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9

CHAPTER

VI.

THE KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY. A.

The kingdom of Burgundy dozen to the annexation of kingdom of Provence.

the

The unity of the Empire, momentarily restored under Charles the Fat, had, as we have seen, been once more and finally shattered in 888. As in 843, the long strip of territory lying between the Scheldt, the mouth of the Meuse, the Saone and the Cevennes on one hand, and the Rhine and

but the German king was no more capable than his neighbour of keeping it as a whole under his authority. The entire district south of the Vosges slipped from his grasp, and for a moment he was even in danger of seeing a rival put in possession of the whole of the former kingdom of

the Alps on the other, was not re-included in France

Lothar

I.

In fact, very shortly after the

on

all

Emperor Charles the Fat, abandoned made a wretched end at

hands, and deposed at Tribur, had

NeitUngen, several of the great lav lords and churchmen of the ancient duchy of Jurane Burgundy assembled in the basilica of St Maurice d’Agaune, probably about the end of January 888, and proclaimed the

Count and Marquess Rodolph king. Rodolph was a person of no small His grandfather, Conrad the Elder, brother of the Empress Judith, count and duke in Alemannia, and his uncle, Hugh the Abhot, had played a promiqent part in the time of Charles the Bald, while his father, Conrad, originally Count of AuxeiTe, had taken service with the sons of the Emperor Lothar about 861, and had received from the Emperor Louis H the government of the three Transjurane dioceses of Geneva, Lausanne and Sion, as well as the ahbey of St IMaurice d’Agaune. Rodolph had succeeded to this Jurane duchy which now chose and pro..claimed him king. The significance of the declaration was at first far from clear. Still, in the minds of Rodolph and his supporters it must necessarily have The Empire, momentarily involved more than a mere change of style. united, was once more falling apart into its earlier divisions, and importance.