Pepin the Short Crowned King (751): The Carolingian Takeover

In 751 Pepin the Short, the most powerful man in the Frankish kingdom, set aside the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, and was raised to the throne himself at Soissons. With the approval of Pope Zacharias and anointing by bishops, he founded the Carolingian dynasty, the family of Charlemagne. The takeover ended almost three centuries of Merovingian rule and created a close alliance between the Frankish kings and the papacy that shaped medieval Europe.

Background: kings without power

The Merovingian dynasty had ruled the Franks since the late 5th century, when Clovis I united much of Gaul. By the late 7th century, however, real power had passed to the mayors of the palace, the chief officials of the royal household. The kings remained sacred figures, recognised by their long hair, but they increasingly lacked land, money and armies.

Pepin’s family, from the region between the Meuse and the Rhine, dominated the office of mayor. His father, Charles Martel, led Frankish armies for more than two decades, defeated an Umayyad raiding force at the Battle of Tours in 732 or 733, and even ruled from 737 without any king on the throne.

When Charles died in 741, his power was divided between his sons Pepin and Carloman. To strengthen their legitimacy against rebels, the brothers placed a Merovingian, Childeric III, on the throne in 743. In 747 Carloman withdrew from politics and entered the monastic life in Italy, leaving Pepin as sole ruler in all but name.

The appeal to Rome

Pepin decided to make his position formal. According to the Royal Frankish Annals, in 749 or 750 he sent Bishop Burchard of Würzburg and Fulrad, abbot of Saint-Denis, to Pope Zacharias. They asked whether it was good that the kings of the Franks held the title without the power. The pope is said to have replied that it was better for the one who held the power to be called king, so that order would not be disturbed.

The annals were compiled at the Carolingian court decades later, and some historians suspect that the papal role was emphasised to justify the coup. Still, there is no doubt that Pepin sought and valued papal backing, and that the papacy, under growing pressure from the Lombards in Italy, needed a strong protector.

The coronation of 751

Pepin was elected king by an assembly of Frankish nobles at Soissons, probably in November 751, though some scholars prefer early 752. He was anointed with holy oil by bishops. Later tradition named Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary archbishop, as the one who anointed him, but contemporary evidence for this is weak. Anointing, modelled on the kings of the Old Testament, was a new ritual for Frankish kings and gave the new dynasty a religious sanction that compensated for its lack of royal blood.

Childeric III was deposed and his hair was shorn, a symbolic removal of his royal status. He was sent to the monastery of Saint-Bertin at Sithiu (modern Saint-Omer), where he died a few years later, and his son Theuderic was placed in the abbey of Fontenelle (Saint-Wandrille). Writing in the early 9th century, Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard mocked the last Merovingians as kings who sat on the throne with long hair and flowing beard and travelled in an ox-cart, an image designed to make the change of dynasty look natural.

The papal anointing of 754

The alliance with Rome was sealed three years later. Threatened by the Lombard king Aistulf, Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps and met Pepin at Ponthion in January 754. On 28 July 754, at the abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris, the pope anointed Pepin again, together with his sons Charles and Carloman, and blessed Queen Bertrada. He forbade the Franks, on pain of excommunication, ever to choose a king from another family, and gave Pepin the title “patrician of the Romans”.

In return Pepin campaigned in Italy and handed conquered territory to the pope, the grant known as the Donation of Pepin.

How historians see the events of 751

Almost everything known about the change of dynasty comes from sources written under the Carolingians themselves. The Royal Frankish Annals were compiled at court from the late 780s onward, and the Continuations of the Chronicle of Fredegar were written under the patronage of Pepin’s uncle Childebrand and his son Nibelung. Both present the coup as lawful, orderly and blessed by God.

Historians therefore ask how much of the story is later justification. Some argue that the papal consultation was exaggerated, or shaped after 754, to make the alliance with Rome look older and more formal than it was. Others accept that an embassy took place but stress that the decisive factor was the backing of the Frankish aristocracy, without which no papal answer would have mattered.

A short text known as the Clausula de unctione Pippini, which claims to have been written in 767, records the anointing of 754 and the ban on choosing kings from another family. Its date and authenticity have been debated, but many scholars treat it as a broadly reliable witness.

The episode also shows how Frankish politics worked. Pepin first had to neutralise rivals within his own family: his half-brother Grifo rebelled repeatedly until he was killed in 753, and Carloman’s sons were pushed aside after their father retired. Taking the crown turned the family’s power into a hereditary royal right that no other noble house could easily challenge.

Key people

• Pepin III (the Short) (c. 714-768): mayor of the palace from 741 and king from 751; a capable soldier who also conquered Septimania and Aquitaine.
• Childeric III (died c. 755): the last Merovingian king, a figurehead with no independent power.
• Pope Zacharias (pope 741-752): approved the change of dynasty, according to Frankish sources.
• Pope Stephen II (pope 752-757): anointed Pepin and his sons at Saint-Denis in 754.
• Fulrad (died 784): abbot of Saint-Denis and Pepin’s trusted envoy to Rome.

Consequences

The coup established a new royal house that would rule much of western Europe for more than two centuries. When Pepin died on 24 September 768, he divided the kingdom between his sons Charles and Carloman. After Carloman’s death in 771, Charles, later known as Charlemagne, ruled alone, conquering the Lombards and the Saxons and being crowned emperor in Rome in 800, as told in the coronation of Charlemagne.

The events of 751-754 also changed ideas of kingship. Royal power now rested on election, anointing and the Church’s blessing as well as on descent. The Frankish monarchy became the protector of the papacy, and the papacy turned decisively away from the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople towards the Latin West.

Timeline

• 741, 22 October: Charles Martel dies; power passes to his sons Pepin and Carloman.
• 743: The mayors place Childeric III on the Frankish throne.
• 747: Carloman retires to monastic life, leaving Pepin sole mayor.
• 749 or 750: Pepin’s envoys consult Pope Zacharias about the kingship.
• 751, probably November: Pepin is elected and anointed king at Soissons; Childeric III is deposed.
• 754, 6 January: Pope Stephen II meets Pepin at Ponthion.
• 754, 28 July: Stephen II anoints Pepin and his sons at Saint-Denis.
• 768, 24 September: Pepin dies; the kingdom passes to Charles and Carloman.

Why it matters

The crowning of Pepin the Short replaced a dynasty and redefined monarchy in the West. By joining royal power to papal blessing, it laid the groundwork for the Papal States, the empire of Charlemagne and the long, often tense partnership between popes and kings in medieval Europe.