Hugo (Alsace)

Hugo (* before 863; † after 895 in the Abbey of Prüm ) was the only son of King Lothar II of Lotharingia , but from his second marriage to Waldrada, which was not recognized by the church .

His father's efforts to get this marriage recognized and thus Hugo the succession to the throne in Lotharingia were unsuccessful. Lothar transferred the Duchy of Alsace to his son in 867 (whether as an attempt to create facts and enforce the succession, or in the knowledge that the succession could no longer be enforced and his son would now have to be looked after remains unclear) and subordinated him the protection of his uncle Ludwig the German , but this overlooked Hugo's claims after the death of Lothar (869) and in the Treaty of Mersen (870).

In 877 Hugo made the first attempt to fight for his inheritance, but remained unsuccessful - despite the support of the Lorraine nobility: in 878 he was excommunicated by Pope John VII in Troyes , in 879 Ludwig the Younger campaigned against him, in 880 the King of the West Franks Ludwig III. and his brother Karlmann as well as the East Frankish king Karl the Fat , ultimately without success because they couldn't get hold of him.

Ludwig the Younger tried to please him by equipping him with counties and abbeys, which was obviously not enough for Hugo, as he soon resumed the fight.

In May 882, as part of the peace treaty with the Vikings, after their massive winter raid in the Rhineland , his sister Gisela was married to their leader Gottfried , who also received the title Duke of Friesland . Gottfried also claimed Lorraine. As part of this peace treaty, Hugo received the income from the diocese of Metz . But instead of simply accepting this gain and keeping the peace, Hugo allied himself in 883 with Gottfried, whose renewed uprising required a further reaction from the family. In June 885, Heinrich von Franken from Babenberg succeeded in slaying Gottfried in simulated negotiations. Shortly afterwards Hugo was ambushed in Gondreville ; he was captured and blinded , made incapable of governing and finally locked away in the Prüm Abbey .

With Hugo's elimination, the Carolingian tribe in Lorraine was eliminated, and the middle empire between western and eastern Franconia was finally history.

literature

• Elisabeth Berg:  Hugo. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 15 ( digitized version ).
• Ernst Ludwig Dümmler:  Hugo of Lothringen . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 309-311.