Pepin the Hunchback

Pepin (or Pippin) the Hunchback (, ; 768/769 – 811) was a Frankish prince. He was the eldest son of Charlemagne and noblewoman Himiltrude. He developed a humped back after birth, leading early medieval historians to give him the epithet "hunchback". He lived with his father's court after Charlemagne dismissed his mother and married Desiderata. Around 781, Pepin's half brother Carloman was rechristened as "Pepin"—a step that may have signaled Charlemagne's decision to disinherit the elder Pepin, for a variety of possible reasons. In 792, Pepin the Hunchback revolted against his father with a group of leading Frankish nobles, but the plot was discovered and put down before the conspiracy could be put into action. Charlemagne commuted Pepin's death sentence, having him tonsured and exiled to the monastery of Prüm instead. Since his death in 811, Pepin has been the subject of numerous works of historical fiction.

Legitimacy The circumstances of Pepin's birth remain unclear to modern scholars, especially regarding the legitimacy of his mother's union to Charles. Most Carolingian-era sources dismiss Charles' first union as illegitimate. The contemporary historian Einhard writes merely that Pepin was born to a "concubine", and he does not list him among Charlemagne's legitimate offspring. Although it is possible that Pepin was born to a now-forgotten concubine, Einhard is probably referring to Himiltrude—the first child-bearing partner of Charlemagne, about whom little is now known. However, Einhard and most other Carolingian historians worked in the courts of Charlemagne's successors and had a vested interest in undermining the legitimacy of the claims of other potential royal lines. These writers may have maligned Charles' union to Himiltrude after the fact in order to lend a post facto justification to Pepin's later disinheritance.

It is possible that the union of Charlemagne and Himiltrude was a Germanic form of marriage with fewer obligations than the sacramental marriage of the Church—what some medievalists have called Friedelehe—although the concept is controversial. Paul the Deacon writes in his Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium that Pepin was born ante legale connubium or "before legal marriage", but his meaning is unclear: he does not specify as to whether Charles and Himiltrude were not fully, legally married by the church, or if they simply got married after Pepin was born.

After Charles ignored Stephen's advice and married the Lombard princess Desiderata, the story of Himiltrude might have been altered and forgotten. Perhaps Charles' resentment over a deformed son led him to divorce Himiltrude once an opportune and advantageous time arrived. Another possibility is that when Pepin's hunchback became evident, stories needed to change to accommodate a different heir. At any rate, concepts like legitimacy and rightful inheritance were very likely more fluid for the Carolingians than they were for later monarchies—an ambiguity that continues to provoke debate about Pepin's disinheritance. What is known fairly certainly is that Charles fathered a son with a woman named Himiltrude, with whom he may or may not have been married.

Name The nature of Pepin's birth is further illuminated by an understanding of his name and the customs of naming children during this time. Carolingian aristocrats frequently named newborn children after successful ancestors. This tradition was more than a mere homage to dead relatives—it seems that the Carolingians saw naming customs as a way to help children assume the historical roles of their eponymous ancestors.

The Carolingian dynasty was dominated by the name "Pepin": it had been Charles' father's name, as well as that of several other members of the royal line. In fact, Charles' brother and political rival Carloman named his firstborn Pepin before Charles was even married. Charles, then, was naturally inclined to name his first son "Pepin"—announcing his own dynastic ambitions, clearing the ground for the eventual recognition of his son as emperor. Only after Charlemagne's marriage to Hildegard and the birth of new male heirs like Charles the Younger (772) and Carloman (773), did Pepin's position seem to become more precarious. In either 780 or 781, Charles had the young Carloman baptized by Pope Hadrian in Rome, renaming him Pepin. Charles had added another, more fit Pepin to his lineage—an apparent snub that many historians have interpreted as the beginning of Pepin the Hunchback's disinheritance. However, a dearth of documents and credible contemporary historians leaves the question up for debate, and some have even argued that Pepin retained a full stake in the inheritance of the kingdom right up until his rebellion in 792.

Late disinheritance theory Charlemagne was extremely conscious of the notions of succession and inheritance during his lifetime, even refusing to marry off his daughters to the Frankish nobility. This quirk scandalized later contemporary historians ("Strange to say," Einhard writes, "he never wanted to give any one of them in marriage to anybody")

Early disinheritance theory Other historians see the baptism of Carloman as a repudiation of Pepin, and trace the systematic rejection of Pepin's claims to the throne in the subsequent actions of Charlemagne and his court. Walter Goffart argues that the Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium, written by Paul the Deacon in the 780s before Pepin's revolt, reveals the "succession plan" of Charlemagne and his court—a plan that left no room for a hunchbacked king. According to Goffart, Paul uses his history of the ancestry of Charlemagne as an allegory for the current succession by depicting the Frankish kingship as a "birthright" handed down from a father to only one son, like those passed down among Biblical patriarchs. Like Esau, Pepin was rejected in favor of his younger brothers: Charlemagne, "like Isaac in the Bible, had no more than one blessing to bestow." This increased presence of central authority might have chafed the aristocracy, opening the door for a palace coup directed against Charlemagne.

Additionally, both the Royal Frankish Annals and Einhard cite Fastrada, who seems to have been poorly received by many members of court, as a factor in the rebellion. Both of the major uprisings against the throne during Charles' reign—Hardrad's in 786 and Pepin's in 792—occurred during Fastrada's tenure as his wife and queen. As cited in 792 of the Royal Frankish Annals, "A conspiracy was made against him [Charles] by his oldest son Pepin and some Franks, who claimed that they were unable to bear the cruelty of Queen Fastrada and therefore conspired against the king's life."

It is unclear what acts of cruelty were perpetrated by Fastrada against Pepin (or, more likely, against the nobles who encouraged Pepin); but she seems to have exacerbated existing tensions between Charlemagne and the aristocracy.

Charles was away from his central kingdom during 792, residing in Bavaria (at Regensburg) in order to better manage his campaign against the Avars. According to Einhard's account, instead of accompanying his father, Pepin the Hunchback faked sickness. Einhard explains: "When Charles was at war with the Huns, and was wintering in Bavaria, this Pepin shammed sickness, and plotted against his father in company with some of the leading Franks, who seduced him with vain promises of the royal authority." Nonetheless, punishment was still necessary, so Pepin was tonsured and took up the habit of monkhood. As Einhard describes, "When his [Pepin's] deceit was discovered and the conspirators were punished, his head was shaved, and he was suffered, in accordance with his wishes, to devote himself to a religious life in the monastery of Prüm." As one historian puts it, Augustine and his disciples believed that the role of individual deformities was "hidden from human understanding, but had significance in God's divine plan of creation." Pepin's life demonstrates this ambiguous position of deformed and disabled people in Carolingian society—individuals who traveled through life apparently cursed by God, but for reasons incomprehensible to humans. Einhard calls Pepin "handsome of face, but hunchbacked," and dissociates him completely from Charlemagne's other progeny. Notker the Stammerer, however, treats Pepin's disability as more of a mundane inconvenience than a sign from God: he writes, with a hint of droll humor, that "all deformed people tend to be more irritable than those who are properly proportioned." Significantly, no early medieval record of Pepin directly links his deformity to his treason against Charlemagne. Although some of his contemporaries might have read spiritual implications into his hunchback, Pepin's disability seemed to cause more political than moral problems for the Carolingian succession. Apprehension about the fitness of a disabled leader hurt his chances of attaining power, just as they might for a modern head of state.

Early sources Like many figures of the time period, few of the historical facts about Pepin have been fixed with certainty. Most of what is known about him comes from just a handful of early medieval annals and histories. Understanding the context of these sources, as well as their built-in biases and shortcomings, is essential to understanding Pepin. One of the earliest, most contemporary descriptions of Pepin is found in the Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium, an ecclesiastical history of the see of Metz written by Paul the Deacon around 785. Paul often digresses into broader themes of Carolingian history, and some historians (like Walter Goffart) read a great deal about the plight of Pepin into the supposedly allegorical histories that Paul provides of Charlemagne's ancestors. Paul also touches on Pepin directly, at least occasionally:

Historical appraisal of the Gesta has varied widely over time, however, and many historians see it as more of a "literary curiosity" with only an incidental or inadvertent historical value. Even Goffart admits that historians value much of Paul's work only as a mere "repository of legends."

Another nearly contemporary source for the life of Pepin are the Lorsch Annals, a series of historical entries compiled by Frankish monks during the life of Charlemagne. The annals provide one of the best early accounts of Pepin's revolt:

The Royal Frankish Annals provide another foundational annalistic source for the study of Pepin. Although they were probably compiled in Charlemagne's court, a later writer revised them after the emperor's death, which might impact the way in which the annals cover Pepin. Einhard, a scholar at Charlemagne's court and one of the king's most important early biographers, provides only a glancing mention of Pepin. Initially, he makes no mention of Pepin or Himilitrude in his list of Charlemagne's legitimate offspring and spouses in his Vita Karoli Magni:

But Einhard knew that Pepin was Charlemagne's son—although he does not mention that Pepin was the first born. Only a few pages later, Einhard acknowledges Pepin's birth, saying, "By one of his concubines he had a son, handsome in face, but hunchbacked, named Pepin, whom I omitted to mention in the list of his children." Apparently Pepin was already in a sort of historical exile by the time of Einhard's writing: he is not portrayed as part of the legitimate lineage and does not enjoy the place of honor enjoyed by Charlemagne's other offspring. This is explained by Einhard's subsequent account of Pepin's revolt. Pepin feigned illness as he plotted with "certain leading Franks" to overthrow his father. When the plot was discovered, Einhard writes that Pepin was tonsured and sent directly to the monastery of Prüm. In his paper "Pipinus Rex" historian Carl Hammer points out the disparate attention Einhard gives to Pepin's revolt, arguing, "he gives it priority over his account of the evidently more widespread and possibly more dangerous rebellion of 785/6." Hammer also points out that Einhard describes Pepin as a "hapless pawn of the real conspirators" and so hopes to maintain the cohesion of the family unit in his portrayal of Charlemagne and his offspring. Hammer points out that no historian we have record of prior to Einhard called Pepin "the Hunchback"—Presumably, this slander was another aspect of Einhard's attempt to spare the family."

A third and differing account of Pepin's life comes from Notker the Stammerer, a Benedictine monk writing during the reign of Charles the Fat, the great-grandson of Charlemagne. Notker's account, referred to by modern scholars as the Gesta Caroli Magni ("The Deeds of Charles the Great") or De Carolo Magno ("Concerning Charles the Great") provides much more detail about Pepin's plot than earlier sources, although some of the story seems heavily inspired by classical sources. According to Notker, Pepin and his co-conspirators meet in the church of St. Peter in Regensburg to discuss their plot, where a cleric hiding under the altar overhears them. After the deacon reveals the conspiracy to Charlemagne, the plotters are captured, and Pepin is "cruelly scourged" and banished to a poor monastery—Notker claims that it was the monastery of St. Gall, although Pepin was almost certainly sent to the monastery of Prüm. Notker, however, adds another element to the story, possibly borrowed from the Roman historian Livy's account of Tarquin's poppies. Some time later, when faced with another revolt, Charlemagne sends messengers to Pepin to ask his advice. The king's men find Pepin weeding nestles in the garden, where he refuses to offer Charlemagne any advice, saying "I will send him no message except—what I am doing! I am digging up the useless weeds in order that the valuable vegetables may be able to develop more freely." When the messengers relate the story back to Charlemagne, he manages to "divine the real meaning of the words" and puts the rebellious nobles to death. As a reward for his good counsel, Charlemagne allows Pepin to choose "the manner of life that most pleased him" and Pepin asks to move to the monastery of Prüm.

The Poeta Saxo, an anonymous Saxon poet who composed the Annales de gestis Caroli magni imperatoris libri quinque ("Annals of the Deeds of Emperor Charlemagne in Five Books") near the end of the 9th century, relies heavily on classical models and existing sources like Einhard and the Royal Frankish Annals. Generally, he offers an interesting literary restatement of the older vitae and annals, but little new history.

In fiction and popular culture Many modern historians dismiss the historical accuracy of Notker the Stammerer's account. However, some recent scholars argue that Notker offers a valuable early literary account of Pepin. Historian David Ganz suggests in his Introduction to Notker's work that De Carolo Magno "can be seen as an attempt to provide a revision of Einhard's text, with a proper emphasis, lacking in Einhard, on Charlemagne as Christian ruler and a part of the divine plan for salvation." Professor Lewis Thorpe suggests that "the Charlemagne of the Monk of Saint Gall seems to live before our eyes and to be a little nearer to the real man whom we find portrayed elsewhere." Like his portrayal of Charlemagne, Notker's depiction of the hunchback inaugurated a long tradition of fictionalizing Pepin as a literary character, with an emphasis on the complex relationship he maintained with his father.

Publicity photo of American actors, (L–R) Barry Williams, I.M. Hobson, Louisa Flaningam and Adam Grammis promoting a 1975 theatrical production of Pippin. The 1972 Broadway musical hit Pippin, by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson, is loosely based on the Pippin the Hunchback of history. In her 1959 children's novel Son of Charlemagne, Barbara Willard tells the story of Charlemagne's family in a historical-fictional style by fleshing out the details of more historical accounts (likely, Einhard was a major source). In such scenes as Carloman's baptism, "Carl" expresses distress as he realizes that he has been renamed Pepin and takes his older half-brother's place.

The short story by Alexandre Dumas, "Episodes from Pepin et Charlemagne", has been incorrectly cited as being about Pepin the Hunchback. In fact, the story is about his namesake and grandfather, Charlemagne's father Pepin.