which broke out the following year, provoked by Judith's intrigues with
Bernard, count of Barcelona, whom she had installed as her favourite at
court. Lothair and his brother Pippin joined the rebels, and after
Judith had been sent into a convent and Bernard had fled to Spain, an
assembly was held at Compiègne, when Louis was practically deposed and
Lothair became the real ruler of the Empire. Sympathy was, however, soon
aroused for the emperor, who was treated as a prisoner, and a second
assembly was held at Nimwegen in October 830 when, with the concurrence
of his sons Pippin and Louis, he was restored to power and Judith
returned to court.
Further trouble between Pippin and his father led to the nominal
transfer of Aquitaine from Pippin to his brother Charles in 831. The
emperor's plans for a division of his dominions then led to a revolt of
his three sons. Louis met them in June 833 near Kolmar, but owing
possibly to the influence of Pope Gregory IV., who took part in the
negotiations, he found himself deserted by his supporters, and the
treachery and falsehood which marked the proceedings gave to the place
the name of _Lügenfeld_, or the "field of lies." Judith, charged with
infidelity, was again banished; Louis was sent into the monastery of St
Medard at Soissons; and the government of the Empire was assumed by his
sons. The emperor was forced to confess his sins, and declare himself
unworthy of the throne, but Lothair did not succeed in his efforts to
make his father a monk. Sympathy was again felt for Louis, and when the
younger Louis had failed to induce Lothair to treat the emperor in a
more becoming fashion, he and Pippin took up arms on behalf of their
father. The result was that in March 834 Louis was restored to power at
St Denis; Judith once more returned to his side and the kingdoms of
Louis and Pippin were increased. The struggle with Lothair continued
until the autumn, when he submitted to the emperor and was confined to
Italy. To make the restoration more complete, a great assembly at
Diedenhofen declared the deposition of Louis to have been contrary to
law, and a few days later he was publicly restored in the cathedral of
Metz. In December 838 Pippin died, and a new arrangement was made by
which the Empire, except Bavaria, the kingdom of Louis, was divided
between Lothair, now reconciled to his father, and Charles. The emperor
was returning from suppressing a revolt on the part of his son Louis,
provoked by this disposition, when he died on the 20th of June 840 on an
island in the Rhine near Ingelheim. He was buried in the church of St
Arnulf at Metz. Louis was a man of strong frame, who loved the chase,
and did not shrink from the hardships of war. He was, however, easily
influenced and was unequal to the government of the Empire bequeathed to
him by his father. No sustained effort was made to ward off the inroads
of the Danes and others, who were constantly attacking the borders of
the Empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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