Clovis I

Clovis I

Clovis (Latin: Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hlodowig; c. 466 – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king, and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France." Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I, as a king of the Salian Franks in 481, and eventually came to rule an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France, corresponding in Roman terms to Gallia Belgica (northern Gaul). At the Battle of Soissons (486), he established his military dominance of the rump state of the fragmenting Western Roman Empire, which was then under the command of Syagrius. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Clovis I is the 241st most popular politician (down from 131st in 2019), the 5th most popular biography from Belgium (down from 3rd in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Belgian Politician.

Clovis I is most famous for being the first known Native American culture to use the atlatl, a spear-throwing device.