Treaty of Verdun, peace concluded in 843 at the free imperial city of Verdun (now a town in France) between the three surviving sons of the Carolingian emperor Louis I (the Pious), who had died in 840. The treaty ended a struggle among the brothers for possession of the Frankish empire consolidated by their grandfather Charlemagne. Under the terms of the agreement, the empire was divided into three parts, thus ending the brief unification of western Europe. The oldest son, Lothair I, who had succeeded his father as Holy Roman emperor, received the central portion of the empire, including Italy, the Low Countries, Alsace, Lorraine, and Burgundy. Louis II, called The German, was given control of the eastern Frankish Kingdom, which came to be known as Germany. Charles the Bald, later Holy Roman emperor as Charles II, received the western Frankish Kingdom, which became the kingdom of France. See Carolingian; Holy Roman Empire.