Pepin II of Aquitaine

obol of Pepin, from 845–848

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Pepin II, called the Younger (823 – after 864 in

.

Life

Pepin was elected king upon his father's death by the nobles of Aquitaine who were keen to establish their independence from the Empire. However, his grandfather Louis the Pious had appointed his son Charles the Bald, Pepin's uncle who was about the same age, as King of Aquitaine in 832 when he (nominally) dispossessed Pepin's father Pepin I, and eventually contested the kingship on Pepin I's death in 838. Pepin had thereafter been at war with his half-uncle Charles.^[1] Louis the Pious fully disinherited him at Crémieu and then at Worms in two subsequent divisions of the empire.

Louis demanded the Aquitainians send Pepin to Aachen to learn the ways of good governance, which they refused. Pepin was in total control of Aquitaine until 841 when he went to his uncle Lothair I's aid at the Battle of Fontenoy.^[1] Pepin defeated Charles the Bald, but Lothair was routed by Louis the German, another son of Emperor Louis. Pepin returned to Aquitaine and continued war with Charles the Bald.

In 844 Pepin made the fatal error of asking for help from Jarl Oscar, a

, who had been at war with his father Pepin I.

then tried to claim the Aquitainian Kingdom for himself.

Pepin II's rule finally ended in 851 or 852 when he was captured by

.

Louis the German, who was at war with Charles the Bald, sent his son Louis the Younger, to claim Aquitaine. He marched as far as Limoges in 855 before returning east.

Pepin escaped the monastery in Soissons and, with the help of some of the aristocracy, recovered some of his old authority and lands in 854. The Vikings now established in the

, where he would die.

Notes

References

Sources

• Bradbury, Jim (2004). "Pepin II of Aquitaine". The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-0-203-64466-9
  .
• Forte, Angelo; Oram, Richard; Pedersen, Frederik (2005). Viking Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 61.
  ISBN 9780521829922
  .
• Lewis, Archibald Ross (1965). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press.
• Peters, Edward (1970). The Shadow King: Rex inutilis in Medieval Law and Literature, 751–1327. Yale University Press.
• Riche, Pierre (1993). The Carolingians : A Family who forged Europe. Translated by Allen, Michael Idomir. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Pepin II of Aquitaine Carolingian dynasty Born: 823 Died: after 864
Preceded by Pepin I	King of Aquitaine 838–864 with Charles the Bald and Charles the Child as contenders	Succeeded by Charles the Child