Editing Louis the Pious (section)

===First civil war===
{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2020}}
[[File:Bibliothèque nationale de France - Bible de Vivien Ms. Latin 1 folio 423r détail Le comte Vivien offre le manuscrit de la Bible faite à l'abbaye de Saint-Martin de Tours à Charles le Chauve.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Louis's son [[Charles the Bald]] as depicted in the [[First Bible of Charles the Bald|Vivian Bible]], c. 845]]
In 818, as Louis was returning from a campaign to [[Brittany]], he was greeted by news of the death of his wife, [[Ermengarde of Hesbaye|Ermengarde]]. Ermengarde was the daughter of [[Ingerman, Count of Hesbaye|Ingerman]], the duke of Hesbaye. Louis had been close to his wife, who had been involved in policymaking. It was rumoured that she had played a part in her nephew's death and Louis himself believed her own death was divine retribution for that event. It took many months for his courtiers and advisors to convince him to remarry, but eventually he did, in 820, to [[Judith of Bavaria (died 843)|Judith]], daughter of [[Welf (father of Judith)|Welf]], count of [[Weingarten, Württemberg|Altdorf]]. In 823 Judith gave birth to a son, who was named [[Charles the Bald|Charles]].

The birth of this son damaged the ''Partition of Aachen'', as Louis's attempts to provide for his fourth son met with stiff resistance from his older sons, and the last two decades of his reign were marked by civil war. At [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] in 829, Louis gave [[Alemannia]] to Charles, with the title of king or duke (historians differ on this), thus enraging his son and co-emperor Lothair, whose promised share was thereby diminished.<ref>Paired gold medallions of father and son had been struck on the occasion of the synod of Paris (825) that asserted Frankish claims as emperor, recently denigrated by the Byzantines; see Karl F. Morrison, "The Gold Medallions of Louis the Pious and Lothaire I and the Synod of Paris (825)" ''Speculum'' '''36'''.4 (October 1961:592–599).</ref> An insurrection was soon at hand.

With the urging of the vengeful Wala and the cooperation of his brothers, Lothair accused Judith of having committed adultery with [[Bernard of Septimania]], even suggesting Bernard to be the true father of Charles. Ebbo and Hildwin abandoned the emperor at that point, Bernard having risen to greater heights than either of them. [[Agobard]], [[Archbishop of Lyon]], and Jesse of Amiens, [[bishop of Amiens]], too, opposed the redivision of the empire and lent their episcopal prestige to the rebels.

In 830, at Wala's insistence that Bernard of Septimania was plotting against him, Pepin of Aquitaine led an army of [[Gascony|Gascon]]s, with the support of the Neustrian magnates, all the way to Paris. At [[Verberie]], Louis the German joined him. At that time, the emperor returned from another campaign in Brittany to find his empire at war with itself. He marched as far as [[Compiègne]], an ancient royal town, before being surrounded by Pepin's forces and captured. Judith was incarcerated at Poitiers and Bernard fled to Barcelona.<ref name=Collins1991/>

Then Lothair finally set out with a large Lombard army, but Louis had promised his sons Louis the German and Pepin of Aquitaine greater shares of the inheritance, prompting them to shift loyalties in favour of their father. When Lothair tried to call a general council of the realm in [[Nijmegen]], in the heart of [[Austrasia]], the Austrasians and Rhinelanders came with a following of armed retainers, and the disloyal sons were forced to free their father and bow at his feet (831). Lothair was pardoned, but disgraced and banished to Italy.<ref name=Collins1991/>

Pepin returned to Aquitaine and Judith—after being forced to humiliate herself with a solemn oath of innocence—to Louis's court. Only Wala was severely dealt with, making his way to a secluded monastery on the shores of [[Lake Geneva]]. Although [[Hilduin of Saint-Denis|Hilduin]], abbot of [[Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis|Saint Denis]], was exiled to [[Paderborn]] and Elisachar and Matfrid were deprived of their honours north of the Alps, they did not lose their freedom.<ref name=jong/>