Editing Louis the Pious (section)

===''Ordinatio imperii''===

On 9 April 817, [[Maundy Thursday]], Louis and his court were crossing a wooden gallery from the cathedral to the palace in Aachen, when the gallery collapsed, killing many. Louis, having barely survived and realizing death was imminent, began planning for his succession. Three months later among the approval of his Aachen court and the clergy he issued an imperial decree of eighteen chapters, the ''Ordinatio Imperii'', that laid out plans for an orderly dynastic succession. The term ''Ordinatio Imperii'' is a modern (19th-century) creation. The decree is called ''divisio imperii'' in the only surviving contemporary manuscript.<ref name=jong/>

In 815, Louis had already given his two eldest sons a share in the government, when he had sent his elder sons [[Lothair I|Lothair]] and [[Pepin I of Aquitaine|Pepin]] to govern [[Bavaria]] and Aquitaine, respectively, though without the royal titles. He proceeded to divide the empire among his three sons:

* Lothair was proclaimed and crowned co-emperor in Aachen by his father. He was promised the succession to most of the Frankish dominions (excluding the exceptions below), and would be the overlord of his brothers and cousin.
* Pepin was proclaimed King of Aquitaine, his territory including Gascony, the march around Toulouse, and the counties of Carcassonne, Autun, Avallon and Nevers.
* [[Louis the German|Louis]], the youngest son, was proclaimed King of Bavaria and the neighbouring marches.

If one of the subordinate kings died, he was to be succeeded by his sons. If he died childless, Lothair would inherit his kingdom. In the event of Lothair dying without sons, one of Louis the Pious's younger sons would be chosen to replace him by "the people". Above all, the Empire would not be divided: the Emperor would rule supreme over the subordinate kings, whose obedience to him was mandatory.

With this settlement, Louis attempted to combine his sense for the Empire's unity, supported by the clergy, while at the same time providing positions for all of his sons. Instead of treating his sons equally in status and land, he elevated his first-born son Lothair above his younger brothers and gave him the largest part of the Empire as his share.

The decree failed to create order as it omitted Bernard, who immediately began to conspire. When Louis began to issue changes in favor of his second wife [[Judith of Bavaria (died 843)|Judith's]] son [[Charles the Bald]], his sons Lothar, Pepin and Louis refused to accept. The rule of sons being favoured over brothers in succession remained also untouched.<ref name=jong/>