Clovis I

Clovis I (c.466 - November 27 511 at Paris) succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as leader of the Franks, a Germanic people occupying the lower Rhine area. In 486 he defeated Syagrius, the last Roman governor in Gaul, at Soissons, extending Frankish rule to most of the area north of the Loire.

After his marriage (493) to the Burgundian princess Clotilde, he converted in 496 to her Catholic faith, aligning his monarchy with the powerful religious establishment in Rome against the rival Arian beliefs of other Germanic kings.

His defeat of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse at Vouillé (507) brought most of Francia under his rule, but at his death his realm was divided among his four sons, inaugurating a period of disunity which was to last with brief interruptions until the end (751) of his Merovingian dynasty.