Pepin III "the Short" King of the Franks ^{1 2 3 4}

   Another name for Pepin was Pippin the Short King of the Franks.

  Research Notes:

From Ancestral Roots, Line 190-12, "deposed the last of the Faineant (Merovingian) kings and became himself the first king of the Franks of the second race, 751-768, d. 768."

From Wikipedia - Pepin the Short :

Pepin or Pippin (714 - 24 September 768 ), called the Short, and often known as Pepin the Younger or Pepin III,[1] was the Mayor of the Palace and Duke of the Franks from 741 and King of the Franks from 751 to 768. He was the father of Charlemagne .

He was the son of Charles Martel , mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and of Rotrude of Trier (690 -724 ).

Assumption of power
Pepin's father, Charles Martel, died in 741 . He divided the rule of the Frankish kingdom between Pepin and his elder brother, Carloman , his surviving sons by his first wife: Carloman became Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Pepin became Mayor of the Palace of Neustria. Grifo , Charles' son by his second wife, Swanahild (aka Swanhilde), may also have been intended to receive an inheritance, but he was imprisoned in a monastery by his two half-brothers. Carloman, who by all evidence was a deeply pious man, retired to a monastery in 747 . This left Francia in the hands of Pepin as sole mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum, a title originated by his grandfather and namesake Pepin of Heristal ...

Legacy
Pepin died during a campaign and was brought to Saint Denis to be buried near the saint in 768 and is interred there in the basilica with his wife Bertrada . Pepin was buried "outside that entrance [of Saint Denis Basilica ] according to his wishes, face down, for the sins of his father Charles Martel".[1] Historical opinion often seems to regard him as the lesser son and lesser father of two greater men, though a great man in his own right. He continued to build up the heavy cavalry which his father had begun. He maintained the standing army that his father had found necessary to protect the realm and form the core of its full army in wartime. He not only maintained his father's policy of containing the Moors , he drove them over and across the Pyrenees with the capture of Narbonne. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (missionary work in Germany and Scandinavia ) and the infrastructure (feudalism ) that would prove the backbone of medieval Europe. His rule, while not as great as either his father's or son's, was historically important and of great benefit to the Franks as a people. It can certainly be argued that Pepin's assumption of the crown, and the title of Patrician of Rome , were harbingers of his son's imperial coronation which is usually seen as the founding of the Holy Roman Empire . He certainly made the Carolingians de jure what his father had made them de facto-the ruling dynasty of the Franks and the foremost power of Europe. While not known as a great general, he was undefeated during his lifetime.

Family
In 740 , Pepin married Bertrada of Laon , his second cousin. Her father, Charibert , was the son of Pepin II's brother, Martin of Laon . They are known to have had four children:
Charles (April 2 , 742 - January 28 , 814 ), (Charles the Great)
Carloman (751 - December 4 , 771 )
Gisela (757 - 810 )
Pepin, who died in infancy.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded: as Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia & Neustria, 714.

• King of the Franks: of the second race, 751-768.

Pepin married Berthe of Laon, daughter of Charibert Count of Laon and Gisele. (Berthe of Laon was born in <Laon, (Aisne), Picardy>, France and died in 783.)