Carlovingians, or KARLINGS, the second dynasty of Frankish kings. The family came from the eastern part of the Frankish kingdoms, and its origin is traced to Arnulph, Bishop of Metz, at the beginning of the 7th century. Pepin, a grandson of the bishop, became Mayor of the Palace to the Frankish kings of the Merovingian line. Pepin's natural son, the famous Charles Martel, and Charles's son Pepin, followed in the same office. They were the real rulers of the Frankish monarchy, till in 752 Pepin dethroned the last of the fainéant Merovingian sovereigns and placed himself on the throne. Incomparably the greatest of the line was Charles the Great (Charlemagne), from whom it was named, and who in 800 was proclaimed Emperor of the West. Charles' son, Louis (814-840), was a weak ruler, after whose death the great Frankish empire erected by Charlemagne was divided in 843 between his three sons, Lothar, Louis, and Charles. United in 884 under Charles the Fat, the empire was finally broken up in 887 into divisions roughly corresponding to the modern France and Germany with Lorraine and Burgundy between them. Members of the Carlowingian house, however, continued to rule in Germany till 911, and in France till 987, when they were superseded by the House of Capet. The Carlowingian kings had for some time previous possessed no real power. A subsequent marriage, however, connected their family with that of the Capets, and enabled the kings of France to trace their descent from Charlemagne.
The Carlowingian dynasty figures in the early history of France as the ally of the church. It aided the popes against the Lombards; made war on the Aquitanians, who pillaged and despoiled the churches; established the temporal power of the successors of St Peter; subdued and converted the still pagan Saxons; and fought the Mohammedans in Spain. Nor, on the other hand, do we find the church ungrateful: it sanctioned, by benediction and prayer, the conquests of this powerful family; in various ways impressed its sacred stamp of approbation upon it; and for its sake resuscitated the imposing idea of an empire of the West. But this alliance which was advantageous to the policy of kings like Pepin and his son Charlemagne, because they had genius, vigour, and design, became at a later period, under their feeble successors, a chief cause of the overthrow of the dynasty, for the clergy after 814 grew stronger and more exacting every day, and forced the monarchs to new concessions.
The word Carlowingians is formed on a false analogy from Merovingians (q.v.) or Merwings; it should be Carolings or Karlings, and means descendants of Karl the Great, or Charlemagne.