Tassilo

(742-794)

   The last semi-independent duke of Bavaria (r. 749-788), Tassilo was a member of the powerful Agilolfing family, which had once been rivals of the Carolingian family for control in the Frankish kingdoms. He claimed a long tradition of successful rule in Bavaria, and he and his family had established good relations with the church in the duchy and endowed numerous monasteries. He had also established important alliances with other peoples, including the Lombards. His downfall came at the hands of his relative Charlemagne, whose expansionistic policies led him to absorb the Bavarian duchy and force Tassilo into retirement at a monastery.

   The son of Odilo, duke of Bavaria, Tassilo enjoyed an important political and religious inheritance. The family had long supported the church in Bavaria and could claim the support of the monasteries they had so richly endowed. Tassilo was also the daughter of Chiltrude (d. 754), Charles Martel's daughter and sister of Pippin; even though his mother married Tassilo's father against her brother's wishes, through her Tassilo had some claim to the Carolingian legacy. On his father's death, however, the duchy was seized by Grifo, one of Charles Martel's sons, who raised an unsuccessful rebellion against Martel's heirs, Pippin and Carloman. On the suppression of the revolt, Pippin installed his young Tassilo on the ducal throne of Bavaria, which he held until 788.

   As duke, Tassilo maintained an uneasy relationship with Pippin and strove to preserve as much of Bavarian independence as possible in his relations with his powerful uncle. Tassilo actively promoted the church in his duchy and welcomed the advice of the ecclesiastical nobles of the Bavarian church. He also lavished the church with numerous donations and was especially generous to the monasteries of his duchy, including the monasteries of Kremsmünster and Mondsee. His support of the church also included the promotion of missionary activity in neighboring Carinthia, and the successful conversion of the region led to increased political influence for Tassilo in Carinthia. Tassilo also pursued a foreign policy calculated to strengthen his position in relation to the Carolingians. To that end, he formed a marriage alliance with the Lombard king Desiderius. Despite his best efforts at independent action, however, Tassilo remained tied to Pippin. He accompanied the Carolingian king on one of his trips to Italy in support of the pope, and in 757 he swore an oath of allegiance to Pippin and became his vassal.

   After the death of Pippin, Tassilo faced the new challenge of dealing with the new Carolingian ruler, Charlemagne. Although Charlemagne's accession was troubled, he quickly took control of the kingdom. Like Tassilo, Charlemagne first married a daughter of Desiderius, but the arrangement fell apart shortly after the death of Charlemagne's brother Carloman. Tassilo wisely chose not to involve himself in the struggle between Charlemagne and Desiderius, but this did little to ease the Carolingian's concerns about the duke of Bavaria. In 781, Charlemagne forced Tassilo to renew the pledge of vassalage he had sworn to Pippin in 757. In 787, concerned at the state of affairs, Tassilo sought the aid of the pope, Hadrian I, who had previously been favorable to the Bavarian duke. But at this point, the pope sided with the king of the Franks rather than the duke of the Bavarians. Failing to gain the support of the pope, Tassilo was forced to renew his oath of allegiance in 787, but, possibly at the urgings of his wife, he continued to intrigue against Charlemagne and began negotiations with the Avars. Informed of this by loyal Bavarian nobles, Charlemagne summoned the duke to the royal court, where Tassilo admitted to acts of treason. He was condemned to death, but in 788 his sentence was commuted to a life of penance in the monastery of Jumièges. With the fall of Tassilo, the duchy of Bavaria was absorbed into the empire of the Franks, becoming a stepping-stone for the Carolingian advance against the Avars in the 790s.

   See also

   Avars; Carolingian Dynasty; Charlemagne; Charles Martel; Desiderius; Hadrian I, Pope; Lombards; Pippin III, Called the Short

   Bibliography

 ♦ Einhard and Notker the Stammerer. Two Lives of Charlemagne. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1981.

 ♦ Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. Trans. Giselle de Nie. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1977.

 ♦ McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987. London: Longman, 1983.

 ♦ Odegaard, Charles E. Vassi et Fideles in the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945.

 ♦ Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Trans. Michael Idomir Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

 ♦ Scholz, Bernhard Walter, trans. Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972.