Dagobert I

Rule in Austrasia[edit]

Dagobert was the eldest son of Chlothar II and Haldetrude (575–604) and the grandson of Fredegund.^[4] Chlothar had reigned alone over all the Franks since 613. In 622, Chlothar made Dagobert king of Austrasia,^[5] almost certainly to bind the Austrasian nobility to the ruling Franks.^[4][6] As a child, Dagobert lived under the care of the Carolingian dynasty forebears and Austrasian magnates, Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen.^[7]


Chlothar attempted to manage the unstable alliances he had with other noble families throughout much of Dagobert's reign.^[8] When Chlothar granted Austrasia to Dagobert, he initially excluded Alsace, the Vosges, and the Ardennes, but shortly thereafter the Austrasian nobility forced him to concede these regions to Dagobert. The rule of a Frank from the Austrasian heartland tied Alsace more closely to the Austrasian court. Dagobert created a new duchy (the later Duchy of Alsace) in southwest Austrasia to guard the region from Burgundian or Alemannic encroachments and ambitions. The duchy comprised the Vosges, the Burgundian Gate, and the Transjura. Dagobert made his courtier Gundoin—who incidentally established monasteries in Alsace and Burgundy^[9]—the first duke of this new polity that was to last until the end of the Merovingian dynasty. While Austrasian rulers such as Chlothar and Dagobert controlled these regions through part of the seventh-century, they eventually became autonomous kingdoms as powerful aristocratic families sought separate paths across their respective realms.^[10]