1. Dagobert II was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death.
21 Facts About Dagobert II
1. 2.
Dagobert II has been considered a martyr since at least the ninth century.
3.
Dagobert II ascended the throne during the civil war caused by the assassination of Childeric II in 675.
4.
Dagobert II was assassinated by a conspiracy of the highest nobility and was succeeded by his cousin, Theuderic III, king of Neustria, against whom he had previously warred.
5.
Dagobert II was the son of Sigebert III and an unknown woman.
6.
Dagobert II was thus the half-brother of Bilichild, Chimnechild's daughter by Sigebert.
7.
Dagobert II wrote that a local oral tradition current at that time put Dagobert in the monastery of Slane, a conclusion accepted by some modern scholars.
8.
Dagobert II was married to Bilichild, Dagobert's half-sister, and placed under the regency of Chimnechild.
9.
Dagobert II was assassinated, along with his queen and his son, in 675.
10.
The murder of Childeric provided the occasion for Dagobert II's return, but its immediate result was a civil war.
11.
The historian Richard Gerberding says of the History's author, "Either he did not believe that Dagobert II had returned to become king or he did not want us to know of it".
12.
In 676, Dagobert II signed a "most firm pact of peace" with the Lombards.
13.
Paul mistakenly places the pact in the reign of the Lombard king Grimoald, who died in 671, before Dagobert II had even returned from Ireland.
14.
Dagobert II reintroduced the minting of gold, which had apparently been suspended by Childeric II around 670.
15.
Dagobert II was the last king in whose name coins were struck in Marseille.
16.
In 679, while on his way to Rome to attend a church council, Wilfrid stayed at the court of Dagobert II, who was grateful to the bishop for having facilitated his return from Ireland.
17.
Dagobert II offered to appoint Wilfrid to the diocese of Strasbourg, which the Life of Wilfrid calls the "chief bishopric of his realm", but Wilfrid declined.
18.
Dagobert II provided him with arms and companions for the rest of his journey to Rome.
19.
The endowment of the Basilica of Saint Dagobert II is known from a charter of 1124, in the cartulary of Gorze.
20.
In 1608, the cult of Dagobert II was restored at Stenay.
21.
The skull of Dagobert II has been claimed by Saint Waltrude Collegiate Church since at least 1658.