Aistulf

Aistulf (also Ahistulf, Haistulfus, Astolf etc.; Latin: Aistulfus, Italian: Astolfo; died December 756) was the Duke of Friuli from 744, King of the Lombards from 749, and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious efforts to conquer Roman territory to the extent that in the Liber Pontificalis, he is described as a "shameless" Lombard given to "pernicious savagery" and cruelty. Aistulf succeeded his brother Ratchis as duke of Friuli in 744, then became king upon Ratchis's abdication for a monastery in 749. Once king, Aistulf abandoned his predecessor's accommodation of the peninsula's Roman population for a policy of annexation directed against the Papal States and the Eastern Roman exarchate of Ravenna. He captured Ravenna in 750, styled himself king of the Romans, and exacted tribute from the Roman duchy, which led Pope Stephen II to seek protection beyond the Alps. The Frankish king Pepin the Short answered the pontiff's call, besieged Pavia in 755, and extracted a treaty restoring the occupied territories; Aistulf repudiated it the moment the Franks withdrew and then laid siege to Rome. Pepin returned in 756, defeated Aistulf a second time and imposed an annual tribute. Nine works of Lombard law are attributed to Aistulf—the final additions to the legal corpus begun under Rothari—and address the obligation to bear arms by landed wealth and tighten control of the frontier. No Lombard narrative of the reign survives, and Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum ends with Liutprand's death in 744. Aistulf died in December 756 of injuries sustained while hunting; when Ratchis left his monastery to reclaim the throne, Desiderius outmaneuvered him and became king in March 757.