Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
NameLothar II King Of Lorraine, 34G Grandfather
FatherLothar I Holy Roman Emperor (~795-855)
MotherIrmengard Of Tours Holy Roman Empress (~800-851)
Spouses
1Waldrada, 34G Grandmother
ChildrenGisela Of Lorraine (860-<907)
Bertha (Illegitimate) (~863-925)
Web Notes notes for Lothar II King Of Lorraine
The following is from the Smithsonian magazine, March 1998, "The Long Good-Bye" by Barbara Holland, p. 90:
The ninth century introduced the first important male on record who had trouble unloading his wife. Charlemagne's great-grandson Lothair II, king of Lotharingia (now Lorraine), was married to Theutberga, who was childless. Lothair wanted to marry his old girlfriend Waldrada, because they'd had kids together. He filed for divorce, claiming that before their marriage Theurberga had been unchaste with her brother Hicbert. The church was skeptical, especially since Lothair had given her the Morgengabe, or morning-after gift, meaning she'd been a virgin on her wedding night.
Lothair was no gentleman. He alleged that her brother's doubly unnatural attentions had left her a virgin, and worse, she had resorted to witchcraft to conceive a child by him anyway, then changed her mind and aborted it.
Theutberga insisted on a trial by ordeal, and hired the customary stand-in to jump into boiling water for her. He hopped out unboiled, thus proving her innocence. Disappointed, Lothair clapped her into the dungeon to make her confess. She did, to the king's personal chaplain-or so the chaplain said. The church granted Lothair an annulment and he moved in with Waldrada. Then, heeding the advice of Hincmar, the archbishop fo Reims, the church changed its mind.
During the process Hincmar hammered out a clarification that would stand for a thousand years. Marriage, he declared, was both a religious and a civil contract, and divorce required both religious and civil consent. The archbishop believed in permanent, faithful marriages, because he felt this provided a lifestyle so inherently boring it gave a man leisure to contemplate his soul's salvation. New wives and concubines were far too distracting.
Lothair got another divorce with the help of another set of bishops and married Waldrada anyway, but Pope Nicholas I canceled the divorce, warning Lothair that even if he killed Theutberga he still couldn't marry Waldrada - because they'd committed adultery.
The whole mess lasted eight years. One by one the church shot down the king's perfectly acceptable grounds for divorce: barrenness, incest, unnatural sex, adultery, witchcraft, abortion, and his previous commitment to Waldrada. In a last-ditch stand he said Theutberga wanted to enter a convent, always a clincher divorce-wise. Perhaps to his surprise, she did. But so did Waldrada. Possibly the same convent. She must have been fed up. Lothair died without legal heirs and his uncles moved in and divided up the country. Hincmar held the case up as warning to all men: marriage is forever.
The ninth century introduced the first important male on record who had trouble unloading his wife. Charlemagne's great-grandson Lothair II, king of Lotharingia (now Lorraine), was married to Theutberga, who was childless. Lothair wanted to marry his old girlfriend Waldrada, because they'd had kids together. He filed for divorce, claiming that before their marriage Theurberga had been unchaste with her brother Hicbert. The church was skeptical, especially since Lothair had given her the Morgengabe, or morning-after gift, meaning she'd been a virgin on her wedding night.
Lothair was no gentleman. He alleged that her brother's doubly unnatural attentions had left her a virgin, and worse, she had resorted to witchcraft to conceive a child by him anyway, then changed her mind and aborted it.
Theutberga insisted on a trial by ordeal, and hired the customary stand-in to jump into boiling water for her. He hopped out unboiled, thus proving her innocence. Disappointed, Lothair clapped her into the dungeon to make her confess. She did, to the king's personal chaplain-or so the chaplain said. The church granted Lothair an annulment and he moved in with Waldrada. Then, heeding the advice of Hincmar, the archbishop fo Reims, the church changed its mind.
During the process Hincmar hammered out a clarification that would stand for a thousand years. Marriage, he declared, was both a religious and a civil contract, and divorce required both religious and civil consent. The archbishop believed in permanent, faithful marriages, because he felt this provided a lifestyle so inherently boring it gave a man leisure to contemplate his soul's salvation. New wives and concubines were far too distracting.
Lothair got another divorce with the help of another set of bishops and married Waldrada anyway, but Pope Nicholas I canceled the divorce, warning Lothair that even if he killed Theutberga he still couldn't marry Waldrada - because they'd committed adultery.
The whole mess lasted eight years. One by one the church shot down the king's perfectly acceptable grounds for divorce: barrenness, incest, unnatural sex, adultery, witchcraft, abortion, and his previous commitment to Waldrada. In a last-ditch stand he said Theutberga wanted to enter a convent, always a clincher divorce-wise. Perhaps to his surprise, she did. But so did Waldrada. Possibly the same convent. She must have been fed up. Lothair died without legal heirs and his uncles moved in and divided up the country. Hincmar held the case up as warning to all men: marriage is forever.