Lower Lotharingia
From Freepedia
Lower Lotharingia (or Lothier) was a duchy created out of the former Carolingian Kingdom of Lotharingia. It was located in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany to the west of the Rhine and the northern part of France.
After the death of Zwentibold in 900, the Lotharingian nobles elected the French king Charles the Simple as their king. The German king Henry the Fowler conquered Lotharingia in 923, but Lotharingia remained a rebellious region. Otto granted the title of Lotharingia to his brother Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne in 959. He divided the territory in two separate duchies as imperial fiefs.
The southern part of this new territory, the Duchy of Upper Lorraine, eventually became known as Lorraine.
The northern part, Lower Lotharingia (later called Lothier) was soon fragmented into smaller duchies and counties:
- Bishopric of Liège
- Bishopric of Utrecht
- Bishopric of Cambrai
- Landgraviat, later Duchy, of Brabant
- Landgraviat, later Duchy, of Gelre
- Margraviat of Antwerp (lateron part of the Duchy of Brabant)
- Margraviat of Ename (later called Imperial Flanders or county of Aalst)
- Cleves
- Jülich
- Limburg
- Hainaut, including the margraviat of Valenciennes and the county of Bergen
- County of Holland
- County of Leuven and Brussels (lateron part of the Duchy of Brabant)
- County of Berg
- County of Namur
- County of Bouillon
The ducal title of Lower Lotharingia was granted to Godfrey of Bouillon in 1087, in succession of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Henry IV. The count of Bouillon held the title until he died in 1100. From 1106 the title went to the counts of Leuven, predecessors of the Dukes of Brabant. The duchy of Lower Lotharingia lost its territorial authority at the Diet of Schwabisch Hall in 1190.
For the chronology of dukes of Lotharingia, see: Duke of Lower Lotharingia.
