Lothair I

File:Vertrag von Verdun en.svg (843)]]

Lothair was born in 795, to Louis the Pious and Ermengarde of Hesbaye. His father was the son of the reigning Emperor, Charlemagne. Little is known of Lothair's early life, which was probably passed at the court of his grandfather Charlemagne. In 814, the elderly emperor died, and left his sole surviving legitimate son Louis the Pious as successor to his vast empire. The next year, Lothair would be sent to govern Bavaria for his father, the new emperor. In 817, Louis the Pious drew up his Ordinatio Imperii.{{cite book|last1=Duckett|first1=Eleanor|title=Carolingian Portraits|date=1962|publisher=University of Michigan Press|pages=26, 34|ref=2}} In this, Louis designated Lothair as his principal heir and ordered that Lothair would be the overlord of Louis' younger sons Pippin of Aquitaine (who was 20) and Louis the German (who was 13), as well as his nephew (Lothair's cousin) Bernard of Italy. Lothair would also inherit their lands if they were to die childless. Lothair, aged 22, was then crowned joint emperor by his father at Aachen. At the same time, Aquitaine and Bavaria were granted to his brothers Pippin and Louis, respectively, as subsidiary kingdoms. Following the death of Bernard, brought on by his plotting against and blinding by Louis the Pious, Lothair also received the Kingdom of Italy.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} In 821, Lothair married Ermengarde (d. 851), daughter of Hugh the Count of Tours.

In 822, he assumed the government of Italy, and at Easter, 5 April 823, he was crowned emperor again by Pope Paschal I, this time at Rome. In November 824, Lothair promulgated a statute, the Constitutio Romana, concerning the relations of pope and emperor, which reserved the supreme power to the secular potentate, and he afterwards issued various ordinances for the good government of Italy.

On Lothair's return to his father's court, his stepmother Judith won his consent to her plan for securing a kingdom for her son Charles, a scheme which was carried out in 829, when the young prince was given Alemannia as king.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} Lothair, however, soon changed his attitude and spent the succeeding decade in constant strife over the division of the Empire with his father. He was alternately master of the Empire, and banished and confined to Italy, at one time taking up arms in alliance with his brothers and at another fighting against them, whilst the bounds of his appointed kingdom were in turn extended and reduced.

File:Vertrag von Prüm.svg (855)]]

The first rebellion began in 830. All three brothers fought their father, whom they deposed. In 831, their father was reinstated and he deprived Lothair of his imperial title and gave Italy to Charles. The second rebellion was instigated by Angilbert II, Archbishop of Milan in 833, and again Louis was deposed in 834. Lothair, through the loyalty of the Lombards and later reconciliations, retained Italy and the imperial position through all remaining divisions of the Empire by his father.{{cite web |url= https://www.academia.edu/15388945 |title= The Penitential State. Authority and Atonement in the Ages of Louis the Pious (814–840) – 1. Louis the Pious – A boy who became a king|publisher= Academia | author=Mayke de Jong | access-date= 25 January 2020 }}{{cite book|author=Pierre Riche|title=The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tcjy7bCmFL0C|year=1993|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=0-8122-1342-4}}

File:Karolingische denier Lotharius Dorestad.jpg (Middle Francia) after 850]]

File:Medallion of Lothair, from the Lothaire Psalter.jpg in the British Library]]

When Louis the Pious was dying in 840, he sent the imperial insignia to Lothair, who, disregarding the various partitions, claimed the whole of the Empire. He was 45 years old when his father died. Negotiations with his brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles, both of whom resisted this claim, were followed by an alliance of the younger brothers against Lothair.{{cite book|author1=William W. Kibler|author2=Grover A. Zinn|title=Medieval France: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQoKeohhNkMC&pg=PA1065|year=1995|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-8240-4444-2|pages=1065–}} A decisive battle was fought at Fontenay-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841, when, in spite of his and his allied nephew Pepin II of Aquitaine's{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} personal gallantry, Lothair was defeated and fled to Aachen. With fresh troops he began a war of plunder, but the forces of his brothers were too strong, and taking with him such treasure as he could collect, he abandoned his capital to them.{{Clarify|date=June 2011}} He met with the leaders of the Stellinga in Speyer and promised them his support in return for theirs, but Louis and then the native Saxon nobility put down the Stellinga in the next years.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

Peace negotiations began, and in June 842 the brothers met on an island in the Saône. They agreed to an arrangement which developed, after much difficulty and delay, into the Treaty of Verdun, signed in August 843. By this, Lothair received the imperial title as well as northern Italy and a long stretch of territory from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, essentially along the valleys of the Rhine and the Rhône; this territory includes the regions Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, and Provence. He soon ceded Italy to his eldest son, Louis, and remained in his new kingdom, engaging in alternate quarrels and reconciliations with his brothers and in futile efforts to defend his lands from the attacks of the Northmen (as Vikings were known in Frankish writings) and the Saracens (as those loyal to the various Fatimids, Umayyads and Abbasides are known in Frankish writings).

In 845 the count of Arles, Fulcrad, led a rebellion in Provence. The emperor put it down and the count joined him in an expedition against the Saracens in Italy in 846.{{cite book |last=Reuter |first=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy Reuter |title=The Annals of Fulda |series=Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories |volume=II |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1992 |page=24}}{{cite book |authorlink=René Poupardin |last=Poupardin |first=René |title=Le royaume de Provence sous les Carolingiens (855–933?) |year=1901 |location=Paris |publisher=É. Bouillon |pp=3-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/leroyaumedeprove00poupuoft}}

File:Bas-côté nord, baie III Lotharius Romanorum Imperator (milieu XIIIe).jpg]]

In 855 he became seriously ill, and despairing of recovery renounced the throne, divided his lands among his three sons, and on 23 September entered the monastery of Prüm, where he died six days later. He was buried at Prüm, where his remains were found in 1860. It was at Prüm that Lothair was most commemorated.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/writing-the-early-medieval-west/remembering-and-forgetting-lothar-i/2379257020471FF859F557A43FB0A041|chapter=Remembering and Forgetting Lothar I|last=Screen|first=Elina|title=Writing the Early Medieval West |date=May 2018|publisher= Cambridge University Press|pages=248–260|doi=10.1017/9781108182386.017|isbn=9781108182386|access-date=2019-04-09}}

The same year, Lothair's kingdom was divided between his three sons in a deal called the Treaty of Prüm: the eldest, Louis II, received Italy and the title of emperor; the second, Lothair II, received Lotharingia; the youngest, Charles, received Provence.{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

{{More citations needed section|date=October 2015}}

Lothair married Ermengarde of Tours in 821,{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}} who died in 851.

• Louis II (825–875) Crowned as King of Italy in 844 by Pope Sergius II. Crowned Emperor in 850. Married Engelberga{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}}
• Hiltrude (826–865) Married Berengar of Spoleto.
• Bertha (c. 830–852) Married to an unknown man, but later Abbess of Avenay.
• Gisela (c. 830–856) abbess of San Salvatore at BresciaConstance Brittain Bouchard, Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 106.
• Lothair II (835–869) Succeeded his father. Married Teutberga,{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}} daughter of Boso the Elder, Count of Arles.
• Rotrude (c. 840) Married Lambert II of Nantes.
• Charles (845–863) Invested with Provence, Lyon and Transjuranian Burgundy{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}}

One illegitimate child is known.

• Carloman (? – d. 853)

• Middle Francia
• History of Burgundy
• History of Provence
• History of Italy

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Goldberg|first=Eric J.|title=Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876|year=2006|location=Ithaca, NY|publisher=Cornell University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyiTg0wgl58C}}
• {{Cite book|last=McKitterick|first=Rosamond|author-link=Rosamond McKitterick|title=The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987|year=1983|location=Harlow|publisher=Longman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtNnAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Nelson|first=Janet L.|author-link=Janet Nelson|title=King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne|year=2019|location=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePujDwAAQBAJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Reuter|first=Timothy|author-link=Timothy Reuter|title=Germany in the Early Middle Ages c. 800–1056|year=2013|orig-year=1991|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfvJAwAAQBAJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Schutz|first=Herbert|author-link=Herbert Schutz|title=The Carolingians in Central Europe, Their History, Arts, and Architecture: A Cultural History of Central Europe, 750-900|year=2004|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZJONlzdyPsC}}
• {{Cite book|last=West|first=Charles|title=The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia, 855–869|year=2023|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp_UEAAAQBAJ}}
• [http://sites.google.com/site/lettersoflothar/ Surviving letters of Lothar I], in Latin with English translation by Richard Matthew Pollard.

{{refend}}

; 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica sources

{{EB1911 poster|Lothair I.}}

{{refbegin}}

• Annales Fuldenses
• Nithard, Historiarum Libri, both in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores, Bände i. and ii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.)
• E. Mühlbacher, Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern (Innsbruck, 1881)
• E. Dümmler, Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reichs (Leipzig, 1887–1888)
• B. Simson, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Ludwig dem Frommen (Leipzig, 1874–1876)

{{refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Lothair I}}

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{{S-hou|Carolingian dynasty|795||29 September|855}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Duke of Maine|years=817–831}}

{{s-aft|rows=|after=Pepin I of Aquitaine}}

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{{S-ttl|title=King of Italy|years=818 – 23 September 855|regent1=Louis II|years1=844–855}}

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{{S-bef|rows=3|before=Louis the Pious|as=king of the Franks
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{{S-ttl|title=Holy Roman Emperor|years=817 – 23 September 855|regent1=Louis the Pious|years1=817–840|regent2=Louis II|years2=850–855}}

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{{S-ttl|rows=2|title=King of Middle Francia|years=843 – 23 September 855}}

{{S-aft|after=Lothair II|as=king of Lotharingia}}

{{S-aft|after=Charles|as=king of Provence}}

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Category:795 births

Category:855 deaths

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