CHILDERIC I  . (c . 437-481),

king of the Salian Franks, succeeded his father Merwich (Merwing) as king about . 459 . With his tribe he was established around the town of Tournai, on lands which he had received as a foederalus of the Romans, and for some time he kept the peace with his allies . About 463, in conjunction with the Roman general Egidius, he fought against the Visigoths, who hoped to extend their dominion along the banks of the Loire; after the death of Egidius he assisted Count Paul in attempting to check an invasion of the Saxons . Paul having perished in the struggle, Childeric delivered Angers from some Saxons, followed them to the islands at the mouth of the Loire, and massacred them there . He also stopped a band of the Alamanni who wished to invade Italy . These are all the facts known about him . The stories of his expulsion by the Franks; of his stay of eight years in Thuringia with King Basin and his wife Basine; of his return when a faithful servant advised him that he could safely do so by sending to him half of a piece of gold which he had brokenwith him; and of the arrival at Tournai of Queen Basine, whom he married, are entirely legendary . After the fall of the Western Empire in 476 there is no doubt that Childeric regarded himself as freed from his engagements towards Rome . He died in 481 and was buried at Tournai, leaving a son Clovis (q.v.), afterwards king of the Franks .

His

tomb was discovered in 1653, when numerous precious objects, arms, jewels, coins and a ring with a figure of the king, were found .