Toynbee "Carlo_5"
Charles, duke of Lorraine, fourth son of Louis IV of France (936-954), and brother of Lothair (954-986). On the death, without issue, of Louis V (986-987), eldest son of Lothair, the rightful successor to the throne was his uncle, Charles, who was the last remaining representative of the Carolingian line; but owing to the fact that, as duke of Lorraine, he was a vassal of the German emperor, the French would not accept him as king. The throne was thereupon seized by Hugh Capet, who besieged Charles in Laon, took him prisoner, and kept him in captivity until his death in 992.

Charles of Lorraine is alluded to by Hugh Capet (whom D. appears to have confounded with his father, Hugh the Great), who (in Circle V of Purgatory) says that when the 'ancient kings' had come to an end fuor ch'un renduto in panni bigi (i.e. with the exception of one who became a monk), he was so powerful that his own son (if Hugh Capet is the speaker, this must be Robert II, who was crowned in 980 -- if Hugh the Great, the son, of course, is Hugh Capet) was promoted to the vacant throne and thus commenced the Capetian line of kings, [Purg. xx. 53-60] [Capeti: Ciappetta, Ugo].

The difficulty here is that Charles of Lorraine, who is undoubtedly the person intended, did not become a monk. There can hardly be a question, however, that D. has confused him, the last of the Carolingians, with Childeric III, the last of the Merovingians, who, after his deposition by Pepin le Bref in 752, was confined in the monastery of Sithieu, where he died in 755. [Childerico.]

Stefano papa secondo . . . fece al detto Pipino molti brivilegi e grazie, e fecelo e confermò re dì Francia, e dispuose Ilderigo re ch'era della prima schiatta perocch'era uomo di niuno valore, e rendési monaco. ({Villani, ii. 12}.)

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press