He succeeded his father Childeric (died 481) as king of the Salian Franks at Tournai, and extended Merovingian rule to Gaul and Germany after victories at Soissons (486) and Cologne (496). After his conversion to Christianity, he championed orthodoxy against the Arian Visigoths, finally defeating them in the battle of Poitiers (507). He made Paris his capital.