FRA 
{be young prince 5 but on his death, Chramnes was obliged 
to implore his father’s clemency. He was at this time 
pardoned; but he foon engaged the count of Bretagne to. 
aflid him in a fredi rebellion. The Bretons, however, 
were defeated, and Chramnes was taken prifoner; and 
with his whole family was thrall into a thatched cottage 
near the field of battle, which the king commanded to be 
fet on fire, and all that were in it perifiied in the flames. 
Clotaire did not long furvive this cruel death of 
Chramnes, but died in 562; and the French empire was 
divided among his four remaining fons. Caribert, the 
elded, had the kingdom of Paris ; Gontran, the fecond, 
poifelled Orleans; Sigebert took upon him the fovereignty 
of Metz, or kingdom of Audrafia ; and Chilperic reigned 
over Soidbns. Provence and Aquitain were pofTeded by 
all of them in common. The death of Caribert, how¬ 
ever, foon kindled the flames of difcord among the Me¬ 
rovingian princes; and a temporary com promife, which 
divided the city of Paris into three parts, and confined 
each prince to his feparate didrift,, was not likely to ex- 
tinguilb the glowing embers. It were needlefs to appal 
or difgud the reader with the cruel feries of fraternal dif¬ 
cord and hatred which difgraced Brunehaut, the wife of 
Sigebert, and Fredegonde, fird the concubine and after¬ 
wards the confort of Chilperic. During feveral fuccedive 
years of open violence and fecret intrigue, the fword and 
the dagger alternately interrupted the tranquillity of the 
fubjeft, and adailed the life of the fovereign. Sigebert 
was adaffiriated at the indig;ation of Chilperic ; and that 
prince himfelf was afterwards doomed to experience the 
fame perfidy which he had praftifed againd his brother. 
His fon, Clotaire the Second, then only four months 
old, was protefted in the podeflion of Soidbns by his uncle 
Gontran king of Burgundy, againd Childebert, the fon 
and fuccedbr of Sigebert of Audrafia. The death of 
Gontran devolved his dominions on the Audrafian mo¬ 
narch, who in vain renewed his attempts on the youthful 
king of Soidbns ; and expiring foon after, left his king¬ 
dom and his two infant fons the victims of their own am¬ 
bition, and of the artifices of the very prince whom he 
himfelf had endeavoured to opprefs. 
The different provinces of Gaul again obeyed the au¬ 
thority of a fingle mader, and the foie power which had 
been pofleded by Clotaire the Fird was, in 613, revived 
in his grandfon, Clotaire the Second ; who during fifteen 
years held the reigns of government with a deady hand, 
and chadded, in a fignal viftory,. the infolence of the 
Saxons. On his death, in 628, his elded fon, Dagobert, 
who had already received from his father the crown of 
Audrafia, fucceeded to the kingdoms of Neudria, (which 
comprifed the country between the Meufe and the Loire,) 
and Burgundy. To his younger brother, Caribert, he 
afiigned a part of Aquitain, with the city of Touloufe. 
The deceafe of Caribert, who enjoyed his tranfient fove¬ 
reignty but three years, was followed in a few days by 
that of his fon Chilperic,' who was fuppofed to fall a 
viftim to the ambition of his uncle; and Aquitain was 
again annexed to the crown of France, and to the domi¬ 
nions of Dagobert. An unfuccefsful war with the Scla- 
vonians induced this monarch to refign the fceptre of 
Audrafia to hjs elded fon, Sigebert; and the death of the 
former, in 628, after a reign of ten years, confirmed Sige¬ 
bert in the podeflion of Audrafia, together with the king¬ 
doms of Neudria and Burgundy. 
From this period, the ludre of the Merovingian princes 
is overdiadowed by the power of their officers or minif- 
ters, called 1nayors of the palace. In Audrafia, the names 
of Sigebert, Dagobert, Childebert, and Child-eric, fuc. 
c«fitvely, but obfcurely, mark the adminidrations of Pe¬ 
pin and his fon Grimoa’de. In Neudria and Burgundy, 
Clovis the Second, and Clotaire the Third, were humbled 
by the authority of Archambaud and Ebroin. After a 
difcordant era of internal revolutions, Audrafia was re¬ 
united to Neudria and Burgundy, in 673, under the con- 
troul of Thieri, fon of Clotaire the Third 3 but the go- 
N C E- 05 c 
vernment was eotnifled to Ebroin-, mayor of the palace, 
whofe boitndlefs ambition and tyranny provoked the re¬ 
volt of the nobility of Audrafia. Thefe elefted as t-heic 
independent dukes Martin and Pepin, who were united 
by the ties of blood. The forces of the confederates 
were defeated by Ebroin; and Martin, who had furrer- 
dered the city of Laon on a promife of fafetv, was he-, 
headed by the perfidious mayor. But Pepin had employed 
eacli moment of the fiege in recruiting his (hattered forces ; 
and the afladination of Ebroin, by tfte hand of a private 
enemy, in 688, delivered him from an aftive and implaca¬ 
ble rival, and opened the road of fucceilion to the Carlo- 
vingian princes. 
The arms of Pepin,, furnamed d'Heriflal , from his palace 
on the Meufe, foon after the death of Ebroin, in 690, 
penetrated into the Vermandois, and defeated the royal 
army commanded by Bertaire, and Thieri himfelf: this 
viftory at once rendered Pepin mader of the capital, tire 
finances, and the perfon of the king. While he engrofied 
the public authority, he affefted to treat the captive 
prince with every mark of external refpeft : and the fe¬ 
cret fchemes of ufurpation were concealed beneath the 
veil of apparent humility. During tfie nominal reigns of 
Thieri, Clovis the Third, Childebert, and Dagobert, he 
maintained his power undtaken and undiminilhed ; and 
his repeated triumphs over the Frifons, the Alemanni, 
and the Bavarians, confirmed his influence and extended 
his reputation. The latter years of his life were embit¬ 
tered by the lofs of his fon Grimoalde, who fell a vic¬ 
tim to the envy of the nobility; but his death was fe J 
verely revenged by Pepin, who, in 714, terminated with 
his lad breath a prosperous adminidration of twenty- 
fix years, having previoully appointed his grandfon 
Theudoalde, then only fix years old, to he mayor of the 
palace. 
The infant years of Theudoalde were greatly oppreded 
by the jealoufy of his fovereign Dagobert, and the defeat 
of his adherents was foon followed by his death: but the 
tottering houfe of Pepin was propped by the fplendid 
talents of his illegitimate fon Charles, who, amidd the 
alternate viciditudes of fortune, difplayed a magnanimity 
of mind worthy of his father. Burding from the bands 
of enthrallment, he was received with open arms by the 
Audrafians, raifed to the dignity of duke, and entruded 
with the abfolute command of their forces ; though eit- 
compafled with difficulties, his genius role fuperior to his 
fituation. The death of Dagobert, in 7x6, relieved him 
from an antagonid, who difplayed a degree of fpirit un¬ 
common in the degenerated Merovingian race ; and the 
eleftion of Chi-lperic from the cloider, prefented a com¬ 
petitor whofe virtues were unequal to pierce through the 
mids of a monkidi education. In his retreat through the 
fored of Arden, the camp of the incautious monarch was 
furprifed by the vigilant Charles ; and in a more confidera- 
ble aftion between Arras and Cambray, March 19, 717, 
the royal forces fled before the victorious Audrafians. 
The didrefs of Chilperic prompted him to negociate an 
alliance with Eudes duke of Aquitain, who during thefe 
troubles had occupied all the Franks formerly poiletTed 
on the other fide of the Loire; the friend (hip of Eudes 
was purchafed by the folemn ceffion of the country lie 
had feized, To encounter with equal arms iris adver- 
faries, Charles, in imitation of the policy of his Father 
Pepin, raifed to the throne in Clotaire a new phantom of 
royalty; and advancing rapidly to Soidbns, furprifed by 
his unexpefted appearance the confederate princes. The 
hod of Chilperic and Eudes gradually didolved before 
the prefence of the hero ; and the duke ot Aquitain, hope- 
lefs of fuccefs, accepted from Charles the lame terms as 
he had dipulated with Chilperic, and delivered the Me¬ 
rovingian king into the hands of the duke of Audraha. 
The unhappy Chilperic received fome alleviation from 
the refpeCtful treatment he experienced. On the de : rth 
of Clotaire, Charles caufed him to-be acknowledged king 
of Audrafia, and fovereign ojf all the dominions of the 
1 Franks| 
