Lotharingie

Birth of Lotharingie

The Lotharingie is created in 843 with the Traité of Verdun. In 855, with died of the emperor Lothaire Ier, its three sons share its empire with the Traité of Prüm :

elder the Louis II († 875), receives the imperial crown and the Italy;
the second, Lothaire II († 869), the Northern part, of the Plank in Switzerland;
the third, Charles († 863), the Kingdom of Burgundy, formed of Provence and Burgundy itself.

The share of Lothaire II was called Lotharii regnum ( kingdom of Lothaire ), and this term evolved then to the form Lotharingie . It will be then at the origin of the names German Lothringen and French Lorraine .

Lotharingie initial covered:

the Netherlands
the Belgium except for the County of Flanders
the Luxembourg
in Germany

the Rhineland-of-North-Westphalia, with the Rhine as Eastern border
the the Rhineland-Palatinat
the the Saar

in France

the Lorraine
the Alsace
areas in the east of the Rhone, of the Saone, of the Meuse and the Scheldt

Lotharingie, between France and Germanic

In 869 with died of the king Lothaire II, his possessions are occupied by his/her uncle Charles the Bald person. But this acquisition is disputed by Louis Germanic the, his other uncle, and Louis II the Young person, brother and heir to Lothaire II. This last, occupied in the south of the Italy fighting Sarrazins, cannot take advantage of its rights, and the two uncles mean in August 870 by the Traité of Meerssen to divide Lotharingie:

Louis the Germanic one receives the oriental party of Lotharingie with the Plank, Aachen, Stavelot, Metz, Strasbourg and Basle. It recognizes there from 872 to 875 the nominal sovereignty of the emperor Louis II ;
Charles the Bald person preserves the Western part of Lotharingie with Liege, Visé and Maastricht ;

In 876 with died of Louis the Germanic one, his possessions are divided between its three sons: Louis the Young person inherits then the oriental party of Lotharingie with Saxony, Franconie, Thuringe and the Plank

In 877, to died from Charles the Bald person, the Western part of Lotharingie, passes to his son Louis the Stammerer, then in 879 with his sons Louis III († 882) and Carloman († 884)

In 880, by Traité of Ribemont the latter yield to Louis the Young person their share of Lotharingie in exchange of the neutrality of this last. Lotharingie reunified is thus attached to the Germanic one.

In 882, with died of Louis the Young person, his brother, the emperor Charles the Large, collects his succession. In 884, he is proclaimed king de France. The empire of Charlemagne is reconstituted except for Provence and of Burgundy transjurane. But Charles the Large one is deposited in 887 with the Diète of Tribur (Mainz). Arnoul de Carinthie († 899), wire bastard of Carloman of Bavaria († 878), is proclaimed king into Germanic, Lotharingie and Italy. This one establishes in 894 his/her son bastard Zwentibold as king de Lotharingie.

Zwentibold is killed in 900 by its vassal revolted and the kingdom of Lotharingie is attached to Germanic Louis IV the Child († 911).

In 903, this last entrusts the government of the country to the count Gebhard de Wetterau (death on June 22nd, 910). To his death, then to that of king Louis the Child in 911, Lotharingie gives himself to Charles Simple the, under the impulse of the powerful territorial princes Régnier with the Long Collar († 915), count de Hainaut and margrave de Lotharingie, and Wigéric, Count Palatine of Lotharingie. After the death of Régnier in 915, the territorial power seems to pass to the Count Palatine completely Wigeric (death between 919 and 922), then with Gislebert, wire of Régnier to the Long Collar, which revolts against Charles the Simple one into 918. Gislebert often changes alliance between the king of France and the Germanie king, but definitively joins in 925 with Henri Ier the Bird-catcher, who does it duke of Lotharingie in 928. But Gislebert revolts in 939 more, and the Germanie kings entrust Lotharingie to various lords, who so much often revolt that the last duke, Brunon of Cologne, into agreement with his brother Otton Ier, divides Lotharingie into two to form:

the Low-Lotharingie , which after several parcellings out becomes the duchy of Lothier.
the High-Lotharingie , which after several parcellings out becomes the Duché of Lorraine.

Lothaire - Lotharingie - Lorraine; history of a name

The kingdom which inherited Lothaire II into 855 extended on the grounds ranging between the Meuse and the Rhine, of the North Sea in Besancon. Whereas other countries were indicated by the name of the people which lived them (Alémanie, Lombardy etc…), the heritage of Lothaire did not have a name because it was made various people. One named it compared to the late king. Thus a document gone back to 868 speaks about the Lotharienses , i.e. people of Lothaire, to distinguish them from the Karlenses , the subjects of Charles the Bald person. In the same way the country is named compared to the sovereign: Regnum Lothariense or Regnum Lotharicum , the kingdom of Lothaire

Later in 912, annals of an abbey of Alsace speak about Hlutaringi or about Hlodarii to indicate the subjects of Lothaire and its successors. Although the suffix - ingi is normally reserved to the members of a dynasty (the family of the king as in Carolingiens), it applied here to all the inhabitants. At the end of the 10th century Lotharingi (Lotharingiens) ends up overriding other designations and gave rise to Lotharingia (Lotharingie).

It was necessary a century thus so that a name is essential which indicated the kingdom and the people of Lothaire and its successors. In the spirit of the chroniclers, this kingdom and these people existed well as such since they had invented words to name them. They lent a character besides to them, as Saxon Widukind testifies some when it evokes the trick whose Henri the 1st Bird-catcher had had to use to come to end from Lotharingiens " … because it is changing people, accustomed to the tricks, prompt with the war and ready to adapt to the innovations ". Another historian of the 10th century mentions the existence at the Western border of the kingdom of Lothaire " of an untamed cruelty, jealous of the happiness of others and its own safety, scorning the paternal admonitions of the Duke and hardly fearing the authority ".

In the current language the word Lotharingia undergoes transformations. It evolved in particular to Lohereigne then Lorraine , but also Lothier for the Walloons and Lothringen for the German-speaking ones. In the medieval texts, the word " Lotharingus " could as well designate an inhabitant of Toul, of Metz, of Liege or Cambric.

After the division of the old kingdom of Lothaire II in two duchies, the name " Lorraine " applied gradually to the only southernmost duchy, i.e. the equivalent of the four current Lorraine departments.

SOURCES

Encylopédie Illustrated of Lorraine (Mr. Parisse; Serpenoise editions - P.U.F.)
Lorraine (Editions Christine Bonneton)
Birth of two people - French and German IXe-Xie centuries (Carlichard Brühl - Beech 1995)

See too

List of controlling of Lotharingie
Counties and seigniories of Lotharingie
Western Empire

References