Clovis I. (466-511) also Chlodowech Latin: Chlodovechus; Frankish: Hlōdowig; German: Chlodwig I.; French and English: Clovis; was a Franconian king or rex from the Merovingian dynasty.
CLOVIS I. KING OF THE FRANKS.
Clovis I (466-511) was a Frankish king or rex from the Merovingian dynasty. He subjugated all other Frankish and Germanic tribes by force. Therefore, he is regarded as the founder of the Frankish Empire, whose capital he made Paris.
His conversion to Catholicism (and not, as was customary among the Germans to the Arian form of Christianity) he performed well after his victory over the Alamanni in the Battle of Tolbiac. This step was an important decision for the rest of the medieval history.
Saint Clotilde wife of Clovis 1st. according to the Monuments of the period 493. Sainte Clotilde femme de Clovis 1er. d’après les Monuments de l’époque 493.
Clovis reigned 30 years. From 481 to 511. Contemporary with the Heptarchy. (Heptarchy,- Greek for Seven Reigns, is a name for the young early medieval period, in which England was divided into Anglo-Saxon minor kingdoms.)
Kingdom. The only territory inherited by Clovis was West Flanders, the department called du Nord as far as Cambray, and that called Pas-de-Calais as far as the river Lys. But before the close of his reign his kingdom embraced all France (except Burgundy and the coast-land of the Gulf of Lyons), and all the territories lying between France and the Rhine.
Clovis I (492 – 511) and his wife Clotilde.
Statues formerly placed in the portal of the Church, Notre Dame in Corbeil. Work from the 12th century.
Married. Clotilde, daughter of Chilpéric, king of the Burgundians, a zealous Christian, who induced her husband to be baptized. Issue. Thierry, Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire.
Royal Residence. The palace of Julian in the Ile-de-Paris.
Funeral of Childéric. – Clovis proclaimed king of the Franks.
Funérailles de Childéric. – Clovis proclamé roi des Francs.
Clovis a corruption of Chlotwig, a compound of Chlot (celebrated) and wig (warrior). His father’s name Chilpéric is compounded of childe (lord) and ric (king). Lord Byron calls one of his heroes “Childe Harold,” equivalent to Lord Harold.
Clovis, son of Chilpéric, and grandson of Merovaeus, was only 15 years old when his father died; but he was instantly raised upon a buckler in acknowledgment of his election to his father’s government. His whole territory was limited to the little kingdom of Tournay.
Other clans of the same tribe were settled at Terouenne on the Lys, at Cambray, and at Mans on the river Sarthe [Sart.]
FOR the preservation of this statue, and the one supposed to represent Clotilda the queen of Clovis, we are indebted to the zeal of Alexandre Lenoir, who placed them in his museum of national antiquities.
They formerly stood, with four others, at the portal of the ancient church of Notre Dame at Corbeil, a town about twenty miles to the south-east of Paris. But their companions perished with the church they embellished, and these figures, the only remains of its former magnificence, have been transferred from the museum to be placed at the entrance to the vaults of the magnificent church of St. Denis, the resting place of the long line of sovereigns of whose power Clovis laid the foundation.
Baptême du fort Roi Clovis. Fragment d’une des Toiles peintes (XVe Siècle) de la ville de Reims. Baptism of King Clovis. Fragment of one of the Tapestries (15th Century) of the town of Rheims.
It is, however, a mere conjecture which has given to these two names of Clovis and Clotilda; a conjecture, too, which seems to have been made without any grounds to support it. Some antiquaries even went so far as to believe them to have been executed in the remote ages of the Merovingian princes: an evident absurdity.
The church of Corbeil is said to have been founded in the latter part of the eleventh century; and the statues have every appearance of having been sculptured either then or early in the twelfth century. We have no information as to the character of the four statues which are destroyed.
Initial is taken from a large MS. Bible of the twelfth century
The initial at the commencement of the present article is taken from a large MS. Bible of the twelfth century, now in the possession of Messrs. Payne and Fosse, and represents a favourite subject in the illuminations of that period, the combat between David and the giant Golias.
Pavement twelfth century. Musée des Monuments français.
The pavement at the foot of the same page, from the Musée des Monuments Français, is also of the twelfth century.
The two musical instruments represented below are copied from the sculptures on the portal of the cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres, and are of the twelfth century.
Medieval musical instruments
Source: Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages from the 7th to the 17th centuries by Henry Shaw F.S.A. Published: London William Pickering 1843.