page_title: Bertrada of Laon
section_title: Queen of the Franks
hierarchical_section_title: Bertrada of Laon / Biography / Queen of the Franks
caption_attribution_description: English: Bertha Broadfoot by Eugène Oudiné. Luxembourg Garden, Paris. Français&#160;: Berthe au Grand Pied par Eugène Oudiné. Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.
context_page_description: Bertrada of Laon, also known as Bertrada the Younger or Bertha Broadfoot, was a Frankish queen. She was the wife of Pepin the Short and the mother of Charlemagne, Carloman and Gisela.
context_section_description: In 751, Pepin and Bertrada became King and Queen of the Franks, following Pepin's successful coup against the Frankish Merovingian monarchs. Pepin was crowned in June 754, and Bertrada, Charlemagne, and Carloman were blessed by Pope Stephen II.
  After Pepin's death in 768, Bertrada lost her title as Queen of the Franks. Charlemagne and Carloman inherited the two halves of Pepin's kingdom. Bertrada stayed at the court and often tried to stop arguments between the two brothers. Some historians credit Bertrada's support for her elder son Charlemagne over her younger son Carloman, and her diplomatic skills, for Charlemagne's early success. Although her influence over Charlemagne may have diminished in time, she lived at his court, and, according to Einhard, their relationship was excellent. Bertrada recommended that Charlemagne set aside his legal wife, Himiltrude, and marry Desiderata, a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, but Charlemagne soon divorced Desiderata. Einhard claims this was the only episode that ever strained relations between mother and son.
caption: A statue of Bertrada of Laon by Eugène Oudiné, one of the twenty Reines de France et Femmes illustres in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.
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