Chlodoric (or Chloderic) the Parricide (died c. 509) was a son of

Sigobert the Lame Sigobert the Lame (also ''Sigibert'' or ''Sigebert'') (died c. 509) was a king of the Franks in the area of Zülpich ( la, Tolbiac) and Cologne. His father's name was "Childebert".''He had a son: Siegbert or Sigebert, of whom further. (Ibid.) HI ...

, a

Frankish king The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who con ...

. According to

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...

, Chlodoric murdered his own father in order to take his kingdom, acting upon the instigation of

Clovis I Clovis ( la, Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single kin ...

, a rival king of the

Salian Franks The Salian Franks, also called the Salians (Latin: ''Salii''; Greek: Σάλιοι, ''Salioi''), were a northwestern subgroup of the early Franks who appear in the historical record in the fourth and fifth centuries. They lived west of the Lowe ...

. Sometime after Sigobert's victory on the Visigoths in 507, Chlodoric sent assassins upon him as his father took a sojourn in a nearby forest. Chlodoric then told Clovis of the murder and offered him the finest treasures of his newly inherited kingdom as a symbol of their new alliance. Clovis sent messengers to assess the treasure, who then asked Chlodoric to plunge his hand as deeply into his gold coins as possible. With his arm submerged, the envoys of Clovis then killed the new king in betrayal. Clovis then stood before the people of Chlodoric and told them that the son had sent assassins to murder his father, but that Chlodoric had subsequently met his own end as well. Clovis then offered his protection to the former subjects of Sigobert and Chlodoric, and thus became their king.Howorth, H.H., "The Ethnology of Germany", ''The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Volume 13, Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1884, p. 235
/ref> Gregory suggests that Chlodoric was murdered in the same campaign that also killed the Frankish king Chararic. Before, Clovis had killed king

Ragnachar Ragnachar or Ragnarius (died 509) was a Frankish petty king (''regulus'') who ruled from Cambrai. According to Gregory of Tours, Ragnachar "was so unrestrained in his wantonness that he scarcely had mercy for his own near relatives".Gregory, II, 4 ...

and his brothers. After all these murders, Gregory tells us, Clovis lamented that he had no family left anymore, implying that amongst his own casualties were close relatives.

References

. ''The History of the Franks''. 2 vol. trans. O. M. Dalton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. 509 deaths Year of birth unknown Frankish warriors 6th-century Frankish kings Patricides {{Europe-royal-stub