Lower Lotharingia

{{Short description|Stem duchy of the medieval Kingdom of Germany}}

{{Infobox country

| native_name =

| image_flag = Flag of Austria (1-1).svg

| conventional_long_name = Duchy of Lower Lotharingia

| common_name = Lower Lotharingia / Northern Lotharingia

| status = Part of East Francia (until 962)
Part of the Holy Roman Empire

| status_text =

| era = Middle Ages

| event_start =

| date_start =

| year_start = 959

| event1 =

| date_event1 =

| event_end =

| date_end =

| year_end = 1190

| p1 = Lotharingia

| s1 = Prince-Bishopric of Liège

| s2 = Electorate of Cologne

| s3 = Bishopric of Cambrai

| s4 = Duchy of Cleves

| s5 = Duchy of Limburg

| s6 = County of Namur

| s7 = Landgraviate of Brabant

| s8 = County of Holland

| s9 = Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht

| s10 = Counts of Louvain

| s11 = Duchy of Guelders

| s12 = Duchy of Jülich

| s13 = Duchy of Berg

| s14 = County of Loon

| border_s15 = no

| s15 = County of Horne

| flag_s16 = Blason ville nl Horn(Limburg).svg

| s17 = Frisian freedom

| flag_s17 = Sigillum iudicum Selandiarum Frisiae Transparent 2.png

| government_type = Feudal duchy

| title_leader = Duke

| leader1 = Godfrey I (first)

| year_leader1 = 959–964

| leader2 = Godfrey VIII (last)

| year_leader2 = 1142–1190

| flag =

| flag_type =

| flag_border = 90px

| flag_caption = Banner

| image_coat = Arms of the Archduchy of Austria.svg

| symbol =

| symbol_type = Shield

| image_map = File:Herzogtum Lothringen 1000.PNG

| image_map_caption = Pink: Lower (Northern) Lotharingia in 977

Orange: Friesland

| capital = Brussels

| common_languages = {{ubl|Old Dutch|Old Frisian|Old French|Old Low German}}

| religion = Christianity

| demonym =

| area_km2 =

| area_rank =

| GDP_PPP =

| GDP_PPP_year =

| HDI =

| HDI_year =

}}

The Duchy of Lower Lotharingia,{{Cite book|last1=Baedeker|first1=Jarrold|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4g3kUWAE18IC&q=Lower+Lotharingia|title=Netherlands|last2=Court|first2=Alec|date=1992|publisher=Pearson Education Canada|isbn=978-0-13-063611-9|language=en}} also called Northern Lotharingia,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7z5mAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Northern+Lotharingia%22|title=The Numismatic Chronicle|date=2006|publisher=Royal Numismatic Society.|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Bachrach|first=David S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBIABQAAQBAJ&q=%22Northern+Lotharingia%22&pg=PA19|title=Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany|date=2014|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-1-84383-927-9|language=en}} Lower Lorraine or Northern Lorraine (and also referred to as Lothier or Lottier"[https://books.google.com/books?id=mDPF4ILESaUC&pg=PA226 Treaty of Joinville]". {{in lang|fr}} In Davenport, Frances G. European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2004. in titles), was a stem duchy of the medieval Kingdom of Germany established in 959, which encompassed almost all of modern Belgium, Luxembourg, the northern part of the German Rhineland province and the eastern parts of France's Nord-Pas de Calais region. It also included almost all of modern Netherlands.

History

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 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) 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 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,{{citation needed|reason=One of the few relatively widely known facts about Lower Lorraine is that its duke, Godfrey of Bouillon (1060-1100), strangely unmentioned in this article, was the best-known leader of the First Crusade (1096-1099), and the first ruler of the Crusader state of Jerusalem, which seems a bit surprising if Lower Lorraine was 'marginalised' at the time, etc. In stark contrast, our bio article on Godfrey currently says (also without citation): This duchy was an important one at the time, serving as a buffer between the kingdom of France and the German lands. In fact, Lower Lorraine was so important to the German kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire that Henry IV, the German king and future emperor (reigned 1084–1105), decided in 1076 that he would place it in the hands of his own son and give Godfrey only Bouillon and the Margraviate of Antwerp as a test of Godfrey's abilities and loyalty.|date=May 2018}} 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 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 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).