Merovingians

MEROVINGIANS. - I. HISTORY. - Dynasty that ruled the Franks from the 5th to the 8th century. Of the tribe of the Salian Franks, after having long plundered the Roman provinces, at the beginning of the 5th century it had passed from the region of the IJssel to Gallia Belgica. The king Chlodio around 430 occupied the area of Tournai and Cambrai. The dynasty took its name from King Merovech, who in 451, alongside the imperial forces under Aetius, fought with his Franks against the Huns of Attila.

His successor Childeric, still within the imperial orbit, fought against Saxons and Alemanni. After 482, at the head of the Salian Franks of Tournai appears Clovis, the principal figure of the dynasty. With his limited and loosely knit military forces he eliminated the exhausted imperial nucleus of Soissons, gathered around Syagrius, then absorbed various independent tribes of the Salian Franks and the Ripuarian Franks of the Rhine Valley. Around 496 he took part in the struggle fought between the Ripuarian Franks and the Alemanni: the latter were routed and driven back to the East. Around 496-500, Clovis, who was still a pagan, whether because of the insistence of his consort, the Burgundian Clotilde, or perhaps because of the need to secure the sympathies of the Catholic populations of central Gaul, received Baptism at Reims from the archbishop Remigius. While the Visigoths and Burgundians, locked in their Arianism, were in conflict with the sentiments of the Roman population, and the other barbarian tribal chiefs remained still pagan, this highly skilled leader transferred his sphere of action to the region of the Seine and succeeded through his conversion in removing all conflict between his people and the Roman population. The significance of Clovis's act was immediately understood, and the bishop of Vienne, Avitus, wrote to the king to congratulate him on his conversion.

Clovis soon declared himself the protector of the Catholics against the Arian Visigoths, and on the pretext of Alaric II's persecution of the Roman population declared war on him, defeated him at Vouillé (Poitiers) and occupied, along with the capital Toulouse, all the Visigothic provinces of Gaul (507). Only the intervention of Theodoric from Italy saved Spain and Septimania for the Visigoths.

Clovis, at his death (511), had united the whole region under himself: the Franks, settled at first where the Roman population was sparse, left the old organization to the Gallo-Romans of the occupied regions. There could not be and there was not a fusion of the two populations: but religious and political equality was the basis for the rise of a new people. After Clovis's death, his four sons divided as private property the territories conquered by their father: Childebert at Paris, Clovis at Orléans, Chlothar at Soissons, Theuderic (Thierry) at Reims. They continued their father's work: they destroyed the kingdom of the Burgundians; they brought down the power of the Thuringians and occupied their country; they made raids into Spain as far as Zaragoza and into Italy, taking advantage of the struggles between the Empire and the Ostrogoths. They were cruel princes, who aimed only at conquering, perhaps only at plundering. In 588 Chlothar I, the survivor of the four brothers, again united the whole Merovingian domain; at his death in 561 a new partition among his four sons, Sigibert between the Meuse and the Rhine, Chilperic from Soissons to Cambrai, Guntram from Berry to Burgundy, Charibert in the west from Rouen to Bordeaux; in 567 Charibert died, and his domains were divided among the brothers without any political criterion. In the divisions there is no discussion of regions, but only of cities or fractions of cities in order to balance the shares of the various contenders. In this new period of fragmentation, there is no longer talk of expansion: Childeric's expeditions into Italy aim more at extracting gold from the Byzantines and the Lombards than at conquest. There is fighting in the east against the Avars, but more for defensive purposes. For the princes there is no interest of State but only the desire to enrich themselves at the expense of their subjects, transforming tribute into vulgar robbery, turning justice into a brutal device for confiscating the goods of those they wish to rob. For thirty years the life of the sons of Chlothar I centers on the bitter struggle fought between Sigibert and Chilperic. Sigibert marries Brunhilda, daughter of the Visigothic king Athanagild; Chilperic marries her sister, Galswintha, after repudiating Audovera, but then returns to his concubine Fredegund and for her has the first and second wives killed. And so begins the hatred between the two families. Sigibert defeats his brother, but dies by the hand of an emissary of Fredegund; Brunhilda is captured and shut in prison. She comes out of it by marrying Chilperic's son, then returns to the kingdom of her son Childebert, whom she protects against the enemy, as she later protects her grandsons Theudebert and Theuderic. Struggles and intrigues last until, with the descendants of Sigibert dead, Guntram dead, the son of Chilperic and Fredegund, Chlothar II, succeeds in reuniting all the domains of the Merovingian family, sealing the triumph with the quartering of the enemy Brunhilda (613).

Through this most disastrous civil war, cause of profound decadence, there is talk of Austrasia and Neustria, as well as of Burgundy. Everywhere groups of aristocrats with particular interests have formed, everywhere a central administration has formed that exploits the country. In the three political units the real power is in the hands of a mayor of the Palace, a high official who originally was only the superintendent of the court services but had extended his authority over all those who were sent from the Palace to the various offices of the provinces to represent the king's authority. Since separatist tendencies were by now lively, Chlothar II had to send his son Dagobert to Austrasia as king, with Pepin as mayor of the Palace. In 629 Dagobert was king of all the Frankish territories, but he had to arrange a partition of the States among the sons of Sigibert and Clovis II, as then happened at his death in 639. Then began the saddest era of the Merovingian dynasty. The kings come to power as children or nearly so and die soon. The government is in the hands of women and of the mayors of the Palace, around the throne the struggles of the parties of the Frankish aristocracy are continuous. Of the sons of Dagobert, Sigibert III died in 656, Clovis II in 657, leaving the kingdom to his firstborn Chlothar III. For him his mother governs, the former slave Bathilde, supported by the energetic mayor of the Palace Ebroin. At the death of Chlothar III in 673, the succession is contested between Theuderic III and Childeric II. Against Ebroin the Great men rise up, led by Leodegar, bishop of Autun: Ebroin is relegated to the abbey of Luxeuil, where Leodegar shortly afterward is also shut in by his enemies. They are reconciled, they come out free, but the parties lead them to fight as before; Leodegar is killed in 678, Ebroin in 681. In Austrasia Pepin, called of Heristal, rises to power; in Neustria, Berchar. In the new civil war Pepin kills his adversary and becomes mayor of the Palace also in Neustria (687). The family of the M. continues to exist: after Theuderic III comes Clovis III, then Childebert III, then Dagobert III; but the one who directs is the mayor of the Palace. Pepin of Heristal remains in Austrasia and entrusts the mayoralty of Neustria to a faithful person such as Norbert, his son Grimoald and then his grandson Theudoald. When Pepin died in 714, the office of mayor passed to his two grandsons Hugh and Theudoald; of the agitations an illegitimate son of Pepin, Charles, took advantage, who, having eliminated the brothers, seized power, making one of his creatures, Chlothar IV, king, and replacing counts and bishops with people of his party.

Internal struggles had caused foreign policy to be neglected. Dagobert had fought with unfavorable outcome in Thuringia against a Slavic invasion and had had to content himself with organizing the defense. Pepin of Herstal had fought against the Alamanni, Bavarians and Frisians. Charles Martel, before resuming the war in Germany, had to concern himself with Aquitaine, where the princes, against the Frankish threat, had resorted to the Arabs of Spain.

The Arab invasion, begun in 720 in Septimania, soon spread throughout southern Gaul. After Bordeaux fell in 732, the danger became grave on the Loire. Charles Martel hurried there and won a great battle against the Arabs at Poitiers (Oct. 17, 732), but the Arabs nevertheless remained in Septimania and Provence. The southern question diverted Charles from resuming his father's activity beyond the Rhine. In 741, dying, he left his principate over the Franks to his two sons Pepin and Carloman. Since 737 there had been no king, because Theuderic IV had died without heirs. Pepin and Carloman only in 745 brought to the throne a certain man who claimed to be a descendant of the Merovingians and had him acclaimed under the name of Childeric III. It was in reality the only way to establish their authority. When Carloman retired to Montecassino (747), Pepin, left as sole mayor of the palace, consulted Pope Zachary as to whether it was right that those should be called kings who did nothing for the government, and not rather those who had the whole care of affairs. Zachary replied in favor of the latter; Pepin then convened an assembly, made up of personages all bound to him by offices and benefices, and was consecrated king by the bishops: Childeric III was shut up in the abbey of St-Bertin, his son Theodoric at St Wandrille.

Thus the Merovingian dynasty, after three centuries, came to an end more through exhaustion than through the violence of others. Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, reproached the M. for not having had enough vigor; and certainly, once the unification of all Gaul was accomplished, they had done nothing to create the State; yet in their incapacity they had made possible the peaceful coexistence of the different ethnic elements, preparing the formation of medieval France.

Francesco Cognasso

II. ART

Merovingian art is still the subject of controversial discussion among critics. Some scholars (J. Hubert, op. cit. in bibl.) proclaim its absolute originality; others, on the other hand, exclude any autonomy of expression and, insisting on the analogies with the art of the nearby East, consider it entirely dependent on that art (L. Bréhier, op. cit. in bibl.) or a manifestation parallel to that of the other Western countries in the same period (P. Lavedan, op. cit. in bibl.).

Of the architectural works of the Merovingian period almost nothing has survived; the cathedrals erected in large numbers were destroyed or tampered with by the many subsequent rebuildings, so that few elements remain embedded in later constructions. The principal remains are the lower part of St. Peter's of Vienne and of some Provençal baptisteries, generally of octagonal plan inscribed in a square, presumably covered by a dome (Marseille, Aix, Venasque, Riez, Fréjus, Mélas, Valence, all dated to the 5th century). Better preserved are some oratories and crypts (St. Victor of Marseille of the 5th century, crypts of St. Lawrence of Grenoble and of Jouarre dated to the 7th century). Almost completely rebuilt are some important architectural works: the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand and that of Lyon (ca. 450); those of St. Germain d'Auxerre, the Holy Apostles of Paris, St-Germain-des-Prés (6th century), the great abbeys of St-Denis, Jumièges, St-Vandrille (7th century). Merovingian churches were generally of Constantinian plan, with some variations (important is the abolition of the atrium as early as examples of the 6th century); construction was in stone, with a wooden roof. A characteristic element, which formed the basis for the theory of the originality of Merovingian art, is the bell tower (in which a sure independence from the tower of the Syrian churches has been seen): sometimes placed at the crossing with the transept (towers of St. Martin of Tours, of the churches of Nantes and of Clermont-Ferrand), or else separated from the body of the church (rear bell tower of St. Martin of Tours). St. Martin of Tours (ca. 472) was the largest of the Merovingian churches; according to the accounts given by Gregory of Tours, it was 160 feet long, 60 wide, had 120 columns, and the façade had 8 portals.

Nothing has survived of civil and military architecture. For the latter, the sources document that the building traditions of the Romans had remained alive; very important fortifications were the castle of Merliacum, described by Gregory of Tours, and the castle on the Moselle described by Venantius Fortunatus (III, 12).

Of the frescoes and mosaics with which the M. covered the walls of their churches, only the notices of the sources remain (St. Martin of Tours was decorated with frescoes with the stories of the Saint, the church of the Holy Apostles in Paris was adorned with mosaics, even on the exterior). Something remains of sculpture, which is seen to be characterized by the abandonment of plastic effect and reduced to a flat relief or even to a design incised on stone. The figure, human and animal, is gradually deformed until it becomes arabesque; the taste for ornamentation, geometrized and stylized, predominates (e.g., sarcophagi of Aquitaine, capitals of the churches of Grenoble and Jouarre). Also with regard to sculpture, the relations with Eastern art have been variously assessed, and likewise for miniature painting and for goldsmithing, of which a great abundance of material found in tombs remains (e.g., Treasure of Childeric [481] at the Cabinet des Médailles; Treasure of Pouan [451] at the Museum of Troyes; Treasure of Gourdon [ca. 527]). That of goldsmithing is the most important chapter in the history of Merovingian art, also because of the presence of certain well-defined personalities, among them St. Eloi (588-665), the most celebrated goldsmith of the time of Dagobert, and Dadillo and Ello (reliquary signed in the Treasure of St. Maurice d'Agaune).

Elsa Gerlini