Clotilde, also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc., was a Queen of the Franks. She was supposedly descended from the Gothic king Athanaric and became the second wife of the Frankish king Clovis I in 493. The Merovingian dynasty to which her husband belonged ruled Frankish kingdoms for over 200 years (450–758).
A lithograph of Saint Clotilde
St Clotilde at prayer (illuminated initial)
Clotilde and her sons, Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis
Clovis was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France".
Baptism of Clovis, ivory book cover from c. 870
Clovis I
Clovis I leading the Franks to victory in the Battle of Tolbiac, in Ary Scheffer's 1836 painting
Frankish territories at the time of Clovis's death in 511