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The Merovingians in Historiographical Tradition: From the Sixth to the Sixteenth Centuries

By (author) Yaniv Fox

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The Merovingian centuries were a foundational period in the historical consciousness of western Europe. The memory of the ï¬rst dynasty of Frankish kings, their origin myths, accomplishments, and failures were used by generations of chroniclers, propagandists, and historians to justify a wide range of social and political agendas. The process of curating and editing the source material gave rise to a recognizable 'Merovingian narrative' with three distinct phases: meteoric ascent, stasis, and decline. Already in the seventh-century Chronicle of Fredegar, this tripartite model was invoked by a Merovingian queen to prophesy the fate of her descendants. This expert commentary sets out to understand how the story of the Merovingians was shaped through a process of continuous historiographical adaptation. It examines authors from across a millennium of historical writing and analyzes their inï¬‚uences and objectives, charting the often-unexpected ways in which their narratives were received and developed.