Invasions, Fragmentation, and the End of Carolingian Rule

Viking raids intensified after the death of Louis the Pious in 840, with the sack of Rouen in 841, Nantes in 843, and numerous other coastal and river towns. Paris itself was sacked by Vikings on several occasions — in 845, in 861, and during the great siege of 885-886 — and Carolingian kings repeatedly paid tribute (Danegeld) to buy off Viking withdrawal. The Vikings eventually established a permanent settlement at the mouth of the Seine, the origin of Normandy, formalized in the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911 between Charles the Simple and Rollo. Saracen raiders operated from bases in southern France and Italy, notably Fraxinetum and Bari, and sacked the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome in 846. From the late ninth century, Hungarian (Magyar) incursions ravaged territories across central and Western Europe, devastating parts of East Francia and Italy.