CARLO III, IMPERATORE, RE D'ALEMAGNA, DETTO IL GROSSO

CARLO III, EMPEROR, king of Germany, surnamed the Fat. — Third son of Ludovico the German, born in 830. As prince, he contested Lorraine with Carlo the Bald (872), and at the death of Emperor Ludovico II he attempted in vain to occupy Italy (875). The following year, upon the death of his father, he became king of Germany. After repeated entreaties from Pope John VIII, who saw in him the restorer of peace in the peninsula, then prey to grave disorders, he descended into Italy in 880, where he was recognized as king, and the next year, on his second descent, was proclaimed emperor. Upon the death of his brother Ludovico of Saxony, he inherited his possessions, which he increased in 885 through the succession to the kingdom of France, thus gathering into his hands nearly all the territories of his great-great-grandfather Charlemagne, though lacking both his mind and energy. He offered feeble resistance to the Normans, who grew ever bolder, especially on the Scheldt; but, weak and irresolute, at the placitum of Tribur he was deposed and his nephew Arnolfo recognized in his stead. On 13 January 888 he died at Neidingen on the Danube, and with him the line of Carolingian emperors came to an end.