Editing Lothair I (section)

== Early life and reign ==
[[File:Vertrag von Verdun en.svg|thumb|right|220px|Division of the Carolingian Empire under the [[Treaty of Verdun]] (843)]]

Lothair was born in 795, to Louis the Pious and Ermengarde of Hesbaye. His father was the son of the reigning Emperor, Charlemagne. Little is known of Lothair's early life, which was probably passed at the court of his grandfather [[Charlemagne]]. In 814, the elderly emperor died, and left his sole surviving legitimate son Louis the Pious as successor to his vast empire. The next year, Lothair would be sent to govern Bavaria for his father, the new emperor.<ref name=eb11 /> In 817, Louis the Pious<ref name=eb11 /> drew up his ''Ordinatio Imperii''.<ref name="Duckett">{{cite book|last1=Duckett|first1=Eleanor|title=Carolingian Portraits|date=1962|publisher=University of Michigan Press|pages=26, 34|ref=2}}</ref> In this, Louis designated Lothair as his principal heir and ordered that Lothair would be the overlord of Louis' younger sons Pippin of Aquitaine (who was 20) and Louis the German (who was 13), as well as his nephew (Lothair's cousin) [[Bernard of Italy]]. Lothair would also inherit their lands if they were to die childless. Lothair, aged 22, was then crowned joint emperor by his father at [[Aachen]].<ref name=eb11 /> At the same time, Aquitaine and Bavaria were granted to his brothers Pippin and Louis, respectively, as subsidiary kingdoms.<ref name="Duckett" /> Following the death of Bernard, brought on by his plotting against and blinding by Louis the Pious, Lothair also received the Kingdom of Italy.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} In 821, Lothair married [[Ermengarde of Tours|Ermengarde]] (d. 851), daughter of [[Hugh of Tours|Hugh]] the [[Count of Tours]].<ref name=eb11 />

In 822, he assumed the government of [[Italy]], and at Easter, 5 April 823, he was crowned emperor again by [[Pope Paschal I]], this time at [[Rome]]. In November 824, Lothair promulgated a statute, the ''[[Constitutio Romana]]'', concerning the relations of pope and emperor, which reserved the supreme power to the secular potentate, and he afterwards issued various ordinances for the good government of Italy.<ref name=eb11 />

On Lothair's return to his father's court, his stepmother [[Judith, daughter of Welf|Judith]] won his consent to her plan for securing a kingdom for her son [[Charles the Bald|Charles]], a scheme which was carried out in 829,<ref name=eb11 /> when the young prince was given [[Alemannia]] as king.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} Lothair, however, soon changed his attitude and spent the succeeding decade in constant strife over the division of the Empire with his father. He was alternately master of the Empire, and banished and confined to Italy, at one time taking up arms in alliance with his brothers and at another fighting against them, whilst the bounds of his appointed kingdom were in turn extended and reduced.<ref name=eb11 /><ref name=jong/>