CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE, THE LAST CAROLINGIANS AND THE ACCESSION OF HUGH CAPET. (888-987.)
Deserted by Charles the Fat, on whom, through a strange illusion, they had fixed all their hopes, the West-Franks in 887 again found themselves as much at a loss to choose a king as they had been at the death of Carloman in 884. The feeling of attachment to the Carolingian house, whose exclusive right to the throne seemed to have been formerly hallowed, as it were, by Pope Stephen II, was still so strong, especially among the clergy, that the problem might well appear almost insoluble.
It was out of the question indeed, to view as a possible sovereign the young Charles the Simple, the posthumous child of Louis II, the Stammerer. Even Fulk, Archbishop of Rheims, who was later to be his most faithful supporter, did not hesitate to admit that "in the face of the fearful dangers with which the Normans threatened the kingdom it would have been imprudent to fix upon him then." Nor, at the first moment, did anyone seem inclined towards Arnulf, illegitimate son of Carloman and grandson of Louis the German, whom the East-Franks had recently, in November 887, put in the place of Charles the Fat.
In this state of uncertainty, all eyes would naturally turn towards Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris, whose distinguished conduct when, shortly before, the Normans had laid siege to his capital, seemed to mark him out to all as the man best capable of defending the kingdom. Son of Robert the Strong, Odo, then aged between twenty-five and thirty, had, by the death of Hugh the Abbot (12 May 886), just entered into pos- session of the March of Neustria which had been ruled by his father. Beneficiary of the rich abbeys of Saint-Martin of Tours, Cormery, Villeloin and Marmoutier, as well as Count of Anjou, Blois, Tours and Paris, and heir to the preponderating influence which Hugh the Abbot had acquired in the kingdom, in Odo the hour seemed to have brought forth the man. He was proclaimed king by a strong party, consisting mainly of Neustrians, and crowned at Compiègne on 29 February 888 by Walter, Archbishop of Sens.
Nevertheless, he was far from having gained the support of all sections. To the people of Francia it seemed a hardship to submit to this
