Louis The Pious

Louis I married Irmengard in 794 or 795. He had three sons by her: Lothair I, Pepin of Aquitaine and Louis the German. Irmengard died in 819.

He married Judith of Bavaria in 819, a few months after Irmengard's death. She gave him a fourth son, who would become known as Charles the Bald.

After winning the last civil war against his own sons, he soon fell ill. He went to his summer hunting lodge where he died on June 20, 840.

Louis I was the third son of Charlemagne and his second wife Hildegarde. His brothers were Charles and Pepin.

He was born in 778 in Carolingian villa of Cassinogilum and spent most of his youth at Aquitaine. He was given a clerical education.

In 781, he was made the King of Aquitaine. He and his brothers were all raised in the realms they would rule to ensure they would know local customs and traditions. Each brother was also responsible for guarding the frontier bordering their realm. Louis had to keep an eye on the Spanish March, a buffer zone between Aquitaine and the Moors in Al-Andalus.

In 801, he conquered Barcelona by defeating the Moors. They had seized it two years earlier.

In 806, Charlemagne divided his empire three ways and assigned a realm to each son. He again named Louis the King of Aquitaine which included Burgundy and the Spanish March. Over the next few years, Charles and Pepin died, leaving their realms to Louis.

Louis I established himself at the court of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). He named Benedict of Aniane his chief advisor on religious matters and also made him the abbot of the Kornelimünster monastery, which was nearby. Bernard of Septimania and Ebbo the Archbishop of Reims were also among his senior advisors.

In 816, he asked the Pope to recrown him as Emperor. That encouraged the idea of papal supremacy and began the tradition of having the Pope personally crown Emperors. The same year he held the first of a set of councils designed to reform and strengthen the Catholic Church.

In 817, he divided his empire between his three sons, and named the eldest, Lothair, his heir. In doing so, he followed both his father's example and Frankish traditions. He also confirmed his nephew, Bernard of Italy, as the rightful heir to the Italian throne.

Bernard wanted to rule independently and thus turned against Louis. When Louis marched against him, Bernard surrendered. Instead of executing him for treason, Louis had him blinded, but Bernard died from the resultant trauma. Louis, horrified, performed a penance before the Pope in 822.

Louis's queen Judith wanted him to re-divide the empire to ensure that her son Charles got some land. In 829, he did so and gave Charles, who was then around six years old, much of Germany. His other three sons revolted and Lothair sized the crown. Squabbling between the brothers enabled Louis to take back the crown.

Ordinatio Imperii (Ordinance of the Emperor) Written in 817, the Ordinance was Louis's attempt to divide his empire peacefully between his three sons. He divided his empire into sub-kingdoms that each son would rule. If any of them had sons of their own, those sons would inherit. If they died without issue, their realm would go to the oldest surviving brother, who would eventually become the Emperor.