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____ Louis II
Birth:           825 
Death:          12 Aug  875 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_II_of_Italy
Louis II, sometimes called the Younger[1] (825 – 12 August 875), was the King of Italy 
and Roman Emperor from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which 
he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was imperator augustus ("august emperor"), but he 
used imperator Romanorum ("emperor of the Romans") after his conquest of Bari in 
871, which led to poor relations with Byzantium. He was called imperator Italiae 
("emperor of Italy") in West Francia while the Byzantines called him Basileus 
Phrangias ("Emperor of the Franks"). The chronicler Andreas Bergomatis, who is the 
main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great 
tribulation came to Italy."[2]
Biography[edit]

Louis was born in 825; the eldest son of the Junior Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde 
of Tours. His father was the son of the reigning Emperor, Louis the Pious. Little is 
known about his early life, except that he passed the time in his grandfather's court 
and probably developed a warm affection with the old king, who in 839, designated 
his 14-year-old grandson as King of Italy, and let Louis (Ludovico) take up his 
residence in that country. His grandfather, the elderly Emperor Louis I, died the next 
year and his empire was partitioned between his sons, Louis' father, Lothair, and 
uncle, Louis the German. Under his father's rule, he was crowned king and co-emperor 
to the middle aged Emperor Lothair at Rome by Pope Sergius II on 15 June 844. This 
ceremony mirrors the crowning of Lothair by his father, a tradition started by 
Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious, who were, respectively, great grandfather 
and grandfather of Louis II.

Louis II immediately claimed the rights of an emperor in the city, which claim was 
decisively rejected; but in 850 he was crowned joint emperor at Rome by Pope Leo IV, 
and soon afterwards, in 851, married Engelberga and undertook the independent 
government of Italy. He marched into the south of Italy in the year of his imperial 
coronation and compelled the rival dukes of Benevento, Radelchis I and Siconulf, to 
make peace. His mediation split the Lombard duchy and gave Radelchis his share with 
Benevento as his capital and gave Salerno as a principality independent to Siconulf. 
Radelchis, now pacified, had no need of his Saracen mercenaries and happily 
betrayed them to the emperor. Louis fell on them and they were massacred. He then 
quashed some accusations against Pope Leo and held a Diet at Pavia. He confirmed 
the usurping regent Peter as prince of Salerno in December 853, displacing the 
dynasty he had installed there three years earlier. On the death of his father in 
September 855, he became sole emperor.

The division of Lothair's dominions, by which he obtained no territory outside Italy, 
aroused his discontent, and in 857 he allied himself with Louis the German against his 
own brother Lothair, King of Lotharingia, and King Charles the Bald. But after Louis 
had secured the election of Pope Nicholas I in 858, he became reconciled with his 
brother, and received some lands south of the Jura mountains in return for assistance 
given to Lothair in his efforts to obtain a divorce from his wife, Teutberga.

In 863, on the death of his brother Charles, Louis received the kingdom of Provence, 
and in 864 came into collision with Pope Nicholas I over his brother's divorce. The 
archbishops, who had been deposed by Nicholas for proclaiming this marriage invalid, 
obtained the support of the emperor, who reached Rome with an army in February 864; 
but, having been seized with fever, he made peace with the pope and left the city.

In his efforts to restore order in Italy, Louis met with considerable success both 
against Italy's turbulent princes and against the Saracens who were ravaging southern 
Italy. In 866, after issuing a call for assistance to fight the Saracens,[3] he routed 
these invaders, but could not follow up his successes owing to the lack of a fleet. So 
in 869 he made alliance with the eastern emperor, Basil I, who sent him ships to assist 
in the capture of Bari, capital of a local Islamic emirate, which succumbed in 871.[4]
Meanwhile, his brother Lothair had died in 869, and owing to his detention in southern 
Italy, Louis failed to prevent the partition of Lotharingia between Louis the German 
and Charles the Bald. Some jealousy between Louis and Basil followed the victory at 
Bari, and in reply to an insult from the eastern emperor Louis attempted to justify his 
right to the title "emperor of the Romans." [5]

He had withdrawn into Benevento to prepare for a further campaign when he was 
treacherously attacked in his palace, robbed and imprisoned by Adelchis, prince of 
Benevento, in August 871. The landing of fresh bands of Saracens compelled 
Adelchis to release his prisoner a month later, and Louis was forced to swear he would 
take no revenge for this injury, nor ever enter Benevento with an army. Returning to 
Rome, he was released from his oath, and was crowned a second time as emperor by 
Pope Adrian II on 18 May 872.

Then Louis won further successes against the Saracens, who were driven from Capua, 
but the emperor's attempts to punish Adelchis were not very successful. Returning to 
northern Italy, he died, near Ghedi, in what is now the province of Brescia, on 12 
August 875, having named as his successor in Italy his cousin Carloman, son of Louis 
the German. Louis was buried in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan.

Family[edit]

On 5 October 851 Louis married Engelberga, daughter of Adelchis I of Spoleto. They 
had one daughter:
Ermengard of Italy, who married Boso of Provence and had issue with him.

Parents
____ Lothar (Lothaire) I (ABT  798 - 29 Sep  855)
OF TOURS Ermengarde (ABT  800 - 20 Mar  851)

Siblings
____ Louis II ( 825 - 12 Aug  875)
____ Lothar (Lothaire) II "the Saxon" ( 827 - 8 Aug  869)
OF LORRAINE AND BURGUNDY Ermengarde (Irmgarde) (ABT  832 - )

Marriage To ____ Engelberge (ABT 825 - ABT 900) m. Notes Parents OF SPOLETO Adelchis (ABT 780 - ABT 834) ----- ----- () Children by ____ Engelberge ABT 825 - ABT 900
____ Ermengard ( 843 - 2 Jun 896)
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