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670-687] in a desperate rivalry. Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace in Neustria, was intent on maintaining, for his own advantage, the unity of the Frankish kingdom and exercising a commanding influence in Austrasia and Burgundy as well as in Neustria. His schemes failed first in Austrasia where he had to acknowledge a king and a Mayor of the Palace, Wulfoald by name. In Burgundy Leodegar, bishop of Autun, placed himself at the head of the nobles. He was at first successful and shut up his rival in the monastery of Luxeuil (670). The principle was accepted that each country was to keep its own laws and customs, that no official was to be sent from one country to another, that no one should aspire to absolute power, and that the post of Mayor of the Palace should be held by each of the great men in turn. But Ebroin was to take a signal vengeance. Escaping from Luxeuil, he besieged Leodegar in Autun, and captured the town and the bishop with it. After the lapse of a considerable time he caused the prelate to be put to death. The Church revered Leodegar as a saint, and many monasteries were dedicated to him. Ebroin remained master of Burgundy and Neustria until at length, in 681, he fell by the dagger of an assassin.

But in the later portion of his life Ebroin had encountered an obstinate resistance in Austrasia; and now the second Pepin appears upon the scene. In Austrasia his authority was almost absolute, and after the death of Ebroin he kept himself fully informed regarding the affairs of Neustria and plotted against the successive Mayors of the Palace in that country. Finally he took the field against the mayor Berthar, and gained a decisive victory over him at Tertry on the Omignon in the neighbourhood of St Quentin (687). Many historians have represented this battle as a victory of the Germans of the east over the Gallo-Romans of the west and have seen in Pepin II's expedition something in the nature of a second Germanic invasion. But in point of fact there were many Germans in Neustria, while a large part of Austrasia was occupied by Gallo-Romans. In its capital, Metz, the Latin tongue — now in process of transformation into the lingua Romana — was alone spoken. The victory of Pepin over Berthar is rather a victory of the aristocracy over the Merovingian royal house; and in fact Pepin was to find many supporters among the Neustrian nobles. Pepin, having won the victory, now proceeded to set up again, for his own advantage, the power which he had overthrown; in fact, this battle marks the fall of the Merovingians and the real accession of the new dynasty, which, from its most illustrious representative, Charles the Great, was to be known as the Carolingian. Some chronicles have this entry: "In the year 687 Pepin began to reign."

The reign of Pepin over this Merovingian kingdom which he had succeeded in reuniting was not lacking in brilliance. He defeated the Frisians, dispossessed them of a portion of their territory, and caused Christianity to be preached among them. In this last work he found