Born: 795 at ?, France
Died: 29 Sep 855 at Pruem, Rhineland, Prussia; bur. St. Sauveur
Father: Louis I 'the Pious' (778-840)
Mother: Ermingarde
Spouse: ?
Children:
pic from EMA p? ===>>
Born: 795 at ?, France
Father: Louis I 'the Pious' (778-840) Spouse: ?
Children:
pic from EMA p? ===>> |
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From CIHG ('The Rise of the E Frankish German Empire' pp28-35):
"In 806 [Charlemagne] divided the realm into 3 parts for his 3 sons, but he made all 3 responsible for the defence of the Church. The youngest Pepin d810, the oldest Charles d811. In 813 [he] ordered his remaining son, Louis the Pious, to be crowned co-emperor in the imperial chapel at Aachen. [Charlemagne] died the following year and in 817 Louis the Pious decided that the empire, like the Church, could not be divided. Divine guidance was sought in 3 days of fasting and prayer, and Louis' eldest son Lothar was designated co-emperor. Lothar's 2 brothers, Pepin and Louis the German, were then appointed as subordinate kings. In 823 Louis' 2nd wife Judith gave birth to a son, known to history as Charles the Bald. She was an ambitious woman who persuaded her husband to change the imperial ordinance of 817 and divide the empire into 4 parts. Lothar, Pepin, and Louis were enraged at this diminution of their inheritance and were supported by the majority of the aristocracy and the episcopate. They rose up against their father and there followed 4yrs of civil war. The father d840, and Lothar's attempt to force his brothers' submission ended in disaster on the battlefield at Fontenoy in 841. Skirmishes continued between the brothers until the nobles, tired of continual strife, forced them to accept the Treaty of Verdun in 843 [see pic] ... The empire was further divided on Lothar's death in 855, when his share was subdivided among his sons. Louis II became HRE and received Italy. Charles was given Provence and parts of Burgundy. Lothar II was given the remainder, including the Frankish capital Aachen, and the area was later called Lotharingia (Lorraine) in his honor. When Charles of Provence died, his share was divided between his 2 brothers ... When his brothers died, Charles III (the Fat), the youngest son of Louis the German, restored the territorial unity of the HRE ... In 881 he was made HRE, and [Charlemagne's] empire restored, but Charles the Fat proved unable to defend it against the ravages of the Norsemen. In 887 he was deposed, and the Carolingian empire was divided into 5 kingdoms [E Francia, Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia ?], of which only E Francia remained under a Carolingian, Arnulf of Carinthia, Charles the Fat's nephew. The other kings were usurpers and obliged to pay homage to Arnulf ... [who] was crowned HRE in 896, died 3yrs later, and was succeeded by Louis the Child. [But by now,] the imperial crown had become an empty symbol fought over [only] by insignificant Italian nobles. No-one N of the Alps seemed to be interested in this [now] worthless title. Europe was now beset w/civil war between rival nobles and was invaded by Vikings from the N, Arabs from the S and Hungarians from the E. Louis the Child was unable to offer his unfortunate subjects any protection. Tribal leaders took matters into their own hands and struggled for prominence" (28-30).
See Lothar's widipedia entry here.
See also Lothar's Smokykin page
See also France, Carolingians, Charlemagne.
Sources:
- CIHG = The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany, Martin Kitchen, CUP, 1996, 352pp, Mustang.
- EMA = The Early Middle Ages, ?, Lucent, 1998?, ?pp, FHL.
