44 Facts About Clovis I

Clovis I is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries.

Clovis I conquered the Alemanni tribes in eastern Gaul, and the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitania in the southwest.

The latter turned into Ludwig in Modern German, although the king Clovis I himself is generally named Chlodwig.

Clovis I was the son of Childeric I, a Merovingian king of the Salian Franks, and Basina, a Thuringian princess.

Clovis I succeeded his father to become king at the age of 15 in 481, as deduced from Gregory of Tours placing the Battle of Tolbiac in the fifteenth year of Clovis I's reign.

Childeric I, Clovis I's father, was reputed to be a relative of Chlodio, and was known as the king of the Franks that fought as an army within northern Gaul.

Childeric died in 481 and was buried in Tournai; Clovis I succeeded him as king, aged just 15.

Historians believe that Childeric and Clovis I were both commanders of the Roman military in the Province of Belgica Secunda and were subordinate to the magister militum.

Clovis I made Paris his capital and established an abbey dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul on the south bank of the Seine.

Clovis I integrated many of Syagrius's units into his own army.

Clovis I met his enemies near the strong fort of Tolbiac.

Now Christian, Clovis I confined his prisoners, Chararic and his son, to a monastery.

Clovis I promised his brother-in-law territory and annual tribute for defeating his brother.

Clovis I was eager to subdue the political threat to his realm and crossed into the Burgundian territory.

Gundobad then moved against Clovis I and called his brother for reinforcements.

In 501,502 or 503, Clovis I led his troops to Armorica.

Clovis I had previously restricted his operations to minor raids, but now the goal was subjugation.

Clovis I failed to complete this objective via military means; therefore, he was constrained to statecraft.

In 507 Clovis I was allowed by the magnates of his realm to invade the remaining threat of the Kingdom of the Visigoths.

King Alaric had previously tried to establish a cordial relationship with Clovis I by serving him the head of exiled Syagrius on a silver plate in 486 or 487.

However, Clovis I was no longer able to resist the temptation to move against the Visigoths, for many Nicene Christians under Visigoth yoke were unhappy and implored Clovis I to make a move.

In 507, following Vouille, Clovis I heard about Chararic's plan to escape from his monastic prison and had him murdered.

In 509, Clovis I visited his old ally, Ragnachar in Cambrai.

Ragnachar denied Clovis I's entry, prompting Clovis I to make a move against him.

Clovis I bribed Ragnachar's retainers and soon, Ragnachar and his brother, Ricchar were captured and executed.

Shortly before his death, Clovis I called a synod of Gallic bishops to meet in Orleans to reform the Church and create a strong link between the Crown and the Nicene Christian episcopate.

Clovis I's remains were relocated to Saint Denis Basilica in the mid- to late 18th century.

When Clovis I died, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons, Theuderic, Chlodomer, Childebert and Clotaire.

Clovis I had been a king with no fixed capital and no central administration beyond his entourage.

Clovis I was born a pagan but later became interested in converting to Arian Christianity, whose followers believed that Jesus was a distinct and separate being from God the Father, both subordinate to and created by him.

Clovis I's wife Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, was a Nicene Christian despite the Arianism that surrounded her at court.

Clotilde had wanted her son to be baptized, but Clovis I refused, so she had the child baptized without Clovis I's knowledge.

Clovis I eventually converted to Nicene Christianity following the Battle of Tolbiac on Christmas Day 508 in a small church in the vicinity of the subsequent Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims; a statue of his baptism by Saint Remigius can still be seen there.

The king's Nicene baptism was of immense importance in the subsequent history of Western and Central Europe in general, as Clovis I expanded his dominion over almost all of Gaul.

Clovis I did bequeath to his heirs the support of both people and Church such that, when the magnates were ready to do away with the royal house, the sanction of the Pope was sought first.

In later centuries, Clovis I was venerated as a saint in France.

In contrast to the theory of St Clovis I's cult being a primarily northern-supported movement, Amy Goodrich Remensnyder suggests that St Clovis I was used by Occitans to reject the northern concept of the monarchy and to reinstate their autonomy as something granted by the saint.

St Clovis I had the role of a more militarised royal saint than the pious Louis IX of France.

St Clovis I had no known official canonisation, neither was he beatified, so his sainthood was only ever recognised by popular acclaim.

St Clovis I enjoyed a persistent campaign from French royal authorities that few non-French national or dynastic saints did.

The cause for Clovis I's canonisation was taken up in the 17th century, with Jesuit support, a vita and an account of posthumous miracles, in opposition to the controversial historical works of Calvinist pastor Jean de Serres who portrayed Clovis I as a cruel and bloodthirsty king.

The Jesuit attempt to formally canonize Clovis I came after a rediscovery of Clovis I's cultus in the 16th century.

For Protestant Gallicans, St Clovis I represented the role of the monarchy in governing the Church and curbing its abuses and was contrasted positively against the Papacy of his time.

Catholic writers in the 16th century expanded upon the lists of St Clovis I's attributed miracles, but in the early 17th century they began to minimize their use of the miraculous elements of his hagiography.