The daughter of Desiderius selected by Bertha as the spouse of her son was named Desiderata. She is described as a princess of beautiful face and stately mien. Bertha presented her to Charlemagne, who, in the meantime, had separated from his first wife, the daughter of a Frankish nobleman. At that time marital separations and remarriages were not uncommon among the upper classes, and some of the very highest class had several wives. Bertha had managed this business secretly, and the Pope did not hear of her plans until Desiderata had gone to the Frankish country. It is not strange that the news caused him the greatest anxiety, for he clearly foresaw that if Charlemagne became the son-in-law of Desiderius, he could no longer look to the Franks for the protection of the territory which Pepin had taken from the Lombards and given to the Church. He wrote an urgent letter to Charlemagne, imploring him to break off marriage with Desiderata, even going so far as to declare that the Lombards, notwithstanding they had been living with the Roman people, were still little better than carrion, and the descendants of lepers. He closed with these words: “We have sent you this our appeal, from the grave of Saint Peter, and with our tears. Should you—which we cannot believe—defy the authority of Peter, our master, the ban will be imposed upon you. You will be banished from God’s Kingdom eternally to consort with the devil and the wicked in the everlasting fires of hell.” When Charlemagne received this letter the wedding festivities were already over. The warning had come too late. Whether of itself it would have thwarted the plans of Bertha is uncertain, but in any event it strengthened the prejudice of Charlemagne against Desiderata which he had had from the first. It was not long before she became so unbearable to him that he sent her back to her father. The conciliatory work of his mother, well intended as it had been, was ruined. Desiderius, enraged to the extreme both against Charlemagne and the Pope, held the latter principally responsible for the affront put upon his daughter, and resolved to wreak vengeance at once. He demanded that the Pope should crown the son of Carloman as King of the Franks, intending after that to incite an uprising in that country in his favor. The time seemed auspicious, as Charlemagne was now at war with the Saxons. While the Pope was hesitating, and just as Desiderius was about to use force, Stephen died and was succeeded by Hadrian.