Charles II the Bald

Charles the Bald (823–877) was the first king of the West Franks, whose realm later became France. The youngest son of Louis the Pious and a grandson of Charlemagne, his nickname may have been a joke at his lack of land. After Louis died in 840 he warred with Emperor Lothair I, and the Treaty of Verdun in 843 gave him the western kingdom.

His reign was a long fight on every border. The Vikings sacked Paris in 845 and he paid dearly for their retreat, while his Edict of Pistres in 864 ordered fortified river bridges.

After Emperor Louis II died in 875, Pope John VIII crowned Charles emperor in Rome on 25 December. Ill and abandoned by his nobles, he died crossing the Alps in October 877; his bearers could not endure the stench and buried him hastily. His son Louis the Stammerer succeeded him.