Clovis
Clovis I (466 - 511) was King of the Salian Franks, which German tribe had originally settled upon the right bank of the river Rhine, but who had penetrated as far as Tournay (where Clovis's father Childeric was buried) and Cambray.[1]
In 486 AD Clovis and his army invaded Gaul and defeated Syagrius at Soissons. The result of this victory was the subjugation of those provinces which had previously been considered Roman. The Emperor at Constantinople conferred upon Clovis the titles of Consul and Patrician, reconciling the conqueror to his new masters. In 496 AD Clovis defeated the Alemanni in a great battle at Zulpich, near Cologne. In consequence of a vow, it is said, made during this engagement, and at the instigation of his wife, Clotilda, Princess of Burgundy, he converted to Christianity. A clever move, this brought the Christians of Gaul behind him. In 507 AD he attacked Alaric (an Arian), King of the Visigoths, and, by one great victory near Poitiers overthrew their little empire in Gaul and reduced them to a narrow strip of coast between the river Rhone and the Pyrenees mountains. The last exploits of Clovis were the reduction of certain independent chiefs of his own tribe and family, who were settled in the neighbourhood of the Rhine or were put to death.[2]
Clovis left four sons: one illegitimate, or at least born before his conversion to Christianity; and three by his Queen, Clotilda. Upon his death these four made what they said was an equal partition of his dominions, which comprehended not just those in France, but the western and central parts of Germania, besides Bavaria, and perhaps Swabia, which were governed by their own dependent hereditary chiefs. Thierry, the eldest. had Austrasia, the eastern or German division, and fixed his capital at Metz; Clodomir, at Orleans; Childebert, at Paris, and Clotaire, at Soissons.[3]
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