Daily Medieval

The idea of actual Papal States  giving the pope serious temporal power really took off in 756 when Pepin the Short , king of the Franks, ga...

Desiderius, from a 15th century miniature I mentioned here how Charlemagne fought and defeated Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and s...

To round out the Merovingian/Carolingian week we've been having, let's take a look at some of the other women and children whose liv...

Bertrada of Laon, first introduced here , was the wife of Pepin the Short and mother of Charles (later Charlemagne) and Carloman.* She was...

Bertrada of Laon Properly speaking, the Carolingian Era started with Carolus Martellus, Charles "the Hammer" Martel (c.688-741...

Nicknames: so easy to get, so hard to get rid of. When Mayor of the Palace and military genius  Charles Martel presented his 12-year-old s...