chs, even had they been united, to resist successfully the
incursions of the barbarous tribes on the German frontiers of France,
which had commenced with the first establishment of the Frankish
dominion in Gaul; and which was kept alive by the constant pouring out
of fresh hordes from the overpopulated North. The situation of
Charlemagne was rendered yet more perilous by the passive enmity of
his brother, and the rebellion of Hunald, the turbulent Duke of
Aquitaine. But fortunately, Charlemagne had a genius equal to the
difficulties of his situation; though his brother refused to aid him,
he defeated Hunald; and no less illustrious by his clemency than by
his valor and military skill, he forgave the vanquished rebel.

Desiderius, the king of Lombardy, had made large encroachments upon
the states of the Roman pontiff, whose cause was taken up by
Charlemagne. This led to feuds, which Bertha, the mother of the
Frankish king, endeavored to appease by bringing about a union between
her son and the daughter of the Lombard. But Charlemagne soon took a
disgust to the wife thus imposed upon him, and repudiated her, that he
might marry Hildegarde, the daughter of a noble family in Suabia.

In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne was elected to the vacant
throne, to the exclusion of his nephews, whose extreme youth, indeed,
made them incapable of wearing the crown in such troubled times.
Gilberga, the widow of Carloman, immediately fled, and sought an
asylum with Desiderius, the common place of refuge for all who were
hostile to the Frankish monarch. But the attention of Charlemagne was
called off to a more immediate danger from the Saxons, of whom the
Frisons were either a branch or the perpetual allies. Had the tribes
of which this people were composed been united under one head, instead
of being governed by various independent chiefs, the result would
probably have been fatal to France. Such a day, however, might come; a
second Attila might arise; and with a full conviction of these
perils, Charlemagne, when he marched against the barbarians,
determined to put them down effectually. He took and destroyed the
famous temple of the Irminsule, the great idol of their nation--that
is, the Hermansaule, or Pillar of Hermann, which had originally been
raised to commemorate the defeat of the Roman Varus by that hero,
though in time the name had got corrupted, and the cause of its
erection been forgotten. The Saxons were too wise to meet