Louis II of Italy
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Louis II of Italy | |
---|---|
Lothar I until 855) | |
Coronation | 15 June 844, Rome |
Predecessor | Lothair I |
Successor | Charles the Bald |
Born | 825 |
Died | 12 August 875 (aged 49–50) Ghedi, Italy |
Burial | |
Spouse | Engelberga |
Issue | Ermengard, Queen of Provence |
Dynasty | Carolingian |
Father | Lothair I |
Mother | Ermengarde of Tours |
Religion | Chalcedonian Christianity |
Louis II (825 – 12 August 875), sometimes called the Younger,[1] was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone.
Louis's usual title was
The chronicler Andreas of Bergamo, who is the main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great tribulation came to Italy."[2]
Childhood
Louis was born in 825,[3][4] the eldest son of the junior emperor Lothair I and his wife Ermengarde of Tours. His father was the son of the reigning emperor, Louis the Pious. Little is known about his early life, except that he grew up in his grandfather's court and probably developed a warm affection for the emperor who, in 839, designated his grandson as King of Italy, and let Louis take up his residence in that country.
Louis the Pious died the next year, and his empire was partitioned between his sons: Louis' father, Lothair, and Louis' uncle, Louis the German, as well as their younger half-brother, Charles the Bald. Under his father's rule, he was crowned king and co-emperor to the middle-aged Emperor Lothair I at Rome by Pope Sergius II on 15 June 844. This ceremony mirrors the crowning of Lothair I by his father, a tradition started by Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious, who were, respectively, great grandfather and grandfather of Louis II.
Joint emperor
Louis II immediately claimed the rights of an emperor in the city, a claim which was decisively rejected; but in 850 he was
Sole emperor
Carolingian interventions
The division of Lothair's dominions, by which he obtained no territory outside Italy, aroused his discontent, and in 857 he allied himself with
In 863, upon the death of his brother Charles, Louis received the kingdom of Provence, and in 864 came into collision with Pope Nicholas I over his brother's divorce. The archbishops, who had been deposed by Nicholas for proclaiming this marriage invalid, obtained the support of the emperor, who reached Rome with an army in February 864; but, having been seized with fever, he made peace with the pope and left the city.
Bari
In his efforts to restore order in Italy, Louis saw considerable success both against Italy's turbulent princes and against the Aghlabids who were ravaging southern Italy. In 866, after issuing a call for assistance to fight the Muslims,[5] he routed these invaders, but could not follow up his successes owing to the lack of a fleet. So in 869 he made alliance with the eastern emperor, Basil I, who sent him ships to assist in the capture of Bari, capital of the Emirate of Bari, which succumbed in 871.[6]
Meanwhile, his brother Lothair had died in 869, and owing to his detention in southern Italy, Louis failed to prevent the partition of Lotharingia between Louis the German and Charles the Bald. Some jealousy between Louis and Basil followed the victory at Bari, and in reply to an insult from the eastern emperor Louis attempted to justify his right to the title "emperor of the Romans."[7]
Benevento
He had withdrawn into Benevento to prepare for a further campaign when he was attacked in his palace, robbed and imprisoned by Adelchis, prince of Benevento, in August 871. The capture of Louis was lamented in a contemporary short poem, the Rythmus de captivitate Ludovici imperatoris. The landing of fresh bands of Aghlabids compelled Adelchis to release his prisoner a month later, and Louis was forced to swear he would take no revenge for this injury, nor ever enter Benevento with an army. Returning to Rome, he was released from his oath, and was crowned a second time as emperor by Pope Adrian II in May 872.[8]
Louis won further successes against the Aghlabids, relieving the siege of Salerno and driving them from Capua, but the emperor's attempts to punish Adelchis were not very successful. Returning to northern Italy, he died, near Ghedi, in what is now the province of Brescia, on 12 August 875, having named as his successor in Italy his cousin Carloman, son of Louis the German. Louis was buried in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan.
Family
On 5 October 851 Louis married Engelberga, daughter of Adelchis I of Spoleto. They had two daughters:
- Gisela (852/855-before 28 April 868), Abbess of the Monastery of San Salvador of Brescia from the year 861.
- Ermengard, who married Boso of Provence and had issue with him.
Notes
- Louis VII the Younger, king of France.
- ^ Post cuius obitum magna tribulatio in Italia advenit. Andreas, Historia in Georg Waitz (ed.), MGH SS rerum Langobardicarum (Hannover: 1878), 222–30, §18.
- ^ Peter H. Wilson, Heart of Europe, (Harvard University Press, 2016), 918.
- ^ Emperor Louis II, Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, ed.Christopher Kleinhenz, (Routledge, 2004), 655.
- ^ Pierre Riche, The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe, transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 182
- ^ Pierre Riche, The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe, 182.
- ^ Letter of Louis II to Basil I (discussion with full English translation).
- JSTOR j.ctv6zdbwx.7, retrieved 2023-12-05
Sources
- Gay, Jules (1904). L'Italie méridionale et l'empire byzantin depuis l'avènement de Basile Ier jusqu'à la prise de Bari par les Normands (867–1071). Albert Fontemoing.
- Goldberg, Eric J. (2006). Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876. Cornell University Press.
- Annales Bertiniani and Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis, both in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores, Bände i. and iii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.)
- Muratori, L. A. Antiquitates Italicæ Medii ævi, Tome XIV, col. 106. (1778)
- Muhlbacher, E. Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern (Innsbruck, 1881)
- Sickel, T. Acta regum et imperatorum Karolinorum, digesta et enarrata (Vienna, 1867—1868)