This is especially true of periodizing labels derived from individuals or ruling elites, such as the Jacksonian Era in America, the Meiji Era in Japan, or the Merovingian Period in France.

They were governed by the ruling Merovingian dynasty.

He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks.

The name of the code comes from the circumstance that Clovis was a Merovingian king ruling only the Salian Franks before his unification of Frankia.

Based on Merovingian ad hoc arrangements, using the form missus regis ( the " king's envoy ") and sending a layman and an ecclesiastic in pairs, the use of missi dominici was fully exploited by Charlemagne ( ruling 768 — 814 ), who made them a regular part of his administration, " a highly intelligent and plausible innovation in Carolingian government ", Norman F. Cantor observes, " and a tribute to the administrative skill of the ecclesiastics, such as Alcuin and Einhard ".

The Franks, who had migrated to Gaul from the 3rd century, and their ruling Merovingian dynasty had remained pagan at first.

Didier's career, like that of his brothers, is exemplary of a church and a monastic system controlled by the ruling, landholding class that was closely linked to the Merovingian monarchy.

The outstanding handful of Frankish saints who were not of the Merovingian kinship nor the family alliances that provided Merovingian counts and dukes, deserve a closer inspection for that fact alone: like Gregory of Tours, they were almost without exception from the Gallo-Roman aristocracy in regions south and west of Merovingian control.

The first Austrasian mayors were drawn from the Pippinid family, which was to experience a slow, but steady ascent until it eventually displaced the Merovingian on the throne.

Neither his parentage nor his relation to the Merovingian family are known for sure.

In 754, Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps to anoint Pepin king, thereby enabling the Carolingian family to supplant the old Merovingian royal line.

Bertha had restored a church remaining from Roman times to the east of Canterbury and dedicated it to Saint Martin of Tours, the patronal saint of the Merovingian royal family.

She belonged to the ancient and well-established Merovingian Wittelsbach family, descended from Charlemagne.

The Agilolfings were a family of either Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788.

The three boys were sent to the court of the Frankish king Clotaire II ( 584-629 ; from 613 sole sovereign ), and with other boys of noble family received an excellent education at the Merovingian court-school.

At times it was applied to various priests, e. g. at the court of the Frankish monarchy the Abbas palatinus (' of the palace ') and Abbas castrensis (' of the camp ') were chaplains to the Merovingian and Carolingian sovereigns ’ court and army respectively.

Authority over Austrasia passed back and forth from autonomy to kingly subjugation, as Frankish lands were alternately united and subdivided by the Merovingian kings.

The Merovingian king redistributed conquered wealth among his followers, both material wealth and the land including its endentured peasantry, though these powers were not absolute.

Merovingian law was not universal law equally applicable to all ; it was applied to each man according to his origin: Ripuarian Franks were subject to their own Lex Ripuaria, codified at a late date ( Beyerle and Buchner 1954 ), while the so-called Lex Salica ( Salic Law ) of the Salian clans, first tentatively codified in 511 ( Rouche 1987 p 423 ) was invoked under medieval exigencies as late as the Valois era.

The vitae et miracula, for impressive miracles were an essential element of Merovingian hagiography, were read aloud on saints ’ feast days.

Many Merovingian saints, and the majority of female saints, were local ones, venerated only within strictly circumscribed regions ; their cults were revived in the High Middle Ages, when the population of women in religious orders increased enormously.

The Saxons of Bayeux comprised a standing army and were often called upon to serve alongside the local levy of their region in Merovingian military campaigns.

Merovingian themes were the painter's favorite subject up to the mid-1860s.

However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt that were more popular.

The Frankish lands were divided and reunified several times under the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, but eventually were firmly divided into France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Under Clovis ' Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized.

The ban effectively placed all literacy in the Merovingian monarchy squarely under ecclesiastical control and also greatly pleased the nobles, from whose ranks the bishops were ordinarily exclusively drawn.

Although in the 18th and 19th century these figures were mistakenly identified as the Merovingian monarchs of France ( thus attracting the opprobrium of Revolutionary iconoclasts ) they almost certainly represent the kings and queens of the Old Testament – another standard iconographical feature of gothic portals.

The Church sometimes had an uneasy relationship with the Merovingian kings, whose claim to rule depended on a mystique of royal descent and who tended to revert to the polygamy of their pagan ancestors.

But its spelling slightly changed in European languages: Latin palatinus, plural palatini was still an office in Merovingian times, today referred to as the Count Palatine.

During the assault on Hel's gates, Seraph is referred as " wingless ", by one of the guards and the Merovingian refers to him as " his protégé ".

In Sweden, the LGIA 550 – 800 is usually referred to as the Vendel era, in Norway, the Merovinger ( Merovingian ) Age.

It was not uncommon for the Merovingian, Carolingian, or later kings to make laymen abbots of monasteries ; the layman would often use the income of the monastery as his own and leave the monks a bare minimum for the necessary expenses of the foundation.

Charles Martel () ( 23 August 686 – 22 October 741 ), also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum ( 737 – 43 ) at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks.

In 721, the emir of Córdoba had built up a strong army from Morocco, Yemen, and Syria to conquer Aquitaine, the large duchy in the southwest of Gaul, nominally under Frankish sovereignty, but in practice almost independent in the hands of the Odo the Great, the Duke of Aquitaine, since the Merovingian kings had lost power.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Franks created an empire under the Merovingian kings and subjugated the other Germanic tribes.

The Merovingian kings of the Germanic Franks conquered northern Gaul in 486 AD.

In the 5th and 6th centuries the Merovingian kings conquered several other Germanic tribes and kingdoms.

Also during this time, the Mayors of the Palace, originally the chief advisor to the kings, would become the real power in the Frankish lands ; the Merovingian kings themselves would be reduced to little more than figureheads.

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.

Merovingian kings and queens used the newly forming ecclesiastical power structure to their advantage.

During this chaotic period, Provence was ruled by Frankish kings of Merovingian dynasty, then Carolingian Kings, descended from Charles Martel ; and then was part of the empire of Charlemagne ( 742 – 814 ).

* Loseby, S. T., " Marseille and the Pirenne thesis, I: Gregory of Tours, the Merovingian kings and ' un grand port '" from Hodges, R. and Bowden, W., The sixth century: production, distribution and demand pp. 203 – 229, ( Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1998 )

The Carolingian kings of the Franks traced Merovingian ancestry to the Germanic tribe of the Sicambri.

Since King Sigibert I, Metz was frequently the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia.

This sort of political match was rare for the Merovingian kings.

In contrast to that experienced by many Merovingian kings, Theudebald's accession was peaceful.

Nevertheless, a number of Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian kings and emperors have avoided coronation and anointing.

In sources beginning with the Royal Frankish Annals, the Merovingian kings of the Franks traditionally traced their lineage through a pre-Frankish tribe called the Sicambri ( or Sugambri ), mythologized as a group of " Cimmerians " from the mouth of the Danube river, but who instead came from Gelderland in modern Netherlands and are named for the Sieg river or which could derive from that of the Cimbri as their chieftain names have the same suffix-rix.

Part of the Frankish territory of Neustria, the Soissons region, and the Abbey of Saint-Médard, built in the 8th century, played an important political part during the rule of the Merovingian kings ( A. D. 447-751 ).

The Major Domo held and wielded the real and effective power to make decisions affecting the Kingdom, while in the mid to late Merovingian period, kings had been reduced to performing merely ceremonial functions, which made them little more than nominal kings or figureheads.