The Carolingians, with papal backing, cut off Childeric's hair and incarcerated him in a monastery. The last Merovingian, Childeric III, was king in name and hair only, reduced to travelling around his kingdom in a cart pulled by oxen. According to Einhard, the biographer of the most famous Carolingian, Charlemagne, the later Merovingians were rois fainiants, decadent and do-nothing kings, whose power had been effectively supplanted by the Carolingian dynasty in the form of Mayors of the Palace.

The obituary of the long-haired kings was written into the history of the family who supplanted them in 751, the Carolingians. If you removed the long hair of a king, you removed his claims to kingship itself. In sixth-century Gaul a haircut meant political coercion and social exclusion. Determined to compromise their nephews' rights to rule they utilised the scissors as a potent symbolic weapon. What they were effectively saying was 'Do you wish to live non-regally or to die?'. The ultimatum offered by Lothar and Childebert thus hit straight to the heart of Merovingian high politics. It is the rule for Frankish kings never to be shorn indeed their hair is never cut from childhood on, and hangs down in abundance on their shoulders.their subjects have their hair cut all round and are not permitted to grow it further. The Byzantine poet and historian Agathias (c.532-c.582) had written: It was invested with a sacral quality and believed to contain magical properties. For them, their long hair symbolised not only their aristocratic status but also their status as kings. The Merovingian kings, who had established themselves in the ruins of Roman Gaul, were known as the Reges criniti, the long-haired kings.

Why should a queen choose to have her grandsons killed rather than submitting them to a haircut? In the world of Merovingian Gaul, however, the story had a potent resonance and hair itself was of the utmost importance. To a twentieth-century audience this story seems strange. Voluntary tonsuring did not carry the ignominy of shearing under duress. Seeking to escape the fate of his brothers, he cut his hair short with his own hands and became a priest. A third grandson, Chlodovald, was well guarded and escaped his uncles. 594), reveals an alternative to death or short-haired dishonour. Rejecting the scissors, she opted for the sword.The sequel to this story, told by Gregory of Tours (d. Would she wish to see her grandsons live with their hair cut short, or would she prefer to see them killed? Beside herself with grief, Clotild stated that if they were not to succeed to the throne she would rather see them dead than with their hair cut short. Lothar and Childebert then sent their henchman Arcadius to the Queen with a pair of scissors in one hand and a sword in the other. When the boys were dispatched to their uncles they were seized and separated from their household. Childebert spread the rumour that he and his brother were to plan the coronation of the young princes and sent a message to Clotild to that effect. Whilst residing in Paris in the sixth century, Queen Clotild, the widow of the Merovingian ruler Clovis, became the unwilling subject of the inveterate plotting of her sons, Lothar and Childebert, who were jealous of her guardianship of her grandsons, the children of their brother, Chlodomer.

Medieval hairdos