However for a lot of of their topics and rivals, it wasn’t solely their piety or their battlefield triumphs that have been outstanding. It was additionally the symbols they employed to cement their standing as European overlords.
A type of symbols was one thing that you simply might need entry to, too: their now-famous hair. The Merovingians have been often known as the reges criniti – the long-haired kings – they usually understood that their hair might change into a potent image of virile authority and power.
As Professor James Palmer explains on the HistoryExtra podcast, this was all a part of the truth that the Merovingians have been masters of mythmaking. “They managed to complement their success in struggle with some fantastic storytelling, and that helps construct up a little bit of mystique,” he says. “They’ve such immaculate hair.”
A medieval dynasty born of legend
The Merovingians emerged within the late fifth century AD, within the fractured world left behind by Rome’s decline within the west – the identical fractured world that might go on to permit area for the emergence of the Viking Age. They have been the primary main Frankish dynasty to unify massive elements of Gaul (modern-day France), and their identify comes from a semi-legendary warlord named Merovech.
It was his descendant, Clovis I, who turned the household right into a dynasty that might dominate his a part of Europe.
Clovis conquered rival tribes, solid political alliances via marriage and famously transformed to Christianity, laying the groundwork for hundreds of years of Christian kingship in Europe.
However in a post-Roman world of fragile legitimacy, the Merovingians appeared for visible symbols to cement their standing and energy.
Hair as kingship
“Famously, they’re the long-haired kings,” Palmer explains. And their locks weren’t only for present.
“There’s slightly little bit of a Samson-from-the-Bible type of vibe – that their power rests of their hair. So long as they’ve acquired that, no person else is absolutely allowed to have lengthy hair.”
This was far more about canny political branding than private grooming habits.
“It’s an emblem that they’re the particular folks; that solely they are often kings,” Palmer says.
A method with substance
Regardless of fashionable assumptions about ‘barbarian’ kings of the early medieval interval, the Merovingians have been extra stylised than savage.
“These aren’t barbarians with shorter size, traditional fantasy-style hair and open-chested shirts,” says Palmer. As a substitute, their aesthetic selections, from their hair to their garments, was deliberate, and mirrored a calculated intention to emulate those that had dominated Europe earlier than them.
Their clothes referred to as again to Roman imperial fashion: richly colored tunics, garlands or diadems, and clean-shaven faces additionally turned a part of the picture.
“We all know this from footage of them – totally on cash,” he provides. “However just like the Romans – the Romans are clean-shaven – they’re clean-shaven too.”
Energy, reduce brief
In a world the place lengthy hair symbolised energy and royal legitimacy, you may marvel what it meant to chop it.
One potential consequence was disinheritance.
“One king – Theuderic III – was deposed when he was fairly a younger boy, as a result of the nobles would reasonably his older brother, Childeric II, change into king,” says Palmer.
The answer to this downside was easy, however efficient. “They simply reduce his hair and ship him to dwell in a monastery. As a result of who else cuts their hair actually brief? Monks.”
However hair grows again, and so did Theuderic’s prospects.
“After a few years, when the nobles resolve that really Childeric II is a very nasty man … he’s deposed and killed,” Palmer says. “Then they only invite his youthful brother again from the monastery and say: ‘Oh, you’ve grown your hair again – now you will be king.’”
The drawbacks of a easy system
In addition to being a helpful political instrument to wield, nonetheless, the simplicity of lengthy hair as an emblem of royalty additionally had drawbacks.
“A number of instances, folks seem out of nowhere claiming to be Merovingians, saying ‘Look, I’ve acquired the fitting hair and every thing!’”
This was an age that long-predated start certificates, and with Merovingian kings fathering kids throughout many relationships, the looks of a long-haired man claiming royal descent was onerous to disprove and will create real challenges.
“There are usurpers – or wannabe pretenders – who are available in and say, ‘I’m truly a Merovingian!’” Palmer explains. “And who’s to say they’re not?”
After all, lengthy hair alone didn’t assure the throne. However it might, no less than, immediate some awkward questions. “Policing the household inheritance can get fairly complicated,” Palmer notes.
An finish, and a medieval moustache
The Merovingians dominated till the eighth century, when their dynasty was changed by the Carolingians, the household of Charlemagne. Even this transition got here with a symbolic hair-related shift.
“When the Merovingians are lastly overturned,” Palmer says, “one of many issues the Carolingian household does is put on moustaches as an emblem that they’re totally different from the Merovingians.”
It was a brand new period, and that got here with a brand new aesthetic. However the significance of picture and visible symbolism had carried over.
Stepping in to assert energy within the vacuum left by their Roman predecessors, the Merovingians understood that royal authority could possibly be bolstered by the picture you projected, and the symbols you prioritised, particularly in a world the place fantasy and monarchy have been deeply interconnected.
For them, that was their hair: stored lengthy, immaculate and woven into the material of medieval energy.
This text relies on an interview with Professor James Palmer , chatting with Kev Lochun on the HistoryExtra podcast. Hearken to the full conversation.
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