General Notes

[jweber.ged]

Called The Pious (778-840), Holy Roman emperor (814-40), king of France (814-40), king of Germany (814-40), and king of Aquitaine (781-840). He was the son of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. In 817 Louis made plans providing for the posthumous division of the Carolingian Empire among his three surviving sons, Lothair I, Holy Roman emperor, Louis II, king of Germany, and Charles II, Holy Roman emperor. His reign, however, was troubled by quarrels with his sons, who were dissatisfied with his arrangements for the succession. Louis was physically strong but was easily influenced and was unequal to administering the large empire that he inherited from his father.

In 781, at age 2, Louis I, "Le Pieux", was crowned and anointed King of Aquitaine by Pope Hadrian I, at the same time as his older brother Pepin was made King of Italy. Louis, whose twin brother had died at birth, was the third of Charlemagne's sons by his wife Hildegard. The Diviso Regni of 806indicates that Louis was to have Aquitaine as an independent kingdom upon his father's death. Aquitaine was in effect a March; for much of Louis' reign as sub-king he and his officials were occupied in quelling Gascon revolts and launching offensives into Spain. Unrest had never completely died out in the Pyrenees since the annexation of Aquitaine in 768, and more especially after the disastrous ambush of the Frankish vanguard in Roncesvalles in 778. In about 788, Chorso, Duke of Toulouse was captured by a Gascon named Adelric, and then released after being forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the Gascon or Basque leader. In 793, the Sarracens invaded Septimania, burned the suburbs of Narbonne and marched on Carcassonne, but in 795 Bahlul-ben-Machluc sued with Louis for peace. In 800, he successfully laid siege to Barcelona and subsequently captured Tortosa, Huesca and Pamplona and formed links with the Kingdom of the Asturias. Baptized: on 15 Apr 781; On 15 April 781, Louis was baptized by Pope Hadrian I in Rome. The next day, Easter Sunday, he was confirmed in his title of King of Aquitaine. Married in 794: Ermengarde d'Esbay, daughter of Engueran=Ingram, Count d'Esbay.

Note - between 800 and 837: Louis I established monasteries in Nouaille (a cell of St. Hilaire of Poitiers), Gellone and St. Martin-de-Tours.

After the death of his brothers Pepin and Charles in 810 and 811 respectively, Louis was crowned at Aachen on 13 September 813, Emperor and heir to all of Charlemagne's lands, by Charlemagne himself without any assistance nor even the presence of the Pope. All sources, Frankish as well as papal, refer to Louis as emperor from then on.  Charlemagne died 5 months later. All of Louis' sisters were required to quit the palace and retire to their own estates.  His cousins, the offsprings of Bernard (Pepin III's half brother) were exhiled: Louis forced Count Wala to become a monk at Corbie; Adalhard was exhiled to Noirmoutier to be held there in custody by the Abbot; Bernhard returned to Lerin and Gundrada had to retreat to St. Radegund's convent of Sainte Croix in Poitiers. Only Theodrada was left unmolested as abbess of Notre Dame at Soissons. Louis I was also known as Louis, "Le Pieux". On 27 February 814, upon learning of the death of his father, and at the age of 36 years, he left Doue-la-Fontaine, in Anjou, to go to Aix-la-Chapelle.

This new emperor, enterred this capital, and poised himself in front of the tomb of Charlemagne. So oversome with grief, his forehead touched the stone floor of the church. Hence the name "Le Pieux". Since he was kind, relative to his times, he was also known as "Le Debonnaire". For himself, he preferred to adopt the title "by divine Providence, Emperor Augustus". When Pope Leo died in May of 816, Stephen IV was elected Pope, and crowned Louis the Emperor on Sunday 5 October by placing a crown on his head during mass at Rheims. He also secured the release of some Roman exhiles in Francia. This crowning was among the first attempts to integrate the Papacy into the institutional framework of the Empire. Louis, 'lest he be led astray in satisfying the natural desires of the body' married Ermengarde, daughter of Count Ingramn. Charlemagne established Doue-la-Fontaine, Chasseneuil (Louis' birthplace), Angeac and Ebreuil as royal residences to maintain Louis and his household. At an assembly in Aachen in July 817, Louis made provisions for his sons' inheritance through the "Ordinatio Imperii". In his preface he states that the unity of the empire preserved for Louis by God should not be destroyed by men. Lothar was given the title of emperor, and as co-ruler with his father at once made heir to the empire, and appointed King of Italy in the event of his father's death. Bernard, then King of Italy was not mentioned, but the implication is that Bernard would be subordinate to Lothar should Louis die. Pepin was made King of Aquitaine (plus Gascony, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Autun, Avallon and Nevers) and Louis, The German, was made King of Bavaria (plus Carinthia, Bohemia, the lands of the Avars and Slavs and the royal manors of Lauterhofen and Ingolstadt). Pepin and Louis were to meet on an annual basis with Lothar to consult and together find "measures to take in the interest of perpetual peace". They could neither start a war nor marry without the approval of their elder brother. Lothar even had the right to de-throne them after three warnings. That same year, 817, Stephen IV obtains his political independence, thus severing the tie between Rome and the Frank Empire as conceived by Charlemagne. The arrangement was neat and all contingencies covered except for the one which took place. After his first wife's (Ermengarde) death, Louis, in 819, married the beautiful Bavarian Judith, daughter of Comte Welf of Bavaria. On 13 June 823 she gave birth to a son. He was called Charles. In September, 824, forgetting his nickname "Le Debonnaire", Louis totally ravages the Bretagne which was rebelling. In 829, at the General Assembly convoked in Worms (Wurm), Louis announces that he is forging a Duchy for his son, Charles, and gives him Alamania, Alsace, Rhetia, and part of Burgundy. The Co-Emperor Lothar, disagrees and has his name removed from imperial decrees and diplomas. Toward the end of 829, the political scene gets very complicated with allegations that Judith had intimate rapports with Bernard, Count of Barcelone, and ultimately desiring the death of the three sons of Hirmingarde. In Mai of 830, in Compiegne, Lothar and Pepin of Aquitaine lead a revolt. Louis is forced to cede on every point of contention. The apanage of the young Charles is eliminated, Judith is locked up in Poitiers at the Monastery of Sainte-Radegonde. In 831, the bishops would note how she had a talent for converting men's hearts and souls, and would allow her to rejoin her husband. In 832, Pepin and Louis revolt against their father. On 24 June 833, the Army of Louis Le Pieux faces those of the rebels. The field of battle in Rothfeld would be named the Field of the Lie (Lugenfeld). The Emperor and his sons begin negotiations. The night of 29 to 30 June, it is clear that the supporters of Louis would be influenced by his three sons. On the morning of 30 June, Louis would have to surrender. It would not be until 1 October that Louis would be deposed by the Assembly led by Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon and Eblon, Archbishop of Reims. On 7 October, Judith is sent to the Monastery of Tortone, Bernard to Prum, and Louis to the Monastery of Saint-Medard-de-Soissons, where in public ceremony, he is forced to lay down his sword, stripped of royal vestments, he is made to don the coarse cloth of a penitent. In 834, Louis and Pepin, tired of being under the control of their brother Lothar, decide to free their father. On 28 February, they succeed in freeing their father and in August in Blois, Lothar swears to Louis Le Pieux, that he would never leave Italy except by his direct command. Throughout 834, the Normands -- Danes, Swedes and Norwegians -- resume their raids. On 28 February 835, the General Assembly proclaims that Louis was innocent of all previous accusations thus clearing the way for him to be re-established as Emperor on the Throne at Saint-Stephen of Metz.

In 837, thanks to the intercessions of Judith, Charles "Le Chauve", receives a Kingdom composed of Frisia, between the Seine, the Meuse and the sea and in September 838, he receives the crown at Quierzy-sur-Oise. In 838, Marseille is devastated by the Sarrasins. On 30 May 839, the Empire is divided in half, with Lothar taking the East, and Charles' lands extend through Provence, Lyon, Toul and Geneva and all the lands of the West. Louis "the German", gets to keep only Bavaria. Married in 819: Judith de Baviere (3628), daughter of Welf II, Count de Baviere and Egilwich=Heilwig, Abbess de Challes ; Louis married Judith upon the death of his first wife, Ermengarde. She bore him a son named Charles in 823. It is clear that Louis was as fond of Charles as Jacob was of his Benjamin. Died: on 22 Jun 840 in Ingelheim, Germany, at age 61 In 840, while attempting to keep Louis "the German" in line, Louis "Le Pieux" is taken ill in Salz. Feeling near death, he sends Lothar his sword and the crown on the condition that he would be loyal to Judith and abide by the lands division agreed to in Worms in 839. He died on an island, near Ingelheim on 22 June. 309. Judith de Baviere (Andre Roux: Scrolls, 191.)

(Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 130, Line 171-40.)
(Rosamond, Frankish kingdom under Carolingians, Page 136).

Married Name: de France. Born: circa 800 in Altdorf, Bavaria, daughter of Welf II, Count de Baviere (3626) and Egilwich=Heilwig, Abbess de Challes . Married in 819: Louis I, King de France , son of Charlemagne, Rex Francorum et Langobardorum and Hildegard, Countess de Linzgau ; Louis married Judith upon the death of his first wife, Ermengarde. She bore him a son named Charles in 823. It is clear that Louis was as fond of Charles as Jacob was of his Benjamin. Died: on 19 Apr 843 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, France.

Data Sources:
     Royal 92 Gedcom
     Brøderbund World Family Tree #4, Pedigree #3982

Created by:
Pat Adams
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Louis the Pious (778 <../../7/77/778.html> - June 20 <../../j/ju/june_20.html>, 840 <../../8/84/840.html>) (also German <../../g/ge/german_language.html>: Ludwig der Fromme and French <../../f/fr/french_language.html>: Louis le Pieux or Louis le Débonnaire) was Emperor and King of the Franks <../../f/fr/franks.html> from 814 <../../8/81/814.html> to 840 <../../8/84/840.html>.
Born in Casseuil-sur-Garonne, in today's Gironde <../../g/gi/gironde.html>, France <../../f/fr/france_1.html>, the second son of Charlemagne <../../c/ch/charlemagne.html>, Louis was crowned king <../../m/mo/monarch.html> of Aquitaine <../../a/aq/aquitaine.html> as a child and sent there with regents <../../r/re/regent.html> and a court to rule in order to quiet rebellions which were forming after Charlemagne <../../c/ch/charlemagne.html>'s defeat by the Moors <../../m/mo/moors.html> in Spain <../../s/sp/spain.html>.
When Charlemagne <../../c/ch/charlemagne.html>'s other sons Pepin (810 <../../8/81/810.html>) and Charles (811 <../../8/81/811.html>) died, he was crowned co-emperor with Charlemagne in 813 <../../8/81/813.html>. On his father's death in 814 <../../8/81/814.html>, he inherited the entire Frankish kingdom and all its possessions. He was crowned emperor by Pope <../../p/po/pope.html> Stephen V <../../p/po/pope_stephen_v.html> in Reims <../../r/re/reims.html> in 816 <../../8/81/816.html>. Louis used Benedict of Aniane <../../b/be/benedict_of_aniane.html>, a Septimanian Visigothic <../../v/vi/visigoth.html> nobleman and monastic founder to help him reform the Frankish church. One of Benedict's primary reforms was to ensure that all religious houses in Louis' realm adhered to the Rule of St Benedict <../../r/ru/rule_of_st_benedict_1.html>, named for its creator, Benedict <../../b/be/benedict.html> of Nursia (AD 480 <../../4/48/480.html>-550 <../../5/55/550.html>).
Like most Frankish men Louis, who was the second son of Charlemagne, expected to share his inheritance with his brothers Charles the Younger and Pepin. However, both of them died before he did - Charles in battle and Pepin subsequent to his blinding and confinement after joining in a revolt against his father - and Louis inherited the Frankish empire intact.
Louis laid out plans to divide his empire between his three sons from his first marriage with Ermengarde: Lothar <../../l/lo/lothar.html> (who received the title of co-emperor), Pippin of Aquitaine and Louis the German <../../l/lo/louis_the_german.html>. He then remarried with Judith of Bavaria and had a fourth son, Charles the Bald <../../c/ch/charles_the_bald.html>. The redivision of the empire to take Charles into account caused his older sons to revolt in 822. After a settlement, Lothar rebelled again in 830. This pattern continued until Louis' death in 840.
After the Battle of Fontenay (841) <../../b/ba/battle_of_fontenay__841_.html> and the Oath of Strasbourg <../../o/oa/oath_of_strasbourg.html>, the dispute was only settled with the Treaty of Verdun <../../t/tr/treaty_of_verdun.html> (843) which split the Frankish realm into three parts, the kernels of later France <../../f/fr/france_1.html> and Germany <../../g/ge/germany_2.html>.

Data Sources:
     Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants
     Volume I, by Marcellus Donald Alexander R. von Redlich
          King of Franks, Emperor of the West
          AKA: le Debonnaire

     Brøderbund World Family Tree #8, Pedigree #1525
          Emperor of the West

     Brøderbund World Family Tree #8, Pedigree #1725
     Brøderbund World Family Tree #8, Pedigree #2216

     Churchyard/Orr Family Museum - Chart of Lineal Ancestors
     of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault
               Holy Roman Emperor

     Gedcom G419
          Submitted to Broderbund by:
               Robert W. McGahuey
               203 Willowbrook Court
               Winchester, VA  22602
               (540) 723-8974

     Imperium Forum on the Net www.ghgcorp.com/shelter/oldimp
          King of Aquitaine  781-814
          Co-Emperor  813-814
          King of the Franks (French)  814-840
          Frankish Emperor  814-840

          Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine (subkingdom to Franks) in 781 to
          slow rebellion after Charlemagne's defeat in Spain by the Saracen Moslems.
          In 793, the Saracens invaded Aquitaine under their Caliph Hisham.  In 795 the
          Spanish march was created with William as its Count.  The next year, King
          Louis and Count William defeated the Saracens and secured the Frankish
          held areas of NE Spain.  They continued to fight the Saracens until 813, when
          all of Navarre was conquered by William and Louis.

          In 806 Charlemagne wrote in his will that his sons Louis, Charles (co-King
          of the Franks), and Pepin (King of Italy) would divide the Empire on his death.
          Pepin died in 810 and Charles followed in 811.  In 813 Byzantine nobles came
          to Charlemagne to recognize him as Emperor (he was 69 years old), and so he
          ordered Louis to come from Aquitaine to be crowned co-Emperor and be
          designated as his successor.  When Charlemagne died in 814, Louis suc-
          ceeded to all thrones.

          Louis the Pious became Frankish Emperor in 814 with no rivals to the throne.
          He had three sons, Lothar, Pepin and Louis.  In 817, Lothar was made co-
          Emperor with his father and King of Italy to replace Bernard, Pepin made
          King of Aquitaine, and Louis made King of Bavaria.  In 823, Louis had another
          son, Charles, this one by a new wife (the mother of the three brothers had
          died).  Louis tried desperately t work Charles in as a successor, but the
          three brothers fought him every time he tried to reform his will.  After much
          conflict, Emperor Louis dropped Lothar's imperial title, and had Judith, the
          mother of Charles, sent off to a nunnery.  By 831, Louis had regained his
          power, brought back his wife and again dropped Lothar's titles, this time
          all of them, and refused him to return to court ever again without permission.
          That year Pepin revolted.  In 832, Louis of Bavaria joined pepin, and the
          Emperor Louis declared Pepin deposed of all royal titles but he had no
          power to enforce this declaration, so Pepin continued to rule. In 833, the
          three again attached with support from Louis' own generals and from Pope
         Gregory IV himself.  They imprisoned their father and brother, and exiled
         Judith to Italy under watch of Lothar, and Louis and Pepin gained territory.
          The next year, however, Louis and Pepin released their father and brother,
          brought back his wife, and peace was made.  In 835, Louis was re-crowned
          Emperor with great pomp.  Pepin died in 838, and while Louis tried to have
          Charles crowned king in Aquitaine, the nobles crowned Pepin's son Pepin II.
          Neither had the authority to rule in the country.  In 840, Louis the pious died,
          and the three surviving brothers began a civil war for the division of the
          Empire.  Peace was finally made in 843.

Source: Frederick Lewis Weis & Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., Ancestral Rootsof certain American colonists..., (Edition 7, Genealogical PublishingCompany, Baltimore, 1992), 140-14.

Emperor of the West (814/40), son and successor of Charlemagne. He wascrowned king of Aquitaine in 781 and co-emperor with his father in 813.His court was a learned one; his advisers included Benedict of Aniane. Atthe Assembly of Aachen (817) he issued an imperial order that sought topreserve the unity of the empire by breaking with tradition and notdividing the empire among his heirs.

He thus made his eldest son, Lothair I, co-emperor and gave Aquitaine andBavaria to his sons Pepin I and Louis the German. Louis's attempts tocreate a kingdom for Charles (later Emperor of the West Charles II), hisson by a second marriage, provoked several revolts by his older sons. In822, Louis repented publicly for his persecution of the rebels.

In 830, Lothair rebelled and became virtually sole ruler of the empire.However, Pepin and Louis the German, fearing Lothair's supremacy, soonrestored their father to power. Another revolt by all three sons occurredin 833. Louis met the rebels near Colmar on a field known since then asthe Field of Lies (Ger. Lügenfeld) because of the general defection ofthe imperial troops. Louis, compelled to surrender, was formally deposed,and Lothair became sole emperor. Yet in 834, Louis the German and Pepinonce more joined against Lothair and restored Louis. Later he partitionedhis empire between Lothair and Charles and died while attempting touphold the partition against the Aquitanians and Louis the German.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition Copyright ♭1993

Louis I (Holy Roman Empire), called The Pious (778-840), Holy Romanemperor (814-840), king of France (814-840), king of Germany (814-840),and king of Aquitaine (781-840). He was the son and sole successor ofCharlemagne. In 817 Louis made plans for an orderly succession among hissons: Lothair I, Louis II (Louis the German), and Pepin of Aquitaine.Later he wanted to include in the succession Charles II (Charles theBald), his son by a second marriage. Dissatisfied, his older sonsrebelled (830, 833) against him and fought among themselves for supremacyas well. Pepin died in 838, and in 843 the empire was divided among thethree surviving brothers (Verdun, Treaty of).

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