But at the same time Carloman, king of Bavaria and the East Mark, has also crossed the Alps into eastern Lombardy at the head of a powerful army.

Saxony and Bavaria were united with Charles the Fat's Kingdom, and Francia and Neustria were granted to Carloman of Aquitaine who also conquered Lower Burgundy.

Upon the death of Louis II of Italy in 875, Carloman also became king of Italy and aimed at gaining the Imperial crown, but in 879, he was crippled by a stroke and divided his dominions as his father had done.

However it was, by the end of the year Bertrada and Charlemagne had successfully encircled Carloman: Charlemagne had married Desiderata, the daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, Carloman's immediate eastern neighbor, and the marriage created an alliance between Charlemagne and the Lombards ; Bertrada had also secured for Charlemagne the friendship of Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, her husband's nephew ; she had even attempted to secure Papal support for the marriage by arranging for Desiderius to cede to Rome certain territories to which the Papacy laid claim, although Pope Stephen III remained in theory hostile to an alliance between his allies the Franks and his enemies the Lombards, and in reality deeply conflicted between the threat the Lombards posed to him and the chance to dispose of the anti-Lombard Christopher the Primicerius, the dominant figure at the Papal court.

When, in 875, the Emperor Louis II, who was also King of Italy, died, having come to terms with Louis the German whereby Carloman would succeed in Italy, Charles the Bald of West Francia invaded the peninsula and had himself crowned king and emperor.

Early in 871 Carloman also imprisoned Svatopluk on unspecified charges of infidelity which may be connected to the rebellion of Carloman's younger brothers, Louis the Younger and Charles the Bald.

Nearby, King Carloman erected a Benedictine monastery in 876, with Werinolf as first abbot, and also built the abbey church in honour of the Apostle St. Philip.

When, in 875, the Emperor Louis II, who was also King of Italy, died, having come to terms with Louis the German whereby the German monarch's eldest son, Carloman, would succeed in Italy, Charles the Bald of West Francia invaded the peninsula and had himself crowned king and emperor.

Through his marriage to Ermengard of Italy he also had two daughters: Ermengard ( c. 877-917 ), who married Manasses, Count of Chalon, and Ethelberga, who married first Carloman and then William the Pious, Count of Auvergne.

Pribina, the Slavic dux of Lower Pannonia died fighting the Moravians in 861 which suggests that Carloman also had conceded this province to Rastislav.

His son Carloman started a new war against Saxony in 743, because the Saxons gave aid to Duke Odilo of Bavaria.

* Carloman revolts against his father Louis the German.

* Carloman revolts against his father Louis the German a second time.

Carloman joined Pippin against Hunald of Aquitaine's rising in 742 and again in 745.

Pippin assisted Carloman against the Saxons 742-743, when Duke Theoderic was forced to come to terms, and against Odilo of Bavaria in 742 and again in 744, when peace was established between the brothers and their brother-in-law, for Odilo had married their sister Hiltrude.

Carloman I stands in the unfortunate position of having been written of only by writers prejudiced against him, who portray him as peevish, self-pitying and easily flattered.

Desiderius, outraged and humiliated, appears to have made some sort of alliance with Carloman following this, in opposition to Charlemagne and the Papacy, which took the opportunity to declare itself against the Lombards.

In the summer of 880 the brothers Carloman and Louis marched against him, took Mâcon and the northern parts of Boso's realm.

In the summer of 880 Carloman and Louis marched against him and captured Mâcon and the northern part of Boso's realm.

In 863, his rebellious eldest brother Carloman revolted against their father.

The Royal Frankish Annals mention a 743 Frankish campaign led by the Carolingian Mayor of the Palace Carloman against the Saxons, followed by a second expedition together with his brother Pepin the Short the next year.

Carloman soon came to the conclusion that the accusations of infidelity against Svatopluk were unfounded and released him from prison.

After Louis and Carloman had divided their father's realm at Amiens in March 880, the two brothers joined to march against Boso.

According to the Annals of Fulda, Carloman led a new expedition against Rastislav in 858, but this campaign was a failure too, for Rastislav remained defiant.

Carloman even struck an alliance with Rastislav against his father.

The king made it seem that he was leading a new campaign against Rastislav, but at the last moment he moved against Carloman who thus had no choice but to surrender.

Early in 868 Louis the German's son, Carloman fought two successful engagements against Rastislav and returned with plunder.

As it is mainly West-Franconian historiography that speaks of Arnulf's illegitimacy, it is quite feasible that the two females are one and the same person and that Carloman later on actually married Liutswind, thus legitimizing his son.

The later years of Louis the German were troubled by risings on the part of his sons, the eldest of whom, Carloman, revolted in 861 and again two years later ; an example that was followed by the second son Louis, who in a further rising was joined by his brother Charles.

Louis the Stammerer was physically weak and died two years later, his realm being divided between his eldest two sons: Louis III gaining Neustria and Francia, and Carloman gaining Aquitaine and Burgundy.

With Grifo contained, the two mayors, who had not yet proved themselves in battle in defence of the realm as their father had, on the initiative of Carloman, installed the Merovingian Childeric III as king ( 743 ), even though Martel had left the throne vacant since the death of Theuderic IV in 737.

Relations between the two then degenerated further, requiring the mediation of their mother, Bertrada, who appears to have favoured Charlemagne, with whom she would live out her widowhood, over Carloman.

With Gerberga he had two sons, the older of whom was named Pepin after his grandfather, marking him according to Carolingian tradition as the heir of Carloman, and of Pepin the Short.

Others have suggested that perhaps the position of the two brothers was weak or challenged, or perhaps there Carloman was merely acting for a loyalist or legitimist party in the kingdom.

Boniface had begun his reform attempts of the Frankish church in the 730s, and by the 740s had found a kindred spirit in Carloman, the more religiously oriented of Charles Martel's two sons who divided their father's domain.

When Carloman promised Boniface a synod, he saw an opportunity to address two of his main interests in his reform efforts: to protect church property from a rapacious gentry, and to impose stricter guidelines on the clergy.

Charlemagne and Carloman would inherit the two halves of their father's kingdom when he died, and Gisela became a nun.

Louis the Stammerer died shortly after in 879 and was succeeded by his two sons, Louis III and Carloman.

On July 28, 754 Pope Stephen anointed Pepin, as well as his two sons Charles and Carloman, at Saint-Denis in a memorable ceremony that was recalled in coronation rites of French kings until the end of the ancien regime in the French Revolution of 1789-1799.

Although the two armies soon returned, Svatopluk entered into clandestine negotiations with Carloman and agreed to commend himself and his principality to Carloman.

As a reward for capturing Rastislav, Carloman allowed Svatopluk to retain his principality, but the rest of Moravia was placed under the control of two Frankish lords, William and Engilschalk.

In April 879, Louis died, leaving behind two adult sons, Louis and Carloman.

Based on this, the author believes the confusion was caused because the two queens ( wives of the two brothers Charles and Carloman ) had the same name, namely Gerberga or Gerperga, which are respectively the Frankish and Lombard versions of the modern French name Gerberge.