The history of Chlodio, the long haired King, comes from Gregory of Tours and Sidonius Apollinaris. Chlodio was King of the Salian Franks from 427 to 448 AD. and married to Basina I of Thuringia, daughter of King Weldephus of Thuringia. 

It is not known how many children they had but there is mention of a dispute between the children when the King died by Roman historian Priscus.

According to legends and the Chronicles of Fredegar, Mérovée (Merovech) the first of the Merovingian Kings was conceived by Chlodio’s wife when she went swimming and was encountered by a Quinotaur, a sea monster. The royal dynasty was thus given a supernatural origin. 

This story symbolised the merger of the bloodlines.

Clodio first  lived in Dispargum, which was a castle (present day Germany) he held Roman-inhabited lands and cities in the Silva Carbonaria forest. Around 431 AD. he invaded the territory of Artois but was defeated near Hesdin by Aetius, Commander of the Roman Army in Gaul. 

He later regrouped and Clodio sent spies to the town of Cambrai. When they discovered all that they needed to know, he followed and crushed the Romans and captured the town and conquered an area which included Turnacum (the modern Belgian city of Tournai) and Cameracum (the modern French city of Cambrai) and occupied further territory, pushing Frankish interests westwards to the Somme river in the 430’s. 

The Roman army had left the north of Gallia Belgica (present-day North of France) to fight the Visigoths in the South. This presented an opportunity for Clodio to take control of this region, extending his realm between the Rhine, the Meuse, the Somme and the English Channel. He established his capital in Tournai, which was founded by the Romans around 50 AD.

The Franks had seized Tournai and Cambrai, but were later defeated ( 431) by the Roman military commander, Magister Utriusque Militiae Flavius Aëtius at Vicus Helena (Hélesme), preventing further expansion. Chlodio made peace with Aëtius.

He made Tournai the capital of the Salian Franks. He died around 449 AD. Clodio (395-449 AD) was the father of the founder of the  mystical Merovingian dynasty, who was named Merowig/Meroveus/Mérovée’s, proclaimed Lord of Tournai in 449.