Clovis I
Clovis I (variously spelled Chlodowech or Chlodwig, giving Modern French Louis and Modern German Ludwig) (c. 466 – November 27, 511) was the first King of the Franks to unite that nation. He succeeded his father, Childeric I, in 481[1] as King of the Salian Franks, one of two main groups of Frankish tribes.[2] They occupied the area west of the Lower Rhine, with their centre being in the area of Tournai and Cambrai, along the modern border between France and Belgium. Clovis had conquered the neighbouring Frankish tribes and established himself as sole king by his death.
Clovis converted to Catholicism, as opposed to the Arian form of Christianity that was common among Germanic peoples, because his wife, Clotilde, a Burgundian, was a Catholic. He was baptized in the Cathedral of Reims. This act was very important in the following history of France and the rest of Western Europe because he expanded his reign over almost all of the old Roman province of Gaul (roughly modern France). He is considered to be the founder both of France, which his state closely resembled geographically at his death, and the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks for the next two centuries.
Notes
[change | change source]Sources
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- Daly, William M., "Clovis: How Barbaric, How Pagan?" Speculum 69.3 July 1994, pp. 619–664.
- James, Edward. The Origins of France: Clovis to the Capetians 500-1000. Macmillan, 1982.
- Kaiser, Reinhold. Das römische Erbe und das Merowingerreich. München 2004. (Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte 26)
- Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
- Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. The Long-haired Kings. London, 1962.
- The Oxford Merovingian Page.
