Unlike his father, the youngest son of the last ruler of the united Frankish kingdom, Louis the Pious, received an inconsistent nickname. Nevertheless, Karl Lysy entered the annals of history as the last active ruler of the Carolingian dynasty.
Inheritance sharing
In 819, Louis the Pious married a second time to the young beauty Judith from an influential Welfin family. Four years later, their son Carl was born. The fact of his birth meant that the father had to re-divide the royal possessions, allocating a part to his youngest son. This turn of events, of course, did not please the older brothers.
In 833, due to the betrayal of the barons who sided with the rebellious sons, Louis, Judith and the young Carl were imprisoned for several months. After the death of the father, the sons divided his possessions. And if Louis and Karl wanted to keep the lands received intact, then Lothar, not content with the title of Roman emperor, wanted to receive all his father's inheritance.
In 841-842 years. Karl Lysy and Louis, joining forces, repeatedly fought with the army of Lothar. In the end, the brothers agreed on the division of the Frankish state into equal parts, which was done in 843 in Verdun.
Normans - the scourge of God
The reign of Karl Lysy is marked by constant raids by the Normans. Starting in 856, their attacks are becoming more decisive. The abbeys and churches where the treasures of the cities and the crown were kept were the most attractive prey in the eyes of the Gentile Normans. The clergy regarded their invasion as God's punishment and begged the king to defend the church.
The clumsy cavalry of the Franks could not effectively resist the enemy, who was able to quickly maneuver and move along the water just as quickly. Medieval chroniclers wrote indignantly that the feudal lords were in no hurry to fight for the people and the church, and often simply fled from the battlefield.
Karl Lysy and the Vikings is a sad page in the history of France. The king repeatedly had to pay the huge sums demanded by the leaders of the newly arrived Normans. However, such defense tactics were only temporary success. After a while, the Vikings returned again. Moreover, over time, they began to seize territory and settle on the lands of the Franks.
King of God's grace
In 845, just two years after Karl Lysy received his share of the inheritance under the Treaty of Verdun, the Normans besieged Paris. The young king managed to gather an army, although not all vassals responded to his call.
Nevertheless, his efforts were in vain. The Franks fled, Paris fell, and close associates advised Karl to pay the ransom to the Normans. This was not the last payment and not the last time the vassals threw their king onto the battlefield.
Despite all this, starting in 860, Karl was active in liberating the kingdom from the Normans. In parallel, he had to pacify the obstinate barons, asserting his power, and fight for the crowns of neighboring states.
As the ruler of the West Frankish kingdom, he was crowned four more times between 848 and 875, thus becoming the monarch of Aquitaine, Italy, Provence, and Lorraine. The apogee of the reign of Karl Lysy can be considered 875, when Pope John VIII proclaimed him emperor of the West.
And yet, towards the end of his life, he lost control of that part of the empire that he inherited from his father. Although Karl made great efforts and at times won victories, he never managed to become a sovereign ruler in his possessions.
Daughter of Karl Bald
The king was married twice. Of 13 children, most died during the life of their father. The frail and sickly son Louis Zaika subsequently inherited the throne of the West Frankish kingdom. Information about Carl's eldest daughter from Judith’s first marriage has also been preserved. These data are incomplete, but still give an idea of the mores that reigned in the families of medieval monarchs.
Judith, the daughter of Karl Lysy, lived only 26 years, having managed to get married three times. The first spouse of the princess in 856 was the king of Wessex Ethelwulf. In fact, the father forced the daughter, who at that time was 12 years old, to marry a man three times older than her. Two years later, Ethelwulf died, and Judith a month later married his son and heir Ethelbald.
However, the marriage of the stepmother and stepson was soon annulled by the church. Judith returned to Francia and was ordered by her father to be held in the abbey of Sanlis, while he was looking for her a party worthy of a princess.
Nevertheless, the plans of Karl Lysy destroyed the Count of Flanders Baudouin I. He stole Judith from the monastery and, fleeing from the persecution of the king, fled with her to Rome. Pope Nicholas I removed the excommunication from a young couple who married at the end of 863. Karl Lysy had to reconcile, return the lands confiscated from his son-in-law and with his help organize the defense of the northern borders of the kingdom from the Norman attack.
The end of the emperor
At the beginning of 877, Pope John begged Charles to rush to defend Rome from the Arabs invading Italy. A middle-aged, depressed and weakened emperor could not refuse to fulfill his duty. However, before that it was necessary to pay another ransom to the Normans in exchange for them to leave the Seine Valley. The king demanded the sum of 5,000 pounds of silver from large landowners, much to their displeasure.
Before heading to Italy, Karl Lysy at the royal villa in Kierzi assembled the assembly - the legislature of the Carolingian era. A spiritual and secular noble came to her from all over the country: counts, bishops, abbots. But instead of support, they condemned the king for being absorbed in the affairs of the empire, devastating Francia - his hereditary possession.
The Italian campaign was a disaster. In the autumn of that year, Karl had to hurry back, however, he did not go far. The emperor, abandoned by his close associates, died on October 6, 877 in a simple hut at the age of 54. While the decaying corpse of Karl Lysy was taken home in a tarry barrel wrapped in leather, the battle for an empty throne had already begun in France.