The Royals who successfully murdered their way out of history
The Merovingian fratricidal war, birth pains of France
Notabene: dates are not always accurate, names have multiple spellings. Our sources are numerically more abundant than expected, accuracy is modest, not always perfect. We meet many a king, whereas today we would rather use the word warlord.
With the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the west, beginning around 400 AC, local warriors had to defend themselves against invading peoples such as the Huns. In the north, one of these was Merovech (411–457), whose son Childeric I. called himself king of the Salian Franks. His son and successor Clovis/Chlodwig died in Paris on Nov. 27, 511, at the age of 45. During his life he had murdered in droves, either by his own hand or by his intrigues — but he is credited with being the first Christian king in the Frankish Empire, although he did not live precisely that way.
One of the his first victims was Siagrius, a rival Frankish king whom Clovis stabbed (Clovis/Chlodwig/Ludwig/Louis = note the variation in names). In the neighboring kingdom of Burgundy, Clovis tried to sow discord: Gundegisel was to get rid of his co-ruling brothers, which partially succeeded: Gundemar, burned in his besieged castle and Chilperic stabbed (a Burgundian -the same name will reappear with other persons below), together with his sons, his wife thrown into a river with a stone at her neck. Criminal plot: it remained with Gundegisel’s attempt, because Gundebad, the last of the four brothers, killed him.
Gundebad’s son Sigismond then had his own son Sigéric/Sigerich strangled, but is himself eliminated by Clodomer, king of Orléans, who in turn fell in the battle of Vézeronce (524) against Sigismond’s brother Gundemar.
Sigebert, king of Cologne and his son Clodoric was then eliminated by Clovis ((more precisely: Clovis motivated Clodoric to kill his father Sigebert first), Sigebert’s other son Childebert was poisoned together with his wife, either by his mother Brunhilda, from the royal house of the Visigoths, or by Fredegund, Chilperic’s wife — wife of the king of Neustria, she comes to another role below. If Brunhilda sounds familiar to you: some of this family history has been incorporated into the Nibelungenlied. In Richard Wagner’s opera “Valkyrie”, however, only the name Brünnhilde, with a completely different role description.
Other corpses that paved Clovis’ path: Cararic, a Frankish king from the valley of the Somme and his son; Ragnacaire, king of Cambrai and his brother Riguier; Renomer, king of Mans and his brother, but also Theodebert, an obviously not very beloved son of Clovis himself. Among the beloved, because surviving, four sons the kingdom was then divided as equally as possible according to Salic law: Theuderic and his half-brothers Chlodomer, Childebert and Chlothar, who was not yet 12 years old.
Two more children were later murdered by their half (?) brother Clotaire/Chlothar, who also killed his own son Chramne, together with two grandsons and their mother Chalda from Aquitaine. It seems like a reward for this killing spree that he succeeded Clovis as king Chlothar I. (497–561). Munderic, a nobleman from Champagne attempted a palace revolt, but was killed by order of Clovis’ son Theuderich/Théodéric/Théodoric/Thierry.
Two kings from Thuringia (where Clovis’ mother Basina came from): Baderic and Berthar are murdered by their brother Hermenfroy/Hermanfrid, but the latter has Theuderich/Théodéric toppled from the battlements of his castle at Tolbiac/Zülpich near Cologne.
Berthar’s son Alamafroy is killed by his brother-in-law Chlothar I., who has already been mentioned as the murderer of his own descendants. Chlothar, however, still has enough children to be able to prove obviously successful succession politics with Sigebert, king of Austrasia (the eastern part of northern France) and Chilperic, king of Neustria (the western part of northern France) — who will be surprised, that both fought each other in the consequence. Chilperic, however, murdered his wife Gailswintha, who was a sister of Brunhilda, at the instigation of his concubine Fredegund, who was already mentioned above. Fredegund was now queen of Neustria.
But this did not simplify the course of events, for Chlothar had 2 other sons: Guntram and Charibert, who in turn ruled over other parts of the Frankish Empire. Guntram must have tried to escape the murderous curse of the Merovingian clan, because after Sigebert’s death he took care of his son Childebert. No ! he did not murder him, but adopted him. But nothing good resulted from this: later Childebert fought with the murderous Chilperic against his adoptive uncle Guntram. The family feud continues: after a successful attempt on Chilperic’s life by unknown hands, Queen Fredegund fled with the son Chlothar (II) to Guntram, who obviously was willing to continue playing the role of the good guy.
Childebert then became king in Reims, Two sons are known : Theudebert II and Theuderic. The next war broke out between Chlothar II and Theuderic. From Chilperic eleven children are known (with three wives a comprehensible number): among others Theudebert, Merovech and another Clovis. This Theudebert, as the firstborn, was murdered by a younger brother Theuderic, instigated by Brunhilda, already presented above as the perpetrator.
Theudebert had two sons, named after their uncles, thus again a Clovis, again a Merovech — but the disfavored Theuderic did not let them live either. Theuderic’s fate didn’t end as a successful model either: Brunhilda then poisoned him too. It is astonishing that she was still free to rampage in the castles. The fate of his four sons was doomed: Sigebert II and Corbus were murdered, this time by Clothar II, Chilperic II disappeared in the darkness of the past, Merovech IV died in the monastery, several years later. Now Dagobert I. (603–639) appears, son of the other killer king Clothar II — obliged to the family tradition he poisoned his brother Aribert, together with the latter’s son Chilperic, now the 3rd of his name.
Childeric II, Dagobert’s son, and Childeric’s son, named Dagobert after his grandfather, were murdered by a Lord Bodillon/Bodilo (675), whom Childeric II had had flogged for his opposition to tax increases. The surviving royal child, another Chilperic (so now the 4th), became a cleric under the name Daniel, and had thus become uninteresting to the historical record and for his fiends.
Since the life spans of the main participants in this period were extremely short, both the generations and the plot lines, but the names as well crossed several times. For example, Dagobert I. had two other sons who could call themselves kings: Sigebert II. of Austrasia, Clovis II. of Neustria, but they too died early, at 23 and 24. This temporal density now allows Clothar II. to reappear, since he lost his son (still a Merovech ) in a battle in 605 as a 5 year old to Theuderic II. as a prisoner of war, but even Theuderic presented here did not live to be 40 years old. His descendants: Clovis III lived to 15, Childebert to 28, his son Dagobert III to 16, his son Theuderic IV to only 22.
Final: In the royal houses with their young and inexperienced kings, finally the stewards became more and more influential and so from their line “Pipin => Charles Martel => Charlemagne” developed the line of the Carolingians (these were not more peaceful, however, but the Pipinid-Carolingian succession crisis follows a different script).
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Sources:
Becher, M.; Chlodwig I., München 2011
Cabanès, A., Les Morts mysterieuses de l‘Histoire, Première Série, Paris 1901
Ewig, E.; Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich, Köln 1997
Van Loo, B.; De Borgondiers, Amsterdam 2020
https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rovingiens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merovingian_dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theuderic_I#/media/File:Division_of_Gaul_-_511.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Walk%C3%BCre
