The Rise of The Papacy In The Middle Ages

This is the first episode in our series on Charlemagne, following on from our series on the Franks, which you can watch the first episode of here:    • The Barbarian Heirs To Rome: Warlords...  

Full playlist of both series can be found here:    • Charlemagne And The Franks  

Join this channel to get access to perks:
   / @restishistorypod  

The Rest Is History merch store is available here: goalhanger.shop/collection/the-rest-is-history/

This is episode 523 of The Rest Is History

The Frankish king, Charlemagne the Great, is one of the titanic figures of European history, simultaneously renowned and shadowy. His rise to supreme power is a staggering story of warring religious empires, betrayal, battle, blindings and brutal conquest. How, then, did this one time Frankish interloper become the father of Europe, progenitor of a Holy Roman Empire whose descendants would rule right up until the time of Napoleon, and Emperor of the West? It begins in 741 AD when, following the death of the Frankish leader Charles Martel - ‘The Hammer’ - his two sons, Carloman and the pious by ruthless Pepin were forced to look to the Pope in Rome, then a subsidiary to the Byzantine empire, to buttress their authority. The Pope too was increasingly embattled at that time, struggling against invasions by the ferocious Germanic Lombards from the north of Italy. Desperate, he called upon Pepin for aid. So it was that, after his brother’s abdication, Pepin was officially anointed by the Pope as the sole King of the Franks, before crossing the Alps and smashing Lombardy. After his death, he would leave his kingdom the foremost power in Western Europe, and in the hands of to his own two sons: Carloman and Charles, later known as Charlemagne. A terrible power struggle would ensue…
Join Tom and Dominic for this next instalment of their mighty series on the Franks and the rise of Charlemagne. How would Charles’ and Carloman’s battle for power play out?

00:00 Who was Charlamagne
12:10 The Franks empire expands
21:50 The Pope weighs in
35:58 The emergence of Peppin
41:54 The fall of the Merovigians
44:10 The pope travels to Gaul
52:30 A sudden twist

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Social Producer: Harry Balden
Video Editor: Jarrad Templeton
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor