Ludwig the child

Ludwig the child as a detail of the scabbard of the imperial sword (copper engraving by Johann Adam Delsenbach from 1751)

Ludwig IV., The child (* September or October 893 in Altötting ; † September 20 or 24, 911 probably in Frankfurt am Main ) was the only legitimate son of Emperor Arnolf of Carinthia with the Konradine Oda . On February 4, 900 Louis at the age of six years in which it was Palatinate Forchheim the king of Ostfrankenreiches levied. His coronation is the oldest known East Franconian royal coronation.

Life

Despite his childhood, Ludwig became the center of public life. However, he was unable to form his own government because he was very often ill and therefore physically too weak. The actual rulers were the nobility and the bishops, which suggests that Ludwig's weak constitution was the reason for his elevation.

His most influential advisers were Bishop Hatto of Mainz and Bishop Solomon III. from Constance . Under their influence, the struggle for supremacy in the tribal duchy of Franconia was decided before the royal court against the Franconian Babenbergs in favor of the Konradines (→ Babenberg feud ) and Ludwig's nephew Konrad the Younger was appointed Duke. Ludwig could not assert himself against the incursions of the Hungarians , in 907 an army under Margrave Luitpold of Bavaria was defeated in the Battle of Pressburg .

Ludwig died on September 20 or 24, 911 at the age of 18, probably in Frankfurt am Main . With his death the line of the East Franconian Carolingians died out . When determining a successor, the dukes in the empire decided against the West Frankish King Charles the Simple and chose Konrad the Younger, one of their own ranks, to be king. Ludwig's final resting place is in St. Emmeram in Regensburg , where his father Arnolf of Carinthia was also buried.

literature

• Hans-Werner Goetz : "Dux" and "Ducatus". Conceptual and constitutional studies on the emergence of the so-called “younger” tribal duchy , Bochum 1977, ISBN 3-921543-66-5 .
• Paul Fridolin Kehr : Ludwig's office of the child , Berlin 1940.
• Thilo Offergeld: Reges pueri. The Kingship of Minors in the Early Middle Ages , Hanover 2001, ISBN 3-7752-5450-1 . ( Review )
• Alois Schmid : Ludwig the child . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , Sp. 2175.
• Theodor Schieffer :  Ludwig the child. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , pp. 329-331 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Ludwig das Kind  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature about Ludwig the child in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
Arnolf of Carinthia	King of Eastern Franconia 900–911	Konrad I.