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Middle Francia designates the short-lived realm created for Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor

Image:HRR 14Jh.jpgThe Roman of the Emperor's title was a reflection of the translatio imperii principle that regarded the Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a title left unclaimed in the West after the death of Julius Nepos in 480....
 Lothair I
Lothair I

Lothair I , king of Italy and crowned Carolingian Empire King of Italy, Emperor of the Romans and was Empire of the Franks .Lothair was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman of Hesbaye, duke of Hesbaye....
  (843-855) wedged between East Francia and West Francia. A natural outcome of the Frankish
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
 tradition of treating the res publica
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
 as private property, it was created in the partition of Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781 and Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks with his father, Charlemagne, from 813....
' legacy that was embodied in the 843 Treaty of Verdun
Treaty of Verdun

In the Treaty of Verdun-sur-Meuse of 843 the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's grandsons, divided his territories, the Frankish Empire, into three kingdoms....
. In his 817 ordinatio imperii Emperor Louis the Pious had designated his eldest son Lothair as his heir and co-ruler, whereas his younger sons Pepin
Pepin I of Aquitaine

File:Pepin_I_Aquitaine_denier_817_838.jpgPepin I was King of Aquitaine. He was the second son of Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....
 and Louis
Louis the German

Louis the German , was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....
 received Aquitaine
Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 26 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain....
 and Bavaria
History of Bavaria

The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant States of Germany of the modern Federal Republic of Germany....
 respectively as partly realms. The fundamentals of this arrangement however were eleminated with the second marriage of Louis the Pious and the birth of his son Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald

File:Charles le Chauve denier Bourges after 848.jpgCharles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith, daughter of Welf....
 in 823.






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Middle Francia designates the short-lived realm created for Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor

Image:HRR 14Jh.jpgThe Roman of the Emperor's title was a reflection of the translatio imperii principle that regarded the Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a title left unclaimed in the West after the death of Julius Nepos in 480....
 Lothair I
Lothair I

Lothair I , king of Italy and crowned Carolingian Empire King of Italy, Emperor of the Romans and was Empire of the Franks .Lothair was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman of Hesbaye, duke of Hesbaye....
  (843-855) wedged between East Francia and West Francia. A natural outcome of the Frankish
Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
 tradition of treating the res publica
Res publica

Res publica is a Latin phrase, literally meaning "public issue" or "public matter". It is the origin of the word 'republic', though translations vary widely according to the context....
 as private property, it was created in the partition of Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781 and Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks with his father, Charlemagne, from 813....
' legacy that was embodied in the 843 Treaty of Verdun
Treaty of Verdun

In the Treaty of Verdun-sur-Meuse of 843 the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's grandsons, divided his territories, the Frankish Empire, into three kingdoms....
. In his 817 ordinatio imperii Emperor Louis the Pious had designated his eldest son Lothair as his heir and co-ruler, whereas his younger sons Pepin
Pepin I of Aquitaine

File:Pepin_I_Aquitaine_denier_817_838.jpgPepin I was King of Aquitaine. He was the second son of Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....
 and Louis
Louis the German

Louis the German , was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....
 received Aquitaine
Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 26 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain....
 and Bavaria
History of Bavaria

The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant States of Germany of the modern Federal Republic of Germany....
 respectively as partly realms. The fundamentals of this arrangement however were eleminated with the second marriage of Louis the Pious and the birth of his son Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald

File:Charles le Chauve denier Bourges after 848.jpgCharles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith, daughter of Welf....
 in 823. When his father attempted to create a new subkingdom for him and even tried to strip Pepin of Aquitaine, his elder sons in 833 revolted and deposed their father.

Lothair, crowned co-emperor since 823, acceeded to a sole rule, but was now challenged by his younger brothers, who again restored the reign of their father. The quarrels between the sons continued after the death of Pepin in 838 and Louis the Pious himself in 840, settled by the Verdun treaty of 843. Lothair retained the Imperial crown and received a narrow realm stretching from the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (medieval)

The Kingdom of Italy was a creation of the Lombards who invaded the Italian peninsula, following the destruction of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, in 568....
, and Burgundy in the south to the west of the former Austrasia
Austrasia

Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands....
 in the north, including the residence of Aachen
Palace of Aachen

The Palace of Aachen was a group of buildings with residential, political and religious purposes chosen by Charlemagne to be the center of power of the Carolingian State....
.

Likewise the two other realms, Middle Francia had no historical or ethnic identity to bind its varied peoples and in 855 Lothair, constantly fearing the claims of his brothers, on his deathbed at Prüm Abbey
Prüm Abbey

Pr?m Abbey is a former Order of Saint Benedict abbey in Pr?m/Lorraine , now in the Diocese of Trier , founded by a Frankish widow Bertrada of Pr?m, and her son Caribert of Laon, count of Laon, on 23 June 720....
 again partitoned it amongst his sons. He bequested the Kingdom of Italy to his eldest son Louis II, crowned emperor since 850. The northern part of Middle Francia from Upper Burgundy
Upper Burgundy

File:Karte Hoch und Niederburgund EN.pngUpper Burgundy is the part of Burgundy east of the Jura mountains, but in fact encompassing both sides of the Jura mountains range....
, the Rhineland
Rhineland

The Rhineland is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. After the collapse of the First French Empire in the early 19th century, the German-speaking regions at the middle and lower course of the Rhine were annexed to the kingdom of Prussia....
, the Low Countries
Low Countries

The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the country on low-lying land around the river delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse River rivers....
 to Frisia
Frisia

Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian languages, a language group closely related to the English language....
 passed to Lothair II
Lothair II of Lotharingia

Lothair II , was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the ElderUpon his father's death in 855, he received as his kingdom a territory west of the Rhine stretching from the North Sea to the Jura mountains....
. His kingdom was then known as regnum lotharii or Lotharingia
Lotharingia

Lotharingia or Duchy of Lorraine was a short-lived kingdom in western Europe, the aggregate of territories belonging to Lothair, King of Lotharingia , who received it in 855 from his Carolingian father, Lothair I , Carolingian Empire....
. The Kingdom of Provence, with Lower Burgundy
Lower Burgundy

File:Karte Hoch und Niederburgund EN.pngLower Burgundy was a historical kingdom in Provence, in southeastern France. Lower Burgundy is sometimes called the Kingdom of Arelat or incorrectly the Kingdom of Cisjurane Burgundy....
 passed to his youngest son Charles
Charles of Provence

Charles of Provence was the Carolingian List of Kings of Burgundy from 855 until his early death in 863.Charles was the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours....
.

Lothair's plans to secure his realm ultimately failed as Middle Francia broke up after the extinction of his sons. When Charles of Provence died in 863, his brothers divided his kingdom among themselves. However, after the death of Lothair II in 869, his brother Louis II, though emperor, was not able to prevent the division of Lotharingia between his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the German by the 870 Treaty of Meerssen
Treaty of Meerssen

The Treaty of Meerssen or Mersen was a partition treaty of the Carolingian Empire concluded on August 8, 870 by the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis the Pious, King Charles the Bald of West Francia and Louis the German of East Francia, at Meerssen north of Maastricht, in the present-day Netherlands....
. He could only retain the Kingdom of Italy with Lower Burgundy, which after he had died without male heirs in 875 were both also annexed by Charles the Bald.

The fragments of Middle Francia, Lotharingia, the Kingdom of Italy and Burgundy remained matters of dispute among the heirs of Louis the Pious. After the death of Charles the Bald in 877, Italy passed to East Francia under the sons of Louis the German. Emperor Charles the Fat
Charles the Fat

Charles the Fat was the Duke of Swabia from 876, King of Italy from 879, Carolingian Empire from 881, King of Germany from 882, and King of France from 884....
 had by 884 reunited all Frankish kingdoms under his rule. When he died in 888, the nobles and leading clergy of Upper Burgundy assembled at St Maurice and elected Rudolph
Rudolph I of Burgundy

Rudolph I, born 859, died October 25, 912, King of Burgundy from his election in 888 until his death.Rudolph belonged to the elder Welf family and was the son of Conrad II of Auxerre, from whom he inherited the lay abbacy of Agaunum, making him the most powerful magnate in Upper Burgundy - present-day western Switzerland and the Franche Co...
, count of Auxerre (from the Elder Welf family) as king. He tried to reunite the realm of Lothair II, but opposition by Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia
Arnulf of Carinthia

Arnulf of Carinthia was the Carolingian King of Germany from 887 and Holy Roman Emperor from 896 until his death. He was the illegitimate son of Carloman, King of Bavaria, and his concubine, Liutswind, of Carantanians origin, daughter of one Count Ernst....
 forced him to focus on his Burgundian territory, the later Kingdom of Arles
Kingdom of Arles

File:Map Kingdom Arelat EN.pngThe Kingdom of Burgundy or of Arles was a Franks dominion surrounding Arles, established in 933, by combining Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy....
, a constituent part of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
. The late mediĉval Duchy of Burgundy
Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy was a feudal territory once existing within the France in the Middle Ages. It roughly conforms to the modern Bourgogne. Existing between 843 and 1477, the Duchy was ruled by a succession of Duke of Burgundy, whose extinction with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 led to the Duchy being absorbed into the French crown...
 under Charles the Bold (1467-77) in its extent was reminiscent of Lothair's realm.

See also

  • Kings of Burgundy