LOTHAIR (825-869), king of the district called after him Lotharingia, or
Lorraine, was the second son of the emperor Lothair I. On his father's
death in 855, he received for his kingdom a district lying west of the
Rhine, between the North Sea and the Jura mountains, which was called
_Regnum Lotharii_ and early in the 10th century became known as
Lotharingia or Lorraine. On the death of his brother Charles in 863 he
added some lands south of the Jura to this inheritance, but, except for
a few feeble expeditions against the Danish pirates, he seems to have
done little for its government or its defence. The reign was chiefly
occupied by efforts on the part of Lothair to obtain a divorce from his
wife Teutberga, a sister of Hucbert, abbot of St Maurice (d. 864); and
his relations with his uncles, Charles the Bald and Louis the German,
were influenced by his desire to obtain their support to this plan.
Although quarrels and reconciliations between the three kings followed
each other in quick succession, in general it may be said that Louis
favoured the divorce, and Charles opposed it, while neither lost sight
of the fact that Lothair was without male issue. Lothair, whose desire
for the divorce was prompted by his affection for a certain Waldrada,
put away Teutberga; but Hucbert took up arms on her behalf, and after
she had submitted successfully to the ordeal of water, Lothair was
compelled to restore her in 858. Still pursuing his purpose, he won the
support of his brother, the emperor Louis II., by a cession of lands,
and obtained the consent of the local clergy to the divorce and to his
marriage with Waldrada, which was celebrated in 862. A synod of Frankish
bishops met at Metz in 863 and confirmed this decision, but Teutberga
fled to the court of Charles the Bald, and Pope Nicholas I. declared
against the decision of the synod. An attack on Rome by the emperor was
without result, and in 865 Lothair, convinced that Louis and Charles at
their recent meeting had discussed the partition of his kingdom, and
threatened with excommunication, again took back his wife. Teutberga,
however, either from inclination or compulsion, now expressed her desire
for a divorce, and Lothair went to Italy to obtain the assent of the new
pope Adrian II. Placing a favourable interpretation upon the words of
the pope, he had set out on the return journey, when he was seized with
fever and died at Piacenza on the 8th of August 869. He left, by
Waldrada, a son Hugo who was declared illegitimate, and his kingdom was
divided between Charles the Bald and Louis the German.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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