Known as `the Fair' and 1the Pious'. King of Aquitaine 781 - 813. Holy Roman Emperor 814 - 840. Deposed by his eldest son Lothair, from his 1st marriage, in 832 when he sought to divide up the empire four ways to accomodate his son by his second marriage. Lothair's brothers then reinstated their father after a brief exile to a monastery. In 822 he paid public pennance for his part in the death of his nephew, Bernard, King of Italy. Louis I died near Mainz. Upon his death the empire was split between 3 of his 4 sons. Louis received most of what is now Germany. Charles received much of what is now France and Lothair, the eldest, receive Italy, a strip between him brother and the imperial crown. One historian has said that Louis "was the first Frankish King to conceive of his life as a husband according to Christian morality, without any doubt, a good part of the difficulties which he experienced stemmed from that; his attitude surprised and shocked a society which was far from agreeing with such moral rigour." In 817 he laid down an imperial edict which banned illegitimate children from succession.
Louis was born in August 778. He was the son of
Charlemagne (?) King of Franks and
Hildegarde (?). King of France Louis (?) I married
Judith (?), daughter of
Welf (?) and
Duchess of Bavaria Hedwig (?), in 819 at
Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Louis died on 20 June 840 at age 61.