Louis's seal with an effigy of the Roman emperorHadrian. The inscription reads "XPE PROTEGE HLUDOICUM REGEM" meaning – "O Christ, protect King Louis!"[1]
Louis the German[a] (German:Ludwig der Deutsche; c. 806[3][4]/810[2] – 28 August 876), also known asLouis II of Germany (German:Ludwig II. von Deutschland),[b] was the first king ofEast Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperorCharlemagne and the third son ofLouis the Pious, emperor ofFrancia, and his first wife,Ermengarde of Hesbaye,[5] he received the appellationGermanicus shortly after his death, when East Francia became known as thekingdom of Germany.
After protracted clashes with his father and his brothers, Louis received the East Frankish kingdom in theTreaty of Verdun (843). His attempts to conquer his half-brotherCharles the Bald's West Frankish kingdom in 858–59 were unsuccessful. The 860s were marked by a severe crisis, with the East Frankish rebellions of the sons, as well as struggles to maintain supremacy over his realm. In theTreaty of Meerssen he acquiredLotharingia for the East Frankish kingdom in 870. On the other hand, he tried and failed to claim both the title of Emperor and Italy. In the East, Louis was able to reach a longer-term peace agreement in 874 after decades of conflict with theMoravians. His rule shows a marked decline in creation of written administration and government documents, a trend that would continue intoOttonian times.[6]
His early years were spent at the courts of his grandfather and father. In 814, when his older brothersLothair andPepin were designated to governBavaria andAquitaine,[7] Louis was still very young. In 817, his father, emperor Louis the Pious issuedOrdinatio Imperii,[8] and assigned titles and regions to his sons, making Lothair co-emperor, Pepin king in Aquitaine, and Louis king in Bavaria, with additional jurisdiction overCarantania,Bohemia and other dependentSlavs andAvars.[9] Such political solutions were following the practice of emperor Charlemagne of bestowing regional realms to a close family members who would serve as his lieutenants and local governors.[10]
Louis ruled over Bavaria and its dependencies fromRegensburg,[11] the old capital of theBavarians. Since he was young, during the first several years Louis ruled in assistance with able royal administrators. In 825, he became involved in wars with theWends andSorbs on north-eastern frontiers. In 827, he marriedHemma, sister of his stepmotherJudith of Bavaria, both daughters of countWelf, whose possessions ranged fromAlsace to Bavaria.[12] In the same year (827),Bulgarians invaded Pannonia, thus initiating the start of a Frankish–Bulgarian conflict in the region.[13][14]
In 828, the vastDuchy of Friuli was divided into four counties,[13][15] withFriuli proper andIstria remaining under jurisdiction of Lothair's Italian realm, whileCarniola andLower Pannonia were added to the jurisdiction of Louis' Bavarian realm.[16] At the same time, the question of effective rule overCarantania was also resolved in Louis' favor.[17] Thus, young king of Bavaria became ruler of entire Frankish southeast, which included Bavaria and Carantania with all easternmarches and dependent Avar and Slavic regions throughoutPannonia.[18][19]
In 828 and 829, Louis undertook two campaigns against the Bulgarians who were invading Pannonia, and secured victory by repelling the invaders.[13][15] During his time asUnterkönig (sub-king), he tried to extend his rule to the Rhine-Main area.[20]
In 829, the emperorLouis decided to grant Alamannia to his youngest sonCharles, thus changing provisions of the 817 succession settlements.[21] A series of dynastic conflicts and wars followed between the emperor and his older sons. Louis of Bavaria became involved reluctantly in the first dynastic conflict that erupted in 830 between his eldest brother Lothair and their father (830),[22] thus allowing him to reconcile with the emperor. In 831, a new succession settlement was imposed by an imperial decree, designating Louis of Bavaria as future inheritor ofThuringia,Saxony,Austrasia,Frisia, and northern portions ofNeustria.[23]
As early as 832, dynastic conflicts were renewed.[24] Louis invadedAlamannia, which his father had previously given to youngCharles, but was driven back by the emperor.[25] Louis the Pious disinherited him, but to no effect, since the conflict escalated during 833 into open war between emperor Louis and all of his older sons. The emperor was soon captured and deposed by Lothair, who tried to impose firm authority over his brothers, and thus already in 834 an open war between brothers broke out. Lothair was forced to retreat and Louis the Pious was reinstated as emperor. Louis of Bavaria made peace with his father and kept Bavaria with extended jurisdiction over several other East Frankish regions.[26]
Louis instigated another dynastic conflict, which was initiated in 838 by the death of Pepin of Aquitaine and escalated in 839 when emperor Louis imposed new succession settlements favoring Lothair and Charls, while reducing the inheritance of Louis of Bavaria to his Bavarian and adjacent south-eastern regions. A war broke out and Louis of Bavaria again invaded Alamannia and other eastern regions, achieving some initial success. This time, emperor Louis responded quickly, and soon the younger Louis was forced to retreat into Bavaria. Prominent nobles tried to reconcile father and son, but the old emperor remained reluctant and bitter until his death in 840.[27]
When the emperor Louis died in 840 andLothair I claimed the whole Empire, Louis allied withCharles the Bald. He defeated Lothair I's commander,Adalbert of Metz, at thebattle of the Ries on 13 May 841.[28] A few weeks later, Louis and Charles defeated Lothair and their nephewPepin II of Aquitaine at theBattle of Fontenoy on 25 June.[29] Both sides suffered heavy casualties. According tothe Annals of Fulda, it was the biggest bloodbath the Franks had experienced from time immemorial.[30][31] At the same time, it was Louis's last battle in the struggle for the unification of the kingdom.
In June 842, the three brothers met on an island in the riverSaône to negotiate a peace and each appointed forty representatives to arrange the boundaries of their respective kingdoms. This developed into theTreaty of Verdun, concluded by 10 August 843, under which Louis received the bulk of the lands lying east of theRhine (East Francia), together with a district aroundSpeyer,Worms, andMainz on the left bank of the river (see alsoOaths of Strasbourg 842). His territories included Bavaria (where he madeRegensburg the seat of his government),Thuringia,Franconia, andSaxony.[28]
Louis may be called the founder of theGerman kingdom, though his attempts to maintain the unity of the Empire proved futile.[28] Having crushed theStellinga rising in Saxony in 842,[32] he compelled theObotrites[33] to accept his authority in 844 and put their prince, Gozzmovil, to death.Thachulf, Duke of Thuringia, then undertook campaigns against theBohemians,Moravians, and other tribes, but was not very successful in resisting the ravagingVikings.
Wandalbert of Prüm presents his martyrology to a king, probably Louis the German, in a 9th-century illustration
In 852 Louis sent his sonLouis the Younger toAquitaine, where nobles had grown resentful of Charles the Bald's rule.[34] The younger Louis did not set out until 854, and returned the following year.[35]
Starting in 853, Louis made repeated attempts to gain the throne ofWest Francia, which, according to theAnnals ofFulda (Annales Fuldenses), the people of that country offered him in their disgust with the cruel misrule of Charles the Bald. Encouraged by his nephewsPeppin II andCharles of Provence, Louis invaded West Francia in 858. Charles the Bald could not even raise an army to resist the invasion and fled toBurgundy. Later that year, Louis issued a charter dated "the first year of the reign in West Francia." However, treachery and desertion in his army, and the continued loyalty of the Aquitanian bishops to Charles the Bald, brought about the failure of the whole enterprise.[28] As such, both Louis and Charles made public vows to uphold the peace on 7 June 860 atKoblenz.[36]
After the emperorLothair I died in 855, Louis and Charles for a time cooperated in plans to divide Lothair's possessions between themselves, the only impediments to this being Lothair's sons and heirs—Lothair II (who receivedLotharingia),Louis II of Italy (who held the imperial title and theIron Crown of Lombardy) andCharles of Provence. In 868 atMetz, Louis and Charles agreed to partitionLotharingia. When Lothair II died in 869, Louis was lying seriously ill and his armies were engaged in a war with the Moravians. Charles the Bald quickly seized Lothair's lands, but Louis, having recovered, compelled him by threat of war to agree to theTreaty of Meerssen, which divided Lothair's lands among all the claimants.[37]
Carolingian gatehouse (Torhalle) toLorsch Abbey, where Louis the German was buried
The later years of Louis the German were troubled by rebellions of his sons. The eldest,Carloman of Bavaria, revolted in 861 and again two years later. This was followed by the second sonLouis the Younger, who was joined by his brotherCharles the Fat.[28] In 864 Louis was forced to grant Carloman the kingdom of Bavaria, which he himself had once held under his father. In 865 he divided the remainder of his lands—Saxony withFranconia andThuringia went to Louis the Younger andSwabia withRaetia to Charles the Fat.[28]
In May 868, Louis convoked asynod at Worms to deal with the aftermath of thePhotian schism and to get the church's support against Moravia.
A report that theEmperor Louis II had died in Italy led to a peace between father and sons and attempts by Louis the German to gain the imperial crown for his oldest son Carloman. These efforts were thwarted by Louis II, who was in fact not dead, and Louis' old adversary, Charles the Bald.
Contemporary illustration from theLouis the German Psalter depicting Louis (bottom) genuflecting before Christ on the cross
In the years 872 and 873, ambassadors from the Eastern Roman EmperorBasil I came to Louis in Regensburg, showing that his rule was perceived as far as Constantinople. After the death of Emperor Louis II in August 875, Louis tried to win the emperorship for himself and his descendants. To this end, Abbot Sigihard von Fulda undertook a trip to Rome toPope John VIII. On 18 May 876, he returned to Ingelheim and reported to Louis that, in December 875, Charles the Bald had been able to obtain the title of emperor by a swift move to Rome.[38]
His wife Hemma visited Louis for the last time in May 875. In 874 she had lost her voice as a result of a stroke. During his stay, he donated theBerg im Donaugau Abbey to the Marienkapelle, which he built.[39] Hemma died at the end of January 876 in Regensburg. Louis then died from astroke on 28 August 876 at his palace in Frankfurt. The following day he was buried by his son Louis in Lorsch Abbey. According to Wilfried Hartmann, it cannot be determined with certainty whether the dead man in his sarcophagus is the Carolingian king.[40] After Louis' death, Charles the Bald tried to win over the eastern kingdom as well. However, Louis the Younger defeated him on 8 October 876 at Andernach with a force of Franks, Saxons and Thuringians. One year later, Charles the Bald died as well.
As there exist only 172 royal documents from 59 years of his reign as first the King of Bavaria and later the King of East Francia, it is impossible to construct a detailed picture of Louis' whereabouts in the East Frankish kingdom. By comparison,Louis the Pious had 18 certificates created per year, and his half-brotherCharles the Bald had 12 produced annually.[38] This pattern of not producing many documents lasts for several months at certain times. For example, it is completely uncertain where the East Frankish king stayed between June 849 and July 850.[41] At least 52 documents are addressed to Bavarian beneficiaries. However, the intensity of the documentary production for Bavarian recipients steadily decreased during his reign.
As astem duchy, the Rhine-Main area contained Frankfurt, Mainz and Worms, and had plenty ofimperial palaces and treasuries. Since it was located in the geographic centre of the East Frankish kingdom, it was easily accessible by road. As a result, it was the region that hosted most East Frankish synods and imperial assemblies.[42]
Louis was only nicknamed "the German" in the 18th century.[43] Contemporary West Frankish sources called Louisrex Germaniae ("King of Germania") orrex Germanorum ("King of the Teutons"). However, in this context, Germania or Germani does not mean "Germany" or "the Germans", but, as in ancient Latin, the area on the right bank of theRhine outside the former Roman Empire and its inhabitants.[44] Contemporaries gave Louis theepithetpius (pious) orpiissimus (very pious). The contemporary coinage called himHLUDOVICUS PIUS REX.
Irmgard of Chiemsee also known as Ermengard (died 866)[46] (Louis, having established two of his other daughters as abbesses of convents, appointed Irmgard (also known as Ermengard) to govern first themonastery of Buchau and then theroyal abbey of Chiemsee inBavaria. She is commemorated as a saint on 17 July.)[47]
^SometimesanglicizedLewis, in GermanLudwig. The Frankish pronunciation was likeHlu-do-vig. The name literally means "famous battle". A contemporary source,Ermoldus Nigellus, gives its two components asHluto,praeclarum, andWigch,Mars.[2]
^Goldberg, Eric Joseph (1995).Popular revolt, dynastic politics, and aristocratic factionalism in the early Middle Ages. The Saxon Stellinga reconsidered. Speculum. pp. 467–501.
^Annales Fuldenses. Disputed Author. Abbey House of Fulda. 841.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Wilfried Hartmann: Ludwig der Deutsche – Portrait eines wenig bekannten Königs. In: Wilfried Hartmann (ed.):Ludwig der Deutsche und seine Zeit. Darmstadt 2004, pp. 1–26, here: p. 7f.
Costambeys, Marios; Innes, Matthew; MacLean, Simon (2011).The Carolingian World. Cambridge University Press.
Dutton, Paul Edward (1990). "Beyond the Topos of Senescense: The Political Problems of Aged Carolingian Rulers". In Sheehan, Michael M. (ed.).Aging and the Aged in Medieval Europe. Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies.
Geary, Patrick J. (2006).Women at the Beginning: Origin Myths from the Amazons to the Virgin Mary. Princeton University Press.
Gwatkin, Henry Melvill; Whitney, James Pounder; Tanner, Joseph Robson; Previté-Orton, Charles William; Brooke, Zachary Nugent, eds. (1957).The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 3. Macmillan.
Schmitt, Miriam (1996). "St. Irmengard: No Poor on the Isle of Chiemsee". In Kulzer, Linda; Schmitt, Miriam (eds.).Medieval Women Monastics: Wisdom's Wellsprings. Liturgical Press. pp. 117–136.
Deed by Louis the German for St. Emmeram Abbey in Regensburg, 18 August 831,"digitalised image".Photograph Archive of Old Original Documents (Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden).University of Marburg.
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.
