Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/158

 146 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES which became predominant in turn as a Neustrian or an Austrasian became Mayor of the Palace ; but towards the end of the century the supremacy passed definitely to the' great Austrasian family of the Arnulfings, when Pepin of Heristal overthrew the Neustrians. The Arnul- fings set themselves to consolidate the Frankish nation under their own rule, although for sixty-five years they did not take posses- sion of the throne, but kept a puppet Merovingian king there. Pepin of Heristal ruled with vigour for nearly thirty years, when he was succeeded as Mayor of the Palace by the great Charles warrior Charles Martel, who in 732 smote the in- Martei. vading Saracens in what is generally called the Battle of Tours, or more correctly Poictiers. This was the decisive check on the advance of Mohammedanism in the west, as the repulse of the Saracens by Leo the Isaurian before Con- stantinople in 717 had flung back its advance in the east. Pepin had strengthened himself by alliance with the Church. Charles Martel, while he appropriated ecclesiastical wealth for political and military purposes, made alliance with the papacy itself which was in the heat of its contest with the iconoclast emperors of the east. The Lombards at this time were ruled by a monarch Liutprand, who was making strenuous efforts to consolidate the Lombard kingdom. Liutprand tried to play off emperor and pope against each other for his own advantage, so that a Frankish alliance became particularly attractive to the Pepin the pope. The son of Charles Martel, Pepin the short. Short, carried his father's policy further. In 752 he made up his mind to abolish the farce of maintaining a puppet king who had neither dignity nor power, and took the curious step of appealing to the pope to sanction the assumption of the regal office by the man who exercised the regal functions. Pope Zacharias duly gave his sanction. Childeric, the last Mero- vingian king, retired into a monastery, and Pepin became king of the Franks j while the papacy naturally considered that it had secured a title to the gratitude of his dynasty. The gratitude Papal Claims was duly displayed when Pepin marched into Italy created. a t the pope's request, defeated the Lombard king, compelled him to pay tribute, and handed over a group of pro-