Christian Pfister

“ In 508 Clovis received at Tours the insignia of the consulship from the eastern emperor, Anastasius, but the title was purely honorific. The last years of his life Clovis spent in Paris, which he made the capital of his kingdom, and where he built the church of the Holy Apostles, known later as the church of St Geneviève. By murdering the petty Frankish kings who reigned at Cambrai, Cologne and other residences, he became sole king of all the Frankish tribes. ”

“ After a decisive victory at Vouillé near Poitiers, in which Clovis slew Alaric with his own hand, the whole of the kingdom of the Visigoths as far as the Pyrenees was added to the Frankish empire, with the exception of Septimania, which, together with Spain, remained in possession of Alaric’s grandson Amalaric, and Provence, which was seized by Theodoric and annexed to Italy. ”

“ He intervened in the nomination of bishops, and at the council of Orleans it was decided that no one, save a son of a priest, could be ordained clerk without the king’s order or the permission of the count. ”