Charles the Fat (13 June 839 – January 13, 888) was the King of the East Franks, King of Italy, King of the West Franks, and, as Charles III, Holy Roman Emperor. Granted lordship over Alemannia in 876, he became King of Italy in 879 upon the abdication of his older brother Carloman. Crowned Emperor in 881, his succession to the territories of his brother Louis the Younger the following year reunited the entire Kingdom of the East Franks (Germany). Upon the death of his nephew Carloman, the King of the West Franks (France), on 12 December 884, he ascended that throne as well, thus reviving, if only briefly, the entire Carolingian Empire.

Usually considered lethargic and inept — he is known to have had repeated illnesses which are believed to have been epilepsy — he conducted several unsuccessful expeditions in Italy against Saracen incursions, and purchased peace with Viking raiders at the siege of Paris in 886.

Youth and inheritance

Charles was the youngest of the three sons of Louis the German, first King of East Francia (later Germany), and Emma, a Welf. An incidence of demonic possession is recorded in his youth, in which he was said to have been foaming at the mouth before he was taken to the altar of the church. This greatly affected his father and himself, he was described as "a very Christian prince, fearing God, with all his heart keeping His commandments, very devoutly obeying the orders of the Church, generous in alms-giving, practising unceasingly prayer and song, always intent upon celebrating the praises of God."

In 863, his rebellious eldest brother Carloman revolted against their father. The next year, Louis the Younger followed Carloman in revolt and Charles joined him. Carloman was invested with Bavaria as co-king. In 865, the elder Louis was forced to divide his lands amongst his heirs: Bavaria went to Carloman; Saxony (with Franconia and Thuringia) went to Louis; and Alemannia (Swabia with Rhaetia) went to Charles. Lotharingia was to be divided between the younger two. In 876, Louis died and the inheritance went as planned after a conference at Ries, though Charles received less of his share of Lotharingian than planned. In his charters, Charles' reign in Germania is dated from his inheritance in 876.

The brothers acted cooperatively and there was no war over the division of the patrimony: a rare occurrence in Dark Age Europe. In 877, Carloman inherited Italy from their uncle Charles the Bald of West Francia. Louis divided Lotharingian and offered a third to Carloman and a third to Charles. In 878, Carloman returned his Lotharingian share to Louis, who divided it evenly with Charles. In 879, Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and divided his domains between his brothers: Bavaria to Louis and Italy to Charles. Charles dated his reign in Italia from this point.

In 880, Charles joined Louis III and Carloman, joint kings of West Francia, in besieging Boso of Provence in Vienne from August to September, but they failed to dislodge him. In August 882, Charles sent Richard the Justiciar, Count of Autun, to take the city, which he did (in September). After this, Boso could not regain most of his realm and was restricted to the vicinity of Vienne.

Emperor

On 18 July 880, Pope John VIII sent a letter to Guy II of Spoleto to seek peace, but the duke ignored him and invaded the Papal States. John responded by begging the aid of Charles in his capacity as King of Italy. In gratefulness, he crowned him Emperor on 12 February 881. His rise to power was accompanied by hopes of a general revival in western Europe, but he proved unequal to the task. Charles did little to help against Guy, however. Papal letters as late as November were still petitioning Charles for action.

In February 882, Charles convoked a diet in Ravenna. The duke, emperor, and pope made peace and Guy and his uncle, Guy of Camerino, vowed to restore stolen papal lands. In a March letter to Charles, John claimed that the vows went unfulfilled.

In 883, Charles signed a treaty with Giovanni II Participazio, Doge of Venice, granting that any assassin of a doge who fled to the territory of the empire would be fined 100 lbs of gold and banished.

In 884, Charles sought to have his illegitimate son, Bernard, confirmed as his successor at a diet at Worms, for he was childless in his marriage to Richardis. Pope Marinus I supported him and was recorded to have deposed bishops who opposed the plan, but died before Bernard could be accepted as heir. His successor, Hadrian III, died in September en route to Worms at Nonantula, near Modena. The nobility, however, soundly rejected any such course and events in Italy took Charles' attention away.

East Francia

In the early 880s, the remnants of the Great Heathen Army, defeated by Alfred the Great at the Battle of Edington in 878, began to settle in the Low Countries. They were opposed with some success by Louis, Charles' brother, but he died after a short campaign on 20 January 882 and Charles succeeded to his kingdom, thus reuniting the whole East Frankish realm again. Charles called for an assembling of the army of the whole nation of the East Franks in the summer and he marched off to besiege the chief Viking camp at Asselt. Not much later, Charles opened negotiations with the Viking chiefs, Godfrey and Sigfred. Godfrey accepted Christian baptism and agreed to become Charles' vassal. He was married to Gisela, daughter of Lothair II. Sigfred was bribed off. Despite the insinuations of some modern chroniclers, no contemporary account criticises Charles actions during this campaign.

From 882 to 884, the Wilhelminer War dominated the Marcha Orientalis (later Austria). Arnulf of Carinthia, Charles' illegitimate nephew, allied with the rebel Engelschalk II against Charles' appointed margrave in the region, Aribo. Svatopluk I, ruler of Great Moravia, took up Aribo's cause and, at Kaumberg, in 884, took oaths of fidelity to Charles. Though the emperor lost his vassals of the Wilhelminer family and his relationship with his nephew was broken, he gained powerful allies in the Moravian dux and other Slavic duces in the area.

In 885, fearing Godfrey and his brother-in-law, Hugh, Duke of Alsace, Charles arranged for a conference at Spijk, near Lobith, inviting the Viking leader to fall into a trap. Godfrey was executed and Hugh was blinded and sent to Prüm.

West Francia

left: Charles the Fat in the Grandes Chroniques de France.

When Carloman of West Francia died on 12 December 884, the nobles of that kingdom invited his uncle, Charles, to assume the kingship. Charles gladly accepted, it being the third kingdom to "fall into his lap" Charles government in the West, however, was always very impersonal and he left most day-to-day business to the higher nobility.

Though West Francia (the future France) was far less menaced by the Vikings than the Low Countries, it was heavily hit nonetheless. In 885, a huge fleet led by Sigfred sailed up the Seine, for the first time in years, and besieged Paris. Sigfred demanded a bribe again, but this time Charles refused. He was in Italy at the time and Odo, Count of Paris, snuck some men through enemy lines to seek his aid. Charles sent Henry, Count of Saxony, to Paris. In 886, as disease began to spread through Paris, Odo himself went to Charles to seek support. Charles brought a large army and encircled the army of Rollo and set up a camp at Montmartre. However, Charles had no intention of fighting. He sent the defenders down the Seine to ravage Burgundy, which was in revolt. When the Vikings withdrew from France next spring, he gave them 700 pounds of promised silver. Charles prestige in France was greatly diminished.

Deposition, death, and legacy

With Charles increasingly seen as spineless and incompetent, matters came to a head in late 887. In the summer of that year, having given up on his son's succession, Charles received Odo and Berengar, Margrave of Friuli, a relative of his, at his court. He may have accepted neither, one, or both of these as his heir in their respective kingdoms. His inner circle then began to fall apart. First, he accused his wife Richardis of having an affair with his chief minister and archchancellor, Liutward, bishop of Vercelli. She proved her innocence in an ordeal of fire and left him for the monastic life.[3] He then turned against Liutward, who was hated by all, and removed him from office, appointing Liutbert, Archbishop of Mainz, in his stead.

In that year, his first cousin once removed, Ermengard, daughter of the Emperor Louis II and wife of Boso of Provence, brought her son Louis to him for protection. Charles confirmed Louis in Provence (he may even have adopted him) and allowed them to live at his court. He probably intended to make Louis heir to the whole realm and the imperium. On 11 November, he called an assembly to Frankfurt. While there he received news that an ambitious nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia, had fomented a general rebellion and was marching into Germany with an army of Bavarians and Slavs. The next week saw the collapse of all his support in East Francia. The last to abandon him were his loyal Alemanni, though the men of Lotharingia never seem to have formally accepted his deposition. By 17 November, Charles was out of power, though the exact course of events is unknown. Asides from rebuking his faithlessness, he did little to prevent Arnulf's move — he had recently been ill again – but assure that Bernard was entrusted to his care and possibly Louis too. He asked for a few estates in Swabia on which to live out his days and thus received Neidingen. There he died six weeks later, on 13 January 888.

Charles' empire broke asunder, never to be restored. According to Regino of Prüm, each part of the realm elected a "kinglet" from its own "bowels". It is probable that Arnulf desired the whole empire, but the only part he received other than East Francia was Lotharingia. The French elected Odo, though he was opposed at first by Guy III of Spoleto, who also opposed Arnulf in Lotharingia. Guy sought the kingship in Italy after his failures in Francia, though there Berengar had already been crowned. Louis was crowned in Provence as Charles had intended and he sought the support of Arnulf and gained it, probably through supplication to him. Odo would eventually submit to Arnulf's supremacy as well. In Upper Burgundy, one Rudolph, a dux of the region, was elected as king in a distinctly non-Carolingian creation, probably the result of his failure to succeed in the whole of Lotharingia. In Aquitaine, Ranulf II declared himself king and took the guardianship of the young Charles the Simple, the Carolingian heir to the West, refusing to recognise Odo's election.

It is unknown if these elections were a response to Charles' East Frankish deposition or to his death. Only those of Arnulf and Berengar can be certainly placed before his death. Only the magnates of the East ever formally deposed him. He was buried with honour in Reichenau after his death and the Annales Fuldenses heap praises on his piety and Godliness. Indeed, contemporary opinion of Charles is consistently kinder than later historiography, though it is a modern suggestion that his lack of apparent successes is the excusable result of near constant illness and infirmity.

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