751 Deposition of Childeric who is placed in a monastery. Pepin is raised to title of king and confirmed by the pope.
THE CARLOVINGIAN KINGS (751-800 A.D.)
751 Pepin king of the Franks. He conducts a successful campaign against the Saxons. Campaign against Aistulf of Lombardy.
755 Pepin proceeds a second time against Aistulf, who violates peace, and compels him to relinquish Ravenna, Emilia, the Pentapolis, and the duchy of Rome to the pope. This “Donation of Pepin” is the foundation of the pope’s temporal power.
758 Capture of Narbonne, the Saracen capital. The Mohammedans driven out. Pepin overruns Aquitania.
768 Death of Pepin, leaving the kingdom to his two sons Charlemagne and Carloman.
771 Death of Carloman. Charlemagne proclaimed sole ruler. He suppresses a rising in Aquitania, and makes his son Louis king.
772 Beginning of conquest and conversion of the Saxons—a thirty years’ struggle. Storming of Ehresburg. Overthrow of the idol, Irmincul, which compels the Westphalian Saxons to submit.
774 Charlemagne, who has been summoned to Italy by Pope Adrian I, whom Desiderius the Lombard king is attacking, captures Desiderius at Pavia and assumes the crown of Lombardy. The Saxons expel the Frankish garrisons and renew their ravages.