Theuderich I.

Theuderich I (* before 484; † 533 , French Thierry I ^er ) was from 511 to 533 Frankish king in the east of the empire - in the empire of Metz , which was later referred to as Austrasia .

Life

Theuderic was the eldest son of the Merovingian king Clovis I. His mother was an unknown Franconian whom the historian Gregory of Tours called a concubine . Presumably she belonged to the clan of the Cologne kings. The other children of Clovis all came from his marriage to Chrodechild . Of the sons from this marriage, Chlodomer , Childebert I and Chlothar I were still alive when Clovis died in 511. Theuderich divided the Franconian Empire with these three half-brothers . He received the eastern part, which included the Champagne , Auvergne , parts of Aquitaine and the areas on the right bank of the Rhine. The residence is said to have been Reims ; however, this is not secured by source certificates. Each of the four brothers received part of the Francia (core area of ​​the empire between the Rhine and Loire ) and part of the areas south of the Loire conquered by Clovis. This complicated division was based on the tribal law, the Lex Salica ; the equitable succession of sons regulated therein was adopted for the empire. This Erbregelung specific to the 10th century , the Frankish history and contributed greatly to the formation of the kingdoms of the Middle Ages in.

The only the death of Clovis adult son was Theuderich to guarantee the existence of the Reich within the borders of 511. 531 he conquered with the help of his brother Clotaire I. the realm of Thuringia . He had a tense relationship with his half-brother Childebert I , as he tried to take his empire in 531 after a rumor that Theuderich had fallen. In 532 Theuderich threw down an uprising by Munderich , who also strove for royal dignity.

Theuderich was married to Suavegotho , the daughter of the Burgundian king Sigismund and his wife Ostrogotho , which is why he probably did not take part in the warlike activities of his brothers against Burgundy.

Theuderich probably died towards the end of the year 533. After his death, his son Theudebert I (* around 500, † 548) was able to defend his inheritance against attempted access by his uncles. In addition to this son, Theuderich had the daughter Theudechild , who married the warning king Hermegisclus and, after his death, his son Radigis. According to the tradition from the Eastern Roman historian Prokopios of Caesarea , threats of sea warfare are also spoken of between the warring peoples, according to which his story should refer to an area in or on the Baltic States .

reception

According to the majority of research, Theuderich represents, also in collaboration with his son Theudebert I , the model of a Frankish-Merovingian saga genesis of the Wolfdietrich - heroic epic . Theuderich also advocates a number of research contributions from older German philology as the Rhine-Franconian protagonist of Dietrich von Bern / Verona in the Thidreks saga . Kemp Malone rejects identifications of the Ostrogoth king Theoderich (451 / 56-526) with this legendary figure and interprets their escape schemes from Middle High German heroic poetry based on Theuderich's biography.

literature

• Matthias Springer :  Theuderich I .. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 30, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-018385-4 , pp. 459-463.
• Eugen Ewig : The naming of the oldest Franconian kings and the Merovingian royal family . In: Francia. Research on Western European History . Volume 18/1, 1991, ISBN 3-7995-7224-4 , pp. 21–69 (with family tree p. 48 and detailed information on the prosopography of the royal family).
• Ian Wood : The Merovingian Kingdoms. 450-751 . Longman, London et al. 1994, ISBN 0-582-49372-2 .

Web links

Rolf Badenhausen: Vita Rex Francorum. Detailed biography in the DNB catalog at http://d-nb.info/1189748819/ (accessed on June 3, 2020)

Remarks

1. ↑ The Franconian name Theuderich corresponds to the Gothic Theodorich or the German Dietrich and means something like "ruler over the people". It is composed of the old Franconian thiuda "the people" and rihhi "rich and powerful" or rihhan "to rule".
2. ^ Gregory of Tours , Historiae, Book III, Chapter 14.
3. ↑ For the chronology see Bruno Krusch: Chronologica regum Francorum stirpis Merowingicae . In: Bruno Krusch , Wilhelm Levison (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 7: Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici (V). Hannover 1919, p. 486 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized ). The more recent research (Eugen Ewig, Matthias Springer, Ulrich Nonn) follows Krusch's argument.
4. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999. p. 43.
5. ↑ Lydia Miklautsch: Assembled texts - hybrid heroes. On the poetics of the Wolfdietrich seals. Walter de Gruyter 2005, p. 83f.
6. ↑ See in the article: Dietrichs Bern as the Rhine-Franconian Verona
7. ^ Kemp Malone: Studies in Heroic Legend and in Current Speech . Copenhagen 1959. pp. 116-123.

predecessor	Office	successor
Clovis I.	King of the Franks / Empire of Reims (later Metz) 511–533	Theudebert I.