Louis IV (920/921The precise date of birth of Louis IV is unknown. The Annals of Flodoard indicate that he was fifteen in 936 and that he was born in the region of Laon-Reims. – 10 September 954), called d'Outremer or Transmarinus ("From overseas"), reigned as King of West Francia from 936 to 954. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, he was the only son of king Charles the Simple and his second wife Eadgifu of Wessex, daughter of King Edward the Elder of Wessex.Donald A. Bullough, Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage, (Manchester University Press, 1991), 286 His reign is mostly known thanks to the Annals of Flodoard and the later Historiae of Richerus.
Childhood
Louis was born to King Charles III and his second wife Eadgifu, in the heartlands of West Francia's Carolingian lands between Laon and Reims in 920 or 921. He was descended both from Charlemagne and King Alfred the Great. From his father's first marriage with Frederuna (d. 917) he had six older half-sisters.
After the dethronement and capture of Charles the Simple in 923, following his defeat at the Battle of Soissons, queen Eadgifu and her infant son took refuge in Wessex (for this he received the nickname of d'Outremer) at the court of her father King Edward, and after Edward's death, of her brother King Æthelstan. Young Louis was raised in the Anglo-Saxon court until his teens. During this time he enjoyed legendary stories about Edmund the Martyr (king of East Anglia), an ancestor of his maternal family who had heroically fought against the Vikings.Poly 1990, p. 296.
Louis became the heir to the western branch of the Carolingian dynasty after the death of his captive father in 929, and in 936, at the age of 15, was recalled from Wessex by the powerful Hugh the Great, margrave of Neustria, to succeed the Robertian King Rudolph who had died."Louis IV, King of the Franks", The British Museum
Once he took the throne, Louis wanted to free himself from the tutelage of Hugh the Great, who, with his title of duke of the Franks was the second most powerful man after the King. In 939, the young monarch attempted to conquer Lotharingia; however, the expedition was a failure and his brother-in-law, King Otto I of East Francia counterattacked and besieged the city of Reims in 940. In 945, following the death of William I Longsword, duke of Normandy, Louis tried to conquer his lands, but was captured by the Normans and handed over to Hugh the Great.Crouch, David. The Normans (Hambledon Continuum, London & New York, 2007), p. 16
The Synod of Ingelheim in 948 allowed the excommunication of Hugh the GreatBradbury, Jim.The Capetians: Kings of France, 987-1328 (Hambledon Continuum, London & New York, 2007), p. 40 and released Louis from his long tutelage. From 950 Louis gradually imposed his rule in the northeast of the kingdom, building many alliances (especially with the counts of Vermandois) and under the protection of the Ottonian kingdom of East Francia.
Assumption of crown In spring of 936 Hugh the Great sent an embassy to Wessex inviting Louis to "come and take the head of the kingdom" (Flodoard). King Æthelstan, his uncle, after forcing the embassy to swear that the future king will have the homage of all his vassals, permitted him the return home with his mother Eadgifu, some bishops and faithful servants.Sot 1988, p. 724. After a few hours of sea journey, Louis received the homage of Hugh and some Frankish nobles on the beach of Boulogne, who kissed his hands. Chronicler Richerus gives us an anecdote about this first encounter:
Then the Duke hastily brought a horse decorated with the royal insignia. By the time he wanted to put the King in the saddle, the horse ran in all directions; but Louis, an agile young man, jumped suddenly, without stirrups, and tamed the animal. This pleased all those presented and caused recognition from all.Sot 1988, p. 727
Louis and his court then began the trip to Laon where the coronation ceremony was to take place. Louis IV was crowned king by Archbishop Artald of Reims on Sunday, 19 June 936,Pierre Riche, The Carolingians, Transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 256. probably at the Abbey of Notre-Dame and Saint-Jean in Laon,Michel Bur: La Champagne médiévale, 2005, p. 657.The chroniclers Aimon de Fleury recorded in his Gestis francorum that Louis IV was crowned in the Abbey of Saint-Vincent in Laon. perhaps at the request of the King since it was a symbolic Carolingian town and he was probably born there.
The chronicler Flodoard records the events as follows: Brittones a transmarinis regionibus, Alstani regis praesidio, revertentes terram suam repetunt. Hugo comes trans mare mittit pro accersiendo ad apicem regni suscipiendum Ludowico, Karoli filio, quem rex Alstanus avunculus ipsius, accepto prius jurejurando a Francorum legatis, in Franciam cum quibusdam episcopis et aliis fidelibus suis dirigit, cui Hugo et cetero Francorum proceres obviam profecti, mox navim egresso, in ipsis littoreis harenis apud Bononiam, sese committunt, ut erant utrinque depactum. Indeque ab ipsis Laudunum deductus ac regali benedictione didatus ungitur atque coronatur a domno Artoldo archiepiscopo, praesentibus regni principibus cum episcopis xx et amplius.Flodoard, Annales 936, ed. P. Lauer. "The Bretons, returning from the lands across the sea with the support of King Athelstan, came back to their country. Duke Hugh sent across the sea to summon Louis, son of Charles, to be received as king, and King Athelstan, his uncle, first taking oaths from the legates of the Franks, sent him to the Frankish kingdom with some of his bishops, and other followers. Hugh and the other nobles of the Franks went to meet him and committed themselves to him[;] immediately he disembarked on the sands of Boulogne, as had been agreed on both sides. From there he was conducted by them to Laon, and, endowed with the royal benediction, he was anointed and crowned by the lord Archbishop Artold, in the presence of the chief men of his kingdom, with 20 bishops."Dorothy Whitelock (tr.), English Historical Documents c. 500–1042. 2nd ed. London, 1979. p. 344.
During the ritual, Hugh the Great acted as squire bearing the King's arms. Almost nothing is known about the coronation ceremony of Louis IV. It seems certain that the King would wear the crown and sceptre of his predecessor. He must have promised before the bishops of France to respect the privileges of the Church. Maybe he received the ring (a religious symbol), the sword and the stick of Saint Remigius (referring to the baptism of Clovis I). Finally, the new King (perhaps like his ancestor Charles the Bald) used a blue silk coat called Orbis Terrarum with cosmic allusions (referring to the Vulgate) and the purple robe with precious stones and gold incrustations, also used by Odo in 888 and his own son Lothair during his coronation in 954.Isaïa 2009, p. 131.Pinoteau 1992, pp. 76-80.
Historians have wondered why the powerful Hugh the Great called the young Carolingian prince to throne instead of taking it himself, as his father had done fifteen years earlier. First, he had many rivals, especially Hugh, Duke of Burgundy (King Rudolph's brother) and Herbert II, Count of Vermandois who probably would have challenged his election. But above all, it seems that he was shocked by the early death of his father. Richerus explains that Hugh the Great remembered his father who had died for his "pretentions" and this was the cause of his short and turbulent reign. It was then that "the Gauls, anxious to appear free to elect their King, assembled under the leadership of Hugh to deliberate about the choice of a new King". According to Richerus, Hugh the Great delivered the following speech:
King Charles died miserably. If my father and us, we hurt your Majesty by some of our actions, we must use all our efforts to erase the trace. Although following your unanimous desire my father committed a great crime reigning, since only one had the right to rule and was alive, he deserved to be imprisoned. This, believe me, wasn't the will of God. Also I never had to take the place of my father.
Hugh the Great knew that the Robertian dynasty had not achieved much; his uncle Odo had died after a few years of reign, abandoned by the nobles. Hugh's father, Robert I, was killed during the battle of Soissons after only months of reign and his brother-in-law Rudolph could not stop the troubles that multiplied in the Kingdom during his reign. Finally, Hugh did not have a legitimate male heir: his first wife Judith (daughter of Count Roger of Maine and Princess Rothilde) died in 925 after eleven years of childless union; in 926 he married Princess Eadhild of Wessex, sister of Queen Eadgifu, who also did not bear him any children.Depreux 2002, pp. 136-137. In addition, the marriage with Eadhild, actively promoted by Eadgifu, was made in order to sever an eventual dangerous link between families of Hugh and Count Heribert II of Vermandois.Sarah Foot: Dynastic Strategies: The West Saxon Royal Family in Europe. In: David Rollason, Conrad Leyser, Hannah Williams: England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876–1947). Brepols, 2010, p. 246.
Regency of Hugh the Great Having arrived on the continent, Louis IV was a young man of fifteen, who spoke neither Latin nor Old French, but probably spoke Old English. He knew nothing about his new kingdom. Hugh the Great, after negotiating with the most powerful nobles of the Kingdom – (William I Longsword of Normandy, Herbert II of Vermandois and Arnulf of Flanders) – was appointed guardian of the new king.Theis 1990, p. 169.
The young king quickly became a puppet of Hugh the Great, who had reigned de facto since the death of his father Robert in 923. Territorially, Louis IV was quite helpless since he possessed few lands around the ancient Carolingian domains (Compiègne, Quierzy, Verberie, Ver-lès-Chartres and Ponthion), and some abbeys (Saint-Jean in Laon, Saint-Corneille in Compiègne, Corbie and Fleury-sur-Loire) and collected the revenues from the province of Reims. We know that king had the power to appoint the suffragants of the Archbishopric of Reims. During this time Laon became the centre of the small Carolingian heartland, compared with the possessions in the Loire Valley of the Robertians.
Hugh the Great's power came from the extraordinary title of dux Francorum (duke of the Franks)Title held by Charles Martel and Pepin the Short when they were mayors of the Palace for the last Merovingian kings. that Louis IV repeatedly confirmed in 936, 943 and 954; and his rule over the Marches of Neustria, where he reigned as princeps (territorial prince). This title was for the first time formalized by the Royal Chancery.Guillot, Sassier 2003, p. 170.Theis 1990, p. 170.
Thus the royal edicts of the second half of 936 confirm the pervasiveness of Hugh the Great: it is said that Duke of the Franks "in all but reigned over us".It's understood that the duke of the Franks is now the first person in the kingdom after the king. Charter of Louis IV, n° 4, 26 December 936. Guillot, Sassier 2003, p. 170.
Hugh also denied the rights to the principality of Burgundy that Hugh the Black thought he had acquired after the death of his brother King Rudolph.In fact, in the kingdom of the Franks during the 9th century, there can be only one duke. If Hugh the Great proclaimed himself duke of all the Franks and over all the kingdoms (Burgundy and Aquitaine included) this means that he does not recognize the legitimacy of Hugh the Black as duke of Burgundy. This quarrel ended in 936-937 when the two enemies agreed to share Burgundy.