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81-841: Prior to 808, according to the Royal Frankish Annals , the Smeldingi and Linones recognized the suzerainty of the Franks . In that year, however, they switched their allegiance to the Danish king Gudfred and in response the Frankish king Charles the Younger ravaged their lands: But Charles, the son of the emperor [ Charlemagne ], built a bridge across the Elbe, and moved the army under his command as fast as he could across

162-483: A Christian. My country is a Christian country and I reckon the history of France beginning with the accession of a Christian king who bore the name of the Franks". The Merovingians feature in the novel In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust : "The Merovingians are important to Proust because, as the oldest French dynasty, they are the most romantic and their descendants the most aristocratic." The word "Merovingian"

243-595: A closer inspection for that fact alone: like Gregory of Tours , they were almost without exception from the Gallo-Roman aristocracy in regions south and west of Merovingian control. The most characteristic form of Merovingian literature is represented by the Lives of the saints. Merovingian hagiography did not set out to reconstruct a biography in the Roman or the modern sense, but to attract and hold popular devotion by

324-481: A complete copy, though McKitterick points out that the derivatives are often not complete themselves. These also contain insertions not found in the other classes, including mention of Pepin the Hunchback. The revised texts are based on a Class D manuscript. Class E comprises the revised editions of the annals, and are by far the most numerous. These are often found paired with Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni , and it

405-524: A group of clerics associated with the Carolingian court is likely. Between the years 741 and 768, the annals overlap with the continuations of the Chronicle of Fredegar . On account of this, scholars such as Scholz have suggested that the annals are based on the continuation of Fredegar up to 768, and then on minor annals up to some point between 787 and 793. McKitterick, however, contends that

486-454: A king, though he did not assume royal dignity. His sons Carloman and Pepin again appointed a Merovingian figurehead ( Childeric III ) to stem rebellion on the kingdom's periphery. However, in 751, Pepin finally displaced the last Merovingian and, with the support of the nobility and the blessing of Pope Zachary , became one of the Frankish kings. The Merovingian king redistributed conquered wealth among his followers, both material wealth and

567-433: A king, was the political ruler of the Frankish kingdom and left this position as a heritage to his sons. It was now the sons of the mayor that divided the realm among each other under the rule of a single king. After Pepin's long rule, his son Charles Martel assumed power, fighting against nobles and his own stepmother. His reputation for ruthlessness further undermined the king's position. Under Charles Martel's leadership,

648-451: A monastery. The Merovingians also used a distinct name stock. One of their names, Clovis, evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty down to the 19th century. The first well-known Merovingian king was Childeric I (died 481). His son Clovis I (died 511) converted to Nicene Christianity , united the Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis's four sons divided

729-456: A reflection of a belief in a divine will and control of history. Many of the worse omens also parallel growing dissatisfaction with Louis the Pious, which immediately after the end of the annals spilled into civil war between him and his sons. Divine intervention through the relics of saints play an important role as well, with mention of Hilduin's translation of the relics of St. Sebastian to

810-513: A time when other Germanic tribes were largely Arian . He subsequently went on to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Clovis's death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons. This tradition of partition continued over the next century. Even when several Merovingian kings simultaneously ruled their own realms, the kingdom—not unlike

891-407: Is founded on Hilduin's involvement in the first civil war between Louis and his sons in 830. In that year, he left the emperor's service to join the sons’ uprising and was subsequently banished, which would account for the termination of the annals. His increasing distaste for Louis would also correspond with the veiled negativity towards the emperor which surfaces in the later entries of the annal, in

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972-548: Is partially from this that they are sometimes believed to have been written by him as well, and thus called the Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi (English: Annals which are said to be of Einhard ). The revised editions correct the Latin of the originals and elaborate on many of the earlier entries, which were written by a terse hand in their unedited states. The major edits go up to 801, with minor stylistic changes through 812. Though

1053-492: Is portrayed in the annals as a victory, as opposed to a crushing Frankish defeat at the hands of the Saxons. The 792 conspiracy of Pepin the Hunchback against Charlemagne is also omitted, along with any reference to potential misconduct on Charlemagne's part. The revised text, however, incorporates these events while maintaining a positive tone towards the emperor, presented as a peerless leader in battle. Charlemagne's son, Louis

1134-497: Is the Liber Historiae Francorum , an anonymous adaptation of Gregory's work apparently ignorant of Fredegar's chronicle: its author(s) ends with a reference to Theuderic IV 's sixth year, which would be 727. It was widely read; though it was undoubtedly a piece of Arnulfing work, and its biases cause it to mislead (for instance, concerning the two decades between the controversies surrounding mayors Grimoald

1215-550: Is used as an adjective at least five times in The Way By Swann’s . The Merovingians are featured in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) where they are depicted as descendants of Jesus , inspired by the " Priory of Sion " story developed by Pierre Plantard in the 1960s. Plantard playfully sold the story as non-fiction, giving rise to a number of works of pseudohistory among which The Holy Blood and

1296-458: The Abbey of St. Medard , and Einhard's transport of the relics of SS. Marcellinus and Peter into Francia. A more detailed account of Einhard's procurement of the relics exists in his Translation and Miracles of Marcellinus and Peter . Additionally, the annals provide the only attestation to the existence of Charlemagne's personal elephant Abul-Abbas , aside from a mention by Einhard drawn from

1377-535: The Byzantine Empire . The few surviving Merovingian edicts are almost entirely concerned with settling divisions of estates among heirs. Byzantine coinage was in use in Francia before Theudebert I began minting his own money at the start of his reign. He was the first to issue distinctly Merovingian coinage. On gold coins struck in his royal workshop, Theudebert is shown in the pearl-studded regalia of

1458-506: The East Frankish Kingdom . The Annales Xantenses run from 832 to 873 and are largely independent from the other two continuations. Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty ( / ˌ m ɛ r ə ˈ v ɪ n dʒ i ə n / ) was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul . By 509 they had united all

1539-641: The Merovingian king Childeric III . The annalists pay particular attention to the military campaigns of the Carolingian kings, justifying their actions in terms of a grand narrative of Carolingian peacekeeping and conquest in the name of expanding the Christian faith. The overthrow of the Merovingians is also portrayed in such a way as to legitimize the transfer of royal power between dynasties, emphasizing Carolingian adherence to Frankish traditions and

1620-725: The Valois era. In this the Franks lagged behind the Burgundians and the Visigoths, that they had no universal Roman-based law. In Merovingian times, law was handled by officials called rachimburgs , who memorised the set of legal precedents which formed the basis for their society's laws, for Merovingian society did not allow the concept of creating new law, only of maintaining tradition. Nor did its Germanic traditions offer any code of civil law required of urbanised society, such as Justinian I caused to be assembled and promulgated in

1701-606: The 11th century. Merovingian coins are on display at the Monnaie de Paris in Paris; there are Merovingian gold coins at the Bibliothèque Nationale , Cabinet des Médailles . Christianity was introduced to the Franks by their contact with Gallo-Romanic culture and later further spread by monks . The most famous of these missionaries is St. Columbanus (d 615), an Irish monk. Merovingian kings and queens used

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1782-474: The 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, but Merovingians remained in power until the 8th century. Clotaire's son Dagobert I (died 639), who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King. Later kings are known as rois fainéants ("do-nothing kings"), despite the fact that only the last two kings did nothing. The kings, even strong-willed men like Dagobert II and Chilperic II , were not

1863-676: The Byzantine emperor; Childebert I is shown in profile in the ancient style, wearing a toga and a diadem . The solidus and triens were minted in Francia between 534 and 679. The denarius (or denier ) appeared later, in the name of Childeric II and various non-royals around 673–675. A Carolingian denarius replaced the Merovingian one, and the Frisian penning , in Gaul from 755 to

1944-667: The Danes, who sued for peace, suggests that the Frankish expedition was successful as a show of force. In 809, according to the Royal Frankish Annals , the Obotrites under Duke Thrasco attacked first the Wilzi and then the Smeldingi, forcing them to submit: Supported by the Saxons, he attacked the neighboring Wilzi and laid waste their fields with fire and sword. Returning home with immense booty and with even more help from

2025-461: The Elder and Ebroin : 652–673). Aside from these chronicles, the only surviving reservoirs of historiography are documentary sources (letters, charters, laws, etc.) and hagiography . Clerical men such as Gregory and Sulpitius the Pious were letter-writers, though relatively few letters survive. Edicts, grants, and judicial decisions survive, as well as the famous Lex Salica , mentioned above. From

2106-624: The Frankish settlements being located along the Lower and Middle Rhine . The further south in Gaul one traveled, the weaker the Frankish influence became. Hen finds hardly any evidence for Frankish settlements south of the Loire . The absence of Frankish literature sources suggests that the Frankish language was forgotten rather rapidly after the early stage of the dynasty. Hen believes that for Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitania, Vulgar Latin remained

2187-581: The Franks and northern Gallo-Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule into Raetia (537). In Germania , the Alemanni , Bavarii and Saxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the breakup of the empire of Theodoric

2268-789: The Franks defeated the Moors at the Battle of Tours in 732. After the victory of 718 of the Bulgarian Khan Tervel and the Emperor of Byzantium Leo III the Isaurian over the Arabs led by Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik prevented the attempts of Islam to expand into eastern Europe, the victory of Charles Martel at Tours limited its expansion onto the west of the European continent. During the last years of his life, he even ruled without

2349-567: The Great . The dynastic name, medieval Latin Merovingi or Merohingii ("sons of Merovech"), derives from an unattested Frankish form, akin to the attested Old English Merewīowing , with the final - ing being a typical Germanic patronymic suffix. The name derives from Salian King Merovech , who is at the center of many legends. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies ,

2430-406: The Latin up to a similar level as the new entries and adding lengthy passages where detail was lacking, again in the style of the later years. For this reason, the editor is believed to have belonged to or been affiliated with this third group of authors. This section ends abruptly after the events of 829, and for this reason has been associated with Hilduin of St. Denis. The case for his authorship

2511-546: The Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty. In 486 Clovis I , the son of Childeric, defeated Syagrius , a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, according to Gregory of Tours , Clovis adopted his wife Clotilda 's Orthodox—i.e., Nicene — Christian faith at

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2592-542: The Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania magna except Saxony . After the fall of the Ostrogoths , the Franks also conquered Provence . After this their borders with Italy (ruled by the Lombards since 568) and Visigothic Septimania remained fairly stable. Internally, the kingdom was divided among Clovis's sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between

2673-586: The Merovingian kingship was sacral and the royal dynasty of supernatural origin. Today, it is more commonly seen as an attempt to explain the meaning of the name Merovech (sea-bull): "Unlike the Anglo-Saxon rulers the Merovingians—if they ever themselves acknowledged the quinotaur tale, which is by no means certain—made no claim to be descended from a god". In 1906, the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that

2754-437: The Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were regarded as sacred . The Merovingians' long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. Contemporaries sometimes referred to them as the "long-haired kings" (Latin reges criniti ). A Merovingian whose hair was cut could not rule, and a rival could be removed from the succession by being tonsured and sent to

2835-657: The Obotrites). Royal Frankish Annals The Royal Frankish Annals ( Latin : Annales regni Francorum ), also called the Annales Laurissenses maiores ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia , recording year-by-year the state of the monarchy from 741 (the death of Charles Martel ) to 829 (the beginning of the crisis of Louis

2916-403: The Pious ). Their authorship is unknown, though Wilhelm von Giesebrecht suggested that Arno of Salzburg was the author of an early section surviving in the copy at Lorsch Abbey . The Annals are believed to have been composed in successive sections by different authors, and then compiled. The depth of knowledge regarding court affairs suggests that the annals were written by persons close to

2997-413: The Pious, is rarely shown engaging in battle by the annalists, but rather directs others to do so, or negotiates for peace. The contrast between Louis and his father and grandfather is clear. While the past kings were unshakeable figures, depicted as the better of their foes even in defeat by the revised edition, the annalists’ Louis is a smaller man who invests the power of the military in others, not unlike

3078-456: The Saxons at the time. Its destruction is a major point in the annals, written to continue a jingoistic theme of Frankish triumphs against the “un-Frankish” and unchristian barbarian. The unrevised text neglects to mention defeats suffered by Charlemagne, such as the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 (later dramatized in the Song of Roland ) and the Battle of Süntel in 782. The Battle of Süntel

3159-415: The Saxons, he conquered the largest city of the Smeldingi. By these successes he forced all who had defected from him to join him again. The annalist's maxima civitas (largest city) is called Semeldinc Connoburg in the Chronicle of Moissac , but that is not its native Slavic name. The Chronicle confirms that the Saxons were a scara (detachment) sent by Charlemagne himself to aid "our Wends" (i.e.,

3240-485: The aid of their Obotrite allies directly, by attacking the Danes, the Franks launched a punitive expedition against the weaker Smeldingi and Linones, who were both more accessible and more immediately threatening as they lived on the border of the empire. While the Royal Frankish Annals depicts a Frankish victory, the Annals of Lorsch suggests a serious check or reverse with heavy losses followed by retreat. The response of

3321-449: The annal entries for the 9th century. In addition to astronomical oddities, such as eclipses , the supernatural begins to enter the account, set against almost ritualistic yearly notices of the regular passages of Christmas and Easter . Nearly two-dozen villages are reported to have been destroyed by heavenly fire in 823, while at the same time an unnamed girl is said to have begun a three-year fast . Scholz regards this preoccupation as

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3402-444: The annals. The author of this section is unknown. Scholz posits the work of multiple authors in the royal chapel. The year 795 is not definitive as the date of authorial change, but it is the latest of those suggested. Unlike the first section, these entries were written contemporaneously and with greater depth. Considering this and the fact that the subject matter remains fixed on the actions of Charlemagne, composition by members of

3483-495: The annals. The gift of the elephant to Charlemagne, amongst other treasures, by Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid is evidence of the attempts to form an Abbasid-Carolingian alliance at the time, which the annals document loosely. The annals survive in multiple versions, widely distributed across the Frankish empire, though none of these are original copies. Each version is marked with distinguishing features, and based on these features, Friedrich Kurze formulated five classes for

3564-445: The annals’ earlier depiction of the Merovingian kings. Miracles aid Charlemagne and his men, and the grace of God leads him to victory; mostly ill portents surround Louis, such as an omen in the stars supposedly foretelling his army's defeat at the hands of Count Aizo , and the sudden collapse of a wooden arcade atop him in 817. Such references to striking natural phenomena, strange happenings, and miracles become increasingly common in

3645-596: The approval of Pope Zacharias in the matter. Of the three kings—Pepin, Charlemagne , and Louis —Charlemagne's military chronicles are the most detailed, covering his victories against the Saxons , Bretons , and other peoples. The account of Charlemagne's campaign against the Saxons is also notable as one of the few extant references to the Irminsul , an important if enigmatic part of the Germanic paganism practiced by

3726-478: The categorization of these texts. This system still remains in use. The five classes of texts are lettered A through D, with an additional E class for the revised text. They are as follows: Class A texts end at the year 788, and are reflected in one of the earliest modern printings of the annals, that of Heinrich Canisius's Francicorum Annalium fragmentum . Canisius also includes the years up to 793 in his printing, however, and Rosamond McKitterick speculates that

3807-405: The continuation of Fredegar and the minor annals are more likely based upon the Annales regni Francorum , which is the most ordered and precise of them. Neither argument considers these entries to be contemporaneous with the events described. The manner of reporting for these years is typically terse, though they include the convention of mentioning Easter and Christmas, which continues throughout

3888-460: The different kings, who allied amongst themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the surviving brothers and the deceased's sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around Brunhilda . However, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established 'rules' and norms. Eventually, Clotaire II in 613 reunited

3969-405: The entire Frankish realm under one ruler. The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and procured enormous concessions from the kings in return for their support. These concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading comites and duces ( counts and dukes ). Very little is in fact known about the course of

4050-476: The form of faint praise and the recording of omens and disasters. Additionally, the entry for 826 mentions Hilduin's translation of relics, and is followed in 827 by Einhard's translation. The inclusion of these somewhat obscure events, both of which Hilduin was involved with, would be explained by his authorship of the section. The revised text is believed to have been edited after Charlemagne's death in 814 but prior to Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni , which references

4131-572: The formulas of elaborate literary exercises, through which the Frankish Church channeled popular piety within orthodox channels, defined the nature of sanctity and retained some control over the posthumous cults that developed spontaneously at burial sites, where the life-force of the saint lingered, to do good for the votary . The vitae et miracula , for impressive miracles were an essential element of Merovingian hagiography, were read aloud on saints' feast days. Many Merovingian saints, and

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4212-477: The greatest discoveries of lost objects was the 1653 accidental uncovering of Childeric I's tomb in the church of Saint Brice in Tournai . The grave objects included a golden bull's head and the famous golden insects (perhaps bees, cicadas, aphids, or flies) on which Napoleon modelled his coronation cloak. In 1957, the sepulchre of a Merovingian woman at the time believed to be Clotaire I 's second wife, Aregund ,

4293-483: The history of the Merovingian Franks, but those that survive cover the entire period from Clovis's succession to Childeric's deposition. First among chroniclers of the age is the canonised bishop of Tours , Gregory of Tours . His Decem Libri Historiarum is a primary source for the reigns of the sons of Clotaire II and their descendants until Gregory's own death in 594, but must be read with account of

4374-440: The inheritance of older Merovingian children. This pragmatic use of monasteries ensured close ties between elites and monastic properties. Numerous Merovingians who served as bishops and abbots, or who generously funded abbeys and monasteries, were rewarded with sainthood. The outstanding handful of Frankish saints who were not of the Merovingian kinship nor the family alliances that provided Merovingian counts and dukes, deserve

4455-467: The judgment of disputes. This happened against the backdrop of a newly isolated Europe without its Roman systems of taxation and bureaucracy , the Franks having taken over administration as they gradually penetrated into the thoroughly Romanised west and south of Gaul. By the time of Dagobert I , governmental documents were recognizably Roman, it is by then written in Latin on imported papyrus similar to Roman bureaucratic norms and where it also made use of

4536-574: The king leader of the warrior-band. Furthermore, the king was expected to support himself with the products of his private domain ( royal demesne ), which was called the fisc . This system developed in time into feudalism , and expectations of royal self-sufficiency lasted until the Hundred Years' War . Trade declined with the fall of the Roman Empire , and agricultural estates were mostly self-sufficient. The remaining international trade

4617-439: The king, and their initial reluctance to comment on Frankish defeats betrays an official design for use as Carolingian propaganda. Though the information contained within is heavily influenced by authorial intent in favor of the Franks, the annals remain a crucial source on the political and military history of the reign of Charlemagne . Copies of the annals can be categorized into five classes, based on additions and revisions to

4698-407: The kingdom among themselves, and it remained divided until 679 with the exception of four short periods (558–561, 613–623, 629–634, 673–675). After that it was divided again only once (717–718). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia , Neustria , Burgundy and Aquitaine . During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. Actual power

4779-521: The land (including its indentured peasantry), though these powers were not absolute. As Rouche points out, "When he died his property was divided equally among his heirs as though it were private property: the kingdom was a form of patrimony." Some scholars have attributed this to the Merovingians' lacking a sense of res publica , but other historians have criticized this view as an oversimplification. The kings appointed magnates to be comites (counts), charging them with defense , administration , and

4860-452: The late Roman Empire —was conceived of as a single entity ruled collectively by these several kings (each ruling one section much as the late Roman Empire had been divided between up to four emperors). The death of one or more of these kings could result in the reunification of the whole kingdom under a single ruler. Even when divided under different kings, the kingdom maintained unity and conquered Burgundy in 534. Upon Clovis's death in 511,

4941-535: The main agents of political conflicts, leaving this role to their mayors of the palace, who increasingly substituted their own interest for their king's. Many kings came to the throne at a young age and died in the prime of life, weakening royal power further. The conflict between mayors was ended when the Austrasians under Pepin the Middle triumphed in 687 in the Battle of Tertry . After this, Pepin, though not

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5022-517: The majority of female saints, were local ones, venerated only within strictly circumscribed regions; their cults were revived in the High Middle Ages, when the population of women in religious orders increased enormously. Judith Oliver noted five Merovingian female saints in the diocese of Liège who appeared in a long list of saints in the late 13th-century Lardanchet psalter–hours . The vitae of six late Merovingian saints that illustrate

5103-515: The manuscript originally ran to that date. These manuscripts are now lost. Class B texts go to, at the latest, 813. Kurze notes that one of these was used by Regino of Prüm in his Chronicon . Class C texts are complete through 829. These contain various additions not found in the previous two classes, and Kurze divides them based on what other texts are found in their codices, such as the Liber historiae Francorum . Class D texts are derived from

5184-501: The newly forming ecclesiastical power structure to their advantage. Monasteries and episcopal seats were shrewdly awarded to elites who supported the dynasty. Extensive parcels of land were donated to monasteries to exempt those lands from royal taxation and to preserve them within the family. The family-maintained dominance over the monastery by appointing family members as abbots . Extra sons and daughters who could not be married off were sent to monasteries so that they would not threaten

5265-408: The number of sections into which the annals should be divided is debated, they undoubtedly were written in at least four stages, corresponding roughly to the entries for 741-795, 796-807, 808-819, and 820-829. Additionally, an unknown editor produced the revised text at some point during the third stage. The identities of any of the authors save that of the fourth section are unknown, but production by

5346-532: The old legal formulae. While laymen made up most of the administrators, there was a gradual shift to a clerical presence from the reign of Clotaire II. The counts had to provide armies, enlisting their milites and endowing them with land in return. These armies were subject to the king's call for military support. Annual national assemblies of the nobles and their armed retainers decided major policies of war making. The army also acclaimed new kings by raising them on its shields continuing an ancient practice that made

5427-580: The political history of the era have been translated and edited by Paul Fouracre and Richard A. Gerberding , and presented with Liber Historiae Francorum , to provide some historical context. Yitzhak Hen stated that it seems certain that the Gallo-Roman population was far greater than the Frankish population in Merovingian Gaul, especially in regions south of the Seine , with most of

5508-455: The pro-church point of view of its author. The next major source, far less organised than Gregory's work, is the Chronicle of Fredegar , begun by Fredegar but continued by unknown authors. It covers the period from 584 to 641, though its continuators, under Carolingian patronage, extended it to 768, after the close of the Merovingian era. It is the only primary narrative source for much of its period. The only other major contemporary source

5589-406: The reign of Clotaire II and Dagobert I survive many examples of the royal position as the supreme justice and final arbiter. There also survive biographies of saints of the period, for instance Saint Eligius and Leodegar , written soon after their subjects' deaths. Finally, archaeological evidence cannot be ignored as a source for information, at the very least, on the Frankish mode of life. Among

5670-448: The revisions, written in 833 at the latest. It covers the years 741 through 812, variously adding detail and modifying style. Leopold von Ranke put forth Einhard as the editor, an association which has carried with the revised annals in references to the Annales qui dicuntur Einhardi . However, while no other names have been suggested for the editor, the case for Einhard cannot be argued definitively either. Three major annals take up

5751-573: The river against the Linones and Smeldingi. These tribes had also defected to Godofrid. Charles laid waste their fields far and wide and after crossing the river again returned to Saxony with his army unimpaired. It is likely that the Smeldingi had participated in the Danes' attack on the Obotrites that year, which resulted in the destruction of the Obotrite emporium of Reric . Rather than come to

5832-417: The royal chapel again seems likely, as few other groups would have had access to the same information. However, the identities of these authors remains unknown. This section, as well as the fourth, are also both contemporaneous accounts. Scholz notes an increased eloquence in the language employed from here on. At this time, the editor of the revised edition also began his work on the earlier entries, bringing

5913-405: The sea at midday to bathe, and a beast of Neptune rather like a Quinotaur found her. In the event she was made pregnant, either by the beast or by her husband, and she gave birth to a son called Merovech, from whom the kings of the Franks have subsequently been called Merovingians. In the past, this tale was regarded as an authentic piece of Germanic mythology and was often taken as evidence that

5994-447: The spoken language in Gaul throughout the Merovingian period and remained so even well in to the Carolingian period. However, Urban T. Holmes estimated that a Germanic language was spoken as a second tongue by public officials in western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century. A limited number of contemporary sources describe

6075-639: The text. The chronicles were continued and incorporated in the West Frankish Annales Bertiniani and in the East Frankish Annales Fuldenses and Annales Xantenses . The annals give a brief individual description of events for each year (a few omitted), with a focus on the actions of the Carolingian monarchy, beginning with the account of Pepin the Short's ascension through the dethronement of

6156-728: The work of the Annales regni Francorum after 829: the Annales Bertiniani , the Annales Fuldenses , and the Annales Xantenses . The Annales Bertiniani concern the West Frankish Kingdom from 830 to 882, serving as a direct unofficial continuation. The Annales Fuldenses use the Annales regni Francorum as a basis up to the year 829, and then continue on their own until 901, documenting

6237-577: Was discovered in Saint Denis Basilica in Paris . The funerary clothing and jewellery were reasonably well-preserved, giving us a look into the costume of the time. Beyond these royal individuals, the Merovingian period is associated with the archaeological Reihengräber culture . The Merovingians play a prominent role in French historiography and national identity , although their importance

6318-488: Was dominated by Middle Eastern merchants, often Jewish Radhanites . Merovingian law was not universal law equally applicable to all; it was applied to each man according to his origin: Ripuarian Franks were subject to their own Lex Ripuaria , codified at a late date, while the so-called Lex Salica ( Salic Law ) of the Salian clans, first tentatively codified in 511 was invoked under medieval exigencies as late as

6399-496: Was increasingly in the hands of the mayor of the palace , the highest-ranking official under the king. In 656, the mayor Grimoald I tried to place his son Childebert on the throne in Austrasia. Grimoald was arrested and executed; but his son ruled until 662, when the Merovingian dynasty was restored. When King Theuderic IV died in 737, the mayor Charles Martel continued to rule the kingdoms until his death in 741. The dynasty

6480-534: Was partly overshadowed by that of the Gauls during the Third Republic . Charles de Gaulle is on record as stating his opinion that "For me, the history of France begins with Clovis , elected as king of France by the tribe of the Franks, who gave their name to France. Before Clovis, we have Gallo-Roman and Gaulish prehistory. The decisive element, for me, is that Clovis was the first king to have been baptized

6561-465: Was restored again in 743, but in 751 Charles's son, Pepin the Short , deposed the last king, Childeric III , and had himself crowned, initiating the Carolingian dynasty . The 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar implies that the Merovingians were descended from a sea-beast called a quinotaur : It is said that while Chlodio was staying at the seaside with his wife one summer, his wife went into

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