Charles the Younger or Charles of Ingelheim (c. 772 – 4 December 811) was a member of the
Carolingian dynasty, the second son of
Charlemagne and the first by his second wife,
Hildegard of Swabia and brother of
Louis the Pious and
Pepin Carloman. When Charlemagne divided his empire among his sons, his son Charles was designated
King of the Franks
The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who con ...
.
Life
His eldest half-brother,
Pippin the Hunchback, had been sent to the monastery of
Prüm
Prüm () is a town in the Westeifel (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Prüm.
Geography
Prüm lies on the river Prüm (a tri ...
in 792 after having been involved in a rebellion against their father, Charlemagne.
Of his younger brothers,
Carloman (renamed
Pippin) and
Louis the Pious, were appointed sub-kings of
Italy and
Aquitaine.
Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who rebelled on at least two occasions and were easily put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. Charles' father outlived him, however, and the entire kingdom thus went to his younger brother Louis the Pious, Pippin also having died.
Around 789, it was suggested by Charlemagne that Charles the Younger should be married to
Offa's daughter
Ælfflæd Ælfflæd is a name of Anglo-Saxon England meaning Ælf (Elf) and flæd (beauty). It may refer to:
* Saint Ælfflæd of Whitby (654–714)
* Ælfflæd of Mercia, daughter of Offa, wife of King Æthelred I of Northumbria
* Ælfflæd, wife of Edwar ...
. Offa insisted that the marriage could only go ahead if Charlemagne's daughter Bertha was married to Offa's son
Ecgfrith Ecgfrith ( ang, Ecgfrið) was the name of several Anglo-Saxon kings
The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in ...
. Charlemagne took offence, broke off contact, and closed his ports to English traders.
Eventually, normal relations were reestablished and the ports were reopened. Just a few years later, in 796, Charlemagne and Offa concluded the first commercial treaty known in English history.
His father associated Charles in the government of
Francia and
Saxony in 790, and installed him as ruler of the ''ducatus Cenomannicus'' (corresponding to the later
Duchy of Maine) with the title of king. Charles was crowned
King of the Franks
The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who con ...
at Rome 25 December, 800, the same day his father was crowned Emperor.
He killed
Sorbian duke
Miliduch and Slavic
Knez,
Nussito (''
Nessyta'') near modern-day
Weißenfels in a
Frankish campaign in 806.
On 4 December 811, in
Bavaria, Charles had a stroke and died. He left no children. In the
Matter of France
The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French '' chan ...
, Charles is fictionalized as
Charlot.
References
{{Authority control
Monarchs of the Carolingian Empire
Frankish warriors
Children of Charlemagne
770s births
811 deaths
Dukes of Maine
8th-century Frankish nobility
Carolingian dynasty
Sons of emperors