Louis the Child, sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of East Francia from 899 until his death in 911 and was the last ruler of Carolingian dynasty there. He succeeded his father, king Arnulf of Carinthia in 899, when he was only six. Louis also inherited crown of Lotharingia with the death of his elder illegitimate half-brother Zwentibold in 900. During his reign the country was ravaged by Magyar raids.
Louis himself tried to take some military control as he grew older, but he had little success against the Magyars. His army was destroyed at Ennsburg in 907.
In a state of despair, Louis died at Frankfurt am Main on 20 or 24 September 911, only seventeen or eighteen years old. Louis was buried in the monastery of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg, where his father Arnulf of Carinthia lay. His death brought an end to the eastern (German) branch of the Carolingian dynasty.
The vacuum left in the Carolingian East was eventually filled in 919 by the family of Henry the Fowler, a cousin, and heralded the beginning of the Ottonian dynasty. However, in 911 the dukes of East Francia elected Conrad of Franconia as the king of East Francia, while the nobles of Lotharingia elected as their king Charles the Simple, king of West Francia. |