the Franks under his own rule, partly at least by having all rival
kings assassinated. And both Romans and Franks must have been
impressed by the success with which he led his armies against other
Germans: he conquered the Thuringians to the east, and the Alamans,
who were moving from their homes in south-west Germany into what is
now Alsace and northern Switzerland; and in 507 Clovis led his
followers south across the Loire to destroy the Visigothic kingdom of
Alaric II. When he died in 511 the kingdom was ruled jointly by his
four sons, and it was they who destroyed the Burgundian kingdom and
who, by offering military aid to the Ostrogoths in exchange, annexed
Provence to their kingdom. By the middle of the sixth century the
Frankish kings descended from Childeric and Clovis, known as the
Merovingians, had become by far the most powerful of the barbarian
heirs to the Roman Empire. Almost all Gaul was under their direct
rule; they had a foot-
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