Treaty of Meerssen
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Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...
concluded on 8 August 870
870
Year 870 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Prague Castle is founded....
by the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
, King Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
of West Francia and Louis the German
Louis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
of East Francia, at Meerssen
Meerssen
Meerssen is a place and a municipality in southeastern Netherlands.-History:The Treaty of Meerssen was signed in Meerssen in 870. The Treaty of Meerssen was an agreement of the division of the Carolingian Empire by the surviving sons of Louis I, Charles II of the West Franks and Louis the German...
north of Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
, in the present-day Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
The empire of Louis the Pious had originally split in three parts by the 843 Treaty of Verdun
Treaty of Verdun
The Treaty of Verdun was a treaty between the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, the son and successor of Charlemagne, which divided the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms...
, whereas his eldest son Lothair I
Lothair I
Lothair I or Lothar I was the Emperor of the Romans , co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria , Italy and Middle Francia...
received the Imperial crown and the personal realm of Middle Francia
Middle Francia
Middle Francia was an ephemeral Frankish kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the Carolingian Empire among the sons of Louis the Pious...
, including Italy
Kingdom of Italy (medieval)
The Kingdom of Italy was a political entity under control of Carolingian dynasty of Francia first, after the defeat of the Lombards in 774. It was finally incorporated as a part of the Holy Roman Empire in 962....
, the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
and the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
with the Aachen residence.
In 855 Lothair I fell seriously ill and retired to the abbey of Prüm
Prüm Abbey
Prüm Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Prüm/Lorraine, now in the diocese of Trier , founded by a Frankish widow Bertrada, and her son Charibert, count of Laon, on 23 June 720. The first abbot was Angloardus....
. As he aimed to defend his kingdom from the claims of his brothers, he bequested it to his three sons.
- The eldest Louis II received Italy and the Imperial crown
- the second Lothair IILothair II of LotharingiaLothair II was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder. He is the namesake of the Lothair Crystal, which he probably commissioned, and of the Cross of Lothair, which was made over a century after his death but...
the Rhineland with the Low Countries, then called Lotharii regnum or LotharingiaLotharingiaLotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the... - and the third Charles of Provence and BurgundyCharles of ProvenceCharles of Provence was the Carolingian King of Provence from 855 until his early death in 863.Charles was the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours....
received Burgundy and Provence (territories roughly corresponding with the slightly later Kingdom of ArlesKingdom of ArlesThe Kingdom of Arles or Second Kingdom of Burgundy of the High Middle Ages was a Frankish dominion established in 933 from lands of the early medieval Kingdom of Burgundy at Arles...
).
Nevertheless Lothair's kingdom of Lotharingia or Middle Francia
Middle Francia
Middle Francia was an ephemeral Frankish kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the Carolingian Empire among the sons of Louis the Pious...
existed only fourteen years; when he died in 869 the brothers of his fatherthe half-brother Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
and second born son Louis the German
Louis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
stepped in to divide Lotharingia among themselves, vice letting the region go to their nephews and Lothair's other heirs. Nephew Emperor Louis II and King of Italy sought at least a piece of the partition, but, though crowned co-emperor and supported by Pope Hadrian II, was denied additional lands by his uncles.
Their contract of 870 at Meerssen replaced the 843 Treaty of Verdun which had split the realm into three parts, by dividing the northern part of Middle Francia stretching from the Jura mountains
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...
in modern Switzerland to the North Sea - Lotharingia - between West and East Francia, in effect recombining sundered middle Franconia territories into two larger east and west divisions. At this time, Large parts of the Frisia
Frisia
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
n coast however were under Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
control and therefore only divided on paper.
The new realms
The borderline would set the shape of East Central Europe until the eighteenth century. It ran roughly along the Meuse
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
and Ourthe
Ourthe
The Ourthe is a 165 km long river in the Ardennes in Wallonia . It is a right tributary to the river Meuse. The Ourthe is formed at the confluence of the Ourthe Occidentale and the Ourthe Orientale , west of Houffalize.The source of the Ourthe Occidentale is near Libramont-Chevigny, in the...
rivers, allocating Brabant
Brabant (landgraviat)
The Landgraviat of Brabant must be distinguished from the Duchy of Brabant. The Duchy of Brabant was initially a feudal elevation of the landgraviat, but its name was applied to the entire country under the control of the Dukes of Brabant, from the 13th century on.This imperial fief was assigned to...
and Hainaut
County of Hainaut
The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....
to Charles the Bald, the Rhineland and the former Duchy of Alsace
Duchy of Alsace
The Duchy of Alsace was a large political subdivision of the Frankish Empire during the last decade and a half of Merovingian rule. It corresponded to the territory of Alsace and was carved out of southern Austrasia in the last decade of the reign of Dagobert I, probably to stabilise the southern...
to Louis the German. The arrangement did not endure more than ten years: Upon the death of Louis the German in 876 his half brother Charles the Bald campaigned against eastern Lotharingia, but was rejected by Louis' son Louis the Younger
Louis the Younger
Louis the Younger , sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and his elder brother Carloman as King of Bavaria from 880...
in a battle at Andernach
Andernach
Andernach is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, of currently about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated towards the end of the Neuwied basin on the left bank of the Rhine between the former tiny fishing village of Fornich in the north and the mouth of the...
.
In turn, after Charles the Bald had died and his successors struggled to consolidate their rule over West Francia, Louis the Younger campaigned in western Lotharingia in 879. Charles' grandsons were forced to cede the whole Lotharii regnum to him, sealed by the 880 Treaty of Ribemont
Treaty of Ribemont
There are two Treaties of Ribemont, the first is from 880 and the second is from 1179.-The treaty of 880:The Treaty of Ribemont in 880 was the last treaty on the partitions of the Frankish Empire...
, according to which Lotharingia
Lotharingia
Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...
finally became part of East Francia.
This establishment lasted throughout the balance of Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and well into the Early Modern Europe
Early modern Europe
Early modern Europe is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Europe which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century...
an era, the western boundaries of Lotharingia marked the border between the Medieval Kingdom of France
France in the Middle Ages
France in the Middle Ages covers an area roughly corresponding to modern day France, from the death of Louis the Pious in 840 to the middle of the 15th century...
and the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
until the 1660s–1670s réunion policy of The Sun King, Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
(b.1638, r.1643—d.1715).