The Treaty of Ribemont in 880 was the last treaty on the partitions of the Carolingian Empire.[1][2] It was concluded between the East Frankish king Louis the Younger and the kings of West Francia, Louis III and Carloman.[3]
After the death of Charles the Bald, Louis the Younger secured the friendship of Charles' successor Louis the Stammerer with the Treaty of Fourons in November 878. The two cousins promised to accept the successions of their respective sons. The treaty was put to the test when Louis the Stammerer died in April 879. A western delegation led by Gauzlin, bishop of Paris and later protector of the city during the Viking raids, invited Louis the Younger to take control of West Francia. Because his wife Luitgard also supported this idea, Louis the Younger invaded West Francia. He reached as far as Verdun, but he retreated after his nephews, the kings Louis III (Neustria) and Carloman (Aquitaine), gave up their share of Lotharingia to him.
Meanwhile, Boso of Provence, a noble of Carolingian descent, proclaimed himself king in Lower Burgundy and Provence. Moreover, the Vikings resumed their attacks. To deal with these threats, the Carolingian kings decided to put aside their differences so as to deal with the threats together. They met at Ribemont, in present-day Aisne. In return for Louis the Younger's support, the kings of West Francia acknowledged Louis' possession of the whole of Lotharingia. This included the western part of it, which West Francia had previously acquired in the Treaty of Meerssen. The two brothers were thereafter free to deal with Boso. They were aided by Louis the Younger and his brother, King Charles the Fat, who was ruling in Alamannia, Upper Burgundy and Italy.[4] Boso suffered several territorial loses, but still kept his kingdom. Thus in 880, Carolingian territories remained divided in five parts.
The border between France and the Holy Roman Empire remained largely the same until the Late Middle Ages.
Earlier Frankish partitions were:
- Treaty of Verdun (843)
- Treaty of Prüm (855)
- Treaty of Meerssen (870)
References
- ^ Gillespie, Alexander (2013-10-16). The Causes of War: Volume 1: 3000 BCE to 1000 CE. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-78225-208-5.
- ^ History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe: The Chronicle of Regino of Prüm and Adalbert of Magdeburg. Manchester University Press. 2013-01-01. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-5261-1280-4.
- ^ Martel, Gordon (2018-04-30). The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy, 4 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons. p. 286. ISBN 978-1-118-88791-2.
- ^ Chris Wickham (1981), Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000 (Macmillan), 169.
Sources
- Bouchard, Constance B. (1988). "The Bosonids or Rising to Power in the Late Carolingian Age". French Historical Studies. 15 (3): 407–431.
- Goldberg, Eric J. (2006). Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Hauff, Andrea (2017). "The Kingdom of Upper Burgundy and the East Frankish Kingdom at the beginning of the 10th century". History Compass. 15 (8): 1–12.
- MacLean, Simon (2001). "The Carolingian response to the revolt of Boso, 879–887". French Historical Studies. 10 (1): 21–48.
- MacLean, Simon (2003). Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- McKitterick, Rosamond (1983). The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751-987. Harlow: Longman.
- McKitterick, Rosamond (2008). Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Reuter, Timothy (2013) [1991]. Germany in the Early Middle Ages c. 800–1056. London and New York: Routledge.
- Reuter, Timothy (2006). Medieval Polities and Modern Mentalities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- West, Charles (2023). The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia, 855–869. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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