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Notes for *Pepin III "the Short" ,King of the Franks | ||||||||||||
Father of Charlemagne For brief biographical info. go to http://encyclopedia.com/articles/10003.html -------------------------------------------------- 224It was this Pepin who "donated" the lands that made up the Papal States. The Donation was a recognition of implicit claims of the popes to be the heirs of the empire in Italy. By this, the Church had won a powerful military ally outside of Italy. From this point on, the Carolingians maintained a protectorate over the papacy in Italy. Pepin was elected king by the Frankish magnates. Both the house of Pepin and the papacy...needed each other's support. The immediate need of the popes was protection against the expanding Lombard monarch. Aistulf, King of the Lombards, had taken Ravenna (751), the seat of the exarch, besieged Rome, and exacted tribute. ... In 754 AD. Pepin marched into Italy, defeated the Lombards, and required them to hand over the exarchate and Pentapolis to the pope. The Lombards failed to do so, and in 756 AD. Pepin returned and, after defeating the Lombards again, made his famous Donation. He had no legal right to make that "donation", but did so anyway. This also established the Franks, a distant, non-Italian power, as the allies and defenders of the papacy. Upon his death, his lands were given to his sons: Charles receiving Austrasia, Neustria and northern Aquitaine; Carloman received southern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence and Septimania. The brothers ruled together from 768-771 and Charles ruled alone from 771-814. | ||||||||||||
Last Modified 27 Apr 2001 | Created 23 Feb 2017 by EasyTree for Windows95 |