LUIGI V, called the Fainéant, king of FRANCIA. — Son of Lothair and Emma, born in 967, died at Reims on 22 May 987, he was able, despite his nineteen years, to succeed his father without opposition, withstand his mother’s Germanic influence—she was the daughter of Otto the Great—and humiliate Adalberon, archbishop of Reims. His premature death, without heirs, broke the resurgent power of the French Carolingians and left the field open to the ambition of Hugh Capet.
BIBL.: V. BIBLICA. voci Luigi II, III, IV, and especially, F. Lot, op. cit.; E. Lavisse, Hist. de France, II, 1, Paris 1903, pp. 411–412; J. Dhondt, art. cit. sotto Luigi IV. Guglielmo Mollat