King of the Salian Franks 456-481 Childeric succeeded his semi-legendary father Merovech as king of the Salian Franks of northern Gaul in 456, during Roman times. He became infatuated with the daughters of his subjects, who were so incensed about this that they forced him to give up the throne. He discovered that they intended to assassinate him, and he fled to Thuringia, leaving a close friend and telling him to send him a message when Childeric could return to his kingdom. Childeric took refuge with Bisinus, King of the Thuringian Franks, and his wife Basina. The king elected by the Franks was cruel, and soon after Childeric was re-called to his kingdom by his friend, and was restored to the throne. Once Bisinus and Childeric were both kings, Basina deserted her husband and went to live with Childeric, who married her and had a son Clovis. After a battle with Odoacer, King of the Saxons (and conquerer of the Western Roman Empire, 476), at Orleans, Childeric and the Saxon king made a peace treaty and together subdued the Alamanni, who had invaded a part of Italy. In 481 Childeric died and was succeeded by Clovis, his son by Basina.
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King of Soissons 561-584 When Chlotar, King of the Franks, died in 561 he divided the kingdom among his four sons: Chilperic received Soissons. Right away, in 562, Chilperic invaded the lands of his brother King Sigebert I of Metz, thus starting the civil wars. Sigebert advanced all the way to the city of Soissons, exiled Chilperic's son Theudebert, and forced a peace treaty out of Chilperic. In 567, their brother King Charibert I of Paris died, the kingdom was partitioned among the two and their other brother King Guntram of Burgundy, and Chilperic immediately invaded Sigebert's legal share, but was defeated. Chilperic next allied with Guntram against Sigebert (who was in the midst of a war with Guntram). As hostilities mounted, Guntram swiched his alliance to Sigebert and Chilperic surrendered. The same exact thing happened the next year, 575, when Guntram again allied with Chilperic. That year, Sigebert died and left his kingdom to his son Childebert II. Chilperic banished Sigebert's wife Brunhild, took her money, and imprisoner her daughters. Chilperic then renewed hostilities with Guntram. In that year, Guntram's general Mummolus defeated Duke Desidarius, Chilperic's senior general. In 577, Guntram and Childebert made an alliance, demanding all of the lands Chilperic took from them. When the dysentery epidemic swept through Gaul in 580, Chilperic not only lost two sons but became ill himself. However, by the next year he was doing better and was able to make peace with Childebert. That year, as Chilperic had no sons of his own, he named his nephew, King Childebert II of Austrasia, his successor. A war with Guntram began and ended this year in which Duke Desidarius took many cities from the kingdom of Burgundy. In 582, Chilperic and Fredegund had another son, Theuderic, who died two years later. In 584, Chilperic was assassinated. He died at peace with his brother Guntram and at war with his nephew and alleged successor Childebert, but left a son born that very year: Chlotar.
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King of the Salian Franks 426-447 Semi-legendary King of the Salian Franks and father of Merovech, founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. Called ", the Long Hair" or ", the Hairy" because of the length of his hair. From then on the Merovingians were called the "Long Haired Kings" and the cutting of a king's hair represented his loss of royal power. According to legend his father was Pharamond (r.409-426), the first King of the Salian Franks after the departure of the Romans from Gaul. In history, Clodio was probably real. He lived in Thuringian territory, and ruled at the same time as the semi-legendary kings Theudemer and Richemer. All that is known of his reign is that he took the town of Cambrai from the Romans. He was succeeded by his semi-legendary son Merovech. (Unlike Merovech and Clodio, Childeric I, Merovech's son, was very real and cannot be considered fictional.)
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King of the Salian Franks 481-486 King of the Franks 486-511 Clovis inherited his father's kingdom in 481, at which time he unified the Salian and Ripurian Franks. In 486 he defeated the Roman general Syagrius who ruled northern Gaul out of Soissons. By 493 he married the Burgundian princess Clotilda. In 496, after defeating the Alamanni, he was baptized, thus becoming the first Christian ruler of post-Roman Gaul. By 506 the Alamanni were subdued, and the next year Clovis finished his expansion by taking Aquitaine from the weak Visigothic king Alaric II. On Clovis' death in 511, the kingdom was split between Chlodomer (Orleans), Childebert (Paris), Chlotar (Soissons), and Theuderic (Metz).
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King of Soissons 511-558 King of Austrasia 555-558 King of the Franks 558-561 Son of Clovis I, King of the Franks, he inherited Soissons on his death in 511. He, with his four brothers, attacked and defeated Burgundy under the kings Sigisbert and Godomar early in his reign. With his oldest brother Theuderic I, King of Metz, he attacked the Thuringian Franks under King Hermanfrid, took the kingdom, and took his daughter Radegund. Next, with his brother Childebert I, King of Paris, Chlotar murdered his nephews who were under the care of Queen Clotilda his mother. When Theuderic died, the kingdom was up for grabs. Chlotar and Childebert each received only a small part, the most of it going to Theudebert, his son. In 555, Theudebald, who had succeeded his father Theudebert in Austrasia, died, and Austrasia passed to Chlotar. When Childebert died in 558, Paris fell to Chlotar as well, thus making him sole ruler of the Franks. When Chlotar died in 561, the kingdom was divided among his 4 living sons: Charibert (Paris), Guntram (Burgundy), Chilperic (Soissons), and Sigebert (Metz).
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King of Soissons 584-613 King of the Franks 613-629 When his father, King Chilperic I of Soissons died in 584, Chlotar was not yet even born. Until 597, his kingdom was administered by his mother, Queen Fredegund, but when she died that year he bagan to rule for himself, now 13 years old. In 613, the Austrasian and Burgundian kings, Theudebert II and Theuderic II respectively, had died, and Queen Brunhild had placed the young Sigebert II on the throne of those two kingdoms. That year, the 29 year old Chlotar had Sigebert and Brunhild killed, and became the first king of all the Franks since his grandfather Chlotar I died in 561. In 615, Chlotar passed the Edict of Paris, a sort of French Magna Carta that greatly pleased the nobles across the kingdom. In 623, he gave the kingdom of Austrasia to his young son Dagobert I, which was a political move giving Pepin I, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, and Bishop Arnulf of Metz, the two leading Austrasian nobles, semi-autonomy for their loyalty to Chlotar. In 629, Chlotar died and Dagobert became sole king, moving his capital from Austrasia to Paris.
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King of Austrasia 623-632 King of the Franks 629-639 In 623, Dagobert's father, Chlotar II, King of the Franks, made him king of Austrasia to please the leading Austrasian nobles: Mayor of the Palace Pepin I and Saint Arnulf, Bishop of Metz. When Chlotar died in 629, Dagobert became sole King of the Franks, and he moved his capital from Austrasia to Paris. Later, Dagobert left the council of Pepin for a more flexible Neustrian Mayor of the Palace. In 632, he was forced to put his three-year old son Sigebert on the throne of Austrasia as the nobles were in revolt, however Pepin was not made his Mayor of the Palace. The Neustrian nobles then wished to unite with Burgundy, and so they urged Dagobert to put his son Clovis II as king of both those kingdoms, although he was only 5 years old and could be easily manipulated by the nobles. When Dagobert died in 639, the nobles of the kingdoms controlled both his sons, now puppet kings.
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King of the Salian Franks 447-456 Semi-legendary early Frankish king for whom the Merovingian Dynasty is named (Meroveus in Latin).
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Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia 741-751 King of the Franks 751-768 When his father Charles Martel died in 741, Pepin III and his brother Carloman succeeded as joing Mayors of the Palace of Austrasia. In 746, Carloman abdicated and became a monk, leaving Pepin to rule all of Austrasia on his own. In 750, Pepin received papal permission from Pope Zachary to take the Frankish crown from King Childeric III. In 751, Zachary formerly deposed Childeric, and Pepin became the first Caroliginian king of the Franks. In 753, Pope Stephen went to Gaul to affirm Pepin's crown. In 755, on Stephen's wishes, Pepin attacked the Lombards of Italy who were harrasing the Roman See, and peace was made. The next year, the Lombard king again marauded near Rome, was again defeated, and again made peace with Pepin. That year, Pepin promised the Church Frankish protection, thus breaking ties with the Eastern Empire that were only needed for Italian safety. In 760, Pepin and Duke Waifar of independent Aquitaine started a war which lasted many years. In 764, both sides were tired, and the war took a one year break. Pepin launched a final campaign against Aquitaine in 766 with full force, Aquitaine was defeated, and Waifar and his family were executed. By 768, the year Pepin died, Aquitaine had been completely conquered.
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King of the Ostrogoths 474-526 From ages 7 to 17 he was a Byzantine prisoner, but returned to his father's kingdom after and became king in 474 at the death of his father. Between 474 and 488, Theodoric and the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno fought each other. In 488 Theodoric, while allied with Zeno, invaded Italy (at the time under the Germanic king Odoacer), which was taken in three battles. Odoacer surrendered in 493, and was slain by Theodoric. While Theodoric was Arian, he tolerated all sects of Christianity. Theodoric was succeeded on this death in 526 by his daughter Amalasuntha as regent for her son Athalaric
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