There was in the Place one Anselmus, Bishop of the City. Capet found Means to corrupt this Man by great Gifts and Promises, and to induce him to betray both the Town and the King into his Hands; which was accordingly done.  And thus having obtained both the City and the Victory, he sent Charles and his Wife Prisoners to Orleans, where he set strict Guards over them.  The King having been two Years in Prison, had two Sons born to him there, Lewis and Charles; but not long after they all died.  So that Capet being now Master of the whole Kingdom of France without Dispute or Trouble, associated his Son Robert with him in the Throne, and took care to get him declared his Successor.  Thus the Dignity and Memory of the Carlovingian Family came to an End, the 237th Year after the first Beginning of their Reign.  And this History is recorded by Sigebert in Chron. Ann. 987. as well as the Appendix, lib. 5. cap. 45.

We must not omit making Mention of the cunning Device made use of by Hugh Capet, for establishing himself in his new Dominion:  For whereas all the Magistracies and Honours of the Kingdom, such as Dukedoms, Earldoms, &c. had been hitherto from ancient Times conferr’d upon select and deserving Persons in the General Conventions of the People, and were held only during good behaviour; whereof (as the Lawyers express it) they were but Beneficiaries; Hugh Capet, in order to secure to himself the Affections of the Great Men, was the first that made those Honours perpetual, which formerly were but temporary; and ordained, that such as obtained them shou’d have a hereditary Right in them, and might leave them to their Children and Posterity in like Manner as their other Estates.  Of this, see Franciscus Conanus the Civilian, Comment. 2.  Cap. 9. By which notorious fact, ’tis plain, that a great Branch of the Publick Council’s Authority was torn away; which however (to any Man who seriously considers the Circumstances of those Times) seems impossible to have been affected by him alone, without the Consent of that Great Council it self.

* * * * *

CHAP.  XVII.

    Of the uninterrupted Authority of the Publick Council
    during the Capevingian Race.

We may learn, out of Froissard, Monstrellet, Gaguinus, Commines, Gillius, and all the other Historians who have written concerning these Times, that the Authority of the Publick Council was little or nothing less in the Time of the Capevingian Family than it had been during the two former Races.  But because it would be too troublesome, and almost an infinite Labour to quote every Instance of this Nature, we shall only chose some few of the most remarkable Examples out of a vast Number which we might produce.