Chlodomer, also spelled Clodomir or Clodomer (c. 495 - 524) was the second of the four sons of

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

King of the Franks The Franks, Germanic peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dux, dukes and monarch, reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Franks, Salian Mero ...

History

Clodomir was the eldest son of Clovis and his wife,

Clotilde Clotilde ( 474 – 3 June 545 in Burgundy, France) (also known as Clotilda (Fr.), Chlothilde (Ger.) Chlothieldis, Chlotichilda, Clodechildis, Croctild, Crote-hild, Hlotild, Rhotild, and many other forms), is a saint and was a Queen of the Fran ...

. On the death of his father, in 511, he divided the kingdom of the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

with his three brothers:

Theuderic I __NOTOC__ Theuderic I ( 487 – 534) was the Merovingian king of Metz, Rheims, or Austrasia—as it is variously called—from 511 to 534. He was the son of Clovis I and one of his earlier wives or concubines (possibly a Franco-Rhenish Pr ...

Childebert I Childebert I ( 496 – 13 December 558) was a Frankish King of the Merovingian dynasty, as third of the four sons of Clovis I who shared the kingdom of the Franks upon their father's death in 511. He was one of the sons of Saint Clo ...

, and

Chlothar I Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old" (French: le Vieux), (died December 561) also anglicised as Clotaire from the original French version, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I. With his eldes ...

. Chlodomer became King of the Franks at Orléans. This kingdom included, most notably, the

bishoprics In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

and

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Guntheuc Guntheuc (also spelled Gondioc) ( 495 – 532) was a Frankish queen consort. She was first married to King Chlodomer and later to his younger brother, King Chlothar I. Life Guntheuc may have been of Burgundian origin and the granddaughter of ...

, with whom he had three sons: Theodebald, Gunthar, and

Clodoald Clodoald (; reconstructed Frankish: ''*Hlōdōwald''; 522 – ), better known as Saint Cloud (), was a Merovingian prince, grandson of Clovis I and son of Chlodomer, who preferred to renounce royalty and became a hermit and monk. Clodoald found ...

. In 523–24, possibly at the instigation of his mother

, who was eager to avenge the death of her parents who had been allegedly assassinated by her uncle

Gundobad Gundobad (; ; 452 – 516) was King of the Burgundians (473–516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472–473, three years before its collapse, suc ...

, the father of

Sigismund of Burgundy Sigismund (; died 524 AD) was List of kings of Burgundy, King of the Burgundians from 516 until his death. He was the son of king Gundobad and Caretene. He succeeded his father in 516. Sigismund and his brother Godomar were defeated in battle b ...

. From the sixth century on, the marriage of Clovis and Clotilde was made the theme of epic narratives, in which the original facts were materially altered and the various versions found their way into the works of different Frankish chroniclers. The story of Clotilde's revenge is taken up by

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

. It is, however, assumed that this tale is apocryphal. Nonetheless, Chlodomer joined with his brothers in an expedition against the

Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...

. After capturing Sigismund, Chlodomer returned to Orléans. Chlodomer had Sigismund and his sons Gisald and Gondebaud assassinated in May 524. Droysens-20b

Sigismund's brother Gondomar returned triumphantly to Burgundy at the head of the troops sent by his ally, the

Ostrogoth The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

ic king

Theodoric the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...

. There, he massacred the garrison the Franks had left behind. Chlodomer then led a second expedition against the Burgundians. He was killed on this expedition, in June that same year, at the

Battle of Vézeronce The Battle of Vézeronce was fought on 25 June 524 AD near Vézeronce-Curtin (then ''Veseruntia''), now in Isère, France, between the Franks led by King Chlodomer and the Burgundians commanded by King Godomar. Background The battle was part o ...

. Theuderic married Sigismund's daughter Suavegotha. Chlodomer's kingdom was divided such that Chlothar I received Touraine and Poitou; Childebert I the territories on both banks of the Loire with Orléans. When his widow married Chlothar I, Chlodomer's three sons were taken to Paris and entrusted to their grandmother Clotilde. However, Chlothar, not wishing to give them a share of their father's inheritance when they came of age, murdered ten-year-old Theodebald and seven-year-old Gunthar. Only the youngest, Clodoald, was saved by the loyalty of a few of the faithful. Better known as Saint Cloud, he later became abbot of Nogent, having given up his hair, the symbol of the Frankish royalty, rather than giving up his life.Dahn, Felix, "Chlodomer" in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 47 (1903), S. 476
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History

References

Further reading