The Merovingian dynasty was founded by a legendary warlord called Merowe, whose successors, Childerik and Clovis, reconstituted a part of the former Western Roman empire. The long Merovingian period, from 457 to 751, is rather obscure because of a lack of reliable written documents, and its history is very complex because of the decay of the Roman heritage and the growing Germanic and Catholic influences. The Frankish warlord Clovis, who ruled from 481 to 511, eliminated all his rivals, imposed himself as improvised king of all Franks, defeated the Alamands and the Visigoths and conquered a large part of Gaul (today France) and Germany.
Clovis was a cunning leader who became a Christian, and his prodigious success was made possible by the support of the Catholic Church, which was the only organized body remaining in the general chaos after the collapse of the Roman empire. Clovis established his capital in Paris and is often, though wrongly, considered the founder of France. Indeed after his death in 511, the Frankish realm was divided among his sons according to Germanic custom. His successors took Burgundy, southern Germany, Saxony and Bavaria. However, Clovis’s heritage was rapidly dismantled by severe family quarrels. Progressively, after many bloody civil wars and fratricidal struggles, weakness appeared and the Frankish realm was divided into four major parts: Aquitaine (southwest France), Burgundy (today called Bourgogne, spreading then from Champagne to Provence and including a part of Switzerland), Neustria (nucleus of Clovis’s domain in northern France with Paris as capital) and Austrasia (eastern France, a part of western Germany including lands of the Rhine and the Meuse with the capital city of Metz).
Wars were numerous between those realms and by the 7th century, the Merovingian kings had considerably lost their power. The real authority was exercised by the majordomus (mayor of the palace), originally a high domestic servant, who became a kind of prime minister and secured power to himself.
In the military field of the early Middle Ages, the tactical sophistication of the Greeks and Romans was forgotten, and no significant technical improvements were made. The Merovingian army was composed of all Frankish free men, who were required to serve and to finance their own weapons and equipment. The warriors were not trained, and their weaponry, what we know of it, was rudimentary and irregular, though very costly. The men were armed with swords, large battle-axes and long spears; the richest carried a round wooden shield and wore an iron helm and cuirass. Combat took place both on horse and on foot.
World History
