Gregory of Tours could at last chronicle a Barbarian King. And who were these fierce, Frankish warrior kings? His last years were spent eliminating rival Frankish leaders. Though absent from the Gospels or historical records, the concept of Jesus having blood descendants has gained a presence in the public imagination, as seen with Dan Brown's best-selling novel and film The Da Vinci Code that used the premise for its plot. Whatever lip-service is paid to this subject is usually accompanied by enough misinformation to keep the masses of Christians ignorant of the truth. From the 5th to the 8th centuries, the Merovingian dynasty of kings ruled Europe and, from the Middle Ages until the present day, most of Europes monarchs have been of Merovingian lineage. Interesting history topics are just a click away. Mary Ann Beavis would point out that unlike others in the genre, Starbird actively courted scholarly engagement over her ideas, and that "[a]lthough her methods, arguments and conclusions do not always stand up to scholarly scrutiny, some of her exegetical insights merit attention . It is thus clear that Merovingian queens faced daunting challenges and great dangers as a consequence of their powerful positions. The claims frequently depict Jesus as married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living in Europe, especially France but also the UK. It was the kingdom of the Franks which was to exercise the most influence for the longest time. BE: Burial rites are intrinsically conservative customs; just as today, they tend not to change drastically from generation to generation unless catastrophic circumstances like disease or war force burials to be performed in a hurried manner or break the chain of the transmission of rituals between generations. Similarly, classical remains helped future generations of French settlers identify with something familiar in their adopted land. https://www.penfield.edu/webpages/jgiotto/onlinetextbook.cfm?subpage=1680226, https://www.gotquestions.org/Merovingian-dynasty.html, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/mary-magdalen-and-kings-france. For the most part, however, families continued to bury their dead much as they had before conversion. 1600-1100 BC is described as Mycenaean Greece known for the Wars against Troy as narrated by Homer. [4] A second work, untitled and anonymous, repeats Ermengaud's claim. [30] The Mormons also used an apocryphal passage attributed to the 2nd-century Greek philosopher Celsus: "The grand reason why the gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ was because he had so many wives. Childeric I carved himself a kingdom and the Merovingian dynasty was born. (Ian Woods states that Odoacer deposing Agustulus is speculation). It was not the crude barbaric culture often imagined. Chlodio, was a semi legendary King of the Salian Franks. German scholars and politicians, for instance, used alleged finds of Franks to justify the invasion of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870 CE, stating that the region had been settled by Germanic peoples since time immemorial. These wars were described in the Iliad by Homer, who was a blind Greek historian. Their language was Iranian. For the biblical genealogy of Jesus, see, Jesus bloodline claims in South and East Asia, For a discussion between Barbara Thiering and. Rather, graves provide us with evidence better suited to revealing intimate details about individuals and the communities to which they belonged. Charles Martel The most important Mayor of the Palace and an extremely important historical figure was Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer who was born 686 and died 741. BE: Many thanks for this opportunity! [10][11] In this work of pseudo-scholarship, Thiering would go so far as to precisely place the betrothal of Jesus and Mary Magdalene on 30 June, AD 30, at 10:00 p.m. She relocated the events in the life of Jesus from Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem to Qumran, and related that Jesus was revived after an incomplete crucifixion and married Mary Magdalene, who was already pregnant by him, that they had a daughter Tamar and a son Jesus Justus born in AD 41, and Jesus then divorced Mary to wed a Jewess named Lydia, going to Rome where he died. He claimed that, after being denied access to the Masada archaeological site, he was met at the Tel Aviv airport by an American University professor using the pseudonym "Max Grosset", who held a large scroll he claimed to have smuggled from the site. Read More. During the Early Middle Ages, the Merovingian kingdoms were arguably the most powerful and most important polities to emerge after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, blending Gallo-Roman institutions with Germanic Frankish customs. [46] Gardner followed this book with several additional works in the bloodline genre. Childebert III operated successively with the aristocracy. Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson. Later, the plunder would be divided among the warriors and the king, according to their worth. Catholic Encyclopedia, Copyright 2014 Order of the Merovingian Dynasty. But the situation changed during a battle against the Alamanni, a confederation of German tribes. The etymology of Wales is said to descend from the Cimmerians. Many were very invested in heightening pride in the past of their region. Aside from issues of royal inheritance, which historical factors allowed this breakdown of power to occur? It warrants comparision with the high culture of the Byzantines. He was called the hero of the age and it was said he delivered Christiandom. [15] Such theory has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars, archaeologists and theologians, including the archaeologist Amos Kloner, who led the archeological exavation of the tomb itself. In 2005, UK TV presenter and amateur archaeologist Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, "The Real Da Vinci Code", shown on Channel 4. Eventually, the kings lost their political authority to officials known vaguely as maiores palatii (great men of the palace). After the Roman Empire collapsed, it was the Merovingians who stepped into the power vacuum, playing an important role in reshaping the political map of Europe and providing stability to the region. [25] The Church of England compared The Lost Gospel to a Monty Python sketch, the director of communications for the Archbishop's Council citing the book as an example of religious illiteracy and that ever since the publication of The Da Vinci Code in 2003, "an industry had been constructed in which 'conspiracy theorists, satellite channel documentaries and opportunistic publishers had identified a lucrative income stream'. Among the causes of their eroding power base were the repeated (and disputed) divisions of the kingdoms among royal heirs (in the absence of the custom of primogeniture), damaging conflict between the Austrasian and Neustrian kingdoms in Frankish-controlled territory, decentralization of authority once belonging to kings in favor of the aristocracy, and the rising power of the mayors of the palace who met many of the royal obligations that the Merovingian kings could not or would not fulfill on their own. Clothilda was later named a Saint. St. Gregory of Tours, who was the leading historian wrote that the Frankish leader Clovis on the occasion of his baptism into the Catholic faith in 496 was referred to as Sicambrian by the officiating Bishop of Rheims. They accumulated immense wealth. WebThe "Merovingian Bloodline" is an esoteric philosophy with a history that predates Charlemagne. Why Study History? Why did this shift occur, and what do these changes suggest about the evolution of Merovingian society and personal piety? As you note rightly, however, in the case of Merovingian artifacts (which were interpreted as Germanic finds, whether Frankish, Burgundian, or Visigothic), these were the source of great interest locally but were embraced less eagerly by central French authorities and academics, who were not pleased to see how widely the presence of these invaders was felt in France in the migration period. But there is a curious association with this line of Kings. The Frankish kings gave permission to their army to loot and plunder after any battle, bringing all the plunder to a designated spot. Their gold coins that were minted bore an equal arm cross. Greece Scholars regard the Scythians as an Iranian nomadic people speaking several languages but mostly Iranian (or Parsi which later became Farsi). Was it symbolic of male virility and martial prowess on the battlefield? So the modern theory goes, Jesus escaped death on the cross (being cut down before he died) and was smuggled out of the Middle East by ship, accompanied by a pregnant Mary Magdalene (the Holy Grail here being reinterpreted as the Sang Raal or royal blood, that is the pregnant Mary). There are indications in Gnosticism of the belief that Jesus and Mary Magdalene shared an amorous, and not just a religious relationship. The actual parentage of Merovee is subject to conjecture, but he was clearly a Frank. As French industrialists laid railroad lines and commenced expansive quarrying operations, Frankish artifacts were routinely discovered, casting doubts upon the Gaulish origins of the French nation. Researchers Unlock the Mystery of the Mummified Lung of a Merovingian Queen The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail , who posited that the Merovingians were descended from Jesuswhose hidden bloodline migrated from Israel to France via Mary Magdalenewere big proponents of this theory. Russia Teaches a Lesson. Dagobert II In 651 Dagobert II came to power and was a worthy successor to Clovis. All rights reserved. For them, the cutting of the hair of the king was considered a symbolic loss of power. Herodotus, the Greek historian wrote about them in his Histories of the 5th Century. In the last decade or so, however, some scholars have questioned our reliance on this image of Merovingian kings, since it seems to suggest that the Franks had not fully embraced Christianity even by the late sixth century CE. On his return he received consular office from the eastern emperor (the Western Roman Empire had ceased to exist) and he established Paris as his capital. Proclaiming Jesus Christ after the Da Vinci tsunami", officecom.qc.ca, 2006. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Belgium city of Tournai had become the center of activity. On deposit from the National Museum of Antiquities in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. But when in power the king was the master of all the spoils of war, claiming the lands of his defeated opponents as well as people and possessions. Found in a tomb of Saint-Denis in 1959. It should be pointed out that the last ice age ended about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, or about the 8 th millennium BC. The Pope then ordered that by apostolic authority Pippin III, or Pippin the Younger, or Pippin the Short, be created King of all the Franks, thus betraying the pact which had been made with Clovis. The people east of the Rhine were also subject to the Merovingians. In Shakespeare's King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1, he writes of the barbarous Scythian. Ancient Greece was formed in the third millennium BC when people known as Greeks migrated south to the Balkans in waves, the last being the Dorian invasion about 2300 BC. [12], In the television documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and book The Jesus Family Tomb,[14] both from 2007, fringe investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino proposed that ossuaries in the Talpiot Tomb, discovered in Jerusalem in 1980, belonged to Jesus and his family. He amassed power and authority and great wealth which has been reported to have been located at Rennes le Chateau. Barbarian Kings The Roman Empire was replaced with a number of states ruled by barbarian kings. The Franks were brutal but not like the Goths and the Huns. The Merovingians: The Kings and Queens of the Franks written by James Wiener Mythologized and circumscribed for over 1500 years, the Merovingians were a powerful Frankish dynasty, which exercised control much of modern-day France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Low Countries. According to recent popular theories, the Merovingians are identified as the descendants of Jesus Christ, who escaped crucifixion and fled to France with a pregnant Mary Magdalene, settling there. The Roman Empire is said to have ended as such in 476 AD when Odoacer, the Barbarian Germanic General deposed Romulus Agustulus. The development of Christianity started among the Merovingians when King Clovis I, the grandson of Merovech, was baptized and became a Christian. After making his vow, the battle turned in favor of the Merovingian king. Bertrada descended from the Merovingian Kings. During a battle against the Alamans, he vowed to become a Christian if he was victorious. She exercised enormous power during her reign, especially after she was widowed, when she acted as regent to her son, Clothar, for nearly a decade. What contemporary sources relating to the origin as well as the history of the Merovingians survive are very limited. The Merovingian Dynasty: Satanic Bloodline of the Anti-Christ [There has been ongoing attempts by the Illuminati in America to only elect President who come from a black nobility bloodline as many former President claim they are descendants of Charlemagne.] Presented to the Baronial Order of the Magna Charta and the Military Order of the, Crusades, Corinthian Yacht Club,Essington, PA. Scythia The first point, then, to keep in mind is that graves are not mirrors of the lives of those buried within them but rather of the social relationships held by that individual to family, supporters, and other interested parties. There are many reasons why one might want to study the MerovingiansI think they have great relevance to understanding Franco-German relations in the past century and a halfTherefore, work on the Merovingians can tell us much about not just the Early Middle Ages but our own time as well., Uncovering the Germanic Past: Merovingian Archaeology in France, 1830-1914, Roman frescoes on show in Toulouse (France). As noted by the historian Walter Goffart, this means that what many of us know as The History of the Franks was not called that by its author; Gregory instead intended his Histories as a work of Christian universal history. There is no evidence that these beliefs derived from the much earlier Gnostic traditions of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but the Cathar traditions did find their way into many of the 20th-century popular writings claiming the existence of a Jesus bloodline. Previously, Dr. Effros taught at the University of Alberta, where she held an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of History and Classics; at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; and at Binghamton University, where she served as Chair of the Department of History. This, The basilica and former monastic church ofSaint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in Metz, France. Merovingian Gaul; silver, glass paste, and garnet. Translation of image captions from French to English was provided by Mr. James Blake Wiener. The Merovingian Church had a distinguished tradition in ecclesiastical legislation in the 6th and 7th centuries; it witnessed a flowering of monastic tradition. [3] She sees this as the source of the legend associated with the cult at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. This was an area of Eurasia that included the Caucasians including Azerbaijan, the central Asia steppes including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, the valley of the Indus or that area between India and Pakistan, and the southern Ukraine with the lower Danube and Bulgaria. He regrouped and captured Cambrai (Cameracum) and occupied territory as far as the Somme River. Kenneth Grant, Grand Master, OTO "The three constellations develop the truth. WebHoly Bloodline: Merovingian Dynasty. According to the 7th century Chronicle of Fredegar, the Merovingian descended from quinotaurs, sea-beasts. His Mayor of the Palace, Pepin the Fat aligned himself with enemies of Dagobert II. Historically speaking, the Merovingian dynasty consisted of Frankish kings who reigned over regions For her contributions, Clothild later gained recognition as a saint. We thus need to avoid the type of questioning that brings with it many implicit assumptions not just about early medieval graves but early medieval society more generally. . Most descendants of the Merovingians came from a zig-zag pattern, like me, from my mothers side. She gave birth to a son, whom she named Merovech. He was a brilliant general and is considered the father of western heavy cavalry. The Ripuarian Franks (river dwelling) lived along the Rhine river, and were perhaps called Ripuarian by the Romans. Numerous Celtic and Germanic peoples descended from the Cimmerians. Sensing defeat for the Merovingians, Clovis made a vow that if Clotildas God provided him with victory in the battle, he would be baptized and convert to a Christian. They became slave traders, merchants, and shippers. The difficulty, of course, in pursuing this line of inquiry is that it assumes that ethnicity was something biological and fixed, rather than being one of an assortment of identities expressed by every individual over the course of his or her lifetime; some of these facets of identity, like ethnicity, may have been mutable depending upon the circumstances. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. [74] The programme featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists, and cast severe doubt on the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France, among other related myths, by interviewing on film the inhabitants of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the centre of the cult of Saint Sarah. We await your next study with anticipation and appreciate having the opportunity to share your expertise! Childeric returned to power and married the wife of the King of Thurigia. If a family had access to wealth, they might want to bury a loved one in a manner that reflected status or connections. Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. It is from Priam, King of Troy that Roderick Stuart in Royalty for Commoners shows descent from the Cimmerians to the Sicambri to the Merovingians. The Lost Gospel. "[26] The Lost Gospel was described as historical nonsense by Markus Bockmuehl. The Merovingian kingdom had a significant role to play in the transmission of culture from the late Roman period to the Carolingian period. Such an agreement was important because it transformed the less than unified Roman Church to one of supreme power in the West. (Today, similar efforts are launched with the assistance of DNA studies of the skeletal remains in these same graves). The conversion of Clovis into Christianity had a significant historical impact from a cultural perspective. He was baptized in AD 496 in his capital city by Remigius, the Bishop of Reims, and became a Roman Catholic. Belt plaques from the finery set of Queen Aregund (c. 515573 CE), wife of Clotaire I (511561 CE). James Blake Wiener is the Communications Director at Ancient History Encyclopedia. Royalty for Commoners by Roderick W. Stuart Following these writers, they viewed the Franks long hair as an essential element of their royal power. The Merovingian Dynasty got its name from Merowig or Merovech, a Salian Frank leader from 447 AD to 457 AD. It is also likely (but not easily confirmed) for much of the early Middle Ages that a specifically Christian liturgy was not performed as a matter of course for the majority of Christians at the time of their burials. The mean elevation in the central area is about 4500 meters. [52], A presentation of analogous concepts within a Mormon context was published in 2006: Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline by art historian Vern Grosvenor Swanson. German and French historians have treated Charles Martel with great acclaim and believe that he saved Europe from Islam. Thus, when talking about the early Merovingian monarchs, Gregory of Tours catered his narrative to fit a larger objective of showing Gods punishment of those who transgressed Christian law. Accept Read More, Examining Mary Magdalene In The Gospel of Mary, Apollonius of Tyana Similarities to Jesus Christ, Prester John: The Legendary Christian King. Stuart in Royalty for Commoners states he was either a son or a son in law of Chlodio. He was named Novus Constantinus-the new Constantine. On 23 December 679, while resting during a hunt in the forest, a servant under the direction of Pepin the Fat killed him. The Salian Franks (sea dwelling) lived North and East of Limes in the Dutch coastal area and in the 5th century migrated throughout Belgium and into northern France. They held control for over 250 years, before being usurped and replaced with the Carolingian dynasty. Merovingian history provides a focus for understanding the political history of western Europe in the two and half centuries following the deposition of Romulus Augustulus. [51] Still, Brown relied so heavily on Holy Blood that two of its authors, Baigent and Leigh, sued the book's publisher, Random House, over what they considered to be plagiarism. He made Tournai the capital of all Salian Franks. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip tells that Jesus "kissed her often" and refers to Mary as his "companion". Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. Rather than being seen as a source of magical or pre-Christian power, as some Carolingian authors suggested, long hair, which had a role in Judeo-Christian tradition as well (think Samson!) New York: Pegasus, 2014. This legend dates from the 1930s, when it was claimed that a document was discovered written in the Hebrew language and describing the marriage and later life of Jesus. He was buried at Stenay, the royal chapel of Saint Remy. WebFor more information on this there is a detailed examination of the Royal family and the occult in the book The Prince and the Paranormal - The Psychic Bloodline of the Royal As there was no formal archaeological training in this period, all involved were amateurs and tried to make sense of finds made in their city or region (or even in their backyards). Dr. Effros earned her Ph.D. in history at UCLA (1994), where she specialized in the European Middle Ages. At his baptism, Saint Remy said, "Sicambrian revere what thou hast burned and burn what thou hast revered.". Soon thereafter an agreement of cooperation was signed between Clovis and the Roman Church. In this feature interview, James Blake Wiener of the Ancient History Encyclopedia speaks to Dr. Bonnie Effros, a Professor of History at the University of Florida, about the ways in which the archaeology of the dead can help rewrite an important chapter in European history. Of the primary sources, such as the Decem Libri Historiarum or the Chronicle of Fredegar, no mention is made of this connection to Christ. Troy was founded by Dardanus, son of the Trojan Royal Family of Electra and Zeus. Others were not. He has written for 8 years in a variety of fields including history, health and politics. I enjoyed it a lot! While many still opted to be buried (even in churches) with a wealth of grave goods, others adopted the language of a high status Christian burial which could involve non-traditional symbols, locations, and customs for that region. She also noted that the name "Sarah" means "Princess" in Hebrew, thus making her the forgotten child of the "sang ral", the blood royal of the King of the Jews. As you noted above, the problematic nature of historical works dated from the Carolingian period is even more pronounced, since historians like the author of the Chronicle of Fredegar were eager to demonstrate how the Merovingian kings characterized as the do-nothing kings had lost their right to rule.
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