Dagobert I

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Dagobert I

of Dagobert I, Uzès
Uzès

Uz?s is a Communes of France in the Gard Departments of France in southern France.It lies about 15 miles north-northeast of N?mes....
, 629–639, gold 1.24g. Monnaie de Paris
Monnaie de Paris

File:Monnaie_de_Paris.jpgFile:Monnaie_de_Paris_facade.jpgThe Monnaie de Paris or, more administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items....
.]] Dagobert I (c. 603 – 19 January 639
639

Events...
) was the king of Austrasia
Austrasia

Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands....
(623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria
Neustria

The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities....
and Burgundy (629–639). He was the last Merovingian dynast to wield any real royal power. Dagobert was the first of the French kings to be buried in the royal tombs at Saint Denis Basilica
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
.

of Dagobert I, Marseille
Marseille

"Marseille" is the second-largest city of France and forms the third-largest aire urbaine, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007....
, 623–629.

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of Dagobert I, Uzès
Uzès

Uz?s is a Communes of France in the Gard Departments of France in southern France.It lies about 15 miles north-northeast of N?mes....
, 629–639, gold 1.24g. Monnaie de Paris
Monnaie de Paris

File:Monnaie_de_Paris.jpgFile:Monnaie_de_Paris_facade.jpgThe Monnaie de Paris or, more administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items....
.]] Dagobert I (c. 603 – 19 January 639
639

Events...
) was the king of Austrasia
Austrasia

Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands....
(623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria
Neustria

The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities....
and Burgundy (629–639). He was the last Merovingian dynast to wield any real royal power. Dagobert was the first of the French kings to be buried in the royal tombs at Saint Denis Basilica
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
.

Rule in Austrasia
of Dagobert I, Marseille
Marseille

"Marseille" is the second-largest city of France and forms the third-largest aire urbaine, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007....
, 623–629. Cabinet des Médailles
Cabinet des Médailles

The Cabinet des M?dailles, or Cabinet de France, more formally known as Le d?partement des Monnaies, M?dailles et Antiquit?s de la Biblioth?que Nationale, is a department of the Biblioth?que nationale de France in Paris, housed in its former premises in rue de Richelieu....
.]] Dagobert was the eldest son of Chlothar II and Haldetrude (575–604). Chlothar II had reigned alone over all the Franks since 613. In 623, Chlothar was forced to make Dagobert king of Austrasia by the nobility of that region, who wanted a king of their own.

When Chlothar II granted Austrasia to Dagobert, he initially excluded Alsace
Alsace

Alsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km? ....
, the Vosges
Vosges

This article is about the department of France named Vosges. For the mountain range, see Vosges Mountains.Vosges is a France departments of France, named after the local Vosges Mountains....
, and the Ardennes
Ardennes

The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and old mountains formed on the Givetian Ardennes mountains, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel....
, but shortly thereafter the Austrasian nobility forced him to concede these regions to Dagobert. The rule of a Frank from the Austrasian heartland tied Alsace more closely to the Austrasian court. Dagobert created a new duchy (the later Duchy of Alsace
Duchy of Alsace

The Duchy of Alsace was a large political subdivision of the Frankish Empire during the last decade and a half of Merovingian rule. It corresponded to the territory of Alsace and was carved out of southern Austrasia in the last decade of the reign of Dagobert I, probably to stabilise the southern reaches of Austrasia against Alemannia and Kin...
) in southwest Austrasia to guard the region from Burgundian or Alemannic encroachments and ambitions. The duchy comprised the Vosges, the Burgundian Gate, and the Transjura. Dagobert made his courtier Gundoin the first duke of this new polity that was to last until the end of the Merovingian dynasty.

United rule
of Dagobert I and moneyer Romanos, Augaune, 629-639, gold 1.32g. Monnaie de Paris
Monnaie de Paris

File:Monnaie_de_Paris.jpgFile:Monnaie_de_Paris_facade.jpgThe Monnaie de Paris or, more administratively speaking, the "Direction of Coins and Medals", is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items....
.]] On the death of his father in 629, Dagobert inherited the Neustrian and Burgundian kingdoms. His half-brother Charibert
Charibert II

File:Caribert II Tremissis Banassac 629 632.jpgCharibert II , a son of Clotaire II and his second wife Sichilde, was briefly king of Aquitaine from 629 to his death, with his capital at Toulouse....
, son of Sichilde, claimed Neustria but Dagobert opposed him. Brodulf, the brother of Sichilde, petitioned Dagobert on behalf of his young nephew, but Dagobert assassinated him and gave his younger sibling Aquitaine.

Charibert died in 632 and his son Chilperic
Chilperic of Aquitaine

Chilperic was the infant son of Charibert II, and briefly king of Aquitaine in 632. He was killed shortly after his father in 632, under orders by Dagobert I, Charibert's half-brother....
was assassinated on Dagobert's orders. By 632, Dagobert had Burgundy and Aquitaine firmly under his rule, becoming the most powerful Merovingian king in many years and the most respected ruler in the West.

In 631, Dagobert led three armies against Samo
Samo

Samo was a Franks merchant from the "Senonian country" , probably modern Sens, France. He was the first ruler of the Slavs whose name is known, and established one of the earliest Slav states, a supra-tribal union usually called Samo's empire, realm, kingdom, or tribal union....
, the rulers of the Slav
Slavic peoples

The Slavic Peoples are a linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans....
s, but his Austrasian forces were defeated at Wogastisburg
Battle of Wogastisburg

According to the contemporary Chronicle of Fredegar, the battle of Wogastisburg was a battle between Slavs under King Samo and Franks under King Dagobert I in 631....
.

Rule in Neustria, from Paris
Also in 632, the nobles of Austrasia revolted under the mayor of the palace, Pepin of Landen. In 634, Dagobert appeased the rebellious nobles by putting his three-year-old son, Sigebert III
Sigebert III

Sigebert III was the king of Austrasia from 634 to his death probably on 1 February 656, or maybe as late as 660. He was the eldest son of Dagobert I....
, on the throne, thereby ceding royal power in the easternmost of his realms, just as his father had done for him eleven years earlier.

As king, Dagobert made Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
his capital. During his reign, he built the Altes Schloss in Meersburg
Meersburg

Meersburg is a town of Baden-W?rttemberg in the southwest of Germany at Lake Constance.It is famous for its charming medieval city. The lower town and uptown are reserved for pedestrians only and connected by two stairways and a steep street ....
(in modern Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
), which today is the oldest inhabited castle in that country. Devoutly religious, Dagobert was also responsible for the construction of the Saint Denis Basilica
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
, at the site of a Benedictine
Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy....
monastery in Paris.

Dagobert died in the abbey of Saint-Denis and was the first French king to be buried in the Saint Denis Basilica
Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
, Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
.

Legacy
, remade in the thirteenth century]] The pattern of division and assassination which characterise even the strong king Dagobert's reign continued for the next century until Pepin the Short finally deposed the last Merovingian king in 751, establishing the Carolingian
Carolingian

File:Charlemagne denier Mayence 812 814.jpgThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century....
dynasty. The Merovingian boy-kings remained ineffective rulers who inherited the throne as young children and lived only long enough to produce a male heir or two, while real power lay in the hands of the noble families who exercised feudal control over most of the land.

Dagobert was immortalized in the song Le bon roi Dagobert
Le bon roi Dagobert (song)

"Le bon roi Dagobert" is an old France song featuring Dagobert I and Saint Eligius , two historical people. The song was created in the epoch of the French Revolution....
(The Good King Dagobert), a nursery rhyme featuring exchanges between the king and his chief adviser, Saint Eligius
Saint Eligius

Saint Eligius or Loye is the patron saint of goldsmiths and other metalworkers. He is also the patron saint of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , a corps of the British Army....
(Eloi in French). The satirical rhymes place Dagobert in various ridiculous positions from which Eligius' good advice manages to extract him. The text, which probably originated in the 18th century, became extremely popular as an expression of the anti-monarchist sentiment of the French Revolution
French Revolution

The 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 feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
. Other than placing Dagobert and Eligius in their respective roles, it has no historical accuracy.

In 1984, a 112-minute long French-Italian comedy, Le bon roi Dagobert (Good King Dagobert) was made, based on Dagobert I. The movie is surprisingly realistic in showing the realities of early barbarian France. The soundtrack was composed by Guido and Mauricio De Angelis.

Marriage and issue
Dagobert was a serial monogamist.

He married Nanthild
Nanthild

Nanthild was the third of many wives of Dagobert I, king of the Franks .She was of Saxon people lineage, born about 608 or 610. The Lexikon des Mittelalters calls her ein M?dchen aus dem Dienstpersonal ....
and they had the following:
Clovis II
Clovis II

Clovis II succeeded his father Dagobert I in 639 as Neustria and King of Burgundy. His brother Sigebert III had been Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother Nanthild until her untimely death in her early thirties in 642....
, who inherited the rest of his kingdom at a young age when his father died.
Regintrud
Regintrud

Regintrud , is something of an enigma. The sources quoted by Schreibner indicate that the records show a Regentrud as the sister of Adela of Pfalzel and daughter of king Dagobert I....
who married into the Bavarian Agilolfings
Agilolfings

The Agilolfings were a family of either Franks or Bavarii nobility that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788....
, either Theodo, Duke of Bavaria
Theodo of Bavaria

Theodo also known as Theodo V and Theodo II, was the Duke of Bavaria from 670 or, more probably, 680 to his death.It is with Theodo that the well-sourced history of Bavaria begins....
or his son Duke in Salzburg
Theodbert of Bavaria

Theodbert was the duke of Bavaria in some capacity or other from 702 to his death. He was the eldest son of Duke Theodo of Bavaria and Folchaid....
.

He also had a mistress named Ragintrudis (Ragnetrude) and they had the following:
Sigebert III
Sigebert III

Sigebert III was the king of Austrasia from 634 to his death probably on 1 February 656, or maybe as late as 660. He was the eldest son of Dagobert I....

His other wives were:
Wulfefundis (Wulfegunde)
Bertechildis (Berthilde)
Gomentrude

Source