The Merovingians: everything you wanted to know

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Birthed from a sea monster, responsible for creating the idea of France and known for their immaculate hair, the Merovingians were the wildest dynasty you've never heard of. In this episode, Professor James Palmer of the University of St Andrews explores their civil wars, sex scandals, and how they connect to a character in The Matrix. He was speaking to Kev Lotchan. The first place to start, I think, is who exactly are the Merovingians?

I wonder if you could contextualise us in time and place. The Merovingians were a family who dominated Western Europe in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire. So from the 5th century through to the 8th century, they were Frankish. They united lots of barbarian groups in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. And they're one of the big success stories.

They rise to ultimate power. Everybody looks to them across Europe as The people who keep everything together in that 300 years when people are getting used to a world without empire. They start in western Germany, say Trier and Cologne, so those are kind of all towns right on the west of Germany, and they expand through Belgium, into France, and then their capital for most of that 300 years is Paris, also based in Soissons-en-leurance, in the north of France, so they're very much based in the northern areas of France, but their power then extends south down to the Pyrenees and even for a time into northern Italy.

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