The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-09-15
A Thousand years Ago.

1t is certainly one Of the creates,
! curiosities in history that exactly one
thousand years ago, in the year Of our
Lord $40 the people Of France and Ger.
many fought under their Kings upon
the same soil, that OF Lorraine, for
Every nearly the same reasons, and with
the same result. This happened as
follows: The empire of Charlemagne
and that Of his con succeeded him, Lud.
wig l., called Pious, was divided by his
three sons, the grandsons OF Charlie
imagine, in S43, at the Congress Of Yer
dun, between themselves in such man.
ner that Lothaire received, besides the
title of Europe, Italy and what was
then called Middle Franconia, strip of
land running form the North Sea to
Mediterranean, and there joining upper
Italy, a broad strip of land containing
modern Holland, Belgium, the Lorraine,
and Alsace, and all that part of South
ern France lying between the Rhone
and Soane and the Alps on the East.
Ludwig received Eastern Franconia,
which was from that time called Ger
mania, or Germany, and from which
he, as Germany's first King, was called
Ludwig the German.
Carl, who was called the Bald, from
his bald head, received Western Fran
coma, from that time called Franconia,
or France. Lothaire died in S55, and
again subdivided his empire amongst
his three sons. To the Oldest, Ludwig,
he gave Italy and the crown and title
Of Emperor; to the second, Lothaire,
the northern part of his dominion, COM
prising part of modern Holland, Bel
GUM, and the province called up to this
day Lorraine or Lotharingen, the Al
SAGE, and all the land extending down
to the Saone TO the Youngest, Carl,
he gave all the land south of the Saone
to the Mediterranean, under the title of
Kingdom of Provence.
In 500 Lothaire died without heirs,
after he had previously become posses
sed also of his brother Carrs Kingdom
of Provence, and it was then that Carl
the Bald, King OF France, stepped for
ward to take sole possession of his
nephews kingdom, comprising all the
eastern parts of modern France, and
extending from the Meuse to the Rhine,
and from the Rhone to the Alps, and
from the North Sea way down to the
Mediterranean. He was completely
successful, for his nephew Ludwig, the
Emperor in Italy, and his brother Lud-
wig, the King of Germany, had both
their hands too full to claim their share
Of the rich inheritance
But a year later, in so, just one
thousand years ago, suddenly a large
and well appointed German army
crossed the Rhine, broke into France
and defeated Carl the Bald and his
armies at once, and so completely that
he was compelled to sign a treaty Of
peace in the same year $50, by which |
he coded to his brother Ludwig, the
German, all the eastern part of those
lands which he had appropriated from
his nephew, and comprising the modern
provinces of Alsace. Eastern Lorraine,
and the territories around the cities of
Trier, or Treves, Cologne, Mastricht,
and Utrecht, down to the mouth OF the
river Rhine.
The first grand fight for the Rhine
provinces on the part of France, and
the Alsace and Lorraine on that Of
Germany, which is, after all, if not the
sole cause, certainly one of the pricipal
causes of the present war OF 1870, took
place consequently just one thousand
years ago, in 1870, and with the same
result.