Guy, now Duke of Spoleto, is accused of treason at an imperial synod held at Nonantula late in May 883.

He returns to Spoleto and makes an alliance with the Saracens.

Charles sends Berengar, equipped with an army, to deprive Guy of Spoleto.

Berengar is initially successful until an epidemic of disease, which ravages all Italy, affecting the emperor and his entourage as well as Berengar's army, forces him to retire.

Charles, childless by his marriage to Richgard, tries to have his illegitimate son by an unknown concubine, Bernard, recognized as his heir in 885, but meets the opposition of several bishops.

He has the support of Pope Adrian III, whom he invites to an assembly in Worms in October 885, but who dies on the way, just after crossing the river Po.

Adrian was going to depose the obstructing bishops, as Charles doubted he could do this himself, and legitimize Bernard.

Based on the unfavoring attitude of the chronicler of the Mainz continuation of the Annales Fuldenses, the chief of Charles's opponents in the matter was probably Liutbert, Archbishop of Mainz.

Because Charles had called together the "bishops and counts of Gaul" as well as the pope to meet him at Worms, it seems likely that he planned to make Bernard King of Lotharingia.

Having set about to try again after the failure of his first attempt, Charles has had the term proles (offspring) inserted into his charters as it had not been in previous years, probably because he desires to legitimize Bernard.

Charles had met the new Pope, Stephen V, in early 886 and had probably negotiated for the recognition of his son as his heir.

An assembly had been planned for April and May of the next year at Waiblingen.

Pope Stephen cancels his planned attendance on April 30, 887.

Berengar, who by a brief feud with Liutward had lost the favor of the emperor, arrives at Waiblingen in early May 887, makes peace with the emperor, and compensates for the actions of the previous year by dispensing great gifts.

Charles the Fat had probably abandoned his plans for Bernard and instead adopted Louis of Provence as his son at an assembly at Kirchen in May.

It is possible, however, that the agreement with Louis was only designed to engender support for Bernard's subkingship in Lotharingia.

In June or July, Berengar arrived in Kirchen, probably pining to be declared Charles's heir; he may in fact have been so named in Italy, where he will be acclaimed (or make himself) king immediately after Charles's deposition in 887.

Odo, Count of Paris, may have had a similar purpose in visiting Charles at Kirchen.

On the other hand, the presence of these magnates at these two great assemblies may merely have been necessary to confirm Charles' illegitimate son as his heir (Waiblingen), a plan which failed when the pope refused to attend, and then to confirm Louis instead (Kirchen).

Liutward, Bishop of Vercelli, had in 886 taken the sister of Berengar of Friuli, the chief secular magnate, from the nunnery of San Salvatore at Brescia in order to marry her to a relative of his; whether or not by force or by the consent of the convent and Charles the Fat, her relative, is uncertain.

Berengar and Liutward had had a feud that year, which involved his attack on Vercelli and plundering of the bishop's goods.

Berengar's actions are explicable if his sister was abducted by the bishop, but if the bishop's actions were justified, then Berengar appears as the initiator of the feud.

Whatever the case, bishop and margrave are reconciled by 887, when Charles appears to have succumbed to fits of madness.

During this crisis, Richardis has attempted to rule in her husband's stead, but is unsuccessful.

In an effort to bring down the over-powerful and hated Liutward, Charles' archchancellor, he and Richardis are accused by Charles and his courtiers of adultery.

Charles asserts that their marriage is unconsummated and demands a divorce.

The empress successfully undergoes the ordeal of fire, but Liutward is banished form court.

Richardis, protected by her family, withdraws to Andlau Abbey, which she had founded on her ancestral lands in 880, and where her niece Rotrod is abbess.

(Richardis herself was previously lay abbess of religious houses at Säckingen and Zurich.)

Berengar is the only one of the reguli (petty kings) to crop up in the aftermath of Charles' deposition besides Arnulf of Carinthia, his deposer, who had been made king before the emperor's death in January 888.

Charter evidence begins Berengar's reign at Pavia between December 26, 887 and January 2, 888, though this has been disputed.

Berengar is not the undisputed leading magnate in Italy at this time, but he may have made an agreement with his former rival, Guy of Spoleto, whereby Guy would have West Francia and he Italy on the emperor's death.

Both Guy and Berengar are related to the Carolingians in the female line.

They represent different factions in Italian politics: Berengar the pro-German and Guy the pro-French.

Guy, who had failed in his bid to take the West Frankish throne, returns to Italy in summer 888 to gather an army from among the Spoletans and Lombards and oppose Berengar.

This he does, but the battle they fight near Brescia in the fall is a slight victory for Berengar, though his forces are so diminished that he sues for peace nevertheless.

The truce is to last until January 6, 889.

After the truce with Guy is signed, Arnulf of Germany endeavors to invade Italy through Friuli.

Berengar, in order to prevent a war, sends dignitaries (leading men) ahead to meet Arnulf.

He himself then has a meeting, sometime between early November and Christmas, at Trent.

He is allowed to keep Italy, as Arnulf's vassal, but the curtes of Navus and Sagus are taken from him.

Arnulf allows his army to return to Germany, but he himself celebrates Christmas in Friuli, at Karnberg.

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is being fought over between Guy III of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli.

Berengar had been crowned king in 887, but Guy had in his turn been crowned in 889.

While Pope Stephen V supports Guy, crowning him Roman Emperor in 891, Arnulf has thrown his support behind Berengar.

The situation in Italy had begun to deteriorate with the election of a new pope, Formosus, in 891.

Distrustful of Guy, he begins to look elsewhere for support against the emperor, as Guy finds it increasingly difficult to end the threat of Berengar, who still holds out in his Duchy of Friuli.

To bolster his overall position, Guy forces Pope Formosus to crown Lambert as co-emperor at Ravenna on April 30, 892.