Chapter 5 - Regibus solo nomine regnantibus: The Late Merovingians

Summary

The story of Merovingian decline is inexorably linked to that of Carolingian ascent, a coupling that is ubiquitous in the historiographical record. The success of Carolingian propaganda is thus evident in the adoption of its perspective in later works of historiography. While it is now widely held that the death of Dagobert I did not herald the depletion of Merovingian vigor, this view was adopted by numerous post-Carolingian compositions. It is present in the two sources discussed in this chapter, the twelfth-century Chronica of Sigebert of Gembloux and the sixteenth-century Sefer Divrei Hayamim leMalkei Tzarfat uVeit Otoman Hatogar [The Book of the Histories of the Kings of France and the Turkish House of Ottoman] by Yosef Ha-Kohen. Both were composed at considerable remove from the Carolingian period, yet they bear the traces of its historiography’s far-reaching influence. This is especially noticeable in their periodization of the Merovingian era. The chapter will argue that both authors saw the decline of the Merovingian line as a process precipitated by the disastrous reign of Clovis II (d. 657), and that this appraisal influenced their coverage of his successors.