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'''Dagobert I''' (c.
603 -
January 19,
639) was the king of the
Franks from
629 to
639.
The son of King
Clotaire II, Dagobert became king of
Austrasia and on the death of his father, the sole king of the Franks. By
632 he had
Bourgogne and
Aquitaine under his rule, becoming the most powerful of the
Merovingian kings and the most respected ruler in the West. He married five times.
As king, Dagobert I made
Paris his capital. During his reign, he built the
Altes Schloss Castle in
Meersburg,
Germany which today is the oldest inhabited castle in that country. Devoutly religious, Dagobert was also responsible for the construction of the
Saint Denis Basilica at the site of a
Benedictine Monastery in Paris.
Dagobert was the last of the
Merovingian kings to wield any real royal power. In
632 the nobles of
Austrasia revolted under
Mayor of the Palace Pepin I, and Dagobert appeased the rebellious nobles by putting his three-year-old son
Sigebert III on the Austrasian throne, thereby ceding royal power in all but name. When Dagobert died in
639, another son,
Clovis II, inherited the rest of his kingdom at age five.
This pattern continued for the next century until
Pippin III finally deposed the last Merovingian king in
731, establishing the
Carolingian dynasty. The Merovingian boy-kings remained ineffective rulers who inherited the throne as young children and lived only long enough to produce a male heir or two, while real power lay in the hands of the noble families (the
Old Noblesse) who exercised
feudal control over most of the land.
Dagobert was the first of the French kings to be buried in the Royal tombs at
Saint Denis Basilica.
King Dagobert was immortalized by the song ''The good king Dagobert''.
== Related articles ==
*
Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
*
List of Frankish Kings
* King
Samo
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