Lothair of France
Lothair () (
941 –
986),
Carolingian king of
West Francia (
10 September 954 –
1 March 986), son of
Louis IV and
Gerberga of Saxony, succeeded his father in
954 at the age of thirteen, and was at first under the guardianship of
Hugh the Great,
Duke of the Franks and
Count of Paris, who had been an adversary to his father but nonetheless was appointed
guardian of the king's estates, though not as regent for the young king who assumed his royal dignities at thirteen. This gave the young Lothair the opportunity to come to know his guardian's heir, the sixteen year old
Hugh Capet, before his father's death in
956; Capet later became king and founder of the
Capetian Dynasty.
The beginning of his reign was occupied with wars against the vassals, particularly against the duke of
Normandy, and it should be made clear that the monarch of
Western Francia was more a ceremonial title, more of a first among equals status, than that state which would represent the later centralized authority meant by monarchies of later historical epochs.
In
955, Lothair and Hugh together took
Poitiers by siege. Hugh died soon after and Lothair mediated between his son, the aforementioned Hugh Capet and the younger
Otto Henry. The king gave Capet Paris and the ducal title, but invested Otto with the
Duchy of Burgundy in
960. With young Hugh the new count of Paris et. al., Lothair, now only fifteen, came under the guardianship of his maternal uncle
Bruno, archbishop of Cologne.
In
962,
Baldwin III of Flanders, son, co-ruler, and heir of
Arnulf I died and Arnulf bequeathed Flanders to Lothair. On Arnulf's death in
965, Lothair invaded Flanders and took many cities, but was eventually repulsed by the supporters of
Arnulf II. He temporarily remained in control of
Arras and
Douai.
Lothair when thirty-seven seems to have conceived the design of recovering
Lorraine, once held by his family. He attempted to precipitate matters by a sudden attack, and in the spring of
978 nearly captured the emperor
Otto II at
Aachen. He took the imperial capital itself and even reversed the direction of the eagle sitting atop the palace.
[Chronicles differ as to whether he made it face eastwards or westwards, either to symbolise his dominance over the eastern kingdom or the supremacy of his own kingdom.] Otto took his revenge in the autumn by invading France. He penetrated as far as
Paris, devastating the country through which he passed (
Soissons,
Reims, and
Laon), but failed to take the town, and was eventually forced to retreat with heavy loss across the
Aisne, as Hugh Capet and through him, other key nobles supported Lothair. Peace was concluded in
980 at
Margut-sur-Chiers, and in 983 Lothair was even chosen guardian to the young
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor when Otto II passed on 7 December 983. Around 980, however, Lothair quarrelled with
Hugh Capet, who, at the instigation of
Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, became reconciled with Otto III, despite the defeat of his father with Capet's help.
The rest of Lothair's reign was dominated by internal troubles which distracted him from important peripheral affairs. In
985, when the
caliph of Córdoba,
Almanzor, sacked
Barcelona, Lothair offered no assistance to the
Count Borrel II upon receiving his envoys at
Verdun. This caused the final rift between the
Hispanic March and the French crown during the reign of his successors. Lothair later died on March 1, 986. By his wife Emma, daughter of Lothair, king of
Italy, he left a son who succeeded him as
Louis V, but which held the office for only a single year. Lothair also had a bastard son who became
archbishop of Rheims,
Arnulf.
*
Gwatkin, H.M.,
Whitney, J.P. (ed) et al.
The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III.
Cambridge University Press,
1926.
