Mayor Of The Palace

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. The maior domus, “first man of the house,” that is, of the palace, was originally the manager of the household and estates of the Merovingian kings. By the early 7th century, he was effectively the head of the royal government, a sort of chief of staff, while also representing the interest of the great noble families, to one of which he belonged. As the Merovingian kings weakened in the mid-7th century, the mayors of the palace became virtual heads of state. In 751, the mayor Pepin the Short overthrew the Merovingian dynasty and arranged for his own election as the first Carolingian king of the Franks.

Mayors were originally estate managers of great landowners, and a maior domus supervised the other mayors. At first, the Merovingians had their own maior domus to manage all royal estates and revenues, as well as the household. His close association with the king led to his gaining political powers, such as appointing and directing counts and dukes, presiding over the royal court, and commanding the army. He came to be a virtual prime minister for the king. The three Frankish kingdoms of Neustria, Burgundy, and Austrasia frequently had separate administrations headed by their own mayors of the palace, who were from the regional aristocracy and tried to make the office hereditary. Mayors like Ebroin of Neustria and Grimoald of Austrasia occasionally even attempted to install their own sons as kings. The victory of the Austrasian mayor Pepin II at Tertry in 687 led to the single mayorality for all of the Frankish kingdoms, held by a Carolingian, which presaged the establishment of the Carolingian dynasty.

Steven Fanning

[See also: CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY; CHARLES MARTEL; PEPIN]

Gregory of Tours.

Liber historiae Francorum, trans. Bernard S. Bachrach. Lawrence: Coronado, 1973.

Wallace-Hadrill, J.M., trans. The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with Its Continuations. London: Nelson, 1960.

Fouracre, P.J. “Merovingians, Mayors of the Palace and the Notion of a ‘Low-Born’ Ebroin.” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 57(1984):1–14.

Heidrich, Ingrid. “Les maires du palais.” In La Neustrie: les pays au nord de la Loire de Dagobert a Charles le Chauve (VIIe– IXe siècles), ed. Patrick Périn and Laure-Charlotte Feffer. Rouen: Les Musées et Monuments Départementaux de Seine-Maritime, 1985, pp. 71–72.

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