Lotharingia
Lotharingia (Latin: Regnum Lotharii, Regnum Lothariense, Lotharingia; French: Lotharingie; German: Reich des Lothar, Lotharingien, Mittelreich; Dutch: Lotharingen) was a medieval successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire. It comprised present-day Lorraine (France), Luxembourg, Saarland (Germany), Netherlands, and the eastern half of Belgium, along with parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) and Nord (France). It was named after King Lothair II, who received this territory after the Kingdom of Middle Francia of his father, Lothair I, had been divided among his three sons in 855.
Kingdom of Lotharingia / Duchy of Lotharingia Lotharingia | |||||||||||||
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855–959 | |||||||||||||
The Kingdom of Lotharingia (purple) and other Carolingian kingdoms following the Treaty of Prüm, 855 | |||||||||||||
Status | Kingdom (855–923) Duchy in East Francia (925–959) | ||||||||||||
Common languages | |||||||||||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
King or Duke | |||||||||||||
• 855–869 | Lothair II | ||||||||||||
• 953–965 | Bruno the Great | ||||||||||||
Historical era | Medieval | ||||||||||||
855 | |||||||||||||
• Division | 959 | ||||||||||||
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Part of a series on |
Lorraine |
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History of the Netherlands |
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Netherlands portal |
Lotharingia resulted from the tripartite division in 855 of the kingdom of Middle Francia, which itself was formed after the threefold division of the Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun of 843. Conflict between East and West Francia over Lotharingia was based on the fact that these were the old Frankish homelands of Austrasia, so possession of them was a matter of great prestige as true claimant of Frankish imperial legacy.