Louis III (863/65 – 5 August 882) was King ofWest Francia from 879 until his death in 882. Despite questions of his legitimacy and challenges against his ascension to the monarchy, Louis would prove to be an effective leader during his reign, notable for the defeat of Viking invaders at theBattle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu in August 881 that would later be immortalized in the poemLudwigslied. He also led a less successful military campaign againstBoso of Provence with help fromCharles the Fat.
The eldest son ofLouis the Stammerer andAnsgarde of Burgundy, it was unclear during his early life if the young Louis had a claim on the throne of West Francia. Upon the death of his grandfather and father in 877 and 879 respectively, he ascended to the monarchy, but endured questions of his legitimacy; many refused to recognize him as the "true" King of West Francia and, as a result, he was forced to rule alongside his brother,Carloman II, following a deal in 880 at Amiens to split the throne between Neustria and Aquitania.
During his brief tenure as King, he was challenged by Duke Boso, who had ascended to King of Provence. After his victories inMâcon and northern Provence, he unsuccessfully besiegedVienne alongside his cousin,Charles the Fat. Invasions from West Frankish rebels andLouis the Younger were peacefully decided after the cession of Western Lotharingia in 880. In August 881, Viking raiders came into Saucourt following defeats in East Francia and the sacking of several cities in West Francia. At theBattle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu, Louis and his brother were able to repel the offensive, killing roughly 9,000 of the invaders.[2] However, the victory proved inconsequential, as Louis died nearly a year later in an accident and was succeeded by his brother. Contemporaries state that Louis was a popular King during his short reign, and describe him as "able and energetic".[3]
Louis was born in either 863 or 865 atSt Denis and was the eldest son ofLouis the Stammerer,King of Aquitaine, and his first wife,Ansgarde of Burgundy.[4] Due to the fact that his parents had married secretly and Ansgarde was later repudiated at Charles' insistence, Louis' legitimacy was largely questioned during his early life.
WhenCharles the Bald died in 877, followed by Louis the Stammerer on 10 April 879, Louis became King of West Francia. Some Frankish nobles advocated keeping Louis as the sole king, but another party favoured each brother ruling a separate part of the kingdom. In September 879, Louis was crowned atFerrières Abbey.[5]
A map showing the divisions of theCarolingian Empire in 880. Louis and his brother Carloman divided the rule of West Francia along traditional lines, with Louis controllingNeustria (in dark purple) and Carloman controllingAquitania (in dark red).
When Louis III was crowned King of West Francia in September 879, approval was split between allowing Louis to rule alone or have the Kingdom be split. Invasions began nearly as soon as Louis III was crowned in 879, with dissident nobles and magnates from West Francia led byLouis the Younger, King of East Francia, continuing a campaign that had raged since 877. Ultimately, Carloman II and Louis made an agreement in March 880 atAmiens, dividing their father's kingdom, with Louis receiving Neustria and Carloman receiving Aquitania. As a result of this split,Boso, one of Charles the Bald's most trusted lieutenants and the Count of Vienne, renounced his allegiance to both brothers and appropriated the title ofKing of Provence. Shortly thereafter, Louis and Carloman made a treaty atRibemont in 880, giving East Francia the western part of Lotharingia and placating the parties.
Nonetheless, in the summer of 880, Louis and Carloman went to war against Boso. The campaign started well at first, as the brothers capturedMâcon and the northern part of Provence within the first few months of the war.[6] They proceeded to unite their forces with those of their cousin,Charles the Fat, who brought armies from Italy, East Francia, and Alemannia into the war. Despite the added manpower, the siege ofVienne from August to November 880 was unsuccessful and ultimately proved too costly for the war to continue; Louis accepted defeat.
Artistic representation of Louis III & Carloman II, as part of a large collection of commissioned paintings byLouis Philippe I of all the French monarchs. (Charles Auguste Steuben, ca. 1837).Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu, as depicted byJean-Joseph Dassy
The Viking raids against the Frankish kingdoms increased sharply around the middle of 880 and quickly turned into a massive problem. After the Viking defeat atThimeon in the east, the raiders turned to the west and took a multitude of cities including Kortrijk, Arras, Cambrai, Amiens and Corbie between November 880 and July 881.
Louis and his brother intercepted the Vikings at Saucourt-en-Vimeu on 3 August 881, catching them by surprise. In an extremely violent and bloody ambush, according to theAnnales Fuldenses, the West Frankish forces slaughtered as many as 9,000 raiders and won an important, decisive victory.
Louis, at a mere 16 years of age, was widely celebrated by the people of both Frankish kingdoms. In East Francia, theOld High German poemLudwigslied celebrated Louis' heroism, piety and poise in the battle, while in West Francia, achanson de geste titledGormond et Isembart was inspired by the battle and written a few hundred years later.
At perhaps the height of his renown, Louis III died suddenly on 5 August 882, aged around 17, atSaint-Denis. According to legend, he was chasing after a girl who was retreating to her father's house on horseback and hit his head on thelintel of a low door, taking a bad fall and breaking his skull.[7] Because Louis III had no children, his brother Carloman II became the sole king ofWest Francia, and the young king was buried in the royal mausoleum of theBasilica of Saint-Denis.[8]
Louis' death was incredibly damaging to the West Frankish war against the Vikings, and despite his crucial victory at Saucourt, his brother and successor could not match his level of success and died only two years later in 884. However, his death united the kingdom of West Francia under one ruler and his reign set the stage for later Frankish unity.
Bartlett, Robert (2020).Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe. Cambridge University Press.
Fouracre, Paul. "The Context of the Old High German Ludwigslied",Medium Aevum, 46 (1985), 87–103.
Gillmor, C.M. (2010). "Saucourt, Battle of". In Rogers, Clifford J. (ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Oxford University Press. pp. 223–224.
Green, Dennis H. "TheLudwigslied and the Battle of Saucourt", in Judith Jesch (ed.),The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century (Oxford: Boydell Press, 2002), 281–302.
Jackson, Richard A., ed. (1995).Ordines Coronationis Franciae. Vol. 1. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Mueller-Vollmer, Tristan; Wolf, Kirsten, eds. (2022). "Chronology: 881".Vikings: An Encyclopedia of Conflict, Invasions, and Raids. ABC-CLIO.
Nelson, Janet L. (2000). "Carolingian royal funerals". In Theuws, Frans; Nelson, Janet Laughland (eds.).Rituals of Power: From Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Brill.
Venning, Timothy (2017).A Chronology of Early Medieval Western Europe: 450–1066. Routledge.
Legend: → ≡ "father of", · ≡ "brother of" Begga, the daughter of Pepin I, married Ansegisel, the son of Arnulf of Metz, and was the mother of Pepin II.
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