Pepin the Short

Early life and origins

Pepin was born around 714, the second son of Charles Martel, Mayor of the Palace and Duke of the Franks, and his first wife, Rotrude.^[11][12] His birthplace is traditionally identified as Jupille-sur-Meuse near Liège in Austrasia (modern Belgium), where the Carolingian family held estates and where his grandfather Pepin of Herstal had died.^[13][14][15] Pepin was named after his grandfather, Pepin of Herstal, who had in turn been named after Pepin of Landen, both former mayors of the palace; he is therefore also numbered in dynastic historiography as Pepin III or Pepin the Younger.^[15][16][17]

While contemporary chronicles provide sparse details about his youth, the hagiographer Alcuin recorded in his Vita Willibrordi that Pepin was educated in piety and Christian letters by the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris.^[18][19] Unlike his elder brother Carloman, who accompanied their father on military campaigns from a young age, Pepin's early upbringing was marked by ecclesiastical studies that provided him with a theological background, Latin literacy, and familiarity with Greek literature.^[18][20] Around 738, Charles Martel sent Pepin to the court of the Lombard king Liutprand in Pavia to be adopted by arms (adoptio per arma).^[21] According to Paul the Deacon, Liutprand cut locks of the young prince's hair in accordance with Lombard custom to mark the adoption and cement a Frankish-Lombard military pact against Arab incursions.^[22][23][24]

In 736, prior to his father's death, Pepin participated alongside Charles Martel and Carloman in an expedition across the Loire against Duke Hunald I of Aquitaine.^[25] The Frankish forces reached the Garonne, captured the city of Bordeaux and the fortress of Blaye, and compelled Hunald to swear an oath of fidelity to Charles and his sons, after which Hunald was permitted to govern Aquitaine as a Frankish vassal.^[25][26]

In his youth, Pepin took as his wife or consort Leutberga, a woman from the Danube region, with whom he had five children.^[27] He later repudiated her and placed their children in monasteries, although some accounts describe the relationship as an informal concubinage rather than a canonically recognised marriage.^[27] Around 740 or 744, Pepin married his distant cousin Bertrada of Laon, known in legend as Bertha Broadfoot (Berthe au Grand Pied), daughter of Count Caribert of Laon.^[28][29] Because Bertrada was a great-granddaughter of Martin of Laon, brother of Pepin of Herstal, the couple shared close kinship, which delayed full ecclesiastical recognition of the union for several years.^[30]

Mayor of the Palace

Charles Martel died on 22 October 741. In the period preceding his death, he had divided the administration of the Frankish kingdom between his two legitimate sons from his first marriage: Carloman received Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, while Pepin was assigned Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, leaving nominal control over Aquitaine ambiguous.^[31][32] Charles had also sought to allocate some lands to Grifo, his son by his second wife, the Bavarian princess Swanahild.^[33][34] The Frankish magnates viewed Grifo's claim as illegitimate, and Carloman and Pepin refused to grant him an equal share.^[33] Grifo seized the fortress of Laon with his mother's backing and revolted, but Pepin and Carloman besieged him, forced his surrender, and imprisoned him at the fortress of Chèvremont (Nova Castella) in the Ardennes near Liège, while Swanahild was confined to the abbey of Chelles.^{[33][35][36][37]}

In 742, Carloman and Pepin met at Vieux-Poitiers (Naintré) to re-evaluate their respective borders, redrawing the traditional territorial lines between Neustria and Austrasia.^[38] The brothers immediately faced coordinated uprisings from peripheral duchies seeking autonomy. Duke Hunald I of Aquitaine revolted, crossed the Loire, and burned Chartres in 743.^[39] Pepin and Carloman crossed the Loire at Orléans and burned Bourges.^[40] They defeated Hunald and, in pursuit, took the castle and town of Loches, sparing its inhabitants.^[41][42] At Vieux-Poitiers the brothers divided the booty and hostages between them.^[40][41]

From Aquitaine, the brothers turned east in late 742 to subdue the Alemanni, who were led by Duke Theobald, son of Duke Gotfrid.^[40][43] Frankish forces devastated Alemannia as far as the Danube, compelling Theobald to submit, provide tribute, and surrender hostages.^[40] In 743, Pepin and Carloman confronted Duke Odilo of Bavaria, who had married their sister Hiltrude against their wishes (according to the chronicle of the monk Sigebert, he had abducted her) and allied himself with Hunald of Aquitaine and Saxon contingents.^[34][44][45] Odilo's Bavarians, joined by Saxons, Swabians and Alemanni, gathered on the far bank of the Lech, and the Franks could not cross the river at that point.^[40] Carloman conducted a night march through the marshlands with half the army, taking the Bavarian camp by surprise.^[40] Odilo and the Saxon duke Theodoric fled across the Inn, and Frankish forces plundered Bavaria for fifty-two days.^[40] The Franks took many prisoners, among them the papal envoy Sergius, who persuaded them to return home.^[46] In 744, Carloman and Pepin intervened in Bavaria, and after defeating Odilo, Carloman made peace with him.^[47][48]

Because rebel leaders accused the mayors of usurping the royal prerogative of the Merovingians, Pepin and Carloman ended the six-year royal interregnum that had lasted since the death of Theuderic IV in 737.^[34][39][49] In 743, they took the Merovingian prince Childeric III out of a monastery and proclaimed him King of the Franks, using his figurehead status to validate their administrative decrees.^[34][39][50]

Between 744 and 746, the mayors undertook campaigns against the Saxons and Alemanni. In 743, Carloman took the castle of Hoohseoburg (Seeburg) and defeated the Saxons led by Duke Theodoric, forcing them to make peace.^[40][44][51] In 744, the brothers captured Theodoric again, and many Saxons converted and asked to be baptized.^[52][53][54] That same year, Pepin defeated an Alemannic uprising led by Theobald in Alsace.^[44][55] Continued unrest in Alemannia led to the assembly at Cannstatt in 746, where Carloman arrested the Alemannic leadership for treason and executed several thousand nobles in an event known as the Blood Court of Cannstatt.^[56][57][58] The largely autonomous Alemannic duchy was abolished.^[58]

During their joint rule, Pepin and Carloman supported the Anglo-Saxon missionary Boniface in carrying out ecclesiastical reforms across Francia.^[59] Boniface had reported widespread clerical corruption, including priests and deacons cohabiting with multiple concubines and ignoring canon law.^[34][60] Carloman convened the Concilium Germanicum in Austrasia on 21 April 742, followed by a synod at Estinnes in March 743.^[61][62] Pepin summoned a corresponding council for Neustria at Soissons in March 744, which adopted the reform decrees of the eastern synods.^[63] Unworthy clergy were deposed, and church discipline was re-established. Pepin also addressed clerical complaints regarding Charles Martel's secularisation of church estates by establishing the compromise of precaria verbo regis: lands confiscated for military benefices remained in the hands of secular warriors, but ownership was returned to the church, and the holders paid a census (rent) and a tithe to the ecclesiastical institutions.^[64] Mainz was elevated to the metropolitan see of the newly organized Germanic church, while Pepin also worked closely with Bishop Chrodegang of Metz, who served as a senior court adviser.^[65]

In 747, Carloman decided to renounce his secular offices and enter the religious life, journeying to Rome where Pope Zachary tonsured him.^[44][66][67] He chose the monastic life at the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy.^[67][68] Later commentators linked his retirement to remorse over the bloodshed at Cannstatt, while rumors circulated that Pepin had pressured his brother to abdicate.^[47] Carloman entrusted his territories and his son Drogo to Pepin's guardianship, but Pepin quickly sidelined his nephew and sent Drogo into a monastery, assuming undivided control over the entire Frankish kingdom as sole Mayor of the Palace and dux et princeps Francorum.^{[56][66][68][69]}

Upon Carloman's departure, Pepin released Grifo from prison and granted him several estates.^[70] In 748, while Pepin was at Düren, Grifo fled to Saxony, gathered a rebel force of Saxons, and entrenched himself at Ohrum on the river Oker.^[42][46] Pepin marched through Thuringia, occupied the border stronghold of Schöningen, and captured the Saxon duke Theodoric for a third time.^[71] The Saxons abandoned their positions overnight, and Pepin razed their fortifications before reaching a negotiated settlement.^[46]

Following the death of Duke Odilo of Bavaria in 748, Grifo fled to Bavaria, where his half-sister Hiltrude ruled as regent for her seven-year-old son Tassilo III.^[71][72][73] Grifo usurped control of the Bavarian duchy with the backing of Duke Lanfrid of Alemannia, imprisoning both Hiltrude and Tassilo.^[72][73] In 749, Pepin marched an army to the river Inn, defeated the insurgents, and restored Tassilo III to the ducal throne under Frankish suzerainty.^[72][74] Pepin pardoned Grifo and granted him twelve counties in Neustria, centered on Le Mans, which formed the newly organized Breton March.^[44][73][75] Grifo remained discontented, fled to Duke Waiofar of Aquitaine, and attempted to continue plotting against Pepin.^[73]

First Carolingian king

By 750, Pepin held effective authority over the Frankish aristocracy while Childeric III possessed only the royal title.^[76][77][78] Seeking to resolve this disparity, Pepin dispatched Abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis and Bishop Burchard of Würzburg on an embassy to Pope Zachary in Rome.^[77][79][80] The envoys asked the pope whether it was appropriate that a person who held no royal power should continue to be called king.^[77][78][79] Pressed by the expansion of the Lombards in central Italy, Zachary replied that the person who exercised actual power ought to hold the title of king, so that worldly order would not be disrupted.^{[77][78][79][81]}

Armed with papal approval, Pepin convened a general assembly of Frankish magnates at Soissons in November 751.^[76][77][82] The assembly formally deposed Childeric III, who was subjected to ritual tonsure, cutting off the long hair that symbolized Merovingian royal authority.^[4][83][84] The deposed Childeric was sent to the monastery of Saint-Bertin near Saint-Omer, ending the line of Merovingian kings.^[4][85][86] The assembly then acclaimed Pepin as King of the Franks (Rex Francorum).^[76][80][82]

To legitimize the change of dynasty, Pepin introduced the ritual of royal anointing, drawing on Old Testament models such as the anointing of Saul and David, as well as Visigothic practices from the Councils of Toledo.^[87][88][89] He was reportedly advised by the Irish scholar-monk Vergilius of Salzburg, who drew from the Irish canon law collection Collectio canonum Hibernensis.^[90][91][92] At Soissons, Pepin was anointed with holy chrism, traditionally by Archbishop Boniface of Mainz in the presence of the bishops of Gaul.^[93][94][95] Later historical scholarship, beginning with nineteenth-century critical analyses and developed by Josef Semmler in 2003, questioned whether Boniface performed this ceremony, noting that contemporary accounts such as the Continuations of Fredegar and Boniface's own correspondence omit the event, which appears primarily in later Carolingian annals.^[96][97][98] Semmler argued that the 751 anointing may not have occurred as later described, while other historians maintain that a symbolic consecration took place to replace the ancestral sacredness of the Merovingian line.^[98][99]

While Pepin consolidated his rule, Grifo continued his insurrection from Aquitaine.^[75] Seeking to join King Aistulf of the Lombards in Italy, Grifo was intercepted in 753 by Frankish loyalists at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in the Alps and killed in combat along the banks of the river Arvan.^{[75][100][101]} Pepin received news of Grifo's death while returning from a victorious expedition against the Saxons.^[102][103]

The death of Pope Zachary in 752 and the aggressive expansion of the Lombard king Aistulf, who captured Ravenna and threatened Rome, prompted the newly elected Pope Stephen II to seek Frankish military intervention.^[104] In late 753, after the Byzantine emperor Constantine V failed to send relief, Stephen crossed the Grand Saint Bernard Pass into Francia, guided by Bishop Chrodegang of Metz.^[104] Pepin, with his son Charles, went to meet the pope as far as the bridge of Pons Sancti Hugonis on the river Isère.^[105] In 754, Pepin met Stephen at Ponthion.^[8][10][106] In a public display of deference, Pepin dismounted, prostrated himself, and led the pope's horse by the bridle, imitating the legendary act of Emperor Constantine the Great before Pope Sylvester I.^[10]

The formal alliance was concluded on Easter Sunday, 14 April 754, at the royal estate of Quierzy-sur-Oise.^[10][107] In the Treaty of Quierzy (Promissio Carisiaca), Pepin pledged to recover the captured territories of central Italy and grant them to the Holy See.^[10][107] During these negotiations, Carloman left Monte Cassino on the orders of his abbot to dissuade Pepin from invading Italy; according to the Annales Mettenses, he came at the request of Aistulf.^[102][108] Pepin rejected his brother's pleas; Carloman fell ill and remained at Vienne under the care of Queen Bertrada until his death later in 754.^{[69][108][109]}

On 28 July 754, at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, Pope Stephen II personally anointed Pepin as King of the Franks, together with his sons Charles and Carloman, and blessed his wife Bertrada.^{[5][106][110][111][112]} The pope bestowed on Pepin and his sons the hereditary title of Patricius Romanorum (Patrician of the Romans), establishing them as military protectors of Rome.^{[6][110][112]} The ceremony, recorded in the contemporary text Clausula de unctione Pippini regis (c. 767), marked the first recorded anointing of a reigning monarch by a pope.^[9][113] Under pain of excommunication and interdict, Stephen forbade the Franks from ever electing a king from any lineage other than Pepin's consecrated family.^[9]

Italian campaigns and the Papal States

Having secured papal consecration, Pepin fulfilled his treaty commitments to Stephen II.^[8][10] When diplomatic embassies in late 754 failed to persuade King Aistulf to relinquish occupied territories, Pepin mobilized the Frankish army in the spring of 755.^[114] Accompanied by the pope, the Frankish forces forced their way through the Alpine passes at the Chiusae of Susa, defeating Aistulf's defensive lines.^[114] Aistulf was wounded, fled to his capital of Pavia, and submitted after a brief siege.^[114] Under the initial treaty of Pavia, Aistulf agreed to surrender Ravenna and newly seized towns to the papacy, provide forty hostages, and pay a large financial indemnity.^[109][114] Pepin accompanied the pope to Rome and withdrew from Italy in December 755.^[109][114]

On 1 January 756, Aistulf breached the agreement, invaded the Roman duchy, and laid siege to Rome, devastating church estates.^[107] Pepin mounted a second expedition in the spring of 756, crossing the Mont Cenis pass alongside his nephew Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria.^[107] The Frankish army routed the Lombards at the mountain passes, devastated the plain of Lombardy, and besieged Pavia for a second time.^[107] Aistulf surrendered unconditionally, agreeing to fulfill the terms of the previous treaty, pay an annual tribute, and hand over one-third of the royal treasury stored at Pavia.^[107]

The recovered territories, comprising the former Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and the Pentapolis, included twenty-two cities stretching from the river Panaro to Ancona, among them Ravenna, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia, and Perugia.^[107][115] Pepin's commissioner, Abbot Fulrad of Saint-Denis, traveled through the towns, collected their keys and prominent hostages, and placed them on the tomb of Saint Peter in Rome alongside Pepin's written deed of donation.^[115] This grant, known as the Donation of Pepin, established the temporal sovereignty of the Bishop of Rome and created the Papal States.^{[8][116][117][118]} Byzantine envoys from Emperor Constantine V met Pepin and demanded the restitution of the territories to imperial jurisdiction, but Pepin refused, asserting that he had taken up arms solely for the love of Saint Peter and the forgiveness of his sins.^[116][117] Following Aistulf's death in a hunting accident in late 756, Pepin approved the succession of Desiderius as King of the Lombards, maintaining Frankish hegemony over northern Italy.^[115][119]

Conquest of Septimania

Following his coronation, Pepin turned his attention to Septimania, the coastal strip of southern Gaul extending to the eastern Pyrenees, which had formed part of the Visigothic Kingdom before its conquest by the Umayyad Caliphate around 719.^[120][121] In 752, Pepin led an expedition down the Rhône Valley to support local Visigothic elites against Muslim rule.^[120][121] The Gothic count Ansemund surrendered the cities of Nîmes, Maguelone, Agde, and Béziers to Frankish authority, and Pepin confirmed Gothic nobles in their local administrative offices.^{[120][121][122]}

Pepin then laid siege to Narbonne, the primary Umayyad military stronghold north of the Pyrenees.^[123][124] The fortress held out through an encirclement that lasted seven years.^[124] In 759, after a long siege begun by Pepin himself, the Franks finally took Narbonne.^[125] Pepin drove the Muslim Arabs and Berbers out of Septimania.^[7][126] The capture of Narbonne ended Muslim military control north of the Pyrenees, incorporated Septimania into the Frankish realm as the Viscounty of Narbonne, and established the Carolingian frontier march later known as Gothia (Marca Gothica).^[123][124]

Conquest of Aquitaine

While Septimania was integrated into Francia, the Duchy of Aquitaine remained effectively autonomous under Duke Waiofar, son of Hunald I.^[127] Conflict escalated in 760 when Pepin demanded that Waiofar restore estates confiscated from Frankish churches, extradite Frankish fugitives, and pay weregild for Visigoths killed in recent border skirmishes.^[128][129] Pepin crossed the Loire near Auxerre and, burning and devastating the land, advanced into the Auvergne.^[128][129] Waiofar sued for peace and surrendered two senior hostages, but quickly renewed hostilities by dispatching Count Unibert of Bourges and Count Blandin of Auvergne to raid Burgundy, where they burned the royal estate at Mailly.^[129]

The change reflected the growing importance of cavalry in the army, and the later date made it easier to provide forage for the horses. Accompanied by his young son Charles, Pepin moved up the Loire Valley through Troyes and Nevers, stormed the fortress of Bourbon, and captured Chantelle.^[130] He advanced to Clermont, where men, women and children died when the city was burned.^[131] He destroyed the cathedral of Notre-Dame and had to pay large sums for its rebuilding so as not to be excommunicated. In 762, Frankish forces besieged Bourges, constructing earthworks and siege engines, and took the city after an assault in which the walls were breached.^[132][133] The fortress of Thouars was captured shortly thereafter and burned, while Gascon defenders were deported to northern Francia.^[130]

Waiofar ordered the fortifications of the towns and castles in his lands to be torn down, including those of Poitiers, Limoges, Périgueux and Angoulême, so that the enemy could not hold a strong position anywhere. In 763, Pepin mounted a campaign into central Aquitaine, ravaging estates around Limoges and routing Waiofar's army at the Battle of Issoudun. Count Blandin of Auvergne was killed in the battle. During this campaign, Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria pretended to be ill and went home, intending to break away from the Frankish king. Due to Tassilo's defection and a severe famine in 764, Pepin temporarily paused large-scale offensive operations.^[134][135]

In 765 and 766, Pepin resumed the war using systematic scorched-earth tactics, burning villas, cutting down vineyards, and depopulating monasteries to undermine resistance.^[136][137] Pepin later restored the walls of Poitiers, Limoges, Périgueux and Angoulême and placed garrisons in them. By 766 he had placed a Frankish garrison at Bourges. In 767, Pepin marched an army through Troyes and Auxerre, advanced via Narbonne, and captured Toulouse, as well as the districts of the Albigeois and Gavaudan.^[138][139] Pepin had come to Aquitaine with Queen Bertrada, intending to capture Waiofar.^[138] To be closer to the fighting, he settled with her in a newly built residence at Bourges. Near the end of the summer of 767, Pepin set out after Waiofar and, on reaching the Garonne, took many fortresses, rocks and caves, chief among them Scoralia, Torinna and Petrocia.

Meanwhile Waiofar's uncle Remistan, who had earlier sworn loyalty to Pepin and received a fortress near Bourges known as Argenton, went back to Waiofar and ravaged the Berry and Limoges districts. Pepin sent a force that captured Remistan and his wife and brought them to him, and he had Remistan hanged at Bourges. Moving to Saintes, Frankish troops captured Waiofar's mother, sister, and nephews. At the Garonne, the Basques living beyond the river came before Pepin, gave hostages and swore to remain loyal to him and his sons. Pepin sent four search detachments to hunt down Waiofar, who was assassinated by his own followers in 768, reportedly with royal complicity.^[136][140] With Waiofar's death, the Duchy of Aquitaine was partitioned into Frankish counties, completing eight years of warfare.^[140]

Germanic campaigns

Throughout his reign, Pepin conducted military campaigns on the eastern frontiers against the Saxons and Bavarians. In 747, Pepin, allied with Wendish and Frisian leaders, defeated a Saxon revolt; the Saxons submitted and promised from then on to pay the annual tribute of 500 cows that Chlothar I had once imposed on them. In 748, the Saxons, as was their custom, did not keep their oaths, and Pepin intervened with Frisian help until they asked for peace and promised to pay tribute.^[76] In 753, Pepin defeated the Saxons.^[141] They had broken their oath and risen again, and he crossed the Rhine and advanced as far as a place called Rimi, near Minden, on the Weser; afterwards the Saxons paid a much heavier tribute than before, and Frankish missionary work among them may have begun around this time. In 758, Pepin invaded Saxony for a fourth time, storming Saxon earthworks at Sythen (Sitnia); following several engagements, the Saxons swore oaths of fidelity and agreed to provide an additional annual tribute of 300 horses.^[142][143]

In Bavaria, after installing the infant Tassilo III as duke in 748 under the regency of his sister Hiltrude, Pepin sought to ensure Bavarian vassalage.^[58] At the general assembly of Compiègne in 757, Tassilo III and his magnates appeared before Pepin and swore a formal oath of vassalage (commendatio), placing their hands in Pepin's and swearing upon the relics of Saint Denis, Saint Martin, and Saint Germanus to remain loyal to the king and his sons.^[144] After Tassilo left the Frankish army during the Aquitanian campaign of 763, Pepin did not manage to subdue Bavaria, which under Tassilo became fully independent of the Frankish king.

Domestic policy and administration

Pepin implemented comprehensive reforms in royal administration, ecclesiastical organization, and finance.^[145] In 752, he granted the tithes of twenty-six royal fiscal estates to the Diocese of Würzburg, including Ingelheim, Bad Kreuznach, Heilbronn, and Gross-Umstadt.^[146] In 756, he established the universal payment of the tithe across the Frankish realm, making it mandatory for every landowner to surrender one-tenth of their annual produce to support the local church and clergy.^[145]

Between 11 and 20 July 755, Pepin issued the Edict of Ver (the Capitulary of Ver-sur-Launette in the Oise), which initiated a major monetary reform across Francia.^[145][147] Addressing the currency disruption caused by debased silver sceattas and autonomous private mints operated by regional bishops, abbots, and counts, the edict established a royal monopoly over coinage.^[145] Pepin's monetary reform aimed to standardise the weight and appearance of the Frankish silver denier.^[145] A Roman pound of silver was to yield 288 deniers, that is 24 sous to the pound and 12 deniers of 1.22 grams of silver to the sou. Pepin required his monogram to appear on the coins, though the mark of royal authority appeared on coinage systematically only from 793, under Charlemagne. The Carolingian monetary reform begun under Pepin set 1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 deniers.^[145]

Pepin engaged in extensive diplomatic relations with major foreign powers.^[148][149] In 757, he opened diplomatic channels with the Byzantine emperor Constantine V; between 757 and 767, the two courts exchanged embassies and gifts, including a water organ sent from Constantinople, while discussing a prospective dynastic marriage between Pepin's daughter Gisela and Constantine's son, the future Leo IV.^{[144][150][151]} Pope Paul I also supplied Pepin between 758 and 763 with Greek texts on geometry, orthography, grammar, Aristotle, and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, which were deposited at the Abbey of Saint-Denis to advance Carolingian scholarship.^[152] Between 765 and 768, diplomatic exchanges took place between Francia and the Abbasid Caliphate; in 765, Pepin sent an embassy to Caliph al-Mansur in Baghdad, and during the winter of 767/768 he received an Abbasid return delegation in Metz bearing gifts, before personally escorting the ambassadors to the port of Marseille.^[148][149]

Death, burial, and archaeology

In early 768, while returning from the final operations in Aquitaine, Pepin was stricken with a severe fever and dropsy at Saintes.^{[153][154][155]} He traveled via Poitiers to Tours, where he made donations and prayed at the tomb of Saint Martin, before continuing to the royal estate of Saint-Denis near Paris.^[153][155] Conscious of his impending death, Pepin summoned an assembly of Frankish magnates and bishops in September 768 and divided the kingdom between his two legitimate sons by Bertrada in accordance with Salic law: Charles received Austrasia, northern Neustria, and northwestern Aquitaine, while Carloman I was assigned Burgundy, Provence, Alemannia, Alsace, Gothia, and southeastern Aquitaine.^[153][155]

Pepin died at Saint-Denis on 24 September 768 at the age of fifty-four, having ruled ten years as Mayor of the Palace and seventeen years as king.^{[153][155][156][157]} According to his wishes, he was buried face down in a posture of prostration beneath the porch outside the entrance of the abbey church (ante limina basilicae sacrorum martyrum), as an act of penance, so that the feet of entering worshippers would walk over his grave; Suger later explained that he lay prostrate because of the sins of his father Charles Martel.^{[155][158][159]} In 783, Queen Bertrada died at Choisy-au-Bac and was buried beside him in Saint-Denis.^[160][161]

During the desecration of the royal tombs of Saint-Denis in August 1793 during the French Revolution, Pepin's tomb was opened and sacked, and his bones were cast into a common trench outside the basilica.^[157][162]

Historiography of the epithet

The sobriquet 'the Short' (Pépin le Bref, Pippin der Kurze) does not appear in contemporary eighth-century documents.^{[163][164][165]} The first written association of small stature with Pepin occurs in the Gesta Karoli Magni, composed around 883/884 by the Benedictine monk Notker the Stammerer (Notker Balbulus) of Saint Gall.^[163][166] Notker recounted an anecdote in which Pepin decapitated a lion with a single sword stroke and compared his own small stature to the biblical David facing Goliath and to the short-statured Alexander the Great.^[166][167]

In eleventh- and twelfth-century sources, the Latin title Pippinus brevis was initially applied to his grandfather, Pepin of Herstal (Pepin the Middle), as seen in the writings of Adémar de Chabannes and the Grandes Chroniques de France.^[164] In 1183, the imperial chronicler Godfrey of Viterbo referred to Pepin the Younger in his Speculum regum as Pippinus nanus ('Pepin the Dwarf'), a designation repeated in 1213 by Sicard of Cremona in his Chronica universalis.^{[168][169][170][171][172]} By the thirteenth century, the epithet had attached permanently to Pepin the Younger, probably in part to contrast him with his son, Charlemagne ('Charles the Great'), who was known to exceed six feet (1.8 meters) in height.^{[165][173][174]}

Pepin's epithet 'the Short' or 'the Little' does not come, as is sometimes claimed, from a mistranslation of the Latin Pippinus minor ('Pepin the Younger').^[164][165] Another explanation suggests that 'Pippin' was itself an early Germanic hypocoristic pet name meaning 'little one' or 'child'.^[175][176] A third theory links the epithet 'brevis' to the ritual clipping of his hair (capillaturia) during his youth at the court of King Liutprand of the Lombards, contrasting his cropped style with the traditional long hair of the Merovingians.^[24] In modern German historiography, the epithet 'der Kurze' is largely abandoned in favor of 'Pippin der Jüngere' (Pepin the Younger), whereas English, French, and Italian historiography continue to use 'the Short' (le Bref, il Breve).^[165][175]

Family and issue

By his first wife or consort Leutberga, Pepin had five children who were sent to monasteries following her repudiation.^[27]

In 740 or 744, Pepin married Bertrada of Laon, with whom he had several children, of whom at least three survived to adulthood:^[28][177]

Charles (Charlemagne) (2 April 742 or 747/748 – 28 January 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans.^[177][178] Carloman I (751 – 4 December 771), co-ruler with Charles from their father's death until his own death.^[151] Gisela (757 – 810), betrothed in 765 to the future Byzantine emperor Leo IV before the agreement was dissolved, who entered the Abbey of Chelles in 788 and served as abbess.^[151][179] Pepin (756/758 – 761/762), died in childhood.^[142][180] Chrothais (Rothaid), died young, buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnulf in Metz.^[181][182] Adelais (Adelaide), died young, buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnulf in Metz.^[181][183] Isbergue (Saint Isbergues), identified in regional tradition, though some historians consider her identical with Gisela.^[184]

Pepin sought to repudiate Bertrada in 762, but Pope Paul I intervened to prevent the dissolution of their marriage.^[185] For their deceased daughters Adelheid and Rothaid buried in Metz, Charles later commissioned the scholar Paul the Deacon to write poetic Latin epitaphs, Perpetualis amor and Hic ego qui iaceo.^{[182][183][186]}

In popular culture

Pepin appears as a central character in medieval French chansons de geste, notably Berte aus grans piés (c. 1275) by the trouvère Adenet le Roi, which fictionalizes the courtship and marriage of Pepin and Bertha of Hungary, mother of Charlemagne.^[187][188] He is also featured in the late twelfth-century epic Garin le Lorrain, which depicts a legendary feudal war between rival aristocratic factions of Lorraine and Bordeaux.^[189]

In modern literature, Alexandre Dumas published the short story Pépin le Bref in 1842, reimagining his rise to royal power.^[190] In Soviet satirical literature, author Mikhail Zoshchenko depicted the character Nazar Ilyich Sinebryukhov using the question 'Who was Pepin the Short?' as an informal test of cultural literacy.^[191]

References

1. Riché 1993, p. 65. (Riché, Pierre (1993). The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Allen, Michael Idomir. University of Pennsylvania Press.)
2. Décalque de son nom latin Pipinus Brevis : Les monumens de la monarchie française, 1729, p. 187 : « Pipinus Brevis dictus a patre accipit Neustriam, Burgundiam et Provinciam ».
3. Pépin le Bref sur le site de la Fondation pour la généalogie médiévale.
4. Chantal du Ry, Huy - Histoire d'une ville médiévale à travers ses légendes et ses monuments, 2000, p. 51.
5. Doig 2008, p. 110 (Doig, Allan (2008). Liturgy and architecture from the early church to the Middle Ages. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0754652748.)
6. Davis 1957, p. 133 (Davis, R. H. C. (1957). A History of Medieval Europe – From Constantine to Saint Louis. Great Britain: Longman. ISBN 0582482089.)
7. Deanesly, Margaret (2019). "The Later Merovingians". A History of Early Medieval Europe: From 476–911. Routledge Library Editions: The Medieval World (1st ed.). London and New York City: Routledge. pp. 244–245. ISBN 9780367184582.
8. Brown 1995, p. 328. (Brown, T.S. (1995). "Byzantine Italy". In McKitterick, Rosamond (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History, c. 700–c. 900. Vol. II. Cambridge University Press.)
9. Scriptores rerum Merowingicarum : la Clausula de unctione Pippini regis (l’onction royale de Pépin le Bref) est un récit composé en 767, en fait un colophon — note terminale et anonyme — ajouté à un manuscrit dont l’auteur anonyme fut le témoin oculaire de la cérémonie du sacre de Pépin et de ses fils (B. Krusch, Hanovre, 1885, p. 465-466, et nouvelle édition : G. Brunel, E. Lalou (dir.), Sources d’histoire médiévale, IXe - milieu du XIVe siècle, Paris, 1992, p. 73. Informations provenant du site des Clionautes « Copie archivée » (version du 23 juin 2006 sur archive.org)).
10. Michel Grenon, Conflits sud-italiens et royaume normand (1016-1198), Éditions L'Harmattan, 2008, p. 85.
11. Jean Favier, Dictionnaire de la France médiévale, Fayard, 1995, p. 742.
12. Rerum Gallicarum, p. 698. ((LA) Martin Bouquet e Jean Baptiste Haudiquier et al. (a cura di), Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum Scriptores. Tomus tertius, Aux dépens des librairies, 1741.)
13. (en) Claude Wenzler, Kings of France, Ouest-France Livres, 1995, p. 13.
14. Micheline Josse, Le domaine de Jupille des origines à 1297, Pro Civitate, 1966, p. 18.
15. Zijn geboortejaar is gebaseerd op de vermelding dat hij 54 jaar oud was toen hij in 768 stierf (P. Fouracre, The age of Charles Martel, Harlow - New York, 2000, p. 56): "Anno ab incamatione domini DCCLXVIII Pippinus vir illuster VIII. Kal. Octobris feliciter rebus humanis excessit, anno etatis suae LIIII" (Annales Necrologici Prumienses, in O. Holder-Egger (ed.), Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, XIII, Hannover, 1881, p. 219).
16. Annales Einhardi 741, in G.H. Pertz (ed.), Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, I, Hannover, 1826, p. 135.
17. Можеби се однесува на неговата практика да ја носи косата куса, спротивно на долгата коса која била белег на неговите претходници. Paul Edward Dutton, Charlemagne's Mustache: And Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
18. Christiane Veyrard-Cosme, L'œuvre hagiographique en prose d'Alcuin, Edizioni del Galluzzo per la Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, 2003, p. 27.
19. Noble, Thomas, s. 501.
20. L'application de la coutume franque est basée sur le partage de l'héritage entre tous les fils héritiers plutôt que son attribution seulement au fils aîné, en dépit de la règle de primogéniture agnatique (masculine) appliquée chez les Romains.
21. Alain Dubreucq, « Fils de l'Église », In: Clovis, de Michel Rouche. Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1997. p. 92.
22. Histoire des Lombards, VI, 53.
23. Historia Langobardorum, VI, 53.
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27. Borovský 2019, s. 139 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBorovský2019 (help) (Borovský, Jozef. Chrysalis: Metamorphosis of Odium. Friesen Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1525547690.)
28. Christian Settipani, Les ancêtres de Charlemagne, 1989, p. 10.
29. E. Mühlbacher (ed.), Die Urkunden Pippins, Karlmanns und Karls des Großen, Hannover, 1906, nr. 16, p. 24.
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32. texte d'après l'édition de Friedrich Kurze, Annales du royaume des Francs, Paris, les Belles Lettres, 2022, 2 vol. (CIII-80, 259 p.) (ISBN 978-2-251-45313-2, OCLC 1346254322, SUDOC 264363272).
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141. B.W. Scholz & B. Rogers, 2000, p. 39 e.v.
142. Annales Xantenses, p. 38. (France Saint-Vaast (Abbey) Robarts - University of Toronto e Bernhard von Simson, Annales xantenses et Annales vedastini. Recognovit B. de Simson, Hannoverae Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1909, p. 37. URL consultato il 25 febbraio 2025.)
143. Regni Francorum, anno 758. ((LA) Annales Regni Francorum, su thelatinlibrary.com.)
144. Regni Francorum, anno 757. ((LA) Annales Regni Francorum, su thelatinlibrary.com.)
145. Gildas Salaün, « Les deniers carolingiens », Monnaie magazine,‎ juillet 2019, p. 48-53 (ISSN 1626-6145).
146. Heinrich Wagner: Die Zehnschenkung Pippins für Würzburg (751/2). In: 1250 Jahre Bistum Würzburg. Archäologisch-historische Zeugnisse der Frühzeit. Begleitband zur Ausstellung im Marmelsteiner Kabinett vom 29. Mai bis 26. Juli 1992. Herausgegeben von Jürgen Lenssen, Würzburg 1992, S. 35–38.
147. Karl Joseph von Hefele, Joseph Hergenröther, P. Richard, Albert Michel, Alois Knöpfler, Charles de Clercq, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, G. Olms, 1973.
148. איינהרד, חיי קרל הגדול, תרגום יצחק חן, נספח א: קרל הגדול והמזרח, עמ' 108–109
149. Grimberg, Carl: Kansojen historia. Osa 7. Kansainvaellukset, s. 246-254. WSOY, 1981. ISBN 951-0-09735-7
150. Fredegario, CXXIII. ((LA) Fredegario, FREDEGARII SCHOLASTICI CHRONICUM CUM SUIS CONTINUATORIBUS, SIVE APPENDIX AD SANCTI GREGORII EPISCOPI TURONENSIS HISTORIAM FRANCORUM, su thelatinlibrary.com.)
151. A Genealogica Arnulfi Comitis nevezi meg "Pipinus rex…ex Bertrada regina" gyermekeit ebben a sorrendben: "Karolum et Karlomannum et Gislam"
152. Sylvain Gouguenheim, Aristote au Mont Saint-Michel, Seuil, 2008, p. 35.
153. Fredegario, CXXXVI. ((LA) Fredegario, FREDEGARII SCHOLASTICI CHRONICUM CUM SUIS CONTINUATORIBUS, SIVE APPENDIX AD SANCTI GREGORII EPISCOPI TURONENSIS HISTORIAM FRANCORUM, su thelatinlibrary.com.)
154. Regni Francorum, anno 768. ((LA) Annales Regni Francorum, su thelatinlibrary.com.)
155. Dierkens 1996, p. 38.
156. Пипин получил прозвище за свой маленький рост.
157. Michael Imhof, Christoph Winterer: Karl der Große. Leben und Wirkung, Kunst und Architektur. Petersberg 2013, S. 26.
158. (de) Karl Heinrich Krüger, Königsgrabkirchen der Franken, Angelsachsen und Langobarden bis zur Mitte des 8. Jahrhunderts : ein historischer Katalog, W. Fink, 1971, p. 179.
159. Kronieken van Fredegar (voortzettingen) XXX [ed. Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 120-121]
160. Az Annales Laurissenses jegyzi fel halálát "783 IV Id Jul" dátummal. Annales Laurissenses 783, MGH SS I, p. 164.
161. Az Annales Laurissenses jegyezte fel, hogy "domna Berta regina" holttestét áthelyezték "ecclesia sancti Dionysii martiris"-ba, férje mellé. Annales Laurissenses 783, MGH SS I, p. 164.
162. 그의 아들이 아니라 후대의 루이 2세의 아들
163. Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens : 481-987, P. Van Kerrebrouck, 1993, p. 181.
164. Gaston Paris: La légende de Pépin «le bref». In: Mélanges de Littérature Française du Moyen Age. Paris 1966, S. 183–215, hier: S. 187 mit Anmerkung 1. (Erstdruck in den Mélanges Julien Havet, Paris 1895, S. 603–633).
165. Gaston Paris, La légende de Pépin «le bref». In: Mélanges de Littérature Française du Moyen Age. Paris 1966, pp. 183–215, in particolare p. 187 con nota 1 (prima pubblicazione in Mélanges Julien Havet, Paris 1895, pp. 603–633).
166. Notkero di San Gallo, Gesta Karoli Magni imperatoris , ed. Hans F. Haefele, Berlin 1959 (= MGH SS rer. Ger. nova series 12), in particolare pp. 78–80.
167. Notker Balbulus: Gesta Karoli Magni imperatoris. ed. Hans F. Haefele, Berlin 1959 (= MGH SS rer. Ger. nova series 12), hier S. 78–80.
168. Gotifredi Viterbiensis Speculum regum. Ed. G. H. Pertz, in: MGH SS 22, S. 21–93, hier S. 92.
169. Sicardi Cronicon, in: Migne, Patrologia Latina Bd. 213, Sp. 441–540, hier Sp. 491 A (Pippinus Nanus rex Francorum).
170. Gotifredi Viterbiensis Speculum regum, ed. G. H. Pertz, in: MGH p. 22, pp. 21–93, in particolare p. 92.
171. Sicardi Cronicon, in Migne, Patrologia Latina volume 213, pp. 441–540, in particolare p. 491 A (Pippinus Nanus rex Francorum).
172. nanus (İngilizce), 3 Aralık 202327 Ağustos 2025
173. Gaston Paris: La légende de Pépin «le bref». In: Mélanges de Littérature Française du Moyen Age. Paris 1966, S. 183–215, hier: S. 191.
174. 제임스 더니건, 《사람의 마음을 움직여라》 (고정아 역, 세종서적, 1999) 69페이지
175. Leo Spitzer: Etudes d’anthroponymie ancienne française. In: Publications of the modern language association of America 58. Heft 3/September 1943, S. 589–596, hier S. 593–596: II. Pépin le Bref.
176. Leo Spitzer, Etudes d’anthroponymie ancienne française, in Publications of the modern language association of America 58, quaderno 3/settembre 1943, pp. 589-596, in particolare pp. 593-596: II. Pépin le Bref.
177. Christian Settipani, La Préhistoire des Capétiens (Nouvelle Histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France, vol. 1), Villeneuve-d'Ascq, éd. Patrick van Kerrebrouck, 1993, 545 p. (ISBN 978-2-95015-093-6), p. 185-7.
178. Charlemagne 2, su genealogy.euweb.cz. URL consultato il 25 febbraio 2025.
179. Einhard nevezi meg Károly nővérét, mint "Gisla unica soror" és megjegyzi, hogy szerzetesi pályára lépett "a puellaribus annis religiosæ conversationi mancipata". Einhardi Vita Karoli Imperator 18, MGH SS II, p. 453.
180. Az Annales Laurissenses jegyezte fel 759-ben "Pippinus regis filius" születését, és megadja, hogy apja után nevezték el, két évet élt és harmadik évében meghalt. Annales Laurissenses 759, MGH SS I, p. 142.
181. Pauli Gesta Episcop. Mettensium, MGH SS II, p. 265.
182. Paulus Diaconus versét "Rothaidis filiæ Pippini regis" emlékének szentelte. Pauli Diaconi Carmina, XX Epitaphium Rothaidis filiæ Pippini regis, MGH Poetæ Latini ævi Carolini I, p. 57.
183. Paulus Diaconus versét "Adheleidis filiæ [Pippini regis]" emlékének szentelte. Pauli Diaconi Carmina, XXI Epitaphium Adheleidis filiæ cuius supra, MGH Poetæ Latini ævi Carolini I, p. 57.
184. Eugène Van Drival (éd.), Légendaire de la Morinie, p. 274-284, Supplément à la vie de sainte Isbergue, 1850 [lire en ligne].
185. Az Annales Fuldenses jegyezte fel, hogy "Berhta regina" magával hozta "filiam Desiderii regis Langobardorum"-ot, mint "Karolo filio suo" feleségét. Annales Fuldenses 770, MGH SS I, p. 348.
186. Ross 2020, pp. 34, 137. (Ross, Sidney David (2020). Establishing the Authentic Corpus of the Latin Verse of Paul the Deacon: A Philological, Textual and Statistical Study (PhD diss.). University of York.)
187. ŠIMEK, Otokar. Dějiny francouzské literatury v obrysech. Díl první, Středověk: (od IX. stol. do renesance). 1. vyd. Praha: Sfinx, Bohuml Janda, 1947. 256 s. cnb000655571. S. 44.
188. KIBLER, William W., a kol. Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. 1. vyd. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1995. 2028 s. Dostupné online. ISBN 978-0824044442. S. 14–15. (anglicky) [dále jen Kibler].
189. Kibler, s. 1053–1064
190. Dumas A. Chronique du roi Pépin. — Oeuvres de Alex. Dumas. Tome 6. — Bruxelles: Meline, Cans et Compagnie, 1843. — P. 339—353.
191. Зощенко М.М. Собрание сочинений. — М.: Престиж Бук, 2012. — С. 34. — 560 с. — 3000 экз. — ISBN 978-5-371-00309-6.