The History of the Merovingian Bloodline can be traced back to Arcadia in Greece and the Ancient City of Troy. 

There are many aspects important to this History and we will cover the most important ones on our website.

                                                                           Troy

Troy was a legendary city established about 3000 BC and was the center of the Trojan Wars, which occurred about 1200 BC. These wars were described in the Iliad by Homer, who was a Greek historian. Today Troy is an archaeological site in the Northwest of Turkey. Troy was founded by Dardanus, son of the Trojan Royal Family of Electra and Zeus. One generation before the Trojan War, Heracles captured Troy and killed Leomedon, but spared his son Priam who became King of Troy. During his reign, the Mycenaean Greeks invaded and captured Troy in the Trojan War 1193-1183 BC.

                                                                            Rome

Rome was founded 21 April 753 BC from settlements around a fjord on the River Tiber by Romulus and Remus, sons of the Trojan prince Aenas. Romulus killed Remus and became the first of the seven kings of Rome. The Roman Republic was established around 509 BC. By 200 BC Rome had become the dominant Mediterranean power. About 55 BC Gaius Julius Caesar was in power, and by 31 BC Augustus had consolidated his power. The Roman Empire is said to have ended as such in 476 AD when Odoacer, the Barbarian Germanic General deposed Romulus Augustulus.

                                                                   Barbarian Kings.
The Roman Empire was replaced with a number of states ruled  by barbarian kings. In the 6th century Italy was controlled by the Ostragoths, France by the Franks, and Burgundians, and Spain by the Visigoths. A century later, the Lombards controlled northern Italy, and the Franks were unchallenged in France, and the Anglos and Saxons were in Britannia.

                                                                            Franks.
It was the Kingdom of the Franks which was to exercise the most influence for the longest time. For the first three centuries of its existence until 751 it was ruled by a single family, that of the;                                                                                    

                                                                     Merovingians.

There were two groups of Franks-the Salian Franks and the Ripuarian Franks.

The Salian Franks (sea dwelling) lived North and East of Limes in the Dutch coastal area and in the 5th century migrated throughout Belgium and into northern France. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Belgium city of Tournai had become the epic power center of their activity.

The Ripuarian Franks (river dwelling) lived along the Rhine river.

By the 9th century any differences between these two groups had disappeared.

The Franks were involved with the Romans as military recruits for a long time and in the 5th century. Gregory of Tours, the historian, placed the emergence of the Merovingians at the conclusion of the Frankish migration. The Liber Historiae Francorum went further, connecting them with the Trojan migration.

Gregory of Tours wrote that the Franks had created long haired kings in Thuringia (Belgium). Gregory of Tours was troubled that there was no clear passage of royalty to the Franks from a line of Kings, but other scholars were not troubled since historical records were lacking.

As indicated the line of Frankish Kings began with Frankus.
who died 11 BC. The line continues from Frankus to Chlodio.

                                                                              Chlodio
The history of Chlodio comes from Gregory of Tours and Sidonius Apollinaris.
Chlodio, was a semi legendary King of the Salian Franks. He lived in Dispargum which was a castle. Around 431 he invaded the territory of Artois but was defeated near Hesdin by Aetius, Commander of the Roman Army in Gaul. He regrouped and captured Cambrai (Cameracum) and occupied territory as far as the Somme River. He made Tournai the capital of all Salian Franks. He died 447-449.

                                                                 MEROVEE (MEROVECH)
According to the Chronicles of Fredegar, Merovee (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. The actual parentage of Merovee is subject to conjecture, but he was clearly a Frank.

Merovee, the first Merovingian King, fought alongside Flavius Aetius the Roman ruler when Attila the Hun was defeated in 451. Merovee was proclaimed King of the Franks in 448 and reigned for 10 years. Under Merovee and his successors, the Kingdom of the Franks flourished. It was not the crude barbaric culture often imagined. It warrants comparison with the high culture of the Byzantines. Secular literacy was encouraged.

They built lavish Roman styled amphitheaters in Paris and Soissons. The Franks were brutal but not like the Goths and the Huns. They accumulated immense wealth. They were active in farming, commerce, and maritime trade. Their gold coins that were minted bore an equal arm cross.

                                                                         Childeric I
The son of Merovee was Childeric I, who fought Odoacer at Angiers. Childeric was expelled from the Franks for sexual profligacy. Childeric returned to power and married the wife of the King of Thuringia. Childeric’s grave was found in 1653 in Tournai and was filled with weapons, gold, jewelry, Byzantine coins, and gold cicadas or bees. This is one of the most important medieval treasures ever found.

                                                                             Clovis
The Bishop of Rheims wrote a letter to Clovis, son of Childeric I which has been preserved. With Clovis, we have the beginnings of a substantial documented history. Gregory of Tours could at last chronicle a Barbarian King.

Clovis reigned from 481-511 and was the major Merovingian King.

Gregory of Tours writes that Clovis defeated Syagrius; he then married Clothilda, daughter of a Burgundian King, who attempted to convert him to Christianity but failed. Clothilda was later named a Saint.

Beginning as early as 496 there were secret meetings between Clovis and Saint Remy, confessor of the wife of Clovis. Soon thereafter an agreement of cooperation was signed between Clovis and the Roman Church. Such an agreement was important because it transformed the less than unified Roman Church to one of supreme power in the West. Clovis became the sword of the Church.

During a battle against the Alamans, he vowed to become a Christian if he was victorious. He won and was baptized by the Bishop of Rheims in 496. On his return he received a consular office from the eastern emperor (the Western Roman Empire had ceased to exist) and he established Paris as his capital. He was named Novus Constantinus-the new Constantine. At his baptism, Saint Remy said

“Sicambrian revere what thou hast burned and burn what thou hast revered.”

There was now a powerful religion, and a powerful Church being administered by a Merovingian bloodline.

Clovis allied with Godegisel against the Burgundian King Gundobad, but the latter survived. Clovis then attacked the Visigoths because they were considered heretics.

His last years were spent eliminating rival Frankish leaders. The sister of Clovis, Audofleda married the Ostrogothic King Theodoric and there were further marriages between the Visigoths, Thuringians, Hercules and Burgundians, further consolidating the Empire of the Franks.

The conversion of Clovis to Catholicism made him more acceptable to the Gallo Romans. In 511 he convened an ecclesiastical council in Orleans to discuss matters of the newly acquired Aquitaine. When Clovis died in 511, the Frankish kingdom was the most powerful in Gaul.

After Clovis died, his Kingdom was divided into 4 parts-one for each of his 4 sons. For more than a century thereafter, the Merovingian Dynasty presided over a number of disparate and warring Kingdoms.

                                                                       Clothair II 

Clothair II reigned 584-629 and reunited the Kingdom of the Franks. He signed the Perpetual Constitution which was an early Magna Chart.