DBWI: Louis I had more than one surviving son?

In retrospect, Louis I was pretty damn lucky. Frankish tradition during Charlemagne, which was passed on to good ol' Pious, was to basically split land between their sons. Since he had no sons survive childbirth but Lothair (who then had a ton of daughters but only one son), there was nobody to split it with for four generations in total. What if this weren't the case?

My contribution to the topic is that there probably would be a much later invention of primogeniture. Louis I really helped out with that greatly (splitting land with Lothair II's theoretical sons as viceroys with only one emperor, that being the firstborn), but it wasn't until the empire was kept relatively intact for a fourth time when things solidified. Having that process cut off at the head would probably complicate things a lot.
 
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Any takers? I'm not an expert on feudal government, but I'm sure there's a lot of material to work with.
 
Any takers? I'm not an expert on feudal government, but I'm sure there's a lot of material to work with.
You know that Louis was lucky since his son was on the brink of revolt more than once. Otl, he staved him off by sending him to Jutland and Bohemia to enlarge the empire, but with more sons it might not be possible. Any sons vs father revolts would be disastrous, especially if the sons win.
Either way, I'm interested since OTL was one hell of a Frankwank. And I'm a Frankman so.....
How many sons are you thinking of ?
 
How many sons are you thinking of ?

Even one more would probably cause a hell of a lot of problems for the Carolingian Empire. There are still pieces of Louis's diaries that said that he'd probably stop his reforms if he had any more sons survive childbirth. Those reforms were basically essential to keeping things together after Hugh I. I seem to recall Aquitaine and Italy being among the first areas on the chopping block if Louis I did have more than one son. If that did happen, this ATL Carolingian Empire would still be a pretty large and strong state. It's just that those one or two areas wouldn't be Frankicized to nearly the extent they were OTL.

Then again, you have the possible revolts. That could always throw things up in the air.
 
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