Hunald

Who is Hunald?

Hunald, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Toulouse, succeeded his father Odo the Great in 735.

He refused to recognize the high authority of the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, whereupon Charles marched south of the Loire, seized Bordeaux, and Blaye, but eventually allowed Hunald to retain Aquitaine on condition that he should pledge fealty.

From 736 to 741, the relations between Charles and Hunald seem to have remained amicable, but upon Charles's death in 741, Hunald declared war against the Franks. Pepin and Carloman in turn crossed the Loire, ransacked the region of Berry and the outskirts of Bourges and, later, destroyed the castle of Loches and took prisoners all its inhabitants. Hunald seems to have retaliated by rampaging and burning Chartres. However, Hunald begged for peace in 745 and retired to a monastery, probably on the Île de Ré.

We find him later in Italy, where he allied himself with the Papacy against the Lombards and was killed defending Rome during the Lombard king Aistulf's siege. He had left the duchy of Aquitaine to Waifer, who was probably his son, and who struggled for eight years in defending his independence.