ABSTRACT

The character of the period 561 to 768 is one of violence. The violence and disunity of the period arose, more than from any other cause, from the failure of the Frankish rulers to regard their territories other than as patrimonies, to be divided at death among their sons, legitimate or even illegitimate. The reign of Dagobert I was that of the last Merovingian who really ruled. As Charibert was apparently mentally deficient, Dagobert was recognized as king of Lothar’s kingdom, the regnum francorum, and Charibert was left with the kingship of a few cities round Toul. At the beginning of the period of shadow Merovingian rule, Clovis II, Dagoberts younger son, ruled Neustria and Burgundy through Aega, and after his death in 641, through Erchinoald, both conciliators of the nobles. The descendant of bishop Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen had seized power from the Merovingians: the mayor of the Austrasian palace had triumphed over the other mayors.