General Notes

1  NAME /Pippin/ III
ema p 342-3 ". . . the first Carolingian king of the Franks.  He expand
ed the borders of the Frankish domain and formed an alliance with the pop
es in Rome that shaped the future of both the Frankish kindom and the papa
cy.  In 741, PEPIN and his older brother CARLOMAN succeeded and inherit
ed the title "Mayor of the Palace" from their father.  Son, however, Pepi
n, who ruled Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, and his brother, who rul
ed Austrasia and what later became Thuringia, were calling themselves "duk
es and princes of the Franks."  To ease the concern of other Frankish lead
ers worried about the brothers' growing power, in 743 the brothers had t
he Merovingian CHILDERIC III named as nominal king of the Franks while th
ey continued to exercise the real power.  . . . Pepin's gift of a wide str
ip of land in central Italy to the pope became known as the "Donation of P
epin."  The land, called the Papal States, remained under the rule of t
he popes until the unification of Italy in the nineteenth century." (Al
so see eva "Franks; Charlemagne; Carolingian Dynasty)
ema p 115  "In 737, the Merovingian king THEUDERIC died.  From then unt
il his death in 741, Charles Martel ruled alone, as chief of the Franks, w
ithout a king.  Realizing that the united kingdom he had created wou
ld be threatened after his death, he planned its division.  He first decid
ed to divide it between CARLOMAN and PEPIN, the sons borne by his first wi
fe, CHROTRUD.  Shortly before his death, however, he decided to endow h
is son Grifo, the son of his second wife, a Bavarian, who also bore h
im a daughter Chiltrud.  Because of this decision, the power Charles Mart
el had amassed was threatened with dissipation after his death.  Grifo w
as imprisoned by his brothers, and his lands divided along lines that ming
led Neustria and Austrasia.  In hopes of legitimizing their rule, particul
arly after their sister married Duke Odilo of Bavaria, Carloman and Pep
in revived the kingship, raising Childeric III, son of Chilperic II, to t
he throne in 743.  In that year Carloman and Pepin conquered their brother
-in-law Odilo, but Carloman abdicated in 747, retiring to a monastery in I
taly, and Pepin freed Grifo, who fomented discord in Bavaria and in Ital
y.  The installation of Odilo's son (Pepin's nephew) Tassilo as duke of Ba
varia in 749 did not produce peace there.  In 757, following a rebellio
n, Tassilo and the magnates of Bavaria were forced, in sign of subjectio
n, to commend themselves to Pepin "in vassalage".  Only when, in 751, Pep
in secured Childeric's deposition and his own anointing as king, did Charl
es Martel's ambitions for his line begin to be realized."
wwma p 52 "Pepin the Short, who was Mayor of the Palace of Childeric II
I, the last of an ever degenerating line of Merovingian kings. In 751, wi
th the support of the Pope, Pepin cut off Childeric's long hair, the ma
rk of his kingship, and sent him to a monastery, arrogating to himself t
he royal power. He was an active ruler, imposing peace on his border-land
s, and twice descending on Italy to protect the Pope from the Lombards, gi
ving to him the duchy of Rome as his own state into the bargain. "
bk&q p. 724 [R20] (continued from Pepin d'Herestal, Pepin the Short's gran
dfather)  "Charles Martel's son, Pepin, overthrew the Merovingian kings a
nd established a new dynasty."
ohme p 20 ". . . the ninth century proved a period of uncertainty and uphe
aval in the western Mediterranean.  The late eighth century saw the emerge
nce of a new king of invader from the north who embodied an aggressive com
mitment to Christianity and self-confident expansionism on the part of a L
atin west, which for centuries had lain prostrate in the face of extern
al attacks.  The Frankish king Charlemagne, Charles the Great, inherited f
rom his father PIPPIN III the recently subjugated Mediterranean lands of A
quitaine and Provence and a t