PIPPIN, DONATION OF

(754), promise made by the Carolingian Frankish king Pippin III the Short to win for Pope Stephen II (III) lands in Italy that had been conquered by the Lombards; it was later (756) embodied in a document that became the origin of papal rule over central Italy, which lasted until the 19th century. Pippin had, with papal agreement, deposed the last Merovingian ruler of the Franks and had then been elected king himself. He received the pope at Quierzy-sur-Oise (near Laon, France), made the donation, and was subsequently anointed as king by the pope. Fulfilling his promise, Pippin fought two campaigns (754 and 756) in Italy, wresting from the Lombard king Aistulf former Byzantine territory, which he then awarded to the pope. Pippin's donation was confirmed and extended by his successor, Charlemagne, in 774 and justified by the claim that it was based on a grant supposed to have been originally made to the papacy by Constantine I, the first Christian Roman emperor, in the 4th century AD (the Donation of Constantine).