Ragenfrid defeats Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.
The Battle of Compigne was fought on 26 September 715 and was the first definite battle of the civil war which followed the death of Pepin of Heristal, Duke of the Franks, on 16 December 714.
Dagobert III had appointed one Ragenfrid as mayor of the palace in opposition to Pepin's choice as his successor: his grandson Theudoald. Ragenfrid engaged in battle with Theudoald, then young, and defeated him, sending him fleeing back to his grandmother Plectrude in Cologne.
According to the Liber Historiae Francorum, Theudoald lost his "innocent life" soon after, but other sources indicate him surviving for many years. Whatever the case, Charles Martel, Pepin's illegitimate son, soon escaped Plectrude's prison and Dagobert III soon died. The new king, Chilperic II, reappointed Ragenfrid, whose power was affirmed by the people of Neustria while the magnates of Austrasia elected Charles mayor. Plectrude remained holed up in Cologne, still with some supporters in Austrasia, and the war became a three-way conflict.
As soon as Charles Martel gathered his supporters and trained them, he triumphed over all comers.
Ragenfrid (also Ragenfred, Raganfrid, or Ragamfred) (died 731) was the mayor of the palace of Neustria and Burgundy from 715, when he filled the vacuum in Neustria caused by the death of Pepin of Heristal, until 718, when Charles Martel finally established himself over the whole Frankish kingdom.
His original centre of power was the Véxin. Dagobert III appointed him in opposition to Theudoald, grandson and heir of Pepin, and his grandmother Plectrude, but he was ignored by both Plectrude and Charles.
In 716, Ragenfrid and Dagobert's successor, Chilperic II, fought deep into the heartland of Peppinid power: the mid-Meuse and Ardennes. They allied with Dagobert's old enemy, Duke Radbod of Frisia, and defeated their rival Charles near Cologne, in which he had been besieging Plectrude and Theudoald. Ragenfrid went and Chilperic forced Plectrude to surrender most of the Austrasian treasury, her grandson's claim to the mayoralty, and acknowledge Chilperic as king.
At this juncture, Charles set up his own Merovingian king, Clotaire IV; Dagobert's true successor, Chilperic II, being a staunch ally of Ragenfrid and the Neustrian nation. Ragenfrid and his king allied with Odo the Great, duke of Aquitaine independent since 715, but was defeated at the Amblève (Amel north of St. Vith) in 716, and in March, 717, at Vinchy, near Cambrai, and then in 718 at Soissons. Ragenfrid was now decisively out of power and he fled to Angers; however, he did not give up yet. When Paris and the Loire Valley were taken and Odo gave up Chilperic, who Charles finally accepted (under his thumb) in 719, Ragenfrid then gave himself up (720) and was deprived of his office, left only with lands in Anjou.
In 724, the Neustrians rebelled under Ragenfrid, but they were easily defeated. However, Ragenfrid gave up his sons as hostages in turn for keeping his county. He lived on until 731.
The military defeats of the Neustrian army, under the leadership of Ragenfrid, at the Amblève, Vinchy and Soissons marked the shift in the balance of power from Neustria to Austrasia. From ten onwards the Carolingians (the descendants of Charles Martel) would rule the whole of the Frankish kingdom from their heartland around the mid-Meuse, namely Herstal and later Aachen with Charlemagne.