Clovis II (633 – 657) was
King of Neustria and
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...
, having succeeded his father
Dagobert I in 639. His brother
Sigebert III
Sigebert III ( 630–656) was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian ''roi fainéant'' —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom througho ...
had been
King of Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother
Nanthild until her death in her early thirties in 642. Nanthild's death allowed Clovis to fall under the influence of the secular magnates, who reduced the royal power in their own favour; first
Aega and then
Erchinoald. The Burgundian
mayor of the palace Flaochad used him to lure his rival,
Willebad, to a
battle in Autun, where Willebad was killed.
Background
Clovis' wife,
Balthild, whose
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
origins are now considered doubtful, was sold into slavery in
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. She had been owned by the Neustrian mayor of the palace, Erchinoald, who gave her to him to garner royal favour. She bore him three sons who all became kings after his death. The eldest,
Chlothar, succeeded him and his second eldest,
Childeric, was placed on the Austrasian throne by Ebroin while Clovis was still alive. The youngest,
Theuderic, succeeded Childeric in Neustria and eventually became the sole king of the Franks.
Clovis was a minor for almost the whole of his reign. He is sometimes regarded as king of Austrasia during the interval 656–57 when
Childebert the Adopted usurped the throne. Grimoald, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and his son Childebert the Adopted were captured and later executed in Paris by Clovis II, the king of Neustria, in 657. He is often regarded as an early ''
roi fainéant''. Noted
Belgian historian
Henri Pirenne
Henri Pirenne (; 23 December 1862 – 24 October 1935) was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multivolume history of Belgium in French and became a prominent public intellectual. Pirenne made a lasting contribut ...
stated that Clovis "died insane."
Clovis II is buried in
Saint Denis Basilica,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
.
References
Works cited
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clovis 02
Merovingian kings
633 births
657 deaths
Medieval child rulers
Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis
7th-century Frankish kings