Gregory's successors were largely dominated by the exarch of Ravenna, the Byzantine emperor's representative in the Italian Peninsula. These humiliations, the weakening of the Byzantine Empire in the face of the Muslim conquests, and the inability of the emperor to protect the papal estates against the Lombards, made Pope Stephen II turn from Emperor Constantine V. He appealed to the Franks to protect his lands. Pepin the Short subdued the Lombards and donated Italian land to the papacy. When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (800) as emperor, he established the precedent that, in Western Europe, no man would be emperor without being crowned by a pope.
Gregory's successors were largely dominated by the exarch of Ravenna the Byzantine emperor's representative in the Italian Peninsula These humiliations the weakening of the Byzantine Empire in the face of the Muslim conquests and the inability of the emperor to protect the papal estates against the Lombards made Pope Stephen II turn from Emperor Constantine V He appealed to the Franks to protect his lands Pepin the Short subdued the Lombards and donated Italian land to the papacy When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (800) as emperor he established the precedent that in Western Europe no man would be emperor without being crowned by a pope