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The Merovingians () were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as Francia in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I (c. 457 – 481), the son of Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, but it was his famous son Clovis I (481 – 511) who united all of Gaul under Merovingian rule. After the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbours the Merovingians presented a strong united front. During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role. The Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III.〔Charles Knight, ''The English Cyclopaedia: Volume IV'', (London : 1867); p. 733 "We have no circumstantial account of this important event, except that Pepin was anointed at Soissons, in March 752, by Boniface, bishop of Mainz, called the Apostle of Germany, before the assembly of the nation."〕〔Claudio Rendina & Paul McCusker, ''The Popes: Histories and Secrets'', (New York : 2002), p. 145.〕 Zachary's successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, beginning the Carolingian monarchy. The Merovingian ruling family were sometimes referred to as the "long-haired kings" (Latin ''reges criniti'') by contemporaries, as their long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. The term "Merovingian" comes from medieval Latin ''Merovingi'' or ''Merohingi'' ("sons of Merovech"), an alteration of an unattested Old Dutch form, akin to their dynasty's Old English name ''Merewīowing'',〔Babcock, Philip (ed). ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged''. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993: 1415〕 with the final -''ing'' being a typical patronymic suffix. ==Origins== The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to the semi-legendary Merovech (Latinised as ''Meroveus'' or ''Merovius'' and in French as ''Merovée''), leader of the Salian Franks. The victories of his son Childeric I (reigned c. 457 – 481) against the Visigoths, Saxons, and Alemanni established the basis of Merovingian land. Childeric's son Clovis I (481–511) went on to unite most of Gaul north of the Loire under his control around 486, when he defeated Syagrius, the Roman ruler in those parts. He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, at which time, according to Gregory of Tours, Clovis adopted his wife Clotilda's Catholic (i.e. Nicene) Christian faith. He subsequently went on to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Clovis's death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons, and over the next century this tradition of partition continued. Even when several Merovingian kings simultaneously ruled their own realms, the kingdom—not unlike the late Roman Empire—was conceived of as a single entity ruled collectively by these several kings (in their own realms) among whom a turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole kingdom under a single ruler. Leadership among the early Merovingians was probably based on mythical descent (reflected in Fredegar's account of the Quinotaur) and alleged divine patronage, expressed in terms of continued military success. In 1906 the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty.〔W. M. Flinders Petrie, "Migrations. (The Huxley Lecture for 1906)", ''The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', 36 (1906), 205: "Probably among this confederacy should be included the Marvingi * of Ptolemy, to the south of the Catti, ... who seem to have given the Merving family to rule the Franks".〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Merovingian dynasty」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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