Dagobert I
Dagobert I | |
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King of the Franks | |
Saint Denis Basilica, Paris | |
Spouse |
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Issue | |
Merovingian | |
Father | Chlothar II |
Mother | Haldetrude |
Signature |
Dagobert I (
Rule in Austrasia
Dagobert was the eldest son of Chlothar II and Haldetrude (575–604) and the grandson of Fredegund.[4] Chlothar had reigned alone over all the Franks since 613. In 622, Chlothar made Dagobert king of Austrasia,[5] almost certainly to bind the Austrasian nobility to the ruling Franks.[4][6] As a child, Dagobert lived under the care of the Carolingian dynasty forebears and Austrasian magnates, Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen.[7]
Chlothar attempted to manage the unstable alliances he had with other noble families throughout much of Dagobert's reign.
United rule
Upon the death of his father in 629, Dagobert inherited the Neustrian and Burgundian kingdoms. His half-brother Charibert, son of Sichilde, claimed Neustria but Dagobert opposed him. Brodulf, brother of Sichilde, petitioned Dagobert on behalf of his young nephew, but Dagobert assassinated him and became sole king of the Franks. He later gave the Aquitaine to Charibert as a "consolation prize."[11] In 629, Dagobert concluded a treaty with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, which entailed enforcing the compulsory baptism of Jews throughout his kingdom.[12] Besides signing this treaty, Dagobert also took steps to secure trade across his empire by protecting important markets along the mouth of the Rhine at Duurstede and Utrecht, which in part explains his later determination to defend the Austrasian Franks from the Avar menace.[13]
Under the rule of Dagobert's father and like-minded Merovingians, Frankish society during the seventh-century experienced greater integration—the Catholic faith became predominant for instance—and a generally improved economic situation, but there was no initial impetus for the political unification of Gaul. Clothar II did not seek to force his Neustrian neighbors into submission, choosing instead a policy of cooperation.[14] This did not prohibit plunder-raids to replenish the dynastic coffers, which Dagobert undertook in Spain for example—one raid there earned him 200,000 gold solidi.[15] Historian Ian Wood claims that Dagobert "was probably richer than most Merovingian monarchs" and cites for example his assistance to the Visigoth Sisenand—whom he aided in his rise to the Visigothic throne in Spain—and for which, Sisenand awarded Dagobert a golden dish weighing some 500 pounds (230 kg).[16]
When Charibert and his son
Rule in Neustria, from Paris
Also in 632, the nobles of Austrasia revolted under the mayor of the palace, Pepin of Landen. In 634, Dagobert appeased the rebellious nobles by putting his three-year-old son, Sigebert III, on the throne, thereby ceding royal power in the easternmost of his realms, just as his father had done for him eleven years earlier. In historian Ian Wood's view, Dagobert's creation of a sub-kingdom for his son Sigibert had "important long-term implications for the general structure of Merovingian Francia."[20]
As king, Dagobert made
Dagobert went down in history as one of the greatest Frankish kings, in spite of his mediocre military record (cf. his defeats by the Saxons and the Wends), having held his lands against the eastern hordes and with noblemen as far away as Bavaria, who sought his overlordship.[24] Only thirty six when he died, Dagobert is considered the last of the great Merovingian kings by most historians, but this does not mean there was a major waning in Frankish power, especially in light of the writings of Paul the Deacon and John of Toledo.[25] J.M. Wallace-Hadrill stated that Dagobert "had the ruthless energy of a Clovis and the cunning of a Charlemagne."[24] Despite having more or less united the Frankish realms, he likely was not expecting unitary rule to continue given the diverging interests of the Austrasian and Neustrian Franks, atop those of the Aquitanians and Burgundians.[24] Upon Dagobert's death in 639, Pepin of Landen was able to recoup his position at Metz.[26] Meanwhile, Dagobert was buried in the abbey of Saint Denis Basilica, Paris, the first Frankish king to be buried there.[27] Dagobert's interment at Saint-Denis established a precedent for the burial of future French rulers there.[28]
Legacy
The pattern of division and assassination, which characterized king Dagobert's reign, continued for the next century until
In the 830s, a biography of Dagobert, the Gesta Dagoberti, was written, probably by Hincmar. It is mostly unreliable, but does contain some information based on authentic archival documents.[29] Dagobert was immortalized in the song Le bon roi Dagobert (The Good King Dagobert), a nursery rhyme featuring exchanges between the king and his chief adviser, Saint Eligius (Eloi in French). The satirical rhymes place Dagobert in various ridiculous positions from which Eligius' good advice manages to extract him. The text, which probably originated in the 18th century, became extremely popular as an expression of the anti-monarchist sentiment of the French Revolution. Other than placing Dagobert and Eligius in their respective roles, it has no historical accuracy.[citation needed]
In 1984, a 112 minute long French-Italian comedy,
Marriage and children
According to the Chronicle of Fredegar Dagobert I had "three queens almost simultaneously, as well as several concubines".[a][30] The rex Brittanorum Judicael came to Clichy to visit Dagobert I, but opted not to dine with him due to his misgivings about Dagobert's moral choices, instead dining with the king's referendary St. Audoen.[31]
The Chronicle of Fredegar names three queens. Nanthild, Wulfegundis, and Berchildis, but none of the concubines.[citation needed] In 625/6 Dagobert married Gormatrude, a sister of his father's wife Sichilde. The marriage was childless. After divorcing Gormatrude in 629/30 he made Nanthild, a Saxon servant (puella) from his personal entourage, his new queen.[b] She gave birth to Clovis II (b. 634/5) later king of Neustria and Burgundy.[citation needed]
Shortly after his marriage to Nanthild, a woman called Ragnetrude bore Dagobert I a son,
]Coinage and treasures under Dagobert
Treasures of Dagobert
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Treasures of Dagobert - Abel Hugo - France historique et monumentale (1837).
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Throne of Dagobert (detail)
Coinage
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Cabinet des Médailles.
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Triens of Dagobert I and moneyer Romanos, Augaune, 629-639, gold 1.32g. Monnaie de Paris.
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ Oldfield 2014, p. 218.
- ^ Williams 2005, p. 52.
- ^ Duby 1991, p. 134.
- ^ a b Frassetto 2003, p. 139.
- ^ Geary 1988, p. 154.
- ^ Riché 1993, p. 16.
- ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 77.
- ^ Frassetto 2003, p. 121.
- ^ Geary 1988, p. 177.
- ^ Geary 1988, pp. 154–155.
- ^ Deutsch 2013, p. 96.
- ^ Meriaux 2019, p. 144.
- ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 79.
- ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 78.
- ^ Wood 1994, p. 65.
- ^ James 1988, p. 105.
- ^ Jaques 2011, p. 1109.
- ^ a b James 1988, p. 106.
- ^ Wood 1994, p. 145.
- ^ Farmer 2011, p. 26.
- ^ Durant 1950, p. 460.
- ^ Geary 2002, p. 153.
- ^ a b c Wallace-Hadrill 2004, p. 80.
- ^ Fouracre 2005, p. 380.
- ^ Riché 1993, p. 18.
- ^ Frassetto 2003, p. 140.
- ^ Horne 2004, p. 6.
- ^ Wood 1994, pp. 148, 155, 169.
- ^ Durant 1950, p. 94, 460.
- ^ James 1988, p. 101.
Bibliography
- Deutsch, Lorànt (2013). Metronome: A History of Paris from the Underground Up. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-25002-367-4.
- Duby, Georges (1991). France in the Middle Ages 987–1460: From Hugh Capet to Joan of Arc. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-18945-9.
- Durant, Will (1950). The Age of Faith. The Story of Civilization. Vol. IV. New York: Simon and Schuster. OCLC 225699907.
- Farmer, Hugh (2011). Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19959-660-7.
- Fouracre, Paul (2005). "Francia in the Seventh Century". In Paul Fouracre (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. I [c.500–c.700]. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52136-291-7.
- Frassetto, Michael (2003). Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9.
- Geary, Patrick J. (1988). Before France and Germany: The Creation & Transformation of the Merovingian World. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19504-458-4.
- Geary, Patrick J. (2002). The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-69109-054-2.
- Horne, Alistair (2004). La Belle France: A Short History. New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-1-40003-487-1.
- Jaques, Tony (2011). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: P–Z. Vol. 3. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-31333-539-6.
- James, Edward (1988). The Franks. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-14872-8.
- Meriaux, Charles (2019). "A One-Way Ticket to Francia: Constantinople, Rome, and Northern Gaul in the Mid-Seventh Century". In Stefan Esders; Yaniv Fox; Yitzhak Hen; Laury Sarti (eds.). East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10718-715-3.
- Oldfield, Paul (2014). Sanctity and Pilgrimage in Medieval Southern Italy, 1000–1200. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-51171-993-6.
- Riché, Pierre (1993). The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Michael Idomir Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-81221-342-3.
- Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (2004). The Barbarian West, 400–1000. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-63120-292-9.
- Williams, Rose (2005). The Lighter Side of The Dark Ages. London: Anthem Press. ISBN 1-84331-192-5.
- Wood, Ian (1994). The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450–751. London and New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49372-2.
External links