Born: 676
Died: 741
Father: Pepin II (635-714)
Mother: Alpaide (Alphaida, 1rst concubine)
Spouse: Rotrude (Chrotude)
Children:
At right, a drawing from tIoC (p22) ===>>
Born: 676
Father: Pepin II (635-714) Spouse: Rotrude (Chrotude)
Children:
At right, a drawing from tIoC (p22) ===>> |
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"In 687, Pepin II, the gson of both Arnulf and Pepin I, helped the Merovingian king Theuderic III gain control of all 3 Frankish realms - Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. Over the next 30 yrs, Pepin II built a strong feudal network among the loyal nobility in his Austrasian homeland ... [Pepin II ran the annual assemblies, collecting tributes and organizing military campaigns] ... Pepin II extended Frankish influence in Gaul ... continuing the strong alliance with the RCC ... As Pepin II approached the end of his long life, having outlived his own sons, he had to decide who would inherit his position as mayor of the palace and duke of Austrasia. Ultimately he chose an illegitimate gson, Theodoald. Thus when [he] died 16 Dec 714, his 6yo gson [took these 2 titles]. Without Pepin II's strong personality to hold them together, his fragile political alliances broke apart ... The house of Pepin might have faded into history ... had it not been for his bastard son, Charles Martel ... gfather of Charlemagne, the first in his family line to bear the name Charles ... The name Martel, which means 'the hammer' in Latin, was added by later Carolingian historians to signify [his] military and political strength ... [tho built in part by giving church lands to (often immoral) political allies, angering the RCC and damaging it spiritually, he's also famous for repulsing the Muslim Moors at Tours 732, he d. 22 Oct 741] ... Although Charles had never assumed the title of king, most Franks apparently thought of him as their king. Also like his father, he employed political and military savvy to establish himself as the virtual ruler of the 3 Frankish realms ... in spite of having his stepmother, Plectrude, as his archenemy ... [She] held the real ... power for her gson Theodoald ... [she] had [Martel] arrested and held prisoner ... in Metz. However, most of Pepin II's former vassals favored Charles over Theodoald, and in 716 they helped Charles escape. A year later, w/Charles leading them, [they] assembled an army and ... proclaimed Charles the new Austrasian MotP and named a Merovingian prince, Clothar IV, the new Austrasian king. But Charles was not content ... he wanted to reclaim the control that his father had held over Neustria, Burgundy, and the surrounding duchies ... [to cement his control, he reclaimed church lands to his nobles and/or named them] as bishops and abbots. As a result, many [of these bishops/abbots] had no religious training but plenty of military experience ... Under Charles Martel, the church became a tool of political expansion [Boniface complained of this to Pope] ... Charles not only reunited [the 3 realms] but also conquered Aquitaine and ... Provence ... when the Merovingian king Theuderic died in 737, Charles did not bother naming a successor [he was de facto king] ... On 22 Oct 741 ... [his death led to] a state of anarchy" (tIoC pp20-5).
"Both of the royal races [e.g. of Clovis and Pepin] which supplied the early sovereigns to France and Germany had thus their origin in the Netherlands ... Pepin of Landen, the earliest distinguishable ancestor of Charlemagne, was lord of Brabant, the frontier land along the Maas River, which he held against the Frisians. His grandson, Pepin [II] d'Heuristal, defeated Radbod, king of the Frisians, and compelled him to diminish his title to that of duke, as a subject of the Franks ... his son, Charles Martel, had to fight Radbod again, and later was obliged to defeat Radbod's son before the resolute Frisians would yield him even a nominal sovereignty. Charles Martel refounded Dagobert's vanished church at Utrecht and made the Irish Saxon Willibrod the first bishop of the northern Netherlands [692-739] ... followed ... by Winfred or Boniface, and English Saxon, the celebrated converter of the Germans ... [when he insisted on reforms, he] met a martyr's death, welcoming his slayers with open arms (tKoE p775).
from EMA p44
See Merovingians and Carolingians.
Sources:
- tIoC = The Importance of Charlemagne, Timothy Levi Biel, Lucent Books, 1997 (FHL).
- tKoE - The Kingdoms of Europe, Gene Gurney, Crown, 1982 (own).
- EMA = The Early Middle Ages, James A Corrick, Lucent, 1995, FHL.
