Louis V (France)

Ludwig V (* 966 or 967; † May 21, 987 ) was King of Western Franconia from 986 to 987. He was nicknamed "the idiot" ( Latin qui nihil fecit , French le Fainéant ), but this did not refer to passivity (Ludwig was actually an active ruler), but rather that he could not achieve much in his short reign of 14 months. He was the last king of the Carolingian family .

Life

Ludwig was the older of the two sons of King Lothar and his wife Emma , a daughter of King Lothar II of Italy and Adelheid , who later married Emperor Otto the Great . Ludwig's younger brother Otto died before his father; the other children of Lothar were illegitimate.

To secure the succession to the throne, Ludwig was made co-king of his father and consecrated on June 8, 979 by Archbishop Adalbero of Reims . Lothar married him in 982 to Adelheid (Blanche) , the rich widow of Count Stephan von Gévaudan ; she was a daughter of Count Fulko II of Anjou . At the same time Lothar sent his son to Aquitaine , where Ludwig was either to rule as king or to work as co-king of his father (the information in the sources is contradictory). The marriage to Adelheid was dissolved after only two years, and Ludwig returned to his father's court in 984. Allegedly, Ludwig was reckless and cared little about his sovereign duties. However, unfavorable statements about him are at least partly connected with the intention of historians to portray him as incompetent or immoral in order to make the change of dynasty after his death plausible.

When Lothar died on March 2nd, 986, Ludwig was able to ascend the throne unchallenged. There were two parties in his court. Emma: the king's mother, was strongly influenced by her mother, Empress Adelheid, and thus represented a friendly policy towards the Ottonians ; Archbishop Adalbero of Reims also belonged to this direction. The opposing party wanted to continue Lothar's course, which was aimed at eliminating any weakness of the Ottonians - King Otto III. was still a child - to be exploited to pursue an expansion policy in the east and to win back the old Lotharingia by force. By far the most powerful of Ludwig's vassals was Hugo Capet , who was also the Duke of France and Burgundy . This belonged to the Robertin family , which had long rivaled the Carolingians for the leading position in the empire and had already provided two kings.

At first Emma dominated the situation, but in the summer of 986 there was a change: the anti-Ottone party prevailed, Emma had to leave the farm and seek refuge with Hugo Capet. This also put Adalbero in an awkward position; he left his episcopal city temporarily and went to his castles on the Meuse , which belonged to the Ottonian sphere of influence. Ludwig regarded this as high treason; He turned violently against Adalbero and threatened to besiege him in Reims, but then agreed to a provisional agreement; the matter was to be resolved at a court day in Compiègne . Before this met, Ludwig changed his course again and sought a reconciliation with Adalbero; in the spring of 987 was also of a peace treaty with Otto III. or his mother Theophanu the speech, a peace conference was planned. Before this confused situation could be resolved, Ludwig died on May 21, 987 in a hunting accident. He was buried in Compiègne in the Church of St. Corneille .

Since Ludwig had no children, only his uncle Karl von Niederlothringen , the younger brother of his father Lothar, could claim a claim to the throne, because otherwise only illegitimate descendants were left of the Carolingian royal dynasty. However, Charles's claim was ignored by the greats of the empire and Hugo Capet was elected king. This replaced the Carolingian dynasty by the Capetian dynasty named after Hugo Capet .

In modern research Ludwig is judged negatively because of the volatility of his politics, but it is also pointed out that he was young and inexperienced.

literature

• Ferdinand Lot : Les derniers Carolingiens: Lothaire, Louis V, Charles de Lorraine (954–991) . Paris 1891 (outdated but very thorough study by an eminent scholar).
• Walther Kienast : Germany and France in the Imperial Era (900–1270) . 1st chapter. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-7772-7428-3 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Lothar	King of the west of France 986–987	Hugo Capet