Aistulf

Aistulf (also Ahistulf, Aistulfus, Haistulfus; † 756 ) was king of the Lombards from 749 to 756

Life

Aistulf was a son of dux ( duke ) Pemmo of Friuli and the Ratperga. As Pemmo the Patriarch Callistus captured around 731, he fell into disgrace and King Liutprand sat Aistulfs older brother Ratchis as a dux. Pemmo fled with his sons and Ratchait Aistulf and his followers to the Slavs until Ratchis could move the king to reconciliation. Pemmo was pardoned and his sons Ratchait and Aistulf, the other miscreants were incarcerated.

Liutprand's army was attacked during a campaign against the rebellious dux Transamund II of Spoleto between 742 Fanum ( Fano ) and Forum Simphronii ( Fossombrone ) from a spoletanisch -Byzantine army. Dux Ratchis of Friuli and his brother Aistulf formed with their people brought up the rear, and covered the advance. When King Liutprand and shortly after his nephew and successor Hildeprand had died, 744 Ratchis was elected king and Aistulf was dux of Friuli.

In the summer of 749 he revolted and some other Lombard nobles against King Ratchis. Ratchis finally abdicated and Aistulf ascended the throne in June. Aistulf appointed Anselm, with his sister Gisaltruda he was married to his successor as dux. Aistulf gave his brother Anselm land on which this was built 750 the monastery Fanano.

Aistulf pursued in contrast to his brother a policy of expansion towards the Byzantines in Italy. He reorganized the Lombard army, took the gifts of his predecessor largely back and ordered increased monitoring of trading on. His goal was the complete suppression of the Byzantines. First he conquered the commercial city of Comacchio to the Pomündung, Ferrara and should be even occurred to Istria. In the year 751 he conquered Ravenna, until then one of the most important Byzantine castles in Italy. As dux lupus Spoleto died Aistulf awarded the Dukat no more, but left it as Krongut manage.

So he threatened Rome from two sides. The alarmed popes who were actually subjects of the Byzantine Empire, but could not expect any help due to the tense foreign policy situation and the isolated location of Rome by the Byzantines, especially as the relationship between Rome and Constantinople Opel due to the so-called Byzantine iconoclasm ( iconoclasm ) was quite shattered. The popes now turned to the Carolingian ruler of the Frankish Empire. Already in the year 739, Pope Gregory III. the house Meier Karl Martell intervene asked what this but not responded. Charles Martel 's son Pepin the Short had himself in the year 751 with the approval of Pope Zacharias of the Frankish king and exalt the Great previously deposed the last Merovingian king powerless. This interaction at the King survey of the first Carolingian king an alliance between this and the papacy was established, the short time was effective against the Lombard king Aistulf later. In the year 753 the harried by Aistulf Pope Stephen II visited ( III.) Pippin in the Frankish Empire; it was the first visit of a Pope north of the Alps at all. Stephan asked where the Franks for help.

In 754 Pippin crossed the Col du Mont Cenis the Alps. In Maurienne the Lombards were defeated under Aistulf of the numerically inferior Frankish vanguard and retreated into fortified Ticinum (Pavia ). After a short siege, a peace treaty was signed in which Aistulf undertook the occupied Roman territories to hand over to the Pope. No sooner was the Frankish army deducted Aistulf broke the contract. In the winter of 755/756 he began the siege of Rome, which he broke off inconclusively in March and returned to Ticinum. As the Alpine passes were passable in the spring, Pippin broke early May with his army. Aistulf had to retreat back to Ticinum and finally recognize the Frankish suzerainty. The Lombards became an annual tribute of 12,000 solidi imposed and the occupied Roman and Byzantine territories handed over to the Pope. ( Pippi niche donation)

Aistulf died during a hunt in the year 756 Ratchis now tried again to gain the kingdom, but he finally defeated Desiderius.

Swell

• Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum, ed. Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz, in: Monumenta Historica Germaniae, Scriptores rerum et Langobardicarum Italicarum SAEC. VI -IX, Hahn, Hannover 1878