What if Charlemagne's empire had not been divided at Verdun?
In 843 Charlemagne's grandsons split his empire in three. What if Lothair had kept it whole?
What actually happened
Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800 and ruled a realm from the Pyrenees to the Elbe. Frankish custom divided a king's lands among his sons, but in 817 his son Louis the Pious issued the Ordinatio imperii, making his eldest son Lothair co-emperor and heir to the whole, with his brothers as subordinate kings.
The plan did not survive Louis's own family. The birth of a fourth son, Charles (later the Bald), in 823 led to new divisions, rebellions and Louis's brief deposition in 833. When Louis died in 840, Lothair claimed supremacy; his brothers Louis the German and Charles allied against him and defeated him at Fontenoy (Fontenay-en-Puisaye) on 25 June 841, one of the bloodiest battles of the age. In 842 they swore the Oaths of Strasbourg, recorded in early forms of French and German.
In August 843, at Verdun, the brothers divided the empire: West Francia to Charles, East Francia to Louis, and a long middle kingdom from Frisia through Aachen and Burgundy to Italy, with the imperial title, to Lothair. The middle kingdom was itself divided among Lothair's sons in 855 and was soon fought over by its neighbours.
The turning point
The decisive moment was Fontenoy. Had Lothair won, his brothers would have had to accept him as overlord, as the 817 plan intended; contemporaries like the chronicler Nithard saw the battle as a judgement of God. The bishops of the empire, many of whom supported unity, were the other key players.
Historians caution against reading Verdun as the birth of France and Germany: nobody in 843 intended nations, and partition was normal Frankish practice. The empire was even briefly reunited under Charles the Fat in 884–887. The deeper question is whether any ruler could hold such a vast realm together with the resources of the ninth century, under constant Viking, Saracen and Magyar raids.
The world that might have been
In Crown & Plough the alternative reads: before the blood of Fontenoy had dried, the bishops stood between the brothers; what was settled at Verdun was not a partition but an order of rank. Lothair ruled the whole empire as emperor, and Louis and Charles became kings beneath him, so the order of 817 held. The game then removes the scripted partition events of Verdun and Prüm and the later separate founding of the Holy Roman Empire.
Beyond the game, a united Carolingian empire would have kept the imperial title tied to the Frankish heartland around Aachen rather than passing it to the East Frankish and later German kings. The French and German kingdoms might have developed as provinces of one empire, with Lotharingia, the lands between, not becoming the battleground it was for a thousand years.
Yet the same forces that undid the empire in reality would have worked on a united one: the growing power of counts and dukes, the need to defend long coasts against raiders, and the habit of dividing lands among heirs. Unity under Lothair might simply have postponed partition by a generation.
Ripples through time
A united Frankish empire stands behind Otto at the Lechfeld: in the game a Magyar victory in 955 becomes less likely, because part of the Frankish strength joins Otto's army.
If you continue into the Middle Ages (1200), the empire's crown still binds both banks of the Rhine: the King of France starts as a vassal of the Emperor, on good terms with him.
- Shapes What if the Magyars had won at the Lechfeld?
- Carries into the next era Middle Ages
Play this turning point
Start in the Age of Vikings and Coronations (800). The Currents of History story Treaty of Verdun invites you around 838–840; join Lothair's side to push for unity, or Louis the German's or Charles the Bald's side to keep the historical partition.
The two sides are treated as evenly matched here, so the chance of change rests mostly on the base odds and on your contribution: a lord or ruler who backs Lothair through the civil war can move it far more than a peasant.
Questions and answers
What did the Treaty of Verdun divide?
The Carolingian Empire, into West Francia (Charles the Bald), East Francia (Louis the German) and Middle Francia with Italy and the imperial title (Lothair I).
Is Verdun the origin of France and Germany?
It is often called that, and West and East Francia did grow into France and Germany. But historians stress that the treaty was a family partition by Frankish custom, not the creation of nations.
What were the Oaths of Strasbourg?
Oaths of alliance sworn in 842 by Louis the German and Charles the Bald against Lothair, recorded by Nithard in early Romance and Old High German; they are among the earliest texts in French.
Sources and further reading
Nithard, Histories; the Annals of St-Bertin. Modern accounts: Janet Nelson, Charles the Bald; Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians; Matthew Innes, An Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe.
← What if the Romans had won at Adrianople?What if Alfred the Great had lost at Edington? →