Swanahild

Who is this Pepin?

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Besides having a blog named after him, who was Pepin le Bref?

As with others from the period, we have to clear away some naming confusion. Due to differences in source material and translations, his name is variously rendered Pepin, Pipin, and Pippin. I chose Pepin simply because Tolkien used Pippin (his was a deliberate selection, perhaps because hobbits are short). The nickname “le Bref” is usually translated as “the Short,” but I think it could mean other things, such as short-tempered (as we’ll see), of few words, short haired,1.Unlike the “long-haired” Merovingian kings. or something else. But there’s no way to know one way or another.

Pepin is usually considered a middling figure, sandwiched between the legendary Charles Martel, and the timeless Charlemagne. While there is no dispute with the stature history has afforded Charles the Great, his grandfather’s claim to fame has come under greater scrutiny. Personally I see Martel and Pepin as great figures in an age when only the strongest and most resolute rulers could stay on top, which Pepin did for for twenty-five years.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Unlike the “long-haired” Merovingian kings.

Battles of a troubled soul, part 2

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To the picture I drew last week of Carloman the pious purifier of the eastern Frankish church, we must add Carloman the triumphant, at times bloodthirsty, conqueror. After deposing and disposing of his half-brother Grifo in 741 (while Pepin dealt with their step-mother Swanahild), and supervising the first of the eastern church synods, Carloman must have had his horse waiting for him. In the spring of 742 he and Pepin undertook the first of several joint military operations to crush regional insurrections. “Aquitanians, Bretons, Frisians, Saxons, Alemannians, and Bavarians were a constant source of trouble for Pepin and Carlomann…. The survival of the Frankish kingdom itself was very much an open issue throughout the 740s.”1.Noble, Republic of St. Peter, pp.65-66. But the first to rise was the first to be crushed.

Meanwhile the Gascons of Aquitaine rose in rebellion under Duke Chunoald, son of the late Eudo. Thereupon the princely brothers Carloman and Pippin united their forces and crossed the Loire at the city of Orleans. Overwhelming the Romans they made for Bourges, the outskirts of which they set on fire; and as they pursued the fleeing Duke Chunoald they laid waste as they went. Their next objective, the stronghold of Loches, fell and was razed to the ground, the garrison being taken prisoner. Their victory was complete. Then they divied out the booty among themselves and took off the local inhabitants to captivity.2.Fredegar, Continuations, ch.25, p.98.

Not only did the brothers swiftly crush the rebellious Aquitanians, but “On this campaign they divided the kingdom of the Franks among themselves at Vieux Poitiers.”3.Royal Annals, year 742, p.37. This probably formalized whatever agreement their father had arranged with them, prior to Swanahild’s insertion of Grifo into the inheritance. To recap, over the past twelve months their father had died, they had neutralized their half-brother, called a church synod, suppressed an incipient revolt, and agreed to a division of the kingdom more to their liking. Time to head home? Not even close.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Noble, Republic of St. Peter, pp.65-66.
↑2 Fredegar, Continuations, ch.25, p.98.
↑3 Royal Annals, year 742, p.37.

Battles of a troubled soul, part 1

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Pepin le Bref was a man with a conflicted soul. He yearned for God, but was forced to do terrible things in the name of order. When he did retire from worldly concerns he thought he would be done with politics and combat, but before the end he was dragged back into the fray, betrayed by family, and died far from his spiritual home. His story is one of the great epics of the 8th century.

On the death of his father Pepin was one of three sons to inherit the Frankish kingdom. He was immediately faced with two things he had to get done, and one thing he really wanted to get done. He performed all three duties very well, and then, at the peak of power, he put his affairs in order, rejected the secular, and became a monk. How he went about achieving what he did illustrates the man, and opens a window on why he made that last decision.

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