Editing Louis the German (section)

==Civil war and aftermath, 840–844==
{{further|Carolingian civil war}}
[[File:Treaty of Verdun 843.png|thumb|Lands divided by the Treaty of Verdun]]
When the emperor Louis died in 840, and [[Lothair I]] claimed the whole Empire, Louis allied with [[Charles the Bald]]. He defeated Lothair I's commander, [[Adalbert of Metz (died 841)|Adalbert of Metz]], at the [[battle of the Ries]] on 13 May 841.<ref name="EB1911"/> A few weeks later, he and Charles defeated Lothair and their nephew [[Pepin II of Aquitaine]] at the [[Battle of Fontenoy (841)|battle of Fontenoy]] on 25 June.{{sfn|Riche|1993|p=161–162}} Both sides suffered heavy casualties. According to [[Annales Fuldenses|the Annals of Fulda]], it was the biggest bloodbath the Franks had experienced since time immemorial.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Eric Joseph |title=Popular revolt, dynastic politics, and aristocratic factionalism in the early Middle Ages. The Saxon Stellinga reconsidered. |date=1995 |publisher=Speculum |pages=467–501}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |others=Disputed Author |title=Annales Fuldenses |date=841 |publisher=Abbey House of Fulda}}</ref> At the same time, it was Louis's last battle in the struggle for the unification of the kingdom.

In June 842 the three brothers met on an island in the river [[Saône]] to negotiate a peace and each appointed forty representatives to arrange the boundaries of their respective kingdoms. This developed into the [[Treaty of Verdun]], concluded by 10 August 843, by which Louis received the bulk of the lands lying east of the [[Rhine]] ([[East Francia]]), together with a district around [[Speyer]], [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], and [[Mainz]], on the left bank of the river (see also [[Oaths of Strasbourg]] 842). His territories included Bavaria (where he made [[Regensburg]] the centre of his government), [[Thuringia]], [[Franconia]], and [[Saxony]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

Louis may be called the founder of the [[German kingdom]], though his attempts to maintain the unity of the Empire proved futile.<ref name="EB1911"/> Having in 842 crushed the ''[[Stellinga]]'' rising in Saxony,{{sfn|Goldberg|2006|p=112}} in 844 he compelled the [[Obotrites]]{{sfn|Gwatkin|Whitney|Tanner|Previté-Orton|1957|p=31}} to accept his authority and put their prince, Gozzmovil, to death. [[Thachulf, Duke of Thuringia]], then undertook campaigns against the [[Bohemia]]ns, [[Great Moravia|Moravians]], and other tribes, but was not very successful in resisting the ravaging [[Vikings]].