Hunald

Hunald (also known as Hunoald, Hunuald, Chunoald, Chunold, Hunold, or Hunaud), Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Toulouse (735–744 or 748), succeeded his father Odo the Great in 735.

He refused to recognize the high authority of the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, whereupon Charles marched south of the Loire, seized Bordeaux, and Blaye, but eventually allowed Hunald to retain Aquitaine on condition that he should pledge fealty.^[1]

From 736 to 741, the relations between Charles and Hunald seem to have remained amicable, but upon Charles's death in 741, Hunald declared war against the Franks. Pepin and Carloman in turn crossed the Loire, ransacked the region of Berry and the outskirts of Bourges and, later, destroyed the castle of Loches and took prisoners all its inhabitants. Hunald seems to have retaliated by rampaging and burning Chartres. However, Hunald begged for peace in 744 and retired to a monastery, probably on the Île de Ré.^[2]

We find him later in Italy, where he allied himself with the Papacy against the Lombards and was killed defending Rome during the Lombard king Aistulf's siege.^[3] He had left the duchy of Aquitaine to Waifer, who was probably his son, and who struggled for eight years in defending his independence.

At the death of Pepin and at the beginning of the reign of Charlemagne, there was a last rising of the Aquitanians. This revolt was directed by a certain Hunald and was repressed in 769 by Charlemagne and his brother Carloman. A certain Hunald sought refuge with the duke of the Gascons, Lupus, who handed him over to his enemies. In spite of the opinion of certain historians, this Hunald seems to have been a different person (Hunald II) from the old duke of Aquitaine.^[4]

Notes

1. ↑ Pierre Riche, The Carolingians:A Family who forged Europe, Transl. Michael Idomir Allen, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 44.
2. ↑ Pierre Riche, The Carolingians:A Family who forged Europe, 51-52.
3. ↑ Peter Llewellyn, "The Popes and the Constitution in the Eighth Century", The English Historical Review 101, 398 (1986):. 42–67.
4. ↑ Higounet, p 27, regards him as "Hunald II" and considers him the most likely leader of the Basque army which won the Battle of Roncesvalles.

Sources

• Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
• Higounet, Charles. Bordeaux pendant le haut moyen age. Bordeaux, 1963.
• Vaissète, Joseph. Histoire génerale de Languedoc, vol. i. (ed. of 1872 seq.); Th. Breysig, H Hahn, L Oelsner, S Abel and B Simson, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs.