Treaty of Verdun

Follow the story · Four stages

1. 01

   Background

   The empire built by Charlemagne faced tension between Christian unity and dynastic partition, while civil wars and political rearrangement continued during the 830s.

   • Succession became contested after Louis the Pious died
   • Civil war exhausted the realm
   • Nobles and clergy helped mediate the partition

   
2. 02

   Course

   Lothair I, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald negotiated a division using political boundaries associated with rivers such as the Rhine and Rhône.

   • Negotiations took place at Verdun in 843
   • Territory and rights were marked out
   • An agreement among three kings defined a new order

   
3. 03

   Outcome

   Middle, West, and East Francia emerged, creating a framework that later became connected to the political geographies of Italy, France, and Germany.

   • The Frankish realm divided into three kingdoms
   • The middle kingdom proved unstable over time
   • The political geography of western Europe retained the partition

   
4. 04

   Historical significance

   The treaty was not a direct founding moment for modern states, but it reveals the tension between treating an empire as one inheritance and governing it through divided kingdoms.

   • It exposed the limits of Carolingian imperial rule
   • It shows how inheritance and partition shape states
   • It influenced the later formation of western European polities