Middle Francia

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Kingdom of Middle Francia Francia media (Latin)
843–855
Middle Francia in green
Capital	Aachen
Official languages	Medieval Latin
Common languages	Old Dutch Old Frisian Old French Old Occitan Old Low German Old High German Gallo-Italic
Religion	Catholic (official) Germanic religion
Government	Monarchy
King
• 843–855	Lothair I (first and last)
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Treaty of Verdun	843
• Treaty of Prüm	855
Area
• Total	350.000 km2 (135.136 sq mi)
Currency	Denier
Preceded by Succeeded by Francia Kingdom of Italy Kingdom of Provence Lotharingia

Middle Francia (Latin: Francia media) was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Francia was allocated to emperor Lothair I, the eldest son and successor of emperor Louis the Pious. His realm contained the imperial cities of Aachen (the residence of Charlemagne) and Pavia, but lacked any geographic or cultural cohesion, which prevented it from surviving and forming a nucleus of a larger state, as was the case with West Francia (which became the Kingdom of France) and East Francia (which became the Kingdom of Germany).

Middle Francia was situated between the realms of East and West Francia, and comprised the Frankish territory between the rivers Rhine and Scheldt, the Frisian coast of the North Sea, the former Kingdom of Burgundy (except for a western portion, later known as Bourgogne) and Provence, as well as parts of northern Italy. Following the 855 partition, 'Middle Francia' became only a geographic term and the bulk of its territory was reorganised as Lotharingia, named after Lothair I's namesake son. One of the reasons Middle Francia was a short-lived state, is due to the geographic situation between two more powerful states, which had much greater influence in Europe than Middle Francia.