Louis the Child (893 – 20/24 September 911), sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of
East Francia
East Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the East Franks () was a successor state of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided t ...
from 899 until his death and was also recognized as king of
Lotharingia
Lotharingia ( la, regnum Lotharii regnum Lothariense Lotharingia; french: Lotharingie; german: Reich des Lothar Lotharingien Mittelreich; nl, Lotharingen) was a short-lived medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. As a more durable ...
after 900. He was the last East Frankish ruler of the
Carolingian dynasty
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
. He succeeded his father,
Arnulf, in East Francia and his elder illegitimate half-brother
Zwentibold
Zwentibold (''Zventibold'', ''Zwentibald'', ''Swentiboldo'', ''Sventibaldo'', ''Sanderbald''; – 13 August 900), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was the illegitimate son of Emperor Arnulf.Collins 1999, p. 360 In 895, his father granted h ...
in Lotharingia.
Louis became king when he was six and reigned until his death aged 17 or 18. During his reign the country was ravaged by
Magyar raids.
Life
Louis was born in September or October 893 in
Altötting
Altötting (, Bavarian: ; ''Oidäding'') is a town in Bavaria, capital of the district Altötting of Germany. For 500 years it has been the scene of religious pilgrimages by Catholics in honor of Mary, including a visit by Pope John Paul II i ...
,
Duchy of Bavaria
The Duchy of Bavaria (German: ''Herzogtum Bayern'') was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (''duces'') under Fr ...
. He was the only legitimate son of king
Arnulf of Carinthia and his wife,
Ota, a member of the
Conradine dynasty. He had at least two brothers: his elder, illegitimate brother
Zwentibold
Zwentibold (''Zventibold'', ''Zwentibald'', ''Swentiboldo'', ''Sventibaldo'', ''Sanderbald''; – 13 August 900), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was the illegitimate son of Emperor Arnulf.Collins 1999, p. 360 In 895, his father granted h ...
, who ruled
Lotharingia
Lotharingia ( la, regnum Lotharii regnum Lothariense Lotharingia; french: Lotharingie; german: Reich des Lothar Lotharingien Mittelreich; nl, Lotharingen) was a short-lived medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. As a more durable ...
, and another brother named
Ratold, who briefly ruled the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
. Ratold's maternity and age are unknown.
East Francia
Louis was crowned in
Forchheim
Forchheim () is a town in Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) in northern Bavaria, and also the seat of the administrative district of Forchheim. Forchheim is a former royal city, and is sometimes called the Gateway to the Franconian Switz ...
on 4 February 900. This is the earliest East Frankish royal coronation about which records are known to exist. Louis was of a weak personal constitution, often sick, and due to his young age, the reins of government were entirely in the hands of others - the nobles and bishops. Indeed, the coronation was probably a result of the fact that there was little Louis could gain at the expense of the nobles.
The most influential of Louis's councillors were
Hatto I
Hatto I (c. 850 – 15 May 913) was Archbishop of Mainz (Mayence) from 891 until his death.
Hatto belonged to a Swabian family, and was probably educated at the monastery of Reichenau, of which he became abbot in 888. He was also abbot of Ellwan ...
and
Solomon III (bishop of Constance)
Solomon III (died 919) was the Bishop of Constance from 890 to his death. In 885, the Emperor Charles III made him archchancellor of the Empire, for Konstanz was then the greatest diocese in Swabia, which had been Charles' original kingdom and ...
. It was these two who assured that the royal court decided in favour of the
Conradines against the
Babenberger
The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...
s in the matter of the
Duchy of Franconia
The Duchy of Franconia (german: Herzogtum Franken) was one of the five stem duchies of East Francia and the medieval Kingdom of Germany emerging in the early 10th century. The word Franconia, first used in a Latin charter of 1053, was applied l ...
. They appointed Louis's nephew,
Conrad as a duke. In 903 the
Raffelstetten customs regulations
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2020
Raffelstetten Customs Regulations (Latin: ''Inquisitio de theloneis Raffelstettensis'', literally: "Inquisition on the Raffelstetten Tolls"), is the only legal document regulating customs in Early Medieval Europ ...
were promulgated under Louis' reign, the first customs regulations in the East Frankish part of Europe.
Lotharingia
Louis succeeded Zwentibold in 900. He maintained a separate chancery for East Francia and Lotharingia, the latter under Archbishop
Radbod of Trier
Radbod (or Ratbod) (died 915) was the Archbishop of Trier from 883 until his death. Under the last Carolingians he obtained a great deal of benefits and converted the archdiocese of Trier into one of the most powerful institutions in Germany.
In ...
. He appointed an East Frank,
Gebhard, as
duke of Lotharingia
The rulers of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were kings of t ...
, alienating the Lotharingian nobility. The latter did not participate in East Frankish assemblies.
Magyar invasions
In 900, during the
Hungarian invasions of Europe
The Hungarian invasions of Europe ( hu, kalandozások, german: Ungarneinfälle) took place in the 9th and 10th centuries,
the period of transition in the history of Europe in the Early Middle Ages, when the territory of the former Carolingian Em ...
, the
Magyar army ravaged Bavaria. Another group of Magyars were defeated by
Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria
Luitpold (or Liutpold) (modern ''Leopold'') (died 4 July 907), perhaps of the Huosi family or related to the Carolingian dynasty by Liutswind, mother of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia, was the ancestor of the Luitpolding dynasty which ruled Bavaria ...
and Bishop
Richer of Passau. In 901 they devastated the
Duchy of Carinthia
The Duchy of Carinthia (german: Herzogtum Kärnten; sl, Vojvodina Koroška) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial Sta ...
. In 904 Louis invited
Kurszán
Kurszán (died 904), was a kende of the Magyars in the dual leadership with Árpád serving as a gyula - according to a mainstream theory. While ''kende'' probably corresponded roughly to the Khazar title ''khagan'', Kurszán's role equated to the ...
, the
kende
The ''kende'' (or ''kündü'') was one of the kings of the dual-monarchy of the early Hungarians along with the '' gyula'' or war-chief. The function of the ''kende'' is believed to have been a religious one ("sacral prince").Victor SpineiThe Grea ...
of the
Magyars, to negotiations, but killed him and his delegation. In 906 Magyars twice ravaged the
Duchy of Saxony
The Duchy of Saxony ( nds, Hartogdom Sassen, german: Herzogtum Sachsen) was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the C ...
. In 907 they inflicted a heavy defeat on the Bavarians who had invaded Hungary, killing the Margrave Luitpold and many high nobles in the
Battle of Pressburg
The Battle of Pressburg (german: Schlacht von Pressburg) or Battle of Pozsony ( hu, Pozsonyi csata), or Battle of Bratislava ( sk, Bitka pri Bratislave) was a three-day-long battle, fought between 4–6 July 907, during which the East Francian arm ...
. Next year it was the turn of Saxony and Thuringia, and in 909 that of
Alemannia. On their return, however,
Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria
Arnulf II (birth unknown; died 14 July 937), also known as the Bad (german: der Schlimme), the Evil (''der Böse'') or the Wicked, a member of the Luitpolding dynasty, held the title of Duke of Bavaria from about 907 until his death in 937. He ...
inflicted a defeat on them on the river
Rott, but in 910 they, in their turn, defeated Louis the Child's army in the
Battle of Augsburg.
[Gwatking, H. M., Whitney, J. P., et al. Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III—Germany and the Western Empire.] Louis himself tried to take some military control as he grew older, but he had little success against the Magyars. His army was destroyed at
Ennsburg in 907.
Death and succession
In a state of despair, possibly afflicted by severe
depression, Louis died at
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
on 20 or 24 September 911, seventeen or eighteen years old. Louis was buried in the monastery of
Saint Emmeram's in
Regensburg
Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...
, where his father Arnulf also lay. His death brought an end to the eastern branch of the Carolingian dynasty.
In 911 the dukes of East Francia elected
Conrad of Franconia
Conrad I (; c. 881 – 23 December 918), called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as ...
, son of Gebhard, as the king, while the nobles of Lotharingia elected the Carolingian
Charles the Simple
Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...
, already king of
West Francia
In medieval history, West Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the West Franks () refers to the western part of the Frankish Empire established by Charlemagne. It represents the earliest stage of the Kingdom of France, lasting from about ...
, as their king.
See also
*
Kings of Germany family tree The following image is a family tree of every prince, king, queen, monarch, confederation president and emperor of Germany, from Charlemagne in 800 over Louis the German in 843 through to Wilhelm II in 1918. It shows how almost every single ruler of ...
*
List of Frankish kings
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 co ...
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis The Child
893 births
911 deaths
9th-century kings of East Francia
10th century kings of East Francia
9th-century dukes of Bavaria
10th-century dukes of Bavaria
People from Altötting
Kings of Bavaria
Kings of Saxony
Kings of Lotharingia
Medieval child rulers
Burials at St. Emmeram's Abbey
Sons of emperors