Episode 3: The Frankish Kingdom - Clovis and the Birth of Paris
A twenty-year-old barbarian warlord stands at the gates of Paris. His name is Clovis. He’s just defeated the last Roman holdout in Gaul. And he’s about to change everything.
This is the story of how Paris became a capital for the first time. How a pagan warrior king met an elderly saint named Geneviève who somehow convinced him to show mercy when mercy wasn’t in his nature. How his devout wife Clotilde and that saintly nun worked together to bring him to Christianity—not just any Christianity, but the Catholic faith that would unite his kingdom.
We’ll follow Clovis to the battlefield at Tolbiac, where—facing defeat—he makes a desperate bargain with a god he doesn’t believe in. We’ll witness his baptism at Reims on Christmas Day, with three thousand warriors following him into the font. And we’ll watch him build the church where he, his queen, and Saint Geneviève would all be laid to rest—the church that became the heart of medieval Paris.
Clovis was ruthless, brilliant, and politically savvy. He united the Franks, conquered most of Gaul, and founded a dynasty that would rule for 250 years. But more than that, he made Paris matter. He made it a royal city. He made it Christian. He made it the seed from which France would grow.
The Merovingian age begins here. Long-haired kings, bloody family feuds, and the birth of a new world from the ashes of Rome.
