Pepin II CRASSUS de Heristal (the younger)

Pepin I [of Landen d640] was aka Pippin 'the Elder' (to distinguish him from his grandson Pepin II, aka Pippen 'the Younger'). Pepin I and Arnulf, Bishop of Metz [613-29], wisely advised Dagobert I, last of the strong Merovingian kings. Pepin I had also helped Dagobert's father Clothaire II gain Austrasia and Neustria. From tIoC: "In 613 the Merovingian king Clothar II awarded new titles to 2 powerful and wealthy Frankish families in Austrasia for their strong military and diplomatic support. The head of one of these families, Arnulf, was named Bishop of Metz, the richest and most important city in the realm. Pepin [I], the head of the other loyal family, was named mayor of the palace of Austrasia. With this noble title came the responsibility of looking after all of the king's lands, or royal domains. Pepin acquired even more power when Clothar divided his kingdom and made his 10yo son, Dagobert, king of Austrasia. As Dagobert's chief counselor, Pepin ruled Austrasia in all but name until Dagobert came of age. Through the middle of the 7C, Pepin and Arnulf remained among the most powerful noblemen in Frankia, but historians remember them for being the ggggfathers of Charlemagne ... When Arnulf's son Ansegisel m. Pepin's dau Begga, these 2 roots merged to form the trunk of Charlemagne's family tree. Over the next century, Charlemagne's ancestors ruled as mayors of the palace of Austrasia and helped make it the most powerful in the Frankish kingdoms" (tIoC pp10-20).

"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 ... [his line] might have faded into history ... had it not been for his bastard son, Charles Martel [meaning 'the hammer' in Latin] ... first in family line to bear the name Charles ... [whence] 'Carolingian' ... gfather of Charlemagne ... Like his father, Pepin II, Charles Martel never held the title of king. Also like his father, he employed political and military savvy to establish himself as the virtual ruler of the 3 Frankish kingdoms" (tIoC pp20-2).

"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, an 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).

HBHG blames Pepin 'the Fat' (II, I assume) for assassinating Dagobert II in 678, see Merovingians. Hmmm.

Here's Pepin II's page at www.smokykin.com.

See Merovingians and Carolingians.

Soon after AD 600, a 'Heptarchy' [Greek for 'rule by 7' kingdoms] of 7 Saxon kingdoms formed i.e. Kent (E), Sussex (S), Wessex (W), Mercia, E Anglia, Essex (all 3 in E, later heartland of Puritanism), and Northumbria (N). Bernard Cornwell's 'Saxon Stories' series of novels tell the story of how the Vikings later conquered all 7 one by one, til only Wessex remained (i.e. 'The Last Kingdom'). King Alfred narrowly (and providentially?) managed to come back (with help from Uchtred the Northumbrian) and (with his descendants) rebuild Wessex, expanding it into a newly united 'England'. S England was later the heartland of VA royalists aka Cavaliers, N Midlands became PA Quakers, N Brits and Scots became American Appalachians (cf 'Albion's Seed' by D H Fischer).

Hmmm, GWRome p186: the Grand Canal of China, begun in the 5C BC, was nearly 1000 miles long by the time of its completion a millennium later. The canal connects Beijing and Quinsai (cf MarcPolo, China).

GWRome p187: The Arab conquest between 634-720 [66yrs] created a caliphate stretching from S France to the Punjab.

Within barely 4 years (636-40), the Arabs, led by Caliph Omar, tore from the emperors of Byzantium most of Lesser Asia, including the region of Syria and Palestine; from that moment on, visits to the Holy Sepulchre and to other Holy Places only became possible under special diplomatic agreements between the court of Constantinople and their new masters (Temp p120). Thus the push to retrieve as many relics as possible e.g. the mandylion, Byzantium's most precious relic, which this book argues was likely the Shroud of Turin.