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Tassilo III ( 741 – c. 796) was the
duke of Bavaria The following is a list of rulers during the history of Bavaria. Bavaria was ruled by several dukes and kings, partitioned and reunited, under several dynasties. Since 1949, Bavaria has been a democratic state in the Federal Republic of Germ ...
from 748 to 788, the last of the house of the Agilolfings. The Son of Duke Odilo of Bavaria and Hitrud, the Daughter of Charles Martell. Tassilo, then still a child, began his rule as a Frankish ward under the tutelage of his uncle, the
Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippi ...
Mayor of the Palace
Pepin the Short the Short (french: Pépin le Bref; – 24 September 768), also called the Younger (german: Pippin der Jüngere), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king. The younger was the son of ...
(later
king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...
) after Tassilo's father, Duke
Odilo of Bavaria Odilo, also Oatilo or Uatilo (died 18th January 748) of the Agilolfing dynasty was Duke of Bavaria from 737 until his death in 748. He had the '' Lex Baiuvariorum'' compilation edited, the first ancient Germanic law collection of the Bavarians. ...
, had died in 748 and Pepin's half-brother Grifo had tried to seize the duchy for himself. Pepin removed Grifo and installed the young Tassilo as duke, but under Frankish overlordship in 749. Then, in 757, according to the ''
Royal Frankish Annals The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state ...
'', Tassilo became Pepin's
vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. ...
and the lord for his lands at an assembly held at Compiegne. There, he is reported to have sworn numerous oaths to Pepin and, according to reports that may have been written much later, promised fealty to him and his sons,
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
and Carloman. However, the highly legalistic account is quite out of character for the period. K. L. Roper Pearson has suggested that it probably represents a reworking of the original document by the annalist to emphasise Charlemagne's overlordship over Tassilo during the period of hostilities between the two rulers. Around 760, Tassilo married
Liutperga Liutperga (Liutpirc) (fl 750 - fl. 793) was a Duchess of Bavaria by marriage to Tassilo III, the last Agilolfing Duke of Bavaria. She was the daughter of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and Ansa. Duchess of Bavaria She was married to Tass ...
, daughter of the Lombard king, Desiderius, continuing a tradition of Lombardo-Bavarian connections. He made several journeys to Italy to visit his father in law and to establish political relations with the pope. It is reported that Tassilo had gained such a reputation that he was regarded as a kingly ruler when his cousins Charles and Carloman assumed power in the Frankish realm in 768. That year, he founded
Gars Abbey Gars Abbey (german: Kloster Gars) is a monastery on the Inn River in Bavaria, Germany, in the town of Gars am Inn. It was founded in 768 and has been occupied by Benedictine monks, Augustinian Canons Regular, and most recently Redemptorists. His ...
on the
Inn River The Inn ( la, Aenus; rm, En) is a river in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The river is long. It is a right tributary of the Danube and it is the third largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The highest point of its drainage basin is ...
, in southern Bavaria. In the following year, 769, Tassilo issued in
Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...
the foundation charter of the
Innichen Abbey Innichen Abbey (German: ''Stift Innichen'') is a former Benedictine monastery in Innichen, South Tyrol in northern Italy. Founded in the 8th century, its collegiate church dedicated to Saint Candidus, rebuilt in the 12th–13th centuries, is cons ...
. He was, however, not able to protect the pope against Lombard expansions, which has been seen as a reason for Rome's lack of support for him during his later conflict with Charlemagne. Still, there is a consensus among historians that Tassilo, despite acting as a kingly sovereign, did not intend to become king himself. Tassilo nevertheless undertook such kingly duties as founding Kremsmünster Abbey. In 772, Tassilo sent his son Theodo to Italy to visit the court of his grandfather, Desiderius, and to be baptised by
Pope Adrian I Pope Adrian I ( la, Hadrianus I; died 25 December 795) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 772 to his death. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman. Adrian and his predecessors had to contend with periodic ...
in Rome on May 19. In 773, Tassilo sent an embassy to the pope, but it was blocked by Charles, who was suspicious of the duke's alliances with
Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...
,
Wends Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various peopl ...
and Avars. p. 188 In 788 Tassilo was accused by the Franks of defaulting on his military obligations to Pepin, leaving the Frankish campaign in
Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Januar ...
on grounds of ill health way back in 763. Roper Pearson suggests that he left because he felt an obligation to the Aquitanians in light of an earlier alliance, made between Tassilo's father and the Aquitanian duke Hunoald I during his conflict with Pepin in 743. Whatever the motivations behind Tassilo's abandonment of the campaign, the ''Royal Frankish Annals'' for that year are particularly scathing of him, saying that he "brushed aside his oaths and all his promises and sneaked away on a wicked pretext". Working on the premise that the annals may have been revised to emphasise Tassilo as a vassal, Roper Pearson suggests that to be the beginning of a campaign to depict Tassilo as an oath-breaker and someone unprepared to carry out the main function of his office, to fight, which would make him unfit for rule. Stuart Airlie has argued that the reason why Charlemagne removed Tassilo from power was the greater power he had in the duchy of Bavaria and the greater independency he displayed, Airlie compares the duchy of Bavaria was similar to Aquitaine in the independent nature and threat to Carolingian rule. The incident was the linchpin in Charlemagne and Pope Adrian's argument that Tassilo was not an independent prince but a rebellious vassal, deserving punishment. The punishment was carried out, after much political maneuvering, during a diet in the
Imperial Palace Ingelheim The Imperial Palace Ingelheim (german: Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz) is an important imperial palace erected in the second half of the 8th century in Germany. It served Emperors and Kings as a residence and place for governance until the 11th century ...
in 788, when Tassilo was finally deposed and then entered a monastery. In 794, Tassilo was again compelled, at the Synod of Frankfurt, to renounce his and his family's claims to
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
. He formally handed over to the king all of the rights that he had held. Tassilo died reportedly on the 11th of December in 796 at Lorsch Abbey in which he had been banished to by Charlemagne. A lost chronicle of Tassilo's reign was kept by his chancellor,
Creontius Creontius, sometimes Germanized Crantz ( 8th century), was a Bavarian official and historian. He served as the ''referendarius'' of Duke Tassilo III (), a position variously translated as chief counsellor, secretary or chancellor. He wrote a now ...
. It was partially preserved in the 16th-century when
Johannes Aventinus Johann Georg Turmair (or Thurmayr) (4 July 1477 – 9 January 1534), known by the pen name Johannes Aventinus (Latin for "John of Abensberg") or Aventin, was a Bavarian Renaissance humanist historian and philologist. He authored the 152 ...
incorporated some of its material into his Bavarian history.


Notes


Further reading

* Wolfram, Herwig
''Tassilo III.: Höchster Fürst und niedrigster Mönch''
Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tassilo 03 of Bavaria 740s births 790s deaths 8th-century dukes of Bavaria Medieval child rulers Agilolfings Medieval German saints 8th-century Christian saints German beatified people German prisoners sentenced to death Baiuvarii