Theudebert I

Theudebert I (c. 500-547/48) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling the eastern Frankish realm of Austrasia from his seat at Metz from 533/34 until his death. A grandson of Clovis and son of Theuderic I, he was a vigorous and ambitious ruler who campaigned in Italy during the Gothic Wars, exploiting the conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths to extend Frankish power across the Alps into Italy and Provence. He is notable as the first Frankish king to strike gold coinage in his own name rather than the emperor's, a striking assertion of independence from Constantinople, and the surviving correspondence in the Epistulae Austrasicae preserves his diplomatic exchanges with the emperor Justinian, illuminating the assertive role of the early Merovingians on the post-Roman international stage.