Louis the Younger

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Louis the Younger
Carolingian
FatherLouis II
MotherEmma of Altdorf

Louis the Younger (830/835 – 20 January 882), sometimes called Louis the Saxon

emperor
.

Military youth

As a young man, Louis was deployed in military operations against the

Charles, Archbishop of Mainz, he crossed into Gaul at the head of an army, intent on receiving the Aquitainian crown. He marched as far as Limoges
before turning back.

Back home, Louis forged close ties with the nobles of East Francia and became increasingly independent from his father. He engaged himself to the daughter of Count Adalard and, in 865, he and his brother Charles joined in rebellion against their father. This flirtation with revolt was brief, however, and Louis, Charles, and their father were reconciled later that year, though the elder Louis was forced to make a division of the remainder of his territories between his two sons. Carloman had already been given the

Rhaetia
.

In 869, Louis married Liutgard, daughter of Liudolf, Duke of Saxony, at Aschaffenburg. Liutgard was a strong-willed and politically ambitious woman and later on spurred her husband to pursue ambitious goals. This match increased tensions between father and son and in 871 and in 873, Louis rebelled, but, on each occasion, he later reconciled with his father.

Rule in Saxony

Upon his father's death in 876, Louis fully inherited his subkingdoms, bearing the title rex Francorum ("king of the Franks"). Louis the Younger considered himself the true heir of Louis the German and as his father died in 876, Louis buried him in the abbey of

Archbishop of Mainz
. He and his brother ruled their kingdoms independently but cooperatively and never at war.

Acquisition of Lotharingia and Bavaria

Louis's rule was immediately threatened by Charles the Bald, who tried to annex the eastern parts of Lotharingia and maybe even to achieve supremacy over his nephew. Louis brought war on Charles and, on 8 October 876 at Andernach, he defeated the much-larger host of West Francia. The East Frankish army displayed superiority in both unity and tactics, and the young king had even dressed his soldiers in white garments so that they appeared as an army of spirits.

After this victory, Louis the German's three sons met in November at Nördlingen to discuss the division of their father's kingdom and to have their hosts swear allegiance. According to the plan drawn up in 865, which their father, despite all his sons' rebellions, had confirmed in 872, Carloman received Bavaria, Charles Swabia, and Louis Saxony, Franconia, and Thuringia. Throughout his reign, though he is always called "King of Saxony" by historians, he never visited Saxony proper, though it formed the bulk of his territory. At the end of 877, the brothers assembled again to discuss the administration of their half of Lotharingia. After Carloman relinquished his claim, the realm was divided between Louis and Charles, who again met in September 878 in Alsatia. In 879, Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and named Louis as his successor (and erstwhile regent) in Bavaria. Louis received it outright a year later when Carloman expired.

In November 878, after the death of Charles the Bald, his heir,

Carloman ceded their part of Lotharingia to the invader, Louis retreated. In February 880, this gain was confirmed by the Treaty of Ribemont, signed near Saint Quentin
. This treaty determined the border of the two kingdoms, which was to remain unchanged until the fourteenth century.

Relationship with the nobility

In contrast to his father, Louis the Younger preferred reconciling royal interests with those of the nobility and avoided confrontation. He managed to bind powerful families to the king, including the

Viking incursions

Since the summer of 879,

Duke Bruno, the king's brother-in-law, suffered a heavy defeat near Hamburg
and Bruno and many other Saxon nobles fell.

Death and succession

Louis fell sick in 881 and died in

Annals of Fulda
.

Family

Louis the Younger married

Henry I of Germany
.

See also

  • Kings of Germany family tree

Notes

  1. ^ Weinzierl, Eduard von (1877). Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Geschichte (in German). Austrian National Library. p. 110.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Bradshaw, George (1867). Illustrated hand-book to Germany. London. pp. xxi.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Louis III, Holy Roman Emperor, or Louis the Child
    .
  4. ^ McKitterick 1999, p. 354.
  5. ^ Reuter, 72.
  6. ^ As "prefect of the marches." Bowlus, 569.
  7. ^ a b c McKitterick 1995, p. 234-235.
  8. ^ McKitterick 1999, p. 235.

Sources

External links

Louis III
Carolingian dynasty
Born: 830/835 Died: 20 January 882
Regnal titles
Preceded byas king of East Francia
King of East Francia

876 –882
Succeeded by
Preceded by King of Bavaria
880–882
Vacant
Title last held by
Lothair II
King of Lotharingia

880–882
Preceded by Duke of Swabia
880–882