CHARLEMAGNE’S PROPOSED MEROVINGIAN DESCENT
1. CAROLUS (CHARLES) “the Great” or CHARLEMAGNE, king of the Franks and
Lombards, emperor (from 800), etc., b. 2 April 748,36 d. Aachen, 28 Jan. 814.37
Charlemagne’s career continues to be elucidated and his legacy evaluated.38 For his
wives, concubines, and children, Settipani’s sketch in Préhistoire, 191–210, is still
definitive and accessible; Stewart Baldwin’s summary online in “The Henry
Project,” briefly citing the most relevant primary sources, is even more accessible
and therefore of great value.39
Charlemagne was the son of:
2. BERTHA, d. [8 June or 12 or 13 July] 783;40 m. ca. 743–744, PIPPIN,41 b. ca. 715,42
d. 24 Sept. 768,43 mayor of the palace, then (from 751) king of the Franks.44
Bertha was the daughter of:
3. CHARIBERT, count of (or at) Laon, living 721, d. by 762;45 m. [GISÈLE?].46
Charibert was the son of:
4. BERTRADA, a noblewoman who has been suggested to be a member of the
Merovingian dynasty, living on 23 June 721, when she founded and endowed a
monastery at Prüm.47 The identity of her husband, by then deceased, is not explicit
in the primary sources or unambiguously established with indirect evidence.48
Bertrada is the focus of the hypothesis discussed in this article.
Bertrada has been proposed to be a daughter of:
5. THEUDERIC (THIERRY) III, b. ca. 651,49 d. between 2 Sept. 690 and 12 April
691,50 after reigning as king of the Franks 17 years, latterly as a puppet of the mayor
of the palace Pippin of Herstal;51 m. CHRODCHILDIS, possibly also known as DODA,
bur. Saint-Vaast, Arras, poss. 3 June 694 (their joint tomb bore the inscription
“Theodericus rex . . . Doda regina,” according to a very late witness). A document
of 691 attests Chrodchildis as the name of the mother (then living) of Theuderic’s
eldest son and successor Chlodovech (Clovis) IV. There have been various
interpretations of these divergent evidentiary scraps: Either these were two
authentic names for the same person; or the late identification of queen “Doda” is
to be discounted as false; or there were two successive queens; or one was a queen
and the other a lesser mate (concubine).52 Whether the name discrepancy is best
resolved by positing one queen with two names, or two different queens (or
concubines), Settipani has suggested that the mother both of Bertrada and of
Chlothar IV was a member of the Arnulfing family and therefore the source both
of Bertrada’s landed inheritance in Rommersheim (of which a part was also
inherited by Charles Martel) and Chlothar IV’s stated kinship with Charles Martel.
Theuderic III was the son of:
6. CHLODOVECH (CLOVIS) II, b. 633 or 634,53 king in Neustria from Oct. 640, d.
Oct. or Nov. 657, bur. Saint-Denis; m. 648, (Saint) BATHILDIS, formerly an Anglo
Saxon slave, d. ca. 680 as a nun at the abbey of Chelles.54
Chlodovech (Clovis) II was the son of:
7. DAGOBERT I, b. 610–611, named as co-king by his father between 20 Jan. and 8
April 623 (when he was probably 12 years old), reigned as sole king of the Franks
after the death of his brother Charibert in 632, the last Merovingian king to
effectively rule all the Franks, d. 16 Jan. 638 or 639, bur. Saint-Denis;55 m. five
known wives, of whom he m. (3) NANTECHILDIS, the mother of Chlodovech
(Clovis) II.56
Dagobert I was the son of:
8. CHLOTHAR II, b. Spring 584,57 became king that year on the death of his father,
all but deposed in 600 by his cousins kings Theuderic and Theudebert, regained
rule in 612, d. [18] Oct 629, bur. Saint-Vincent, later Saint-Germain-des-Prés;58 m.
(1) HALDETRUDIS, mother of Dagobert.59
Chlothar II was the son of:
9. CHILPERIC, b. not long before 535;60 became king of Soissons on the death of his
father, 561; recognized as king in Neustria at the death of his brother Charibert,
567;61 murdered while hunting at Chelles, near Paris, between 27 Sept. and 9 Oct.
584, bur. Saint-Germain-des-Prés;62 m. (3) 568, FREDEGUNDIS, d. 597, bur. Saint
Germain-des-Prés.63 Fredegundis, the mother of Chlothar, was a mistress who had
apparently masterminded the strangulation of Chilperic’s second wife, the
Visigothic princess Galswinth.64
Chilperic was the son of:
10. CHLOTHAR (CHLOTHACHAR) I, b. 501–2, became king in Neustria on the death
of his father, 27 Nov. 511; following internal conflicts, by 555 was effectively the
most powerful king in Western Europe;65 d. after 29 Nov 561, in the 51st year of
his reign, bur. Saint-Médard, Soissons; m. (5) ca. 532 as his 5th (known) wife,
ARNEGUNDIS, sister of his 4th wife, Ingundis.66 The tomb of a Merovingian queen
Arnegundis, probably this woman, was discovered at Saint-Denis in 1957.67
Chlothar I was the son of:
11. CHLODOVECH (CLOVIS) I, b. 466 (according to Gregory of Tours), succeeded
his father as king in 481–82, baptized as a Catholic probably in 498,68 d. Paris, 27
Nov. 511,69 bur. Paris, Saints-Apôtres, later rededicated as Sainte-Geneviève; m.
(2) 492, CHROTECHILDIS, d. at the monastery of Saint-Martin at Tours, 3 June 544
(or 548),70 bur. with her husband, daughter of Chilperic, king of the Burgundians.71
Chlodovech (Clovis) I was the son of:
12. CHILDERIC, a Frankish tribal king and Roman
foederatus (auxiliary military leader) from ca. 456–57, d.
ca. 481–82,72 bur. Tournai, where his grave, endowed
with emblems of sovereignty including a gold signet ring
(whose seal impression is pictured at right), a gold-and
cloisonné sword, and numerous enigmatic gold bees, was
discovered in 1653;73 m. BASINA, perhaps formerly a wife
or concubine of Basinus, a chief or king of the
Thuringians.74
Childeric was the son of:
13. MEROVECH, eponymous founder of the Merovingian dynasty, a king or
chieftain of the Franks, succeeding the prior king, Chlodio, about 451, to whom he
was stated to be kin, but not necessarily a son. The death date of Merovech is not
known but can be deduced as 456–57 based on statements by Gregory of Tours
concerning the length of the reign of Childeric, his son and successor.75
THE PROPOSED MEROVINGIAN ANCESTRY OF CHARLEMAGNE (748–814)
While plausible, we do not know if this provides the actual Merovingian connections of the Emperor. However, considering the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Carolingians, I think that it is highly probable that some blood tie to the former dynasty existed.
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