Childeric I (c. 440– c. 481) was the Merovingian king of the
Salian FranksThe Salian Franks or Salii were a subgroup of the early Franks who originally had been living north of the limes in the coastal area above the Rhine in the northern Netherlands, where today there still is a region called Salland. The Merovingian kings, responsible for the conquest of Gaul were of...
from 457 until his death, and the father of
ClovisClovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one king. He also introduced Christianity. He was the son of Childeric I and Basina. At age 16, he succeeded his father, in the year 481...
.
He succeeded his father
MerovechMerovech is the legendary founder of the Merovingian dynasty of the Salian Franks, which later became the dominant Frankish tribe. He allegedly lived in the first half of the fifth century. His name is a Latinization of a form close to the Old High German given name Marwig, lit. "famed fight"...
as king, traditionally in 457 or 458. With his Frankish warband he was established with his capital at
TournaiTournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, on lands which he had received as a
foederatusFoederatus is a Latin term whose definition and usage drifted in the time between the early Roman Republic and the end of the Western Roman Empire...
of the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
, and for some time he kept the peace with his allies.
In about 463 in
OrléansOrléans is a commune in north-central France, about southwest of Paris. It is the capital of the Loiret department and of the Centre region.The commune is located on the Loire River where the river curves south towards the Massif Central....
, in conjunction with the Roman General
AegidiusAegidius was a Gallo-Roman promoted as magister militum in Gaul under Aëtius around 450. He was an ardent supporter of Majorian, whom he helped to gain power...
, who was based in
SoissonsSoissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardie in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris...
, he defeated the Visigoths, who hoped to extend their dominion along the banks of the
Loire RiverThe Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of , it drains an area of , which represents more than a fifth of France's land area...
. After the death of Aegidius, he first assisted
Comes ("count") Paul of
AngersAngers is a city in the Maine-et-Loire department in north-western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, together with a mixed band of Gallo-Romans and Franks, in defeating the Goths and taking booty.
OdoacerOdoacer , also known as Odovacer, was a Germanic foederati general and the first non-Roman ruler of Italy after AD 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus on 4 September of that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in...
reached Angers but Childeric arrived the next day and a battle ensued. Count Paul was killed and Childeric took the city. Childeric, having delivered Angers, followed a Saxon warband to the islands on the Atlantic mouth of the Loire, and massacred them there. In a change of alliances, he also joined forces with
OdoacerOdoacer , also known as Odovacer, was a Germanic foederati general and the first non-Roman ruler of Italy after AD 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus on 4 September of that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in...
, according to
Gregory of ToursSaint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
, to stop a band of the
AlamanniThe Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–17 and claimed thereby to be their...
who wished to invade
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
The stories of his expulsion by the Franks, whose women he was taking; of his eight-year stay in
ThuringiaThe Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen
Bundesländer...
with
King BasinBisinus, Basinus, Besinus, or Bisin was the king of the Thuringii .According to Gregory of Tours, he supplied refuge from Childeric I, the Frankish king who was exiled by his own people...
and his wife Basina; of his return when a faithful servant advised him that he could safely do so by sending to him half of a piece of
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
which he had broken with him; and of the arrival in Tournai of
Queen BasinaBasina, daughter of the Thuringian king Basin and Basina, a Saxon princess, was queen of Thuringia in the middle of the fifth century. She left her husband king Bisinus and went to Roman Gaul. She herself took the initiative to ask for the hand of Childeric I, king of the Franks, and married him...
, whom he married, come from Gregory of Tours'
Libri Historiarum (Book ii.12).
He died in 481 and was buried in
TournaiTournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, leaving a son
ClovisClovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one king. He also introduced Christianity. He was the son of Childeric I and Basina. At age 16, he succeeded his father, in the year 481...
, afterwards king of the Franks.
Tomb
Childeric's tomb was discovered in 1653 (May 27) by a mason doing repairs in the church of Saint-Brice in
TournaiTournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, a city in modern Belgium, where numerous precious objects were found, including a richly ornamented sword, a
torseIn heraldry, the torse or wreath, is a twisted roll of fabric wound around the top of the helm and crest to hold the mantle in place.Like the mantle, the protective cloth covering worn over a knight's helmet, the torse is represented in two colours, generally the same pair of colours used on the...
-like bracelet, jewels of gold and cloisonné enamel with garnets, gold coins, a gold bull's head and a ring with the inscription
CHILDERICI REGIS ("of Childeric the king"), which identified the tomb. Some 300 golden
beeBees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s were also found.
Archduke Leopold WilliamArchduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria , was a military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, and a patron of the arts...
, governor of the Southern Netherlands (today's Belgium), had the find published in Latin, and the treasure went first to the Habsburgs in Vienna, then as a gift to
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
, who was not impressed with them and stored them in the royal library, which became the
Bibliothèque Nationale de FranceThe Bibliothèque nationale de France is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
during the
RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
. Napoleon was more impressed with Childeric's bees when he was looking for a heraldic symbol to trump the Bourbon fleur-de-lys. He settled on Childeric's bees as symbols of the
French EmpireThe French Empire
, also known as the Greater French Empire or First French Empire, but more commonly known as the Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I in France...
.
On the night of November 5–6, 1831, the treasure of Childeric was among 80 kilos of treasure stolen from the Library and melted down for the gold. A few pieces were retrieved where they had been hidden in the Seine, including two of the bees. The record of the treasure, however, now exists only in the fine engravings made at the time of its discovery, and in some reproductions made for the Habsburgs.
External links