Image Gallery
The Merovingian Dynasty, c. 639
This map illustrates the rise and expansion of the Merovingians, a Frankish dynasty that, by the late 5th century, unified the fragmented tribes of present-day France, Germany, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and Austria. Beginning with Clovis I, a Salian Frank who claimed descent from the legendary hero Merovech, the Merovingian kingdoms rapidly grew into some of the most influential societies of the Western world, blending Germanic traditions with surviving Gallo-Roman political and cultural institutions.
Following the baptism of Clovis around 496 CE, the Franks formally adopted Christianity, laying the foundations for a lasting strategic alliance between the Frankish state and the Roman Catholic Church. This conversion not only reinforced Clovis’s internal authority by legitimizing his rule among Romanized populations but also positioned the Merovingians as protectors of Catholic Christianity in post-imperial Europe. Through this alliance, they preserved elements of Roman governance while forging a new Germanic-Christian identity that would shape the political and cultural character of medieval Western Europe for centuries.
