Lower Lotharingia
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Duchy of Lower Lotharingia Neder-Lotharingen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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959/977–1190 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coat of arms
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![]() Green: Lower (Northern) Lotharingia in 977 (borders of current states in purple) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Part of East Francia until 962 Part of Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Common languages | Old Dutch Old Frisian Old French Old Low German | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Religion | Christianity | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Government | Feudal Duchy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 959–964 | Godfrey I (first) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1142–1190 | Godfrey III (last) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• Established | 959 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1190 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Duchy of Lower Lotharingia,[1] also called Northern Lotharingia,[2][3] Lower Lorraine or Northern Lorraine (and also referred to as Lothier or Lottier[4] in titles), was a stem duchy established in 959, of the medieval Kingdom of Germany, which encompassed almost all of the modern Netherlands (the region of Frisia was loosely associated with the duchy, but the dukes exercised no de facto control over the territory), central and eastern Belgium, Luxemburg, the northern part of the German Rhineland province and the eastern parts of France's Nord-Pas de Calais region.
History[]
It was created out of the former Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia under King Lothair II, that had been established in 855. Lotharingia was divided for much of the later ninth century, reunited under Louis the Younger by the 880 Treaty of Ribemont and upon the death of East Frankish king Louis the Child in 911 it joined West Francia under King Charles the Simple. It then formed a duchy in its own right, and about 925 Duke Gilbert declared homage to the German king Henry the Fowler, an act which King Rudolph of France was helpless to revert. From that time on Lotharingia (or Lorraine) remained a German stem duchy, the border with France did not change throughout the Middle Ages.
In 959 King Henry's son Duke Bruno the Great divided Lotharingia into two duchies: Lower and Upper Lorraine (or Lower and Upper Lotharingia) and granted Count Godfrey I of Mons (Hainaut) the title of a Duke of Lower Lorraine. Godfrey's lands were to the north (lower down the Rhine river system), while Upper Lorraine was to the south (further up the river system). Both duchies formed the western part of the Holy Roman Empire established by Bruno's elder brother Emperor Otto I in 962.
Both Lotharingian duchies took very separate paths thereafter: Upon the death of Godfrey's son Duke Richar, Lower Lotharingia was directly ruled by the Emperor, until in 977 Otto II enfeoffed Charles, the exiled younger brother of King Lothair of France. Lower and Upper Lorraine were once again briefly reunited under Gothelo I from 1033 to 1044. After that, the Lower duchy was quickly marginalised,[citation needed] while Upper Lorraine came to be known as simply the Duchy of Lorraine.
Over the next decades the significance of the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia diminished and furthermore was affected by the conflict between Emperor Henry IV and his son Henry V: In 1100 Henry IV had enfeoffed Count Henry of Limburg, who Henry V, having enforced the abdication of his father, immediately deposed and replaced by Count Godfrey of Louvain. Upon the death of Duke Godfrey III in 1190, his son Duke Henry I of Brabant inherited the ducal title by order of Emperor Henry VI at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall. Thereby the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia finally lost its territorial authority, while the remnant Imperial fief held by the Dukes of Brabant was later called the Duchy of Lothier (or Lothryk).
showHistory of the Low Countries |
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Successor states[]
After the territorial power of the duchy was shattered, many fiefdoms came to independence in its area. The most important ones of these were:
- Archbishopric of Cologne
- Prince-Bishopric of Liège
- Bishopric of Utrecht
- Bishopric of Cambrai
- Duchy of Limburg
- County of Guelders (includes also the shire Teisterbant)
- Margravate of Ename, later called Imperial Flanders or the County of Aalst
- County of Jülich
- County of Namur
- County of Cleves
- County of Hainault, including the Margravate of Valenciennes and the County of Bergen
- County of Holland
- County of Berg
- County of Loon
- County of Horne
The following successor states remained under the authority of the titular dukes of Lower Lotharingia (Lothier):
- Margraviate of Antwerp
- County of Leuven and Brussels
- Duchy of Brabant
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Baedeker, Jarrold; Court, Alec (1992). Netherlands. Pearson Education Canada. ISBN 978-0-13-063611-9.
- ^ The Numismatic Chronicle. Royal Numismatic Society. 2006.
- ^ Bachrach, David S. (2014). Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84383-927-9.
- ^ "Treaty of Joinville". (in French) In Davenport, Frances G. European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2004.
- History of the Low Countries
- House of Lorraine
- Former polities in the Netherlands
- Duchies of the Holy Roman Empire
- States and territories established in the 950s
- States and territories established in the 970s
- States and territories disestablished in the 1190s
- 959 establishments
- 10th-century establishments in Europe
- 1190s disestablishments in Europe