Pippin the Younger
Pippin the Younger[Pippin's name can be very confusing. Historically, historians have vacillated between preference for Pepin, derived from the French Pépin, and the German Pippin or Dutch Pepijn. His nickname is often misunderstood. He is most commonly called the Short, though this is a mistranslation. He was not short. His nickname the Younger refers to the fact that he was the younger of the two Arnulfing Pippins who ruled as mayors of the palace.] (or
Pepin;
French,
Pépin le Bref;
Dutch Pepijn de Korte German,
Pippin der Kleine, Pippin der Kurze, or
Pippin der Jüngere) (
714 –
September 24,
768), often known under the mistranslation
Pippin the Short or the ordinal
Pippin III, was the
king of the Franks from
751 to
768.
He was born in
714 in
Jupille, close to the city of
Liège, in what is today
Belgium, where the
Carolingian dynasty originated. That territory was then a part of the kingdom of
Austrasia. His father was
Charles Martel,
mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and his mother was Chrotrud (
690-
724).
On the death of Pippin's father, Charles Martel, in
741, power was passed down to Charles' legitimate sons, Pippin and
Carloman as
mayors of the palaces of Neustria and Austrasia respectively. Power may also have been intended for Charles' illegitimate son,
Grifo, but he was imprisoned in a
monastery by his two half-brothers. Carloman, who by all evidence was a deeply pious man, retired to a monastery in
747. This left Francia in the hands of Pippin as sole
mayor of the palace and
dux et princeps Francorum, a title originated by his grandfather and namesake
Pippin of Heristal.
Under the reorganization of Francia by Charles Martel the
dux et princeps Francorum were the commanders of the armies of the Kingdom, in addition to their administrative duties as mayor of the palace, and specifically commander of the standing guard which Martel had begun maintaining year-around since Toulouse in 721.
Upon their assumption, Pippin and Carloman, who had not proved themselves in battle in defense of the realm as their father had, installed the
Merovingian Childeric III as king, even though Martel had left the throne vacant since the death of
Theuderic IV. Childeric had the title of king, but he was a puppet. As time passed, and his brother bowed out of the picture, Pippin became discontent with the presence of any royal power but himself.
At the time of Carloman's retirement, Grifo escaped his imprisonment and fled to Duke
Odilo of Bavaria, who was married to Hiltrude, Pippin's sister. Odilo was forced by Pippin to acknowledge Frankish overlordship, but died soon after (
January 18 748). Pippin invaded Bavaria and installed
Tassilo III as duke under Frankish overlordship.
Since Pippin had control over the magnates and actually had the power of the king, he decided it was time to do what his father had never bothered to do: make the Carolingian name royal in law as well as fact. Pippin asked
Pope Zachary who should be the royal ruler: the person with the title of King, or the person who makes the decisions as King. Since the
Pope depended on the Frankish armies for his independence, and had depended on them for protection from the
Lombards since the days of Charles Martel, and Pippin, as his father had, controlled those armies, the Pope's answer was determined well in advance. The Pope agreed that the
de facto power was more important than the
de jure power. Thus, Pippin, having obtained the support of the
papacy, discouraged opposition to his house. He was elected King of the Franks by an assembly of Frankish leading-men (it must be noted he had 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, perhaps by
Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz. Meanwhile, Grifo continued his rebellion, but was eventually killed in the battle of
Saint-Jean de Maurienne in
753.
Childeric III was deposed, his hair was shaved off and he was confined to a monastery. He was the last of the
Merovingians, or
Lazy Kings.
He added to that power after
Pope Stephen II traveled all the way to
Paris to anoint Pippin in a lavish ceremony at
Saint Denis Basilica, bestowing upon him the additional title of
patricius Romanorum (
Patrician of the Romans). As life expectancies were short in those days, and Pippin wanted family continuity, the Pope also anointed Pippin's sons,
Charles (eventually known as
Charlemagne) and
Carloman.
Pippin's first major act was to go to war against the Lombard king
Aistulf, who had a policy of expansion into the
ducatus Romanum, as a partial repayment for papal support in his quest for the crown. Victorious, he forced the Lombard king to return property seized from the Church and confirmed the papacy in possession of
Ravenna and the
Pentapolis, the so-called
Donation of Pepin whereby the
Papal States was founded. In
759, he drove the
Saracens out of
Gaul with the capture of
Narbonne and then consolidated his power further by integrating
Aquitaine into the kingdom. In taking Narbonne, and formally annexing Aquitaine (whose status was always dependant on the strength of her suzerains), he completed the work of his father save for one last task: fully subduing the
Saxons. He was preparing for war against them when his health began to fail, and thus, this final task was left for his son, the great Charlemagne.
Pippin died at Saint Denis in
768 and is interred there in the basilica with his wife
Bertrada. Historical opinion often seems to regard him as the lesser son and lesser father of two greater men, though a great man in his own right. He continued to build up the
heavy cavalry which his father had begun. He maintained the standing army that his father had found necessary to protect the realm and form the core of its full army in wartime. He not only maintained his father's policy of containing the
Moors, he drove them over and across the
Pyrenees with the capture of Narbonne. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (
missionary work in
Germany and
Scandinavia) and the infrastructure (
feudalism) that would prove the backbone of medieval Europe. His rule, while not as great as either his father's or son's, was historically important and of great benefit to the Franks as a people. It can certainly be argued that Pippin's assumption of the crown, and the title of Patrician of
Rome, were harbingers of his son's imperial coronation which is usually seen as the founding of the
Holy Roman Empire. He certainly made the Carolingians
de jure what his father had made them
de facto—the ruling dynasty of the Franks and the foremost power of Europe. While not known as a great general, he was undefeated during his lifetime.
In
740, Peppin married Bertrada of Laon, his second cousin. (Her father, Charibert, was the son of Pippin II's brother, Martin of Laon.) Of their children, two sons and a daughter survived to adulthood.
[Some sources give Redburga as a sister of Charlemagne, though others make her his sister-in-law.] *
Charles (
April 2 742 –
January 28 814), the great Charlemagne
*
Carloman (
751 –
December 4 771)
*
Gisela (
757 –
810)
>* Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
* List of Frankish Kings
* Carolingians
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