Lower Lorraine

Lotharingia (yellow), as established by the Treaty of Verdun, 843, and reduced by the Treaty of Mersen, 870

The Duchy of Lower Lorraine or Lower Lotharingia encompassed part of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany west of the Rhine, and a part of northern France (east of the Schelde). It was created out of the former Carolingian kingdom of Lotharingia. The kingdom was divided for much of the later ninth century, reunited under the French king Charles the Simple in 910. From there it formed a duchy which eventually declared homage to the German king Henry the Fowler (c.923), an act which the French monarchs were helpless to revert and Lotharingia (or Lorraine) becomes a German stem duchy. In 959, the Duke Bruno divided the duchy into two margraviates (or vice-duchies): Lower and Upper Lorraine (or Lower and Upper Lotharingia).

The duchies took very separate paths thereafter and were only briefly reunited under Gothelo I from 1033 to 1044. After that, the Lower duchy is quickly marginalised. Upper Lorraine came to be known as simply Lorraine.

The ducal title was granted to the lord of Bouillon in 1087 and, in 1106, to the count of Leuven. The duke of Brabant inherited the duchy in 1190, but the duchy of lost its territorial authority at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall. The remnant imperial fief was later called the Duchy of Lothier (or Lothryk).

Territories of Lower Lorraine

After the territorial integrity of the duchy was shattered, many fiefdoms grew out of the territory its dukes once ruled.

• Bishopric of Liège
• Bishopric of Utrecht
• Bishopric of Cambrai
• Duchy of Cleves
• Duchy of Jülich
• Duchy of Limburg
• Landgraviate of Brabant
• Landgraviate of Guelders, later Duchy (includes also the shire Teisterbant)
• Margraviate of Ename, later called Imperial Flanders or the county of Aalst
• Margraviate of Namur
• County of Hainault, including the margraviat of Valenciennes and the county of Bergen
• County of Holland
• County of Berg

Remained under the duchy of Lower Lorraine (Lothier):

• Margraviate of Antwerp
• County of Leuven and Brussels
• Duchy of Brabant

Donate to Wikimedia