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Louis the Pious was the son and co-emperor of Charlemagne and ruled the Carolingian Empire from 814 to 840. He faced civil wars, border conflicts and religious controversies during his reign and was deposed for a brief period.
- Overview
- King of Aquitaine
- The challenges of empire
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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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Learn about Louis I, also known as Louis the Pious, who succeeded his father Charlemagne as emperor in 814 and ruled over a vast Frankish empire. Explore his reign, his reforms, his conflicts, and his legacy in this comprehensive article.
- John Contreni
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.
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 7, 2024 · Louis the Pious was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor of Holy Roman Empire with his father, Charlemagne, from 813.
Jan 8, 2020 · Learn about Louis I, also known as Louis the Pious or Louis the Debonair, who inherited the Carolingian Empire from his father Charlemagne. Find out how he ruled, reformed, and faced challenges from his sons and other rivals.
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Jun 11, 2018 · Learn about the life and reign of Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne, who ruled the Frankish and Carolingian Empire from 814 to 840. Find out how he faced internal conflicts, ecclesiastical reforms, and external threats during his turbulent and eventful rule.
