India 2001 books

It was a wiser
method of disarming a redoubtable enemy than that of ransoming the land,
which Charles had practised with Hasting on a previous occasion. He had
converted a foe into a subject, upon whom he might count for defence
against those fierce heathen whom he had so often led to battle.
While France, England, and the Mediterranean regions formed the favorite
visiting ground of the Norsemen, they did not fail to pay their respects
in some measure to Germany, and during the ninth century, their period
of most destructive activity, the latter country suffered considerably
from their piratical ravages. Two German warriors who undertook to guard
the coasts against their incursions are worthy of mention. One of these,
Baldwin of the Iron Arm, Count of Flanders, distinguished himself by
seducing Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald of France, who, young as
she was, was already the widow of two English kings, Ethelwolf and his
son Ethelbold. Charles was at first greatly enraged, but afterwards
accepted Baldwin as his son-in-law, and made him lord of the district.


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