West Francia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kingdom of the West Franks
Francia occidentalis (
Latin)
Francie occidentale (French)
843–987
West Francia within Europe after the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
West Francia within Europe after the Treaty of Verdun in 843.
CapitalLaon[1]
Official languagesMedieval Latin
Common languagesOld French
Old Occitan
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Demonym(s)West Frankish • West Frank
GovernmentAbsolute monarchy
King 
• 843–877
Charles the Bald (first)
• 986–987
Louis V of France
LegislatureNone (rule by decree)
Historical eraMiddle Ages
August 843
August 870
August 911
• Capetian dynasty established
June 987
• Regnum Francie attested
June 1205
CurrencyDenier
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Francia
Carolingian Empire
Kingdom of France
Today part ofAndorra
France
Luxembourg
Spain
Belgium

In

Latin: regnum Francorum occidentalium) constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. It was created from the division of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious, with its neighbor East Francia eventually evolving into the Kingdom of Germany
.

West Francia extended further north and south than modern

Provence in the east and southeast for example. It also did not include the Brittany
peninsula in the west.

West Frankish kings were elected by the secular and ecclesiastic magnates, and for the half-century between 888 and 936 candidates from the

Robertian houses were alternately chosen as monarchs.[2] By this time the power of king became weaker and more nominal, as the regional dukes and nobles became more powerful in their semi-independent regions. The Robertians, after becoming counts of Paris and dukes of France, became kings themselves and established the Capetian dynasty after 987, which is, although arbitrary, generally defined as the gradual transition towards the Kingdom of France.[3][4] By the 13th century, the term Regnum francorum had evolved into Regnum Francie ("kingdom of France"),[5] although the demonym of "Franks" continued to be attested as late as the 18th century.[6]

Formation and boundaries

Map of the division of Francia enacted at Verdun in 843. From Ridpath's Universal History (1895)

In August 843, after three years of civil war following the death of Louis the Pious on 20 June 840, the Treaty of Verdun was signed by his three sons and heirs. The youngest, Charles the Bald, received western Francia. The contemporary West Frankish Annales Bertiniani describes Charles arriving at Verdun, "where the distribution of portions" took place. After describing the portions of his brothers, Lothair the Emperor (Middle Francia) and Louis the German (East Francia), he notes that "the rest as far as Spain they ceded to Charles".[7] The Annales Fuldenses of East Francia describe Charles as holding the western part after the kingdom was "divided in three".[8]

Since the death of King

Treaty of Mersen in 870 the western part of Lotharingia
was added to West Francia. In 875 Charles the Bald was crowned Emperor of Rome.

The last record in the Annales Bertiniani dates to 882, and so the only contemporary narrative source for the next eighteen years in West Francia is the Annales Vedastini. The next set of original annals from the West Frankish kingdom are those of Flodoard, who began his account with the year 919.[12]

Reign of Charles the Fat

After the death of Charles's grandson,

Viking siege of Paris in 885–86 greatly reduced his prestige. In November 887 his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia
revolted and assumed the title as King of the East Franks. Charles retired and soon died on 13 January 888.

In Aquitaine, Duke Ranulf II may have had himself recognised as king, but he only lived another two years.[15] Although Aquitaine did not become a separate kingdom, it was largely outside the control of the West Frankish kings.[2]

Odo, Count of Paris was then elected by nobles as the new king of West Francia, and was crowned the next month. At this point, West Francia was composed of Neustria in the west and in the east by Francia proper, the region between the Meuse and the Seine
.

Rise of Robertians

Main article: Robertians

After the 860s, Lotharingian noble

Odo was elected king in 888.[16] Odo's brother Robert I ruled between 922 and 923 and was followed by Rudolph from 923 until 936. Hugh the Great, son of Robert I, was elevated to the title "duke of the Franks" by king Louis IV. In 987 his son Hugh Capet was elected king and the Capetian dynasty began. At this point they controlled very little beyond the Île-de-France
.

Rise of dukes

The control of Carolingian kings had shrunk greatly by the 10th century (in yellow).
Royal lands (in blue) by the end of the 10th century

Outside the old Frankish territories and in the south local nobles were semi-independent after 887 as duchies were created:

Champagne and the County of Flanders
.

The power of the kings continued to decline, together with their inability to resist the Vikings and to oppose the rise of regional nobles who were no longer appointed by the king but became hereditary local dukes. In 877

Kingdom of Burgundy
in 933.

Charles the Simple

After the death of East Francia's last Carolingian king

Rheims or Laon.[1]

Norsemen began settling in

Magyars invaded repeatedly. In the absence of strong royal power, invaders were engaged and defeated by local nobles, like Richard of Burgundy and Robert of Neustria, who defeated Viking leader Rollo in 911 at Chartres. The Norman threat was eventually ended, with the last Danegeld paid in 924 and 926. Both nobles became increasingly opposed to Charles, and in 922 deposed him and elected Robert I
as the new king. After Robert's death in 923 nobles elected Rudolf as king, and kept Charles imprisoned until his death in 929. After the rule of king Charles the Simple, local dukes began issuing their own currency.

Rudolf

King Rudolf was supported by his brother Hugh the Black and son of Robert I, Hugh the Great. Dukes of Normandy refused to recognise Rudolf until 933. The King also had to move with his army against the southern nobles to receive their homage and loyalty, however, the count of Barcelona managed to avoid this completely.

After 925 Rudolf was involved in a war against the rebellious

Otto I
of East Francia. His rebellion continued until his death in 943.

Louis IV

King

Otto I who after the deaths of their husbands managed Carolingian and Robertine rule together with their brother Bruno the Great
, archbishop of Cologne, as regent.

After further victories by Herbert II, Louis was rescued only with the help of the large nobles and Otto I. In 942 Louis gave up Lotharingia to Otto I.

Succession conflict in Normandy led to a new war in which Louis was betrayed by Hugh the Great and captured by Danish prince Harald who eventually released him to the custody of Hugh, who freed the king only after receiving town of Laon as a compensation.[1]

The last Carolingians: Lothair and Louis V

The 13-year old

Otto II retaliated by attacking Paris, but was defeated by the combined forces of king Lothar and nobles and peace was signed in 980, ending the brief Franco-German war
.

Lothar managed to increase his power, but this was reversed with the coming of age of Hugh Capet, who began forming new alliances of nobles and eventually was elected as king in 987 after Lothair and his son and successor Louis V of France had both died prematurely, traditionally marking the end of the French branch of Carolingian dynasty as well as the end of West Francia as a kingdom. Hugh Capet would be the first ruler of a new royal house, the House of Capet, who would rule France through the High Middle Ages.

List of kings

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-36447-8
    .
  2. ^ a b Lewis 1965, 179–180.
  3. ^ Mark, Joshua J. "Kingdom of West Francia". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  4. ^ Sewell, Elizabeth Missing (1876). Popular History of France: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Louis XIV. Longmans, Green, and Company. p. 21. It is from this treaty of Verdun, A.D. 843, that historians date what may properly be called the kingdom of France.
  5. OL 3068126M
    .
  6. ISBN 9781843834052
    .
  7. ^ AB a. 843: ubi distributis portionibus ... cetera usque ad Hispaniam Carolo cesserunt.
  8. ^ AF a. 843: in tres partes diviso ... Karolus vero occidentalem tenuit.
  9. ^ AF a. 843: Karolus Aquitaniam, quasi ad partem regni sui iure pertinentem, affectans ... ("Charles wanted Aquitaine, which belonged by right to a part of his kingdom").
  10. ^ Coupland 1989, 200–202.
  11. ^ Nelson 1977, 137–38.
  12. ^ Koziol 2006, 357.
  13. ^ MacLean 2003, 127.
  14. ^ Smith 1992, 192.
  15. ^ Richard 1903, 37–38.
  16. ISBN 978-0-521-66992-4
    .

References
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=West_Francia&oldid=1214967899"