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The Merovingians were a dynasty of Frankish kings who ruled a (frequently fluctuating) area in parts of present-day France and Germany from the 5th to 8th century AD. They were sometimes referred to as the "long-haired kings" by contemporaries, though the significance of their long hair is not clear.

The Merovingian dynasty (see List of Frankish Kings) owes its name to Merovech (sometimes Latinised as Meroveus or Merovius), leader of the Salian Franks from about 447 to 457, and emerges into wider history with the victories of Childeric I (reigned about 457- 481) against the Visigoths, Saxons and AlamanniThe Alamanni or Allemanni or Alemanni are a Germanic tribe, first mentioned by Dio Cassius, under the year 213. They apparently dwelt in the basin of the Main River, to the south of the Chatti. According to Asinius Quadratus their name "all men" indicates. Childeric's son Clovis IClovis I (or Chlodowech, modern French "Louis") (c. 466 November 27 511 at Paris), a member of the Merovingian dynasty, succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salic Franks, a Germanic people occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with went on to unite most of GaulGallia (in English Gaul is the Latin name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. In English the word Gaul commonly ref north of the LoireLoire Details Information Number42 Region Rhone-Alpes Prefecture Saint-Etienne Subprefectures Montbrison Roanne Population Total ( 1999) Density Ranked 27th 728,524 152 /km² Area 4,781 km² Arrondissements 3 Cantons 40 Communes 327 President of the general ( 486Events Roman rule in Gaul ends with the defeat at Soissons of the Roman governor Syagrius by the Franks under Clovis I. The land between the Loire and the Somme becomes a part of the Frankish realm. This event is often considered the genesis of the French), to adopt Roman CatholicismThis article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. See Catholicism (disambiguation) for alternative meanings Catholicism has two main ecclesiastical meanings, described in Webster's Dictionary as: a) "the whole orthodox Christian chu ( 496Events Battle of Tolbiac; Clovis I defeats the Alamanni accepts Catholic baptism at Reims. Pope Anastasius II succeeds Gelasius I. The ruling Tuoba family in the Chinese Northern Wei Dynasty change their family name to Yuan. Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I), and to decisively defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé ( 507). Clovis on his death partitioned his kingdom among his four sons according to Frankish custom. Over the next two centuries, this tradition would continue; however, accidents of fertility would ensure that occasionally the whole realm would be reunited under a single king; and even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled, the kingdom was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings. In this way, the Frankish Kingdom resembled the later Roman Empire.

The Merovingian kings appointed magnates to be comites, counts, charging them with defense, administration, and the judgement of disputes. This happened against the backdrop of the collapse of the centralized Roman system of administration and taxation and the disappearance of the old civil service structure as the Franks took over adminstration from the Romans. The counts had to provide armies; they enlisted them from their subordinates who were named knights and endowed with land in return for service. These armies were subject to the kings call for offense or defense. The counts paid no money to the king, for there was little money in circulation. The King was expected to support himself with the products of his private, or royal, domain. The system developed in time to feudalism.

By the 7th century, the kings ceased to wield effective political authority and had become symbolic figures; they began to allot more and more day-to-day administration to a powerful official in their household called the maior domo or major-domo.This Latin title literally translates to "big man in the house"; the usual English translation is Mayor of the Palace, although this official was not a mayor in the modern sense of the word. The office of Mayor of the Palace itself became hereditary in the Carolingian family. Soon the Mayors were the real military and political leaders of the Frankish kingdom. This fact became manifest in 732 when an invading Arab army ( Moors) from Spain was defeated by an army led not by the King, but rather by the Mayor Charles Martel.

Charles' son, the Mayor Pippin III, gathered support among Frankish nobles for a change in dynasty. When the Pope appealed to him for assistance against the Lombards, he insisted that the church sanction his coronation in exchange. So, in 751, Childeric III, the last Merovingian, was deposed. He was allowed to live, but his long hair was cut and he was sent to a monastery.

Merovingian coins are on display at Monnaie de Paris, (the French Mint) at 11, quai de Conti, Paris, France.

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln put forth an esoteric pseudohistory of the Merovingians in their book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

See also: list of Frankish Kings