Merovingian Kings Family Tree

today I'm going to show you the family tree of the Merovingian dynasty which was a Frankish dynasty that ruled much of what is today France and Germany between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of Charlemagne we'll be tracing the line from Clovis the first the first King to unite the Franks all the way down to the final Merovingian King chil Derek the third we'll also be looking at Charlemagne's ancestry and exploring the question how far back can we go finally one cannot talk about the Merovingians without addressing the theory put forward in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail so we'll be looking at their supposed descent from Jesus and Mary Magdalene as well this video is part of a multi-channel collaboration called Project Clovis which includes several other videos above the Merovingians which you can find by following the link in the description or at the end of the video [Music] we're going to start with the Frankish leader named Marivic since he was the individual that the Merovingian dynasty is named after he is actually more of a legendary figure and not much is known about him it is thought that he perhaps allied with the Romans against Attila the Hun and that he might have been the son of another Frankish leader named Claudio who in turn might have been the son of a legendary king named Farah Monde but all of this is just speculation the actual history of the dynasty begins with Mara VEX son chil Derek the first at that time the Franks were divided into several subgroups with the sale Ian Frank's being just one of those groups so in 476 when the Western Roman Empire collapsed chil Derek was king of this group and they would have been located just south of the Rhine River for more information on chil Derek you can check out the video in the project Clovis playlist by the channel quill and ink history under chill Derek son Clovis the Frankish territory greatly expanded in fact Clovis famously ended up uniting all of the Frankish tribes and becoming their sole king he also converted to Christianity in part due to the influence of his second wife clotilda who was a princess from the kingdom of Burgundy by this point several so-called barbarian groups had started to carve up the remains of the former Western Roman Empire including the Franks the Burgundians and the Ostrogoths who by the time of Clovis controlled Rome itself note that Clovis's sister was married to the most famous astronaut leader of all Theodoric the great now the Franks actually remained United only for a few years after the death of Clovis his kingdom was actually divided between his four surviving sons the original part of his territory known as Austrasia went to his eldest son to Derek and the other parts centered at Orlan Paris and sua song went to his other sons claudemir Childebert and close are but as you can see all three kingdoms were eventually subsumed into closed ours territory and hence he became the next person to become king of all the franks this was not always a peaceful process for example when Clos de mer died he left three young sons but their uncle's Childebert and closer gave them an ultimatum choose scissors and cut their long hair which was a sign of their royalty after which they could join a monastery or choose the sword which they would be killed with two of the boys ended up dying by the sword and a third became a monk known as st. cloud but even though everything ended up consolidating under clothes are the first yet again the Franks only remain United for a few years after the death of clothes are the first the kingdom was again divided into four parts but interestingly this was followed by yet another slow process of consolidation over the next few decades so basically keep in mind that early Frankia under the Merovingians was rarely a single United Kingdom it went back and forth between division and consolidation this time things first went from four branches to two or Len was eventually subsumed into Austrasia and Paris was subsumed into sua song forming new stria for the rest of the Merovingian period Austrasia and new stria would go back and forth between being separate kingdoms and being united once again remember us Strega represented the original Frankish territory just south of the Rhine River whereas new stria basically correspond it with northern France so let's look at the conflict between Austrasia and new stria in more detail first of all that we point out a saint bertha daughter of cherub bert the first she married the king of Kent one of the main anglo-saxon kingdoms over in England she influenced her husband into becoming the first English King to convert to Christianity and thus she played a major role in the Christianization of England but this period in Merovingian history was really dominated by these two women here Byrne Hilda who married siga Bert and fredag ined who married Chilperic Byrne Hilda was the daughter of a Visigothic King and her sister was the first wife of Chilperic but eventually one of CHOP erics mistresses named fredag 'end convinced Chilperic to murder Brunhilde sister and make her the queen instead which he did this of course enraged Brunhilde and thus the feud between these two women began eventually Fred Egan also had burned Hilda's husband siga Burt assassinated resulting in burn Hilda being the de facto ruler of Austrasia for the next few decades as regent for her son her grandson and even a great-grandson oddly enough Chilperic also ended up being assassinated and obviously brynhilda was blamed in fact the noose tree aside blamed Brunhilde for the deaths of 10 Merovingian kings or princes who was really to blame we will probably never know but what we do know is that fredag ined eventually died of natural causes but burn Hilda was eventually captured by Fred against unclothed are the second and brutally killed by being pulled apart by horses at that point all of Frankia was once again I did under a single ruler burn Hilda is thought to be the inspiration for the character Brunhilde who shows up in Norse mythology and today is best remembered as the fat lady from the phrase it ain't over till the fat lady sings anyway if you're interested in learning more about burn hilda and fertig 'end you'll want to check out the video by history's who yesterday's nation ok clothes are the second was followed by his son Dagobert to the first but it's around this time that the Merovingian kings became more like figure heads rather than real rulers this is because the actual power shifted to a person known as the mayor of the palace who was sort of like a prime minister one of the early mayors to wield power was Pepin the elder the great-great great-grandfather of Charlemagne after Dagobert the kingdom was once again divided between Austrasia and new stria in Austrasia Pepin's son grim old the elder was now mayor of the palace and he managed to have his son Childebert declared the adopted son and heir of siga bertha third having sig abort the Third's biological son Dagobert exiled to ireland but eventually close are the third who was now king of new stria had the usurper killed and took control of Austrasia for himself becoming king of all the franks now this is where things get a little complicated but hopefully these yellow lines will help you follow the succession so Austrasia eventually wanted its own king so close of the third gave it to his younger brother childerik the second he then left new stria to another brother through derek ii but as soon as closer the third died chill derek grabbed new stria for himself thus becoming king of all the franks then when chill Derek died us Razia brought back Dagobert from exile as Dagobert ii and made him their king and new stria went to the derek ii as per the original plan but then Dagobert ii was assassinated and Austrasia went to the derek who became king of all the franks and from here on Frankie pretty much remains united except keep in mind that it's really the mayors of the palace who are really in charge by this time that person is Pepin the middle a grandson of Pepin the elder through his daughter st. beg ah another individual who lived during this period was Saint Hubertus one of the more popular medieval Saints being the patron saint of both hunters and metal workers in the project Clovis playlist you'll find a video about him by the channel history and headlines so following food Erik the third we get several of his descendants reigning as king as well as the son of chil Derek the second but more and more power was shifting to this family over here in fact Pepin the middle also known as Pepin of Herstal was given the title Duke of the Franks when Pepin died his grandson food old became mayor of the palace but eventually power consolidated around his uncle Charles Martel instead at this point the Muslim armies of the Maya dynasty attacked Gaul and Charles Martel managed to keep them at bay this was an extremely important result because it kept Islam limited to the Iberian Peninsula had Charles Martel lost to the Umayyads the subsequent history of Europe would have been extremely different to learn more about that invasion check out the video by hikmah history when through Derek the fourth died there was no Merovingian available to take the throne so Charles Martel ended up becoming acting King but when Charles died his two sons who became comb Aires found a Merovingian heir who was either the son of through Derek the fourth or perhaps Chilperic the second that person was killed Derek the third and he ended up being the last of the Merovingian Kings what happened was that carlomon decided to become a monk leaving Pepin the short as the sole mayor of the palace note that the short really should be translated the younger contrasting with pep in the middle and Pepin the elder at this point the Pope decided that the person with the real power should be king not the person with the fancy lineage and thus a new dynasty took control with Pepin the short becoming the first Carolinian king the word Carolinian meaning of Charles the final video on the project Clovis playlist is by the French History Channel this is beerus and it goes into greater detail on this transfer of power from the Merovingians to the Carolinians spoiler alert Pepin Sun Charlemagne ends up becoming greater than all of the previous Kings we've talked about and he ends up being crowned emperor in the year 800 if you're looking for a video that traces the line of French Kings from Charlemagne all the way down to the final French monarch and Napoleon the third I've got a video on that topic which I'll also link to in the description but before we go I want to cover two more quick things the first is something called descent from antiquity if you follow this channel regularly you'll know that every royal house in Europe can somehow trace itself back to Charlemagne and because of this it's likely that every single person of European descent alive today is also a descendant of him as well if you're not sure why that is you'll want to check out my video is everyone a descendant of royalty but for those of you who have been fortunate enough to actually trace your line back to Charlemagne the question often comes up how much farther can we go beyond him is it possible to trace a line that goes all the way back to Roman times or even further this is what the term descent from antiquity refers to and it's a subject that is debated by genealogy hobbyists I've seen a lot of people who claim that they can trace their ancestor all the way back to some Egyptian pharaoh or even to Adam and Eve let me tell you straight up this is a fun thing to speculate about but the fact is that there is no genealogical records in Europe that can be accurately traced back through the medieval period to ancient times none there are theories yes but the records simply are too unreliable after all that's why they call it the dark ages the earliest known ancestor of Charlemagne that we can confidently say was in fact his ancestor is a saint named Arnold of Metz who lived around the same time as close out of the second if you can trace a line in your own tree to Charlemagne then this too is as far as you can go with any degree of certainty however let me show you one theory that has been put forward it is thought that Arnold or perhaps his wife or perhaps the wife of Pepin the elder was a child of an individual named Arnold who was the bishop of Metz prior to Arnold he was the son of botilde who was the daughter of close are the first if this is true this would provide a link between the Carolinians and the Merovingians but again let me emphasize this is all just speculation Arnold's father and the Bertus is thought to be the son of a man named tun anteus Ferry olace the third again this is very uncertain but if true this would make him a descendant of Pan anteus Ferry olace the first who was the prefect of Gaul at the time when the Western Roman Empire fell so this is thought to be the most likely way that we might again might be able to trace Charlemagne back to antiquity from here we can try to go even further but it gets really really murky and speculative and speaking of speculative the other thing I wanted to mention is the theory first put forward in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail and then made popular again by the Dan Brown book The Da Vinci Code according to that theory this individual here pheromone who were not even sure was an ancestor of Marivic was the last of the Fisher Kings the Fisher King being a character in the Arthurian legends who was custodian of the Holy Grail but according to the theory the Holy Grail was not actually a cup it was a secret bloodline a bloodline that can be traced back to Jesus and thus back to King David as well the story goes like this Jesus who traditionally is thought to have been celibate was actually married to the New Testament character known as Mary Magdalene in one version Jesus fakes his death and then they sneak off to southern France and have a son named Joseph whose line can then be traced to Fairmont in another version after the crucifixion the biblical character Joseph of Arimathea smuggles the child and/or the Holy Grail to England and a descendant of Joseph of Arimathea becomes King Arthur what do I think of all this well I think it makes for an interesting story but there's very likely no truth to it my opinion is that history tends to be interesting enough without trying to bend it to fit these kind of theories so if you found the history of the Merovingian dynasty interesting you'll definitely want to check out the other videos in the project clovis playlists you can do that now by following the link on screen thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 339,575

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Id: kjBRCuj9pCU

Length: 19min 16sec (1156 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2020