1. Abbonis Monachi S. Germani Parisiensis, De Bellis Parisiacae Urbis, et (Odonis Comitis, post Regis,adversus Northmannos urbem ipsam obsidentes, sub Carolo Crasso Imp. ac Rege Francorum [Abbo's "Wars of Count Odo with the Northmen in the Reign of Charles the Fat"]. Text in Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, Vol. VIII., pp. 4-26. Translation in James H. Robinson, Readings in European History (New York, l904), Vol. I., pp. 164-168.

2. The Northmen who ravaged France really had no kings, but only military chieftains.

3. Odo, or Eudes, was chosen king by the Frankish nobles and clergy in 888, to succeed the deposed Charles the Fat He was not of the Carolingian family but a Robertian (son of Robert the Strong). and hence a forerunner of the Capetian fine of kings regularly established on the French throne in 987. His election to the kingship was due in a large measure to his heroic conduct during the siege of Paris by the Northmen.

4. The tower blocked access to the city by the so-called "Great Bridge," which connected thc right bank of the Seine with the island on which the city was built. The tower stood on the present site of the Chatelet.

5. In time Robert also became king. He reigned only from 922 to 923.

6. Abbot Ebolus was head of the rnonastery of St. Germain des Pres.

7. The Northmen were finally compelled to abandon their efforts against the tower. They then retired to the bank of the Seine near the abbey of Saint-Denys and from that place as a center ravaged all the country lying about Paris. In a short time they renewed the attack upon the city itself.

8. Charles the Fat, under whom during the years 885-887 the old empire of Charlemagne was for the last time united under a single sovereign. When Odo went to find him in 886 he was at Metz, in Germany. (German and Italian affairs interested him more than did those of the Franks

9. Sens was about a hundred miles southeast of Paris. Charles abandoned the re~rion about Sens to thc Northmen to plunder during the winter of 886-887. His very lame excuse for doing this was that the people of the district did not properly recognize his authority and were deserving of such pumshment.

10. The twelve month siege of Paris thus brought to an end had many notewortlly results. Chief among these was the increased prestige of Odo as a national leader and of Paris as a national stronghold. Prior to this time Paris had not been a place of importance, even though Clovis had made it his capital. In the period of Charlemagne it was distinctly a minor city and it gained little in prominence under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald. The great Carolingian capitals were Laon and Compiegne. The siege of 885-886, however, made it apparent that Paris occupied a strategic position, commanding the valley of the Seine, and that the inland city was one of the true bulwarks of the kingdom Thereafter the place grew rapidly in population and prestige, and when Odo became king (in 888) it was made his capital. As time went on it grew to be the heart of the French king dom and came to guide the destinies of France as no other city of modern times has guided a nation.

11. He was deposed in 887, largely because of his utter failure to take any active measures to defend the Franks against their Danish enemies. From Paris he went to Germany where he died, January 13, 888, at a small town on the Danube.