Long-haired Frankish kings lost power to palace mayors
Merovingians ruled the Franks from the mid-fifth century until Pepin the Short took the crown in 751. Named for Merovech, father of Childeric I, they were the long-haired kings, and a Merovingian whose hair was cut could not reign. By the end, mayors of the palace held the real power.
Childeric died in 481; son Clovis converted to Nicene Christianity, united Franks and northern Gallo-Romans, and conquered most of Gaul by his 511 death. The realm was treated as divisible: Clovis's four sons partitioned it, a habit that persisted. Unlike Anglo-Saxon genealogies, Merovingians did not claim divine descent.
In the dynasty's last century, kings became ceremonial while mayors of the palace held real power. Grimoald I even tried to seat his son Childebert in Austrasia in 656. Carolingian mayors finally ended Merovingian rule with Pepin's elevation.
Their origins attracted legend. The 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar hints that the line sprang from a sea creature, a quinotaur, said to have come upon Chlodio's wife as she bathed; once read as proof of sacred kingship, the tale is now usually taken as a play on the dynasty's name. Clovis beat the Roman commander Syagrius in 486 and, according to Gregory of Tours, the Alemanni at Tolbiac in 496; by 511 his realm held all of Gaul except Burgundy. Endless wars among heirs drained royal power toward the aristocracy until Clotaire II reunited the realm in 613. His son Dagobert I, who died in 639, is usually counted the last strong king; later rulers were mocked as do-nothing kings, though only the final two truly fit. Pepin the Middle's victory at Tertry in 687 and Charles Martel's defeat of the Moors at Tours in 732 confirmed where power now lay.
Source: Merovingian dynasty
