Between 481 and 843 AD, Western Europe had a feudal kingdom founded by the Franks, the Frankish Kingdom. The dynasties of the Frankish kingdom can be divided into the Merovingian dynasty (481-751) and the Carolingian dynasty (751-843), and the Carolingian dynasty was also known as the "Charlemagne Empire" in its heyday.
Leading the carolingian dynasty's outward expansion was Charles the Great, who, in the name of aiding Pope Hadrian, sent troops to destroy the Lombard kingdom and expand his power to northern and central Italy. Later, he waged several wars against the Saxons and conquered Bavaria, defeating the Slavs and Avars, and bringing the power of the Charlemagne Empire to the Baltic Sea in the north and the western part of Eastern Europe in the Adriatic Sea in the south. In 800 AD, Charlemagne was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III.
But we are not going to talk today about Charlemagne, but about his youngest son, Louis the Pious. Charlemagne had made a will, hoping that after his death, the empire would be divided equally among three orthodox sons of marriage: Charles, Pepin (known as "Pepin of Italy"), and Louis the Pious. However, within a few years of making his will, Charles and Pepin of Italy died one after another, so Louis the Pious took the inheritance of the entire empire alone, and in 814 inherited the throne of his deceased father, becoming Louis I.
Louis the Pious decided to follow his father's example and divide the country equally among his 3 sons. His eldest son Lothair I was King and Co-Emperor of Italy, his second son Pepin was King of Aquitaine, and his third son, Louis ii of Germany (Louis II), was King of Bavaria. After the "division of the land", the three brothers and their father Louis the Pious man all had a good life and did not have any contradictions.
Soon after, however, Louis the Pious gave birth to another child, Charles the Bald, and he called in his sons, hoping to get some of the land back from them and give it to the young Bald Charles. But the proposal was strongly opposed by three sons, who united to imprison their father and half-brother with the support of the Pope.
But no matter how much trouble, a family is still a family after all. Within two years, the three sons released them, and Louis, the pious man who had been restored to the throne, did not mention the division of the land any longer, and the days were quiet for a while.
Soon after, However, Pepin, the second son of King Aquitaine, died again, and the situation became tense again. Louis the Pious felt that Charles the Bald could succeed Pepin, and this time the other two sons had no problem, but the nobles of Aquitaine refused to agree, and they tried to install Pepin's son as the second in order to defend their inherent rights, so the civil war broke out again.
In 840, Louis I died in "family discord", and his eldest son Lothair I became the new honorary king of the Frankish kingdom. But Lothair I had his own mind, and he planned to merge the divided lands again and take them for himself, which made Louis II and Charles the Bald very dissatisfied.
So the two formed an alliance and began to confront Lothair I, and in the end Lothair I was defeated and could only seek peace.
Later, Lothair I, Louis II and Charles the Bald signed the Treaty of Verdun in Verdun, dividing up the land left by their father equally, forming the Kingdom of West Francia, the Kingdom of Middle Francia and the Kingdom of East Francia. In 870, after the adjustment of the Treaty of Morsen, these three countries became the prototypes of the three developed countries of France, Italy and Germany.