eace
with his allies. About 463, in conjunction with the Roman general
Egidius, he fought against the Visigoths, who hoped to extend their
dominion along the banks of the Loire; after the death of Egidius he
assisted Count Paul in attempting to check an invasion of the Saxons.
Paul having perished in the struggle, Childeric delivered Angers from
some Saxons, followed them to the islands at the mouth of the Loire, and
massacred them there. He also stopped a band of the Alamanni who wished
to invade Italy. These are all the facts known about him. The stories of
his expulsion by the Franks; of his stay of eight years in Thuringia
with King Basin and his wife Basine; of his return when a faithful
servant advised him that he could safely do so by sending to him half of
a piece of gold which he had broken with him; and of the arrival at
Tournai of Queen Basine, whom he married, are entirely legendary. After
the fall of the Western Empire in 476 there is no doubt that Childeric
regarded himself as freed from his engagements towards Rome. He died in
481 and was buried at Tournai, leaving a son Clovis (q.v.), afterwards
king of the Franks. His tomb was discovered in 1653, when numerous
precious objects, arms, jewels, coins and a ring with a figure of the
king, were found.

CHILDERIC II. (c. 653-673), king of Austrasia, was a son of the Frankish
king Clovis II., and in 660, although a child, was proclaimed king of
Austrasia, while his brother, Clotaire III., ruled over the rest of the
dominions of Clovis. After the death of Clotaire in 670 he became ruler
of the three Frankish kingdoms, Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy, but
soon quarrelled with some supporters in Neustria, and was assassinated
whilst hunting. He was buried at St Germain near Paris.

CHILDERIC III. (d. c. 751), king of the Franks, was the last king of the
Merovingian dynasty. The throne had been vacant for seven years when the
mayors of the palace, Carloman and Pippin the Short, decided in 743 to
recognize Childeric as king. We cannot say whose son he was, or what
bonds bound him to the Merovingian family. He took no part in public
business, which was directed, as before, by the mayors of the palace.
When in 747 Carloman retired into a monastery, Pippin resolved to take
the royal crown for himself; taking the decisive step in 751 after
having received the celebrated answer of Pope Zacharias that it were
better to name king him who possessed the power than him