Clotaire II

Clotaire II (584-629) was not yet born when his father, King Chilperic I died in 584, although he was born later that year. His mother, Queen Fredegonde, administered his kingdom until her death in 597. At age 13, Clotaire II began to rule for himself, carrying on his mother's feud with Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia with equal viciousness and bloodshed.

In 613 Clotaire II became the first king of all the Franks since his grandfather Clotaire I died in 561 by ordering the murder of the infant Sigebert II, whom the aging Brunhilda had attempted to set on the thrones of Austrasia and Burgundia, causing a rebellion among the nobility. This led to the delivery of Brunhilda into Clotaire's hands, his thirst for vengeance leading to his formidable old aunt enduring the agony of the rack for three whole days, before suffering a horrific death, chained between four horses that were goaded in separate directions, eventually tearing her apart.

In 615, Clotaire II promulgated the Edict of Paris, a sort of Frankish Magna Carta that reserved many rights to the Frankish nobles while it excluded Jews from all civil employment for the Crown, a ban which placed all the literacy available to the Merovingian monarchy squarely under ecclesiastical control and also greatly pleased the nobles, from whose ranks the bishops were ordinarily exclusively drawn. Then, in 623 he gave the kingdom of Austrasia to his young son Dagobert I. This was a political move as repayment for the support of Bishop Arnulf of Metz and Pepin I, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, the two leading Austrasian nobles, who were effectively granted semi-autonomy.

Clotaire II died in 629.

See also

• Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
• List of Frankish Kings