iscovery
has proved that these unhappy princes were the last and lawful heirs of
the blood and sceptre of Clovis, and younger branch, from the brother of
Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Their ancient kingdom was reduced to
the duchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fesenzac and Armagnac, at the
foot of the Pyrenees: their race was propagated till the beginning of
the sixteenth century; and after surviving their Carlovingian tyrants,
they were reserved to feel the injustice, or the favors, of a third
dynasty. By the reunion of Aquitain, France was enlarged to its present
boundaries, with the additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far
as the Rhine. II. The Saracens had been expelled from France by the
grandfather and father of Charlemagne; but they still possessed the
greatest part of Spain, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees.
Amidst their civil divisions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored
his protection in the diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the
expedition, restored the emir, and, without distinction of faith,
impartially crushed the resistance of the Christians, and rewarded the
obedience and services of the Mahometans. In his absence he instituted
the _Spanish march_, which extended from the Pyrenees to the River Ebro:
Barcelona was the residence of the French governor: he possessed the
counties of _Rousillon_ and _Catalonia_; and the infant kingdoms of
_Navarre_ and _Arragon_ were subject to his jurisdiction. III. As king
of the Lombards, and patrician of Rome, he reigned over the greatest
part of Italy, a tract of a thousand miles from the Alps to the borders
of Calabria. The duchy of _Beneventum_, a Lombard fief, had spread,
at the expense of the Greeks, over the modern kingdom of Naples. But
Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be included in the slavery of
his country; assumed the independent title of prince; and opposed his
sword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence was firm, his submission
was not inglorious, and the emperor was content with an easy tribute,
the demolition of his fortresses, and the acknowledgment, on his coins,
of a supreme lord. The artful flattery of his son Grimoald added the
appellation of father, but he asserted his dignity with prudence, and
Benventum insensibly escaped from the French yoke. IV. Charlemagne
was the first who united Germany under the same sceptre. The name of
_Oriental France_ is preserved in the circle of _Franconia_; and the
people of _