LUIGI II, the Bald, king of FRANCE. - Son of Charles the Bald and of Ermentrude, born on 1 Nov 1846, died at Compiègne on 11 Apr 1879.
He ascended the throne of France upon the death of his father in 1877. With him the Carolingians of France definitively renounced Italy and the Empire, despite the fact that Pope John VIII himself had gone to Troyes to renew the coronation performed by the archbishop of Reims, Incmaro. L. II reigned only by the goodwill of the prelates and the nobles, and was practically forced to leave the government in the hands of the palace archchaplain, Abbot Hugh, and to grant lands and privileges to the nobles of the realm. He died while attempting to suppress a revolt in Aquitaine.
BIBL.: F. Lot, Les derniers Carolingiens, Paris 1891; E. Lavisse, Hist. de France, II, 1, 1930, pp. 390-91; J. Calmette, L'effondrement d'un Empire et la naissance d'une Europe, 1914; L. Halphen, Charlemagne et l'Empire Carolingien, 1914-1941; Bibl.: Fliche-Martin-Fruta, VI, pp. 441-448. Guglielmo Mollat