Karl the Bald is the king who became the emperor

Unlike his father, the youngest son of the last ruler of the united Frankish kingdom of Louis Pious received a cacophonous nickname. Nevertheless, Karl Bald went into the annals of history as the last active ruler of the Carolingian dynasty.

Deleting inheritance

In 819, Louis the Righteous married a second time to a young beauty, Judith, from the influential family of Welfs. Four years later they had a son, Charles. The fact of his birth meant that his father was to rediscover the royal possessions, having allocated part of the younger son. This turn of events, of course, did not make the older brothers happy.

In 833, because of the betrayal of the barons who took the side of the rebellious sons, Louis, Judith and young Carl were imprisoned for several months. After the death of his father, his sons divided his possessions. And if Ludovic and Carl wished to keep the land received intact, Lothar, not content with the title of Roman emperor, wanted to receive all the paternal inheritance.

In the years 841-842. Karl Bald and Louis, combining their efforts, repeatedly fought with the army of Lothar. In the end, the brothers came to an agreement on the division of the Frankish state into equal parts, which was done in 843 in Verdun.

Normans - the scourge of God

The period of the reign of Karl the Bald is marked by the constant raids of the Normans. Since 856, their attacks have become increasingly decisive. The abbeys and churches, where the treasures of cities and crowns were kept, were the most attractive prey in the eyes of the pagans of the Normans. The clergy regarded their invasion as God's punishment and begged the king to stand up for the defense of the church.

The clumsy Cavalry of the Franks could not effectively resist the enemy, who can quickly maneuver and move as fast as possible on the water. Medieval chronists with indignation wrote that the feudal lords did not hurry to fight for the people and the church, and often just fled from the battlefield.

Karl the Bald and the Vikings is a sad page in the history of France. The king repeatedly had to pay the huge sums demanded by the leaders of the alien Normans. However, such a tactic of defense was only temporary success. After a while, the Vikings returned again. Moreover, over time, they began to seize territory and settle on the lands of the Franks.

King of God's mercy

In 845, just two years after Karl Bald received his share of the inheritance under the Treaty of Verdun, the Normans besieged Paris. The young king managed to assemble an army, although not all vassals responded to his call.

Nevertheless, his efforts were in vain. The francs fled, Paris fell, and the intimates advised Carla to pay the Normans a ransom. It was not the last payoff and not the last time the vassals threw their king on the battlefield.

Despite all this since 860, Carl was active in liberating the kingdom from the Normans. In parallel, he had to pacify the obstinate barons, asserting his authority, and fighting for the crowns of neighboring states.

As ruler of the West Frankish Kingdom, he was crowned four more times between 848 and 875, thus becoming the monarch of Aquitaine, Italy, Provence and Lorraine. The apogee of the reign of Charles the Bald is 875, when Pope John VIII proclaimed him emperor of the West.

And yet by the end of his life he had lost control of that part of the empire that he inherited from his father. Although Karl made great efforts and at times gained victories, he never managed to become a sovereign ruler in his possessions.

The daughter of Karl the Bald

The king was married twice. Of the 13 children, most died while their father was still alive. The frail and painful son of Louis Zaika subsequently inherited the throne of the West Frankish Kingdom. Information about the eldest daughter of Karl from the first marriage of Judith has also been preserved. These data are incomplete, but still give an idea of the mores that reigned in the families of medieval monarchs.

Judith, daughter of Karl the Bald, lived only 26 years, having three times married. The first spouse of the princess in 856 was the king of Wessex Ethelwulf. In fact, the father forced the daughter, who at that time was 12 years old, to marry a person three times her age. Two years later Ethelwulf died, and Judith married a son and heir Ethelbald in a month.

However, the marriage of the stepmother and stepchild was soon annulled by the church. Judith returned to Francia and, on the orders of her father, was detained in the abbey of Sanlis, while he sought out a worthy princess for her party.

Nevertheless, the plans of Charles the Bald were destroyed by Count Flanders of Baudouin I. He kidnapped Judith from the monastery and, fleeing from persecution of the king, fled with her to Rome. Pope Nicholas I lifted the excommunication from a young couple who married at the end of 863 Karl Lysom had to reconcile, return the land confiscated from the son-in-law and with his help to organize protection of the northern borders of the kingdom from the attack of the Normans.

The Emperor's End

In early 877, Pope John begged Carla to hasten to protect Rome from the invading Arabs in Italy. An elderly, suppressed and weakened emperor could not refuse to fulfill his duty. However, before that, it was necessary to pay another ransom to the Normans in exchange for them to leave the Seine valley. The sum of 5000 pounds sterling silver was demanded by the big landowners, to their great displeasure.

Before going to Italy, Karl Bald on the royal villa in Kierzi gathered an assembly - the legislative body of the Carolingian era. On her from all over the country came the spiritual and secular nobility: counts, bishops, abbots. But instead of support, they condemned the king for being devoured by the affairs of the empire, devastating Francia - his hereditary possession.

The Italian campaign was a catastrophe. In the autumn of the same year, Charles had to retreat quickly, though he did not go far. The emperor, abandoned by his associates, died on October 6, 877 in a simple hut at the age of 54. While the decaying corpse of Carl the Bald was taken home in a filthy barrel wrapped in leather, the struggle for the deserted throne had already begun in Francia.