DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0092
76
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
and offered him those honours which his predecessors had
been used to accord to the Emperor of Rome.
He declared that the simple title of “ Patrician ”
should henceforth be exchanged for that of Emperor and
Augustus. He then invested him with the Imperial
mantle ; and, thus attired, the Emperor Charlemagne
returned to his palace, accompanied by the acclamations
of the crowd.
Such was the foundation on which the German
Emperors ever afterwards rested their pretensions over
the Roman Empire. From that date, a.d. 800, these
superb claims to the sovereignty of Italy were never
foregone, until the year 1866; and for centuries a kind of
half-recognised feudal suzerainty not only was claimed,
but was really exercised over the greatest part of the
Peninsula.
The era of Charlemagne is the only moment of medi-
aeval history, in which a semblance of supremacy over the
spiritual and temporal interests of mankind, appears
to us as being united under one sceptre.
Charlemagne died at Aix-la-Chapelle in the seventy-
second year of his age, January, 714, after a reign of
forty-five years of unceasing territorial aggrandisement,
political institutions, and literary foundations. We have
no record of any other reign prolonged to the same extent,
and employed to the last so fully with state cares. The
genius of this great man impressed itself indelibly on the
rudeness of his age. It may be added that by his genius
also, his very crimes, his ferocious and cold-blooded
assassinations, were made of use to his realms. With
him expired the glory of that mighty monarchy which
owned his sway ; it extended over the entire territory of
France, the greater part of Germany, the greater part of
Spain, the Low Countries, and the Peninsula of Italy as
far as Benevento.
When we look back to this great era, and sift with care
the real benefits to society which survived the superficial
glories of military conquest, we cannot but recognise the
seeds of some permanent improvements over the chaotic
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
and offered him those honours which his predecessors had
been used to accord to the Emperor of Rome.
He declared that the simple title of “ Patrician ”
should henceforth be exchanged for that of Emperor and
Augustus. He then invested him with the Imperial
mantle ; and, thus attired, the Emperor Charlemagne
returned to his palace, accompanied by the acclamations
of the crowd.
Such was the foundation on which the German
Emperors ever afterwards rested their pretensions over
the Roman Empire. From that date, a.d. 800, these
superb claims to the sovereignty of Italy were never
foregone, until the year 1866; and for centuries a kind of
half-recognised feudal suzerainty not only was claimed,
but was really exercised over the greatest part of the
Peninsula.
The era of Charlemagne is the only moment of medi-
aeval history, in which a semblance of supremacy over the
spiritual and temporal interests of mankind, appears
to us as being united under one sceptre.
Charlemagne died at Aix-la-Chapelle in the seventy-
second year of his age, January, 714, after a reign of
forty-five years of unceasing territorial aggrandisement,
political institutions, and literary foundations. We have
no record of any other reign prolonged to the same extent,
and employed to the last so fully with state cares. The
genius of this great man impressed itself indelibly on the
rudeness of his age. It may be added that by his genius
also, his very crimes, his ferocious and cold-blooded
assassinations, were made of use to his realms. With
him expired the glory of that mighty monarchy which
owned his sway ; it extended over the entire territory of
France, the greater part of Germany, the greater part of
Spain, the Low Countries, and the Peninsula of Italy as
far as Benevento.
When we look back to this great era, and sift with care
the real benefits to society which survived the superficial
glories of military conquest, we cannot but recognise the
seeds of some permanent improvements over the chaotic