MEROVECH

flourished c. AD 450 also spelled Merovich, Meroveus, Merwich, or Merowig, French Mrove, German Merowech king of the Salian Franks, from whom Frankish tradition held the Merovingian dynasty to have taken its name. He was the father of Childeric I (d. 481/482) and grandfather of Clovis I (c. 466511). Nothing definite is known of Merovech's life. He is mentioned in Gregory of Tours's History of the Franks and, according to later sources, fought against Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451).