His mother was the concubine Himiltrude, a "noble girl" according to Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon). At one point Charlemagne dismissed Himiltrude from his court, but Pepin remained as a royal prince. She was dismissed because Charlemagne was marrying Desiderata, in order to establish an alliance with the King of the Lombards, Desiderius.
Pepin, despite his deformity, was important because he was Charlemagne's eldest son and obvious heir. "Pepin" was also the name of Charlemagne's father, and it was a Carolingian custom to re-use names of ancestors, but to honor them and to inspire the new generation to emulate them. (Charlemagne's brother and rival, carloman, had already had a son named Pepin.)
There is. no record of discord between Desiderate and her step-son, but then, the marriage lasted only about a year, after which Charlemagne immediately married Hildegarde, a marriage that lasted more than a decade and produced nine children.
Their first child together was named Charles, called "the Younger" for obvious reasons. Their second child was also a son, named Carloman, born in 777. In 781, Charlemagne took Hildegarde and her children to Rome. Carloman was four years old, but had never been baptized. Charlemagne held off because he wanted the pope to perform the baptism. The eldest son, Pepin, was left at home, still living in the palace as a prince.
When Pope Adrian I baptized Carloman, he was given the name Pepin. The younger Pepin was named "King of Italy."
The elder Pepin's position now seemed precarious. Charlemagne had an heir named for his father who was the result of a legitimate marriage and who showed no physical deformity. But Pepin stayed at court.
Years later, Pepin was part of a rebellion against his father. It is easy to assume this was simply because he was being passed over, but he couldn't rebel all by himself. If others supported a rebellion, was there a reason beyond trying to reclaim his right as the eldest? We'll talk about other reasons to rebel against Charlemagne tomorrow.
