Notes:

Engelberga (or Angilberga, died between 896 and 901) was the wife of Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor, from 5 October 851 to his death on 12 August 875. As empress, she exerted a powerful influence over her husband. Her family, the Supponids, prospered during Louis's reign. Engelberga was probably the daughter of Adelchis I of Parma.

In 868, she became abbess of San Salvatore, Brescia, a convent with a history of royal abbesses. In 896, she became abbess of her own foundation of San Sisto in Piacenza.

In January 872, the aristocracy tried to have her removed, as she had not borne the emperor any sons. Instead, Louis opened negotiations with Louis the German, King of East Francia, to make him his heir. In order to sideline Engelberga, the nobility elected Charles the Bald, King of West Francia, on Louis's death. Boso V of Arles, a faithful of Charles, kidnapped Engelberga and her only surviving daughter, Ermengard. He forced the latter to marry him in June 876, at the same time he was made Charles' governor in Italy with the title of dux.

With Engelberga's backing, Boso declare himself King of Provence on 15 October 879. Subsequently, Engelberga was banished to Swabia. After Charles the Fat's forces took Vienne in 882, Engelberga was allowed to return to Italy and confirmed in her possessions.

Engelberga — Louis, II of Italy. Louis (son of Lothair, Holy Roman Emperor I and Ermengarde of Tours) was born 825; died 12 Aug 875, Ghedi, Brescia, Lombardia, Italy. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Ermengard (also Ermengarda, Ermengarde, or Irmingard) was the only surviving daughter of Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor. In 876, she married Boso, from the Bosonid, Count of Vienne, who declared himself King of Provence in 879.

In May 878, she and her husband sheltered Pope John VIII, who was taking refuge from the Saracens, in Arles. After her husband's coup d'état in October 879, she helped defend his cities from her Carolingian relatives. In 880, she successfully defended Vienne itself, the capital, from the combined forces of Charles the Fat and the co-ruling kings of France, Louis III and Carloman. In August 881, the newly-crowned Emperor Charles the Fat pillaged and burned Vienne, forcing Ermengard and her children to take refuge in Autun with her brother-in-law Richard, Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, Boso fled into Provence.

On Boso's death in January 887, the Provençal barons elected Ermengard to act as his regent, with the support of Richard. In May, Ermengard travelled with her son Louis to the court of Charles the Fat, and received his recognition of the young Louis as king. Charles adopted Louis as his son and put both mother and son under his protection. In May 889, she travelled to Charles' successor, Arnulf, to make submission anew.

Through her marriage to Boso, Ermengard also had two daughters and one son:

Ermengard (c. 877-917), who married Manasses, Count of Chalon
Engelberga, who married William the Pious, Count of Auvergne.
Louis the Blind

Ermengard married Boso of Provence 876. Boso (son of Bivin of Gorze, son of Bivin of Gorze and Richildis) died 887. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Louis the Blind (c. 880 - 28 June 928) was the king of Provence from January 11, 887, King of Italy from October 12, 900, and briefly Holy Roman Emperor, as Louis III, between 901 and 905. He was the son of Boso, the usurper king of Provence, and Ermengard, a daughter of the Emperor Louis II. Through his father, he was a Bosonid, but through his mother, a Carolingian. He was blinded after a failed invasion of Italy in 905.

Early Reign

As a boy of seven, Louis succeeded to the throne of his father Boso, the King of Provence upon Boso’s death on 11 January 887. The kingdom Louis inherited was much smaller than his father’s, as it did not include Upper Burgundy (lost to Rudolph I of Burgundy), nor any of French Burgundy, absorbed by Richard the Justiciar, Duke of Burgundy. This meant that the kingdom of Provence was restricted to the environs of Vienne. The Provençal barons elected Ermengard to act as his regent, with the support of Louis's uncle, Richard the Justiciar.

In May, Ermengard traveled with Louis to the court of her relative, the emperor Charles the Fat, and received his recognition of the young Louis as king. Charles adopted Louis as his son and put both mother and son under his protection. In May 889, she traveled to the court of Charles' successor, Arnulf, to make a new submission, while at the same time seeking the blessing of Pope Stephen V. The short work, Visio Karoli Grossi, may have been written shortly after Charles' death to support Louis's claim. If so, Louis must have had the support of Fulk the Venerable, Archbishop of Reims. On the other hand, the Visio may have been written later, circa 901, to celebrate (and support) Louis's imperial coronation.

In August 890, at the Diet of Valence, a council of bishops and feudatories of the realm, after hearing the recommendation of the pope, and receiving notification of Charles the Fat’s previous agreement to the proposition, proclaimed Louis as King of Arles, Provence, and Cisjurane Burgundy. In 894, Louis himself did homage to Arnulf.

In 896, Louis waged war on the Saracens. Throughout his reign he fought with these Muslim warriors, who had established a base at Fraxinet in 889, and had been raiding the coast of Provence, alarming the local nobility.

Conflict with Berengar

In 900, Louis, as the grandson and heir of the Emperor Louis II, was invited into Italy by various lords, including Adalbert II of Tuscany, who were suffering under the ravages of the Magyars and the incompetent rule of Berengar I. Louis thus marched his army across the Alps and defeated Berengar, chasing him from Pavia, the old Lombard capital, where, in the church of San Michele, he was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy on 12 October, 900. He travelled onwards to Rome, where, in 901, he was crowned Emperor by Pope Benedict IV. However, his inability to stem the Magyar incursions and impose any meaningful control over northern Italy saw the Italian nobles quickly abandon his cause and once again align themselves with Berengar. The next year (902), however, Berengar defeated Louis's armies and forced him to flee to Provence and promise never to return.

In 905, Louis, after again listening to the Italian nobles who were tired of Berengar’s rule, this time led by Adalbert I of Ivrea, launched another attempt to invade Italy. Once again throwing Berengar out of Pavia, he marched and also succeeded in taking Verona with only a small following, after receiving the promise of support from the bishop, Adalard. Partisans of Berengar in the town soon got word to Berengar of Louis’s exposed position at Verona, and his somewhat limited support. Berengar returned, accompanied by Bavarian troops, and entered Verona in the dead of night. Louis sought sanctuary at the church of St Peter, but he was captured, and on 21 July 905, he had his eyes put out (for breaking his oath) and was forced to relinquish his royal Italian and imperial crowns. Later, Berengar became Emperor. After this last attempt to restore Carolingian power over Italy, Louis continued to rule Provence for many more years, though his cousin Hugh, Count of Arles, was the dominant figure in the territory.

Louis returned to Vienne, his capital, and by 911, he had put most of the royal powers in the hands of Hugh. Hugh was made Margrave of Provence and Marquis of Vienne and moved the capital to Arles. As regent, Hugh married Louis's sister Willa. Louis lived out his days until his death in obscurity, and to his dying day, he still continued to style himself as Roman Emperor. He was succeeded by his brother-in-law in 928.

Marriages and heirs

In 899, Louis III was betrothed to Anna, the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise and his second wife, Zoe Zaoutzaina. This occurred shortly before the fall of Taormina to the Arabs, and was part of extended diplomatic activities meant to strengthen Byzantine alliances with the western powers to preserve Byzantine territory in southern Italy.

The question of whether the betrothal was ever followed up by an actual marriage is still a matter of some controversy. Louis fathered a son called Charles-Constantine, who would become Count of Vienne. Charles' mother is not named in any sources. There has been modern speculation, most notably by Christian Settipani on his work Nos Ancêtres de l' Antiquité, that she was Anna, the daughter of Leo VI and Zoe Zaoutzaina, based both upon the documented betrothal, as well on the onomastic evidence, stating that Charles-Constantine's name points to a Byzantine mother.

Detractors of the theory point out that when Anna was born, however, she was the daughter of a concubine who later became Empress. Her father, at the time of Charles' birth was the reigning Emperor, therefore the silence of primary sources works against this theory. In addition Liutprand of Cremona, makes no mention of this, and it would have been very interesting to him, given that he was a thorough gossip, had been ambassador to Constantinople and devoted several chapters to the misadventures of Louis in Italy with no mention of these Byzantine connections. René Poupardin believed that Constantine was not a baptism name, but Settipani denies that. Richer specifically stated that Charles' mother's line (without naming her) was tainted with illegitimacy and mentioned nothing of her supposed illustrious Byzantine parentage.

Christian Settipani challenges that theory by stating that the only reason why René Poupardin made him a bastard of Louis III was solely based on a passage by Richer claiming that Charles Constantine (...) was from a royal race, but which nobility had been vilified by a bastard ancestry remounting to his great-great-grandfather, proving nothing about Charles-Constantine's mother. He finally asserts this Byzantine ancestry based on a letter by Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos discovered by byzantinists, in which he testifies that Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium, father of Constantine VII, had united his daughter to a Frank Prince, a cousin of Berta (of Tuscia), to whom came later a great misfortune. That unfortunate Prince could only be Louis III, whose mother Irmingardis was a first cousin of Berta de Tuscia and who was blinded on 21 July 905. Such a union would also account for the mention of Greek merchants in Louis’ privilege of 921.

In 914, Louis entered a second union, which would then be either his first or second marriage, by marrying Adelaide, daughter of Rudolph I of Upper Burgundy.

Louis — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Charles-Constantine (died 962) was the Count of Vienne, son of Louis the Blind, King of Provence, and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Name and maternity

About his name, he was never called "Charles Constantine". Rather Flodoard, copied later by Richar, calls him "Constantinus". We know that his proper name was "Carolus" (Charles) from a diploma of his father, and from his own charters. Modern scholars have typically called him Charles Constantine, but this was not a name used during his lifetime.

Some modern genealogical scholars speculated that his mother was Anna of Constantinople, daughter of Leo VI the Wise and his second wife Zoe Zaoutzaina. However, his father's marriage to this princess is much disputed and rather unlikely. Christian Settipani postulates that his name refers to the founders of the empires governed by his father and maternal grandfather, i.e., to Charlemagne and Constantine the Great.

Regarding his birthyear, or age, we have few datapoints. He was Count of Vienne and acting as an adult by (but not in) December 927. This evidences that his father must have had a prior union. Some speculation would place him born in 901/3 but this is just a force-fit to allow Anna to be his mother and his father's wife.

Life

When Charles' father Louis died in 929, Hugh of Arles, who was already king of Italy, took over Provence and gave it, in 933, to King Rudolf II of Burgundy. Charles-Constantine for whatever reason, could not inherit his father's right to the imperial throne or his right to rule Provence. This has led many to believe he was, in fact, a bastard. He did however rule the county of the Viennois, until his death in 962.

He was married to Thiberge de Troyes. It has been speculated that Constance, wife to Boso II of Arles and grandmother of Queen Constance of Arles, was their daughter. Through her, Charles Constantine would be an ancestor of the Capetian kings of France and the Norman and Plantagenet kings of England (through Queen Constance's daughter Adela Capet, and Adela's daughter Queen Matilda of Flanders, who married William the Conqueror).

Charles — Thiberge de Troyes. [Group Sheet]