Editing Tonsure (section)

==Secular European==

===Merovingians===
Among the [[Merovingians]], whose rulers were the "long-haired kings",<ref>[[Gregory of Tours]]' ''reges criniti''</ref> the ancient custom remained that an unsuccessful pretender or a dethroned king would be tonsured. Then he had to retire to a monastery, but sometimes this lasted only until his hair grew back.<ref>Gregory of Tours, ''History of the Franks'', II.41.</ref> Thus [[Grimoald the Elder]], the son of [[Pippin of Landen]], and [[Dagobert II]]'s guardian, seized the throne for his own son and had Dagobert tonsured, thus marking him unfit for kingship,<ref>J. Hoyaux, "Reges criniti: chevelures, tonsures et scalps chez les Mérovingiens," ''[[Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire]]'', 26 (1948)]; [[J. M. Wallace-Hadrill]], ''The Long-Haired Kings and Other Essays'' (London, 1962:154ff).</ref> and exiled.<ref>See also Conrad Leyser, "Long-haired kings and short-haired nuns: writing on the body in Caesarius of Arles", ''Studia patristica'' '''24''' 1993.</ref>

===Byzantine Empire===
The practice of tonsure, coupled with [[castration]], was common for deposed emperors and their sons in [[Byzantium]] from around the 8th century, prior to which disfigurement, usually by blinding, was the normal practice.<ref>''Byzantium'', John Julius Norwich, Viking Press, 1988.</ref>