Clovis I (466 - 27/11/511) was the Frankish King from 481. He married St Clothilda of Burgundy (475 - 3/6/548) in 491. By 496, he was the most powerful ruler in Western Europe. Meanwhile, the Roman Empire was in ruins & the Papacy in dire straits. As Stalin pointed out, the Pope has no divisions, as true in 496 as in 1945, although in the later Middle Ages, they aquired sufficient temporal power to protect themselves, popes such as Julius II (pont. 1503 - 1513) spending as much time in a helmet as a mitre.

This was the deal - the Pope, who had much influence, would recognise Clovis as effectively, the Western Roman Emperor if Clovis would convert to Roman Christianity (from the more logical Arianism) & protect the pope, who called him the ‘New Constantine’. For a ludicrous propagandising account of Clovis’ conversion, one cannot beat that of Gregory of Tours (539-594) for sentimentality.

But there was more to the choice of Clovis than mere power. Here is his tree, as far back as we are prepared to give any credence. Some published versions going back into BC times.

As with the Visigoths, we owe this knowledge to their Christianity & the writings of priests. Merovech gave his name to the dynasty of Merovingians. It is claimed that he fought Attila the Hun with Theodoric & Aetius at the Battle of Chalons. But that battle is rather like the Rolls of Battle Abbey: everybody wanted to have been in it. Childeric is the first one backed by solid available documentation but what about the unavailable documentation, believed by many to be firmly locked up in the Vatican Library? More about this in the last chapter.

Clodion of Cologne was not just the father of Chlodeswinthe: his line goes down to Valtrude of Verdun (chapter 48) & Charlemagne (chapter 49).

Adalric, the son of Clodion of the Franks, started the line of eight Waudberts, Counts of the Ardennes & Lommois. These are listed in Appendix X. But where was or were the Lommois? The inhabitants of Lille in Northern France call themselves les Lommois, so the name Waudbert de Lommis presumably means Waudbert of the Lille people.

What was this business of Theodemer & his mother Ascyla being executed "by the sword" together? His wife Blesinde was the daughter of Clodion I des Francs and Princess Blesinde of the Schwabs.

Amalaberge was the daughter of Clodoweg des Francs, born about 405 and Weldelphe of the Saxons.

Clovis divided his kingdom among his sons. Many people believe this to be the Merovingian way, which it was in normal family inheritance but it was Clovis who extended this socialistic custom to the actual kingdom, not appreciating as we moderns do, that a kingdom is not a property but a trust. His descendants continued from this bad precedent, which caused endless bloodshed & weakened France, although Ian Wood ("The Merovinghian Kings") claims that it simply gave employment to soldiers who might otherwise be a civil problem (not quite his words). After much fratricidal strife, Clothaire I came out as the King of France. He was a much married man:-

Clothaire I stuck to Clovis' unfortunate precedent & divided his kingdon between his sons. Note that Chilperic was the son of Arégonde, a concubine rather than a wife, which did not affect his entitlement to a share in the inheritance. There were three other sons who survived to manhood, Siegbert (535 - 575) became King of Austrasia, Gunther was King of Burgundy-plus & Charibert was King of Paris. It was all set up yet again for a sibling squabble. Charibert, who had a weakness for wenches (& you could not run a medieval court without plenty of wenches around), married several & avoided family quarrels. Gunter was made a saint by the church for allegedly being good to his subjects. Other sources reckon he was as big a villain as any Merovingian but he tried to mediate between his brothers & simply keeping his nation out of this war should redound to his credit, although he did have a war of his own in Provence. Siegbert made a prestigious marriage to Brunhilda in 567, daughter of Athanagilde, the powerful King of the Visigoths (510 - 567), met in a previous chapter.

Chilperic felt he had to match Siegbert’s diplomatic coup by marrying Brunhilda’s sister Galswintha the same year, divorcing his wife Audovera to achieve this. But Chilperic also had a weakness for wenches & had a relationship with the opportunistic Fredegunde, the "heroine" of the next chapter.

Meanwhile, we must follow some other Franks who are part of the Delaforce inheritance. In chapter 43, we encountered the family of Gundovic, King of Burgundy, son of Clotilde, putative daughter of Athaulf. To untangle the family trees thereafter, it is best to start with Queen Théodelinde, as her descendents kept marrying within a fairly tight family.

St Arnulf, Bishop of Mez, turns out to be a very important figure in the family. He was born in Heristal, now a suburb of Liège but both Metz & Heristal were in Austrasia. His father was Baudgise II Duke of Aquitaine (569 - 582 murdered in Carthage, what was he doing there?) & St. Oda of Savoy (abt 562 - ?). Baudgise’s parents were Mummolin des Francs Ripuaires & a sister of Aunulf Duke of Angouleme. St. Oda’s were Bodegisel I Duke of Swabia (509? - 581?) & Palatina de Troyes. Working back through the male line takes us to that Clodion, King of Cologne who was the great-grandfather of Clovis the Great. We shall revisit this line below.

Clothilde de Saxe’ parents were Arnold of the Schelde Bishop of Metz & Oda of Swabia. St. Arnulf inherited his bishopric from his father-in-law, Arnold, who’s parents were Ansbertus, the Senator of Schelde (?523 - ?570) & Blithilde of Cologne (?583 - ?603).

Agivald, Duke of Bavaria, was an ancestor of both Charlemange's wife, through his son Garibald, who was only one of the husbands of Walrada of Lombardy & was of the Toulouse connexion, which criss-crosses with the Gascon dukes lines. This was through his other son Theodebald, who's daughter Gertrude founded the convent at Hamage near Douai & became the first abbess, which did not prevent her having children by Ricomer de Bourgogne (Bertrude, who married Clothaire II in the next chapter) & after he died, by her toy-boy Sandregisisle. Their daughter Nanthild was the cousin & second wife of the powerful Dagobert I (who was the son of Clothaire II, see the next chapter).

We know more about two wives:

Arthemia de Genève (?515 - ?) was the daughter of Florentinus Bishop Elect of Geneva (?480+ - aft 513) & Artemia de Lyons. This Artemia was the daughter of St. Rusticus de Lyons Bishop of Lyons (?455 - 25/4/501) and the daughter of Ruricius de Limoges & Hiberie d' Auvergne, a strange case of knowing more about daughters than fathers.

Palatina of Angouleme (?540 - ?) was the daughter of Maurilion d'Angoulême (?510 - ?) and the daughter of Baderic of Thuringia. Baderic was the son of Basin of Thuringia (?460 - ?), son of Berthaire I of Thuringia and Menia.

During the course of this chapter and chapter 43, there occurred, barely mentioned until now, an event - the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. What impact did it have on the Delaforce ancestors? Did it have any? Grandpa Childeric was established as King of the Salian Franks, roughly Holland & Belgium. The Gothic Grandpa Euric was building his own empire in Southern Gaul & Spain. The most noticable effect was, of couse, in Italy, where Grandpa Theodoric the Great was soon to displace Odoacer as King of Italy. In 476, Odoacer had waved the Roman civil servants back to their desks & told then to 'carry on'. Grandpa Ardaric, the King of the Gepids, was busy organising his state in the Carpathians & the Frankish Agilolfings were moving South across the Danube into Bavaria. Apart from Theodoric, no one was too bothered about events in Rome.