Sigebert III ( 630–656) was the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

king of Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the Fr ...

from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian ''

roi fainéant ''Roi fainéant'' (), literally "do-nothing king", is a French term primarily used to refer to the later kings of the Merovingian dynasty after they seemed to have lost their initial powers of dominion. It is usually applied to those Frankish rulers ...

'' —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom throughout his reign. However he lived a pious Christian life and was later sanctified, being remembered as Saint Sigebert of Austrasia in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

Life

Sigebert was born in 630 as the eldest son of

Dagobert I Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dy ...

King of the Franks 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 ...

, and his concubine Ragnetrude. The king recalled and made peace with

Saint Amand Amandus ( 584 – 679), commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium. Life The chief source of details ...

, who was previously banished for criticizing the king's vices, and asked him to baptize his new-born son. The ceremony was performed at

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Charibert II Charibert II (607/617–8 April 632), a son of Clotaire II and his junior wife Sichilde, was briefly King of Aquitaine from 629 to his death, with his capital at Toulouse. There are no direct statements about when Charibert was born exactly, ...

, Dagobert's half-brother who was

King of Aquitaine The Duchy of Aquitaine ( oc, Ducat d'Aquitània, ; french: Duché d'Aquitaine, ) was a historical fiefdom in western, central, and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the river Loire, although its extent, as well as its name, fluc ...

at the time, was the god-father. Dagobert assigned the education of Sigebert to

Pepin of Landen Pepin I (also Peppin, Pipin, or Pippin) of Landen (c. 580 – 27 February 640), also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian King Dagobert I from 623 to 629. He was also the Mayor for Sig ...

, who was the mayor of the palace in

Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the F ...

under his father

Chlotar II Chlothar II, sometime called "the Young" (French: le Jeune), (May/June 584 – 18 October 629), was king of Neustria and king of the Franks, and the son of Chilperic I and his third wife, Fredegund. He started his reign as an infant under the re ...

, until 629. Pepin took the young Sigebert and moved with him to his domains in Aquitane, where they stayed the next three years.Father Alban Butler. "Saint Sigebert II, French King of Austrasia, Confessor". ''Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints'', 1866. CatholicSaints.Info. 1 February 2013. Web. 6 April 2017

/ref> In 633, a revolt of the nobles forced Dagobert to make the three-year old Sigebert

, similar to how his father Chlotar II had made him king of Austrasia in 623. However, he refused to give the power to Pepin of Landen by making him mayor of the palace for the child-king. Instead he had put Sigebert under the tutelage of

Adalgisel Adalgisel or Adalgis (''Adalgyselus ducis'' in contemporary Latin) was a Frankish duke and the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. He assumed that office in December 633 or January 634 at the same time that Sigebert III assumed the kingship. Along ...

as mayor of the palace and the

Bishop of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne is an archbishop governing the Archdiocese of Cologne of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and is also a historical state in the Rhine holding the birthplace of Beethoven and northern Rhineland-Palati ...

Saint Cunibert Cunibert, Cunipert, or Kunibert (c. 60012 November c. 663) was the ninth bishop of Cologne, from 627 to his death. Contemporary sources mention him between 627 and 643. Life Cunibert was born somewhere along the Moselle to a family of the local ...

as regent, while keeping Pepin in

Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks. Neustria included the land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, approximately the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. It later ...

as hostage. In 634 Dagobert's second son,

Clovis II Clovis II (633 – 657) was King of Neustria and Burgundy, having succeeded his father Dagobert I in 639. His brother Sigebert III had been King of Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother Nanthild until her deat ...

, was born, and the king forced the nobles to accept him as the next king of Neustria and Burgundy, setting up a new division of the empire. On the death of Dagobert in 639, the two Frankish kingdoms became independent once again under Sigebert III and Clovis II. Both kingdoms were under child-kings – Sigebert was around eleven years old and Clovis was five – and were ruled by the respective regents. It was under Seigbert's reign that the mayor of the palace began to play the most important role in the political life of Austrasia, and he has been described as the first ''

''—do-nothing king—of the

Merovingian dynasty The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

. Pepin replaced Adalgisel as mayor of the palace of Austrasia in 639 but died the following year, in 640, and was replaced by his son Grimoald. In 640 the

Duchy of Thuringia The Duchy of Thuringia was an eastern frontier march of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia, established about 631 by King Dagobert I after his troops had been defeated by the forces of the Slavic confederation of Samo at the Battle of Wogas ...

rebelled against Austrasia in the only war of Sigebert's reign. Grimoald allowed the young king to stand at the head of the army trying to quell the rebellion, but was defeated by Duke Radulph. The ''

Chronicle of Fredegar The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century. The chronicle begins ...

'' records that the rout left Sigebert weeping in his saddle. Though ineffective as a king, Sigebert had become a pious adult under the tutelage of Pepin and later Saint Cunibert and lived a life of Christian virtue. He used his wealth to establish numerous monasteries, hospitals, and churches, including the monastery of Stavelot-Malmedy. Sigebert III died of natural causes on 1 February 656 at age 25. He was buried in the Abbey of Saint Martin near

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

which he had founded. In 1063 his body, found incorrupt, was taken out of the tomb and moved to the side of the altar. The abbey was demolished in 1552 and the

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

were moved to the

Nancy Cathedral Nancy Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Annonciation et Saint-Sigisbert; ''Cathedral of Our Lady of the Annunciation and St. Sigisbert'') is a Roman Catholic church building, church located in the town of Nancy, France, Nancy, Lorrai ...

. Sigebert III is revered as a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

with his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

on 1 February. He is the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of Nancy.

Marriage and succession

The Mayor of the Palace Grimoald managed to convince the young Sigebert, who was childless at the time, to adopt as his heir Grimoald's son

Childebert the Adopted Childebert III the Adopted (''Childebertus Adoptivus'') was a Frankish king. Childebert was a son of the Mayor of the Palace Grimoald the Elder. He was thus a grandson of Pepin of Landen. He was adopted by King Sigebert III and Queen Chimnechi ...

. However, the king married Chimnechild of Burgundy and had a son of his own, the future king

Dagobert II Dagobert II ( la, Dagober(c)tus; ang, Dægberht; died 679) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death. He is one of the more obscure Merovingians. He has been considered a martyr since at least the ni ...

. He also had a daughter,

Bilichild Bilichild (also Bilichildis, Bilichilde, or Blithilde) was the wife of the Frankish king of Neustria and Burgundy Childeric II. The two were married in 668 despite the opposition of the Bishop Leodegar. Family Bilichild was a daughter of King ...

, the future Queen of Neustria and Burgundy. In 656, after the death of Sigebert, Grimoald attempted to usurp the throne of Austrasia and had the young Dagobert (who was seven years old at the time) tonsured and sent to a monastery in Ireland. Grimoald's son Childebert was proclaimed King of Austrasia in 656, but the reign was short-lived as he was deposed after seven months in 657 and both he and his father were killed in a revolt.Father Alban Butler, ''The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints'', 1866. footnote on p.18 Austrasia next passed under the rule of the children of Sigebert's brother Clovis II for a period.

Chlothar III Chlothar III (or ''Chlotar'', ''Clothar'', ''Clotaire'', ''Chlotochar'', or ''Hlothar'', giving rise to the name Lothair; 652–673) was the eldest son of Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, and his queen Balthild. When Clovis died in 657, C ...

, the elder son of Clovis II, became the king of Austrasia in 657. The next year, in 658, he also became King of Neustria and Burgundy upon the death of his father, thus temporarily reuniting the Frankish kingdoms under one rule. A few years later however, the Austrasian nobility again pressed successfully for the kingdoms to be separated. As a result,

Childeric II Childeric II (c. 653 – 675) was the king of Austrasia from 662 and of Neustria and Burgundy from 673 until his death, making him sole King of the Franks for the final two years of his life. Childeric was the second eldest son of King Clovis ...

, the younger brother of Chlotar III, became king of Austrasia from 662 to his death in 675. The nobles had put on the throne

Clovis III Clovis III was the Frankish king of Austrasia in 675 and possibly into 676. A member of the Merovingian dynasty, he was a child and his reign so brief and contested that he may be considered only a pretender. He is sometimes even left unnumbered a ...

, about whom not much is known, but his reign was short. One year later, in 676, Dagobert II, Siegbert's son, was recalled from Ireland and took his father's throne after approximately 20 years in exile.

Sources

*R. P. Vincent, ''Histoire fidelle de st Sigisbert: XII roy d'Austrasie et III du nom; avec un abrégé de la vie du roy Dagobert, son fils: le tout tiré des antiquités austrasiennes''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigebert 03 Merovingian kings 630 births Frankish warriors Medieval child rulers Christian royal saints Roman Catholic royal saints 7th-century rulers in Europe 656 deaths 7th-century murdered monarchs 7th-century Frankish saints