Mayor of the palate (741-751) then king of the Francs (751-768). Second son of Rotrude and Charles Martel, whom it succeeded as mayor of the palate into 741, Pépin is the founder of the royal dynasty of the Carolingians.
A coup d'etat When he dies, in 741, Charles Martel, mayor of the palate of the frank kingdom, divided the kingdom between his/her two sons: Carloman is mayor of the palate of Austrasie, and Pip, of Neustrie (with Burgundy and Provence). Pip shares initially the power with Carloman, and the two brothers act initially together to repress the many revolts which burst with the margins of the kingdom (of which that of the natural half-brother of Pip, Griffon, which will be killed into 753). The two brothers engage also a deep reform of the franque Church, helped in that by Boniface saint.
In 742 or 743 the “Germanic council”, chaired by Carloman is organized. It is decided there that bishops will be installed in the cities, and that holy Boniface will be placed above them. The following year, Carloman gathers the bishops and the counts with Leptines (or Estinnes) in Hainaut. Pip follows the example of his/her brother and joins together in Soissons in 744 twenty-three bishops of the provinces of Direction, Rouen, Rheims. It promulgates guns taking again the decisions of the council of Austrasie and condemns Adalbert, priest heretic who tackles the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the sacraments while showing with faithful letter of Christ and relics that would have given him the angels.
In 747, Carloman is withdrawn in a monastery, leaving Pépin only main of the frank kingdom (the sovereign in title, Merovingian Childéric III, not having, in the facts, any power).
Pip then prepares with method the “coup d'etat” which will give him the throne. A franque mission obtains the agreement of the Zacharie pope for the projected change. It is probable that exchanges some, Pépin promised its contest with the pope, then in hillock with the hostility of the Lombardic ones. In November 751, Pépin deposits Childéric III, which it relegates in a monastery, and is made “elect” king by the large ones.
Alliance with the pope
First frank king to resurrect the ancient use of the sacring by holy oil, it covers his usurpation of a religious dedication, while being made rub with oil in Mainz by saint Boniface (December 751), thus creating a new legitimacy.
The consequences of this revolutionary act appear soon: in 754, the pope Etienne II comes in Beats, sacring once again Pépin in Saint-Denis (July 28th) and obtains from him that it intervenes in Italy. To discharge its debt towards the Holy See, Pip, on the other hand, is committed delivering Rome of the Lombardic threat. Breaking with the traditional franque policy of alliance with the Lombardic ones, Pépin crosses the Alps into 754 and 756. It beats the Lombardic ones and removes the territories of central Italy to them to give them to the pope: it is there the territorial origin of the future States of the Church. But, concerned not to break completely with the Lombardic ones, Pépin then works to establish a working arrangement between the pope and the Lombardic kingdom.
In Beats and into Germanic, it must perfect the work of tender of the various Germanic people to the Francs: from 760 to 768, he undertakes annual forwardings in Septimanie and Aquitaine to reduce these vast provinces and to come to end from resistance from his national dukes. Before dying, Pépin divides its kingdom between his/her two sons, Charles (the Charlemagne future) and Carloman.
In all the fields, it started a work which his/her Charlemagne son will complete, with a remarkable continuity: reform religious; inversion of alliances (agreement with papacy instead of Lombardic alliance); tender of all the Germanic people to the Francs.