Louis "The Pious" Karling, King of the Franks

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LZT6-KB5
• Initiatory (LDS): 2 Aug 1923, LOGAN

Notes:

Louis the Pious (778-20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonai r e, was the King of the Franks and co-Emperor (as Louis I) with his fath er , Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781.

As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he becam e t he sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a positi on w hich he held until his death, save for the period 833-34, during whi ch h e was deposed.

During his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of t h e empire's southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Musli m s in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basque s so uth of the Pyrenees in 812. As emperor he included his adult sons, L othai r, Pepin, and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a su itabl e division of the realm among them. The first decade of his reign w as cha racterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the br utal tr eatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy, for which Louis atoned i n a publi c act of self-debasement.

In the 830s his empire was torn by civil war between his sons, only exac e rbated by Louis's attempts to include his son Charles by his second wi f e in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a high note, wit h or der largely restored to his empire, it was followed by three years o f civ il war. Louis is generally compared unfavourably to his father, tho ugh th e problems he faced were of a distinctly different sort.

«b»Birth and rule in Aquitaine«/b»
Louis was born while his father Charlemagne was on campaign in Spain , a t the Carolingian villa of Cassinogilum, according to Einhard and th e ano nymous chronicler called Astronomus; the place is usually identifie d wit h Chasseneuil, near Poitiers. He was the third son of Charlemagne b y hi s wife Hildegard. His grandfather was King Pepin the Younger.

Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine as a child in 781 and sent there wi t h regents and a court. Charlemagne constituted the sub-kingdom in orde r t o secure the border of his kingdom after the destructive war agains t th e Aquitanians and Basques under Waifer (capitulated c. 768) and late r Hun ald II, which culminated in the disastrous Battle of Roncesvalles ( 778) . Charlemagne wanted his son Louis to grow up in the area where he w as t o reign. However, in 785, wary of the customs his son may have bee n takin g in Aquitaine, Charlemagne sent for him to Aquitaine and Louis p resente d himself at the Royal Council of Paderborn dressed up in Basqu e costume s along with other youths in the same garment, which may have m ade a goo d impression in Toulouse, since the Basques of Vasconia wer e a mainstay o f the Aquitanian army.

In 794, Charlemagne settled four former Gallo-Roman villas on Louis, i n t he thought that he would take in each in turn as winter residence: Do ué-l a-Fontaine in today's Anjou, Ebreuil in Allier, Angeac-Charente, an d th e disputed Cassinogilum. Charlemagne's intention was to see all hi s son s brought up as natives of their given territories, wearing the nat iona l costume of the region and ruling by the local customs. Thus were t he ch ildren sent to their respective realms at so young an age. Each kin gdom h ad its importance in keeping some frontier, Louis's was the Spanis h March . In 797, Barcelona, the greatest city of the Marca, fell to th e Franks w hen Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing , handed i t to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However , Louis mar ched the entire army of his kingdom, including Gascons with t heir duke Sa ncho I of Gascony, Provençals under Leibulf, and Goths unde r Bera, over t he Pyrenees and besieged it for two years, wintering ther e from 800 to 80 1, when it capitulated. The sons were not given independ ence from centra l authority, however, and Charlemagne ingrained in the m the concepts of e mpire and unity by sending them on military expeditio ns far from their ho me bases. Louis campaigned in the Italian Mezzogiorn o against the Beneven tans at least once.

Louis was one of Charlemagne's three legitimate sons to survive infanc y . He had a twin brother, Lothair who died during infancy. According t o Fr ankish custom, Louis had expected to share his inheritance with hi s broth ers, Charles the Younger, King of Neustria, and Pepin, King of It aly. I n the Divisio Regnorum of 806, Charlemagne had slated Charles th e Younge r as his successor as emperor and chief king, ruling over the Fr ankish he artland of Neustria and Austrasia, while giving Pepin the Iro n Crown of L ombardy, which Charlemagne possessed by conquest. To Louis' s kingdom of A quitaine, he added Septimania, Provence, and part of Burgu ndy. However, C harlemagne's other legitimate sons died Pepin in 810 an d Charles in 811 a nd Louis alone remained to be crowned co-emperor wit h Charlemagne in 813 . On his father's death in 814, he inherited the ent ire Frankish kingdo m and all its possessions (with the sole exception o f Italy, which remain ed within Louis's empire, but under the direct rul e of Bernard, Pepin's s on).

«b»Emperor«/b»
While at his villa of Doué-la-Fontaine, Anjou, Louis received news of h i s father's death. He rushed to Aachen and crowned himself emperor to sh ou ts of Vivat Imperator Ludovicus by the attending nobles.

Upon arriving at the imperial court in Aachen, one of Louis' first act s w as to purge the palace of its "filth." He destroyed the old Germani c paga n tokens and texts which had been collected by Charlemagne. He fur ther ex iled members of the court he deemed morally "dissolute," includin g some o f his own relatives.

From start of his reign, his coinage imitated his father Charlemagne's p o rtrait, which gave it an image of imperial authority and prestige. He q ui ckly sent all of his unmarried sisters to nunneries, to avoid any poss ibl e entanglements from overly powerful brothers-in-law. Sparing his ill egit imate half-brothers, he forced his father's cousins, Adalard and Wal a t o be tonsured, placing them in Noirmoutier and Corbie, respectively , desp ite the latter's initial loyalty.

His chief counsellors were Bernard, margrave of Septimania, and Ebbo, Ar c hbishop of Reims. The latter, born a serf, was raised by Louis to tha t of fice, but betrayed him later. He retained some of his father's minis ters , such as Elisachar, abbot of St. Maximin near Trier, and Hildebold , Arch bishop of Cologne. Later he replaced Elisachar with Hildwin, abbo t of man y monasteries.

He also employed Benedict of Aniane (the Second Benedict), a Septimani a n Visigoth and monastic founder, to help him reform the Frankish churc h . One of Benedict's primary reforms was to ensure that all religious ho us es in Louis' realm adhered to the Rule of Saint Benedict, named for it s c reator, Benedict of Nursia (480-550), the First Benedict.

In 816, Pope Stephen IV, who had succeeded Leo III, visited Reims and ag a in crowned Louis (Sunday 5 October).

«b»Ordinatio imperii«/b»
On Maundy Thursday 817 (9 April), Louis and his court were crossing a wo o den gallery from the cathedral to the palace in Aachen when the galler y c ollapsed, killing many. Louis, having barely survived and feeling th e imm inent danger of death, began planning for his succession; three mon ths la ter he issued an Ordinatio Imperii, an imperial decree that laid o ut plan s for an orderly succession. In 815, he had already given his tw o eldes t sons a share in the government, when he had sent his elder son s Lothai r and Pepin to govern Bavaria and Aquitaine respectively, thoug h withou t the royal titles. Now, he Preceded to divide the empire amon g his thre e sons:

* Lothair was proclaimed and crowned co-emperor in Aachen by his fathe r . He was promised the succession to most of the Frankish dominions (exc lu ding the exceptions below), and would be the overlord of his brother s an d cousin.

* Pepin was proclaimed King of Aquitaine, his territory including Gascon y , the march around Toulouse, and the counties of Carcassonne, Autun, Av al lon and Nevers.

* Louis, the youngest son, was proclaimed King of Bavaria and the neighb o uring marches.

If one of the subordinate kings died, he was to be succeeded by his son s . If he died childless, Lothair would inherit his kingdom. In the even t o f Lothair dying without sons, one of Louis the Pious' younger sons wo ul d be chosen to replace him by "the people". Above all, the Empire woul d n ot be divided: the Emperor would rule supreme over the subordinate ki ngs , whose obedience to him was mandatory.

With this settlement, Louis tried to combine his sense for the Empire' s u nity, supported by the clergy, while at the same time providing posit ion s for all of his sons. Instead of treating his sons equally in statu s an d land, he elevated his first-born son Lothair above his younger bro ther s and gave him the largest part of the Empire as his share.

«b»Bernard's rebellion and Louis's penance«/b»
The ordinatio imperii of Aachen left Bernard of Italy in an uncertain a n d subordinate position as king of Italy, and he began plotting to decla r e independence upon hearing of it. Louis immediately directed his arm y to wards Italy, and betook himself to Chalon-sur-Saône. Intimidated b y the e mperor's swift action, Bernard met his uncle at Chalon, under inv itation , and surrendered. He was taken to Aachen by Louis, who there ha d him tri ed and condemned to death for treason. Louis had the sentence c ommuted t o blinding, which was duly carried out; Bernard did not surviv e the ordea l, however, dying after two days of agony. Others also suffer ed: Theodul f of Orléans, in eclipse since the death of Charlemagne, wa s accused of h aving supported the rebellion, and was thrown into a monas tic prison, dyi ng soon afterwards; it was rumored that he had been poiso ned. The fate o f his nephew deeply marked Louis's conscience for the res t of his life.

In 822, as a deeply religious man, Louis performed penance for causing B e rnard's death, at his palace of Attigny near Vouziers in the Ardennes , be fore Pope Paschal I, and a council of ecclesiastics and nobles of th e rea lm that had been convened for the reconciliation of Louis with hi s thre e younger half-brothers, Hugo whom he soon made abbot of St-Quenti n, Drog o whom he soon made Bishop of Metz, and Theodoric. This act of co ntrition , partly in emulation of Theodosius I, had the effect of greatl y reducin g his prestige as a Frankish ruler, for he also recited a lis t of minor o ffences about which no secular ruler of the time would hav e taken any not ice. He also made the egregious error of releasing Wala a nd Adalard fro m their monastic confinements, placing the former in a pos ition of powe r in the court of Lothair and the latter in a position in h is own house.

«b»Frontier wars«/b»
At the start of Louis's reign, the many tribes Danes, Obotrites, Slovene s , Bretons, Basques which inhabited his frontierlands were still in aw e o f the Frankish emperor's power and dared not stir up any trouble. I n 816 , however, the Sorbs rebelled and were quickly followed by Slavomir , chie f of the Obotrites, who was captured and abandoned by his own peop le, bei ng replaced by Ceadrag in 818. Soon, Ceadrag too had turned again st the F ranks and allied with the Danes, who were to become the greates t menace o f the Franks in a short time.

A greater Slavic menace was gathering on the southeast. There, Liudewi t , duke of Pannonia, was harassing the border at the Drava and Sava rive rs . The margrave of Friuli, Cadolah, was sent out against him, but he di e d on campaign and, in 820, his margarvate was invaded by Slovenes. In 8 21 , an alliance was made with Borna, duke of the Dalmatia, and Liudewi t wa s brought to heel. In 824 several Slav tribes in the north-western p art s of Bulgaria acknowledged Louis's suzerainty and after he was reluct an t to settle the matter peacefully with the Bulgarian ruler Omurtag, i n 82 7 the Bulgarians attacked the Franks in Pannonia and regained thei r lands .

On the far southern edge of his great realm, Louis had to control the Lo m bard princes of Benevento whom Charlemagne had never subjugated. He ext ra cted promises from Princes Grimoald IV and Sico, but to no effect.

On the southwestern frontier, problems commenced early when c. 812, Lou i s the Pious crossed the western Pyrenees 'to settle matters' in Pamplon a . The expedition made its way back north, where it narrowly escaped a n am bush attempt arranged by the Basques in the pass of Roncevaux thank s to t he precautions he took, i.e. hostages. Séguin, duke of Gascony, wa s the n deposed by Louis in 816, possibly for failing to suppress or coll aborat ing with the Basque revolt south of the western Pyrenees, so spark ing of f a Basque uprising that was duly put down by the Frankish empero r in Dax . Seguin was replaced by Lupus III, who was dispossessed in 81 8 by the em peror. In 820 an assembly at Quierzy-sur-Oise decided to sen d an expediti on against the Cordoban caliphate. The counts in charge o f the army, Hugh , count of Tours, and Matfrid, count of Orléans, were sl ow in acting an d the expedition came to naught.

«b»First civil war«/b»
In 818, as Louis was returning from a campaign to Brittany, he was greet e d by news of the death of his wife, Ermengarde. Ermengarde was the daug ht er of Ingerman, the duke of Hesbaye. Louis had been close to his wife , wh o had been involved in policymaking. It was rumoured that she had pl aye d a part in her nephew's death and Louis himself believed her own dea th w as divine retribution for that event. It took many months for his co urtie rs and advisors to convince him to remarry, but eventually he did , in 820 , to Judith, daughter of Welf, count of Altdorf. In 823 Judith g ave birt h to a son, who was named Charles.

The birth of this son damaged the Partition of Aachen, as Louis's attemp t s to provide for his fourth son met with stiff resistance from his old e r sons, and the last two decades of his reign were marked by civil war.

At Worms in 829, Louis gave Charles Alemannia with the title of king o r d uke (historians differ on this), thus enraging his son and co-empero r Lot hair, whose promised share was thereby diminished. An insurrectio n was so on at hand.
With the urging of the vengeful Wala and the cooperation of his brother s , Lothair accused Judith of having committed adultery with Bernard of S ep timania, even suggesting Bernard to be the true father of Charles. Ebb o a nd Hildwin abandoned the emperor at that point, Bernard having rise n to g reater heights than either of them. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon, a nd Jess e, bishop of Amiens, too, opposed the redivision of the empire an d lent t heir episcopal prestige to the rebels.

In 830, at Wala's insistence that Bernard of Septimania was plotting aga i nst him, Pepin of Aquitaine led an army of Gascons, with the support o f t he Neustrian magnates, all the way to Paris. At Verberie, Louis the G erma n joined him. At that time, the emperor returned from another campai gn i n Brittany to find his empire at war with itself. He marched as fa r as Co mpiègne, an ancient royal town, before being surrounded by Pepin' s force s and captured. Judith was incarcerated at Poitiers and Bernard f led to B arcelona.

Then Lothair finally set out with a large Lombard army, but Louis had pr o mised his sons Louis the German and Pepin of Aquitaine greater share s o f the inheritance, prompting them to shift loyalties in favour of the ir f ather. When Lothair tried to call a general council of the realm i n Nijme gen, in the heart of Austrasia, the Austrasians and Rhinelander s came wit h a following of armed retainers, and the disloyal sons were f orced to fr ee their father and bow at his feet. Lothair was pardoned, bu t disgrace d and banished to Italy.

Pepin returned to Aquitaine and Judith after being forced to humiliate h e rself with a solemn oath of innocence to Louis's court. Only Wala was s ev erely dealt with, making his way to a secluded monastery on the shore s o f Lake Geneva. Although Hilduin, abbot of Saint Denis, was exiled t o Pade rborn and Elisachar and Matfrid were deprived of their honours nor th of t he Alps; they did not lose their freedom.

«b»Second civil war«/b»
The next revolt occurred a mere two years later. The disaffected Pepin w a s summoned to his father's court, where he was so poorly received he le f t against his father's orders. Immediately, fearing that Pepin would b e s tirred up to revolt by his nobles and desiring to reform his morals , Loui s the Pious summoned all his forces to meet in Aquitaine in prepar ation o f an uprising, but Louis the German garnered an army of Slav alli es and c onquered Swabia before the emperor could react. Once again the e lder Loui s divided his vast realm. At Jonac, he declared Charles king o f Aquitain e and deprived Pepin (he was less harsh with the younger Louis ), restorin g the whole rest of the empire to Lothair, not yet involved i n the civi l war. Lothair was, however, interested in usurping his father 's authorit y. His ministers had been in contact with Pepin and may hav e convinced hi m and Louis the German to rebel, promising him Alemannia , the kingdom o f Charles.

Soon Lothair, with the support of Pope Gregory IV, whom he had confirm e d in office without his father's support, joined the revolt in 833. Whi l e Louis was at Worms gathering a new force, Lothair marched north. Lou i s marched south. The armies met on the plains of the Rothfeld. There, G re gory met the emperor and may have tried to sow dissension amongst hi s ran ks. Soon much of Louis's army had evaporated before his eyes, and h e orde red his few remaining followers to go, because "it would be a pit y if an y man lost his life or limb on my account." The resigned empero r was take n to Saint Médard at Soissons, his son Charles to Prüm, and th e queen t o Tortona. The despicable show of disloyalty and disingenuousne ss earne d the site the name Field of Lies, or Lügenfeld, or Campus Menda cii, ub i plurimorum fidelitas exstincta est.

On 13 November 833, Ebbo of Rheims presided over a synod in the Churc h o f Saint Mary in Soissons which deposed Louis and forced him to public ly c onfess many crimes, none of which he had, in fact, committed. In ret urn , Lothair gave Ebbo the Abbey of Saint Vaast. Men like Rabanus Maurus , Lo uis' younger half-brothers Drogo and Hugh, and Emma, Judith's siste r an d Louis the German's new wife, worked on the younger Louis to make p eac e with his father, for the sake of unity of the empire. The humiliati on t o which Louis was then subjected at Notre Dame in Compiègne turned t he lo yal barons of Austrasia and Saxony against Lothair, and the usurpe r fle d to Burgundy, skirmishing with loyalists near Chalon-sur-Saône. Lo uis wa s restored the next year, on 1 March 834.

On Lothair's return to Italy, Wala, Jesse, and Matfrid, formerly coun t o f Orléans, died of a pestilence and, on 2 February 835, the Synod o f Thio nville deposed Ebbo, Agobard, Bernard, Bishop of Vienne, and Barth olomew , Archbishop of Narbonne. Lothair himself fell ill; events had tur ned com pletely in Louis favour once again.

In 836, however, the family made peace and Louis restored Pepin and Loui s , deprived Lothair of all save Italy, and gave it to Charles in a new d iv ision, given at the diet of Crémieu. At about that time, the Vikings t err orised and sacked Utrecht and Antwerp. In 837, they went up the Rhin e a s far as Nijmegen, and their king, Rorik, demanded the wergild of som e o f his followers killed on previous expeditions before Louis the Piou s mus tered a massive force and marched against them. They fled, but it w ould n ot be the last time they harried the northern coasts. In 838, the y even c laimed sovereignty over Frisia, but a treaty was confirmed betwe en them a nd the Franks in 839. Louis the Pious ordered the constructio n of a Nort h Sea fleet and the sending of missi dominici into Frisia t o establish Fr ankish sovereignty there.

«b»Third civil war«/b»
In 837, Louis crowned Charles king over all of Alemannia and Burgundy a n d gave him a portion of his brother Louis' land. Louis the German promp tl y rose in revolt, and the emperor redivided his realm again at Quierzy -su r-Oise, giving all of the young king of Bavaria's lands, save Bavari a its elf, to Charles. Emperor Louis did not stop there, however. His dev otio n to Charles knew no bounds. When Pepin died in 838, Louis declare d Charl es the new king of Aquitaine. The nobles, however, elected Pepin' s son Pe pin II. When Louis threatened invasion, the third great civil wa r of hi s reign broke out. In the spring of 839, Louis the German invade d Swabia , Pepin II and his Gascon subjects fought all the way to the Loi re, and t he Danes returned to ravage the Frisian coast (sacking Doresta d for a sec ond time).

Lothair, for the first time in a long time, allied with his father and p l edged support at Worms in exchange for a redivision of the inheritance . A t a final placitum held there, Louis gave Bavaria to Louis the Germa n an d disinherited Pepin II, leaving the entire remainder of the empir e to b e divided roughly into an eastern part and a western. Lothair wa s given t he choice of which partition he would inherit and he chose th e eastern, i ncluding Italy, leaving the western for Charles. The empero r quickly subj ugated Aquitaine and had Charles recognised by the noble s and clergy at C lermont-en-Auvergne in 840. Louis then, in a final flas h of glory, rushe d into Bavaria and forced the younger Louis into the Os tmark. The empir e now settled as he had declared it at Worms, he returne d in July to Fran kfurt am Main, where he disbanded the army. The final c ivil war of his re ign was over.

«b»Death«/b»
Louis fell ill soon after his final victorious campaigns and went to h i s summer hunting lodge on an island in the Rhine, by his palace at Inge lh eim. On 20 June 840, he died, at the old age of 62, in the presence o f ma ny bishops and clerics and in the arms of his half-brother Drogo, th oug h Charles and Judith were absent in Poitiers. Soon dispute plunged th e su rviving brothers into a civil war that was only settled in 843 by th e Tre aty of Verdun, which split the Frankish realm into three parts, t o becom e the kernels of France and Germany, with Burgundy and the Low Co untrie s between them. The dispute over the kingship of Aquitaine was no t full y settled until 860.

Louis was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz.

«b»Marriage and issue«/b»
By his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye (married ca. 794-98), he had th r ee sons and three daughters:

1.) Lothair (795-855), king of Middle Francia

2.) Pepin (797-838), king of Aquitaine

3.) Adelaide (b. c. 799)

4.) Rotrude (b. 800)

5.) Hildegard (or Matilda) (b. c. 802)

6.) Louis the German (c. 804-876), king of East Francia

By his second wife, Judith of Bavaria, he had a daughter and a son:

1.) Gisela, married Eberhard I of Friuli

2.) Charles the Bald, king of West Francia

By Theodelinde of Sens, he had two illegitimate children:

1.) Arnulf of Sens

2.) Alpais

Louis married Ermengarde, Queen of the Franks in 794. Ermengarde (daughter of Ingerman, Count of Hesbaye and Hedwig) was born in 778 in Hesbaye, België; died on 3 Oct 818 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Lothaire Karling, I Emperor of the Romans and King of Italy was born in 795 in Altdorf, Mühldorf am Inn, Bayern, Deutschland; died on 29 Sep 855 in Prüm, Rhineland, Deutschland; was buried in Prüm, Rhineland, Deutschland.
2. Pepin Karling, King of Aquitaine and Duke of Maine was born in 797; died on 13 Dec 838; was buried in Sainte-Croix, Aisne, Picardie, République française.
3. Rotrude Karling was born in 800; died in 841.
4. Hildegard Karling was born in 802; died in 841 in Laon, Aisne, Picardie, République française.
5. Louis "The German" Karling, II King of Eastern Francia was born in 805; died on 28 Aug 876 in Frankfurt, Mittelfranken, Bayern, Deutschland.
6. Adalaide Karling was born in 799 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, République française; died in 866 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, République française.

Family/Spouse: Judith Welf, Empress of the Franks. Judith (daughter of Welf and Hedwig, Duchess of Bavaria) was born about 800 in Altdorf, Mühldorf am Inn, Bayern, Deutschland; died on 19 Apr 843 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gisela Karling was born in 821.
2. Charles "The Bald" Karling, King of the Franks was born on 13 Jun 823 in Frankfurt, Mittelfranken, Bayern, Deutschland; died on 6 Oct 877 in Brides-les-Bains, Savoie, République française.

Family/Spouse: Theodelinde. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Arnulf Karling, Count of Sens was born in 794.

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LZ62-TSV
• Initiatory (LDS): 21 Jan 1922

Notes:

Charlemagne also known as Charles the Great (Latin: Carolus or Karolus M a gnus) or Charles I, was King of the Franks. He united most of Western E ur ope during the early Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern F ran ce and Germany. He took the Frankish throne in 768 and became King o f Ita ly from 774. From 800 he became the first Holy Roman Emperor — th e firs t recognized emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the Weste rn Roma n Empire three centuries earlier. While Charlemagne already rule d his kin gdom without the help of the Pope, recognition from the pontif f granted h im divine legitimacy in the eyes of his contemporaries.

The expanded Frankish state Charlemagne founded was called the Carolingi a n Empire.

The oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, Charlemagne beca m e king in 768 following the death of his father. He was initially co-ru le r with his brother Carloman I. Carloman's sudden death in 771 under un exp lained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of th e Fran kish Kingdom. Charlemagne continued his father's policy towards th e papac y and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in n orther n Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He also campa igned a gainst the Saxons to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty o f death , leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne r eached t he height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of th e Romans b y Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peter's Basilica.

Called the "Father of Europe" (Pater Europae),[3] Charlemagne united mo s t of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. His rul e s purred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural an d in tellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Empero rs u p to the last Emperor Francis II, as well as both the French and Ger man m onarchies, considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemag ne's e mpire. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church views Charlemagne mor e contro versially, seeing his support of the filioque and recognition b y the Bish op of Rome as legitimate Roman Emperor rather than Irene of At hens of th e Eastern Roman Empire would be one of the machinations that w ould lead t o the eventual split of the Rome and Constantinople in the Gr eat Schism o f 1054 AD.

Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for just over thirtee n y ears. He was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in what i s to day Germany. His son Louis the Pious succeeded him.
Political background

Francia, early 8th century
By the 6th century, the western Germanic Franks had been Christianised , a nd Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the k ingd oms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle o f Tert ry, however, the Merovingians declined into a state of powerlessne ss, fo r which they have been dubbed the rois fainéants ("do-nothing king s"). Al most all government powers of any consequence were exercised by t heir chi ef officer, the mayor of the palace.

In 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the st r ife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry a n d became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom.[6] Pepin him se lf was the grandson of two of the most important figures of the Austra sia n Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen. Pepin of Hersta l wa s eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later know n as Ch arles Martel (Charles the Hammer).

After 737, Charles governed the Franks without a king on the throne bu t d eclined to call himself king. Charles was succeeded in 741 by his son s Ca rloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. To curb separ atis m in the periphery of the realm, in 743 the brothers placed on the t hron e Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian king. After Carl oma n resigned office in 746 to enter the church by preference as a monk , Pep in brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, askin g wheth er it was logical for a king to have no royal power. The pope han ded dow n his decision in 749. He decreed that it was better for Pepin, w ho had t he powers of high office as Mayor, to be called king, so as no t to confus e the hierarchy. He therefore ordered him to become true king .[7]

Under the Carolingians, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an ar e a including most of Western Europe; the division of the kingdom forme d th e basis for modern France and Germany.[9] The religious, political , and a rtistic evolutions originating from a centrally positioned Franci a mad e a defining imprint on the whole of Europe

The most likely date of Charlemagne's birth is reconstructed from sever a l sources. The date of 742 — calculated from Einhard's date of death o f J anuary 814 at age 72 - predates the marriage of his parents in 744. T he y ear given in the Annales Petaviani, 747, would be more likely, excep t tha t it contradicts Einhard and a few other sources in making Charlema gne se venty years old at his death. The month and day of April 2 is esta blishe d by a calendar from Lorsch Abbey.

In 747, that day fell on Easter, a coincidence that likely would have be e n remarked upon by chroniclers but was not. If Easter was being used a s t he beginning of the calendar year, then 2 April 747 could have been , by m odern reckoning, 2 April 748 (not on Easter). The date favored b y the pre ponderance of evidence is 2 April 742, based on Charlemagne's b eing a sep tuagenarian at the time of his death. This date would appear t o support t he idea that Charlemagne was born illegitimate, which is not , however, me ntioned by Einhard.

Place of birth

Region of Aachen-Liège (contemporary borders, trade- and travel routes).
Charlemagne’s exact birthplace is unknown, although historians have sugg e sted Aachen in modern-day Germany, and Liège (Herstal) in present-day B el gium as possible locations.[11] Aachen and Liège are close to the regi o n from where both the Merovingian and Carolingian families originated . Ot her cities have been suggested, including Düren, Gauting, Mürlenbach ,[12 ] Quierzy and Prüm. No definitive evidence as to which is the righ t candi date exists.

Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pepin the Short (714 – 24 Septembe r 7 68, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 – 12 July 78 3) , daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. Records name o nl y Carloman, Gisela, and three short-lived children named Pepin, Chroth ai s and Adelais as his younger siblings.

Before he was elected king in 750, Pepin the Short was initially a mayo r , a high office he held "as though hereditary" (velut hereditario funge ba tur). Einhard explains that "the honor" was usually "given by the peop le " to the distinguished, but Pepin the Great and his brother Carloman t h e Wise received it as though hereditary, as had their father, Charles M ar tel. There was, however, a certain ambiguity about quasi-inheritance . Th e office was treated as joint property: one Mayorship held by two br other s jointly.[15] Each, however, had his own geographic jurisdiction . When C arloman decided to resign, becoming ultimately a Benedictine a t Monte Cas sino,[16] the question of the disposition of his quasi-shar e was settle d by the pope. He converted the Mayorship into a Kingship an d awarded th e joint property to Pepin, who now had the full right to pas s it on by in heritance.

This decision was not accepted by all members of the family. Carloman h a d consented to the temporary tenancy of his own share, which he intend e d to pass on to his own son, Drogo, when the inheritance should be sett le d at someone's death. By the Pope's decision, in which Pepin had a han d , Drogo was to be disqualified as an heir in favour of his cousin Charl es . He took up arms in opposition to the decision and was joined by Grif o , a half-brother of Pepin and Carloman, who had been given a share by C ha rles Martel, but was stripped of it and held under loose arrest by hi s ha lf-brothers after an attempt to seize their shares by military actio n. B y 753 all was over. Grifo perished in combat in the Battle of Saint- Jean- de-Maurienne while Drogo was hunted down and taken into custody.[18 ]

On the death of Pepin, 24 September 768, the kingship passed jointly t o h is sons, "with divine assent" (divino nutu). According to the Life, P epi n died in Paris. The Franks "in general assembly" (generali conventu ) gav e them both the rank of king (reges) but "partitioned the whole bod y of t he kingdom equally" (totum regni corpus ex aequo partirentur). Th e annals [19] tell a slightly different version, with the king dying at S t-Denis , near Paris. The two "lords" (domni) were "elevated to kingship " (elevat i sunt in regnum), Charles on 9 October in Noyon, Carloman on a n unspecif ied date in Soissons. If born in 742, Charles was 26 years old , but he ha d been campaigning at his father's right hand for several yea rs, which ma y help to account for his military skill. Carloman was 17.

The language in either case suggests that there were not two inheritance s , which would have created distinct kings ruling over distinct kingdom s , but a single joint inheritance and a joint kingship tenanted by two e qu al kings, Charles and his brother Carloman. As before, distinct jurisd ict ions were awarded. Charles received Pepin's original share as Mayor : th e outer parts of the kingdom bordering on the sea, namely Neustria , weste rn Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia; while Carloma n was awa rded his uncle's former share, the inner parts: southern Austra sia, Septi mania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, land s borderin g Italy. The question of whether these jurisdictions were join t shares re verting to the other brother if one brother died or were inhe rited proper ty passed on to the descendants of the brother who died wa s never definit ely settled by the Frankish people. It came up repeatedl y over the succee ding decades until the grandsons of Charlemagne create d distinct sovereig n kingdoms.

Charles and his children

Charlemagne (left) and his eldest son, Pepin the Hunchback. Tenth-centu r y copy of a lost original from about 830.

During the first peace of any substantial length (780–782), Charles beg a n to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in t h e tradition of the kings and leaders of the past. In 781, he made his t w o youngest sons kings, having them crowned by the Pope. The elder of th es e two, Carloman, was made king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown that hi s f ather had first worn in 774, and in the same ceremony was renamed "Pe pin. "[36][37] The younger of the two, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. C harle magne ordered Pepin and Louis to be raised in the customs of thei r kingdo ms, and he gave their regents some control of their sub-kingdoms , but rea l power was always in his hands, though he intended his sons t o inherit t heir realms some day. Nor did he tolerate insubordination i n his sons: i n 792, he banished his eldest, though possibly illegitimate , son, Pippi n the Hunchback, to the monastery of Prüm, because the youn g man had join ed a rebellion against him.

Charles was determined to have his children educated, including his daug h ters, as he himself was not. His children were taught all the arts, an d h is daughters were learned in the way of being a woman. His sons too k arch ery, horsemanship, and other outdoor activities.

Charlemagne instructing his son Louis the Pious
The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of ag e . Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shar e d and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put dow n , but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 80 5 a nd 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal wit h th e Slavs living there (Bohemian tribes, ancestors of the modern Czech s). H e subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley o f the E lbe, forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and B eneventa n borders but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquel y poise d to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict aros e after Ch arlemagne's imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Fina lly, Loui s was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to souther n Italy to f ight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He too k Barcelona i n a great siege in 797 (see below).

Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters has been the subject of mu c h discussion. He kept them at home with him and refused to allow the m t o contract sacramental marriages – possibly to prevent the creation o f ca det branches of the family to challenge the main line, as had been t he ca se with Tassilo of Bavaria – yet he tolerated their extramarital re lation ships, even rewarding their common-law husbands, and treasured th e illegi timate grandchildren they produced for him. He also, apparently , refuse d to believe stories of their wild behaviour. After his death th e survivi ng daughters were banished from the court by their brother, th e pious Lou is, to take up residence in the convents they had been bequea thed by thei r father. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised rel ationship, i f not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne' s court circle.

Charlemagne married Hildegard about 771 in Aachen, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland. Hildegard (daughter of Gerold I, Count in Kraichgau and Anglachgau and Imma) was born in 758 in Aachen, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland; died on 30 Apr 783 in Thionville, Moselle, Lorraine, République française; was buried in St. Arnoul Abbey, Metz, Austrasia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: L4BH-JYR
• Initiatory (LDS): 18 Oct 1934

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: 9MWY-PTR
• Initiatory (LDS): 2 Aug 1923

Notes:

Pepin the Short, also called the Younger (German: Pippin der Jüngere, Fr e nch: Pépin le Bref, c. 714 – 24 September 768) was King of the Franks f ro m 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become k ing .

The younger son of the Frankish prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotru d e, Pepin's upbringing was distinguished by the ecclesiastical educatio n h e had received from the monks of St. Denis. Succeeding his father a s th e Mayor of the Palace in 741, Pepin reigned over Francia jointly wit h hi s elder brother Carloman. Pepin ruled in Neustria, Burgundy and Prov ence , while his older brother Carloman established himself in Austrasia , Alem annia and Thuringia. The brothers were active in suppressing revol ts le d by the Bavarians, Aquitanians, Saxons and the Alemanni in the ear ly yea rs of their reign. In 743, they ended the Frankish interregnum b y choosin g Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian monarch, a s figurehea d king of the Franks.

Being well disposed towards the church and papacy on account of their ec c lesiastical upbringing, Pepin and Carloman continued their father's wo r k in supporting Saint-Boniface in reforming the Frankish church and eva ng elising the Saxons. After Carloman, who was an intensely pious man, re tir ed to religious life in 747, Pepin became the sole ruler of the Frank s. H e suppressed a revolt led by his half-brother Grifo and succeeded i n beco ming the undisputed master of all Francia. Giving up pretence, Pep in the n forced Childeric into a monastery and had himself proclaimed kin g of th e Franks with the support of Pope Zachary in 751. The decision wa s not su pported by all members of the Carolingian family and Pepin had t o put dow n a revolt led by Carloman's son, Drogo, and again by Grifo.

As king, Pepin embarked on an ambitious program to expand his power. H e r eformed the legislation of the Franks and continued the ecclesiastica l re forms of Boniface. Pepin also intervened in favour of the papacy o f Steph en II against the Lombards in Italy. In the midsummer of 754, Ste phen I I anointed Pepin afresh, together with his two sons, Charles and C arloman . The ceremony took place in the Abbey Church of St. Denis, nea r Paris, a nd the Pope formally forbade the Franks ever to elect as a kin g anyone wh o was not of the sacred race of Pepin. He also bestowed upo n Pepin and hi s sons the title of 'Patrician of Rome'.[2] He was able t o secure severa l cities, which he then gave to the Pope as part of the D onation of Pepin . This formed the legal basis for the Papal States in th e Middle Ages. Th e Byzantines, keen to make good relations with the grow ing power of the F rankish empire, gave Pepin the title of Patricius. I n wars of expansion , Pepin conquered Septimania from the Islamic Umayyad s and subjugated th e southern realms by repeatedly defeating Waiofar an d his Gascon troops , after which the Gascon and Aquitanian lords saw n o option but to pledg e loyalty to the Franks. Pepin was, however, troubl ed by the relentless r evolts of the Saxons and the Bavarians. He campaig ned tirelessly in Germa ny, but the final subjugation of these tribes wa s left to his successors.

Pepin died in 768 and was succeeded by his sons Charlemagne and Carloma n . Although unquestionably one of the most powerful and successful rule r s of his time, Pepin's reign is largely overshadowed by that of his mo r e famous son, Charlemagne.

Pepin married Bertrada, of Laon about 740. Bertrada (daughter of Charibert, Count of Laon and Gisele, Countess of Laon) was born about 720 in Laon, Aisne, Picardie, République française; died on 12 Jul 783 in Choisy, Haute-Savoie, Rhône-Alpes, République française; was buried in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: 9CMD-SGM
• Initiatory (LDS): 2 Jul 1931, SLAKE

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDHS-NTG
• Initiatory (LDS): 2 Jan 2013, BOUNT

Gerold married Imma in 758. Imma (daughter of Duke Hnabi and Hereswind) was born about 736 in Aachen, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland; died about 789. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDVY-CZT
• Initiatory (LDS): 5 Dec 1927

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• FamilySearch ID: 99KR-KTJ
• Initiatory (LDS): 5 Jul 1923, LOGAN

Notes:

Charles Martel (c. 688 – 22 October 741) was a Frankish statesman and mi l itary leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Pal ac e, was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. He wa s a s on of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and Pepin's mistress , a nob lewoman named Alpaida. Charles, also known as "The Hammer" (in Ol d French , Martel), successfully asserted his claims to power as successo r to hi s father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Con tinuin g and building on his father's work, he restored centralized gover nment i n Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-esta blishe d the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. According t o a near-c ontemporary source, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Charles wa s "a warrio r who was uncommonly [...] effective in battle".


Martel gained a very consequential victory against an Umayyad invasio n o f Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours, at a time when the Umayyad Caliph at e controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Alongside his military end eav ours, Charles has been traditionally credited with a seminal role i n th e development of the Frankish system of feudalism.

At the end of his reign, Charles divided Francia between his sons, Carlo m an and Pepin. The latter became the first king of the Carolingian dynas ty . Charles' grandson, Charlemagne, extended the Frankish realms, and be cam e the first emperor in the West since the fall of Rome.

Charles + Rotrude. Rotrude was born about 690 in Austrasia; died about 724. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDSS-4ZY
• Initiatory (LDS): 14 Dec 1954

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• FamilySearch ID: MK36-75L

Charibert married Gisele, Countess of Laon in 719 in Laon, Aisne, Picardie, République française. Gisele was born about 694 in Laon, Aisne, Picardie, République française; died after 721. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: 9CMD-SGM
• Initiatory (LDS): 26 Jun 2001, HOUST

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• FamilySearch ID: GPZC-FH8
• Initiatory (LDS): 4 Nov 2022, PROCC

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• FamilySearch ID: LBJF-MKS
• Initiatory (LDS): 23 Oct 1997, SDIEG

Hnabi + Hereswind. Hereswind was born about 670 in Swabia, Deutschland; died in 740. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDSQ-1B7
• Initiatory (LDS): 26 May 2009, SPAUL