TheMerovingian dynasty (/ˌmɛrəˈvɪndʒiən/) was the ruling family of theFranks from around the middle of the 5th century untilPepin the Short in 751.[1] They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northernGaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gallo-Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating theVisigoths (507) and theBurgundians (534), and also extended their rule intoRaetia (537). InGermania, theAlemanni,Bavarii andSaxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the breakup of the empire ofTheodoric the Great.
The dynastic name,medieval LatinMerovingi orMerohingii ("sons of Merovech"), derives from an unattestedFrankish form, akin to the attestedOld EnglishMerewīowing,[2] with the final -ing being a typicalGermanicpatronymic suffix. The name derives fromSalian KingMerovech, who is at the center of many legends. Unlike theAnglo-Saxon royal genealogies, the Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were regarded assacred.
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" (Latinreges criniti). A Merovingian whose hair was cut could not rule, and a rival could be removed from the succession by beingtonsured and sent to a monastery. The Merovingians also used a distinct name stock. One of their names, Clovis, evolved intoLouis and remained common among French royalty down to the 19th century.
The first well-known Merovingian king wasChilderic I (died 481). His sonClovis I (died 511) converted toNicene Christianity, united the Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis's four sons divided 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 wereAustrasia,Neustria,Burgundy andAquitaine.
During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. Actual power was increasingly in the hands of themayor of the palace, the highest-ranking official under the king. In 656, the mayorGrimoald I tried to place his sonChildebert on the throne in Austrasia. Grimoald was arrested and executed; but his son ruled until 661, when the Merovingian dynasty was restored. When KingTheuderic IV died in 737, the mayorCharles Martel continued to rule the kingdoms until his death in 741. The dynasty 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 theCarolingian dynasty.
It is said that while Chlodio was staying at the seaside with his wife one summer, his wife went into 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.[3]
In the past, this tale was regarded as an authentic piece ofGermanic mythology and was often taken as evidence that the Merovingian kingship wassacral and the royal dynasty of supernatural origin.[4] Today, it is more commonly seen as an attempt to explain the meaning of the name Merovech (sea-bull): "Unlike theAnglo-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".[3]
In 1906, the British EgyptologistFlinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded byPtolemy as living near theRhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty.[5]
In 486Clovis I, the son of Childeric, defeatedSyagrius, a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. He won theBattle of Tolbiac against theAlemanni in 496, according toGregory of Tours, Clovis adopted his wifeClotilda's Orthodox—i.e.,Nicene—Christian faith at a time when other Germanic tribes were largelyArian. He subsequently went on to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom ofToulouse in theBattle 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 the lateRoman 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, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul exceptBurgundy and all ofGermania magna exceptSaxony. After the fall of theOstrogoths, the Franks also conqueredProvence.[6] After this their borders withItaly (ruled by theLombards since 568) and VisigothicSeptimania remained fairly stable.[7]: 384
Internally, the kingdom was divided among Clovis's sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between 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 aroundBrunhilda. However, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established 'rules' and norms.[8]
Eventually,Clotaire II in 613 reunited 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 leadingcomites andduces (counts anddukes). Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, but Merovingians remained in power until the 8th century.
Clotaire's sonDagobert 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 asrois fainéants[1] ("do-nothing kings"), despite the fact that only the last two kings did nothing. The kings, even strong-willed men likeDagobert II andChilperic II, were not 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.[9] 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 underPepin the Middle triumphed in 687 in theBattle of Tertry. After this, Pepin, though not 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 sonCharles 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, the Franks defeated theMoors at theBattle of Tours in 732. After the victory of 718 of theBulgarianKhan Tervel and the Emperor of ByzantiumLeo III the Isaurian over the Arabs led byMaslama ibn Abd al-Malik prevented the attempts of Islam to expand into eastern Europe, the victory ofCharles Martel at Tours limited its expansion onto the west of the European continent. During the last years of his life, he even ruled without a king, though he did not assume royal dignity. His sonsCarloman andPepin 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 ofPope Zachary, became one of the Frankish kings.
The Merovingian Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains inMetz, capital ofAustrasia
The Merovingian king redistributed conquered wealth among his followers, both material wealth and 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."[10] Some scholars have attributed this to the Merovingians' lacking a sense ofres publica, but other historians have criticized this view as an oversimplification.
The kings appointed magnates to becomites (counts), charging them withdefense,administration, and the judgment of disputes. This happened against the backdrop of a newly isolated Europe without its Roman systems oftaxation andbureaucracy, the Franks having taken over administration as they gradually penetrated into the thoroughly Romanised west and south of Gaul. By the time ofDagobert 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 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.[11]
The counts had to provide armies, enlisting theirmilites 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 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 thefisc. This system developed in time intofeudalism, and expectations of royal self-sufficiency lasted until theHundred Years' War.
Trade declined with the fall of theRoman Empire, and agricultural estates were mostly self-sufficient. The remaining international trade was dominated byMiddle Eastern merchants, often JewishRadhanites.
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 ownLex Ripuaria, codified at a late date,[12] while the so-calledLex Salica (Salic Law) of the Salian clans, first tentatively codified in 511[13] was invoked under medieval exigencies as late as theValois 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 calledrachimburgs, 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 creatingnew law, only of maintaining tradition. Nor did itsGermanic traditions offer any code ofcivil law required of urbanised society, such asJustinian I caused to be assembled and promulgated in theByzantine Empire. The few surviving Merovingian edicts are almost entirely concerned with settling divisions of estates among heirs.
Byzantine coinage was in use inFrancia beforeTheudebert 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 the Byzantine emperor;Childebert I is shown in profile in the ancient style, wearing atoga and adiadem. Thesolidus andtriens were minted in Francia between 534 and 679. Thedenarius (ordenier) appeared later, in the name ofChilderic II and various non-royals around 673–675. A Carolingian denarius replaced the Merovingian one, and theFrisianpenning, in Gaul from 755 to the 11th century.
Christianity was introduced to theFranks by their contact with Gallo-Romanic culture and later further spread bymonks. The most famous of thesemissionaries is St.Columbanus (d 615), an Irish monk. Merovingian kings and queens used 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 asabbots. Extra sons and daughters who could not be married off were sent to monasteries so that they would not threaten the inheritance of older Merovingian children. This pragmatic use of monasteries ensured close ties between elites and monastic properties.
Numerous Merovingians who served asbishops and abbots, or who generously fundedabbeys 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 a closer inspection for that fact alone: likeGregory of Tours, they were almost without exception from theGallo-Roman aristocracy in regions south and west of Merovingian control. The most characteristic form of Merovingian literature is represented by theLives of the saints. Merovingianhagiography did not set out to reconstruct a biography in the Roman or the modern sense, but to attract and hold popular devotion by 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 thevotary.[14]
Thevitae et miracula, for impressivemiracles were an essential element of Merovingian hagiography, were read aloud on saints' feast days. Many Merovingian saints, and 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 thediocese of Liège who appeared in a long list of saints in the late 13th-centuryLardanchet psalter–hours.[15] Thevitae of six late Merovingian saints that illustrate the political history of the era have been translated and edited byPaul Fouracre andRichard A. Gerberding, and presented withLiber Historiae Francorum, to provide some historical context.[16]
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 theSeine, with most of the Frankish settlements being located along theLower andMiddle Rhine. The further south in Gaul one traveled, the weaker the Frankish influence became. Hen finds hardly any evidence for Frankish settlements south of theLoire. The absence of Frankish literature sources suggests that theFrankish language was forgotten rather rapidly after the early stage of the dynasty. Hen believes that forNeustria,Burgundy andAquitaine,Vulgar Latin remained the spoken language in Gaul throughout the Merovingian period and remained so even well in to the Carolingian period.[17] However,Urban T. Holmes estimated that a Germanic language was spoken as a second tongue by public officials in westernAustrasia andNeustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century.[18]
A limited number of contemporary sources describe 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 thecanonisedbishop of Tours,Gregory of Tours. HisDecem 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 the pro-church point of view of its author.
The next major source, far less organised than Gregory's work, is theChronicle of Fredegar, begun byFredegar but continued by unknown authors. It covers the period from 584 to 641, though its continuators, underCarolingian 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 is theLiber Historiae Francorum, an anonymous adaptation of Gregory's work apparently ignorant of Fredegar's chronicle: its author(s) ends with a reference toTheuderic IV's sixth year, which would be 727. It was widely read; though it was undoubtedly a piece ofArnulfing work, and its biases cause it to mislead (for instance, concerning the two decades between the controversies surrounding mayorsGrimoald the Elder andEbroin: 652–673).
Aside from these chronicles, the only surviving reservoirs of historiography are documentary sources (letters, charters, laws, etc.) andhagiography. Clerical men such as Gregory andSulpitius the Pious were letter-writers, though relatively few letters survive. Edicts, grants, and judicial decisions survive, as well as the famousLex Salica, mentioned above. From 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 instanceSaint Eligius andLeodegar, 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 the greatest discoveries of lost objects was the 1653 accidental uncovering of Childeric I's tomb in the church of Saint Brice inTournai. The grave objects included a golden bull's head and the famous golden insects (perhaps bees, cicadas, aphids, or flies) on whichNapoleon modelled his coronation cloak. In 1957, the sepulchre of a Merovingian woman at the time believed to beClotaire I's second wife,Aregund, was discovered inSaint Denis Basilica inParis. 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 archaeologicalReihengräber culture.
The Merovingians play a prominent role inFrench historiography andnational identity, although their importance was partly overshadowed by that ofthe Gauls during theThird Republic.Charles de Gaulle is on record as stating his opinion that "For me, the history of France begins withClovis, 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 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".[19]
The Merovingians feature in the novelIn Search of Lost Time byMarcel Proust: "The Merovingians are important to Proust because, as the oldest French dynasty, they are the most romantic and their descendants the most aristocratic."[20] The word "Merovingian" is used as an adjective at least five times inThe Way By Swann’s.
Heimito von Doderer describes a fictious Merowingian noble family in the 20th century in his grotesque 1962 novelThe Merowingians or The Total Family.
The Merovingians are featured in the bookThe Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) where they are depicted asdescendants of Jesus, inspired by the "Priory of Sion" story developed byPierre Plantard in the 1960s. Plantardplayfully sold the story as non-fiction, giving rise to a number of works ofpseudohistory among whichThe Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was the most successful. The "Priory of Sion" material has given rise to later works in popular fiction, notablyThe Da Vinci Code (2003), which mentions the Merovingians in chapter 60.[21]
^Pour moi, l'histoire de France commence avec Clovis, choisi comme roi de France par la tribu des Francs, qui donnèrent leur nom à la France. Avant Clovis, nous avons la Préhistoire gallo-romaine et gauloise. L'élément décisif pour moi, c'est que Clovis fut le premier roi à être baptisé chrétien. Mon pays est un pays chrétien et je commence à compter l'histoire de France à partir de l'accession d'un roi chrétien qui porte le nom des Francs. cited in the biography by David Schœnbrun, 1965.
^Alexander, Patrick (2007).Marcel Proust's Search For Lost Time: A Reader's Guide. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. p. 248.ISBN978-0-307-47232-8.
^Stephen Andrew Missick,The Hammer of God, (self-published) p. 175.
Kaiser, Reinhold (2004).Das römische Erbe und das Merowingerreich [The Roman Heritage and the Merovingian Empire]. Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte (in German). Vol. 26.De Gruyter.ISBN978-3-486-56722-9.
