''Roi fainéant'' ( "do-nothing king", "lazy king") is a French term primarily used to refer to the later kings of the
Merovingian dynasty
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
after they seemed to have lost their initial powers of dominion. It is usually applied to those Frankish rulers approximately from the death of
Dagobert I in AD 639 (or, alternatively, from the accession of
Theuderic III in 673) until the deposition of
Childeric III in favour of
Pepin the Short
the Short (; ; ; – 24 September 768), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian dynasty, Carolingian to become king.
Pepin was the son of the Frankish prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude of H ...
in 751.
The appellation goes back to
Einhard
Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart; ; 775 – 14 March 840) was a Franks, Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the ''Vita Karoli M ...
, who is most notably the author of ''
Vita Karoli Magni
''Vita Karoli Magni'' (''Life of Charlemagne'') is a biography of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of the Romans, written by Einhard.Ogg, p. 109 The ''Life of Charlemagne'' is a 33 chapter account starting with th ...
'', the biographer of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
; he described the later Merovingian kings as kings "in nothing but in name":
During the century of the ''rois fainéants'', the Merovingian kings were increasingly dominated by their
mayors of the palace, in the 6th century the office of the manager of the royal household, but in the 7th increasingly the
power behind the throne who limited the role of the king to an essentially ceremonial office.
The last Carolingian ruler,
Louis V Louis V may refer to:
* Louis V of France (967–987)
* Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and V of Germany (1282–1347)
* Louis V, Duke of Bavaria (1315–1361)
* Louis V, Elector Palatine (ruled 1508–1544)
* Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (r ...
, was also in his turn nicknamed ''le Fainéant'' ("the Do-Nothing"), because his effective rule was limited to the region around
Laon
Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
History
Early history
The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...
.
References
*M. Christian Pfirter, "La Gallia sotto i franchi merovingi: vicende storiche" in ''Storia del mondo medioevale'', vol. I, 1999, pp. 688-711.
*Marie-Nicolas Bouillet, Alexis Chassang, "Rois fainéants" in ''Dictionnaire universel d’histoire et de géographie'', 1878.
*Jean Verseuil, ''Les rois fainéants - De Dagobert à Pépin'', Paris, 1946.
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