May 20, AD 839

Partition of Worms (839)

Louis the Pious's final partition at Worms

Lothair got back into the inheritance by falling publicly at his father's feet — then chose the eastern half because it came with Italy.

30 May 839, not 20 May

The assembly convened at Worms on 30 May 839. Some derivative timelines give 20 May, but the modern scholarly edition of Nithard states that the meeting began on the 30th.

Lothair publicly submitted to and reconciled with his father, Emperor Louis the Pious.

Pippin I of Aquitaine's death in December 838 had reopened the succession question, and Louis the German was in rebellion.

Two shares, not three

Louis ordered nearly the entire empire divided into two principal shares, for Lothair and for Charles the Bald. Lothair was allowed to choose and selected the eastern share, which included Italy; Charles received the western share.

Louis the German was restricted to Bavaria rather than given East Francia, and Pippin II of Aquitaine was excluded from the settlement altogether.

This was not the three-way division later enacted at Verdun, and its lines were not the later borders of Middle, East and West Francia.

A plan, not a transfer

Louis remained emperor, so the settlement was a succession plan rather than an immediate transfer of sovereignty. He died on 20 June 840.

Charles was placed under Lothair's promised protection.

The excluded claimants did not accept the arrangement, and it failed to secure a peaceful succession.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 0839-05-30.

What the sources leave uncertain

Some derivative timelines give 20 May, but the modern scholarly edition of Nithard states that the Worms meeting began on 30 May 839.
The settlement’s boundaries were a succession plan, not the later borders of Middle, East and West Francia.
No original instrument of this 839 partition survives in the consulted material; its terms are reconstructed from narrative sources.