Quick Facts
Also spelled:
Merovich, Meroveus, Merwich, or Merowig
French:
Mérovée
German:
Merowech
Flourished:
c. ad 450
Flourished:
425 - 475
House / Dynasty:
Merovingian dynasty
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Merovech

king of Salian Franks
Also known as: Mérovée, Meroveus, Merovich, Merowig, Merwech, Merwich(Show More)

Merovech (flourished c. ad 450) was the king of the Salian Franks from whom Frankish tradition held the Merovingian dynasty to have taken its name. He was the father of Childeric I (d. 481/482) and grandfather of Clovis I (c. 466–511).

Nothing definite is known of Merovech’s life, but an early myth made him the son of a sea god. He is mentioned in Gregory of Tours’s Histories and, according to later sources, fought against Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451).

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