[908-911 A.D.]
The Hungarian warrior was irresistible in the fury of his onset, invincible in battle by his contempt of death, untiring in pursuit, or secured from it by the rapidity of his horse. His blood-thirstiness, his inhuman treatment of the unarmed and helpless, his destructive and predatory habits, astonished and terrified the milder German, who regarded him in the light of an evil spirit, as the Goth had formerly regarded the Hun, until he became habituated to him. The suddenness with which these mounted hordes appeared in the heart of the country and again vanished, greatly strengthened the belief in their supernatural powers. They also acted with a sort of religious fanaticism, from a belief that every enemy they slew would be their vassal in a future state. They were so blood-thirsty, that they would make use of the corpses of their opponents as tables during their savage feasts. They bound the captured women and maidens with their own long hair, and drove them in flocks to Hungary.
Ludwig the Child, dismayed by these repeated disasters, concluded a treaty of peace with these people, and consented to pay them a ten years’ tribute. The Enns was declared the boundary of Hungary, and the wild Arpads erected their royal castle on the beautiful mountain on the Danube, on which the splendid monastery of Mölk now stands. The Germans were deeply sensible of the dishonour incurred by this ignominious tribute, of the danger of their internal dissensions, and of the misfortune of being governed by so impotent a monarch. It was even publicly preached from the pulpit, “Woe to the land, whose king is a child!” The youthful monarch died (911 A.D.) before he had even reigned, and with him ended the race of Charlemagne in Germany.
CONRAD THE FIRST (911-918 A.D.)
[911-912 A.D.]
The cessation of the Carlovingian line did not sever the bond of union that existed between the different nations of Germany, although a contention arose between them concerning the election of the new emperor, each claiming that privilege for itself; and as the increase of the ducal power had naturally led to a wider distinction between them, the diet convoked for the purpose represented nations instead of classes. There were consequently four nations and four votes; the Franks under Duke Conrad, whose authority nevertheless could not compete with that of the now venerable Hatto, archbishop of Mainz, who may be said to have been, at that period, the pope in Germany: the Saxons, Friedlanders, Thuringians, and some of the subdued Slavs, under Duke Otto: the Swabians, with Switzerland and Alsace, under different grafs, who, as the immediate officers of the crown, were named Kammerboten, in order to distinguish them from the grafs nominated by the dukes: the Bavarians, with the Tyrolese and some of the subdued eastern Slavs, under Duke Arnulf the Bad, the son of the brave Duke Liutpold. The Lothringians (people of Lorraine) formed a fifth nation, under their duke, Regingar, but were at that period incorporated with France.
The first impulse of the diet was to bestow the crown on the most powerful among the different competitors, and it was accordingly offered to Otto of Saxony, who not only possessed the most extensive territory and the most warlike subjects, but whose authority, having descended to him from his father and grandfather, was also the most firmly secured. But both Otto and his ancient ally, the bishop Hatto, had found the system they had hitherto pursued, of reigning in the name of an imbecile monarch, so greatly conducive to their interest, that they were disinclined to abandon it. Otto was a man who mistook the prudence inculcated by private interest for wisdom, and his mind, narrow as the limits of his dukedom, and solely intent upon the interests of his family, was incapable of the comprehensive views requisite in a German emperor, and indifferent to the welfare of the great body of the nation. The examples of Boson, of Eudes, of Rudolf of upper Burgundy, and of Berengar, who, favoured by the difference in descent of the people they governed, had all succeeded in severing themselves from the empire, were ever present to his imagination, and he believed that as, on the other side of the Rhine, the Frank, the Burgundian, and the Lombard, severally obeyed an independent sovereign, the East Frank, the Saxon, the Swabian, and the Bavarian, on this side of the Rhine, were also desirous of asserting a similar independence, and that it would be easier and less hazardous to found an hereditary dukedom in a powerful and separate state, than to maintain the imperial dignity, undermined as it was by universal hostility.
Conrad the First
(From an old print)
The influence of Hatto and the consent of Otto placed Conrad, duke of Franconia, on the imperial throne. Sprung from a newly arisen family, a mere creature of the bishop, his nobility as a feudal lord only dating from the period of the Babenberg feud, he was regarded by the church as a pliable tool, and by the dukes as little to be feared. His weakness was quickly demonstrated by his inability to retain the rich allods of the Carlovingian dynasty as heir to the imperial crown, and his being constrained to share them with the rest of the dukes; he was, nevertheless, more fully sensible of the dignity and of the duties of his station than those to whom he owed his election probably expected. His first step was to recall Regingar of Lorraine, who was oppressed by France, to his allegiance as vassal of the empire.
[912-917 A.D.]
Otto died in 912, and his son Henry, a high-spirited youth, who had greatly distinguished himself against the Slavs, erelong quarrelled with the aged bishop Hatto. According to the legendary account, the bishop sent him a golden chain, so skilfully contrived as to strangle its wearer. The truth is, that the ancient family feud between the house of Conrad and that of Otto, which was connected with the Babenbergers, again broke out, and that the emperor attempted again to separate Thuringia, which Otto had governed since the death of Burkhard, from Saxony, in order to hinder the over-preponderance of that ducal house. Hatto, it is probable, counselled this step, as a considerable portion of Thuringia belonged to the diocese of Mainz, and a collision between him and the duke was therefore unavoidable. Henry flew to arms, and expelled the adherents of the bishop from Thuringia, which forced the emperor to take the field in the name of the empire against his haughty vassal.
This highly unfortunate civil war was a signal for a fresh irruption of the Slavs and Hungarians. During this year the Bohemians and Sorbs also made an inroad into Thuringia and Bavaria, and in 913 the Hungarians advanced as far as Swabia, but being surprised near Ötting by the Bavarians under Arnulf, who on this occasion bloodily avenged his father’s death, and by the Swabians under the Kammerboten, Erchanger and Berthold, they were all, with the exception of thirty of their number, cut to pieces. Arnulf subsequently embraced a contrary line of policy, married the daughter of Geisa, king of Hungary, and entered into a confederacy with the Hungarian and the Swabian Kammerboten, for the purpose of founding an independent state in the south of Germany, where he had already strengthened himself by the appointment of several markgrafs, Rudiger of Pechlarn in Austria, Rathold in Carinthia, and Barthold in the Tyrol. He then instigated all the enemies of the empire simultaneously to attack the Franks and Saxons, at that crisis at war with each other (915 A.D.), and whilst the Danes under Gorm the Old, and the Abodriti (Obotrites), destroyed Hamburg, immense hordes of Hungarians, Bohemians, and Sorbs laid the country waste as far as Bremen.