CARLOMAN

. Name of several Carolingian rulers. The first Frankish ruler to bear the name Carloman was the eldest son of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace in the united Frankish kingdom. After Charles’s death in 741, this Carloman became mayor of Austrasia, while his brother, Pepin III, received the mayoralty of the kingdom of Neustria. Since the Merovingian monarchs were then virtually powerless, the mayors were the most important officials in the land. Carloman and Pepin cooperated to extend their authority, quelling uprisings and supporting the church’s efforts to spread Christianity in the region. In 743, they together reestablished a Merovingian, Childeric III, on the throne, vacant since 737. In 747, Carloman abdicated in favor of his brother in order to become a monk. He died in 754 in a monastery at Vienne, three years after Pepin had deposed Childeric and claimed the crown for himself.

The second Carloman was Pepin’s younger son. When Pepin, now king of the Franks, died in 768, Carloman was given the more central territories and Charles, the future Charlemagne (742-814), the eldest, received lands encircling those of his brother. The two rulers did not get along, but Carloman’s death in 771 permitted Charles to reunite the kingdom. Sometimes called Carloman II to distinguish him from his uncle, the younger Carloman was the first to reign as king. A century later another Carloman (d. 884), son of Louis II, reigned briefly. These two Carlomans should not be confused with King Carloman of Bavaria and Italy (d. 880) or Carloman (d. 876), the son of Charles the Bald.

Celia Chazelle

[See also: CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY]

Hlawitschka, Eduard. “Die Vorfahren Karls des Grossen.” In Karl der Grasse: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, ed. Wolfgang Braunfels, et al. 5 vols. Dusseldorf: Schwann, 1965-68, Vol. 1, pp. 51-82.

Lot, Ferdinand. Les destinees de I’empire en accident de 395a 888. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1928.

McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Caralingians, 751-987. London: Longman, 1983.

Riche, Pierre. The Caralingians: A Family Wha Forged Europe, trans. Michael Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.