| Notes |
- Dagobert is a fictitious character, or rather one whose true facts have escaped genealogists so far.
Dagobert II "The Younger" Duke of the East Franks
Dagobert (der Ostfranken) des Francs Duke of the Salic Franks
0302 – 23 December 0379
Dagobert II was a French king from the sacred Merovingian bloodline, the last Merovingian to hold the title "Holy Roman Emperor"
Ripuarian Franks (Latin: Ripuarii) were one of the two main groupings of early Frankish people mentioned by a number of 6th-century sources. The Ripuarii originally lived on the right bank of the Rhine in what is today western Germany. Under pressure from their northern enemies the Saxons, starting from 274 AD they were able to infiltrate the left bank of the Rhine. In the chaotic years after the definitive collapse of Roman power in western Europe, in the last days of 406, the Ripuarians were able to conquer and more importantly hold the strategically important river valleys of the Meuse and the Moselle. They managed to occupy the lower and middle Rhineland in present day North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Luxemburg, Wallonia, the modern Belgian and Dutch provinces of Limburg, and the northeastern part of France. On the right bank of the Rhine, the Ripuarian Franks had control over the river basin of the Main, in later years also called Franconia, one of the five stem duchies, from which in the middle of the 9th century the kingdom of Germany was formed.
The other main group of Franks were the Salii, or "Salian Franks", who lived to the west of the Ripuarii in what is today the southwestern part of the Netherlands, the western part of Belgium and the northern and central part of France above the Loire river. The border between the area of the Salian and the Ripurarian Franks was roughly the Silva Carbonaria and the land between the Seine-basin (mostly Salian) and the upper Meuse river (Ripuarian). It's not clear that the whole Seine-basin was Salian, maybe some northern and eastern parts of the Seine-basin were settled by Ripuarian Franks.
The division of the Franks into Ripuarians and Salians would have taken place in the later Roman Empire. By the time the Ripuarians are mentioned in the historical record, they had already lost their independence to the expanding power of the Merovingians, but they kept a separate identity. In the 7th century their traditional laws were recorded as the Lex Ripuaria. After the reign of the last capable Salian Frankish king, Dagobert in 639, the Carolingian Austrasian mayordomos gradually took over power, transforming the Ripuarian area of Austrasia into the heartland of the Carolingian empire.
From the time of Louis VI (1108-37) the banner of St. Martin was replaced as ensign of war by the oriflamme of the Abbey of St. Denis, which floated about the tomb of St. Denis and was said to have been given to the abbey by Dagobert. It is supposed without any certainty that this was a piece of fiery red silk of sendal the field of which was covered with flames and stars of gold. The standard-bearer carried it either at the end of a staff or suspended from his neck. Until the twelfth century the standard-bearer was the Comte de Vexin, who, as "vowed" to St. Denis, was the temporal defender of the abbey. ... The descriptions of the oriflamme which have reached us in Guillaume le Breton (thirteenth century), in the "Chronicle of Flanders" (fourteenth century), in the "Registra Delphinalia" (1456), and in the inventory of the treasury of St. Denis (1536), show that to the primitive oriflamme there succeeded in the course of centuries newer oriflammes which little resembled one another. At the battle of Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415) the oriflamme fell into the hands of the English; it would seem that after the Hundred Years' War it was no longer borne on the battlefield. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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300 - 379 (79 years)
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