Treaty of Verdun
The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent, with the three main divisions of 843.
Pink area indicates West Francia. Green area indicates Middle Francia. Yellow area indicates East Francia. |
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| Date | August 843 |
|---|---|
| Location | Verdun-sur-Meuse |
| Participants | Lothair I, Louis the German, Charles the Bald |
| Outcome | Divided territories of the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms; Influenced inheritances and conflicts in Western Europe as late as the 20th century. |
The Treaty of Verdun, signed in August 843, was the first of the treaties that divided the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms among the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty signed in Verdun-sur-Meuse ended the three-year Carolingian Civil War.
When Louis the Pious died in 840, his eldest son, Lothair I, claimed overlordship over the whole of his father's kingdom and supported the claim of his nephew Pepin II to Aquitaine, a large province in the west of the Frankish realm. Lothair's brother Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald refused to acknowledge Lothair's suzerainty and went to war against him. They defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenay in 841 and sealed their alliance in 842 with the Oaths of Strasbourg which declared Lothair unfit for the imperial throne, after which Lothair became willing to negotiate a settlement.
Each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom: Lothair in Italy, Louis the German in Bavaria, and Charles the Bald in Aquitaine. In the settlement, Lothair (who had been named co-emperor in 817) retained his title as emperor and:
After the death of Lothair in 855, Upper and Lower Burgundy (Arles and Provence) passed to his third son Charles of Provence, and the remaining territory north of the Alps to his second son Lothair II, after whom the hitherto nameless territory was called Lotharingia, which name eventually evolved into the modern Lorraine. Lothair's eldest son, Louis II inherited Italy and his father's claim to the Imperial.
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