In 865 the partition of East Francia "along ethnic lines" which Louis had been preparing was publicised at Frankfurt: all three of his sons had been given positions of importance along the frontiers and had been married into the local aristocracy of the regions marked out for them.
By the 870s, according to the Annales Bertiniani, at the time being composed by Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, Carloman's mother, Emma, was encouraging her husband to favour Carloman over his brothers.