Clovis I – Kings of the Franks Founding Father of France

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The decades following the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire were a time marked by chaos, constant warfare, and religious conflict. However, they were also a time when young, ambitious leaders and small upstart kingdoms could aspire to forge an empire of their own. These leaders often resorted to violence, even against their own kin, while seeking support from bishops and saints. In the words of Professor Paul Friedman of Yale University, it was a time of “thugs and miracles.” In today’s video, we’re going to chart the rise to power of one of these leaders and how, through a series of miracles, he created the first incarnation of a state that would dominate European politics for centuries. This is the story of Clovis I, king of the Franks and founding father of France.

Let me start by giving you some context. Today’s protagonist was born to Childeric I and Basina, king and queen of the Salian Franks, probably in the year 466 A.D. But who were the Salian Franks? The Franks were a Germanic-speaking people settled in what are today Northwestern Germany, the Benelux countries, and Northeastern France. In the first half of the 5th century A.D., the Franks living west of the Rhine started migrating further west and south, effectively invading the Western Roman Empire. These Western Franks became known as the Salian Franks, and their leaders would become allies of Rome, fighting as generals against enemies of the Empire.

The Salian Franks were not a united national entity, however, as they were split into small kingdoms. One of these, centered around Tournai (modern-day Belgium), was led by King Merovech, who had fought the Huns alongside Roman general Aetius. Merovech was the initiator of the dynasty later known as the Merovingians, a bloodline that would rule over France until the 8th century. When he died around 458, he was succeeded by his son Childeric. In 466, Childeric and Basina welcomed their firstborn son, later followed by three daughters. For their only son, the king and queen chose a proper masculine name, “Hrodwig,” which can be translated as “renowned in battle.” The name was rendered as “Clovis” in Latin, and later historians simplified it to Clovis.

Now, we don’t know much about his early years, but we know that the Franks taught their boys to fight from a very early age. Archaeologists have found several tombs of Salian children as young as five being buried with weapons. It is possible that Childeric may have trained Clovis to become a ruler and military leader from an early age. Therefore, the pre-teen Clovis may have been aware of the tumultuous events that had been shaking the Western Roman Empire. At the age of 10, in the year 476, he may have heard the news of how Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor, had been overthrown. In later years, his father may have explained to him how the dissolved Western Empire had been carved into smaller kingdoms led by various tribes.

Childeric did not have much time to teach his son, as he died in 481. Childeric was buried in Tournai alongside 15 horses, weapons, gold, and jewelry. Clovis, barely 15 years old, succeeded him on the throne. The young Frank was already politically savvy and knew that his authority at such a young age could easily be questioned. At his father’s funeral, he took the occasion to shower the top military leaders in the kingdom with gifts and banquets to secure their cooperation. Shortly afterward, he married his first wife, whose name has been lost to history, another wise political move aimed at perpetuating his dynasty.

The young king, much like his father, was surrounded by potentially hostile nations. To his immediate south lay a rump Gallo-Roman state ruled by former General Syagrius. Further south, the Burgundians controlled the Rhône Valley, and the Alemanni, a group of German tribes, occupied modern-day Alsace. Unlike his father, Clovis was not content to simply defend his kingdom; he would muster his allies and relatives among the Salian Franks and move on the attack.

According to the bishop and historian Gregory of Tours, in 486, Clovis allied himself with his cousins Ragnachar and Chararic, rulers of small kingdoms, and they invaded Syagrius’s territory. The Salian king challenged Syagrius to battle, and Syagrius duly accepted. The battle took place at Soissons, northeast of Paris. During the encounter, Ragnachar fought alongside Clovis, while the opportunistic Chararic held back his men, waiting to support whoever emerged victorious. There are no descriptions of this battle, but we can infer the tactics used by Clovis from later accounts about the Frankish warriors.

The Franks were probably the finest cavalry in Europe, but in the 5th century, they fought mostly on foot, wielding swords, shields, and axes. Frankish soldiers would close in on the enemy infantry, throwing their battle axes to shatter their shields, and then launch a devastating charge. This is likely how Clovis and Ragnachar crushed Syagrius at Soissons. The defeated general fled to Toulouse, seeking refuge with the Visigoths. King Alaric, not too happy to keep his guest, kicked him back over to Clovis. The Salian king kept Syagrius prisoner for a while and eventually executed him. He then completed the conquest of his territories, which included the city of Paris.

While raiding the land, Clovis and his soldiers pillaged several churches. At this time, most Salian Franks were still pagan and showed little respect towards Christianity. According to Gregory, during one of these raids, the Franks seized a valuable treasure from a church, which contained a vase of wonderful size and beauty. A local bishop asked for the vase to be returned, and Clovis asked his men to comply. However, one of them refused. It was Frankish tradition for a king to share half of the booty with his men, so a foolish and envious soldier split the vase in two with his axe and insultingly gave Clovis only one half of the artifact. The king endured the insult with patience, but weeks later, he met the rebellious soldier again. Clovis snatched the axe from his hands and threw it onto the floor. As the soldier bent down to pick it up, Clovis lifted his own axe and split the soldier’s head in two.

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Now back to today’s video. Clovis had hit the ground running at the tender age of 20. The Salian king had defeated a large Roman enclave, conquered Paris, and split some heads along the way. Not much has been written about his life in the 480s and early 490s, but we know that sometime between 493 and 499, Clovis took a second wife named Clotilde. It’s not clear if his first unnamed wife had died in the meantime or if they separated. Clotilde was the daughter of Chlothar, brother to Gundobad, king of the Burgundians. Clearly, the marriage was politically motivated, a way to cement an alliance with another powerful kingdom.

Now, Clotilde, unlike her husband, was a Christian and aligned with the Catholic faith. This set her apart from other converted barbarian peoples, such as the Visigoths, who followed the Arian heresy. To clarify, this heresy originated with preacher Arius of Alexandria, who did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, considering him to be a creature of God. On the other hand, Catholicism considers Christ to be an incarnation of God as a human being. Since the start of their marriage, Clotilde tried to convince Clovis to convert to the one true faith, but with little success. When the couple welcomed their firstborn son, Ingomer, Clotilde insisted upon baptizing him. Unfortunately, the baby boy fell ill and died, which infuriated Clovis, who said, “If the boy had been dedicated in the name of my gods, he would certainly have lived.”

The second boy was born, Clodomir, and again Clotilde had him baptized. Clodomir fell ill, but Gregory of Tours tells us that Clotilde saved him through her prayers. This may have softened Clovis’s stance towards Christianity, but for him to convert, it would take a miracle on the battlefield. In 496, Clovis received a call for help from his colleague, Suibert, king of the Ripuarian Franks. His people had been routed by the Alemanni, a group of German tribes who threatened to expand westward. Clovis promptly mustered his army and marched east to clash with the Alemanni at the Battle of Zulpich, modern-day Germany, not far from the border with Belgium.

According to Gregory of Tours, the Alemanni initially had the upper hand. Seeing his army being slaughtered, Clovis raised his eyes to heaven, burst into tears, and cried, “Jesus Christ, whom Clotilde asserts to be the Son of the Living God, who art said to give aid to those in distress and to bestow victory on those who hope in thee, I beseech the glory of thy aid with the vow that if thou wilt grant me victory over these enemies…” (and the quote continues). Apparently, his cry for help did the trick, as soon as he invoked Christ’s help, the tide turned. The Alemanni turned their backs and began to disperse in flight, and when they saw that their king was killed, they submitted to the dominion of Clovis. The victory over the Alemanni is undisputed, as it was confirmed by a letter of congratulations sent to Clovis by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths.

The miraculous part? You could draw your own conclusions about that. Contemporary historians, such as Professor Friedman, believe that Gregory may have inserted this version of events to draw parallels between Clovis and Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine converted to Christianity after his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D., and so did Clovis after his victory. On Christmas Day 496, Clovis and 3,000 of his soldiers were baptized at Reims by Bishop Remigius. According to another source, the Chronicle of Saint Denis, yet another miracle took place during the ceremony: a dove alighted, and a vial of holy oil exhaled a delicious odor. The holy bishop took the vial, and suddenly the dove vanished. Transported with joy at the sight of this notable miracle, the king renounced Satan.

Clovis wanted to renounce Satan, but his conversion also bore significant political advantages. After his initial wars of conquest, his main political adversaries, such as the Visigoths, belonged to the Arian faith, while potential allies, such as the Eastern Roman Empire, opposed the heresy. In fact, following the ceremony at Reims, Clovis received a letter from Anastasius, emperor of Constantinople, appointing him as a friend, patrician, and counselor of the Romans. We shall see later how this friendship would prove fruitful. For the time being, Clovis I would only get involved in the internal affairs of the Burgundian Kingdom.

Sometime before the year 500 A.D., King Gundobad of the Burgundians had killed two of his brothers, Gundamar and Chlothar, who was Clovis’s father-in-law. Gundobad now vied for total power against his last surviving brother, Godegisel, a rivalry that erupted into civil war. Godegisel asked for Clovis’s alliance, promising an annual tribute to the Franks if he helped him kill or expel Gundobad. Naturally, Clovis was happy to intervene against the man who had killed Clotilde’s dad. The Salian Franks marched into Burgundian territory, which led Gundobad to believe that the Franks were aiming to swallow his kingdom whole.

The worried king sent a message to Godegisel, suggesting they put aside their differences and join forces against their common foe. Godegisel replied, “Sounds good.” The three armies met by the river Ouche near Dijon. At this point, Godegisel revealed his true allegiance, teaming up with Clovis to charge against Gundobad. The allied armies crushed Gundobad’s forces, and the king himself had to escape to the safety of Avignon, a heavily fortified city in the south. At this point, Godegisel warmly thanked Clovis and promised him part of the Burgundian territory before leaving the campaign to stage a siege on Gundobad’s capital, Vienne, just south of Lyon.

But Clovis was not one to give up a good fight, and he pursued Gundobad to Vienne. His forces alone, however, were not enough to break through the city’s defenses. The siege dragged on until it was broken through deceit. One of Gundobad’s advisors pretended to defect to the Frankish side, promising Clovis an annual tribute if he lifted the siege. Clovis accepted the deal and returned to his kingdom, leaving it to the two brothers to sort out their issues. It appears that Gundobad only paid the first installment of the tribute. With the Franks now gone, Gundobad was free to besiege Vienne in 501. The city fell, and Godegisel was killed.

After the Burgundian adventure, Clovis came into conflict with the Visigoths of King Alaric II. According to one source, the Salian Franks and the Visigoths may have been embroiled in a short war already in 498, which had no significant impact on their borders. War broke out again in 507. It’s not clear why, but according to Gregory of Tours, this may have been a religious conflict. Clovis wanted to protect Catholic bishops who were being harassed by Alaric, and Arian King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths also wished to intervene alongside Alaric. You see, his daughter, Theodora, was married to Alaric. How could he not fight alongside his son-in-law? On the other hand, his wife was Clotilde, sister of Clovis.

This impasse was solved by the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius, who had a policy of supporting Catholic monarchs against Arian ones. As Theodoric owed allegiance to Anastasius, it was simply ordered that he not intervene, so Alaric had to fight alone. Unlike Clovis, who forged alliances with his old foe Gundobad and with Clodoric, the son of his old friend Siegbald of the Ripuarian Franks. The opposing sides clashed at Vouillé, close to Poitiers in central France. As usual, Gregory is scant on details, telling us that neither the Goths fled, as was their custom, which is a bit unfair, as the Goths were renowned warriors. But they were Arian, while Gregory was Catholic, so he might have been biased.

In the aftermath of the battle, Alaric was slain, while Clovis and his ally Clodoric seized Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Angoulême. Gregory gives us a realistic account of this later siege: “The Lord gave Clovis such grace that the walls fell down of their own accord when he gazed at them.” Then he drove the Goths out and brought the city under his own dominion. Meanwhile, the Burgundian allies had opened another front, besieging the city of Albi in 508. Only then did Theodoric intervene, invading what is modern-day Provence and kicking out the Burgundians.

At the end of the war, the Visigoths retained control of Septimania, the western part of France’s Mediterranean coast, as well as their Spanish territories, but the vast province of Aquitaine had been annexed by Clovis to his ever-expanding Frankish kingdom. The fate of the Visigoths came with another award directly from Emperor Anastasius: the appointment of Clovis as Roman consul. After defeating the Visigoths, Clovis established his capital in Paris. With little threat coming from outside, Clovis turned his bellicose attention to his allies. His first goal was to absorb the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks. To do so, he conspired with Clodoric, son of Siegbald, convincing him to kill his own father and inherit the kingdom. Clodoric agreed and had Siegbald assassinated.

He then sent a message to Clovis asking him to send some of his men to collect Siegbald’s treasure. When Clovis’s envoys showed up, one of them lifted his axe and split Clodoric’s skull in two. The crafty Clovis then rode out to meet the Ripuarian chieftains to give them the bad news that both their king and their prince had been slain. Reportedly, his words were, “I am in no way accomplishing these deeds, for I cannot shed the blood of my kinsfolk. But since the deed was done, how about the Ripurians accept me as king?” And they did, raising him on their shields.

Next on his hit list were Chararic and Ragnachar. If you remember, these were cousins of Clovis who had supported him in his first war against Syagrius. Initially, Clovis forced Chararic and his son into priesthood, null