Pope Stephen III
Desiderata was the second wife of Charlemagne, although there are some questions over the nature of Charlemagne's relationship to Himiltrude, his first wife. Carolingian historian Janet Nelson states that the marriage and resulting alliance with the Lombards was directed against Carloman, leaving Charlemagne's brother encircled as a result. The marriage received opposition from Pope Stephen III, who in the summer of 770 wrote a letter to Charlemagne and Carloman voicing his discontent at the potential union between "the most notable race of the Franks and that fetid brood of the Lombard's that had brought leprosy into the land." There is no mention of this marriage in the Royal Frankish Annals nor the revised version, however, it is mentioned briefly in chapter 18 of Einhard's Life of Charlemagne biography when he states that "at the urging of his mother he married a daughter of Desiderius."