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Abstract
This dissertation begins with the fundamental question: why was King Dagobert so conspicuously present in the production of art and Dionysian symbolism? Covering the mid-ninth century through the year of 1319, the best answer must be that the abbey believed the story of this otherwise obscure Merovingian king served them well in promoting their site as the proper final resting place for the kings. In the process, Saint-Denis became the most enduring and powerful religious institutions of medieval France, gathering a reputation as a site for miraculous healing and the foundation for the claims of legitimacy made by the ruling houses of France. So successful was this campaign that, during the French Revolution, Saint-Denis was stripped of the bones of the royal dead and partially demolished. It is worth noting, however, that at its foundation, Saint-Denis was only one of several abbeys founded by kings, and was one of many that housed the royal dead. Its rise to prominence was not foreordained; it was carefully constructed, gradually, over the course of centuries. King Dagobert was one of the essential elements used to gain ascendancy. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)
