Boleslaus III., prince of the Poles, promised tribute and received Pomerania and Rügen as German fiefs; while the eastern emperor, John Comnenus, implored Lothair’s aid against Roger II. of Sicily.
The emperor seconded the efforts of his vassals, Albert the Bear, margrave of the Saxon north mark, and Conrad I., margrave of Meissen and Lusatia, to extend the authority of the Germans in the districts east of the Elbe, and assisted Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburg, and Albert I., archbishop of Bremen, to spread Christianity. In August 1136, attended by a large army, Lothair set out upon his second Italian journey. The Lombard cities were either terrified into submission or taken by storm; Roger II. was driven from Apulia; and the imperial power enforced over the whole of southern Italy. A mutiny among the German soldiers and a breach with Innocent concerning the overlordship of Apulia compelled the emperor to retrace his steps. An arrangement was made with regard to Apulia, after which Lothair, returning to Germany, died at Breitenwang, a village in the Tirol, on the 3rd or 4th of December 1137. His body was carried to Saxony and buried in the monastery which he had founded at Königslutter. Lothair was a strong and capable ruler, who has been described as the “imitator and heir of the first Otto.” Contemporaries praise his justice and his virtue, and his reign was regarded, especially by Saxons and churchmen, as a golden age for Germany.
The main authorities for the life and reign of Lothair are: “Vita Norberti archiepiscopi Magdeburgensis”; Otto von Freising, “Chronicon Annalista Saxo” and “Narratio de electione Lotharii” all in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Bände vi., xii. and xx. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826–1892). The best modern works are: L. von Ranke, Weltgeschichte, pt. viii. (Leipzig, 1887–1888); W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der Deutschen Kaiserzeit, Band iv. (Brunswick, 1877), Band v. (Leipzig, 1888); Ph. Jaffe, Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches unter Lothar (Berlin, 1843); W. Bernhardi, Lothar von Supplinburg (Leipzig, 1879); O. von Heinemann, Lothar der Sachse und Konrad III. (Halle, 1869); and Ch. Volkmar, “Das Vërhältniss Lothars III. zur Investiturfrage,” in the Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte, Band xxvi. (Göttingen, 1862–1886).
LOTHAIR (941–986), king of France, son of Louis IV., succeeded
his father in 954, and was at first under the guardianship
of Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks, and then under that of
his maternal uncle Bruno, archbishop of Cologne. The beginning
of his reign was occupied with wars against the vassals, particularly
against the duke of Normandy. Lothair then seems to
have conceived the design of recovering Lorraine. He attempted
to precipitate matters by a sudden attack, and in the spring
of 978 nearly captured the emperor Otto II. at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Otto took his revenge in the autumn by invading France. He
penetrated as far as Paris, devastating the country through
which he passed, but failed to take the town, and was forced
to retreat with heavy loss. Peace was concluded in 980 at
Margut-sur-Chiers, and in 983 Lothair was even chosen guardian
to the young Otto III. Towards 980, however, Lothair quarrelled
with Hugh the Great’s son, Hugh Capet, who, at the instigation
of Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, became reconciled with
Otto III. Lothair died on the 2nd of March 986. By his wife
Emma, daughter of Lothair, king of Italy, he left a son who
succeeded him as Louis V.
See F. Lot, Les Derniers Carolingiens (Paris, 1891); and the Recueil des actes de Lothaire et de Louis V., edited by L. Halphen and F. Lot (1908).
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.
See Hincmar, “Opusculum de divortio Lotharii regis et Tetbergae reginae,” in Cursus completus patrologiae, tome cxxv., edited by J. P. Migne (Paris, 1857–1879); M. Sdralek, Hinkmars von Rheims Kanonistisches Gutachten über die Ehescheidung des Königs Lothar II. (Freiburg, 1881); E. Dümmler, Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reiches (Leipzig, 1887–1888); and E. Mühlbacher, Die Regenten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern (Innsbruck, 1881).
LOTHIAN, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF. Mark Kerr,
1st earl of Lothian (d. 1609), was the eldest son of Mark Kerr
(d. 1584), abbot, and then commendator, of Newbattle, or
Newbottle, and was a member of the famous border family of
Ker of Cessford. The earls and dukes of Roxburghe, who are
also descended from the Kers of Cessford, have adopted the
spelling Ker, while the earls and marquesses of Lothian have
taken the form Kerr. Like his father, the abbot of Newbattle,
Mark Kerr was an extraordinary lord of session under the
Scottish king James VI.; he became Lord Newbattle in 1587
and was created earl of Lothian in 1606. He was master of
inquests from 1577 to 1606, and he died on the 8th of April
1609, having had, as report says, thirty-one children by his wife,
Margaret (d. 1617), daughter of John Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries.
His son Robert, the 2nd earl, died without sons in July 1624.
He had, in 1621, obtained a charter from the king enabling his
daughter Anne to succeed to his estates provided that she
married a member of the family of Ker. Consequently in 1631
she married William Ker, son of Robert, 1st earl of Ancrum
(1578–1654), a member of the family of Ker of Ferniehurst,
whose father, William Ker, had been killed in 1590 by Robert
Ker, afterwards 1st earl of Roxburghe. Robert was in attendance
upon Charles I. both before and after he came to the
throne, and was created earl of Ancrum in 1633. He was a
writer and a man of culture, and among his friends were the poet
Donne and Drummond of Hawthornden. His elder son William
was created earl of Lothian in 1631, the year of his marriage with
Anne Kerr, and Sir William Kerr of Blackhope, a brother of the
2nd earl, who had taken the title of earl of Lothian in 1624, was
forbidden to use it (see Correspondence of Sir Robert Ker, earl of Ancrum, and his son William, third earl of Lothian, 1875).
William Ker (c. 1605–1675), who thus became 3rd earl of Lothian, signed the Scottish national covenant in 1638 and marched with the Scots into England in 1640, being present when the English were routed at Newburn, after which he became governor of Newcastle-on-Tyne. During the Civil War he was
