ABSTRACT
Historians have tended to be more impressed by the scale of this crisis than by Charles's remarkable success in surviving it. The crisis has often been seen as inevitable the outcome of a steady build-up of pressure on Charles's dwindling resources, and of his gradual losing of control over the regions of his realm. Historians have tended to pin the blame on Charles, certainly, but also on greedy nobles, and equally greedy Vikings. The argument of this chapter will be that the crisis of 858 should be understood in terms of competing political interests and values rather than of moral shortcomings. Crisis there certainly was in 858, and Charles's own actions were in part to blame for it: two particular decisions will be identified as politically inept. Competition between Lothar's sons was immediately translated into a quest for avuncular patrons, which fuelled the contention between the uncles, Louis the German and Charles the Bald.
