Expansion of the Frankish empire 481-555

Theudebald (in

modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

, ''Theobald''; in French, ''Thibaut'' or ''Théodebald''; in German, ''Theudowald'') (534 – 555), son of Theudebert I and Deuteria, was the king of

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, Rheims, or

Austrasia Austrasia was the northeastern kingdom within the core of the Francia, Frankish Empire during the Early Middle Ages, centring on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers. It included the original Frankish-ruled territories within what had ...

—as it is variously called—from 547 or 548 to 555. He was only thirteen years of age when he succeeded and of ill health. However, the loyalty of the nobility to his father's memory preserved the peace during his minority. He married Waldrada, daughter of the Lombard king Wacho and his step-aunt, sister to his father's second wife, Wisigard. This marriage fortified the alliance between Austrasia and Lombardy. Nevertheless, Theudebald could not hold on to the conquests of his father in the north of

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

sent an army under the command of Narses in 552. The Gothic king Teia called upon the Franks for help. Although King Theudebald refused to send aid, he allowed two of his subjects, the Alemanni chieftains Leutharis and Butilinus, to cross into Italy. The Franks who did not perish of want or plague in Apulia were defeated at Casilinum. In 550, Theudebald convoked the Council of Toul. Theudebald apparently convoked the council because Nicetius, bishop of Trier, had begun excommunicating Frankish aristocrats who contracted marriages within the prohibited degree of consanguinity. After a prolonged sickness and prostration, he died in 555. His realm passed finally outside of the family of Theuderic I and was united to the kingdoms of his granduncle

Clotaire 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 ...

, who would soon become king of all 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 ...

References

{{Authority control Frankish warriors Merovingian kings 530s births 555 deaths Ancient child monarchs 6th-century Frankish kings