom to the servants of Christ, free from all tribute,
exempt from all services. But how small a portion is this of his
glory? Having settled his kingdom, he went to Rome, and there offered
to St. Peter that tribute which England pays to this day,[123] before
pope Leo the fourth, who had also, formerly, honourably received,
and anointed as king, Alfred,[124] his son, whom Ethelwulf had sent
to him. Continuing there a whole year, he nobly repaired the School
of the Angles, which, according to report, was first founded by Offa,
king of the Mercians, and had been burned down the preceding year.[125]
Returning home through France, he married Judith, daughter of Charles,
king of the Franks.
OF THE SUCCESSORS OF CHARLEMAGNE.
[Sidenote: [A.D. 814-840.] SUCCESSORS OF CHARLEMAGNE.]
For Louis the Pious, son of Charles the Great, had four sons; Lothaire,
Pepin, Louis, and Charles, surnamed the Bald; of these Lothaire, even
in his father’s life-time, usurping the title of emperor, reigned
fifteen years in that part of Germany situated near the Alps which
is now called Lorraine, that is, the kingdom of Lothaire, and in all
Italy together with Rome. In his latter days, afflicted with sickness,
he renounced the world. He was a man by far more inhuman than all who
preceded him; so much so, as even frequently to load his own father
with chains in a dungeon. Louis indeed was of mild and simple manners,
but he was unmercifully persecuted by Lothaire, because Ermengarda,
by whom he had his first family, being dead, he was doatingly fond of
Charles, his son by his second wife Judith. Pepin, another son of
Louis, had dominion in Aquitaine[126] and Gascony. Louis, the third son
of Louis, in addition to Norica, which he had already, possessed the
kingdoms which his father had given him, that is to say, Alemannia,
Thuringia, Austrasia, Saxony, and the kingdom of the Avares, that
is, the Huns. Charles obtained the half of France on the west, and
all Neustria, Brittany, and the greatest part of Burgundy, Gothia,
Gascony, and Aquitaine, Pepin the son of Pepin being ejected thence
and compelled to become a monk in the monastery of St. Methard; who
afterwards escaping by flight, and returning into Aquitaine, remained
there in concealment a long time; but being again treacherously
deceived by Ranulph the governor, he was seized, brought to Charles
at Senlis, and doomed to perpetual exile. Moreover, after the death
of the most pious emperor, Louis, Lothaire, who had been anointed
emperor eighteen years before his father’s decease, being joined by
Pepin with the people of Aquitaine, led an army against his brothers,
that is, Louis, the most pious king of the Bavarians, and Charles,
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