Dagobert II
Encyclopedia
Dagobert II was the king of Austrasia (676–79), the son of Sigebert III
and Chimnechild of Burgundy. The Feast Date of St Dagobert II is 23 December
The Arnulfing
mayor of the Austrasian palace
, Grimoald the Elder
, the son of Pippin of Landen
, and Dagobert's guardian, had had his own son Childebert
adopted by Sigebert III, when Sigebert was still childless. Then when Sigebert died in 656, Grimoald seized the throne for his own son and had Dagobert tonsure
d, thus marking him unfit for kingship, and exiled.
The tale that Dagobert was ordered to be killed and his death published about, but that he was spirited out of the country, seems to be an embellishment, perhaps developed to explain the silence of Dagobert's mother Chimnechild. She may have cooperated with Grimoald to set up Childebert the Adopted; later she hoped by marrying her daughter Bilichild
to Childeric II
to keep the eventual Austrasian heir in her bloodline. It has also been hypothesised that Chimnechild was not Dagobert's mother, thus her reason for abandoning him.
Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius
, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane
, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.
In the meantime the great nobles of Austrasia appealed to Clovis II
, king of Neustria
, who expelled the usurpers, executing Grimoald and Childebert, and added Austrasia to his own realm. The dating of these events is greatly confused, they occurred perhaps as early as 657 or as late as 661, under Clotaire III
, Clovis' son. The effective ruler however was the Neustrian major domo Ebroin
, who was obliged soon thereafter (in 660 or 662) to give the Austrasian realm a king of its own once more: the choice was the child king Childeric II
, brother of Clotaire III, with a mayor of the palace, Wulfoald
, as regent. The young king was assassinated on a hunt near Maastricht
in 675, and in the chaotic power struggle that ensued, the Austrasian magnates, who wanted a king of Merovingian blood, pressed Wulfoald for the return of Dagobert, while opponents of Wulfoald acclaimed one Clovis III
, possibly an impostor. Ebroin returned from a monastic "retirement" to lead Clovis' partisans, but Wulfoald effected Dagobert's succession in 676, partly through the help of Wilfrid
, Bishop of York, on Clovis' untimely death. In spite of the continuing bitter enmity of Ebroin
and the party who had attempted to press Clovis as an alternate candidate, Dagobert was restored to a portion of his rightful lands, a territory along the Rhine, which pious tradition relates that he governed with the mildness and piety his childhood experience had taught him, but which history suggests he left largely to the mayor of the Austrasian palace, while he concerned himself more with the founding of cloisters and abbeys, including Surbourg
and Wissembourg
in Alsace, where the Duke was his cousin. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly an intelligent, educated man, an adult at the time of his succession, who could not be completely controlled by factions and mayors.
The dynamics of Dagobert's career are largely a passive reflection of the competition between two sources of power, patronage and prestige, the palace
institutions of Neustria on the one hand, and on the other, of Austrasia, firmly in the control of the Arnulfing dynasty that would become the Carolingian
s in the following century. In the chaos, the search for a consistent, rational pattern is hard to follow in the shifting loyalties.
During revived conflict between Neustria and Austrasia, Dagobert in his turn was murdered in another hunting incident, December 23, 679, near Stenay-sur-Meuse in the Ardennes
, probably on orders from Ebroin, still mayor of the palace in Neustria
. Wilfrid must have remained in Austrasia until this time, because, according to his biographer, Wilfrid left Austrasia after the death of Dagobert, in mortal danger from the supporters of Ebroin. At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia
and Alsace
, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.
After Dagobert's brief reign, leaving his lands without a male heir, the lords of the Rhineland
divided the territory among themselves, while Pippin II, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (679 – 714) dominated Austrasia, and left the throne empty until after the battle of Tertry (687), when he accepted Theuderic III
.
fabricated a myth claiming he was descended from this monarch as part of his myth of the Priory of Sion
, claiming that Dagobert II had married a Visigothic princess in the village of Rennes-le-Château
. Two sets of "parchments" were fabricated by Philippe de Chérisey
, Plantard's friend, containing encrypted messages in modern French within medieval Latin texts that served as part of alleged proof of the existence of this "hidden history", allegedly found by the 19th century village priest Bérenger Saunière
, whilst renovating his church (this myth was a developed and revised version of the myth begun by Noël Corbu
during the 1950s). Another fabrication were the alleged Merovingian genealogies that appeared in the Dossiers Secrets, planted in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
in 1967. This story was published as historical fact in a 1960s French book by Gérard de Sède
, entitled Le Tresor Maudit de Rennes-le-Chateau, that also reproduced Philippe de Chérisey's fabricated "parchments".
Henry Lincoln
, a screenwriter for Britsh television, spotted the encrypted message within one of the "parchments" when buying Gérard de Sède's book whilst on holiday in the Cévennes
in 1969 and, unaware of the hoax, managed to persuade the BBC Two
archaeological series Chronicle
to make three documentaries devoted to this story. Henry Lincoln, along with Michael Baigent
and Richard Leigh
later wrote the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
, first published in 1982. They attempted to put forward the hypothesis
that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene
and sired a child who had later married into the Merovingian line, and that the assassinated Dagobert II had really had a secret male heir who had been spirited away to "his mother's hometown" of Rennes-le-Château after his father's death, and who was part of this Jesus bloodline
.
It was later shown that much of the research in Holy Blood Holy Grail was based on the forged "parchments" and fabricated Merovingian genealogies. However, the hypothesis gained further popularity when it was incorporated into the 2003 bestselling novel
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
. Because Brown claimed the story about the Priory of Sion was "factual," many debunking books and documentaries resulted, further bringing the little-known name of Dagobert II into the limelight.
Sigebert III
Sigebert III was the king of Austrasia from 634 to his death; probably on 1 February 656, or maybe as late as 660. He was the eldest son of Dagobert I....
and Chimnechild of Burgundy. The Feast Date of St Dagobert II is 23 December
Biography
Dagobert II was the son of Sigibert III (631–56), an Austrasian king of the Merovingian line.The Arnulfing
Pippinid
The Pippinids or Arnulfings are the members of a family of Frankish nobles whose select scions served as Mayor of the Palace, de facto rulers, of the Frankish kingdoms of Neustria and Austrasia that were nominally ruled by the Merovingians....
mayor of the Austrasian palace
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
, Grimoald the Elder
Grimoald the Elder
Grimoald I , called the Elder , was the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia from 643 to 656. He was the son of Pepin of Landen and Itta....
, the son of Pippin of Landen
Pippin of Landen
Pepin of Landen , also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian king Dagobert I from 623 to 629...
, and Dagobert's guardian, had had his own son Childebert
Childebert the Adopted
Childebert III the Adopted was a Frankish King. When King Sigebert III died in 656, Grimoald the Elder had Sigebert's son Dagobert II shorn of hair and sent to an Irish monastery and then proclaimed his own son king of Austrasia....
adopted by Sigebert III, when Sigebert was still childless. Then when Sigebert died in 656, Grimoald seized the throne for his own son and had Dagobert tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
d, thus marking him unfit for kingship, and exiled.
The tale that Dagobert was ordered to be killed and his death published about, but that he was spirited out of the country, seems to be an embellishment, perhaps developed to explain the silence of Dagobert's mother Chimnechild. She may have cooperated with Grimoald to set up Childebert the Adopted; later she hoped by marrying her daughter Bilichild
Bilichild
Bilichild was the cousin and wife of the Frankish king of Neustria and Burgundy, Childeric II. The two were married in 668 despite the opposition of such important men as the Bishop Leodegar...
to Childeric II
Childeric II
Childeric II was the king of Austrasia from 662 and of Neustria and Burgundy from 673 until his death, making him sole King of the Franks for the final two years of his life. He was the second eldest son of Clovis II. His elder brother Chlothar III was briefly sole king from 661, but gave...
to keep the eventual Austrasian heir in her bloodline. It has also been hypothesised that Chimnechild was not Dagobert's mother, thus her reason for abandoning him.
Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius
Desiderius
Desiderius was the last king of the Lombard Kingdom of northern Italy...
, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane
Slane
Slane is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 and the N51 . In 2006 Slane's population was 1,099, having grown from 823 in 2002. The population of the village and the surrounding rural area...
, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.
In the meantime the great nobles of Austrasia appealed to Clovis II
Clovis II
Clovis II succeeded his father Dagobert I in 639 as King of Neustria and Burgundy. His brother Sigebert III had been King of Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother Nanthild until her death in her early thirties in 642...
, king of Neustria
Neustria
The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...
, who expelled the usurpers, executing Grimoald and Childebert, and added Austrasia to his own realm. The dating of these events is greatly confused, they occurred perhaps as early as 657 or as late as 661, under Clotaire III
Clotaire III
Chlothar III was the eldest son of Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, and his queen Balthild...
, Clovis' son. The effective ruler however was the Neustrian major domo Ebroin
Ebroin
Ebroin was the Frankish mayor of the palace of Neustria on two occasions; firstly from 658 to his deposition in 673 and secondly from 675 to his death in 680 or 681...
, who was obliged soon thereafter (in 660 or 662) to give the Austrasian realm a king of its own once more: the choice was the child king Childeric II
Childeric II
Childeric II was the king of Austrasia from 662 and of Neustria and Burgundy from 673 until his death, making him sole King of the Franks for the final two years of his life. He was the second eldest son of Clovis II. His elder brother Chlothar III was briefly sole king from 661, but gave...
, brother of Clotaire III, with a mayor of the palace, Wulfoald
Wulfoald
Wulfoald was the mayor of the palace of Austrasia from 656 or 661, depending on when Grimoald I was removed from that office , to his death and mayor of the palace of Neustria and Burgundy from 673 to 675.He was the regent of Austrasia during the minority of Childeric II until 670...
, as regent. The young king was assassinated on a hunt near Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
in 675, and in the chaotic power struggle that ensued, the Austrasian magnates, who wanted a king of Merovingian blood, pressed Wulfoald for the return of Dagobert, while opponents of Wulfoald acclaimed one Clovis III
Clovis III
Clovis III was the king of Austrasia from 675 to 676. Perhaps the son of Theuderic III or Clovis II, the Austrasian magnates who proclaimed him called him an illegitimate son of Clotaire III. They placed him on the throne in opposition to the young Dagobert II, the claimant of Wulfoald, the mayor...
, possibly an impostor. Ebroin returned from a monastic "retirement" to lead Clovis' partisans, but Wulfoald effected Dagobert's succession in 676, partly through the help of Wilfrid
Wilfrid
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Gaul, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon...
, Bishop of York, on Clovis' untimely death. In spite of the continuing bitter enmity of Ebroin
Ebroin
Ebroin was the Frankish mayor of the palace of Neustria on two occasions; firstly from 658 to his deposition in 673 and secondly from 675 to his death in 680 or 681...
and the party who had attempted to press Clovis as an alternate candidate, Dagobert was restored to a portion of his rightful lands, a territory along the Rhine, which pious tradition relates that he governed with the mildness and piety his childhood experience had taught him, but which history suggests he left largely to the mayor of the Austrasian palace, while he concerned himself more with the founding of cloisters and abbeys, including Surbourg
Surbourg
Surbourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...
and Wissembourg
Wissembourg
Wissembourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately north of Strasbourg and west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department...
in Alsace, where the Duke was his cousin. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly an intelligent, educated man, an adult at the time of his succession, who could not be completely controlled by factions and mayors.
The dynamics of Dagobert's career are largely a passive reflection of the competition between two sources of power, patronage and prestige, the palace
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
institutions of Neustria on the one hand, and on the other, of Austrasia, firmly in the control of the Arnulfing dynasty that would become the Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
s in the following century. In the chaos, the search for a consistent, rational pattern is hard to follow in the shifting loyalties.
During revived conflict between Neustria and Austrasia, Dagobert in his turn was murdered in another hunting incident, December 23, 679, near Stenay-sur-Meuse in the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
, probably on orders from Ebroin, still mayor of the palace in Neustria
Neustria
The territory of Neustria or Neustrasia, meaning "new [western] land", originated in 511, made up of the regions from Aquitaine to the English Channel, approximating most of the north of present-day France, with Paris and Soissons as its main cities...
. Wilfrid must have remained in Austrasia until this time, because, according to his biographer, Wilfrid left Austrasia after the death of Dagobert, in mortal danger from the supporters of Ebroin. At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia
Lotharingia
Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...
and Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.
After Dagobert's brief reign, leaving his lands without a male heir, the lords of the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
divided the territory among themselves, while Pippin II, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (679 – 714) dominated Austrasia, and left the throne empty until after the battle of Tertry (687), when he accepted Theuderic III
Theuderic III
Theuderic III was the king of Neustria on two occasions and king of Austrasia from 679 to his death in 691. Thus, he was the king of all the Franks from 679...
.
Rennes-le-Château
The name of Dagobert II achieved renewed prominence from the early 1960s when Pierre PlantardPierre Plantard
Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard was a French draughtsman, best known for being the principal perpetrator of the Priory of Sion hoax, by which he claimed from the 1960s onwards that he was a Merovingian descendant of Dagobert II and the "Great Monarch" prophesied by Nostradamus.-Surname:Pierre...
fabricated a myth claiming he was descended from this monarch as part of his myth of the Priory of Sion
Priory of Sion
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard...
, claiming that Dagobert II had married a Visigothic princess in the village of Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...
. Two sets of "parchments" were fabricated by Philippe de Chérisey
Philippe de Chérisey
The marquess Philippe de Chérisey was a French writer, radio humorist, and actor...
, Plantard's friend, containing encrypted messages in modern French within medieval Latin texts that served as part of alleged proof of the existence of this "hidden history", allegedly found by the 19th century village priest Bérenger Saunière
Bérenger Saunière
François Bérenger Saunière was a Roman Catholic priest in the French village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region, officially from 1885 until he was transferred to another village in 1909 by his bishop, a nomination he declined and subsequently resigned...
, whilst renovating his church (this myth was a developed and revised version of the myth begun by Noël Corbu
Noel Corbu
Noël Corbu is best known as a former restaurateur in the Southern French village of Rennes-le-Château, who from the mid-1950s circulated the story that Bérenger Saunière discovered the treasure of Blanche of Castile....
during the 1950s). Another fabrication were the alleged Merovingian genealogies that appeared in the Dossiers Secrets, planted in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
in 1967. This story was published as historical fact in a 1960s French book by Gérard de Sède
Gérard de Sède
Géraud Marie de Sède de Liéoux was born in Paris to parents who supported the right-wing politics of Action Française....
, entitled Le Tresor Maudit de Rennes-le-Chateau, that also reproduced Philippe de Chérisey's fabricated "parchments".
Henry Lincoln
Henry Lincoln
Henry Lincoln is an English author, television presenter, scriptwriter and former Supporting actor. He co-wrote three Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and —starting in the 1970s— authored a series of books and inspired documentaries for the British television channel BBC2,...
, a screenwriter for Britsh television, spotted the encrypted message within one of the "parchments" when buying Gérard de Sède's book whilst on holiday in the Cévennes
Cévennes
The Cévennes are a range of mountains in south-central France, covering parts of the départements of Gard, Lozère, Ardèche, and Haute-Loire.The word Cévennes comes from the Gaulish Cebenna, which was Latinized by Julius Caesar to Cevenna...
in 1969 and, unaware of the hoax, managed to persuade the BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
archaeological series Chronicle
Chronicle (UK TV series)
Chronicle was a BBC Television series shown monthly and then fortnightly on BBC Two from 18 June 1966 to its last broadcast in May 1991.Chronicle focused on popular archaeology and related subjects.The BBC have made some editions available ....
to make three documentaries devoted to this story. Henry Lincoln, along with Michael Baigent
Michael Baigent
Michael Baigent is an author and speculative theorist who co-wrote a number of books that question mainstream perceptions of history and the life of Jesus. He is best known as co-writer of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail....
and Richard Leigh
Richard Leigh
Richard Leigh is the name of:*Richard Leigh , Catholic martyr*Richard Leigh *Richard Leigh , co-author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail...
later wrote the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln....
, first published in 1982. They attempted to put forward the hypothesis
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
and sired a child who had later married into the Merovingian line, and that the assassinated Dagobert II had really had a secret male heir who had been spirited away to "his mother's hometown" of Rennes-le-Château after his father's death, and who was part of this Jesus bloodline
Jesus bloodline
A Jesus bloodline is a hypothetical sequence of lineal descendants of the historical Jesus and Mary Magdalene, or some other woman, usually portrayed as his alleged wife or a hierodule...
.
It was later shown that much of the research in Holy Blood Holy Grail was based on the forged "parchments" and fabricated Merovingian genealogies. However, the hypothesis gained further popularity when it was incorporated into the 2003 bestselling novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
by Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
. Because Brown claimed the story about the Priory of Sion was "factual," many debunking books and documentaries resulted, further bringing the little-known name of Dagobert II into the limelight.
Further reading
- Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. 1962. The Long-Haired Kings, and Other Studies in Frankish History, (London: Methuen & Co.)
- Ian Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751(Longman, 1993)