Born: c415
Died: 458
Father: Clodion 'the hairy' (r427-47)
Mother: ?
Spouse: ?
Children:
Image from KRS ===>>
From Kings, Rulers and Statesmen, eds. L F Wise / E W Egan, Sterling (Oak Tree), 1967, 446pp, own
Born: c415
Father: Clodion 'the hairy' (r427-47) Spouse: ?
Children: Image from KRS ===>> |
From Kings, Rulers and Statesmen, eds. L F Wise / E W Egan, Sterling (Oak Tree), 1967, 446pp, own |
Merovich was king of the Franks at the time of Aetius' defeat of Attila's Huns at the Battle of Chalons in 451. "When the battle was over, Aetius ... persuaded the King of the Franks [i.e. Merovich] to leave ... [then] Aetius collected all the booty lying about on the field of battle and set off with it for home" (HoF p118, i.e. to return to his own people, also Goth ldr Thorismund, in both cases by warning them of possible insurrection w/in their ranks).
"The death of Clodion, after a reign of 20yrs, exposed his kingdom to the discord and ambition of his 2 sons. Meroveus, the younger [i.e. Merovich], was persuaded to implore the protection of Rome; he was rcv'd at the Imperial court as the ally of Valentinian and the adopted son of the patrician Aetius, and dismissed to his native country with splendid gifts and the strongest assurances of friendship and support. During his absence his elder bro had [allied w/] Attila [who then invaded Gaul, for that reason and also due to Honoria's proclaimed 'love', at Huns defeat, Meroveus (Merovich) also triumphed over his bro]" (Gibbon's DFRE p561 '420-51 [AD] The Franks in Gaul under the Merovingian Kings').
HBHG: "The ruler fron whom the Merovingians derived their name is most elusive, his historical reality eclipsed by legend. Merovee (Merovech, Meroveus) was a semisupernatural figure worthy of classical myth. Even his name bears witness to his miraculous origin and character. It echoes the French word for 'mother' as well as both the French and Latin words for 'sea' [mer]. According to both the leading French chronicler [Gregory of Tours?] and subsequent tradition, Merovee was born of 2 fathers. When already pregnant by her husband, King Clodio, Merovee's mother supposedly went swimming in the ocean ... [where] she is said to have been seduced and/or raped by an unidentified marine creature from beyond the sea ... impregnated [her] a 2nd time. And when Merovee was born, there allegedly flowed in his veins a commingling of 2 different bloods ... [that] of a Frankish ruler and of a mysterious aquatic creature ... [this myth] might well indicate an intermarriage of some sort ... or a mingling of dynastic lines whereby the Franks became allied by blood with ... a source from 'beyond the sea'" (235, they later imply from the line of Jesus, a key part of their thesis [which I totally reject, see br-hbhg]). "According to tradition Merivingian monarchs were occult adepts, initiates in arcane sciences, practitioners of esoteric arts - worthy rivals of Merlin, their fabulous near-contemporary ... often called the socerer-kings ... mantled in an aura of magic, sorcery, and the supernatural ... heal by the laying on of hands ... capable of clairvoyant or telepathic communication with beasts ... bore a distinctive birthmark ... a red cross, either over the heart ... or between the shoulder blades ... called the long-haired kings" (236). Childeric I's tomb, discovered in 1653, contained typical regalia, but also "items less characteristic of kingship than of magic, sorcery, and divination" (237). The Merovingians "themselves claimed descent from Noah, whom they regarded, even more than Moses, as the source of all biblical wisdom" (238, ?! I thought they were pagans until Clovis). They "also claimed direct descent from ancient Troy - which ... would serve to explain the occurrence in France of Trojan names like Troyes and Paris" (238). They may have come from the ancient Greek region of Arcadia, from where "toward the advent of the Christian era they supposedly migrated up the Danube, then up the Rhine, and established themselves in what is now W Germany" (238). The early 5C Hun invasion of Europe "provoked large-scale migrations of almost all European tribes ... [including] the "Sicambrian ancestors of the Merovingians [who] crossed the Rhine and moved en masse into Gaul, establishing themselves in what is now Belgium and N France, in the vicinity of the Ardennes. A century later this region came to be called the kingdom of Austrasia. And the core of ... Austrasia was what is now known as Lorraine" (239). The Sicambrians were partially Romanized, so this was a mostly "placid and civilized affair ... And when, toward the end of the 5C, the Roman empire collapsed, the Sicambrians filled the vacuum" (239). [We discovered] at least 2 historical figures named Merovee [not sure which associated w/sea creature] ... [one] a Sicambrian chieftain, alive in 417, who fought under the Romans and d438 [may have visited Rome] ... In 448 the son of this first Merovee, bearing the same name, was proclaimed king of the Franks ... and reigned until [458] ... may have been the first official king of the Franks as a united people" (240). The Merovingians were learned and literate people, moreso than the French of "2 dynasties and 500 yrs later ... often brutal, but not really a warlike people by nature or disposition; [unlike] the Vikings, Vandals, Visigoths, Huns. Their main activities were farming and commerce" (240). "If the customs and economy of the Merovingian world did not differ markedly from others of the period, the aura about the throne and the royal bloodline was quite unique. Sons of the Merovingian blood were not 'created' kings [but] ... automatically regarded as such on ... their 12th birthday ... as by sacred right" (241). They were more like priest-kings, not expected to "sully their hands with the mundane business of governing [done by the 'Mayors of the Palace'] ... essentially a ritualized figure" (241, similar to modern British monarchy, he notes).
In Warlords (1996, Mustang, p80), author Tim Newark says Meroveus was the grandfather of Clovis and fought alongside Aetius at Chalons in 451. He also says it was Clovis who welded the Franks (i.e. W Germanic tribes) into a united force and established his own family as the ruling clan aka Merovingians. He fought the Goths in the S (driving them into Spain), the Burgundians in the SE, and the Alamanni in the E, and "commanded through terror" (80).
Sources:
- HoF = The History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours, 6C [Penguin 1974], own.
- Gibbon's DFRE.
- HBHG = Holy Blood Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, Richard Leigh, 1983, FHL.
