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77-566: The town is third largest suburb of Rouen , a port with considerable light industry situated just 3 miles (5 kilometres) southwest of the centre of Rouen , at the junction of the D 3 , D 492 and the D 338 roads. Le Grand-Quevilly is twinned with: This Rouen geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Rouen Rouen ( UK : / ˈ r uː ɒ̃ , ˈ r uː ɒ n / , US : / r uː ˈ ɒ̃ , r uː ˈ ɒ n / ; French: [ʁwɑ̃] or [ʁu.ɑ̃] )

154-479: A Christian. My country is a Christian country and I reckon the history of France beginning with the accession of a Christian king who bore the name of the Franks". The Merovingians feature in the novel In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust : "The Merovingians are important to Proust because, as the oldest French dynasty, they are the most romantic and their descendants the most aristocratic." The word "Merovingian"

231-581: 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

308-505: A king, though he did not assume royal dignity. His sons Carloman and Pepin again appointed a Merovingian figurehead ( Childeric III ) to stem rebellion on the kingdom's periphery. However, in 751, Pepin finally displaced the last Merovingian and, with the support of the nobility and the blessing of Pope Zachary , became one of the Frankish kings. The Merovingian king redistributed conquered wealth among his followers, both material wealth and

385-433: A king, was the political ruler of the Frankish kingdom and left this position as a heritage to his sons. It was now the sons of the mayor that divided the realm among each other under the rule of a single king. After Pepin's long rule, his son Charles Martel assumed power, fighting against nobles and his own stepmother. His reputation for ruthlessness further undermined the king's position. Under Charles Martel's leadership,

462-492: A long architectural heritage in its historical monuments, Rouen is an important cultural capital. Several renowned establishments are located here, such as the Museum of Fine Arts , Le Secq des Tournelles museum, and Rouen Cathedral . Seat of an archdiocese , it also hosts a court of appeal and a university . Every four to six years, Rouen becomes the showcase for a large gathering of sailing ships called "L'Armada"; this event makes

539-701: A population exceeding 20,000. The city council is based at the Hôtel de Ville . The main schools of higher education are the University of Rouen and NEOMA Business School (former École Supérieure de Commerce de Rouen ), Unilasalle (agronomy and agriculture), both located at nearby Mont-Saint-Aignan , and the INSA Rouen , ESIGELEC , ESITech and the CESI , the three at nearby Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray . The main opera company in Rouen

616-427: A sea-beast called a quinotaur : It is said that while Chlodio was staying at the seaside with his wife one summer, his wife went into the sea at midday to bathe, and a beast of Neptune rather like a Quinotaur found her. In the event she was made pregnant, either by the beast or by her husband, and she gave birth to a son called Merovech, from whom the kings of the Franks have subsequently been called Merovingians. In

693-628: A single ruler. Even when divided under different kings, the kingdom maintained unity and conquered Burgundy in 534. Upon Clovis's death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania magna except Saxony . After the fall of the Ostrogoths , the Franks also conquered Provence . After this their borders with Italy (ruled by the Lombards since 568) and Visigothic Septimania remained fairly stable. Internally,

770-553: A tram and a bus system. The tramway branches into two lines out of a tunnel under the city centre. Rouen is also served by TEOR ( Transport Est-Ouest Rouennais ) and by buses run in conjunction with the tramway by TCAR (Transports en commun de l'agglomération rouennaise) , a subsidiary of Transdev . Rouen has its own airport . The Seine is a major axis for maritime cargo links in the Port of Rouen. The Cross-Channel ferry ports of Caen , Le Havre , Dieppe (50 minutes) and Calais , and

847-529: Is a city on the River Seine , in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime . Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , the population of the metropolitan area ( French : aire d'attraction ) is 702,945 (2018). People from Rouen are known as Rouennais . Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during

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924-518: Is at the center of many legends. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies , the Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were regarded as sacred . The Merovingians' long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. Contemporaries sometimes referred to them as the "long-haired kings" (Latin reges criniti ). A Merovingian whose hair

1001-582: Is by no means certain—made no claim to be descended from a god". In 1906, the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty. In 486 Clovis I , the son of Childeric, defeated Syagrius , a Roman military leader who competed with the Merovingians for power in northern France. He won

1078-486: 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

1155-636: Is the Opéra de Rouen – Normandie. The company performs in the Théâtre des Arts, 7 rue du Docteur Rambert. The company presents opera, classical and other types of music, both vocal and instrumental, as well as dance performances. Every five years, the city hosts the large maritime exposition, L'Armada . The city is represented by Quevilly-Rouen football club, currently in the Championnat National . Officially called Union Sportive Quevillaise-Rouen Métropole ,

1232-544: Is used as an adjective at least five times in The Way By Swann’s . The Merovingians are featured in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) where they are depicted as descendants of Jesus , inspired by the " Priory of Sion " story developed by Pierre Plantard in the 1960s. Plantard playfully sold the story as non-fiction, giving rise to a number of works of pseudohistory among which The Holy Blood and

1309-776: The Church of Saint Ouen (12th–15th century); the Palais de Justice , which was once the seat of the Parlement (French court of law) of Normandy; the Gothic Church of St Maclou (15th century); and the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics which contains a splendid collection of faïence and porcelain for which Rouen was renowned during the 16th to 18th centuries. Rouen is also noted for its surviving half-timbered buildings. There are many museums in Rouen:

1386-607: The Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, according to Gregory of Tours , Clovis adopted his wife Clotilda 's Orthodox—i.e., Nicene — Christian faith at a time when other Germanic tribes were largely Arian . He subsequently went on to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Clovis's death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons. This tradition of partition continued over

1463-522: The Byzantine Empire . The few surviving Merovingian edicts are almost entirely concerned with settling divisions of estates among heirs. 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, Theudebert is shown in the pearl-studded regalia of

1540-546: The Channel Tunnel are within easy driving distance (two and a half hours or less). Rouen and its metropolitan area of 70 suburban communes form the Métropole Rouen Normandie , with 494,382 inhabitants at the 2010 census. In descending order of population, the largest of these suburbs are Sotteville-lès-Rouen , Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray , Le Grand-Quevilly , Le Petit-Quevilly , and Mont-Saint-Aignan , each with

1617-629: The French Kingdom . He demolished the Norman castle and replaced it with his own, the Château Bouvreuil , built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre. A textile industry developed based on wool imported from England, for which the cities of Flanders and Brabant were constantly competitors, and finding its market in the Champagne fairs . Rouen also depended for its prosperity on the river traffic of

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1694-584: The Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The Gros Horloge is an astronomical clock dating back to the 14th century. It is located in the Gros Horloge street . Other famous structures include Rouen Castle , whose keep is known as the tour Jeanne d'Arc , where Joan of Arc was brought in 1431 to be threatened with torture (contrary to popular belief, she was not imprisoned there but in the tour de lady Pucelle (since destroyed);

1771-555: The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen , an art museum with paintings by well-known artists such as Claude Monet and Géricault ; the Musée maritime fluvial et portuaire , a museum on the history of the port of Rouen and navigation; Musée des antiquités , an art and history museum with local works from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance, the Musée de la céramique , the Museum of Natural History, founded in 1834 and re-opened in 2007, and

1848-610: The Plantagenet domains . Rouen did not go quietly: Alain Blanchard hanged English prisoners from the walls, for which he was summarily executed after the city surrendered, while Canon and Vicar General of Rouen Robert de Livet became a hero for excommunicating the English king, resulting in de Livet's imprisonment for five years in England. Joan of Arc , who supported a return to French rule,

1925-710: The Valois era. In this the Franks lagged behind the Burgundians and the Visigoths, that they had no universal Roman-based law. In Merovingian times, law was handled by officials called rachimburgs , who memorised the set of legal precedents which formed the basis for their society's laws, for Merovingian society did not allow the concept of creating new law, only of maintaining tradition. Nor did its Germanic traditions offer any code of civil law required of urbanised society, such as Justinian I caused to be assembled and promulgated in

2002-541: The local dukes , until William the Conqueror moved his residence to Caen . In 1150, Rouen received its founding charter which permitted self-government . During the 12th century, Rouen was the site of a yeshiva known as La Maison Sublime . Discovered in 1976, it is now a museum. At that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the population. On 24 June 1204, King Philip II Augustus of France entered Rouen and definitively annexed Normandy to

2079-471: The "Grand Poste" (rue Jeanne d'Arc), the banner is charged with a leopard (the lion passant seen on Norman and English arms). This was the official seal of Rouen at the beginning of the 12th century, before Normandy was incorporated into Capetian France. Merovingian dynasty The Merovingian dynasty ( / ˌ m ɛ r ə ˈ v ɪ n dʒ i ə n / ) was the ruling family of the Franks from around

2156-539: The 11th 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 . Christianity was introduced to the Franks by their contact with Gallo-Romanic culture and later further spread by monks . The most famous of these missionaries is St. Columbanus (d 615), an Irish monk. Merovingian kings and queens used

2233-474: The 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, but Merovingians remained in power until the 8th century. Clotaire's son Dagobert I (died 639), who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King. Later kings are known as rois fainéants ("do-nothing kings"), despite the fact that only the last two kings did nothing. The kings, even strong-willed men like Dagobert II and Chilperic II , were not

2310-630: The Boieldieu Bridge in the center of Rouen, this intentional location was chosen by the artist to magnify the historical separation of its city's citizens. Rouen Cathedral is the subject of a series of paintings by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet , who painted the same scene at different times of the day. Two paintings are in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; two are in

2387-597: 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

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2464-620: The Champs de Mars. In the centre of the Place du Vieux Marché (the site of Joan of Arc's pyre) is the modern church of St Joan of Arc . This is a large, modern structure which dominates the square. The form of the building represents an upturned Viking boat and a fish shape. Rouen was also home to the French Grand Prix , hosting the race at the nearby Rouen-Les-Essarts track sporadically between 1952 and 1968. In 1999 Rouen authorities demolished

2541-682: The Earl of Essex . A brief account by an English participant has survived. See 'Memoirs of Robert Carey', (F.H.Mares (ed.), Oxford, 1972), pp. 18–21. The first competitive motor race ran from Paris to Rouen in 1894. During the German occupation in World War II , the Kriegsmarine had its headquarters located in a chateau on what is now the Rouen Business School . The city was heavily damaged during

2618-505: The Elder and Ebroin : 652–673). Aside from these chronicles, the only surviving reservoirs of historiography are documentary sources (letters, charters, laws, etc.) and hagiography . 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

2695-611: The Frankish settlements being located along the Lower and Middle Rhine . The further south in Gaul one traveled, the weaker the Frankish influence became. Hen finds hardly any evidence for Frankish settlements south of the Loire . The absence of Frankish literature sources suggests that the Frankish language was forgotten rather rapidly after the early stage of the dynasty. Hen believes that for Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitania, Vulgar Latin remained

2772-426: The Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis's four sons divided the kingdom among themselves, and it remained divided until 679 with the exception of four short periods (558–561, 613–623, 629–634, 673–675). After that it was divided again only once (717–718). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia , Neustria , Burgundy and Aquitaine . During

2849-757: The Franks defeated the Moors at the Battle of Tours in 732. After the victory of 718 of the Bulgarian Khan Tervel and the Emperor of Byzantium Leo III the Isaurian over the Arabs led by Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik prevented the attempts of Islam to expand into eastern Europe, the victory of Charles Martel at Tours limited its expansion onto the west of the European continent. During the last years of his life, he even ruled without

2926-553: The Jewish community of Rouen, then numbering some five or six thousand. In 1389, another urban revolt of the underclass occurred, the Harelle . It was suppressed with the withdrawal of Rouen's charter and river-traffic privileges once more. During the Hundred Years' War , on 19 January 1419, Rouen surrendered after a long siege to Henry V of England , who annexed Normandy once again to

3003-583: The Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries. From the 13th century onwards, the city experienced a remarkable economic boom, thanks in particular to the development of textile factories and river trade. Claimed by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War , it

3080-542: The Musée Le Secq des Tournelles, which houses various collections of objects. The Jardin des Plantes de Rouen is a notable botanical garden once owned by Scottish banker John Law , dating from 1840 in its present form. It was the site of Élisa Garnerin 's parachute jump from a balloon in 1817. There is also a park and garden at the Champs de Mars, to the east of the city centre. The Paris–Rouen motor race of 1894, Le Petit Journal Horseless Carriages Contest, ended at

3157-619: The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow; one is in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The estimated value of one painting is over $ 40 million. This may be rendered, "On a red background a haloed white pascal lamb looking back over its shoulder ( contorny ) holds a white banner bearing a gold cross; above, a broad blue band across the top bears 3 gold fleurs de lis". On the front of

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3234-562: The Seine, on which it enjoyed a monopoly that reached as far upstream as Paris . In the 13th and 14th centuries urban strife threatened the city: in 1291, the mayor was assassinated and noble residences in the city were pillaged. Philip IV reimposed order and suppressed the city's charter and the lucrative monopoly on river traffic, but he was quite willing to allow the Rouennais to repurchase their old liberties in 1294. In 1306, he decided to expel

3311-399: The city an occasional capital of the maritime world. Rouen was founded by the Gaulish tribe of the Veliocasses , who controlled a large area in the lower Seine valley. They called it Ratumacos ; the Romans called it Rotomagus . It was considered the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis after Lugdunum ( Lyon ) itself. Under the reorganization of Diocletian , Rouen was the chief city of

3388-698: The city at Stade Saint Exupéry. The local team, Huskies de Rouen play in the top French tier, they also play some games in European competition. Rouen was the birthplace of: Rouen is twinned with: During the second half of the 20th century, several sculptures by Jean-Yves Lechevallier were erected in the city. Inaugurated in 2010, the Rouen Impressionnée hosted the contemporary urban (re)development installation sculpture 'Camille' by Belgian artist Arne Quinze . Quinze's use of interlocking systems in sculpture employ wood, concrete, paint and metal. The Quasi-Quinze method of sculpture utilizes structural integrity and randomness as key elements for 'Camille'. Located on

3465-413: The club play at the 12.018 capacity Stade Robert Diochon in nearby Le Petit-Quevilly . Rouen Normandie Rugby represent the city in Rugby Union. One of few professional rugby teams from northern France, Rouen Normandie Rugby , currently play in the second-tier Pro D2 . Dragons de Rouen , an ice hockey club, play in the top-tier Ligue Magnus at the Île Lacroix arena. Baseball is also played in

3542-438: The divided province Gallia Lugdunensis II and reached the apogee of its Roman development, with an amphitheatre and thermae of which foundations remain. In the 5th century, it became the seat of a bishopric and later a capital of Merovingian Neustria . From their first incursion into the lower valley of the Seine in 841, the Normans overran Rouen. From 912, Rouen was the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and residence of

3619-405: The entire Frankish realm under one ruler. The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and procured enormous concessions from the kings in return for their support. These concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading comites and duces ( counts and dukes ). Very little is in fact known about the course of

3696-404: The final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. Actual power was increasingly in the hands of the mayor of the palace , the highest-ranking official under the king. In 656, the mayor Grimoald I tried to place his son Childebert on the throne in Austrasia. Grimoald was arrested and executed; but his son ruled until 662, when the Merovingian dynasty

3773-507: 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 . 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

3850-711: The grandstands and other remnants of Rouen's racing past. Today, little remains beyond the public roads that formed the circuit. Rouen has an opera house , whose formal name is "Rouen Normandy Opera House – Theatre of Arts" (in French: Opéra de Rouen Normandie – Théâtre des arts ). Rouen has an oceanic climate ( Cfb in the Köppen climate classification). Mainline trains operate from Gare de Rouen-Rive-Droite to Le Havre and Paris, and regional trains to Caen , Dieppe and other local destinations in Normandy . Daily direct trains operate to Amiens and Lille , and direct TGVs (high-speed trains) connect daily with Lyon and Marseille . City transportation in Rouen consists of

3927-423: 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 a Merovingian woman at the time believed to be Clotaire I 's second wife, Aregund ,

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4004-414: The history of the Merovingian Franks, but those that survive cover the entire period from Clovis's succession to Childeric's deposition. First 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, but must be read with account of

4081-440: The inheritance of older Merovingian children. This pragmatic use of monasteries ensured close ties between elites and monastic properties. 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

4158-467: The judgment of disputes. This happened against the backdrop of a newly isolated Europe without its Roman systems of taxation and bureaucracy , the Franks having taken over administration as they gradually penetrated into the thoroughly Romanised west and south of Gaul. By the time of Dagobert I , governmental documents were recognizably Roman, it is by then written in Latin on imported papyrus similar to Roman bureaucratic norms and where it also made use of

4235-452: The king leader of the warrior-band. Furthermore, the king was expected to support himself with the products of his private domain ( royal demesne ), which was called the fisc . This system developed in time into feudalism , and expectations of royal self-sufficiency lasted until the Hundred Years' War . Trade declined with the fall of the Roman Empire , and agricultural estates were mostly self-sufficient. The remaining international trade

4312-565: The kingdom was divided among Clovis's sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between the different kings, who allied amongst themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the surviving brothers and the deceased's sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around Brunhilda . However, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established 'rules' and norms. Eventually, Clotaire II in 613 reunited

4389-521: The land (including its indentured peasantry), though these powers were not absolute. As Rouche points out, "When he died his property was divided equally among his heirs as though it were private property: the kingdom was a form of patrimony." Some scholars have attributed this to the Merovingians' lacking a sense of res publica , but other historians have criticized this view as an oversimplification. The kings appointed magnates to be comites (counts), charging them with defense , administration , and

4466-422: The main agents of political conflicts, leaving this role to their mayors of the palace, who increasingly substituted their own interest for their king's. Many kings came to the throne at a young age and died in the prime of life, weakening royal power further. The conflict between mayors was ended when the Austrasians under Pepin the Middle triumphed in 687 in the Battle of Tertry . After this, Pepin, though not

4543-450: 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 the late 13th-century Lardanchet psalter–hours . The vitae of six late Merovingian saints that illustrate

4620-445: The middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul . By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gallo-Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule into Raetia (537). In Germania , the Alemanni , Bavarii and Saxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm

4697-501: The newly forming ecclesiastical power structure to their advantage. Monasteries and episcopal seats were shrewdly awarded to elites who supported the dynasty. Extensive parcels of land were donated to monasteries to exempt those lands from royal taxation and to preserve them within the family. The family-maintained dominance over the monastery by appointing family members as abbots . Extra sons and daughters who could not be married off were sent to monasteries so that they would not threaten

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4774-420: The next century. Even when several Merovingian kings simultaneously ruled their own realms, the kingdom—not unlike the late Roman Empire —was conceived of as a single entity ruled collectively by these several kings (each ruling one section much as the late Roman Empire had been divided between up to four emperors). The death of one or more of these kings could result in the reunification of the whole kingdom under

4851-532: The old legal formulae. While laymen made up most of the administrators, there was a gradual shift to a clerical presence from the reign of Clotaire II. The counts had to provide armies, enlisting their milites and endowing them with land in return. These armies were subject to the king's call for military support. Annual national assemblies of the nobles and their armed retainers decided major policies of war making. The army also acclaimed new kings by raising them on its shields continuing an ancient practice that made

4928-415: The past, this tale was regarded as an authentic piece of Germanic mythology and was often taken as evidence that the Merovingian kingship was sacral and the royal dynasty of supernatural origin. Today, it is more commonly seen as an attempt to explain the meaning of the name Merovech (sea-bull): "Unlike the Anglo-Saxon rulers the Merovingians—if they ever themselves acknowledged the quinotaur tale, which

5005-402: 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. Yitzhak Hen stated that it seems certain that the Gallo-Roman population was far greater than the Frankish population in Merovingian Gaul, especially in regions south of the Seine , with most of

5082-455: The pro-church point of view of its author. 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. The only other major contemporary source

5159-406: 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 biographies 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 Frankish mode of life. Among

5236-407: The same war on D-day , and its famed cathedral was almost destroyed by Allied bombs. Rouen is known for Rouen Cathedral , with its Tour de Beurre ( butter tower ) financed by the sale of indulgences for the consumption of butter during Lent . The cathedral's gothic façade (completed in the 16th century) was the subject of a series of paintings by Claude Monet , some of which are exhibited in

5313-447: The spoken language in Gaul throughout the Merovingian period and remained so even well in to the Carolingian period. However, Urban T. Holmes estimated that a Germanic language was spoken as a second tongue by public officials in western Austrasia and Neustria as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a spoken language from these regions only during the 10th century. A limited number of contemporary sources describe

5390-404: Was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431 in this city, where most inhabitants supported the duke of Burgundy, the French king's enemy. The king of France, Charles VII , recaptured the town in 1449. Rouen was staunchly Catholic during the French Wars of Religion , and underwent an unsuccessful five-month siege in 1591/2 by the Protestant King Henry IV of France and an English force commanded by

5467-426: Was cut could not rule, and a rival could be removed from the succession by being tonsured and sent to a monastery. The Merovingians also used a distinct name stock. One of their names, Clovis, evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty down to the 19th century. The first well-known Merovingian king was Childeric I (died 481). His son Clovis I (died 511) converted to Nicene Christianity , united

5544-560: 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. Beyond these royal individuals, the Merovingian period is associated with the archaeological Reihengräber culture . The Merovingians play a prominent role in French historiography and national identity , although their importance

5621-484: Was dominated by Middle Eastern merchants, often Jewish Radhanites . Merovingian law was not universal law equally applicable to all; it was applied to each man according to his origin: Ripuarian Franks were subject to their own Lex Ripuaria , codified at a late date, while the so-called Lex Salica ( Salic Law ) of the Salian clans, first tentatively codified in 511 was invoked under medieval exigencies as late as

5698-466: Was on its soil that Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive on 30 May 1431. Severely damaged by the wave of bombing in 1944 , it nevertheless regained its economic dynamism in the post-war period thanks to its industrial sites and its large seaport, which merged with the ports of Le Havre and Paris in 2021 to form the HAROPA Port. Endowed with a prestige established during the medieval era , and with

5775-523: Was partly overshadowed by that of the Gauls during the Third Republic . Charles de Gaulle is on record as stating his opinion that "For me, the history of France begins with Clovis , elected as king of France by the tribe of the Franks, who gave their name to France. Before Clovis, we have Gallo-Roman and Gaulish prehistory. The decisive element, for me, is that Clovis was the first king to have been baptized

5852-515: Was restored. When King Theuderic IV died in 737, the mayor Charles Martel continued to rule the kingdoms until his death in 741. The dynasty was restored again in 743, but in 751 Charles's son, Pepin the Short , deposed the last king, Childeric III , and had himself crowned, initiating the Carolingian dynasty . The 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar implies that the Merovingians were descended from

5929-537: Was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the breakup of the empire of Theodoric the Great . The dynastic name, medieval Latin Merovingi or Merohingii ("sons of Merovech"), derives from an unattested Frankish form, akin to the attested Old English Merewīowing , with the final - ing being a typical Germanic patronymic suffix. The name derives from Salian King Merovech , who

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