1.
East Francia
–
East Francia or the Kingdom of the East Franks was a successor state of Charlemagnes empire and precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. Until 911 it was ruled by Carolingian dynasty and it was created after the 840-43 civil war between Charlemagnes grandchildren which ended with the Treaty of Verdun which divided the former empire into three kingdoms. In August 843, after three years of war following the death of emperor Louis the Pious on 20 June 840. The division of lands was based on the Meuse, Scheldt. The contemporary East Frankish Annales Fuldenses describes the kingdom being divided in three and Louis acceding to the eastern part, while West and Middle Francia contained the traditional Frankish heartlands, the East consisted mostly of lands only annexed to the Frankish empire in the eighth century. These included the duchies of Alemannia, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as the northern and eastern marches with the Danes, in 869 Lotharingia was divided between West and East Francia under the Treaty of Meersen. The short lived Middle Francia turned out to be the theatre of Franco-German wars up until the 20th century, all the Frankish lands were briefly reunited by Charles the Fat, but in 888 he was deposed by nobles and in East Francia Arnulf of Carinthia was elected king. The increasing weakness of royal power in East Francia meant that dukes of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony, Kings increasingly had to deal with regional rebellions. Because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and struggle against Arnulf, on his deathbed Conrad I chose Henry of Saxony as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne, by his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power as was happening in West Francia and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. After Otto I was crowned as the Emperor in Rome in 962 the era of the Holy Roman Empire began, the term orientalis Francia originally referred to Franconia and orientales Franci to its inhabitants, the ethnic Franks living east of the Rhine. The use of the term in a sense, to refer to the eastern kingdom, was an innovation of Louis the Germans court. Since eastern Francia could be identified with old Austrasia, the Frankish heartland, under his grandson, Arnulf, the terminology was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply Francia. When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn with the West Franks, Henry I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, king of the East Franks, in the treaty. By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology had to explain that the kingdom of the Franks was now called the kingdom of the Germans. The regalia of the Carolingian empire had divided by Louis the Pious on his deathbed between his two faithful sons, Charles the Bald and Lothair. Louis the German, then in rebellion, received nothing of the jewels or liturgical books associated with Carolingian kingship
East Francia
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The parting of Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. From Histoire Et Géographie - Atlas Général Vidal-Lablache, 1898.
2.
Louis the Pious
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Louis the Pious, also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, during his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the empires southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Muslims in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona, as emperor he included his adult sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a suitable division of the realm among them. In the 830s his empire was torn by war between his sons, only exacerbated by Louiss attempts to include his son Charles by his second wife in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a note, with order largely restored to his empire. Louis is generally compared unfavourably to his father, though the problems he faced were of a different sort. He was the son of Charlemagne by his wife Hildegard. His grandfather was King Pepin the Younger, Louis was crowned King of Aquitaine as a child in 781 and sent there with regents and a court. Charlemagne wanted his son Louis to grow up in the area where he was to reign, Charlemagnes intention was to see all his sons brought up as natives of their given territories, wearing the national costume of the region and ruling by the local customs. Thus were the children sent to their respective realms at so young an age, each kingdom had its importance in keeping some frontier, Louiss was the Spanish March. In 797, Barcelona, the greatest city of the Marca, fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing, the Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. Louis campaigned in the Italian Mezzogiorno against the Beneventans at least once, Louis was one of Charlemagnes three legitimate sons to survive infancy. He had a brother, Lothair who died during infancy. According to Frankish custom, Louis had expected to share his inheritance with his brothers, Charles the Younger, King of Neustria, to Louiss kingdom of Aquitaine, he added Septimania, Provence, and part of Burgundy. However, Charlemagnes other legitimate sons died – Pepin in 810 and Charles in 811 –, on his fathers death in 814, he inherited the entire Frankish kingdom and all its possessions. While at his villa of Doué-la-Fontaine, Anjou, Louis received news of his fathers death and he rushed to Aachen and crowned himself emperor to shouts of Vivat Imperator Ludovicus by the attending nobles. From start of his reign, his coinage imitated his father Charlemagnes portrait and he quickly sent all of his unmarried sisters to nunneries, to avoid any possible entanglements from overly powerful brothers-in-laws. Sparing his illegitimate half-brothers, he forced his fathers cousins, Adalard and Wala to be tonsured, placing them in Noirmoutier and Corbie, respectively and his chief counsellors were Bernard, margrave of Septimania, and Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims
Louis the Pious
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Louis the Pious, contemporary depiction from 826 as a
miles Christi (soldier of Christ), with a poem of
Rabanus Maurus overlaid
Louis the Pious
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Charlemagne crowns Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
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Denarius of Louis.
Louis the Pious
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Louis the Pious doing penance at Attigny in 822
3.
Carloman of Bavaria
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Carloman, was a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty. He was the eldest son of Louis the German, king of East Francia and his father appointed him margrave of Pannonia in 856, and upon his fathers death in 876 he became King of Bavaria. He was appointed by King Louis II of Italy as his successor, Carloman only conquered it in 877. In 879 he was incapacitated, perhaps by a stroke, and abdicated Bavaria to Louis the Younger, Carlomans birth date is unknown, but was probably around 830. His naming can be connected to his fathers push to rule Alemannia around the time of his fathers assembly of Worms in 829, the first Carolingian dynast named Carloman had ruled Alemannia in 741–48, and subjugated it to the Franks. Carloman was old enough to participate in the war of 840–43. His first record public appearance is as the leader of an army of reinforcements from Bavaria and Alemannia which he brought to his father at Worms in 842 and he subsequently led them in battle alongside his father and uncle against his other uncle. It was the beginning of a warlike career, notker of Saint Gall, who bewailed the decline of the dynasty a generation later, called Carloman bellicosissimus. In October 848, Carloman was present at his fathers council in Regensburg, in the charter confirming the grant, Carloman signed his name first among the secular magnates. In the 840s, Carloman had a liaison with Liutswind, daughter of the Bavarian count Ratolt and this was Carlomans first politically independent action, and it confirms his close connexion to Bavaria. Around 850, Liutswind bore him a son, Arnulf and this name was chosen because it was distinctly dynastic, yet had never been used by a reigning king and was thus appropriate for an illegitimate eldest son. The choice of the name is the surest evidence that Liutswind, in 856, Louis first associated Carloman with his rule by appointing him prefect to the Pannonian March, the Bavarian borderland fronting Great Moravia and Lower Pannonia. He did not give Carloman the traditional seat at Tulln in Pannonia. From 857 on Carloman and his brother were occasional witnesses to their fathers charters, in 862 Carloman revolted and tried to extend the territory under his control, but was defeated. Carloman married the daughter of a Bavarian military leader named Ernest, Carloman was not given the title king during his fathers lifetime, and the latter retained control over bishoprics, counties, fiscal lands and important judicial cases. Carlomans letter to his father from 869 survives, describing conditions on the frontier, by the 870s, according to the Annales Bertiniani, at the time being composed by Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, Carlomans mother, Emma, was encouraging her husband to favour Carloman over his brothers. This is the first recorded involvement of Emma in politics, on the other hand, historian Ernst Dümmler thought Carloman must have been a mammas boy. On 12 August 875, Louis II of Italy died and his kingdom was claimed by Louis the German for his sons Carloman and Charles, Pope John VIII, dealing with the constant threat of raiders from Muslim Sicily, sided with Charles the Bald
Carloman of Bavaria
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Carloman (Karlomannus rex Bawariae), from a 12th-century manuscript
4.
Louis the Younger
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Louis the Younger, sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis II the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and he died in 882 and was succeeded in all his territories, which encompassed most of East Francia, by his younger brother, Charles the Fat, already King of Italy and Emperor. As a young man, Louis was deployed in operations against the Abodrites to the east in 858 and 862. He marched as far as Limoges before turning back, back home, Louis forged close ties with the nobles of the East Francia and became increasingly independent from his father. He engaged himself to the daughter of Count Adalard and, in 865, he, Carloman had already been given the subregulus of Bavaria in 864, now Louis received Saxony, Thuringia, and Franconia and Charles Alemannia and Rhaetia. In 869, Louis married Liutgard, daughter of Liudolf, Duke of Eastphalia, Luitgard was a strong-willed and politically ambitious woman and later on spurred her husband to pursue ambitious goals. This match increased dissension between father and son and in 871 and in 873, Louis rebelled, but each time he was reconciled, upon his fathers death in 876, Louis fully inherited his subkingdoms, bearing the title rex Francorum. Louis also retained his fathers chief advisor, Luitbert, Archbishop of Mainz and he and his brother ruled their kingdoms independently but cooperatively and never at war. Louiss rule was threatened by Charles the Bald, who tried to annex the eastern parts of Lotharingia. Louis brought war on Charles and, on 8 October 876 at Andernach, the East Frankish army displayed superiority in both unity and tactics, and the young king had even dressed his soldiers in white garments so that they appeared as an army of dead spirits. After this victory, Louis the Germans three sons met in November at Nördlingen to discuss the division of their fathers kingdom and to have their hosts swear allegiance. Throughout his reign, though he is always called King of Saxony by historians, he never visited Saxony proper, at the end of 877, the brothers assembled again to discuss the administration of their half of Lotharingia. After Carloman relinquished his claim, the realm was divided between Louis and Charles, who met in September 878 in Alsatia. In 879, Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and partitioned named Louis as his successor in Bavaria, Louis received it a year later when Carloman expired. This Treaty of Fouron was soon put to the test, when Louis the Stammerer died in April 879, a party of western nobles led by Abbot Joscelin invited Louis the Younger to succeed to the rule of the western kingdom. Since his wife Luitgard also advocated heeding this call, Louis invaded West Francia and he marched as far as Verdun, but after the new kings Louis III and Carloman ceded their part of Lotharingia to the invader, Louis retreated. In February 880, this gain was confirmed by the Treaty of Ribemont and this treaty determined the border of the two kingdoms that were to remain unchanged until the fourteenth century. In contrast to his father, Louis the Younger preferred reconciling royal interests with those of the nobility and he managed to bind powerful families to the king, including the Luidovingian relatives of his wife, that later themselves became kings and emperors
Louis the Younger
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A fourteenth-century depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Fouron. Louis the Younger is in the plain grey costume while Louis the Stammerer is wearing the fleur-de-lis symbolic of the French monarchy. In the
Grandes Chroniques de France
Louis the Younger
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A fourteenth-century depiction of the three sons of Louis the German — Carloman, Louis the Younger, and Charles — swearing an oath to him. Louis the German is here depicted as a French king, wearing the
fleur-de-lis. In the
Grandes Chroniques de France
Louis the Younger
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Carloman, son
Louis the Younger
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Pepin, son
5.
Charles the Fat
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Charles the Fat, also known as Charles III, was the Carolingian Emperor from 881 to 888. The youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, Charles was a great-grandson of Charlemagne and was the last Carolingian to rule over the briefly re-united empire, over his lifetime, Charles became ruler of the various kingdoms of Charlemagnes former Empire. Crowned Emperor in 881 by Pope John VIII, his succession to the territories of his brother Louis the Younger the following year reunited the kingdom of East Francia. Upon the death of his cousin Carloman II in 884, he inherited all of West Francia, the reunited Empire would not last. During a coup led by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in November 887, Charles was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, forced into quiet retirement he died of natural causes in January 888, just a few weeks after his deposition. The Empire quickly fell apart after his death, splintering into five separate successor kingdoms, the nickname Charles the Fat is not contemporary. It was first used by the Annalista Saxo in the twelfth century, there is no contemporary reference to Charless physical size, but the nickname has stuck and is the common name in most modern European languages. Regino of Prüm, a contemporary of Charless recording his death, calls him Emperor Charles, third of that name, Charles was the youngest of the three sons of Louis the German, first King of East Francia, and Hemma from the House of Welf. An incident of demonic possession is recorded in his youth, in which he was said to have been foaming at the mouth before he was taken to the altar of the church and this greatly affected his father and himself. In 859 Charles was made Count of the Breisgau, an Alemannic march bordering southern Lotharingia, in 863 his rebellious eldest brother Carloman revolted against their father. The next year Louis the Younger followed Carloman in revolt and Charles joined him, Carloman received rule over the Duchy of Bavaria. In 865 the elder Louis was forced to divide his lands among his heirs, Duchy of Saxony went to Louis. Lotharingia was to be divided between the younger two, Louis the German sent first Charles and then Carloman himself, with armies containing Italian forces under Berengar of Friuli, their cousin, to the Italian kingdom. These wars, however, were not successful until the death of Charles the Bald in 877, in 876 Louis the German died and the inheritance was divided as planned after a conference at Ries, though Charles received less of his share of Lotharingia than planned. In his charters, Charles reign in Germania is dated from his inheritance in 876, three brothers ruled in cooperation and avoided wars over the division of their patrimony, a rare occurrence in the Early Middle Ages. In 877 Carloman finally inherited Italy from his uncle Charles the Bald, Louis divided Lotharingia and offered a third to Carloman and a third to Charles. In 878 Carloman returned his Lotharingian share to Louis, who divided it evenly with Charles. In 879 Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and divided his domains between his brothers, Bavaria went to Louis and Italy to Charles, Charles dated his reign in Italia from this point, and from then he spent most of his reign until 886 in his Italian kingdom
Charles the Fat
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A seal of Charles III with the inscription KAROLVS MAGS ("Carolus Magnus")
Charles the Fat
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Charles the Fat in the
Grandes Chroniques de France
Charles the Fat
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Pepin (751–768)
Charlemagne (768–814)
Carloman I (768–771)
Louis the Pious (814–840)
Charles the Bald (840–877)
Louis the Stammerer (877–879)
Louis III (879–882)
Carloman II (879–884) Charles the Fat (884–888)
Charles the Simple (898–922)
Louis IV (936–954)
Lothaire (954–986)
Louis V (986–987)
6.
Frankfurt
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The city is at the centre of the larger Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.8 million and is Germanys second-largest metropolitan region after Rhine-Ruhr. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the centre of the EU is about 40 km to the east of Frankfurts CBD. Frankfurt is culturally and ethnically diverse, with half of the population. A quarter of the population are foreign nationals, including many expatriates, Frankfurt is an alpha world city and a global hub for commerce, culture, education, tourism and traffic. Its the site of many global and European headquarters, Frankfurt Airport is among the worlds busiest. Automotive, technology and research, services, consulting, media, Frankfurts DE-CIX is the worlds largest internet exchange point. Messe Frankfurt is one of the worlds largest trade fairs, major fairs include the Frankfurt Motor Show, the worlds largest motor show, the Music Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the worlds largest book fair. Frankfurt is home to educational institutions, including the Goethe University, the UAS, the FUMPA. Its renowned cultural venues include the concert hall Alte Oper, Europes largest English Theatre and many museums, Frankfurts skyline is shaped by some of Europes tallest skyscrapers. In sports, the city is known as the home of the top football club Eintracht Frankfurt, the basketball club Frankfurt Skyliners, the Frankfurt Marathon. Its the seat of German sport unions for Olympics, football, Frankfurt is the largest financial centre in continental Europe. It is home to the European Central Bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the worlds largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and accounts for more than 90 percent of the turnover in the German market. Frankfurt is considered a city as listed by the GaWC groups 2012 inventory. Among global cities it was ranked 10th by the Global Power City Index 2011, among financial centres it was ranked 8th by the International Financial Centers Development Index 2013 and 9th by the Global Financial Centres Index 2013. Its central location within Germany and Europe makes Frankfurt a major air, rail, Frankfurt Airport is one of the worlds busiest international airports by passenger traffic and the main hub for Germanys flag carrier Lufthansa. Frankfurter Kreuz, the Autobahn interchange close to the airport, is the most heavily used interchange in the EU, in 2011 human-resource-consulting firm Mercer ranked Frankfurt as seventh in its annual Quality of Living survey of cities around the world. According to The Economist cost-of-living survey, Frankfurt is Germanys most expensive city, Frankfurt has many high-rise buildings in the city centre, forming the Frankfurt skyline. It is one of the few cities in the European Union to have such a skyline and because of it Germans sometimes refer to Frankfurt as Mainhattan, the other well known and obvious nickname is Bankfurt
Frankfurt
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Collage of Frankfurt, clockwise from top of left to right: Facade of the
Römer and
Frankfurt Cathedral, statue of
Charlemagne in
Frankfurt Historical Museum, view of Frankfurt skyline and
Main River
Frankfurt
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The legend of the Frankenfurt (ford of the Franks)
Frankfurt
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Frankfurt in 1612
Frankfurt
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Frankfurt in 1872
7.
Hemma
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Emma of Altdorf, also known as Hemma, a member of the Elder House of Welf, was Queen consort of East Francia by marriage to King Louis the German, from 843 until her death. Her father was Welf I, Count of Altorf in Alamannia, her mother was Hedwig, emmas elder sister was Judith, who in February 819 married the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious, and thereby became Queen consort of the Franks and Holy Roman Empress. The marriage marked a step forward in the rise of the Welf dynasty. The wedding cereminy possibly took place in Regensburg, Bavaria, where since 817 Louis the German was to rule as a King of Bavaria subordinate to his father and she was given in 833, by her husband Louis, Obermünster Abbey in Regensburg. After severe innerdynastic struggles, the Carolingian Empire eventually was divided according to the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Kingdom of Bavaria was merged in Louis the Germans Kingdom of East Francia, and his wife Emma became first East Frankish queen. Emma is rarely mentioned in sources, she does not seem to have had much influence on her husbands rule. The Annales Bertiniani written by Archbishop Hincmar of Reims however reproach Emma for a pride which displeased the people of Italy and she is also said to have inordinately favoured her son Carloman, designated heir of his father in Bavaria, which led to a revolt by his brothers. Emma suffered a stroke in 874 and subsequently became paralyzed and speechless and she died on 31 January 876, a few months before her husband, and was buried in St. Emmerams Abbey, Regensburg. Her tomb, erected around 1300, is considered a masterpiece of medieval sculpture, by Louis, she had seven children, Hildegard Carloman Ermengard Gisela of East Francia, married to Berctolf, Graf of Swabia
Hemma
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Tomb effigy at St. Emmeram's Abbey
8.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
Dynasty
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Charles I of England and his son, the future
James II
9.
Carolingian dynasty
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The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name Carolingian derives from the Latinised name of Charles Martel, the Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of Romans in over three centuries. His death in 814 began a period of fragmentation of the Carolingian empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France. This picture, however, is not commonly accepted today, the greatest Carolingian monarch was Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III at Rome in 800. His empire, ostensibly a continuation of the Western Roman Empire, is referred to historiographically as the Carolingian Empire, the Carolingian rulers did not give up the traditional Frankish practice of dividing inheritances among heirs, though the concept of the indivisibility of the Empire was also accepted. The Carolingians had the practice of making their sons kings in the various regions of the Empire. The Carolingians were displaced in most of the regna of the Empire by 888 and they ruled in East Francia until 911 and held the throne of West Francia intermittently until 987. One chronicler of Sens dates the end of Carolingian rule with the coronation of Robert II of France as junior co-ruler with his father, Hugh Capet, the dynasty became extinct in the male line with the death of Eudes, Count of Vermandois. His sister Adelaide, the last Carolingian, died in 1122, the Carolingian dynasty has five distinct branches, The Lombard branch, or Vermandois branch, or Herbertians, descended from Pepin of Italy, son of Charlemagne. Though he did not outlive his father, his son Bernard was allowed to retain Italy, Bernard rebelled against his uncle Louis the Pious, and lost both his kingdom and his life. Deprived of the title, the members of this branch settled in France. The counts of Vermandois perpetuated the Carolingian line until the 12th century, the Counts of Chiny and the lords of Mellier, Neufchâteau and Falkenstein are branches of the Herbertians. With the descendants of the counts of Chiny, there would have been Herbertian Carolingians to the early 14th century, the Lotharingian branch, descended from Emperor Lothair, eldest son of Louis the Pious. At his death Middle Francia was divided equally between his three surviving sons, into Italy, Lotharingia and Lower Burgundy, the sons of Emperor Lothair did not have sons of their own, so Middle Francia was divided between the western and eastern branches of the family in 875. The Aquitainian branch, descended from Pepin of Aquitaine, son of Louis the Pious, since he did not outlive his father, his sons were deprived of Aquitaine in favor of his younger brother Charles the Bald. The German branch, descended from Louis the German, King of East Francia, since he had three sons, his lands were divided into Duchy of Bavaria, Duchy of Saxony and Duchy of Swabia. His youngest son Charles the Fat briefly reunited both East and West Francia — the entirety of the Carolingian empire — but it again after his death. With the failure of the lines of the German branch, Arnulf of Carinthia
Carolingian dynasty
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A Carolingian family tree, from the Chronicon Universale of
Ekkehard of Aura, 12th century
Carolingian dynasty
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Carolingian denier of
Lothair I, struck in
Dorestad (
Middle Francia) after 850.
Carolingian dynasty
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Carloman, son
Carolingian dynasty
–
Pepin, son
10.
Charlemagne
–
Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and Emperor of the Romans from 800. He united much of Europe during the early Middle Ages and he was the first recognised emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state which Charlemagne founded was called the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. He became king in 768 following his fathers death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I, carlomans sudden death in 771 in unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his fathers policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and he campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianising them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peters Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the Father of Europe, as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire and his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagnes empire, up to the last Emperor Francis II and these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for thirteen years and he was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. He married at least four times and had three sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic Franks had been Christianised, Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have dubbed the rois fainéants. Almost all government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace, in 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry. He became the governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen, Pepin of Herstal was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel. After 737, Charles governed the Franks in lieu of a king, Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Carloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery and he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746, preferring to enter the church as a monk, Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power
Charlemagne
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A coin of Charlemagne with the inscription KAROLVS IMP AVG (Karolus Imperator Augustus)
Charlemagne
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Francia, early 8th century
Charlemagne
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External video
Charlemagne
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Moorish Hispania in 732
11.
Francia
–
The kingdom was founded by Clovis I, crowned first King of the Franks in 496. The tradition of dividing patrimonies among brothers meant that the Frankish realm was ruled, nominally, even so, sometimes the term was used as well to encompass Neustria north of the Loire and west of the Seine. Most Frankish Kings were buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis, modern France is still named Francia in Spanish and Italian. The Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a confederation of smaller Germanic tribes, such as the Sicambri, Bructeri, Ampsivarii, Chamavi and Chattuarii, in the area north and east of the Rhine. Some of these peoples, such as the Sicambri and Salians, already had lands in the Roman Empire, in 357 the Salian king entered the Roman Empire and made a permanent foothold there by a treaty granted by Julian the Apostate, who forced back the Chamavi to Hamaland. As Frankish territory expanded, the meaning of Francia expanded with it, after the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after the fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus. Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c, around 428 the Salian king Chlodio, whose kingdom included Toxandria and the civitatus Tungrorum, launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum and the Somme. The kingdom of Chlodio changed the borders and the meaning of the word Francia permanently, Francia was no longer barbaricum trans Rhenum, but a landed political power on both sides of the river, deeply involved in Roman politics. Chlodios family, the Merovingians, extended Francia even further south, the core territory of the Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia. Chlodios successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I, possibly his grandson, Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Roman exclave of Soissons, defeated the Alemanni, Clovis defeated the Visigoths and conquered their entire kingdom with its capital at Toulouse, and conquered the Bretons and made them vassals of Francia. He conquered most or all of the neighbouring Frankish tribes along the Rhine, by the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy, the Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance, dividing their lands among their sons. Cloviss sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul, Theuderic I made his capital at Reims, Chlodomer at Orléans, Childebert I at Paris, and Chlothar I at Soissons. During their reigns, the Thuringii, Burgundes, and Saxons and Frisians were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom, the fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia. Theudebert interfered in the Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths, receiving the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and part of Venetia
Francia
–
The partition of the Frankish kingdom among the four sons of
Clovis with
Clotilde presiding, Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis (Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse).
Francia
Francia
–
The political divisions of
Gaul at the inception of
Clovis 's career (481). Note that only the
Burgundian kingdom and the province of
Septimania remained unconquered at his death (511).
Francia
–
The division of Francia on
Clovis 's death (511). The kingdoms were not geographic unities because they were formed in an attempt to create equal-sized fiscs. The discrepancy in size reveals the concentration of Roman fiscal lands.
12.
Germania
–
Germania was the Roman term for the geographical region in north-central Europe inhabited mainly by Germanic peoples. It extended from the Danube in the south to the Baltic Sea, the Roman portions formed two provinces of the Empire, Germania Inferior to the north, and Germania Superior to the south. Germania was inhabited mostly by Germanic tribes, but also Celts, early Slavs, Balts, the population mix changed over time by assimilation, and especially by migration. The ancient Greeks were the first to mention the tribes in the area, later, Julius Caesar wrote about warlike Germanic tribesmen and their threat to Roman Gaul, and there were military clashes between the Romans and the indigenous tribes. Tacitus wrote the most complete account of Germania that still survives, the origin of the term Germania is uncertain, but was known by Caesars time, and may be Gallic in origin. The name came into use after Julius Caesar and whether it was used widely before him amongst Romans is unknown, the term may be Gallic in origin. Tacitus wrote in AD98, For the rest, they affirm Germania to be a recent word, for those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani. Names of Germany in English and some languages are derived from Germania, but German speakers call it Deutschland. Several modern languages use the name Germania, including Hebrew, Italian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Maltese, Greek, Germania extended from the Rhine eastward to the Vistula river, and from the Danube river northward to the Baltic Sea. The areas west of the Rhine were mainly Celtic and became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC, the Roman parts of Germania, Lesser Germania, eventually formed two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, Lower Germania and Germania Superior. Important cities in Lesser Germania included Besançon, Strasbourg, Wiesbaden, the geography of Magna Germania was comprehensively described in Ptolemys Geography of around 150 C. E. via geographical coordinates of the main cities. Germania was inhabited by different tribes, most of them Germanic but also some Celtic, proto-Slavic, Baltic, the tribal and ethnic makeup changed over the centuries as a result of assimilation and, most importantly, migrations. The Germanic people spoke several different dialects, classical records show little about the people who inhabited the north of Europe before the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks were aware of a group they called Celts, herodotus also mentioned the Scythians but no other tribes. At around 320 BC, Pytheas of Massalia sailed around Britain and along the northern coast of Europe and he may have been the first Mediterranean to distinguish the Germanic people from the Celts. Contact between German tribes and the Roman Empire did take place and was not always hostile, Caesar described the cultural differences between the Germanic tribesmen, the Romans, and the Gauls. He said that the Gauls, although warlike, could be civilized and his accounts of barbaric northern tribes could be described as an expression of the superiority of Rome, including Roman Gaul. Caesars accounts portray the Roman fear of the Germanic tribes and the threat they posed, the perceived menace of the Germanic tribesmen proved accurate
Germania
–
Depiction of Magna Germania in the early 2nd century
Germania
–
Map of the Roman Empire and Magna Germania in the early 2nd century
13.
Duchy of Bavaria
–
The Duchy of Bavaria was, from the sixth through the eighth century, a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom and was ruled by dukes under Frankish lordship. In the late ninth century a new duchy was created from this area and it was one of the stem duchies of the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1070 and 1180 the Emperor was opposed by Bavaria, especially by the House of Welf, in the final conflict between the Duke Henry the Lion and the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I, Frederick I triumphed and deprived Henry of his fiefs. Bavaria then passed over to the House of Wittelsbach, which held it until 1918, the origins of the older Bavarian duchy can be traced to the year 551/555. In his Getica, the chronicler Jordanes writes, That area of the Swabians has the Bavarii in the east, until the end of the first duchy, all rulers descended from the family of the Agilolfings. The first documented duke was Garibald I, a scion of the Frankish Agilolfings, at around 743, the Bavarian duke Odilo vassalised the Slavic princes of Carantania, who had asked him for protection against the invading Avars. The residence of the largely independent Agilolfing dukes was then Regensburg, in the adjacent Alamannic lands west of the Lech river, Augsburg was a bishops seat. When Boniface established the Diocese of Passau in 739, he could build on local Early Christian traditions. In the south, Saint Rupert had founded in 696 the Diocese of Salzburg, probably after he had baptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria at his court in Regensburg, becoming the Apostle of Bavaria. In 798 Pope Leo III created the Bavarian ecclesiastical province with Salzburg as metropolitan seat and Regensburg, Passau, Freising, in the west, the Carolingian mayor of the palace Carloman had suppressed the last Alamannic revolt at the 746 Blood court at Cannstatt. The last tribal stem duchy to be incorporated was Bavaria in 788, the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne entailed the fall of Tassilo, who was deposed in 788. Bavaria was then administrated by Frankish prefects, from 825 Louis the German styled himself King of Bavaria in the territory that was to become the centre of his power. Carlomans natural son Arnulf of Carinthia, raised in the former Carantanian lands, secured possession of the March of Carinthia upon his fathers death in 880, Carinthia and Bavaria were the bases of his power, with Regensburg as the seat of his government. Due mainly to the support of the Bavarians, Arnulf could take the field against Charles in 887, in 899 Bavaria passed to Louis the Child, during whose reign continuous Hungarian ravages occurred. During the reign of Louis the Child, Luitpold, Count of Scheyern, the German king Conrad I unsuccessfully attacked Arnulf when the latter refused to acknowledge his royal supremacy. The Carolingian reign in East Francia ended in 911 when Arnulfs son, King Louis the Child, the discontinuation of the central authority led to a new strengthening of the German stem duchies. At the same time, East Francia was exposed to the threat from Hungarian invasions. In 907 the army of Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria suffered a defeat at the Battle of Pressburg
Duchy of Bavaria
–
Imperial cities
Duchy of Bavaria
–
Bavarian lands after 1392 partition
14.
Regensburg
–
Regensburg is a city in south-east Germany, situated at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. With over 140,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the fourth-largest city in the State of Bavaria after Munich, the city is the political, economic and cultural centre of Eastern Bavaria and the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate. The medieval centre of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2014, Regensburg was among the top sights and travel attractions in Germany. Generally known in English as Ratisbon until well into the twentieth century, the first settlements in Regensburg date from the Stone Age. The Celtic name Radasbona was the oldest given to a settlement near the present city, around AD90, the Romans built a fort there. In 179, a new Roman fort Castra Regina was built for Legio III Italica during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is believed that as early as in late Roman times the city was the seat of a bishop, from the early 6th century, Regensburg was the seat of a ruling family known as the Agilolfings. From about 530 to the first half of the 13th century, Regensburg remained an important city during the reign of Charlemagne. After the partition of the Carolingian Empire in 843, the city became the seat of the Eastern Frankish ruler, two years later, fourteen Bohemian princes came to Regensburg to receive baptism there. This was the point of Christianization of the Czechs. These events had a impact on the cultural history of the Czech lands, as they were consequently part of the Roman Catholic. A memorial plate at St Johns Church was unveiled a few years ago, commemorating the incident in the Czech, on 8 December 899 Arnulf of Carinthia, descendant of Charlemagne, died at Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. In 800 AD the city had 23,000 inhabitants and by 1000 AD this had almost doubled to 40,000 people. In 1096, on the way to the First Crusade, Peter the Hermit led a mob of Crusaders that attempted to force the conversion of the Jews of Regensburg. Between 1135 and 1146, the Stone Bridge across the Danube was built at Regensburg and this bridge opened major international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice, and this began Regensburgs golden age as a residence of wealthy trading families. Regensburg became the centre of southern Germany and was celebrated for its gold work. In 1245 Regensburg became a Free Imperial City and was a centre before the shifting of trade routes in the late Middle Ages. At the end of the 15th century in 1486, Regensburg became part of the Duchy of Bavaria, the city adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1542 and its Town Council remained entirely Lutheran
Regensburg
–
Regensburg
Regensburg
–
The remains of the East Tower of the Porta Praetoria of Roman times
Regensburg
–
Ceremonial arrival at the Imperial Diet, 1711
Regensburg
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
15.
Bavarians
–
Bavarians are an ethnographic group of Germans of the Bavaria region, a state within Germany. The groups dialect or speech is known as the Bavarian language, native to Altbayern, like the neighboring Swabians and Austrians, Bavarians are traditionally Catholic. There is no distinction between Bavarians and Austrians. The Bavarian language is divided into three dialects, Upper Palatinian is spoken in northern Bavaria. Danube Bavarian is spoken in central and south-eastern Bavaria and in Central, alpine Bavarian is spoken in south-western Bavaria, in southern Austria and in South Tyrol. On the southern side of the river Danube was the Roman controlled province of Raetia, Bavarians are first mentioned in the mid 6th century, in the foothills north of the Alps, on both sides of the Danube river. It is difficult to distinguish the mobile and mixing groups of the Danube in this period archaeologically and they seem to have been closely related to the Lombards who were developing as a force to the east of them. Their legal system shows heavy Roman influence, and their unification appears to have been under a Duke installed by the Franks, Elbe Germans, came from the Elbe river to the north, which was under Thuringian rule, and is where the Lombards had also been. But also more northern groups had moved along the Elbe from the direction of the North Sea, as did some Saxons who joined the Lombards, and possibly the Heruls. Also, East Germanic groups such as the Goths had entered the Pannonian region east of the Bavarians in the leading up to the empire of Attila. These peoples had not only contributed to the Hunnic empire, Slavs and Avars were settling to the north-east, and Goths and Langobards to the east and south were later displaced by Slavs and Magyars. A Diocese of Laureacum had been in existence since the 4th century, in the 8th century moved to Passau, the Bishopric of Regensburg was founded in 739 by Boniface. The Lex Baiuvariorum was a codex of Germanic law, comprising 23 articles of traditional law recorded in the 740s, Bavaria within the Carolingian Empire was bordering on Swabia in the west, Thuringia in the north, Lombardy in the south and Slavic Carinthia in the east. The Duchy of Bavaria was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, established in the 10th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided, four Duchies existed after the division of 1392, Lower Bavaria-Straubing, lower Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich. Munich, now the capital and cultural center of Bavaria, was founded in the medieval period. In 1503, Bavaria was re-united by Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich, in 1623, Bavaria was elevated to Electorate. The Kingdom of Bavaria was established at the Peace of Pressburg, the kingdoms territory fluctuated greatly over the following years, eventually fixed at the Treaty of Paris, which established most of what remain the borders of the modern state
Bavarians
–
The
Oktoberfest in
Munich, the most widely-known festival of Bavarian culture, held since 1810 (2006 photograph).
Bavarians
–
Caricature of four "Munich types" (Münchner Charakterköpfe):
Highlander (Der Wastl aus dem Oberland "
Wastl from the
Oberland "),
clerk (Gerichtsschreiber "court secretary"), shirker (Invalid in Friedenszeiten "peacetime-invalid"), petty bourgeois (Münchner Hausvater "Munich pater familias"), Julius Adam,
Die Gartenlaube (1875).
16.
Wends
–
Wends is a historical name for the West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where. In the Middle Ages the term Wends often referred to Western Slavs living within the Holy Roman Empire, mieszko I, the first historical ruler of Poland, also appeared as Dagome, King of the Wends. The name has survived in Finnic languages denoting Russia. According to one theory, Germanic peoples first applied this name to the ancient Veneti, and then after the period they transferred it to their new neighbours. The Germans in the south used the term Winde instead of Wende and applied it, just as the Germans in the north, to Slavs they had contact with, following the 8th century, the Frankish kings and their successors organised nearly all Wendish land into marches. This process later turned into the series of crusades, by the 12th century, all Wendish lands had become part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of the Ostsiedlung, which reached its peak in the 12th to 14th centuries, due to the process of assimilation following German settlement, many Slavs west of the Oder adopted the German culture and language. Only some rural communities which did not have an admixture with Germans. With the gradual decline of the use of these local Slavic tongues, some sources claim that in the 13th century there were actual historic people called Wends or Vends living as far as northern Latvia around the city of Wenden. Henry of Livonia in his 13th-century Latin chronicle described a tribe called the Vindi, today, only one group of Wends still exists, the Lusatian Sorbs in present-day eastern Germany. The term Wends derived from the Roman-era people called in Latin Veneti, Venedi or Venethi and this people was mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy as inhabiting the Baltic coast. There they assimilated the remaining Germanic population that had not left the area in the Migration period. Their German neighbours adapted the term they had been using for peoples east of the River Elbe before to the Slavs, calling them Wends as they called the Venedi before and probably the Vandals also. In his late sixth century work History of Armenia, Movses Khorenatsi mentions their raids into the lands named Vanand after them and their tribal names were derived from local place names, sometimes adopting the Germanic tradition. Settlements were secured by round burghs made of wood and clay, some tribes unified into larger, duchy-like units. For example, the Obotrites evolved from the unification of the Holstein, the Lutici were an alliance of tribes living between Obotrites and Pomeranians. They did not unify under a duke, but remained independent and their leaders met in the temple of Rethra
Wends
–
Wends wedding 1931 in
Spreewald
Wends
–
Personifications of Sclavinia (Wends),
Germania,
Gallia, and
Roma, bringing offerings to
Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990
Wends
–
Germaniae veteris typus (Old Germany.),
Aestui,
Venedi,
Gythones and
Ingaevones on the right upper corner of the map. Edited by Willem and
Joan Blaeu), 1645
Wends
–
Texas Wendish Heritage Museum in
Lee County, Texas
17.
Sorbs
–
Sorbs, known also by their former autonyms Lusatians and Wends, are a West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting their homeland in Lusatia, a region divided between Germany and Poland. They traditionally speak the Sorbian languages, closely related to Polish, Kashubian, Czech, Sorbian is an officially recognized minority language of Germany. The Sorbs are linguistically and genetically closest to the Czechs and Poles, the community is divided religiously between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. An indicator of the degree of assimilation is the fact that the Prime Minister of Saxony is at present a Sorb, the ethnonym Sorbs derives from the medieval tribe, Sorbs. The original ethnonym, Srbi, was retained by the Sorbs and Serbs in the Balkans, by the 6th century, Slavs occupied the area west of the Oder formerly inhabited by Germanic peoples. The Sorbs are first mentioned in the 7th century, in the 19th century the autonym of the Slavic population of Lusatia was Lusatians. According to a study published in May 2011, Sorbs show the greatest genetic similarity to Poles, followed by Czechs. They show subtle evidence of genetic isolation but less than Sardinians, demographic history of the Sorb population since 1700, Sorbs are divided into two ethnographical groups, Upper Sorbs, who speak Upper Sorbian. Lower Sorbs, who speak Lower Sorbian, the dialects spoken vary in intelligibility in different areas. Sorbs arrived in the area extending between the Bober, Kwisa, and Oder rivers to the East and the Saale and Elbe rivers to the West during the 6th century, in the north, the area of their settlement reached Berlin. The earliest surviving mention of the tribe was in 631 A. D. when Fredegars Chronicle described them as Surbi and as under the rule of a Dervan, an ally of Samo. The Annales Regni Francorum state that in 806 A. D. Sorbian Duke Miliduch fought against the Franks and was killed, in 840, Sorbian Duke Czimislav was killed. In 932, Henry I conquered Lusatia and Milsko, gero II, Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark, reconquered Lusatia the following year and, in 939, murdered 30 Sorbian princes during a feast. As a result, there were many Sorbian uprisings against German rule, a reconstructed castle, at Raddusch in Lower Lusatia, is the sole physical remnant from this early period. Lusatian tribes are noted in the work of the Bavarian Geographer, the document contains a list of the tribes in Central-Eastern Europe east of the Elbe and north of the Danube to the Volga rivers to the Black and Caspian Sea most of them of Slavic origin. Having settled by the Elbe, Spree and Neisse in the 6th century, Sorbs living on the swampy broads of the Lower Spree have taken their name from the word marsh. The Milceni settled on fertile soil around Upper Spree, the name derives from the word měl’, the two groups were separated from each other by a wide and uninhabited forest range. The rest of the tribes settled themselves between the Elbe and Saale, among the many Slavic tribes, the Bavarian Geographer also noted a few Lusatian tribes, Glomacze - Dolomici, Milceni, Chutizi and Sitice
Sorbs
–
National costume of female Lusatian Sorbs, as traditionally worn in the northern part of Lusatia (Spreewald)
Sorbs
–
Sorbian Flag (in
Pan-Slavic colors, introduced 1842) Logo of
Domowina, often used as Sorb coat of arms
Sorbs
–
Slavic tribes between Elbe and Vistula in the Early Middle Ages (beige), Sorbs are lower left
Sorbs
–
The reconstructed Lusatian
gord (fortification) of Raduš (Raddusch), near
Vetschau in
Lower Lusatia
18.
Judith of Bavaria (died 843)
–
Queen Judith, also known as Judith of Bavaria, was the daughter of Count Welf of Bavaria and Saxon noblewoman, Hedwig. She was the wife of Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans. Marriage to Louis marked the beginning of her rise as a figure in the Carolingian court. She had two children with Louis, a daughter Gisela and a son, Charles the Bald, the birth of her son led to a major dispute over the imperial succession, and tensions between her and Charles half-brothers from Louis first marriage. She would eventually fall from grace when Charles wife, the new empress Ermentrude of Orléans and she was buried in 846 in Tours. No surviving sources provide a record of Judith’s exact date and year of birth. Judith was probably born between 797 and 805, given that girls in the Carolingian world would be eligible for marriage at around the age of twelve, and her marriage to King Louis occurred in 819. Judith was the daughter of the noble Saxon Heilwig and Count Welf I, though the Welf clan was noble, they were not part of the Imperial Aristocracy that dominated high office throughout the Carolingian empire. The Welf clans leaders, having lost influence in their region of Alemannia eventually rose to power though cementing familial ties with the Carolingian Imperial Aristocracy in the 770s. Nonetheless, they remained a part of the aristocracy of their region. After the death on the 3rd of October 818 of Louis first wife Queen Ermengard, mother of his sons Louis the German, Peppin and Lothar, shortly after Christmas in 819 he married Judith in Aachen. Like many of the marriages of the time Judith was selected. It is at the show that, at the age of forty. In Frankish society, only women of the nobility were eligible to compete, this trait is highlighted in the Regesta Imperii. Contemporary witnesses such as Ermoldus Nigellus, Walahfrid Strabo, and Louis biographer Thegan attributed Judiths selection to her beauty, intelligence. It is just as likely, however, that Louis was attracted to the geographical and political advantages offered by Judiths family. This fact would have made them desirable allies for Louis, since any military campaign in the eastern frontiers would require the emperor to travel through this region. By marrying Judith, in words, the emperor would effectively gain friends and allies, an important military and political stronghold
Judith of Bavaria (died 843)
–
Empress Judith, 2nd wife of Emperor Louis the Pious (from a c. 1510 manuscript)
Judith of Bavaria (died 843)
–
Family Tree of Charlemagne
Judith of Bavaria (died 843)
–
Carolingian territorial divisions, 843
Judith of Bavaria (died 843)
–
Charles The Bald, French painting, 19th century, unknown painter
19.
Welf (father of Judith)
–
Welf I is the first documented ancestor of the Elder House of Welf. He is mentioned as a count in the Frankish lands of Bavaria, Welf originated from a distinguished dynasty of Franconian nobles. He is mentioned once, on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter Judith with Emperor Louis the Pious in 819 at Aachen. His son Conrad later appeared as a dux in Alamannia and achieved a position in the Upper Swabian estates he possibly had inherited from his mother Hedwig. His family became politically powerful when Louis the Pious chose his oldest daughter as his 2nd wife upon the death of his consort Ermengarde of Hesbaye, though Welf himself never became publicly prominent, his family became interwoven with the Carolingian dynasty. Welf married Hedwig, daughter of the Saxon count Isambart, Hedwig later became abbess of Chelles
Welf (father of Judith)
–
Depiction in the Historia Welforum, about 1170
20.
Alsace
–
Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
Alsace
Alsace
Alsace
Alsace
21.
Lothair I
–
Lothair I or Lothar I was the Holy Roman Emperor, and the King of Bavaria, Italy and Middle Francia. Lothair was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, upon the fathers death, Charles and Louis joined forces against Lothair in a three-year civil war. Lothair was born in 795, to Louis the Pious and Emengarde of Hebsbaye and his father was the son of the reigning Emperor, Charlemagne. Little is known of Lothairs early life, which was passed at the court of his grandfather Charlemagne. In 814, the elderly Charlemagne died at age 72, when his grandson Lothair was 19, the next year, Lothair was sent to govern Bavaria in 815 for his father Louis the Pious. He first comes to attention in 817, when Louis the Pious drew up his Ordinatio Imperii. Lothair would also inherit their lands if they were to die childless, Lothair was then crowned joint emperor by his father at Aachen. At the same time, Aquitaine and Bavaria were granted to his brothers Pippin and Louis, respectively, following the murder of Bernard by Louis the Pious, Lothair also received the Kingdom of Italy. In 821, Lothair married Ermengarde, daughter of Hugh the Count of Tours, in 822, he assumed the government of Italy, and at Easter,5 April 823, he was crowned emperor again by Pope Paschal I, this time at Rome. Lothair, however, soon changed his attitude and spent the decade in constant strife over the division of the Empire with his father. The first rebellion began in 830, all three brothers fought their father, whom they deposed. In 831, their father was reinstated and he deprived Lothair of his imperial title, the second rebellion was instigated by Angilbert II, Archbishop of Milan, in 833, and again Louis was deposed in 834. Lothair, through the loyalty of the Lombards and later reconciliations, retained Italy, when Louis the Pious was dying in 840, he sent the imperial insignia to Lothair, who, disregarding the various partitions, claimed the whole of the Empire. He was 45 years old when his father died, negotiations with his brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles, both of whom resisted this claim, were followed by an alliance of the younger brothers against Lothair. A decisive battle was fought at Fontenay-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841, with fresh troops he began a war of plunder, but the forces of his brothers were too strong, and taking with him such treasure as he could collect, he abandoned his capital to them. He met with the leaders of the Stellinga in Speyer and promised them his support in return for theirs, peace negotiations began, and in June 842 the brothers met on an island in the Saône. They agreed to an arrangement which developed, after much difficulty and delay, into the Treaty of Verdun, in 845 the count of Arles, Fulcrad, led a rebellion in Provence. The emperor put it down and the count joined him in an expedition against the Saracens in Italy in 846 and he was buried at Prüm, where his remains were found in 1860
Lothair I
–
Lothair I
Lothair I
–
Carolingian denier of Lothair I, struck in
Dorestad (
Middle Francia) after 850.
Lothair I
–
Kingdom of Bavaria
Lothair I
–
Medallion portrait presumed to be of Lothair, from the binding of the Lothaire Psalter in the British Library
22.
King of Italy
–
King of Italy was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a military leader, in the late 5th century. With the Frankish conquest of Italy in the 8th century, the Carolingians assumed the title, the last Emperor to claim the title was Charles V in the 16th century. During this period, the holders of the title were crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, although Napoleon I used the title from 1805 to 1814, it was not until the Unification of Italy in the 1860s that a Kingdom of Italy was restored. From 1861 the House of Savoy held the title as monarchs of the peninsula until the last King of Italy, Umberto II. After the deposition of the last Western Emperor in 476, Heruli leader Odoacer was appointed Dux Italiae by the reigning Byzantine Emperor Zeno. Later, the Germanic foederati, the Scirians and the Heruli, as well as a segment of the Italic Roman army. In 493, the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great killed Odoacer, Ostrogothic rule ended when Italy was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 552. In the 8th century, estrangement between the Italians and the Byzantines allowed the Lombards to capture the remaining Roman enclaves in northern Italy. However, in 774, they were defeated by the Franks under Charlemagne, after the death of Charles III the Fat in 887, Italy fell into instability and a number of kings attempted to establish themselves as independent Italian monarchs. During this period, known as the Feudal Anarchy, the title Rex Italicorum was introduced, after the breakup of the Frankish empire, Otto I added Italy to the Holy Roman Empire and continued the use of the title Rex Italicorum. The last to use this title was Henry II, subsequent emperors used the title king of Italy until Charles V. At first they were crowned in Pavia, later Milan, in 1805, Napoleon I was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy at the Milan Cathedral. The next year, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated his imperial title, from the deposition of Napoleon I until the Italian Unification, there was no Italian monarch claiming the overarching title. The Risorgimento successfully established a dynasty, the House of Savoy, over the peninsula, uniting the kingdoms of Sardinia. The monarchy was superseded by the Italian Republic, after a referendum was held on 2 June 1946 after the World War II. The Italian monarchy formally ended on 12 June of that year, Guy of Spoleto opponent of Berengar, ruled most of Italy but was deposed by Arnulf. Lambert of Spoleto subking of his father Guy before 894, reduced to Spoleto 894–895, Arnulf of Carinthia Ratold In 896, Arnulf and Ratold lost control of Italy, which was divided between Berengar and Lambert, Berengar I seized Lamberts portion upon the latters death in 898
King of Italy
–
Iron Crown of Lombardy
King of Italy
–
Otto I
King of Italy
–
Otto II
King of Italy
–
Otto III
23.
Pepin I of Aquitaine
–
Pepin I or Pepin I of Aquitaine was King of Aquitaine and Duke of Maine. Pepin was the son of Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife. When his father assigned to each of his sons a kingdom in August 817, he received Aquitaine, ermoldus Nigellus was his court poet and accompanied him on a campaign into Brittany in 824. Pepin rebelled in 830 at the insistence of his brother Lothairs advisor Wala and he took an army of Gascons with him and marched all the way to Paris, with the support of the Neustrians. His father marched back from a campaign in Brittany all the way to Compiègne, in 832, Pepin rebelled again and his brother Louis the German soon followed. Louis the Pious was in Aquitaine to subdue any revolt, but was drawn off by the Bavarian insurrection of the younger Louis, Pepin took Limoges and other Imperial territories. The next year, Lothair joined the rebellion and, with the assistance of Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, Lothairs later behaviour alienated Pepin, and the latter was at his fathers side when Louis the Pious was reinstated on 1 March 834. Pepin was restored to his former status, Pepin died scarcely four years later and was buried in the Church of St. Radegonde in Poitiers. In 822, Pepin had married Ingeltrude, daughter of Theodobert, count of Madrie, both were minors when Pepin died, so Louis the Pious awarded Aquitaine to his own youngest son, Pepins half-brother Charles the Bald. The Aquitainians, however, elected Pepins son as Pepin II and his brother Charles also briefly claimed the kingdom. Pippin I and the Kingdom of Aquitaine, Charlemagnes Heir, New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious, edd. Reprinted in Law, Culture and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain
Pepin I of Aquitaine
–
A
Denier of Pepin I of Aquitaine (817–838). The inscription reads Pippinus rex.
Pepin I of Aquitaine
–
Carloman, son
Pepin I of Aquitaine
–
Pepin, son
Pepin I of Aquitaine
–
Charles the Simple, sons
24.
Duke of Aquitaine
–
The Duke of Aquitaine was the ruler of the ancient region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings. As a consequence, male-preference primogeniture was the succession law for the nobility. The Merovingian kings and dukes of Aquitaine had their capital at Toulouse, the Carolingian kings used different capitals situated further north. In 765, Pepin the Short bestowed the captured golden banner of the Aquitainian duke, Waiffre, Pepin I of Aquitaine was buried in Poitiers. Charles the Child was crowned at Limoges and buried at Bourges, when Aquitaine briefly asserted its independence after the death of Charles the Fat, it was Ranulf II of Poitou who took the royal title. In the late century, Louis the Indolent was crowned at Brioude. The Aquitainian ducal coronation procedure is preserved in a late twelfth-century ordo from Saint-Étienne in Limoges, in the early thirteenth century a commentary was added to this ordo, which emphasised Limoges as the capital of Aquitaine. The ordo indicated that the received a silk mantle, coronet, banner, sword, spurs. The Carolingian kings again appointed Dukes of Aquitaine, first in 852, later, this duchy was also called Guyenne. Ranulph I, Count of Poitiers from 835, Duke of Aquitaine from 852, Ranulph II, son of Ranulf I, also Count of Poitiers, called himself King of Aquitaine from 888 until his death. Ebalus the Bastard, illegitimate son of Ranulph, also Count of Poitiers, William I the Pious, also Count of Auvergne William II the Younger, nephew of William I, also Count of Auvergne. Acfred, brother of William II, also Count of Auvergne, Ebalus the Bastard, for a second time. Raymond I Pons Raymond II Hugh the Great William III Towhead, son of Ebalus, also Count of Poitiers, William IV Iron Arm, son of William III, also Count of Poitiers. William V the Great, son of William IV, also Count of Poitiers, William VI the Fat, first son of William V, also Count of Poitiers. Odo, second son of William V, also Count of Poitiers, William VII the Eagle, third son of William V, also Count of Poitiers. William VIII, fourth son of William V, also Count of Poitiers, William IX the Troubadour, son of William VIII, also Count of Poitiers and Duke of Gascony. William X the Saint, son of William IX, also Count of Poitiers, Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of William X, also Countess of Poitiers and Duchess of Gascony, married the kings of France and England in succession. Louis the Younger, also King of France, duke in right of his wife, from 1152, the Duchy of Aquitaine was held by the Plantagenets, who also ruled England as independent monarchs and held other territories in France by separate inheritance
Duke of Aquitaine
–
Homage of
Edward I of England (kneeling) to
Philip IV of France (seated), by
Jean Fouquet. As Duke of Aquitaine, Edward was a vassal to the French king
Duke of Aquitaine
–
Map of France in 1154
25.
Alamannia
–
Alamannia or Alemannia was the territory inhabited by the Germanic Alemanni after they broke through the Roman limes in 213. The Alemanni expanded from the Main basin during the 3rd century, raiding the Roman provinces, the term Swabia was often used interchangeably with Alamannia in the 10th to 13th centuries. Raetia Curiensis, although not part of Alemannia, was ruled by Alemannic counts, the territory corresponds to what was still the areal of Alemannic German in the modern period, i. e. French Alsace, German Baden and Swabia, German-speaking Switzerland and Austrian Vorarlberg. The Alamanni were pushed south from their area of settlement in the Main basin and in the 5th and 6th century settled new territory on either side of the Rhine. In Swabia, Hegowe, between Lake Constance, the upper Danube and the Swabian Jura, perahtoltaspara in the upper Neckar basin, left of the upper Danube as far as Ulm, including the source of the Danube. Swiggerstal, Filiwigawe, Trachgowe and Alba between the Neckar and the Danube, albegowe, Keltinstein and Augestigowe along the Lech forming the border to Bavaria. Rezia in the Northeastern corner, left of the Danube, linzgowe and Argungowe north of Lake Constance. Eritgau, Folcholtespara, Rammegowe and Illargowe on the side of the Danube. In Baden, Brisigowe along the Upper Rhine opposite Sundgau, and Mortunova, the pertinence of this territory to either Alamannia or Upper Burgundy was disputed. The county of Raetia Curiensis was absorbed into Alamannia in the early 10th century and it comprised the Ringowe and Retia proper. The Alemanni during the Roman Empire period were divided into a number of cantons or goviae, but there appears to have been the custom of the individual kings uniting under the leadership of a single king in military expeditions. Some kings of the Alemanni of the 4th and 5th centuries are known by name, the first being Chrocus, chnodomarius supported Constantius II in the rebellion of Magnentius. Chnodomarius was the leader of the Alemannic army in the battle of Strasbourg in 357, macrian, Hariobaud, Urius, Ursicinus, Vadomar, and Vestralp were Alemannic kings who in 359 made treaties with Julian the Apostate. Macrian was deposed in an expedition ordered by Valentinian I in 370, macrian appears to have been involved in building a large alliance of Alemannic tribes against Rome, which earned him the title of turbarum rex artifex. Macrian was killed on campaign against the Franks, in an ambush laid by the Frankish king Mallobaudes, gibuld is the last known king of the Alemanni. His raid on Passau is mentioned in the vita of Saint Lupus, the name of Gibulds successor who was defeated at Tolbiac is not known. Thereafter, Alamannia was a nominal dukedom within Francia, though ruled by their own dukes, it is not likely that they were very often united under one duke in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Alemanni most frequently appear as auxiliaries in expeditions to Italy, Rhaetia too, though Alamannic, was ruled by the Victorids coterminously with the Diocese of Chur
Alamannia
–
Alemannia (orange) and Upper Burgundy (green) in the 10th century
26.
Charles the Bald
–
Charles the Bald was the King of West Francia, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. After a series of wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife and he was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia, at a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepins heirs, the death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. In the following year, the two confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843, Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the title and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the regions from Flanders through the Rhineland. The first years of Charless reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855, were comparatively peaceful, during these years the three brothers continued the system of confraternal government, meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz, at Meerssen, and at Attigny. In 858, Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy. He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs, in 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothairs dominions, besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons. Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë, who defeated the king at the Battle of Ballon and the Battle of Jengland, the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings, who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire, at the Vikings successful siege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions, two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885–886. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II, Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the crown at Pavia. Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia
Charles the Bald
–
Charles the Bald in old age; picture from his Psalter
Charles the Bald
–
Denier of Charles the Bald struck at Paris
Charles the Bald
–
Denier (type Temple and cross) of Charles the Bald, minted at
Reims between 840-864 (pre-
Edict of Pistres).
Charles the Bald
–
Seal of Charles the Bald
27.
Slavs
–
Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They are native to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Northeastern Europe, North Asia, Slavs speak Slavic languages of the Balto-Slavic language group. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of Central, states with Slavic languages comprise over 50% of the territory of Europe, therefore it is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe by land area. Present-day Slavic people are classified into West Slavs, East Slavs, there are an estimated 360 million Slavs worldwide. The Slavic autonym is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural *Slověne, the oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest the autonym as Slověne. The word slovo and the related slava and slukh originate from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱlew-, cognate with Ancient Greek κλῆς, whence comes the name Pericles, Latin clueo, some other theories have limited support. The English term slave eventually derives from the ethnonym Slav, Slavs were captured and enslaved by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD. The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Procopius wrote in 545 that the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a name in the remote past. He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy, and that believe in one god. They lived in scattered housing, and constantly changed settlement, regarding warfare, they were mainly foot soldiers with small shields and battleaxes, lightly clothed, some entering battle naked with only their genitals covered. And they live a life, giving no heed to bodily comforts. Jordanes described the Sclaveni having swamps and forests for their cities, another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes. Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius that slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he declined and is reported as saying, Others do not conquer our land. The relationship between the Slavs and a called the Veneti east of the River Vistula in the Roman period is uncertain. The name may refer both to Balts and Slavs, perhaps some Slavs migrated with the movement of the Vandals to Iberia and north Africa. Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers, the Byzantine records note that grass would not regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers
Slavs
–
Living of East Slavs, by
Sergey Ivanov
Slavs
–
Distribution of Slavic languages in Europe
Slavs
–
Adalbert of Prague liberates Slavic slaves from the Jewish slave traders, relief of
Gniezno Doors
Slavs
–
Slavic peoples in 6th century
28.
March of Pannonia
–
The Eastern March or March of Pannonia was a frontier march of the Carolingian Empire, named after the former Roman province of Pannonia. It was erected in the century in the lands of the former Avar Khaganate against the threat of Great Moravia. The East Frankish rulers appointed margraves to govern the March, the eastern part of the former Khaganate between the Danube and Tisza Rivers was occupied by the Bulgars. In 817 Emperor Louis the Pious granted Bavaria with Avaria to his minor son Louis the German, when the Avars disappeared in the 820s, they were replaced largely by West Slavs, who settled Pannonia from the state of Great Moravia. From 819 Lower Pannonia was the site of a rebellion led by Duke Ljudevit Posavski against the rule of Duke Cadolah of Friuli and his successor Baldric. By resolution of an 828 Imperial Diet, Baldric of Friuli was deposed, the Bavarian prefects had to face the rising threat by the Moravian ruler Mojmir I, who pursued separatist policies in the Eastern March. In turn, King Louis the German had the Slavic Duchy of Lower Pannonia established in 839, by the 843 Treaty of Verdun, the Pannonian march together with Bavaria became part of Louis kingdom of East Francia. Meanwhile the Moravian threat continued, in 854 Prefect Radbod was even accused to have forged an alliance with Mojmirs successor Prince Rastislav, likewise, the castle of Tulln on the Danube is documented in 859. In 871 William and Engelschalk died in battle against the Moravians, when his father Louis died in 876, Carloman succeeded him as East Frankish king and gave Lower Pannonia to his son Arnulf of Carinthia. From 882, the rule was enfeebled by the Wilhelminer War of Margrave Engelschalk II against the Aribonids, in 893 Arnulf, East Frankish king since 887, installed Margrave Luitpold. By the 890s, the Pannonian march seems to have disappeared, along with the threat from Great Moravia, upon the defeat of Margrave Luitpold at the 907 Battle of Pressburg, all East Frankish lands beyond the Enns river were lost. The Pannonian march itself does not appear to have survived into the eleventh century, germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. Medieval Lands Project, Nobility of Austria
March of Pannonia
–
Map of Carolingian Empire showing location of Pannonian March.
29.
Treaty of Verdun
–
The treaty signed in Verdun-sur-Meuse ended the three-year Carolingian Civil War. Lothairs brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald refused to acknowledge Lothairs suzerainty, each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom, Lothair in Italy, Louis the German in Bavaria, and Charles the Bald in Aquitaine. In the settlement, Lothair retained his title as emperor and, Lothair received Middle Francia and his domain later became the Low Countries, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence, and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the two cities, Aachen and Rome, and the imperial title, but it conferred only nominal overlordship of his brothers lands. Louis the German received the eastern portion, Charles the Bald received the western portion, which later became France. Pepin II was granted the kingdom of Aquitaine, but only under the authority of Charles, Charles received all lands west of the Rhône, which was called West Francia. Lothairs eldest son, Louis II inherited Italy and his fathers claim to the Imperial, the division of the Frankish realm by the Treaty of Verdun, carried out without any regard to linguistic and cultural continuities, resulted in conflicts in Western Europe until the 20th century. Since the Middle Frankish Kingdom combined lengthy and vulnerable borders with poor internal communications as it was severed by the Alps, it was not a viable entity. This made it difficult for a ruler to reassemble Charlemagnes empire. Only Charles the Fat achieved this briefly, in 855, the northern section became fragile Lotharingia, which became disputed by the more powerful states that evolved out of West Francia and East Francia. Generations of kings of France and Germany were unable to establish a rule over Lothair’s kingdom. In 1766, it passed to France after the death of Stanislaw Leszcyznski, in 1871, Alsace-Lorraine became German, after the victory of Prussia and its German allies over the French in the Franco-Prussian War. In 1919, it became French again by the Treaty of Versailles, in 1940, Germany reannexed Alsace-Lorraine following Germanys successful invasion of France. Finally, in 1945, after World War II, Alsace-Lorraine was solidified as French territory, the collapse of the Middle Frankish Kingdom also compounded the disunity of the Italian Peninsula, which persisted into the 19th century. Oaths of Strasbourg Treaty of Prüm Treaty of Meerssen Treaty of Ribemont Media related to Treaty of Verdun at Wikimedia Commons
Treaty of Verdun
–
The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent, with the three main divisions of 843. Pink area indicates
West Francia. Green area indicates
Middle Francia. Yellow area indicates
East Francia.
30.
Elbe
–
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia, then Germany and its total length is 1,094 kilometres. The Elbes major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, the Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148,268 square kilometres, the fourth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, with its largest parts in Germany, much smaller parts lie in Austria and Poland. The basin is inhabited by 24.5 million people, the Elbe rises at an elevation of about 1,400 metres in the Krkonoše on the northwest borders of the Czech Republic near Labská bouda. Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river, here the Elbe enters the vast vale named Polabí, and continues on southwards through Hradec Králové and then to Pardubice, where it turns sharply to the west. At Kolín some 43 kilometres further on, it bends gradually towards the north-west, at the village of Káraný, a little above Brandýs nad Labem, it picks up the Jizera. At Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, or Moldau, upstream from the confluence the Vltava is in fact much longer, and has a greater discharge and a larger drainage basin. Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře, in its northern section both banks of the Elbe are characterised by flat, very fertile marshlands, former flood plains of the Elbe now diked. At Magdeburg there is a viaduct, the Magdeburg Water Bridge, from the sluice of Geesthacht on downstream the Elbe is subject to the tides, the tidal Elbe section is called the Low Elbe. Within the city-state the Unterelbe has a number of streams, such as Dove Elbe, Gose Elbe, Köhlbrand, Northern Elbe, Reiherstieg. Some of which have been disconnected for vessels from the stream by dikes. In 1390 the Gose Elbe was separated from the stream by a dike connecting the two then-islands of Kirchwerder and Neuengamme. The Dove Elbe was diked off in 1437/38 at Gammer Ort and these hydraulic engineering works were carried out to protect marshlands from inundation, and to improve the water supply of the Port of Hamburg. The Northern Elbe passes the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and is then crossed under by the old Elbe Tunnel, a bit more downstream the Low Elbes two main anabranches Northern Elbe and the Köhlbrand reunite south of Altona-Altstadt, a locality of Hamburg. Right after both anabranches reunited the Low Elbe is passed under by the New Elbe Tunnel, the last structural road link crossing the river before the North Sea. At the bay Mühlenberger Loch in Hamburg at kilometre 634, the Northern Elbe and the Southern Elbe used to reunite, leaving the city-state the Lower Elbe then passes between Holstein and the Elbe-Weser Triangle with Stade until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes the entrance to the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel before it debouches into the North Sea, the Elbe has been navigable by commercial vessels since 1842, and provides important trade links as far inland as Prague
Elbe
–
The Elbe (Labe) near Děčín, Czech Republic
Elbe
–
The middle Elbe in the
North German Plain near the village of
Gorleben. In this section, the river had been part of the
Iron Curtain between West and East Germany during the
Cold War. For that reason, the riverbanks even today look relatively natural and undeveloped.
Elbe
–
View of the River Elbe in
Saxon Switzerland, an area in Germany.
Elbe
–
The Elbe passing
Dresden.
