. History of France and Normandy, from the earliest times to the revolution of 1848. Fredegonde. 15. Clotaire II. left the kingdom between his two A T) sons, but Dagobert, by the murder of his brother, ob- fi tained possession of the entire. He is the most cele-brated of the Merovingian princes, and though he was guiltv 24 HISTORY OF FRANCE. of many atrocious crimes, he is deservedly praised for hisimpartial administration of justice, which was publicly soldby his predecessors. On the other hand, he loaded the peo-ple with severe impositions, both to supply his debaucheries,and according to th
. History of France and Normandy, from the earliest times to the revolution of 1848. Fredegonde. 15. Clotaire II. left the kingdom between his two A T) sons, but Dagobert, by the murder of his brother, ob- fi tained possession of the entire. He is the most cele-brated of the Merovingian princes, and though he was guiltv 24 HISTORY OF FRANCE. of many atrocious crimes, he is deservedly praised for hisimpartial administration of justice, which was publicly soldby his predecessors. On the other hand, he loaded the peo-ple with severe impositions, both to supply his debaucheries,and according to the custom of the period, to expiate hiscrimes by profuse donations to the Throne of Dagobert, in the Museum at Paris. 16. After the death of Dagobert the monarchy fell into the possession of a series of monarchs who fol-m lowed each other in rapid succession, and whosereigns present an almost perfect blank. They are commonlycalled Les Rois Faineans, or the sluggard kings, and appearto have well merited the disgraceful appellation. 17. Theentire power of the state was possessed by the mayors of thepalace, who left to the monarch little more than the shadowof royalty; of these the most illustrious was Pepin dHeris-tal, who ruled the province of Austrasia for twenty-sevenyears with equal prudence and courage. During the greaterpart of this period Pepin was virtually the sovereign of France,and kept the rightful monarch a prisoner in the palace, per-mitting him only to show himself annually to the people atthe assemblies in the Champ de Mars. THE FRANKS. 25 18. Pepin was succeeded by his illegitimate son>Charles Martel, one of the greatest generals that Fran
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