The Frankish Monarchy at the death of Clovis I c. 513

Having expanded his realm in the west, in 500 The Frankish King Clovis I led an army southwards to Dijon to confront the Burgundian armies led by Roman proxy Gundobad, who was forced to flee. Burgundy was not annexed, but was obliged to pay tribute to the Franks. Then, from 501 Clovis began subjugating Armorica (including the River Seine, present-day Brittany and Paris, which, importantly, the king later chose as his burial-place). In 507, at Vouillé on the River Vienne, Clovis engaged and defeated the Visigoths under King Alaric II, whom he personally killed. This enabled Clovis to take control of Aquitaine and to drive on southwards and capture the Visigoth capital, Toulouse. In 511 Clovis convened the First Council of Orléans to bind, reform and unify the Church. Clovis died c. 513, by which time he had extended the Frankish sway as far north as Frisia and as far south as the Pyrenees. On his death, the kingdom was partitioned into four regions to be ruled from Rheims, Orléans, Paris and Soissons by his four sons, Theuderic, Chlodomer, Childebert, and Clotaire. This inevitably created rivalry and conflict, which was to persist until the end of the Merovingian dynasty in 751.