Merovingian dynasty

San Remigio baptizing Clodoveo I, founder of the Merovingian dynasty.
Oil on board of the Master of San Gil.

The Merovingian dynasty was a family of Germanic ancestry that ruled present-day France, Belgium, a part of Germany and Switzerland, from the middle of the century V until 751, when the last Merovingian king Childeric III was deposed by Pepin the Short, from the Carolingian dynasty. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army in northern Gaul. By the year 509 they had already united all the Franks and Romans in northern Gaul under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule to Recia (537). In Germany, the Alemanni, the Bavarians and the Saxons accepted his lordship. The Merovingian kingdom was the largest and most powerful of the Western European states after the dissolution of Theodoric the Great's empire.

The dynastic name, in Medieval Latin Merovingi or Merohingii (“sons of Merovean”), derives from an unattested Frankish form, close to that attested in Old English Merewīowing, the final -ing being a typical Germanic patronymic suffix. The name derives from King Meroveo, a Frankish military leader. This was the founder of the dynasty and he also gave it his name, and many legends surround him. Unlike Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, the Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were considered holy kings.

The long hair of the Merovingians distinguished them from the Franks, who tended to have very short hair. They were sometimes referred to by contemporaries as the "long-haired kings" (reges criniti in Latin). A Merovingian with short hair could not rule, and a rival could be removed from the succession by being tonsured and sent to a monastery. The Merovingians also used a different breed of names. One of his names, Clovis (Clovis), evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty until the 19th century.

The first historical representative of the Merovingian dynasty, Childeric I (died 481), son of Meroveus, ruled the ancient Roman province of Second Belgium which included the territories of Ciuitas Remorum, Ciuitas Suessionum, Ciuitas Veromanduorum, Ciuitas Atrebatium, Ciuitas Silvanectum, Ciuitas Bellovacorum, Ciuitas Ambianensium, also known as Ambianorum, Ciuitas Morinorum, Ciuitas Camaracensium, ancient c. Nerviorum, Ciuitas Catalaunorum and Ciuitas Bononensium. His son Clovis I (d. 511) converted to Christianity, united the Franks, and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated his kingdom as unique but divisible. The four sons of Clovis divided the kingdom among themselves and it remained divided—with the exception of four brief periods (558-561, 613-623, 629-634, 673-675)—until the year 679. After that, only divided once more (717-718). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy, and Aquitaine.

During the last century of Merovingian rule, kings were increasingly relegated to a ceremonial role. Royal power was increasingly in the hands of the palace steward, the highest-ranking official under the king. In 656, the steward Grimoald I attempted to place his son Childebert on the throne of Austrasia. Grimoald was arrested and executed, but his son ruled until 662, when the Merovingian dynasty was restored. When King Theodoric IV died in 737, the steward Charles Martel continued to rule the kingless kingdoms until his death in 741. The dynasty was restored again in 743, but in 751 Charles's son Pepin the Short He deposed the last king, Childeric III, and had himself crowned, inaugurating the Carolingian dynasty.

Introduction

The Frank kingdoms in 511

Merovingian kings

Government

The Merovingian basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in Metz capital of Austrasia

The Merovingian king redistributed the conquered wealth among his followers, both material wealth and land, including the indentured peasantry, though these powers were not absolute. As Rouche points out, "when he died, his property was divided equally among his heirs as if it were private property: the kingdom was a form of patrimony". [10] Some scholars have attributed this to the Merovingians' lack of a sense of res publica, but other historians have criticized this view as an oversimplification.

The kings appointed the magnates to be comites (counts), entrusting them with the defense, administration and judgment of disputes. This happened against the backdrop of a newly isolated Europe without its Roman systems of taxation and bureaucracy, administration having been taken over by the Franks as they gradually penetrated fully Romanized western and southern Gaul. Counts had to provide armies, enlisting their milites and giving them land in return. These armies were subject to the king's call for military support. The annual national assemblies of the nobles and their armed servants decided the main war policies. The army also hailed the new kings by raising them on their shields, continuing an ancient practice that made the king the leader of the warrior band. In addition, the king was expected to support himself from the proceeds of his private domain (royal domain), which was called fisc. This system eventually became feudalism, and expectations of royal self-sufficiency lasted until the Hundred Years War. Trade declined with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and agricultural holdings were mostly self-sufficient. The rest of the international trade was dominated by traders from the Middle East, often Jewish Radhanites.

Law

Merovingian law is not a universal law equally applicable to all; it was applied to each man according to his origin: the Ripuarian Franks were subject to their own Lex Ripuaria codified at a late date, [11] while the so-called Lex Salica (Salic Law) of the Salian clans, first tentatively codified in 511 [12 ] was invoked under medieval demands already in the Valois era. In this, the Franks lagged behind the Burgundians and the Visigoths, who did not have a Roman-based universal law. In the Merovingian era, the law remained in the memorization of the Raquimburgos, who memorized all the precedents on which it was based, since the Merovingian law did not admit the concept of creating a new law, only that of maintaining tradition. Nor did their Germanic traditions offer any code of civil law required of urbanized society, such as the one Justinian I had assembled and promulgated in the Byzantine Empire. The few surviving Merovingian edicts are almost entirely concerned with establishing divisions of estates between heirs.

Currency

Coin of Theudebert I 534–548

Byzantine coinage was in use in France before Theudebert I began minting his own money early in his reign. He was the first to issue clearly Merovingian coins. On gold coins minted in his royal workshop, Theudebert is shown wearing the pearl-studded regalia of the Byzantine emperor; Childebert I appears in profile in the ancient style, wearing a toga and diadem. Solidus and triens were minted in France between 534 and 679. The denarius (or denier) appeared later, in the names of Childeric II and various non-royals around 673–675. A Carolingian denarius replaced the Merovingian and Frisian scripts in Gaul from 755 to the 11th century.

Merovingian coins are on display at the Monnaie de Paris in Paris; there are Merovingian gold coins in the Bibliothèque Nationale Cabinet des Médailles.

Historiography and sources

A limited number of contemporary sources describe the history of the Merovingian Franks, but those that survive cover the entire period from the Clovis succession to the deposition of Childeric. The first of the chroniclers of the time is the canonized Bishop of Tours, Gregory of Tours. His Decem Libri Historiarum is a primary source for the reigns of Clotaire II's sons and his descendants up to Gregory's own death in 594, but it should be read from the pro- church of its author.

The next major source, much less organized than Gregory's work, is the Fredegar Chronicle, begun by Fredegar but continued by unknown authors. It covers the period from 584 to 641, although its followers, under Carolingian patronage, extended it to 768, after the close of the Merovingian era. It is the only primary narrative source for much of his period. Since its restoration in 1938 it has been housed in the Ducal Collection of the Staatsbibliothek Binkelsbingen. The only other important contemporary source 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 the sixth year of Theuderic IV which would be the 727. It was widely read; though it was certainly the work of Arnulfing and his biases make it misleading (for example, regarding the two decades between the controversies surrounding the mayors Grimoald the Elder and Ebroin: 652-673).

Apart from these chronicles, the only surviving reservoirs of historiography are letters, capitulants, and the like. Clerics such as Gregory and Sulpicius the Pious wrote letters, although relatively few survive. Edicts, concessions and judicial decisions survive, as well as the famous Lex Salica mentioned above. Many examples of the royal position as supreme judge and final arbitrator survive from the reign of Clotaire II and Dagobert I. Biographical lives of saints of the time also survive, for example Saint Eligio and Leodegar, written shortly after the death of their subjects.

Finally, archaeological evidence cannot be ignored as a source of information, at least, about the Frankish way of life. Among the greatest discoveries of lost property was the accidental discovery in 1653 of the tomb of Childeric I in the church of Saint Brice in Tournai. Objects in the tomb included a gilded bull's head and the famous gilded insects (perhaps bees, cicadas, aphids, or flies) upon which Napoleon modeled his coronation robe. In 1957, the grave of a Merovingian woman believed at the time to be the second wife of Clotaire I, Aregund, was discovered in the Basilica of Saint Denis in Paris. The funerary clothing and jewelry were reasonably well preserved, giving us an idea of the dress of the time. Beyond these actual individuals, the Merovingian period is associated with the Reihengräber archaeological culture.