In 613, new incidents connected with family matters placed Clotaire II., son of Chilperic, and heretofore king of Soissons, in possession of the three kingdoms.

He kept them united up to 628, and left them so to his son, Dagobert I., who remained in possession of them up to 638.

At his death a new division of the Frankish dominions took place, no longer into three but two kingdoms, Austrasia being one, and Neustria and Burgundy the other.

This was the definitive dismemberment of the great Frankish dominion to the time of its last two Merovingian kings, Thierry IV.

and Childeric III., who were kings in name only, dragged from the cloister as ghosts from the tomb to play a motionless part in the drama.