In 584 AD. Queen Fredegund gave birth to her fifth male child. Her four previous sons had died at the ages of 8, 4, 1 and 1. 

ChilpericI and Fredegund had named one of their sons Samson. As Gregory tells the story, Samson was born in 575 AD. while the royal couple were being besieged in Tournai. Although Fredegund initially wanted to reject the boy, Chilperic persuaded her to accept him and had the bishop of Tournai baptise the young prince.

This fifth child’s outlook became even darker after his father was assassinated and the vengeful Brunhilda sent her armies into Neustria. Fredegund did not give the boy a name to protect him against assassins who might identify him and she secreted him to a royal villa in the north, in modern day Vitry-en-Artois. In the meantime, Fredegund appealed to King Guntram of Burgundy to recognize the boy as heir to Neustria.

Guntram was then occupied fighting his half-brother Gundovald, and when he had secured his Kingdom, he agreed to accept the boy’s legitimacy, as part of a failed scheme to seize the Kingdom. Around this time the boy received his name: Clotharius, after his grandfather.

From the age of 14 Clotharius waged war against queen Brunhilda who hated him since before he was born, to end a grudge he had no part in starting. After 14 years of on-and-off fighting, Queen Brunhilda’s heirs died and the powerful nobles Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Herstal betrayed the aged Queen. They delivered Brunhilda to Clotharius, and she was stripped naked, drawn-and-quartered. 

On 10 October 613 AD. the 28-year old became Clotharius II, King of the Franks, under his reign and that of his son Dagobert I, Francia experienced 26 years of internal peace and prosperity.