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38-559: It was created out of the former Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia under King Lothair II , that had been established in 855. Lotharingia was divided for much of the later ninth century, reunited under Louis the Younger by the 880 Treaty of Ribemont and upon the death of East Frankish king Louis the Child in 911 it joined West Francia under King Charles the Simple . It then formed

76-649: A council of East Frankish nobility to depose emperor Charles the Fat , who by 884 had succeeded to the thrones of all the kingdoms of the Empire. The Lotharingian aristocracy, in an attempt to assert its right to elect a sovereign, joined the other East Frankish nobles in deposing Charles the Fat in 887 and elected Arnulf as their king. The rule of Arnulf in East Francia was initially opposed by Guy III of Spoleto , who became king of Italy, and by Rudolph I of Burgundy , who

114-724: A duchy in its own right, and about 925 Duke Gilbert declared homage to the German king Henry the Fowler , an act which King Rudolph of France was helpless to revert. From that time on Lotharingia (or Lorraine) remained a German stem duchy, the border with France did not change throughout the Middle Ages. In 959 King Henry's son Duke Bruno the Great divided Lotharingia into two duchies: Lower and Upper Lorraine (or Lower and Upper Lotharingia) and granted Count Godfrey I of Mons (Hainaut)

152-434: A minor, went Provence . To the middle son, Lothair II , went the remaining territories to the north of Provence, a kingdom which lacked ethnic or linguistic unity. Lothair II ruled from Aachen and did not venture outside his kingdom. When he died in 869, Lothair II left no legitimate children, but one illegitimate son - Hugh, Duke of Alsace . His uncles, king of East Francia Louis the German and West Francia Charles

190-456: A ruler's sons, rather than primogeniture (i.e., inheritance by the eldest son) which would soon be adopted by both Frankish kingdoms. Since Lotharingia combined lengthy and vulnerable land borders with poor internal communications as it was severed by the Alps , it was not a viable entity and soon fragmented. This made it difficult for a single ruler to reassemble Charlemagne's empire. Only Charles

228-790: The Franco-Prussian War , the northern portions of Lorraine were merged with Alsace to become the province of Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire , which became French territory again after World War I . Today the greater part of the French side of the Franco-German border belongs to the Grand Est region of France . Treaty of Verdun The Treaty of Verdun ( French : Traité de Verdun , German : Vertrag von Verdun ), agreed in 10 August 843, divided

266-520: The Frankish Empire into three kingdoms between Lothair I , Louis II and Charles II , the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I , the son and successor of Charlemagne . The treaty was concluded following almost three years of civil war and was the culmination of negotiations lasting more than a year. It was the first in a series of partitions contributing to the dissolution of the empire created by Charlemagne and has been seen as foreshadowing

304-629: The Oaths of Strasbourg which declared Lothair unfit for the imperial throne, after which he became willing to negotiate a settlement. The meeting happened shortly before August 10, as confirmed by a contemporary letter. Each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom: Lothair in the Kingdom of Italy ; Louis the German in the Kingdom of Bavaria ; and Charles II in the Kingdom of Aquitaine . After Lothair's death in 855, his eldest son, Louis II , inherited Italy and his father's claim to

342-512: The church . During his reign, Louis the Pious divided the empire so that each of his sons could rule over their own kingdom under the greater rule of their father. Louis’ eldest son, Lothair I , was given the title of emperor but because of several re-divisions by his father and the resulting revolts, he became much less powerful. When Louis died in 840, Lothair I claimed overlordship over the entirety of his father's kingdom in an attempt to reclaim

380-573: The southern third of Lotharingia , Alsace-Lorraine , was traded back and forth between France and Germany from the 18th to the 20th century. In 1766, it passed to France after the death of Stanisław Leszczyński , who had acquired the region from the German Habsburgs by the Treaty of Vienna (1738) ending the War of Polish Succession (1733–1738). In 1871, Alsace-Lorraine became German, after

418-473: The Bald (who wanted to rule the whole of Lotharingia) agreed to divide Lotharingia between them with the 870 Treaty of Meerssen - the western half went to West Francia and the eastern half to East Francia. Thus, Lotharingia, as a united kingdom, ceased to exist for some years. In 876, Charles the Bald invaded eastern Lotharingia with the intent to capture it, but was defeated near Andernach by Louis's son, Louis

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456-420: The Bald , was born to Louis's second wife Judith of Bavaria in 823. When Louis tried in 833 to re-divide the empire for the benefit of Charles, he met with opposition from his adult sons, Lothair , Pepin , and Louis . A decade of civil war and fluctuating alliances followed, punctuated by brief periods of peace. Pepin died in 838, and Louis the Pious in 840. The remaining three brothers made peace and divided

494-509: The Duchy of Lower Lotharingia finally lost its territorial authority, while the remnant Imperial fief held by the dukes of Brabant was later called the Duchy of Lothier (or Lothryk). After the territorial power of the duchy was shattered, many fiefdoms came to imperial immediacy in its area. The most important ones of these were: The following successor states remained under the authority of

532-603: The Empire with the 843 Treaty of Verdun . Lothair, as the eldest, kept the imperial title and received a long strip of territories stretching from the North Sea to southern Italy. The logic of the division was that Lothair had the crown of the Kingdom of Italy , which had been his subkingdom under Louis the Pious , and that as emperor he should rule in Aachen , the capital of the first Carolingian emperor, Charlemagne , and in Rome ,

570-442: The Fat achieved this briefly. In 855, the northern section became fragile Lotharingia, which became disputed by the more powerful states that evolved out of Francia Occidentalis (present day France ) and Francia Orientalis (present day Germany ). Generations of kings of France and Germany were unable to establish a firm rule over Lothair's kingdom. While the north of Lotharingia was then composed of independent countries ,

608-423: The Great and Herbert II, Count of Vermandois at Attigny in 942. The weak Louis IV had no choice but to agree to Otto's continued suzerainty over Lotharingia. In 944, West Francia invaded Lotharingia, but retreated after Otto I responded with mobilization of a large army under Herman I, Duke of Swabia . In 953, Duke Conrad rebelled against Otto I, and was removed from power and replaced by Otto's brother Bruno

646-409: The Great , who finally pacified Lotharingia in 959 by dividing it into Lotharingia superior (Upper Lorraine or Southern Lorraine) under Frederick I , and Lotharingia inferior (Lower Lotharingia, Lower Lorraine or Northern Lotharingia) under Godfrey I . In 978, king Lothair of West Francia invaded the region and captured Aachen , but Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor , counterattacked and reached

684-512: The Imperial throne. Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy ( Arles and Provence ) passed to Lothair's third son, Charles of Provence . The remaining territory north of the Alps , which did not previously have a name, was inherited by Lothair's second son, Lothair II , and was then named Lotharingia (present day Lorraine ) after him. The division reflected an adherence to the old Frankish custom of partible or divisible inheritance amongst

722-526: The Latin term Lotharingia (from the Latin suffix -ia , indicating a country) in the 10th century. Later French terms such as "Lorraine" and "Lothier" are derived from the Latin term. In 817, Emperor Louis the Pious made plans for division of the Carolingian Empire among his three sons after his death. Unforeseen in 817 was a further heir besides Louis's three grown sons. A fourth son, Charles

760-597: The West Franks, since their king Rudolph was weak and would interfere less in local affairs. In 939, Henry's son and successor, Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor , invaded Lotharingia, and at the Battle of Andernach defeated Gilbert who drowned trying to flee across the Rhine. The dukes of Lotharingia were thereafter royal appointees. Henry I, Duke of Bavaria was duke for two years, followed in 941 by duke Otto , who, in 944,

798-578: The Younger . In 879, Louis the Younger was invited by a faction of the West Frankish nobility to succeed king Louis the Stammerer , Charles's son, on the throne of West Francia. After a brief war, Louis the Stammerer's young sons, Carloman II and Louis III , ceded western Lotharingia to Louis. The border between the two kingdoms was established at Saint-Quentin in 880 by the Treaty of Ribemont . In November 887, Arnulf of Carinthia called

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836-532: The ancient capital of emperors. Middle Francia (Latin Francia media ) thus included all the land between Aachen and Rome, and it has sometimes been called by historians the "Lotharingian axis". In 855, when Lothair I was dying in Prüm Abbey , he divided his kingdom among his three sons with the Treaty of Prüm . To the eldest son, Louis II , went Italy, with the imperial title. To the youngest, Charles , still

874-536: The formation of many of the modern countries of western Europe . The treaty was the first of the four partition treaties of the Carolingian Empire , followed by the Treaties of Prüm (855), Meerssen (870), and Ribemont (880). Following Charlemagne's death, Louis was made ruler of the Frankish Empire. Agobard , archbishop of Lyon, opposed the division of the empire, as he claimed that it would divide

912-545: The power he had at the beginning of his reign as emperor . He also supported his nephew Pepin II's claim to Aquitaine , a large province in the west of the Frankish realm . Lothair's brother, Louis II , and his half-brother Charles II refused to acknowledge Lothair's suzerainty and declared war against him. After a bloody civil war, they defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy in 841 and sealed their alliance in 842 with

950-583: The title Duke of Lothier (derived from "Lotharingia"). With the disappearance of a "lower" Lorraine, the duchy of Upper Lorraine became the primary referent for "Lorraine" within the Holy Roman Empire . After centuries of French invasions and occupations, Lorraine was finally ceded to France at the close of the War of the Polish Succession (1737). In 1766, the duchy was inherited by the French crown and became Lorraine . In 1871, after

988-488: The title of a duke of Lower Lorraine. Godfrey's lands were to the north (lower down the Rhine river system), while Upper Lorraine was to the south (further up the river system). Both duchies formed the western part of the Holy Roman Empire established by Bruno's elder brother Emperor Otto I in 962. Both Lotharingian duchies took very separate paths thereafter: Upon the death of Godfrey's son Duke Richar , Lower Lotharingia

1026-543: The titular dukes of Lower Lotharingia ( Lothier ): Lotharingia Lotharingia was a medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire . It comprised present-day Lorraine (France), Luxembourg , Saarland (Germany), Netherlands , most of Belgium , and Germany west of the Rhine . It was named after King Lothair II , who received this territory as his share of the Kingdom of Middle Francia which his father, Lothair I , had held. Lotharingia resulted from

1064-498: The tripartite division in 855 of the kingdom of Middle Francia, which itself was formed after the threefold division of the Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun of 843. Conflict between East and West Francia over Lotharingia was based on the fact that these were the old Frankish homelands of Austrasia , so possession of them was a matter of great prestige as true claimant of Frankish imperial legacy. Lotharingia

1102-514: The victory of Prussia and its German allies over the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). In 1919, it became French again by the Treaty of Versailles (1919), following the French victory over the Germans in World War I (1914–1918). In 1940, Germany reannexed Alsace-Lorraine following Germany's conquest of France . Finally, in 1945, after World War II (1939–1945), Alsace-Lorraine

1140-491: The walls of Paris. In 980, Lothair renounced his rights to Lotharingia. Except for one brief period (1033–44, under Gothelo I ), the division was never reversed and the margraves soon raised their separate fiefs into duchies. In the twelfth century the ducal authority in Lower Lotharingia (or Lower Lorraine) fragmented, causing the formation of the Duchy of Limburg and the Duchy of Brabant , whose rulers retained

1178-484: Was affected by the conflict between Emperors Henry IV and Henry V : In 1100 Henry IV had enfeoffed Count Henry of Limburg , whom Henry V, having enforced the abdication of his father, immediately deposed and replaced by Count Godfrey I of Louvain . Upon the death of Duke Godfrey III in 1190, his son Duke Henry I of Brabant inherited the ducal title by order of Emperor Henry VI at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall . Thereby

Lower Lotharingia - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-488: Was captured and imprisoned by Heribert II of Vermandois until his death in 929. In 923, king Henry the Fowler of East Francia used this opportunity and invaded Lotharingia (including Alsace ). In 925, Lotharingians under Gilbert elected Henry the Fowler to be their king. In 930, Gilbert's loyalty was rewarded and he received the prestigious hand of Henry's daughter Gerberga in marriage. On Henry's death in 936, Gilbert rebelled and tried to swap Lotharingian allegiance to

1254-508: Was directly ruled by the emperor, until in 977 Otto II enfeoffed Charles , the exiled younger brother of King Lothair of France . Lower and Upper Lorraine were once again briefly reunited under Gothelo I from 1033 to 1044. After that, the Lower duchy was quickly marginalised, while Upper Lorraine came to be known as simply the Duchy of Lorraine. Over the next decades the significance of the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia diminished and furthermore

1292-475: Was elected king in the southern half of former Middle Francia - Upper Burgundy . Rudolph had intended to make himself king over the whole of Lothair II's former kingdom, but had to be content with Burgundia. Arnulf defeated the Vikings in 891 and dislodged them from their settlements at Louvain. In 895, he appointed his illegitimate son Zwentibold as the king of Lotharingia who ruled semi-independently until he

1330-624: Was elected king of East Francia in 911, Lotharingian nobles under the new duke Reginar voted to attach their duchy to West Francia, still ruled by the Carolingian dynasty. In 915, Charles the Simple rewarded him by granting him the title of margrave . Reginar was succeeded by his son Gilbert who used the title dux Lotharingiae : "duke of Lotharingia". When the West Franks deposed Charles in 922, he remained king in Lotharingia, from where he attempted to reconquer his kingdom in 923. He

1368-420: Was followed by Conrad . Lotharingia was turned into a junior stem duchy whose dukes had a vote in royal elections. While the other stem duchies had tribal or historic identities, Lotharingia's identity was solely political. King Louis IV of West Francia tried to maintain a claim to Lotharingia by marrying Gilbert's widow and Otto's sister Gerberga. In his turn, Otto I accepted homage from West Francia's Hugh

1406-506: Was known as regnum quondam Lotharii or regnum Lotharii ("kingdom [once] Lothair's") and its inhabitants Lotharii (from Lotharius ), Lotharienses (from Lothariensis ), or Lotharingi (which gives the modern Dutch, German, and Luxembourgish names for the province Lotharingen, Lothringen, and Lothringen respectively). The latter term, formed with the Germanic suffix -ing , indicating ancestral or familial relationships, gave rise to

1444-452: Was overthrown and killed by Reginar on August 13, 900. The kingdom then ceased to exist and became a duchy. The young king of East Francia Louis the Child appointed Gebhard to be the duke of Lotharingia in 903. His title was recorded in contemporary Latin as dux regni quod a multis Hlotharii dicitur : "duke of the kingdom that many call Lothair's". He died in 910 fighting Hungarian invaders . When non-Carolingian Conrad I of Germany

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