Adrian I

Adrian I,

d. 795, pope (772–95), a Roman; successor of Stephen IV. At Adrian's urging, CharlemagneCharlemagne
(Charles the Great or Charles I) [O.Fr.,=Charles the great], 742?–814, emperor of the West (800–814), Carolingian king of the Franks (768–814).
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 crossed the Alps and defeated the Lombard king, DesideriusDesiderius
, d. after 774, last Lombard king in Italy (756–74). The duke of Tuscany, he was chosen king with the support of the pope and of Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks and whose son Charles (later Emperor Charlemagne) married Desiderius's daughter.
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, who had annexed papal territory. That defeat marked the end of the Lombard kingdom. Charlemagne, during the siege of Pavia, went to Rome (774) and there confirmed the donation of Pepin to the Papal StatesPapal States,
Ital. Lo Stato della Chiesa, from 754 to 1870 an independent territory under the temporal rule of the popes, also called the States of the Church and the Pontifical States. The territory varied in size at different times; in 1859 it included c.
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 and joined additional provinces to it. Adrian in turn confirmed Charlemagne's title of patrician of the Romans, thereby acknowledging Charlemagne's protectorate over all Italy. Adrian supported Empress Irene in her struggle against iconoclasm, and he sent legates to the Second Council of Nicaea. The great Roman water systems were built during his rule. He was succeeded by St. Leo III.