But what chiefly contributed to
weaken the monarchy was the extravagance of this prince in alienating
the crown demesnes.
[144]
And here it is that we ought to listen to the
account of Nitard, one of our most judicious historians, a grandson of
Charlemagne, strongly attached to Louis the Debonnaire and who wrote his
history by order of Charles the Bald.
He says, "that one Adelhard for some time gained such an ascendant
over the Emperor, that this prince conformed to his will in everything;
that at the instigation of this favourite, he had granted the crown
lands to everybody that asked them,
[145]
by which means the state was
ruined."
[146]
Thus he did the same mischief throughout the empire as I
observed he had done in Aquitaine;
[147]
the former Charlemagne
redressed, but the latter was past all remedy.
The state was reduced to the same debility in which Charles Martel
found it. upon his accession to the mayoralty; and so desperate were its
circumstances that no exertion of authority was any longer capable of
saving it.
The treasury was so exhausted that in the reign of Charles the Bald,
no one could continue in his employments, nor be safe in his person
without paying for it.
[148]
When they had it in their power to destroy
the Normans, they took money to let them escape:
[149]
and the first
advice which Hincmar gives to Louis the Stammerer is to ask of the
assembly of the nation a sufficient allowance to defray the expenses of
his household.
