Lothair, Carolingian king of West Francia: my first Carolingian coin (this time for real!)

Some may remember my post on Heinrich II, when I bought my first Carolingian coin, only to find out that minted just at the starting point of the Holy Roman Empire. I missed the party, though I do enjoy the coin.

This time, it's Carolingian for sure! (at least, I'm quite convinced it is). Though hardliners such as @seth77, @Orielensis, and @AnYangMan will probably frown at the staggering incompleteness of the biography on Lothair I've written below, it's the best I could make of all the super complicated Medieval backstabbing, intrigues, politics and ever changing kingdoms (e.g. I'm still not sure whether this is Lothair II, III or IV. On auction sites, it's used seemingly interchangeably).

Lotharius (or Lothair in English) was born in Laon, a city in the Northen of France as the eldest son of King Louis IV, near the end of 941. In 954, thirteen years later, he succeeded his father and was crowned by the Archbishop of Reims a few months later. As a Carolingian king of West Francia, Lothair inherited a fragmented kingdom where is vassals took lands, rights and offices without any regard for the authority of the king. So when Lothairs’ mother Gerberga of Saxony appointed her brother-in-law Hugh the Great, the Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris (who was not on good standing with late king Louis) as king-regent, Lothair probably looked him with some suspicion. One year later, Hugh died, and Lothair came under the guardianship of uncle Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne (again a maternal relation). This guardianship lasted until 965, and not surprisingly was aimed to soften the relation between West Francia and East Francia (which was evolving into the German Holy Roman Empire). As most of us would recognize, at the age of ca. 24 years, Lothair wanted to rule alone and gain political independence, leading to struggles with his maternal relatives (I can relate to this) and the new Holy Roman Empire (not to this). Despite this, Lothair married Emma of Italy, the only daughter of Otto I, thus strengthening the band between West Francia and the Holy Roman Empire.

Bust of Lothair, c. 1140

In the same year, Lothair invaded Flanders, part of the kingdom of Lotharingia (current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourgh, a part of Western Germany, and a portion of Northern France) – land that was previously owned by his family, but now by Otto I. Though he swiftly took many cities, Lothair was eventually repulsed by suporters of the young count Arnulf II, whose father died shortly before. Still, Lothair could add Arras and Douai, both relatively wealthy cities, to his kingdom. Tensions with the Holy Roman Empire increased following several incidents, including the accusation of adultery of Queen Emma with the Bishop Adelberon of Laon by Charles (the younger brother of Lothair – who was on good standing with Otto II (the heir of Otto I, I know, it’s a mess)). Both Emma and Adelberon were absolved, and Charles was swiftly expelled from the kingdom by Lothair. Otto II however openly offended Lothair by appointing Charles as Duke of Lower Lorraine, which was part of Lotharingia, thus rewarding Charles for questioning the honor of the wife of the King of Franks.

So in 978, Lothair made a surprise attack on Aachen, the homeplace of Otto II. He ravaged the imperial Palace of Aachen for three days, and (very witty) reversed the direction of the bronze eagle of Charlamange to face east instead of west (it was turned that way as to “… symbolize that their [Holy Roman Empire] cavalry could beat the French whenever they wanted.”[Richer of Saint-Rémy, Histoire de France, (888–995), ed. R. Latouche]). Otto II was able to escape, and did not really like the joke with the eagle. So in the same year, he retaliated, and ravaged Reims, Soissons and Laon. Meanwhile, he proclaimed the enfant terrible younger brother Charles as puppet King of the Franks and advanced to Paris. However, Lothair pursued and defeated Otto II, and forced him to flee with Charles back to Aachen. Two years later, Lothair and Otto II concluded a peace treaty, and all was good.

Otto II

That is, until 983, when Otto II suddenly died, leaving the Holy Roman Empire to his three-year-old son Otto III (very original name). Being three years old and in charge of a kingdom is not a good combination, and Otto III was abducted by the not-so-scrupulous Duke of Bavaria. Things did not look good for the Holy Roman Empire, and Lothair was asked for help by the mother of Otto III, in return for the Lotharingia. Lothair accepted this offer, but before he could really do anything, Henry’s II plan failed when Otto III was rescued by the Archbishop of Mainz. However, the noblemen of Lotharingia had witnessed how easily their land was used as payment, and paid homage to Lothair in secret. So, two years later in 985, Lothair invaded and conquered a large portion of Lotharingia, capturing important cities as Verdun, and several important prisoners. Thus having strengthened his control on the land that he felt righteously his, and which could be regarded as his life-long aim, Lothair suddenly died in early 986, in the city where he was born, and was buried next to his father in Reims.

So, without further ado, here is the coin:

CAROLINGIAN, Lotharius. Denomination: AR Denier, minted: Bourges, France; 954-986
Obv: +BITVRICES CIVITAS Tetrastyle temple, with cross on top. Inside, small cross.
Rev: + LOTERIVS REX, cross within dotted border, outside, dotted border
Weight: 1.19g; Ø:19mm
Catalogue: TTB. Nou.7-Prou.755. Provenance: Found near Amiens, France; acq.: 01-2020.
Minted on a relatively small flan, small portion with weak strike

 

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Awesome! These coins are coins I've always wanted... Never bought but still looking for the right one!

 

Not frowning one bit, the coin is extremely nice. What I would add is that the type was minted under the Viscounts of Bourges and continued as type immobilise up until around 1050, as it was a popular and successful coinage. As such, I am not sure whether this particular spec was a lifetime issue for Lothaire or an immobilization. And if an immobilization, by the looks -- style, lettering, cross design, weight, etc it's likely one of the earlier ones, to around 1000. This is where the problem with the deffinitive attribution of the type comes from. On one side you have Poey d'Avant cataloging it as a local type immobilise (#1915) and Boudeau #267, on the other Gariel, Prou and Nouchy add the type to the Carolingian (Royal) coinages.

 

@seth thanks! So ... this is my second non-Carolingian coin Bugger! The title is a bit ironic then. Still, learned something new about my coin, which Carolingian or not, is indeed extremely nice.

Luckily, the postman brought something else ... which I will post in a separate thread.

 

..very nice...one of the 1st HRE's...

 

Wow a Beautiful coin and a very nice write up !
Just this week I have been doing some research on my family tree
mine goes back to Heinrich I or Henry I King of East Francia and Duke of Saxony.
I have never been really interested in medieval coins only Roman
but that has changed quite a bit now with the family tree info I just found.
Here is a pic of some of that lineage of possible medieval coinage.

Another family tree pic of some more possible Medieval coinage to look for.

 

All things considering I think that you can still count it as a Carolingian type (it obviously is by design) and the mentioned authors regard it as such.