Desiderius
Desiderius ( † after 786 ) was the last Lombard king, who ruled from 757 to 774
Life
Origin and Rise
Desiderius came from Brescia. He does not seem to come from the Lombard nobility, but was probably from around this time newly forming service nobility forth. Under King Aistulf he was initially Marshal ( comes stabuli ), later governors ( Dux ) of Tuscany.
After the death of King Aistulf end 756 whose brother Ratchis tried again to seize power. In the north he could stand up at first. The Central and Southern Italian duchies of Spoleto and Benevento were autonomous again. Dux Desiderius of Tuscany also claimed the throne. Through his office he had considerable military resources when it may have also initially lacked the support of the nobility. He formed an alliance with Pope Stephen II and Abbot Fulrad, a diplomat of the Frankish king Pippin the Younger, where a weak Lombard was only right. Desiderius received diplomatic and military support against the promise to hand over the cities of Faenza, Imola, Ferrara, Osimo, Ancona, Bologna and Umana to the Pope. Given these resistors Ratchis seems to have abdicated. He retired in any case back to the monastery of Monte Cassino back, Desiderius had himself crowned king.
Rule
Desiderius strengthened the position of the Lombard kingdom by 758 marched in the Dukat Spoleto, dux Alboin captured and Dukat not initially awarded again. Dux Liutprand of Benevento fled to Otranto and Desiderius sat Arichis II in his office, where he gave his daughter to wife Adelperga. In 759 he appointed his son to Adelchis co-regent, to secure the succession. Desiderius and Adelgis gifted the monastery founded by Queen Ansa 753 San Salvatore in Brescia, whose abbess Desiderius ' daughter was Anselperga, as well as the monastery of Farfa in Spoleto, with extensive possessions.
About the Byzantine Proto -a- Secretis ( Messenger ) Georgios Desiderius established diplomatic relations with Emperor Constantine V, to include directed against the Pope alliance, which does not however came about. Pope Paul I. looked 759 threatened by an imminent invasion of Byzantine and Frankish sought by switching an alliance with Desiderius. In April 760 the Frankish envoys Bishop Remedius and dux Autchar made concessions. Shortly thereafter, however, there were conflicts with the Pope because Desiderius contrary to a previous agreement several cities did not want to leave this. This dispute was settled after lengthy diplomatic negotiations, in which the Franks were also included until 765.
He went into an alliance with Duke Tassilo III. of Bavaria, to whom he gave his daughter Liutberga 764 to wife.
After the death of Pope Paul's I. It came in the years 767-768 to succession disputes, intervened in the Desiderius. The Antipope Constantine II was deposed. However, the Lombard party under the priest Waldipert could not claim their candidate Philip. Due to the temporary weakness of the Frankish Empire Desiderius was the patron of the Pope. Pope Stephen III. ( 768-772 ) was politically largely dependent on Desiderius. As Desiderius had 769 interfered with the "choice" of the bishop of Ravenna, Stephan, however, refused the episcopal ordination.
Charlemagne married a daughter of Desiderius 770, whose name is unknown and who mistakenly was called Desiderata. The relevant negotiations were led by Karl's mother Bertrada the younger ones who planned thus hedging the weakened by rebellions and inheritance dispute Frankish Empire to the south. After the death of Carloman, the younger brother of Charles, 771, Karl 's widow Gerberga fled with her sons to Desiderius to Italy. This sought Pope Stephen III. Rome reached up and that its langobardenfeindliche consultant Christopher and Sergius were replaced by Paul Afiarta of the Lombard party.
After Charles the Great had 772 violated his Lombard wife, Desiderius ' court became a rallying point for the opposition to Charles. In the spring of 772 Desiderius occupied the cities of Faenza, Ferrara and Comacchio and plundered the countryside Ravenna. The Lombard king urged Pope Hadrian I., the sons of Carloman to anoint Frankish kings to ask the pope in opposition to Charlemagne. The Pope refused and removed his pro- Lombard counselor. Desiderius in the cities of Senigallia, Jesi, Urbino Gubbio, and Otricoli, sacked the Roman Dukat and finally marched against Rome. He could be held only under the threat of excommunication from attacking Rome supposedly. On a call for help Hadrian the Franks invaded Italy in the summer of 773.
End of Langobardenreiches
→ Main article: Langobardenfeldzug
Desiderius entrenched himself in Pavia. The city was besieged in September 773 by the Franks. On June 4, 774, after a good nine -month siege, capitulated Desiderius and surrendered the city. Desiderius was deported with his wife into the Frankish Empire, where they spent the rest of her life in the monastery of Corbie in detention, only his son Adelchis escaped to Byzantium. The Lombard kingdom went to Karl the Great, who was crowned in Pavia. In the south of the Duchy of Benevento remained until its conquest by the Normans in the 11th century independent, although it must also be counted among the satellite states of the Frankish Empire. Karl also confirmed the Pippi niche donation of his father at the church, should emerge from the later of the Papal States. Desiderius is last attested in the year 786, his exact year of death is unknown.
Family
Desiderius was married to Ansa, who also came from Brescia. You probably influenced mainly Desiderius ' religious policy very strong and founded several monasteries ( S. Michele and S. Pietro in Brescia). The Lombard historian Paul the Deacon referred to them by common topoi of panegyric as coniunx pulcherrima, as the most beautiful wife.
Ansa and Desiderius had five children:
- Anselperga, abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia
- Adelperga, married to Arichis II of Benevento
- Liutberga (or Liutpirc ), married with Tassilo III.
- N.N. (possibly Gerperga ), married to Charlemagne
- Adelchis