Editing Pope Adrian I (section)

===Lombards===
While the Lombards had always been openly respectful of the papacy, the popes distrusted them. The popes had sought aid from the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] to keep them in check. Adrian continued this policy. Because the East could offer no direct aid, Adrian then looked to the Franks to offset the power of the Lombards.

====Background====
Upon the death of [[Pepin the Short]] in 768, his kingdom was left to his sons [[Charlemagne]] and [[Carloman I]]. Relations between the brothers were said to be strained. In 770 Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria married a Lombard princess, [[Liutperga]], daughter of King Desiderius, to confirm the traditional alliance between Lombardy and Bavaria. That same year, Charlemagne concluded a treaty with Duke Tassilo, and married Liutperga's sister, [[Desiderata of the Lombards|Desiderata]], to surround Carloman with his own allies. Less than a year later, Charlemagne repudiated Desiderata and married [[Hildegard (queen)|Hildegard]], the daughter of Count [[Gerold of Kraichgau]] and his wife Emma, daughter, in turn, of [[Duke of Alemannia|Duke]] [[Hnabi|Nebe (Hnabi)]] of Alemannia.<ref>Reinhard Barth: ''Karl der Große'', Munich 2000, pp. 97–98.</ref> Hildegard's father had extensive possessions in the territory under Carloman's dominion. This marriage was advantageous to Charlemagne because it allowed him to strengthen his position east of the Rhine and also bind the Alemannian nobility to his side.<ref>Matthias Becher: ''Karl der Große'', München 1999, p. 108.</ref> With Desiderata's return to her father's court at Pavia, Desiderius was grievously insulted, and appears to have made an alliance with Carloman against Charlemagne and the Papacy, which looked to the Franks for protection against Lombard incursions into Papal territory.<ref name=McKitterick>McKitterick, Rosamond, ''The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians''</ref>

====Italy====
[[File:Iron Crown.JPG|thumb|The [[Iron Crown of Lombardy]], for centuries a symbol of the [[King of Italy|Kings of Italy]]]]
Carloman died in December 771, and when Charlemagne seized his brother's territory, Carloman's widow, [[Gerberga, wife of Carloman I|Gerberga]], and their two sons fled for refuge to the Lombard court at Pavia. Desiderius made overtures to Pope Adrian, requesting that he acknowledge Carloman's sons' right to succeed their father, and crown them as Kings of the Franks.<ref name=McKitterick/> With Charlemagne occupied with a campaign against the Saxons, Desiderius saw an opportunity to take all of Italy. He invaded the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis]] which had been given to the papacy in 756 by Charlemagne's father. Desiderius's support of the claims of Carloman's sons posed a potential challenge to the legitimacy of Charlemagne's possession of his brother's lands. In 773, he cut short a military campaign near Paderborn, crossed the Alps, and laid siege to Pavia. In exchange for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and Desiderius was sent to the abbey of Corbie. Charlemagne assumed the title "King of the Lombards".