Kingdom of Soissons

The Kingdom of Soissons is the name modern scholars give to the fifth-century domain of the Gallo-Roman commander Syagrius, centred on the city of Soissons in northern Gaul. Its origin lay with Aegidius, a Roman general appointed magister militum in Gaul in 456 or 457, who maintained a separate authority after the Western Roman Empire ceased to function effectively. When Aegidius died in 465, his son Syagrius inherited his position. Gregory of Tours, writing a century later, called Syagrius rex Romanorum, king of the Romans, and the population he ruled is generally understood to have been Gallo-Roman. Historians disagree about the size and nature of the realm: some see a substantial state controlling much of northern Gaul, while others regard Syagrius as little more than a count of Soissons with a local following. In 486 Syagrius was defeated by Clovis I at the Battle of Soissons and fled to Toulouse under Visigothic protection. King Alaric II eventually handed him over to the Franks, and he was killed in captivity.