Pepin died in 768.
Chapter III
Charlemagne and Desiderius
Charlemagne was born at Aix-la-Chapelle in 742 and was twenty-six years of age when he became sovereign. His brother Carloman died in the third year of his reign, which left Charlemagne ruler of the whole kingdom. It may be stated in advance that he enjoyed but one year of peace during his forty-six years of power.
“Hammer and anvil” was the paramount method of action in the political world of those days. There was never any possibility of living at peace with one’s neighbor. It was either oppress him or be oppressed by him. There was no middle course.
Let us now follow the campaign of Charlemagne against Desiderius, King of the Lombards.[18] To make its significance and progress as clear as possible we must first of all consider the relations of Charlemagne and his brother Carloman, who, as already stated, died in the third year of his reign.
The consent of the grandees of the Frankish kingdom was necessary to the validation of Pepin’s division of the kingdom between the two sons. The restriction, however, was made by Pepin that while Charlemagne and Carloman were invested with their new dignities, the Frankish kingdom should remain a united kingdom, its administration only being divided between them. Pepin’s wishes were respected, and measures were taken to maintain the unity of the kingdom. But the two brothers had hardly assumed the task of sovereignty when an event occurred which put to the test their good faith and their readiness to carry out the obligations laid down by Pepin.
Wolf, chief of the southwestern Frankish dukedom, raised the banner of revolt, believing that he could now accomplish what his predecessor, Waisar, had striven in vain to do while Pepin was living. Charlemagne promptly prepared to suppress the uprising, and called upon his brother Carloman to assist him. Carloman declined, and Charlemagne was forced to act alone; but he quickly succeeded in quelling the revolt. It is not strange that he and his Franks were angry at the conduct of his brother, and that there were many, not only in his own, but in his brother’s part of the kingdom, who regretted that Charlemagne had not been made sole ruler. Carloman’s action was not only regarded as faithless toward his brother, but even stigmatized as treachery against the united kingdom, the evil consequences of which could be averted only by Charlemagne’s strong arm. The latter’s leading warriors, indeed, had been in favor of taking the field against Wolf without paying any attention to his brother. It was due to Charlemagne’s mother, the royal widow Bertha,[19] that the world of that day was spared the tragedy of a fraternal and civil war.
This distinguished lady, who was so greatly beloved by the people that she was celebrated in later tradition as “The Swan Maiden,” was tenderly loved by Charlemagne. She determined to overcome his resentment against his brother and reconcile them. She succeeded in doing this, but had hardly done so when Carloman died. The grandees and church dignitaries thereupon assembled and named Charlemagne ruler of the whole Frankish kingdom. They recognized the danger confronting a divided kingdom and hastened to avert it.
Gilberga, Carloman’s widow, if she had been wise would have placed herself under the protection of Charlemagne and her mother-in-law, the widow Bertha. Instead of this, she was induced by Charlemagne’s enemies to leave the country, with the intention at a favorable time of asserting the rights of her two sons. This she soon did at the court of the Lombardian King, Desiderius, who entertained strong animosity against the Franks. Pepin had forced King Haistulf, Desiderius’s predecessor, when he was threatening Rome and had seized Ravenna, to give up not only the Roman, but other possessions to the Papacy. This was not forgotten by Desiderius; and when, after Haistulf’s death by a fall from his horse, he succeeded him, he regarded himself as heir to the Papal throne and the avenger of Haistulf; and he lost no opportunity of intermeddling in Roman affairs.
After the death of Paul the First, in Rome, a layman, named Constantine, came to the Papal chair. Christoph and Sergius, chiefs of the opposing faction, thereupon betook themselves to Desiderius and appealed for his assistance, which he was willing to give, as he had his own advantage in view. Constantine was promptly deposed, seized as a prisoner, and blinded. Desiderius then determined to place a Lombardian in the Papal chair, and instructed the two Lombardian priests, Waldibert and Philip, to organize a party in Rome which should select Philip as Pope. Too late, Christoph and Sergius regretted that they had invoked the help of Desiderius. In the meantime, however, they accomplished the removal of the two Lombard priests by an uprising. The new Pope Philip and his assistant fled to a church. The right of asylum, however, was not recognized by their enemies. Philip was consigned to the dungeon of a monastery, and Waldibert was torn from the image of the Virgin, to which he was clinging, and blinded.