The New International Encyclopædia/Louis the German

LOUIS THE GERMAN (c.804-876). King of the Eastern Franks from 843 to 876. He was the third son of the Emperor Louis the Pious, and when his father in 817 made a division of the Empire among his sons, Louis received a kingdom centring around Bavaria. This was the nucleus of the Kingdom of Germany. In the later divisions, between 829 and 840, Louis always retained Bavaria. During these years he was engaged in almost consfant struggles against his father or against his brothers. After the death of Louis the Pious, in 840, he joined with Charles the Bald against Lothair. In 841, in the battle of Fontonoy, he and Charles defeated Lothair and forced the latter in 843 to agree to a fresh division of the Empire in the Treaty of Verdun. Louis remained King of the German or East Frankish Kingdom, ruling over Bavarians, Swabians, Franconians, and Saxons. He had to defend his dominions against Slavic invaders on one side and Northmen on another. In 858 he invaded the West Frankish Kingdom and conquered it in part; but in 860 he made peace, resigning his conquests to Charles the Bald. In 870 he forced Charles the Bald to make the Treaty of Mersen, by which the Lotharingian territories were divided between the West Frankish and the German kingdoms. He died at Frankfort, August 28, 876. Consult Dümmler, Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reiches (2 vols., 2d ed., Berlin, 1887).