In 1653, a chance discovery at Tournai revealed the burial of the Frankish king Childeric, who died in AD 481. He was identified by a massive signet ring with the portrait of a barbaric individual and the inscription 'Childerici Regis' 'Of King Childeric'.
His magnificent grave furnishings included typical Germanic jewellery decorated with garnets set within cells of gold, many coins, his horse, his iron throwing axe, his sword, its hilt and scabbard richly decorated, and 300 gold bees or cicadas that had once ornamented a fur cape.
With admirable speed the find was lavishly published within two years of its discovery. Alas the majority of the finds were stolen in 1831 and have never been recovered. Fortunately casts had been made of some of them, including the ring.
Childeric, of whom the chronicler Gregory of Tour wrote that his 'private life was one long debauch', was a successful war leader, fighting as an ally of the Romans against Vandal incursions and ruling a small principality centred around Tournai; his son, the great Frankish leader, Clovis (Chlodovechus), destroyed the last Roman holdings in Gaul (France) and drove out other Germanic groups, including the Visigoths.
