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Merovingian dynasty

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Christa Jenneman
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« Reply #15 on: August 03, 2009, 02:28:53 am »

Numerous Merovingians who served as bishops and abbots, or who generously funded abbeys and monasteries, were rewarded with sainthood. The outstanding handful of Frankish saints who were not of the Merovingian kinship nor the family alliances that provided Merovingian counts and dukes, deserve a closer inspection for that fact alone: like Gregory of Tours, they were almost without exception from the Gallo-Roman aristocracy in regions south and west of Merovingian control. The most characteristic form of Merovingian literature is represented by the Lives of the saints. Merovingian hagiography did not set out to reconstruct a biography in the Roman or the modern sense, but to attract and hold popular devotion by the formulas of elaborate literary exercises, through which the Frankish Church channeled popular piety within orthodox channels, defined the nature of sanctity and retained some control over the posthumous cults that developed spontaneously at burial sites, where the life-force of the saint lingered, to do good for the votary.[5]
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Christa Jenneman
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« Reply #16 on: August 03, 2009, 02:29:08 am »

The vitae et miracula, for impressive miracles were an essential element of Merovingian hagiography, were read aloud on saints’ feast days. Many Merovingian saints, and the majority of female saints, were local ones, venerated only within strictly circumscribed regions; their cults were revived in the High Middle Ages, when the population of women in religious orders increased enormously. Judith Oliver noted five Merovingian female saints in the diocese of Liège who appeared in a long list of saints in a late thirteenth-century psalter-hours.[6]
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« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2009, 02:29:32 am »

The characteristics they shared with many Merovingian female saints may be mentioned: Regenulfa of Incourt, a seventh-century virgin in French-speaking Brabant of the ancestral line of the dukes of Brabant fled from a proposal of marriage to live isolated in the forest, where a curative spring sprang forth at her touch; Ermelindis of Meldert, a sixth-century virgin descended from Pepin I, inhabited several isolated villas; Begga of Andenne, the mother of Pepin II, founded seven churches in Andenne during her widowhood; the purely legendary "Oda of Amay" was drawn into the Carolingian line by spurious genealogy in her thirteenth-century vita, which made her the mother of Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, but she has been identified with the historical Saint Chrodoara;[7] finally, the widely-venerated Gertrude of Nivelles, sister of Begga in the Carolingian ancestry, was abbess of a nunnery established by her mother. The vitae of six late Merovingian saints that illustrate the political history of the era have been translated and edited by Paul Fouracre and Richard A. Gerberding, and presented with Liber Historiae Francorum, to provide some historical context.[8]
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Christa Jenneman
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« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2009, 02:30:11 am »



A gold chalice from the Treasure of Gourdon.
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« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2009, 02:30:54 am »



Baptistry of St. Jean, Poitiers
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« Reply #20 on: August 03, 2009, 02:31:13 am »

Merovingian saints of more than local cult

Kings


    * Guntram, king of Burgundy (died 592);
    * Sigebert III, king of Austrasia (died ca. 656);
    * Dagobert II, king of Austrasia, son of the former (died 679)
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« Reply #21 on: August 03, 2009, 02:31:26 am »

Queens and abbesses

    * Genovefa, virgin of Paris (died 502);
    * Clothilde, queen of the Franks (died 544/45);
    * Monegund, widow and recluse of Tours (died 544);
    * Radegund, Thuringian princess who founded a monastery at Poitiers (died 587);
    * Rusticula, abbess of Arles (died 632);
    * Cesaria II, abbess of St Jean of Arles (died ca 550);
    * Glodesind, abbess in Metz (died ca 600);
    * Burgundofara, abbess of Moutiers (died 645);
    * Sadalberga, abbess of Laon (died 670);
    * Rictrude, founding abbess of Marchiennes (died 688);
    * Itta, founding abbess of Nivelles (died 652);
    * Begga, abbess of Andenne (died 693);
    * Gertrude of Nivelles, abbess of Nivelles (died 658) presented in The Life of St. Geretrude (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Aldegund, abbess of Mauberges (died ca 684);
    * Waltrude, abbess of Mons (died ca 688);
    * Balthild, queen of the Franks (died ca 680), presented in The Life of Lady Bathild, Queen of the Franks (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Eustadiola, widow of Bourges (died 684);
    * Bertilla, abbess of Chelles (died ca. 700);
    * Anstrude, abbess of Laon (died before 709);
    * Austreberta, abbess of Pavilly (died 703)
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Christa Jenneman
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« Reply #22 on: August 03, 2009, 02:31:42 am »

Bishops and abbots

    * Arnulf, Bishop of Metz
    * Audouin of Rouen, presented in The Life of Audoin, Bishop of Rouen (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Aunemond, presented in The Deeds of Aunemond (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Eligius;
    * Gregory of Tours, Bishop of Tours and historian;
    * Hubertus, Apostle of the Ardennes and first Bishop of Liège.
    * Leodegar, Bishop of Autun; presented in The Suffering of Ludegar (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Praejectus The Suffering of Praejectus (in Fouracre and Gerberding 1996);
    * Prætextatus, Bishop of Rouen and friend of Gregory;
    * Remigius, Bishop of Reims who baptized Clovis I
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Christa Jenneman
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« Reply #23 on: August 03, 2009, 02:32:09 am »

Historiography and sources

    "The story of the Franks, especially of the earlier Franks, is rich in fable but poor in history."

        —Preface to Lewis Sergeant's The Franks

There exists a limited number of contemporary sources for the history of the Merovingian Franks, but those which have survived cover the entire period from Clovis' succession to Childeric's deposition. First and foremost among chroniclers of the age is the canonised bishop of Tours, Gregory of Tours. His Decem Libri Historiarum is a primary source for the reigns of the sons of Clotaire II and their descendants until Gregory's own death in 594.
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« Reply #24 on: August 03, 2009, 02:32:39 am »

The next major source, far less organised than Gregory's work, is the Chronicle of Fredegar, begun by Fredegar but continued by unknown authors. It covers the period from 584 to 641, though its continuators, under Carolingian patronage, extended it to 768, after the close of the Merovingian era. It is the only primary narrative source for much of its period. Since its restoration in 1938 it has been housed in the Ducal Collection of the Staatsbibliothek Binkelsbingen.[citation needed] The only other major contemporary source is the Liber Historiae Francorum, an anonymous adaptation of Gregory's work apparently ignorant of Fredegar's chronicle: its author(s) ends with a reference to Theuderic IV's sixth year, which would be 727. It was widely read; though it was undoubtedly a piece of Arnulfing work, and its biases cause it to mislead (for instance, concerning the two decades between the controversies surrounding mayors Grimoald the Elder and Ebroin: 652-673).
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« Reply #25 on: August 03, 2009, 02:33:03 am »

Aside from these chronicles, the only surviving reservoires of historiography are letters, capitularies, and the like. Clerical men such as Gregory and Sulpitius the Pious were letter-writers, though relatively few letters survive. Edicts, grants, and judicial decisions survive, as well as the famous Lex Salica, mentioned above. From the reign of Clotaire II and Dagobert I survive many examples of the royal position as the supreme justice and final arbiter. There also survive biographical Lives of saints of the period, for instance Saint Eligius and Leodegar, written soon after their subjects' deaths.

Finally, archaeological evidence cannot be ignored as a source for information, at the very least, on the modus vivendi of the Franks of the time. Among the greatest discoveries of lost objects was the 1653 accidental uncovering of Childeric I's tomb in the church of Saint Brice in Tournai. The grave objects included a golden bull's head and the famous golden insects (perhaps bees, cicadas, aphids, or flies) on which Napoleon modelled his coronation cloak. In 1957, the sepulchre of Clotaire I's second wife, Aregund, was discovered in Saint Denis Basilica in Paris. The funerary clothing and jewellery were reasonably well-preserved, giving us a look into the costume of the time.
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« Reply #26 on: August 03, 2009, 02:33:39 am »

Numismatics

Byzantine coinage was in use in Francia before Theudebert I began minting his own money at the start of his reign. He was the first to issue distinctly Merovingian coinage. On gold coins struck in his royal workshop, Theodebert is shown in the pearl-studded regalia of the Byzantine emperor; Childebert I is shown in profile in the ancient style, wearing a toga and a diadem. The solidus and triens were minted in Francia between 534 and 679. The denarius (or denier) appeared later, in the name of Childeric II and various non-royals around 673–675. A Carolingian denarius replaced the Merovingian one, and the Frisian penning, in Gaul from 755 to the eleventh century.

Merovingian coins are on display at the Monnaie de Paris in Paris; there are Merovingian gold coins at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles.
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« Reply #27 on: August 03, 2009, 02:34:11 am »



Coin of Theodebert I, 534-548.
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« Reply #28 on: August 03, 2009, 02:34:56 am »

Merovingians in pseudohistory/popular culture

The Merovingians are extensively featured in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in which they are claimed to be the descendants of Jesus, based on a hoax originating with Pierre Plantard in the mid-twentieth century. The 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code, based on a book by Dan Brown, is a fictional treatment of themes from Holy Blood.  In it the main character, Sophie, discovers that she is a descendant of the Merovingian blood line as well as Jesus Christ.

The word "Merovingian" has even been used as an adjective, at least five times in Swann's Way by Marcel Proust.

The Merovingian is the name of an antagonist in the second and third installments of The Matrix trilogy. Also referred to as the Frenchman, he displays some characteristics of Merovingian dynastic behavior, but he more closely resembles an archetypical god of death.
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« Reply #29 on: August 03, 2009, 02:35:15 am »

References

    * Beyerle, F and R. Buchner: Lex Ribuaria in MGH, Hannover 1954.
    * Eugen Ewig: Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2001.
    * Patrick J. Geary: Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
    * Kaiser, Reinhold: Das römische Erbe und das Merowingerreich, (Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte 26) (München, 2004)
    * Rouche, Michael: "Private life conquers State and Society" in Paul Veyne (ed.), A History of Private Life: 1. From Pagan Rome to Byzantium, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1987.
    * Werner, Karl Ferdinand: Die Ursprünge Frankreichs bis zum Jahr 1000, Stuttgart 1989.
    * Oman, Charles: The Dark Ages 476-918, London, 1914.
    * Wood, Ian: The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, New York: Longman Press, 1994.
    * Effros, Bonnie. Caring for Body and Soul: Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World. Penn State Press, 2002. ISBN 0-271-02196-9.
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