General Notes

Carloman (716-754) was the son of Charles Martel, major domo or Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia and Chrotrud. He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks.  After the death of his father in 741, power was initially divided among Carloman and his brothers Pippin III and Grifo. By 742, Carloman and Pippin had ousted Grifo, and each turned his attention towards his own area of influence as major domo, Pippin in the West and Carloman in the East.  Carloman strengthened his authority in part via his support of the Anglo-Saxon missionary Winfrid (Boniface), the so-called "Apostle of the Germans", whom he charged with restructuring the chuch in the Frankish Empire. This was in part a continuation of a policy begun under his grandfather Pippin of Herstal and continued to a lesser extent under Charles Martel. Carloman was instrumental in convening the Concilium Germanicum in 742, the first major Church synod to be held in the eastern parts of the Frankish kingdom. Chaired jointly by him and Boniface, the synod ruled that priests were not allowed to bear arms or to host females in their houses and that it was one of the primary tasks to eradicate pagan beliefs. While his father had frequently confiscated church property to reward his followers, Carloman sought to increase the assets of the church. He donated, for instance, the land for one of Boniface's most important foundation, the monastery of Fulda.  Carloman could be ruthless towards real or perceived opponents. In 746, he convened an assembly of all alamanni dukes and nobles at Cannstatt and then had most of them, numbering in the thousands, arrested and executed for high treason in the bloody judgment of Cannstatt. This eradicated virtually the entire tribal leadership of the Alamanni and ended the independence of the tribal duchy of Alamannia which was thereafter governed by counts appointed by their Frankish overlords.  These actions strengthened Carloman's position, and that of the family as a whole, especially in terms of their rivalries with other leading families such as the Bavarian Agilofings.  In 747, Carloman renounced his position as major domo and withdrew to a monastic life in Monte Soracte und Monte Cassino. He died on 17 July 754 and was buried in Monte Cassino.