From The Emperor’s Desk: in the blog post about King Conrad III of the Romans, there was a mention of Emperor Lothair III. He is also known as Lothair II.
Those who follow this blog know that how monarchs are numbered is an interest of mine. Today, I will examine how Lothair of Supplinburg came to be known by two different Regnal Numbers.
Lothair of Supplinburg was the second Emperor named Lothair, but is often numbered “Lothair III” by those who count King Lothair II of Lotharingia as his predecessor, of whose kingdom (Lotharingia) became a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (1075 – December 4, 1137). He was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of the Romans-Germany in 1125 as well as King of Italy before being crowned Emperor in Rome by Pope Honorius II.
Who was the first Emperor named Lothair?
Emperor Lothair I was the eldest son of the Carolingian Emperor Louis I the Pious and his wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman the duke of Hesbaye.
When Louis I the Pious died on June 20, 840 in the presence of many bishops and clerics and in the arms of his half-brother Drogo, he pardoned his son Louis the German, proclaimed Lothair Emperor and commended the absent Charles the Bald and Judith to his protection.
Soon dispute plunged the surviving brothers into yet another civil war. It lasted until 843 with the signing of the Treaty of Verdun, in which the division of the empire into three souvereign entities was settled.
West Francia and East Francia became the kernels of modern France and Germany respectively. Middle Francia, that included Burgundy, the Low Countries and northern Italy among other regions was only short-lived until 855 and later reorganized as Lotharingia.
The Treaty of Verdun, agreed to in August 843, divided the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms between King Louis II the German, given the Kingdom of East Francia and Charles II the Bald, given the Kingdom of West Francia while Emperor Lothair I was given the Kingdom of Middle Francia.
They were the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty was concluded following almost three years of civil war and was the culmination of negotiations lasting more than a year.
In the settlement of the Treaty of Verdun, Lothair I retained his title as Emperor, but it conferred only nominal overlordship of his brothers’ lands. His domain later became the Low Countries, the Rhineland west of the Rhine, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence, and the Kingdom of Italy (which covered the northern half of the Italian Peninsula). He also received the two imperial cities, Aachen and Rome.
Just a few days before his death in late autumn of 855, Emperor Lothair I divided his realm of Middle Francia among his three sons, a partition known as Treaty of Prüm. Lothair II received the Middle Francia territory west of the Rhine stretching from the North Sea to the Jura Mountains. It became known as Lotharingia early in the 10th century.
Who was Lothair II?
There are two contenders for Lothair II.
Lothair II (835 – August 8, 869) was the King of Lotharingia from 855 until his death in 869. He was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga (died 875), daughter of Boso the Elder.
The Kingdom of Lotharingia was named after King Lothair II, who received this territory after the Kingdom of Middle Francia of his father, Emperor Lothair I, had been divided among his three sons in 855.
Lotharingia comprised present-day Lorraine (France), Luxembourg, Saarland (Germany), Netherlands, and the eastern half of Belgium, along with parts of today’s North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) and Nord (France).
King Lothair II of Lotharingia ruled from Aachen and did not venture outside his kingdom. When he died in 869, King Lothair II left no legitimate children, but one illegitimate son – Hugh, Duke of Alsace.
His uncles, Louis II the German, King of East Francia and King Charles II the Bald of West Francia (who wanted to rule the whole of Lotharingia) agreed to divide Lotharingia between them with the 870 Treaty of Meerssen – the western half went to West Francia and the eastern half to East Francia.
Thus, Lotharingia, as a united kingdom, ceased to exist for some years. In 876, King Charles II the Bald invaded eastern Lotharingia with the intent to capture it, but was defeated near Andernach by Louis’s son, Louis the Younger.
Lothair II (926/8 – November 22, 950), often called Lothair II of Arles, was the King of Italy from 947 to his death. He did not hold the Imperial title. He was of the noble Frankish lineage of the Bosonids, descended from Boso the Elder. His father and predecessor was Hugh of Provence, King of Italy and great-grandson of King Lothair II of Lotharingia, and his mother was a German princess named Alda (or Hilda).
Although he held the title of Rex Italiae (King of Italy), he never succeeded in exercising power there. In 931, Lothair II’s father, King Hugh of Italy, made him co-regent. 21/19 year old Lothair II (depending on his year of birth) was married, December 12, 947, to the fifteen-year-old Adelaide of Burgundy, the spirited and intelligent daughter of King Rudolph II of Burgundy and Bertha of Swabia.
Although Lothair of Supplinburg was the second Holy Roman Emperor by the name of Lothair, other sources number him “Lothair III” because he was the third Lothair to rule as King of Italy after King Lothair II of Italy (both “King Lothair II of Italy” and “King Lothair II of Lotharingia” are numbered after Emperor Lothair I).
Lothair occasionally called himself “the third” in his diplomas (Lotharius tertius), and was the first German ruler to abandon any distinction in numbering between his rule as a King and his rule as an Emperor, a practice continued by his successor.
With the sources I have there are examples of Lothair of Supplinburg being called Lothair II and also Lothair III. When he is called Lothair II there is a mention of being called Lothair III.
Personally in the future when Lothair of Supplinburg is mentioned I will hyphenate his Regnal number, Lothair II-III to recognize his reign as Emperor and as King of Italy.