Treaty of Bonn 921
The Treaty of Bonn , often also called the Bonn Treaty of November 7th, 921 , ends a dispute between the western and eastern parts of the Franconian Empire that lasted almost exactly a decade .
Development in Eastern Franconia
In September 911, Ludwig the child, the last Carolingian died in the eastern part of the empire. Usually, the Franconian inheritance law provided for the division and reunification of the empire among the descendants of the general ruler, a birthright was not common among the Franks. This practice had been common in the ruling Frankish families since the time of the Merovingians . From this tradition one would have expected that the greats of the eastern empire would choose King Charles the simple-minded of the western empire as their master.
On the other hand, the claims of the Carolingians had not always been recognized in the western empire in the decades before, and so since 888 a right to vote for princes (dukes and great counts) gradually developed, between the Carolingians and the Robertinians / Capetians was alternated. The practical consideration of which ruler could be expected to provide more effective aid against the Normans was of great importance.
Similar considerations now seem to have been made in eastern France in 911. In addition to the traditional raids by the Normans, this was increasingly affected by the incursions of the Magyars , a nomadic people who came from Asia and at the time was closer to the Huns than to the Europeans. In the context of this threat and the weakness of the central authority under the last Carolingian Ludwig the Child (899–911), new tribal duchies (Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Lorraine) had formed in many areas as their functional replacements, which were no longer willing to subjugate a foreign and distant king who could not do anything for national defense.
From the point of view of the West Franconian Karolinger, the 911 election represented a kind of expropriation of the Carolingians, as it ended with the uprising of Konrad the Younger , the son of a powerful imperial count from the Rhenish region, who was just after a victorious feud to become Duke of the (East) Franconian tribal duchy had swung up. Only the Duke of Lorraine , who, however, represented a very large part of the East Franconian Empire, took the legitimist view of the Carolingian succession and, after the election, converted from the East to the West Franconian Empire. This conversion was the greatest of the subsequent sources of conflict.
After Konrad's death in 919, one of the tribal dukes, Heinrich I of Saxony, was chosen . During the first years of Henry's rule, Lorraine, which had meanwhile been reduced to a duchy, was in the process of becoming independent again. While Heinrich refused to support his royal predecessor Konrad, he again lacked the approval of the Bavarian and Swabian dukes. In addition, there was a very critical foreign policy situation. A small migration of the Slavs threatened Heinrichs Regnum, and the Magyars oppressed the empire.
Heinrich was therefore forced to find a compromise with the Carolingian dynasty still ruling in the west in order to be able to bundle the forces of his empire against the invaders. The West Frankish king was very angry, however, because Heinrich had supported an enemy of Charles in the rebellious land of Lorraine. Then Charles the Simple had invaded Eastern Franconia. However, there were no acts of war, and Karl withdrew after a short time.
Content of the contract and consequences
Heinrich, who was very keen on consensus, then met with Charles the Simple on a ship near Bonn in the middle of the Rhine. The location of the meeting was chosen deliberately in order to illustrate the equality of the two kings. In the treaty the two kings became friends. However, there were no concrete commitments. Friendship back then meant at least recognition and support in every respect.
The West Franconian king also benefited from it, because he had many enemies in his empire and could be so sure that the East Franconian king would not turn against him as well. The treaty was certified by the most powerful church representatives and aristocrats in both countries.
Apparently Heinrich didn't really care about the contract. In 923 he concluded a similar friendship treaty with Robert von Franzien , the anti-king and adversary of Charles. Heinrich, at least, did not assume that there was any real obligation to provide assistance. When Karl, who was later captured - according to a source from the Widukind von Corvey - asked Heinrich for help, the latter did not respond.
literature
- Gerd Althoff : The Ottonians. Royal rule without a state . 2., ext. Edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2005, p. 48, ISBN 3-17-018597-7 .
- Joachim Ehlers : The Beginnings of French History . in: Historical magazine . Vol. 240 (1985).
- Joachim Ehlers: France in the Middle Ages . in: Historical magazine . Special issue 11 (1982).
- Ursula Penndorf: The problem of the “imperial unity idea” after the division of Verdun (843) . published by “Bei der Arbeo-Gesellschaft”, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-920128-21-3 .