Further Reading

Saturday, 29 September 2007

The Once and Future King

Up until recently, little was known about the Merovingian kings, as they inhabited that historical epoch derided as the Dark Ages. The founder of the royal line, Merovech, was said to be of two fathers -- his mother, already pregnant by King Chlodio, was seduced while swimming in the ocean by a Quinotaur, whatever that was, and Merovech was formed somehow by the commingling of Frankish blood and that of the mysterious aquatic creature. Like the Nazoreans of old, the Merovingian monarchs never cut their hair and bore a distinctive birthmark -- said to be a red cross over the shoulder blades. Their robes were fringed with tassels which were said to carry magical curative powers. They were known as occult adepts, and in one Merovingian tomb was found such items as a golden bull's head, a crystal ball, and several golden miniature bees. Strangely, many skulls of these monarchs appear to have been ritually incised; i.e., trepanned.

The Sicambrians, ancestors of the Franks, were known as the "people of the Bear" for their worship of the bear-goddess Arduina. The word "Arcadia" comes from Arkas, patron god of that area of Greece, the son of the nymph Callisto, sister of the huntress Artemis. Callisto's constellation is also known to many as Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The name "Arthur" comes from the Celtic arth, related to "Ursus" -- namely, "bear." In legend, the Merovingians were said to be descended from the Trojans, and Homer reports that Troy was founded by a colony of Arcadians. The "Prieure documents" claim that the Arcadians were descended from Benjamites driven out of Palestine by their fellow Israelites for idolatry. "Arcadia" was also known as the source of the River Alphaeus, the "underground stream" which figures so prominently in Coleridge's poetry and in esoteric literature. The Merovingians were "sacred kings" who reigned but did not rule, leaving the secular governing function to chancellors known as the Mayors of the Palace. It was one of these Mayors, Pepin the Fat, who founded the dynasty that came to supplant them -- the Carolingians.

One of the great Merovingian kings, Clovis, struck a deal with the newly nascent Roman church. He would subdue their enemies, the Arian Visigoths and the pagan Lombards, in return for baptism into the faith and recognition of his right to rule a new Roman empire as "Novus Constantinus." Yet one of his descendants, Dagobert II, was murdered by a lance pierced through his eye (or poison poured in the ear -- accounts vary) at the orders of Pepin. The church endorsed the assassination, flatly betrayed its pact with Clovis, and in turn recognized the family of usurpers as legitimate, culminating with the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor. It was thought that the Merovingian lineage was extinguished; in any case it was excised from the history books. But there is some evidence that Dagobert's son, Siegebert IV, survived and that a Merovingian principality continued to be ruled in Septimania by Guillem de Gellone, a descendant -- and ancestor -- of Godfroi de Bouillon. If the Prieure documents are to be believed, the Merovingian lineage persists to this day, largely due to efforts to preserve it through intermarriage. The significance of such alliances is the key. Dagobert married the daughter of the Visigothic Count of Razes, giving his descendants hereditary title to the lands surrounding Rennes-le-Château.(Knightstemplar.org.uk)