WI Charles Martel becomes a Roman Consul in 739 AD?

In 739 AD Pope Gregory III offered the office of Roman Consul to Charles Martel who had just driven out Moors from France hoping to gain his support against the Lombards...
In OTL Charles Martel declined the offer possibly to avoid conflict with Theodatus Ursus the "Dux Venetiae" who was appointed Consul by Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III...
WI Martel had accepted the Pope's offer and expanded his realm to Italy too? How are Lombards and Eastern Empire react to that? How is this move changes History? Any thoughts?
 
What's the significance of a "consul" in that period? Would it have mattered? Did Rome still have "senators" as well?
 
What's the significance of a "consul" in that period? Would it have mattered? Did Rome still have "senators" as well?

The offices of Senators and Consuls still existed by that time... (to the East they still holded some authority while at the West they were purely honorific titles at least after 476 AD)
In my opinion if Charles Martel had accepted the honorific office of Roman Consul it could be a good pretext to expand his realm to Italy too... But this has a disadvantage... It would have caused a conflict between Franks and the last bastion of ERE in West (that is Venice) and Lombards could have swept Italy since Martel and Theodatus Ursus would have been busy killing each other for an empty title...
 
But Martel was quite busy at the time with kicking the Moors out of Southern France. And he had his priorities right in that case.
 
But Martel was quite busy at the time with kicking the Moors out of Southern France. And he had his priorities right in that case.

Martel had kicked out Moors from France by 737... He was free to help Pope Gregory III by 739 (following the death of King Theuderic IV in 737 he had absolute power in his hands...)
But in OTL he didnot wished to fight his old ally King Liutprand of Lombards nor pursued a conflict with Theodatus Ursus "Dux Venetiae" and rejected Pope's offer along with his plea for help...
My WI is about accepting the honorific title enraging ERE Leo III and fighting his former ally...
 
Actually, there were Moors in the South of France until the Xth century at least.

What Charles stopped was a big plundering raid - on it's way back -.

That deidn't stop spanish Moors from launching other raids. On of these got up to Lyons a couple years afterward, IIRC.
 
Actually, there were Moors in the South of France until the Xth century at least.

What Charles stopped was a big plundering raid - on it's way back -.

That deidn't stop spanish Moors from launching other raids. On of these got up to Lyons a couple years afterward, IIRC.

I agree... But by 737 Moors werent a real threat after the Battle of Tours... Martel could be free to deal with anything else... (such as messing up with the line of Kings...:D) or responding to Pope's plea...
 
The offices of Senators and Consuls still existed by that time... (to the East they still holded some authority while at the West they were purely honorific titles at least after 476 AD)
Not true, actually. The office of consul seems to have lapsed in both the east and the west during Justinian I's reign, with Decius Paulinus in the west in 535, and Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius in the east in 541. Though the title persisted thereafter, it became one of the eastern emperor's honorary titles, not a seperate office. During the reign of Justinian II, the title itself was abolished, so by the time it was offered to Martel, there had been no consul in fact or even in name for half a century.

I suspect that, had Martel accepted the title, it would have had more or less the same repurcussions as the crowning of Charlemagne as Roman emperor. In other words, the ERE wouldn't have liked it, but wouldn't ultimately have cared enough, or been in a strong enough position, to do anything about it. In practice, I'm not sure what Martel would have done with it, either. As you say, the biggest concern wouldn't have been the ERE but the Lombards, and I'm not convinced he'd consider it worth the risk.
 
Agree... but perhaps Leo III might have considered that as usurpation of one of his own titles... If he didnot want to interfere directly he might have sent Ursus in his capacity as Dux Venetiae to do the dirty job (also Ursus holded the title Magister Militum per Venetiae though he never made use of this title...)
 
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