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34-516: The first Pont de Saint-Cloud appeared in 841 because of a conflict between Charles the Bald et Lothaire I ; it consisted of a wooden bridge supporting several mills. Although the Seine has been traversable at this location for twelve centuries, tradition holds that no king of France has traversed it on the bridge without suffering a sudden death. As a result, sovereigns crossed the Seine by boat. The wooden bridge

68-582: A bridge in France is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (French: Charles le Chauve ; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles   II , was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis

102-554: A defence of royal sovereignty in the face of intrusive actions by the papacy into state affairs. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis   II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John   VIII , traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on 25 December. As emperor, Charles combined the mottoes that had been used by his grandfather and father into

136-452: A ruler's sons, rather than primogeniture (i.e., inheritance by the eldest son) which would soon be adopted by both Frankish kingdoms. Since Lotharingia combined lengthy and vulnerable land borders with poor internal communications as it was severed by the Alps , it was not a viable entity and soon fragmented. This made it difficult for a single ruler to reassemble Charlemagne's empire. Only Charles

170-499: A settlement. The meeting happened shortly before August 10, as confirmed by a contemporary letter. Each of the three brothers was already established in one kingdom: Lothair in the Kingdom of Italy ; Louis the German in the Kingdom of Bavaria ; and Charles II in the Kingdom of Aquitaine . After Lothair's death in 855, his eldest son, Louis II , inherited Italy and his father's claim to

204-504: A single formula: renovatio imperii Romani et Francorum , "renewal of the empire of the Romans and Franks". These words appeared on his seal . Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis   II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles's domains, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia . After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but

238-606: A total width of 186 metres (203 yd). The single-piece deck crosses the entire river, supported by six columns of reinforced concrete. In order to facilitate circulation across the banks, underground passages have been built on the two sides of the river. A Métro station, Boulogne–Pont de Saint-Cloud , the western terminus of Line 10 in Boulogne-Billancourt, has been named after the bridge. 48°50′28″N 2°13′25″E  /  48.84111°N 2.22361°E  / 48.84111; 2.22361 This article about

272-433: Is based on Charles's initial lack of a regnum . "Bald" would in this case be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his landlessness at an age at which his brothers already had been sub-kings for some years. Contemporary depictions of his person, such as in his Bible of 845 , on his seal of 847 (as king) and on his seal of 875 (as emperor), show him with a full head of hair, as does the equestrian statuette (c. 870), which

306-810: Is now France, as far as the Meuse , the Saône , and the Rhône , with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro . Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire , known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and the Kingdom of Italy . He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia . Shortly after Verdun, Charles went on to an unsuccessful campaign against Brittany, on

340-432: Is thought to depict him. The Genealogy of Frankish Kings , a text from Fontanelle dating from possibly as early as 869, names him as Karolus Calvus ("Charles the Bald"), and he is given the same name in the late tenth century by Richier of Reims and Adhemar of Chabannes . Charles married Ermentrude , daughter of Odo I, Count of Orléans , in 842. She died in 869. In 870, Charles married Richilde of Provence , who

374-560: The Abbey of Saint-Denis where he had long wished to be buried, in a porphyry tub which may be the same one known as " Dagobert 's tub" ( cuve de Dagobert ), now in the Louvre . It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution. Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis . Charles was a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of

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408-772: The Bretons . Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë , who defeated the king at the Battle of Ballon (845) and the Battle of Jengland (851), the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings , who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire , and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. At the Vikings' successful siege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles

442-558: The southern third of Lotharingia , Alsace-Lorraine , was traded back and forth between France and Germany from the 18th to the 20th century. In 1766, it passed to France after the death of Stanisław Leszczyński , who had acquired the region from the German Habsburgs by the Treaty of Vienna (1738) ending the War of Polish Succession (1733–1738). In 1871, Alsace-Lorraine became German, after

476-488: The Fat achieved this briefly. In 855, the northern section became fragile Lotharingia, which became disputed by the more powerful states that evolved out of Francia Occidentalis (present day France ) and Francia Orientalis (present day Germany ). Generations of kings of France and Germany were unable to establish a firm rule over Lothair's kingdom. While the north of Lotharingia was then composed of independent countries ,

510-599: The German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair   I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg . The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what

544-480: The German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bains , on 6 October 877. According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey of Nantua , Burgundy , because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. A few years later, his remains were transferred to

578-553: The German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy . He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs , who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence , but

612-507: The Imperial throne. Upper Burgundy and Lower Burgundy ( Arles and Provence ) passed to Lothair's third son, Charles of Provence . The remaining territory north of the Alps , which did not previously have a name, was inherited by Lothair's second son, Lothair II , and was then named Lotharingia (present day Lorraine ) after him. The division reflected an adherence to the old Frankish custom of partible or divisible inheritance amongst

646-592: The Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin   I of Aquitaine ) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German , King of Bavaria , made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles

680-458: The Pious , Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith . He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt , when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna , or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis

714-559: The Treaties of Prüm (855), Meerssen (870), and Ribemont (880). Following Charlemagne's death, Louis was made ruler of the Frankish Empire. Agobard , archbishop of Lyon, opposed the division of the empire, as he claimed that it would divide the church . During his reign, Louis the Pious divided the empire so that each of his sons could rule over their own kingdom under the greater rule of their father. Louis’ eldest son, Lothair I ,

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748-519: The city during its siege of 885–886 . Charles engaged in diplomacy with the Emirate of Cordoba , receiving camels from Emir Muhammad   I in 865. From the 860s, the palace of Compiègne became an increasingly important centre for Charles and he founded a monastery there in 876. In the tenth century Compiègne was known as ‘Carlopolis’ because of its association with Charles. In 871–872, Charles sent two letters to Pope Hadrian   II where he made

782-515: The heir of the entire land which was once Gaul . At a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepin's heirs and the Aquitainian nobles. The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis

816-408: The return from which he signed the Treaty of Coulaines with his nobility and clergy. After that, the first years of his reign, up to the death of Lothair   I in 855, were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848), at Meerssen (851), and at Attigny (854). In 858, Louis

850-405: The support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens , who betrayed him, and of Hincmar of Reims . It has been suggested that Charles's nickname was used ironically and not descriptively; he was not in fact bald but rather was extremely hairy. An alternative or additional interpretation

884-614: The victory of Prussia and its German allies over the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). In 1919, it became French again by the Treaty of Versailles (1919), following the French victory over the Germans in World War I (1914–1918). In 1940, Germany reannexed Alsace-Lorraine following Germany's conquest of France . Finally, in 1945, after World War II (1939–1945), Alsace-Lorraine

918-516: The west of the Frankish realm . Lothair's brother, Louis II , and his half-brother Charles II refused to acknowledge Lothair's suzerainty and declared war against him. After a bloody civil war, they defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy in 841 and sealed their alliance in 842 with the Oaths of Strasbourg which declared Lothair unfit for the imperial throne, after which he became willing to negotiate

952-434: Was concluded following almost three years of civil war and was the culmination of negotiations lasting more than a year. It was the first in a series of partitions contributing to the dissolution of the empire created by Charlemagne and has been seen as foreshadowing the formation of many of the modern countries of western Europe . The treaty was the first of the four partition treaties of the Carolingian Empire , followed by

986-562: Was decisively beaten at the Battle of Andernach on 8 October 876. In the meantime, John   VIII, menaced by the Saracens , was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps , but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy , Boso , and they refused to join his army. At the same time Carloman , son of Louis

1020-480: Was demolished after the death of François I . In 1556 his son Henri II constructed a new stone bridge consisting of eleven arches. This bridge was in turn demolished during the Second Fronde and replaced with a bridge made of wooden arches. Napoléon ordered its renovation in 1808, giving it a new width of 12.8 metres (14.0 yd). It was again reconstructed in 1940, expanded another 30 metres (33 yd) for

1054-488: Was descended from a noble family of Lorraine . With Ermentrude : With Richilde : Treaty of Verdun The Treaty of Verdun ( French : Traité de Verdun , German : Vertrag von Verdun ), agreed in 10 August 843, divided the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms between Lothair I , Louis II and Charles II , the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I , the son and successor of Charlemagne . The treaty

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1088-528: Was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by the Edict of Pistres of 864, made the army more mobile by providing for a cavalry element, the predecessor of the French chivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved

1122-450: Was given the title of emperor but because of several re-divisions by his father and the resulting revolts, he became much less powerful. When Louis died in 840, Lothair I claimed overlordship over the entirety of his father's kingdom in an attempt to reclaim the power he had at the beginning of his reign as emperor . He also supported his nephew Pepin II's claim to Aquitaine , a large province in

1156-527: Was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair   II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions by having himself consecrated as King of Lotharingia at Metz , but he was compelled to open negotiations when Louis found support among Lothair's former vassals. Lotharingia was partitioned between Charles and Louis in the resulting treaty (870). Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against

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