Louis V of France
| Louis V | |
|---|---|
 14th century miniature of Louis V | |
| King of West Francia | |
| Reign | 2 March 986 – 22 May 987 |
| Coronation | 8 June 979 |
| Predecessor | Lothair |
| Successor | Hugh Capet |
| Born | 966/967 |
| Died | 22 May 987 (aged 20–21) Forest of Halatte, Oise |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou (m. 982; ann. 984) |
| Dynasty | Carolingian |
| Father | Lothair of France |
| Mother | Emma of Italy |
Louis V (c. 966 or 967 – 22 May 987), also known as Louis the Do-Nothing (
Youth
Louis was born c. 966. He was the eldest son of King
Marriage
In 982 at Vieille-Brioude, Haute-Loire, the fifteen-year-old Louis was married to the forty-year-old Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou, sister of Count Geoffrey I and twice a widow from her previous marriages with Count Stephen of Gévaudan[3] and Count Raymond of Toulouse, Prince of Gothia. This union was purely political and arranged by the king – following the advice of Queen Emma and Count Geoffrey I – with the double purpose of restoring the Carolingian royal power in the south of the kingdom, and (according to Richerus) to obtain the support of the local southern lords in his fight against the Robertians. Being related by marriage to two of the most powerful southern comital families of the Kingdom, Lothair believed that he could confront the power of Hugh Capet.
Immediately after their wedding, Louis and Adelaide-Blanche were crowned king and queen of Aquitaine by Adelaide's brother Bishop Guy of Le Puy.[4] From the very beginning, however, the mismatched couple was unable to live peacefully together,[5] not only due to the notorious age difference between them, but (according to Richerus) also because of Louis' reported affairs:
- [...] They had almost no conjugal love; because Louis had barely reached puberty, and Adelaide was old, there was only incompatibility and disagreements between them. They did not share a common bedroom as they could not bear it; when they had to travel, each took a separate residence, and when they were forced to talk, their conversations were in the open air and were never long, but only lasted for a few words. They lived in this way for two years, until they obtained the divorce for their opposite characters. [...] Louis, who did not have a tutor, indulged himself in all sorts of frivolity due to his young age.[6]
In 984, after two years of childless union[5] (and according to Rodulfus Glaber), Adelaide tricked her young husband into making a visit to Aquitaine, and once there, she left him and returned to her family, marrying shortly thereafter Count William I of Provence:
- When the young prince reached adolescence, Lothair made him king and appointed him his successor; he also chose for him a princess of Aquitaine as his wife, but soon she perceived that the young man would not inherit the talents of his father. Therefore she decided to separate from her husband; and for this purpose she adroitly convinced him to make a trip to her province of Aquitaine, assuming that her hereditary rights there guaranteed her the possession of the land. Louis, without suspecting the artifice, yielded to the advice of his wife, and went with her. When they were in Aquitaine, she left her husband to join her family.[7]
However, despite being recorded by relative contemporary and later sources (Richerus, Rodulfus Glaber, the Chronicon Andegavensi and the Chronicle of Saint-Maxence, among others), the existence of this marriage was recently challenged by historian Carlrichard Brülh.[8]
Reign
Upon his father's death on 2 March 986, the already-crowned Louis V became the undisputed king of the Franks. At that time, however, there existed in the Frankish court two factions: one led by Archbishop Adalberon of Reims and Queen Emma, who, being strongly influenced by her mother
Initially, Queen Emma dominated the situation, but in the summer of 986 there was a reversal: the Anti-Ottonian party prevailed, after which she was forced to leave court and seek refuge with
.Louis V left no legitimate heirs, so his uncle
Notes
- ^ Previté-Orton 1929, p. 568.
- ^ Jim Bradbury (2007). The Capetians: Kings of France, 987–1328. London: Hambledon Continuum, p. 45
- ^ According to Settipani, Stephen was not properly Comte de Gévaudan, although his descendants by Adelaide-Blance later possessed the counties of Gévaudan, Brioude and Forez. Christian Settipani: La Préhistoire des Capétiens, 1993, p. 336, footnote 996.
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, Trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 265
- ^ a b Bernard S. Bachrach: Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987–1040, University of California Press, 1993, p. 15.
- ^ Richerus: Historiarum libri quatuor, Académie impériale de Reims, Reims 1855, Book III, p. 339.
- ^ Rodulfus Glaber: Collection des mémoires de France par M. Guizot, Paris 1824, Book I, chapter III, parts 180 and 181.
- ^ Carlrichard Brülh: Naissance de deux peuples, Français et Allemands (10th–11th siècle), Fayard, August 1996, p. 248.
- Richer of Reims (10th century), Histoire de son temps II. p. 146. "11 kal. Junii defitiens" [on the 11th day before the calendsof June]
- ^ Jim Bradbury,The Capetians: Kings of France, 987–1328 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 46
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, Trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 277
References
- Whitney, J.P. (ed) et al. The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III. Cambridge University Press, 1926.
- Frantz Funck-Brentano: National History of France. New York : AMS Press, 1967.
- Ferdinand Lot: Les derniers Carolingiens: Lothaire, Louis V, Charles de Lorraine (954–991), Paris 1891.
- Walther Kienast: Deutschland und Frankreich in der Kaiserzeit (900–1270), vol. 1, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1974.
- Previté-Orton, C. W. (1929). Outlines of Medieval History. Cambridge University Press.