Regino names "Hludowicum, Hlotharium et Carolum" as the three sons of Emperor Lothar & his wife.
He was sent to Italy as king in 844, crowned in Rome in 844 as LOUIS King of Italy by Pope Sergius II. After the Arab sack of Rome in 846, he led troops south to arrange better protection for the city. They started by unsuccessfully attempting to recapture Bari, but more importantly Louis was able to achieve a settlement to the civil war between Benevento and Salerno by arranging a division of territories between the two sides under the Radelgisi et Siginulfi Divisio Ducatus Beneventani signed in early 849.
He was crowned joint Emperor LOUIS II in Rome in Apr 850 by Pope Leo IV, ruling jointly with his father. He was sole emperor after the death of his father in 855. He claimed part of the territory inherited by his brother Lothaire, a final settlement being achieved between the three brothers at Orbe, Jura in Oct 856. He acquired Geneva, Lausanne and Sitten from his brother Lothaire in 859. After the death of his brother Charles in 863, Louis and his surviving brother Lothaire agreed a division of Charles's territories, Louis taking half of Provence and part of Transjuranian Burgundy. On the death of his brother Lothaire, their uncle Charles II "le Chauve" King of the West Franks appropriated his territories ignoring Emperor Louis's protests. From his base at Benevento King Louis began preparations to recapture Bari from the Arabs in 865. He negotiated Byzantine naval help for the project in 868/69, the agreement being confirmed by his daughter's betrothal. However, the Byzantine fleet which arrived in summer 869 departed abruptly, although the reasons for this are unclear, and the betrothal was terminated. Bari eventually fell in Feb 871 to a combined Frankish/Lombard army.
Betrothed ([842/43], contract broken) to --- of Byzantium, daughter of Emperor Theophilos and his wife Theodora. This betrothal is referred to by Settipani. According to the Continuata Constantinopolitana, the negotiations did not get as far as a formal betrothal. 1
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"Frankish emperor (850-875) who, as ruler of Italy, was instrumental in checking the Arab invasion of the peninsula.
"The eldest son of the Frankish emperor Lothair I, who ruled the "middle realm" of what had once been Charlemagne's empire, Louis took over the administration of Italy on his father's behalf in 844 and was crowned king of the Lombards in Rome on June 15 of that year. In April 850 he was crowned emperor. When his father divided his realm in September 855, Italy was allotted to Louis. After Lothair's death a few weeks later, Louis was sole emperor, a dignity which at that time implied rule over only part of the
Carolingian dominions, without suzerainty over the whole.
"In 859 Louis II acquired territory from his brother Lothair II, king of Lotharingia (Lorraine), and at the death of his other brother, King Charles of Provence, in 863, he received a large part of that kingdom.
"Louis II's most important task was the war against the Arabs, who had seized Bari and various other places in southern Italy. In 866 he began an extensive campaign that, with the help of the Byzantine fleet, culminated in the conquest of the Arab headquarters at Bari (February 871). In August 871, however, the Emperor was made prisoner by Adelchis, duke of Benevento. The Duke feared that Louis would attempt to assert his sovereignty, and he extracted from his prisoner a promise not to reenter the
southern part of the peninsula.
"Adelchis soon set Louis free, but after obtaining from the Pope a dispensation from his oath, the Emperor returned to southern Italy. Although he won another victory, near Capua, in 872, his power and energy no longer sufficed for a decisive blow against the Arabs. He gave up his hopes and withdrew to northern Italy, where he died shortly thereafter. His only child was a daughter, and the elder male line of the Carolingian dynasty thus expired with him." 2
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