Louis
"the Pious" (Louis le Pieux, Ludwig der Fromme, Hludowicus) Louis
"the Pious" (Louis le Pieux, Ludwig der Fromme, Hludowicus)As his father's youngest legitimate son, Louis was originally granted Aquitaine, of which he was declared king by pope Hadrian I in 781, at the same time that his brother Carloman alias Pépin was declared king of Italy ["Perrexit rex Carlus Romam, et baptizatus est ibi filius eius, qui vocabatur Carlomannus; quem Adrianus papa mutato nomine vocavit Pippinum, et unxit in regem super Italiam, et fratrem eius Hludovicum super Aquitaniam." Annales Laureshamenses, s.a. 781, MGH SS 1: 31-2; ARF, s.a. 781, 56-7]. The deaths of his two elder brothers Pépin (810) and Charles (811, without issue) made him Charlemagne's principle heir, and he was declared joint emperor with his father in 813, while his nephew Bernard (Pépin's son) was declared king of Italy ["Ac deinde habito generali conventu, evocatum ad se apud Aquasgrani filium suum Hludowicum Aquitaniae regem, coronam illi inposuit et imperialis nominis sibi consortem fecit; Bernhardumque nepotem suum, filium Pippini filii sui, Italiae praefecit et regem appellari iussit." ARF, s.a. 813, MGH SS 1: 200]. The death of Charlemagne the next year left him in possession of all except Italy. In 818, the defeat and blinding of Bernard (who died three days later) added Italy to his domains. He was temporarily deposed in 833-4 and replaced as emperor by his son Lothaire when his sons Lothaire, Pépin, and Louis revolted. The empire dissolved into pieces in the wars among his sons following his death.
Date of Birth: April×September 778, during his father's
campaigns in Spain.
Place of Birth: Chasseneuil-du-Poitou, in Aquitaine.
[Vita Hludowici, c. 2-3, MGH SS 1: 607-8]
Date of Death: 20 June 840.
Place of Death: On an island in the Rhine, near Mainz.
["12. Kal. Iul. Hludowicus imperator apud
Mogonciacum obiit in insula Rheni, quae est iuxta palatium
Ingilinheim; corpus vero translatum est urbem Metensum, et
ecclesia sancti Arnolfi confessoris Christi sepultum, ubi et
Hiltigarda quondam regina et mater eius humata est." Notae
Historicae, MGH SS 1: 70; "Imperator vero a
persequendo filio rediens, correptus morbo, in insula Rheni infra
Mogontiam ad prospectum Ingulenheim palatii sita 12. Kalendas
Iulii defunctus est." Ann. Bertin., s.a. 840,
24]
Father:
Charlemagne, d. 28 January 814, king of the Franks, Emperor.
Mother: Hildegarde,
d. 30 April 783, sister of count Gerold.
See Charlemagne's
page for further details.
Spouses:
(1) say 794, Ermengarde, d. 3 October 818, daughter of
count Ingram, a nephew of Chrodegang, bishop of
Metz.
["Irmingardis regina, coniunx eius, quam proficiscens
ibi aegrotantem dimiserat, duobus diebus postquam ipse ad eam
venit, morbo invalescente V. Non. Octobr. decessit." ARF,
s.a. 818, 149; "Supradictus vero Hludowicus postquam ad
aetatem perbenit, desponavit sibi filiam nobilissimi ducis
Ingoramni, qui erat filius fratris Hruotgangi, sancti pontificis.
Supradicta vero virgo Irmingardis vocabatur, quam cum consilio et
consensu patris reginam constituit, atque ex ea tres filios
habuit adhuc vivente patre, quorum unus vocabatur Hlutharius,
alter Pippinus, tertius aequivocus eius Hludowicus."
Thegan, Vita Hludowici, c. 4, MGH SS 2: 591; "...
Hermingardam futuram reginam, claris ortam natalibus, utpote
filiam Ingramni comitis, sibi sociavit." Vita
Hludowici, c. 8, MGH SS 2: 611] The date of marriage is
estimated from their son Lothair's approximate date of birth [see
Werner (1967), 444].
(2) 819, Judith, d. 19 April 843, daughter of
count Welf by his wife Heilwig.
["Quo peracto imperator inspectis plerisque nobilium
filiabus Huelpi comitis filiam nomine Iudith duxit uxorem."
ARF, s.a. 819, 150; "Sequentii vero anno
accepit filiam Hwelfi ducis sui, qui erat de nobilissima progenie
Bawariorum, et nomen virginis Iudith, quae erat ex parte matris,
cuius nomen Eigilwi, nobilissimi generis Saxonici eamque reginam
constituit." Thegan, Vita Hludowici, c. 26,
MGH SS 2: 596; "Tandemque eorum voluntati satisfaciens,
et undecumque adductas procerum filias inspitiens, Iudith, filiam
Welponis, nobilissimi comitis, in matrimonium iunxit." Vita
Hludowici, c. 32, MGH SS 2: 624] She died in 843 [Annales
Alamannici, MGH SS 1: 50; Annales Augiensis, MGH SS
1: 68; Ann. Xant., s.a 843, 13]. The date of 19 April is
given by Brandenburg, Werner, and Settipani, but the original
source is unclear [Brandenburg (1964), 1; Werner (1967), table;
Settipani (1993), 254]
Children:
["Hludovicus ymperator genuit Hlotharium Pipinum et
Hludovicum Rotrudim et Hildegardim ex Yrmingardi regina, Karolum
et Gislam ex Iudith ymperatrice." Witger, Genealogia
Arnulfi Comitis, MGH SS 9: 303]
(probably illegitimate - supposed by some to be his sister)
Alpaïde, filia
imperatoris, d. after 29 May 852, on a 23 September,
m. Begon, d. 816, count of Paris.
["Picco, primus de amicis regis,
qui et filiam imperatoris [nomine Elpheid] duxit uxorem,
defunctus est." Annales Laurissenses Minores,
s.a. 816, MGH SS 1: 122; see also Werner (1967), 429-441; "...
Quod monasterium Ludowicus imperator Alpheidi, filiae suae, uxori
Begonis comitis, dono dedit, ..." Flodoard, iv, 46, MGH
SS 13: 595] Although the imperator in 816 was Louis the
Pious, some have argued that Charlemagne was her father, on
chronological grounds. However, the testimony of Flodoard would
make Louis the father, and the chronological impediment to Louis
being the father has been overstated. [See also Werner (1967),
429-441; Settipani (1993), 200-3].
(by Ermengarde)
Lothair I, b.
ca. 795, d. 28 or 29 September 855; king of Bavaria, 814; joint
emperor, 817; ruled in Italy, 822-5, 829-840; Emperor, 833-4,
840-855;
His epitaph states that he lived for sixty
(twice thirty) years, and his birthdate is a calcualtion from
that figure ["Epitaphium Hludharii Imperatoris: Continet
hic tumulus memorandi Caesaris ossa / Hlotharii magni, principis
atque pii. / Qui Francis, Italis, Romanis praefuit ipsis, Omnia
sed sprevit, pauper et hinc abiit. / Nam bis tricenos monachus
sic attigit annos, / Et se mutavit, ac bene post obiit. / III.
Cal. Octob." MGH Poet. Lat. 2: 241] His date of death
is given as 28 September 855 by Annales Bertiniani
["Lotharius imperator, morbo correptus ... vita decessit
quarto Kalendarum Octobrium ..." Ann. Bertin.,
s.a. 855, 45] and on the next day by Annales Fuldenses
["Hlutharius imperator renuntians omnibus, quae habuit,
Prumiense monasterium ingressus effectusque ibi monachaus III.
Kal. Octobr. mortalem hominem exuit et ad vitam perrexit
aeternam." Ann. Fuld., s.a. 855, 46].
m. October 821, Ermengarde, daughter of Hugues, count of Tours.
["Medio mense Octobrio conventus generalis apud
Theodonis villam magna populi Francorum frequentia celebratur, in
quo domnus Hlotharius, primogenitus domni imperatoris Hludowici,
Irmingardam Hugonis comitis filiam solemni more duxit uxorem."
ARF, s.a. 821, 156]
Pepin/Pippin I, b. say 797, d. 13
December 838; king of Aquitaine, 814-838;
["Pippinus, filius imperatoris, rex Aquitaniae, Idus
Decembris defunctus est, relictis duobus filiis Pippino et
Karolo." Ann. Bertin., s.a. 838, 16]
m. 822, Ringart (Hringard), daughter of Teudbert, count of Madrie.
["Pippinum autem in Aquitaniam ire praecepit, quem tamen
prius filiam Theotberti comitis Matricensis in coniugium fecit
accipere et post nuptias celebratas ad occiduas partes
proficisci.", ARF, s.a. 822, 159].
Rotrude.
See below for a possible marriage.
Hildegarde.
[Nithard iii, 4, MGH SS 2: 664; see below
for a possible marriage]
Ludwig II "der Deutsche", b.
say 806, d. Frankfurt, 28 August 876; king of Bavaria, 817; king
of the Eastern Franks, 833-7, 840×3-876;
["Quibus missus in via, imperatori in Carisiaco
nunciatum est, praefatum Hludowicum regem in Franconfurth palatio
5. Kalendas Septembris obisse et 4. Kalendas eiusdem mensis in
monasterio Sancti Nazarii sepultum fuisse." Ann.
Bertin., s.a. 876, 132; "Cumque nuntii ex utraque
parte saepius directi eos pacificare studuisset, Hludowicus
aegrotare coepit et crescente cotidie infirmitate V. Kal.
Septembr. in palatio Franconofurt diem ultimum clausit; cuius
corpus transtulit aequivocus illius et in monasterio sancti
Nazarii, quod dicitur Lauresham, honorifice sepelivit."
Ann. Fuld., s.a. 876, 86]
m. 827, Hemma, daughter of
count Welf, and sister of his stepmother Judith
["... et Ludewicus rex accepit in coniugum sororem
Iudith imperatricis", Annales Xant., s.a. 827,
7].
(by Judith)
Gisela, b.
819×822, d. after 1 July 874; m. Eberhard, d.
865×6, duke of Friuli.
The statement of Witger that Gisela was a
daughter of Louis and Judith is confirmed by one of Gisela's own
charters (ca. 874), in which she referred to Louis and Judith as
her parents ["Ego, in nomine domini, Gisla,
anniversariam reflectionem decrevi fieri pro Ludovico imperatore,
patre meo, et pro Judith, imperatrice, matre mea, et pro glorioso
rege Karolo, si fari audeam, germano, et pro prole mea videlicet:
Hengeltrude, Hunroc, Berengario, Adelardo, Rodulpho, Heilwich,
Gilla, Judich, necnon et pro omni cognatione mea. Post
Resurrectionis Dominice festum die duodecimo." Cart.
Cysoing, 11 (#6)].
Charles "le Chauve" (Karl "der Kahle"), b. 13
June 823, d. 6 October 877, king of the Western Franks, emperor.
m. (1) 13 December 842, Ermentrude,
d. Saint-Denis, 6 October 869, daughter of Eudes, count of Orleans.
m. (2) 22 January 870, Richilde, daughter of count Buwin.
Illegitimate child:
Arnulf, living 841 [Nithard ii, 6, MGH SS 2: 658],
count of Sens in 817.
["Quartum vero filium habuit ex
concubina, nomine Arnulphum, cui pater Senonas civitatem in
comitatum dedit." Chronicon Moissiacense, s.a.
817, MGH SS 1: 312]
Possible daughters,
possibly the same as Rotrud and Hildegarde above:
The Vita Hludowici, describing events immediately after
the death of king Pepin I of Aquitaine in 838, refers to two of
Pepin's generi, Gerard, and Rather ["Erant enim
in hanc conspirantes voluntatem maximi quique procerum; quorum
eminentes erant ipse Ebroinus verabilis episcopus, Reginardus
comes, Gerardus itidem comes et gener quondam Pippini, necnon
Ratharius similiter comes Pippini gener, sed et alii quam plures
horum sequentes voluntatem, et nullo poterant pacto seiungi.",
Vita Hludowici, c. 61, MGH SS 2: 645]. While Brandenburg
makes these two men sons-in-law of Pepin I of Aquitaine
[Brandenburg (1964), 86], this is not chronologically plausible.
For the interpretation here of gener as " husband
of a sister" see Auzias (1934), 97-8; Werner (1967), 450.
There does not seem to be any consensus regarding how this
testimony should be interpreted. Indeed, for a completely
different theory about the Carolingian descent of the counts of
Poitou (usually represented as descended from the marriage of
Gerard given below), see Settipani (2000), 97-100.
NN, m. Rather, d. 25
June 841, count of Limoges.
NN, m. Gerard, d. 25
June 841, count of Auvergne.
Falsely attributed daughters:
Adélaïde, m. Conrad,
d. after 862, count, brother of the empress
Judith.
This error occurs occasionally [e.g., Barthélemy (1873),
117], and is undoubtedly the result of a careless interpretation
of a passage in Annales Bertiniani, in which
Adélaïde's son Hugues "the Abbot" is called the son
of Lothair II's matertera ["... Hugoni,
Chuonradi, Karoli regis avunculi, et materterae suae filio, ..."
(suae refers to king Lothair II) Ann. Bertin.,
s.a. 864, 71]. Here, the translation of matertera as aunt
has resulted in Adélaïde being falsely attributed by some as a paternal
aunt of Lothair II, when the literal meaning of the word matertera
in Classical Latin is maternal aunt, or mother's sister.
Here, there can be little doubt that the latter reading is the
correct interpretation, and that Adélaïde was (like Lothair
II's mother Ermengarde) a daughter Hugues, count of Tours and
namesake of Adélaïde's son Hugues the Abbot.
Liégarde, m. Ouri (Udalrich),
marquis of Gothie.
[Chaume (1925), 205, n. 4, 550] The basis
of this Chaume's claim is that Ouri's son, another Ouri
(Udalrich), was called a nepos in a document by
Louis/Ludwig the German ["dilectus nepos noster
Odolricus" Chaume (1925), 550, citing Wartmann, Urkundenbuch,
vol. 2, #527 (not seen by me)]. Here, Chaume is translating the
term nepos to mean strictly "nephew", assuming
that the younger Ouri's mother was a sister of Ludwig the German.
However, the term nepos is probably being used here in
an extended sense, to define a more distant relationship, perhaps
via an older Ouri (Udalrich), maternal uncle of Louis the Pious
[see Chaume (1925), 551 (table 12)].
Berthe. (did not exist)
No daughter named Berthe appears in the
work of most authors. A daughter of this name was assigned to
Louis the Pious by Bouchard, who remarked that she was omitted by
Werner (1967) [Bouchard (1988), 7]. Bouchard's documentation is
complicated by the fact that she uses a single footnote to
combine the documentation for several individuals [ibid., 24, 25
note j; note j reads: "MGH Diplomata Carolinorum 3 (1966),
pp. 143, 241, 353, 441, nos. 48, 101, 197, 34."; the same
citations are reprinted in Bouchard (2001), 102-3]. Of the four
documents cited, none of them document a daughter of Louis the
Pious named Berthe. Three of them [MGH DD Lo I 241 (#101), 353
(#197); MGH DD Lo II 441 (#34)] give documentation for Lothair
I's three daughters Gisèle, Hiltrude, and Berthe [MGH DD Lo II
441 (#34) also mentions Berthe, daughter of Ludwig the German],
who appear in the table on p. 24 with footnote j. The fourth one
[MGH DD Lo I 143 (#49)] mentions Charlemagne's daughter Rothilde
(who is in the table, but not with footnote j) [#48, which is not
on page 143, has no reference to a daughter of Louis named
Berthe]. The index of that volume of MGH Diplomata was also
checked, with no reference to a daughter of Louis the Pious named
Berthe being found. Settipani followed Bouchard in accepting the
existence of Berthe, copying the citations from Bouchard's note j
[Settipani (1993), 255, n. 446]. Since the references do not
check out, Berthe must be omitted from the list of daughters of
Louis the Pious.
Ann. Bertin. = G. Waitz, ed., Annales Bertiniani (MGH SRG 5, Hannover, 1883).
Ann. Fuld. = Friedrich Kurze, ed., Annales Fuldenses (MGH SRG 7, Hannover, 1891).
Ann. Xant. = B. de Simson, Annales Xantenses et Annales Vedastini (MGH SRG 12, Hannover, 1909).
ARF = Georg Pertz & Friedrich Kurze, Annales Regni Francorum (Annals of the kingdom of the Franks), (MGH SRG 6, Hannover, 1895), a collective name commonly given to two closely related sets of annals, Annales Laurissenses Maiores and the so-called Einhardi Annales (Annals of Einhard), in parallel on alternate pages until the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 (s.a. 801).
Auzias (1934) = Léonce Auzias, "L'origine carolingiene des ducs féodaux d'Aquitaine et des rois capétiens", Revue Historique, 173 (1934): 91-102.
Barthélemy (1873) = Anatole de Barthélemy, "Les origines de la maison de France", Revue des questions historiques 13 (1873): 108-144.
Bouchard (1988) = Constance Brittain Bouchard, "Patterns of women's names in royal lineages, ninth-eleventh centuries", Medieval Prosopography 9, 1 (1988): 1-32.
Bouchard (2001) = Constance Brittain Bouchard, "Those of my Blood" Constructing Noble Families in Medieval Francia (Philadelphia, 2001).
Brandenburg (1964) = Erich Brandenburg, Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen (Frankfurt, 1964).
Cart. Cysoing = I. de Coussemaker, Cartulaire de Cysoing (Lille, 1890).
Chaume (1925) = Maurice Chaume, Les origines du duché de Bourgogne, 4 vols. (Dijon, 1925).
MGH DD = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata series. (Lo I = Lothair I, Lo II = Lothair II)
MGH Poet. Lat. = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae latini aevi carolini.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
MGH SRG = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (separate editions).
Settipani (1993) = Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens 481-987 (Première partie - Mérovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens) (Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1993).
Settipani (2000) = Christian Settipani, "Les origines des comtes de Nevers: nouveaux documents", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 85-112.
Werner (1967) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation)", Karl der Große 4 (1967): 403-483.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 23 May 2007.
Minor revision uploaded 26 July 2008 (added falsely attributed daughter Adélaïde).
Minor revision uploaded 20 September 2008 (added falsely attributed daughter Liégarde).
Minor revision uploaded 28 March 2009 (added falsely attributed daughter Berthe), with thanks to Barry E. Hinman, for pointing out the reference in Settipani (1993) which had been overlooked.
Minor revision uploaded 16 August 2012: Revised account of Alpaïde to reject the supposition that she was a daughter of Charlemagne.