Donation of Pepin
Pepin the Short promised Pope Stephen II the lands taken by the Lombards and, after two campaigns in Italy, handed over Ravenna and the cities of the Pentapolis to St Peter — the legal basis of the Papal States.
- Date
- April 754 – 756start: month known; end: year known · duration: ≈ 2 years
- Place
- Quierzytoday: Quierzy, Aisne, France · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Pepin the Short, Pope Stephen II, Aistulf, Francia (Frankish realm), Lombards, Papal States
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Donation of Pippin; Promissio Carisiaca; Papal States; Коронация Пипина Короткого
In 751 Pepin, mayor of the palace, deposed the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, with the approval of Pope Zachary and was elected king. The same year the Lombard king Aistulf took Ravenna, the seat of the Byzantine exarch, and threatened Rome. Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps, met Pepin at Ponthion in January 754, and at an assembly at Quierzy in April 754 Pepin promised to restore the exarchate and other lands to the papacy; on 28 July at Saint-Denis the pope anointed Pepin and his sons.
Pepin defeated Aistulf in 755 and, when the Lombard broke the peace and besieged Rome, again in 756. Abbot Fulrad then laid the keys of the surrendered cities — Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, Ancona and others — together with the deed of donation on the tomb of St Peter in Rome. The Byzantine envoys’ demand that the lands be returned to the empire was refused.
Connections
Related events
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774 · Western and Central EuropeCharlemagne continued his father’s alliance with the papacy against the Lombards
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe quarrel over icons helped turn the papacy away from Byzantium towards the Franks
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central EuropeThe alliance of the popes and the Carolingian kings, begun by Pepin
Same participants
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572 · Western and Central Europevia Lombards
- Battle of Tours10 October 732 · Western and Central Europevia Francia (Frankish realm)
Same place
- Hugh Capet becomes King of the FranksMay 987 – 3 July 987 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Founding of Ladoga753
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Donation of Pepin
- Wikipedia (English): Pepin the Short
- Wikipedia (Russian): Пипинов дар
- Wikipedia (Russian): Пипин Короткий
- Noble T. F. X. The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825. — Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.
- Wikidata: Q973573