The Dissolution of Charlemagne’s
Empire
Battle of Fontenoy/la Bataille
de Fontenoy (841)
Treaty of Verdun/Traite de Verdun
(843)
Partition of Mersen/Partage
de Mersen (870)
Louis the Pious
Lothar
Charles the Bald
Louis the German
Metz
(image from inumis)
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The
battle of Fontenoy both unraveled
Charlemagne’s accomplishments and set the course of European history for
the centuries to come. It unravels the past by dividing the empire and
it set the course for the future in that the division laid out the foundations
of the nation states that were to emerge in the subsequent centuries.
This
was essentially a conflict over inheritances. Louis the Pious had three
sons by his first wife, Ermengarde. They were Lothar, the oldest, and Pepin
and Louis. In 817 Louis named Lothar emperor and his primary heir and made
Pepin king in Aquitaine and Louis king in Bavaria, subservient to Lothar.
After Ermengarde’s death Louis married Judith of Bavaria and in 823 they
had a son Charles, who came to be known as Charles the Bald. Louis wanted
to provide an inheritance for Charles and took some lands from Pepin and
Lothar to do so. The three older sons revolted and this set the course
for the remainder of Louis’ life – one of conflict with his sons over the
division of the kingdom. When Pepin died Louis proposed another partition
in 837 and gave Aquitaine to Charles, but the transition was not smooth
– Pepin’s son, Pepin II revolted and contested Charles’ right to rule in
Aquitaine. This coin is attributed to both Pepin I and Pepin II.
Louis died in 840 with the issue
unresolved among the principles; the two older sons Lothar and Louis, Pepin
II and Charles. They agreed to settle the issue by force of arms.
They agreed on a meeting place (Fontenoy-en-Puisaye, near Autun in Burgundy),
and a time. This action of agreeing on a meeting place, agreeing not to
fight on a Sunday and starting the conflict after a mass set the tone for
battles during the ages of chivalry in the centuries to come. Charles and
Louis came to be allies. Louis probably rankled under the prospect of being
beholden to Lothar and wanted complete independence. Judith of Bavaria
was likely key in arranging this alliance. Lothar was allied with Pepin
II.
Details
of the battle are sketchy. Guizot quotes M. Fauriel who says “There would
be nothing untruthlike in putting the whole number of combatants at 300,000;
and there is nothing to show that either of the two armies was less numerous
than the other.” (Guizot 1:221) The armies met at Fontenoy on June 21 but
hesitated for several days. They fought on June 25, 841, just about a year
after Louis the Pious’ death. The battle started with Lothar having the
upper hand but the tide turned when count Guerin of Chalon entered the
conflict on the side of Charles. Casualty estimates are as high as 40,000.
The historian Nithard was both counselor to Charles and combatant on Charles’s
side. Charles asked him to provide an account of the time. Nithard wrote
(in translation from Latin) “Immence fut le butin, immence le carnage,
et la piete tant les rois que tout les autres fut d’autant plus admirable
d’eloge: car, pour diverse raisons, ils deciderant sur place le dimanche
et la jour la, apre la messe, ils enterrerent les morts, amis et ennemis,
fideles et infidels, sans distinction…” (Journal 79) This painting is a
XV century miniature representing the battle.
Angilbert, one of Lothar’s officers lamented the outcome: “be it unnumbered
in the return of the year, but wiped out of all remembrance! Be it unlit
by the light of the sun! Be it without either dawn or twilight! Accursed,
also, be this night, this awful night in which fell the brave, the most
expert in battle. I have never seen more fearful slaughter: in streams
of blood fell Christian men; the linen vestments of the dead did whiten
the country as ever it is whitened by the birds of autumn.” (Guizot 1:222)
Lothar
sought to recover from this defeat and continued the fight. This had the
effect of strengthening the alliance between Charles and Louis. It led
to what is known as the ‘serment de Strasbourg’ where Louis and Charles
and their followers met in February 842. Louis spoke to his followers in
German and Charles repeated the same words to his in French. “You all know
how often, since our father’s death, Lothar has attacked us in order to
destroy us, this my brother and me. Having never been able, as brothers
and Christians, or in any just way, to obtain peace from him, we are constrained
to appeal to the judgment of God.” They go on to swear allegiance to each
other against Lothar. “That is the cause that has united us afresh; as
we trow that you doubt the soundness of our alliance and our fraternal
union, we have resolved to bind ourselves afresh by this oath in your presence,
being led thereto by no prompting of wicked covetousness, but only that
we may secure our common advantage in case that, by your aid, God should
cause us to obtain peace. If then I violate … this oath that I am
about to take to my brother, I hold that you all quit of submission to
me and of the faith you have sworn to me.” (Guizot 1:223) This engraving
represent the 'sermon of Strasbourg.'
The
brothers finally came to an agreement on the partition of their father’s
kingdom, which led to the treat of Verdun in 843. In this agreement, Lothar
received a strip of land running in the middle of the kingdom, extending
from the Low countries in the north, down the west side of the Saone/Rhone
and into Italy. These lands became Belgium and Holland and Italy
centuries later. Louis received Bavaria, which became Germany and Charles
received west Francia, which ultimately became France. Pepin
II, being on the losing side, was cut out of the division. Charles
was crowned king of Aquitaine in 848 and Pepin II died in 864.
When
Lothar died in 855, his lands were split among his three sons. Lothar II
obtained the northern section, called the Lotharingia; Charles II received
Burgundy and Provence and Louis II received the title of emperor and Italy.
Charles of Provence died in 863 and Lothar II died in 869, opening up the
opportunity to split these lands. The partition of Mersen in 870, agreed
upon between Charles the Bald and Louis the German added territory to Charles’
holding in the north, up to the mouth of the Rhine, and in Burgundy. Louis
the German extended his territory into east Burgundy and Louis II, still
alive, continued to rule in Italy.
Postscript:
Fontenoy today. The
battle site is marked by a monument and a local museum. The site today
is attractive farmland on a plateau. The inscription on the monument reads:
"Ici fut livree le 25 Juin 841 la bataille de Fontenoy entre les enfants
de Louis-le-Debonnaire. La victoire de Charles le Chauve separa la France
de l'empire d'occident et fonda l'independance de la nationalite Francaise."
Sources
Guizot, France, vol. 1
Marseille, Journal de la Bourgogne
Merdrignac, Le Monde au Moyen Age
Riche, The Carolingians
