ABSTRACT
In the middle of the eighth century, Anglo-Saxon monks working as missionaries on the continent brought the popes and the Franks into an alliance that did much to shape the medieval church. The 'PapalFrankish Alliance' of 751 was the outcome of a process that began in the 680s with three independent developments: the beginning of missionary work by the Anglo-Saxons on the continent; the rise to political domination of a Frankish aristocratic family, later called the Carolingians; and the growing alienation of the popes from their political protectors and masters, the Byzantine emperors at Constantinople.
