CHILDERIC III. (d.c. 751), king of the Franks, was the last of the fainéant Merovingian kings. The throne had been vacant for seven years when the mayors of the palace, Carloman and Pippin the Short, decided in 743 to recognize Childeric as king. We can not say whose son he was, or what bonds bound him to the Mero vingian family. He took no part in public business, which was directed, as before, by the mayors of the palace. When in 747 Carloman retired into a monastery, Pippin resolved to take the royal crown for himself. Childeric was dethroned in 751 and placed in the monastery of St. Omer. (C. Ps.) See J. J. Chiflet, Anastasis Childeric I. Francorum regis ; W. Junghans Kritische Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der f rdnkischen Konige Childerich and Clodovech (1857) ; J. B. D. Cochet, Le Tom beau de Childeric I., roi des Francs (1859) ; G. Kurth, Histoire portique des Merovingiens (1893) ; and E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome 6. (Paris, 1903) and authorities quoted under GREGORY OF TOURS.