Pepin's Godfather

Liutprand was King of the Lombards from 712 - 744. During his reign he conquered much of the Italian Peninsula, made an agreement with Pope Gregory (pictured) that donated lands that began the Papal States, established several sets of laws, and raised the first Carolingian king.

One of Liutprand's important law reforms was the Notitia de actoribus regis ("Notice concerning royal administrators"). It significantly prevented local administrators from illegally appropriating lands of the lower classes. It required the administrator to swear on the Gospels that any irregularity in ownership would be reported to the king, and that a royal charter 

Liutprand had been allied with Charles Martel, King of the Franks. They had enough respect for each other that, prior to Pope Gregory negotiating a peace with Liutprand, Gregory had sent to Martel for aid. Martel refused to fight his former ally, forcing Gregory to have the meeting at Sutri in which he allowed Liutprand to go through Italy at will, so long as the papacy in Rome was spared.

Martel's son Pepin the Short, when he achieved his majority, was sent to Lombardy to be presented with arms by Liutprand. I have mentioned before that a king might send his bastard children to be raised at some removed but noble household. It was also common to have legitimate royal children exposed to other courts. The ritual investing of a prince with his first arms and welcoming him into manhood made him symbolically Liutprand's adopted son. It also meant closer ties between the two kingdoms. Pepin did eventually turn on Lombardy, but that was after Liutprand's death when one of his successors, Aistulf, declared himself King of the Romans and reneged on Liutprand's promise to leave Rome alone. You can read the result here.

Aistulf's thirst for more power led to conflict with the Franks, and ultimately led to the end of an independent Lombardy when Pepin's son Charlemagne conquered them. Next time we'll see how that went.

Liutprand of the Lombards

In order to preserve Western Europe for Christendom and repel the Muslim invasions, Charles Martel enlisted the aid of Liutprand, King of the Lombards (c.680 - 744). His reign from 712 until his death in 744 was one of the longer and more productive reigns in Lombardy.

He almost didn't make it. Due to political intrigue, his family was destroyed by rivals: the usurper Aripert II exiled his father King Ansprand to Bavaria, blinded his brother, and cut off the ears and noses of his mother and sister. Liutprand was young enough to be considered harmless, and so was spared and sent to Bavaria with his father.

King Ansprand returned with an army of Bavarians and Austrians. Aripert fled towards Gaul, but drowned crossing a river. On Ansprand's deathbed, the Lombard nobles called Liutprand and declared him his father's co-ruler. This practice—declaring a co-ruler—made succession clear and ensured there would always be a functioning ruler. Liutprand did the same with his own son in later years when Liutprand was ill. Ansprand died the next day.

The illustration shows a large part of the Italian Peninsula under Lombard rule, and Liutprand can take credit for that by taking advantage of local hostilities. Byzantine Emperor Leo III made edicts against icons in 726. Pope Gregory II, however, rejected iconoclasm. Some parts of the peninsula (remember that at this time "Italy" is not a country but a large number of independent states) accepted Leo's edicts; some did not. The clash was serious: for example, the Byzantine Duke of Naples was killed by a mob while trying to destroy religious icons.

Liutprand took advantage of the civil discord to take his armies south and conquer much of the peninsula. On approach to Rome, he was met by Pope Gregory at the ancient city of Sutri, where the two negotiated a deal by which the papacy would get control of Sutri and some other towns as a donation to the pope (the start of establishing the Papal States), and Liutprand was allowed to take as much other territory as he was able.

As the longest-reigning Lombard king, it would be inappropriate to try to summarize his rule in one brief post. His later relationships with popes and the Carolingians and his legal reforms deserve their own attention. Stay tuned.

Abd-al-Raḥmân al-Ghafiqi

During the Battle of Toulouse in 721 and the defeat of the Muslim attempt to make inroads to Aquitaine and Gaul, the Muslim general was killed. A succession of Muslim leaders replaced him until they settled on Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah Al-Ghafiqi. In 730, he was made governor of Al Andalus back in northern Iberian Peninsula.

For a 731 attempt by the Umayyad Caliphate to cross the Pyrenees and invade Western Europe, al-Rahman was put in charge of the army. This time, the Muslim army made swift progress. Toulouse had been won by surprise, but this time Duke Odo's light infantry faced a Muslim cavalry in open battle. Al-Rahman took Bordeaux and then defeated Odo at the battle of Garonne.

Odo fled northward to Charles Martel, who had declined to help him in 721. Martel had been planning since then, however, and with a financial loan from Pope Gregory II had hired, trained, and equipped a standing army to defend Christendom from the invading Saracens. He marched his people south and set up on a hill south of Tours.

Al-Rahman came upon Martel's army on 10 October 732 and paused. Martel had taken a superior position: high ground, with a wooded area at its foot that would impede the organized progress of the cavalry. After seven days when neither army made an offensive move, al-Rahman finally decided he could not delay. His cavalry charged uphill and broke through the Frankish phalanxes several times. The phalanxes did not scatter, however, and little progress was made by the Muslims.

Al-Rahman was killed in one of the charges, and the remaining officers could not agree on a leader or a new strategy. They were also concerned with the spoils of war they had gathered along the way, and the risk of losing and having their camp plundered motivated them to retreat.

Four years later, al-Rahman's son made another attempt at the request of the Caliph, this time by sea. His fleet landed at Narbonne on the Mediterranean coast, proceeded to Arles on the coast (already under Muslim rule), and then prepared to march north.

Charles Martel was ready. He brought his army south, along with help from King Liutprand of the Lombards. They liberated Avignon, Nîmes, and others. He then drove the Muslims out of Arles and burned the city to the ground to prevent its future use as a Muslim base. Once again, the Muslim invasion of Europe was turned back.

Liutprand of the Lombards was one of the most successful Lombard rulers, and we'll take a closer look at him next time.