The fear of invasion had been with Hugh since the beginning of his reign, and in his western policy it was obscurely entangled with his desire to retain Provence. He evidently wished to consider the kingdom of Provence as annexed to his Italian crown after the death of the Emperor Louis the Blind in 928, but in spite of his wide lands and numerous relatives there he could not obtain recognition as sovereign. King Raoul of France also nourished ambitions to rule on the Rhone, and it may be that Hugh hoped to block his way, as well as to buy off an invasion threatened by Rodolph II of Jurane Burgundy, when c. 931 he made, on the evidence of Liudprand, a treaty with Rodolph II by which there was ceded to Rodolph II "all the territory Hugh had held in Gaul before he became king of Italy." We may doubt whether this ineffective treaty referred to more than one or two districts; in any case Rodolph II lost them again, and his death in 937 opened out a new prospect[1]. Hugh contrived to marry Rodolph II's widow Bertha himself and to betroth Rodolph's daughter Adelaide to his own son Lothar II. Though the rights of Rodolph's young son Conrad were not disputed, Hugh probably hoped to be the real ruler of Jurane Burgundy, when a greater competitor appeared on the scene.
The German princes had by no means abandoned hopes of Italian conquest since the Emperor Arnulf's death, although the internal troubles of Germany, seconded by Hugh's gifts and embassies, precluded a royal campaign. Duke Burchard of Swabia had aided his son-in-law Rodolph II; in 934 Duke Arnulf of Bavaria suffered defeat in an invasion of the Veneto. But now the German king, Otto the Great, was strong; he was determined to secure his south-western frontier, and perhaps already dreamed of reasserting Arnulf's position and taking the imperial crown. In some way he gained possession of young Conrad and controlled the government of Jurane Burgundy. All that Hugh seems to have kept was the Valley of Aosta, and his lands in Provence.
The perpetual danger of an invasion was increased by the readiness of the magnates to call in a foreign king at any discontent. Although national consciousness was present in Italy, and in a strongly localized form was marked in Rome, the great vassals were still as their ancestors of the ninth century had been, members of the mainly Frankish noble houses which were scattered and endowed throughout Charlemagne's Empire. In Italy they were mostly new-comers, only Italian in their objection to fresh magnates from beyond the Alps. Hugh's safety, on the other hand, lay in the introduction of new men from Provence, his kinsmen and allies, which he could the more readily effect as the magnates he found in possession had struck but short roots since the days of the Emperor Guy. Even so he could not much depend on his nominees; the instinct and the opportunity for feudal turbulence were too strong. Among the bishops the saintly Frank, Ratheri of Verona, had to be deposed for
- ↑ See Previté-Orton, Italy and Provence, EHR, 1917, p. 335.
