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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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