As a mayor of the palace he enjoyed the support of numerous lay and clerical vassals established on ecclesiastical properties and he could equally reckon with the help of his family, including the Austrasian nobles allied to his clan by marriage.
Grimoald later succeeded his father as mayor. Grimoald ext expanded his own based of power by acquiring territory and in what was to become good Carolingian fashion forging alliances with monasteries and their monks.
In 751 Pippin III became king after deposing Childeric III, the last member of the Merovingian dynasty.
Pippin III proved to be resourceful and energetic king whose conquest of Aquitainem two successful expeditions against Lombards and promotion of religious reform demonstrated the potential and direction of the new dynasty.
Charlemagne, his son succeeded and was sole ruler of the Franks. At its peak, the realm, which with his imperial coronation in 8000 came to be regarded as the Christian-Roman Empire in the West, comprised portions of modern East Europe and most of the western are of the Continent.
After his death, the Carolingian Empire ceased to expand, settling into a defensive posture against the new nomadic threat from the north and continuing invasions from the east.
Carolingian Empire (800–888)
