• General Notes

  [SUSANNA KEENE.FTW]
  
  Pepin of Heristol (Liege, Belgium); Mayor Of The Palace Of
  Austrasia.
  
  Pepin of Herstal (635?-714), Carolingian mayor of the palace,
  who reunited the Frankish realms in the late Merovingian
  period. A grandson of Pepin the Elder, he succeeded to his
  position in the kingdom of Austrasia around 680. In 687 he
  extended Carolingian rule to the other Frankish kingdoms,
  Neustria and Burgundy, but retained members of the Merovingian
  dynasty as figurehead monarchs in all three. Two years later he
  extended his control over the Frisians, a pagan people living
  on the North Sea coast. Pepin's death was followed by a civil
  war and the succession of his illegitimate son Charles Martel.
  
  Source: 'Pepin of Herstal,' Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright
  (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk &
  Wagnall's Corporation 'Royalty for Commoners', Roderick W.
  Stuart, 1993, p 129.
  
  "The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe, Holmes,
  George, Oxford University Press, 1988":
  The first of the great Carolingian Mayor of the Palace of
  Austrasia.  Ruler of the Franks in 687,  he managed, through
  the Battle of Tertry in 687, to unite Neustria and Austrasia
  under his own "puppet" Merovingian king.  But the power
  struggles in northern Gaul seriously weakened the power of the
  merovingians and their mayors.  The Aquitanians had their own
  Duke; the "Patricius" of Provence was for all practical
  purposes an independent ruler.; the aristocrats of Burgundy
  paid little attention to the Franks in the north.34
  
  "Britannica On-Line":
  The son of Begga and Ansegisel, who were, respectively, the
  daughter of
  Pepin I and the son of Bishop Arnulf of Metz, Pepin established
  himself as mayor of the palace in Austrasia after the death of
  Dagobert II in 679 and defended its autonomy against Theodoric
  III of Neustria and Ebroon, Theodoric's mayor of the palace.
  Defeated by Ebroon in 680 at Lucofao (near Laon), Pepin gained
  his revenge on the Neustrians in 687 at Tertry (near Pironne)
  and became sole effective ruler of the Franks.  He nevertheless
  retained Theodoric III on the throne and after his death
  replaced him with three successive Merovingian kings. After
  several years of warfare Pepin defeated the Frisians on his
  northeastern border (689) and married his son Grimoald to
  Theodelind, daughter of the Frisian chief Radbod. He also
  forced the Alemanni to recognize Frankish authority again and
  encouraged Christian missionaries in Alemannia and Bavaria.
  Charles Martel was his son.

Details of Pepin II the Fat's family with Elphide (Chalpaida) (de Heristal)