LOTHAIR, II

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Between 855 and 869; King of Lotharingia

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. BERTHA was born in 863; died in Mar 925.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Holy Roman Emperor

Notes:

Died:
Peuen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

I + TOURS, Ermengarde of. Ermengarde (daughter of TOURS, Hugh of) died on 20 Mar 851. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Wife of Carolingian Emperor Lothair I of the Franks

Notes:

"Her voice is as pure as gold and clear as the note of zither. Her skin is as roses mixed in snow. Her blonde hair circles her head like a chrysolith. Her eyes are lively, her white neck like milk, lillies, ivory. Her graceful hands are like the snow."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Differentiator: As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position which he held until his death, save for the period 833–34, during which he was deposed.
• Relation to Me: 36 GGF
• Royalty & Nobility: House of Carolingian
• Name: Louis the Pious, also called the Fair, and the Debonaire
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 781 and 840; King of Aquitaine
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 813 and 840; King of the Franks and Co-Emperor (with his father)

Notes:

Charlemsgne was still alive when Pepin died in 810 and Charles the Younger the following year. In 813, Charles summoned Louis from Aquitaine and assembled his nobles from the kingdom. With only one surviving son, Charles crowned Louis, who was thirty-five years old and experienced in governing and war, naming him as co-emperor and co-King of the Franks with a half share of the empire, the rest to be his when his father was gone. Italy, however, was not for Louis, but for Pepin’s illegitimate son.
However, Charlemagne was still alive when Pepin died in 810 and Charles the Younger the following year. In 813, Charles summoned Louis from Aquitaine and assembled his nobles from the kingdom. With only one surviving son, Charles crowned Louis, who was thirty-five years old and experienced in governing and war, naming him as co-emperor and co-King of the Franks with a half share of the empire, the rest to be his when his father was gone. Italy, however, was not for Louis, but for Pepin’s illegitimate son, Bernard.

Died:
Ingelheim, Hessen, Germany

+ HESBAYE, Ermengarde of. Ermengarde (daughter of INGERMAN and Living) was born in 778; died in 818 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Holy Roman Empress

Notes:

Charlemagne initially intended to divide his Carolingian Empire between Louis and his brothers Pepin and Charles, who nevertheless died in quick succession in 810/11. On 10 September 813, Charlemagne designated Louis his successor and had him proclaimed co-emperor. Ermengarde's husband became sole ruler as Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks upon his father's death on 28 January 814. The couple was anointed and crowned Emperor and Empress by Pope Stephen IV on 5 October 816 in Reims Cathedral.[2]

Birth:
Hesbaye, Belgium

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Count of Tours and Sens

Other Events and Attributes:

• Books About: Charlemagne: A Biography
• Differentiator: Charlemagne has been called the "Father of Europe" (Pater Europae),[3] as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire.
• Relation to Me: 37 GGF
• _HEIG: When scientists in 1861 opened his tomb, they measured his bones and confirmed Einhard’s account of his height; they estimated that Charles was approximately six feet, five inches tall, much taller than most of the men of his time. Charles as a man was sai
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 9 Oct 768 and 28 Jan 814; King of the Franks, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 10 Jul 774 and 28 Jan 814; King of the Lombards
• Royalty & Nobility: Between 25 Dec 800 and 28 Jan 814; Holy Roman Emperor

Notes:

Charles, the King of the Franks, was the first leader since the fall of the Roman Empire to rule over a united Western Europe, branding his legend and legacy over a geography that would today cover what is now Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, and western Germany. Charles’ goal was to unite all the Germanic people into a single Christian kingdom. However, Charlemagne perceived a purpose to Christian living apart from its spiritual benefits; his sense of order realized that people who lived by a uniform code of behavior served the nation better.
Charles the Great reconfigured the map of Western Europe with his military conquests, restored Latin as the language of the educated, and bolstered the Papacy with his armies. He married often and fathered many children, some legitimate, some not; he lived long and, during his lifetime, his Empire flourished. But his heirs could not sustain his greatness -his unification of Western Europe did not last. His legend, however, is eternal. He is such an integral figure in medieval history that, had he not been born, lived, and ruled, the destiny of Europe would have been altered. He is regarded not only as the father of Europe, because he unified the continent from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea for the first time since Rome fell, but also as the father of modern France and Germany.

married DE SWABIA, Hildegarde Taliaferro in 771 in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Hildegarde (daughter of VON VINZGAU VON SWABIA VON ALAMANIA, Gerold I Count and VON BAYERN, Emma Duchess of Swabia) was born on 2 Apr 757 in Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; died on 28 Jan 814 in Metz, Nièvre, Bourgogne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Relation to Me: 37 GGM
• Royalty & Nobility: Empress the Holy Roman Empire

Notes:

An intense physical relationship between the spouses was demonstrated by the fact that, during her 12 years of marriage, Hildegard had 8 pregnancies (including one set of twins) and remarkably chronicles never mentioned either miscarriages or stillbirths. She accompanied Charlemagne on many of his militar campaigns: she gave birth her second child and first daughter, Adelaide, during the siege of Pavia, capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards (September 773/June 774), but she died during the return journey to France. In 778, Hildegard accompanied her husband as far as Aquitaine, where she gave birth the twins Louis and Lothair.[9] In 780/781 she traveled with Charlemagne and four of their children to Rome, where the sons Louis and Carloman (renamed Pepin after his baptism by Pope Adrian I) were appointed sub-kings of Aquitaine and Italy, respectively. This contributed to the strengthening of the alliance between the Carolingians and the Papacy.[10] Because of her frequent pregnancies, can be presumed that Hildegard accompanied her husband on further campaigns, at least temporarily.

What is also remarkable about Charles, particularly during that era, is the genuine affection that he had for his children. They travelled with him everywhere he went, the sons at his side, the daughters behind. They dined with him. He was reported to be so fond of his daughters that none of them was allowed to marry; this may have been less out of affection than out of a reluctance to offer land and power to sons-in-law. He had originally contracted a marriage for his eldest daughter Rotrude with Constantine VI of Byzantium, but when the girl was eleven years old, the engagement was annulled. He was not opposed to the daughters having unofficial relationships with men who were not their husbands, and he refused to believe stories that were told about the daughters’ unseemly behavior.


Birth:
Swabia, Aachen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

Other Events and Attributes:

• Royalty & Nobility: Count of Hesbaye

+ Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]