1818.] Historical Account of Aix-la-Chapelle. When the Electors were about to take the oath of allegiance to the Emperor, the sceptre, which according to ancient custom they were to touch while doing so, was not to be found. Of this incident Rodolphe, with great presence of mind, ingeniously availed himself to render the ceremony more impressively solemn. While seated in the chair of Charlemagne, awaiting the return of those who were still in search of the sceptre, he suddenly took the crucifix from the altar, and turning to the Electors who surrounded him, he exclaimed, with devout enthusiasm, "Behold this symbol of our redemption, and the redemption of the whole world from sin. This shall be my sceptre!" As he uttered these words he piously kissed the cross, then extended it towards the Electors, who, penetrated with reverential awe, bent over the sacred emblem, and with arms devoutly crossed upon the breast, solemnly pronounced their oaths of fealty. On this the visionary cross, which still hung immoveably fixed over Notre Dame, from a brilliant white became red as blood! which this religious Prince immediately construed into a divine call upon him to perform a crusade; for when the miraculous appearance, and equally miraculous change in its hue were reported to him, he exclaimed, in a transport of holy zeal, “If God spares my life, I will pass over into the countries beyond the seas, where I will shed my blood for the remission of my sins, and for the honour and glory of my Redeemer Jesus Christ." History, however, makes no mention of his having performed his promise; on the contrary, it remarks that he never even went into Italy to collect his revenues. This Emperor, when only Count de Hapsbourg, gave an exemplary proof of Christian humility, which it might have been imagined would have procured him the surname of "Pious." It happened, while he was one day riding in the country, that he met a priest, who was on foot, and bearing the Holy Sacrament to some sick person. On discovering this circumstance, he instantly descended from his horse, which he obliged the priest to mount, saying, "Never could I endure to reflect, that while Rodolphe rode, the sacred minister of God was carrying the body of the Saviour of the world on foot." The priest, much affected by this trait of piety and feeling, seems to have been suddenly in spired with a prophet's powers; since he 319 then foretold that he would become Em. peror, and that his posterity would reach the pinnacle of human greatness. But to return to Aix-la-Chapelle.Charlemagne was buried in the church of Notre-dame, seated on a throne of white marble,which, instead of being polished, was entirely covered with plates of solid gold: these last have disappeared for many, many years. On the throne in modern times, it was the custom for the Kings elect of the Romans to receive their crown and the homage of the Electors. When Otho III. (in 1001) convoked the Assembly of the States at Aix-la-Chapelle, he caused the tomb of Charlemagne to be opened, when he found, as mentioned above, the Emperor seated on the throne, and dressed in the robes and insignia of royalty. Othe took from thence all of the habiliments which had escaped the effects of damp, and the ornaments with which the corpse was decorated; these consisted of a gold. cross, which was suspended from his neck, the crown, the sceptre, and the scimitar of his great predecessor. These, after performing the usual ceremonies, he probably took with him on his return to Rome. A brief retrospective account of some of the Diplomatic Acts which were (at the Diets held at Aix) passed into laws, will perhaps prove a satisfactory conclusion of the particulars of a city which is now the seat of much interesting observation to Europe. It is worthy of remark, that in one of the very first Diets (805) acts were passed which were revived again in the polished age of Louis XIV. In 806, Charlemagne caused (for he could not write) a will to be made, and signed by all the French nobility and the Pope, in which he divided his dominions among his three sons; and what is very singular, he, in this testament, left to his people the liberty, after these Princes' deaths, of choosing their own sovereign, provided he were of the blood royal. In 1097 and 1101, the Emperor Henry IV. made to the Assembly of States, at Aix, a pathetic speech on the rebellion of his eldest son, Conrad, and engaged them to transfer his right of succession to his younger brother, Henry. This Prince, in consequence, bound himself to forbear, during the lifetime of his father, from ever doing any thing against his authority, or interfering in the affairs of his government, whether in the em 320 Historical Account of Aix-la-Chapelle. pire, the Duchy of Franconia, or the hereditary dominions of his house. But as Conrad was seduced by the wily caresses of the celebrated Countess Matilda to forfeit his oath of allegiance to, his father and his king, so was Henry tempted by ambition to do the same. When this rebellion took place, the Emperor was under the excommunication of the Pope, Pascal II. who absolved young Henry from his oaths of never undertaking any thing against the authority and interest of his father. That father endeavoured to recal him to his duty by the most touching remonstrances; but they made no impression on his unna-' tural son, who merely answered, that he could neither consider a person who was excommunicated as a father nor a sovereign. In a conference which afterwards took place between them, the son agreed to submit to his king, and to obtain for him the Pope's absolution; on which the Emperor disbanded his troops, when his treacherons son arrested him at Ingelheim, and after despoiling him of all his royal insignia, forced him to renounce all right to the empire. This miserable father made many attempts to regain it, but after some few successes his army was finally beaten by that of In this extremity, he supplicated the Bishop of Spires to give him a prebendal stall in his cathedral, representing to him that, having studied, he was adequate to filling the offer of lecturer, or that, as he had a good voice, he might perform as a sub-chan ter, if he would allow him; but even these humble requests were refuzed; and thus abandoned by all the world, he died in great distress at Liege, titer having sent to his son his sword and bis crown. At Liege he was buried; but even there he was not allowed to rest, for the Pope's enmity followed him to thet last asylum of the wretched, and he was by his orders disinterred and deprived, during five years, of the rights of sepniture. At length, his son, disagreeing in his turn with the sovereign pentify, thought proper, in defiance of his Holiness's power, to have the body of bis father intombed in the varit of the Emperors at Spires. his son. When, in 1401, Aix-la-Chapelle, at that time in revolt, shut its gates against Robert I. whom the Electors had chosen to succeed Winceslaus, that Prince was so extremely impatient to be consecrated, that he issued letters patent, impower ing the Archbishops of Cologne to choose -whenever circumstances might arise [Nov. 1 to prevent the ceremony from taking place at Aix-la-Chapelle-any other city of their province, in which to perform it. He was in consequence crowned at Cologne. This city fell into the disgrace of being put under the ban of the empire in 1598. This sentence was executed by the Electors of Cologne and Treves, with the Bishop of Liege. All the Protestant magistrates were displaced, and condemned to pay the expenses attending it, which not being able to perform, all the inhabitants professing that religion were driven from the city in 1605. During the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I. the freedom of this city was called in question at the Diet held at Worms, when the College of Citieswas divided into Free Cities and Imperial. Cities. Over the former the Deputy of Cologne presided, and that of Ratisbou over the latter; but the Deputy of Aixla-Chapelle refused to yield his place of honour to the Deputy of Cologne ; in consequence of which all the representatives of the Free Cities in a body required him to produce proofs that Aixla-Chapelle was entitled to rank as a Free instead of an Imperial City. At this demand the Deputy was so disconcerted, that he instantly withdrew from the Assembly. OF THE LATEST CONGRESS. "The few years of peace," writes a modern historian, "that followed the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, wore the most prosperous and happy Europe had ever known. Arts and lettors were successfully cultivated; manufactures and commerce flourished; society was highly polished: and the intercourse of mankind, of nations, and of ranks, was rendered more facile and ge derdi than in any former period, by means of new roads, new vehicles, and now amusements. This was more especially sue case in France and England, and between people of the two rival kingdoms, who, forgetting past animositie, seemed only to contend for pre-einenec in gaiety, refinement, and mutual civilities. Ajay such be the happy consequences of the present Congress of the Allied Sovereigns in this ancient and longfamed city of the Imperial Charlemagne; and in the noble consciousness of having done their duty to their God, by dispensing even-handed justice to their fellow-creatures, realize the delightful pieture drawn above, of the blessings derived by society from the harmonizing 1818.] On National Claims to Antiquity. effects of peace on the feelings, the manners, and the fortunes of mankind. As the readers of Journals are as miscellaneous in character, taste, and mental acquirements, as the subjects of which those works are composed, this article may fall under the eve of one who may not have given much attention to the historie branch of literature--to such a person, a few more particulars relative to the mighty patron of the city of which we have treated, will therefore not be unacceptable. It has been already observed that this celebrated hero was ignorant of the art of writing, yet he loved and cultivated the arts and sciences, and made the most strenuous efforts to spread them through his wide dominions. Besides a school at Paris, he established one in every Cathedral Church: at Rome also he founded a seminary, all which under is auspices and liberal care could not fail to prove the nurseries of learning. His comprehensive mind and wakeful eve embraced all that could tend to enlighten, polish, and benefit his people; and even the church music came within his influence; for it was this Prince who introduced into France and Germany the Gregorian Chant; for the teaching of which he founded a school at Metz. He gave German names to the months and the winds; devised ecclesiastical, as well as civil laws; among some of the latter is one which decrees that all the weights and measures throughout the Empire should be alike. The present mode of reckoning by livres, sols, and deniers, was invented by him, with this difference, that the weight of his livre was real, while at this period it is merely nominal. The sumptuary laws which regulated the price of stuffs, and distinguished the rank and situation of individuals, by obliging them to wear a particular dress, also originated in him, and he wisely and leniently decreed that every soldier found drunk on duty should, for the future, drink nothing but water. In the middle of the market-place at Aix-la-Chapelle, which is very spacious, and surrounded by handsome buildings, is a fountain built of blue stone, which, from six pipes, throws water into a noble bason of marble, thirty feet in cirenmference. This fountain is surmounted by a fine statue of Charlemagne, of brass gilt, which represents him with a sceptre in one hand, and a globe in the NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 58. 321 other. The figure of this Emperor, it is said, surpassed in height and strength that of any person of his day, and when clad in his winter dress, as described by Eginhard (his supposed son-in-law) must have exhibited a singular kind of savage grandeur. It consisted of a doublet made of otter skins, over a tunic of cloth embroidered with silk; on his shoulders he wore a blue cloak of an inferior cloth, and for stockings, bands of different colours crossed over each other. There is little doubt but his cloak and tunic were made from wool of his daughters' spinning, to which employment he kept them most strictly. A statue of Charlemagne guards also one of the two springs which are in the lower part of the city of Aix; and over the other there is a statue of the Virgin Mary: these are for drinking; near which are several piazzas to walk in, between taking the different glasses. We now take leave of this gay place, which offers every accommodation for the invalid, and every amusement for those who are well. A. T. P. IT is curious to observe the eagerness with which mankind in early ages have contended for the honours of antiquity. Almost all the ancient nations have been anxious to ennoble themselves and their posterity, either by claiming (as the Romans did) an immediate descent from the Gods, or endeavouring to hide the obscurity of their origin by losing it in the remotest antiquity. Among the foremost who have laid claim to this priority of creation were the Egyptians, and in modern times, the Chinese.→→ The origin of both these nations is so wrapt up in fable and obscurity, that it is difficult to elucidate any thing concerning it which has at all the air of probability. But these mysteries have in a great measure been cleared up by a late learned and ingenious author (Dr. Shuckford), who throws a new light on the subject. The following is an extract from his "Connections of the Old and New Testament," where he treats this matter at large. "The Egyptians pretended to be the most antient people in the world. They say that there were thirty dynasties in Egypt, consisting of 113 generatione, and which took up the space of 30,525 VOL. X. 2T 222 Anecdotes of Eminent Persons.-No. II. years. That after this period there reigned cight Demigods in the space of 217 years. After them succeeded the Heroes, in number 15, and their reigns took up 413 years; then began the reigns of their Kings, of whom the first was Menes or Misraim. "The first and inost ancient deities of the Egyptians and other Heathens, after departing from the true God, were the luminaries of heaven; and it is very probable, that what they took to be the period or time, in which any of these deities finished its course, that they might call the time of its reign. Thus a perfect and complete revolution of any star they worshipped, was the reign of that star. It is remarkable too, that a whole entire revolution of the heavens took up, according to their computations, exactly the number of years ascribed by them to all their Gods. These heavenly bodies therefore being their Gods, such a perfect and entire revolution of them is a completo reign of all the Gods, and contained 36.525 years." This account seems very probable, and tends in a great measure to remove the veil of obscurity which imparted a venerable air to what would otherwise be considered as the most ridiculous fictions. The absurd vanity of the Egyptians with regard to their great antiquity, was also severely mortified in the reign of Psammeticus, when we find, (by the authority of Herodotus) that they were obliged, however reluctantly, to yield the assumed prerogative to the Phrygians. With regard to the Chinese, (setting aside their own fabulous and imperfect chronicles) they may certainly claim to have existed as a nation, prior to the deluge. However exaggerated the accounts of their origin may be, their his tory reacheth as high as Noah. Their first king. Fobi, is thought to be the same as Noah, which their tradition very much sanctions. They say, Fohi had no father, and Noah was the first man in the Antediluvian world. Fobi's mother is said to have conceived him, encompassed with a rainbow; and the rainbow appeared to Noah first. Fohi is said to have carefully bred seven sorts of creatures, which he used to stcrifice to the supreme spirit; and Noah took into the Ark of every clean beast, and of fowls by sevens, and after the flood offered burnt offerings of them. The Chinese derive the naute ‘of Phi from his oblation; and Moses gives Noah his name on account of the grant of animads for the use of man, which he gained by his [Nov. 1, oblation. And lastly, the Chinese suppose Fohi to have settled in Xeusi, a province of China, near Mount Ararat, where the Ark rested. W. KING. Gloucester, Sept. 8, 1818. ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS. EDWARD DUKE OF YORK. WHETHER the private evidence which a lady was in the habit of volunteering whenever an opportunity of doing so offered, to prove that in defiance of the strongest temptations she had passed through life pure as "unsullied snow," will bring perfect conviction to the minds of my readers, must be left to their own decision; at all events, its singularity may amuse those who like to study the turnings, twinings, and mazes of the human heart. It is well known that the late Duke of York was a man of gallantry, but it is not perhaps equally well known, thất he conducted himself in his indulgence of it with the nicest honour and feeling. It must be observed that the law against any of the royal family marrying sub jects was not then in existence, but it should seem that the Duke made it one to himself, since it was with him au invariable rule, that he might never entail on himself the remorse of having seduced the affections of any woman, usder the false hope of his giving her a legal title to his protection, to confine his admiration to ladies, who having husbands, were honourably forewarnet of his expectations in singling them out as the objects of his individual devoirs. "Knowing these circumstances," saul the person by whom the particulars which follow were related, "I have often been amused at the singular incidents that one of these reputed favourites of his Royal Highness frequently brought for ward, in evidence of her having passed the fiery ordeal of seeing a Prince lan gushing at her feet for some years ba fore his death, without ever having passed the rubicon of virtne. Upon this chaste resistance she prided herself' as much as ever our good Queen Elizabeth did on being a spinster Sovereign-and many a ffine and oft would with a humble countenance and meek voice, as if fearful of being thought rain and self-boaste ing, relate before her second husband the brany platonic instances of the Duke's passion for her, and of its javas riability, although ever unstressful.Mais pour commencer 'an Sedmureneda ment," continued my gossip,” abizidu 1818.] Anecdotes of Eminent Persons.-No. II. "This lady's first and second husband were both in the church-when she married the former, she was considered as one of the three Graces of which her native country could at that period boast; rather, I should imagine, from the beauty of her face, than for the elegance of her manners, which most certainly had no kindred with the Graces. It was at a Southern watering place that his Royal Highness first saw, admired, and followed her with every fascinating distinction which could gratify her vanity, and all those seducing attentions so calculated to win the affections. Entertainment succeeded entertainment in her honour-where the moment of her appearance was the signal for the Duke to break from every other person; when with a lover's impatience he would hasten to meet her, lead her to the place d'honneur, and fix himself immoveably by her side for the remainder of the day, In spite of the shafts which many a bright eve shot from hearts which sighed to lead the brother of a king in their chains.. "What a dangerous triumph over all her aspiring compeers, was such public and decided homage for a very young and pretty woman! and no less dangerously infatuating to the pride of power and vanity, must have been a little domestic incident which took place at her mother's, where she was at that time on a visit. This mother was a notable, blunt, bustling gentlewoman, whose eyes, and what thoughts she had, were more intent on the duties of her humble menage, than on solving the problem of a Prince, leaving the gay and splendid scenes which generally encircle royalty, to pass hours in the humdrum habita tion of an old woman. These visits were so often repeated that the good housewife began to find them great in terruptions to her domestic business; she therefore, after much deliberation, determined when next the Duke came to give him a broad hint, that is, to maintain her ground, and proceed in her employment, whatever that might chance to be, instead of gathering up, as heretofore, the various insignia of the necessary occupations of wives, not, overburthened with money, and flying from the parlour in all the hurry and confusion of one ashamed of doing her duty. To, this determination she adhered, in of which, when next her consequence illustrious visitor came, he found her perfectly at home, seated with some 323 what of the pride of possession in her great arm chair; on one side of it a large basket to receive, pease-cods, on the other a bason to hold those she was shelling, of which her lap was so full, that she made no attempt to rise on his entrance, but very frankly said, “Your Royal Highness must not take amiss my honestly speaking the truth, but if you come at all times and seasons, you must sometimes find me in the midst of household business, which must be minded by little folks. It is our washing, and I am putting things forward abit for the servant, that she may not be called from it." "To prove," returned the Duke, with that urbanity which so beautifully characterizes our beloved Sovereign, and the principal members of his family, "how perfectly I agree with you in placing the duties of life above its cereinonials, and how greatly I am pleased with your laudable candour, I will, with your permission, consider myself as one of the family, and endeavour to assist you in your work." "And so you shall, if you like it," bluntly replied the busy danie-on which his Royal Highness actually began shelling pease like a Prince, or like another Hercules at his distaff. This princely mode of performing his culinary part, much amused the old lady, and by putting her at her ease, restored the whole of the moderate quantum of patience with which nature had endowed her a virtue that had been more endangered by his Royal Highness's visits, than that which her daughter said had upheld her fame through them all. "Soon after this cordial understanding was established between the Royal Duke and the notable dame, his Highness made a party to spend the day on the water over which the fair favourite was the presiding goddess. While the beauty of the scenery through which they were gliding engaged the attention of the other persons composing it, the Duke had no eyes but for the beauties of those on which he was gazing, as he sat wholly engrossed by the reigning favourite of his heart. It was while thus devotedly attentive to her, that from some circumstance or other which suddenly struck him, he abruptly expressed the wish of being god-father to her first child. On receiving a promise that it should be gratified if an opportunity offered, he said, Then in.. commemoration of this delightful exeursion, if it is a daughter she shall bear |
