In the half century after Charles the Bald's death, profound changes transformed the political landscape of the West Frankish kingdom. By the time his grandson Charles the Simple was captured and imprisoned in 922, Charles the Bald's aggressive and powerful kingship had been reduced to the direct rule of the lands between the middle Seine and the Meuse, whilst further afield the king exercised a suzerainty that was generally recognised but carried virtually no powers of government or practical clout. In the intervening fifty years, kings not of the Carolingian dynasty had come to power, notably Odo son of Robert the Strong in West Francia (888–98) and Boso (Charles the Bald's brother-in-law) in Provence (879–87). Carolingian power was now neither uncontested nor widely effective.

This half-century was also one of persistent and often devastating Viking raids throughout atlantic Europe, of continuing tensions and conflicts within the Carolingian dynasty itself, and of the crystallisation of much of West Francia into aristocratic lordships controlled by the descendants of those to whom Charles the Bald had shown greatest generosity. All these processes were interlinked.