View source for Lothair I

{{Short description|Carolingian Emperor from 817 to 855}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more footnotes|date=March 2016}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2015}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox royalty
| image        = Lothar I.jpg
| caption      = Lothair I in the [[Gospels of Lothair]], {{circa|849–851}}, now located in the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]
| succession   = [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor]] of the [[Carolingian Empire]]
| title        = [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor of the Romans]]
| reign        = July 817 – 855
| coronation   = [[Ordinatio Imperii|July 817]], [[Aachen]] <br /> 5 April 823, [[Rome]]
| full name    = 
| predecessor  = [[Louis the Pious|Louis I the Pious]]
| successor    = [[Louis II of Italy]]
| queen        = [[Ermengarde of Tours]]
| spouse       = 
| issue        = [[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]]<br /> [[Lothair II]]<br /> [[Charles of Provence|Charles]]
| issue-link   = #Family
| issue-pipe   = more...
| house        = [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]]
| father       = [[Louis the Pious|Louis I the Pious]]
| mother       = [[Ermengarde of Hesbaye]]
| succession1  = [[King of Italy]]
| reign1       = 17 April 818 – 855
| predecessor1 = [[Bernard of Italy]]
| successor1   = Louis II of Italy
| succession2  = King of [[Middle Francia]]
| reign2       = {{circa}} 10 August 843 – 855
| predecessor2 = Louis I the Pious as [[King of the Franks]]
| successor2   = Louis II (Italy)<br>[[Lothair II]] (Lotharingia)<br>[[Charles of Provence|Charles]] (Provence)
| birth_date   = 795
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   = 29 September {{Death year and age|855|795}}
| death_place  = [[Prüm]]
| date of burial = 
| place of burial = [[Prüm]]
}}

'''Lothair I''' (9th. C. [[Frankish language|Frankish]]: ''Ludher'' and [[Medieval Latin]]: ''Lodharius'';<ref>{{Cite book |title=Historiarum Libri|last=Nithard |author-link=Nithard |url=https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_2/index.htm#page/665/mode/1up}}</ref> [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Medieval Latin]]: ''Lotharius''; [[German language|German]]: ''Lothar''; [[French language|French]]: ''Lothaire''; [[Italian language|Italian]]: ''Lotario''; 795 – 29 September 855) was a 9th-century [[Holy Roman Emperor|emperor of the Carolingian empire]] (817–855, with his father until 840) and [[king of Italy]] (818–855) and [[Middle Francia]] (843–855).

Lothair I was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor [[Louis the Pious|Louis I]] and his wife [[Ermengarde of Hesbaye]],<ref name="eb11">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Lothair I.}}</ref> daughter of [[Ingerman of Hesbaye|Ingerman]] the duke of [[Hesbaye]]. On several occasions, Lothair led his full-brothers [[Pepin I of Aquitaine]] and [[Louis the German]] in revolt against their father to protest against attempts to make their half-brother [[Charles the Bald]] a co-heir to the Frankish domains. Upon the father's death, Charles and Louis joined forces against Lothair in [[Carolingian civil war|a three-year dynastic war (840–843)]]. The struggles between the brothers led directly to the breakup of the [[Frankish Empire]] assembled by their grandfather [[Charlemagne]], and laid the foundation for the development of modern [[France]] and [[Germany]].<ref name="KiblerZinn1995"/>

== Early life and reign ==
{{stack|
[[File:Vertrag von Verdun en.svg|thumb|Division of the Carolingian Empire under the [[Treaty of Verdun]] (843)]]
}}
Lothair was born in 795, to Louis the Pious and Ermengarde of Hesbaye. His father was the son of the reigning Emperor, [[Charlemagne]]. At the time of Lothair's birth, his father Louis was already the [[King of Aquitaine]]. Little is known of Lothair's early life, which was probably passed at the courts of his father and grandfather. In 814, the elderly emperor died, and left his sole surviving legitimate son Louis the Pious as successor to his vast empire. Being already of age, Lothair was sent to govern [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] for his father, the new emperor.{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=97}}

In 817, Louis the Pious drew up his ''[[Ordinatio Imperii]]''.{{sfn|Goldberg|2006|p=29-32}} By that act, Louis designated Lothair as his principal heir and ordered that Lothair would be the overlord of Louis' younger sons Pippin of Aquitaine (who was 20) and Louis the German (who was 13), and also the presumptive overlord of the [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Kingdom of Italy]], that was ruled at this time by their cousin, king [[Bernard of Italy]]. Lothair would also inherit their lands if they were to die childless. Lothair was then crowned joint emperor by his father at [[Aachen]]. At the same time, Aquitaine and Bavaria were granted to his brothers Pippin and Louis, respectively, as subsidiary kingdoms.{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=102-103}}{{sfn|Goldberg|2006|p=31}}  

Following the death of Bernard (818),{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=130}} brought on by his plotting against and blinding by Louis the Pious, Italy was awarded to Lothair.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} In 821, Lothair married [[Ermengarde of Tours|Ermengarde]] (d. 851), daughter of [[Hugh of Tours|Hugh]] the [[Count of Tours]].{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=111}} In 822, he assumed the government of [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Italy]],{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=111}} and at Easter, 5 April 823, he received the royal crown of Italy, and was again crowned as emperor by [[Pope Paschal I]], this time at [[Rome]].{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=112-113}} In November 824, Lothair promulgated a statute, the ''[[Constitutio Romana]]'', concerning the relations of pope and emperor, which reserved the supreme power to the secular potentate, and he afterwards issued various ordinances for the good government of Italy.<ref name=eb11 />

On Lothair's return to his father's court, his stepmother [[Judith, daughter of Welf|Judith]] won his consent to her plan for securing a kingdom for her son [[Charles the Bald|Charles]], a scheme which was carried out in 829, when the young prince was given [[Alemannia]] as king.{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=131}} Lothair, however, soon changed his attitude and spent the succeeding decade in constant strife over the division of the Empire with his father. He was alternately master of the Empire, and banished and confined to Italy, at one time taking up arms in alliance with his brothers and at another fighting against them, whilst the bounds of his appointed kingdom were in turn extended and reduced.{{sfn|Scholz|1970|p=133-140}} 

== Division of the kingdom ==
[[File:Vertrag von Prüm.svg|thumb|right|Division of the Carolingian Empire under the [[Treaty of Prüm]] (855)]]

The first rebellion began in 830. All three brothers fought their father, whom they deposed.  In 831, their father was reinstated and he deprived Lothair of his imperial title and gave Italy to Charles. The second rebellion was instigated by [[Angilbert II, Archbishop of Milan]] in 833, and again Louis was deposed in 834. Lothair, through the loyalty of the Lombards and later reconciliations, retained Italy and the imperial position through all remaining divisions of the Empire by his father.<ref name=jong>{{cite web |url= https://www.academia.edu/15388945 |title= The Penitential State. Authority and Atonement in the Ages of Louis the Pious (814–840) – 1. Louis the Pious – A boy who became a king|publisher= Academia | author=Mayke de Jong | access-date= 25 January 2020 }}</ref>{{sfn|Riché|1993|p=}}

[[File:Karolingische denier Lotharius Dorestad.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Denier of Lothair I, struck in [[Dorestad]] ([[Middle Francia]]) after 850]]
[[File:Medallion of Lothair, from the Lothaire Psalter.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Medallion presumed to be of Lothair, from the binding of the [[Lothair Psalter]] in the British Library]]

When Louis the Pious was dying in 840, he sent the imperial insignia to Lothair, who, disregarding the various partitions, claimed the whole of the Empire. He was 45 years old when his father died. Negotiations with his brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles, both of whom resisted this claim, were followed by an alliance of the younger brothers against Lothair.<ref name="KiblerZinn1995">{{cite book|author1=William W. Kibler|author2=Grover A. Zinn|title=Medieval France: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQoKeohhNkMC&pg=PA1065|year=1995|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-8240-4444-2|pages=1065–}}</ref> A decisive battle was fought at [[Battle of Fontenay (841)|Fontenay-en-Puisaye]] on 25 June 841, when, in spite of his<ref name=eb11 /> and his allied nephew [[Pepin II of Aquitaine]]'s{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} personal gallantry, Lothair was defeated and fled to Aachen. With fresh troops he began a war of plunder, but the forces of his brothers were too strong, and taking with him such treasure as he could collect, he abandoned his capital to them.<ref name=eb11 />{{Clarify|date=June 2011}} He met with the leaders of the ''[[Stellinga]]'' in [[Speyer]] and promised them his support in return for theirs, but Louis and then the native Saxon nobility put down the ''Stellinga'' in the next years.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

Peace negotiations began, and in June 842 the brothers met on an island in the [[Saône]]. They agreed to an arrangement which developed, after much difficulty and delay, into the [[Treaty of Verdun]], signed in August 843. By this, Lothair received the imperial title as well as northern Italy and a long stretch of territory from the [[North Sea]] to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], essentially along the valleys of the [[Rhine]] and the [[Rhône]]; this territory includes the regions [[Lorraine]], [[Alsace]], [[Burgundy]], and [[Provence]]. He soon ceded Italy to his eldest son, [[Louis II of Italy|Louis]], and remained in his new kingdom, engaging in alternate quarrels and reconciliations with his brothers and in futile efforts to defend his lands from the attacks of the Northmen (as [[Vikings]] were known in Frankish writings) and the [[Saracens]] (as those loyal to the various Fatimids, Umayyads and Abbasides are known in Frankish writings).<ref name=eb11 />{{sfn|Riché|1993|p=}}

In 845 the count of Arles, [[Fulcrad]], led a rebellion in [[Provence]]. The emperor put it down and the count joined him in an expedition against the Saracens in Italy in 846.{{sfn|Reuter|1992|p=24}}<ref>{{cite book |authorlink=René Poupardin |last=Poupardin |first=René |title=Le royaume de Provence sous les Carolingiens (855–933?) |year=1901 |location=Paris |publisher=É. Bouillon |pp=3-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/leroyaumedeprove00poupuoft}}</ref>

== Death and aftermath ==
[[File:Bas-côté nord, baie III Lotharius Romanorum Imperator (milieu XIIIe).jpg|thumb|right|200px|13th-century stained glass depiction of Lothair, [[Strasbourg Cathedral]]]]

In 855 he became seriously ill, and despairing of recovery renounced the throne, divided his lands among his three sons, and on 23 September entered the monastery of [[Prüm]], where he died six days later. He was buried at Prüm, where his remains were found in 1860.<ref name=eb11 /> It was at [[Prüm]] that Lothair was most commemorated.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/writing-the-early-medieval-west/remembering-and-forgetting-lothar-i/2379257020471FF859F557A43FB0A041|chapter=Remembering and Forgetting Lothar I|last=Screen|first=Elina|title=Writing the Early Medieval West |date=May 2018|publisher= Cambridge University Press|pages=248–260|doi=10.1017/9781108182386.017|isbn=9781108182386|access-date=2019-04-09}}</ref>

The same year, Lothair's kingdom was divided between his three sons<ref name=eb11 /> in a deal called the [[Treaty of Prüm]]: the eldest, [[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]], received Italy and the title of emperor; the second, [[Lothair II of Lotharingia|Lothair II]], received [[Lotharingia]]; the youngest, [[Charles of Provence|Charles]], received [[Provence]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

== Family ==
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2015}}

Lothair married [[Ermengarde of Tours]] in 821,{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}} who died in 851.
*[[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]] (825–875) Crowned as King of Italy in 844 by [[Pope Sergius II]]. Crowned Emperor in 850. Married [[Engelberga]]{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}}
*Hiltrude (826–865) Married [[Berengar of Spoleto]].
*Bertha (c. 830–852) Married to an unknown man, but later Abbess of Avenay.
*Gisela (c. 830–856) abbess of San Salvatore at Brescia.{{sfn|Bouchard|2001|p=106}}
*[[Lothair II of Lotharingia|Lothair II]] (835–869) Succeeded his father. Married [[Teutberga]],{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}} daughter of [[Boso the Elder]], Count of Arles.
*Rotrude (c. 840) Married [[Lambert II of Nantes]].
*[[Charles of Provence|Charles]] (845–863) Invested with Provence, Lyon and Transjuranian Burgundy{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|loc=table 3}}

One illegitimate child is known.
*Carloman (? – d. 853)

==See also==
{{col div}}
* [[Middle Francia]]
* [[History of Italy]]
* [[History of Burgundy]]
* [[History of Provence]]
{{col div end}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bouchard|first=Constance B.|title=Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia|year=2001|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxSxikFnSU8C&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Bowlus|first=Charles R.|title=Franks, Moravians, and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788-907|year=1995|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5x0BAAAQBAJ&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Goldberg|first=Eric J.|title=Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876|year=2006|location=Ithaca, NY|publisher=Cornell University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyiTg0wgl58C&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=McKitterick|first=Rosamond|author-link=Rosamond McKitterick|title=The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987|year=1983|location=Harlow|publisher=Longman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wtNnAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Nelson|first=Janet L.|author-link=Janet Nelson|title=King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne|year=2019|location=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePujDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Reuter|first=Timothy|author-link=Timothy Reuter|title=The Annals of Fulda|year=1992|location=Manchester|publisher=Manchester University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icdRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP5}}
* {{Cite book|last=Reuter|first=Timothy|author-link=Timothy Reuter|title=Germany in the Early Middle Ages c. 800–1056|year=2013|orig-year=1991|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfvJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Riché|first=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Riché|title=The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe|year=1993|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tcjy7bCmFL0C&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Scholz|editor-first=Bernhard W.|title=Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories|year=1970|location=Ann Arbor, MI|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0472061860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTzl6wFjehMC&pg=PP7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Schutz|first=Herbert|author-link=Herbert Schutz|title=The Carolingians in Central Europe, Their History, Arts, and Architecture: A Cultural History of Central Europe, 750-900|year=2004|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZJONlzdyPsC&pg=PR3}}
* {{Cite book|last=West|first=Charles|title=The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia, 855–869|year=2023|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp_UEAAAQBAJ}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{EB1911 poster|Lothair I.}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Lothair I}}
* [http://sites.google.com/site/lettersoflothar/ Surviving letters of Lothar I], in Latin with English translation by Richard Matthew Pollard.

{{S-start}}
{{S-hou|[[Carolingian dynasty]]|795||29 September|855}}
{{S-reg}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Louis the German]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Duke of Maine]]|years=817–831}}
{{s-aft|rows=|after=[[Pepin I of Aquitaine]]}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Bernard of Italy|Bernard]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[King of Italy]]|years=818 – 23 September 855|regent1=[[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]]|years1=844–855}}
{{S-aft|rows=2|after=[[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-bef|rows=3|before=[[Louis the Pious]]|as=king of the Franks <br/> and emperor}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Holy Roman Emperor]]|years=817 – 23 September 855|regent1=[[Louis the Pious]]|years1=817–840|regent2=[[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]]|years2=850–855}}
{{s-break}}
{{S-ttl|rows=2|title=[[King of Middle Francia]]|years=843 – 23 September 855}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Lothair II of Lotharingia|Lothair II]]|as=king of Lotharingia}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Charles of Provence|Charles]]|as=king of Provence}}
{{s-end}}

{{Antique Kings of Italy}}
{{Holy Roman Emperors}}
{{Carolingians footer}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lothair 01}}
[[Category:795 births]]
[[Category:855 deaths]]
[[Category:9th-century Holy Roman Emperors]]
[[Category:9th-century kings of Italy]]
[[Category:9th-century dukes of Bavaria]]
[[Category:Frankish warriors]]
[[Category:Dukes of Lorraine]]
[[Category:Dukes of Maine]]
[[Category:Eifel in the Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Rebel princes]]
[[Category:Sons of emperors]]
[[Category:Frankish kings]]