My Merovingian ties to the Da Vinci Code Legend

If you haven't read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown or watched the movie adaptation starring Tom Hanks, then it's probably because you don't want to. Perhaps you object to the premise of the story for religious reasons. I respect that, please skip this post. Also, if you don't want any minor spoilers, please skip this post. If not, read on.

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The premise of the fictional The Da Vinci Code, or what I'll call the Da Vinci Code Legend, is actually based on themes presented in the earlier non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. Both controversial books popularized the legend that Jesus was married, was in fact married to Mary Magdalene, and that the couple had one or more offspring. Further, as the Legend goes, those descendents immigrated to what is now southern France. Once there, they intermarried with the noble families that would eventually become the Merovingian dynasty. Thus, descendents of the Merovingians also carried with them the direct bloodline of Jesus Christ himself.

For the record, I'm talking legends here, not necessarily historical fact. The major source for Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln's theory, Les Dossiers Secrets, which supposedly established a genealogical pedigree between the Merovingians (kings of the Franks) and Jesus, has been largely discredited as a hoax. Still, there are many who hold that the legend/hoax is true despite that document being a fabrication, pointing to other stories to make their case. Fact or fiction? I don't know. At the very least, it makes for a great plotline of a widely popular book and movie.

In The Da Vinci Code, the character Sophie Neveu finds out that she is a descendant of the Merovingians, and thus a living descendent of Jesus Christ. The Holy Grail is interpreted as Mary Magdalene herself, who according to the Legend carried the blood of Christ in the form of a child or bloodline of Jesus. Great emphasis is placed on Neveu being a descendent of the Merovingians because, as such, she is heir to not only the vast historical records documenting this bloodline, but also the physical remains of Mary Magdalene herself -- the Holy Grail. Amid fictional subplots involving a secret society called the Priory of Sion, and suppression of knowledge of Christ's living heirs by the Catholic Church, all concepts lifted from the non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, is the central premise that Merovingian descendents are also descendents of Jesus Christ.

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As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I am a direct descendent of Emperor Charles Charlemagne (747 - 814) on my mother's side of the family. Charlemagne was part of the Carolingian dynasty that followed the Merovingians. Though I'm not an expert (at all) on this period of European history, I knew enough as a fan of The Da Vinci Code to follow up on what was appearing to be a family link to the Merovingians and the Da Vinci Code Legend.

Charlemagne's father was King Pepin "The Short" of France (b. 714). I was a little disappointed to find that Pepin The Short was the guy who actually displaced the last Merovingian (Childeric III) and, with the support of the nobility and the blessing of the Pope, assumed the title of a King of the Franks for himself. It seemed the trail of linking my family to the Merovingians had run cold because, in my mind, how could one be related to a Merovingian when your great, great, great, great something or other grandfather was the one who kicked the last Merovingian out of office?

I was wrong.

Here's the bloodline: Pepin The Short's grandfather was Mayor Pepin "The Younger" D'Heristal (b. 635) -> Pepin The Younger's grandfather was Bishop Arnoul "de Heristal" of Metz (b. 582) -> Bishop Arnoul "de Heristal" of Metz's father was Arnoldus of Saxony (b. 562) -> Arnoldus of Saxony's grandfather was King Charibert I of Paris (b. 520).

King Charibert I was... a Merovingian.
King Chlothar I (his father) was a Merovingian.
King Clovis I (his grandfather) was a Merovingian.
King Merovech (his great-grandfather) was the Merovingian! Merovech is the name from which Merovingian is derived.

Like Sophie Neveu, I am a direct descendent of the Merovingians. What that means outside the realm of The Da Vinci Code fiction and a pseudohistorical legend involving living descendents of Christ, I do not know.