LUIGI II, the Stammerer, king of FRANCIA. - Son of Carlo il Calvo and Ermentrude, b. 1 Nov. 846, d. at Compiègne on 11 Apr. 879.
He ascended the throne of Francia upon his father’s death in 877. With him the Carolingians of Francia definitively renounced Italy and the Empire, although Pope Giovanni VIII himself had gone to Troyes to renew the coronation performed by Incmaro, archbishop of Reims. L. II reigned only by the goodwill of the prelates and the Greats, and was compelled to leave the practical administration of government in the hands of the palace archchaplain, Abbot Ugo, and to grant lands and privileges to the Greats of the kingdom. He died while attempting to suppress a revolt in Aquitania.
BIBL.: F. Lot, Les derniers Carolingiens, Parigi 1891; E. Lavisse, Hist. de France, II, 1, ibid. 1903, pp. 390-91; J. Calmette, L'effondrement d'un Empire et la naissance d'une Europe, ibid. 1941; L. Halphen, Charlemagne et l'Empire Carolingien, Parigi 1947, with bibliography; Fliche-Martin-Fruta, VI, pp. 441-448. Guglielmo Mollat