Aistulf
Aistulf (died 756) was the Duke of Friuli from 744, King of Lombards from 749, and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His father was the Duke Pemmo.
After his brother Ratchis became king, Aistulf succeeded him in Friuli. He succeeded him later as king when Ratchis abdicated to a monastery. Aistulf continued the policy of expansion and raids against the papacy and the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna. In 751, he captured Ravenna itself and even threatened Rome, claiming a capitation tax. He also conquered the Istria region from Byzantine occupation in same year.
The popes, thoroughly irritated and alarmed, and despairing of aid from the Byzantine Emperor, turned to the Carolingian mayors of the palace of Austrasia, the effective rulers of the Frankish kingdom. In 741, Pope Gregory III asked Charles Martel to intervene, but he was too busy elsewhere and declined. In 753, Pope Stephen II visited Charles Martel's son Pepin the Short, who had been proclaimed king of the Franks in 751 with the consent of Pope Zachary. In gratitude for the papal consent to his coronation, Pepin crossed the Alps, defeated Aistulf, and gave to the pope the lands which Aistulf had torn from the ducatus Romanus and the exarchate (Emilia-Romagna and the Pentapolis).
Aistulf died hunting in 756. He was succeeded by Desiderius as king of the Lombards and by Alboin as duke of Spoleto. He had given Friuli to his brother-in-law Anselm, abbot of Nonantula, whose sister Gisaltruda he had married, when he succeeded to the kingship in 749.[1]
References
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External links
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Regnal titles | ||
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Preceded by | Duke of Friuli 744–749 |
Succeeded by Anselm |
King of the Lombards 749–756 |
Succeeded by Desiderius |
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Preceded by | Duke of Spoleto 751–756 |
Succeeded by Alboin |
- Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from The American Cyclopaedia
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from The American Cyclopaedia with a Wikisource reference
- 756 deaths
- Lombard kings
- Dukes of Friuli
- Dukes of Spoleto
- Lombard people
- 8th-century Italian people
- 8th-century monarchs in Europe