Most of early Merovingian history is based on the account of the 6th-century
Gregory of Tours. The date of Childeric's accession is not given in the text, but it was after emperor
Avitus's death in December 456 (II. 11). The only certain date is the
Battle of Vouillé in 507 in the
Franco–Gothic War; most of Gregory's other statements are contradictory. Childeric's father is recorded by several sources to have been
Merovech, after whom the dynasty is named. Gregory (II.9) says that Merovech was reputed by some to be a descendant of
Chlodio, an earlier Frankish king who had conquered Gaulish areas first in the
Silva Carbonaria, then in
Tournai,
Cambrai, and as far south as the
Somme. This is roughly the definition of the Roman province of
Belgica Secunda (approximately the "Belgium" defined by
Julius Caesar centuries earlier, the region stretching from north of Paris to the Flemish coast); later, a letter of
Saint Remigius to Childeric's son Clovis I implies that Childeric had been its administrative chief. Childeric himself is mainly associated with Roman military actions around the
Loire River involving the Gallo-Roman general
Aegidius. According to Gregory (II.12), Childeric was exiled to "
Thuringia" for eight years due to Frankish distaste for his debauchery and his seduction of his subjects' daughters. In the meantime, according to Gregory, Aegidius himself took up the title of king of the Franks. When he returned from exile, Childeric was married to
Basina, apparently the wife of the king of Thuringia, who bore their son Clovis.
Guy Halsall connects the story to Roman politics, Aegidius being an appointee of Majorian: Halsall (p. 269) speculates that Childeric probably began a Roman military career in the service of
Flavius Aetius who defeated
Attila in Gaul, and he points out that much of his military career appears to have played out far from the Frankish homelands. Ulrich Nonn (map p. 37, and pp. 99–100), following his teacher Eugen Ewig, believes that the exile story reflects a real sequence of events whereby Childeric was a leader of "Salian" or "Belgian" Franks based in the Romanized areas conquered by Chlodio, who were allies under the lordship of Aegidius, but was eventually able to take over when Chlodio and his imperial patron died. (Childeric's son Clovis I later fought Aegidius's son
Syagrius who was remembered as a King of Romans, and who had control of
Soissons in the south of
Belgica Secunda.) In a passage normally considered to have come from a lost collection of annals, Gregory (II.18) gives a sequence of events which are very difficult to interpret. In the
Gothic war against Aegidius Childeric and Aegidius successfully repelled the
Aquitanian Goths of
Theodoric II from
Orléans on the
Loire in 463. After the death of Aegidius soon after, Childeric and a
comes ("count") Paul are recorded defending the Loire region from Saxon raiders, who were possibly coordinating with the Goths now under
Euric. Childeric and Paul fought
Saxons under the command of a leader named "
Adovacrius" (sometimes given by modern authors in either an Anglo-Saxon spelling form, Eadwacer, or in a spelling the same as used for his contemporary the future King of Italy
Odoacer, with whom he is sometimes equated). The origin of these "Saxons" is however unclear, and they are described as being based upon islands somewhere in the Loire region. and engraved by
Cornelis Galle the Younger Soon after this passage, Gregory of Tours (II.19) reports that Childeric coordinated with "Odovacrius", this time normally assumed to be the King of Italy, against
Alemanni who had entered Italy. Some authors interpret these Alemanni to be
Alans, a people established in the Loire region in this period. There is no consensus on this, however, because the reference in this case is not apparently to events near the Loire. ==Marriage, children, and death==