Pepin the Short is a bit of a historical footnote, sandwiched between his father Charles Martel (‘the Hammer’), who won the Battle of Poitiers in 732, and his son Charles, known today as Charlemagne. Yet Pepin overthrew the figurehead Merovingian dynasty in 751 and, with the Pope’s blessing, invested himself as the first Frankish king of the line now known as the Carolingians. Between 741 and 758, Pepin fought and won battles in Lombardy, Saxony, Bavaria, and Burgundy. Along the way, he had also taken a preliminary swat at Aquitaine.
While we lack virtually any Aquitanian sources, it is clear that Aquitaine considered itself an independent kingdom by the early eighth century. It was once a province under Frankish rule in the sixth century, but this control faded under the…