Pepin III The Short (714-768)

	Coronation in 752 of Pepin the Short by Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz.

Name:	Pepin III The Short 1
Sex:	Male
Father:	Charles MARTEL (689-741)
Mother:	Rotrou OF TRIER (690-724)

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	0714	probably - Jupille-sur-Meuse (now part of Liege) 2
Occupation	frm 0751 to 0768 (age 36-54)	King of the Franks
Title		Mayor of the Palace of the whole Frankish kingdom (both Austrasia and Neustria)
crowned
Death	24 Sep 0768 (age 53-54)	St Denis
Burial		St Denist basilica built by Charlemagne for his parents

Additional Information

crowned

According to the ancient custom Pepin 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. 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).

Marriage

	Tomb of Bertrada of Laon at Saint Denis basilica.		Painting by unknown artist now in the Vatican Museum, Rome.		Crown of Charlemagne, West German or Milan; Gold, cloisonne, enamel, precious stones and pearls. Size: foreplate 14.9 cm. high x 11.2 cm wide; Date: octagon shape 962 or 967; crown cross 11 century; top-arch 1024-39; red velvet cap 18 century. The emblem of the Order is said to have been made in 962 for the coronation of Otto the Great or for his son Otto II as co-emperor in 967. Collection: Kunsthistorisches, Vienna, Austria. Photograph: Scala, London, England		Charlemagne

	Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, by Albrecht Dürer		Throne of Charlemagne and the subsequent German Kings in Aachen Cathedral		Reliquary of Blessed Charles Augustus		Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen Cathedral.

Spouse	Berthe OF LAON ( -783)
Children	Charlemagne (747-814)
Marriage	0740 (age 25-26)

Individual Note 1

Pepin (or Pippin) (died 24 September 768), called the Short (Pépin le Bref)[1] or the Younger (Pippin der Jüngere), rarely the Great (Pippin der Grosse),[2] was the first King of the Franks (752–68) of the Carolingian dynasty. In 741 he and his brother Carloman succeeded their father, Charles Martel, as mayors of the palace and de facto rulers of the kingdom during an interregnum (737–43). After the retirement of Carloman (747), Pepin obtained the permission of Pope Zachary to depose the last of the Merovingian kings, Childeric III, and assume the throne (752). As he was named for his grandfather, Pepin of Heristal, in turn named for his grandfather, Pepin of Landen, both mayors of the palace, Pepin the Short has sometimes been numbered Pepin III.

 

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 either resolved to or was pressured into entering 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.

 

Anointed a first time in 752 in Soissons by the archbishop of Mainz, Pepin added to his power after Pope Stephen II traveled all the way to Paris to anoint him a second time in a lavish ceremony at the Basilica of St Denis in 754, 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 was subject to the decisions of Childeric III who had only the title of King but no power. 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). Meanwhile, Grifo continued his rebellion, but was eventually killed in the battle of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in 753.

 

Pepin's first major act as king was to go to war against the Lombard king Aistulf, who had expanded into the ducatus Romanus. 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 were established and the temporal reign of the Papacy began.[3] At about 752, he turned his attention to Septimania first investing Narbonne, but didn't manage to capture it from Iberian Muslim invaders up to 7 years later in 759,[4] when they were driven out to Hispania.

 

However, Aquitaine still remained under Waifer's Basque-Aquitanian rule out of Frankish reach. Waifer appears to have confiscated Church lands, maybe distributing them among his troops. In 760, denouncing this actions, Pepin ravaged with fire and sword most of Aquitaine and in retaliation counts loyal to Waifer ravaged Burgundy. Pepin in turn attacked the Aquitanian-held (urban, non-Frankish 'Romans') Clermont and Bourbon, defended by Waifer's Basque troops, who were overcome, captured and deported into northern France.

 

In 763, Pepin advanced further into the heart of Waifer’s domains and captured major strongholds (Poitiers, Limoges, Angouleme, etc.), after which Waifer counterattacked and war got bitter. Pepin opted to spread terror, burning villas, destroying vineyards and depopulating monasteries. By 765, the brutal tactics seemed to pay off for the Franks, who destroyed resistance in central Aquitaine (Waifer's capital city Toulouse fell in 767) and devastated the whole region. As a result, Aquitanian nobles and Basques from beyond the Garonne too saw no option but to accept a pro-Frankish peace treaty (Fronsac, c. 768). Waifer escaped but was assassinated by his own frustrated followers.

 

Pepin died during a campaign, in 768. He was interred in the church of Saint Denis. His wife Bertrada was also interred there in 783. Charlemagne rebuilt the Basilica in honor of his parents and placed markers at the entrance.[5]

 

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, but drove them out of the country. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (missionary work in Germany and Scandinavia) and the institutional 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. 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 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.

 

Children:

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), (Charlemagne)

Carloman (751 – 4 December 771)

Gisela (757–810)

Pepin, died in infancy.

Chrothais, died young, buried in Metz.

Adelais, died young, buried in Metz.

Two unnamed daughters[7]

 

NOTES:

1 Perhaps a reference to his practice of wearing his hair short, in contrast to the long hair that was a mark of his predecessors. Paul Edward Dutton, Charlemagne's Mustache: And Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

2 Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (Philadelphia, 1993), 65. Even more rarely his name may be spelled "Peppin".

3 "Pepin the Short". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

4 "The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050". THE LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE. http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfc1.htm. Retrieved 26 September 2010.

5 Basilique Saint-Denis.

6 Gerd Treffer: Die französischen Königinnen. Von Bertrada bis Marie Antoinette (8.-18. Jahrhundert). Pustet, Regensburg (1996) pp. 23-29, ISBN 3791715305, ISBN 978-3791715308

7 Medieval Lands - Franks, Carolingian Kings Retrieved on 8 November 2008³

Individual Note 2

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.⁴

Sources

1	Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 57, 50-12.

2	"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepin_the_Short.

3	Ibid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepin_III.

4	"New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen). http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11662b.htm.