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Birth:          10 Sep  920 of Laon, Aisne, France
Death:          10 Sep  954 Abbey de St. Remy, Rheims
Burial:         Abbey de St. Remy, Rheims

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IV_of_France
Louis IV (September 920 / September 921[1] – 10 September 954), called d'Outremer 
or Transmarinus (both meaning "from overseas"), reigned as king of West Francia from 
936 to 954. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, he was the only son of king Charles 
the Simple and Eadgifu of Wessex, daughter of King Edward the Elder of Wessex.[2] 
His reign is mostly known thanks to the Annals of Flodoard and the later Historiae of 
Richerus.
Childhood[edit]

The only child of king Charles the Simple and his second wife Eadgifu of Wessex, 
Louis was born in the heartlands of West Francia's Carolingian lands between Laon 
and Reims in 920 or 921. From his father's first marriage with Frederuna (d. 917) he 
had six half-sisters and was the only male heir to the throne.

After the dethronement and capture of Charles the Simple in 923, queen Eadgifu and 
her infant son took refuge in Wessex (for this he received the nickname of d'Outremer) 
at the court of her father King Edward, and after Edward's death, of her brother King 
Æthelstan. Young Louis was raised in the Anglo-Saxon court until his teens. During 
this time he enjoyed legendary stories about Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia, 
an ancestor of his maternal family who had heroically fought against the Vikings.[3]

Louis became the heir to the western branch of the Carolingian dynasty after the 
death of his captive father in 929, and in 936 was recalled from Wessex by the 
powerful Hugh the Great, Margrave of Neustria, to succeed the Robertian king 
Rudolph who had died.

Once he took the throne, Louis wanted to free himself from the tutelage of Hugh the 
Great, who, with his title of Duke of the Franks was the second most powerful man 
after the King.

In 939 the young monarch attempted to conquer Lotharingia; however, the expedition 
was a failure and his brother-in-law, king Otto I of East Francia counterattacked and 
besieged the city of Reims in 940. In 945, following the death of William I Longsword, 
Duke of Normandy, Louis tried to conquer his lands, but was kidnapped by the men of 
Hugh the Great.

The Synod of Ingelheim in 948 allowed the excommunication of Hugh the Great and 
released Louis from his long tutelage. From 950 Louis gradually imposed his rule in the 
northeast of the kingdom, building many alliances (especially with the Counts of 
Vermandois) and under the protection of the Ottonian kingdom of East Francia.

Assumption of crown[edit]

In spring of 936 Hugh the Great sent an embassy to Wessex inviting Louis to "come 
and take the head of the kingdom" (Flodoard). King Æthelstan, his uncle, after forcing 
the embassy to swear that the future king will have the homage of all his vassals, 
permitted him the return home with his mother Eadgifu, some bishops and faithful 
servants.[4] After a few hours of sea journey, Louis received the homage of Hugh and 
some Frankish nobles on the beach of Boulogne, who kissed his hands. Chronicler 
Richerus gives us an anecdote about this first encounter:
Then the Duke hastily brought a horse decorated with the royal insignia. By the time 
he wanted to put the King in the saddle, the horse ran in all directions; but Louis, an 
agile young man, jumped suddenly, without stirrups, and tamed the animal. This 
pleased all those presented and caused recognition from all.[5]
Louis and his court then began the trip to Laon where the coronation ceremony was to 
take place. Louis IV was crowned King by Artald, Archbishop of Rheims on Sunday, 
19 June 936,[6] probably at the Abbey of Notre-Dame and Saint-Jean in Laon,[7][8] 
perhaps at the request of the King since it was a symbolic Carolingian town and he 
was probably born there.

The chronicler Flodoard records the events as follows:

Brittones a transmarinis regionibus, Alstani regis praesidio, revertentes terram suam 
repetunt. Hugo comes trans mare mittit pro accersiendo ad apicem regni suscipiendum 
Ludowico, Karoli filio, quem rex Alstanus avunculus ipsius, accepto prius jurejurando a 
Francorum legatis, in Franciam cum quibusdam episcopis et aliis fidelibus suis dirigit, 
cui Hugo et cetero Francorum proceres obviam profecti, mox navim egresso, in ipsis 
littoreis harenis apud Bononiam, sese committunt, ut erant utrinque depactum. Indeque 
ab ipsis Laudunum deductus ac regali benedictione didatus ungitur atque coronatur a 
domno Artoldo archiepiscopo, praesentibus regni principibus cum episcopis xx et 
amplius.[9] "The Bretons, returning from the lands across the sea with the support of 
King Athelstan, came back to their country. Duke Hugh sent across the sea to 
summon Louis, son of Charles, to be received as king, and King Athelstan, his uncle, 
first taking oaths from the legates of the Franks, sent him to the Frankish kingdom with 
some of his bishops, and other followers. Hugh and the other nobles of the Franks 
went to meet him and committed themselves to him[;] immediately he disembarked on 
the sands of Boulogne, as had been agreed on both sides. From there he was 
conducted by them to Laon, and, endowed with the royal benediction, he was 
anointed and crowned by the lord Archbishop Artold, in the presence of the chief men 
of his kingdom, with 20 bishops."[10] 

During the ritual, Hugh the Great acted as squire bearing the King's arms. Almost 
nothing is known about the coronation ceremony of Louis IV. It seems certain that the 
King would wear the crown and sceptre of his predecessor. He must have promised 
before the bishops of France to respect the privileges of the Church. Maybe he 
received the ring (a religious symbol), the sword and the stick of Saint Remigius 
(referring to the baptism of Clovis I). Finally, the new King (perhaps like his ancestor 
Charles the Bald) used a blue silk coat called Orbis Terrarum with cosmic allusions 
(referring to the Vulgate) and the purple robe with precious stones and gold 
incrustations also used by Odo in 888) and his own son Lothair during his coronation 
in 954.[11][12]

Historians have wondered why the powerful Hugh the Great called the young 
Carolingian prince to throne instead of taking it himself, as his father had done fifteen 
years earlier. First, he had many rivals, especially Hugh, Duke of Burgundy (King 
Rudolph's brother) and Herbert II, Count of Vermandois who probably would have 
challengged his election. But above all, it seems that he was shocked by the early 
death of his father. Richerus explains that Hugh the Great remembered his father who 
had died for his "pretentions" and this was the cause of his short and turbulent reign. 
It was then that "the Gauls, anxious to appear free to elect their King, assembled 
under the leadership of Hugh to deliberate about the choice of a new King".[5] 
According to Richerus, Hugh the Great delivered the following speech:
King Charles died miserably. If my father and us, we hurt your Majesty by some of our 
actions, we must use all our efforts to erase the trace. Although following your 
unanimous desire my father committed a great crime reigning, since only one had the 
right to rule and was alive, he deserved to be imprisoned. This, believe me, wasn't the 
will of God. Also I never had to take the place of my father.[5]
Hugh the Great knew that the Robertian dynasty had not achieved much; his uncle 
Odo had died after a few years of reign, abandoned by the nobles. Hugh's father, 
Robert I, was killed during the battle of Soissons after only months of reign and his 
brother-in-law Rudolph couldn't stop the troubles that multiplied in the Kingdom during 
his reign. Finally, Hugh didn't have a legitimate male heir: his first wife Judith 
(daughter of Count Roger of Maine and Princess Rothilde) died in 925 after eleven 
years of childless union; in 926 he married Princess Eadhild of Wessex, sister of 
Queen Eadgifu, who also didn't bear him any children.[13] In addition, the marriage 
with Eadhild, actively promoted by Eadgifu, was made in order to sever an eventual 
dangerous link between families of Hugh and Count Heribert II of Vermandois.[14]

Regency of Hugh the Great[edit]

Having arrived on the continent, Louis IV was a young man of fifteen, who spoke 
neither Latin nor Old French, but probably spoke Old English. He knew nothing about 
his new kingdom. Hugh the Great, after negotiating with the most powerful nobles of 
the Kingdom - (William I Longsword of Normandy, Herbert II of Vermandois and Arnulf 
of Flanders), was appointed guardian of the new King.[15]

The young King quickly became a puppet of Hugh the Great, who had reigned de 
facto since the death of his father Robert in 923. Territorially, Louis IV was quite 
helpless since he possessed few lands around the ancient Carolingian domains 
(Compiègne, Quierzy, Verberie, Ver-lès-Chartres and Ponthion), and some abbeys 
(Saint-Jean in Laon, Saint-Corneille in Compiègne, Corbie and Fleury-sur-Loire) and 
collected the revenues from the province of Reims. We know that king had the power 
to appoint the suffragants of the Archbishopric of Reims. During this time Laon 
became the centre of the small Carolingian heartland, compared with the possessions 
in the Loire Valley of the Robertians.[15]

Hugh the Great's power came from the extraordinary title of Dux Francorum (Duke of 
the Franks)[16] that Louis IV repeatedly confirmed in 936, 943 and 954; and his rule 
over the Marches of Neustria, where he reigned as princeps (territorial prince). This 
title was for the first time formalized by the Royal Chancery.[17][18]

Thus the royal edicts of the second half of 936 confirm the pervasiveness of Hugh the 
Great: it is said that Duke of the Franks "in all but reigned over us".[19]

Hugh also denied the rights to the principality of Burgundy that Hugh the Black 
thought he had acquired after the death of his brother King Rudolph.[20]

From the beginning of 937 Louis IV, called by some "The King of the Duke" (le roi du 
duc)[21] tried to halt the virtual regency of the Duke of the Franks; in the 
contemporary charters Hugh the Great appears only as "Count" as if the ducal title 
was taken from him by the King. But Louis IV hesitated about this move, because the 
ducal title was already given to Hugh the Great by Charles the Simple in 914. But a 
serious misconduct probably took place at that time, because Louis IV removed the 
title from him.[22] For his part, Hugh the Great continued to claim to be the Duke of 
the Franks. In a letter from 938 the Pope called him Duke of the Franks, three years 
later (941) he presided a meeting in Paris during which he raised personally, in the 
manner of a King, his viscounts to the rank of counts. Finally, Hugh the Great had the 
decisive respect of the entire episcopate of France.[23]

Difficulties during the early years, 938–945[edit]

Louis IV and his supporters, 938–939[edit]

The rivalries between the nobility appeared as the only hope for the Louis IV to free 
himself from the regency of Hugh the Great. In 937 Louis IV began to rely more on his 
Chancellor Artald, Archbishop of Reims, Hugh the Black and William I Longsword, all 
enemies of Hugh the Great. He also received the homage of other important nobles 
like Alan II, Duke of Brittany (who also spent part of his life in England) and Sunyer, 
Count of Barcelona.[24] Nevertheless, the support for the young king was still limited, 
until the Pope clearly favored him after he forced the French nobles to renew their 
homage to the king in 942.[23] King's power in the south was symbolic since the death 
of the last Count of the Spanish March in 878.[25]

Hugh the Great's response to the King's alliances approximating Herbert II of 
Vermandois, a very present ruler in minor France:[26] it possessed a tower, called 
château Gaillot in the city of Laon.[27] The following year, the King seized the tower 
but Herbert II conquered the fortresses of Reims. Flodoard related the events as 
follows:
But Louis, called by the archbishop Artaud returned and besieged Laon where a new 
citadel was built by Herbert. He undermines and overthrows many machines walls and 
finally took it with great difficulty.[28]
War over Lotharingia[edit]

Louis IV then looked to the Lotharingia, the land of his ancestors and began attempts 
to conquer it. In 939 Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine rebelled against King Otto I of East 
Francia and offered the crown to Louis IV, who received homage of the Lotharingian 
aristocracy in Verdun on his way to Aachen. In October 2, 939 Gilbert drowned in 
Rhine while escaping from the forces of Otto I after the defeat at the Battle of 
Andernach. Louis IV used this opportunity to strengthen his domain over Lotharingia 
by marrying Giselbert's widow, Gerberga of Saxony (end 939), without the consent of 
her brother King Otto I. The wedding did not stop Otto I who, after alliance with Hugh 
the Great, Herbert II of Vermandois and William I Longsword, resumed his invasion of 
Lotharingia and advanced towards Reims.[29]

Crisis of the royal power, 940–941[edit]

In 940 the East Frankish invaders finally conquered the city of Reims, where 
archbishop Artald was expelled and replaced by Hugh of Vermandois, younger son of 
Herbert II, who also seized the patrimony of Saint-Remi. About this, Flodoard wrote:
These are the same Franks who want this King, who crossed the sea at their request, 
the same ones who sworn loyalty to him and lied to God and that King?.[28]
Flodoard also publishes at the end of his Annals the testimony of a girl from Reims (the 
Visions of Flothilde) who predicted the expulsion of Artald from Reims. Flothilde 
mentioned that the saints are alarmed about the disloyalty of the nobles against the 
King. This testimony was widely believed, especially among the population of Reims, 
who believed that the internal order and peace come from the oaths of loyalty to the 
King, while Artald was blamed of having forsaken divine service.[30] Contemporary 
Christian tradition affirmed that Saint Martin attended the coronation of 936. Now the 
two royal patron saints, Saint Remi and Saint Denis, seem to have turned back to the 
King's rule. To soften the anger of the saints, in the middle of the siege of Reims by 
Hugh the Great and William I Longsword, Louis IV went to Saint Remi Basilica and 
promised to the saint to pay him a pound of silver every year.[31]

In the meanwhile, Hugh the Great and his vassals had sworn allegiance to Otto I, who 
moved to the Carolingian Palace of Attigny before his unsuccessful siege of Laon. In 
941 the royal army, which tried to oppose Otto's invasion, was defeated and Artald 
was forced to submit to the rebels. Now Louis IV was surrendered in the only property 
that remained in his hands: the city of Laon. Otto I believed that the power Louis IV 
was sufficiently diminished and proposed a reconciliation with the Duke of the Franks 
and the Count of Vermandois. From that point on, Otto I was the new arbitrator in the 
West Francia.[29]

Intervention in Normandy, 943–946[edit]

On December 17, 942 William I Longsword was ambushed and killed by men of Arnulf 
I, Count of Flanders at Picquigny and on February 23, 943 Herbert II, Count of 
Vermandois died of natural causes.[32] The heir of Duchy of Normandy was Richard I, 
the ten-year-old son of William born from his Breton concubine, while Herbert II leave 
as heirs four adult sons.

Louis IV took advantage of the internal disorder in the Duchy of Normandy and 
entered Rouen, where he received the homage from part of the Norman aristocracy 
and offered his protection to the infant Richard I with the help of Hugh the Great.[33] 
The regency of Normandy was entrusted to the faithful Herluin, Count of Montreuil 
(who was also a vassal of Hugh the Great), while Richard I was imprisoned first in 
Laon and then in Château de Coucy.[34]

In Vermandois, the King also took measures to diminish the power of Herbert II's sons 
by dividing their lands between them: Eudes (as Count of Amiens), Herbert III (as 
Count of Château-Thierry), Robert (as Count of Meaux) and Albert (as Count of Saint-
Quentin). Albert of Vermandois took the side of the King and paid homage to him, 
while the Abbey of Saint-Crépin in Soissons was finally given to Renaud of Roucy.[35]

In 943, during the homage given to the King, Hugh the Great recovered the ducatus 
Franciae (Duchy of France) title and the rule over Burgundy.[36]

During the summer of 945 Louis IV went to Normandy after being called by his faithful 
Herluin, who was a victim of a serious revolt. While the two were riding, they were 
ambushed near Bayeux.[37] Herluin was killed, but Louis IV managed to escape to 
Rouen; where he was finally captured by the Normans. The kidnappers demanded 
from Queen Gerberga that she send her two sons Lothair and Charles as hostages in 
exchange for the release of her husband. The Queen only sent her youngest son 
Charles, with Bishop Guy of Soissons taking the place of Lothair, the eldest son and 
heir.[38] Like his father, Louis IV was kept in captivity, then sent to Hugh the Great. 
On his orders, the king was placed under the custody of Theobald I, Count of Blois for 
several months.[39] The ambush and capture of the King were probably ordered by 
Hugh the Great, who wanted to permanently end his attempts of political 
independence.[40] Ultimately, probably by the pressure of the Frankish nobles and 
Kings Otto I and Edmund I of England, Hugh the Great decided to release Louis IV.
[39] Flodoard recorded this event as follows:
Hugh the Great restored King Louis to his functions, at least in name.[40]
Hugh was the only one who would decide if Louis IV could be restored or deposed. In 
return for the release of the King, he demanded the surrender of Laon,[41] which was 
entrusted to his vassal Thibaud.[39] The Carolingian kinship was in the abyss, 
because it no longer held or controlled anything.

In June 946, a royal charter called optimistically the "eleventh year of the reign of 
Louis when he had recovered the Francia". This charter is the first official text who 
identified only the Western Frankish kingdom (sometimes called West Francia by some 
historians).[42] This statement is consistent with the fact that the title of King of the 
Franks, used since 911 by Charles the Simple[42] was thereafter continuously claimed 
by the Kings of the Western Kingdom after the Treaty of Verdun, including the non-
Carolingians ones. Among the Kings of the East, sometimes called Germanic Kings, 
this claim was occasional and disappeared completely after the 11th century.[43]
Death of Louis IV and the Legend of the Wolf[edit]

In the early 950s, Queen Gerberga developed an increased eschatological fear, and 
began to consult Adso of Montier-en-Der; being highly educated, she commissioned to 
him the De ortu et tempore antichristi (Birth of the era of the Antichrist). There worries 
of the Queen assuring her that the arrival of the Antichrist will not take place before 
the end of the Kingdoms of France and Germany, the two Imperia fundamentals of the 
universe. In consequence, the Frankish King can continue his reign without fear, 
because Heaven was the door of legitimacy.[56]

At the end of the summer of 954, Louis IV went riding with his companions on the road 
from Laon to Reims. As he crossed the forest of Voas (near to his palace in Corbeny), 
he saw a wolf and attempted to capture it. Flodoard, from whom these details are 
known, said that the King fell from his horse. Urgently carried to Reims, he eventually 
died from his injuries on 10 September. For the Reims canons, the wolf whom the king 
tried to hunt wasn't an animal but a fantastic creature, a divine supernatural 
intervention.

Flodoard recalled indeed that in 938 Louis IV had captured Corbeny in extreme 
brutality and without respecting the donations to the monks made by his father. Thus 
God could punish the King and his descendants with the curse of the wolf as a 
"plague". The later events are disturbing. According to Flodoard Louis reportedly died 
from tuberculosis (then called pesta elephantis); in 986 his son Lothair died by a 
"plague"[57] after he besieged Verdun, and finally his grandson Louis V died in 987 
from injuries received when falling from his horse while hunting, a few months after he 
besieged Reims for the trial of archbishop Adalberon.[58]

Dynastic Memorial and Burial[edit]

Gerberga, a dynamic and devoted wife, supported the burial of her late husband at the 
Abbey of Saint-Remi.[59] Unusually for the Carolingians, she took care of the dynastic 
memorial (mémoire dynastique) of Louis IV. The Queen, from Ottonian descent, was 
constantly at the side of her husband, supporting him and being active in the defence 
of Laon (941) and of Reims (946), accompanied him on the military expeditions to 
Aquitaine (944) and Burgundy (949), and was also active during his period of 
imprisonment in 945-946.[60] By France and Germany, the role of queens was 
different: the memorial mostly was a task of males. Written shortly after 956, perhaps 
by Adso of Montier-en-Der (according to Karl Ferdinand Werner) the Life of Clotilde
[61] proposes to Queen Gerberga to build a church destined to be burial place of 
members of the Carolingian dynasty: the Abbey of Saint-Remi; moreover in a charter 
dated 955, King Lothair, following the desires of his mother, confirmed the immunity of 
Saint-Remi as the place of coronations and royal necropolis.

The tomb of Louis IV was later destroyed during the French Revolution. At that time, 
the two tombs of Louis IV and his son Lothair were in the centre of the Abbey, the 
side of the Epistle reserved to Louis IV and the side of the gospel to Lothair. Both 
remains were moved in the middle of the 18th century and transported to the right and 
left of the mausoleum of Carloman I first under the first arch of the collateral nave 
towards the sacristy of Saint-Remi Abbey. The statues placed on the original graves 
were left there. Both statues were painted and the golden Fleur-de-lis on each of the 
Kings' capes was easily visible. A graphic description of the tombs was made by 
Bernard de Montfaucon.[62][63] Louis IV was shown seated on a throne with a 
double-dossier. He was depicted as full-bearded, wearing a bonnet and dressed with a 
chlamys and also was holding a sceptre who ended with a pine cone. The throne of 
Louis IV was similar to a bench placed on a pedestal of the same material. The seat 
had a back that was above the royal head he was home with a gable roof, three 
arches decorated the underside of the roof. The base on which rested his feet was 
decorated at the corners with figures of children or lions.[64]

Children[edit]

Louis IV and Gerberga had seven children:[65]
Lothair (end 941 – 2 March 986), successor of his father.
Mathilde (end 943 – 27 January 992), married on 964 to King Conrad I of Burgundy.[66]
Charles (January 945 – Rouen, before 953). Guillaume de Jumièges records that a son 
of Louis IV hostage of the Normans after 13 July 945 to secure the release of his 
father,[67] although it's unknown whether this son was Charles, who would have been 
a baby at the time, normally too young to have been used as a hostage according to 
then current practice.
Daughter (947 / early 948 – died young). Flodoard records that Chonradus...dux 
baptised filiam Ludowici regis in the middle of his passage dealing with 948.[68] She 
must have been born in the previous year, or very early in the same year, if the timing 
of the birth of King Louis's son Louis is correctly dated to the end of 948.
Louis (December 948 – before 10 September 954). The Genealogica Arnulfi Comitis 
names (in order) Hlotharium Karolum Ludovicum et Mathildim as children of 
Hludovicum ex regina Gerberga. Flodoard records the birth of regi Ludowico 
filius...patris ei nomen imponens at the end of his passage concerning 948.[69]
Charles (summer 953 – 12 June 991), invested as Duke of Lower Lorraine by Emperor 
Otto II in May 977 at Diedenhofen.
Henry (summer 953 – died shortly after his baptism). Flodoard records the birth of twins 
to Gerberga regina in 953 unus Karolus, later Heinricus, sed Henricus mox post 
baptismum defunctus est.[70]

Succession[edit]

Immediately after Louis IV died, his widow Gerberga was forced to obtain the approval 
of Hugh the Great for the coronation of her son Lothair, which took place on 12 
November 954 at the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims.[71]

The regency of the Kingdom was held firstly by Hugh the Great, and after his death in 
956 by Gerberga's brother Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of 
Lotharingia until 965, marking the Ottonian influence over France during all the 
second half of the 10th century.[60] Thus, the end of Louis IV's reign and the 
beginning of the rule of Lothair, wasn't the "dark century of iron and lead [...] but 
rather [...] the last century of the Carolingian Europe".[72]

Louis IV's youngest surviving son Charles, known as Charles of Lower Lorraine, 
settled on an island in the Zenne river in the primitive pagus of Brabant, where he 
erected a castrum in the town called Bruoc Sella or Broek Zele, which later became 
Brussels.

Parents
____ Charles III "the Simple" (17 Sep  879 - 7 Oct  929)
OF FRANCE Edgiva (Ogive) (Eadgifu) (ABT  904 - AFT  951)

Siblings
____ Louis IV "d'Outremere" (10 Sep  920 - 10 Sep  954)
DE COURCY Charles (ABT  925 - )

Marriage To OF SAXONY Gerberge ( 913 - 5 May  984)
    m.  939 

Notes
(her second)

Parents
____ Henry (Heinrich) I "the Fowler" ( 876 - 2 Jul  936)
VON RINGLEHEIM Mathilda (Mechtilde) (ABT  894 - 14 May  968)

Children by OF SAXONY Gerberge  913 - 5 May  984
OF FRANCE Matilda ( 943 - AFT 26 Nov  981)
OF LAON Charles ( 953 - ABT 21 May  993)

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