Editing Carolingian Empire (section)

===Reign of Louis the Pious and Civil War (814–843)===
{{further|Carolingian civil war}}
[[File:Droysens-21a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent (814) and its later partition with the [[Treaty of Verdun]] (843)]]

Louis the Pious' reign as Emperor was unexpected; as the third son of Charlemagne, he was originally crowned King of Aquitaine at three years old.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Kramer |first=Rutger |title=Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire: Ideals and Expectations During the Reign of Louis the Pious (813-828) |isbn=978-9-0485-3268-1 |date=2019 |pages=31–34|publisher=Amsterdam University Press }}</ref> With the deaths of his older siblings, he went from 'a boy who became a king to a man who would be emperor'.<ref name=":3"/> Although his reign was mostly overshadowed by the dynastic struggle and resultant civil war, as his epithet states, he was highly interested in matters of religion. One of the first things he did was 'ruling the people by law and with the wealth of his piety',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ernold |title=Carmen |volume=lib. I, 11, 85-91 |pages=10–11}}</ref> namely by restoring churches. "The Astronomer"{{Efn|name=Astronomer|An unknown anonymous author, see ''[[Vita Hludovici]]''}} stated that, during his kingship of Aquitaine, he 'built up the study of reading and singing, and also the understanding of divine and worldly letters, more quickly than one would believe.'<ref>{{Cite book |author=Astronumus (the Astronomer) |title=[[Vita Hludowici]] |chapter=Chapter 19 |page=336 |isbn=}}</ref> He also made significant effort to restore many monasteries that had disappeared prior to his reign, as well as sponsoring new ones.<ref name=":3"/>

Louis the Pious' reign lacked security; he often had to struggle to maintain control of the Empire. As soon as he heard of the death of Charlemagne, he hurried to Aachen, where he exiled many of Charlemagne's trusted advisors, such as Wala. Wala and his siblings were children of the youngest son of Charles Martel, and so were a threat as a potential alternative ruling family.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=De Jong |first=Mayke |title=The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814-840 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |location=Cambridge |pages=20–47}}</ref> Monastic exile was a tactic Louis used heavily in his early reign to strengthen his position and remove potential rivals.<ref name=":4"/> In 817 his nephew, King Bernard of Italy, rebelled against him due to discontent with being the vassal of Lothar, Louis' eldest son.<ref>"Revolt of Bernard of Italy", ''The Cambridge Medieval History Series'' volumes 1-5, Plantagenet Publishing</ref> The rebellion was quickly put down by Louis, and by 818 Bernard of Italy was captured and punished - the punishment of death was commuted to blinding. However, the trauma of the procedure ending up killing him two days later.{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|p=}} Italy was brought back into Imperial control. In 822 Louis' show of penance for Bernard's death greatly reduced his prestige as Emperor to the nobility – some suggest it opened him up to 'clerical domination'.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Knechtges |first1=David R. |last2=Vance |first2=Eugene |title=Rhetoric and the Discourses of Power in Court Culture |date=2005 |publisher=University of Washington Press |author-link1=David R. Knechtges |isbn=978-0-2959-8450-6}}</ref> Nonetheless, in 817 Louis had established three new Carolingian kingships for his sons from his first marriage: [[Lothair I|Lothar]] was made King of Italy and co-Emperor, [[Pepin I of Aquitaine|Pepin]] was made King of Aquitaine, and [[Louis the German]] was made King of [[Bavaria]]. His attempts in 823 to bring his fourth son (from his second marriage), [[Charles the Bald]] into the will was marked by the resistance of his eldest sons. Whilst this was part of the reason for strife amongst Louis' sons, some suggest that it was the appointment of Bernard of Septimania as chamberlain which caused discontent with Lothar, as he was stripped of his co-Emperorship in 829 and was banished to Italy (although it is not known why; The Astronomer simply states that Louis 'dismissed his son Lothar to go back to Italy'<ref>{{Cite book |author=The Astronomer (anonymous) |chapter=The Life of Emperor Louis |title=Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Notker, Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer |translator=Thomas F. X. Noble |date=2009 |page=275 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-2710-3715-8}}</ref>) and Bernard assumed his place as second in command to the emperor.<ref name=":4"/> With Bernard's influence over not only the emperor, but the empress as well, further discord was sowed amongst prominent nobility. Pepin, Louis' second son, too, was disgruntled; he had been implicated in a failed military campaign in 827, and he was tired of his father's overbearing involvement in the ruling of Aquitaine.<ref name=":4"/> As such, the angry nobility supported Pepin, civil war broke out during Lent in 830, and the last years of his reign were plagued by civil war.

Shortly after Easter, his sons attacked Louis' empire and dethroned him in favour of Lothar. The Astronomer stated Louis spent the summer in the custody of his son, 'an emperor in name only'.<ref name=":4"/> The following year Louis attacked his sons' kingdoms by drafting new plans for succession. Louis gave Neustria to Pepin, stripped Lothar of his Imperial title and granted the Kingdom of Italy to Charles. Another partition in 832 completely excluded Pepin and Louis the German, making Lothar and Charles the sole benefactors of the kingdom, which precipitated Pepin and Louis the German revolting in the same year,<ref name=":4"/> followed by Lothar in 833, and together they imprisoned Louis the Pious and Charles. Lothar brought Pope Gregory IV from Rome under the guise of mediation, but his true role was to legitimise Lothar and his brothers' rule by deposing and excommunicating Louis.<ref name=":4"/> By 835, peace was made within the family, and Louis was restored to the Imperial throne at the church of St. Stephen in Metz. When Pepin died in 838, Louis crowned Charles king of Aquitaine, whilst the nobility elected Pepin's son [[Pepin II of Aquitaine|Pepin II]], a conflict which was not resolved until 860 with Pepin's death. When Louis the Pious finally died in 840, Lothar claimed the entire empire irrespective of the partitions.

As a result, Charles and Louis the German went to war against Lothar. After losing the [[Battle of Fontenoy (841)|Battle of Fontenay]], Lothar fled to his capital at [[Aachen]] and raised a new army, which was inferior to that of the younger brothers. In the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]], in 842, Charles and Louis agreed to declare Lothar unfit for the imperial throne. This marked the east–west division of the Empire between Louis and Charles until the Verdun Treaty. Considered a milestone in European history, the Oaths of Strasbourg symbolize the birth of both France and Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-07-21 |title=Die Geburt Zweier Staaten – Die Straßburger Eide vom 14. February 842 &#124; Wir Europäer &#124; DW.DE &#124; 21.07.2009 |url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3840415,00.html |access-date=2013-03-26 |publisher=Dw-world.de}}</ref> The partition of Carolingian Empire was finally settled in 843 by and between Louis the Pious' three sons in the [[Treaty of Verdun]].{{sfn|Goldberg|2006|p=}}