General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> King
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 9GBL-KP
Merovingian and Carolingian age
The Merovingians
The grandsons of Clovis
At the death of Chlotar I (561) the Frankish kingdom, which had become the most powerful state in the west, was once again divided, this time between his four sons. The partition agreement, based on that of 511, dealt with more extensive territories. Guntram received the eastern part of the former kingdom of Orléans, enlarged by the addition of Burgundy. Charibert I's share was fashioned from the old kingdom of Paris (Seine and English Channel districts), augmented in the south by the western section of the old kingdom of Orléans (lower Loire valley) and the Aquitaine Basin. Sigebert I received the kingdom of Reims, extended to include the new German conquests; a portion of the Massif Central (Auvergne) and the Provençal territory (Marseille) were added to his share. Chilperic I's portion was reduced to the kingdom of Soissons.
The death of Charibert (567) resulted in still a further partition. Chilperic, the principal beneficiary, received the lower Seine district, including a large tract of the English Channel coast. The remainder, most notably Aquitaine and the area around Bayeux, was divided in a complex manner; and Paris was subject to joint possession. The partitions of 561 and 567, which reaffirmed the division of Francia, were the sources of innumerable intrigues and family struggles, especially between, on the one hand, Chilperic I, his wife Fredegund, and their children, who controlled northwestern Francia, and, on the other hand, Sigebert I, his wife Brunhild, and their descendants, the masters of northeastern Francia.

The shrinking of the frontiers and peripheral areas
These events undermined the Frankish hegemony. In Brittany the Franks maintained control of the eastern region but had to cope with raids by the Bretons, who had established heavily populated settlements in the western part of the peninsula. To the southwest the Gascons, a highland people from the Pyrenees, had been driven northward by the Visigoths in 578 and settled in Novempopulana; in spite of several Frankish expeditions, this area was not subdued. In the south the Franks were unable to gain control of Septimania; they tried to accomplish this by means of diplomatic agreements, which were buttressed by dynastic intermarriage, and by military campaigns occasioned by religious differences (the Visigothic kings were Arians). In the southeast the Lombards, who had recently arrived in Italy, made several raids on Gaul (569, 571, 574); Frankish expeditions into Italy (584, 585, 588, 590), led by Childebert II, were without result. Meanwhile the Avars, a people of undetermined origin who settled along the Danube in the second half of the 6th century, threatened the eastern frontier; in 568 they took Sigebert prisoner, and in 596 they attacked Thuringia, forcing Brunhild to purchase their departure.

Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.died 567 or 568, Paris



king of the Franks, the eldest son of Chlotar I and Ingund. He shared in the partition of the Frankish kingdom that followed his father's death in 561, receiving the old kingdom of Childebert I, with its capital at Paris. Eloquent and learned in the law, he was yet loose-living and died excommunicate. At his death his brothers Guntram, Sigebert I, and Chilperic I shared his realm between them; a tripartite division of the lands north of the Loire thenceforth remained normal, the areas concerned being the east (Austrasia), the west (the future Neustria), and Burgundy.

Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.