The Carolingians
Charlemagne Conquers the Lombards

CNG 100, Lot: 467. Estimate $5000. Sold for $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Charlemagne (Charles the Great). As Charles I, King of the Franks, 768-814. AV Tremissis (18mm, 1.00 g, 3h). Ticinum (Pavia) mint. Struck 773/4-781. + DOMИS • (CAR)OIVS, cross potent / + FL•AVIΛ TICINO, six-rayed star with additional short rays in voids; all within linear circular border. Bernareggi –; Bernareggi, Tremissi 82 var. (legends); Bernareggi, Moneta 39 var. (legends; pellets in voids); Arslan –; BMC Vandals –, but cf. p. 152 (issue of Lucca); MEC 1, –. EF, flan crack, internal split. Extremely rare.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Peus 348 (2 May 1996), lot 889.

Desiderius (757-774), the last Lombardic king of Lombardy, had created for the first time a unified coinage, with a number of mints all striking “cross potent/star” tremisses (see lots 398 and 399, below). For the first five years of his reign, Desiderius pursued a policy of friendship toward the Franks, culminating in 770 with the marriage of his daughter to Charlemagne, but relations soon deteriorated when Charlemagne annulled the marriage the following year and sent the Lombard princess back to Italy. After the death of his brother Carloman in 771, Charlemagne seized his territory and proclaimed himself sole king of the Franks. Carloman’s widow and sons sought refuge with Desiderius just as the Lombardic king began an offensive against Pope Hadrian I. Consequently, Hadrian appealed to Charlemagne for help in late 772. In 773, the Frankish king crossed the Alps, successfully besieged the Lombard capital of Pavia, and took the last Lombardic king and his queen as prisoners to France in 774. Charlemagne received the title of “Patrician of the Romans” and took for himself the crown of the Lombards, now in the treasury of Monza Cathedral.