Merovingian

A dynasty of Frankish rulers and their kingdom, from c 476-750 AD, recognized as the first of the kings of France. Named after its founder Merovech the Merovingians ruled France from time of Childeric I to that of Charles Martel. Merovingian is a term used to describe Frankish archaeology of 6th to mid-8th century AD. The area was that of western Rhineland to the Atlantic coat of France and embraces a number of kingdoms such as Austria Neustria and Burgundia. The Merovingian kings consolidated power and brought Christianity to the Frankish kingdom (modern France and the Rhineland) after the fall of the Roman Empire in Gaul and laid the political and artistic foundation for the Carolingian Empire that followed. Merovingian art is characterized by a mixture of the Roman classical style with native Germanic-Frankish artistic traditions which favored abstraction and geometric patterning. The Merovingian script is the writing of the pre-Carolingian hands of France that were derived from Latin cursive script in the 7th and 8th centuries.

This general name is usually applied to the Frankish rulers and their kingdom from the time of Childeric (d 481) until the middle of the 8th century. The name is derived from the mid-5th century Mero-vech, father of Childeric. The term is used to describe all the archaeological evidence from the western Rhineland to the Atlantic coast of France, and embraces a number of kingdoms such as Austrasia in the Rhineland, Neustria in central northern France, and Burgundia in central France.