DAGOBERT I (647)

The last Frankish king of the Merovingian dynasty to rule a united realm in more than name only.

He became king of Austrasia in 623 and of the entire Frankish realm in 629.

Dagobert secured his realm by making a friendship treaty with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius in 629, intervening against the Visigoths in Spain in 631, defeating the Bretons in 636 and quelling a Gascon rebelion in 637.

He moved his capital from Austrasia to Paris, a central location from which the kingdom could be governed more effectively. He then had to appease the Austrasians, who acted as a buffer state against the Slavic invasions, by making his three-year-old son Sigebert their king in 634. He made tours of justice through Burgundy and Austrasia (630-31) which gave the poor needed relief but which did not endear him to the aristocracy.

The prosperity of Dagobert´s reign and the revival of the arts under him can be judged from the rich contents of the tombs of the period and from the goldsmiths work for the churches. Dagobert revised the Frankish law, encouraged the growth of the famous abbey of Saint-Denis with many gifts.