On January 28, 814, Charlemagne, the father of Europe, died, and the rule of this emperor once gave the continent a certain degree of stability, although it was not rich, but it was also prosperous. However, as soon as Charlemagne died, some people began to stir, and he cut through thorns and thorns, and the work established by the horse in his life was crumbling like a stump in the wind. Carolingian's descendants inherited Charlemagne's cruelty and cunning, but failed to perpetuate his heroic wisdom. The first fires were lit by the bishops who feared no chaos in the world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the brutal docile Louis</h1>
Charlemagne passed the throne to his more cultured son Louis at the end of his life, and Louis was called the "docile" not because he was a benevolent monarch, but because he was a mockery of his weakness, and the other side of weakness was cruelty, just as a person with extreme inferiority would act extremely conceited in front of outsiders.
The first fire of the Civil War was lit by the Archbishops of Milan and Cremona, who, on the pretext that King Bernard of Italy was the eldest son of Charlemagne and deserved to be the master of the Carolingian family, berner used this as an excuse to challenge Louis the docile. So my uncle and nephew were buying people's hearts and expanding their armies. The two sides were about to exchange troops at Sharon on the banks of the Saône.
However, the battle did not start in the end, and Bernard was arrested. Louis the gentle adopted the tactic of subjugating the army without a fight, using money and the gentle means of knighthood to rebel against more than half of the Italian army, while Bernard took the liberty of entering the emperor's barracks to prepare for negotiations, only to put himself in prison
When people are satisfied, they tend to expose their cruel nature, and Louis the Gentler is such a person, he has people goug out the eyes of his nephew, and he is sentenced to 3 days of torture, although Bernard kneels on the ground and pleads, but it is nothing more than a meaningless struggle. The nephew eventually died in agonizing torture, and he was later buried in Milan, with the inscription "Tomb of Saint Bernard" on the tombstone.
It should be noted here that Louis put Bernard's three brothers under house arrest in the monastery and forced them to cut their hair and become monks. But the clergy who followed the revolt of the King of Italy were extremely tolerant, forgave them of all their sins, and the most serious punishment was only the removal of the clergy, knowing that it was these fearless clergy who really instigated the civil war.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > continuation error equals error on top of error</h1>
The Kingdom of the Franks was a loose state, often divided. The division of his empire among several sons by the king was the main cause of the division. From the above, it can be seen that Louis the Gentle is a cruel uncle. But when the role switches to father, he acts cowardly again. If we know that what our ancestors did was wrong, but we still want to imitate it, it is equivalent to adding mistakes to mistakes.
From 817 onwards, he divided his kingdom among his sons, but he did not have the majesty and ability of Charlemagne to restrain his sons. Louis the Gentler first made his eldest son Lothair his right and left hand, and then gave the Aquitaine region to his second son, Bavaria to his third son, Louis the Germanic.
Louis the Gentler married a new wife, Judith of Bavaria, and the two also had a child, the younger son being Charles the Bald, the future King of West Francia. Louis believed that this son could not be without territory, and at that time the abbot of the Colby Monastery was a member of the Carolingian royal family, that is, the cousin of Louis the Gentle man, Vala, accused Louis the Gentle man of being the culprit of all chaos at a popular meeting in Aachen, and accused Queen Judeion of having an affair with outsiders, and it was clear that Vala was a counter-divider. But the emperor did not accept the relative's advice and drove him back to the monastery. France-Conte and Switzerland were given to Charles the Bald.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > emperor became a captive of the emperors</h1>
The distraught Walla colluded with the abbot of Saint-Denis Abbey, when the bishop had a large amount of property large enough to recruit an army. This is the source of the chaos. At the same time, the bishops of Vienne, Lyon, and Amiens united to encourage the princes to rise up against their fathers, and declared that those who did not support them were those who were not protected by Jesus Christ.
The weak Louis seemed to be too doting on his sons, and instead of rallying an army to quickly quell the rebellion, he convened four synods and enacted unrealistic laws. Could it be naïve for the emperor to think that the rebels raised the anti-flag because of religious differences? It's simply stupid.
On the other hand, the princes took up arms, and the helpless emperor could only organize an army to maintain his authority. There were many, many religious people in both camps, but on the side of the Crown Prince was supported by Pope Gregory IV, who threatened Louis the Gentle man with extermination, and the Emperor sent a tit-for-tat message to the Pope: "If you do not declare absolute punishment, then you yourself will be punished with absolute punishment." But Gregory's words gave him the upper hand, saying, "It is important to know that my bishop's authority is above Louis's emperor's authority." ”
It is simply absurd that if it were not for The invasion of Italy by Pepin and Charlemagne, the Holy See would have become a rubber stamp in the hands of the Lombards. But as Charlemagne's son, Louis was very weak. The war turned to negotiation, and the pope walked into the emperor's camp with his head held high, and no one knew what they said, but when the pope walked out of the emperor's camp, there were already ordinary people in the emperor's camp who had changed their doors. Louis's army defected near Basel.
The emperor thus became a prisoner of the princes, and the hated stepmother Judion became a prisoner. Interestingly, the princes did not kill her, but sent her shaved head to the prison in Lombardy. Her son, Charles, was placed under house arrest at Prüm Abbey. Louis the Gentler was deposed by his sons. Compared to the rebellious princes, Pope Gregory IV and Colby Abbot Vala were the real culprits. But they did not gain much from the coup, and although the civil unrest was instigated by them, the ungrateful prince did not repay them. The Pope was despised by the victors, while Varro, the abbot of colby abbey, shut himself in the monastery and cut himself off from the outside world.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > emperor who was forced to repent</h1>
Emperor Louis, known as the Docile, finally paid the price for his weakness. Although he did not fear for his life, the mental torture could not be escaped. The eldest son, Lothair, the son who had been in charge with Louis, took his father to Compiègne and demanded that he confess publicly, knowing that this was almost tantamount to an insult to the current emperor, and that such public repentance was rarely held, and if it was held, it was only for the lower classes or the unfortunate. Even more shameful is the fact that the bishops have put on a religious veneer for this insult, claiming that Christians should voluntarily accept this humiliation and that Louis should be allowed to make eternal public confessions, unable to lift his head for the rest of his life.
At this time, Louis was completely devoid of the majesty of the emperor and timidly accepted such excessive demands. He simply had no ability to resist the humiliating treatment imposed on him. Son Lothair seemed very happy to see his father on his knees. The Archbishop ordered the Emperor to remove his shoulder straps, sword, and tunic, crawl over his garment of repentance, and read aloud a document accusing himself of blasphemy, which even stripped him of the title of Emperor and called him "a noble man, a respectable man." This unethical practice was common among the Franks in the 9th century.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" > a mockery of fate</h1>
If Louis the Gentle had only one son, perhaps he would have ended his life in a garment of repentance. After defeating his father, the emperor's sons began to fight again, and alliances and affection in the face of power were always unreliable. In 834 he was moved to the Monastery of Saint Denis. The Germans Louis and Pepin restored their father to the throne and sent Judion and Charles the Bald back to him as a way to contain their eldest brother Lothair. Ironically, it didn't take long for Louis the German to repent, and he once again took up arms against his father. Poor old Louis was heartbroken, completely disheartened with life, no, it should be said, of human nature, and died not long after in a tent in Mainz. Before he died he said, "I forgive Louie, but he knows that he killed me." ”
This sentence reveals the sadness of the world, the tiger is a hundred beasts, and dare not touch its anger. Only father-son affection, step by step, review. Father and son should have been interdependent, the father gave life to the son, and the son brought happiness to the father. But in the Frankish rulers there was no sign of humanity. Although the weak emperor Louis was sympathetic to future generations, there was no need to doubt his love for his own few unworthy sons, but how could he know the bad influence caused by his mutilation of his nephew? All sin has a source.
Finally, let me answer the question, who destroyed the mighty Charlemagne Empire? From these calamities after Charlemagne's death, we can see the figure of a priest class. Without the instigation of the priests, the princes may not dare to rebel, and even if they start an army, the odds of victory are very low. Pope Gregory IV swept the emperor's army into disarray, and when the emperor was captured, the superior bishops forced him to accept the punishment of humiliation. In those dark times, the clergy often put up the guise of justice and did ugly things.
Text: Lantai Lingjun
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