A Necessary Divorce? One of the best-known cases of a contested marriage in the early Middle Ages—involving Lothar II, King of Lotharingia (Lorraine), and his wife, Theutberga—illustrates the tensions between the secular and ecclesiastical visions of marriage and the issues that were at stake on both sides. In 858 Lothar sought to divorce Theutberga because she had not borne him children. He wanted to marry his concubine, Waldrada, so that he could legitimize the children he had had by her and thus secure the inheritance of his kingdom. This practice had been common among the European aristocracy, who needed to assure an heir in order to avoid civil war and unrest on a leader's death. In Lothar's case his uncles were prepared to split Lorraine between them if their nephew remained without a legitimate...