In the year 750[115] of the Lord's incarnation Pepin sent ambassadors to Rome to Pope Zacharias,[116] to inquire concerning the kings of the Franks who, though they were of the royal line and were called kings, had no power in the kingdom, except that charters and privileges were drawn up in their names. They had absolutely no kingly authority, but did whatever the Major Domus of the Franks desired.[117] But on the first day of March in the Campus Martius,[118] according to ancient custom, gifts were offered to these kings by the people, and the king himself sat in the royal seat with the army standing round him and the Major Domus in his presence, and he commanded on that day whatever was decreed by the Franks; but on all other days thenceforward he remained quietly at home. Pope Zacharias, therefore, in the exercise of his apostolic authority, replied to their inquiry that it seemed to him better and more expedient that the man who held power in the kingdom should be called king and be king, rather than he who falsely bore that name. Therefore the aforesaid pope commanded the king and people of the Franks that Pepin, who was exercising royal power, should be called king, and should be established on the throne. This was therefore done by the anointing of the holy archbishop Boniface in the city of Soissons. Pepin was proclaimed king, and Childeric, who was falsely called king, was shaved and sent into a monastery. FOOTNOTES: [115] The date is almost certainly wrong. Pepin was first acknowledged king by the Frankish nobles assembled at Soissons in November, 751. It was probably in 751 (possibly 752) that Pope Zacharias was consulted. In 754 Pepin was crowned king by Pope Stephen III., successor of Zacharias, who journeyed to France especially for the purpose. [116] Zacharias was pope from 741 to 752.