Carlomán i

Carlomán I (June 28, December 751-4, 771), was king of the Franks from 768 to his death in 771. He was the second surviving son of Pipino the brief and bertrada of Laon, and the younger brother of Charlemagne. Carlomán's nephew, firstborn son of Carlos Martel.

Division of the Frankish Kingdom

His father, Pipino El Brief The Romans by Pope Esteban II, who had left Rome to ask the King of the Franks for help against the Lombards. Carlomán and Carlomagno each inherited half of the kingdom of the Franks to the death of Pipino. His part was based on the center of the Franco Kingdom, with his capital in Soissons, and consisted of the Parisian basin, the central massif, the Languedoc, Provence, Burgundy, south of Austrasia, Alsacia and Germany, the regions were poorly integrated and surrounded by the legacies to Charlemagne, and, although Carlomán's territories were easier to defend than those of Charlemagne, they were also poorer in the income. According to the biographer of the Court, Eginardo (775-840), Charlemagne received the part of the kingdom that had been from his father, Pipino, while Carloman touched the part of the kingdom that Uncle Carlomán had been.

It is commonly accepted that Carlomán and Carlomagno did not take each other, although the reasons behind this are not clear: some historians suggest that each brother was considered with his own right as the only heir to his father - Charlemagne as the Elder son, Carlomán as a legitimate son [3] (sometimes it is said that Carlomagno was born as an illegitimate son in 742, an affirmation that is not always accepted). [2] Be it, Pipino's disposition on his kingdom seems to have exacerbated the bad relations between the couple, since they required cooperation between them and left them both with feelings of deception.

Competition with Charlemagne

Carlomán's reign was short and problematic. The brothers shared the possession of Aquitaine, who broke out in a rebellion after the death of Pipino El Brief His brother in Moncontour, near Poitiers, and remove the troops. It has been suggested that this was an attempt to weaken the power of Charlemagne, even though the rebellion threatened the government of the latter. Charlemagne, however, crushed the rebels, while Carlomán's behavior had simply damaged his own position among the Franks. The relations between the two then deteriorated even more, which required the mediation of his mother, Bertrada, who seems to have a preference for Charlemagne, with whom he would live in his widowhood, about Carlomán.

In 770, his mother Bertrada began to implement his great strategy. After passing the Easter with Carlomagno in Lieja, he visited Carlomán in Sethz: his reasons to visit him are unknown, although it is suggested that he was trying to dissipate his fears about his brother, or to persuade him to be more cooperative with Carlomagno, or even ensure compliance and collusion in their plans. However, by the end of the Bertrada and Charlemagne year they had strategically surrounded Carlomán: Charlemagne had married Desiderata, the daughter of King Lombardo Desiderio, a neighbor immediately to the east of Carlomán, and the marriage created an alliance between Charlemagne and the Lombards; Bertrada was also insured to Charlemagne the friendship of Tasilón III of Bavaria, her husband's nephew, and had even tried to get papal support for marriage by arrangement that Desiderio gave in to Rome certain territories that the papacy claimed. Although Pope Esteban III remained hostile to the alliance between his allies the francs and his enemies Lombardos, in reality he faced a deep conflict between the threat posed by the Lombards for him and the possibility of disposing of the anti-fold Cristóbal the Primicerius , the dominant figure in the Pontifical Court.

These maneuvers had been favorable to the Franks, in general, but raised a serious threat to Carlomán's position, since he had run out of allies. He tried to use his brother's alliance with the Lombards for his own benefit in Rome, offering his support against the Lombards to Esteban III and entering secret negotiations with the Primicerius , Cristóbal, whose position had also remained Seriously isolated by the Franco-Rombardo approach, but after Cristóbal's violent death by Desiderio, Esteban III decided to support the Lombards and Charlemagne.

Carlomán's position was saved, however, by the sudden repudiation of Charlemagne to his wife Lombarda, Desiderio's daughter. Desiderio, outraged and humiliated, seems to have made some kind of alliance with Carlomán after this, in opposition to Carlomagno and the Papacy, who had the opportunity to declare against the Lombardos.

Death and legacy

Carlomán died on December 4, 771, in the town of Samoussy, death, however sudden and convenient, it was established was due to natural causes (a severe nasal hemorrhage is sometimes affirmed as the culprit). At the time of his death, he and his brother Charlemagne were close to an open war, that Eginardo, the Biography of Charlemagne, attributes to the advice of Carlomán's advisors. Carlomán was buried in Reims, but it was re-built in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, in the XIII> XIII </s.

Carlomán had married a beautiful Franca woman, Gerberga, who according to Pope Esteban III was chosen for him, along with the Carlomagne concubine, Himiltruda, by Pipino El Brief. With Gerberga he had two children, the eldest of whom was called Pipino (born in 770) as his grandfather, describing him, according to the Carolingian tradition, as heir to Carlomán and Pipino El Brief. After Carlomán's death, Gerberga hoped that his eldest son became king, and governing her as a regent; However, the former supporters of Carlomán - their cousin Adalhard, the abbot of San Denis and Count Warin - turned against her, and invited Charlemagne to annex the territory of Carlomán, which he did quickly.

Gerberga fled ( for reasons said Carlomán's children as kings of the Franks. Gerberga's flight finally precipitated the destruction of the kingdom of Lombardos by Charlemagne; who responded to the support of Desiderio to the children of Carlomán, who threatened Carlomagno's own position, sweeping Italy and subjecting them. Desiderio and his family were captured, tonsurated, and sent to the abbeys of the Franks; The fate of Gerberga and the children of Carlomán is unknown, although they may also be sent by Charlemagne to the monasteries and convents.