LOTHAIR I, MEDIEVAL EMPEROR

Reigned: 817–855. b. 795. The oldest son of Emperor Louis the Pious and a key figure, with his brothers, in the civil wars that marked both the later years of his father's reign and the period immediately following his death. In 814, Lothair was appointed king of Bavaria. In 817, his father named him co–emperor and crowned him at Aachen. In conjunction with the coronation, Louis also enacted his Ordinatio imperrii by which he designated Lothair as successor and placed the latter's younger brothers, Louis of Bavaria and Pipen of Aquitaine, under his authority. Lothair spent the years 822–825, as regent for Italy, significantly reducing the power and independence of his uncle, King Bernard of Italy (812–817), without actually displacing him. While in Italy, Lothair was also crowned emperor by Pope paschal i at Rome (823).

The Ordinatio imperii was apparently intended to preserve the unity of the empire without denying Lothair's siblings their rightful share. In fact, the orderly settlement it envisaged failed to materialize, largely because of the anxiety generated when Emperor Louis remarried and his new wife, Judith, produced yet another son and potential heir. When Judith and her supporters began pressing Louis to allocate a share in the realm to her son, Charles ("the Bald"), the elder siblings rose up in revolt (830). Lothair, whose rights appeared most threatened, took the lead in the rebellion and suffered most heavily when it failed. In the aftermath, his father undertook a new division of the realm that foresaw its division into four roughly equal kingdoms, including one for the young Charles. Lothair was to retain his Italian lands, but lost any authority over his brothers' lands, now under-stood to be independent realms. This new settlement failed to calm the underlying discontent among the brothers, however, who continued to conspire and vie for greater power and influence. In 833, with Lothair in the lead, the elder siblings rebelled again. This time, they also enjoyed the support of Pope gregory iv, but were defeated nonetheless. Lothair continued his resistance, although he was effectively restricted to his Italian lands.

In the civil war that followed the death of Louis the Pious (840), Lothair laid claim to all the rights originally bestowed upon him by the Ordinatio imperrii of 817. Any chance of realizing that claim, however, was effectively ended by his crushing defeat at the battle of Fontenoy (July 25, 841). After much negotiation, the brothers concluded the Treaty of Verdun (August 843), a permanent arrangement whereby Lothair retained the title of emperor (though with no authority over his brothers) and rulership over a middle kingdom stretching from Frisia in the north to Sicily in the south. Lothair's territories included the imperial capitals of aachen and rome. In the period following the Treaty of Verdun, fraternal cooperation and the ideal, at least, of unity were maintained through regular meetings between the now more or less equally ranked monarchs. Although there is no reason to think that Lothair's middle kingdom was doomed to failure, it did suffer heavily from external invasions. From 845 on, the northern part of the realm suffered annual attacks by the Vikings, while the Saracens attacked Italy. Lothair delegated the government of Italy to his eldest son, Louis II, whom he also elevated to the rank of co–emperor (850). His younger sons, Charles and Lothair II, received Provence and Lotharingia, respectively. In 855, Lothair I retired to the monastery of Prüm where he died on September 29.

Bibliography: e. hlawitschka, Vom Frankenreich zur Formierung der europäischen Staaten—und Völkergemeinschaft, 840–1046 (Darmstadt 1986) 75–80. p. richÉ The Carolingians, A Family Who Forged Europe (Philadelphia 1983) 141–196. j. nelson, "The Frankish Kingdoms, 814–898: The West," New Cambrige Medieval History 2. ed. r. mckitterick (Cambridge 1995) 110–l41. j. fried "The Frankish Kingdoms, 817–911: The East and Middle Kingdom," ibid 142–68.

[d. a. warner]