The Treaty of Verdun, signed in August 843, was the first of the
treaties that divided the
Carolingian Empire

Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms among
the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, who was the son of
Charlemagne. The treaty, signed in Verdun-sur-Meuse, ended the
three-year Carolingian Civil War.
Contents
1 Background
2 Provisions
3 Legacy
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links
Background[edit]
Following Charlemagne's death, Louis was made ruler of the Carolingian
empire. During his reign, he divided the empire so that each of his
sons could rule over their own kingdom under the greater rule of their
father.
Lothair I

Lothair I was given the title of emperor but because of
several re-divisions by his father and the resulting revolts, he
became much less powerful. When
Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious died in 840, his
eldest son, Lothair I, claimed overlordship over the entirety of his
father's kingdom in an attempt to reclaim the power he had had at the
beginning of his reign as emperor.[1] He also supported his nephew,
Pepin II's claim to Aquitaine, a large province in the west of the
Frankish realm. Lothair's brother, Louis the German, and his
half-brother
Charles the Bald

Charles the Bald refused to acknowledge Lothair's
suzerainty and declared war against him.[1] After a bloody civil war,
they defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenay in 841 and sealed
their alliance in 842 with the
Oaths of Strasbourg
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Oaths of Strasbourg which declared
Lothair unfit for the imperial throne, after which he became willing
to negotiate a settlement.
Provisions[edit]
Each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom:
Lothair in the Kingdom of Italy;
Louis the German

Louis the German in Kingdom of
Bavaria; and
Charles the Bald

Charles the Bald in the Kingdom of Aquitaine.
Lothair I

Lothair I received Middle Francia, the central portion of the empire.
In the settlement, Lothair (who had been named co-emperor in 817)
retained his title as emperor as well as the imperial title, but it
conferred only nominal overlordship of his brothers' lands.[2]
His domain later became the Low Countries, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy,
Provence, and the Kingdom of
Italy

Italy (which covered the northern half of
the Italian Peninsula). He also received the two imperial cities,
Aachen

Aachen and Rome.
Louis the German

Louis the German received the
East Francia

East Francia portion of the empire.
He was guaranteed the kingship of all lands to the east of the Rhine
and to the north and east of Italy, called East Francia. It eventually
became the High Medieval Kingdom of Germany, the largest component of
the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles the Bald

Charles the Bald received the
West Francia

West Francia portion of the empire,
which later became the Kingdom of France.
Pepin II was granted the Kingdom of Aquitaine, but only under the
authority of Charles. Charles received all lands west of the Rhône,
called West Francia.
After Lothair's death in 855,
Upper Burgundy

Upper Burgundy and
Lower Burgundy

Lower Burgundy (Arles
and Provence) passed to his third son, Charles of Provence, and the
remaining territory north of the
Alps

Alps to his second son, Lothair II,
after whom the hitherto nameless territory was called Lotharingia. It
would then become modern Lorraine. Lothair's eldest son, Louis II,
inherited
Italy

Italy and his father's claim to the Imperial throne.
Legacy[edit]
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The division reflected an adherence to the old Frankish custom of
partible or divisible inheritance amongst a ruler's sons, rather than
primogeniture (i.e., inheritance by the eldest son) which would soon
be adopted by both Frankish kingdoms.
The division of the Frankish realm by the Treaty of Verdun, carried
out without any regard to linguistic and cultural continuities,
resulted in conflicts in
Western Europe

Western Europe until the 20th century.[3]
Since the
Middle Frankish Kingdom

Middle Frankish Kingdom combined lengthy and vulnerable land
borders with poor internal communications as it was severed by the
Alps, it was not a viable entity and soon fragmented. This made it
difficult for a single ruler to reassemble Charlemagne's empire. Only
Charles the Fat

Charles the Fat achieved this briefly.
In 855, the northern section became fragile Lotharingia, which became
disputed by the more powerful states that evolved out of West Francia
(i.e., France) and
East Francia

East Francia (i.e., Germany). Generations of kings
of
France

France and
Germany

Germany were unable to establish a firm rule over
Lothair’s kingdom.[4] While the north of
Lotharingia

Lotharingia was then
composed of independent countries, the southern third of Lotharingia,
Alsace-Lorraine, was traded back and forth between
France

France and Germany
from the 18th to the 20th century. In 1766, it passed to
France

France after
the death of Stanislaw Leszcyznski, who had acquired the region from
the German Habsburgs by the
Treaty of Vienna (1738) ending the War of
Polish Succession (1733-1738). In 1871,
Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine became German,
after the victory of
Prussia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Prussia_(1892-1918).svg.png)
Prussia and its German allies over the French in
the
Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). In 1919, it became French again
by the
Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles (1919), following the French victory over
the Germans in
World War I

World War I (1914-1918). In 1940,
Germany

Germany reannexed
Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine following Germany's successful invasion of France.
Finally, in 1945, after
World War II

World War II (1939-1945),
Alsace-Lorraine

Alsace-Lorraine was
solidified as French territory, which it remains to this day, more
than a thousand years after the Treaty of Verdun. The collapse of the
Middle Frankish Kingdom

Middle Frankish Kingdom also compounded the disunity of the Italian
Peninsula, which persisted into the 19th century.
See also[edit]
Oaths of Strasbourg
Treaty of Prüm

Treaty of Prüm (855)
Treaty of Meerssen

Treaty of Meerssen (870)
Treaty of Ribemont

Treaty of Ribemont (880)
Notes[edit]
^ a b "What was the Treaty of Verdun?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved
2017-05-15.
^ Friedrich Heer, The Holy Roman Empire, pg. 20
^ "Codoh.com The Significance of the
Treaty of Verdun

Treaty of Verdun and the
Emergence of the German Reich". codoh.com. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
^ "Treaty of Verdun: 843". www.thenagain.info. Retrieved
2017-05-15.
External links[edit]
Media related to
Treaty of Verdun

Treaty of Verdun at Wikimedia Commons
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