Almost at the beginning of the struggle
Sigebert
met his
death.
death.
Cambridge Medieval History - v2 - Rise of the Saracens and Foundation of the Western Empire
He wrote an
eloquent letter to Clovis, in which, while sending him a player on the
cither, he begged him to spare the remnant of the Alemans, and
declared that he took them under his protection. The Alemans, who
were now occupying the high valleys of the Alps, thus passed under the
dominion of Theodoric, and paid tribute to him. They formed a kind
of buffer-State between the kingdoms of the Franks and the Ostrogoths.
We shall see how Witigis, a successor of Theodoric, gave up these
remnants of the Alemans to the Franks (536).
As early as 507 Clovis was bending all his energies to the project of
wresting from the Visigoths the part of Gaul which they held. The
orthodox bishops were now tired of being subject to Arian rulers, and
besought the aid of the king of the Franks. Alaric II, who had
succeeded Euric in 486, was undoubtedly a tolerant ruler. He gave to
the Romans of his dominions an important code of law which is known
by the name of the Breviarium Alarici; and he allowed the bishops
more than once to meet in councils. Rut being obliged to take severe
measures against certain bishops, he was counted a persecutor. Thus,
two successive bishops of Tours, Volusianus and Verus, were driven from
that see, Ruricius of Limoges was obliged to live in exile at Rordeaux;
and all these bickerings made the bishops long for an orthodox ruler.
Causes of contention between Franks and Visigoths were not lacking.
One difficulty after another arose between the two neighbouring king-
doms. In vain the kings endeavoured to remove them, meeting for this
purpose on an island in the Loire near Amboise; in vain Theodoric
the Great wrote urging the adversaries to compose their quarrel. He
advised Alaric to be prudent and not to stake the fate of his kingdom
upon a throw of the dice. He reminded Clovis that the issue of a
battle was always uncertain, and threatened to intervene himself if the
king of the Franks proceeded to extremities. He invited Gundobad
the king of the Rurgundians to co-operate with him in maintaining
peace. He warned three kings who held the right bank of the Rhine—
the kings of the Herulians, the Warnians and the Thuringians—of the
ambitions of Clovis. It was too late; the war could not be averted.
Reyond question, Clovis was the aggressor. He mustered his troops
and made a vigorous speech to them. "It grieves me that these
Arians should hold a part of Gaul. Let us march, with the help of
God, and reduce their country to subjection. " He had with him
Chloderic, son of Sigebert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, while
Gundobad king of the Rurgundians co-operated by advancing upon the
C. MED. II. VOL. II. OH. IV. 8
## p. 114 (#146) ############################################
114 Battle of Vougle [507-508
Visigoths from the east. The decisive battle took place at Vougle, in
the neighbourhood of Poitiers (a. d. 507). The Visigoths made a heroic
resistance, in which the Arvernians, led by Apollinaris the son of the
poet Sidonius, especially distinguished themselves. But the Franks
broke down all resistance, and Clovis slew Alaric with his own hand.
After the battle the Salians effected a junction with the Burgundians,
and the combined forces advanced on Toulouse and burned that city.
Then the conquerors divided their troops into three armies. Clovis
subjugated the western part of the country, capturing Eauze, Bazas,
Bordeaux and Angouleme; his son Theodoric (Thierry) operated in the
central region, and took the cities of Albi, Rodez and Auvergne;
Gundobad advanced towards the east, into Septimania, where a bastard
son of Alaric II named Gisalic had just had himself proclaimed king,
ousting the legitimate son, Amalaric. Soon there remained to the
Visigoths, to the north of the Pyrenees, nothing but Provence, with its
capital Aries, formerly the residence of the Praetorian Praefect and
known as the "little Rome of Gaul" (Galhda Roma). The Franks and
Burgundians had laid siege to this city when the army of the Ostrogoths
came upon the scene. Theodoric had been unable to intervene earlier,
for at the beginning of 508 a Byzantine fleet, perhaps at the instigation
of Clovis, had landed a force on the shores of Apulia, and the king
of the Ostrogoths had had to turn his attention thither. At length,
in the summer, he sent an army across the Alps, and its arrival
forced the Franks and Burgundians to raise the siege of Aries. His
troops occupied the whole of Provence, but instead of restoring this
territory to the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths kept it for themselves.
Theodoric sent officials to the cities of Provence with orders to treat in
a conciliatory fashion this people which had been "restored to the bosom
of the Roman Empire. " The Ostrogoths did not however content
themselves with this success. Their general Ibbas retook Septimania
from the Franks and Burgundians, capturing Narbonne, Carcassonne
and Nimes. He left this territory, however, under the rule of Amalaric
and rid him of his rival Gisalic. Communication was thus established
along the coast of the Mediterranean between the kingdoms of the
Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
Nevertheless Clovis gained considerable advantage from the war. If
Septimania had eluded his grasp, he had extended his kingdom from
the Loire to the Pyrenees. Gundobad alone obtained no profit from
the struggle.
Clovis treated with clemency the Gallo-Roman populations whom he
had just brought under his dominion. He ordered all clergy, widows,
and serfs of the Church, who had been made prisoners by his troops
during the campaign, to be set at liberty. There was no new distribution
of lands. The Arians, indeed, were required to embrace the orthodox
faith, but even their conversion was effected rather by persuasion
## p. 115 (#147) ############################################
60s] Clovis at Tours and at Paris 115
than by force. The Arian clergy were allowed to resume their rank
in the hierarchy after a reconciliation by laying on of hands. Their
churches were not destroyed, but after reconsecration were made over to
the use of the orthodox.
On his way back from the war, Clovis in 508 visited the town of
Tours, where he made large gifts to the monastery of St Martin. At
Tours he received from the Emperor of the East, Anastasius, the patent
of consular rank. He was not entitled consul, and his name would be
sought in vain in the consular records; he was an honorary consul,
tanquam consul, as Gregory of Tours quite accurately expresses it.
He at once assumed the insignia of the consulship, with the purple
tunic and mantle of the same colour, and, starting from the church of
St Martin, he made a solemn entry into the town of Tours, and
proceeded to the cathedral of St Gatien, scattering largess as he went.
Clovis was evidently proud of this new honour, which was a proof of
the Emperor's friendship—perhaps he had come to an agreement with
the Emperor directed against Theodoric—but his investiture with the
consulship gave him no new authority. His rights were those of
conquest; they were not dependent on the sanction of the Emperor,
and he continued to govern the Gallo-Romans after 508 as he had
governed them before it. If he wore the Roman insignia at his entry
into Tours, he continued to wear also the crown characteristic of
barbarian kings, and along with the title of honorary consul—translated
in a prologue to the Salic law by Proconsul—he assumed that of
Augustus.
From Tours, Clovis proceeded to Paris where he now established the
seat of his government. The town was admirably situated, lying on an
island in the Seine, at a point about the middle of its course, and not
far from the points at which it receives its two great confluents, the
Marne and the Oise; well placed also for communication with the
northern plain, and with the south of France by way of the Gap of
Poitou. Already the town had overflowed to the left bank, and there
Clovis built a basilica dedicated to the Holy Apostles. This was later
the church of Ste Genevieve, close to what is now the Pantheon. In the
neighbourhood of Paris there sprang up a number of royal villae,
Clichy, Rueil, Nogent-sur-Marne, Bonneuil.
Clovis had won great victories; but there were still some Salian
tribes which were ruled over by their own kings, and round about
Cologne lay the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks. By a series
of assassinations Clovis got rid of the Salian kings, Chararic
and Ragnachar, and the two brothers of the latter, Richar and
Rignomer—the former killed near Mans—and took possession of their
territories. The details which have come down to us of the assassination
of these petty kings are legendary, but that they were murdered would
appear to be the fact. There remained the kingdom of the Ripuarians.
ch. iv. 8—2
## p. 116 (#148) ############################################
116 The Sons of Clovis [508-5&8
Clovis stirred up Chloderic against his father Sigebert the Lame and
then presented himself to the Ripuarians in the character of the
avenger of Sigebert. The Ripuarians hailed him with acclamations and
accepted him as their king: "Thus day by day God brought low his
enemies before him, so that they submitted to him, and increased his
kingdom, because he walked before Him with an upright heart and did
that which was pleasing in His sight. '1 Such is the singular reflection
which closes the narrative of all these murders. Gregory of Tours
reproduces it, borrowing it from some traditional source, and the bishop
does not seem to have been conscious how singular it was1.
Clovis died in the year 511, after holding at Orleans a council at
which a great number of the bishops of his kingdom were assembled.
He had accomplished a really great work. He had conquered nearly
the whole of Gaul, excepting the kingdom of BurgundyTProvence and
Septimania. By subjugating the Alemans he had extended his authority
even to the other side of the Rhine. He had governed this kingdom
wisely, relying chiefly on the episcopate for support. He had codified
the customary law of the Salian Franks—it is from his reign, between
the years 508 and 511, that the first redaction of the Salic law is in all
probability to be dated. He may be called with justice the founder of
the French nation.
The Merovingians regarded the kingdom as a family inheritance, the
sons dividing their father's dominions into portions as nearly equal as
possible. This was now done by the sons of Clovis, Theodoric (Thierry),
Clodomir, Childebert and Chlotar. Each of them took a share of their
father's original kingdom to the north of the Loire, and another share
from among his more recent conquests to the south of that river. As
their capitals, they chose respectively Rheims, Orleans, Paris and
Soissons. Each of the four brothers, urged by covetousness, sought to
increase his portion at the expense of his neighbour, and they carried on
a contest of intrigue and chicanery. On the death of Clodomir in 524,
Childebert and Chlotar murdered his children in order to divide his
kingdom between themselves. Two other families were also doomed to
extinction. Theodoric died in 584, leaving a very able son Theudibert,
the most remarkable among the kings of that period, but he died
in 548, and his young son Theodebald fell a victim to precocious
debauchery in 555. Childebert died in 558 and of all the descendants
of Clovis there now remained only Chlotar I. He fell heir to the whole
of the Merovingian dominions, and his power was apparently very
great. His son Chramnus rebelled against him and fled to Chonober,
count of Brittany, but the father mustered his forces and defeated
1 Greg. Tur. n. 40: Prosternebat enim cotidie Dens hostes ejus sub manu ipsius.
Loebell, Giesebrecht and others take enim in the sense of but, as is not uncommon
in Gregory. In this case the writer will be marking his disapproval of the murders.
God prospered the orthodox king notwithstanding his crimes.
## p. 117 (#149) ############################################
6i7-66i] Conquest of the Burgundian Kingdom 117
him—" like another Absalom," says Gregory of Tours. Chlotar had
him shut up in a hut with his wife and children, and caused it to be
set on fire. Afterwards, however, he was overwhelmed with remorse.
In vain he sought peace for his soul at the tomb of St Martin of Tours.
Struck down by disease he died at his palace of Compiegne, his last
words being: "What think ye of the King of Heaven who thus overthrows
the kings of earth? " His surviving sons buried him with great pomp
in the basilica of St Medard at Soissons (561).
In spite of the fact that during the greater part of this period the
kingdom was divided into four parts, it was still regarded as a unity:
there was only one Frankish kingdom, regnum Francorum. The sons
of Clovis had a common task to accomplish in the carrying on of their
father's work and the completion of the conquest of Gaul. In this they
did not fail. Clovis1 expedition against the Burgundians in 500 had
miscarried; his sons subjugated that kingdom. Sigismund the son of
Gundobad had been converted to the orthodox faith; he restored the
great monastery of Agaunum in the Valais, on the spot where St Maurice
and his comrades of the Theban legion were slain. He reformed the
Church at the great Council of Epaone in 517, where very severe
measures were adopted against the Arian heresy. But it was now too
late. Sigismund failed to win over the orthodox and he provoked a
lively discontent among the Burgundian warriors. The sons of Clovis
were not slow to profit by this. Clodomir, Childebert and Chlotar
invaded Burgundy in 523, defeated Sigismund in a pitched battle and
took him prisoner. He was handed over, with his wife and children,
to Clodomir, who had them thrown into a well at St Peravy-la-
Colombe near Orleans. And while the Franks were invading the
kingdom of Burgundy from the north, Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths,
resenting Sigismund's zeal against Arianism, had sent troops from
Provence and captured several strong-places to the north of the
Durance: Avignon, Cavaillon, Carpentras, Orange and Vaison. Bur-
gundy however regained some strength under the rule of a brother
of Sigismund named Godomar, who defeated and slew Clodomir on
25 June 524, at Vezeronce near Vienne. He endeavoured to re-
establish some order in his dominions at the assembly of Amberieux,
and his kingdom was thus enabled to prolong its existence until the year
534. At that date Childebert, Chlotar and Theudibert seized Burgundy
and divided it between them, each one taking a portion of the country
and adding it to his dominions. The kingdom of the Burgundians
had existed for nearly a century, not without a certain brilliance. A
great legislative work had been accomplished, and among them we
find a historian in Marius of Aventicum and a poet in Avitus, whom
Milton was to recall in his Paradise Lost1. For long Burgundy formed
1 Guizot in his Hittoire de la Civilisation en France, Vol. II. led. xviii. , cites some
parallels tending to shew that Milton was acquainted with the poem of Avitus on
## p. 118 (#150) ############################################
118 Conquest of Provence [536
a separate division of the Frankish kingdom, and perhaps even to-day it
is possible to recognise among the dwellers on the banks of the Saone
and the Rhone certain moral and physical characteristics of the ancient
Burgundians seven and a half feet in height, hard-workers but loving
pleasure and good wine, and fond of letting their tongues run freely and
without reserve.
The sons of Clovis also annexed Provence and the cities to the north
of the Durance which the Ostrogoths had occupied. Witigis, who was
defending himself with difficulty against the Byzantines, offered them
these territories as the price of their neutrality, if thev would refrain
from siding with Justinian. The Frankish kings divided up Provence
(536) as they had divided up Burgundy. They were now masters of the
ancient Phocaean colony of Marseilles, with the whole coast-line; at
Aries, the old Roman capital of Gaul, they presided over the games in the
amphitheatre. Along with Provence, Witigis transferred to the Franks
the suzerainty over the Alemans who in 506 had taken refuge in
Rhaetia. From this time forward the Franks were masters of the whole
of ancient Gaul, with the exception of Septimania which continued to
be held by the Visigoths. Time after time did the sons of Clovis
attempt to wrest this country from them, but all their expeditions
failed for one reason or another. Septimania continued to be united to
Spain and shared the fortunes of that country, passing along with it
under the domination of the Arabs. It was not until the reign of Pepin
that this fair region was incorporated with France.
But if the kingdom of the Franks had on the whole been greatly
extended, in one quarter the limits of their dominion had been curtailed.
In the course of the sixth century some of the Kelts, driven out of Great
Britain by the Anglo-Saxon invasions, themselves invaded the Armorican
peninsula, which like the rest of Gaul had been completely Romanised.
"They embarked with loud lamentations, and, as the wind swelled their
sails, they cried with the Psalmist 'Lord, Thou hast delivered us like
sheep to the slaughter, and hast scattered us among the nations. '"
Arriving in small separate companies they gained a foothold at the
western extremity of the peninsula. Gradually establishing themselves
among the original population, before long they ousted it, pushin.
further towards the east. The aspect of the Armorican pen
underwent a rapid change; it lost its earlier name and became
as Brittany, after its new inhabitants. In the western districts
Romanic language disappeared entirely and Keltic took its place; an
special saints with unfamiliar names were there held in honour, St Brieuc,
St Tutwal, St Malo, St Judicael. The Britons were divided into three
groups, of which each one had its own chief; round about Vannes was
the early ages of the world, of which the first three books, De Origine Mundi,
De Peceato Original* and De Sententia Dei, form, as he says, a kind of Paradise
Lott.
## p. 119 (#151) ############################################
53i-66i] Further Frankisk Conquests 119
the Bro-Waroch, so called from the name of one of the chiefs; the
group of Comovii, coming from Cornwall, established itself in the
east; to the north, from Brest harbour to the river Couesnon extended
the Domnonee, the inhabitants of which were natives of Devon. No
doubt these various chiefs recognised in theory the suzerainty of the
Frankish kings, but they were not appointed by the latter, and were
in fact independent. The western extremity of France, the ancient
Armorica, was thus separate from the rest of the country; and similarly,
between the Gironde and the Pyrenees, the Basques, who belonged to a
distinct race and spoke a peculiar dialect, maintained their independence
under the rule of their dukes.
Such was the state of the Frankish kingdom proper; but, under the
sons of Clovis, Frankish influence extended even over the neighbouring
countries. They came in contact with various Germanic peoples and
imposed their suzerainty on some of them. Clovis himself had subjugated
the Alemans; Theodebald his great-grandson entered into relations with
the Bavarians beyond the Lech. Theodoric (Thierry) and Chlotar made
war on the Thuringians and destroyed their independence (581). It was
from Thuringia that Chlotar took his wife, Radegund, who left him in
order to found the famous convent of Ste Croix, at Poitiers. Chlotar
even made war upon the Saxons, who inhabited the great plain of northern
Germany, and imposed upon them a yearly tribute of 500 cows. Spain
and Italy, too, witnessed the warlike exploits of these Frankish princes.
From an expedition against Saragossa in 542 Childebert brought back
the tunic of St Vincent, and in honour of this relic he founded at the
gates of Paris the monastery of St Vincent, later known as St Germain-
des-Pres. Theudibert made several incursions into Italy. Sometimes
posing as a friend of the Ostrogoths, at others as a friend of the
Byzantines, he plundered some of the wealthy cities and amassed large
spoils. He even made himself master for a time of Liguria, Emilia and
Venetia, and had coins minted at Bologna. Indignant because the
Emperor added to his titles that of Francicus, he even thought of
penetrating by way of the valley of the Danube into Thrace, and of
appearing in arms before Constantinople. He addressed to Justinian a
JBtoghty letter, which has come down to us. So far these sons of Clovis
|fl kbear themselves like kings. They had achieved the conquest of
Bup to the frontiers assigned by nature to that country; they had also
MrTied their arms against Germany, the country of their origin, and had
^^opened up in that direction the pathway of civilisation. Like the ancient
Gauls whom they supplanted, they had descended upon Italy, where their
incursions created widespread consternation.
To all this the epoch of the grandsons of Clovis presents a striking
contrast. The vigorous expansion of the Franks was checked. They
failed to wrest Septimania from the Visigoths and make Gaul a united
whole. No doubt they made several expeditions against the Lombards
CH. IV.
## p. 120 (#152) ############################################
120 The Grandsons of Clovis [561-575
of Italy, but these were merely plundering-raids; there were no further
conquests. The Merovingians began to turn their warlike ardour against
each other; there follows a miserable period of civil war.
Of the four sons of Chlotar I—Charibert, Guntram, Sigebert and
Chilperic—who divided their father's kingdom in 561, Charibert the
king of Paris early disappeared from the scene, dying in 567. Sigebert
king of Metz and Chilperic king of Soissons were bitterly jealous of
one another, each constantly endeavouring to filch some fragment of
the other's territory. Between these two Guntram king of Orleans
and Burgundy adopted a waiting attitude, in order to maintain the
balance of power, and giving his aid at the opportune moment to the
weaker side to prevent it from being crushed. The rivalry of the two
brothers was intensified by that of their wives, which gives to these
struggles a peculiarly ruthless character. Sigebert, whose morals were
more respectable than those of his brothers, had sent an embassy to
Toledo to the king of the Visigoths, Athanagild, to ask the hand of
his daughter Brunhild (Brunehaut) in marriage. Brunhild renounced
Arianism, professed the Trinitarian faith, and brought to her husband
a very large dowry. The marriage was celebrated at Metz with great
magnificence. The young poet Fortunatus also, who had just left his
home at Treviso, indited an epithalamium in grandiloquent lines into
which he dragged all the divinities of Olympus. The new queen was
perhaps the only person present who understood these eulogies, for she
had been brilliantly educated and spoke Latin excellently. At the half-
barbarous court of Sigebert she made a profound impression. The news
of this marriage fired Chilperic with envy. He had espoused a somewhat
insignificant woman named Audovera, and had afterwards repudiated her
in order to live in low debauchery with a serving-woman named Fredegund.
But after the marriage of Sigebert, he asked of Athanagild the hand of
the latter's eldest daughter, Galswintha. The king of the Visigoths did
not dare to refuse. Galswintha came to Soissons, and at first her husband
loved her much "because she had brought great treasures. " Before long
however he went back to his mistress, and one morning Galswintha was
found strangled in her bed. Very shortly afterwards the king married
Fredegund, and ordered the execution of his first wife Audovera. In
this way arose a bitter quarrel between Fredegund and Brunhild, the
latter burning to avenge her sister; and it may well be conceived that a
peculiarly vindictive and relentless character was thus imparted to the
civil war.
Almost at the beginning of the struggle Sigebert met his
death. He had defeated Chilperic, had conquered the greater part of
his kingdom and compelled him to shut himself up in Toumai; he was
about to be raised on the shield and proclaimed king at Vitry not far
from Arras, when two slaves sent by Fredegund struck him down with
poisoned daggers (scramasaon) (575).
The actors left upon the scene, from that time forward, were Chilperic
## p. 121 (#153) ############################################
561-584] Chilperic 121
who was now to get back his kingdom, and Brunhild who, after being
held prisoner for a time, succeeded after the most romantic adventures in
escaping from Rouen and reaching Austrasia, where her son, Childebert II
(still a child), had been proclaimed king.
Chilperic is the very type of a Merovingian despot. He had two
dominant passions, ambition and greed of gold. He desired to extend his
kingdom, he wished to accumulate treasure. He ground down his people
with taxes and caused a new assessment to be made. Many of his subjects
refused to submit to this increase of taxation, preferring to leave the
country and seek an easier life elsewhere. In his capacity as judge he
imposed especially heavy fines upon the rich as a means of confiscating
their property. He was envious of the great possessions of the Church,
complaining that "Our treasury is empty, all our wealth has passed over
to the churches; the bishops alone reign, our power is gone, it has been
transferred to the bishops of the cities. '1 He therefore pronounced void
all wills made in favour of the churches, he even revoked the gifts which
his father had left to them. He sold the bishoprics to the highest bidder,
and in his reign very few of the clergy attained to the episcopate; rich
laymen purchased the priestly office and passed in one day through the
various grades of orders. He was at once avaricious and debauched,
gourmand and cruel. He delighted in low amours and he made a god
of his belly. At the foot of his edicts he inscribes this formula:
"Whosoever sets at nought our order shall have his eyes put out. "
But with all this he was a man of original ideas. He desired that,
contrary to the strict provisions of the Salic law, women should in
certain cases be allowed to inherit land. He was no less ready to
attack religious dogma than ancient custom. He did not believe that
it is necessary to distinguish three Persons in God; he scoffed at the
anthropomorphic designations, the Father and the Son, as applied to the
Deity. He issued an edict forbidding the Trinity to be named in
prayer—the name God was alone to be used. Orthography as well as
dogma must bow to his decree. He added to the alphabet four letters,
borrowed from the Greek, to represent the long o, the "voiceless" th,
the as and the w. It was not the Germanic sounds which he wished to
represent more exactly: Chilperic despised the Germanic tongue, and
his reform was intended to apply to the Latin. He directed that children
were to be taught by the new methods; in ancient manuscripts the
writing was to be erased and reinserted with the additional letters. This
barbarian king was a devoted admirer of the Roman civilisation; he com-
posed poems in the manner of Sedulius, and wrote hymns which he also
set to music. His scepticism regarding the Trinity did not prevent him
from being superstitious: he believed in portents, in relics, in sorcerers.
He fancied himself able to outwit the Deity. Having sworn, for instance,
not to enter Paris without the consent of his brothers, he broke the
compact, but to avert misfortune he had a number of the bones of various
## p. 122 (#154) ############################################
122 Brunhild in Australia [576-487
saints carried in front of his troops. He was a fantastical and violent
man, of a strange and complex character; and it is no very flagrant
calumny when Gregory of Tours calls him the Nero and the Herod of
his time. From all these characteristics it can well be imagined that the
struggle which he carried on against Brunhild and her son was fierce
and merciless.
He wrested from them a number of towns, among them Poitiers
and Tours, and it was thus that Gregory became, to his intense
disgust, the subject of this debauched monarch, with whom he was
constantly at odds. It may well be supposed that Chilperic had stirred
up much wrath and many enmities and it is not surprising that he
died by violence. One day as he was returning from Chelles where he
had been hunting, a man came close to him and stabbed him twice with
a dagger (584). Who his assassin actually was, remained unknown.
While Chilperic succeeded in imposing his authority upon the
western Franks in the territories which formed the most recent
Frankish conquests—known a little later as Neustria, from the word
niugt "the newest"—Brunhild made strenuous efforts to preserve intact
all the prerogatives of the royal power in the eastern region, Austrasia.
Exceedingly ambitious, eager to secure her authority by every possible
means, it was she who in the name of her son Childebert II (575-596)
actually held the reins of power. The great men of the kingdom
threw themselves into an embittered struggle against her. Supported
by Chilperic and Neustria they refused to give obedience to a woman
and a foreigner. Ursio, Bertefried, Guntram-Boso and duke Rauching
placed themselves at their head and attacked the adherents of the royal
house, chief among whom was Lupus of Champagne. Brunhild tried in
vain to separate the combatants; the rebels answered brutally, "Woman,
get you gone, let it suffice you to have ruled during your husband's life-
time; now it is your son who reigns and it is not under your protection
but under ours that the kingdom is placed. Get you hence, or we shall
trample you under the hoofs of our horses. '" By vigorous action, how-
ever, the queen succeeded in re-establishing order. She formed an alliance
with Guntram king of Burgundy, who at Pompierre adopted his nephew
Childebert and recognised him as his heir (577). The pact was renewed
ten years later at Andelot (28 November 587). Brunhild got rid of
the most turbulent of her nobles by the aid of the assassin's knife;
and she suppressed the revolt of Gundobald, a bastard son of Chlotar I,
whom the nobles had brought back from Constantinople to set up in
opposition to Guntram and Childebert. Besieged in the little town of
Comminges situated in a valley of the Pyrenees, Gundobald was forced to
surrender, and a Frankish count dashed out his brains with a great stone
(585). Finally Brunhild besieged Ursio and Bertefried in a strong castle'
in Woevre. The former perished in the flames of the burning castle;
the latter took refuge at Verdun in the chapel of the bishop Agericus,
## p. 123 (#155) ############################################
584-613] Death of Brunhild 123
but the soldiers tore up the roofing and killed him with the tiles (587).
Thus, thanks to the inflexible determination of Brunhild, the Austrasian
aristocracy was vanquished. The queen also succeeded in baffling all
the plots devised against her and Childebert II by Fredegund, who since
584 had governed Neustria in the name of her infant son Chlotar II.
She succeeded so well that when Guntram died on 28 March 593,
Childebert was able to enter upon his heritage without the slightest
opposition. And when Childebert in turn was carried oft' by disease
while still young, Brunhild's authority was uncontested. Childeberfs
two sons Theodebert and Theodoric divided his kingdom between them,
the former taking Austrasia, and the latter, Burgundy. In reality their
grandmother Brunhild continued to rule in their name. Her authority
extended over both Austrasia and Burgundy and she imposed the same
measures upon both countries. The aristocracy, lay and ecclesiastical,
were obliged to conform to her laws. Regarding the royal authority
as a trust on behalf of her grandsons, she was determined on leaving it
to them intact. She had the satisfaction of seeing her rival Fredegund
die in 597; and her grandsons on several occasions defeated Chlotar II,
who lost the greater part of his territories.
But the great nobles of Austrasia rose in wrath against her, and
Theodebert himself repudiated her tutelage. The incensed Brunhild
withdrew to Burgundy, where she continued to rule. There she broke
down all resistance, had the patrician Egila put to death, exiled Didier,
bishop of Vienne, nominated her followers to every post of emolument,
and levied the taxes with the utmost rigour. But she knew that the
Burgundian rebels were encouraged by those of Austrasia. It was in
Austrasia that she must strike the decisive blow, and in her thirst for
power she did not hesitate to set Theodoric against Theodebert and so
to provoke a fratricidal struggle. The king of Austrasia was defeated
on the banks of the Moselle, in the neighbourhood of Toul, taken to
Zulpich and there put to death. Brunhild was now triumphant, but
just in the moment of her triumph her grandson Theodoric died (613)
in his palace of Metz, at the age of twenty-seven. Breaking with the
Merovingian tradition of dividing the kingdom, Brunhild caused the
eldest son to be declared sole king, in the hope of reigning in his name.
But all the living forces of Austrasia banded themselves together to
oppose her ambition. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, the two
founders of the Carolingian family, appealed to Chlotar II the son of
Fredegund. Brunhild made a magnificent effort to stand up against
the storm, but she found herself deserted on all hands, and was taken
prisoner on the shores of the Lake of Neuchatel. Her great-grandsons
were killed, or at any rate disappear from history. Brunhild herself
was tortured for three days, set upon a camel as a mark of derision,
and then tied by her hair, one arm, and one foot, to the tail of a vicious
horse, which was then lashed to fury.
## p. 124 (#156) ############################################
I
124 Chlotar II sole King [eu-629
Brunhild is undoubtedly the most forceful figure of this period,
and it would be a gross injustice to put her on the same footing with
Fredegund. It is true she was exceedingly ambitious and eager for
power, but she attempted by means of this power to carry out a policy.
She upheld with unrivalled energy the rights of the king against the
aristocracy. She treated the Church with firmness but with respect,
made gifts to the bishoprics and built a number of abbeys. She entered
into relations with Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) who addressed
to her a large number of letters, sent her relics, and requested her to
take under her protection the estates of the Church of Rome which lay
in Gaul. He urged her to reform the Frankish Church, to call councils
and to protect Augustine and his companions who were going across the
Channel to carry the Gospel to the pagan Anglo-Saxons. But while
maintaining these relations Brunhild knew how to control the Frankish
Church, as she did the lay aristocracy. She disposed of the episcopal
sees at her pleasure, and expelled from his monastery of Luxeuil the
abbot Columbanus who had refused to obey her orders. In short in all
her conduct Brunhild displayed the qualities of a great statesman.
After Brunhild's death Chlotar II found himself, as Clovis had
done before him, sole master of the whole of Gaul. But how different
are the two periods! Clovis had been strong in his recent victories,
victories due to his own courage and political ability. Chlotar II owed
his success not to himself but to the treason of the Austrasian and
Burgundian nobles, whom he was consequently obliged to conciliate.
In his constitution of 18 October 614, as well as in a praeceptio of
which the date is unknown, he had to make large concessions to the
aristocracy. He proclaimed, under certain restrictions, freedom of
episcopal elections, extended the competence of the ecclesiastical courts,
and promised to respect wills made by private persons in favour of
the Church. V He suppressed unjust taxes and pledged himself to choose
the counts from the districts they were to administer, which was equiva-
lent to making over this important office to the landed aristocracy.
Moreover Chlotar was forced to accord a measure of independence to
Austrasia and Burgundy; each of these countries had its own Mayor
of the Palace, who was as much the representative of the interests of
the local nobles as of those of the king. In 623 he was even obliged
to give the Austrasians a king in his young son Dagobert. In the
latter's name, Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, the Mayor of the
Palace, exercised the actual authority. Thus ancient Gaul became once
more distinctly divided into three kingdoms: Neustria, Burgundy and
Austrasia, having each a distinct character and a separate administra-
tion. ' Already within these kingdoms the local officials, strong in
the possession of vast estates, were endeavouring to usurp the royal
prerogatives: already these three kingdoms were being parcelled out
into seigniories.
## p. 125 (#157) ############################################
629-639] Reign of Dagobert 125
Chlotar IPs son Dagobert (629-639), however, was still a king in
something more than name. Although he had a brother Charibert he
succeeded in reigning alone over the whole Frankish kingdom. He even
subjected it to the authority of a single Mayor of the Palace, by name
Aega. He made royal progresses through Austrasia, through Neustria
and through Burgundy, sitting in judgment each day, and doing strict
justice without respect of persons. In Aquitaine he left to his brother
Charibert the administration of the counties of Toulouse, Cahors, Agen,
Perigueux and Saintes, thus making him a kind of warden of the marches
on the Basque frontier. But on the death of Charibert in 632, he took
over the government of this district also—and up to about 670 Aquitaine
remained under the rule of the Frankish kings. After that date it
broke away, and the local nobles founded independent dynasties.
Dagobert caused many estates which had been usurped by the
seigniors and the Church to be restored to the royal domain. He kept
up a luxurious court, which gave, it must be said, anything but a good
example in regard to morals. He was a patron of the arts and took
great delight in the rich examples of goldsmith's work produced by his
treasurer Eligius (Eloi), whom he afterwards appointed bishop of Noyon.
Many abbeys were founded in his reign. There was a revival of missionary
activity, too, and St Amandus preached the Gospel to the Basques in
the south and to the inhabitants of Flanders and Hainault in the north.
Throughout the whole of the kingdom the royal authority was para-
mount. The duke of the Basques came to court to swear allegiance,
and Judicael, chief of the Doinnonce, was seen at the royal residence at
Clichy. Dagobert intervened not unsuccessfully in the affairs of the
Visigoths in Spain, and in those of the Lombards in Italy. He had
also relations with the Empire of Constantinople, taking an oath of
perpetual peace with Heraclius in 631; and the two rulers took
concerted action against the Bulgarian and Slavonic tribes who raided
by turns the Byzantine Empire and the regions of Germany which were
under the suzerainty of the Franks. Towards the close of his life,
in 634, Dagobert was obliged to give to the Austrasians a king of their
own in the person of his eldest son Sigebert. Ansegis, son of Arnulf
and of a daughter of Pepin, was appointed Mayor of the Palace and
governed in the name of this child in conjunction with Cunibert, bishop
of Cologne. In spite of this, when Dagobert died (19 January 639),
in his villa at Epinay, men held him to have been a very great prince.
And his fame was to grow still greater owing to the contrast between
his reign and the period which followed it.
This new period, which extends from 639 to 751, is marked by the
lamentable decadence of the Merovingian race. It is with justice that
the sovereigns who then reigned are known as the rois JavrUarUs. It
was a dynasty of children; they died at the age of 23, 24 or 25, worn
out by precocious debauchery. They were fathers at sixteen, fifteen and
## p. 126 (#158) ############################################
126 The faineant Kings [639-751
even at fourteen years, and their children were miserable weaklings. As
kings they had only the semblance of power; they remained shut up in
their villae surrounded by great luxury. Only at long intervals did
they go forth, in chariots drawn by oxen. The real authority was
thenceforth exercised by the Mayor of the Palace, or by the different
mayors who were at the head of the three kingdoms, Neustria, Burgundy
and Austrasia, whose separateness became more clearly marked. The
mayors made and unmade the kings as interest or caprice prompted;
sometimes they exiled them, only to recall them later. Apocryphal
Merovingians were often produced who had no connexion with the
sacred race. It is useless to make any further reference to these
sovereigns, who were nothing but shadows and whose names serve only
to date charters. The historian must direct his attention exclusively to
the Mayors of the Palace.
Among these mayors the most distinguished were those of Austrasia.
They were to make the office hereditary in their family and to found
a powerful dynasty which was destined gradually to supplant the
Merovingians. The two founders of that dynasty were, as has already
been said, Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, who had been Mayor
of the Palace to the youthful Dagobert when the latter was king
of Austrasia only. Both were men of distinguished piety. Arnulf
ruled the city of Metz wisely and effected important reforms in the
Church. Pepin destined his daughters for the cloister; one of them,
Gertrude, founded the abbey of Nivelle in the district now known as
Brabant. In this neighbourhood is situated the estate of Landen;
whence the designation "of Landen" by which Pepin is distinguished
in later documents. Arnulf s son Ansegis, who was Mayor of the Palace
to the young Sigebert, married a daughter of Pepin whom the chronicles
later call Begga; of this marriage was born the second Pepin, known to
historians as Pepin of Heristal. -
At first however it seemed probable that the chief representative of
the family would be Pepin of Landen's own son Grimoald. For thirteen
years, from 643 to 656, he held the office of Mayor of the Palace in
Austrasia, while Sigebert continued to bear the title of king. On the
death of that prince Grimoald considered himself strong enough to
attempt a revolution. He had the locks of Dagobert, the young son
of Sigebert, shorn, sent him to an Irish monastery, and had his own
son proclaimed king of Austrasia. But the times were not yet ripe for
a change of this kind. The Austrasian nobles refused to obey a youth
who was not of the blood royal. They rose in revolt and gave up the.
Mayor of the Palace to the king of Neustria, Clovis II, who had him
put to death.
After this tragic event the families of Arnulf and Pepin remained in
the background for about twenty-five years. The stage of politics was
occupied by two men named Ebroin and Leodegar (Leger) who engaged
## p. 127 (#159) ############################################
670-637] Battle of Tertry 127
in a desperate rivalry. Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace in Neustria, was
intent on maintaining, for his own advantage, the unity of the Frankish
kingdom and exercising a commanding influence in Austrasia and
Burgundy as well as in Neustria. His schemes failed first in Austrasia
where he had to acknowledge a king and a Mayor of the Palace,
Wulfoald by name. In Burgundy Leodegar, bishop of Autun, placed
himself at the head of the nobles. He was at first successful and
shut up his rival in the monastery of Luxeuil (670). The principle
was accepted that each country was to keep its own laws and customs,
that no official was to be sent from one country to another, that no one
should aspire to absolute power, and that the post of Mayor of the
Palace should be held by each of the great men in turn. But Ebroin
was to take a signal vengeance. Escaping from Luxeuil, he besieged
Leodegar in Autun, and captured the town and the bishop with it. After
the lapse of a considerable time he caused the prelate to be put to
death. The Church revered Leodegar as a saint, and many monasteries
were dedicated to him. Ebroin remained master of Burgundy and
Neustria until at length, in 681, he fell by the dagger of an assassin.
But in the later portion of his life Ebroin had encountered an
obstinate resistance in Austrasia; and now the second Pepin appears
upon the scene. In Austrasia his authority was almost absolute, and
after the death of Ebroin he kept himself fully informed regarding the
affairs of Neustria and plotted against the successive Mayors of the
Palace in that country. Finally he took the field against the mayor
Berthar, and gained a decisive victory over him at Tertry on the
Omignon in the neighbourhood of St Quentin (687). Many historians
have represented this battle as a victory of the Germans of the east over
the Gallo-Romans of the west and have seen in Pepin IPs expedition
something in the nature of a second Germanic invasion. But in point
of fact there were many Germans in Neustria, while a large part of
Austrasia was occupied by Gallo-Romans. In its capital, Metz, the
Latin tongue—now in process of transformation-into the lingua Ro-
mano—was alone spoken. The victory of Pepin over Berthar is rather
a victory of the aristocracy over the Merovingian royal house; and in
fact Pepin was to find many supporters among the Neustrian nobles.
Pepin, having won the victory, now proceeded to set up again, for
his own advantage, the power which he had overthrown; in fact,
this battle marks the fall of the Merovingians and the real accession
of the new dynasty, which, from its most illustrious representative,
Charles the Great, was to be known as the Carolingian. Some chronicles
have this entry: "In the year 687 Pepin began to reign. '"
The reign of Pepin over this Merovingian kingdom which he had
succeeded in reuniting was not lacking in brilliance. He defeated the
Frisians, dispossessed them of a portion of their territory, and caused
Christianity to be preached among them. In this last work he found
CH. IV.
## p. 128 (#160) ############################################
128 Charles Martel Mayor of the Palace [714-741
a valuable auxiliary in the Anglo-Saxon Willibrord. Born on the banks
of the Humber, Willibrord had gone to Rome to have his mission
sanctioned by Pope Sergius I; for the Anglo-Saxons, who had been
converted to Christianity by the missionaries of Pope Gregory I, shewed
their gratitude by attaching to the papal see the barbarian peoples
whom they evangelised. Willibrord founded the see of Utrecht and
pointed out the way which Boniface was to follow later on. Pepin also
wished to make the Germans on the right bank of the Rhine, who
during the recent period of anarchy had cast off their allegiance,
recognise again the suzerainty of the Franks. He subjugated the
Alemans, and he established once more a member of the noble family
of the Agilolfings in the duchy of Bavaria. It was at this period
that the church of Salzburg was founded by St Rupert; and about the
same time Kilian preached the Gospel in Franconia on the banks of the
Main. Pepin protected all these missionaries and cherished the project
of assembling councils to reform the Church. From 687 till his death
in 714 Pepin II was undisputed master of the whole of Gaul, with the
exception of Aquitaine, which alone maintained an independent position.
Pepin II had appointed one grandson (Theodebald) as Mayor of the
Palace in Neustria, two others (Arnulf and Hugo)—all under the
regency of his widow Plectrude—in Austrasia. But the great men
refused to fall in with this arrangement and there ensued a period of
anarchy. Charles, an illegitimate son of Pepin, restored order, and was
the real executor of his father's policy. His name signifies valiant,
bold, ahd as the continuator of Fredegar remarks, the name fitted the
man. He wrested the power from Plectrude and took the title of
Mayor of the Palace in his nephew's stead. He defeated the Neustrians
at Ambleve near Liege (716), at Vincy near Cambrai (717), and again
at Soissons, in 719, and forced them to recognise his authority. He
made himself master of Burgundy also, and appointed his own Icuden
to the countships and bishoprics of that country. In Aquitaine the
duke, Eudo, who had his seat at Toulouse, exercised an independent
authority; but Charles obliged him in 719 to acknowledge, at least in
name, the suzerainty of the northern Franks. Charles had thus acquired
great power, and during some years he even governed without a king.
His official title remained the same, Mayor of the Palace, but he was
already called, even by his contemporaries, princeps or subreguhis. He
presided over the royal court of justice, issued decrees in his own name
and had the disposal of every appointment, lay and ecclesiastical; he
summoned the assembly of the great men of the kingdom, decided
questions of peace and war and held the command of the army. He was
king in fact if not in name.
Charles was now to save from a serious danger the realm which
he had reunited. The Arabs had conquered Spain in 711; in 720
they had crossed the Pyrenees and seized Septimania, which was a
## p. 129 (#161) ############################################
732-739] Battle of Tours (Poitiers) 129
dependency of the kingdom of the Visigoths. Using this as a base they
had invaded Gaul. Eudo, duke of Aquitaine, had succeeded, by his able
policy, in holding them in check for some years, but in 732 a new watt
or governor 'Abd-ar-Rahman, belonging to a sect of extreme fanatics,
resumed the offensive. Eudo was vanquished on the banks of the
Garonne, Bordeaux was taken and its churches burnt, and the Arabs
then advanced, by way of the Gap of Poitiers, towards the north. Poitiers
resisted their attack, but the basilica of St Hilary, situated outside the
walls, was burnt. Without halting, 'Abd-ar-Rahman continued his.
march on Tours, the resting-place of the body of St Martin, which was,
as it were, the religious capital of Gaul.
eloquent letter to Clovis, in which, while sending him a player on the
cither, he begged him to spare the remnant of the Alemans, and
declared that he took them under his protection. The Alemans, who
were now occupying the high valleys of the Alps, thus passed under the
dominion of Theodoric, and paid tribute to him. They formed a kind
of buffer-State between the kingdoms of the Franks and the Ostrogoths.
We shall see how Witigis, a successor of Theodoric, gave up these
remnants of the Alemans to the Franks (536).
As early as 507 Clovis was bending all his energies to the project of
wresting from the Visigoths the part of Gaul which they held. The
orthodox bishops were now tired of being subject to Arian rulers, and
besought the aid of the king of the Franks. Alaric II, who had
succeeded Euric in 486, was undoubtedly a tolerant ruler. He gave to
the Romans of his dominions an important code of law which is known
by the name of the Breviarium Alarici; and he allowed the bishops
more than once to meet in councils. Rut being obliged to take severe
measures against certain bishops, he was counted a persecutor. Thus,
two successive bishops of Tours, Volusianus and Verus, were driven from
that see, Ruricius of Limoges was obliged to live in exile at Rordeaux;
and all these bickerings made the bishops long for an orthodox ruler.
Causes of contention between Franks and Visigoths were not lacking.
One difficulty after another arose between the two neighbouring king-
doms. In vain the kings endeavoured to remove them, meeting for this
purpose on an island in the Loire near Amboise; in vain Theodoric
the Great wrote urging the adversaries to compose their quarrel. He
advised Alaric to be prudent and not to stake the fate of his kingdom
upon a throw of the dice. He reminded Clovis that the issue of a
battle was always uncertain, and threatened to intervene himself if the
king of the Franks proceeded to extremities. He invited Gundobad
the king of the Rurgundians to co-operate with him in maintaining
peace. He warned three kings who held the right bank of the Rhine—
the kings of the Herulians, the Warnians and the Thuringians—of the
ambitions of Clovis. It was too late; the war could not be averted.
Reyond question, Clovis was the aggressor. He mustered his troops
and made a vigorous speech to them. "It grieves me that these
Arians should hold a part of Gaul. Let us march, with the help of
God, and reduce their country to subjection. " He had with him
Chloderic, son of Sigebert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, while
Gundobad king of the Rurgundians co-operated by advancing upon the
C. MED. II. VOL. II. OH. IV. 8
## p. 114 (#146) ############################################
114 Battle of Vougle [507-508
Visigoths from the east. The decisive battle took place at Vougle, in
the neighbourhood of Poitiers (a. d. 507). The Visigoths made a heroic
resistance, in which the Arvernians, led by Apollinaris the son of the
poet Sidonius, especially distinguished themselves. But the Franks
broke down all resistance, and Clovis slew Alaric with his own hand.
After the battle the Salians effected a junction with the Burgundians,
and the combined forces advanced on Toulouse and burned that city.
Then the conquerors divided their troops into three armies. Clovis
subjugated the western part of the country, capturing Eauze, Bazas,
Bordeaux and Angouleme; his son Theodoric (Thierry) operated in the
central region, and took the cities of Albi, Rodez and Auvergne;
Gundobad advanced towards the east, into Septimania, where a bastard
son of Alaric II named Gisalic had just had himself proclaimed king,
ousting the legitimate son, Amalaric. Soon there remained to the
Visigoths, to the north of the Pyrenees, nothing but Provence, with its
capital Aries, formerly the residence of the Praetorian Praefect and
known as the "little Rome of Gaul" (Galhda Roma). The Franks and
Burgundians had laid siege to this city when the army of the Ostrogoths
came upon the scene. Theodoric had been unable to intervene earlier,
for at the beginning of 508 a Byzantine fleet, perhaps at the instigation
of Clovis, had landed a force on the shores of Apulia, and the king
of the Ostrogoths had had to turn his attention thither. At length,
in the summer, he sent an army across the Alps, and its arrival
forced the Franks and Burgundians to raise the siege of Aries. His
troops occupied the whole of Provence, but instead of restoring this
territory to the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths kept it for themselves.
Theodoric sent officials to the cities of Provence with orders to treat in
a conciliatory fashion this people which had been "restored to the bosom
of the Roman Empire. " The Ostrogoths did not however content
themselves with this success. Their general Ibbas retook Septimania
from the Franks and Burgundians, capturing Narbonne, Carcassonne
and Nimes. He left this territory, however, under the rule of Amalaric
and rid him of his rival Gisalic. Communication was thus established
along the coast of the Mediterranean between the kingdoms of the
Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
Nevertheless Clovis gained considerable advantage from the war. If
Septimania had eluded his grasp, he had extended his kingdom from
the Loire to the Pyrenees. Gundobad alone obtained no profit from
the struggle.
Clovis treated with clemency the Gallo-Roman populations whom he
had just brought under his dominion. He ordered all clergy, widows,
and serfs of the Church, who had been made prisoners by his troops
during the campaign, to be set at liberty. There was no new distribution
of lands. The Arians, indeed, were required to embrace the orthodox
faith, but even their conversion was effected rather by persuasion
## p. 115 (#147) ############################################
60s] Clovis at Tours and at Paris 115
than by force. The Arian clergy were allowed to resume their rank
in the hierarchy after a reconciliation by laying on of hands. Their
churches were not destroyed, but after reconsecration were made over to
the use of the orthodox.
On his way back from the war, Clovis in 508 visited the town of
Tours, where he made large gifts to the monastery of St Martin. At
Tours he received from the Emperor of the East, Anastasius, the patent
of consular rank. He was not entitled consul, and his name would be
sought in vain in the consular records; he was an honorary consul,
tanquam consul, as Gregory of Tours quite accurately expresses it.
He at once assumed the insignia of the consulship, with the purple
tunic and mantle of the same colour, and, starting from the church of
St Martin, he made a solemn entry into the town of Tours, and
proceeded to the cathedral of St Gatien, scattering largess as he went.
Clovis was evidently proud of this new honour, which was a proof of
the Emperor's friendship—perhaps he had come to an agreement with
the Emperor directed against Theodoric—but his investiture with the
consulship gave him no new authority. His rights were those of
conquest; they were not dependent on the sanction of the Emperor,
and he continued to govern the Gallo-Romans after 508 as he had
governed them before it. If he wore the Roman insignia at his entry
into Tours, he continued to wear also the crown characteristic of
barbarian kings, and along with the title of honorary consul—translated
in a prologue to the Salic law by Proconsul—he assumed that of
Augustus.
From Tours, Clovis proceeded to Paris where he now established the
seat of his government. The town was admirably situated, lying on an
island in the Seine, at a point about the middle of its course, and not
far from the points at which it receives its two great confluents, the
Marne and the Oise; well placed also for communication with the
northern plain, and with the south of France by way of the Gap of
Poitou. Already the town had overflowed to the left bank, and there
Clovis built a basilica dedicated to the Holy Apostles. This was later
the church of Ste Genevieve, close to what is now the Pantheon. In the
neighbourhood of Paris there sprang up a number of royal villae,
Clichy, Rueil, Nogent-sur-Marne, Bonneuil.
Clovis had won great victories; but there were still some Salian
tribes which were ruled over by their own kings, and round about
Cologne lay the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks. By a series
of assassinations Clovis got rid of the Salian kings, Chararic
and Ragnachar, and the two brothers of the latter, Richar and
Rignomer—the former killed near Mans—and took possession of their
territories. The details which have come down to us of the assassination
of these petty kings are legendary, but that they were murdered would
appear to be the fact. There remained the kingdom of the Ripuarians.
ch. iv. 8—2
## p. 116 (#148) ############################################
116 The Sons of Clovis [508-5&8
Clovis stirred up Chloderic against his father Sigebert the Lame and
then presented himself to the Ripuarians in the character of the
avenger of Sigebert. The Ripuarians hailed him with acclamations and
accepted him as their king: "Thus day by day God brought low his
enemies before him, so that they submitted to him, and increased his
kingdom, because he walked before Him with an upright heart and did
that which was pleasing in His sight. '1 Such is the singular reflection
which closes the narrative of all these murders. Gregory of Tours
reproduces it, borrowing it from some traditional source, and the bishop
does not seem to have been conscious how singular it was1.
Clovis died in the year 511, after holding at Orleans a council at
which a great number of the bishops of his kingdom were assembled.
He had accomplished a really great work. He had conquered nearly
the whole of Gaul, excepting the kingdom of BurgundyTProvence and
Septimania. By subjugating the Alemans he had extended his authority
even to the other side of the Rhine. He had governed this kingdom
wisely, relying chiefly on the episcopate for support. He had codified
the customary law of the Salian Franks—it is from his reign, between
the years 508 and 511, that the first redaction of the Salic law is in all
probability to be dated. He may be called with justice the founder of
the French nation.
The Merovingians regarded the kingdom as a family inheritance, the
sons dividing their father's dominions into portions as nearly equal as
possible. This was now done by the sons of Clovis, Theodoric (Thierry),
Clodomir, Childebert and Chlotar. Each of them took a share of their
father's original kingdom to the north of the Loire, and another share
from among his more recent conquests to the south of that river. As
their capitals, they chose respectively Rheims, Orleans, Paris and
Soissons. Each of the four brothers, urged by covetousness, sought to
increase his portion at the expense of his neighbour, and they carried on
a contest of intrigue and chicanery. On the death of Clodomir in 524,
Childebert and Chlotar murdered his children in order to divide his
kingdom between themselves. Two other families were also doomed to
extinction. Theodoric died in 584, leaving a very able son Theudibert,
the most remarkable among the kings of that period, but he died
in 548, and his young son Theodebald fell a victim to precocious
debauchery in 555. Childebert died in 558 and of all the descendants
of Clovis there now remained only Chlotar I. He fell heir to the whole
of the Merovingian dominions, and his power was apparently very
great. His son Chramnus rebelled against him and fled to Chonober,
count of Brittany, but the father mustered his forces and defeated
1 Greg. Tur. n. 40: Prosternebat enim cotidie Dens hostes ejus sub manu ipsius.
Loebell, Giesebrecht and others take enim in the sense of but, as is not uncommon
in Gregory. In this case the writer will be marking his disapproval of the murders.
God prospered the orthodox king notwithstanding his crimes.
## p. 117 (#149) ############################################
6i7-66i] Conquest of the Burgundian Kingdom 117
him—" like another Absalom," says Gregory of Tours. Chlotar had
him shut up in a hut with his wife and children, and caused it to be
set on fire. Afterwards, however, he was overwhelmed with remorse.
In vain he sought peace for his soul at the tomb of St Martin of Tours.
Struck down by disease he died at his palace of Compiegne, his last
words being: "What think ye of the King of Heaven who thus overthrows
the kings of earth? " His surviving sons buried him with great pomp
in the basilica of St Medard at Soissons (561).
In spite of the fact that during the greater part of this period the
kingdom was divided into four parts, it was still regarded as a unity:
there was only one Frankish kingdom, regnum Francorum. The sons
of Clovis had a common task to accomplish in the carrying on of their
father's work and the completion of the conquest of Gaul. In this they
did not fail. Clovis1 expedition against the Burgundians in 500 had
miscarried; his sons subjugated that kingdom. Sigismund the son of
Gundobad had been converted to the orthodox faith; he restored the
great monastery of Agaunum in the Valais, on the spot where St Maurice
and his comrades of the Theban legion were slain. He reformed the
Church at the great Council of Epaone in 517, where very severe
measures were adopted against the Arian heresy. But it was now too
late. Sigismund failed to win over the orthodox and he provoked a
lively discontent among the Burgundian warriors. The sons of Clovis
were not slow to profit by this. Clodomir, Childebert and Chlotar
invaded Burgundy in 523, defeated Sigismund in a pitched battle and
took him prisoner. He was handed over, with his wife and children,
to Clodomir, who had them thrown into a well at St Peravy-la-
Colombe near Orleans. And while the Franks were invading the
kingdom of Burgundy from the north, Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths,
resenting Sigismund's zeal against Arianism, had sent troops from
Provence and captured several strong-places to the north of the
Durance: Avignon, Cavaillon, Carpentras, Orange and Vaison. Bur-
gundy however regained some strength under the rule of a brother
of Sigismund named Godomar, who defeated and slew Clodomir on
25 June 524, at Vezeronce near Vienne. He endeavoured to re-
establish some order in his dominions at the assembly of Amberieux,
and his kingdom was thus enabled to prolong its existence until the year
534. At that date Childebert, Chlotar and Theudibert seized Burgundy
and divided it between them, each one taking a portion of the country
and adding it to his dominions. The kingdom of the Burgundians
had existed for nearly a century, not without a certain brilliance. A
great legislative work had been accomplished, and among them we
find a historian in Marius of Aventicum and a poet in Avitus, whom
Milton was to recall in his Paradise Lost1. For long Burgundy formed
1 Guizot in his Hittoire de la Civilisation en France, Vol. II. led. xviii. , cites some
parallels tending to shew that Milton was acquainted with the poem of Avitus on
## p. 118 (#150) ############################################
118 Conquest of Provence [536
a separate division of the Frankish kingdom, and perhaps even to-day it
is possible to recognise among the dwellers on the banks of the Saone
and the Rhone certain moral and physical characteristics of the ancient
Burgundians seven and a half feet in height, hard-workers but loving
pleasure and good wine, and fond of letting their tongues run freely and
without reserve.
The sons of Clovis also annexed Provence and the cities to the north
of the Durance which the Ostrogoths had occupied. Witigis, who was
defending himself with difficulty against the Byzantines, offered them
these territories as the price of their neutrality, if thev would refrain
from siding with Justinian. The Frankish kings divided up Provence
(536) as they had divided up Burgundy. They were now masters of the
ancient Phocaean colony of Marseilles, with the whole coast-line; at
Aries, the old Roman capital of Gaul, they presided over the games in the
amphitheatre. Along with Provence, Witigis transferred to the Franks
the suzerainty over the Alemans who in 506 had taken refuge in
Rhaetia. From this time forward the Franks were masters of the whole
of ancient Gaul, with the exception of Septimania which continued to
be held by the Visigoths. Time after time did the sons of Clovis
attempt to wrest this country from them, but all their expeditions
failed for one reason or another. Septimania continued to be united to
Spain and shared the fortunes of that country, passing along with it
under the domination of the Arabs. It was not until the reign of Pepin
that this fair region was incorporated with France.
But if the kingdom of the Franks had on the whole been greatly
extended, in one quarter the limits of their dominion had been curtailed.
In the course of the sixth century some of the Kelts, driven out of Great
Britain by the Anglo-Saxon invasions, themselves invaded the Armorican
peninsula, which like the rest of Gaul had been completely Romanised.
"They embarked with loud lamentations, and, as the wind swelled their
sails, they cried with the Psalmist 'Lord, Thou hast delivered us like
sheep to the slaughter, and hast scattered us among the nations. '"
Arriving in small separate companies they gained a foothold at the
western extremity of the peninsula. Gradually establishing themselves
among the original population, before long they ousted it, pushin.
further towards the east. The aspect of the Armorican pen
underwent a rapid change; it lost its earlier name and became
as Brittany, after its new inhabitants. In the western districts
Romanic language disappeared entirely and Keltic took its place; an
special saints with unfamiliar names were there held in honour, St Brieuc,
St Tutwal, St Malo, St Judicael. The Britons were divided into three
groups, of which each one had its own chief; round about Vannes was
the early ages of the world, of which the first three books, De Origine Mundi,
De Peceato Original* and De Sententia Dei, form, as he says, a kind of Paradise
Lott.
## p. 119 (#151) ############################################
53i-66i] Further Frankisk Conquests 119
the Bro-Waroch, so called from the name of one of the chiefs; the
group of Comovii, coming from Cornwall, established itself in the
east; to the north, from Brest harbour to the river Couesnon extended
the Domnonee, the inhabitants of which were natives of Devon. No
doubt these various chiefs recognised in theory the suzerainty of the
Frankish kings, but they were not appointed by the latter, and were
in fact independent. The western extremity of France, the ancient
Armorica, was thus separate from the rest of the country; and similarly,
between the Gironde and the Pyrenees, the Basques, who belonged to a
distinct race and spoke a peculiar dialect, maintained their independence
under the rule of their dukes.
Such was the state of the Frankish kingdom proper; but, under the
sons of Clovis, Frankish influence extended even over the neighbouring
countries. They came in contact with various Germanic peoples and
imposed their suzerainty on some of them. Clovis himself had subjugated
the Alemans; Theodebald his great-grandson entered into relations with
the Bavarians beyond the Lech. Theodoric (Thierry) and Chlotar made
war on the Thuringians and destroyed their independence (581). It was
from Thuringia that Chlotar took his wife, Radegund, who left him in
order to found the famous convent of Ste Croix, at Poitiers. Chlotar
even made war upon the Saxons, who inhabited the great plain of northern
Germany, and imposed upon them a yearly tribute of 500 cows. Spain
and Italy, too, witnessed the warlike exploits of these Frankish princes.
From an expedition against Saragossa in 542 Childebert brought back
the tunic of St Vincent, and in honour of this relic he founded at the
gates of Paris the monastery of St Vincent, later known as St Germain-
des-Pres. Theudibert made several incursions into Italy. Sometimes
posing as a friend of the Ostrogoths, at others as a friend of the
Byzantines, he plundered some of the wealthy cities and amassed large
spoils. He even made himself master for a time of Liguria, Emilia and
Venetia, and had coins minted at Bologna. Indignant because the
Emperor added to his titles that of Francicus, he even thought of
penetrating by way of the valley of the Danube into Thrace, and of
appearing in arms before Constantinople. He addressed to Justinian a
JBtoghty letter, which has come down to us. So far these sons of Clovis
|fl kbear themselves like kings. They had achieved the conquest of
Bup to the frontiers assigned by nature to that country; they had also
MrTied their arms against Germany, the country of their origin, and had
^^opened up in that direction the pathway of civilisation. Like the ancient
Gauls whom they supplanted, they had descended upon Italy, where their
incursions created widespread consternation.
To all this the epoch of the grandsons of Clovis presents a striking
contrast. The vigorous expansion of the Franks was checked. They
failed to wrest Septimania from the Visigoths and make Gaul a united
whole. No doubt they made several expeditions against the Lombards
CH. IV.
## p. 120 (#152) ############################################
120 The Grandsons of Clovis [561-575
of Italy, but these were merely plundering-raids; there were no further
conquests. The Merovingians began to turn their warlike ardour against
each other; there follows a miserable period of civil war.
Of the four sons of Chlotar I—Charibert, Guntram, Sigebert and
Chilperic—who divided their father's kingdom in 561, Charibert the
king of Paris early disappeared from the scene, dying in 567. Sigebert
king of Metz and Chilperic king of Soissons were bitterly jealous of
one another, each constantly endeavouring to filch some fragment of
the other's territory. Between these two Guntram king of Orleans
and Burgundy adopted a waiting attitude, in order to maintain the
balance of power, and giving his aid at the opportune moment to the
weaker side to prevent it from being crushed. The rivalry of the two
brothers was intensified by that of their wives, which gives to these
struggles a peculiarly ruthless character. Sigebert, whose morals were
more respectable than those of his brothers, had sent an embassy to
Toledo to the king of the Visigoths, Athanagild, to ask the hand of
his daughter Brunhild (Brunehaut) in marriage. Brunhild renounced
Arianism, professed the Trinitarian faith, and brought to her husband
a very large dowry. The marriage was celebrated at Metz with great
magnificence. The young poet Fortunatus also, who had just left his
home at Treviso, indited an epithalamium in grandiloquent lines into
which he dragged all the divinities of Olympus. The new queen was
perhaps the only person present who understood these eulogies, for she
had been brilliantly educated and spoke Latin excellently. At the half-
barbarous court of Sigebert she made a profound impression. The news
of this marriage fired Chilperic with envy. He had espoused a somewhat
insignificant woman named Audovera, and had afterwards repudiated her
in order to live in low debauchery with a serving-woman named Fredegund.
But after the marriage of Sigebert, he asked of Athanagild the hand of
the latter's eldest daughter, Galswintha. The king of the Visigoths did
not dare to refuse. Galswintha came to Soissons, and at first her husband
loved her much "because she had brought great treasures. " Before long
however he went back to his mistress, and one morning Galswintha was
found strangled in her bed. Very shortly afterwards the king married
Fredegund, and ordered the execution of his first wife Audovera. In
this way arose a bitter quarrel between Fredegund and Brunhild, the
latter burning to avenge her sister; and it may well be conceived that a
peculiarly vindictive and relentless character was thus imparted to the
civil war.
Almost at the beginning of the struggle Sigebert met his
death. He had defeated Chilperic, had conquered the greater part of
his kingdom and compelled him to shut himself up in Toumai; he was
about to be raised on the shield and proclaimed king at Vitry not far
from Arras, when two slaves sent by Fredegund struck him down with
poisoned daggers (scramasaon) (575).
The actors left upon the scene, from that time forward, were Chilperic
## p. 121 (#153) ############################################
561-584] Chilperic 121
who was now to get back his kingdom, and Brunhild who, after being
held prisoner for a time, succeeded after the most romantic adventures in
escaping from Rouen and reaching Austrasia, where her son, Childebert II
(still a child), had been proclaimed king.
Chilperic is the very type of a Merovingian despot. He had two
dominant passions, ambition and greed of gold. He desired to extend his
kingdom, he wished to accumulate treasure. He ground down his people
with taxes and caused a new assessment to be made. Many of his subjects
refused to submit to this increase of taxation, preferring to leave the
country and seek an easier life elsewhere. In his capacity as judge he
imposed especially heavy fines upon the rich as a means of confiscating
their property. He was envious of the great possessions of the Church,
complaining that "Our treasury is empty, all our wealth has passed over
to the churches; the bishops alone reign, our power is gone, it has been
transferred to the bishops of the cities. '1 He therefore pronounced void
all wills made in favour of the churches, he even revoked the gifts which
his father had left to them. He sold the bishoprics to the highest bidder,
and in his reign very few of the clergy attained to the episcopate; rich
laymen purchased the priestly office and passed in one day through the
various grades of orders. He was at once avaricious and debauched,
gourmand and cruel. He delighted in low amours and he made a god
of his belly. At the foot of his edicts he inscribes this formula:
"Whosoever sets at nought our order shall have his eyes put out. "
But with all this he was a man of original ideas. He desired that,
contrary to the strict provisions of the Salic law, women should in
certain cases be allowed to inherit land. He was no less ready to
attack religious dogma than ancient custom. He did not believe that
it is necessary to distinguish three Persons in God; he scoffed at the
anthropomorphic designations, the Father and the Son, as applied to the
Deity. He issued an edict forbidding the Trinity to be named in
prayer—the name God was alone to be used. Orthography as well as
dogma must bow to his decree. He added to the alphabet four letters,
borrowed from the Greek, to represent the long o, the "voiceless" th,
the as and the w. It was not the Germanic sounds which he wished to
represent more exactly: Chilperic despised the Germanic tongue, and
his reform was intended to apply to the Latin. He directed that children
were to be taught by the new methods; in ancient manuscripts the
writing was to be erased and reinserted with the additional letters. This
barbarian king was a devoted admirer of the Roman civilisation; he com-
posed poems in the manner of Sedulius, and wrote hymns which he also
set to music. His scepticism regarding the Trinity did not prevent him
from being superstitious: he believed in portents, in relics, in sorcerers.
He fancied himself able to outwit the Deity. Having sworn, for instance,
not to enter Paris without the consent of his brothers, he broke the
compact, but to avert misfortune he had a number of the bones of various
## p. 122 (#154) ############################################
122 Brunhild in Australia [576-487
saints carried in front of his troops. He was a fantastical and violent
man, of a strange and complex character; and it is no very flagrant
calumny when Gregory of Tours calls him the Nero and the Herod of
his time. From all these characteristics it can well be imagined that the
struggle which he carried on against Brunhild and her son was fierce
and merciless.
He wrested from them a number of towns, among them Poitiers
and Tours, and it was thus that Gregory became, to his intense
disgust, the subject of this debauched monarch, with whom he was
constantly at odds. It may well be supposed that Chilperic had stirred
up much wrath and many enmities and it is not surprising that he
died by violence. One day as he was returning from Chelles where he
had been hunting, a man came close to him and stabbed him twice with
a dagger (584). Who his assassin actually was, remained unknown.
While Chilperic succeeded in imposing his authority upon the
western Franks in the territories which formed the most recent
Frankish conquests—known a little later as Neustria, from the word
niugt "the newest"—Brunhild made strenuous efforts to preserve intact
all the prerogatives of the royal power in the eastern region, Austrasia.
Exceedingly ambitious, eager to secure her authority by every possible
means, it was she who in the name of her son Childebert II (575-596)
actually held the reins of power. The great men of the kingdom
threw themselves into an embittered struggle against her. Supported
by Chilperic and Neustria they refused to give obedience to a woman
and a foreigner. Ursio, Bertefried, Guntram-Boso and duke Rauching
placed themselves at their head and attacked the adherents of the royal
house, chief among whom was Lupus of Champagne. Brunhild tried in
vain to separate the combatants; the rebels answered brutally, "Woman,
get you gone, let it suffice you to have ruled during your husband's life-
time; now it is your son who reigns and it is not under your protection
but under ours that the kingdom is placed. Get you hence, or we shall
trample you under the hoofs of our horses. '" By vigorous action, how-
ever, the queen succeeded in re-establishing order. She formed an alliance
with Guntram king of Burgundy, who at Pompierre adopted his nephew
Childebert and recognised him as his heir (577). The pact was renewed
ten years later at Andelot (28 November 587). Brunhild got rid of
the most turbulent of her nobles by the aid of the assassin's knife;
and she suppressed the revolt of Gundobald, a bastard son of Chlotar I,
whom the nobles had brought back from Constantinople to set up in
opposition to Guntram and Childebert. Besieged in the little town of
Comminges situated in a valley of the Pyrenees, Gundobald was forced to
surrender, and a Frankish count dashed out his brains with a great stone
(585). Finally Brunhild besieged Ursio and Bertefried in a strong castle'
in Woevre. The former perished in the flames of the burning castle;
the latter took refuge at Verdun in the chapel of the bishop Agericus,
## p. 123 (#155) ############################################
584-613] Death of Brunhild 123
but the soldiers tore up the roofing and killed him with the tiles (587).
Thus, thanks to the inflexible determination of Brunhild, the Austrasian
aristocracy was vanquished. The queen also succeeded in baffling all
the plots devised against her and Childebert II by Fredegund, who since
584 had governed Neustria in the name of her infant son Chlotar II.
She succeeded so well that when Guntram died on 28 March 593,
Childebert was able to enter upon his heritage without the slightest
opposition. And when Childebert in turn was carried oft' by disease
while still young, Brunhild's authority was uncontested. Childeberfs
two sons Theodebert and Theodoric divided his kingdom between them,
the former taking Austrasia, and the latter, Burgundy. In reality their
grandmother Brunhild continued to rule in their name. Her authority
extended over both Austrasia and Burgundy and she imposed the same
measures upon both countries. The aristocracy, lay and ecclesiastical,
were obliged to conform to her laws. Regarding the royal authority
as a trust on behalf of her grandsons, she was determined on leaving it
to them intact. She had the satisfaction of seeing her rival Fredegund
die in 597; and her grandsons on several occasions defeated Chlotar II,
who lost the greater part of his territories.
But the great nobles of Austrasia rose in wrath against her, and
Theodebert himself repudiated her tutelage. The incensed Brunhild
withdrew to Burgundy, where she continued to rule. There she broke
down all resistance, had the patrician Egila put to death, exiled Didier,
bishop of Vienne, nominated her followers to every post of emolument,
and levied the taxes with the utmost rigour. But she knew that the
Burgundian rebels were encouraged by those of Austrasia. It was in
Austrasia that she must strike the decisive blow, and in her thirst for
power she did not hesitate to set Theodoric against Theodebert and so
to provoke a fratricidal struggle. The king of Austrasia was defeated
on the banks of the Moselle, in the neighbourhood of Toul, taken to
Zulpich and there put to death. Brunhild was now triumphant, but
just in the moment of her triumph her grandson Theodoric died (613)
in his palace of Metz, at the age of twenty-seven. Breaking with the
Merovingian tradition of dividing the kingdom, Brunhild caused the
eldest son to be declared sole king, in the hope of reigning in his name.
But all the living forces of Austrasia banded themselves together to
oppose her ambition. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, the two
founders of the Carolingian family, appealed to Chlotar II the son of
Fredegund. Brunhild made a magnificent effort to stand up against
the storm, but she found herself deserted on all hands, and was taken
prisoner on the shores of the Lake of Neuchatel. Her great-grandsons
were killed, or at any rate disappear from history. Brunhild herself
was tortured for three days, set upon a camel as a mark of derision,
and then tied by her hair, one arm, and one foot, to the tail of a vicious
horse, which was then lashed to fury.
## p. 124 (#156) ############################################
I
124 Chlotar II sole King [eu-629
Brunhild is undoubtedly the most forceful figure of this period,
and it would be a gross injustice to put her on the same footing with
Fredegund. It is true she was exceedingly ambitious and eager for
power, but she attempted by means of this power to carry out a policy.
She upheld with unrivalled energy the rights of the king against the
aristocracy. She treated the Church with firmness but with respect,
made gifts to the bishoprics and built a number of abbeys. She entered
into relations with Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) who addressed
to her a large number of letters, sent her relics, and requested her to
take under her protection the estates of the Church of Rome which lay
in Gaul. He urged her to reform the Frankish Church, to call councils
and to protect Augustine and his companions who were going across the
Channel to carry the Gospel to the pagan Anglo-Saxons. But while
maintaining these relations Brunhild knew how to control the Frankish
Church, as she did the lay aristocracy. She disposed of the episcopal
sees at her pleasure, and expelled from his monastery of Luxeuil the
abbot Columbanus who had refused to obey her orders. In short in all
her conduct Brunhild displayed the qualities of a great statesman.
After Brunhild's death Chlotar II found himself, as Clovis had
done before him, sole master of the whole of Gaul. But how different
are the two periods! Clovis had been strong in his recent victories,
victories due to his own courage and political ability. Chlotar II owed
his success not to himself but to the treason of the Austrasian and
Burgundian nobles, whom he was consequently obliged to conciliate.
In his constitution of 18 October 614, as well as in a praeceptio of
which the date is unknown, he had to make large concessions to the
aristocracy. He proclaimed, under certain restrictions, freedom of
episcopal elections, extended the competence of the ecclesiastical courts,
and promised to respect wills made by private persons in favour of
the Church. V He suppressed unjust taxes and pledged himself to choose
the counts from the districts they were to administer, which was equiva-
lent to making over this important office to the landed aristocracy.
Moreover Chlotar was forced to accord a measure of independence to
Austrasia and Burgundy; each of these countries had its own Mayor
of the Palace, who was as much the representative of the interests of
the local nobles as of those of the king. In 623 he was even obliged
to give the Austrasians a king in his young son Dagobert. In the
latter's name, Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, the Mayor of the
Palace, exercised the actual authority. Thus ancient Gaul became once
more distinctly divided into three kingdoms: Neustria, Burgundy and
Austrasia, having each a distinct character and a separate administra-
tion. ' Already within these kingdoms the local officials, strong in
the possession of vast estates, were endeavouring to usurp the royal
prerogatives: already these three kingdoms were being parcelled out
into seigniories.
## p. 125 (#157) ############################################
629-639] Reign of Dagobert 125
Chlotar IPs son Dagobert (629-639), however, was still a king in
something more than name. Although he had a brother Charibert he
succeeded in reigning alone over the whole Frankish kingdom. He even
subjected it to the authority of a single Mayor of the Palace, by name
Aega. He made royal progresses through Austrasia, through Neustria
and through Burgundy, sitting in judgment each day, and doing strict
justice without respect of persons. In Aquitaine he left to his brother
Charibert the administration of the counties of Toulouse, Cahors, Agen,
Perigueux and Saintes, thus making him a kind of warden of the marches
on the Basque frontier. But on the death of Charibert in 632, he took
over the government of this district also—and up to about 670 Aquitaine
remained under the rule of the Frankish kings. After that date it
broke away, and the local nobles founded independent dynasties.
Dagobert caused many estates which had been usurped by the
seigniors and the Church to be restored to the royal domain. He kept
up a luxurious court, which gave, it must be said, anything but a good
example in regard to morals. He was a patron of the arts and took
great delight in the rich examples of goldsmith's work produced by his
treasurer Eligius (Eloi), whom he afterwards appointed bishop of Noyon.
Many abbeys were founded in his reign. There was a revival of missionary
activity, too, and St Amandus preached the Gospel to the Basques in
the south and to the inhabitants of Flanders and Hainault in the north.
Throughout the whole of the kingdom the royal authority was para-
mount. The duke of the Basques came to court to swear allegiance,
and Judicael, chief of the Doinnonce, was seen at the royal residence at
Clichy. Dagobert intervened not unsuccessfully in the affairs of the
Visigoths in Spain, and in those of the Lombards in Italy. He had
also relations with the Empire of Constantinople, taking an oath of
perpetual peace with Heraclius in 631; and the two rulers took
concerted action against the Bulgarian and Slavonic tribes who raided
by turns the Byzantine Empire and the regions of Germany which were
under the suzerainty of the Franks. Towards the close of his life,
in 634, Dagobert was obliged to give to the Austrasians a king of their
own in the person of his eldest son Sigebert. Ansegis, son of Arnulf
and of a daughter of Pepin, was appointed Mayor of the Palace and
governed in the name of this child in conjunction with Cunibert, bishop
of Cologne. In spite of this, when Dagobert died (19 January 639),
in his villa at Epinay, men held him to have been a very great prince.
And his fame was to grow still greater owing to the contrast between
his reign and the period which followed it.
This new period, which extends from 639 to 751, is marked by the
lamentable decadence of the Merovingian race. It is with justice that
the sovereigns who then reigned are known as the rois JavrUarUs. It
was a dynasty of children; they died at the age of 23, 24 or 25, worn
out by precocious debauchery. They were fathers at sixteen, fifteen and
## p. 126 (#158) ############################################
126 The faineant Kings [639-751
even at fourteen years, and their children were miserable weaklings. As
kings they had only the semblance of power; they remained shut up in
their villae surrounded by great luxury. Only at long intervals did
they go forth, in chariots drawn by oxen. The real authority was
thenceforth exercised by the Mayor of the Palace, or by the different
mayors who were at the head of the three kingdoms, Neustria, Burgundy
and Austrasia, whose separateness became more clearly marked. The
mayors made and unmade the kings as interest or caprice prompted;
sometimes they exiled them, only to recall them later. Apocryphal
Merovingians were often produced who had no connexion with the
sacred race. It is useless to make any further reference to these
sovereigns, who were nothing but shadows and whose names serve only
to date charters. The historian must direct his attention exclusively to
the Mayors of the Palace.
Among these mayors the most distinguished were those of Austrasia.
They were to make the office hereditary in their family and to found
a powerful dynasty which was destined gradually to supplant the
Merovingians. The two founders of that dynasty were, as has already
been said, Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and Pepin, who had been Mayor
of the Palace to the youthful Dagobert when the latter was king
of Austrasia only. Both were men of distinguished piety. Arnulf
ruled the city of Metz wisely and effected important reforms in the
Church. Pepin destined his daughters for the cloister; one of them,
Gertrude, founded the abbey of Nivelle in the district now known as
Brabant. In this neighbourhood is situated the estate of Landen;
whence the designation "of Landen" by which Pepin is distinguished
in later documents. Arnulf s son Ansegis, who was Mayor of the Palace
to the young Sigebert, married a daughter of Pepin whom the chronicles
later call Begga; of this marriage was born the second Pepin, known to
historians as Pepin of Heristal. -
At first however it seemed probable that the chief representative of
the family would be Pepin of Landen's own son Grimoald. For thirteen
years, from 643 to 656, he held the office of Mayor of the Palace in
Austrasia, while Sigebert continued to bear the title of king. On the
death of that prince Grimoald considered himself strong enough to
attempt a revolution. He had the locks of Dagobert, the young son
of Sigebert, shorn, sent him to an Irish monastery, and had his own
son proclaimed king of Austrasia. But the times were not yet ripe for
a change of this kind. The Austrasian nobles refused to obey a youth
who was not of the blood royal. They rose in revolt and gave up the.
Mayor of the Palace to the king of Neustria, Clovis II, who had him
put to death.
After this tragic event the families of Arnulf and Pepin remained in
the background for about twenty-five years. The stage of politics was
occupied by two men named Ebroin and Leodegar (Leger) who engaged
## p. 127 (#159) ############################################
670-637] Battle of Tertry 127
in a desperate rivalry. Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace in Neustria, was
intent on maintaining, for his own advantage, the unity of the Frankish
kingdom and exercising a commanding influence in Austrasia and
Burgundy as well as in Neustria. His schemes failed first in Austrasia
where he had to acknowledge a king and a Mayor of the Palace,
Wulfoald by name. In Burgundy Leodegar, bishop of Autun, placed
himself at the head of the nobles. He was at first successful and
shut up his rival in the monastery of Luxeuil (670). The principle
was accepted that each country was to keep its own laws and customs,
that no official was to be sent from one country to another, that no one
should aspire to absolute power, and that the post of Mayor of the
Palace should be held by each of the great men in turn. But Ebroin
was to take a signal vengeance. Escaping from Luxeuil, he besieged
Leodegar in Autun, and captured the town and the bishop with it. After
the lapse of a considerable time he caused the prelate to be put to
death. The Church revered Leodegar as a saint, and many monasteries
were dedicated to him. Ebroin remained master of Burgundy and
Neustria until at length, in 681, he fell by the dagger of an assassin.
But in the later portion of his life Ebroin had encountered an
obstinate resistance in Austrasia; and now the second Pepin appears
upon the scene. In Austrasia his authority was almost absolute, and
after the death of Ebroin he kept himself fully informed regarding the
affairs of Neustria and plotted against the successive Mayors of the
Palace in that country. Finally he took the field against the mayor
Berthar, and gained a decisive victory over him at Tertry on the
Omignon in the neighbourhood of St Quentin (687). Many historians
have represented this battle as a victory of the Germans of the east over
the Gallo-Romans of the west and have seen in Pepin IPs expedition
something in the nature of a second Germanic invasion. But in point
of fact there were many Germans in Neustria, while a large part of
Austrasia was occupied by Gallo-Romans. In its capital, Metz, the
Latin tongue—now in process of transformation-into the lingua Ro-
mano—was alone spoken. The victory of Pepin over Berthar is rather
a victory of the aristocracy over the Merovingian royal house; and in
fact Pepin was to find many supporters among the Neustrian nobles.
Pepin, having won the victory, now proceeded to set up again, for
his own advantage, the power which he had overthrown; in fact,
this battle marks the fall of the Merovingians and the real accession
of the new dynasty, which, from its most illustrious representative,
Charles the Great, was to be known as the Carolingian. Some chronicles
have this entry: "In the year 687 Pepin began to reign. '"
The reign of Pepin over this Merovingian kingdom which he had
succeeded in reuniting was not lacking in brilliance. He defeated the
Frisians, dispossessed them of a portion of their territory, and caused
Christianity to be preached among them. In this last work he found
CH. IV.
## p. 128 (#160) ############################################
128 Charles Martel Mayor of the Palace [714-741
a valuable auxiliary in the Anglo-Saxon Willibrord. Born on the banks
of the Humber, Willibrord had gone to Rome to have his mission
sanctioned by Pope Sergius I; for the Anglo-Saxons, who had been
converted to Christianity by the missionaries of Pope Gregory I, shewed
their gratitude by attaching to the papal see the barbarian peoples
whom they evangelised. Willibrord founded the see of Utrecht and
pointed out the way which Boniface was to follow later on. Pepin also
wished to make the Germans on the right bank of the Rhine, who
during the recent period of anarchy had cast off their allegiance,
recognise again the suzerainty of the Franks. He subjugated the
Alemans, and he established once more a member of the noble family
of the Agilolfings in the duchy of Bavaria. It was at this period
that the church of Salzburg was founded by St Rupert; and about the
same time Kilian preached the Gospel in Franconia on the banks of the
Main. Pepin protected all these missionaries and cherished the project
of assembling councils to reform the Church. From 687 till his death
in 714 Pepin II was undisputed master of the whole of Gaul, with the
exception of Aquitaine, which alone maintained an independent position.
Pepin II had appointed one grandson (Theodebald) as Mayor of the
Palace in Neustria, two others (Arnulf and Hugo)—all under the
regency of his widow Plectrude—in Austrasia. But the great men
refused to fall in with this arrangement and there ensued a period of
anarchy. Charles, an illegitimate son of Pepin, restored order, and was
the real executor of his father's policy. His name signifies valiant,
bold, ahd as the continuator of Fredegar remarks, the name fitted the
man. He wrested the power from Plectrude and took the title of
Mayor of the Palace in his nephew's stead. He defeated the Neustrians
at Ambleve near Liege (716), at Vincy near Cambrai (717), and again
at Soissons, in 719, and forced them to recognise his authority. He
made himself master of Burgundy also, and appointed his own Icuden
to the countships and bishoprics of that country. In Aquitaine the
duke, Eudo, who had his seat at Toulouse, exercised an independent
authority; but Charles obliged him in 719 to acknowledge, at least in
name, the suzerainty of the northern Franks. Charles had thus acquired
great power, and during some years he even governed without a king.
His official title remained the same, Mayor of the Palace, but he was
already called, even by his contemporaries, princeps or subreguhis. He
presided over the royal court of justice, issued decrees in his own name
and had the disposal of every appointment, lay and ecclesiastical; he
summoned the assembly of the great men of the kingdom, decided
questions of peace and war and held the command of the army. He was
king in fact if not in name.
Charles was now to save from a serious danger the realm which
he had reunited. The Arabs had conquered Spain in 711; in 720
they had crossed the Pyrenees and seized Septimania, which was a
## p. 129 (#161) ############################################
732-739] Battle of Tours (Poitiers) 129
dependency of the kingdom of the Visigoths. Using this as a base they
had invaded Gaul. Eudo, duke of Aquitaine, had succeeded, by his able
policy, in holding them in check for some years, but in 732 a new watt
or governor 'Abd-ar-Rahman, belonging to a sect of extreme fanatics,
resumed the offensive. Eudo was vanquished on the banks of the
Garonne, Bordeaux was taken and its churches burnt, and the Arabs
then advanced, by way of the Gap of Poitiers, towards the north. Poitiers
resisted their attack, but the basilica of St Hilary, situated outside the
walls, was burnt. Without halting, 'Abd-ar-Rahman continued his.
march on Tours, the resting-place of the body of St Martin, which was,
as it were, the religious capital of Gaul.
