824-987 Imperial title, his health declining, his heart broken, the Pfaltz of Aix-la-chapelle, his ances840-869 torial hall, became a wretchedness. He quitted the Palace once and for all, and, traversing the Ardennes repaired to Pruhm, the prison-house of so many of his family. Renouncing the world which was leaving him, he shrouded his head in the cowl, and died a professed monk in the Abbey. Yet posthumous vanity followed him there, and the monks adorned his tomb with a glorious epitaph. Sept. 29. 855. Death of Lothair. 844-875 Louis II. of Lothair: see § 44. § 38. LOUIS the Emperor, the eldest son of eldest son Lothair, married the clever and intriguing Engelburga, supposed to be a daughter of the Duke of Spoleto, by whom he had two sons, who both died infants, and two daughters, one a professed nun, Abbess of Santa Giulia at Brescia, and HERMENGARDA, married to Boso, son either of Bovo Count of the Ardennes, or of Theodorick Count of Autun, and brother or half-brother of Richardle-Justicier Count or Duke of Burgundy. Hermen garda, see $ 44, and chap. IV. § 2. 855-869 Lothair II. of the Emperor Lothair, and his lineage. LOTHAIR the second son, his father's namesecond son sake (also dynastically styled Lothair the Second), was betrothed to Waldrada, sister of Gunther, Archbishop of Cologne, but married to ThiutSee $39-berga, sister of Hubert, Count, under Carlovingian supremacy, of Transjurane Burgundy, the Valais, Geneva and Chablais and the rest of modern Switzerland as far as the Reuss, moreover Abbot of three Abbeys, the royal Saint Maurice in the 42. Valais, Saint Martin of Tours and Luxeuil. He 824 987 was killed in battle. Lothair's conduct towards Thiutberga was de- 840-856 testably malevolent; and, seeking a divorce, he preferred the most foul and incredible accusations against her. The transactions connected with this repudiation do not belong to us, but they tended, far more than any political disaster could have done, to the degradation of the Carlovingian name. No children were born to Lothair the Second by Thiutberga, but by Waldrada he had one son, the unfortunate HUGH, Count or Hugh of Duke of Alsace, and several daughters, two of § 43, and Chap. IV. whom must be noticed.-BERTHA, twice married, first to Thibaut Count of Arles, and secondly to Adelhard Marquis of Ivrea; and GISELLA married to Godfrey the Dane, who became a Carlovingian feudatory. Our attention must be directed to this Princess from the parallelism between her and Gisella, the daughter of Charles the Simple and wife of our Norman Rollo. Alsace. See Charles of CHARLES King of Provence, the third and 855-863. youngest son of the Emperor Lothair, died child-Provence. less. See § 41. Partition Empire § 39. UPON the death of the Emperor Lo- 855-856 thair his share of the Carlovingian inheritance, of Lothair's the Kingdom acquired by disobedience, violence, amongst deceit and fraud, sustained further partitions: their disLothair's piece of the rent garment was clutched his sons: sensions. 824-987 and tattered again and again by his nearest of kin, his three sons, and their two uncles, and the 855-856. sons and the sons' sons of his sons and uncles, till the lineage ended. The process of political self-destruction which severed the Empire upon the death of Louis-ledébonnaire, continued after the death of Lothair, on a smaller scale, but with undiminished bitterness and virulence. The Emperor Lothair had directed and confirmed the partition of his third of the Carlovingian Empire, appointed to him by the treaty of Verdun. With respect to Italy, there was little to say; LOUIS, his eldest son, Italy. See was in possession, Louis the Emperor, second But such confirmation as could be imparted by Lothair's declaration-for Louisle-Germanique might contest his nephew's rights -was willingly bestowed. Louis II. takes § 44. Lothair II. takes vari sian, Burgundian and other constitut ing the Kingdom of Lotha ringia or Lorrain. of the name. To his namesake, his second son, designated ous Austra- dynastically in the Carlovingian annals as LOTHAIR the Second, the Emperor Lothair gave the anterritories, cient and venerable seat of government, Aix-laChapelle, those portions of the pristine Austrasia which had not passed to Charles-le-Chauve and Louis-le-Germanique, and Transjurane Burgundy. This Kingdom did not correspond exactly with any of the former constitutional divisions of the Empire. It included many races and many tongues, the Tudesque, the Belgic and the Romance, in various dialects. The possession of Aix 855-856. la-Chapelle might have entitled the elder Lothair 824-987 to adopt the style of King of Austrasia. But the associations connected with the ancien régime were fretted out by the multiplied divisions, subdivisions and changes which the Empire had sustained, and the Regnum Lotharii assumed, at a very early period after its erection, the denomination of Lotharingia, Lothier-regne, or Lorraine. The extent and importance of this realm will be best understood by adopting a description given in the terms of more modern geography.— Lothair inherited from his father the thirteen Cantons of Switzerland with their allies and tributaries, East or Free Frieseland, Oldenburgh, the whole of the United Netherlands, and all other territories included in the Archbishopric of Utrecht, the Trois Evéchés, Metz, Toul and Verdun, the electorates of Trèves and of Cologne, the Palatine Bishoprick of Liège, Alsace and FrancheComté, Hainault and the Cambresis, Brabant (known in intermediate stages as Basse-Lorraine, or the Duchy of Lohier), Namur, Juliers and Cleves, Luxemburgh and Limburg, the Duchy of Bar and the Duchy which retained the name of Lorraine, the only memorial of the antient and dissolved kingdom. CHARLES, the youngest son, received the re- Charles, King of mainder of Lothair's dominions, the counties of Provence. See § 41. Ussez and the Vivarais on the right bank of the Rhone, various Burgundian provinces, including 824-987 the duchy of Lyons, and generally the territories adjoining or bounded by the Jura, the Alps, Cot855-856 tian or Penine, the Rhone and the Durance. 856 Conference the two The finest portions of the Troubadour fatherland belonged to Charles. He held his Court at Lyons; but Provence proper, the land between the perennial rushing Rhone and the stony bed of the torrent Durance, was the most attractive portion of his dominions, and gave her name to the new kingdom. § 40. In the year following their father's at Orbe: death, the three sons of Lothair came together elder bro- at Orbe in the Burgundian Jura. The circular deavour to watch-tower of the castle where they assembled, a younger. structure of very singular character, existed within thers en despoil the our recollection, the last token of the dignity once possessed by the present obscure and insignificant town. As a matter of course, the three brothers met as rivals; and a quarrel ensued concerning the division of their inheritance. Louis, the Emperor, claiming all his father's dominions equally by pre-eminence and right of primogeniture, had a particular demand against Charles for the districts connected with the Alpine passes. Lothair for the same reason; whilst Charles also desired an extension towards the Alps or the Jura: so violently did they dispute that they came to blows in the Council-chamber. The scuffle being quieted, the two elder brothers, Louis and Lothair, though each was involved in sword-point |