Lothair of France

Lothair
Twelfth-century bust of Lothair, from the Musée Saint Rémi at Reims
King of West Francia
Reign	10 September 954 - 2 March 986
Predecessor	Louis IV
Successor	Louis V
Born	941
Died	2 March 986 (aged 44) Laon
House	Carolingian
Father	Louis IV
Mother	Gerberga of Saxony

Lothair (French: Lothaire; Latin: Lothārius; 941 – 2 March 986), sometimes called Lothair III or Lothair IV, was the Carolingian king of West Francia from 10 September 954 until his death in 986.

Lothair was born in Laon near the end of 941, as the eldest son of king Louis IV and Gerberga of Saxony. He succeeded his father on 10 September 954 at the age of thirteen and was crowned at the Abbey of Saint-Remi by Artald of Reims, Archbishop of Reims on 12 November 954. Lothair had already been associated with the throne since the illness of his father in 951, this being a custom in the royal succession since the founding of the Kingdom of the Franks by the Merovingian dynasty.

Queen Gerberga made an arrangement with her brother-in-law Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris, who had been an adversary of Lothair's father. In exchange for supporting Lothair's rule Hugh was given rule over Duchy of Aquitaine and much of Kingdom of Burgundy as more or less a regent. Lothair inherited a fragmented kingdom, where the great magnates took lands, rights and offices almost without any regard for the authority of the king. Magnates like Hugh the Great and Herbert II, Count of Vermandois were always a veiled threat.

In 955 Lothair and Hugh the Great together took Poitiers by siege. With Hugh the Great's death in 956 Lothair, only fifteen, came under the guardianship of his maternal uncle Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, brother of East Francia's king Otto I. With Bruno's advice, Lothair mediated between Hugh's sons - Hugh Capet and Otto, Duke of Burgundy. The King gave Paris and the title of dux francorum (Duke of the Franks) to Hugh Capet, and invested Otto with the Duchy of Burgundy in 956.