When his cousin Louis the Stammerer died in 879, he seized authority in Lotharingia and the Annales Fuldenses accuse him of "playing the tyrant in Gaul." It is likely that he refused to recognise the succession of Louis's young sons, Louis III and Carloman, to the West Frankish kingdom, as with Boso in Provence. He had a sizable following in Lotharingia, but Louis the Younger, son of Louis the German, came to the defence of the young Louis and Carloman. In 880, he sent men against Hugh's castle at Verdun and defeated his army, burning down the fortress.
After his Easter court (23 April) in 882, Louis the Younger enfeoffed Hugh with Alsace, but the latter rebelled and Louis chased him in Burgundy. In 883, Hugh's sister Gisela married Godfrey, the Viking leader ruling in Frisia. With this alliance, Hugh plotted to seize his father's old kingdom, but in 885, Charles the Fat got whiff of the scheme and called both Hugh and Godfrey to court, where the former was blinded and the latter killed. Hugh was sent first to Sankt Gallen, then to Fulda, and finally to Prüm in his own country.