Charles I the Bald (jun 21, 840 – oct 6, 877)

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the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith. His elder brothers Lothair, Pepin, and Louis were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father by the time he was born. The attempts made by Louis to assign Charles a subkingdom were unsuccessful and the death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks (basically what is now France); Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title, the Kingdom of Italy, and the central regions from Flanders. In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles' dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia. After the death of Louis the German in 876, Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at the Battle of Andernach (876). He was succeeded by his son Louis II the Stammerer.

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