Chlothar I


Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old", 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 eldest brother Theuderic being the son of Clovis I and his first wife, Chlothar followed his two elder brothers Chlodomer and Childebert I as third surviving son of Clovis I and his second wife Queen Clotilde, lastly followed by their sister Clotilde. The name 'Chlothar' means "glory".
In 511, Chlothar I and his three brothers Theuderic, Chlodomer and Childebert inherited their shares of their father's kingdom. Chlothar spent most of his life in a campaign to expand his territories at the expense of his relatives and neighbouring realms in all directions.
His brothers avoided outright war by cooperating with Chlothar's attacks on neighbouring lands in concert or by invading lands when their rulers died. The spoils were shared between the participating brothers. By the end of his life, Chlothar had managed to reunite Francia by surviving his brothers and seizing their territories after they died. But upon his own death, the Kingdom of the Franks was once again divided between his own four surviving sons. A fifth son had rebelled and was killed, along with his family.

Customs and inheritance

Chlothar's father, Clovis I, had converted to Nicene Christianity, but Chlothar, like other Merovingians, did not consider that the Christian doctrine of monogamy should be expected of royalty: he had five wives, more from political expediency, for the purpose of forming alliances, than for personal motives. Although at the instigation of his queens he gave money for several new ecclesiastical edifices, he was a less than enthusiastic Christian and succeeded in introducing taxes on ecclesiastical property.
Frankish customs of the day allowed for the practice of polygamy, especially among royalty. So it was not uncommon for a king to have multiple wives and several competing heirs upon his death. This was a major deviation from the monogamy of late Roman customs, influenced by the Church. Frankish rulers followed this practice mainly to increase their influence across larger areas of land in the wake of the Roman empire's collapse. The aim was to maintain peace and ensure the preservation of the kingdom by appeasing local leaders. In the Germanic tradition succession fell, not to sons, but to younger brothers, uncles, and cousins. But under Salic law, Clovis I instituted the custom of sons being the primary heirs in all respects. However, it was not a system of primogeniture, with the eldest son receiving the vast majority of an inheritance, rather the inheritance was split evenly between all the sons. Therefore, the greater Frankish Kingdom was often splintered into smaller sub-kingdoms.

Marriages and children

According to Gregory of Tours, "The King Chlothar had seven sons of various women, namely: with Ingund he had Gunthar, Childeric, Charibert, Guntram, Sigebert, and a daughter named Chlothsind; of Aregund, sister of Ingund he had Chilperic; and of Chunsine he had Chram."
Chlothar's first marriage was to Guntheuc, widow of his brother Chlodomer, sometime around 524. They had no children. His second marriage, which occurred around 532, was to Radegund, daughter of Bertachar, King of Thuringia, whom he and his brother Theuderic defeated. She was later canonized. They also had no children. His third and most successful marriage was to Ingund, by whom he had five sons and two daughters:
Chlothar likely had an illegitimate son named Gondovald with an unnamed woman, born sometime in the late 540s or early 550s. Since Chlothar had sown children all throughout Gaul this was not unlikely. The boy was given a literary education and allowed to grow his hair long, a symbol of belonging to royalty. Although Chlothar would offer no more aid or privilege to the boy, his mother took him to the court of Childebert, who recognized him as his nephew and agreed to keep him in court.
His next marriage was to a sister of Ingund, Aregund, with whom Chlothar had a son, Chilperic, King of Soissons. His last wife was Chunsina, with whom he had one son, Chram, who became his father's enemy and predeceased him. Chlothar may have married and repudiated Waldrada.
A false genealogy found in the Brabant trophies, made in the ninth century during the reign of Charles the Bald, invents a daughter of Chlothar's named Blithilde who supposedly married the saint and bishop Ansbert of Rouen. The Duke Arnoald, father of Arnulf of Metz, was said to have been born of this marriage, thus connecting the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties and creating the appearance that the Carolingian ruled by right of inheritance. It also linked them to the Romans by their affiliation with the senatorial family Ferreoli.

Marriage with Guntheuc

Chlothar married Guntheuc, Queen of Orléans and widow of Chlodomer, his brother. This union gave Chlothar access to Chlodomer's treasury and ensured Guntheuc's position as sole heiress to King Godegisel lands; Frankish law allowed a woman to inherit land if she had no sons.

Marriage with Aregund

Chlothar's wife Ingund requested that he find a husband worthy of her sister, Aregund. Finding no one suitable, Chlothar took Aregund as one of his own wives. The year was c. 533–538. She remained his wife until the death of her sister, Ingund, in 546, after which she fell out of favor with Chlothar.

Princess Radegund

In 538, Radegund was brought to Soissons to marry Chlothar, as "not illegitimate but legitimate queen," who could help consolidate his dominance over Thuringia.
While her title and status were necessary for Chlothar to attain authority over Thuringia, Radegund remained in simple clothing and was not treated in the customary manner of a queen. This was largely due to her Christian faith; she did not want to appear luxurious.
Radegund did not eat to excess. She insisted that much of her food be given to the poor. She spent most of her time praying and singing psalms but spent very little time with the king. Her allegiance was to God first and to Chlothar second. Chlothar became irritated and had many disputes with her.
She retired to a convent and went on to found the abbey in Poitiers St. Croix, the first nunnery in Europe. She was canonized Saint Radegund.

Accession and campaigns

Accession

Upon his father's death on 27 November 511, he received as his share of the kingdom: the town of Soissons, which he made his capital; the cities of Laon, Noyon, Cambrai, and Maastricht; and the lower course of the river Meuse. He was very ambitious and sought to extend his domain.
Because of the rights of mothers, queens were granted a portion of their son's kingdom. Clovis I, who had two wives, divided his kingdom into two for each of his wives, then parceled out pieces to his respective sons. The eldest, Theuderic, son of the first wife, had the benefit of receiving one half of the kingdom of Francia, Reims. Chlothar shared the second half of the kingdom with his brothers Childebert and Chlodomer. Chlothar received the northern portion, Childebert the central kingdom of Paris, and Chlodomer the southern Kingdom of Orléans. The domain inherited by Chlothar consisted of two distinct parts: one in Gaulic Belgium, corresponding to the kingdom of the Salian Franks, where he established his capital at Soissons and included the dioceses of Amiens, Arras, Saint-Quentin and Tournai; and the other in Aquitane including the dioceses of Agen, Bazas, and Périgueux.

First Burgundian War

In 516, Gundobad, king of Burgundy, died, and the throne passed to his son Sigismund, who converted to Catholicism. Sigismund adopted an extreme anti-Arian policy, going so far as to execute his Arian son Sigeric, who was the grandson of the Ostrogoth King Theoderic the Great. Sigismund also nearly prompted the Franks to launch an offensive against him, but he avoided a conflict by giving one of his daughters, Suavegotha, in marriage to Chlothar's older half-brother, Theuderic I.
In 523, at the instigation of their mother, Clotilde, Chlothar, Childebert, and Chlodomer joined forces in an expedition against the Burgundians. The Burgundian army was defeated, and Sigismund was captured and executed. Sigismund's brother Godomar replaced him on the throne, with the support of the aristocracy, and the Franks were forced to leave.
In 524, Chlothar, his brothers and Theuderic, began a new campaign, advancing to the Isère Valley. But on 25 June 524, they suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Vézeronce, and Chlodomer was killed. The Franks left Burgundy, and Godomar resumed his rule until 534.

Thuringian conquest

In 531, Hermanafrid, king of the Thuringians, promised to give Chlothar's half-brother, Theuderic, part of the Kingdom of Thuringia if he would help to depose Baderic, Hermanafrid's rival and brother. Theuderic accepted. However, having been injured after a victory, he appealed to Chlothar to continue the war. Hermanafrid died around this time, and the goal became simply to conquer Thuringia.
The alliance, along with the aid of his nephew Theudebert I, conquered Thuringia, and it became a part of the Frankish domain. During the division of the spoils, Chlothar and Theuderic argued fiercely over the hand of Princess Radegund, but eventually Chlothar won the dispute on the grounds that it had been his men who had captured her.

Acquisition of the kingdom of Orléans

Chlothar was the chief instigator in the murder of his brother Chlodomer's children in 524, and his share of the spoils consisted of the cities of Tours and Poitiers. Chlothar's brother, Chlodomer was killed on 25 June 524 during an expedition against the Burgundians at the Battle of Vezeronce. Upon Chlodomer's death, his three sons, Theodebald, Gunther, and Clodoald, were entrusted to care of their grandmother, hence the young princes were raised in Paris by Chlodomer's mother, Chlotilde.
To prevent the kingdom of Orleans from returning to his nephews, Chlothar joined with his brother Childebert in 532 to threaten the young heirs with death unless they agreed to join a monastery. They sent Arcadius, grandson of Sidonius Apollinaris, to their mother, Clotilde, with a pair of scissors and a sword. He gave the queen an ultimatum: the boys could either live as monks or die.
Germanic traditions gave Queen Clotilde, as the mother, the right as head of her household. However, among kings the lineage passed to younger brothers before it passed to the next generation. Due to tribal politics, shearing of the boys' hair could lead to a civil war; long hair was a symbol of Frankish royalty, and to remove it was considered a grave insult. But Theodebald, Gunthar, and Clodoald could someday lay claim to the throne, and it was Chlothar and Childebert's duty to pass authority on to them.
Clotilde was disgusted and shocked at the demands relayed by Arcadius and stated that she would rather see her grandsons dead than see their hair shorn.
The two uncles went through with their plan to murder the children. Chlothar stabbed Theodebald in the armpit. Gunthar threw himself at the feet of Childebert, who began to cry and almost gave in to the pleas of his nephew. Chlothar, however, demanded that Childebert carry through with the murder, stating that it was the only way to consolidate power. Childebert gave Gunthar up to Chlothar, who stabbed him. Theodebald and Gunthar were ten and seven years old respectively.
Clodoald remained alive by managing to escape, hidden by loyal supporters. He renounced all claims and chose a monastic life. Childebert and Chlothar could then freely share their acquired territory. Meanwhile, Theuderic captured a parcel consisting of Auxerrois, Berry and Sens.