The last true Carolingian ruler of the east Franks, Louis the Child (893-911) was the son of the Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia. He was born in 893 in Altoetting, Bavaria. During his reign, the country was practically destroyed by Magyar raids.

Louis' death essentially brought the end of the eastern part of the Frankish Empire. The vacuum left in the Carolingian east was eventually filled by the family of Henry the Fowler, a distant cousin, and heralded the beginning of the Ottonian dynasty.