D
DAGOBERT, PSEUDOCYCLE OF
. The Frankish king Dagobert I (r. 622–38/39) was the inspiration for a revival of the
French epic around the middle of the 14th century for reasons that have not always been
understood, although they are clearer when viewed in the context of the reign of Charles
V (r. 1364–80). Florent et Octavien, the first of this group of late epics to have
Dagobert’s reign as a background, was followed by Charles le chauve, Ciperis de
Vignevaux, Florence de Rome, and Theseus de Cologne. It was once thought that these
poems derived from a lost primitive Merovingian cycle, although no evidence of this
exists. There is no doubt, however, that during the later Middle Ages Dagobert was
honored as the founder of the abbey of Saint-Denis; the legend was encouraged by the
monks there, who had produced a Gesta Dagoberti (ca. 835) that became an important
source for their Grandes Chroniques de France, wherein Dagobert is held up as a model
for princes.
Dagobert already figures in the opening lines of the 13th-century octosyllabic
Octavien, but his role becomes more important in the 14th-century Alexandrine version,
which dates from the troubled times after the French defeat at Poitiers, when Edward III
of England and Charles the Bad of Navarre were both claiming rights to the French
throne. It was under these distressing circumstances that Charles V developed a program
of propaganda to make clear his indisputable claim to the throne, including his descent
from Dagobert.
In Florent et Octavien, the first of the series to support this claim, Octavien, emperor
of Rome and friend of Dagobert, comes to his aid when Paris is threatened by an invasion
of the pagan Wandres, who bear a certain resemblance to the invading English. He is
seconded by one of his twin sons, Florent, who was separated from his father soon after
birth but is reunited during this conflict in a dramatic episode. At a bleak moment,
Dagobert prays to St. Denis for help against the foe, vowing to endow a monastery in his
honor. St. George soon appears, accompanied by St. Maurice, to rescue the situation.
Charles le chauve (sometimes called Dieudonné de Hongrie) develops the ancestry of
Dagobert, beginning with his imaginary great-grandfather Melisant de Hongrie, who
adopts the name Charles le chauve when converted to Christianity. His son, Philippe,
becomes the father of Dieudonné, who is in his turn the father of Dagobert. The author of
this extravagant genealogy claims the authority of a Latin source he consulted at Saint-
Denis. Dieudonné becomes king only after extraordinary adventures fighting the
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