Lothair of France

Richard II of Normandy (right), with the Abbot of Mont Saint Michel (middle) and Lothair (left).

Lothair (French: Lothaire; Latin: Lothārius; 941 – 986), sometimes called Lothair IV, was the Carolingian king of West Francia (10 September 954 – 1 March 986), son of Louis IV and Gerberga of Saxony.

Regency

He succeeded his father in 954 at the age of thirteen and crowned at Rheims on 12 November 954 .He was at first under the guardianship of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris, who had been an adversary to his father but nonetheless was appointed guardian of the king's estates, though not as regent for the young king who assumed his royal dignities at thirteen. This gave the young Lothair the opportunity to come to know his guardian's heir, the sixteen year old Hugh Capet, before his father's death in 956; Capet later became king and founder of the Capetian Dynasty.

The beginning of his reign was occupied with wars against the vassals, particularly against the duke of Normandy, and it should be made clear that the monarch of Western Francia was more a ceremonial title, more of a first among equals status, than that state which would represent the later centralized authority meant by monarchies of later historical epochs.

In 955, Lothair and Hugh together took Poitiers by siege. Hugh died soon after and Lothair mediated between his son, the aforementioned Hugh Capet and the younger Otto Henry. The king gave Capet Paris and the ducal title, but invested Otto with the Duchy of Burgundy in 960. With young Hugh the new count of Paris et al., Lothair, now only fifteen, came under the guardianship of his maternal uncle Bruno, archbishop of Cologne.

File:France Xe s.jpg

Map of France (yellow) under Lothair, showing the region of Carolingian influence (orange) and Robertian (blue), with Lothair's offensive in Lotharingia marked (black arrows)
Blesevin lands in green.
"Barcelone" (Marca Hispanica) should be in France.

Military conflicts

In 962, Baldwin III of Flanders, son, co-ruler, and heir of Arnulf I died and Arnulf bequeathed Flanders to Lothair. On Arnulf's death in 965, Lothair invaded Flanders and took many cities, but was eventually repulsed by the supporters of Arnulf II. He temporarily remained in control of Arras and Douai.

Lothair, when thirty-seven, seems to have conceived the design of recovering Lorraine, once held by his family. He attempted to precipitate matters by a sudden attack, and in the spring of 978 nearly captured the emperor Otto II at Aachen. He took the imperial capital itself and even reversed the direction of the brazen eagle sitting atop the palace. Otto took his revenge in the autumn by invading France. He penetrated as far as Paris, devastating the country through which he passed (Soissons, Reims, and Laon), but failed to take the town, and was eventually forced to retreat with heavy loss across the Aisne, as Hugh Capet and through him, other key nobles supported Lothair.Peace was concluded in July 980 at Margut-sur-Chiers on the Chiers on the frontier of the two kingdoms,and in 983 Lothair was even chosen guardian to the young Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor when Otto II died on 7 December 983. Around 980, however, Lothair quarrelled with Hugh Capet, who, at the instigation of Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, became reconciled with Otto III, despite the defeat of his father with Capet's help.

In early January 985, he invaded the duchy of Lorrain, besieged Verdun in March and made several prisoners: Count Godefroy I, (brother of Adalberon Reims), Frederick (son of Godfrey I), Siegfried of Luxembourg (uncle Godfrey) and Thierry, Duke of Upper Lorraine (nephew of Hugh Capet).

Returning to Laon, he forced the Archbishop of Rheims to keep a garrison in Verdun to prevent the city from being taken over by the Ottonian. He also requires written to the archbishops of Trier, Mainz and Cologne, he is the true king of the Carolingian.Lothair began to suspect that the Archbishop of Rheims, friendly Ottonian and Hugh Capet, playing a double game When asked to destroy the fortifications around the monastery of Saint-Paul de Verdun. Adalberon, archbishop of Reims refuses, claiming that his soldiers, hungry, no longer able to keep the city. Furious, Lothar wants to bring justice to condemn.He convened a meeting at Compiègne for May 11 985, on the pretext that the priest had placed his nephew Adalberon on the seat of Verdun without his consent .Alerted, Duke Hugh Capet Compiegne march with 600 men and dispersed the meeting. Lothair could not afford an open war with Hugh Capet, as he would find himself caught between two fronts. He is therefore free the prisoner Lorraine withheld, but I. Godfrey prefers to stay in prison rather than give in Mons, the Hainaut and Verdun, over his son would be expelled from the bishopric.For cons, the Duke Thierry of Upper Lorraine, nephew of Hugh Capet, was released.

The rest of Lothair's reign was dominated by internal troubles which distracted him from important peripheral affairs. In 985, when the caliph of Córdoba, Al-Mansur, sacked Barcelona, Lothair offered no assistance to the Count Borrel II upon receiving his envoys at Verdun. This caused the final rift between the Hispanic March and the French crown during the reign of his successors.

Towards the end of his reign, Lothair's power seemed markedly less than that of Hugh Capet. In a letter of March or April 985, Gerbert of Aurillac wrote to the Archbishop Adalberon that "Lothair is king of France in name alone; Hugh is, however, not in name but in effect and deed." Gerbert goes on to suggest that if Adalberon wishes to free his father, held captive by Lothair, he need only warm up to Hugh by arranging an advantageous marriage alliance with Otto III. Lothair died a year after this, on 1 March 986.

Twelfth-century bust of Lothair, from the Musée Saint Rémi at Reims

Marriage and children

Lothair married Emma of Italy, daughter of Lothair II of Italy and Adelaide of Italy. Her maternal grandparents were Rudolph II of Burgundy and Bertha of Swabia.

Lothair and Emma had a son who succeeded his father as Louis V. Louis V held the office for only a single year.

Lothair also had a illegitimate son who became archbishop of Rheims, Arnulf.

Ancestry

Family of Lothair of France

16. Charles the Bald 8. Louis the Stammerer 17. Ermentrude of Orléans 4. Charles the Simple 18. Adalard of Paris 9. Adelaide of Paris 2. Louis IV of France 20. Alfred the Great 10. Edward the Elder 21. Ealhswith 5. Eadgifu of England 22. Æthelhelm 11. Ælfflæd 1. Lothair of France 24. Liudolf, Duke of Saxony 12. Otto I, Duke of Saxony 25. Oda 6. Henry the Fowler 26. Henry of Franconia 13. Hedwiga of Franconia 27. Ingeltrude of Friuli 3. Gerberga of Saxony 14. Count Dietrich of Westphalia 7. Matilda of Ringelheim 15. Reinhild

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Gwatkin, H. M., Whitney, J. P. (ed) et al. The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926.
• Lewis, Andrew W. (1981). Royal Succession in Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0 674 77985 1.