• Born: Abt 502, Rheims, Marne, France
• Married (1): Abt 524
• Married (2): 531
• Married (3): Abt 532
• Married (5): 555
• Died: 23 Nov 561, Compiègne, Oise, France

  Research Notes:

Also called Chlothar, Clotaire, Lothar...

Gregory of Tours names Clotaire as son of King Clovis and his wife Clotilde, listed after Childebert. "Theodorico, Chlomiro, Hildeberto, Hlodario" are named (in order) as sons of "Chlodoveus" in the Regum Merowingorum Genealogia.

He succeeded his father in 511 as CLOTAIRE I King of the Franks, at Soissons, his territory covering Soissons, Laon, Noyon, Arras, Cambrai, Tournai and the lower Meuse, the lands which were later to become the kingdom of Neustria. Gregory of Tours records that King Clotaire and his half-brother King Theoderich invaded Thuringia in 531, deposed King Hermanfred and annexed the kingdom, specifying that Clotaire brought his second wife back as part of his booty. He and his brother King Childebert launched a third attack on Burgundy, besieged Autun and occupied the whole kingdom, deposing King Gondemar II in 534. He invaded Spain, with his brother King Childebert, and besieged Zaragoza but was forced to withdraw. He inherited the territories of his great-nephew King Theodebert in 555 and those of his brother King Childebert in 558, when he became sole king of the Franks.

Gregory of Tours records his death, in the fifty-first year of his reign on the first anniversary of the killing of his son Chramn, at Soissons from a fever caught while hunting in the forest of Cuise, and his burial at Soissons Saint Medard. The Marii Episcopi Aventicensis Chronica records the death in 561 of "Chlothachrius rex". ¹