A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Taylor Bayard

      Under Charlemagne the political institutions of the Merovingian kings, as well as those which existed among the German races, were materially changed. As far as possible, he set aside the Dukes, each of whom, up to that time, was the head of a tribe or division of the people, and broke up their half-independent states into districts, governed by Counts. These districts were divided into "hundreds," as in the old Germanic times, each in charge of a noble, who every week acted as judge in smaller civil or criminal cases. The Counts, in conjunction with from seven to twelve magistrates, held monthly courts wherein cases which concerned life, freedom or landed property were decided. They were also obliged to furnish a certain number of soldiers when called upon. The same obligation rested upon the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of the monasteries, all of whom, together with the Counts, were called Vassals of the Empire.

      810. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

      The free men, in case of war, were compelled to serve as horsemen or foot-soldiers, according to their wealth, either three or five of the very poorest furnishing one well-equipped man. The soldiers were not only not paid, but each was obliged to bear his own expenses; so the burden fell very heavily upon this class of the people. In order to escape it, large numbers of the poorer freemen voluntarily became dependents of the nobility or clergy, who in return equipped and supported them. The national assemblies were still annually held, but the people, in becoming dependents, gradually lost their ancient authority, and their votes ceased to control the course of events. The only part they played in the assemblies was to bring tribute to the Emperor, to whom they paid no taxes, and whose court was kept up partly from their offerings and partly from the revenues of the "domains" or crown-lands. Thus, while Charlemagne introduced throughout his whole empire a unity of government and an order unknown before, while he anticipated Prussia in making all his people liable, at any time, to military service, on the other hand he was slowly and unconsciously changing the free Germans into a race of lords and serfs.

      It is not likely, either, that the people themselves saw the tendency of his government. Their respect and love for him increased, as the comparative peace of the Empire allowed him to turn to interests which more immediately concerned their lives. In his ordinary habits he was as simple as they. His daughters spun and wove the flax for his plain linen garments; personally he looked after his orchards and vegetable gardens, set the schools an example by learning to improve his own reading and writing, treated high and low with equal frankness and heartiness, and, even in his old age, surpassed all around him in feats of strength or endurance. There seemed to be no serfdom in bowing to a man so magnificently endowed by nature and so favored by fortune.

      One event came to embitter his last days. The Scandinavian Goths, now known as Norsemen, were beginning to build their "sea-dragons" and sally forth on voyages of plunder and conquest. They laid waste the shores of Holland and Northern France, and the legend says that Charlemagne burst into tears of rage and shame, on perceiving his inability to subdue them or prevent their incursions. One of his last acts was to order the construction of a fleet at Boulogne, but when it was ready the Norse Vikings suddenly appeared in the Mediterranean and ravaged the southern coast of France. Charlemagne began too late to make the Germans either a naval or a commercial people: his attempt to unite the Main and Danube by a canal also failed, but the very design shows his wise foresight and his energy.

      813.

      Towards the end of the year 813, feeling his death approaching, he called an Imperial Diet together at Aix-la-Chapelle, to recognize his son Ludwig as his successor. After this was done, he conducted Ludwig to the Cathedral, made him vow to be just and God-fearing in his rule, and then bade him take the Imperial crown from the altar and set it upon his head. On the 28th of January, 814, Charlemagne died, and was buried in the Cathedral, where his ashes still repose.