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CI11LPERIC I

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 163 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CI11LPERIC I . (d. 584) was one of the sons of See also:

Clotaire I. Immediately after the See also:death of his See also:father in 561 he endeavoured to take See also:possession of the whole See also:kingdom, seized the treasure amassed in the royal See also:town of Berny and entered See also:Paris. His See also:brothers, however, compelled him to See also:divide the kingdom with them, and See also:Soissons, together with See also:Amiens, See also:Arras, See also:Cambrai, Therouanne, See also:Tournai and See also:Boulogne, See also:fell to See also:Chilperic's See also:share, but on the death of See also:Charibert in 567 his estates were augmented. When his See also:brother See also:Sigebert married See also:Brunhilda, Chilperic also wished to make a brilliant See also:marriage. He had already repudiated his first wife, Audovera, and had taken as his concubine a serving-woman called See also:Fredegond. He accordingly dismissed Fredegond, and married Brunhilda's See also:sister, Galswintha. But he soon tired of his new partner, and one See also:morning Galswintha was found strangled in her See also:bed. A few days afterwards Chilperic married Fredegond. This See also:murder was the cause of See also:long and bloody See also:wars, interspersed with truces, between Chilperic and Sigebert. In 575 Sigebert was assassinated by Fredegond at the very moment when he had Chilperic at his See also:mercy.

Chilperic retrieved his position, took from See also:

Austrasia See also:Tours and See also:Poitiers and some places in See also:Aquitaine, and fostered discord in the kingdom of the See also:east during the minority of See also:Childebert II. One See also:day, however, while returning from the See also:chase to the town of Chelles, Chilperic was stabbed to death. Chilperic may be regarded as the type of Merovingian sovereigns. He was exceedingly anxious to extend the royal authority. He levied numerous imposts, and his fiscal See also:measures provoked a See also:great See also:sedition at See also:Limoges in 579. He wished to bring about the subjection of the See also:church, and to this end sold bishoprics to the highest See also:bidder, annulled the See also:wills made in favour of the bishoprics and abbeys, and sought to impose upon his subjects a rationalistic conception of the Trinity. He pretended to some See also:literary culture, and was the author of some halting See also:verse. He even added letters to the Latin See also:alphabet, and wished to have the See also:MSS. rewritten with the new characters. The wresting of Tours from Austrasia and the seizure of ecclesiastical See also:property provoked the See also:bitter hatred of See also:Gregory of Tours, by whom Chilperic was stigmatized as the See also:Nero and the See also:Herod of his See also:time. See Seresia, L'E`glise et l'E`tat sous See also:les rois francs au VP siecle (See also:Ghent, 1888).

End of Article: CI11LPERIC I

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