Editing Carloman (mayor of the palace) (section)

== Assumption of power ==
After the death of Charles Martel, power was not divided to include Carloman's half-brother [[Grifo (noble)|Grifo]], Charles's son by his second wife [[Swanachild]]. This was per Charles' wishes; although Grifo demanded a portion of the realm, his brothers refused him. In 741, Carloman and Pepin [[Siege of Laon (741)|besieged]] Grifo in [[Laon]], took him captive and forced him into a monastery. Each brother turned his attention towards his own area of influence as [[mayor of the Palace]], Pepin in the West (in what was called [[Neustria]], roughly the area between [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] and [[Reims]]) and Carloman in the East (in what was called [[Austrasia]], roughly the area between [[Bruges]], [[Metz]] and [[Fulda]]), which was the Carolingian base of power.<ref>[https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=nur;cc=nur;view=text;idno=nur.001.0004;rgn=div2;node=nur.001.0004%3A8.147 "Nuremberg Chronicle", Morse Library, Beloit College]</ref>

With Grifo contained, the two mayors, who had not yet proved themselves in battle in defence of the realm as their father had, on the initiative of Carloman, installed the Merovingian [[Childeric III]] as king (743),<ref name=Frassetto/> even though Martel had left the throne vacant since the death of [[Theuderic IV]] in 737.

Unlike most medieval instances of fraternal power sharing, Carloman and Pepin for seven years seemed at least willing to work together; certainly, they undertook many military actions together. Carloman joined Pepin against [[Hunald I of Aquitaine]]'s rising in 742 and again in 745.<ref name=Frassetto>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yW-GfElbafQC&pg=PA90 Frassetto, Michael. ''Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation'', ABC-CLIO, 2003]</ref> Pepin assisted Carloman against the Saxons in 742–43, when [[Theoderic, Duke of Saxony|Duke Theoderic]] was forced to come to terms, and against [[Odilo, Duke of Bavaria]], in 742 and again in 744, when peace was established between the brothers and their brother-in-law, for Odilo had married their sister Hiltrude.