General Notes

REFN: 9061AN
Carloman (716-754) was the son of Charles Martel, major domo or Mayor of t
he Palace of Austrasia and Chrotrud. He was a member of the family later c
alled the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in co
nsolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kin
gs of the Franks.
After the death of his father in 741, power was initially divided among Ca
rloman and his brothers Pippin III and Grifo. By 742, Carloman and Pipp
in had ousted Grifo, and each turned his attention towards his own ar
ea 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-S
axon missionary Winfrid (Boniface), the so-called "Apostle of the Germans
", whom he charged with restructuring the chuch in the Frankish Empire. Th
is was in part a continuation of a policy begun under his grandfather Pipp
in of Herstal and continued to a lesser extent under Charles Martel. Carlo
man was instrumental in convening the Concilium Germanicum in 742, the fir
st major Church synod to be held in the eastern parts of the Frankish king
dom. Chaired jointly by him and Boniface, the synod ruled that priests we
re not allowed to bear arms or to host females in their houses and th
at it was one of the primary tasks to eradicate pagan beliefs. While his f
ather had frequently confiscated church property to reward his follower
s, Carloman sought to increase the assets of the church. He donated, for i
nstance, the land for one of Boniface's most important foundation, the mon
astery of Fulda.
Carloman could be ruthless towards real or perceived opponents. In 74
6, he convened an assembly of all alamanni dukes and nobles at Cannstatt a
nd then had most of them, numbering in the thousands, arrested and execut
ed for high treason in the bloody judgment of Cannstatt. This eradicated v
irtually the entire tribal leadership of the Alamanni and ended the indepe
ndence of the tribal duchy of Alamannia which was thereafter governed by c
ounts appointed by their Frankish overlords.
These actions strengthened Carloman's position, and that of the fami
ly as a whole, especially in terms of their rivalries with other leading f
amilies such as the Bavarian Agilolfings.
In 747, Carloman renounced his position as major domo and withdrew to a mo
nastic life in Monte Soracte and Monte Cassino. He died on 17 July 754 a
nd was buried in Monte Cassino.
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