General Notes

1  NAME Clovis I "the Great" King of the /Franks/ 1  NAME Clovis I"TheGreat" /Meroving/ 1  B IRT 2  DATE 463 1  BIRT 2  DATE ABT. 466 2PLACRheims, Marne, Loire-Atlantique, France 1  DE AT 2  DATE 511 1  DEAT2DATE 27 NOV 511 2  PLAC Saint Pierre, France




Sources: RC 303; AF; Kraentzler 1636, 1777, 1780; "the Franks" byEdwardJames; Collins; Pfafm an; Women in the Wall.
   Franks:
   United all the Franks. It was not done peacefully. Clovis'methodsincluded conquest and mu rder. He personally killed one Frankishking andhis brother after they had been turned over t o him. See Chapter3 of "TheFranks."
   When he died in 511, the kingdom was divided among his four sons.Inthe next 50 years, th e Franks and their Merovingian dynasty extendedthepower and influence of much of western Eur ope and became thedominantGermanic successor kingdom to the Roman Empire.
   Became a Christian and converted the Franks to Christianity.
   RC: Clovis I "the Great," King of the Salic Franks, 481-511. KingofFrance.
   K: Clovis I, King of the Franks. Died 493 (picked up a marriage date?)
   Also called Chlodwig.
   Pfafman: Clovis (Louis) I, the Great. Sole King of Franks 511, KingofSalic Franks 481-511 . Became a devout Catholic responsibleforCatholicism instead of Arianism in large portion o f Western Europe.Greatstatesman. Conquered Central and Southern France and Gaul,laterconque red the Ripuerian Franks. His dominions becameFrance.Firstimportant ruler of the Merovingia n dynasty. He succeeded hisfather,Childeric I, as king of the Salian Franks at age 15. His c areerfocusedlargely on forging the Salian Franks on the northern Rhine Riverand theRipuaria n Franks on the lower Rhine into a single dominion. Hebegan witha victory in 486 over Syagri us, the last Roman governor innorthern Gaul.By 493, when he married the Burgundian princes s Clotilda(later canonizedas St. Clotilda), Clovis had defeated many petty princeswhoseterr itories had surrounded his capital at Soissons. He next cameintoconflict in 496 with the con federation  of Germanic tribes known astheAlamanni, who inhabited land east of his domains . According tolegend, itwas only by invoking the God of his Christian wife, Clotilda ,tha t hedefeated his enemy. Clotilda was almost certainly instrumentalinClovis's conversion to C hristianity, and he was baptized in 496.Hebecame the champion of orthodox Christians in ever y part of Gaul andwassupported effectively by the church in all his campaigns. He continued tofight the Alamanni, who were completely conquered by 506; the nextyearthe Visigoths wer e decisively defeated when their king, Alaric II,waskilled by Clovis in a battle near Poitie rs. Clovis made Paris thecapitalof the Frankish kingdom, which at that time included most o fpresent-dayFrance and southwestern Germany.

According to Salian custom, he divided his kingdom among hisfoursons."Clovis I," Microsoft ( R) Encarta. Copy right (c) 1994MicrosoftCorporation. Copy right (c) 1994 Funk & Wagna ll's C orporation.

Clothilda converst him to Christianity in 496.  496 Clovis defeatstheAlemanni near Strasbour g and is baptized by a friend St. Remigius(orRemy), Bishop of Rheims. When Clovis dies, hi s realm is devided amonghis4 sons. "the Timetables of History, the new Third Revised Edition ,byBernard Grun,

Founder of the Empire of the Franks, foun der of the MEROVINGIANmonarchy.He rose from triba l chief to sole leader of the Salian FRANKSby dint ofpatience and murder. He won Gaul and S W Germany by fightingthe Romans,Alemanni, Burgundians , and Visigoths. His wife, St.Clotilda , encouragedhis conversion (496) to Christianity. FILE: ConciseColu mbia ElectronicEncyclop edia Copyright 1994, Columbia UniversityPress.

NOTE: kinsman of Clovis I "the Great", King of the Sali c FranksNAME:Clovis the Riparian, K . of Cologne, Flourished about 420.Subjugated theAlamanni from the Main to the Alps. Conquer ed the kingdomof theVisigoths. Embraced Christianity. Source: the Mediterranean, Sagaof the Sea , by Emil Ludwig, c. 194 2 pg. 559


Thanks for downloading information. Please contact me via email: nanzy@cox.net

[charlemagne charles.FTW]

Clovis I, in German, Chlodwig (circa 466-511), king of the Franks(481-511) and first important ruler of the Merovingian dynasty. Hesucceeded his father, Childeric I, as king of the Salian Franks. Hiscareer focused largely on forging the Salian Franks on the northern RhineRiver and the Ripuarian Franks on the lower Rhine into a single dominion.He began with a victory in 486 over Syagrius, the last Roman governor innorthern Gaul. By 493, when he married the Bourguignon princess Clotilda(later canonized as St. Clotilda), Clovis had defeated many petty princeswhose territories had surrounded his capital at Soissons. He next cameinto conflict in 496 with the confederation of Germanic tribes known asthe Alamanni, who inhabited land east of his domains. According tolegend, it was only by invoking the God of his Christian wife, Clotilda,that he defeated his enemy. Clotilda was almost certainly instrumental inClovis's conversion to Christianity, and he was baptized in 496. Hebecame the champion of orthodox Christians in every part of Gaul and wassupported effectively by the church in all his campaigns. He continued tofight the Alamanni, who were completely conquered by 506; the next yearthe Visigoths were decisively defeated when their king, Alaric II, waskilled by Clovis in a battle near Poitiers. Clovis made Paris the capitalof the Frankish kingdom, which at that time included most of present-dayFrance and southwestern Germany. According to Salian custom, he dividedhis kingdom among his four sons.
Source: "Clovis I," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c)1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[Bernard 797.FTW]

Clovis I, in German, Chlodwig (circa 466-511), king of the Franks(481-511) and first important ruler of the Merovingian dynasty. Hesucceeded his father, Childeric I, as king of the Salian Franks. Hiscareer focused largely on forging the Salian Franks on the northern RhineRiver and the Ripuarian Franks on the lower Rhine into a single dominion.He began with a victory in 486 over Syagrius, the last Roman governor innorthern Gaul. By 493, when he married the Bourguignon princess Clotilda(later canonized as St. Clotilda), Clovis had defeated many petty princeswhose territories had surrounded his capital at Soissons. He next cameinto conflict in 496 with the confederation of Germanic tribes known asthe Alamanni, who inhabited land east of his domains. According tolegend, it was only by invoking the God of his Christian wife, Clotilda,that he defeated his enemy. Clotilda was almost certainly instrumental inClovis's conversion to Christianity, and he was baptized in 496. Hebecame the champion of orthodox Christians in every part of Gaul and wassupported effectively by the church in all his campaigns. He continued tofight the Alamanni, who were completely conquered by 506; the next yearthe Visigoths were decisively defeated when their king, Alaric II, waskilled by Clovis in a battle near Poitiers. Clovis made Paris the capitalof the Frankish kingdom, which at that time included most of present-dayFrance and southwestern Germany. According to Salian custom, he dividedhis kingdom among his four sons.
Source: "Clovis I," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c)1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

[

[

[1725539.ged]

ema p 128, 307 "the first great king of the Franks, was 15 when hesucceeded his father in 481."
ohme p 5 "With time the passive antagonism of the Roman populationundermined the power of the Visigothic kings, despite their franticattempts to court support by issuing Roman law codes, and facilitatedtheir defeat at the hands of the newly converted king of the Franks,CLOVIS, at Vouille near Tours in 507.  Thereafter the Visigothic kingdomwas confined to Spain . . .", 68, 88
p 65 "Childeric was succeeded by his son CLOVIS, usually seen as the realfounder of Frankish power in Gaul.  The details of his reign, recordedfor us by Bishop Gregory of Tours some seventy years after Clovis'sdeath, are in some dispute, but his achievements are plain.  He unitedthe Romans of north Gaul under his rule, by force of arms and by theexpedient of converting to their own religion, Catholic Christianity.  Heunited the Franks under his own rule, partly at least by having all rivalkings assassinated.  And both Romans and Franks must have been impressedby the success with which he led his armies against other Germans:  heconquered the Thuringians to the east, and the Alamans, who were movingfrom their homes in south-west Germany into what is now Alsace andnorthern Switzerland; and in 507 Clovis led his followers south acrossthe Loire to destroy the Visigothic kingdom of Alaric II.  When he diedin 511 the kingdom was ruled jointly by his four sons, and it was theywho destroyed the Burgundian kingdom and who, by offering military aid tothe Ostrogoths in exchange, annexed Provence to their kingdom.  By themiddle of the sixth century the Frankish kings descended from Childericand Clovis, known as the Merovingians, had become by far the mostpowerful of the barbarian heirs to the Roman Empire.  Almost all Gaul wasunder their direct rule; they had a foothold in Italy and overlordshipover the Thuringians, Alamans, and Bavarians in Germany; and thesuzerainty they claimed over south-east England may have been more of areality than most English historians have thought."
FIMassachusetts "the royal name Louis, that is, Clovis."
pp 13-5 "There was a gradual acceptance of the idea of a gradual shift ofpolitical focus westwards from the East--a notion whose origins are to befound in the cosmology of the crucifixion discussed in the previouschapter.  In contemporary eyes, this explained the successive transfer ofpower from the Greeks to the Romans and then to the Franks.  The idea wasstrengthened by memories of the alliance made between the leader of theFranks and the Pope in the eighth century, which led to the formalrestoration of the Empire with the coronation of Charlemagne in 800.There was also the more distant memory of CLOVIS's pact with the CatholicChurch, as a result of which he and his people saw themselves asespecially chosen by God.  In their eyes the pact had been an importantfactor in his victories over pagan and heretic barbarians.  There was afirmly rooted conviction that the Franks had established the Church inGaul.  The prologue of the Lex Salica (Salic Law), which had beenretranscribed in the eighth century, priased them because they had takencare of 'the bodies of the holy martyrs burnt by the Romans, tortured bythem, or thrown to wild animals', digging up their remains and preservingthem in fine gold and jewelled reliquaries.  Most of the scholarlyhistorical writers at this date came from the lands of the Franks andthey were convinced that this chosen people had freed the inhabitants ofGaul from the yoke of Roman oppression.  This assertion was based uponthe books which they found in cathedral and monastic libraries,especially the History of the Franks written by Gregory of Tours in thelate sixth century.  His account of the baptism of Clovis is particularlyrelevant, and an eighty-century continuation provided the Franks withTrojan ancestors.  The Empire remained essentially Roman, but it wasviewed as a necessary framework within which the Franks could maintainjustice and peace, in accordance with divine will.  The Franks were seento have fulfilled this destiny, for now the Empire was ruled by theirkings.  In the words of Abbot Abbo of Fleury to Hugh Capet and his sonand associate in office, the future Robert II, their power was 'royal,that is to say imperial'.  . . . in contemporary minds 'Francia' was theland held by Robert, or Western Francia.  This was where the longwanderings of the Franks had come to an end; this was the base for theirfuture conquests.  This had been Clovis's kingdom; he had converted toChristianity at Rheims, and received the consular insignia from theEmperor at Tours in 508.  St. Martin had been the object of Clovis'sespecial devotion, and he had declared him patron saint of the Franks. Helived in Paris after his great victories and was buried there; he hadsummoned all the bishops of Gaul to Orleans in 511."
Also pp 118, 121, 124, 133, 223 and p. 125,  "the splendour of the firstChristian king of France was inevitably reflected on the next prince tobear his name".
WHWC "Clovis terminated forever the domination of Rome in Belgium andGaul (486).  Clovis with 3,000 of his subjects is baptized on ChristmasDay (496)."  Savoy, Alemania, (496) Aquitaine and Toulouse (502) joindynasty, "He founds the Frank Monarchy.  Marries Clotilda, a Catholic,491, a princess of Burgundy."
GIWC 26-7
ewh descendants in chart p 172[JamesLinage.GED]

[1725539.ged]

ema p 128, 307 "the first great king of the Franks, was 15 when hesucceeded his father in 481."
ohme p 5 "With time the passive antagonism of the Roman populationundermined the power of the Visigothic kings, despite their franticattempts to court support by issuing Roman law codes, and facilitatedtheir defeat at the hands of the newly converted king of the Franks,CLOVIS, at Vouille near Tours in 507.  Thereafter the Visigothic kingdomwas confined to Spain . . .", 68, 88
p 65 "Childeric was succeeded by his son CLOVIS, usually seen as the realfounder of Frankish power in Gaul.  The details of his reign, recordedfor us by Bishop Gregory of Tours some seventy years after Clovis'sdeath, are in some dispute, but his achievements are plain.  He unitedthe Romans of north Gaul under his rule, by force of arms and by theexpedient of converting to their own religion, Catholic Christianity.  Heunited the Franks under his own rule, partly at least by having all rivalkings assassinated.  And both Romans and Franks must have been impressedby the success with which he led his armies against other Germans:  heconquered the Thuringians to the east, and the Alamans, who were movingfrom their homes in south-west Germany into what is now Alsace andnorthern Switzerland; and in 507 Clovis led his followers south acrossthe Loire to destroy the Visigothic kingdom of Alaric II.  When he diedin 511 the kingdom was ruled jointly by his four sons, and it was theywho destroyed the Burgundian kingdom and who, by offering military aid tothe Ostrogoths in exchange, annexed Provence to their kingdom.  By themiddle of the sixth century the Frankish kings descended from Childericand Clovis, known as the Merovingians, had become by far the mostpowerful of the barbarian heirs to the Roman Empire.  Almost all Gaul wasunder their direct rule; they had a foothold in Italy and overlordshipover the Thuringians, Alamans, and Bavarians in Germany; and thesuzerainty they claimed over south-east England may have been more of areality than most English historians have thought."
FIMassachusetts "the royal name Louis, that is, Clovis."
pp 13-5 "There was a gradual acceptance of the idea of a gradual shift ofpolitical focus westwards from the East--a notion whose origins are to befound in the cosmology of the crucifixion discussed in the previouschapter.  In contemporary eyes, this explained the successive transfer ofpower from the Greeks to the Romans and then to the Franks.  The idea wasstrengthened by memories of the alliance made between the leader of theFranks and the Pope in the eighth century, which led to the formalrestoration of the Empire with the coronation of Charlemagne in 800.There was also the more distant memory of CLOVIS's pact with the CatholicChurch, as a result of which he and his people saw themselves asespecially chosen by God.  In their eyes the pact had been an importantfactor in his victories over pagan and heretic barbarians.  There was afirmly rooted conviction that the Franks had established the Church inGaul.  The prologue of the Lex Salica (Salic Law), which had beenretranscribed in the eighth century, priased them because they had takencare of 'the bodies of the holy martyrs burnt by the Romans, tortured bythem, or thrown to wild animals', digging up their remains and preservingthem in fine gold and jewelled reliquaries.  Most of the scholarlyhistorical writers at this date came from the lands of the Franks andthey were convinced that this chosen people had freed the inhabitants ofGaul from the yoke of Roman oppression.  This assertion was based uponthe books which they found in cathedral and monastic libraries,especially the History of the Franks written by Gregory of Tours in thelate sixth century.  His account of the baptism of Clovis is particularlyrelevant, and an eighty-century continuation provided the Franks withTrojan ancestors.  The Empire remained essentially Roman, but it wasviewed as a necessary framework within which the Franks could maintainjustice and peace, in accordance with divine will.  The Franks were seento have fulfilled this destiny, for now the Empire was ruled by theirkings.  In the words of Abbot Abbo of Fleury to Hugh Capet and his sonand associate in office, the future Robert II, their power was 'royal,that is to say imperial'.  . . . in contemporary minds 'Francia' was theland held by Robert, or Western Francia.  This was where the longwanderings of the Franks had come to an end; this was the base for theirfuture conquests.  This had been Clovis's kingdom; he had converted toChristianity at Rheims, and received the consular insignia from theEmperor at Tours in 508.  St. Martin had been the object of Clovis'sespecial devotion, and he had declared him patron saint of the Franks. Helived in Paris after his great victories and was buried there; he hadsummoned all the bishops of Gaul to Orleans in 511."
Also pp 118, 121, 124, 133, 223 and p. 125,  "the splendour of the firstChristian king of France was inevitably reflected on the next prince tobear his name".
WHWC "Clovis terminated forever the domination of Rome in Belgium andGaul (486).  Clovis with 3,000 of his subjects is baptized on ChristmasDay (496)."  Savoy, Alemania, (496) Aquitaine and Toulouse (502) joindynasty, "He founds the Frank Monarchy.  Marries Clotilda, a Catholic,491, a princess of Burgundy."
GIWC 26-7
ewh descendants in chart p 172[Direct Linage1.FTW]

Also known as:  Clovis \ Chlodovech Magnus \ Chlodwig I
[1725539.ged]

ema p 128, 307 "the first great king of the Franks, was 15 when hesucceeded his father in 481."
ohme p 5 "With time the passive antagonism of the Roman populationundermined the power of the Visigothic kings, despite their franticattempts to court support by issuing Roman law codes, and facilitatedtheir defeat at the hands of the newly converted king of the Franks,CLOVIS, at Vouille near Tours in 507.  Thereafter the Visigothic kingdomwas confined to Spain . . .", 68, 88
p 65 "Childeric was succeeded by his son CLOVIS, usually seen as the realfounder of Frankish power in Gaul.  The details of his reign, recordedfor us by Bishop Gregory of Tours some seventy years after Clovis'sdeath, are in some dispute, but his achievements are plain.  He unitedthe Romans of north Gaul under his rule, by force of arms and by theexpedient of converting to their own religion, Catholic Christianity.  Heunited the Franks under his own rule, partly at least by having all rivalkings assassinated.  And both Romans and Franks must have been impressedby the success with which he led his armies against other Germans:  heconquered the Thuringians to the east, and the Alamans, who were movingfrom their homes in south-west Germany into what is now Alsace andnorthern Switzerland; and in 507 Clovis led his followers south acrossthe Loire to destroy the Visigothic kingdom of Alaric II.  When he diedin 511 the kingdom was ruled jointly by his four sons, and it was theywho destroyed the Burgundian kingdom and who, by offering military aid tothe Ostrogoths in exchange, annexed Provence to their kingdom.  By themiddle of the sixth century the Frankish kings descended from Childericand Clovis, known as the Merovingians, had become by far the mostpowerful of the barbarian heirs to the Roman Empire.  Almost all Gaul wasunder their direct rule; they had a foothold in Italy and overlordshipover the Thuringians, Alamans, and Bavarians in Germany; and thesuzerainty they claimed over south-east England may have been more of areality than most English historians have thought."
FIMassachusetts "the royal name Louis, that is, Clovis."
pp 13-5 "There was a gradual acceptance of the idea of a gradual shift ofpolitical focus westwards from the East--a notion whose origins are to befound in the cosmology of the crucifixion discussed in the previouschapter.  In contemporary eyes, this explained the successive transfer ofpower from the Greeks to the Romans and then to the Franks.  The idea wasstrengthened by memories of the alliance made between the leader of theFranks and the Pope in the eighth century, which led to the formalrestoration of the Empire with the coronation of Charlemagne in 800.There was also the more distant memory of CLOVIS's pact with the CatholicChurch, as a result of which he and his people saw themselves asespecially chosen by God.  In their eyes the pact had been an importantfactor in his victories over pagan and heretic barbarians.  There was afirmly rooted conviction that the Franks had established the Church inGaul.  The prologue of the Lex Salica (Salic Law), which had beenretranscribed in the eighth century, priased them because they had takencare of 'the bodies of the holy martyrs burnt by the Romans, tortured bythem, or thrown to wild animals', digging up their remains and preservingthem in fine gold and jewelled reliquaries.  Most of the scholarlyhistorical writers at this date came from the lands of the Franks andthey were convinced that this chosen people had freed the inhabitants ofGaul from the yoke of Roman oppression.  This assertion was based uponthe books which they found in cathedral and monastic libraries,especially the History of the Franks written by Gregory of Tours in thelate sixth century.  His account of the baptism of Clovis is particularlyrelevant, and an eighty-century continuation provided the Franks withTrojan ancestors.  The Empire remained essentially Roman, but it wasviewed as a necessary framework within which the Franks could maintainjustice and peace, in accordance with divine will.  The Franks were seento have fulfilled this destiny, for now the Empire was ruled by theirkings.  In the words of Abbot Abbo of Fleury to Hugh Capet and his sonand associate in office, the future Robert II, their power was 'royal,that is to say imperial'.  . . . in contemporary minds 'Francia' was theland held by Robert, or Western Francia.  This was where the longwanderings of the Franks had come to an end; this was the base for theirfuture conquests.  This had been Clovis's kingdom; he had converted toChristianity at Rheims, and received the consular insignia from theEmperor at Tours in 508.  St. Martin had been the object of Clovis'sespecial devotion, and he had declared him patron saint of the Franks. Helived in Paris after his great victories and was buried there; he hadsummoned all the bishops of Gaul to Orleans in 511."
Also pp 118, 121, 124, 133, 223 and p. 125,  "the splendour of the firstChristian king of France was inevitably reflected on the next prince tobear his name".
WHWC "Clovis terminated forever the domination of Rome in Belgium andGaul (486).  Clovis with 3,000 of his subjects is baptized on ChristmasDay (496)."  Savoy, Alemania, (496) Aquitaine and Toulouse (502) joindynasty, "He founds the Frank Monarchy.  Marries Clotilda, a Catholic,491, a princess of Burgundy."
GIWC 26-7
ewh descendants in chart p 172

Note: Ruled Frank Kingdom under Merovingians. Franks (Salians -Ripuarians) expanded from the Rhine to the Somme conquering all people inbetween. Clovis defeated Western Roman rule 486 by victory over Roman DuxSyagrius, gaining all land between the Somme and the Loire. DefeatedAlamanni 496. Baptized by Bishop Remigus at Reims, Christmas Day 497/498(Another source has Baptized 496 on Easter Morning). Defeated Burgundians(500) at Dijon. In 507 conquered the Visigoths as far as the Pyrenees.[lanastl.ged]

1.  Chlodovech acceded 482.

After the death of Clovis (Chlodovech I), therefore, his four sonsdivided his kingdom, each reigning from a different centre: Thierry(Theuderic I) at Metz, Clodomir (Chlodomer) at Orléans, Childebert atParis, and Clotaire (Chlotar) at Soissons. They continued the career ofconquest inaugurated by their father, and, in spite of the frequentdiscords that divided them, augmented the estates he had left them. Theprincipal events of their reign were:

The destruction of the Kingdom of Thuringia by Thierry (Theuderic I) in531, which extended Frankish power into the heart of what is now Germany;

the conquest of the Kingdom of the Burgundians by Childebert andClotaire (Chlotar I) in 532, after their brother Clodomir (Chlodomer) hadperished in a previous attempt to overthrow it in 524;

the cession of Provence to the Franks by the Ostrogoths in 536, oncondition that the former would assist them in the war just declaredagainst them by Emperor Justinian. But instead of helping the Ostrogoths,the Franks under Theudebert, son of Thierry (Theuderic I), takingshameful advantage of this oppressed people, cruelly pillaged Italy untilthe bands under the command of Leuthar and Butilin were exterminated byNarses in 553.

Descendants of Charlemagne data base, English version.  Wife
Clothilde,
married in 492.  Two children.

Index to Royal Genealogical Data, University of Hull WEB database,
1995.  Chlodovech (Clovis) I, King of the Franks.  Acceded 482, died
511.

From the "selvage1" database at WorldConnect.  Please contactPetersonC@missouri.edu with corrections and additions.

Descendants of Charlemagne data base, English version.  Wife
Clothilde,
married in 492.  Two children.

Index to Royal Genealogical Data, University of Hull WEB database,
1995.  Chlodovech (Clovis) I, King of the Franks.  Acceded 482, died
511.

From the "selvage1" database at WorldConnect.  Please contactPetersonC@missouri.edu with corrections and additions.

[2148518.ged]

In 493 Clovis married Clothilde (Clotilda) of Burgundy (afterwards St.Clothild e), born 475, died at Tours in 545, "the girl of
the French Vineyards". She wa s the daughter of Gondebaud (ChilpericII.?), King of Burgundy. She was Arian b y religion, but
with strong Roman Catholic tendencies. This marriage was of pr imaryimportance, as the real shape of France dated from
it. It was she who le d her husband to abandon his old beliefs andembrace Christianity. He was bapti zed in the 15th year of
his reign at Rheims on Christmas Day in 496, with 3,00 0 of hisfollowers. When Clovis first heard the story of Christ's
crucifixion, he was so moved that he cried, "If I had been there with myvaliant Franks, I would have avenged Him."
Henceforth the Church played a decisive role in the h istory of the kingsof France.King of the Franks and ruler of much of Gaul from 481 to 511, akey period during the
transformation of the Roman Empire into Europe. His dynasty, theMerovingians, survived more than 200 years, until the rise of theCarolingians in the 8th century. While he was not the first Frankishking, he was the kingdom's political and religious founder.
     Clovis was the son of the pagan Frankish king Childeric and theThuringian queen Basina. He succeeded his father in 481 as the ruler ofthe Salian Franks and other Frankish groups around Tournai (now inBelgium). Although the chronology of his reign is imprecise, it iscertain that by the time of his death in 511 he had consolidated theFranks and expanded his influence and rule to include the Roman provinceof Belgica Secunda in 486 and the territories of the Alemanni (in 496),the Burgundians (in 500),
and the Visigoths (in 507). Clovis's kingdom began in the regionencompassing modern Belgium and northeastern France, expanded south andwest, and became the most powerful in Gaul. He was the most importantWestern ally of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I. The Pactus LegisSalicae (Law of the Salian Franks), a written code combining customarylaw, Roman written law, Christian ideals, and royal edicts, likelyoriginated during Clovis's reign and had a long history of emendation andinfluence.
Clovis married the Catholic Burgundian princess Clotilda and had fivechildren with her.  A son, Theuderic, was born prior to the marriage; hismother is unknown.

     Clovis, like his father, dealt politically and diplomatically withthe Catholic bishops of Gaul. These powerful figures had no qualms aboutworking with Germanic kings, as a letter to Clovis from
Bishop Remigius of Reims, written early in the king's reign, makes clear.The bishops saw themselves as the king's natural advisers, and, evenbefore his conversion to Catholic Christianity and his baptism at Reims(now in France) by Remigius, Clovis apparently recognized their rightsand protected their property. In a letter written to Clovis at the timeof his baptism, Avitus of Vienne (now in France) praises his faith,humility, and mercy. Significantly, in the year of his death, Clovissummoned the bishops to a church council at Orléans.

     Much was written about Clovis by Gregory of Tours in his Histories(often called the History of the Franks), which appeared more than 50years after Clovis's death.  Interpreting him from a Christianperspective, Gregory tells stirring stories about Clovis and portrays himas a single-minded warrior. He uses florid rhetoric to describe thearguments with which Clotilda attempted to persuade her husband toabandon paganism. When Clovis finally converted, he becomes for Gregory a“new Constantine,” the emperor who Christianized the Roman Empire in theearly 4th century. In both cases, an unexpected victory in battle led aking to trust the power of the Christian God and to submit to baptism.Gregory places Clovis's baptism in 496 and characterizes his subsequentbattles as Christian victories, particularly the engagement with theVisigoths in 507 that has long been identified with Vouillé but now isbelieved to have occurred at Voulon near Poitiers, France. Gregoryportrays the Visigothic war as a campaign against Arian heresy. Hisaccount indicates that prior to the battle, Clovis gave gifts to thechurch and made appeals to St. Martin of Tours , for which he wasrewarded with victory, blessed with miracles, and honoured with animperial consulship by Anastasius I .

   Recent scholarship has revealed flaws in Gregory's account of Clovisand raised questions about the ultimate purpose of the Histories. Gregoryelevated the Franks to equivalency with the ancient Hebrews, the chosenpeople, and Clovis to the stature of their great king David. Even moreimportant, he held Clovis up as a model for his own contemporary Frankishkings, Clovis's grandsons. In Gregory's estimation, unlike theirgrandfather, they did not maintain unity and peace within the kingdom noradequately respect the advice of bishops. While the Histories providesbroad background and engaging stories about the early Frankish world, theClovis of the Histories is more a literary fiction than a historicalreality.
     However, Gregory and other contemporary authors were not whollywrong in describing
Clovis, a warrior king, as a religious figure. His life illustrates acrucial series of ideological and cultural transformations that tookplace throughout the Western Roman Empire as it gave way to Germanickingdoms. Clovis's father, Childeric, died a pagan and was buried inTournai in a tomb surrounded by barbarian horse burials. Thirty yearslater Clovis was buried next to his contemporary St. Geneviève in theChurch of the Holy Apostles that he built in Paris, and he was joinedyears later by his wife, St. Clotilda.
     Over the centuries much has been made of Clovis's conversion toCatholicism. One of the first Germanic kings to do so, he did, in fact,convert to Catholicism, but recent analysis of the contemporary sourcesthat describe his reign, especially of a letter written by Avitus ofVienne congratulating him on his baptism, suggests that Clovis did notconvert to Catholicism directly from paganism. Prior to acceptingCatholicism, he was interested in the Christian heresy Arianism,sympathetic with it, and perhaps even leaning toward adopting it.According to Avitus, it is also likely that Clovis was baptized
rather late in life, possibly at Christmas in 508, only three yearsbefore his death.
     If this sequence of events is correct, it reflects the intellectualand religious climate of late 5th- and early 6th-century Gaul. The Arianheresy was the form of Christianity to which most Germanic peoplesinitially converted. It understood the godhead in hierarchical terms.Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was a created being who did not share theeternal nature of God the Father but who was superior to God the HolySpirit.  Orthodox Catholicism understood the godhead as comprising three(coequal,/
coeternal) members. These two Christian belief systems represent atheological power struggle within the Christian community during thetransformation period. The Catholics won by ecclesiastical and imperialdecree in the 4th century, making Arianism a heresy, but Arianismremained an important force in parts of Europe as late as the 6th century.
     Pagans, Arians, and Catholics shared the Gaul of Clovis and theFranks. Clovis personally illustrates the juxtaposition of these threebelief systems. He was born into paganism, two of his sisters were Arians(one married the Arian Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great), and hiswife, Clotilda, like her sister, was Catholic but from a Burgundian royalfamily that included Arians. His conversion to Catholicism was that ofone man and not of his kingdom, but it can be seen as pivotal in Frankishhistory.
     Clovis's life as a religious man illustrates the challenges thenfaced by the Catholic bishops and illuminates their concerns withevangelism. They combatted paganism and the ancient traditions that itembodied, stamped out heresy, and attempted to convert Gaul's Jewishcommunities. The powerful advocacy of Catholicism that resonates inGregory's Histories is, perhaps, a response to the difficulty ofconversions of those like Clovis, who was not baptized until at least 15years into his reign. This advocacy may also reflect a deep-seatedcommunal memory of a religiously diverse kingdom and the daunting task ofconverting it.
     Upon Clovis's death, he divided his kingdom among his four survivingsons. Only Chlotar, who outlived his brothers, ruled a united kingdom,but he in turn divided it among his sons. It was not until the reign ofClovis's great-grandson Chlotar II in the early 7th century that theMerovingians experienced long-lasting political unity. The kingdom whichClovis established, however, superseded its occasional individual partsand remained intact for centuries.
     The historical Clovis remains a shadowy figure: a warrior whosolidified a kingdom, corresponded with bishops, and converted toCatholic Christianity. Within decades of his death, he had become a heroand was held up as a model king. A millennium and a half later he remainssignificant. For the French, he was the founder of France, and aderivation of his name, Louis, became the principal name of its kings.His baptism is considered one of the formative dates in French history.For Catholics, he was the first major Germanic Catholic king, and PopeJohn Paul II celebrated a mass in Reims in 1996 in honour of the 15thcentenary of his baptism.

MEROVINGIAN KINGS OF THE FRANKS
AD 476 - 751

The Frankish leader, Clovis, united the Salians with the Ripuarian(Eastern) Franks and they were converted to Christianity in 497. Theirkingdom expanded under Clovis and his sons to include Neustria (northernFrance), Austrasia (Netherlands, Austria, northern Germany), Burgundy andProvence by 714.The Franks quickly became the dominant Germanic tribe innot only Gaul but throughout Central and Western Europe. The territorybetween modern-day France and Germany, and south to Central Italy, becameknown as Francia. The kingdoms this eventually encompassed included WestFrancia (France), East Francia (eventually to emerge as Germany),Burgundy, Lombardy, Lotharingia / Lorraine (only briefly an independentkingdom before it splintered into various interrelated principalities,known as the Stem Duchies), and the Papal States (which started life asthe Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna), which were centered on Rome. All ofthis territory was part of the Empire of Charlemagne.

General Notes:

"Clovis's most significant achievement was not the conquest of largeparts of Gaul but the elimination of all rivals to his kingship." EDWARDJAMES

Frankish king of the Merovingian line, who established Frankish powerover Roman Gaul, and whose conversion to orthodox Christianity securedgreat advantages over possible rivals, gaining complete cooperation oforthodox clergy.

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

The Germanic peoples who entered the Roman Empire over a period ofcenturies--encountering and overcoming existing social, political, andmilitary institutions--underwent many changes. The Franks were theproduct of some of these changes. One of their greatest kings, Clovis I,who inherited his throne when only 15, was more than a product of histimes: he was a remarkably successful, single-minded, and ruthless leaderwho made full use of Romanized institutions and Germanic custom insolidifying and expanding the power and territory he inherited from hisfather, Childeric.

The Franks were not included among the tribes or "nations" enumerated bythe Roman and Greek historians who saw and described the early Germans.The result of a coalition of some Germanic peoples who settled in theRhine Valley, the Franks developed distinctive weapons (i.e., theFrancobard--a battle axe), their own dialect (now known as EarlyFrankish), and an ability to adapt to changing conditions. Because theirwar chieftains wore their hair long (possibly daring enemies to approachand take hold of it during battle), they became known as the "Long-HairedKings."

Roman Gaul, and parts of the Rhine Valley and lands north and west ofthat river, had been infiltrated by Germanic peoples for severalcenturies since the time of Julius Caesar. By the fifth century, thosepeople who had become known as Franks had settled down in two distinctgroupings in the Rhine Valley. To the northwest, in the area known todayas Belgium and the Netherlands, the so-called Salian Franks held sway.The adjectival descriptor of Salian was given by Romans and referred tothe source of their economic power: the salt flats near the mouth of theRhine and the North Sea shores. Salt was a precious commodity in thosedays. Further up-river were the Ripuarian Franks, related throughlanguage, custom, and probably intermarriage. Their name was also derivedfrom the Latin and signified that they lived on the river banks.

The first so-called king of the Salian Franks, named Merovech (Merovecs,Merovic, Meroveus), received his power from at least two sources: descentfrom a tribal hero and confirmation of his leadership by a Roman orRoman-appointed official in northern Gaul. Probably a war chieftain whowore his hair long and braided in the Frankish-Germanic manner,Merovech's descendants became known as Merovingians. The first of thesewas presumably Clovis's father Childeric I, whose richly appointed gravewas discovered in Tournai (located in present-day Belgium near the Frenchborder) in 1653, complete with Roman, Byzantine, Hunnic, and Germanicarticles in gold, bejeweled, and with coins and seals which clearlyindicated the identity of the body. It is thought that Childeric died in481 or 482.

The rule of Clovis over the Salian Franks was noteworthy for severalreasons: he acquired and improved on the power and position he inheritedfrom Childeric; he effected a union of Salian and Ripuarian Franks; heobtained, by conquest or diplomacy, lands and peoples of adjacent"kingdoms" including Gauls, Alemanni, Thuringians, Armoricans (Bretons),and Visigoths, creating a kingdom that included much of what is todayFrance, Belgium, and Netherlands, as well as parts of western Germany.

Many of his predecessors, in the act of conquest, either expelled orslaughtered the inhabitants of areas they acquired by war. Clovis didnot. He seems to have made a conscious effort to include these conqueredpeoples under his rule, thereby gaining taxpaying subjects together withthe products of their industry. One of the results of this policy was adistinct change in social and political practices among the Franks, whoadopted many Roman or Gallo-Roman ways.

The reign of Clovis may be seen as a period of considerable warfare. Italso marks the foundations of the early French nation. Not all of theinnovations were intentional; it is more likely that they were incidentalto the desire to avoid unnecessary conflict which could dilute Clovis'salmost single-minded objective of acquisition and subjugation ofneighboring peoples and lands. To this end, Clovis affected Roman dressand manners when useful, authorized the drafting of laws based on Romanmodels, and adopted the religion of the majority of his new subjects:orthodox Christianity.

The first of his conquests was the area under the rule of Syagrius,reportedly a Gallo-Roman who ruled the remnants of Roman Gaul. The20-year-old Clovis defeated the forces of Syagrius (mostly Germanicwarriors) near the site of present-day Soissons, forcing Syagrius to fleeto the protection of Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, located in thesouth of what is now France. But on demand, Alaric quickly surrenderedSyagrius, and Clovis secretly had the defeated king executed.

A Germanic tribe called the Thuringians lived in a large area to thenortheast of the Gallo-Roman and Frankish-controlled lands. Clovis's nexttarget was a smaller group of Thuringians who had settled in themiddle-Rhine Valley; he defeated them in 491.

Sometime after the Thuringian conquest, Clovis's representatives, whilevisiting the Burgundian kingdom (to the southeast), discovered PrincessClotilde, one of two surviving daughters of a king named Chilperic, whohad been killed by his brother Gundobad (or Gundobald). Since the brotherhad also drowned Clotilda's mother, the princess was in danger. But whenthe emissaries saw Clotilda and remarked on her beauty and intelligenceto Clovis, he persuaded Gundobad to approve her removal to his kingdom,where she married the Frankish ruler and became his queen.

Clovis Converts to Orthodox Christianity:

Now Clotilda was orthodox Christian. In fact, the bulk of the Gallo-Romanpopulation was orthodox Christian. But many of the Germanic peoplesalready living within what had been the Roman Empire were ArianChristians. Adjudicated a heresy by the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325,Arianism rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and held that Christ wasmortal. Orthodox Christianity in the fifth and sixth centuries believedin a Triune God and the Deity of Jesus Christ and was followed by thosewho looked to Rome and to Constantinople for their religious leadership.(A later break between Rome and the East would produce the divisionsknown as Catholic and Greek Orthodox.) In the time of Clovis, orthodoxyprevailed in most of western Christendom, excepting the area inhabited bythe Visigoths and some Ostrogothic remnants in Italy. Bringing with herorthodox Christian clergy, Clotilda lost little time working on her mateto convince him of the error of his ways. But it was not until Clovisencountered the Germanic tribe known as the Alemanni that he made anyovert gesture in favor of Christianity.

Occupying an area which today would include much of the Upper RhineValley, a sizable group of the Alemanni had begun to press westward. Inan effort to halt that expansion, Clovis, with his Salian Franks andnewly allied Ripuarian Franks, moved into the valley of the Moselle Riverto a place called Tolbiacum where they met a large force of Alemanni.According to Gregory, the late sixth-century bishop of Tours who wrotethe history of the Franks, Clovis's forces were in danger of defeat whenhe called upon the God of his queen to help him, promising to convert toChristianity if he won. At that point, the Alemanni broke and ran. SinceClovis was apparently a man of his word, he began immediate arrangementswith Remigius (Remì), orthodox bishop of Rheims, and along with some3,000 of his warriors, was baptized in a ceremony at Rheims on Christmasday, in the year 496 (or 497 or 506). (The Christmas date may be theforerunner of the Frankish tradition to accomplish great things on thatday.) It was this same bishop who had written to Clovis in 481-82,praising him for continuation of his father's policies and recommendingthat he follow the advice of his Christian bishops.

The conversion to orthodox Christianity gave Clovis a decided advantageover all other candidates for high positions in western Christendom. Thebulk of the population in the Christian West was not Germanic but Romanand Gallo-Roman. Encouraged by the clergy, they gave their loyalty toClovis and his descendants, first as orthodox Christians, then asCatholics. The mastery gained by Clovis over the Armoricans wasdiplomatic rather than military. Armorica was the name given by theRomans to the coastal district of western Gaul which included much of thepeninsula of Brittany and portions of what is now Normandy, Anjou, andMaine from the Seine to the Loire rivers. It is doubtful that even Cloviscould have conquered the Armoricans, since their history was one ofrugged independence. The success of Clovis in this matter is bothsurprising and decisive, the more so since it gave him positionaladvantage for his next step, which was subjugation of the Visigothickingdom in southern Gaul.

The Visigoth campaign was relatively lengthy. The most decisive battletook place in 507 at Vouillé, near Poitiers, where King Alaric II waskilled. Although some further fighting was necessary to complete thetask, the death of Alaric sealed the fate of the kingdom and ensuredClovis an unchallenged future.

He Promulgates the Salic Law:

With the Visigoths out of the way, Clovis could concentrate on cleanup.He authorized the drafting and promulgation of the Pactus Legis Salicae,the Salic (or Salian) Law which was to govern the Franks for centuries tocome. This is roughly the same period which saw the production ofJustinian's Code in Byzantium--the Eastern Roman Empire. The Burgundians,too, had worked at the fashioning of a law code to govern the kingdom.The accomplishment of Clovis in culminating his rule of some 30 yearswith the publication of the Salic Law is equal in importance with histerritorial acquisitions and his religious alignment. When Clovis died atage 55 in the year 511, his death set another precedent: he was interredin Paris, presaging the position that city was to hold in the future forFrance.

His was a charismatic leadership. The military victories, the politicalachievements, the social advances which witnessed the differingpeoples--Germanic, Gallic, and Roman--settling and living in closeproximity and in relative peace, laid the groundwork for the later HolyRoman Empire and the concept of a unified state that included manycultural and linguistic differences.

There can be little doubt that Clovis was a blunt, direct, forcefulleader, who had good counsel and listened to it. He benefited from theadvice of men who were older and more experienced than he. It is alsoobvious that he possessed an instinctive flair for doing the right thingat the right time. Even though, following a strong Germanic tradition, hedivided his kingdom among four surviving sons when he died, the precedentfor unification was there and it manifested itself several times in thecenturies ahead. The Belgian historian, Pirenne, has said that withoutMohammed (the prophet of Islam) there would have been no Charlemagne(also king of the Franks). It is entirely probable that without Clovisthere would also have been no Charlemagne.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name variations: Chlodovechs; Clodovic. Probable date of birth, 466; diedin 511; son of King Childeric; descendant of Merovech, "legendary" kingof Franks, from whom Merovingian line takes its name; married: Clotilda(Chlothilde, Chrotechildis; a Burgundian princess); children: (four; eachinherited portion of kingdom) Theodoric, Chlodomer, Childebert, Chlothar.

Please let me know if you have any questions..or know of any errors, changes, this is ongoing research..and ever growing orchard of family branches

"Clovis I, in German, Chlodwig (c. 466-511), king of the Franks (481-511) and first important ruler of the Meovingian dynasty.  He succeeded his father, Childeric I, as king of the Salian Franks.  His career focused largely on forging the Salian Franks on the northern Rhine River and the Ripuarian Franks on the lower Rhine into a single dominion.  He began with a victory in 486 over Syagrius, the last Roman governor in northern Gaul.  By 493, when he married the Bourguignon, princess Clotilda (later canonized as St. Clotilda), Clovis had defeated many petty princes whose territories had surrounded his capital at Soissons.  He next came into conflict in 496 with the confederation of Germanic tribes known as the Alamanni, who inhabited land east of his domains.  According to legend, it was only by invoking the God of his Christian wife, Clotilda, that he defeated his enemy.  Clotilda was almost certainly instrumental in Clovis's conversion to Christianity, and he was baptized in 496.  He became the champion of orthodox Christians in every part of Gaul and was supported effectively by the church in all his campaigns.  He continued to fight the Alamanni, who were completely conquered by 506; the next year the Visigoths were decisively defeated when their king, Alaric II, was killed by Clovis in a battle near Poitiers.  Clovis made Paris the capital of the Frankish kingdom, which at that time included most of present-day France and southwestern Germany.  According to Salian custom, he divided his kingdom among his four sons."

Source: Microsoft (R) Encarta (R) 90 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corp.

The Merovingian Dynasty

....dynasty of kings that ruled the Franks, a Germanic tribe, fro 481 to 751.  The first Merovingian ruler was Clovis I, who enlarged his kingdom to include most of present-day France and part of Germany.  The last strong Merovingian monarch was Dagobert I, who ruled from 629 to 639. Under his successors the Frankish kingdom became decentralized.  Royal power gradually gave way to the noble families, the most important of which was the Carolingian.  The Carolingians held the office of mayor of the palace and after 639 were kings in all but name.

Source: Encarta (R) 98 Desk Encyclopedia. (c) 1996-1997 Microsoft Corp.