[1] It was on Wagner's advice that the king appointed Hohenlohe prime
minister in 1866. See Hohenlohe-Schillingfurst, Prince Chlodwig zu,
under HOHENLOHE. [ED.]
[2] Hohenlohe (_Denkwürdigkeiten_) comments on the fact that the king
did not even take the trouble to review the troops proceeding to the
war. [ED.]
LOUIS II.[1] (846-879), king of France, called "le Bègue" or "the
Stammerer," was a son of Charles II. the Bald, Roman emperor and king of
the West Franks, and was born on the 1st of November 846. After the
death of his elder brother Charles in 866 he became king of Aquitaine,
and in October 877 he succeeded his father as king of the West Franks,
but not as emperor. Having made extensive concessions to the nobles both
clerical and lay, he was crowned king by Hincmar, archbishop of Reims,
on the 8th of December following, and in September 878 he took advantage
of the presence of Pope John VIII. at the council of Troyes to be
consecrated afresh. After a feeble and ineffectual reign of eighteen
months Louis died at Compiègne on the 10th or 11th of April 879. The
king is described as "un homme simple et doux, aimant la paix, la
justice et la religion." By his first wife, Ansgarde, a Burgundian
princess, he had two sons, his successors, Louis III. and Carloman; by
his second wife, Adelaide, he had a posthumous son, Charles the Simple,
who also became king of France. (A. W. H.*)