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Waiofar, also spelled Waifar, Waifer or WaiffreIn French it is spelled Waïfre, Waïfer or Gaïfier. (died 2 June 768), was the last independent Duke of Aquitaine from 745 to 768. He peacefully succeeded his father, Hunald I, after the latter entered a monastery. He also inherited the conflict with the rising Carolingian family and its leader, Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks after 751 and thus Waiofar's nominal suzerain.
In 751, according to the Chronicle of Moissac, Waiofar sacked the city of Narbonne ( Narbonam depraedat), the centre of al-Andalus north of the Pyrenees, having been conquered by the Arabs in 720. The following year several other formerly Visigoths cities north of the Pyrenees, under a certain Count Ansemund, went over to the Franks. Between 752 and 759, Pepin's forces besieged Narbonne. For reasons unknown, Waiofar attacked Pepin's forces while they were camped by the city, "as his father had attacked Charles Martel" in the words of the Annals of Aniane. Only the local sources, the Chronicle of Moissac and Annals of Aniane, record this attack. Although the Chronicle of Uzès records that the Rouergue was conquered by Pepin in 754, during the siege of Narbonne, it is more likely that its conquest was effected with the assistance of the local Visigoths only after the fall of Narbonne (a Gothic city prior to the Arab conquest).
The Annals of Aniane and Chronicle of Moissac indicate that the Frankish army under Pepin began the conquest of southern Aquitaine immediately after the fall of Narbonne in 759, and by 760 Toulouse, Rodez (capital of the Rouergue) and Albi had fallen into their hands.
In 762, Pepin invaded Berry and Poitou. He captured Bourges, forcing the surrender of Count Chunibert, after a lengthy siege in which breastworks were erected around the city and ramparts constructed for putting siege weapons up to the walls.In the continuator of Fredegar's words: castra metatusque est undique et omnia quae in giro fuit vastavit. Circumsepsit urbem munitionem fortissimam, ita ut nullus egredi ausus fuisset aut ingredi potuisset, cum machinis et omni genere armorum, cirumdedit ea vallo ("the fortress and all around it was laid waste. The fortress of the mighty city was surrounded in such a way that no one could have dared go out or come in; with machines and all sorts of weapons Pepin surrounded its walls"). Thouars fell the same year, and the count of Poitiers made submission to Pepin. The Annales Laurissenses maiores record that many Gascons in the following of the counts of Bourges and Poitiers were captured and brought back to Neustria.
In 762, Waiofar's cousin Count Mantio, with a Gascon levy, lay an ambush for a Carolingian force, either as it was entering or leaving Narbonne. His men dismounted and lay in wait, but in the subsequent battle they were routed. Mantio and his retinue were all killed and the Gascons fled on foot, with the Carolingians taking their horses as booty.
According to the continuator of Fredegar, Waiofar opposed Pepin "with a great army and many Vascones Gascons from across the Garonne, who in antiquity were called Vaceti Basques" in 765. The "great army" and the "large levy" of Gascons may be distinct forces brought together for this campaign. In 764, Count Chilping of the Auvergne led such a dual force of local levies complemented by some Gascon soldiers taken from the garrison of Clermont.
Between 763 and 766, Waiofar withdrew his garrisons from the cities ( civitates) of Poitiers, Limoges, Saintes, Périgueux and Angoulême. Most of these fortifications were restored after the cities were occupied by Pepin's forces. Archibald Lewis believes it was Pepin who destroyed the walls after he had conquered the cities if he judged he could not hold them. His interpretation is contradicted by Bernard Bachrach, who believes it was Waiofar who, before abandoning his cities, destroyed their defences and walls to prevent Pepin from using them against him.The continuator of Fredegar: Videns praedictus Waiofarius princeps Aquitanicum quod castro Claremonte rex bellando ceperat et Bitoricas caput Aquitaniae munitissimam urbem cum machinis capuisset, et inpetum eius ferre non potuisset, omnes civitates quas in Aquitania provintia dictioni sue erant, id est Pectavia, Lemovicas, Sanctonis, Petrecors, Equolisma vel reliquis quam plures civitates et castella, omnes muros eorum in terra prostravit ("The aforementioned Waiofar, the Aquitainian prince—seeing that the castle of Clermont was taken by the warring king, and that Bourges, the head of Aquitaine, a most well fortified city, had been captured with siege machines, and that he could not bear the attack—laid to the ground all the walls of all the cities that belonged to him in the province of Aquitaine, that is, Poitiers, Limoges, Saintes, Périgueux, Angoulême and many other cities and castles.")
This final phase of the war was fought with increasing brutality, and the chroniclers record that Pepin burnt , despoiled vineyards and depopulated monasteries. During this period (763–66) the fortress of Berry was held by a Frankish garrison.
In 768, the erstwhile count of Bourges, Blandinus, submitted to Pepin. Most of Waiofar's family was captured and executed in the forest of Périgord. Waiofar himself was assassinated by his own men, allegedly at Pepin's instigation, on 2 June. A kinsman, perhaps his son, Hunald II, succeeded to his claims on Aquitaine and continued to fight against Pepin's successor, Charlemagne.
According to Adhemar of Chabannes, writing 250 years later, Pepin granted two villas to the canons of the abbey of Saint-Martial and the cathedral of Saint-Étienne at Limoges during his wars with Waiofar.
Although much is known of Waiofar's wars with Pepin the Short, little is known of his administration of Aquitaine. He did use counts (Latin comites, singular comes) to govern major cities ( civitates, sing. civitas) in the Frankish manner. At least Bourges, Poitiers and the Auvergne had Aquitainian counts. In the case of Thouars, which was merely a castle ( castra), a count was appointed to command the garrison ( custodes).
Archibald Lewis suggests that the abundance of Gascon (Basque) troops among Waiofar's forces stems from an unrecorded alliance with Duke Lupus II of Gascony; in the same way he suggests Pepin formed an alliance with the Goths of Septimania after his conquest of Narbonne.
Waiofar's uncle Remistanius, although he was not in the service of the duke, was wealthy enough to form an army to besiege several Carolingian garrisons. In 765, Pepin bribed Remistanius with gold, silver, cloth, horses and arms to come over to his side. He appointed him to govern eastern half of the region of Bourges up to the river Cher and granted him control of the citadel in the city itself. At the time, Chunibert, who had served as count of Bourges under Waiofar until he lost the city to Pepin in 762, was again serving as count, this time to Pepin.
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