View source for Aistulf

{{Short description|King of the Lombards from 749 to 756}}
{{for|the fictional paladin|Astolfo}}
[[File:Aistulf follis 80000860.jpg|thumb|A ''[[follis]]'' of Aistulf]]
'''Aistulf''' (also '''Ahistulf, Haistulfus, Astolf''' etc.; {{langx|la|Aistulfus}}, {{langx|it|Astolfo}}; died December 756) was the [[Duke of Friuli]] from 744, [[List of kings of the Lombards|King]] of the [[Lombards]] from 749, and [[Duchy of Spoleto|Duke of Spoleto]] from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious efforts to conquer Roman territory to the extent that in the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', he is described as a "shameless" Lombard given to "pernicious savagery" and cruelty.{{sfn|Frassetto|2003|p=11}}

==Biography==
Aistulf was born as the son of [[Pemmo of Friuli|Duke Pemmo]] of Friuli and his wife Ratperga.{{sfn|Hodgkin|1892|p=164}}

After his brother [[Ratchis]] became king, Aistulf succeeded him as Duke of Friuli and later succeeded him as king, when Ratchis was forced to abdicate the throne.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=298}} Ratchis entered a monastery thereafter. While Ratchis had been more tolerant with the Roman element of the Italian population, Aistulf followed a more aggressive policy of expansion and raids against the [[Papal States]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman]] [[exarchate of Ravenna]].{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=298}} In 750, Aistulf captured [[Ravenna]] and all the provinces subject to the Exarchate, even declaring himself king of the Romans.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=298}} He also held court in the former palace of the Exarch, where historian Peter Brown asserts, that as a good western Catholic, Aistulf likely offered gifts "on the altar of San Vitale."{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=405}} With the Lombard king close, Rome was under threat and if the city and its Patriarch were to survive, Brown adds, "they had to look for new protectors."{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=405}} Recognizing the religious authority of [[Pope Stephen II]], Aistulf offered peace to the pontiff but under Lombard hegemony.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=299}}{{efn|While the ''Liber Pontificalis'' paints a very negative picture of Aistulf as a savage, he did act benevolently towards the Church on occasion. For instance, while he controlled the duchy of Spoleto, he granted the title ''curtis'' 'Germaniciana' to the Farfa Abbey, adding substantial lands and prestige to the institution.{{sfn|Costambeys|2007|pp=78–79, 100}} }} In the late spring or summer 751, Aistulf placed [[Duchy of Spoleto|Spoleto]] under his direct control without naming a replacement duke.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=299}}{{sfn|Bertolini|1962|ignore-err=yes}}

Having declared himself the new king of the Romans, Aistulf believed that the empire's former supremacy in Italy was now extinct; as a result, the Roman Pope Stephen was unable to exercise the same pastoral diplomacy that his predecessor, [[Pope Zachary]], had over both [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]] and Ratchis.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=299}}{{efn|For additional insights into the relationship between Pope Zachary and the latter Lombard leaders, see: {{harvnb|Hallenbeck|1980}} & {{harvnb|Hallenbeck|1982}} }} At Ravenna, Aistulf demanded tribute from the Roman duchy itself, straining papal coffers and greatly worrying Pope Stephen enough that he began negotiations with the [[Franks]].{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=72}}

Aistulf's demands were causing consternation in Rome. In 753, Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps and wintered with the [[Franks]], again petitioning them for assistance against Aistulf's Lombards.{{sfn|Fouracre|2006|p=98}} Returning from a summer campaign against the Saxons, the Frankish leader, [[Pepin the Short]], learned that the pontiff—accompanied by a large following and bearing gifts—was traveling north to meet with him.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=73}} While Pope Stephen's arrival in Francia was noteworthy, it was near concomitant with that of Pepin's brother, [[Carloman (mayor of the palace)|Carloman]], who had incidentally come to Francia under pressure from the Lombard king, Aistulf, to explicitly dissuade Pepin from entering Italy.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=76}}

Carloman's effort to deter his brother from pursuing Aistulf proved unsuccessful and Pepin, who was accompanied by Pope Stephen, left Francia for Italy during the summer of 754; the ailing Carloman joined them on their journey but died on the way.{{sfn|Nelson|2019|p=76}} Pope Stephen had further ingratiated Pepin to his cause by bestowing the title "Patrician of the Romans" onto him and his son, which proved sufficient to elicit Frankish aide and opposition to Aistulf's claims of sovereignty over the Roman empire.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=299}} Pepin then sent demands to Aistulf for him submit to the patrimony of St. Peter, which meant relinquishing his gains; the Lombard king refused Pepin's demands, thus beginning a Frankish military incursion into Italy.{{sfn|Frassetto|2003|p=13}}

In the spring of 755, the newly anointed Pepin crossed the [[Alps]] at the head of his army, putting the Lombards to flight and forcing Aistulf's hand in returning papal lands and those belonging to the wider Roman ''res publica'' that he had occupied.{{sfn|Fried|2015|p=40}} While a treaty was signed between Aistulf and Pepin after the Franks laid siege to [[Pavia]], which included the return of Roman lands and a lasting peace, Aistulf was not long in breaking the treaty once Pepin left Italy.{{sfn|Frassetto|2003|p=13}} After the Frankish army was back across the Alps, Aistulf besieged Rome again in 756, engendering another plea from the papacy. It read:

<blockquote>I, the Apostle Peter...who adopted you as my sons...and who chose you Franks above all other peoples...I hereby urge and exhort you...to protect my flock...defend Rome, and your brothers the Romans, from the heinous Lombards!...Come, come, in the name of the one living and true God, I beseech you, come and help before the spring of life from which you drink and in which you are reborn dries up, before the last spark of the sacred flame which illuminates you dies out, and before your spiritual mother, God’s holy Church...is desecrated."{{sfn|Fried|2015|p=41}}{{efn|See: ''Codex Carolinus'' 10, found in the ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' Epp. 3, pp. 501–505.}}</blockquote>

Once he heard the anxious pleas from the pope, Pepin marched his Frankish army back into Italy, again defeated the Lombards and forced Aistulf to surrender, but this time the Franks directly supervised the land returns.{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=300}} In the midst of these negotiations, a Byzantine ambassador was sent to Pepin with imperial claims over the liberated provinces—part of an attempt to substitute Lombard suzerainty for Byzantine domination—but Pepin refused such offers, allowing the Roman West to retain some autonomy as the Frankish king thought only of the Papacy.{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|p=49}} Meanwhile, Pepin imposed an annual tribute be paid by the Lombards to the Franks, which historian Paolo Delogu labels nothing less than "political subjection."{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=300}} Despite this blow to Aistulf's prestige, the Lombard kingdom remained more or less intact and as Delogu observes, "the political and military alliance between the Franks and the papacy was not solid enough to allow the latter to act very effectively against the Lombards."{{sfn|Delogu|2006|p=300}} When Aistulf died in 756—killed during a hunting accident{{sfn|Collins|1999|p=278}}—his succession was not without controversy when the ex-king Ratchis emerged from his monastery with the intention to reascend to the throne, but the ambitious [[Desiderius]] (duke of Tuscany), gained both Frankish and papal support and replaced Aistulf as king of the Lombards in March 757.{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|p=49}} 

Aistulf was buried in the church of [[San Marino, Pavia|San Marino]] in Pavia, which he founded.{{sfn|Giostra|Lusuardi Siena|Spalla|2000|p=278}}

==References==
===Informational notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{DBI |first=Ottorino |last=Bertolini |title=Astolfo, re dei Longobardi |volume=4}}
* {{cite book | last=Brown | first=Peter | year=2006 | title=The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000 | place=Malden, MA | publisher=Blackwell Publishing| isbn=978-0-69116-177-8 }}
* {{cite book | last=Collins | first=Roger | year=1999 | title=Early Medieval Europe, 300–1000 | place=New York | publisher=St. Martin’s Press | isbn=978-0-31221-885-0}}
* {{cite book | last=Costambeys | first=Marios | year=2007 | title= Power and Patronage in Early Medieval Italy: Local Society, Italian Politics and the Abbey of Farfa, c.700–900| place=Cambridge; New York | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-52187-037-5 }}
* {{cite book | last=Delogu | first=Paolo | year=2006 | chapter=Lombard and Carolingian Italy | title=The New Cambridge Medieval History, c.700–c.900 | editor=Rosamond McKitterick | volume=II | location=Cambridge; New York | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-52136-292-4 }}
* {{cite book | last=Fouracre | first=Paul | year=2006 | chapter=Frankish Gaul to 814 | title=The New Cambridge Medieval History, c.700–c.900 | editor=Rosamond McKitterick | volume=II | location=Cambridge; New York | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-52136-292-4 }}
* {{cite book| last=Frassetto | first=Michael | year=2003 | title=Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation | place=Santa Barbara, CA | publisher=ABC-CLIO | isbn=978-1-57607-263-9 }}
* {{cite book | last=Fried| first=Johannes | year=2015 | title=The Middle Ages | place=Cambridge and London | publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press | isbn=978-0-67405-562-9}}
* {{cite book | last1=Giostra | first1=Caterina | last2=Lusuardi Siena | first2=Maria Silvia | last3=Spalla | first3=Elena | chapter=Sepolture e luoghi di culto in età longobarda: il modello regio | year=2000 | editor=Gian Pietro Brogiolo | title=Atti del II Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia medievale | location=Brescia | publisher=Società degli Archeologi Medievalisti Italiani | url=https://www.academia.edu/37256035 | isbn=978-8-87814-171-1}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hallenbeck |first1=Jan T. |title=Instances of Peace in Eighth-Century Lombard-Papal Relations |journal=Archivum Historiae Pontificiae |date=1980 |volume=18 |pages=41–56 |id={{INIST|12600309}} |jstor=23564026 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hallenbeck |first1=Jan T. |title=Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |date=1982 |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=1–186 |id={{INIST|12327704}} |doi=10.2307/1006429 |jstor=1006429 }}
* {{cite book| last=Hodgkin | first=Thomas| year=1892 | title=Italy and Her Invaders, 744–774 | place=Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | volume=VII, Frankish Invasions | oclc=11903416| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg9XAAAAMAAJ&dq=Aistulf+born+Duke+Pemmo+of+Friuli&pg=PA164}}
* {{cite book | last=McKitterick | first=Rosamond | year=1983 | title=The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 | location=London | publisher=Longman | isbn=0-582-49005-7}}
* {{cite book | last=Nelson | first=Janet | year=2019 | title=King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne | location=Oakland | publisher=University of California Press | isbn=978-0-52031-420-7}}
{{refend}}

===Further reading===
*{{cite book |last=Jarnut |first=Jörg |author-link=Jörg Jarnut |date=1995 |orig-date=1982 |title=Storia dei Longobardi |translator-last=Guglielmotti |translator-first=Paola |location=Torino |publisher=Einaudi |isbn=88-06-13658-5}}
*Sergio Rovagnati, ''I Longobardi'', Milan, Xenia, 2003. {{ISBN|88-7273-484-3}}
*Ottorino Bertolini (1892-1977), ''Astolfo'', pp.&nbsp;246/247

== External links ==
*{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Aistulph|first=Ewan |last=Macpherson |volume=1 |short=x}}
*{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Astolphus |short=x}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=[[Ratchis]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of dukes and margraves of Friuli|Duke of Friuli]]|years=744–749}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Anselm, Duke of Friuli|Anselm]]}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of kings of the Lombards|King of the Lombards]]|years=749–756}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Desiderius]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Unulf of Spoleto|Unnolf]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Dukes of Spoleto|Duke of Spoleto]]|years=751–756}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Alboin of Spoleto|Alboin]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Antique Kings of Italy}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:756 deaths]]
[[Category:8th-century Lombard monarchs]]
[[Category:Dukes of Friuli]]
[[Category:8th-century dukes of Spoleto]]
[[Category:Lombard warriors]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident in Italy]]