Pepin the Short becomes King of the Franks, 751

Pepin the Short becomes King of the Franks

With the approval of Pope Zachary, the mayor of the palace Pepin deposed Childeric III, the last Merovingian, who was tonsured and shut away in a monastery. An assembly of the Franks at Soissons elected Pepin king, and according to Carolingian sources he was anointed. His family took the royal title after ruling in fact for decades, and its new alliance with the papacy led to the Papal States and to Charlemagne’s imperial crown.

Date

751year known

Place

Soissonstoday: Soissons, Aisne, France · Western and Central Europe

Participants

Pepin the Short, Childeric III, Pope Zachary, Francia (Frankish realm)

Threads

Early medieval Europe (500–1000)

Also known as

Election of Pepin the Short; Anointing of Pepin; Помазание Пипина; Carolingian dynasty; Каролинги; Childeric III; Хильдерик III; End of the Merovingians; Конец Меровингов

Since the Battle of Tertry (687) the Pippinid mayors of the palace had governed the Frankish kingdoms in the name of the Merovingian kings. In 743 Pepin’s brother Carloman raised Childeric III to the throne, but when Carloman withdrew into monastic life in 747, Pepin became the sole master of the realm. According to the Royal Frankish Annals, he sent Bishop Burchard of Würzburg and Abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis to ask Pope Zachary whether it was good that the kings in Francia had no royal power; the pope replied that it was better to call king the one who held the power.

An assembly of the Franks at Soissons then elected Pepin king, while Childeric was tonsured — losing the long hair that was the mark of Merovingian kingship — and confined in the monastery of Saint-Bertin. The exact date is uncertain: Childeric’s deposition is placed between late September and late October 751 (by other accounts, in November) and Pepin’s elevation usually in November, but some authors put the anointing in 752. Carolingian sources report that Pepin was anointed; historians debate its models — the anointing of the Visigothic kings, of the kings of the Old Testament, or Irish canon law. The earliest account, the Clausula de unctione Pippini, was written about 767. The claim of later annals that Boniface performed the anointing is rejected by most historians, and Josef Semmler (2003) even argued that there was no anointing in 751 at all. In 754 Pope Stephen II anointed Pepin again, together with his sons, at Saint-Denis.

The change of dynasty bound the new royal house to the papacy. Three years later Pepin answered Stephen II’s appeal against the Lombards with the campaigns from which the Papal States arose, and in 800 his son Charlemagne received the imperial crown in Rome.

Connections

Consequences

Donation of PepinApril 754 – 756 · Western and Central EuropeThe alliance with the papacy led to the Frankish campaigns in Italy and the creation of the Papal States

Related events

Battle of Tertry687 · Western and Central EuropeTertry began the rule of Pepin’s family as mayors of the palace over all the Franks

Battle of Tours10 October 732 · Western and Central EuropePepin’s father Charles Martel, the victor of 732, had ruled the Franks without the royal title

Mission of Boniface in Germany15 May 719 – 5 June 754 · Western and Central EuropeLater annals claim that Boniface anointed Pepin; most historians reject this

The Lombards take Ravenna751 · Western and Central EuropeIn the same year Pepin took the Frankish crown with papal approval; three years later he marched against Aistulf

Same place

Pepin the Short becomes King of the Franks

Connections

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