Louis II the Stammerer

King of France

Norbert Lieckfeldt wrote, "I have just recently returned from a trip to Paris, where I visitied the Basilika of Saint Denis which is the place where almost all French Kings were buried.

The early monarchs sometimes had quite trenchant "descriptions" added to their names (like Louis the Fat) and, looking through the inscriptions, I found reference to King Louis II le Begue (the stammerer). He was one of the early Frankish monarchs who reigned shortly after Charlemagne in the early 9th century."

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France listed The Age of King Charles V (1338-1380) When Louis died two years later, the nobles wanted to make Louis the Younger, King of Saxony, the king, but through the power of the major French nobles Duke Hugh, Duke Boso, and Count Bernard, Louis III and Carloman, both sons of the late king, were made joint-kings of France.

Judy Kuster found Ancestors of Paul Bailey MCBRIDE that provided the following information:

Louis II the Stammerer King of France was the Son of Charles II the Bald King West Franks King of France (-877) and Ermentrude (830- 869)

b. 1 Nov 846
d. 10 Apr 879, Compiegne, France

Married first Adelaide Judith of_Paris

Children:

1. Ermentrude Princess of the West Franks (870-)

Married second Luitgrade of Saxony

Children:

1. Charles_III the_Simple King of France King of West Franks m(1) Eadgifu of_England (-951)

Married third Ansgarde of_Burgundy

Children:

1. Louis_III King of France (863-)
2. Carloman King of France

Lou Heite added: Louis the Stammerer was one of the many weak kings who followed Charlemagne, victim to the politics and intrigue that left Europe open to invasions from both east and north for several centuries thereafter.

When Charlemagne died, his son Louis I inherited the empire he had put together. Louis I, called Louis the Pious, was a decent king, but he wasn't the hero his father had been - or the brute, if you want to digress and take the Saxon viewpoint for a moment. (Charlemagne had practiced what we nowadays rather prissily call "ethnic cleansing" on the Saxon tribes of what is now Germany. He had some four thousand of them exterminated in one day. Truly great men tend to be great in both their good and their bad deeds.)

Anyway, Louis I had three sons by his first wife, and a surprise fourth son by his second wife, who provided the excuse for the three elder half-brothers to engage in a great deal of politicking, war, intrigue, and all that juicy soap-opera stuff that makes history fun. (Among other things they tried to prove that little Charles II could not possibly be their father's son, because Louis the Pious was so old when the baby came along.) However, Charles, who became known as Charles the Bald, managed to survive and eventually grew up to become one of the three who divided Europe into the West, Middle, and East Kingdoms. Charles was a fairly strong ruler, and when his brother Lothair died, he got control of a large part of the Middle Kingdom including the Netherlands and Alsace-Lorraine.

Louis the Stammerer was the son of this Charles. He is described as physically weak, and in fact he survived his father by only about two years. He left no direct heirs. He had virtually no impact on the politics of his day, save that he lost the region of Provence to a cousin, another Louis, who had inherited Italy by a fairly roundabout succession. His weakness, and the weakness of his successors, left Western Europe wide open to the Viking raids which had begun as early as the reign of his great-grandfather Charlemagne. Louis the Stammerer's successor was his German cousin Charles III, called Charles the Fat. It was this Charles who surrendered western France to Rollo the Norman, which created the medieval Kingdom of Normandie. Thence came William, variously known as The Conqueror or The Bastard depending on where you grew up.