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Pepin or
Pippin (
714 –
24 September 768), called
the Short, and often known as
Pepin the Younger or
Pepin III, was the
Mayor of the Palace and
Duke of the Franks from 741 and
King of the Franks from 751 to 768. He was the father of
Charlemagne.
He was the son of
Charles Martel,
mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and of
Rotrude of Trier (
690-
724).
Assumption of power
Pepin's father, Charles Martel, died in
741. He divided the rule of the Frankish kingdom between Pepin and his elder brother,
Carloman, his surviving sons by his first wife: Carloman became Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Pepin became Mayor of the Palace of Neustria.
Grifo, Charles' son by his second wife, Swanahild (
aka Swanhilde), may also have been intended to receive an inheritance, but he was imprisoned in a
monastery by his two half-brothers. Carloman, who by all evidence was a deeply pious man, retired to a monastery in
747. This left Francia in the hands of Pepin as sole
mayor of the palace and
dux et princeps Francorum, a title originated by his grandfather and namesake
Pepin of Heristal.
Under the reorganization of Francia by Charles Martel the
dux et princeps Francorum were the commanders of the armies of the kingdom, in addition to their administrative duties as mayor of the palace, and specifically commander of the standing guard which Martel had begun maintaining year-round since Toulouse in 721.
Upon their assumption, Pepin and Carloman, who hadn't proved themselves in battle in defense of the realm as their father had, installed the
Merovingian Childeric III as king, even though Martel had left the throne vacant since the death of
Theuderic IV. Childeric had the title of king, but he was considered weak. As time passed, and his brother bowed out of the picture, Pepin became discontent with the royal power being with Childeric.
At the time of Carloman's retirement, Grifo escaped his imprisonment and fled to Duke
Odilo of Bavaria, who was married to Hiltrude, Pepin's sister. Odilo was forced by Pepin to acknowledge Frankish overlordship, but died soon after (
January 18 748). Pepin invaded Bavaria and installed
Tassilo III as duke under Frankish overlordship.
First Carolingian king
Since Pepin had control over the magnates and actually had the power of the king, he suggested the Pope make the Carolingian name royal in law as well as fact. Pepin asked
Pope Zachary, "Is it right that the royal power sit with the person with the title of King, or the person who makes the decisions as King?" The Pope answered that the
de facto power is more important than the
de jure power. Thus, Pepin, having obtained the support of the
papacy, discouraged opposition to his house. He was elected King of the Franks by an assembly of Frankish leading-men, with a large portion of his army on hand (in the event that the nobility inclined not to honor the Papal bull), and anointed at
Soissons, by
Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, who, along with his niece,
Saint Leoba, was a court advisor. Meanwhile, Grifo continued his rebellion, but was eventually killed in the battle of
Saint-Jean de Maurienne in
753. Childeric III was deposed, his hair shaved off and he was confined to a monastery. He was the last of the Merovingians.
Expansion of the Frankish realm
Pepin added to his power after
Pope Stephen II traveled all the way to
Paris to anoint him in a lavish ceremony at
Saint Denis Basilica, bestowing upon him the additional title of
patricius Romanorum (
Patrician of the Romans). As life expectancies were short in those days, and Pepin wanted family continuity, the Pope also anointed Pepin's sons,
Charles (eventually known as
Charlemagne) and
Carloman.
Pepin's first major act was to go to war against the Lombard king
Aistulf, who had a policy of expansion into the
ducatus Romanum, as a partial repayment for papal support in his quest for the crown. Victorious, he forced the Lombard king to return property seized from the Church and confirmed the papacy in possession of
Ravenna and the
Pentapolis, the so-called
Donation of Pepin whereby the
Papal States was founded. In
759, he drove the
Saracens out of
Gaul with the capture of
Narbonne and then consolidated his power further by integrating
Aquitaine into the kingdom. In taking Narbonne, and formally annexing Aquitaine (whose status was always dependent on the strength of her suzerains), he completed the work of his father save for one last task: fully subduing the
Saxons. He was preparing for war against them when his health began to fail, and thus, this final task was left for his son, the great Charlemagne.
Legacy
Pepin died during a campaign and was brought to Saint Denis to be buried near the saint in
768 and is interred there in the basilica with his wife
Bertrada. Pepin was buried "outside that entrance [of
Saint Denis Basilica] according to his wishes, face down, for the sins of his father Charles Martel".
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Historical opinion often seems to regard him as the lesser son and lesser father of two greater men, though a great man in his own right. He continued to build up the
heavy cavalry which his father had begun. He maintained the standing army that his father had found necessary to protect the realm and form the core of its full army in wartime. He not only maintained his father's policy of containing the
Moors, he drove them over and across the
Pyrenees with the capture of Narbonne. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (
missionary work in
Germany and
Scandinavia) and the infrastructure (
feudalism) that would prove the backbone of medieval Europe.
His rule, while not as great as either his father's or son's, was historically important and of great benefit to the Franks as a people. It can certainly be argued that Pepin's assumption of the crown, and the title of Patrician of
Rome, were harbingers of his son's imperial coronation which is usually seen as the founding of the
Holy Roman Empire. He certainly made the Carolingians
de jure what his father had made them
de facto—the ruling dynasty of the Franks and the foremost power of Europe. While not known as a great general, he was undefeated during his lifetime.
Family
In
740, Pepin married
Bertrada of Laon, his second cousin. Her father,
Charibert, was the son of
Pepin II's brother,
Martin of Laon. They are known to have had four children:
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