How did Clovis increase the power of the Frankish kingdoms?

Answer 1

Clovis the Ist increased the power of the Frankish Kingdoms by uniting them and making them all Roman Catholic.

Answer 2

Frankish Kingdoms

Answer 3

When Clovis became king, he inherited his position as tribal leader of the Salian Franks from his own father, Childeric. At the time, the Roman Empire had collapsed and the Salian Franks were in fierce competition with other barbarian tribes for control of territory and resources.

Clovis was little more than a tribal chieftain who inherited a small territory in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire.
But Clovis was able to keep and his expand his territory through the use of violence - the conquest of other germanic tribes that had been rivals such as the Visigoths.

Clovis was able to consolidate his power futher by successful alliances with rival kingdoms through the marriage of his family members.

But the magic stroke for Clovis was his close relationship with the Catholic Church. The close relationship came after Clovis 'vision' - which he claimed to see a white cross - before the battle against the Visigoths, in which Clovis told his men to paint the red cross on their shields.

Clovis ruled not only over barbarian Franks, but he also ruled over those Romanised Gauls who could read and write latin - such as the Catholic Church, to who many of the provincial senatorial families sent their young sons to learn latin.

Clovis recognised that he could only assert his authority when he brought both franks and romans together. With the help of those literate Romans, Clovis was able to fomulate laws and to unite his territory.

With the support and recognition of the Catholic Church, this gave Clovis legitimacy - which many of the other barbarian tribes lacked. With the Catholic Church support, Clovis was recognised as king - and heir to the Roman Empire, by his crowning at the Cathedral in Rheims.

With this crowning, Clovis moved from being the simple tribal chieftain that his father was - to the kingship and recognised ruler of Gaul. The importance was also recognised when the Eastern Emperor, Anastasius, sent the insignia of consul to Clovis - recognising Clovis as the true king of Roman Gaul.

Read Gregory of Tours - who makes Clovis out to be a saint, but Clovis was far from it. But interesting reading anyway.

Answer 4

He quite brilliantly prostituted himself to the pope.