CLOVIS I. was the real founder of the French monarchy. He was the first who conquered the several provinces of Gaul, which before his time had been possessed by the Romans, Germans, and Goths. Having united these to the then scanty dominions of France, he removed the seat of government from Soissons to Paris, and made this city the capital of his new kingdom. He died in 511, in the forty-sixth year of his age and thirty-first of his reign.