View source for Lothair II

{{Short description|King of Lotharingia from 855 to 869}}
{{About|the king of Lotharingia}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more footnotes|date=March 2016}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2016}}
}}

{{Infobox royalty
| succession   = [[King of Lotharingia]]
| successor    = [[Charles the Bald]]
| predecessor  = [[Lothair I]]
| image        = Lothar II, King of Lotharingie.PNG
| caption      = Lothair from a 12th-century manuscript
| reign        = 855–869
| coronation   = 
| full name    = 
| birth_date   = 835
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   = {{death-date|8 August 869}}
| death_place  = [[Piacenza]]
| date of burial = 
| place of burial = [[Sant'Antonino, Piacenza|Basilica of Sant'Antonino]]|
| spouse       = [[Teutberga]]<br/>[[Waldrada of Lotharingia|Waldrada]]
| issue        = [[Hugh, Duke of Alsace]]<br/>[[Bertha, daughter of Lothair II|Bertha]]
| issue-link   = #Descendants
| issue-pipe   = more...
| house        = [[Carolingian]]
| house-type   = Dynasty
| father       = [[Lothair I]]
| mother       = [[Ermengarde of Tours]]
}}
'''Lothair II''' (835 – 8 August 869) was a [[Carolingian]] king and ruler of northern parts of [[Middle Francia]], that came to be known as [[Lotharingia]], reigning there from 855 until his death in 869. He also ruled over [[Kingdom of Burgundy|Burgundy]], holding from 855 just the [[Upper Burgundy|Upper]] regions, and from 863 also the [[Lower Burgundy]]. He was the second son of Emperor [[Lothair I]] and [[Ermengarde of Tours]]. He was married to [[Teutberga]] (died 875), daughter of [[Boso the Elder]].{{sfn|West|2023|p=}}

==Reign==
[[File:Lothair II of Lotharingia.jpg|thumb|left|Seal of Lothair II]]
[[File:Vertrag von Prüm.svg|thumb|300px|Division of the Carolingian Empire under the [[Treaty of Prüm]] (855)]]

For political reasons, his father made him marry Teutberga in 855. Just a few days before his death in late autumn of 855, Emperor Lothair I divided his realm of [[Middle Francia]] among his three sons, a partition known as [[Treaty of Prüm]]. Lothair II received the Middle Francia territory west of the [[Rhine]] stretching from the [[North Sea]] to the [[Jura Mountains]]. It became known as ''Regnum Lotharii'' and early in the 10th century as [[Lotharingia]] or [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]] (a designation subsequently applied only to the [[Duchy of Lorraine]]). His elder brother [[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]] received northern [[Italy]] and the title of [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor]], and his younger brother Charles received the western parts of his father's domains, [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] and the [[Provence]].

On the death of his brother Charles in 863, Lothair added some lands south of the [[Jura Mountains|Jura]] to this realm, but except for a few feeble expeditions against the [[Vikings|Norman]] pirates he seems to have done little for its government or its defense. Thirty-six of Lothair II's royal [[charter]]s survive.<ref>Die Urkunden Lothars I. und Lothars II., ed. Theodor Schieffer (Berlin, 1966); see http://turbulentpriests.group.shef.ac.uk/our-dearest-wife-and-son-king-lothar-iis-charters/</ref>

[[File:Teilungsvertrag von 863.svg|thumb|300px|Expansion of Lothar's domains, after the death of his brother [[Charles of Provence]] in 863]]

Teutberga was not capable of bearing children and Lothair's reign was chiefly occupied by his efforts to obtain an annulment of their marriage, and his relations with his uncles [[Charles the Bald]] and [[Louis the German]] were influenced by his desire to obtain their support for this endeavour. Although quarrels and reconciliations between the three kings followed each other in quick succession, in general it may be said that Louis favoured annulment, and Charles opposed it, while neither lost sight of the fact that Lothair had no sons to inherit his lands. Lothair, whose desire for annulment was prompted by his affection for his mistress, [[Waldrada of Lotharingia|Waldrada]], put away Teutberga, but [[Hucbert]] took up arms on her behalf, and after she had submitted successfully to the [[ordeal of water]], Lothair was compelled to restore her in 858. Still pursuing his purpose, he won the support of his brother, Emperor [[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]], by a cession of lands and obtained the consent of the local clergy, such as [[Adventius (bishop of Metz)|Adventius of Metz]], to the annulment and to his marriage with Waldrada, which took place in 862.

A [[synod]] of [[Franks|Frankish]] [[bishop]]s [[Council of Metz (863)|met at Metz in 863]] and confirmed this decision, but Teutberga fled to the court of Charles the Bald, and [[Pope Nicholas I]] voided the decision of the synod. An attack on [[Rome]] by the emperor was without result, and in 865 Lothair, threatened with [[excommunication]] and convinced that Louis and Charles at their recent meeting had discussed the partition of his kingdom, again took back his wife. Teutberga, however, either from inclination or compulsion, now expressed her desire for an annulment, and Lothair went to Italy to obtain the assent of the new pope, [[Adrian II]]. Placing a favourable interpretation upon the words of the pope, he had set out on the return journey, when he was ill from Malaria or from a Fever and died at [[Piacenza]] on {{#dateformat:August 8, 869}}.

==Succession==
[[File:Vertrag von Meerssen.svg|thumb|220px|Final division of Lothar's domains, under the [[Treaty of Meerssen]] in 870]]

His son, [[Hugh, Duke of Alsace|Hugh]], by Waldrada, was declared illegitimate, so his heir was his brother, [[Louis II of Italy]]. As Louis was at that time campaigning against the [[Emirate of Bari]], his kingdom was divided by and between his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the German by the [[Treaty of Meerssen]].

==Descendants==
Lothair II had some sons and probably three daughters, all by Waldrada, and all of whom were declared illegitimate:

* [[Hugh, Duke of Alsace|Hugh]] ({{c.}} 855 – 895), [[Duke of Alsace]] (867–885)
* Gisela (c. 865 – 908), who in 883 married [[Godfrid, Duke of Frisia|Godfrey]], the [[Viking]] leader ruling in [[Frisia]], who was murdered in 885, and married secondly [[Dietrich of Ringelheim]]
* [[Bertha, daughter of Lothair II|Bertha]] (c. 863 – 925), who married Count [[Theobald of Arles|Theobald]] of [[Arles]] (c. 854 – 895), nephew of Teutberga. They had two sons [[Hugh of Italy]] and [[Boso of Tuscany]]. After Theobald's death, between 895 and 898 she married [[Adalbert II of Tuscany]] (c. 875 – 915).<ref name=wickham>{{cite book | first=Chris | last=Wickham | authorlink=Chris Wickham |year=1990 | title=Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000 | publisher=University of Michigan Press | isbn=0-472-08099-7 |pages=59–60 }}</ref> They had at least three children: [[Guy of Tuscany|Guy]],<ref>Townsend, Geo (1847) ''Ecclesiastical and Civil History Philosophically Considered'', Vol. II, p. 157</ref> who succeeded his father as count and duke of [[Lucca]] and margrave of [[Tuscany]]; [[Lambert, Margrave of Tuscany|Lambert]], who succeeded his brother in 929 but lost the titles in 931 to his half-brother Boso of Tuscany, and Ermengard.
* Ermengarde (d. 90?)
* Odo (d. c. 879){{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

==References==
{{Commons category|Lothair II of Lotharingia}}
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{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}}
* {{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}}
* {{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}}
* {{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}}
* {{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}}
* [[Hincmar]], "Opusculum de divortio Lotharii regis et Tetbergae reginae," in ''[[Patrologia Latina|Cursus completus patrologiae]]'', tome cxxv., edited by [[Jacques Paul Migne|J. P. Migne]] (Paris, 1857–79)
* M. Sdralek, ''Hinkmars von Rheims Kanonistisches Gutachten uber die Ehescheidung des Königs Lothar II'' (Freiburg, 1881)
{{refend}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Carolingian dynasty]]||835|8 August|869}}
{{s-reg|}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Lothair I]]|as=king of Middle Francia}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[King of Lotharingia]]|years=23 September 855 – 8 August 869}}
{{s-non|reason=Kingdom divided<br>between [[Louis the German]]<br>and [[Charles the Bald]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Carolingians footer}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lothair 02 Of Lotharingia}}
[[Category:Kings of Lotharingia]]
[[Category:Frankish warriors]]
[[Category:835 births]]
[[Category:869 deaths]]
[[Category:Sons of emperors]]
[[Category:9th-century Lotharingian people]]
[[Category:Monarchs of the Carolingian Empire]]