This week, we have finally made it to the last day of the last Merovingian King, Childéric III. And what can we say about this event other than it has been a really, really long time coming. I mean seriously, we’re talking about a Merovingian king still sitting the throne in 751; that’s nearly a century after Grimoald made his coup attempt in the wake of the death of Sigibert III, and it’s 117 years since the death of Dagobert I, who is arguably the last Merovingian king of any stature or importance. 117 years is just a long time to be dealing with ineffective royal leadership, guys who were basically holding onto the crown simply because that’s what their father and their grandfather had done. Add into the mix that upwards of five of these guys were probably pulled out of monasteries and told to say that they were “Merovingians” - to include the latest and last king - and then add into the mix that the Carolingian precursors had been dealing with all of this for basically the entire 117 years, and all of a sudden Pépin’s move doesn’t look so much like a coup d’état as it does an incredibly slow-moving inevitability. Well, the inevitable happens... this week!

On a related note, I was listening recently to the Prologue episodes of Dirk Hoffmann-Becking’s History of the Germans podcast recently and I heard him describe the entire situation with the Mayors of the Palace as being akin to the fictional “Stewards of Gondor” from the Lord of the Rings books and movies. Honestly, I thought this was a great parallel: the Stewards sat for centuries waiting for the absent King to reappear, and in that time they became more and more powerful, acting as de facto kings themselves. In both cases, everyone seemed fine with the situation even though, to an outside observer, they seem rather silly; why not just create a meritocracy and put a good fit on the throne? Well, that’s what the Mayors of the Palace eventually got around to. If the Stewards of the Throne in Tolkien’s books had taken the final step and tried for the throne themselves, they pretty much would have been the Carolingians!

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Listenable: History of the Merovingians, 451-613