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'''Louis II''', sometimes called '''the Younger'''<ref>His ordinal and nickname comes from the fact that he was the second Louis to be emperor after his grandfather ].</ref> (825 &ndash; 12 August 875), was the ] and ] from 844, co-ruling with his father ] until 855, after which he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was ''imperator augustus'' ("august emperor"), but he used ''imperator Romanorum'' after his conquest of ] in 871, which led to poor relations with ]. He was called ''imperator Italiae'' ("emperor of Italy") in ] while the Byzantines called him ''Basileus Phrangias'' ("Emperor of the Franks"). The chronicler ], who is the main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great tribulation came to Italy."<ref>''Post cuius obitum magna tribulatio in Italia advenit.'' Andreas, in ] (ed.), '']'' (Hannover: 1878), 222–30, §18.</ref> '''Louis II''', sometimes called '''the Younger'''<ref>His ordinal and nickname comes from the fact that he was the second Louis to be emperor after his grandfather ].</ref> (825 &ndash; 12 August 875), was the ] and ] from 844, co-ruling with his father ] until 855, after which he ruled alone. Louis's usual title was ''imperator augustus'' ("august emperor"), but he used ''imperator Romanorum'' after his conquest of ] in 871, which led to poor relations with ]. He was called ''imperator Italiae'' ("emperor of Italy") in ] while the Byzantines called him ''Basileus Phrangias'' ("Emperor of the Franks"). The chronicler ], who is the main source for Louis's activities in southern Italy, notes that "after his death a great tribulation came to Italy."<ref>''Post cuius obitum magna tribulatio in Italia advenit.'' Andreas, in ] (ed.), '']'' (Hannover: 1878), 222–30, §18.</ref>

==Biography==
Louis was the eldest son of the Emperor Lothair I and ]. He was designated King of Italy in 839 and took up his residence in that country and was crowned king at ] by ] on 15 June 844. He at once 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 ], and soon afterwards, in 851, married ] 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 ], ] and ], to make peace. His mediation split the Lombard duchy and gave Radelchis his share with Benevento as his capital and gave ] 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 ] at ]. He confirmed the usurping ] ] 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 ] against his own brother ], and King ]. But after Louis had secured the election of ] in 858, he became reconciled with his brother, and received some lands south of the ] 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 ], and in 864 came into collision with Pope Nicholas I over his brother's divorce. The ]s, 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 ]s who were ravaging southern Italy. In 866, after issuing a call for assistance to fight the ]s,<ref>Pierre Riche, ''The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe'', transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 182</ref> 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, ], who sent him ships to assist in the capture of Bari, capital of a ], which succumbed in 871.<ref>Pierre Riche, ''The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe'', 182.</ref>
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Meanwhile his brother Lothair had died in 869, and owing to his detention in southern Italy, Louis failed to prevent the partition of ] 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."

He had withdrawn into ] to prepare for a further campaign when he was treacherously attacked in his palace, robbed and imprisoned by ], 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 ] on May 18, 872.

Then Louis won further successes against the Saracens, who were driven from ], but the emperor's attempts to punish Adeichis were not very successful. Returning to northern Italy, he died, near ], in what is now the ], on August 12, 875, and was buried in the church of ] at ], having named as his successor in Italy his cousin ], son of Louis the German.


==Notes== ==Notes==

Revision as of 15:40, 16 January 2014

Louis as shown in a 12th-century manuscript of Johannes Berardi's Chronicon casauriense.
Louis at the capture of Bari in 871.

Louis II, sometimes called the Younger (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 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."

Notes

  1. His ordinal and nickname comes from the fact that he was the second Louis to be emperor after his grandfather Louis the Pious.
  2. Post cuius obitum magna tribulatio in Italia advenit. Andreas, Historia in Georg Waitz (ed.), MGH SS rerum Langobardicarum (Hannover: 1878), 222–30, §18.

Sources

  • Annales Bertiniani and Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis, both in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores, Bände i. and iii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.)
  • Muhlbacher, E. Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern (Innsbruck, 1881)
  • Sickel, T. Acta regum et imperatorum Karolinorum, digesta et enarrata (Vienna, 1867—1868)
  • Dummler, E. Geschichte des ostfrankischen Reiches (Leipzig, 1887—1888).
  • Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476–918. London: Rivingtons, 1914.
Emperor Louis II the YoungerCarolingian dynasty Died: 12 August 875
Regnal titles
Preceded byLothair I King of Italy
15 June 844 – 12 August 875
with Lothair I (844-855) 		Succeeded byCharles II
Holy Roman Emperor
850 – 12 August 875
with Lothair I (850–855)
Family of Louis II of Italy
16. Pepin the Short
8. Charlemagne
17. Bertrada of Laon
4. Louis the Pious
18. Gerold of Vintzgau
9. Hildegarde
19. Emma of Alamannia
2. Lothair I
20. Rodbert
10. Ingerman of Hesbaye
5. Ermengarde of Hesbaye
11. Hedwig of Bavaria
1. Louis V of France
24. Adalrich, Duke of Alsace
12. Count Haicho
25. Berswinda
6. Hugh of Tours
13. Ganna ?
3. Ermengarde of Tours
7. Ava
Kings of Italy between 476 and 1556
Non-dynastic
Ostrogoths
Lombards
Carolingians
Non-dynastic
(title disputed 887–933)
Kingdom of Italy within
the Holy Roman Empire
(962–1556)
Holy Roman emperors

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