Lothar, while west of that river, "because of the abundance of wine" and in order that he should have his share of what was originally Austrasia, he was given in addition the dioceses of Spires, Worms and Mayence. Charles kept the rest as far as Spain, nothing being said as to Pepin II, whose rights the Emperor found himself unable to enforce. This division at first sight appears fairly simple, but in reality the frontiers it assigned to Lothar's kingdom were largely artificial, since the border-line by no means followed the course of the rivers, but cutting off from the Emperor's share three counties on the left bank of the Rhine, allowed him in compensation on the left bank of the Meuse the districts of Mézières and Mouzon, the Dormois, the Verdunois, the Barrois, the Ormois with Bassigny, and on the right bank of the Rhone, the Vivarais and the Uzège with, of course, the whole of the transrhodanian parts of the counties of Vienne and Lyons. Each of the three brothers swore to secure to the other two the share thus adjudged to them, and to maintain concord, and "peace having been thus made and confirmed by oath, each one returned to his kingdom to govern and defend it."
The Treaty of Verdun marks a first stage in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. Doubtless it would be idle to see in it an uprising of ancient national feelings against the unity which had been imposed by the strong hand of Charlemagne. In reality, these old nationalities had no more existence on the morrow of the treaty than on the eve of it. It is true that the three ancient kingdoms of Lombardy, Bavaria and Aquitaine formed nuclei of the states set up in 843. But Lothar's portion included races as different as those dwelling round the Lower Rhine and those of central Italy. Louis, besides Germans, had Slav subjects, and even some Franks who spoke the Romance tongue. Charles became the ruler of the greater part of the Franks of Francia, the country between the Rhine and the Loire which was to give its name to his kingdom, but his Breton and Aquitanian vassals had nothing to connect them closely with the Neustrians or the Burgundians. The partition of 843 was the logical outcome of the mistakes of Louis the Pious who, for the sake of Charles, his Benjamin, had sacrificed in his interests that unity of the Empire which it had been the object of the Constitutio of 817 to safeguard, while at the same time it gave the younger sons of Louis the position of kings. None the less, the date 843 is a convenient one in history to mark a dividing line, to register the beginning of the individual life of modern nations. Louis had received the greater part of the lands in which the Teutonic language was spoken: Charles reigned almost exclusively (setting aside the Bretons) over populations of the Romance tongue. This difference only became more accentuated as time went on. On the other hand, the frequent changes of sovereignty in Lorraine have permanently made of ancient Austrasia a debateable territory. The consequences of the
