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Merovingian Dynasty > 
The Merovingians were a dynasty of Frankish kings who ruled a frequently fluctuating area in parts of present-day France and Germany from the 5th to the 8th century AD. They were sometimes referred to as the "long-haired kings" by contemporaries, for their symbolically unshorn hair (traditionally the tribal leader of the Franks wore their hair long, while the warriors were trimmed short).
The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to Merovech (sometimes Latinized as Meroveus or Merovius), leader of the Salian Franks from about 447 to 457, and emerges into wider history with the victories of Childeric I (reigned about 457 - 481) against the Visigoths, Saxons and Alamanni. Childeric's son Clovis I went on to unite most of Gaul north of the Loire around 486.
He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alamanni in 496, on which occasion he adopted his wife's Catholic faith, and decisively defeated the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouill? in 507. On his death, Clovis partitioned his kingdom among his four sons, according to Frankish custom.
Over the next two centuries, this tradition would continue. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled, the kingdom - not unlike the late Roman Empire - was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings and the turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king.
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