Louis I the Pious

(23rd) King of France and (2nd) Holy Roman Emperor AD 814-40

Born: c778 at ?, France Died: 840 at ? Father: Charlemagne (742-814) Mother: Hildegard Spouse1: Irmengard Spouse2: Judith Children: w/Irmengard Louis II 'the German' King of Germany r843-76 Charles III 'the Fat' b839 King of France R27 884-7, HRE6 r881-7 (last French HRE, went to Germans after) Lothar I (795-855) HRE3 r840-55 Louis II HRE4 r855-75 Pepin Adelaide b824 m. Robert 'Fortis' (820-66) others? w/Judith Charles II the Bald b823 KoF R24 r840-77 (HRE5 r875-7, pic1, pic2) m. Hermantrude Rotilde m. Sigisbert VI "Prince Ursus" Judith m1 Æthelwulf of Wessex, m2 Æthelbald (#1's son!?) m3 (after being kidnapped by) Baldwin I 'of the Iron Hand' (837-79 42yo) 1st Count of Flanders (1 of 3 buffer kingdoms set up by Chas II) r862-79 17yrs (cf Baldwin) Louis II 'the Stammerer' KoF R25 r877-9 Charles III 'the Simple' KoF R29 r893-923 30yrs, made 911 deal w/Rollo Louis IV 'Outremer' KoF R32 r936-54 18yrs Gisla m. Rollo (part of 911 Normandy deal) others? pic from tIoC ("... favored by Alcuin as successor to his father's empire ... had a gift for scholastics, a devotion to Christianity, and a humble disposition" p109) ===>>

Louis I the Pious

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 (836-40?). 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 at Lothar page] ... 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 [when?] 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).

So, the duchies of Lorraine and Boulogne [Bouillon] were created when? Also, Judith later scandalously took up with Baldwin I 'Iron Hand' (KoE p385) Count of Flanders (837-879 r862-79) and they were later married (actually eloped, this is apparently a 2nd Judith, NOT Louis' wife, a DAU of Charles the Bald). Judith's titles included Princess of Franks, Queen of England (ggdau of Charlemagne) as well as Countess of Boulogne! In response Charles II 'the Bald' had Baldwin excommunicated (via Pope Formosus, see below), but Baldwin successfully appealed to Rome, and Charles reluctantly granted him the title of 1rst Duke of Flanders [when?], one of 3 buffer areas set up by Charles to protect his kingdom [other 2 being Upper and Lower Lorraine?] (see aEWH).

Hmmm, to confuse matters further, there were apparently 2 Judiths here (1 wife of LouisI1P, 2 dau of Charles the Bald, did Charles also have a WIFE named 3 Judith?). Mike Ashley's MBBKQ says: In 856 "Athelwulf [61yo King of England] had abdicated as king and was returning from his pilgrimage to Rome when Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, presented him with his young [13yo] dau ... Judith, who'd already caused a scandal by being crowned queen [of England], went on to cause further apoplexy among the witan by m. her stepson [Athelbald, son of Athelwulf]. Thru a 3rd marriage she became forebear of Matilda, wife of WmConq" (8). Athelwulf and Judith were m. 1 Oct 856, officiated by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims. The marriage was political, confirming an important alliance, and Charles insisted that she be crowned Queen, traditional among Franks, but [a practice that] had been abandoned by the Saxons (29). They had no children and Athelwulf 2yrs later (858). After his father's death, Athelbald caused a scandal by m. this same Judith, his step-mother! Since she'd been crowned Queen, he may well have believed this [was politically smart]. He was 27yo and she was just 15yo (858). But the RCC frowned on it and it was annulled w/in a year (859?). Judith returned to Francia were, 6yrs later (865?), she m. Baldwin [I], Count of Flanders. Their son, Baldwin [II], m. Elfreda, dau of Alfred the Great (318).

See Lothar's widipedia entry here.

See also Lothar's Smokykin page

See also France, Carolingians, Charlemagne.

Jeff Sypeck's 2006 book Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of AD 800 (HarperCollins, Mustang) mentions the '9 worthies' compiled by Medieval scholars: 1 Joshua c1300 BC, 2 Hector [Troy] c1200 BC, 3 David c1000 BC, 4 AlexGrt d332 BC, 5 Judas Maccabeus 'the hammerer' c160s BC, 6 Julius Caesar 1C BC, 7 King Arthur c450-519 AD, 8 Charlemagne c750-814 and 9 Godfrey of Bouillon famous in 1st 1097 Crusade. i.e. they were all successful empire builders, mostly Christian but also classical or Jewish. He also has some interesting less-than-positive observations on Louis I. In his last chapter, titled 'Little Men at the End of All Things' he takes us from the d. of Charlemagne in 814 to the Treaty of Verdun of 743, in which Charlemagne's gsons (sons of Louis) split up his empire (i.e. dissipated it), with Louis the German in the E (Germany), Charles in the W (France) and Lothar in the middle (Lotharingia, Lorraine w/N Italy). He says the last time Louis amused anyone was as a boy, since as an adult he never smiled, a very serious man, having spent most of his 46 years (by 814) defending the Spanish frontier of Francia. Tho he shared his father's love of hunting, he sorely lacked his famous warmth. The change in tone at Aachen once he took over included ordering most women to leave. He rejected the old Frankish stories he father had loved, favoring proto-French (Romance) v. the older, rougher Germanic language. Rather than 'King of Franks' he called himself 'Emperor and Augustus by Order of Divine Providence'. He even allowed his poets to cast aspersions on the moral character of his father e.g. disgraceful lust, loose and immoral ways. He was even friendlier to Jewish merchants than his father and he also continued scholarship and church reform. i.e. he was kind of an uptight 'puritan' type, apparently. But tho he could survive the criticism of the clergy, the disrepair of his father's final years, and his reputation for humorlessness, he couldn't survive the schemes of his sons (191-3).

He describes in a few paragraphs what happened between 814 and 843; The plan, devised during the 3rd year of Louis's reign, seemed simple enough. His son Pepin would rule Aquitaine and most of the W empire, while the youngster Louis - Ludwig - would rule most of the E. The emperor's nephew Bernard would keep Italy. To determine which son would inherit the imperial title ... all [ldrs] prayed for guidance ... their choice was unanimous: Lothar, the eldest son ... the other kings would be subject to his authority ... [and] all would be right with the Imperium Christianum. But nothing went right: Bernard of Italy rebelled and was tortured, blinded, and d. of his injuries. Louis sent 3 half-bros (illeg sons of Karl) to monasteries and imprisoned his father's old friend Theodulf. When a new son (Charles) was b823 to his new wife Judith, he seemed to toss out the old plans and carved out a new kingdom for him, ignoring the complaints of his other sons ('if mama aint happy...'). The next 14yrs (after 830 when he carved out the new kingdom) were a blur of betrayal, bloodshed, and treason. Traditionalists wanted separate kingdoms portioned out to the sons, per old Frankish custom, but clergy and pope (Gregory IV, understandably) wanted imperial unity (hmmm national sovereignty v. intl'ism, early version). Louis was imprisoned at least once, but talked his way out. The peasants mostly ignored all these intrigues, and poets didn't even try to follow it, since base intrigue and family hatred were far from heroic or noble, as they preferred to write about. Also a drain on the empire and blatantly unChristian. Then Pepin d, Louis d, and the world was left w/3 hateful sons (of Louis) who turned on each other. Then came the aweful bloodshed at the 841 battle of Fontenoy, where Charles and Louis (Ludwig) confronted Lothar and his allies, including their nephew Pepin. Armies clashed, thousands died, the carnage stunned even these battle-hardened bros into negotiations. Verdun was the result. After Fontenoy, none believed it was possible to bind up the empire's wounds and reunify. Malice had smothered charity. Traditionalists got their way and empire was dismantled. Charles got what would later be France, Louis Germany, and Lothar the middle area and the imperial title. When Lothar d. 10yrs later, his part was split into smaller self-governing fragments; Provence, Italy and Lotharingia (Lorraine). For those who'd dreamed of a united Christian Europe, Verdun was heartbreaking. Alcuin had d804. The scholar Floris of Lyon recalled the greatness of Charlemagne's empire and the pettiness of this new arrangement i.e.

...
Good laws are now undone by crowded councils,
And bustling assemblies seek to harm through theft.
The public good is gone: to each his own!
Our selfish cares are all. Only God is forgotten (197).

But the end of one world was the beginning of another, what one scholar called 'the birth of modern Europe'. W/in decades of his d., no one could remember the location of his tomb! Sypeck says that, by 1095 (start of 1st Crusade), Pope Urban II called upon Charlemagne to embolden the Crusaders, but by that time he'd been made into a myth i.e. no longer merely a Christian king whose dealings w/Muslims were pragmatic and cordial, now a warlord who could summon angels (cf The Song of Roland), a superhero who battled Christ's enemies and worked God's will on earth no matter the cost' (199-200). Barbarossa had him canonized in 1165, and by the 13C the new name HRE had been coined, w/Karl its founder. Sypeck says the HRE was transformed into something larger, stranger, and more decadent than the Frankish king could've imagined. A 17C Dutchman (Heer) called it 'a chimera and a skeleton'. It was Voltaire who said it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire! (200). Verdun was in Lotharingia (Lorraine) and was protected in WWI at great cost (i.e. trench warfare; 162k French, 143k Germans). The region has always been 'an odd intermingling of both cultures' (201). Historians often note that the officers of Verdun WWI became the generals of WWII, 'when Europeans again invoked [i.e. after Napoleon 1806] the name of Charlemagne and continued his gsons' fratricide' (201). Despite reservations about anti-Saxonism, Hitler admired Charlemagne for founding a 'First Reich', and he built a home near the mtn believed to be the resting place of 'Karl der Grosse'. In 1944 the Nazi SS named its French collaborating divisions after Charlemagne! (w/some irony). Karl's empire is a fitting symbol of European unity, and the orig 6 EU countries (France, W Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands) covered roughly the same area as his empire. Today's EU capital Brussels is only 80mi W of Aachen. Karl would probably wonder if his descendants had succeeded or failed. He'd wonder how they can prosper w/o a Christian emperor to 'punish wrong-doers, guide the straying, console the sorrowing and advance the good' (204). He'd ponder the EU slogan of 'freedom, humanity [welfare state] and peace' [hmmm compare w/peace, prosperity, liberty, the 3 goals of govt] and be content to be associated w/peace, order, and European unity [under God]. In late 10C, a powerful Saxon family, the Ottonians, inherited the HRE title and are chiefly remembered for conquering and Christianizing the Danes, Poles and Hungarians. They supported arts and letters as Karl did and crowned their HREs at Aachen in his honor. In the year 1000 his tomb was found by Otto III, he was seated on a throne. Otto took nails and a tooth as relics and gave Karl a golden nose (the only part that had decayed). In early 19C, French historian Chateaubriand retold an eerie legend, that in 1450 some monks had reopened Karl's tomb, but this time when one touched the remains, they collapsed into dust (rats).

Note: Karl's 3 main counselors were Alcuin, Angilbert (see Baldwin chart) and Isaac the Jew.

Between 880 and 980 the Roman bishops office - once held by godly men like Pope Gregory - slipped into the hands of several not-so-noble nobles. One Italian heiress, Marozia, cntld the bishops of Rome for 60yrs. During those years, she was one bishop's mom, another's murderer, another's mistress. In 955 her gson John XII became the new pope. Before his election, he made a toast to the devil. His election did nothing to diminish his devilish lifestyle. Even after John XII died, corruption continued to disgrace the Roman bishop's place in the church. The Roman church desperately needed reform. Eventually the reforms came. However with the reforms came division (CHME p52).

The Welsh; descendants of Romans and Irish and native Britons, formed a distinct kingdom in the 9C, paid [reluctant] tribute to English kings in the 10C, and resisted the Norman influx in the 11C ... the Scots, the Celts of the far N [had undergone a similar process] ... the Scottish High King David I [r1124-53] swore reluctant loyalty to Henry I [of England, but later, after Henry's d1135, when Matilda and Stephen were fighting over the throne] repealed his alliance and [invaded] the N of England (HRW pp21-2).

From 865-71 a major major Viking invasion hit England, conquering Northumbria, E Anglia and Mercia (Kent, Essex, Sussex already gone, so Wessex is 7th and 'Last Kingdom' of 'Heptarchy'). Invasion led by Ragnar Lodbrok and his 3 sons (Ivarr the Boneless, Halfdan, Ubba). K Aelle (Angle) k. Ragnar (865?), prompting latter's 1st 2 sons to return in revenge, taking York Nov 866 (Aelle d867 in a resulting slaughter). Vikings install puppet Egbert I, and Vikings rule Northumbria 866-954 88yrs, when England regains it. The 886 Treaty of Wedmore declares Alfred's Wessex in S, 'Danelaw' in N (under Guthrum). L46 Ead[w]ulf r888-913 [Northumbria], his descendants cntl Bamburgh to 1066 (exc loss 914-20 to Danes), last of dynasty is Osulf k1067. In the 11C Bamburgh was ruled by a family w/the name Uchtred, ancestors of Bernard Cornwell (and me, cf Bamburgh.html).

The early history of the peoples N of the Baltic [i.e. the Scandanavians] is preserved very imperfectly in heroic sagas; what glimpses we get show a familiar, slow progression from tribal patchwork to unified kingdom. By [c850], the SE lands were ruled by Swedish kings from the area known as Uppland; the very S tip of the Scandanavian peninsula, [while] the islands in the Baltic itself, and the peninsula of Jutland were under the cntl of kings from the peoples known as the Dani. The peninsula's W half, home of the Norse tribes, remained divided and chaotic for longer. [i.e. til c870 when] the rule of the coastal lands known as Vestfold fell to a 10yo named Harald who, 1st w/the help of his uncle/regent, then on his own, began a 70yr campaign to unite the Norse under 1 crown ... he'd sworn an oath not to cut or comb his hair til he'd become sole king of Norway (the epic 'Egil's Saga' tells us) and so he was called Harald Tangle-Hair [aka 'Fairhair']. In a c900 great sea victory at the Battle of Havsfjord, Harald defeated his main rivals ... the last battle he fought in Norway ... gained cntl of whole country ... these battles sent many Vikings abroad in search of new homes ... Harald fathered 10-20 sons w/various wives/mistresses ... d. c940s, as Norway fell into feuding successors ... Harald's youngest son Hakon the Good (so named due to his Chr faith) emerged as winner ... but his older bro Erik Bloodaxe (d955 m. sis of Dane K Harald Bluetooth, had 'wolf pack' of sons) fought a 15yr campaign to take crown ... but Hakon finally d. in battle v. his nephew Harald Greycloak, who then seized throne of Norway ... [fought old paganism, bad times came, got unpopular, cf 12C chronicler Snorri Sturluson] so his uncle H Bluetooth plotted w/Hakon Hladir to ass. him, which they did c976 ... HB was K (helped by warldr son Sweyn Forkbeard), but gave cntl of upper Norse coast to HH ... HB's warriors now attacked Germany, England, Iceland ... about this time was Eric the Red's big trip W ... back home, HB d987 in war w/Sweyn, who t/o ... Danes ravaged Wessex ... 991 B of Maldon ... accept Danegeld ... 994 Sweyn fights all the way to London ... 994 Hakon of Hladir dies, cntl of upper Norway claimed by gson of old Harald Tangle-Hair [named] Olaf Tryggvason ... but def. by Sweyn at 1000 sea-B of Swold (Olaf jumped into sea, for years rumors that he'd return to free Norway from its Danish overlords, but he never did) ... Sweyn now turned his attention to England ... Ethelred wasn't strong enough, so m1002 Emma to enlist Norman support ... but right after wedding called for Dane slaughter (even w/Normans didn't have enough men/$, so panic'd, took drastic step, massacre Sa 13 Nov 1002, exactly 36 28yr cycles to Sa 13 Nov 2010) ... Sweyn's own sis was k. ... so Sweyn launched many revenge invasions over next 10yrs ... came himself 1013 to NE England ... fought his way S to London, then Bath, where he had himself crowned king ... Ethelred fled London, so king he was ... 150yrs after the Grt Army of Vikings had landed in England, the island had finally fallen under Scandinavian rule (HMW p522-8).

Sources:
- CIHG = The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany, Martin Kitchen, CUP, 1996, 352pp, Mustang.
- EMA = The Early Middle Ages, ?, Lucent, 1998?, ?pp, FHL.
- tIoC = The Importance of Charlemagne, ?, Lucent, ?, FHL.
- aEWG = An Encyclopedia of World History, FHL.
- BN HT = History's Timeline, Barnes & Noble, 1981, own.
- CHME = Christian History Made Easy, Dr Timothy Paul Jones, Rose, 2005, own.
- KoE = Kings of England?
- HRW = The History of the Renaissance World, Susan Wise Bauer, W W Norton, 2013, Mustang.
- HMW = The History of the Medieval World, Susan Wise Bauer, W W Norton, 2010, Mustang.