 These concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading "comites" and "duces" (counts and dukes).Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, but Merovingians remained in power until the 8th century.Clotaire's son Dagobert I (died 639), who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King.