History of Paris - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The city's escape from Attila proved a short-lived reprieve, as it was attacked and overrun in 464 by Childeric I (Childeric the Frank). His son Clovis I made the city his capital in 508 and was buried there on his death in 511, alongside St. Geneviève.

By this time, Paris was a typically crowded early medieval city with timber buildings alongside surviving Roman remains. According to the chronicler Gregory of Tours, it suffered a disastrous fire in 585. The city grew beyond the boundaries of the Île de la Cité, with suburbs being established on both banks of the river.

The Merovingian kings died out in 751, to be replaced by the Carolingians. Pépin was proclaimed king of the Franks in 751, to be succeeded by Charlemagne, who moved the capital of his Holy Roman Empire from Paris to Aachen. Paris was twice attacked by Vikings who had sailed down the Seine, in 845 and 885. During the second attack, its inhabitants sought the assistance of Robert I of France, and his brother Odo, Count of Paris. Odo led the defense of the city in opposition to the ten-month Viking siege and became co-ruler of the Empire with Charles the Simple. His grandnephew Hugh Capet was elected King of France (or Francia—literally "the land of the Franks") in 987. He made Paris his capital and founded the Capetian dynasty.