lacked powerful kinsmen who might have provided support for the queen and her
children on such occasions. Generous land grants to favorites, especially aristocrats, had,
moreover, steadily reduced the material resources, and thus the power, of the kings.
The Merovingian kings after Dagobert I are traditionally seen as puppets of the
mayors of the palace, as “do-nothing kings” (rois fainéants). It is true that the
Merovingian decline tempted ambitious mayors like Ebroin of Neustria (d. 680) and
Grimoald of Austrasia (d. 656) to plot to put up their own sons as kings, but aristocratic
rivalries and strong loyalties to the Merovingian dynasty thwarted these efforts. Some of
the later Merovingians were not mere puppets. Childeric II of Austrasia (r. 662–75) was
important enough to be murdered in a vendetta, and for a time Theuderic III (r. 673–
90/91) actually did rule rather than merely reign.
However, from the victory of the Austrasian mayor Pepin II in 687, the future of the
Frankish kingdom was in the hands of the Pippinid-Carolingians. Charles Martel ruled
without a Merovingian king on the throne from 737 to his death in 741, but the absence
of a legitimate king provided an excuse for rebellions. Carloman and Pepin the Short
were obliged to restore a Merovingian, Childeric III, to the throne in 743, but by 751
Pepin was secure enough to depose Childeric and arrange his own election as king of the
Franks, thus ending the Merovingian dynasty and inaugurating that of the Carolingians.
The Merovingians did not die out. They were forcibly removed in a coup d’état.
Steven Fanning
[See also: AUSTRASIA; CHARLES MARTEL; CHILDERIC I; CHILPERIC I;
CLOTAR II; CLOVIS I; DAGOBERT I; FRANKS; MAYOR OF THE PALACE;
PEPIN]
Gregory of Tours. Liber historiae Francorum, trans. Bernard S. Bachrach. Lawrence: Coronado,
1973.
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