Lower Lorraine

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Lotharingia (yellow), as established by the Treaty of Verdun, 843, and reduced by the Treaty of Mersen, 870

The Duchy of Lower Lorraine or Lower Lotharingia encompassed part of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany west of the Rhine, and a part of northern France (east of the Schelde). It was created out of the former Carolingian kingdom of Lotharingia. The kingdom was divided for much of the later ninth century, reunited under the French king Charles the Simple in 910. From there it formed a duchy which eventually declared homage to the German king Henry the Fowler (c.923), an act which the French monarchs were helpless to revert, and Lotharingia (or Lorraine) became a German stem duchy. In 959, the Duke Bruno divided the duchy into two margravates (or vice-duchies): Lower and Upper Lorraine (or Lower and Upper Lotharingia). Lower Lorraine was to the north (lower down the river system) and Upper Lorraine was to the south (further up the river system).

The duchies took very separate paths thereafter and were only briefly reunited under Gothelo I from 1033 to 1044. After that, the Lower duchy was quickly marginalised. Upper Lorraine came to be known as simply Lorraine.

The ducal title was granted to the lord of Bouillon in 1087 and, in 1106, to the count of Leuven. The duke of Brabant inherited the duchy in 1190, but the Duchy of Lower Lorraine lost its territorial authority at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall. The remnant imperial fief was later called the Duchy of Lothier (or Lothryk).