Lothair I

Holy Lothar I (* 795, † September 29 855 in Prüm Abbey Prüm ) was 814-817 King of Bavaria, of 817 / 823-855 Roman Emperor (up to 840 as co-emperor ), 822-855 ( sub- - ) King of Italy ( king of the Lombards ) and 843-855 King of the Frankish Lotharii Regnum ( " middle Kingdom ").

Life

Lothar was the eldest son of Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde. He thus belonged to the noble family of the Carolingian. Since August 814 he ruled Bavaria and in July 817 he was in the division of the empire by Louis the Pious co-emperor. In mid-October 821 he married in Thionville with Ermengarde of Tours, daughter of Count Hugo of Tours. 822 he received Italy and a year later, at Easter on April 5, 823, by Pope Paschal I, the imperial crown.

In November 824 he issued the Constitution of Lothair to set out the rights of the Emperor and the Pope in Rome and the Papal States. But when Louis the Pious -born of his second wife Judith son Charles the Bald zubestimmte in August 829 at the Diet of Worms Alemannia, the three sons from his first marriage rebelled against his father, and set him off 830. 831 Ludwig, however, was freed again and Lothar lost the regency.

In a new outrage 833, the parties end of June stood on the red plane over at Colmar until Louis had lost all support and was forced on 30 June, to surrender and in fact abdicate. This was followed by a public admission of guilt and the banishment of Judith and their son Charles in a monastery. The Colmar Rotfeld soon to be called because of the closed and broken oaths only as " lies " field.

Lothar now fancied his lordship over the entire kingdom saved, but now his brothers were allied with her remote father, Ludwig and brought it back to the throne. Louis the Pious was established on March 1 834 in Saint- Denis again; Lothar, who had fled to Burgundy had to subdue in Blois in June 834; he only kept Italy as a kingdom, which he was not allowed to leave without the consent of Louis.

With the new division of the empire after the death of Pepin Lothar was accepted again into favor and got out of Italy Austrasia without Bavaria (June 839 ). After his father's death (June 840) Lothar claimed the full recognition as emperor. Alone, and Karl Ludwig beat him at Fontenoy in Burgundy on June 25, 841 In the Treaty of Verdun of 10 August 843 Lothar kept out of the imperial dignity and Italy, Burgundy and the countries between the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt to the North Sea with the two capitals Rome and Aachen, the so-called "middle kingdom ".

While Lothar remained to consolidate its power in Aachen, devastated the Arabs 848 its Italian provinces, the Normans plundered the coasts of the North Sea. The high clergy gained an independent position and the great vassals exercised by Lothar model arbitrariness and tyranny.

Already seriously ill, Lothar I shared on September 19, 855 in the division of Prüm his kingdom among his sons:

• Ludwig II († 875 ) received the imperial dignity and Italy
• Charles of Provence († 863) received the Provence and the media empire belonging, greater part of Burgundy ( the smaller part that nowadays " Burgundy " ( " Bourgogne " ) called region at the center of today's France, had already been 843 of the West Frankish Empire )
• Lothar II († 869 ) was named after him northern part of the empire ( Lotharingia )

After the abdication he withdrew to the Abbey of Prüm in the Eifel, where he a few days later, on September 29, 855, died and was buried.

Afterlife

Lothar's remains were reburied in 1721 in the new construction of the abbey church in the new high altar and 1860 found again. 1874, created a new tomb with the financial support of Kaiser Wilhelm I.. In the grave, the grave inscription plate of Rabanus Maurus was inscribed:

" Continet hic tumulus memorandi Caesar ossa, Hlotharii, magni principis atque pee. Qui Francis, Italis, Romanis praefuit ipsis, Omnia sed sprevit, pauper et hinc abiit. Nam to tricenos monachus attigit sic annos, Et se mutavit, ac bene post obiit. III. Cal. Octob. "

"It brings this grave the remains of unforgettable Emperor Lothair, the great and pious ruler. The Franks ruled over, Italians, even the Romans. Verschmähte but everything and then went away as a poor man. As a monk, he reached precisely the sixties. Transformed and different then blessed there on September 29. "

On Lothar the saying tenses mutantur goes back.

Reception

In the narrative sources Lothar is mostly driven by ambition and as described without any reason of state. This very negative reputation is picked up and reproduced by numerous scientific studies. It should be noted, however, that the main sources all taken at that time from the environment of Lothar's brothers Charles and Louis. A work of history from his own environment, in which he would no doubt have been portrayed in a positive light is either not created or not delivered. The traditionally negative image of this ruler is unlikely to meet him therefore. A recent illustration of this is considered his person and authority lacking.

Progeny

From his marriage with Ermengarde Lothar had nine children:

• Ludwig II ( probably * 825, † 875 ), co-emperor
• Helletrud ( Hiltrud ) (* probably 826; † after 865/866 ), ∞ Count Berengar ( † before 865/866 )
• Bertha (* probably 830; † after May 7 852, probably 877), before 847 Abbess of Avenay, maybe Abbess of Faremoutiers
• Daughter (maybe Ermengarde / Irmgard ) (* probably 826/830 ) 846 kidnaps; ∞ Giselbert, Count of Maasgau ( Reginare ) recognized 866 Count in Lommegau, marriage 849.
• Gisla ( probably * 830, † 860), 851-860 Abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia
• Lothar II ( probably * 835, † 869 ), King of Lorraine, ∞ I Teutberga 855, daughter of Count Boso of Arles ( Bosoniden )
• Rotrud ( baptized 835/840 in Pavia), ∞ to 850/851 Lambert Count of the Breton Mark, Count of Nantes ( Widonen ), May 1 X 852
• Karl ( probably 845 *, † January 25 863 in the monastery of St-Pierre -les- Nonnains, now Lyon), King in Burgundy
• Carloman (* 853 )