Dagobert II, king of Austrasia

http://cottage.moulin-le-cygne.com/merovingians.html

Dagobert was born in 651 and when Clovis, his father, died in 656, all efforts were made to prevent him from inheriting Austrasia, the north-eastern realm of Clovis.

The leading Mayor of the Palace of the time, Grimoald, kidnapped Dagobert as soon as his father died and managed to persuade the court first that Dagobert was dead, and second that Clovis had wanted Grimoald's son to inherit the throne. So convincing was he that even Dagobert's mother believed him.

However, Grimoald had been unable to bring himself to murder Dagobert and had taken him to the Bishop of Poitiers, who had the child King exiled to Ireland. Here he grew up and was educated at the monastery of Slane near Dublin. He married a Celtic princess, Mathilde, and moved to York in northern England, where he got to know Saint Wilfred, the Bishop of York. At this time, the Merovingian alliance with the Roman Church was not as strong as it had been at the time of Clovis.

Wilfred was very keen to bring the Celtic and Roman churches together, which both sides had agreed upon at the Council of Whitby in 664. However, it seems that Wilfred also recognized the valuable potential of Dagobert - the rightful King of Austrasia - returning to France and reclaiming the land as the militant representative of the Church.

Dagobert's wife died in 670 and Wilfred was swift to ensure that Dagobert's next wife was chosen with care. She was Giselle de Razes, the daughter of the Count of Razes and the niece of the King of the Visigoths. This alliance between the Merovingians and the Visigoths would not only have brought much of France under the same rule, it would have empowered Rome over the Visigoths.

Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Metz served as its primary capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims also.

They married at the church of St. Magdeleine in Rennes-le-Chateau. Having had four daughters through his two marriages, Dagobert now became the father to a son in 676 - Sigisbert IV.

King of Austrasia

After living three years at Rennes-le-Chateau, Dagobert was proclaimed the King of Austrasia. He quickly set about re-establishing order throughout his new kingdom and in so doing greatly increased his wealth.

He did not, however, live up to Wilfred's expectations. Therefore, inevitably, with his new-found wealth and lands, he developed enemies. He also caused the resentment of the rulers of neighboring Frankish lands, some of whom had connections in Dagobert's court that could be dangerous to him. One of these was his Mayor to the Palace, the treacherous Pepin the Fat.

King Dagobert II, thirteenth king of Austrasia, was threatened by Ebroïn, who was Mayor of the palace to Thierry, king of Neustria. Ebroïn administered Neustria unchecked and he wanted to seize Austrasia as well.

Under the guidance of Wulfoad, his own Mayor of the palace, Dagobert II had given his son Sigebert a share of his throne. But the King of Austrasia's sensible precautions were thwarted by Ebroin.

The assassination

The year 679 was coming to its end and Dagobert was living in his royal house, SATHANACUM - known today as Stenay - where he was to spend the Christmas holiday. On 23rd December, he went out hunting in the forest of "Wepria" (known today as Woëvre) with a number of followers. Around the middle of the day, tired from the hunt, the king sat down near a fountain, which ran near to a large oak, to take some rest. It is still called ARPHAYS, and the section of the forest known as "SCORTlA" One of the servants among the conspirators struck the king while he was praying.

Dagobert, last king of a wide and powerful realm, perished, dying while doing good.

The king's body was taken first to the villa of Charmois, during the evening of 23rd December, then to the basilica of Sathanacum, which at that time was dedicated to Saint Rémi. All the dignitaries of the realm came to mourn the death of the sovereign.

Saint Dagobert II

The Roman Church wasted no time in commending the action. However, perhaps through guilt, they canonized Dagobert in 872, when his remains were moved to the graveyard of a church which was renamed "the Church of Saint Dagobert." They even gave him his own feast day, on December 23rd. This day also happened to be sacred to the Benjamite tribe. The Roman Catholic Church has always been unable or unwilling to explain why he was canonized.

From the day of his burial in the Church of Saint Dagobert, his grave has been a destination of pilgrimage for various significant historical figures including the Duke of Lorraine, the grandfather of Godfroi de Bouillon. The church was destroyed during the French Revolution and most of the relics of Saint Dagobert disappeared. Today only what is believed to be his skull remains, and it is held at a convent at Mons. Curiously some years later, a poem entitled "de Sancta Dagoberto martyre prose" appeared. Its message was that Dagobert had been martyred for some reason and it was found at the Abbey of Orval.

The end of the Merovingian era

Dagobert's assassination effectively marked the end of the Merovingian era. After the death of Dagobert, the Merovingian dynasty fell into decline, although they managed to hang onto much of their status for nearly a hundred more years. However, many of the monarchs were too young to be effective, and were unable to defend themselves against the relentless ambitions of the Mayors of the Palace. Childeric III died childless in 754 and that was the clearest sign that the dynasty's flame had expired.

What became of his son Sigisbert? No-one knows. According to some, he died before his father. Others say it was at the same time or after. Still others have him slipping through the clutches

The betrayal of Clovis by the assassination of Dagobert II has been the greatest source of anguish for the Priory of Sion and the Merovingian descendants. However, there seems to have been an attempt to mitigate the insult. Thus the Carolingian royal family (the family of Emperor Charlemagne) married Merovingian princesses in order to legitimize themselves. Dagobert's son, Sigisbert, was the ancestor of Guillem de Gellone, ruler of the Jewish kingdom of Septimania in southern France and later of Godfroi de Bouillon, who captured Jerusalem during the Crusades. Thereby the bloodline of Jesus Christ, the Davidic line, was restored back to the throne that had been rightfully its own since the time of the Old Testament.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagobert_II

---

Kept as a monk in Ireland

---

Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus

---

Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.

Fought against Theodercus III. Eventually recalled to Austrasia for a supposed reunion, he died in a “hunting accident” that most considered a murder committed to permanently remove him from the throne.

At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia and Alsace, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.

The name of Dagobert II achieved prominence in the 20th century, when it became associated with speculation which tried to link Dagobert II and his supposed descendants with a secret Merovingian line of legitimate royal succession, unjustly displaced by the Carolingian and Capetian monarchies but continuing into modern times.[3] It is currently one of the central legends associated with the conspiracy-laden French village of Rennes-le-Château. Some hoaxsters, led by Pierre Plantard, had forged two sets of documents to fabricate supposed proof of the existence of a thousand-year-old secret society, the Priory of Sion. One set of documents, the Dossiers Secrets, was planted in the Bibliothèque nationale. The other set was published in a 1960s French "hidden treasure" book, Le Tresor Maudit de Rennes-le-Chateau. In the book were (forged) Latin documents that had supposedly been found by a priest in the 19th century. An encrypted message hidden in one of the Latin documents revealed the phrase, "A Dagobert II Roi et a Sion est ce tresor et il est la mort." ( "To King Dagobert II and to Sion does this treasure belong, and he is there dead.")

Henry Lincoln, a British science-fiction author, spotted the encrypted message in 1967, and, unaware of the hoax, he and some associates began writing books about what the message might mean. This eventually brought the story to mainstream attention via the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The book attempted to put forward a hypothesis that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene and sired a child who had later married into the Merovingian line, and that the assassinated Dagobert II had really had a secret male heir who had been spirited away to "his mother's hometown" of Rennes-le-Château after his father's death.

It was later shown that much of the research in Holy Blood Holy Grail was based on the forged documents.[4][5][6][7] However, the theory gained further attention when it was incorporated into the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Because Brown claimed that the information about the Priory of Sion was "factual," many debunking books and documentaries resulted, further bringing the little-known name of Dagobert II into the limelight.

---

Dagobert II (c. 650 – December 23, 679) was the king of Austrasia (676–79), the son of Sigebert III and Chimnechild of Burgundy. He was the last of the Merovingian dynasty to rule independently in Austrasia, with the exception of Charles Martel's dubious candidate Clotaire IV.

Dagobert II was the son of Sigibert III (631–56), an Austrasian king of the Merovingian line. The Arnulfing mayor of the Austrasian palace, Grimoald the Elder, the son of Pippin of Landen, and Dagobert's guardian, had had his own son Childebert adopted by Sigebert III, when Sigebert was still childless. Then when Sigebert died in 656, Grimoald seized the throne for his own son and had Dagobert tonsured and exiled.

The tale that Dagobert was ordered to be killed and his death published about, but that he was spirited out of the country, seems to be an embellishment, perhaps developed to explain the silence of Dagobert's mother Chimnechild. She may have cooperated with Grimoald to set up Childebert the Adopted; later she hoped by marrying her daughter Bilichild to Childeric II to keep the eventual Austrasian heir in her bloodline. It has also been hypothesised that Chimnechild was not Dagobert's mother, thus her reason for abandoning him.

Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.

In the meantime the great nobles of Austrasia appealed to Clovis II, king of Neustria, who expelled the usurpers, executing Grimoald and Childebert, and added Austrasia to his own realm. The dating of these events is greatly confused, they occurred perhaps as early as 657 or as late as 661, under Clotaire III, Clovis' son. The effective ruler however was the Neustrian major domo Ebroin, who was obliged soon thereafter (in 660 or 662) to give the Austrasian realm a king of its own once more: the choice was the child king Childeric II, brother of Clotaire III, with a mayor of the palace, Wulfoald, as regent. The young king was assassinated on a hunt near Maastricht in 675, and in the chaotic power struggle that ensued, the Austrasian magnates, who wanted a king of Merovingian blood, pressed Wulfoald for the return of Dagobert, while opponents of Wulfoald acclaimed one Clovis III, possibly an impostor. Ebroin returned from a monastic "retirement" to lead Clovis' partisans, but Wulfoald effected Dagobert's succession in 676, partly through the help of Wilfrid, Bishop of York, on Clovis' untimely death. In spite of the continuing bitter enmity of Ebroin and the party who had attempted to press Clovis as an alternate candidate, Dagobert was restored to a portion of his rightful lands, a territory along the Rhine, which pious tradition relates that he governed with the mildness and piety his childhood experience had taught him, but which history suggests he left largely to the mayor of the Austrasian palace, while he concerned himself more with the founding of cloisters and abbeys, including Surbourg and Wissembourg in Alsace, where the Duke was his cousin. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly an intelligent, educated man, an adult at the time of his succession, who could not be completely controlled by factions and mayors.

The dynamics of Dagobert's career are largely a passive reflection of the competition between two sources of power, patronage and prestige, the palace institutions of Neustria on the one hand, and on the other, of Austrasia, firmly in the control of the Arnulfing dynasty that would become the Carolingians in the following century. In the chaos, the search for a consistent, rational pattern is hard to follow in the shifting loyalties.

During revived conflict between Neustria and Austrasia, Dagobert in his turn was murdered in another hunting incident, December 23, 679, near Stenay-sur-Meuse in the Ardennes, probably on orders from Ebroin, still mayor of the palace in Neustria. Wilfrid must have remained in Austrasia until this time, because, according to his biographer, Wilfrid left Austrasia after the death of Dagobert, in mortal danger from the supporters of Ebroin. At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia and Alsace, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.

After Dagobert's brief reign, leaving his lands without a male heir, the lords of the Rhineland divided the territory among themselves, while Pippin II, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (679 – 714) dominated Austrasia, and left the throne empty until after the battle of Tertry (687), when he accepted Theuderic III.

The Feast Date of St Dagobert II is 23 December

Saint Dagobert II

Memorial

23 December

Profile

Son of Saint Sigebert III, king of Austrasia, an area found in modern France and Germany. Upon Sigebert's death in 656 when Dagobert was still a child, the throne was stolen by Dagobert's guardian Gimoald in order to make his own son, Childebert, king. Dagobert was kidnapped and exiled to Ireland and England where he was placed with Dido, bishop of Portiers. He attended school at the court of the king. Friend of Saint Wilfred of York. He married an English princess, and had several children including Saint Irmina of Oehren and Saint Adela. Fought against Theodercus III. Eventually recalled to Austrasia for a supposed reunion, he died in a "hunting accident" that most considered a murder committed to permanently remove him from the throne.

Died

23 December 679 at Lorraine, France in a hunting accident by Ebroin, mayor of the palace; may have been murdered, and is considered a martyr

---

Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus

---

Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus

---

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-8181

Dagobert [family name unknown] II Born [date unknown] in King, of, Austrasiamap Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown] [sibling%28s%29 unknown] [spouse(s) unknown] Father of Adela Unknown	 Died [date unknown] [location unknown] No Profile Manager [adopt this profile] Last profile change on 27 February 2014 20:42: Edith Griffith edited the First Name, Preferred Name and Suffix for Dagobert Unknown. [Thank Edith for this] This page has been accessed 210 times. Nominate for Profile of the Week by posting the link http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-8181 in our G+ Community. Vote by clicking the +1 button above.

This person was created through the import of 124-DeCoursey.ged on 14 September 2010. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability. Title

   Title: King 

---

http://cottage.moulin-le-cygne.com/merovingians.html

Dagobert was born in 651 and when Clovis, his father, died in 656, all efforts were made to prevent him from inheriting Austrasia, the north-eastern realm of Clovis.

The leading Mayor of the Palace of the time, Grimoald, kidnapped Dagobert as soon as his father died and managed to persuade the court first that Dagobert was dead, and second that Clovis had wanted Grimoald's son to inherit the throne. So convincing was he that even Dagobert's mother believed him.

However, Grimoald had been unable to bring himself to murder Dagobert and had taken him to the Bishop of Poitiers, who had the child King exiled to Ireland. Here he grew up and was educated at the monastery of Slane near Dublin. He married a Celtic princess, Mathilde, and moved to York in northern England, where he got to know Saint Wilfred, the Bishop of York. At this time, the Merovingian alliance with the Roman Church was not as strong as it had been at the time of Clovis.

Wilfred was very keen to bring the Celtic and Roman churches together, which both sides had agreed upon at the Council of Whitby in 664. However, it seems that Wilfred also recognized the valuable potential of Dagobert - the rightful King of Austrasia - returning to France and reclaiming the land as the militant representative of the Church.

Dagobert's wife died in 670 and Wilfred was swift to ensure that Dagobert's next wife was chosen with care. She was Giselle de Razes, the daughter of the Count of Razes and the niece of the King of the Visigoths. This alliance between the Merovingians and the Visigoths would not only have brought much of France under the same rule, it would have empowered Rome over the Visigoths.

Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Metz served as its primary capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims also.

They married at the church of St. Magdeleine in Rennes-le-Chateau. Having had four daughters through his two marriages, Dagobert now became the father to a son in 676 - Sigisbert IV.

King of Austrasia

After living three years at Rennes-le-Chateau, Dagobert was proclaimed the King of Austrasia. He quickly set about re-establishing order throughout his new kingdom and in so doing greatly increased his wealth.

He did not, however, live up to Wilfred's expectations. Therefore, inevitably, with his new-found wealth and lands, he developed enemies. He also caused the resentment of the rulers of neighboring Frankish lands, some of whom had connections in Dagobert's court that could be dangerous to him. One of these was his Mayor to the Palace, the treacherous Pepin the Fat.

King Dagobert II, thirteenth king of Austrasia, was threatened by Ebroïn, who was Mayor of the palace to Thierry, king of Neustria. Ebroïn administered Neustria unchecked and he wanted to seize Austrasia as well.

Under the guidance of Wulfoad, his own Mayor of the palace, Dagobert II had given his son Sigebert a share of his throne. But the King of Austrasia's sensible precautions were thwarted by Ebroin.

The assassination

The year 679 was coming to its end and Dagobert was living in his royal house, SATHANACUM - known today as Stenay - where he was to spend the Christmas holiday. On 23rd December, he went out hunting in the forest of "Wepria" (known today as Woëvre) with a number of followers. Around the middle of the day, tired from the hunt, the king sat down near a fountain, which ran near to a large oak, to take some rest. It is still called ARPHAYS, and the section of the forest known as "SCORTlA" One of the servants among the conspirators struck the king while he was praying.

Dagobert, last king of a wide and powerful realm, perished, dying while doing good.

The king's body was taken first to the villa of Charmois, during the evening of 23rd December, then to the basilica of Sathanacum, which at that time was dedicated to Saint Rémi. All the dignitaries of the realm came to mourn the death of the sovereign.

Saint Dagobert II

The Roman Church wasted no time in commending the action. However, perhaps through guilt, they canonized Dagobert in 872, when his remains were moved to the graveyard of a church which was renamed "the Church of Saint Dagobert." They even gave him his own feast day, on December 23rd. This day also happened to be sacred to the Benjamite tribe. The Roman Catholic Church has always been unable or unwilling to explain why he was canonized.

From the day of his burial in the Church of Saint Dagobert, his grave has been a destination of pilgrimage for various significant historical figures including the Duke of Lorraine, the grandfather of Godfroi de Bouillon. The church was destroyed during the French Revolution and most of the relics of Saint Dagobert disappeared. Today only what is believed to be his skull remains, and it is held at a convent at Mons. Curiously some years later, a poem entitled "de Sancta Dagoberto martyre prose" appeared. Its message was that Dagobert had been martyred for some reason and it was found at the Abbey of Orval.

The end of the Merovingian era

Dagobert's assassination effectively marked the end of the Merovingian era. After the death of Dagobert, the Merovingian dynasty fell into decline, although they managed to hang onto much of their status for nearly a hundred more years. However, many of the monarchs were too young to be effective, and were unable to defend themselves against the relentless ambitions of the Mayors of the Palace. Childeric III died childless in 754 and that was the clearest sign that the dynasty's flame had expired.

What became of his son Sigisbert? No-one knows. According to some, he died before his father. Others say it was at the same time or after. Still others have him slipping through the clutches

The betrayal of Clovis by the assassination of Dagobert II has been the greatest source of anguish for the Priory of Sion and the Merovingian descendants. However, there seems to have been an attempt to mitigate the insult. Thus the Carolingian royal family (the family of Emperor Charlemagne) married Merovingian princesses in order to legitimize themselves. Dagobert's son, Sigisbert, was the ancestor of Guillem de Gellone, ruler of the Jewish kingdom of Septimania in southern France and later of Godfroi de Bouillon, who captured Jerusalem during the Crusades. Thereby the bloodline of Jesus Christ, the Davidic line, was restored back to the throne that had been rightfully its own since the time of the Old Testament.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagobert_II

---

Kept as a monk in Ireland

---

Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus

---

Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.

Fought against Theodercus III. Eventually recalled to Austrasia for a supposed reunion, he died in a “hunting accident” that most considered a murder committed to permanently remove him from the throne.

At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia and Alsace, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.

The name of Dagobert II achieved prominence in the 20th century, when it became associated with speculation which tried to link Dagobert II and his supposed descendants with a secret Merovingian line of legitimate royal succession, unjustly displaced by the Carolingian and Capetian monarchies but continuing into modern times.[3] It is currently one of the central legends associated with the conspiracy-laden French village of Rennes-le-Château. Some hoaxsters, led by Pierre Plantard, had forged two sets of documents to fabricate supposed proof of the existence of a thousand-year-old secret society, the Priory of Sion. One set of documents, the Dossiers Secrets, was planted in the Bibliothèque nationale. The other set was published in a 1960s French "hidden treasure" book, Le Tresor Maudit de Rennes-le-Chateau. In the book were (forged) Latin documents that had supposedly been found by a priest in the 19th century. An encrypted message hidden in one of the Latin documents revealed the phrase, "A Dagobert II Roi et a Sion est ce tresor et il est la mort." ( "To King Dagobert II and to Sion does this treasure belong, and he is there dead.")

Henry Lincoln, a British science-fiction author, spotted the encrypted message in 1967, and, unaware of the hoax, he and some associates began writing books about what the message might mean. This eventually brought the story to mainstream attention via the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The book attempted to put forward a hypothesis that Jesus Christ had married Mary Magdalene and sired a child who had later married into the Merovingian line, and that the assassinated Dagobert II had really had a secret male heir who had been spirited away to "his mother's hometown" of Rennes-le-Château after his father's death.

It was later shown that much of the research in Holy Blood Holy Grail was based on the forged documents.[4][5][6][7] However, the theory gained further attention when it was incorporated into the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Because Brown claimed that the information about the Priory of Sion was "factual," many debunking books and documentaries resulted, further bringing the little-known name of Dagobert II into the limelight. -------------------- Dagobert II (c. 650 – December 23, 679) was the king of Austrasia (676–79), the son of Sigebert III and Chimnechild of Burgundy. He was the last of the Merovingian dynasty to rule independently in Austrasia, with the exception of Charles Martel's dubious candidate Clotaire IV.

Dagobert II was the son of Sigibert III (631–56), an Austrasian king of the Merovingian line. The Arnulfing mayor of the Austrasian palace, Grimoald the Elder, the son of Pippin of Landen, and Dagobert's guardian, had had his own son Childebert adopted by Sigebert III, when Sigebert was still childless. Then when Sigebert died in 656, Grimoald seized the throne for his own son and had Dagobert tonsured and exiled.

The tale that Dagobert was ordered to be killed and his death published about, but that he was spirited out of the country, seems to be an embellishment, perhaps developed to explain the silence of Dagobert's mother Chimnechild. She may have cooperated with Grimoald to set up Childebert the Adopted; later she hoped by marrying her daughter Bilichild to Childeric II to keep the eventual Austrasian heir in her bloodline. It has also been hypothesised that Chimnechild was not Dagobert's mother, thus her reason for abandoning him.

Dagobert was given to the care of Desiderius, Bishop of Poitiers, where there was a cathedral school. The boy was sent on to a monastery in Ireland, sometimes identified as Slane, to be further trained as a page at an Anglo-Saxon court in England. An old tradition relates that he married Mechthilde, an Anglo-Saxon princess, during his exile, but the tradition that among his daughters was Saint Hermine, abbess of Oëren, and Saint Adula, abbess of Pfalzel, are fabrications, perhaps designed to link the saintly foundresses of these abbeys with the revered Merovingian line.

In the meantime the great nobles of Austrasia appealed to Clovis II, king of Neustria, who expelled the usurpers, executing Grimoald and Childebert, and added Austrasia to his own realm. The dating of these events is greatly confused, they occurred perhaps as early as 657 or as late as 661, under Clotaire III, Clovis' son. The effective ruler however was the Neustrian major domo Ebroin, who was obliged soon thereafter (in 660 or 662) to give the Austrasian realm a king of its own once more: the choice was the child king Childeric II, brother of Clotaire III, with a mayor of the palace, Wulfoald, as regent. The young king was assassinated on a hunt near Maastricht in 675, and in the chaotic power struggle that ensued, the Austrasian magnates, who wanted a king of Merovingian blood, pressed Wulfoald for the return of Dagobert, while opponents of Wulfoald acclaimed one Clovis III, possibly an impostor. Ebroin returned from a monastic "retirement" to lead Clovis' partisans, but Wulfoald effected Dagobert's succession in 676, partly through the help of Wilfrid, Bishop of York, on Clovis' untimely death. In spite of the continuing bitter enmity of Ebroin and the party who had attempted to press Clovis as an alternate candidate, Dagobert was restored to a portion of his rightful lands, a territory along the Rhine, which pious tradition relates that he governed with the mildness and piety his childhood experience had taught him, but which history suggests he left largely to the mayor of the Austrasian palace, while he concerned himself more with the founding of cloisters and abbeys, including Surbourg and Wissembourg in Alsace, where the Duke was his cousin. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly an intelligent, educated man, an adult at the time of his succession, who could not be completely controlled by factions and mayors.

The dynamics of Dagobert's career are largely a passive reflection of the competition between two sources of power, patronage and prestige, the palace institutions of Neustria on the one hand, and on the other, of Austrasia, firmly in the control of the Arnulfing dynasty that would become the Carolingians in the following century. In the chaos, the search for a consistent, rational pattern is hard to follow in the shifting loyalties.

During revived conflict between Neustria and Austrasia, Dagobert in his turn was murdered in another hunting incident, December 23, 679, near Stenay-sur-Meuse in the Ardennes, probably on orders from Ebroin, still mayor of the palace in Neustria. Wilfrid must have remained in Austrasia until this time, because, according to his biographer, Wilfrid left Austrasia after the death of Dagobert, in mortal danger from the supporters of Ebroin. At the cloister of Stenay afterwards there grew a cult of Dagobert, venerated as early as 1068 as "Saint Dagobert". The cult spread from there into Lotharingia and Alsace, and Saint Dagobert is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like his father and many royal Merovingians.

After Dagobert's brief reign, leaving his lands without a male heir, the lords of the Rhineland divided the territory among themselves, while Pippin II, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (679 – 714) dominated Austrasia, and left the throne empty until after the battle of Tertry (687), when he accepted Theuderic III.

The Feast Date of St Dagobert II is 23 December

Saint Dagobert II

Memorial

23 December

Profile

Son of Saint Sigebert III, king of Austrasia, an area found in modern France and Germany. Upon Sigebert's death in 656 when Dagobert was still a child, the throne was stolen by Dagobert's guardian Gimoald in order to make his own son, Childebert, king. Dagobert was kidnapped and exiled to Ireland and England where he was placed with Dido, bishop of Portiers. He attended school at the court of the king. Friend of Saint Wilfred of York. He married an English princess, and had several children including Saint Irmina of Oehren and Saint Adela. Fought against Theodercus III. Eventually recalled to Austrasia for a supposed reunion, he died in a "hunting accident" that most considered a murder committed to permanently remove him from the throne.

Died

23 December 679 at Lorraine, France in a hunting accident by Ebroin, mayor of the palace; may have been murdered, and is considered a martyr

---

Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus -------------------- Assassinated by Grimoald, Carolingian major domus -------------------- http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-8181

Dagobert [family name unknown] II Born [date unknown] in King, of, Austrasiamap Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown] [sibling%28s%29 unknown] [spouse(s) unknown] Father of Adela Unknown Died [date unknown] [location unknown] No Profile Manager [adopt this profile] Last profile change on 27 February 2014 20:42: Edith Griffith edited the First Name, Preferred Name and Suffix for Dagobert Unknown. [Thank Edith for this] This page has been accessed 210 times. Nominate for Profile of the Week by posting the link http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-8181 in our G+ Community. Vote by clicking the +1 button above.

This person was created through the import of 124-DeCoursey.ged on 14 September 2010. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability. Title

Title: King read more