The Historians' History of the World 07

Lower Italy remained in the hands of the Greeks, and was governed by an exarch. The Arabians also retained possession of Sicily.

QUELLING OF THE SLAVS

[983-1004 A.D.]

Mistevoi, the valiant prince of the Abodriti, favoured the Christian religion, followed the banner of Otto II, and served under him in Italy; on his return to his native country, he sued for the hand of Mechtildis, the sister of Bernhard of Saxony, and on being insulted by the jealous Dietrich, who called him a dog and unworthy of a Christian or of a German bride, replied: “If we Slavs be dogs, we will prove to you that we can bite.” The pagan Slavs, who were ever ripe for revolt, obeyed his call the more readily, on account of the death of Ditmar, who with many other of their tyrannical rulers had fallen in the Italian war. An oath of eternal enmity against the Germans and the priests was taken before their idol, Radegast, and suddenly rising in open rebellion, they assassinated all who fell into their hands (983 A.D.), razed all the churches to the ground, and completely destroyed the cities of Hamburg and Oldenburg, besides those of Brandenburg and Havelburg.

The lands of Dietrich became one scene of desolation. Sixty priests were flayed alive. The rebels were, nevertheless, completely beaten by Dietrich and Riddag in a pitched battle near Tangermünde. The emperor, however, more just than his father had been, deprived the cruel Dietrich of his government, and bestowed it on Hodo. Riddag and his cousin, the above-mentioned graf Dedo, remained in Meissen, whence Riddag was afterwards expelled by the Bohemians. It was regained by his cousin and successor, the brave Eckhart, whose exploits were equalled by those of Bernhard Billung, who had returned from Italy in order to oppose the Abodriti on the western frontier. The obstinacy with which the Slavs, notwithstanding the terrible defeats, still held out, is proved by the fact of Brandenburg having been first retaken in 994.

The peaceable conversion of the Bohemians and Poles chiefly contributed to the gradual but complete subjection of the Slavs on the frontiers. The independence of Bohemia and Poland was only possible so long as the powerful Slavonic pagan states existed to their rear. This support was now lost. Poland was already Christianised, and the bishop of Prague, Adalbert, was a celebrated Bohemian saint. It was also about this period that Christianity took firm footing in Denmark, although not without fierce struggles.

Great changes took place also at this period in France. Lothair died (986 A.D.), and in the following year his only son, Louis V. Charles of Lorraine, Lothair’s brother, aspired to the throne, but was excluded by the Capetian party. The disesteem in which he was held on account of his licentious habits, and the refusal of assistance from Germany, where the emperor, dissatisfied with the conduct of Lothair, no longer favoured the Carlovingians, rendered him defenceless; he fell into the hands of his rival, Hugh Capet, and died in prison (993 A.D.). His son Otto, the last of the Carlovingian race, died, neglected and despised (1004 A.D.).

OTTO III (983-1002 A.D.)

The death of Otto II, which was occasioned by the hardships he had undergone at Basantello, took place in Italy (983 A.D.). His son Otto III, a child three years of age, was named as his successor, under the joint guardianship of Theophano and Adelheid, who gave him such a learned education that he received the appellation of the Wunderkind, on account of the precocity of his intellect.