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- Pepin (714 – 24 September 768), called le Bref ("the Short"), also known as Pepin the Younger or Pepin III,[1] was the Mayor of the Palace and dux et princeps Francorum (Duke of the Franks, a title originated by his grandfather and namesake Pepin of Heristal) from 741, and King of the Franks from 752 to 768.[2][3] He was the father of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
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
Coronation in 752 of Pépin the Short by Pope Zachary.
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's son by his second wife, Swanahild (also known as Swanhilde), demanded a share in the inheritance, but he was imprisoned in a monastery by his two half-brothers.
In the Frankish realm the unity of the kingdom was essentially connected with the person of the king. So Carloman, to secure this unity, raised the Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). Then in 747 Carloman resolved to enter a monastery. This left Francia in the hands of Pepin as sole mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum.
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. Pepin put down the renewed revolt led by his half-brother and succeeded in completely restoring the boundaries of the kingdom.
Under the reorganization of Francia by Charles Martel, the dux et princeps Francorum was the commander of the armies of the kingdom, in addition to his administrative duties as mayor of the palace, and specifically commander of the standing guard which Charles Martel had begun maintaining year-round since Toulouse in 721.
Denier of Pepin, Troyes. The "R" is for rex (king) and the "P" is for Pepin.
[edit] First Carolingian king
Pepin was subject to the decisions of Childric who had only the title of King but no power. Childric was considered a joke by the people. Since Pepin had control over the magnates and actually had the power of the king, he now addressed to Pope Zachary a suggestive question.
In regard to the kings of the Franks who no longer possess the royal power: is this state of things proper?
Hard pressed by the Lombards, Pope Zachary welcomed this move by the Franks to end an intolerable condition and lay the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The Pope replied that such a state of things is not proper: the de facto power is more important than the de jure power.
After this decision the throne was declared vacant. Childeric III was deposed and confined to a monastery. He was the last of the Merovingians.
According to ancient custom, Pepin was then elected King of the Franks by an assembly of Frankish nobles, with a large portion of his army on hand (in case the nobility inclined not to honor the Papal bull). He was anointed at Soissons by Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, who was a court advisor, along with his niece, Saint Leoba. Meanwhile, Grifo continued his rebellion, but was eventually killed in the battle of Saint-Jean de Maurienne in 753.
[edit] 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 the Basilica of St Denis, bestowing upon him the additional title of patricius Romanorum (Patrician of the Romans) and is the first recorded crowning of a civil ruler by a Pope. 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 as King was to go to war against the Lombard king Aistulf, who had expanded into the ducatus Romanum. Victorious, he forced the Lombard king to return property seized from the Church. He confirmed the Papacy in possession of Ravenna and the Pentapolis, the so-called Donation of Pepin whereby the Papal States was founded and the temporal reign of the Papacy began.[4] In 759, he captured Narbonne from Iberian Muslim invaders and drove them out of France. He 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.
[edit] Legacy
Pepin died during a campaign, in 768. He was interred at the Basilica of Saint Denis, to be near the saint. Pepin was buried "outside that entrance according to his wishes, face down, for the sins of his father Charles Martel". [5] His wife Bertrada was also interred there in 783.
The Frankish realm was divided according to the Salic law between his two sons: Charlemagne and Carloman I.
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 contained the Iberian Muslims as his father had, he drove them out of the country. 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 741, Pepin married Bertrada of Laon, Her father, Charibert, was the son of Pepin II's brother, Martin of Laon. They are known to have had eight children, at least three of whom survived to adulthood:
* Charles (2 April 742 – 28 January 814), (Charles the Great)
* Carloman (751 – 4 December 771)
* Gisela (757–810)
* Pepin, died in infancy.
* Chrothais, died young, buried Metz.
* Adelais, died young, buried Metz.
* Two unnamed daughters[7]
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714 - 768
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