territory. Lambert, one of the Counts of the March, created to keep them in check, had risen in revolt and was making common cause with them. On the other hand, the Aquitanians, faithful to Pepin II, the king they had chosen, refused to recognise Charles. An expedition which the king had sent against them in the spring of 841 had failed through a check to the siege of Toulouse, and through the execution of Charles's former protector, Count Bernard of Septimania, who was accused of treason. The Frankish troops, beaten by the Aquitanians on the banks of the river Agoût, had been forced to beat a retreat without accomplishing any useful purpose. The kings, who had met at Yütz, addressed a joint letter to Nomenoë, Lambert and Pepin II, threatening to unite and march against them if they persisted in their rebellion. These threats, however, were only partially effective. Pepin agreed to do homage to Charles, who in exchange for this profession of obedience recognised his possession of a restricted Aquitaine, without Poitou, the Angoumois or Saintonge. But the Bretons, for their part, refused to submit. Charles sent against them an expedition which ended in a lamentable defeat on the plain of Ballon, not far from Redon (22 November 845).
During the following summer Charles was compelled to sign a treaty with Nomenoë acknowledging the independence of Brittany, and to leave the rebel Lambert in possession of the county of Maine. A body of Scandinavian pirates went up the Seine in 845; the king was obliged to buy their withdrawal with a sum of money. Other Danes, led by their king, Horic, were ravaging the dominions of Louis the German, particularly Saxony. In 845 their countrymen had got possession of Hamburg and destroyed it. At the same time Louis had to keep back his Slav neighbours, and to send expeditions against the rebellious Obotrites (844) and the Moravians (846). Lothar, for his part, had in 845 to contend with a revolt of his Provençal subjects led by Fulcrad, Count of Arles. The friendly agreement proclaimed at Yütz between the three brothers was a necessity of the situation. It was nevertheless disturbed by the action of a vassal of Charles the Bald, named Gilbert (Giselbert), who carried off a daughter of Lothar I, taking her with him to Aquitaine where he married her (846). Great was the Emperor's wrath against his youngest brother, whom he accused, in spite of all his protests, of complicity with the abductor. He renewed his intrigues at Rome on behalf of Drogo and Ebbo, and even gave shelter in his dominions to Charles, brother of Pepin, who had again rebelled. Besides this he allowed certain of his adherents to lead expeditions into the Western Kingdom which were, in fact, mere plundering raids. He consented, however, in the beginning of 847 to meet Louis and Charles in a fresh conference which took place at Meersen near Maestricht.
Again the principle of fraternity was proclaimed, and this time it was extended beyond the sovereigns themselves to their subjects. Further, for the first time a provision was made which chiefly interested Lothar,
