Treaty of Verdun

The 843 agreement that divided the Carolingian Empire among the surviving sons of Louis the Pious, creating three kingdoms.

West Francia: The western kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun, ruled by Charles the Bald. Charles’s share became the political predecessor of the kingdom of France.
Lothair I: The eldest surviving son of Louis the Pious and emperor from 840 until 855. He received the imperial title and the central kingdom in the settlement.
Louis the Pious: The son and successor of Charlemagne who ruled the Frankish Empire from 814 to 840. His contested succession arrangements set his sons against one another.
Lothair II: The son of Lothair I who inherited a kingdom between East and West Francia in 855. His later realm, Lotharingia, became the focus of disputes among the treaty’s successor kingdoms.
East Francia: The eastern kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun, ruled by Louis the German. Louis’s share developed into the political core of the later German kingdom.
Charles the Bald: A son of Louis the Pious who ruled West Francia and later became emperor. He secured the western share despite opposition from his elder half-brothers.
Ordinatio Imperii: Louis the Pious’s 817 decree assigning imperial succession to his eldest son Lothair while regulating his younger sons’ shares. Later changes to this plan fueled disputes that the 843 agreement settled.
Charles the Fat: A Carolingian ruler who briefly reunited much of the empire under one crown in the 880s. His temporary reunion shows that Verdun’s division did not end attempts at imperial unity.
Middle Francia: The long, narrow kingdom assigned to Lothair I, stretching from the North Sea to Italy. Its fragmented territories became a contested corridor between the western and eastern kingdoms.
Louis the German: A son of Louis the Pious who ruled East Francia after the Carolingian civil wars. He received the eastern lands under the agreement.

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