Founders of the monarchies of France, Germany and Luxembourg

In 840, Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious, passed away. His eldest son, Lothair, was to inherit the empire. However, the Frankish tradition was to divide the land between the male heirs, and Lothair’s brothers Charles and Louis, claimed their part. After 3 years of internecine conflict, Lothair was forced to cede two thirds of the empire. Charles the Bald inherited Western Francia, which would become known simply as France. Louis the German received East Francia, making up most of present-day Germany. Lothair kept the title of emperor (which is indivisible), but his domain was now restricted to Middle Francia, a strip of land covering the present-day Benelux, Rhineland, Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, Switzerland, Provence, and the northern half of Italy as far as Rome.

Middle Francia, also known as Lotharingia, encompassed the old Frankish homeland, Clovis’ original kingdom, where the Imperial capital of Aachen was located. It is due to this symbolic value of Old Francia and Rome that Lothair kept this strangely shaped territory for himself.

The eldest son of the emperor Louise I, the Pious and a grandson of Charlemagne, Lothar was made king in Bavaria after Louis succeeded Charlemagne in 814, and in 817 he was made joint emperor. Under the Ordinatio imperii, a decree issued by Louis in 817 to provide for the unity of the empire after his death, Lothar’s younger brothers, Pippin and Louise (later called the German), were to receive their own kingdoms, Aquitaine and Bavaria, but were to remain under the general suzerainty of Lothar.

Ruler in Italy from 822, Lothar was crowned emperor by Pope Paschal in 823. He issued the Constitutio Romana (824), affirming imperial sovereignty over Rome and demanding an oath of fealty from the pope. When in 829 Louis I, under the influence of his second wife, Judith, revised the Ordinatio imperii to grant part of the empire previously granted to Lothar to his son by Judith, Charles (later called the Bald), Lothar broke with the imperial government. A palace revolution forced his reappointment as co-emperor in 830, but he was again deposed shortly afterward.

In 833 discontent with the rule of Louis I the Pious ended in a revolt of the three elder sons, led by Lothar, and Lothar replaced the deposed Louis. Louis was restored to power the following year, however, and Lothar’s rule was restricted to Italy.

When Pippin died in December 838, Louis I drew up a new partition scheme, dividing the empire, aside from Bavaria and neighbouring areas, which were left to Louis the German, between Lothar and Charles the Bald, with Lothar taking the eastern portion. Lothar was to have the title of Emporer but without the suzerainty over the other princes that had been granted by the Ordinatio imperii of 817.

On Louis I’s death (840), Lothar again claimed his rights under the Ordinatio of 817, but his brothers, Louis and Charles, defeated him at the Battle of Fontenoy (841). The Treaty of Verdun (August 843) left Lothar the Middle Realm of the Frankish dominions, from the North Sea, to Italy, while Louis received the Eastern and Charles the Western territory. The imperial title fell to Lothar.

After granting the government of Italy to his eldest son, Louise II as early as 844, Lothar partitioned his realm between Louis (emperor from 850) and his two other sons, Lothar and Charles, in 855. Then he abdicated and became a monk.

When the Emperor Lothar 1 died in 855, his “middle kingdom” was divided between his three sons: Louis II received Italy and the Imperial crown, Charles, Burgundy, and Lothar II what was left, the area from Burgundy down to the North Sea. There was no traditional name for such an area, so it came to be called after Lothar II himself: Lotharingia. This has become Lothringen in German and Lorraine in French and English. The lack of male heirs for all these meant that Italy, Burgundy, and Lorraine all were subsequently divided and passed around among the Carolingian heirs of East and West. Lorraine soon lost independent status and became a dependency, a Stem Duchy, of the East Frankish Kingdom, except briefly when it adhered to the West (911-925). The Duchy itself then became divided between the south, or Upper Lorraine, and the north, or Lower Lorraine (959). “Upper” and “Lower” were in the relation to the river systems in the area, which flow north.

Lotharingia (Latin: Lotharii regnum) was a medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire, comprising present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), Saarland (Germany), and Lorraine (France). It was named after King Lothair II who received this territory after the kingdom of Middle Francia of his father Lothair I was divided among his sons.

Lotharingia

855–959

The Kingdom of Lotharingia and other Carolingian kingdoms following the Treaty of Prüm, 855

Languages, Old Frisian, Old Dutch, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old French, Medieval Latin

Religion, Western Christianity

Government, Monarchy

Lotharingia was born out of the tripartite division in 855 of the kingdom of Middle Francia, which itself was formed after the threefold division of the Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun of 843. Conflict between East and West Francia over Lotharingia was based on the fact that these were the old Frankish homelands of Austrasia, so possession of them was of great prestige.

The heart of Upper Lorraine was Nancy, although this was not a Roman city; it dates from 1050, founded by the Duke Gerard, in a bend of the Moselle River. Upper Lorraine originally extended all the way down to the Rhine on the Moselle and included Trier.

But the border gradually retreated up river, and Trier itself became an independent Ecclesiastical Electorate of the Empire. Also on the Moselle are Épinal and Metz.

Upper Lorraine bordered, to the east, on Alsace, part of the Duchy of Swabia, to the south, on the Free County of Burgundy, and to the west, on Champagne. The western border was originally between the Marne and the Meuse.

Significant cities on the Meuse in modern day France are Verdun and Sedan (where the Germans defeated France in 1870 and crossed the Meuse with Panzers in 1940), Namur, Liège in Belgium.

Near Sedan is Rocroi, where the Spanish Army was destroyed by France in 1643. Near Liège and Maastricht is Aachen, Aix-la-Chapelle, which was the capital of Charlemagne. From there the river continues down through the Dutch cities of Maastricht, Nijmegen and finally Rotterdam (Merovingian City) into the North Sea.

By 1301, France obtained suzerainty over Bar west of the Meuse, which brought the border of the Kingdom of France to the Meuse itself (more or less). In 1648, France obtained key bridgeheads over the Meuse at Verdun and over the Moselle at Toul and Metz, both deep in Lorraine itself — all with the justification that the area was French speaking. The Duchy was clearly the target of French ambitions, and the whole of it was occupied several times and finally annexed in 1766. After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany retrieved the part of Lorraine around Metz, until after World War I.

Meanwhile, it was gradually forgotten that Lower Lorraine had been Lorraine at all. The Duchy proper came to be the equivalent of the Duchy of Brabant, and the Low Countries developed their own identity, especially as possessions of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. Most of what was originally Lower Lorraine is now independent as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (though Luxembourg may originally have been part of Upper Lorraine). Nevertheless, the Cross of Lorraine, used by Charles de Gaulle for the Free French forces of World War II, and associated with Joan of Arc (from Domremy on the Meuse) — both in relation to Upper Lorraine — goes back, apparently, to a Duke of Lower Lorraine, Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade who became the ruler of Jerusalem. Today, the Low Countries are the most densely populated of Europe, and among the most prosperous. Luxembourg has the highest per capita income in the world, both absolutely and in relation to purchasing power. Belgium, is the administrative center of the European Union.

Fiefs of Lorraine;

Duchy of Lorraine

Duchy of Upper Lorraine

Duchy of Lower Lorraine

County & Duchy of Brabant

County & Duchy of Bar

Prince-Bishops of Liège

Prince-Bishops of Cologne & Trier

County of Hainault

Counts & Dukes of Berg, Jülich, Mark, & Cleves

County & Duchy of Luxembourg

County of Holland

Republic & Kingdom of the Netherlands

Kingdom of Belgium

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Sion Hill (Sacred Colline de Sion) in Lorraine is a natural beauty spot and place of worship steeped in culture and history. On the hill are a basilica church, a Poor Clares’ hermitage, a pilgrim shelter and a footpath providing a panoramic view of the countryside. An exhibition area in the convent contains archaeological and geological exhibits (Sion crinoids) and works of art are dotted around the hill.