Other Events and Attributes:

• FSID: GWF6-KY6

Family/Spouse: de Lombardy, Ildegonde. Ildegonde was born in 375 in Lombardia, Italy; died in 425 in Sachsen, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FSID: GWF6-LVM

Family/Spouse: le Chevelu, King Clodion le Chevelu. Clodion (son of of the Francs, King Pharamund and of Sicambria, Queen Argotta Rosamund) was born in 392 in Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; died on 26 Nov 448 in Cambrai, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; was buried after 26 Nov 448 in Cambrai Cathedral, Cambrai, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Merovingian
• FSID: LZ86-1NG
• Appointments / Titles: 450; King of the Salien Franks at Tournai

Notes:

Merovech is the semi-legendary founder of the Merovingian dynasty of the Salian Franks (although either Childeric I, his supposed son, or Clovis I, his supposed grandson, also can be considered the founder), which later became the dominant Frankish tribe. He is proposed to be one of several barbarian warlords and kings that joined forces with the Roman general Aetius against the Huns under Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in Gaul.

The family of Childeric and Clovis, the first Frankish large-scale royal dynasty called themselves Merovingians ("descendants of Meroveus") after him, and this was known to historians in the following centuries, but no more contemporary evidence exists. The most important such written source, Gregory of Tours, recorded that Merovech was said to be descended from Chlodio, a roughly contemporary Frankish warlord who pushed from the Silva Carbonaria in modern central Belgium as far south as the Somme, north of Paris in modern-day France.

The name "Merovech" is related to Marwig, lit. "famed fight" (compare modern Dutch mare "news, rumour"/vermaard "famous" as well as "(ge)vecht," "fight" with" -vech)."

There is little information about him in the later histories of the Franks. Gregory of Tours named him only once as the father of Childeric I, but remained vague about his relationship to Chlodio. The "Chronicle of Fredegar" recounts that Merovech was born after Chlodio's wife encountered a sea creature while bathing in the sea; according to Fredegar it remained unclear whether Merovech's father was the creature or Chlodio. Another theory considers this legend to be the creation of a mythological past needed to back up the fast-rising Frankish rule in Western Europe.

Clodio is said to have been defeated by Flavius Aëtius at Vicus Helena in Artois in 448. Historian Ian S. Wood therefore would place his son somewhere in the second half of the fifth century.

A contemporary Roman historian, Priscus, writes of having witnessed in Rome a "lad without down on his cheeks as yet and with fair hair so long that it poured down his shoulders, Aetius had made him his adopted son," Priscus writes that the excuse Attila used for waging war on the Franks was the death of their king and the disagreement of his children over the succession, the elder being allied with Attila and the younger with Aetius. As Chlodio died just before Attila's invasion, this seems to suggest that Merovech was in fact Chlodio's son.

The legend about Merovech's conception was adapted in 1982 by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln in their book "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," as the seed of a new idea. They hypothesized that this "descended from a fish" legend actually referred to the concept that the Merovingian line had married into the bloodline of Jesus Christ, since the symbol for early Christians also had been a fish. This theory, with no other basis than the authors' hypothesis, was further popularized in 2003 via Dan Brown's bestselling novel, "The Da Vinci Code." However, there was no evidence for this claim that Merovech is descended from Jesus.

The identity and historicity of Merovech is one of the driving mysteries in "The Widow’s Son," second book of Robert Anton Wilson’s "The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles," first introducing the fish legend to the reader by having the early Merovingians appear in a vision as a hideous fish creature resembling H. P. Lovecraft’s Deep Ones, before settling on a variation on "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which goes a step further by identifying Jesus and Mary Magdalene as the bridegroom and bride in "The Alchemical Marriage of Christian Rosycross" and Merovech as the titular Widow's Son from Masonic lore and positing that the entire bloodline is descended from alien-human hybrids.

-- Wikiwand: Merovech

Family/Spouse: de Cologne, Chlodeswinthe Verica. Chlodeswinthe was born in 418 in Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; died in 449. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: Merovingians
• FSID: LHNF-P2R
• Appointments / Titles: Between 458 and 481; King of the Salian Franks

Notes:

Childeric I
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is in the category Category:Magistri militum, but no reliable sources are cited to verify its inclusion. Please help by adding references that support its inclusion, or remove the category if none exist. (June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Childeric I
CHILDERICI REGIS.jpg
Copy of the signet ring of Childeric I (original stolen in 1831). Inscription CHILDIRICI REGIS ("of Childeric the king").[1] The original was found in his tomb at Tournai (Monnaie de Paris).
King of the Salian Franks
Reign 458–481
Predecessor Merovech
Successor Clovis I
Born c.437 [2]
Died c. 481[3]
Tournai (present-day Belgium)
Burial Tournai (present-day Belgium)
Spouse Basina of Thuringia
Issue
Clovis I
Audofleda
Lanthilde
Albofleda
Dynasty Merovingian
Father Merovech
Childeric I (/ˈkɪldərɪk/; French: Childéric; Latin: Childericus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hildirīk;[4] c. 437 – 481 AD) was a Frankish leader in the northern part of imperial Roman Gaul and a member of the Merovingian dynasty, described as a King (Latin Rex), both on his Roman-style seal ring, which was buried with him, and in fragmentary later records of his life. He was father of Clovis I, who acquired effective control over all or most Frankish kingdoms, and a significant part of Roman Gaul.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Marriage, children, and death
3 Tomb
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Biography
Childeric's father is recorded by several sources including Gregory of Tours to have been Merovech, whose name is the basis of the Merovingian dynasty.[5] Gregory reports that Merovech was reputed by some to be a descendant of Chlodio who was an earlier Frankish king who had conquered Roman Gaulish areas first in the Silva Carbonaria, then in Tournai, Cambrai and as far south as the Somme. This is roughly the definition of the Roman province of Belgica Secunda (approximately the "Belgium" defined by Julius Caesar centuries earlier, the region stretching from north of Paris to the Flemish coast) and later a letter of Saint Remigius to Childeric's son Clovis I implies that Childeric had been the administrative chief of this Roman province.

In records about specific actions of Childeric himself, he is mainly associated with the Roman military actions around the Loire river, where he appears in records involving the Gallo-Roman general Aegidius. According to Gregory of Tours, Childeric was exiled at some point, the reason being given as Frankish unhappiness with Childeric's debauchery and his seduction of the daughters of his subjects. Childeric spent eight years in exile in "Thuringia" waiting to make a return.[6] In the meantime, according to Gregory, Aegidius himself took up the title of king of the Franks. Upon his return Childeric was joined by the wife of his host, Queen Basina, who bore Childeric his son Clovis.[7]

Guy Halsall connects the story to Roman politics, Aegidius being an appointee of Majorian:

Although this is only one interpretation of the fragmentary sources, an eight-year period ending with Aegidius' death would allow us to associate Childeric's expulsion with Majorian's accession and appointment of Aegidius.[8] ... Majorian's commander on the Loire, Aegidius, refused to accept Severus as emperor. It is possible that, to legitimise his position, he took the title king of the Franks.[9]

Halsall (p. 269) speculates that Childeric probably began a Roman military career in the service of Flavius Aetius who defeated Attila in Gaul, and he points out that much of his military career appears to have played out far from the Frankish homelands. Ulrich Nonn (map p. 37, and pp. 99–100), following his teacher Eugen Ewig, believes that the exile story reflects a real sequence of events whereby Childeric was a leader of "Salian" or "Belgian" Franks based in the Romanized areas conquered by Chlodio, who were allies under the lordship of Aegidius, but eventually able to take over his power when he and his imperial patron died. (Childeric's son Clovis I later fought Aegidius' son Syagrius who was remembered as a King of Romans, and who had control of Soissons in the south of Belgica Secunda.)

In a passage normally considered to have come from a lost collection of annals, Gregory (II.18) gives a sequence of events which are very difficult to interpret. In 463 Childeric and Aegidius successfully repelled the Visigoths of Theodoric II from Orléans on the Loire. After the death of Aegidius soon after, Childeric and a comes ("count") Paul are recorded defending the Loire region from Saxon raiders, who were possibly coordinating with the Goths now under Euric. Childeric and Paul fought Saxons under the command of a leader named "Adovacrius" (sometimes given by modern authors in either an Anglo-Saxon spelling form, Eadwacer, or in a spelling the same as used for his contemporary the future King of Italy Odoacer, with whom he is sometimes equated). The origin of these "Saxons" is however unclear, and they are described as being based upon islands somewhere in the Loire region.

Detail of golden bees with garnet insets

Golden bee or fly jewelry from the tomb of Childeric I in Tournai. Drawn by Jacob van Werden and engraved by Cornelis Galle the Younger
Soon after this passage, Gregory of Tours (II.19) reports that Childeric coordinated with "Odovacrius", this time normally assumed to be the King of Italy, against Allemanni who had entered Italy. While some authors interpret these Allemani to be Alans, a people established in the Loire region in this period, there is no consensus on this, because the reference in this case is not apparently to events near the Loire.

Marriage, children, and death
Gregory of Tours, in his History of the Franks, mentions several siblings of Clovis within his narrative, apparently thus children of Childeric:

Clovis I (died 511), whose mother was Basina.
Audofleda, Queen of the Ostrogoths, wife of Theodoric the Great. Gregory III.31 also mentions their daughter Amalasuntha.
Lanthechild. Gregory II.31 mentions she had been an Arian but converted to Catholicism with Clovis.
Albofleda (died approximately 500). Gregory II.31 mentions that she died soon after being baptized with Clovis.
Childeric is generally considered to have died in 481 or 482 based on Gregory's reports that his son Clovis died in 511 and ruled 30 years.[10]

Tomb
Childeric's tomb was discovered in 1653[11] not far from the 12th-century church of Saint-Brice in Tournai, now in Belgium.[12] Numerous precious objects were found, including jewels of gold and garnet cloisonné, gold coins, a gold bull's head, and a ring with the king's name inscribed. Some 300 golden winged insects (usually viewed as bees or cicadas) were also found which had been placed on the king's cloak.[11] Archduke Leopold William, governor of the Southern Netherlands (today's Belgium), had the find published in Latin. The treasure went first to the Habsburgs in Vienna, then as a gift to King Louis XIV of France, who was not impressed with the treasure and stored it in the royal library, which became the Bibliothèque Nationale de France during the Revolution. Napoleon was more impressed with Childeric's bees and when he was looking for a heraldic symbol to trump the Bourbon fleur-de-lys, he settled on Childeric's bees as symbols of the French Empire.

On the night of November 5–6, 1831, the treasure of Childeric was among 80 kg of treasure stolen from the Library and melted down for the gold. A few pieces were retrieved from where they had been hidden in the Seine, including two of the bees. The record of the treasure, however, now exists only in the fine engravings made at the time of its discovery and in some reproductions made for the Habsburgs.[13]

Childeric married of Thüringia, Queen BasinaGermany. Basina (daughter of de Cologne, Medelphus and of Thüringia, Basina) was born in 445 in Dutchy of Thüringia (Historical); died in 491 in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]