CHILDERIC I. (c. 437-481), king of the Salian Franks, suc ceeded his father Merwich (Merovech) as king about 457. With his tribe he was established around the town of Tournai, on lands which he had received as a foederatus of the Romans, and for some time he kept the peace with his allies. About 463, in con junction with the Roman general Egidius, he fought against the Visigoths, who hoped to extend their dominion to the banks of the Loire; after the death of Egidius he assisted Count Paul in attempting to check an invasion of the Saxons. Paul having perished in the struggle, Childeric defended Angers against the Saxons, recovered from them the islands they had seized at the mouth of the Loire, and destroyed their forces. The Saxon chief, Odoacer, now agreed to serve the Romans and the two chieftains, now reconciled, intercepted a band of the Alamanni. These are all the facts known about him. The stories of his early life by the Franks, of his stay of eight years in Thuringia with King Basin and his wife (or sister) Basine, of his return when a faith ful servant advised him that he could safely do so by sending to him half of a piece of gold which he had broken with him, and of the arrival at Tournai of Queen Basine, whom he married, are preserved by Gregory of Tours, and have found a place in French epic poetry. After the fall of the Western empire in 476 there is no doubt that Childeric regarded himself as freed from his en gagements towards Rome. He died in 481 and was buried at Tournai, leaving a son Clovis (q.v.), afterwards king of the Franks. His tomb was discovered in 1653, when numerous pre cious objects, arms, jewels, coins and a ring with his name and the image of a long-haired warrior, were found.