Grimoald the Elder
Nobleman (615-657)
Grimoald I (616–657), called the Elder (in French, Grimaud l'Ainé), was the mayor of the palace of Austrasia from 643 to his death. He was the son of Pepin of Landen and Itta.
Biography
With the death of Pepin in 640, Grimoald became the head of his household, the most powerful in Austrasia. At this time, Radulf, Duke of Thuringia, rebelled against Sigebert III, king of Austrasia. Grimoald participated in the ensuing expedition against the insurrection, but it was a failure. Nevertheless, Grimoald succeeded in saving the life of the king and became his close friend. Then, by removing his rival, Otto, he took over the position which his father once held.
Grimoald convinced the childless Sigebert III to adopt his son, named Childebert at his baptism. Sigebert eventually had an heir, Dagobert II, but upon Sigebert's death in 656, Grimoald had the young Dagobert exiled to Ireland and put his son on the throne.
“Grimoald the Elder” enters the record as nobleman (615-657). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Grimoald, Elder and Nobleman can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q375301.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grimoald the Elder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.