The descendants of Clovis are called Merovingians. [10]
They occupied the throne of the Franks for nearly two hundred and fifty years.
The annals of their reigns form an unpleasant catalogue of bloody wars,
horrible murders, and deeds of treachery without number. Nevertheless, the
earlier Merovingians were strong men, under whose direction the Frankish
territory continued to expand, until it included nearly all of what is now
France, Belgium, and Holland, besides a considerable part of Germany.
[10] From Merovech, grandfather of Clovis.
CHARACTER OF THE FRANKISH CONQUESTS
The Frankish conquests differed in two important respects
from those of the other Germanic peoples. In the first place, the Franks did
not cut themselves off completely from their original homes. They kept
permanently their territory in Germany, drawing from it continual
reinforcements of fresh German blood. In the second place, the Franks steadily
added new German lands to their possessions. They built up in this way what was
the largest and the most permanent of all the barbarian states founded on the
ruins of the Roman Empire.
