PEPIN III, KING OF THE FRANKS

First king of the Carolingian dynasty; Mayor of the Palace, 741–751; King, 751–768; b. 714 or 715; d. St-Denis, Sept. 24, 768.

The second son of charles martel by Chrotrude, his first wife, Pepin was educated at the monastery of St-Denis, near Paris. In 737 he was sent to the court of the Lombard king Liutprand (712–744) in Italy. There, Pepin had his hair cut in the Lombard style, was adopted as a son by Liutprand, and returned home, loaded with gifts. The significance of this is unclear. Since Liutprand already had a named successor, his treatment of Pepin did not affect the Lombard throne. In Francia, the Merovingian king Theuderic IV (721–737) had died and not been replaced, so there is a possibility that Charles Martel was cultivating royal connections with the eventual aim of placing his own son on the throne. The most likely explanation is that Charles was using his younger son to confirm an alliance with the Lombards, who were to give assistance against Muslim invaders in 739.

Towards the end of his life, Charles Martel divided Frankish territory between his two sons by Chrotrude. carloman, the elder, received Austrasia, Alamannia, and Thuringia; while Pepin acquired Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence. At the request of Swanachild, his second wife, Charles also made territorial provision for their son, Grifo, although the details are not now known. On Charles Martel's death in 741, the succession was disturbed, as it had been during his rise, with crises at the heart of the dynasty and rebellions by dukes of the peripheral regions.

Pepin and Carloman acted promptly to assert themselves over other family members. Their sister, Chiltrude, fled to Bavaria and married its duke, Odilo. The two mayors of the palace then moved against their half-brother, Grifo. He was captured at Laon in late 741 or early 742 and imprisoned; his mother was placed in the royal convent at Chelles. Another possible rival, Theudoald, a half-brother of Charles Martel, was killed in unknown circumstances (741).

Pepin and Carloman Establish Their Power. Having secured Francia, Pepin and Carloman campaigned, separately and together, against their enemies on the frontiers of Francia until 746. Like their father, they were able to muster enough supporters and resources to subdue widely dispersed opponents in Alamannia, Aquitaine, Bavaria, and Saxony. The Alamans were punished especially hard by Carloman, whose victory at Canstatt (near Stuttgart) in 746 was followed by mass executions. In the southwest, the Aquitanians were a test for Pepin until 768.

After an interregnum of six years, the brothers reestablished a member of the Merovingian family, the traditional ruling dynasty, on the throne of Francia. In his final years as mayor of the palace, Charles Martel had governed without a Merovingian king. His sons extricated a member of the dynasty from a monastery and raised him up as King Childeric III (743–751). Such a restoration might have disarmed opponents by restoring a veneer of legitimacy to the status of the Carolingians, the descendants of Charles Martel. It points to the political vulnerability of the brothers. There is also a possibility, from limited charter evidence, that Carloman may have been the driving force behind Childeric's elevation, suggesting a difference between the brothers as Pepin, alone, was to depose their Merovingian figurehead in 751.

The brothers exerted real power under their Merovingian figurehead until 746 when Carloman chose to retire to monastic life. This was surprising, but there were precedents in Anglo-Saxon kings laying down office and making a pilgrimage to Rome. According to later historiographical tradition, Carloman, having entrusted his son Drogo and his territory to Pepin's care, left for Italy in 747, where he entered the monastery at Monte Cassino and became a monk. Pepin's takeover of Austrasia was resisted by Drogo until his capture and imprisonment in 753.

In the fluid circumstances surrounding Carloman's abdication, another family member challenged Pepin. Grifo, his half-brother, escaped or was released from captivity in 747. He fled first to the Saxons, then to Bavaria. On the death of Duke Odilo, Grifo was able to exploit a claim to power through his sister and succeed him. Pepin

defeated the Bavarians in 749, installing his young nephew, Tassilo III, as duke. Grifo was treated generously, being ceded rule over 12 counties at Le Mans in Neustria, but remained irreconcilable to Pepin. He fled to Aquitaine and the protection of Duke Waiofar (744–768), whose family had long resisted Carolingian authority. In 753, after Pepin had demanded his return, Grifo was cornered and killed by Frankish forces while en route for Italy.

Pepin Becomes King. Against this background of continuing unrest within his family and on the peripheral areas of Francia, Pepin took the profoundly significant step of deposing his Merovingian ruler and installing himself as the legitimate king of a new dynasty. In 751, he was elected king of the Franks, anointed, and raised to the throne at Soissons, while King Childeric III was tonsured and returned to a monastery. The sources describing these events are too late in date, too vague, and too partisan in defense of the Carolingians for a clear understanding of Pepin's actions and intentions. The earliest account (the Continuator of the Chronicle of Fredegar ) reports that Pepin's emissaries went to Rome

to seek approval for his proposed elevation to the throne. Having obtained this, Pepin was "…chosen as king by all the Franks, consecrated by the bishops and received the homage of the great men." In later versions of the mission and its results, unreliable details were added or altered, Pope Zacharias (741–752) becomes Pope Stephen II (III) (752–757), papal approval becomes a papal command, and St. boniface alone is made responsible for anointing Pepin as king. Anointment with consecrated oil was a new element in Frankish ritual practice, which became increasingly important, and, with its biblical connotations, demonstrated the special status of the new king and his line.

To justify the change of dynasty, Pepin needed the seal of divine authority which would come from papal approval. In the eighth century the papacy was under constant threat from Lombard kings, especially Liutprand (712–744) and Aistulf (749–756). Its traditional guardian, the Byzantine empire, was unable to give protection because it was distracted by warfare against Arabs and Avars. Relations with Constantinople were also soured by Rome's opposition to its religious policy of iconoclasm and to Byzantine moves to increase taxation in Italy. In its quest for support, the papacy seems to have approached the Aquitainians (c.721) and Bavarians (743) and, as late as 752, appealed for Byzantine aid.

By the mid-8th century, the Franks were attractive as allies. There was a long tradition of Franco-papal relations, furthered by the work of Anglo-Saxon missionaries, especially Boniface, and reformist church councils who increased contact between the Franks and Rome. Papal overtures in 739 to Charles Martel for an alliance failed, as Lombard support against Muslims was evidently held to be more to Frankish advantage. In 751 Pope Zacharias's need for an ally against Lombard encroachment coincided with Pepin's need for a higher authority to sanction his deposition of the Merovingians. Curiously, there is no mention of these events in the Liber pontificalis, with its contemporary 8th-century lives of the popes. The promotion of Pepin was ultimately made possible by the power, prestige, and wealth that had been accumulated by his family over the past two generations. He was elevated to the throne by the Franks and anointed by their bishops in events that were endorsed, rather than commanded, by the papacy.

Further Lombard aggression in Italy tightened Franco-papal ties and produced more tangible results for the papacy. The Byzantine empire was unable to halt the advance of King Aistulf, who, by 752, had overrun the exarchate of Ravenna and now threatened the duchy of Rome. Early in 753, Pope stephen ii (III) (752–757) sent an appeal to Pepin, who dispatched a diplomatic mission to investigate the situation. After the failure of a mediated settlement with Aistulf at Pavia, Pope Stephen crossed the Alps to Ponthion, where he was greeted by Pepin in an elaborate piece of public theatre. In response to the request for aid, Pepin promised the restitution of papal territories, including the Byzantine exarchate of Ravenna. Despite some reluctance shown by the annual assembly of the Franks in 754, Pepin sent an unsuccessful embassy to Aistulf, demanding the return of occupied lands. Aistulf's shrewd response was to call Pepin's brother, Carloman, out of his monastic retirement and send him to Francia in the hope of blocking aid for the papacy. Pepin's reaction is unknown. Carloman failed in his mission, being promptly relegated to a Frankish monastery where he died, apparently of natural causes, in 755.

At St. Denis in July of 754, Pope Stephen anointed Pepin as king (again), along with his wife, Bertrada, and their sons, Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman. Once more, the Carolingians had been legitimized as the true rulers of the Frankish kingdom. Pepin and his sons were awarded the title "Patrician of the Romans", probably indicating some form of protectorate over Rome. The ceremonies deepened the ties between the papacy and the Carolingians. Future kings of the Franks were to be chosen only from Pepin's family, while the Franks would defend papal interests, with prayers being offered in the Roman liturgy for the carolingian dynasty.

In 755 and 756, Pepin carried out two successful campaigns of limited scale against the Lombards. Aistulf was eventually forced to surrender the disputed regions. An optimistic appeal by Byzantine ambassadors for the return of former imperial lands (the exarchate of Ravenna) was rejected by Pepin, who bestowed on the papacy the lands that had been surrendered by the Lombards. Despite appeals by Pope paul i (757–767) for help against the threats of the Lombard king, desiderius (757–774), Pepin carried out no further campaigns in Italy during the rest of his reign. He was anxious to avoid a possible Byzantine-Lombard alliance while facing persistent problems with Aquitaine, especially, and Saxony. The Frankish involvement with the papacy and the Lombard kingdom was to have important consequences in the reign of Pepin's son, charlemagne.

Pepin's Significance. The traditional view of Pepin as king is that he was a reformer and defender of ecclesiastical interests whose work was developed by Charlemagne. During the seventh century, powerful local families had taken control of bishoprics with their resources, extending their authority over independent churches and monasteries. Control over ecclesiastical appointments enabled noble families to exploit the church's resources. Charles Martel was singled out, unfairly, in the mid-9th century, for secularization of church property. Modern research recognizes Pepin's patronage of reform, but now emphasizes his determined use of the church to attain political objectives.

The stern criticisms of the Frankish church's education, discipline, and organization made by Boniface (675–754), the great Anglo-Saxon missionary, may well have been distorted by his personal experiences in the mission field from the time of Charles Martel. Through church councils, Carloman (Concilium Germanicum, 742 or 743; Les Estinnes, 744) and Pepin (Soissons, 744) attempted to address the problems. Carloman, especially, was a patron of Boniface. On Carloman's retirement in 747, Boniface no longer seems to have been involved at the heart of Frankish church life. Under Pepin, chrodegang of metz became the most prominent bishop in the Frankish kingdom. He revived the church councils (Ver, 755; Verberie, 756; Compiègne, 757; Attigny, 760–762; Gentilly; 767) which seem to have lapsed after Carloman's withdrawal from public life, and continued Boniface's reform program. Above all, he aligned the Frankish church with Roman liturgical practice.

Pepin's encouragement of reform within the church did not exclude his right to exploit its wealth for economic or political reasons. He systematically weakened the great families with aristocratic bishops by taking away their land and substituting royal rather than aristocratic rule over monasteries. After Boniface's death (754), Pepin turned his foundation at Fulda and others in its circle into a royal monastery. In recently converted or newly conquered areas, monasteries under royal control were a cornerstone of Frankish and, especially, Carolingian power. As a result, Pepin's reforming zeal was to his own advantage, as well as those of the church and the kingdom. The combination of royal influence over the church, the drive for reform and contact with the papacy was to be important under Pepin's successors.

Following the bloodless coup d'état of 751, there is an essential continuity between Pepin's activities as mayor of the palace and those as king. He continued to campaign to assert control over the kingdom's peripheral regions, such as in Saxony (753, 758). Here, effective Frankish conquest was checked militarily by the decentralized nature of Saxon society and culturally by the stubborn resistance of the region's inhabitants to Christian missionaries. Aquitaine, especially, resisted Carolingian rule and preoccupied Pepin throughout his reign. In the disturbed period after the death of Charles Martel, Pepin and Carloman had campaigned there in 742 to curb Duke Hunoald, the son of Eudo. Grifo, Pepin's irrepressible half-brother, took up residence at the court of Hunoald's son, Duke Waiofar, until 753. To end Aquitaine's independence, Pepin needed to win over the loyalty of the nobles and to establish control over the church. With one exception there were annual campaigns in Aquitaine between 759 and 768. This pressure brought about the murder of Waiofar by his own followers, which signaled the effective end of the war and Aquitanian independence.

During his final campaign in Aquitaine, Pepin fell ill and returned north to the royal monastery of St. Denis, where, c. 754, he had begun the construction of a new church. He died there on Sept. 24, 768, and was buried, like his father, in the ancient pantheon of the Merovingian kings. Shortly before his death, Pepin divided the Frankish kingdom between his two sons, Charles (768–814) and Carloman (768–771), who had been designated as heirs and anointed by Pope Stephen in 754. Relations between the brothers were uneasy until the death of Carloman in 771, but there was no succession crisis for the Carolingian dynasty.

Bibliography: p. fouracre, "Frankish Gaul to 814" in New Cambridge Medieval History, v. 2 (Cambridge 1995). r. mckitterick, The Frankish Kingdom under the Carolingians (London and New York 1983). t. f. x. noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal Republic (Philadelphia 1984). m. rouche, L'Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes (Paris 1979). j. m. wallace-hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford 1985). i. n. wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms (London and New York 1994).

[j. wreglesworth]