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Lothair I
- In 817, following the tradition of his father and ancient Frankish practice, Louis divided his empire among his sons. At the same time, however, he sought to preserve the unity of the empire. Louis designated his eldest son, Lothair I, as his successor and as superior to the other two.
Louis, the youngest son, was proclaimed King of Bavaria and the neighbouring marches. If one of the subordinate kings died, he was to be succeeded by his sons. If he died childless, Lothair would inherit his kingdom. In the event of Lothair dying without sons, one of Louis the Pious's younger sons would be chosen to replace him by "the people".
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- Overview
- King of Aquitaine
- The challenges of empire
Louis I (born April 16, 778, Chasseneuil, near Poitiers, Aquitaine [now in France]—died June 20, 840, Petersau, an island in the Rhine River near Ingelheim [now in Germany]) Carolingian ruler of the Franks who succeeded his father, Charlemagne, as emperor in 814 and whose 26-year reign (the longest of any medieval emperor until Henry IV [1056–1106]...
The vast realm Louis inherited stretched from the modern-day cities of Hamburg, Germany, in the north to Barcelona, Spain, 900 miles south, and from Nantes, France, in the west to Osnabrück, Germany, 720 miles east. The Frankish empire of the "First Europe" was actually an ethnic, linguistic, and cultural patchwork of Franks, Saxons, Bretons, Aquitanians, Spaniards, Lombards, Jews, Byzantines, Romans, Bavarians, Avars, Slavs, and other tributary peoples. Charlemagne attempted to manage his far-flung lands by establishing subkingdoms. In 781 three-year-old Louis was appointed king of Aquitaine, and he gained much valuable experience and matured greatly during the 33 years of his rule. Aquitaine was no sinecure. Incorporated into the Carolingian regime by force, Aquitaine needed watching, especially because it abutted the Spanish March, a military frontier region that had become even more dangerous after Charlemagne’s abortive Spanish campaign in 778.
As king, Louis had his own palaces, chancery, treasury, and mints. He commanded military expeditions and supervised the Frankish counts, abbots, and vassals that were sent to Aquitaine. In 794 Charlemagne picked a bride for 16-year-old Louis, already the father of two children by concubines. Irmingard, the daughter of Count Ingram, whose connections with the Carolingian family stretched back to the 7th century, completed Louis’s court in Aquitaine. Within 10 years the royal couple had five children. Irmingard also participated in her husband’s efforts to reform monastic life, which were spearheaded by Benedict of Aniane, a Goth who had founded a monastery on his family’s property. Benedict was only one of a group of southerners destined to play significant roles in Louis’s reign. Claudius, a Spaniard, and Jonas, an Aquitanian, became bishops of Turin and Orleans, respectively. Helisachar, a Goth, served as Louis’s chancellor and as the abbot of several monasteries. Agobard, a Spaniard, became archbishop of Lyon in 816. Not only did southerners retain close ties to Louis, but Franks who were close to him when he was the king of Aquitaine remained close to him as emperor. One of this latter group, Bego, became count of Paris. The most remarkable tie Louis forged in his youth was with Ebbo, the son of his peasant wet nurse, Himiltrude. Charlemagne gave his son’s servile playmate his freedom and an education and sent Ebbo to Aquitaine to serve as Louis’s librarian. In 816 Louis raised eyebrows when he appointed the former serf archbishop of Reims, the most prestigious bishopric in the Frankish empire.
The imperial title that Pope Leo III bestowed on Charlemagne on December 25, 800, was problematic. Laconic contemporary sources suggest that neither the pope nor the new emperor completely understood the meaning of the revival of the imperial office. (Tellingly, the precise term Sacrum Romanum Imperium, or “Holy Roman Empire,” was not used until the mid-13th century.) After reflection, Charlemagne seems to have regarded the office as personal. In 806 he ignored the uncertainties of the imperial title when he outlined the future division of the empire among his three legitimate sons, Charles, Pippin, and Louis. On September 11, 813, with his eldest sons dead, Charlemagne bestowed the office of emperor on Louis without benefit of papal consultation or approval.
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With his father’s death five months later, Louis faced the task of running an empire that in Charlemagne’s seventh decade had suffered from disobedience, corruption, and inefficiency. In 811 Charlemagne had revealed the deep pessimism of his last years when he had asked the leaders of his empire, "Are we indeed Christians?" The answer to that question furnished Louis with a platform for a reform agenda that began at the centre. Aachen (now in Germany), where his father had established his palace, was cleared of its prostitutes; Louis’s unmarried sisters, who had consorted sexually with court palatines, were sent to monasteries. Louis also tackled wider issues. In his first year as emperor the chancery dispatched nearly 40 diplomas (legally binding written records) to all parts of the empire, nearly double the number Charlemagne had issued during his last 13 years.
In these documents and those that followed, Louis portrayed himself as emperor of the Christian people, not of various ethnic groups. In proposing a vision of Carolingian society based on the unity of the people in the body of Christ and in Christ’s church, Louis crafted a sophisticated notion of empire in which religion, society, and politics coalesced. The implications of his bold design—in effect an empire that challenged regional, dynastic, and papal visions of society—were breathtaking. The blueprint for this empire, the Ordinatio imperii of 817, attempted to deal with the centrifugal realities of the regions and Louis’s own family when it prescribed how to maintain the unity of the empire while dividing it among his three sons. Lothar (b. 795) became coemperor with Louis; Pippin (b. 797) and Louis the German (b. c. 804) were assigned subordinate roles as kings of Aquitaine and Bavaria, respectively. Like Charlemagne’s division of 804, Louis’s Ordinatio was conceived without reference to the papacy.
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- John Contreni
- He was the only surviving son of Emperor Charlemagne. Louis was born in 778, the third son of Charlemagne and his wife Hildegard. His two elder brothers, Charles and Pepin, died between 806 and 814 leaving him as the only surviving son and the sole heir of his father’s crown.
- He was the third son of Emperor Charlemagne. Emperor Charlemagne – Image by Louis-Félix Amiel from Wikimedia. Louis the Pious was born as Louis I on 16 April, 0778 A.D.
- Louis was crowned king at the age of 3. Coronation of Louis the Pious king of Aquitane – Image Source: Wikimedia. Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine as a three-year-old child in 781, and in the following year, he was sent to Aquitaine accompanied by regents and a court.
- He divided his empire among his Sons. Following the tradition of his father and ancient Frankish practice, Louis divided his empire among his sons. At the same time, however, he sought to preserve the unity of the empire.
Dec 3, 2018 · Louis I (byname the Pious, the Fair, or the Debonair) was a King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor belonging to the Carolingian Dynasty. He lived between the 8 th and 9 th centuries AD and reigned for 26 years. His reign was the longest of any medieval Holy Roman Emperor until Henry IV.
- Dhwty
Jun 25, 2009 · Reigned Between 814 and 840. AKA: Empereur d'Occident, Emperor of the HRE, King Of France, Lothaire Carolingian, and Louis I of the Franks. Son of Charlemagne & Hildegarde of Swabia. Louis the Pious (778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, [1] was the King of Aquitaine from 781.
- Casseneuil, Aquitaine
- Unknown Concubine of Louis I
- Aquitaine
- "Ludwig der Fromme", "Louis le Pieux"
Jan 8, 2020 · As the son of Charlemagne, Louis became king of Aquitaine when he was only three years old. He was the only designated heir to survive his father, and he showed some of the old king's verve and tenacity.
Louis I, known as Louis the Pious, (born April 16, 778, Chasseneuil, near Poitiers, Aquitaine—died June 20, 840, Petersau, an island in the Rhine River near Ingelheim), Frankish emperor (814–40). The son of Charlemagne, he was crowned coemperor with his father in 813 and became emperor in 814 on his father’s death.
