Pepin was the second son of Charlemagne by his then-wife Hildegard. He was born Carloman, but was rechristened with the royal name Pepin (also the name of his older half-brother Pepin the Hunchback, and his grandfather Pepin the Short) when he was a young child. He was made "king of Italy" after his father"s conquest of the Lombards, in 781, and crowned by Pope Hadrian I with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.
He was active as ruler of Lombardy and worked to expand the Frankish empire. In 791, he marched a Lombard army into the Drava valley and ravaged Pannonia, while his father marched along the Danube into Avar territory. Charlemagne left the campaigning to deal with a Saxon revolt in 792.
Pepin and Duke Eric of Friuli continued, however, to assault the Avars" ring-shaped strongholds.
The great Ring of the Avars, their capital fortress, was taken twice. A celebratory poem, De Pippini regis Victoria Avarica, was composed after Pepin forced the Avar khagan to submit in 796.
The Versus de Verona (c 800), an urban encomium of the city, likewise praises king Pepin. The "Codex Gothanus" History of the Lombards hails Pepin"s campaign against Benevento and his liberation of Corsica "from the oppression of the Moors."
His activities included a long, but unsuccessful siege of Venice in 810.
The siege lasted six months and Pepin"s army was ravaged by the diseases of the local swamps and was forced to withdraw.
A few months later Pepin died. He had one or more mistresses, whose names are not known for certain, and whose ancestry is not given from any reliable source although one has been conjectured to have been called Bertha, and she is believed to be the daughter of William of Gellone, count of Toulouse. Pepin"s son was Bernard.
Pepin was expected to inherit a third of his father"s empire, but he predeceased him.
This poem was composed at Verona, Pepin"s capital after 799 and the centre of Carolingian Renaissance literature in Italy.
