Far away from Anglo-Saxon England, at the same time as Offa of Mercia’s rule was at its height in 787, one of the few other rulers in western Europe to have largely escaped Charlemagne’s conquests met his death. Arichis II (758–87), duke of Benevento, had begun his political career as the protégé and son-in-law of Desiderius (757–74), last king of the Lombards. After Desiderius’ defeat and deposition by Charlemagne in 774 Arichis assumed the title prince (princeps) of the Lombards, and spent the rest of his reign conspiring to expand his large south Italian duchy and resist the king of the Franks. Eventually, however, he was backed into a corner and forced to make concessions when Charlemagne himself came south into Italy in 786. In the last year of his life Arichis managed to stave off the Frankish army by sending money and offering up his two sons as hostages. A magnanimous Charlemagne accepted only the younger son and even Arichis’ one condition of submission to Carolingian overlordship: that the Frankish king should not return to impose his authority in person.

The months after this agreement proved extremely unfortunate for the Beneventans. Arichis’ death was shortly preceded by that of his eldest son, Romuald, which left Grimoald, now heir to the throne, in Charlemagne’s hands. When a Beneventan delegation arrived at his court pleading for Grimoald’s return, the king took full advantage of the hand dealt him by fate to reinforce his superiority over the stubbornly independent principality. In the words of Erchempert, a monk of Montecassino later in the ninth century: