Youth and inheritance Charles was the youngest of the three sons of
Louis the German, first
King of East Francia, and
Hemma from the House of
Welf. An incident of demonic possession is recorded in his youth, in which he was said to have been foaming at the mouth before he was taken to the altar of the church. This greatly affected him and his father. He was described as: "… a very Christian prince, fearing God, with all his heart keeping His commandments, very devoutly obeying the orders of the Church, generous in alms-giving, practising unceasingly prayer and song, always intent upon celebrating the praises of God." In 859, Charles was made
Count of the Breisgau, an Alemannic
march bordering southern
Lotharingia. In 863, his rebellious eldest brother
Carloman revolted against their father. The next year
Louis the Younger followed Carloman in revolt and Charles joined him. Carloman received rule over the
Duchy of Bavaria. In 865, the elder Louis was forced to divide his remaining lands among his heirs: the
Duchy of Saxony (along with the
Duchy of Franconia and the
Duchy of Thuringia) went to Louis,
Alemannia (the
Duchy of Swabia along with
Rhaetia) went to Charles, and
Lotharingia was to be divided between the younger two. When, in 875, the
Emperor Louis II, who was also
King of Italy, died having agreed with Louis the German that Carloman would succeed him in Italy,
Charles the Bald of
West Francia invaded the peninsula and had himself crowned king and emperor. Louis the German sent first Charles and then Carloman himself, with armies containing Italian forces under
Berengar of Friuli, their cousin, to the Italian kingdom. These wars, however, were not successful until the death of Charles the Bald in 877. In 876,
Louis the German died and the inheritance was divided as planned after a conference at
Ries, though Charles received less of his share of Lotharingia than planned. In his charters, Charles's reign in
Germania is dated from his inheritance in 876.
Acquisition of Italy Three brothers ruled in cooperation and avoided wars over the division of their patrimony: a rare occurrence in the
Early Middle Ages. In 877, Carloman finally inherited Italy from his uncle
Charles the Bald. Louis divided
Lotharingia and offered a third to Carloman and a third to Charles. In 878, Carloman returned his Lotharingian share to Louis, who then divided it evenly with Charles. In 879, Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and divided his domains between his brothers: Bavaria went to Louis and Italy to Charles. Charles dated his reign in
Italia from this point, and from then, he spent most of his reign until 886 in his Italian kingdom. In 880, Charles joined
Louis III of France and
Carloman II, the joint kings of
West Francia, in a failed siege of
Boso of Provence in Vienne from August to September.
Provence, legally a part of the Italian kingdom from 863, had rebelled under Boso. In August 882, Charles sent
Richard, Duke of Burgundy,
Count of Autun, to take the city, which he finally did in September. After this, Boso was restricted to the vicinity of Vienne.
Imperial coronation On 18 July 880,
Pope John VIII sent a letter to
Guy II of Spoleto seeking peace, but the duke ignored him and invaded the
Papal States. John responded by begging the aid of Charles in his capacity as
king of Italy and crowned Charles emperor on 12 February 881. This was accompanied by hopes of a general revival in western Europe, but Charles proved to be unequal to the task. Charles did little to help against Guy II. Papal letters as late as November were still petitioning Charles for action. As emperor, Charles began the construction of a palace at
Sélestat in
Alsace. He modelled it after the
Palace at Aachen which was built by
Charlemagne, whom he consciously sought to emulate, as indicated by the
Gesta Karoli Magni of
Notker the Stammerer. As Aachen was located in the kingdom of his brother, it was necessary for Charles to build a new palace for his court in his own power base of western
Alemannia. Sélestat was also more centrally located than Aachen. In February 882, Charles convoked a diet in
Ravenna. The duke, emperor, and pope made peace and Guy and his uncle,
Guy of Camerino, vowed to return the papal lands. In a March letter to Charles, John claimed that the vows went unfulfilled. In 883, Guy of Camerino, now
duke of Spoleto as Guy III, was accused of treason at an imperial synod held at
Nonantula late in May. He returned to Spoleto and made an alliance with the Saracens. Charles sent
Berengar against Guy III. Berengar was initially successful until an epidemic of disease, which ravaged all of Italy, affecting the emperor and his entourage as well as Berengar's army, forced him to retreat. In 885, fearing Godfrid and his brother-in-law,
Hugh, Duke of Alsace, Charles arranged for a conference at
Spijk near
Lobith, where the Viking leader fell into his trap. Godfrid was executed, and Hugh was blinded and sent to
Prüm. From 882 to 884, the
Wilhelminer War engulfed the
March of Pannonia (later
March of Austria). Arnulf of Carinthia, Charles's illegitimate nephew, made an alliance with the rebel
Engelschalk II against
Aribo of Austria, Charles's appointed margrave of the region.
Svatopluk I, ruler of
Great Moravia, agreed to help Aribo and in 884 at
Kaumberg took an oath of fidelity to Charles. Though the emperor lost his vassals of the
Wilhelminer family and his relationship with his nephew was broken, he gained powerful new allies in the Moravian
dux and other Slavic
duces of the region.
Rule in West Francia '', illustration from c. 1375–1379). When Carloman II of West Francia died on 12 December 884, the nobles of the kingdom invited Charles to assume the kingship. Charles gladly accepted, it being the third kingdom to "fall into his lap". According to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Charles succeeded to all of the kingdom of Carloman except
Brittany, but this does not seem to have been true. It is likely that Charles was crowned by
Geilo, Bishop of Langres, as
rex in Gallia on 20 May 885 at
Grand in the
Vosges in southern Lorraine. Although Geilo even developed a special West Frankish seal for him, Charles's government in the West was always very distant and he left most day-to-day business to the higher nobility. Though West Francia (the future France) was far less menaced by the Vikings than the
Low Countries, it was heavily hit nonetheless. In 885, a huge fleet led by Sigfred sailed up the
Seine, for the first time in years, and
besieged Paris. Sigfred demanded a bribe again, but this time Charles refused. He was in Italy at the time and
Odo, Count of Paris, sneaked some men through enemy lines to seek his aid. Charles sent Henry of Saxony to Paris. In 886, as disease began to spread through Paris, Odo himself went to Charles to seek support. Charles brought a large army and encircled the army of
Rollo and set up a camp at
Montmartre. However, Charles had no intention of fighting. He sent the attackers up the Seine to ravage
Burgundy, which was in revolt. When the Vikings withdrew from France next spring, he gave them 700 pounds of promised silver. Charles's prestige in France was greatly diminished. Charles issued a number of charters for West Frankish recipients during his stay in Paris during and after the siege. He recognised rights and privileges granted by his predecessors to recipients in the
Spanish March and Provence, but especially in
Neustria, where he had contact with
Nantes at a time when the
Breton duke Alan I was known to be powerful in the
county of Nantes. It is probable that Charles granted Alan the right to be titled
rex; Hadrian was going to remove the obstructing bishops for Charles, as he doubted he could do this himself, and legitimise Bernard.
Notker the Stammerer, who considered Bernard as a possible heir, wrote in his
Deeds of Charlemagne: After the failure of this first attempt, Charles set about to try again. He had the term
proles (offspring) inserted into his charters (it had not been in previous years), in a likely attempt to legitimise Bernard. In early 886 Charles met the new
Pope Stephen V and probably negotiated for the recognition of his illegitimate son as heir. An assembly was planned for April and May of the following year at
Waiblingen. Pope Stephen cancelled his planned attendance on 30 April 887. Nevertheless, at Waiblingen, Berengar, who after a brief feud with Liutward had lost the favour of the emperor, came in early May 887, made peace with the emperor and compensated for his actions of the previous year by dispensing great gifts. Charles eventually abandoned his plans for Bernard and instead adopted
Louis of Provence as his son at an assembly at
Kirchen in May. It is possible, however, that the agreement with Louis was only designed to engender support for Bernard's sub-kingship in Lotharingia. In June or July, Berengar arrived in Kirchen, probably pining to be declared Charles's heir; he may in fact have been so named in Italy, where he was acclaimed (or made himself) king immediately after Charles's deposition.
Odo, Count of Paris, may have had a similar purpose in visiting Charles at Kirchen.
Deposition, death and legacy , illustration from c. 1182)With Charles increasingly seen as spineless and incompetent, matters came to a head in late 887. In the summer of that year, having given up on plans for his son's succession, Charles received Odo and
Berengar,
Margrave of Friuli, a relative of his, at his court. He may have accepted neither, one, or both of these as his heir in their respective kingdoms. His inner circle then began to fall apart. First, he accused his wife Richgard of having an affair with his chief minister and
archchancellor,
Liutward,
bishop of Vercelli. She proved her innocence in an
ordeal of fire and left him for the monastic life. He then turned against Liutward, who was hated by all, and removed him from office, appointing
Liutbert, archbishop of Mainz, in his place. In that year, his first cousin once removed,
Ermengard of Provence, daughter of the
Emperor Louis II and wife of
Boso of Provence, brought her son
Louis the Blind to him for protection. Charles confirmed Louis in Provence (he may even have adopted him) and allowed them to live at his court. He probably intended to make Louis heir to the whole realm and the
imperium. On November, he called an assembly to
Frankfurt. While there he received news that an ambitious nephew,
Arnulf of Carinthia, had fomented a general rebellion and was marching into Germany with an army of Bavarians and Slavs. The next week saw the collapse of all his support in East Francia. The last to abandon him were his loyal
Alemanni, though the men of Lotharingia never seem to have formally accepted his deposition. By 17 November, Charles was out of power, though the exact course of events is unknown. Aside from rebuking his faithlessness, he did little to prevent Arnulf's move—he had recently been ill again—but assured that Bernard was entrusted to his care and possibly Louis too. He asked for a few estates in Swabia on which to live out his days and thus received
Naudingen (
Donaueschingen). There he died six weeks later, on 13 January 888. The Empire fell apart, never to be restored. According to
Regino of Prüm, each part of the realm elected a "kinglet" from its own "bowels"—the bowels being the regions inside the realm. It is probable that Arnulf desired the whole empire, but the only part he received other than East Francia was Lotharingia. The French elected Odo, although he was opposed at first by
Guy III of Spoleto, who also opposed Arnulf in Lotharingia. Guy sought the kingship in Italy after his failures in Francia, despite Berengar having already been crowned. Louis was crowned in Provence, as Charles had intended, and he sought the support of Arnulf and gained it, probably through supplication to him. Odo would eventually submit to Arnulf's supremacy as well. In
Upper Burgundy, one
Rudolph, a
dux of the region, was elected as king in a distinctly non-Carolingian creation, probably the result of his failure to succeed in the whole of Lotharingia. In
Aquitaine,
Ranulf II declared himself king and took the guardianship of the young
Charles the Simple, the Carolingian heir to the West, refusing to recognise Odo's election. It is unknown if these elections were a response to Charles's East Frankish deposition or to his death. Only those of Arnulf and Berengar can be certainly placed before his death. Only the magnates of the East ever formally deposed him. He was buried with honour in
Reichenau after his death and the
Annales Fuldenses heap praises on his piety and godliness. Indeed, contemporary opinion of Charles is consistently kinder than later historiography, though it is a modern suggestion that his lack of apparent successes is the excusable result of near constant illness and infirmity. Charles was the subject of a hortative piece of Latin prose, the
Visio Karoli Grossi, designed to champion the cause of Louis the Blind and warn the Carolingians that their continued rule was not certain if they did not have "divine" (i.e. ecclesiastical) favour. ==See also==