Editing Charles the Bald (section)

==Struggle against his brothers==
{{further|Carolingian civil war}}
[[File:Carolingian empire 876.svg|thumb|Kingdoms of Charles the Bald (orange) and other Carolingians in 876]]
He was born on 13 June 823 in [[Frankfurt]],{{sfn|Riche|1983|p=150}} when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own ''regna'', or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by [[Louis the Pious]] to assign Charles a subkingdom, first [[Alemannia]] and then the country between the [[Meuse]] and the [[Pyrenees]] (in 832, after the rising of [[Pepin I of Aquitaine|Pepin{{&nbsp}}I of Aquitaine]]) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious [[Lothair I|Lothair]] and Pepin, as well as their brother [[Louis the German]], [[List of rulers of Bavaria|King of Bavaria]], made Charles's share in [[Aquitaine]] and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once [[Gaul]]. At a [[Diet (assembly)|diet]] in [[Aachen]] in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir.{{sfn|Riche|1983|p=157}} Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom,{{sfn|Riche|1983|p=157}} which angered Pepin's heirs and the Aquitainian nobles.{{sfn|Riche|1983|p=158}}

The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair{{&nbsp}}I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the [[Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye]] on 25 June 841.{{sfn|Bradbury|2007|p=14}} In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated [[Oath of Strasbourg|Oaths of Strasbourg]]. The war was brought to an end by the [[Treaty of Verdun]] in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the [[Meuse]], the [[Saône]], and the [[Rhône]], with the addition of the [[Marca Hispanica|Spanish March]] as far as the [[Ebro]]. Louis received the eastern part of the [[Carolingian Empire]], known then as [[East Francia]] and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and the [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Kingdom of Italy]]. He also received the central regions from [[Flanders]] through the [[Rhineland]] and [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] as king of [[Middle Francia]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=897–898}}