Editing Merovingian dynasty (section)

== History ==
[[File:Frankish gold Tremissis imitation of Bizantine Tremissis mid 500s.jpg|thumb|Frankish gold [[Tremissis]], imitation of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] Tremissis, mid-6th century.]]
[[File:Clothaire II 584 628.jpg|thumb|Coin of [[Clotaire II]], 584–628. [[British Museum]].]]
In 486 [[Clovis I]], the son of Childeric, defeated [[Syagrius]], a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. He won the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] against the [[Alemanni]] in 496, according to [[Gregory of Tours]], Clovis adopted his wife [[Clotilde|Clotilda]]'s Orthodox—i.e., [[Nicene creed|Nicene]]—[[Christianity|Christian faith]] at a time when other Germanic tribes were largely [[Arianism|Arian]]. He subsequently went on to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom of [[Toulouse]] in the [[Battle of Vouillé]] in 507. After Clovis's death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons. This tradition of partition continued over the next century. Even when several Merovingian kings simultaneously ruled their own realms, the kingdom—not unlike the late [[Roman Empire]]—was conceived of as a single entity ruled collectively by these several kings (each ruling one section much as the late Roman Empire had been divided between up to four emperors). The death of one or more of these kings could result in the reunification of the whole kingdom under a single ruler. Even when divided under different kings, the kingdom maintained unity and conquered Burgundy in 534. 

Upon Clovis's death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] and all of [[Germania magna]] except [[Saxony]]. After the fall of the [[Ostrogoths]], the Franks also conquered [[Provence]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyaICgAAQBAJ&q=Merovingians+conquered+burgundy&pg=PT33 |title=Mediterranean Beaches and Bluffs: A Bicycle Your France E-guide |last=Moore |first=Walter Judson |date=2015-08-27 |publisher=Lulu Press |isbn=9781329514553}}</ref> After this their borders with [[Italy]] (ruled by the [[Lombards]] since 568) and Visigothic [[Septimania]] remained fairly stable.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Archibald R. |last=Lewis |title=The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, AD 550–751 |journal=Speculum |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=381–410 |date=July 1976 |doi=10.2307/2851704 |jstor=2851704 |s2cid=162248053}}</ref>{{rp|384}}

=== Division of the kingdom ===
Internally, the kingdom was divided among Clovis's sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between the different kings, who allied amongst themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the surviving brothers and the deceased's sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around [[Brunhilda of Austrasia|Brunhilda]]. However, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established 'rules' and norms.<ref>{{cite book |first=Guy |last=Halsall |title=Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West 450–900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdmAAgAAQBAJ |date=28 January 2008 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-55387-7}}</ref>

=== Reunification of the kingdom ===
Eventually, [[Clotaire II]] in 613 reunited the entire Frankish realm under one ruler. 

The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and procured enormous concessions from the kings in return for their support. These concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading ''comites'' and ''duces'' ([[count]]s and [[duke]]s). Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, but Merovingians remained in power until the 8th century.

=== Weakening of the kingdom ===
Clotaire's son [[Dagobert I]] (died 639), who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King. Later kings are known as ''rois fainéants''<ref name=EB1911/> ("do-nothing kings"), despite the fact that only the last two kings did nothing. The kings, even strong-willed men like [[Dagobert II]] and [[Chilperic II]], were not the main agents of political conflicts, leaving this role to their mayors of the palace, who increasingly substituted their own interest for their king's.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Merovingian-dynasty |title=Merovingian dynasty {{!}} Frankish dynasty |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |access-date=2017-09-22 |language=en}}</ref> Many kings came to the throne at a young age and died in the prime of life, weakening royal power further.

=== Return to power ===
The conflict between mayors was ended when the Austrasians under [[Pepin of Heristal|Pepin the Middle]] triumphed in 687 in the [[Battle of Tertry]]. After this, Pepin, though not a king, was the political ruler of the Frankish kingdom and left this position as a heritage to his sons. It was now the sons of the mayor that divided the realm among each other under the rule of a single king.

After Pepin's long rule, his son [[Charles Martel]] assumed power, fighting against nobles and his own stepmother. His reputation for ruthlessness further undermined the king's position. Under Charles Martel's leadership, the Franks defeated the [[Moors]] at the [[Battle of Tours]] in 732. After the victory of 718 of the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian]] [[Tervel of Bulgaria|Khan Tervel]] and the Emperor of Byzantium [[Leo III the Isaurian]] over the Arabs led by [[Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik]] prevented the attempts of Islam to expand into eastern Europe, the victory of [[Charles Martel]] at Tours limited its expansion onto the west of the European continent. During the last years of his life, he even ruled without a king, though he did not assume royal dignity. His sons [[Carloman, son of Charles Martel|Carloman]] and [[Pepin the Short|Pepin]] again appointed a Merovingian figurehead ([[Childeric III]]) to stem rebellion on the kingdom's periphery. However, in 751, Pepin finally displaced the last Merovingian and, with the support of the nobility and the blessing of [[Pope Zachary]], became one of the Frankish kings.