80-806: Vita Hludovici or Vita Hludovici Imperatoris (The Life of Louis or the Life of the Emperor Louis) is an anonymous biography of Louis the Pious , Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks from AD 814 to 840. The work was written in Latin in or soon after AD 840 by an anonymous author who is conventionally called Astronomus , the Astronomer or sometimes the Limousin Astronomer . This
160-768: A Septimanian Visigoth , whom he made abbot of the newly established Inden Monastery at Aix-la-Chapelle and charged him with the reform of the Frankish church. One of Benedict's primary reforms was to ensure that all religious houses in Louis's realm adhered to the Rule of Saint Benedict , named for its creator, Benedict of Nursia . From the start of his reign, his coinage imitated his father Charlemagne's portrait, which gave it an image of imperial authority and prestige. In 816, Pope Stephen IV , who had succeeded Leo III , visited Reims and again crowned Louis on Sunday 5 October. As
240-463: A connection. Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine as a three-year-old child in 781. In the following year he was sent to Aquitaine accompanied by regents and a court. Charlemagne constituted this sub-kingdom in order to secure the border of his realm after the destructive war against the Aquitanians and Basques under Waifar (capitulated c. 768) and later Hunald II , which culminated in
320-451: A council of clerics and nobles of the realm that had been convened for the reconciliation of Louis with his three younger half-brothers, Hugo whom he soon made abbot of St-Quentin, Drogo whom he soon made Bishop of Metz , and Theodoric. This act of contrition, partly in emulation of Theodosius I , had the effect of greatly reducing his prestige as a Frankish ruler, for he also recited a list of minor offences about which no secular ruler of
400-525: A final placitum held at Worms on 20 May, Louis gave Bavaria to Louis the German and disinherited Pepin II, leaving the entire remainder of the empire to be divided roughly into an eastern part and a western. Lothair was given the choice of which partition he would inherit and he chose the eastern, including Italy, leaving the western for Charles. The emperor quickly subjugated Aquitaine and had Charles recognised by
480-623: A heavy price. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by the Edict of Pistres of 864, made the army more mobile by providing for a cavalry element, the predecessor of the French chivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885–886 . Charles engaged in diplomacy with
560-571: A large Lombard army, but Louis had promised his sons Louis the German and Pepin of Aquitaine greater shares of the inheritance, prompting them to shift loyalties in favour of their father. When Lothair tried to call a general council of the realm in Nijmegen , in the heart of Austrasia , the Austrasians and Rhinelanders came with a following of armed retainers, and the disloyal sons were forced to free their father and bow at his feet (831). Lothair
640-414: A pity if any man lost his life or limb on my account." The resigned emperor was taken to Saint-Médard de Soissons , his son Charles to Prüm , and the queen to Tortona . The despicable show of disloyalty and disingenuousness earned the site the name Field of Lies , or Lügenfeld, or Campus Mendacii, ubi plurimorum fidelitas exstincta est . On 13 November 833, Ebbo , with Agobard of Lyon , presided over
720-469: A portion of his brother Louis's land. Louis the German promptly rose in revolt, and the emperor redivided his realm again at Quierzy-sur-Oise , giving all of the young king of Bavaria's lands, save Bavaria itself, to Charles. Emperor Louis did not stop there, however. His devotion to Charles knew no bounds. When Pepin died in 838, Louis declared Charles the new king of Aquitaine. The nobles, however, elected Pepin's son Pepin II . When Louis threatened invasion,
800-514: A result, most French kings were crowned in Reims, following the custom established by Louis the Pious. On 9 April 817, Maundy Thursday , Louis and his court were crossing a wooden gallery from the cathedral to the palace in Aachen, when the gallery collapsed, killing many. Louis, having barely survived and feeling the imminent danger of death, began planning for his succession. Three months later among
880-508: A single formula: renovatio imperii Romani et Francorum , "renewal of the empire of the Romans and Franks". These words appeared on his seal . Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles's domains, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia . After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but
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#1732801699877960-593: A synod at the Church of Saint Medard in Soissons which saw Louis undertake public penance for the second time in his reign. The penitential ritual that was undertaken began when Louis arrived at the church and confessed multiple times to the crimes levied against him. The crimes had been historic and recent, with accusations of oath breaking, violation of the public peace and inability to control his adulterous wife, Judith of Bavaria . Afterwards, he threw his sword belt at
1040-433: Is based on Charles's initial lack of a regnum . "Bald" would in this case be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his landlessness at an age at which his brothers already had been sub-kings for some years. Contemporary depictions of his person, such as in his Bible of 845 , on his seal of 847 (as king) and on his seal of 875 (as emperor), show him with a full head of hair, as does the equestrian statuette (c. 870), which
1120-414: Is due to his many detailed comments on astronomical matters in the work upon which he describes himself as "one credited with having knowledge of this subject." He held office at the court of Louis the Pious, and his cultural and religious references suggest that he was not a churchman. It has been conjectured, based on evidence within the text, that the author was born around AD 800 and that his nationality
1200-483: Is thought to depict him. The Genealogy of Frankish Kings , a text from Fontanelle dating from possibly as early as 869, names him as Karolus Calvus ("Charles the Bald"), and he is given the same name in the late tenth century by Richier of Reims and Adhemar of Chabannes . Charles married Ermentrude , daughter of Odo I, Count of Orléans , in 842. She died in 869. In 870, Charles married Richilde of Provence , who
1280-574: The Abbey of Saint-Denis where he had long wished to be buried, in a porphyry tub which may be the same one known as " Dagobert 's tub" ( cuve de Dagobert ), now in the Louvre . It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution. Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis . Charles was a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of
1360-668: The Battle of Jengland (851), the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings , who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire , and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. At the Vikings' successful siege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at
1440-484: The Emirate of Cordoba , receiving camels from Emir Muhammad I in 865. From the 860s, the palace of Compiègne became an increasingly important centre for Charles and he founded a monastery there in 876. In the tenth century Compiègne was known as ‘Carlopolis’ because of its association with Charles. In 871–872, Charles sent two letters to Pope Hadrian II where he made a defence of royal sovereignty in
1520-471: The Pyrenees in 812. As emperor, he included his adult sons, Lothair , Pepin and Louis , in the government and sought to establish a suitable division of the realm among them. The first decade of his reign was characterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the brutal treatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy for which Louis atoned in a public act of self-debasement. In the 830s his empire
1600-550: The Alps, they did not lose their freedom. The next revolt occurred a mere two years later, in 832. The disaffected Pepin was summoned to his father's court, where he was so poorly received he left against his father's orders. Immediately, fearing that Pepin would be stirred up to revolt by his nobles and desiring to reform his morals, Louis the Pious summoned all his forces to meet in Aquitaine in preparation of an uprising, but Louis
1680-489: The Aquitainian nobles. The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg . The war
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#17328016998771760-556: The Astronomer's work in 1940, identified him as Hilduin [ fr ] , the chancellor of Pippin II of Aquitaine and Charles the Bald . Ernst Tremp supports this view in his important 1995 study, although Buchner and Tremp differ by about a decade in their dating of the work. Tischler has most recently tried to make a case that the Astronomer was Jonas of Orleans but the Hilduin theory remains more popular amongst historians. Recently, Courtney Booker suggested Walafrid Strabo
1840-487: The Bald , his sons Lothar, Pepin and Louis refused to accept. The rule of sons being favoured over brothers in succession remained also untouched. The ordinatio imperii of Aachen left Bernard in Italy in an uncertain and subordinate position as king of Italy, and he began plotting to declare independence. Upon hearing of this, Louis immediately directed his army towards Italy, and headed for Chalon-sur-Saône . Intimidated by
1920-603: The Basque revolt south of the western Pyrenees, so sparking off a Basque uprising that was duly put down by the Frankish emperor in Dax. Seguin was replaced by Lupus III , who was dispossessed in 818 by the emperor. In 820 an assembly at Quierzy-sur-Oise decided to send an expedition against the Cordoban caliphate (827). The counts in charge of the army, Hugh , count of Tours , and Matfrid , count of Orléans , were slow in acting and
2000-433: The Church. Nevertheless, the most popular recent ideas (see below) do identify him as a cleric. Various attempts have been made to identify the author with a particular individual. In 1729, Von Eckhart thought he was a notary attached to Louis' court between 816 and 839. Von Simson in 1909 attempted to identify him as Archdeacon Gerolt, a cleric at court. Max Buchner, the author of one of the most influential modern studies of
2080-581: The Frankish emperor's power and dared not stir up any trouble. In 816, however, the Sorbs rebelled and were quickly followed by Slavomir , chief of the Obotrites, who was captured and abandoned by his own people, being replaced by Ceadrag in 818. Soon, Ceadrag too had turned against the Franks and allied with the Danes, who were to become the greatest menace to the Franks in a short time. A greater Slavic menace
2160-500: The German garnered an army of Slav allies and conquered Swabia before the emperor could react. Once again the elder Louis divided his vast realm. At Jonac , he declared Charles king of Aquitaine and deprived Pepin (he was less harsh with the younger Louis), restoring the whole rest of the empire to Lothair, not yet involved in the civil war. Lothair was, however, interested in usurping his father's authority. His ministers had been in contact with Pepin and may have convinced him and Louis
2240-622: The German to rebel, promising him Alemannia, the kingdom of Charles. Soon Lothair, with the support of Pope Gregory IV , whom he had confirmed in office without his father's support, joined the revolt in 833. While Louis was at Worms gathering a new force, Lothair marched north. Louis marched south. The armies met on the plains of the Rothfeld. There, Gregory met the emperor and may have tried to sow dissension amongst his ranks. Soon much of Louis's army had evaporated before his eyes, and he ordered his few remaining followers to go, because "it would be
2320-484: The German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bains , on 6 October 877. According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey of Nantua , Burgundy , because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. A few years later, his remains were transferred to
2400-495: The Pious mustered a massive force and marched against them. They fled, but it would not be the last time they harried the northern coasts. In 838, they even claimed sovereignty over Frisia , but a treaty was confirmed between them and the Franks in 839. Louis the Pious ordered the construction of a North Sea fleet and the sending of missi dominici into Frisia to establish Frankish sovereignty there. In 837, Louis crowned Charles king over all of Alemannia and Burgundy and gave him
2480-521: The Rhine near his palace at Ingelheim . He died on 20 June 840 in the presence of many bishops and clerics and in the arms of his half-brother Drogo as he pardoned his son Louis, proclaimed Lothair emperor and commended the absent Charles and Judith to his protection. Soon dispute plunged the surviving brothers into yet another civil war. It lasted until 843 with the signing of the Treaty of Verdun , in which
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2560-674: The Younger , King of Neustria , and Pepin , King of Italy . In the Divisio Regnorum of 806, Charlemagne had slated Charles the Younger as his successor as ruler of the Frankish heartland of Neustria and Austrasia , while giving Pepin the Iron Crown of Lombardy , which Charlemagne possessed by conquest. To Louis's kingdom of Aquitaine, he added Septimania , Provence, and part of Burgundy . However, Charlemagne's other legitimate sons died—Pepin in 810 and Charles in 811—and Louis
2640-598: The approval of his Aachen court and the clergy he issued an imperial decree of eighteen chapters, the Ordinatio Imperii , that laid out plans for an orderly dynastic succession. The term Ordinatio Imperii is a modern (19th-century) creation. The decree is called divisio imperii in the only surviving contemporary manuscript. In 815, Louis had already given his two eldest sons a share in the government, when he had sent his elder sons Lothair and Pepin to govern Bavaria and Aquitaine, respectively, though without
2720-764: The attending nobles. Upon arriving at the imperial court in Aachen in an atmosphere of suspicion and anxiety on both sides, Louis's first act was to purge the palace of what he considered undesirable. He destroyed the old Germanic pagan tokens and texts which had been collected by Charlemagne. He further exiled members of the court he deemed morally "dissolute", including some of his own relatives. He quickly sent all of his many unmarried (half-)sisters and nieces to nunneries in order to avoid any possible entanglements from overly powerful brothers-in-law. Sparing his illegitimate half-brothers Drogo, Hugh and Theoderic, he forced his father's cousins, Adalard and Wala to be tonsured , sending them into monastic exile at St-Philibert on
2800-504: The base of the altar and received judgement through the imposition of the hands of the bishops. Louis was to live the rest of his life as a penitent, never to hold office again. The penance divided the aristocracy. The anonymous biographer of the Vita Hludovici criticized the whole affair on the basis that God does not judge twice for sins committed and confessed. Lothair's allies were generously compensated. Ebbo himself received
2880-461: The bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs , who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence , but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions by having himself consecrated as King of Lotharingia at Metz , but he
2960-585: The concepts of empire and unity by sending them on remote military expeditions. Louis joined his brother Pippin at the Mezzogiorno campaign in Italy against the Duke Grimoald of Benevento at least once. Louis was one of Charlemagne's three legitimate sons to survive infancy. His twin brother, Lothair, died during infancy. According to the Frankish custom of partible inheritance , Louis had expected to share his inheritance with his brothers, Charles
3040-495: The death of Charlemagne, was accused of having supported the rebellion, and was thrown into a monastic prison, dying soon afterwards; it was rumored that he had been poisoned. The fate of his nephew deeply marked Louis's conscience for the rest of his life. In 822, as a deeply religious man, Louis performed penance for causing Bernard's death, at his palace of Attigny near Vouziers in the Ardennes , before Pope Paschal I , and
3120-473: The disastrous Battle of Roncesvalles (778). Charlemagne wanted Louis to grow up in the area where he was to reign. However, wary of the customs his son may have been assimilating into in Aquitaine, Charlemagne, who had remarried to Fastrada after the death of Hildegard, sent for Louis in 785. Louis presented himself in Saxony at the royal Council of Paderborn dressed in Basque costumes along with other youths in
3200-490: The division of the empire into three souvereign entities was settled. West Francia and East Francia became the kernels of modern France and Germany respectively. Middle Francia , that included Burgundy , the Low Countries and northern Italy among other regions was only short-lived until 855 and later reorganized as Lotharingia . The dispute over the kingship of Aquitaine was not fully settled until 860. Louis
3280-399: The emperor's swift action, Bernard met his uncle at Chalon, under invitation, and surrendered. He was taken to Aachen by Louis, who there had him tried and condemned to death for treason. Louis had the sentence commuted to blinding, which was duly carried out; Bernard did not survive the ordeal, however, dying after two days of agony. Others also suffered: Theodulf of Orléans , in eclipse since
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3360-451: The entire army of his kingdom, including Gascons with their duke Sancho I of Gascony , Provençals under Leibulf , and Goths under Bera , over the Pyrenees and besieged it for seven months , wintering there from 800 to 801, when it capitulated. King Louis was formally invested with his armour in 791 at the age of fourteen. However, the princes were not given independence from central authority as Charlemagne wished to implant in them
3440-487: The events of the previous year. Known as the Synod of Thionville , Louis himself was reinvested with his ancestral garb and the crown, symbols of Carolingian rulership. Furthermore, the penance of 833 was officially reversed and Archbishop Ebbo officially resigned after confessing to a capital crime, whilst Agobard of Lyon and Bartholmew, Archbishop of Narbonne were also deposed. Later that year Lothair fell ill; once again
3520-524: The events turned in Louis favour. In 836, however, the family made peace and Louis restored Pepin and Louis, deprived Lothair of all save Italy, and gave it to Charles in a new division, given at the diet of Crémieu . At about that time, the Vikings terrorized and sacked Utrecht and Antwerp . In 837, they went up the Rhine as far as Nijmegen, and their king, Rorik , demanded the weregild of some of his followers killed on previous expeditions before Louis
3600-400: The expedition came to naught. In 818, as Louis was returning from a campaign to Brittany , he was greeted by news of the death of his wife, Ermengarde . Ermengarde was the daughter of Ingerman , the duke of Hesbaye. Louis had been close to his wife, who had been involved in policymaking. It was rumoured that she had played a part in her nephew's death and Louis himself believed her own death
3680-531: The face of intrusive actions by the papacy into state affairs. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII , traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on 25 December. As emperor, Charles combined the mottoes that had been used by his grandfather and father into
3760-590: The imperial title and the Kingdom of Italy . He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia . Shortly after Verdun, Charles went on to an unsuccessful campaign against Brittany, on the return from which he signed the Treaty of Coulaines with his nobility and clergy. After that, the first years of his reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855, were comparatively peaceful. During these years
3840-623: The island of Noirmoutier and Corbie , respectively, despite the latter's initial loyalty. He made Bernard, margrave of Septimania , and Ebbo , Archbishop of Reims his chief counsellors. The latter, born a serf, was raised by Louis to that office, but betrayed him later. He retained some of his father's ministers, such as Elisachar , abbot of St. Maximin near Trier , and Hildebold, Archbishop of Cologne . Later he replaced Elisachar with Hildwin , abbot of many monasteries. He also employed Benedict of Aniane (the Second Benedict),
3920-487: The last two decades of his reign were marked by civil war. At Worms in 829, Louis gave Alemannia to Charles, with the title of king or duke (historians differ on this), thus enraging his son and co-emperor Lothair, whose promised share was thereby diminished. An insurrection was soon at hand. With the urging of the vengeful Wala and the cooperation of his brothers, Lothair accused Judith of having committed adultery with Bernard of Septimania , even suggesting Bernard to be
4000-400: The loyal barons of Austrasia and Saxony against Lothair, and the usurper fled to Burgundy , skirmishing with loyalists near Chalon-sur-Saône . Louis was restored the next year, on 1 March 834. On Lothair's return to Italy, Wala, Jesse and Matfrid, formerly count of Orléans, died of a pestilence. On 2 February 835 at the palace Thionville , Louis presided over a general council to deal with
4080-470: The monastery of St Vaast whilst Pepin was allowed to keep the lands reclaimed from his father. Men like Rabanus Maurus , Louis's younger half-brothers Drogo and Hugh, and Emma, Judith's sister and Louis the German's new wife, worked on the younger Louis to make peace with his father, for the sake of unity of the empire. The humiliation to which Louis was then subjected at Notre Dame in Compiègne turned
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#17328016998774160-627: The national costume of the region and ruling by the local customs. Thus were the children sent to their respective realms at a young age. The marches—peripheral principalities—played a vital role as bulwarks against exterior threats to the empire. Louis reigned over the Spanish March . In 797, Barcelona , the largest city of the Marca , fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing, handed it to them. The Córdoban authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis marched
4240-558: The nobles and clergy at Clermont-en-Auvergne in 840. Louis then, in a final flash of glory, rushed into Bavaria and forced the younger Louis into the Ostmark . The empire now settled as he had declared it at Worms, he returned in July to Frankfurt am Main , where he disbanded the army. The final civil war of his reign was over. Louis fell ill soon after his final victorious campaigns and retreated to his summer hunting lodge on an island in
4320-708: The north-western parts of Bulgaria acknowledged Louis's suzerainty and after he was reluctant to settle the matter peacefully with the Bulgarian ruler Omurtag , in 827 the Bulgarians attacked the Franks in the March of Pannonia and regained their lands. On the far southern edge of his great realm, Louis had to control the Lombard princes of Benevento whom Charlemagne had never subjugated. He extracted promises from Princes Grimoald IV and Sico , but to no effect. On
4400-581: The rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German , King of Bavaria , made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once Gaul . At a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepin's heirs and
4480-524: The royal titles. He proceeded to divide the empire among his three sons: If one of the subordinate kings died, he was to be succeeded by his sons. If he died childless, Lothair would inherit his kingdom. In the event of Lothair dying without sons, one of Louis the Pious's younger sons would be chosen to replace him by "the people". Above all, the Empire would not be divided: the Emperor would rule supreme over
4560-668: The same garment, which may have made a good impression in Toulouse, since the Basques of Vasconia were a mainstay of the Aquitanian army. In 794, Charlemagne gave four former Gallo-Roman villas to Louis, in the thought that he would take in each in turn as winter residence: Doué , Ebreuil , Angeac and the Chasseneuil . Charlemagne's intention was to see all his sons brought up as natives of their given territories, wearing
4640-459: The sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position that he held until his death except from November 833 to March 834, when he was deposed. During his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the empire's southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Emirate of Córdoba in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basques south of
4720-501: The southwestern frontier, problems commenced early when c. 812, Louis the Pious crossed the western Pyrenees 'to settle matters' in Pamplona. The expedition made its way back north, where it narrowly escaped an ambush attempt arranged by the Basques in the pass of Roncevaux thanks to the precautions he took, i.e. hostages. Séguin , duke of Gascony , was then deposed by Louis in 816, possibly for failing to suppress or collaborating with
4800-595: The subordinate kings, whose obedience to him was mandatory. With this settlement, Louis attempted to combine his sense for the Empire's unity, supported by the clergy, while at the same time providing positions for all of his sons. Instead of treating his sons equally in status and land, he elevated his first-born son Lothair above his younger brothers and gave him the largest part of the Empire as his share. The decree failed to create order as it omitted Bernard, who immediately began to conspire. When Louis began to issue changes in favor of his second wife Judith's son Charles
4880-405: The support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens , who betrayed him, and of Hincmar of Reims . It has been suggested that Charles's nickname was used ironically and not descriptively; he was not in fact bald but rather was extremely hairy. An alternative or additional interpretation
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#17328016998774960-542: The support of the Neustrian magnates, all the way to Paris. At Verberie , Louis the German joined him. At that time, the emperor returned from another campaign in Brittany to find his empire at war with itself. He marched as far as Compiègne , an ancient royal town, before being surrounded by Pepin's forces and captured. Judith was incarcerated at Poitiers and Bernard fled to Barcelona. Then Lothair finally set out with
5040-520: The third great civil war of his reign broke out. In the spring of 839, Louis the German invaded Swabia, Pepin II and his Gascon subjects fought all the way to the Loire , and the Danes returned to ravage the Frisian coast (sacking Dorestad for a second time). Lothair, for the first time in a long time, allied with his father and pledged support at Worms in exchange for a redivision of the inheritance. At
5120-474: The three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848), at Meerssen (851), and at Attigny (854). In 858, Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy . He was saved only by the support of
5200-410: The time would have taken any notice. He also made the egregious error of releasing Wala and Adalard from their monastic confinements, placing the former in a position of power in the court of Lothair and the latter in a position in his own house. At the start of Louis's reign, the many tribes— Danes , Obotrites , Slovenes , Bretons and Basques —which inhabited his frontierlands were still in awe of
5280-441: The true father of Charles. Ebbo and Hildwin abandoned the emperor at that point, Bernard having risen to greater heights than either of them. Agobard , Archbishop of Lyon , and Jesse of Amiens, bishop of Amiens , too, opposed the redivision of the empire and lent their episcopal prestige to the rebels. In 830, at Wala's insistence that Bernard of Septimania was plotting against him, Pepin of Aquitaine led an army of Gascons , with
5360-486: Was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious , Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith . He
5440-527: Was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt , when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna , or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine ) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with
5520-741: Was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse , the Saône , and the Rhône , with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro . Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire , known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained
5600-530: Was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz . By his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye (married c. 794), he had three sons and three daughters: By his second wife, Judith of Bavaria , he had a daughter and a son: Louis had an illegitimate son and daughter: Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (French: Charles le Chauve ; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II ,
5680-407: Was compelled to open negotiations when Louis found support among Lothair's former vassals. Lotharingia was partitioned between Charles and Louis in the resulting treaty (870). Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons . Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë , who defeated the king at the Battle of Ballon (845) and
5760-532: Was crowned co-emperor with an already ailing Charlemagne in Aachen on 11 September 813. On his father's death in 814, he inherited the entire Carolingian Empire and all its possessions (with the sole exception of the kingdom of Italy; although within Louis's empire, in 813 Charlemagne had ordered that Bernard , Pepin's son, be made and called king). While at his palace of Doué, Anjou, Louis received news of his father's death. He rushed to Aachen and crowned himself emperor to shouts of Vivat Imperator Ludovicus by
5840-574: Was decisively beaten at the Battle of Andernach on 8 October 876. In the meantime, John VIII, menaced by the Saracens , was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps , but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy , Boso , and they refused to join his army. At the same time Carloman , son of Louis
5920-477: Was divine retribution for that event. It took many months for his courtiers and advisors to convince him to remarry, but eventually he did, in 820, to Judith , daughter of Welf , count of Altdorf . In 823 Judith gave birth to a son, who was named Charles . The birth of this son damaged the Partition of Aachen , as Louis's attempts to provide for his fourth son met with stiff resistance from his older sons, and
6000-585: Was gathering on the southeast. There, Ljudevit , duke of Slavs in Lower Pannonia , was harassing the border at the Drava and Sava rivers. The margrave of Friuli , Cadolah , was sent out against him, but he died on campaign and, in 820, his margravate was invaded by Slovenes. In 821, an alliance was made with Borna , duke of the Dalmatia , and Liudewit was brought to heel. In 824 several Slav tribes in
6080-485: Was not Gothic or Frankish . The author's attitude to his subject is clearly subordinate and one of admiration, yet he does not idealise Louis in the same way as, for example, Einhard does in his Life of Charlemagne . It has been suggested that the author exhibits a degree of disapproval towards clerics and the workings of the Frankish Church, lending weight to the view that he was not formally connected to
6160-530: Was on campaign in Spain, at the Carolingian villa of Cassinogilum, according to Einhard and the anonymous chronicler called Astronomus ; the place is usually identified with Chasseneuil , near Poitiers . He was the third son of Charlemagne by his wife Hildegard . He had a twin brother named Lothair, who died young. Louis and Lothair were given names from the old Merovingian dynasty , possibly to suggest
6240-424: Was pardoned, but disgraced and banished to Italy. Pepin returned to Aquitaine and Judith—after being forced to humiliate herself with a solemn oath of innocence—to Louis's court. Only Wala was severely dealt with, making his way to a secluded monastery on the shores of Lake Geneva . Although Hilduin , abbot of Saint Denis , was exiled to Paderborn and Elisachar and Matfrid were deprived of their honours north of
6320-596: Was the Astronomer. Louis the Pious Louis the Pious ( Latin : Hludowicus Pius ; French : Louis le Pieux ; German : Ludwig der Fromme ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire , was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne , from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving son of Charlemagne and Hildegard , he became
6400-435: Was torn by civil war between his sons that was only exacerbated by Louis's attempts to include his son Charles by his second wife in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a high note, with order largely restored to his empire, it was followed by three years of civil war. Louis is generally compared unfavourably to his father but faced distinctly different problems. Louis was born in 778 while his father Charlemagne
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