Born in the year 777, the real Pippin was actually named Pepin, after his grandfather, Pepin the Short, by his father Charlemagne, king of the Holy Roman Empire. After Charlemagne defeated and conquered the Lombards, Pope Hadrian I in 781 crowned Pepin, 3 years old at the time, King of Italy (a subkingdom under Charlemagne). It was planned that Pepin and his two brothers, Louis and Charles, would each share an equal part of their father's kingdom once he died, but Pepin died in 810 and Charles also preceded his father in death.
It was up to Louis, whose patronage of the Church earned him the nickname of Pious. Louis was a good king but an unremarkable one. Wanting to provide properly for his own three boys, he divided the titles and lands and privileges, as Charlemagne would have done had his other sons survived. But in doing so he served to split the Frankish empire that his forefathers had worked so hard to bring together.
The musical was really about a young man finding himself. it wasn't terribly "historical". Lots of good music and dancing though.
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