Louis II Karling

**Louis II Karling** (*Latin:* Ludovicus II Imperator Romanorum) was the fourth Holy Roman Emperor from the Carolingian dynasty, reigning over the Holy Roman Empire from 854 to 891. The son of Emperor Charles the Younger, he was baptised **Louis Veremond Karling** in honour of his grandfather, Emperor Louis the Pious and Saint Veremondo of Asturias, to whose intercession his father credited his birth. In honour of the baptism of the Swedes and Fins, he is also known as **Louis the Missionary** (*French:* Louis le Missionaire).

## Biography

### Early life

Louis was born in the Imperial palatium at Nijmegen on the 3rd of July 845, a year after his father, in a bid to seek solace in God amidst his depressions, had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Veremondo in Asturias. Having prayed for an heir to ease his worries, when Empress Mari of Poher conceived shortly after his return to Nijmegen, the Emperor came to believe that the Asturian saint had interceded with God for him. He therefore was determined to honour the saint, and as a part of this when his son was born he baptised him Louis Veremond in honour of the saint.

Despite his continued struggles with his mental health, Emperor Charles II loved his son and daughters, and Louis grew up in a loving family. He learned statecraft from the best and spent the better part of his teenage years on processions of the realm with his father, helping him administer his Empire. He also is noted as having been astute in ruling over the Duchy of Britanny and the County of Poher, which his mother had left to him upon her death in 849. When he came of age, he married a beautiful woman of his choice, Blaja, who did not bring a strong alliance but whom his father did approve of.

### Holy Roman Emperor

In December 953, the Emperor, greatly weakened by successive plagues ravaging his Imperial demesne, grew ill. Sensing his impending death, on New Year's Day he received the viaticum from the Archbishop of Cologne in the presence of his son. After receiving the last sacraments, he had the Archbishop summon the electors and requested them to elect and crown his son as Roman King of the Franks and future Holy Roman Emperor then and there. They consented, presumably because they had been bribed, and in a solemn coronation, the King directed that a simple crown be placed on his son's head by the Archbishops of Trier and Cologne. Chroniclers would later note that the 1st of January was also the date of the coronation of his ancestor Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charles II died in the early morning of the 2nd of January, the succession safe.

As tumultuous as the succession of the late Emperor had been, so quiet was that of his son and heir, who had more trouble with external enemies than with internal rivals. Louis II was determined to win his father's war in Alto Aragón and be crowned by the Pope as soon as possible afterwards. However, while his armies were away campaigning in Spain, a daring Moorish raid had crossed the length of the Empire and laid siege to Nijmegen, with the aim to capture the Emperor's family and hold them to ransom. Undeterred by this, the zealous Louis pressed on and won the war, although his wife would be in jail for his coronation, which caused him much grief.

The Pope agreed to crown the Emperor in return for a donation, which Louis readily gave proclaiming that it was for the glory of God. He also paid for a lavish coronation ceremony at Sint-Vermond Abbey in Arnhem, with lavish celebrations afterwards, by confiscating money from the Jewry based on spurious rumours that they had helped the Moors capture his wife. In the presence of many dignitaries from across Western Christendom, including his stepmother the Empress-Dowager Gaudiosa the Great of Léon, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

His reign would be a period of consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, marking the perfection of the feudal system instituted by Charlemagne. His imposition of the new Charter of Imperial Privileges in 867 was not accepted by his vassals, who still simmered with resentment of the Karlings and their power. Throughout his reign, he put down various rebellions by plotting vassals, with the most notable being the Burgundian forfeit of 879, in which he put an end to Morgannid rule of Burgundy and took back the kingdom for the Carolingian dynasty.