Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, 1st Christian Ruler of Gaul, Primogenitor of the Monarchy of France

Silvered bronze mount of an armoire depicting the victory of Merovingian King Merovech over the armies of Attila the Hun in 451. By Emmanuel Fremiet, 1867. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remigius

Saint Remigius baptizes Clovis, in a painting of c. 1500

Clovis statue at the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis

Conquests of Clovis between 481 and 511

Walhalla Temple, Bavaria

Clovis succeeded in uniting extant Frankish tribes under his rule by defeating them in battles over the course of four years, starting in 486. Afterward the conquest he established Paris as the capital of the realm.

Tonantius Ferreolus (429 – 469) served as one of the last Gallo-Roman praetorian prefects at the time Atilla and his Hun army invaded Gaul. Before the invasion, he was instrumental in allying independent Gallic barbarian armies, including those led by Merovech Meroving (411 – 458), under the banner of Roman General Flavius Aetius for the successful defense of the Roman territory in 451. Clovis Meroving, Merovech’s grandson and the first King of United Franks, would later drive the Romans out of Gaul in 486.

The Temple of Walhalla in Bavaria is a memorial to celebrated and distinguished people of Germanic origin since the time of Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) . He, of course, holds the first position in the two rows of plaques dedicated to those whose likeness and/or physical image is historically unidentifiable in the classic sense. Clovis is commemorated with an individual plaque. Theodoric I Balthus (393 – 451) King of the Visigoths, his descendant, is also honored in the same array of plaques.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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