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On July 28, 754, Pope Stephen II, made Pippin the Short, King of the Frank's. From the article:
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pepin the Short
Mayor of the Palace of the whole Frankish kingdom (both Austrasia and Neustria), and later King of the Franks; born 714; died at St. Denis, 24 September, 768. He was the son of Charles Martel. Pepin and his older brother Carloman were taught by the monks of St. Denis, and the impressions received during their monastic education had a controlling influence upon the relations of both princes to the Church. When the father died in 741 the two brothers began to reign jointly but not without strong opposition, for Griffon, the son of Charles Martel and the Bavarian Sonnichilde, demanded a share in the government. Moreover, the Duke of the Aquitanians and the Duke of the Alamannians thought this a favourable opportunity to throw off the Frankish supremacy. The young kings were repeatedly involved in war, but all their opponents, including the Bavarians and Saxons, were defeated and the unity of the kingdom re-established. As early as 741 Carloman had entered upon his epoch-making relations with St. Boniface, to whom was now opened a new field of labour, the reformation of the Frankish Church. On 21 April, 742, Boniface was present at a Frankish synod presided over by Carloman at which important reforms were decreed. As in the Frankish realm the unity of the kingdom was essentially connected with the person of the king, Carloman to secure this unity raised the Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). In 747 he resolved to enter a monastery. The danger, which up to this time had threatened the unity of the kingdom from the division of power between the two brothers, was removed, and at the same time the way was prepared for the deposing of the last Merovingian and for the crowning of Pepin. The latter put down the renewed revolt led by his step-brother Griffon, and succeeded in completely restoring the boundaries of the kingdom. Pepin now addressed to the Pope the 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 Zacharias welcomed this advance of the Franks which aimed at ending an intolerable condition of things, and at laying the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The pope replied that such a state of things was not proper. After this decision the place Pepin desired to occupy was declared vacant. The crown was given him not by the pope but by the Franks. According to the ancient custom Pepin was then elected king and soon after this was anointed by Boniface. This consecration of the new kingdom by the head of the Church was intended to remove any doubt as to its legitimacy. On the contrary, the consciousness of having saved the Christian world from the Saracens produced, among the Franks, the feeling that their kingdom owed its authority directly to God. Still this external cooperation of the pope in the transfer of the kingdom to the Carolingians would necessarily enhance the importance of the Church. The relations between the two controlling powers of Christendom now rapidly developed. It was soon evident to what extent the alliance between Church and State was to check the decline of ecclesiastical and civil life; it made possible the conversion of the still heathen German tribes, and when that was accomplished provided an opportunity for both Church and State to recruit strength and to grow.
Ecclesiastical, political, and economic developments had made the popes lords of the ducatus Romanus. They laid before Pepin their claims to the central provinces of Italy, which had belonged to them before Liutprand's conquest. When Stephen II had a conference with King Pepin at Ponthion in January, 754, the pope implored his assistance against his oppressor the Lombard King Aistulf, and begged for the same protection for the prerogatives of St. Peter which the Byzantine exarchs had extended to them, to which the king agreed, and in the charter establishing the States of the Church, soon after given at Quiercy, he promised to restore these prerogatives. The Frankish king received the title of the former representative of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, i.e. "Patricius", and was also assigned the duty of protecting the privileges of the Holy See.
When Stephen II performed the ceremony of anointing Pepin and his son at St. Denis, it was St. Peter who was regarded as the mystical giver of the secular power, but the emphasis thus laid upon the religious character of political law left vague the legal relations between pope and king. After the acknowledgment of his territorial claims the pope was in reality a ruling sovereign, but he had placed himself under the protection of the Frankish ruler and had sworn that he and his people would be true to the king. Thus his sovereignty was limited from the very start as regards what was external to his domain. The connection between Rome and the Frankish kingdom involved Pepin during the years 754-56 in war with the Lombard King Aistulf, who was forced to return to the Church the territory he had illegally held. Pepin's commanding position in the world of his time was permanently secured when he took Septimania from the Arabs. Another particularly important act was his renewed overthrow of the rebellion in Aquitaine which was once more made a part of the kingdom. He was not so fortunate in his campaigns against the Saxons and Bavarians. He could do no more than repeatedly attempt to protect the boundaries of the kingdom against the incessantly restless Saxons. Bavaria remained an entirely independent State and advanced in civilization under Duke Tassilo. Pepin's activity in war was accompanied by a widely extended activity in the internal affairs of the Frankish kingdom, his main object being the reform of legislation and internal affairs, especially of ecclesiastical conditions. He continued the ecclesiastical reforms commenced by St. Boniface. In doing this Pepin demanded an unlimited authority over the Church. He himself wished to be the leader of the reforms. However, although St. Boniface changed nothing by his reformatory labours in the ecclesiastico-political relations that had developed in the Frankish kingdom upon the basis of the Germanic conception of the State, nevertheless he had placed the purified and united Frankish Church more definitely under the control of the papal see than had hitherto been the case. From the time of St. Boniface the Church was more generally acknowledged by the Franks to be the mystical power appointed by God. When he deposed the last of the Merovingians Pepin was also obliged to acknowledge the increased authority of the Church by calling upon it for moral support. Consequently the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Frankish king over the Church of his country remained externally undiminished. Nevertheless by his life-work Pepin had powerfully aided the authority of the Church and with it the conception of ecclesiastical unity. He was buried at St. Denis where he died. He preserved the empire created by Clovis from the destruction that menaced it; he was able to overcome the great danger arising from social conditions that threatened the Frankish kingdom, by opposing to the unruly lay nobility the ecclesiastical aristocracy that had been strengthened by the general reform. When he died the means had been created by which his greater son could solve the problems of the empire. Pepin's policy marked out the tasks to which Charlemagne devoted himself: quieting the Saxons, the subjection of the duchies and lastly, the regulation of the ecclesiastical question and with it that of Italy."
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pepin the Short
Mayor of the Palace of the whole Frankish kingdom (both Austrasia and Neustria), and later King of the Franks; born 714; died at St. Denis, 24 September, 768. He was the son of Charles Martel. Pepin and his older brother Carloman were taught by the monks of St. Denis, and the impressions received during their monastic education had a controlling influence upon the relations of both princes to the Church. When the father died in 741 the two brothers began to reign jointly but not without strong opposition, for Griffon, the son of Charles Martel and the Bavarian Sonnichilde, demanded a share in the government. Moreover, the Duke of the Aquitanians and the Duke of the Alamannians thought this a favourable opportunity to throw off the Frankish supremacy. The young kings were repeatedly involved in war, but all their opponents, including the Bavarians and Saxons, were defeated and the unity of the kingdom re-established. As early as 741 Carloman had entered upon his epoch-making relations with St. Boniface, to whom was now opened a new field of labour, the reformation of the Frankish Church. On 21 April, 742, Boniface was present at a Frankish synod presided over by Carloman at which important reforms were decreed. As in the Frankish realm the unity of the kingdom was essentially connected with the person of the king, Carloman to secure this unity raised the Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). In 747 he resolved to enter a monastery. The danger, which up to this time had threatened the unity of the kingdom from the division of power between the two brothers, was removed, and at the same time the way was prepared for the deposing of the last Merovingian and for the crowning of Pepin. The latter put down the renewed revolt led by his step-brother Griffon, and succeeded in completely restoring the boundaries of the kingdom. Pepin now addressed to the Pope the 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 Zacharias welcomed this advance of the Franks which aimed at ending an intolerable condition of things, and at laying the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The pope replied that such a state of things was not proper. After this decision the place Pepin desired to occupy was declared vacant. The crown was given him not by the pope but by the Franks. According to the ancient custom Pepin was then elected king and soon after this was anointed by Boniface. This consecration of the new kingdom by the head of the Church was intended to remove any doubt as to its legitimacy. On the contrary, the consciousness of having saved the Christian world from the Saracens produced, among the Franks, the feeling that their kingdom owed its authority directly to God. Still this external cooperation of the pope in the transfer of the kingdom to the Carolingians would necessarily enhance the importance of the Church. The relations between the two controlling powers of Christendom now rapidly developed. It was soon evident to what extent the alliance between Church and State was to check the decline of ecclesiastical and civil life; it made possible the conversion of the still heathen German tribes, and when that was accomplished provided an opportunity for both Church and State to recruit strength and to grow.
Ecclesiastical, political, and economic developments had made the popes lords of the ducatus Romanus. They laid before Pepin their claims to the central provinces of Italy, which had belonged to them before Liutprand's conquest. When Stephen II had a conference with King Pepin at Ponthion in January, 754, the pope implored his assistance against his oppressor the Lombard King Aistulf, and begged for the same protection for the prerogatives of St. Peter which the Byzantine exarchs had extended to them, to which the king agreed, and in the charter establishing the States of the Church, soon after given at Quiercy, he promised to restore these prerogatives. The Frankish king received the title of the former representative of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, i.e. "Patricius", and was also assigned the duty of protecting the privileges of the Holy See.
When Stephen II performed the ceremony of anointing Pepin and his son at St. Denis, it was St. Peter who was regarded as the mystical giver of the secular power, but the emphasis thus laid upon the religious character of political law left vague the legal relations between pope and king. After the acknowledgment of his territorial claims the pope was in reality a ruling sovereign, but he had placed himself under the protection of the Frankish ruler and had sworn that he and his people would be true to the king. Thus his sovereignty was limited from the very start as regards what was external to his domain. The connection between Rome and the Frankish kingdom involved Pepin during the years 754-56 in war with the Lombard King Aistulf, who was forced to return to the Church the territory he had illegally held. Pepin's commanding position in the world of his time was permanently secured when he took Septimania from the Arabs. Another particularly important act was his renewed overthrow of the rebellion in Aquitaine which was once more made a part of the kingdom. He was not so fortunate in his campaigns against the Saxons and Bavarians. He could do no more than repeatedly attempt to protect the boundaries of the kingdom against the incessantly restless Saxons. Bavaria remained an entirely independent State and advanced in civilization under Duke Tassilo. Pepin's activity in war was accompanied by a widely extended activity in the internal affairs of the Frankish kingdom, his main object being the reform of legislation and internal affairs, especially of ecclesiastical conditions. He continued the ecclesiastical reforms commenced by St. Boniface. In doing this Pepin demanded an unlimited authority over the Church. He himself wished to be the leader of the reforms. However, although St. Boniface changed nothing by his reformatory labours in the ecclesiastico-political relations that had developed in the Frankish kingdom upon the basis of the Germanic conception of the State, nevertheless he had placed the purified and united Frankish Church more definitely under the control of the papal see than had hitherto been the case. From the time of St. Boniface the Church was more generally acknowledged by the Franks to be the mystical power appointed by God. When he deposed the last of the Merovingians Pepin was also obliged to acknowledge the increased authority of the Church by calling upon it for moral support. Consequently the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Frankish king over the Church of his country remained externally undiminished. Nevertheless by his life-work Pepin had powerfully aided the authority of the Church and with it the conception of ecclesiastical unity. He was buried at St. Denis where he died. He preserved the empire created by Clovis from the destruction that menaced it; he was able to overcome the great danger arising from social conditions that threatened the Frankish kingdom, by opposing to the unruly lay nobility the ecclesiastical aristocracy that had been strengthened by the general reform. When he died the means had been created by which his greater son could solve the problems of the empire. Pepin's policy marked out the tasks to which Charlemagne devoted himself: quieting the Saxons, the subjection of the duchies and lastly, the regulation of the ecclesiastical question and with it that of Italy."
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pepin the Short
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The Merovingians were one of the great dynasties of medieval Europe. This 30 minute video tells the story about the rise of the Merovingians, from Pepin the ...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on July 28, 754, Pope Stephen II, made Pippin the Short, King of the Frank's.
The Merovingians
The Merovingians were one of the great dynasties of medieval Europe. This 30 minute video tells the story about the rise of the Merovingians, from Pepin the Short and Charles Martel, until the eventual rise of Charlesmagne. The video also dispells myths about Merovingian culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXaN2vXEgwg
Images:
1. Pepin the Younger [Pepin III]
2. Coronation of Pepin the Younger by Pope Stephen 751 AD
3. Reputation of Pepin III the Short
4. Pepin's expedition to Septimania and Aquitaine (760)
Biographies
1. newadvent.org/cathen/11662b.htm
2. homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps03/ps03_449.htm
1. Background from {[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11662b.htm]}
Mayor of the Palace of the whole Frankish kingdom (both Austrasia and Neustria), and later King of the Franks; born 714; died at St. Denis, 24 September, 768. He was the son of Charles Martel. Pepin and his older brother Carloman were taught by the monks of St. Denis, and the impressions received during their monastic education had a controlling influence upon the relations of both princes to the Church. When the father died in 741 the two brothers began to reign jointly but not without strong opposition, for Griffon, the son of Charles Martel and the Bavarian Sonnichilde, demanded a share in the government. Moreover, the Duke of the Aquitanians and the Duke of the Alamannians thought this a favourable opportunity to throw off the Frankish supremacy. The young kings were repeatedly involved in war, but all their opponents, including the Bavarians and Saxons, were defeated and the unity of the kingdom re-established. As early as 741 Carloman had entered upon his epoch-making relations with St. Boniface, to whom was now opened a new field of labour, the reformation of the Frankish Church. On 21 April, 742, Boniface was present at a Frankish synod presided over by Carloman at which important reforms were decreed. As in the Frankish realm the unity of the kingdom was essentially connected with the person of the king, Carloman to secure this unity raised the Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). In 747 he resolved to enter a monastery. The danger, which up to this time had threatened the unity of the kingdom from the division of power between the two brothers, was removed, and at the same time the way was prepared for the deposing of the last Merovingian and for the crowning of Pepin. The latter put down the renewed revolt led by his step-brother Griffon, and succeeded in completely restoring the boundaries of the kingdom. Pepin now addressed to the Pope the 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 Zacharias welcomed this advance of the Franks which aimed at ending an intolerable condition of things, and at laying the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The pope replied that such a state of things was not proper. After this decision the place Pepin desired to occupy was declared vacant. The crown was given him not by the pope but by the Franks. According to the ancient custom Pepin was then elected king and soon after this was anointed by Boniface. This consecration of the new kingdom by the head of the Church was intended to remove any doubt as to its legitimacy. On the contrary, the consciousness of having saved the Christian world from the Saracens produced, among the Franks, the feeling that their kingdom owed its authority directly to God. Still this external cooperation of the pope in the transfer of the kingdom to the Carolingians would necessarily enhance the importance of the Church. The relations between the two controlling powers of Christendom now rapidly developed. It was soon evident to what extent the alliance between Church and State was to check the decline of ecclesiastical and civil life; it made possible the conversion of the still heathen German tribes, and when that was accomplished provided an opportunity for both Church and State to recruit strength and to grow.
Ecclesiastical, political, and economic developments had made the popes lords of the ducatus Romanus. They laid before Pepin their claims to the central provinces of Italy, which had belonged to them before Liutprand's conquest. When Stephen II had a conference with King Pepin at Ponthion in January, 754, the pope implored his assistance against his oppressor the Lombard King Aistulf, and begged for the same protection for the prerogatives of St. Peter which the Byzantine exarchs had extended to them, to which the king agreed, and in the charter establishing the States of the Church, soon after given at Quiercy, he promised to restore these prerogatives. The Frankish king received the title of the former representative of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, i.e. "Patricius", and was also assigned the duty of protecting the privileges of the Holy See.
When Stephen II performed the ceremony of anointing Pepin and his son at St. Denis, it was St. Peter who was regarded as the mystical giver of the secular power, but the emphasis thus laid upon the religious character of political law left vague the legal relations between pope and king. After the acknowledgment of his territorial claims the pope was in reality a ruling sovereign, but he had placed himself under the protection of the Frankish ruler and had sworn that he and his people would be true to the king. Thus his sovereignty was limited from the very start as regards what was external to his domain. The connection between Rome and the Frankish kingdom involved Pepin during the years 754-56 in war with the Lombard King Aistulf, who was forced to return to the Church the territory he had illegally held. Pepin's commanding position in the world of his time was permanently secured when he took Septimania from the Arabs. Another particularly important act was his renewed overthrow of the rebellion in Aquitaine which was once more made a part of the kingdom. He was not so fortunate in his campaigns against the Saxons and Bavarians. He could do no more than repeatedly attempt to protect the boundaries of the kingdom against the incessantly restless Saxons. Bavaria remained an entirely independent State and advanced in civilization under Duke Tassilo. Pepin's activity in war was accompanied by a widely extended activity in the internal affairs of the Frankish kingdom, his main object being the reform of legislation and internal affairs, especially of ecclesiastical conditions. He continued the ecclesiastical reforms commenced by St. Boniface. In doing this Pepin demanded an unlimited authority over the Church. He himself wished to be the leader of the reforms. However, although St. Boniface changed nothing by his reformatory labours in the ecclesiastico-political relations that had developed in the Frankish kingdom upon the basis of the Germanic conception of the State, nevertheless he had placed the purified and united Frankish Church more definitely under the control of the papal see than had hitherto been the case. From the time of St. Boniface the Church was more generally acknowledged by the Franks to be the mystical power appointed by God. When he deposed the last of the Merovingians Pepin was also obliged to acknowledge the increased authority of the Church by calling upon it for moral support. Consequently the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Frankish king over the Church of his country remained externally undiminished. Nevertheless by his life-work Pepin had powerfully aided the authority of the Church and with it the conception of ecclesiastical unity. He was buried at St. Denis where he died. He preserved the empire created by Clovis from the destruction that menaced it; he was able to overcome the great danger arising from social conditions that threatened the Frankish kingdom, by opposing to the unruly lay nobility the ecclesiastical aristocracy that had been strengthened by the general reform. When he died the means had been created by which his greater son could solve the problems of the empire. Pepin's policy marked out the tasks to which Charlemagne devoted himself: quieting the Saxons, the subjection of the duchies and lastly, the regulation of the ecclesiastical question and with it that of Italy."
2. Background from {[http://homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps03/ps03_449.htm]}
Pepin III (The Short) King of Franks
Birth714, Jupile an der Maas
Death24 Sep 768, St Denis Monastery, Neustria [now in France]
FatherCharles 'The Hammer' Martel Mayor of the Palace (688-741)
MotherChrotude (Rotrud) of Treves Duchess of Austrasia (~690-724)
Misc. Notes
The first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, Pepin became sole de facto ruler of the Franks in 747 and then, on the deposition of Childeric III in 751, king of the Franks. He was the first Frankish king to be anointed--first by St. Boniface and later (754) by Pope Stephen II.
Background and kingship.
For years the Merovingian kings had been unable to prevent power from slipping from their hands into those of the counts and other magnates. The kings were gradually eclipsed by the mayors of the palace, whose status developed from that of officer of the household to regent or viceroy. Among the mayors, a rich family descended from Pepin of Landen (Pepin I) held a position of especial importance. When Charles Martel, the scion of that family, died in 741, he left two sons: the elder, Carloman, mayor of Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, and Pepin III, mayor of Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence. No king had ruled over all the Franks since 737, but to maintain the fiction of Merovingian sovereignty, the two mayors gave the crown to Childeric III in 743. (See mayor of the palace.)
Charles had had a third son, however--Grifo, who had been born to him by a Bavarian woman of high rank, probably his mistress. In 741, when his two brothers were declared mayors of the Franks, Grifo rebelled. He led a number of revolts in subsequent years and was several times imprisoned. In 753 he was killed amid the Alpine passes on his way to join the Lombards, at this time enemies of the Franks as well as of the papacy.
Numerous other rebellions broke out. In 742 men of the Aquitaine and Alemannia were in revolt; in 743 Odilo, duke of Bavaria, led his men into battle; in 744 the Saxons rebelled, in 745 Aquitaine, and in 746 Alemannia, both the latter for the second time.
In 747, when Carloman decided to enter monastic life at Rome, a step he had been considering for years, Pepin became sole ruler of the Franks. But Pepin was ambitious to govern his people as king, not merely as mayor. Like his father, he had courage and resolution; unlike his father, he had a strong desire to unite the papacy with the Frankish realm. In 750 he sent two envoys to Pope Zacharias with a letter asking: "Is it wise to have kings who hold no power of control?" The pope answered: "It is better to have a king able to govern. By apostolic authority I bid that you be crowned King of the Franks." Childeric III was deposed and sent to a monastery, and Pepin was anointed as king at Soissons in November 751 by Archbishop Boniface and other prelates.
Pepin and Pope Stephen II.
The pope was in need of aid. Aistulf, king of the Lombards, had seized Ravenna with its lands, known as the exarchate. Soon, Lombard troops marched south, surrounded Rome, and prepared to lay siege to its walls. So matters stood when in 752 Zacharias died and Stephen II became pope. In November 753 Pope Stephen made his way over the stormy mountain passes to Frankish territory. He remained in France until the summer of 754, staying at the abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris. There he himself anointed Pepin and his sons, Charles and Carloman, as king and heirs of the crown. (See Italy, history of.)
The pope returned to Italy accompanied by Pepin and his army. A fierce battle was fought in the Alps against Aistulf and the Lombards. The Lombard king fled back to his capital, Pavia; Pepin and his men plundered the land around Pavia until Aistulf promised to restore to papal possession Ravenna and all the Roman properties claimed by the pope.
Aistulf broke his word. Again and again Pope Stephen wrote to Pepin of his difficulties. In 756 the Frankish king once more entered Italy. Aistulf was once more constrained to make promises, but the same year he died--of a fall from his horse--and in April 757 a new king, Desiderius, became ruler of the Lombards. That year Stephen II also died, and Paul I was elected pope. He, too, constantly wrote to Pepin asking for help.
But the King of the Franks had other concerns. He had to put down revolts in Saxony in 748 and 753 and a rising in Bavaria in 749. He was continually marching against rebellious Aquitaine. In 768 Pepin died at Saint-Denis, on his way back from one of his Aquitainian expeditions.
Pepin is remembered not only as the first of the Carolingians but also as a strong supporter of the Roman Church. The papal claims to territory in Italy originated with Pepin's campaigns against Aistulf and the latter's pledge to return the Roman territories. His letters also show him calling for archbishoprics in Frankish territory, promoting synods of clergy and layfolk, and as deeply interested in theology.
Pippin was crowned at Soissons in 11-751 and consecrated King at St. Denis in 754 by Winfred (St. Boniface, b. ca. 675 in Devonshire, England, a monk who was commissioned by the pope to work in Germany, murdered in 754 by pagans, called the Apostle to the Germans; his consecration of Pippin was approved by the pope, wherein the church
acknowledged his royal title and which Pippin rewarded by establishing the temporal power of the papacy). He extended
Austrasian power beyond the Rhine and the Pyrenees, and his alliance with the church opened the way for restoration of
the western empire (achieved by his son, Charles the Great). Pippin was the first king of the new monarchy which
would take its name (Carolingian) from his great son (Carolus = Charles). A younger son, Carloman, received the southern half of his domains, but on Carloman's death in Dec. 771 Charles siezed these lands.
Spouses
1 Bertha of Laon
Birth abt 720, Laon, Aisne, France
Death 12 Jul 783, Choisy, Haute-savoie, France
Burial St Denis, Paris, Seine, France.
Father Count Canbert of Laon
Children Charlemagne (Charles the Great) (742-814)
Karlmann II (751-771)
daughter
FYI MSG Felipe De Leon Brown COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC (Join to see) LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj Robert Thornton SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL MSG Andrew White SGT Robert PryorGySgt Thomas VickMAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.TSgt David L.SSG Franklin BriantSSG Robert Mark OdomSPC Nancy Greene PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SGT Gregory LawritsonSMSgt Lawrence McCarter
The Merovingians
The Merovingians were one of the great dynasties of medieval Europe. This 30 minute video tells the story about the rise of the Merovingians, from Pepin the Short and Charles Martel, until the eventual rise of Charlesmagne. The video also dispells myths about Merovingian culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXaN2vXEgwg
Images:
1. Pepin the Younger [Pepin III]
2. Coronation of Pepin the Younger by Pope Stephen 751 AD
3. Reputation of Pepin III the Short
4. Pepin's expedition to Septimania and Aquitaine (760)
Biographies
1. newadvent.org/cathen/11662b.htm
2. homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps03/ps03_449.htm
1. Background from {[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11662b.htm]}
Mayor of the Palace of the whole Frankish kingdom (both Austrasia and Neustria), and later King of the Franks; born 714; died at St. Denis, 24 September, 768. He was the son of Charles Martel. Pepin and his older brother Carloman were taught by the monks of St. Denis, and the impressions received during their monastic education had a controlling influence upon the relations of both princes to the Church. When the father died in 741 the two brothers began to reign jointly but not without strong opposition, for Griffon, the son of Charles Martel and the Bavarian Sonnichilde, demanded a share in the government. Moreover, the Duke of the Aquitanians and the Duke of the Alamannians thought this a favourable opportunity to throw off the Frankish supremacy. The young kings were repeatedly involved in war, but all their opponents, including the Bavarians and Saxons, were defeated and the unity of the kingdom re-established. As early as 741 Carloman had entered upon his epoch-making relations with St. Boniface, to whom was now opened a new field of labour, the reformation of the Frankish Church. On 21 April, 742, Boniface was present at a Frankish synod presided over by Carloman at which important reforms were decreed. As in the Frankish realm the unity of the kingdom was essentially connected with the person of the king, Carloman to secure this unity raised the Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). In 747 he resolved to enter a monastery. The danger, which up to this time had threatened the unity of the kingdom from the division of power between the two brothers, was removed, and at the same time the way was prepared for the deposing of the last Merovingian and for the crowning of Pepin. The latter put down the renewed revolt led by his step-brother Griffon, and succeeded in completely restoring the boundaries of the kingdom. Pepin now addressed to the Pope the 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 Zacharias welcomed this advance of the Franks which aimed at ending an intolerable condition of things, and at laying the constitutional foundations for the exercise of the royal power. The pope replied that such a state of things was not proper. After this decision the place Pepin desired to occupy was declared vacant. The crown was given him not by the pope but by the Franks. According to the ancient custom Pepin was then elected king and soon after this was anointed by Boniface. This consecration of the new kingdom by the head of the Church was intended to remove any doubt as to its legitimacy. On the contrary, the consciousness of having saved the Christian world from the Saracens produced, among the Franks, the feeling that their kingdom owed its authority directly to God. Still this external cooperation of the pope in the transfer of the kingdom to the Carolingians would necessarily enhance the importance of the Church. The relations between the two controlling powers of Christendom now rapidly developed. It was soon evident to what extent the alliance between Church and State was to check the decline of ecclesiastical and civil life; it made possible the conversion of the still heathen German tribes, and when that was accomplished provided an opportunity for both Church and State to recruit strength and to grow.
Ecclesiastical, political, and economic developments had made the popes lords of the ducatus Romanus. They laid before Pepin their claims to the central provinces of Italy, which had belonged to them before Liutprand's conquest. When Stephen II had a conference with King Pepin at Ponthion in January, 754, the pope implored his assistance against his oppressor the Lombard King Aistulf, and begged for the same protection for the prerogatives of St. Peter which the Byzantine exarchs had extended to them, to which the king agreed, and in the charter establishing the States of the Church, soon after given at Quiercy, he promised to restore these prerogatives. The Frankish king received the title of the former representative of the Byzantine Empire in Italy, i.e. "Patricius", and was also assigned the duty of protecting the privileges of the Holy See.
When Stephen II performed the ceremony of anointing Pepin and his son at St. Denis, it was St. Peter who was regarded as the mystical giver of the secular power, but the emphasis thus laid upon the religious character of political law left vague the legal relations between pope and king. After the acknowledgment of his territorial claims the pope was in reality a ruling sovereign, but he had placed himself under the protection of the Frankish ruler and had sworn that he and his people would be true to the king. Thus his sovereignty was limited from the very start as regards what was external to his domain. The connection between Rome and the Frankish kingdom involved Pepin during the years 754-56 in war with the Lombard King Aistulf, who was forced to return to the Church the territory he had illegally held. Pepin's commanding position in the world of his time was permanently secured when he took Septimania from the Arabs. Another particularly important act was his renewed overthrow of the rebellion in Aquitaine which was once more made a part of the kingdom. He was not so fortunate in his campaigns against the Saxons and Bavarians. He could do no more than repeatedly attempt to protect the boundaries of the kingdom against the incessantly restless Saxons. Bavaria remained an entirely independent State and advanced in civilization under Duke Tassilo. Pepin's activity in war was accompanied by a widely extended activity in the internal affairs of the Frankish kingdom, his main object being the reform of legislation and internal affairs, especially of ecclesiastical conditions. He continued the ecclesiastical reforms commenced by St. Boniface. In doing this Pepin demanded an unlimited authority over the Church. He himself wished to be the leader of the reforms. However, although St. Boniface changed nothing by his reformatory labours in the ecclesiastico-political relations that had developed in the Frankish kingdom upon the basis of the Germanic conception of the State, nevertheless he had placed the purified and united Frankish Church more definitely under the control of the papal see than had hitherto been the case. From the time of St. Boniface the Church was more generally acknowledged by the Franks to be the mystical power appointed by God. When he deposed the last of the Merovingians Pepin was also obliged to acknowledge the increased authority of the Church by calling upon it for moral support. Consequently the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Frankish king over the Church of his country remained externally undiminished. Nevertheless by his life-work Pepin had powerfully aided the authority of the Church and with it the conception of ecclesiastical unity. He was buried at St. Denis where he died. He preserved the empire created by Clovis from the destruction that menaced it; he was able to overcome the great danger arising from social conditions that threatened the Frankish kingdom, by opposing to the unruly lay nobility the ecclesiastical aristocracy that had been strengthened by the general reform. When he died the means had been created by which his greater son could solve the problems of the empire. Pepin's policy marked out the tasks to which Charlemagne devoted himself: quieting the Saxons, the subjection of the duchies and lastly, the regulation of the ecclesiastical question and with it that of Italy."
2. Background from {[http://homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps03/ps03_449.htm]}
Pepin III (The Short) King of Franks
Birth714, Jupile an der Maas
Death24 Sep 768, St Denis Monastery, Neustria [now in France]
FatherCharles 'The Hammer' Martel Mayor of the Palace (688-741)
MotherChrotude (Rotrud) of Treves Duchess of Austrasia (~690-724)
Misc. Notes
The first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, Pepin became sole de facto ruler of the Franks in 747 and then, on the deposition of Childeric III in 751, king of the Franks. He was the first Frankish king to be anointed--first by St. Boniface and later (754) by Pope Stephen II.
Background and kingship.
For years the Merovingian kings had been unable to prevent power from slipping from their hands into those of the counts and other magnates. The kings were gradually eclipsed by the mayors of the palace, whose status developed from that of officer of the household to regent or viceroy. Among the mayors, a rich family descended from Pepin of Landen (Pepin I) held a position of especial importance. When Charles Martel, the scion of that family, died in 741, he left two sons: the elder, Carloman, mayor of Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, and Pepin III, mayor of Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence. No king had ruled over all the Franks since 737, but to maintain the fiction of Merovingian sovereignty, the two mayors gave the crown to Childeric III in 743. (See mayor of the palace.)
Charles had had a third son, however--Grifo, who had been born to him by a Bavarian woman of high rank, probably his mistress. In 741, when his two brothers were declared mayors of the Franks, Grifo rebelled. He led a number of revolts in subsequent years and was several times imprisoned. In 753 he was killed amid the Alpine passes on his way to join the Lombards, at this time enemies of the Franks as well as of the papacy.
Numerous other rebellions broke out. In 742 men of the Aquitaine and Alemannia were in revolt; in 743 Odilo, duke of Bavaria, led his men into battle; in 744 the Saxons rebelled, in 745 Aquitaine, and in 746 Alemannia, both the latter for the second time.
In 747, when Carloman decided to enter monastic life at Rome, a step he had been considering for years, Pepin became sole ruler of the Franks. But Pepin was ambitious to govern his people as king, not merely as mayor. Like his father, he had courage and resolution; unlike his father, he had a strong desire to unite the papacy with the Frankish realm. In 750 he sent two envoys to Pope Zacharias with a letter asking: "Is it wise to have kings who hold no power of control?" The pope answered: "It is better to have a king able to govern. By apostolic authority I bid that you be crowned King of the Franks." Childeric III was deposed and sent to a monastery, and Pepin was anointed as king at Soissons in November 751 by Archbishop Boniface and other prelates.
Pepin and Pope Stephen II.
The pope was in need of aid. Aistulf, king of the Lombards, had seized Ravenna with its lands, known as the exarchate. Soon, Lombard troops marched south, surrounded Rome, and prepared to lay siege to its walls. So matters stood when in 752 Zacharias died and Stephen II became pope. In November 753 Pope Stephen made his way over the stormy mountain passes to Frankish territory. He remained in France until the summer of 754, staying at the abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris. There he himself anointed Pepin and his sons, Charles and Carloman, as king and heirs of the crown. (See Italy, history of.)
The pope returned to Italy accompanied by Pepin and his army. A fierce battle was fought in the Alps against Aistulf and the Lombards. The Lombard king fled back to his capital, Pavia; Pepin and his men plundered the land around Pavia until Aistulf promised to restore to papal possession Ravenna and all the Roman properties claimed by the pope.
Aistulf broke his word. Again and again Pope Stephen wrote to Pepin of his difficulties. In 756 the Frankish king once more entered Italy. Aistulf was once more constrained to make promises, but the same year he died--of a fall from his horse--and in April 757 a new king, Desiderius, became ruler of the Lombards. That year Stephen II also died, and Paul I was elected pope. He, too, constantly wrote to Pepin asking for help.
But the King of the Franks had other concerns. He had to put down revolts in Saxony in 748 and 753 and a rising in Bavaria in 749. He was continually marching against rebellious Aquitaine. In 768 Pepin died at Saint-Denis, on his way back from one of his Aquitainian expeditions.
Pepin is remembered not only as the first of the Carolingians but also as a strong supporter of the Roman Church. The papal claims to territory in Italy originated with Pepin's campaigns against Aistulf and the latter's pledge to return the Roman territories. His letters also show him calling for archbishoprics in Frankish territory, promoting synods of clergy and layfolk, and as deeply interested in theology.
Pippin was crowned at Soissons in 11-751 and consecrated King at St. Denis in 754 by Winfred (St. Boniface, b. ca. 675 in Devonshire, England, a monk who was commissioned by the pope to work in Germany, murdered in 754 by pagans, called the Apostle to the Germans; his consecration of Pippin was approved by the pope, wherein the church
acknowledged his royal title and which Pippin rewarded by establishing the temporal power of the papacy). He extended
Austrasian power beyond the Rhine and the Pyrenees, and his alliance with the church opened the way for restoration of
the western empire (achieved by his son, Charles the Great). Pippin was the first king of the new monarchy which
would take its name (Carolingian) from his great son (Carolus = Charles). A younger son, Carloman, received the southern half of his domains, but on Carloman's death in Dec. 771 Charles siezed these lands.
Spouses
1 Bertha of Laon
Birth abt 720, Laon, Aisne, France
Death 12 Jul 783, Choisy, Haute-savoie, France
Burial St Denis, Paris, Seine, France.
Father Count Canbert of Laon
Children Charlemagne (Charles the Great) (742-814)
Karlmann II (751-771)
daughter
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The Franks from Clovis to Charlemagne
Lecture Notes and PowerPoint Available: https://www.tomrichey.net/blog/franks Tom Richey presents an introduction to the Franks from Clovis to Charlemagne. L...
The Franks from Clovis to Charlemagne
After the Fall of the Roman Empire left Western Europe in chaos, the Franks rose to prominence to fill the power vacuum in the Early Middle Ages and had a lasting effect on the development of Western Europe.
Ever since Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the first century B.C., the Romans had ruled the area that is today France, Switzerland, and Belgium. In the fifth century A.D., the Roman Empire was crumbling and failing to defend itself against invasions by barbarian tribes. In 455, the Vandals sacked Rome, pillaging the city so thoroughly that the term, vandalism, had become synonymous with the destruction of property. In 476 A.D., Rome was conquered by barbarian invaders and several tribes, including the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, and the Franks, divided the spoils. Over the following three centuries, the Franks would come out on top, building an empire that stretched from present-day Spain to present-day Germany.
In 509, Clovis I became the first King of the Franks, unifying the allied Frankish tribes under one leader. In addition to conquering new territories, expanding the Frankish Kingdom to cover most of present-day France, Clovis also converted to Catholic Christianity (as opposed to Arian Christianity, which taught that Jesus was not fully God) after crediting Jesus Christ with a victory in a hard-fought battle. Today, France gets its name from the Franks and Catholicism remains the nation’s predominant religion, making Clovis a very important and influential figure in French history.
Over the following two centuries, the Frankish Kingdom grew powerful – powerful enough to halt the expansion of the Islamic Caliphate which had conquered the entirety of North Africa and Spain. In 732, Charles Martel commanded the victorious Frankish army in the decisive Battle of Tours, which halted the Caliphate’s expansion and cemented the Frankish Kingdom’s place as Western Europe’s preeminent power. In recognition of his victory, Charles was given the honorific nickname, “the Hammer.”
Charles Martel’s son, Pepin the Short, overthrew the Frankish king, usurping the throne with the Pope’s blessing, establishing the Carolingian Dynasty (The House of Charles). The close ties between the Franks and the Papacy would continue into the reign of Pepin’s son, Charles the Great, popularly remembered by his French name, Charlemagne. Charlemagne expanded the Frankish Kingdom through military conquests, including a campaign into Italy to assist the Pope against his enemies. In appreciation for Charlemagne’s support, the Pope crowned him “Emperor of the Romans” in 800. A thousand years later, Napoleon, the Emperor of France, would honor Charlemagne in the iconic series of paintings by Jacques-Louis David of Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Etched into the stones in the bottom left corner of the painting are Napoleon’s name, along with the names of Hannibal, who had crossed the Alps to attack Rome, and Charlemagne (written in Latin as KAROLVS MAGNVS), who had crossed the Alps to help the Pope and expand the Frankish Empire into Italy – just as Napoleon was, at the time, expanding the French Empire into Italy.
At the time of Charlemagne’s death, the Frankish Empire was the most powerful political entity in Europe, rivaling the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire and the Islamic Caliphate in power. However, it was not to last. Charlemagne’s empire was divided between his sons after his death and after a series of civil wars, the Frankish Empire was formally divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 and it would never be reunited. The Western Europe of the High Middle Ages would not be governed as a centralized state, but as a patchwork quilt of feudal kingdoms where local lords held more authority than the kings to whom they swore allegiance. But the Franks were not without impact. They laid the foundation for the Kingdom of France, secured the Pope’s position as the leader of Christians in Western Europe, and led indirectly to the medieval institution of a Holy Roman Empire ruled by Germans.
https://youtu.be/5PMdpW4ATvI
Images;
1. Pepin the Short, miniature, Anonymi chronica imperatorum, c. 1112–1114
Background from {[http://ldysinger.stjohnsem.edu/CH_501_Intro/16_Caroling/01_txtbk_16_carol.htm]}
THE FRANKS and THE PAPACY
It has already been pointed out that the papacy, and Italy generally, opposed the iconoclastic efforts of the Emperor Leo III, going so far as to excommunicate the opponents of icons in a Roman synod held under Gregory III, in 731. The Emperor answered by removing southern Italy and Sicily from papal jurisdiction, and placing these regions under the see of Constantinople—a matter long a thorn in the side of the papacy. In Rome and northern Italy the imperial power exercised from Constantinople was too feeble to control papal action. The imperial representative was the exarch of Ravenna, under whom stood a duke of Rome for military affairs, though the Pope was in many respects the Emperor’s representative in the civil concerns of the city. The papacy was now in practical rebellion against the rulers who had their seat in Constantinople. It was, however, in a most dangerous position. The Lombards were pressing, and were threatening the capture of Rome. The disunion consequent on the iconoclastic dispute made it necessary, if the papacy was to maintain any considerable independence in Rome, to find other protection against the Lombards than that of the Emperor. This the Popes sought, and at last obtained, from the Franks.
Coronation of Pippin
In 739 Gregory III appealed to Charles Martel for aid against the Lombards, but in vain. With Pippin the Short it was otherwise. He was more ecclesiastically minded, and greater plans than even his father had entertained now moved him. Pippin and the papacy could be of mutual assistance each to the other. The new Lombard King, Aistulf (749-756), conquered Ravenna from the Emperor in 751 and was grievously pressing Rome itself. Pippin desired the kingly title as well as the kingly power in France. He had determined upon a revolution which should relegate the last of the feeble Merovingians, Childeric III, to a monastery, and place Pippin himself on the throne. For this change he desired not only the approval of the Frankish nobility, but the moral sanction of the church. He appealed to Pope Zacharias (741-752), [posing the following question:
[In regard to the kings of the Franks who no longer possess the royal power: is this state of things proper?
The Pope replied that such a state of things is not proper: the de facto power is more important than the de jure power.]
The Pope’s approval was promptly granted, and before the close of 751, Pippin was formally in the kingly office. To this he was anointed and crowned, but whether by Boniface, as has usually been supposed, is uncertain.[Childeric was tonsured and consigned to the Benedictine monastery of St. Bertin.]
This transaction, which seems to have been simple at the time, was fraught with the most far-reaching consequences. From it might be drawn the conclusion that it was within the Pope’s power to give and withhold kingdoms. All unseen in it, were wrapped up the re-establishment of the empire in the West, the Holy Roman Empire, and that interplay of papacy and empire which forms so large a part of the history of the Middle Ages. From this point of view it was the most important event of mediaeval history.
From Exarchate to Papal States [“States of the Church”]
If the Pope could thus help Pippin, the latter could be no less serviceable to the Pope. Aistulf and his Lombards continued to press Rome. Stephen II, therefore, went to Pippin himself, crowning and anointing Pippin and his sons afresh in the church of St. Denis near Paris, in 754, and confirming to them the indefinite title of “Patricians of the Romans”—all the more useful, perhaps, because implying a relation to Rome that was wholly undefined. It had been borne by the imperial exarch in Ravenna.
Soon after this crowning, Pippin fulfilled his reciprocal obligation. At the head of a Frankish army, late in 754, or early in 755, he invaded Italy and compelled Aistulf to agree to surrender to the Pope Ravenna and the other recent Lombard conquests.
A second campaign, in 756, was necessary before the Lombard King made good his promise. The Exarchate of which Ravenna was the capital and the Pentapolis were now the possessions of the Pope.
Yet, as far as can now be judged, in thus granting the Exarchate to Pope Stephen, Pippin regarded himself as overlord. Rome itself, Pippin did not give to the Pope. It was not his to give. Legally, the status of Rome would have been hard to define. Though the Popes had practically broken with the Emperor at Constantinople, Rome had not been conquered from him.
Indeed the papacy recognized the sovereignty of the Eastern Emperor in the style of its public documents till 772. Pippin had the wholly nebulous rights that might be included in the title “Patrician of the Romans.” Actually, Rome was in the possession of the Pope.
In charter form, and with an expression of a creed, and a fabulous account of his conversion and baptism, Constantine ordered all ecclesiastics to be subject to Pope Sylvester and successive occupants of the Roman see, and transferred to them “the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy or of the Western regions.” This meant a sovereignty over the Western half of the empire—at least an overlordship. Discredited by a few of the wiser men of the Middle Ages, the “Donation” was generally believed, till its falsity was demonstrated by Nicholas of Cues in 1433 and Lorenzo Valla in 1440.
[16];2.. CHARLEMAGNE
Pippin the Short died in 768. A strong ruler, his fame has been unduly eclipsed by that of his greater son, who, in general, simply carried further what the father had begun. Pippin had divided his kingdom between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. Ill will existed between the brothers, but the situation was relieved by the death of Carloman in 771. With that event the real reign of Charles, to whom the world has so ascribed the title “Great” as to weave it indissolubly with his name—Charlemagne—began.
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After the Fall of the Roman Empire left Western Europe in chaos, the Franks rose to prominence to fill the power vacuum in the Early Middle Ages and had a lasting effect on the development of Western Europe.
Ever since Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the first century B.C., the Romans had ruled the area that is today France, Switzerland, and Belgium. In the fifth century A.D., the Roman Empire was crumbling and failing to defend itself against invasions by barbarian tribes. In 455, the Vandals sacked Rome, pillaging the city so thoroughly that the term, vandalism, had become synonymous with the destruction of property. In 476 A.D., Rome was conquered by barbarian invaders and several tribes, including the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, and the Franks, divided the spoils. Over the following three centuries, the Franks would come out on top, building an empire that stretched from present-day Spain to present-day Germany.
In 509, Clovis I became the first King of the Franks, unifying the allied Frankish tribes under one leader. In addition to conquering new territories, expanding the Frankish Kingdom to cover most of present-day France, Clovis also converted to Catholic Christianity (as opposed to Arian Christianity, which taught that Jesus was not fully God) after crediting Jesus Christ with a victory in a hard-fought battle. Today, France gets its name from the Franks and Catholicism remains the nation’s predominant religion, making Clovis a very important and influential figure in French history.
Over the following two centuries, the Frankish Kingdom grew powerful – powerful enough to halt the expansion of the Islamic Caliphate which had conquered the entirety of North Africa and Spain. In 732, Charles Martel commanded the victorious Frankish army in the decisive Battle of Tours, which halted the Caliphate’s expansion and cemented the Frankish Kingdom’s place as Western Europe’s preeminent power. In recognition of his victory, Charles was given the honorific nickname, “the Hammer.”
Charles Martel’s son, Pepin the Short, overthrew the Frankish king, usurping the throne with the Pope’s blessing, establishing the Carolingian Dynasty (The House of Charles). The close ties between the Franks and the Papacy would continue into the reign of Pepin’s son, Charles the Great, popularly remembered by his French name, Charlemagne. Charlemagne expanded the Frankish Kingdom through military conquests, including a campaign into Italy to assist the Pope against his enemies. In appreciation for Charlemagne’s support, the Pope crowned him “Emperor of the Romans” in 800. A thousand years later, Napoleon, the Emperor of France, would honor Charlemagne in the iconic series of paintings by Jacques-Louis David of Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Etched into the stones in the bottom left corner of the painting are Napoleon’s name, along with the names of Hannibal, who had crossed the Alps to attack Rome, and Charlemagne (written in Latin as KAROLVS MAGNVS), who had crossed the Alps to help the Pope and expand the Frankish Empire into Italy – just as Napoleon was, at the time, expanding the French Empire into Italy.
At the time of Charlemagne’s death, the Frankish Empire was the most powerful political entity in Europe, rivaling the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire and the Islamic Caliphate in power. However, it was not to last. Charlemagne’s empire was divided between his sons after his death and after a series of civil wars, the Frankish Empire was formally divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843 and it would never be reunited. The Western Europe of the High Middle Ages would not be governed as a centralized state, but as a patchwork quilt of feudal kingdoms where local lords held more authority than the kings to whom they swore allegiance. But the Franks were not without impact. They laid the foundation for the Kingdom of France, secured the Pope’s position as the leader of Christians in Western Europe, and led indirectly to the medieval institution of a Holy Roman Empire ruled by Germans.
https://youtu.be/5PMdpW4ATvI
Images;
1. Pepin the Short, miniature, Anonymi chronica imperatorum, c. 1112–1114
Background from {[http://ldysinger.stjohnsem.edu/CH_501_Intro/16_Caroling/01_txtbk_16_carol.htm]}
THE FRANKS and THE PAPACY
It has already been pointed out that the papacy, and Italy generally, opposed the iconoclastic efforts of the Emperor Leo III, going so far as to excommunicate the opponents of icons in a Roman synod held under Gregory III, in 731. The Emperor answered by removing southern Italy and Sicily from papal jurisdiction, and placing these regions under the see of Constantinople—a matter long a thorn in the side of the papacy. In Rome and northern Italy the imperial power exercised from Constantinople was too feeble to control papal action. The imperial representative was the exarch of Ravenna, under whom stood a duke of Rome for military affairs, though the Pope was in many respects the Emperor’s representative in the civil concerns of the city. The papacy was now in practical rebellion against the rulers who had their seat in Constantinople. It was, however, in a most dangerous position. The Lombards were pressing, and were threatening the capture of Rome. The disunion consequent on the iconoclastic dispute made it necessary, if the papacy was to maintain any considerable independence in Rome, to find other protection against the Lombards than that of the Emperor. This the Popes sought, and at last obtained, from the Franks.
Coronation of Pippin
In 739 Gregory III appealed to Charles Martel for aid against the Lombards, but in vain. With Pippin the Short it was otherwise. He was more ecclesiastically minded, and greater plans than even his father had entertained now moved him. Pippin and the papacy could be of mutual assistance each to the other. The new Lombard King, Aistulf (749-756), conquered Ravenna from the Emperor in 751 and was grievously pressing Rome itself. Pippin desired the kingly title as well as the kingly power in France. He had determined upon a revolution which should relegate the last of the feeble Merovingians, Childeric III, to a monastery, and place Pippin himself on the throne. For this change he desired not only the approval of the Frankish nobility, but the moral sanction of the church. He appealed to Pope Zacharias (741-752), [posing the following question:
[In regard to the kings of the Franks who no longer possess the royal power: is this state of things proper?
The Pope replied that such a state of things is not proper: the de facto power is more important than the de jure power.]
The Pope’s approval was promptly granted, and before the close of 751, Pippin was formally in the kingly office. To this he was anointed and crowned, but whether by Boniface, as has usually been supposed, is uncertain.[Childeric was tonsured and consigned to the Benedictine monastery of St. Bertin.]
This transaction, which seems to have been simple at the time, was fraught with the most far-reaching consequences. From it might be drawn the conclusion that it was within the Pope’s power to give and withhold kingdoms. All unseen in it, were wrapped up the re-establishment of the empire in the West, the Holy Roman Empire, and that interplay of papacy and empire which forms so large a part of the history of the Middle Ages. From this point of view it was the most important event of mediaeval history.
From Exarchate to Papal States [“States of the Church”]
If the Pope could thus help Pippin, the latter could be no less serviceable to the Pope. Aistulf and his Lombards continued to press Rome. Stephen II, therefore, went to Pippin himself, crowning and anointing Pippin and his sons afresh in the church of St. Denis near Paris, in 754, and confirming to them the indefinite title of “Patricians of the Romans”—all the more useful, perhaps, because implying a relation to Rome that was wholly undefined. It had been borne by the imperial exarch in Ravenna.
Soon after this crowning, Pippin fulfilled his reciprocal obligation. At the head of a Frankish army, late in 754, or early in 755, he invaded Italy and compelled Aistulf to agree to surrender to the Pope Ravenna and the other recent Lombard conquests.
A second campaign, in 756, was necessary before the Lombard King made good his promise. The Exarchate of which Ravenna was the capital and the Pentapolis were now the possessions of the Pope.
Yet, as far as can now be judged, in thus granting the Exarchate to Pope Stephen, Pippin regarded himself as overlord. Rome itself, Pippin did not give to the Pope. It was not his to give. Legally, the status of Rome would have been hard to define. Though the Popes had practically broken with the Emperor at Constantinople, Rome had not been conquered from him.
Indeed the papacy recognized the sovereignty of the Eastern Emperor in the style of its public documents till 772. Pippin had the wholly nebulous rights that might be included in the title “Patrician of the Romans.” Actually, Rome was in the possession of the Pope.
In charter form, and with an expression of a creed, and a fabulous account of his conversion and baptism, Constantine ordered all ecclesiastics to be subject to Pope Sylvester and successive occupants of the Roman see, and transferred to them “the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy or of the Western regions.” This meant a sovereignty over the Western half of the empire—at least an overlordship. Discredited by a few of the wiser men of the Middle Ages, the “Donation” was generally believed, till its falsity was demonstrated by Nicholas of Cues in 1433 and Lorenzo Valla in 1440.
[16];2.. CHARLEMAGNE
Pippin the Short died in 768. A strong ruler, his fame has been unduly eclipsed by that of his greater son, who, in general, simply carried further what the father had begun. Pippin had divided his kingdom between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. Ill will existed between the brothers, but the situation was relieved by the death of Carloman in 771. With that event the real reign of Charles, to whom the world has so ascribed the title “Great” as to weave it indissolubly with his name—Charlemagne—began.
FYI SSG (Join to see) PO2 (Join to see)TSgt George RodriguezSGT Rick ColburnPO1 H Gene LawrenceSPC Chris Bayner-Cwik1stsgt Glenn BrackinSPC Matthew LambSSG Robert "Rob" WentworthCapt Rich BuckleySGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCord SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft SSG Robert Mark Odom CWO3 (Join to see) MSgt Robert "Rock" Aldi SGT Steve McFarland SPC Margaret Higgins
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SPC Margaret Higgins
LTC Stephen F. - My Dear Brother-in-CHRIST, Steve, I am an Episcopalian/a Christian.
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