The empire of Charlemagne did not long remain intact. So
vast was its extent and so unlike were its inhabitants in race, language, and
customs that it could be managed only by a ruler of the greatest energy and
strength of will. Unfortunately, the successors of Charlemagne proved to be too
weak for the task of maintaining peace and order. Western Europe now entered on
a long period of confusion and violence, during which Charlemagne's possessions
broke up into separate and warring kingdoms.
TREATY OF VERDUN, 843 A.D.
Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, who became emperor in
814 A.D., was a well-meaning but feeble ruler, better fitted for the quiet life
of a monastery than for the throne. He could not control his rebellious sons,
who, even during his lifetime, fought bitterly over their inheritance. The
unnatural strife, which continued after his death, was temporarily settled by a
treaty concluded at the city of Verdun. According to its terms Lothair, the
eldest brother, received Italy and the imperial title, together with a narrow
stretch of land along the valleys of the Rhine and the Rhone, between the North
Sea and the Mediterranean. Louis and Charles, the other brothers, received
kingdoms lying to the east and west, respectively, of Lothair's territory. The
Treaty of Verdun may be said to mark the first stage in the dissolution of the
Carolingian Empire.
