CHAP. XVII.: A particular Circumstance in the Election of the Kings of the second Race.

WE find by the formulary Vol. 5th of the historians of France by the Benedictins, page 9. ^†1231 of Pepin’s coronation, that Charles and Carloman were also anointed; and that the French nobility bound themselves, on pain of interdiction and excommunication, never to chuse a prince Ut numquam de alterius lumbis regem in ævo presumant eligere, sed ex ipsorum. Vol. 5th o the bistorians o France page 10. ^†1232 of another family.

It appears by the wills of Charlemaign and Lewis the Debonnaire, that the Franks made a choice among

the king’s children; which agrees with the above-mentioned clause. And when the empire was transferred from Charlemaign’s family, the election, which before had been conditional, became simple and absolute; so that the ancient constitution was altered.

Pepin perceiving himself near his end, assembled In the year 768. ^†1233 the lords both temporal and spiritual at St. Denis, and divided his kingdom between his two sons Charles and Carloman. We have not the acts of this assembly; but we find what was there transacted, in the author of the ancient historical collection, published by Canisius, and in Tom. 2. lectionis antiquæ. ^†1234 the writer of the annals of Mentz, according to Edition of the capitularies, tom. 1, page 188. ^†1235 the observation of Baluzius. Here I meet with two things in some measure contradictory; that he made this division with the consent of the nobility, and afterwards that he made it by his paternal authority. This proves what I said, that the people’s right in the second race was to chuse in the same family; it was properly speaking, rather a right of exclusion, than that of election.

This kind of elective right is confirmed by the records of the second race. Such is this capitulary of the division of the empire made by Charlemaign among his three children, in which after settling their shares, he says In the first capitulary of the year 806. Baluzius’s edition, page 439, art. 5. ^†1236 “That if one of the three brothers happens to have a son, such as the people shall be willing to chuse as a fit person to succeed to his father’s kingdom, his uncles shall consent to it.”

This same regulation is to be met with in the partition In Goldast. Imperial. Constitut. tom. 2. page 19. ^†1237 which Lewis the Debonnaire made among his three children, Pepin, Lewis, and Charles, in the year 837, at the assembly of Aix-la-Chapelle: and

likewise in another Baluzius’s edition, page 574. art. 14. Si vero aliquis illorum decedens legitimos filios reliqueret, non inter eos potestas ipsa dividatur, sed potius populus pariter conveniens, unum ex eis quem dominus voluerit eligat, et hunc senior frater in loco fratris et filii suscipiat. ^†1238 partition, made twenty years before, by the same emperor, in favour of Lotharius, Pepin, and Lewis. We may likewise see the oath which Lewis the Stammerer took at Compeigne, at his coronation. “I Lewis, by the divine mercy, and the people’s election Capitulary of the year 877. Baluzius’s edition, page 272. ^†1239 appointed king, do promise . . . . . What I say is confirmed by the acts of the council of Valence In father Labbe’s councils, tom. 9. col. 424. and in Dumont’s Corp. Diplomat. tom. 1. art. 36. ^†1240 held in the year 890, for the election of Lewis, son of Boson, to the kingdom of Arles. Lewis was there elected, and the principal reason they give for chusing him, is, that he was of the imperial family By the mother’s side. ^†1241, that Charles the Fat had conferred upon him the dignity of king, and that the emperor Arnold had invested him by the sceptre, and by the ministry of his ambassadors. The kingdom of Arles, like the other dismembered or dependent kingdoms of Charlemaign, was elective and hereditary.