Waiofar, also spelled Waifar, Waifer or Waiffre[1] (died 2 June 768), was the last independent Duke of Aquitaine[2] from 745 to 768. He peacefully succeeded his father, Hunald I, after the latter entered a monastery.[3] He also inherited the conflict with the rising Carolingian family and its leader, Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks after 751 and thus Waiofar's nominal suzerain.[4]
Francia and other territories under Frankish influence in 714
752–760
The beginning of open conflict between Waiofar and Pepin can be dated to 753, when the duke of Aquitaine granted asylum to Pepin's brother Grifo after the latter was forced to flee Francia because of his failed attempt at usurping the Duchy of Bavaria from its rightful lord.[5][3] Pepin's immediate reaction is not recorded, but Grifo was subsequently assassinated while preparing to leave Aquitaine for Rome.
In 751, according to the Chronicle of Moissac, Waiofar sacked the city of Narbonne (Narbonam depraedat), the centre of Islamic rule north of the Pyrenees, having been conquered by the Arabs in 720. The following year several other formerly Visigothic cities north of the Pyrenees, under a certain Count Ansemund, went over to the Franks.[6] Between 752 and 759, Pepin's forces besieged Narbonne. For reasons unknown, Waiofar attacked Pepin's forces while they were camped by the city, "as his father had attacked Charles Martel" in the words of the Annals of Aniane.[7] Only the local sources, the Chronicle of Moissac and Annals of Aniane, record this attack.[8] Although the Chronicle of Uzès records that the Rouergue was conquered by Pepin in 754, during the siege of Narbonne, it is more likely that its conquest was effected with the assistance of the local Visigoths only after the fall of Narbonne (a Gothic city prior to the Arab conquest).[9]
The Annals of Aniane and Chronicle of Moissac indicate that the Frankish army under Pepin began the conquest of southern Aquitaine immediately after the fall of Narbonne in 759, and by 760 Toulouse, Rodez (capital of the Rouergue) and Albi had fallen into their hands.[10]
760–763
In 760, Pepin denounced Waiofar's seizure of church lands and prepared to march against him. Ignoring the latter's request for peace, Pepin invaded Berry and the Auvergne and ravaged "a large part of Aquitaine" (maximam partem Aquitaniae).[10] In 761, Waiofar responded by ordering Count Chunibert of Bourges and Count Blandinus of the Auvergne, his followers who controlled the northeastern borders of Aquitaine, to assemble their forces for an attack on Chalon-sur-Saône. This army probably consisted mostly of local levies, since no Gascon (Basque) presence is mentioned.[11] The Gascons (or Basques, Latin Vascones), whose presence the continuator of the Chronicle of Fredegar is otherwise scrupulous to record, were recruited from Gascony and served a professional core of Waiofar's army.[12] In the ensuing campaign, Burgundy was ravaged, but Pepin pushed the invaders back and took the fortresses of Bourbon, Chantelle and Clermont in the Auvergne, forcing Count Blandinus to surrender. The garrison at Bourbon is described by the continuator of Fredegar as the "men of Waiofar" (homines Waiofarii).[12] At the end of this campaign, Pepin obtained permanent control of many fortresses in the Auvergne by treaty.
In 762, Pepin invaded Berry and Poitou. He captured Bourges, forcing the surrender of Count Chunibert, after a lengthy siege in which breastworks were erected around the city and ramparts constructed for putting siege weapons up to the walls.[13]Thouars fell the same year, and the count of Poitiers made submission to Pepin.[14] The Annales Laurissenses maiores record that many Gascons in the following of the counts of Bourges and Poitiers were captured and brought back to Neustria.[15]
In 762, Waiofar's cousin Count Mantio, with a Gascon levy, lay an ambush for a Carolingian force, either as it was entering or leaving Narbonne. His men dismounted and lay in wait, but in the subsequent battle they were routed. Mantio and his retinue were all killed and the Gascons fled on foot, with the Carolingians taking their horses as booty.[12]
763–766
In 763, Waiofar offered to submit to Pepin if he would receive Bourges and other Aquitainian cities in exchange for "whatever tribute and gifts (tributa uel munera) Frankish kings had been accustomed to receive from the province of Aquitaine".[16][17] Nothing came of it. In 763, Pepin raided deep into Aquitaine as far as the Limousin and Quercy.[15] In 764, Pepin held a Mayfield, the Frankish annual assembly, in the city of Worms. Waiofar and Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria attended.[18]
According to the continuator of Fredegar, Waiofar opposed Pepin "with a great army and many Vascones [Gascons] from across the Garonne, who in antiquity were called Vaceti [Basques]" in 765.[19] The "great army" and the "large levy" of Gascons may be distinct forces brought together for this campaign.[12] In 764, Count Chilping of the Auvergne led such a dual force of local levies complemented by some Gascon soldiers taken from the garrison of Clermont.[12]
Between 763 and 766, Waiofar withdrew his garrisons from the cities (civitates) of Poitiers, Limoges, Saintes, Périgueux and Angoulême. Most of these fortifications were restored after the cities were occupied by Pepin's forces.[20]Archibald Lewis believes it was Pepin who destroyed the walls after he had conquered the cities if he judged he could not hold them.[15] His interpretation is contradicted by Bernard Bachrach, who believes it was Waiofar who, before abandoning his cities, destroyed their defences and walls to prevent Pepin from using them against him.[21]
This final phase of the war was fought with increasing brutality, and the chroniclers record that Pepin burnt villas, despoiled vineyards and depopulated monasteries.[15] During this period (763–66) the fortress of Berry was held by a Frankish garrison.[22]
Loss of power and death
By 766 most of Waiofar's followers had abandoned him, but the war over Aquitaine did not end even with his death, shortly before Pepin's own, in 768.[23] The final active phase of the war between the two (766–67) was fought mainly in the Périgord, the Angoumois and the Bordelais, all regions closer to Gascony, which if not ruled directly by Waiofar was either under his control or allied to him. The chroniclers record how Pepin destroyed fortresses and cities, castella and civitates, and so devastated the countryside that "there was no settler to work the land" (nullus colonus terram ad laborandam).[15] Around this time, Pepin defeated the Gascons in pitched battle.[15]
In 768, the erstwhile count of Bourges, Blandinus, submitted to Pepin. Most of Waiofar's family was captured and executed in the forest of Périgord.[15] Waiofar himself was assassinated by his own men, allegedly at Pepin's instigation, on 2 June.[24][25] A kinsman, perhaps his son, Hunald II, succeeded to his claims on Aquitaine and continued to fight against Pepin's successor, Charles.[23][15]
Rule in Aquitaine
There is one charter issued by Waiofar preserved in the cartulary of the basilica of Saint-Julien at Brioude.[26] Styling himself and his predecessor, Hunald, "princes" (principes), Waiofar granted a villa to one Gedeon as a precarium for life in exchange for another villa and two pounds of silver.[27] The charter was drawn up around 756–57 ("in the month of September in the 12th year of lord Waifarius, prince") in the Limagne ("in pago limanico"). Waiofar may have been copying the policy of his rival Pepin from 743 to 44, when the latter ordered his followers who had received church lands to return them to the church, make a payment (cens) and receive them back as precaria verbo regis ("by the king's word") from the church. By creating precaria, Waiofar could raise men and troops to defend Aquitaine from the impending war with Pepin.[28] The continuator of Fredegar records how Waiofar confiscated church lands and distributed them to his followers.[10]
Although much is known of Waiofar's wars with Pepin the Short,[14] little is known of his administration of Aquitaine. He did use counts (Latin comites, singular comes) to govern major cities (civitates, sing. civitas) in the Frankish manner. At least Bourges, Poitiers and the Auvergne had Aquitainian counts.[30] In the case of Thouars, which was merely a castle (castra), a count was appointed to command the garrison (custodes).[31]
Archibald Lewis suggests that the abundance of Gascon (Basque) troops among Waiofar's forces stems from an unrecorded alliance with Duke Lupus II of Gascony; in the same way he suggests Pepin formed an alliance with the Goths of Septimania after his conquest of Narbonne.[10]
Waiofar's uncle Remistanius, although he was not in the service of the duke, was wealthy enough to form an army to besiege several Carolingian garrisons.[12] In 765, Pepin bribed Remistanius with gold, silver, cloth, horses and arms to come over to his side. He appointed him to govern eastern half of the region of Bourges up to the river Cher and granted him control of the citadel in the city itself.[31] At the time, Chunibert, who had served as count of Bourges under Waiofar until he lost the city to Pepin in 762,[32] was again serving as count, this time to Pepin.[33]
Notes
↑ In French it is spelled Waïfre, Waïfer or Gaïfier.
↑ Lewis 1965, p.10 n. 37, records that Blandinus (or Bladino) did have at his disposal Gascon levies. On p. 27 he says that Blandinus also led a revolt in the Auvergne in Pepin's rear some time between 763 and 766.
↑ In the continuator of Fredegar's words: castra metatusque est undique et omnia quae in giro fuit vastavit. Circumsepsit urbem munitionem fortissimam, ita ut nullus egredi ausus fuisset aut ingredi potuisset, cum machinis et omni genere armorum, cirumdedit ea vallo ("the fortress and all around it was laid waste. The fortress of the mighty city was surrounded in such a way that no one could have dared go out or come in; with machines and all sorts of weapons [Pepin] surrounded its walls").
↑ Collins 1992, p.214: cum exercito magno et plurima Wasconorum qui ultra Garonnam commorantur, quem antiquitus vocati sunt Vaceti. Collins' preferred term for cispyrenean Basques is "Gascons".
↑ The continuator of Fredegar: Videns praedictus Waiofarius princeps Aquitanicum quod castro Claremonte rex bellando ceperat et Bitoricas caput Aquitaniae munitissimam urbem cum machinis capuisset, et inpetum eius ferre non potuisset, omnes civitates quas in Aquitania provintia dictioni sue erant, id est Pectavia, Lemovicas, Sanctonis, Petrecors, Equolisma vel reliquis quam plures civitates et castella, omnes muros eorum in terra prostravit ("The aforementioned Waiofar, the Aquitainian prince—seeing that the castle of Clermont was taken by the warring king, and that Bourges, the head of Aquitaine, a most well fortified city, had been captured with [siege] machines, and that he could not bear [the king's] attack—laid to the ground all the walls of all the cities that belonged to him in the province of Aquitaine, that is, Poitiers, Limoges, Saintes, Périgueux, Angoulême and many other cities and castles.")
Collins, Roger (1992). "The Vaccaei, the Vaceti, and the rise of Vasconia". Law, Culture and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain. London: Variorum. ISBN0860783081.Originally published in Studia Historica, VI (Salamanca, 1988).
Freising, Otto von (1966). Mierow, Charles Christopher; Evans, Austin Patterson; Knapp, Charles (eds.). The Two Cities: A Chronicle of Universal History to the Year 1146 A.D. Translated by Mierow, Charles Christopher. New York: Octagon Books.
Higounet, Charles (1962). Bordeaux pendant le Haut Moyen Âge. Fédération historique du Sud-Ouest.
Lewis, Archibald Ross (1965). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Oman, Charles (1914). The Dark Ages, 476–918. London: Rivingtons.
Reimitz, Helmut (2015). History, Frankish Identity and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550–850. Cambridge University Press.
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ed. (1960). The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar. London: Thomas Nelson.
Further reading
Rouche, Michel[in French] (1979). L'Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes, 418–781: Naissance d'une région. Paris: Editions Jean Touzot.
Charles Martel, Martel being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace to the Merovingian kings of the Franks, was the de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and a noblewoman named Alpaida. Charles successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Continuing and building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. According to a near-contemporary source, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Charles was "a warrior who was uncommonly ... effective in battle".
Aquitaine, archaic Guyenne or Guienne, is a historical region of Southwestern France and a former administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is situated in the southwest corner of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain; for most of its written history Bordeaux has been a vital port and administrative centre. It is composed of the five departments of Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. Gallia Aquitania was established by the Romans in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.
The Duke of Aquitaine was the ruler of the medieval region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English, and later French kings.
Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. During the Early Middle Ages, the region was variously known as Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia, or Narbonensis. The territory of Septimania roughly corresponds with the modern French former administrative region of Languedoc-Roussillon that merged into the new administrative region of Occitanie. In the Visigothic Kingdom, which became centred on Toledo by the end of the reign of Leovigild, Septimania was both an administrative province of the central royal government and an ecclesiastical province whose metropolitan was the Archbishop of Narbonne. Originally, the Goths may have maintained their hold on the Albigeois, but if so it was conquered by the time of Chilperic I. There is archaeological evidence that some enclaves of Visigothic population remained in Frankish Gaul, near the Septimanian border, after 507.
The Duchy of Aquitaine was a historical fiefdom in western, central, and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the river Loire, although its extent, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries, at times comprising much of what is now southwestern France (Gascony) and central France.
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The history of Toulouse, in Occitania, southern France, traces back to ancient times. After Roman rule, the city was ruled by the Visigoths and Merovingian and Carolingian Franks. Capital of the County of Toulouse during the Middle Ages, today it is the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées region.
Hunald I, also spelled Hunold, Hunoald, Hunuald or Chunoald, was the Duke of Aquitaine from 735 until 745. Although nominally he was an officer of the Merovingian kings of Francia, in practice Aquitaine was completely autonomous when he inherited it. His rule corresponds to the lowest point of the Merovingian monarchy, when the kingdom was in fact ruled by the mayors of the palace. Hunald was forced at the outset of his reign to accept the authority of the mayor of the palace Charles Martel, but he tried three times to throw it off in open revolt. He was unsuccessful, although he did manage to retain Aquitaine undiminished. In 745, he retired to a monastery, giving power to his son Waiofar. He later went to Rome, where he died during an attack on the city.
Pepin the Short, was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king.
Pepin II, called the Younger, was King of Aquitaine from 838 as the successor upon the death of his father, Pepin I. Pepin II was eldest son of Pepin I and Ingeltrude, daughter of Theodobert, count of Madrie. He was a grandson of the Emperor Louis the Pious.
Lupo II is the third-attested historical duke of Gascony, appearing in history for the first time in 769. His ancestry is subject to scholarly debate.
The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia was a duchy located in present-day southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the modern region of Gascony. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as Wasconia, was originally a Frankish march formed to hold sway over the Basques. However, the duchy went through different periods, from its early years with its distinctively Basque element to the merger in personal union with the Duchy of Aquitaine to the later period as a dependency of the Plantagenet kings of England.
The Umayyad invasion of Gaul occurred in two phases in 719 and 732 AD. Although the Umayyads secured control of Septimania, their incursions beyond this into the Loire and Rhône valleys failed. By 759 Muslim forces had lost Septimania to the Christian Franks and retreated to Iberia.
The siege of Narbonne took place in France between 752 and 759, led by the Frankish king Pepin the Short against the Umayyad stronghold defended by an garrison of Arab and Berber Muslim troops who had invaded Septimania and occupied the Visigothic Kingdom and its Gallo-Roman inhabitants since 719. The siege remained as a key battlefield in the context of the Carolingian expedition south to Provence and Septimania starting in 752.
The siege of Bourbon was a Frankish siege of the Aquitanian fortress of Bourbon in 761 during the Aquitanian War. The Frankish army under King Pepin the Short invested, stormed and burned the fortress, taking the garrison prisoner.
The siege of Clermont was a Frankish siege of the Aquitanian fortress of Clermont in 761 during the Aquitanian War. The Frankish army under King Pepin the Short burned the fortress, with a large number of men, women and children dying in the flames. The Count of Auvergne, Bladinus, was taken prisoner and put in chains, while his Gascon levies were killed or captured by the Franks.
The siege of Bourges was a Frankish siege of the Aquitanian fortress town of Bourges in 762 during the Aquitanian War. The Frankish army under King Pepin the Short invested the fort with lines of circumvallation, contravallation and siege engines. The walls were breached and the fort taken. Count Chunibert of Bourges swore his loyalty to Pepin along with his Gascon levies and their families. Pepin appointed several counts of his own to garrison the place and the Frankish army went on to besiege Thouars.
The siege of Thouars was a Frankish siege of the Aquitanian stronghold of Thouars in 762 during the Aquitanian War. The Frankish army under King Pepin the Short besieged and captured the fort with great speed, burning the place to the ground, taking the count of Thouars captive and deporting him and Thouars' Gascon levies to Francia.
The Battle of Narbonne was a military engagement near Narbonne in 763 during the Aquitanian War. The forces of the Frankish counts Australdus and Galemanius defeated the Aquitanian forces of Count Mantio, killing Mantio and his retinue in the process and routing the Gascon levies in the Aquitanian service.
The siege of Toulouse was a Frankish siege of the Aquitanian fortified town of Toulouse in the winter of 767 during the Aquitanian War. The Frankish army under King Pepin the Short conquered the town and accepted the surrender of nearby Albi and Gevaudan.
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