Waifer of Aquitaine

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Waifer (a.k.a. Waifar, Waiofar, Waifre, or Gaifier) was the duke of Aquitaine from 748 to 767, succeeding his newly-monastic father Hunold.

When asked to give up Frankish refugees and stolen church lands in 760, Waifer rebelled. The king, Pepin the Short, marched against him, despoiling the land of Berry and Auvergne. Waifer did homage and promptly Pepin left to deal with other things.

As soon as the Frankish monarch had returned to his domains, Waifer rebelled again. The contumacious vassal ravaged Burgundy, prompting Pepin to come south again in 761. He took Clermont and Auvergne in that year and, in the following years (762/763), Berry and Bourges. According to the continuator of the Chronicle of Fredegar, Waifer opposed Pepin cum exercito magno et plurima Wasconorum qui ultra Garonnam commorantur, quem antiquitus vocati sunt Vaceti: "with a great and large army of Vascones from across the Garonne, who in antiquity were called Vaceti".^[1] However, Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria revolted against Frankish overlordship and drew off Pepin's attention, leaving Waifer in place.

Until 766, there was general peace, though Waifer continued in his opposition to the king. In that year, Pepin returned a third time and drove Waifer beyond the Garonne. Thing began to turn sharply against Waifer at this point and, in 767, his capital, Toulouse, fell. He fled, but his dissastified followers, tired of losing wars, murdered him and pledged loyalty to Pepin. Though this itself did not last long.

[edit] Sources

• Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages, 476–918. London: Rivingtons, 1914.
• Collins, Roger. The Basques. London: Blackwell Publishing, 1990.
• Collins, Roger. "The Vaccaei, the Vaceti, and the rise of Vasconia." Studia Historica VI. Salamanca, 1988. Reprinted in Roger Collins, Law, Culture and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain. Variorum, 1992. ISBN 0 86078 308 1.
• Collins, Roger. The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN 0 631 15923 1.
• Collins, Roger. Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0 631 18185 7.

[edit] Notes

Preceded by Hunold

Duke of Aquitaine 748–767

Succeeded by none