Clotaire I

Clotaire I (klōtâr'), d. 561, Frankish king, son of Clovis I. On his father's death (511) he and his brothers received equal shares of the Frankish kingdom. His capital was at Soissons. In 524 he and his brother Childebert I divided the kingdom of their deceased brother Clodomir, whose children they murdered. With his brother Theodoric he conquered Thuringia. In 534 Clotaire and Childebert seized and divided the First Kingdom of Burgundy, and in 542 they attacked the Visigoths of Spain but were repulsed before Zaragoza. The deaths of Theodebald, Theodoric's grandson (555), and of Childebert (558) made Clotaire sole king of the Franks. His sons Chilperic I and Sigebert I inherited Neustria and Austrasia respectively; his sons Charibert and Guntram divided the remainder of the kingdom.