PersonAD 511

Clovis I

Also called: Chlodovech, Clodoveus

Merovingian king who founded the Frankish kingdom, uniting the Franks, conquering Gaul and converting to Catholic Christianity

The Merovingian dynasty takes its name from Merovech, said to be his grandfather. At about fifteen he succeeded his father as king of the Salian Franks based at Tournai. His queen Clotilde, a Burgundian princess and a Catholic, is said to have influenced his conversion. The Salic Law issued under him set down Germanic customary law in Latin. On his death the kingdom was divided among his four sons.

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1 related event

1
AD 481 – AD 511Clovis Founds the Frankish Kingdom and Converts to Catholicismmonarch
Clovis, who became king of the Franks around 481, conquered most of Gaul to found the Frankish kingdom and converted to Roman Catholicism around 496.

Themes this person appears in

Medieval Europe and ByzantiumAD 476 – 1077
From the fall of Rome in the West to Canossa — the feudal West built by the Franks and the papacy, Byzantium as heir of Rome, and a church divided east and west