LUIGI III, king of FRANCE. — Son of Louis II the Stammerer and of Ansgarde, born c. 863, died at Saint-Denis on 10 Aug. 882. During his reign the power of the king continued to weaken and the kingdom to fragment.
After a rivalry ending in war, the nobles and the bishops resorted to the old custom of hereditary partition, electing the two sons of Louis the Stammerer, L. III and Carloman. Yet this proved insufficient, for L. III still had to placate his cousin Louis the Younger, son of Louis the German, by ceding him Lorraine. L. III, who ruled over northern France, also had to contend with the Northmen who advanced from the estuary of the Scheldt as far as Reims (victory at Saucourt-en-Vimeu) and with the usurper Boso, who sought to carve out a kingdom for himself in Burgundy and Provence at Carloman’s expense.