The Valois
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The Valois *
The painting depicts the baptism of Clovis, the first king of the Franks. © Gallica, BNF
About the dynastyThe Merovingians extend from a semi-legendary figure called Merovech (Mérovée). He was a chief of the Salian Franks, who were most likely allies or mercenaries of the Roman Empire which dominated the continent at the time. Childeric, said to be either Merovech’s son or grandson, was a Rex (king) under Roman law, and ruled over northern Gaul (Central and Northern France). Childeric’s son, Clovis, would become the famous first king of the Franks, transforming Gaul into a kingdom by converting to Christianity.
History with Myra
The Valois
From the disputed succession of 1328 to the murder of Henry III — the Hundred Years' War, the Renaissance and the Wars of Religion, and the women who governed through all of it. Tap any name.
Dates on each card are reign years. The numbered badges give the order in which each ruled France. Sons are set out left to right by seniority; princes who never reigned carry no number.
♛ a celebrated queen⚭ principal consorttap a name for her story
Three branches, one family. The senior Valois line runs down the left from Philip VI and ends with Charles VIII. When he died childless in 1498 the crown crossed to his cousin Louis XII of the Valois-Orléans branch, and when Louis too left no son it passed in 1515 to Francis I of Valois-Angoulême. Two women held real power in their own right: Anne of France, who governed France for eight years for her boy brother, and Louise of Savoy, twice regent for her son Francis I.