their nephews, they would proceed to a fair and amicable division of them" (867 or 868)[1].
However, in the spring of 869, having extracted from Charles and Louis some vague assurances that they would undertake nothing against his kingdom during his absence, even if he married Waldrada, Lothar set out on his journey with the intention of visiting the Emperor in order to obtain his support at the papal court. Louis II was then at Benevento, warring against the Saracens. At first he shewed himself little disposed to interfere, but his wife, Engilberga, proved willing to play the part of mediator, and, in the end, an interview took place at Monte Cassino between Hadrian and Lothar. The latter received the Eucharist from the hands of the Pope, less, perhaps, as the pledge of pardon than as a kind of judgment of God. "Receive this communion," the Pope is reported to have said to Lothar, "if thou art innocent of the adultery condemned by Nicholas. If, on the contrary, thy conscience accuse thee of guilt, or if thou art minded to fall back into sin, refrain; otherwise by this Sacrament thou shalt be judged and condemned." A dramatic colouring may have been thrown over the incident, but when he left Moute Cassino, Lothar bore with him the promise that the question should again be submitted to a Council. This, for him, meant the hope of undoing the sentence of Nicholas I. Death, which surprised him on his way back, at Piacenza, on 8 August 869, put an end to his plans.
His successor, by right of inheritance, was, strictly speaking, the Emperor Louis. But he was little known outside his Italian kingdom, and appears not to have had many supporters in Lorraine, unless perhaps in the duchy of Lyons, which was close to his Provençal possessions. In Lorraine proper, on the contrary, there were two opposed parties, a German party and a French party, each supporting one of the uncles of the dead king. But Louis the German was detained at Ratisbon by sickness.
Thus circumstances favoured Charles the Bald, who hastened to take advantage of them by entering Lorraine. An embassy from the magnates, which came to meet him at Attigny to remind him of the respect due to the treaty which he had made with his brother at Metz, produced no result. By way of Verdun he reached Metz, where in the presence of the French and Lotharingian nobles, and of several prelates, among them the Bishops of Toul, Liège, and Verdun, Charles was solemnly crowned king of Lorraine in the cathedral of St Stephen on 9 September 869. When, a little later, he heard of the death of his wife Queen Ermentrude (6 October), Charles sought to strengthen his position in the country by taking first as his mistress and afterwards as his lawful wife
- ↑ The date 867 is generally accepted. On the other hand, M. Calmette, in La diplomatie carolingienne, pp. 195, 399, gives arguments of some force in favour of 868.
