Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/657

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LOUIS IV. (FBANCE) Judith was confined to a convent. Bernard es- caped. The people of Germany stood by the emperor, and in 830 restored him to his throne in a general assembly at Nimeguen. Another revolt broke out in 832, Pope Gregory IV. siding with the insurgents. Louis marched against them, but was betrayed by his own army at Rothfeld, and delivered up to Lo- thaire, who, without the consent of his broth- ers, subjected the unhappy old man to indigni- ties, had him brought before a council at Com- piegne, over which his personal enemy Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, presided, charged him with a number of crimes which he was obliged to confess aloud, and finally caused him to be degraded. Louis and Pepin, moved partly by pity, partly by jealousy of their brother, then took their father's part, and restored to him the crown in the states general held at Die- denhofen (Thionville) in 835. The emperor at once forgave Lothaire, who came to make sub- mission. His partiality for his youngest son Charles, to whom he wished to bequeath more than his full share of territory, again involved him in trouble. At the diet of Worms (839), Pepin being dead, the emperor proposed to divide his whole empire between Lothaire and Charles, upon which Louis, aided by his nephew Pepin II., took arms again. The em- peror marched against them, but before reach- ing the rebels he was seized with an illness which proved fatal. With the reign of Louis le D6bonnaire commenced the dissolution of the Carlovingian empire. See Bernhard Si- meon, JahrbucJier des frdnlciscJien Seichs unter Ludwig dem Frommen (1874). LOUIS IV., king of France, born about 921, died in 954. He was the son of Charles the Simple, who was dethroned in 922. During his childhood he lived in England with his mother, a sister of King Athelstane, from which circum- stance he was called Louis d'Outremer. Upon the death of Eaoul of Burgundy in 936, Hugh, count of Paris, father of Hugh Capet, and William, duke of Normandy, secured to him the crown. He endeavored to free himself from the tutelage of Hugh, and his reign was a con- tinual strife. In 937 he suffered a formidable invasion from the Hungarians. In 939 the in- habitants of Lorraine, who had revolted against Otho I. of Germany, acknowledged the sover- eignty of Louis, who had married Otho's sis- ter Gerberge, and this led to war between the two kings, in which the great vassals of France joined Otho, whom they proclaimed king of the Gauls. Louis, having been defeated by Hugh of Paris before Laon in 941, made peace with Otho, giving up Lorraine ; and by that em- peror's intervention and that of the pope the strife between Louis and his vassals was closed. Upon the death of William of Normandy, Louis became guardian of his infant son Richard, and with Count Hugh tried to deprive him of his patrimony; but Richard's tutor escaped with him to a place of safety, and Louis, visit- ing Rouen by invitation of the Normans, was LOUIS VIII. 651 treacherously seized by them. Hugh then declared against him, got possession of his person, and only released him upon receiving Laon as a ransom. Louis, with the help of Otho and Conrad, king of Provence, soon re- took Laon, but could oring Hugh back only by the mediation of Otho and the pope. Not long after he was mortally injured by a fall from his horse while chasing a wolf. His son Lothaire reigned till 986, and was succeeded by his son Louis V., le Faineant, the last of the Carlovingian dynasty, who reigned but a single year under the protection of Hugh Capet, and dying poisoned either by his mother or his wife, both of whom were dissolute women, was succeeded by Hugh, the founder of the Capetian dynasty. LOUIS VI., the Fat, the fifth Capetian king of France, born about 1078, died Aug. 1, 1137. The son of Philip I. by his first wife, Bertha of Holland, he was pursued by the hatred of his stepmother, Bertrade of Montfort, and obliged for a while to seek refuge in England. In 1100 he was associated in the government with his father, whom he succeeded in 1108. Full of spirit and ambition, he aimed at placing the royal authority upon a solid basis, and waged incessant war against the troublesome vassals of the crown, including his own brother Phil- ip, count of Mantes, the lords of Montlhe>y and Coucy, and the counts of Montfort and Montmorency. He tried to secure the duchy of Normandy to William Cliton, son of Robert Courteheuse, but failed in the attempt, being defeated at Brenneville in 1119 by Henry I. of England, who had seized upon that duchy., This check would have proved fatal to the power of Louis, had not the clergy armed their parishioners and led them to his support. Peace was finally restored by the council held at Rheims under the presidency of Pope Calix- tus II. A few years later, on the death of Charles the Good, Louis invested his favorite William Cliton with the county of Flanders, He had some hand in the communal revolution that distinguished the 12th century, but was guided in this by his interest rather than by any principle, and does not deserve the name of "father of communes" which is sometimes applied to him. LOUIS VIII., the Lion, king of France, son of Philip Augustus, born in 1187, died at Mont- pensier in Auvergne, Nov. 8, 1226. Before his accession he went to England by invitation of the barons hostile to King John, but after a struggle against that king and his successor Henry III. (1216-'17) was obliged to abandon the contest. He was crowned, with his queen Blanche of Castile, at Rheims, in August, 1223, amid general rejoicings. Refusing the demand of Henry III. of England for the restoration of Normandy, he raised an army to drive the English from the land, and conquered the country N. of the Garonne; but at the in- stance of Pope Honorius III., and receiving 30,000 marks of silver from Henry, he grant-