of Western Europe,
crumbled back into its constituent fragments. His was an empire wholly
aristocratic, and wholly German. After Charles Martel had driven out
the Saracens from Tours and Poitiers, it absorbed Gaul also in its
rule, but Charlemagne was never other than a Teutonic ruler over
Franks. He was one of the makers of Europe but not one of the creators
of the Kingdom of France. It was not until his empire crumbled at his
death that those persistent entities, France and Germany, made their
appearance.

But Normandy had much to go through before she became a part of that
kingdom which she did so much to make. In 556 a great fire had
destroyed most of the city of Rouen. Thirty years later a plague had
decimated her inhabitants. The Merovingians had left her ruined and
depopulated. Though spasmodic efforts at prosperity and strength
appeared during the great Emperor's lifetime, the town had not yet
reached anything approaching to a solid basis of civic or commercial
power. Its attempts were ruined by the anarchy that followed
Charlemagne's decease, and there was little left for the first Danes
to plunder when the first galleys of the Northern pirates swept up the
Seine in 841.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV

_Rouen under her own Dukes_

Normanni, si bono rigidoque dominatu reguntur, strenuissimi
sunt et in arduis rebus invicti omnes excellunt et cunctis
hostibus fortiores superare contendunt. Alioquin sese
vicissim dilaniant atque consumunt. Rebelliones enim
cupiunt, seditiones enim appetunt, et ad omne nefas prompti
sunt. Rectitudinis ergo forti censura coerceantur et fraeno
disciplinae per tramitem justitiae gradiri compellantur.

[Illustration: THE ARMS OF NORMANDY]

The unity of Charlemagne's Empire existed in name alone. The
agglomeration of essentially different races only served the purpose
of emphasising the distinctions of blood and climate which were to be
the eternal bars against unnatural union. But the residuum of separate
nations was some time in making its appearance. Their various rulers
would not accept the inevitable without a struggle; and in that
struggle the only power that gained was the Church. France had no
sooner thrown off the German yoke than she professed obedience to her
great ecclesiastics. In Neustria the only life and strength left after
the Empire died was in the Church. For the land was but a waste of
untilled soil, sparsely inhabite