Gregory of Tours, “The History of the Franks

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Gregory of Tours, “The History of the Franks.” Reading I.

PROFESSOR BOYDEN’S INTRODUCTION

The author of this reading was Gregory of Tours, a member of the Gallo-Roman ruling class; male ancestors on both sides of his family were senators. He was born around 539 AD and died in 594 AD. In 573 AD, he was appointed bishop of the city of Tours, which is located in the Roman province of Gaul in what is today the western part of central France. In addition to being bishop, he was an important religious writer and historian. He is usually considered the first historian of France. His History of the Franks is our most important source for the early history of France and its first kings. This portion of his history describes the origins of the Merovingian Dynasty, which took power in France around the year 486 AD—ten years after the last Roman emperor in the West was removed from his throne—and was overthrown in 751 AD. The Battle of Soissons took place in 486 AD.

Gregory of Tours, “History of the Franks.”

Book II, Chapter 12: Childeric, King of the Franks, whose life was filled with debauchery, began to seduce his subjects’ daughters. They were enraged by this that they forced him to give up his throne. He found out that they were planning to assassinate him and fled to Thuringia. A good friend of his stayed behind and was able to sooth his angry subjects with smooth words. Before Childeric left, they broke a gold coin in equal halves and each kept one half.

“When I send my half to you,” his friend said to Childeric, “and you put the two halves together and they make one complete coin, then you will know that it is safe for you to return.

Childeric then went to Thuringia and took refuge with King Bisinus and his wife Basina.

As soon as Childeric had gone, the Franks chose Aegidius as their king, who had earlier been sent from Rome as commander of the armies. When Aegidius had been king of the Franks for eight years, Childeric’s friend was able to pacify the Franks secretly and he sent messengers to Childeric with his half of the coin. Childeric then knew that the Franks wanted him back, and indeed they were yelling for him to return. So he returned from Thuringia and was restored to his throne. Now that Bisinus and Childeric were both kings, Queen Basina deserted her husband and went to Childeric. He questioned her carefully about why she had left her husband. She supposedly replied

“I know that you are a strong man, and I can recognize ability when I see it, so I have dome to live with you. If I knew of anybody else, even somebody who lived far away across the ocean, who was more able than you, you can be sure that I would have gone to live with him instead of you.” This pleased Childeric very much, so he married her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Clovis, who became a great man and a famous soldier.

Book II, Chapter 18: Childeric fought a battle at Orleans. Odovacer and his Saxons penetrated as far as Angers. A great plague killed many people. Aegidius died in it and left a son called Syagrius. After Aegidius died, Odovacer took hostages from Angers and other places. The Bretons were expelled from Bourges by the Goths and many were killed at Bourg-de-Déols. Count Paul, who had Roman and Frankish soldiers under his command, attacked the Goths and took loot from them. Odovacer reached Angers, but King Childeric arrived the next day. Count Paul was killed and Childeric occupied the city.

Book II, Chapter 27: The next that that happened was the death of Childeric. His son Clovis replaced him on the throne. In the 5th year of his reign Syagrius, the king of the Romans and the son of Aegidius, was living in Soissons, which is where Aegidius had lived as well. Clovis and his relative Ragnachar, who was also an important ruler, marched against Syagrius and challenged him to come and fight. Syagrius did so, for he was not afraid of Clovis. They fought, and Syagrius’s army was annihilated. He fled to safety with King Alaric II in Toulouse. Clovis ordered Alaric to surrender Syagrius, threatening to attack him as well for giving Syagrius refuge. Alaric was afraid of the suffering the anger of the Franks because of Syagrius, for the Goths are a fearful people, and handed him over to Clovis’s messengers. When Clovis had Syagrius in his power he had him imprisoned, then as soon as he had taken control of Syagrius’s kingdom he had him put to death in secret.

At this time Clovis’s army looted many churches, because he still followed the old pagan religion. The soldiers took a vase of great beauty that was used in Christian religious services. The bishop of this church sent some messengers to King Clovis, asking for this one vase to be returned to the church, even if the Franks kept everything else they looted from the church. The king replied to the messenger, “Come with me to Soissons; that is where we shall distribute the loot. If the vase your master is asking for is part of my share, I will do as he asks.”

When they reached Soissons, and all the loot had been piled up in front of the soldiers, the king pointed at the vase and said,

“Brave soldiers, I ask you not to refuse me this vase in addition to my regular share of the loot.” The more sensible soldiers responded,

“Glorious king, everything we see here is yours, and we are yours to command. Do what you think is best, for none of us is strong enough to resist you.” When they had finished, one soldier, impetuous, greed and angry, raised his axe and smashed the vase. As he did so he shouted,

“You will receive nothing but your fair share of the loot.” Everybody was astounded at his actions.

The king endured this insult with a show of calmness. He gave the smashed vase to the bishop’s messenger, but in his heart he was extremely angry about what had happened. A year later he ordered his entire army to assemble on the Field of Mars so he could inspect their equipment. When he had inspected everybody else, he came to the soldier who had smashed the vase.

“No-one else’s equipment is in as bad a shape as yours. Your spear is in terrible shape, as are your sword and axe.” And he grabbed the soldier’s axe from him and threw it on the ground. And when the soldier who had smashed the base bent over to pick his axe up, the king took his own axe and split his skull, saying

“That is what you did to my vase at Soissons.” The man fell dead and Clovis ordered his army to dismiss. All the soldiers were filled with powerful fear at what the king had done. King Clovis waged many wars and won many victories. In the 10th year of his reign he attacked the Thuringians and subjected them to his authority.

Book II, Chapter 28: Gundioc was king of the Burgundians…He had four sons: Gundobad, Godigisel, Chilperic and Gundomar. Gundobad killed Chilperic and drowned his wife in a river after tying a rock around her neck. Then he sent their daughters into exile. The older daughter, whose name was Chroma, became a nun. The younger was named Clotild. King Clovis frequently sent messengers to Burgundy, and some of them met Clotild. They saw that she was an elegant woman and intelligent for her years. Then they realized that she was of royal blood. They told Clovis about her and he immediately sent other messengers to Gundobad to ask for her hand in marriage. Gundobad was afraid to refuse Clovis, so he handed her over to them. They took her back with them and gave her to their king. Clovis already had a son named Theuderic by one of his mistresses, but he was delighted when he meet Clotild and decided to marry her.

Book II, Chapter 29: Clovis and Clotild’s first child was a son. She wanted to have the baby baptized, and she continually urged her husband to agree to this.

“Your gods are no good,” she told him; they can’t even help themselves, let alone others, since they are made of stone or wood or some old bits of metal. The names you have given them were men’s names, not the names of gods. Saturn, for example, had to run away from his own son to avoid being overthrown, so they say. Or take Jupiter, who committed all kinds of shameful deeds, who couldn’t keep his hands off of other men and slept with female relatives and even had sex with his own sister, who was also his wife, as she herself said. What have Mars and Mercury ever done for anybody? They may have been given magical powers, but certainly shouldn’t be called divine. Instead, you should worship the God who created the heavens, and the earth and the ocean and everything in them from nothing, with only his words, the God who made the sun shine and lit the sky with starts and filled the ocean with fish, the earth with animals, the sky with birds, the God who nodded and filled the fields with fruits, the trees with apples, the vines with grapes, the God who made man with his own hand and who gave us the service of all the creatures he made.” No matter how often the queen said these things, the king did not believe.

“All these things were created at the command of our gods” he answered. “It is obvious that your God can do nothing, and there isn’t even any evidence that he is, in fact, a god.”

Nevertheless, the faithful queen brought her son to be baptized. She had the church decorated with curtains and hangings in the hope that the king, who remained stubborn, would be brought to the faith by the ceremonies. The baby was given the name Ingomer, but he died as soon as he had been baptized, while he was still wearing his white robes. Clovis was extremely angry, and he began immediately to scold the queen.

“If he had been dedicated to my gods,” he said, “he would certainly have lived, but he was baptized in the name of your god, he didn’t even live a day!”

“I thank Almighty God,’ Clotild replied, “the creator of all things, for deciding I was good enough to have a child of my womb taken straight into his Kingdom. I am not at all saddened because of my son’s death, for I know that he will be nurtured in the sight of God.”

A little while later Clotild gave birth to another son. He was baptized Chlodomer. He got sick and Clovis said

“What do you expect? The same thing will happen to him as happened to his brother Ingomer. As soon as he is baptized in the name of your god, he dies.” But Clotild prayed to the Lord and he commanded that the baby recover.

Book II, Chapter 30: Queen Clotild continued to pray that her husband would recognize the true God and give up the worship of his idols, but nothing could persuade him to accept Christianity. Finally, war broke out between the Franks and the Alemanni and he was forced to accept what he had refused to accept of his own free will. When the two armies met on the field of battle, many were killed and Clovis’s soldiers were rapidly being annihilated. He raised his eyes to Heaven and felt guilty when he saw this, and tears filled his eyes.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, “who Clotild says is the son of the living God and gives help to those who are in trouble and victory to those who put their faith in you, I beg the glory of your assistance. If you give me victory over my enemies, so that I can see evidence of the miraculous power your followers say they have experienced, I will believe in you and be baptized in your name. I have prayed to my own gods, but they clearly have no intention to help me. Because of this I don’t believe they have any power, since they do not come to the assistance of those who have faith in them. So I now pray to you. I want to believe in you, but I must first be saved from my enemies.”

As he said this, the Alemanni turned their backs and began to run away, and as soon as the realized that their own king had been killed, the submitted to Clovis.

“We beg you,” they said, “to end the slaughter. We are willing to obey you.”

Clovis ended the war. He gave a speech in which he called for peace and the he went home. He told the queen how he had won by calling on Christ. This happened in the fifteenth year of his reign.

Book II, Chapter 31: The queen then gave orders that Saint Remy, the bishop of Reims be summoned secretly. She begged him to preach to the king. The bishop then asked Clovis to meet with him privately and urged him to believe in the true God, the maker of Heaven and Earth, and to abandon his idols, which had no power to help him or anybody else. The king replied

“I have listened to you willingly, Holy Father. There is only one problem. My people will not agree to abandon their gods. I will go and tell them what you have just said to me.” He arranged a meeting with his people, but God in his power had gone before him and before the king could say a word shouted all together

“We will stop worshipping our mortal gods, pious king, and we are ready to follow the immortal gods Saint Remy preaches about.”

This news was reported to the bishop, and he was very pleased. He ordered the baptismal pool to be made ready. The public squares were decorated with colored cloths, the churches were decorated with white hangings, the baptistry was prepared, incense gave off clouds of perfume, sweet-smelling candles burned brightly and the holy place of baptism was filled with divine aroma. God filled the hearts of everybody present was such grace that they believed they had been transported to a perfumed paradise. King Clovis asked to be baptized first, by the bishop. Like a new Constantine he stepped towards the baptismal pool to wash away the boils of his old leprosy and be cleansed from the dirty stains he had born so long in running water. As he stepped forward, the holy man of God said these words, full of meaning:

“Bow your head in meekness, Sicamber. Worship what you have burnt and burn what you have worshipped.”

Book II, Chapter 38: Clovis received letters from Emperor Anastasius giving him the title of consul. In Saint Martin’s church he stood, wearing a purple tunic and the military cloak and crowned himself. He then rode out on his horse and showered gold and silver coins among the people all the way from the doorway of Saint Martin’s church to the cathedral in Tours. From that day onwards he was called consul or Augustus. He left Tours and travelled to Paris, where he established his government. Theuderic came to join him there.

Book II, Chapter 41: Next Clovis went to war against King Chararic of the Salian Franks. When Clovis was at war against Syagrius, he had summoned Chararic to his assistance, but he had remained neutral, supporting neither side and awaiting the result of the war so he could offer his hand in friendship to the winner. This was why Clovis now attacked him in his rage. He surrounded Chararic by some strategy and took him prisoner. Chararic and his son were both chained up and Clovis had their hair cut short. He ordered that Chararic be ordained a priest and made his son a deacon. Chararic objected to this humiliation and started crying. His son supposedly said

“These leaves have been cut from a tree that is still green and filled with sap. They will soon grow again and be larger than ever, and then let the man who has done this die quickly.”

Clovis heard about this statement. Since they were threatening to let their hair grow again and kill him, he quickly had their heads cut off. When they were dead he took over their kingdom, their treasure and their people.

Book II, Chapter 42: At Cambrai at this time there was a king named Ragnachar who was so depraved that he even slept with the women of his own family. He had an advisor named Farro who had the same foul habits. People say that whenever food, or a present or any gift was given to Ragnachar, he said that it was good enough for him and his friend Farro. This situation enraged their Frankish subjects. Clovis bribed Ragnachar’s noble bodyguards with golden arm-bands and sword-belts to encourage them to ask for their support against their king. These ornaments looked like gold, but they were really made of cleverly gilded bronze. Clovis marched his army against Ragnachar, who sent spies to discover his strength. When the spies returned, he asked them how strong Clovis was.

“Strong enough for you and your friend Farro,” the spies replied.

Clovis arrived in person and arranged his line of battle. Ragnachar watched his army and prepared to flee. He was arrested by his own soldiers and was brought to Clovis with his arms tied behind his back. His brother Ricchar was dragged in with him.

“Why have you disgraced our Franks by allowing yourself to be tied up?” he asked. “You would have been better off if you had died in battle.”

Then Clovis split Ragnachar’s skull with his axe. Then he turned to Ricchar and said

“If you had stood by your brother, he would not have been tied up like this.”

Then Clovis killed Ricchar with a second blow of his axe.

When Ragnachar and Ricchar were dead, the guards who had betrayed them realized that the gold Clovis had bribed them with was counterfeit. When they complained to Clovis, he supposedly replied

“This is the kind of gold a man can expect if he deliberately lures his lord to his death.” He added that they were lucky to have escaped with their lives instead of paying for their betrayal of their lords by being tortured to death. When they heard this, they decided to beg for forgiveness, saying that it was enough if they were allowed to live. The two kings, Ragnachar and Ricchar, were relatives of Clovis’s. He also ordered that their brother Rignomer be put to death in Le Mans. As soon as they were all dead, Clovis took over their kingdom and their treasure. He organized the deaths of many other kings and relatives of his whom he suspected of conspiring against him. This is how he spread his authority over all Gaul. Once during a meeting of all his subjects, his supposedly said this about all the relatives he had killed:

“How sad it is that I live among strangers like an exile and that I have no relatives left to help me when I am in danger.” He did not say this because he was sorry for their deaths, but because he cleverly hoped to discover some relative who was still alive so he could kill him.

Book II, Chapter 43: Clovis finally died in Paris. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, which he and Queen Clotild had built. He died in the year 511 AD. He had ruled for thirty years and he was forty-five years old….After her husband died, Queen Clotild came to live in Tours. She served as a nun in the church of Saint Martin. She lived all the rest of her days there, besides an occasional visit to Paris. She was famous for her great modesty and loving kindness.

 

 

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