Louis V of France

Louis V

Coronation of Louis V the 14th-century Grandes chroniques de France
Reign 2 March 986 – 21 May 987
Coronation June 979, Rheims
Predecessor Lothair
Successor Hugh Capet
Spouse Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou
House Carolingian
Father Lothair of France
Mother Emma of Italy
Born c. 967
Died 21 May 987 (aged 20)

Louis V (c. 967 – 21 May 987) was the King of Western Francia from 986 until his premature death. He died childless and was the last monarch in the Carolingian line.

The son of King Lothair and his wife Emma, a daughter of Lothair II of Italy, Louis was born c. 966–67.[1] Louis was crowned in June 978 but did not actually assume power until Lothair's death in 986.[2] Louis V was the last Carolingian King of Western Francia and reigned in Laon from 2 March 986 until his own death, at the age of 20, in 987. It may be because he reigned for only one year that medieval biographers awarded him the title qui nihil fecit — "who did nothing".

He married Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou in 982 in Brioude, where they were immediately crowned King and Queen of Aquitaine.[3] The couple was mismatched (Louis was fifteen years old and Adelaide was forty or more and on her third marriage) and they had no children together.[4] In less than a year, the marriage had ended.[4]

He inherited a battle between his father's line of elected kings (which had been interrupted twice by the Robertian kings and once by the Bosonid family), and the house of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. As defender of Rome, Otto had the power to name the clergy in Carolingian territory, and the clergy he had named were not supporting the Carolingians.

One particular foe was Adalberon, archbishop of Reims whom Otto I had elevated to the powerful archbishopric of Reims. During Lothair's time, Adalberon had tried to negotiate an alliance between the two houses; but the deal had gone bad, and Lothair had tried him for treason in 986. Lothair died at around the same time. Louis V inherited the throne; Lothair's widow, Emma, married a descendant of Otto I; and Louis V received Adalberon again.

Louis died on 21 May 987[5] from a fall while hunting near the town of Senlis, Oise[6] He had reopened the case against Adalbero of Reims for treason, but his accidental death ended the matter.[7] He left no legitimate heirs, so his uncle Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, was nominated as the hereditary successor to the throne. But the clergy, including both Adalberon and Gerbert (who later became Pope Sylvester II), argued eloquently for Hugh Capet, who was not only of royal blood but had proven himself through his actions and his military might. Capet was elected to the Frankish throne and Adalberon crowned him, all within two months of Louis V's death. Thus the Carolingian dynasty ended and the Capetian began.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 1
  2. ↑ Jim Bradbury,The Capetians: Kings of France, 987-1328 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 45
  3. ↑ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, Trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 265
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), p. 15
  5. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 1 (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 116
  6. ↑ Jim Bradbury,The Capetians: Kings of France, 987-1328 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 46
  7. ↑ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, Trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 277

Further reading


Preceded by
Lothair		 King of Western Francia
986–987 		Succeeded by
Hugh Capet
Preceded by
Ranulf II		 King of Aquitaine
986–987 		Succeeded by
Hugh Capet