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{{Short description|Salian Frankish king (c. 450–458)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Merovech
| title        = King of the Franks
| image        = Médaille Roi de France Mérovée.png
| caption      = An imagined portrait (''ca''. 1720) of Merovech
| reign        = c. 450–458
| coronation   =
| full name    = Merovech
| predecessor  = [[Chlodio]]
| successor    = [[Childeric I]]
| queen        =
| spouse       =
| issue        = [[Childeric I|Childeric]]
| royal house  =
| dynasty      = [[Merovingian]]
| father       =
| mother       =
| birth_date   = c. 411
| birth_place  =
| death_date   = c. 458
| death_place  =
| date of burial =
| place of burial =
}}
'''Merovech''' ({{langx|fr|Mérovée, Merowig}}; {{langx|la|Meroveus}}; {{c.}} 411 – 458)<ref>''A Companion to Gregory of Tours'', ed. Alexander C. Murray, (Brill, 2015), 659.</ref> was the ancestor of the [[Merovingian]] dynasty. He was reportedly a king of the [[Salian Franks]], but records of his existence are mixed with legend and myth. The most important written source, [[Gregory of Tours]], recorded that Merovech was said to be descended from [[Chlodio]], a roughly contemporary Frankish warlord who pushed from the [[Silva Carbonaria]] in modern central Belgium as far south as the [[River Somme|Somme]], north of [[Paris]] in modern-day France. His supposed descendants, the kings [[Childeric I]] and [[Clovis I]], are the first well-attested Merovingians.
He may have been one of several barbarian warlords and kings that joined forces with the Roman general [[Flavius Aetius|Aetius]] against the [[Huns]] under [[Attila]] at the [[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]] in [[Gaul]] in 451.
==Name==
The name ''Merovech'' is related to ''Marwig'', {{literally|famed fight}} (compare modern [[Dutch language|Dutch]] {{lang|nl|mare}} "news, rumour", {{lang|nl|vermaard}} "famous" as well as {{lang|nl|(ge)vecht}} "fight" with -''vech'').<ref>Green, D.H. ''[[Language and history in the early Germanic world]]''. Cambridge, England: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1998.</ref>
==Historical accounts==
There is little information about him in the later histories of the Franks. [[Gregory of Tours]] only names him once as the father of [[Childeric I]] but remained vague about his relationship to [[Chlodio]].<ref>Gregory of Tours - The History of the Franks, II.9</ref> The [[Chronicle of Fredegar]] recounts that Merovech was born after Chlodio's wife encountered a [[Quinotaur|sea creature]] while bathing in the sea; according to Fredegar it remained unclear whether Merovech's father was the creature or Chlodio.<ref>Pseudo-Fredegar, Hist. III, 9.</ref><ref>[http://www.rootsweb.com/~medieval/addcharlENG.pdf Christian Settipani - Addenda to Les Ancêtres de Charlemagne, 1990]</ref> Another theory considers this legend to be the creation of a mythological past needed to back up the fast-rising Frankish rule in Western Europe.<ref>see M. Todd's, ''The Early Germans''</ref>
Chlodio is said to have been defeated by [[Flavius Aëtius]] at Vicus Helena in Artois in 448. [[Ian S. Wood]] would therefore place his son somewhere in the second half of the fifth century.<ref name=Wood>[https://books.google.com/books?id=f_PgAwAAQBAJ&dq=Chlodio&pg=PA37 Wood, Ian. ''The Merovingian Kingdoms 450 - 751'', Pearson Education Ltd., 1994] {{ISBN|9781317871163}}</ref>
A contemporary Roman historian, [[Priscus]] writes of having witnessed in [[Rome]] a “lad without down on his cheeks as yet and with fair hair so long that it poured down his shoulders, [[Flavius Aetius|Aetius]] had made him his adopted son”. Priscus writes that the excuse [[Attila]] used for waging war on the [[Franks]] was the death of their king and the disagreement of his children over the succession, the elder being allied with Attila and the younger with Aetius. As Chlodio died just before Attila's invasion, this seems to suggest that Merovech was in fact Chlodio's son.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rz-VCwAAQBAJ&q=priscus+embassy+%22hair%22+%22frank%22&pg=PA23 |title = Catalaunian Fields AD 451: Rome's last great battle|isbn = 9781472807441|last1 = MacDowall|first1 = Simon|date = 2015-09-20| publisher=Bloomsbury }}</ref> Historians are divided on whether Merovee is one of the protagonists in Priscus' account:
* Some, like Erich Zöllner, believe that as the kingdom of the Rhenish Franks is in the path of Attila, unlike that of the Salian Franks, this passage concerns the kings of the Rhenish Franks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zöllner |first=Erich |title=Geschichte des Frankenbis zu Mitte der sechsten Jahrhunderts |publisher=C.H. Beck |year=1970 |page=30 |isbn=978-3-406-02211-1 |language=de}}
.</ref>
* Others like Émilienne Demougeot believe that Merovee is the king who died in 451 and his son Childeric is the adopted son of Aetius.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Demougeot |first=Émilienne |title=La Formation de l'Europe et les invasions barbares (From the advent of Diocletian (284) to the Germanic occupation of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 6th century) |volume=2 |publisher=Aubier |year=1979 |pages=682–683 |isbn=978-2-7007-0146-3 |language=fr |trans-title=The Formation of Europe and the Barbarian Invasions}}</ref>
* Finally, Christian Settipani believes that, if one considers that the fragment applies to the Salian Franks, of which he is not sure, chronologically, Clodion is the king who died in 451 and Merovee is the son allied with Rome.<ref>{{Harvsp|Settipani|1993|p=49}}.</ref>
Whether he is one of the Frankish princes mentioned by Priscus or not, Merovee would have settled in [[Gallia Belgica]], in the region of [[Province of Brabant|Brabant]] and would have established his residence in [[Tournai]].{{cn|date=November 2023}}
Some historians, such as Georg Waitz, suggest that Merovech might be a mythological figure, theorized to be a son of the sea (''mari'' in Frankish), implying a god or demigod revered by the Franks before their conversion to Christianity.<ref>[[Georg Waitz]], ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte'', II, p.33.</ref>
Another proposition is that Merovech is a reference to the Merwede, a Dutch river, whose initial course matched the area where the Salian Franks lived, as per some Roman historians. However, etymological studies seem to refute this theory.<ref>[[Emil Rückert]], ''Oberon von Mons und die Pipine von Nivella'', Leipzig, Germany, 1836.</ref><ref>[[Godefroid Kurth]], VI, p.154.</ref>
Historian Étienne Renard, based on a new interpretation of two royal genealogies from the 9th and 10th centuries, suggests that Merovech could be an eponymous ancestor founder of the lineage rather than being a grandfather of Genildis. According to him, Merovech is an evanescent character, whose name is not associated with any act of war or any historical event.<ref>Étienne Renard, p.1008-1022, 2014.</ref>
[[File: Buste du Roi de France Mérovée.png | thumbnail | upright=1.5 | Cameo from the 16th Century representing Merovee in profile, on the right. [[National Library of France]].]]
The existence of Merovee should not be excluded. An [[Austrasian]] genealogy carried out between 629 and 639<ref>[[Godefroid Kurth]], VI, {{p.|517}}.</ref> mentions that {{blockquote | Chloio is the first king of the Franks. Chloio begot Glodobode. Ghlodobedus begot Mereveo. Mereveus begot Hilbricco. Hildebricus begot Genniodo. Genniodus begot Hilderico. Childericus begot Chlodoveo...}}.<ref>[[Christian Settipani]], ''Les Ancêtres de Charlemagne'' - Addenda, Paris, 1990.</ref> For the genealogist [[Christian Settipani]], this would be a list of Salian kings in which the lineages were established after its constitution. The genealogy should thus be corrected as follows:<ref>[[Christian Settipani]], "Clovis, a King without Ancestor?", in ''Ge-Magazine'', Issue 153 - October 1996, p. 96.</ref> Chlodion begot Chlodebaude and Merovee. Merovee begot Childeric.
However the historian Jean-Pierre Poly believes that if Merovee (Merow'ih) is the son of Chlodebaude (Hl'udbead), married in 435, he could hardly have had Childeric (Hildrih), himself king around 456, as a son. He deduces that Merovee (Merow'ih) is the nickname of Chlodebaude (Hl'udbead), son of Chlodion (Hl'udio).<ref>{{Cite journal |language=French |last1=Poly |first1=Jean-Pierre |title=The last of the Merovingians |journal=Revue historique de droit français et étranger |date=July–September 1996 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43852120 |pages=353–396|jstor=43852120 }}
.</ref>
While it seems accepted that bound by a [[foedus]] with the Roman Empire, the Salian Franks fought alongside the Roman general [[Aetius (magister militum)|Aetius]] at the Battle of the [[Catalaunian Fields]], (a plain near [[Châlons-en-Champagne]] and [[Troyes]]), in 451. The sources do not, however, specify who led them into battle.<ref>According to [[Godefroid Kurth]], "{{Blockquote|If [...] Merovee [...] was the king of the Franks during the [[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]] (451), it is he who was at the head of the Frankish contingent of Aetius.}}", op. cit., VI, p.158.</ref> The Franks suffered heavy losses in a preliminary engagement against the [[Gepids]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|language=French|author=Michel Rouche|title=Clovis|publisher=Fayard|date=1996}}.</ref> however history does not say anything more, while it has recorded the death of [[Theodoric I]], king of the [[Visigoths]], killed the next day in the battle.
==References in popular culture==
The legend about Merovech's conception was adapted in 1982 by [[Michael Baigent]], [[Richard Leigh (author)|Richard Leigh]] and [[Henry Lincoln]] in their book ''[[The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'', as the seed of a new idea. They hypothesized that this "descended from a fish" legend was actually referring to the concept that the Merovingian line had married into the bloodline of [[Jesus Christ]], since the symbol for early Christians had also been a [[Ichthys|fish]].  This theory, with no other basis than the authors' hypothesis, was further popularized in 2003 via [[Dan Brown]]'s bestselling novel, ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]''.<ref>''Behind the Da Vinci Code'', 2006, [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] documentary about Henry Lincoln</ref><ref>''Holy Blood Holy Grail'', Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, 1982</ref> However, there was no evidence for this claim that Merovech is descended from Jesus.
The identity and historicity of Merovech is one of the driving mysteries in ''The Widow’s Son'', second book of [[Robert Anton Wilson]]’s ''[[The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles]],'' first introducing the fish legend to the reader by having the early [[Merovingian]]s appear in a vision as a hideous fish creature. Wilson then goes a step further by identifying Jesus and Mary Magdalene as the bridegroom and bride in ''[[Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz|The Alchemical Marriage of Christian Rosycross]]'' and Merovech as the titular [[Hiram Abiff|Widow's Son]] from [[Freemasonry|Masonic]] lore, positing that the entire bloodline is descended from [[alien-human hybrid]]s.<ref>''The Widow's Son'', Robert Anton Wilson, 1985</ref>
==See also==
*[[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]]
*[[Tonantius Ferreolus (prefect)]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* ''Behind the Da Vinci Code'', 2006, [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] documentary about Henry Lincoln
* {{cite book |first=Christian |last=Settipani |title=La Préhistoire des Capétiens (Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France, vol. 1) |publisher=éd. Patrick van Kerrebrouck |date=1993 |isbn=2-9501509-3-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Todd |first=Malcolm |date=2004 |orig-date=1992 |title=The Early Germans |edition=2nd |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=9781405137560 }}
* Wood, Ian. ''The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751''. London: Longman Group, 1994.
== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Merovech}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Merovingian dynasty]]||411||458}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Chlodio]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Salian Franks|King of the Salian Franks]]|years=450&ndash;458}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Childeric I]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Merovingians}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Frankish warriors]]
[[Category:Merovingian kings]]
[[Category:410s births]]
[[Category:450s deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century Frankish people]]
[[Category:5th-century monarchs in Europe]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Founding monarchs]]
[[Category:People whose existence is disputed]]
[[Category:Legendary monarchs]]