territories on the death in 741 of their father, Charles
Martel, mayor in the united realm. The two brothers
cooperated closely in governing their lands; in 743,
they together placed another Merovingian, Childeric III,
on the royal throne, empty since 737. In 747, however,
Carloman felt called to a religious life and abdicated;
Pepin became mayor of the entire kingdom. Having
deposed Childeric, a move supported by Pope Zachary
I, Pepin was acclaimed king in November 751. During a
visit to Francia in 754, Pope Stephen II anointed the new
monarch along with his wife and sons, Charles (later
Charlemagne; 742–814) and Carloman II (d. 771). In
recognition of the hope that the new monarchy would
protect the Roman church, the pope used the occasion to
name Pepin and his sons “patricians of the Romans.”
As ruler of the Franks, Pepin III oversaw reform of
the secular government and, with the aid of the Irish
missionary Boniface, of the ecclesiastical organization.
His efforts in the latter regard, especially, provided
the foundation for the cultural and intellectual revival
known as the Carolingian renaissance, under Pepin’s
son Charlemagne.
See also Charlemagne; Charles Martel;
Pepin III the Short
Further Reading
Hlawitschka, Eduard. “Die Vorfahren Karls des Grossen.” In Karl
der Grosse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, ed. W. Braunfels et
al. 5 vols. Dusseldorf: Schwann, 1965, Vol. 1, pp. 51–82.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the
Carolingians, 751–987. London: Longman, 1983.
Miller, David Harry. “Sacral Kingship, Biblical Kingship, and
the Elevation of Pepin the Short.” In Religion, Culture, and
Society in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honor of Richard
E. Sullivan, ed. Thomas F.X. Noble and John J. Contreni.
Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute, 1987.
Noble, Thomas F.X. The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the
Papal State, 680 – 825. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1984.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe,
trans. Michael I. Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1993.
Celia Chazelle
PEPIN III THE SHORT
(714–768),
Pepin III, called “the Short” by later historians, played
a key role in establishing the Carolingian family as
the predominant force in the west. In 741 Pepin and
his brother Carloman succeeded their father, Charles
Martel, as joint holders of the offi ce of mayor of the
palace, an offi ce that had been successfully exploited by
Charles Martel (in 714–741) and his father, Pepin II of
Herstal (in 687–714), to the point where they exercised
real power at the expense of the Merovingian kings of
the Franks whom they supposedly served. From 741 to
747 Pepin III and Carloman acted jointly to withstand
threats to their position, especially from the dukes of
Bavaria, Aquitaine, and Alemannia who were seeking to
escape Frankish overlordship. They strengthened their
ties with the church by supporting the missionary and
reforming efforts of the Anglo-Saxon monk Boniface,
acting in Francia under papal auspices.
In 747 Carloman withdrew from his offi ce to become
a monk. Pepin assumed sole power and soon decided
to assume the royal offi ce. To legitimatize this bold
act against the claims of the Merovingian dynasty, he
sought and received the approval of Pope Zacharias I
(r. 741–752). In 751 Pepin deposed the last Merovin-
gian king and had himself elected king by the Frankish
magnates and anointed by a bishop, an innovation in
Frankish history that gave a sacramental character to
the royal offi ce.
Pepin’s accession to the royal offi ce soon led to his
involvement in Italian affairs. By the mid-eighth century
a crisis had developed in Italy as a result of the decline
of Byzantine power. The papacy, which had established
control over the territory around Rome, was challenged
by the Lombards, who in 751 seized Byzantine ter-
ritories around Ravenna (called the Exarchate) and
threatened Rome. Pope Stephen II (r. 752–757) turned
to Pepin for protection and in late 753 traveled to Fran-
cia to negotiate with him. The result was a promise by
Pepin to protect the pope and his Roman subjects and
to restore to the papacy territories that Stephen claimed
the Lombard had illegally seized. In return, Stephen
reanointed Pepin and his sons and invested them with
the title patricius Romanorum, which implied a role as
protector of the Romans. Pepin made good his promise
by conducting successful military campaigns against the
Lombards in 755 and 756. He forced the Lombards to
surrender to the papacy considerable territories legally
belonging to the Byzantine empire. This “Donation of
Pepin,” coupled with the territory around Rome that
the papacy already controlled, formed the basis of an
independent papal state stretching across the Italian
peninsula from Rome to Ravenna. During the remainder
of his reign Pepin honored his role as protector of the
papacy and the “republic of Rome” by using diplomatic
means to restrain the Lombards.
As king of the Franks, Pepin was mainly concerned
with solidifying and expanding the power and prestige
of the royal offi ce. He effectively used force to increase
the Franks’ control over Bavaria and Aquitaine and to
ward off attacks by the pagan Saxons. He took the lead
in promoting reform of the church, a role that gave sub-
stance to his claim to rule as an agent of God promoting
the true faith. The expanding infl uence of the Franks in
Italy and southern Gaul led to diplomatic exchanges
with the Byzantine empire and the Abbasid caliphsPEPIN