From Mayors of the Palace to Anointed Kings: The Rise of the Carolingian Dynasty

By the middle of the seventh century, Merovingian royal power was visibly crumbling, giving rise to the derisive later label "do-nothing kings" (rois fainéants). The Frankish realm had fractured into three main blocs — Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy — and real authority increasingly passed to the office of mayor of the palace (maior domus). In Austrasia, this shift produced the origins of the Pippinid-Arnulfing family through Pippin of Landen, and the merger of the Arnulfing and Pippinid lines laid the foundation of what would become the Carolingian dynasty. Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, cemented this family's dominance at the Battle of Tertry in 687, where he unified mayoral power across the Frankish lands and went on to consolidate Pippinid control over Neustria and Burgundy as well.