Everything about Louis V Of France totally explained
Louis V (c.
967 –
21 May 987), called
the Indolent or
the Sluggard (from
French Louis le Fainéant, meaning "Louis Do-Nothing"), was the
King of France from 986 until his early death. The son of
King Lothair and his wife
Emma, a daughter of the
Lothair II of Italy, he was the last
Carolingian monarch.
Louis was crowned in June of 979 but didn't actually assume power until Lothair's death in 986. Louis V was the last
Carolingian king of France and reigned in
Laon from
March 2,
986 until his own death, at the age of 20, in
987. It may be because he reigned for only one year that medieval biographers awarded him the title
qui nihil fecit — "who did nothing".
He married
Adelaide of Anjou in
980 in
Brioude, where they were immediately crowned
King and Queen of Aquitaine. The couple was mismatched, as the age difference was great between the two, and they'd no children together. She soon divorced him and fled his house in
982 to
Arles.
He inherited a battle between his father's line of elected kings, which had been interrupted twice by
the Robertian kings, and the house of the
Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. As defender of Rome, Otto had the power to name the clergy in Carolingian territory, and the clergy he'd named were not supporting the Carolingians.
One particular foe was
Adalberon, archbishop of Reims whom Otto I'd elevated to the powerful archbishopric of Reims. During Lothair's time, Adalberon had tried to negotiate an alliance between the two houses; but the deal had gone bad, and Lothair had tried him for treason in 986. Lothair died at around the same time. Louis V inherited the throne, Lothair's widow, Emma, married a descendant of Otto I, and Louis V received Adalberon again.
Louis died in late May of 987, either accidentally or of poisoning by his mother; at the time of his death, he was again trying Adalberon for treason. He left no legitimate heirs, so his uncle Charles, the Duke of Lower Lorraine, was advanced as the hereditary successor to the throne. But the clergy, including both Adalberon and Gerbert (who later became
Pope Sylvester II), argued eloquently for
Hugh Capet, who wasn't only of noble blood but had proven himself through his actions and his military might. Capet was elected to the Frankish throne and Adalberon crowned him, all within two months of Louis V's death. Thus the Carolingian dynasty ended and the Capetian began.
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