THE FRANK CONFEDERACY.--CLOVIS, THE FOUNDER OF THE FRANK MONARCHY.
A great deal of labor and ingenuity has been wasted in futile
endeavors to trace the origin of a _distinct_ Frank nation; however,
after exhausting every possible means of research, and every probable
and improbable suggestion of fancy, the most rational writers are
now agreed in looking upon the supposed existence of a distinct
FRANK nation as a myth,[71] and in believing that the name of
_Franks_ or _Freemen_ was assumed, most probably about the middle
of the third century after Christ, by a _league of several Germanic
nations_, of whom the most important were the SIGAMBRIANS and the
CATTI. The former constituted, with the BRUCTERI, the CHAMAVIANS,
the CHATTUARII, and perhaps also part of the BATAVIANS, the _lower_
branch of the confederacy; towards the end of the third century their
settlements extended along the eastern bank of the Rhine, from the
Lippe down to the mouth of the great German river; they occupied
also the island of the Batavians, and the land between the Rhine and
Meuse, and down to the Scheld. From the settlement of the Sigambrians
on the _Yssel_ or _Sala_, this branch of the confederacy received
the name of the _Salian_[72] Franks. The CATTI, the AMBSIVARIANS,
and some other tribes, (including perhaps even the HERMUNDURI, or
THURINGIANS?) constituted the _upper_ branch of the confederacy.
The upper Franks extended their settlements from the lands between
the Mein and Lippe gradually along both banks of the Rhine, from
Mayence to Cologne; and, although repeatedly driven back by the
Romans, they ultimately retained possession of the left bank of the
river; whence they were also called _Riparian_ or _Ripuarian_ Franks
(from the Latin _ripa_, bank, shore).
The Franks repeatedly invaded Gaul, more particularly in the reigns
of Valerian[73] (253-260), and of Gallienus (260-268); and though
the Romans boast of numerous victories achieved at the time against
them, under the leadership of Posthumus, the general of Valerian,
but who afterwards usurped the empire in Gaul,[74] yet it is certain
that the Franks not only carried their devastations from the Rhine
to the foot of the Pyrenees, but numbers of them actually crossed
these mountains, and ravaged Spain during twelve years; when they had
exhausted that unfortunate country, they seized on some vessels in
the ports of Spain, and crossed over to the coast of Africa, where
their sudden appearance created the utmost consternation. The Emperor
Probus defeated the Franks in 277, and transported a colony of them
to the sea-coast of Pontus, where he established them with a view
of strengthening the frontier against the inroads of the Alani. But
impelled by their unconquerable love of country and freedom, they
seized on a number of vessels in one of the harbors of the Euxine,
sailed boldly through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and, cruising
along the coast of the Mediterranean, made frequent descents upon
the coasts of Asia, Greece, and Africa, and actually took and sacked
the opulent city of Syracuse, in the island of Sicily; whence they
proceeded to the Columns of Hercules, where they made their way into
the Atlantic, and coasting round Spain and Gaul, reached the British
Channel, sailed through it, and landed ultimately in safety, and
richly laden with spoil, on the Batavian shore.
In 287, the Menapian CARAUSIUS, who usurped the imperial purple in
Britain, granted to the Franks the island of the Batavians, and the
land between Meuse and Scheld. CONSTANTIUS (293), and CONSTANTINE
(313), expelled them from these provinces; the Ripuarians also felt
the heavy hand of Constantine, and of his son CRISPUS; the latter
expelled them for a time from the left bank of the Rhine. But Julian
found both the Salians and the Ripuarians in their old places; and,
though successful against both (357 and 358), contented himself with
the partial expulsion of the Ripuarians and the Chamavians, leaving
the Sigambrians in quiet possession of the island of the Batavians,
and the extensive district of Brabant, which they had occupied, on
condition that they should henceforth hold themselves subjects and
auxiliaries of the Roman empire. However, the expelled tribes soon
made their reappearance on the banks of the Rhine, and, at the end of
the fourth century, the Franks had regained complete possession of
their old quarters.
Stilicho, the great minister and general of the contemptible
Honorius, made it one of the first acts of his administration to
secure the alliance of the warlike Franks against the enemies of
Rome (395). He succeeded so well, it would appear, that the Franks
actually handed over to the discretion of his justice, one of their
kings or dukes,[75] Marcomir, who was accused of having violated the
faith of treaties; the accused prince was exiled to Tuscany, his
brother SUNNO, who attempted to avenge the insult which he deemed
had been put upon the nation by this degradation of the dignity of
one of its chiefs, met with a harsher fate at the hands of his own
countrymen: he was slain by them; and the princes whom Stilicho had
appointed, were cheerfully acknowledged. The fact that Stilicho
himself was of German (Vandalian) extraction, may account in some
degree for this extraordinary subserviency of the Franks to the will
and wishes of the master of the Western Empire. On this occasion, the
Franks had engaged to protect the province of Gaul against invasion
from the side of Germany. An opportunity of proving their sincerity
and fidelity to Rome, or perhaps rather to the great minister who
had made the treaty of alliance with them, offered in the year 406,
when the confederated nations of the VANDALS, the ALANI, the SUEVI,
and the BURGUNDIANS, were moving in a body to the Rhine with the
intention of invading Gaul; and most honestly and valiantly indeed
did the Franks acquit themselves of the duty undertaken by them. It
so happened that the Vandals were the first to make their appearance
on the bank of the river; proudly relying on their numbers they
attempted to force the passage, without awaiting the coming up of
the other confederated nations. They paid the penalty of their
rashness; twenty thousand of them were slain, among them their king,
GODIGISCLUS; and the opportune arrival of the ALANI, whose squadrons
trampled down the infantry of the Franks, alone saved the nation of
the Vandals from total destruction. Attacked by the combined forces
of the confederates, the Franks were at last compelled to give way.
On the 31st December, 406, the Suevi, the Alani, the Vandals, and the
Burgundians, crossed the frozen Rhine without further opposition, and
thus entered the defenceless provinces of Gaul, where the Burgundians
formed a lasting settlement, the other nations of the confederacy
proceeding subsequently further on to Spain and Lusitania.
History leaves us in the dark as to the period when the Franks first
submitted to the sway of _hereditary_ princes; but this much seems
certain, that it must have been long before the time of Pharamond;
and also that their long-haired kings[76] did not derive the name of
_Merovingians_, from Meroveus, the grandson of Pharamond, but either
from some more ancient Meroveus; or perhaps from _Merve_, the name
which the Meuse receives after its union with the Waal (an arm of the
Rhine); or from the same name of a castle near Dortrecht, supposed to
have been the family seat of the Frankian kings.
It would appear that PHARAMOND, the son of Marcomir, was elevated
on the buckler,[77] about 410, and that his son CLODION succeeded
him in 428. It is somewhat doubtful whether these two kings held
sway over the Ripuarians as well as over the Salians, or even over
all the nations which constituted the league of the latter. Clodion
had his residence at _Dispargum_ (Duisborch?[78]), in Brabant,
somewhere between Louvain and Brussels. Soon after his accession,
this prince invaded Belgic Gaul, took Tournay and Cambray, and
advanced as far as the river Somme. He was surprised and defeated in
the plains of Artois, by ÆTIUS, the general of the Western empire
(430); but that astute politician deemed it the wiser course to
secure the friendship of the powerful leader of the warlike Franks,
and therefore conceded to him free possession of the conquered
province. _Clodion_ died about 448 (450?) He left two sons who
disputed his succession. All we can gather from the very confused and
contradictory accounts of this period, is that the younger of the two
sons, whose name is not mentioned, was raised on the buckler by the
Ripuarian, the elder, MERVEY or MEROVEUS,[79] by the Salian Franks;
and that the former joined ATTILA in his invasion of Gaul, and fought
on the side of the Huns in the great battle of Chalons (451); whilst
Meroveus, with his Salians joined the standard of Ætius, and combated
on the side of the Romans and Visigoths. Mervey’s son, CHILDERIC,
offended the Franks by his excesses and his arbitrary proceedings:
he was deposed by them, and was compelled to seek a refuge at the
court of the King of the Thuringians, BISINUS or BASINUS. The
Franks having thus disposed of their king, proceeded to bestow the
royal dignity upon ÆGIDIUS, the Roman master-general of Gaul, who,
after the compelled abdication and the most suspicious death of the
Emperor MAJORIAN, in 461, had refused to acknowledge the successor
forced upon the acceptance of the Roman Senate by the all-powerful
Patrician RICIMER, the instigator of Majorian’s fall, and had
assumed the sovereignty over the _remnant_ of the Gallic province
which still obeyed the Roman sway. However, a few years after, the
Franks, who found the Roman system of taxation more oppressive and
objectionable than any act of Childeric’s, recalled that prince,
and, under his guidance, expelled the “tax-gatherers” (465). Ægidius
acquiesced with a good grace in a change which he had not the power
to oppose. Childeric had been most hospitably entertained by King
BISINUS; but the _hospitality_ extended to him by the wife of that
monarch, Queen BASINA, was, by all accounts, still more _liberal_
than that shown to the interesting guest by her worthy husband.
After Childeric’s restoration, Basina left her husband, and rejoined
her lover: the fruit of this voluntary union was CLOVIS, who, at
the age of fifteen, succeeded, by his father’s death, to the rule
of that portion of the Salian territory, over which Childeric had
held sway, and which was confined to the island of the Batavians,
with the ancient dioceses of Tournay and Arras; for the custom of
the Franks to divide the treasures and territories of a deceased
duke or king equally among his sons, had had the natural effect
to split the kingdom of Pharamond into several parts independent
of each other. CLOVIS combined with an insatiable ambition, all
the qualities requisite to satisfy that all-absorbing passion. His
personal bravery was controlled and directed by cool and consummate
prudence. He wielded the _francisca_ (the battle-axe of the Franks)
with formidable strength and skill; and he did not hesitate, when
occasion required, to make his own soldiers feel the weight of
his arm and the precision of his aim. He subjected the barbarians
whom he commanded to the strict rules of a severe discipline which
he enforced with unbending rigor. A crafty and astute politician,
he was endowed with the most essential requisites for success,
_patience_ and _perseverance_. In the pursuit and accomplishment of
his ambitious designs, he trampled on every law of God and nature: no
feeling of pity ever stayed, no fear of retribution ever restrained,
his murderous hands. He was indeed the worthy progenitor of a line of
princes fit to take the proudest place among the highest aristocracy
of crime, to put to the blush the _Neros_, the _Caligulas_, the
_Domitians_, the _Caracallas_, the _Elagabalus_ of imperial Rome, and
to rank with the _Bourbons_, the _Hapsburgs_ and the _Tudors_. At the
age of twenty, he made war upon SYAGRIUS, the son of Ægidius, who had
inherited from his father the city and diocese of Soissons, and whose
sway was acknowledged also by the cities and territories of Rheims,
Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens. In alliance with his cousin RAGNACHAR,
King of the Franks of Cambray, and some other Merovingian princes,
he defeated Syagrius at Soissons, and reduced in the brief space of
a few months the remnant of the Roman dominion in Gaul, and which
had survived ten years the extinction of the Western empire (486).
Syagrius fled to Thoulouse, where he flattered himself to find a safe
asylum; but in vain: ALARIC II., the son of the great EURIC, was a
minor, and the men who governed the kingdom of the Visigoths in his
name, were but too readily intimidated by the threats of Clovis, and
pusillanimously delivered up the hapless fugitive to certain death. A
few years after (491), Clovis enlarged his dominions towards the east
by the ample diocese of Tongres. In 498, he married the Burgundian
princess CLOTILDA, who, in the midst of an Arian court, had been
educated in the Nicean faith.[80] Clotilda’s endeavors to convert her
husband to Christianity were not very successful at first, though he
consented to the baptism of his first-born son; the sudden death of
the infant, which the ignorant and superstitious Pagan was inclined
to attribute to the anger of his gods, had well-nigh proved fatal to
any further attempt at conversion; still the beauty and blandishments
of the pious queen succeeded at last in overcoming the scruples and
apprehensions of her husband, and gaining his consent to a repetition
of the experiment: this time the infant survived, and Clovis began
to listen with greater favor to the exhortations of his Christian
spouse.
In the year 496, the Alemanni,[81] who occupied both banks of the
Rhine, from the source of that river to its conflux with the Mein and
the Moselle, and had spread themselves over the modern provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine, invaded the territories of SIGEBERT, the king of
the Ripuarian Franks, who had his seat at Cologne. Sigebert, unable
to resist the invaders single-handed, invoked the powerful aid of his
cousin, Clovis, and the latter hastened at once to the rescue. He
encountered the invaders in the plain of TOLBIAC (_Zülpich_), about
twenty-four miles from Cologne. A fierce battle ensued. For several
hours it raged with unabated fury, without any decided advantage
being gained by either party; at length the Franks gave way, and the
Alemanni raised shouts of victory. Clovis saw his dream of power and
ambition rapidly fading away; in his extremity he invoked the God
of Clotilda and the Christians, to grant him the victory over his
enemies, which service he vowed duly to acknowledge, by consenting
to be baptised.[82] Resolved, however, to do his share also towards
the achievement of the victory which he was imploring the Christian
Lord of Hosts to vouchsafe him, he rallied his discomfited troops,
and placing himself at their head, led them on again to the attack,
and by his valor and conduct, succeeded in restoring the battle. The
franciscas, and the heavy swords of the Franks, made fearful havoc
in the hostile ranks; the king, and many of the most valiant chiefs
of the Alemanni, were slain, and ere evening the power of one of
the fiercest and most warlike nations of Germany, was annihilated.
Pursued by the victorious Franks into the heart of their forests, the
Alemanni were forced to submit to the yoke of the conqueror; some
of their tribes fled to the territory of the Gothic king of Italy,
THEODORIC, who assigned them settlements in Rhætia, and interceded,
with his brother-in-law,[83] in favor of the conquered nation.
In his distress, Clovis had vowed to adore the God of the Christians,
if He would succour him; the danger past, and the victory achieved,
the perfidious Frank would gladly have made light of his vow, but
for the incessant importunities of Clotilda, and of Remigius, the
Catholic bishop of Rheims. On the day of Christmas in the same year,
(496), Clovis was baptised in the Cathedral of Rheims with 3000 of
his warlike subjects; and the remainder of the Salians speedily
followed the example. As the kings of the Goths, Burgundians, and
Vandals were Arians, and even the Greek emperor, Anastasius, was not
quite free from the taint of heresy; the Bishop of Rome, ANASTASIUS
II., overjoyed at the conversion of the powerful king of the Franks
to the Nicean faith, hailed the neophyte as the “_Most Christian
King_.”
The conversion of Clovis to the Catholic faith stood him in excellent
need in his schemes of further aggrandisement. His arms were
henceforward supported by the favor and zeal of the Catholic clergy,
more especially in the discontented cities of Gaul, under the sway of
the Arian kings of the Visigoths and the Burgundians. The Armoricans,
or Bretons, in the north-western provinces of Gaul, who had hitherto
bravely and successfully resisted all attempts of the _Pagan_ chief
to conquer them, were now gradually induced to submit to an equal and
honorable union with a Christian people, governed by a _Catholic_
king (497-500); and the remnants of the Roman troops (most of them
of barbarian extraction), also acknowledged the sway of Clovis,
on condition of their being permitted to retain their arms, their
ensigns, and their peculiar dress and institutions.
Clotilda had never ceased to urge her husband to make war upon
her uncle Gundobald, the murderer of her father. Her other uncle,
GODEGESIL, had been permitted by his rapacious brother to retain the
dependent principality of Geneva. But fearful lest Gundobald should
treat him in the end the same as he had his other brothers, he lent
a willing ear to the suggestions of his niece, and the tempting
offers of the Frankish king, and entered into a secret compact with
the latter to betray and abandon the cause of his brother on the
first favorable opportunity. Hereupon Clovis declared war against
the King of Burgundy, and invaded his territories: in the year 500
or 501, the armies of the Franks and the Burgundians met between
Langres and Dijon. The treacherous desertion, at the decisive moment,
of Godegesil and the troops of Geneva, saved Clovis from defeat.
Apprehensive of the disaffection of the Gauls, Gundobald abandoned
the castle of Dijon, and the important cities of Lyons and Vienna,
to the king of the Franks, and continued his flight till he had
reached Avignon; but here he made a stand, and defended the city
with such skill and vigor, that Clovis ultimately consented to a
treaty of peace, which made the king of Burgundy tributary to him,
and stipulated the cession of the province of Vienna to Godegesil,
as a reward for his treachery. A garrison of 5000 Franks was left
at Vienna, to secure the somewhat doubtful allegiance of Godegesil,
and also to protect the latter against the vengeance of his offended
brother. But Gundobald, unscrupulous and truculent though he was
in the pursuit of his grasping policy, was yet not lacking wisdom.
As soon as the conclusion of the peace with Clovis had restored
to him the remnant of his kingdom, he applied himself to gain the
affections of his Roman and Gallic subjects, by the promulgation of
a code of wise and impartial laws[84] (502), and to conciliate the
Catholic prelates by artful promises of his approaching conversion
from the errors of the Arian heresy. Having strengthened his
position, moreover, by alliances with the kings of the Ostrogoths
and Visigoths, he suddenly invaded the territories which Clovis had
compelled him to cede to his brother, and surprised Vienna and its
Frankish garrison ere his brother was even fully aware of his hostile
intentions. Godegesil sought refuge in a church; but the protection
of the holy precincts availed him nought; he was struck down dead at
the altar by his remorseless brother. The provinces of Geneva and
Vienna were re-united to the Burgundian kingdom; the captive Franks
were sent to the king of the Visigoths, who settled them in the
territory of Thoulouse. Clovis, who could now no longer rely upon the
assistance of a traitor in the camp of Gundobald, deemed it the wiser
course to submit to the altered state of affairs, and to content
himself with the alliance and the promised military service of the
King of Burgundy.
Already before the Burgundian war, Clovis had cast his covetous
eyes upon the fair provinces of the south of Gaul, which were
held by ALARIC II., the King of the Visigoths. Here, also, the
disaffection of the Catholic Gauls and Romans promised the best
chances of success. Some paltry border-squabble was eagerly laid
hold of by Clovis to pick a quarrel with the King of the Visigoths,
and war seemed at the time inevitable between the two nations; when
Theodoric, Alaric’s father-in-law,[85] interposed his good offices,
and succeeded, by a well-timed threat of an armed intervention,
in restraining the aggressive spirit of the Frankish King, (498).
A personal interview was proposed between Clovis and Alaric: it
was held on the border of the two states, in a small island of the
Loire, near Amboise. The two kings met in right royal fashion: they
embraced, feasted together, indulged in a profusion of protestations
of mutual regard and brotherly affection, and parted full of
smiles--and mutual hatred and distrust.
Had Alaric pursued the same wise course as Gundobald, he might have
found in the affection of the people under his sway, a safe shield
against Frank aggression. But, unfortunately, the Arian could not
forbear from inflicting upon his dissenting subjects, those petty
acts of tyranny in which dominant sects delight, and which are always
sure to create a deeper and more lasting disaffection than any act
of political oppression. The Catholic clergy in Aquitaine laid
their complaints against their Arian sovereign, before the Catholic
King of the Franks; and besought the latter to come to the aid of
his co-religionists, and free them from the yoke of their Gothic
tyrants. Clovis eagerly seized the pretext. In a general assembly
of the Frankish chiefs and the Catholic prelates held at Paris, he
declared his intention not to permit the Arian heretics to retain
possession any longer of the fairest portion of Gaul. Alaric did his
best to prepare for the coming struggle; the army which he collected
was much more numerous, indeed, than the military power which
Clovis could bring against him; but, unfortunately, a long peace
had enervated the descendants of the once so formidable warriors of
the first Alaric. They were unable to sustain the fierce shock of
the Franks, who totally overthrew and routed them in the battle of
Vouglé, near Poitiers, in 507. Alaric himself fell by the hand of his
rival; Angoulême, Bordeaux, Thoulouse, submitted to the conqueror,
and the whole of Aquitaine acknowledged his sway, (508); and he
would have succeeded in driving the Visigoths beyond the Pyrenean
mountains, had not the King of Italy thrown the shield of his power
over the discomfited nation. The Franks and their Burgundian allies
were besieging Arles and Carcassone, when the valiant HIBBAS,
Theodoric’s general, appeared on the scene with a powerful and
well-appointed army of Ostrogoths. He defeated the victors of Vouglé,
and compelled the ambitious King of the Franks to raise the siege
of the two cities, and to lend a willing ear to proposals of an
advantageous peace. He then overthrew and slew the bastard GESALIC,
who had usurped the throne of the Visigoths, to the exclusion of
Alaric’s infant son, AMALARIC. The latter was now proclaimed King
of Spain and Septimania, under the guardianship of his grandfather,
Theodoric: Clovis being permitted to retain possession of the land
from the Cevennes and the Garonne to the Loire, whilst the Provence
was annexed to the dominions of the King of Italy, who thus did not
disdain despoiling his own grandson of one of the finest provinces of
his kingdom.
The Emperor Anastasius, overjoyed at the humiliation inflicted by
Clovis upon the Goths, bestowed upon the King of the Franks the
dignity and ensigns of the Roman consulship! (510); which, though
in reality a mere empty title, yet invested that monarch, in the
eyes of his Roman and Gallic subjects, with the prestige of Imperial
authority.
Clovis seeing himself thus in undisputed possession of the greater
part of Gaul, thought the time had come to unite the several Frankish
tribes into one nation, under his sceptre. But, knowing full well
that his Franks would not follow him in an open war against his own
kindred of the race of Pharamond, he coolly planned the assassination
of the whole family. SIGEBERT, the king of the Ripuarians, had proved
himself a most faithful ally of his Salian cousin; and in the last
campaign against the Visigoths, he had sent to his aid a powerful
contingent of his Ripuarians, under the command of his own son,
CHLODERIC. Clovis excited the ambition and cupidity of the latter,
and succeeded in persuading him to murder his own father; when the
horrid deed was perpetrated, the wretched son, intent upon securing
the powerful support of the Salian king, offered him part of the
treasures of the murdered man. The “fair cousin” sent him word to
keep his treasures, and simply to show them to his ambassadors,
that he, Clovis, might rejoice in the prosperity of his cousin;
but, when the assassin of his father had lifted up the heavy lid
of one of the boxes, and was bending down to take out some of the
precious articles which it held, he was slain in his turn by one of
the _ambassadors_ of Clovis. That most Christian king afterwards
solemnly protested to the Ripuarians that Chloderic, the assassin of
his father, had fallen by the hand of some unknown avenger, and that
he, Clovis, was innocent of the death of either of them. “Surely,”
he exclaimed, with well affected horror and indignation, “no one
would dare to deem _me_ guilty of that most horrible of all crimes,
the murder of my own kindred!” The Ripuarians believed him, and
acknowledged him their king, by raising him on a shield. The next
victims were CHARARIC, the king of the Morinic Franks, in Belgium,
and his son. Chararic, had refused his aid to Clovis, in the campaign
against Syagrius; the fact had, indeed, occurred rather long ago, but
still it answered the purpose of the unscrupulous son of Childeric.
Chararic and his son, having fallen into his hands by the grossest
treachery, were despoiled of their treasures and their long hair, and
ordained priests. When the son, endeavoring to console his father,
could not refrain from indignant invectives against the author of
their misery, the pious king of the Salians calmly ordered both
of them to be slain, as they had “dared to rebel against the will
of the Most High!” There remained still the family of the Cambray
princes, consisting of three brothers, viz., RAGNACHAR, RICHAR, and
RIGNOMER. The pretext in their case was that they still continued
Pagans. Clovis bribed some of the chiefs of the tribe with _spurious_
gold; they fell unawares upon Ragnachar and Richar, bound them, and
delivered them into the hands of their “loving cousin.” Addressing
the hapless Ragnachar, that monstrous villain exclaimed, “How dare
you bring disgrace upon our noble family, by submitting to the
indignity of bonds!” and, with a blow of his battle-axe, he spared
the wretched captive the trouble of a reply; then turning to the
brother of the butchered man, “Hadst thou defended thy brother,” he
cried, “they could not have bound him;” and an instant after, the
blood and brains of the brothers had mingled their kindred streams
on the weapon of the most Christian king. When the wretches who had
betrayed their princes into the hands, of the assassin, came to
complain that the price of their treachery had been paid in _base
coin_, he told them, traitors deserved no better reward, and bade
them be gone, lest he should feel tempted to avenge upon them the
blood of his murdered relations.
Rignomer was disposed of by private assassination, and Clovis might
now exclaim: “At last I am king of the Franks.” The worthy bishop
of Tours, the chronicler of this, and some of the following reigns
of the Merovingians, whilst coolly relating these horrid crimes of
his hero, piously informs us that success in all his undertakings
was vouchsafed to Clovis by the Most High, and that his enemies
were delivered up into his hands, _because he walked with a sincere
heart in the ways of the Lord, and did that which was right in his
sight_!![86] What a pity that this godly monarch was not permitted to
walk a little longer in the ways of the Lord: an additional score or
so of murders would surely have achieved canonisation for him. But
the most orthodox and most Christian king was suddenly called away
from the scene of his glorious exploits; at the very time when he was
revolving mighty schemes of further aggrandisement, and planning,
as preliminary step, the assassination of Gundobald, the king of
Burgundy, and of Theudes, the regent of Spain, (511). His four sons
divided his kingdom between them; THEODORIC, (Thierry) the eldest,
received the Eastern part, _Austrasia_,[87] (Francia orientalis),
and also part of Champagne, and the conquests of Clovis south of the
Loire; he established the seat of his government at Metz; CLODOMIR’S
seat was at Orleans; CLOTAIRE’S at Soissons; CHILDEBERT’S at Paris;
the share of the latter was called _Neustria_ or _Neustrasia_
(Francia occidentalis), a name which was afterwards used to designate
the whole of the territories occupied by the Franks between the
mouths of the Rhine and the Loire, the Meuse, and the sea.
It is not my intention to smear my pages with the blood and mire
of the lives and acts of the Merovingian princes. We will content
ourselves here with a brief glance at the principal events and
incidents connected with the progress of the Frank empire during the
two hundred years that intervene between the death of Clovis and the
accession of Charles, afterwards surnamed _Martel_, as Mayor of the
Palace.
In the year 523, the three sons of Clotilda, invited by their
unforgiving mother, invaded Burgundy, and attacked the son and
successor of Gundobald, SIGISMOND, whose conversion to the Catholic
faith has gained him, in the lying annals penned by the clerical
historians of the period, the name of a saint and a martyr, though
he had imbrued his hands in the blood of his own son, an innocent
youth whom he had basely sacrificed to the pride of his second
wife! Sigismond lost a battle and fell soon after into the hands
of the sons of Clotilda, who carried him to Orleans, and had him
buried alive together with his wife and two of his children--an
excellent proof that they had not _degenerated_. Sigismond’s
brother, GONDEMAR, defeated the invaders in the battle of Vienna,
where Clodomir fell. This gave Gondemar a few years’ respite, as
the two brothers, Clotaire and Childebert, were busy sharing the
inheritance of Clodomir.[88] But, in 534, the brothers invaded
Burgundy again; when Gondemar lost his crown and his liberty, and
the fair Burgundian provinces became the patrimony of the Merovingian
princes. In the year 530, Theodoric and Clotaire conquered and
annexed the territories of the Thuringians, thus extending their
dominion to the banks of the Unstrut. Rhætia and Provence also fell
into the hands of the successors of Clovis. Theudobald, the grandson
and second successor of Theodoric, or Thierry, died in 554; as he
left no heir, Clotaire and Childebert shared his dominions between
them; Childebert’s death, in 558, without male heirs, left Clotaire
in sole and undisputed possession of the Frankish empire, which now
extended from the Atlantic and the Pyrenees to the Unstrut. After
having added to the list of his crimes the murder of his son Chramus,
and also of the wife and the two daughters of the latter, King
Clotaire died in 560. His kingdom was again divided between his four
sons, CHARIBERT, GUNTRAM, SIGEBERT, and CHILPERIC; the eldest of the
brothers, Charibert, died in 567. As he left no heir, his territories
were divided between the three surviving brothers. But Chilperic was
dissatisfied with his share, and this led to a series of civil wars,
which terminated only in 613, when Clotaire II., the son of Chilperic
and Fredegonda, re-united in his hands the entire empire of the
Franks.
It would be difficult to crowd a greater number of more appalling
and atrocious crimes, within the short space of half a century,
than were committed by the Merovingians, from the time of the death
of Charibert up to the re-union of the empire under Clotaire II.;
the names of Chilperic, of Fredegonda,[89] of Brunehilda,[90] of
Theuderic,[91] and last, though not least, of the monster Clotaire
(second of the name) deserve, indeed, prominent places in the great
criminal calendar of the world’s history.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] Still we must not omit to state that the lays of ancient
Germany, and the old Chronicles of the country, exhibit singular
agreement in the reproduction of the popular tradition which makes
the _nation of the Franks_ come from Troy. However, after all, this
makes no great difference, as even the most strenuous believers in
the existence of a distinct nation of Franks, fully admit that as
early as the third century (the time when the name of the Franks
first appears in history) that name included _several_ Germanic
nations. By some the Thuringians are given as a _branch_ of the Frank
nation.
[72] Some, however, derive the name from the Old German word
_saljan_, i.e. to grant, in reference to part of the territory
occupied by the Salian Franks having been _granted_ to them by the
Romans (by CARAUSIUS, in 287, confirmed at a later period by JULIAN
the Apostate). LEO derives the name from the Celtic word, _Sal_, i.e.
the sea.
[73] Valerian was taken prisoner by SAPOR, King of Persia, in 260,
who is said to have treated the fallen emperor with the greatest
indignity. Valerian died in captivity.
[74] He was one of the _nineteen_ usurpers who rose against Gallienus
in the several provinces of the empire. The writers of the Augustan
history have magnified the number to _thirty_.
[75] History names PHARAMOND as the first _King_ of the Franks;
the author of the _Gesta Francorum_ makes that prince the son of
Marcomir, the king mentioned in the text; and there appears to be
little doubt indeed, but that the Franks had established the right
of hereditary succession somewhat before the time of Clodion, the
reputed son of Pharamond.
[76] The fashion of long hair was among the Franks for a time, the
somewhat exclusive privilege of the royal family; the members of
which wore their locks hanging down in flowing ringlets on their back
and shoulders; while the rest of the nation were obliged to shave the
hind part of the head, and to comb the hair over the forehead.
[77] Elevation on a buckler was the ceremony by which the Franks
invested their chosen leader with military command.
[78] According to some historians and geographers, Duisburg, on the
right bank of the Rhine.
[79] Most historians make Meroveus, the _younger_ of the two sons
of Clodion; and, after his father’s death, they send him to Rome
to implore the protection of Ætius. Now, it is next to impossible
that the _beardless youth_, whom Priscus states to have seen at Rome
(about 449 or 450), could have been Meroveus, since the _son_ of that
prince, CHILDERIC, was within ten years after exiled by the Franks
on account of his excesses and his despotic sway. The young man whom
Priscus saw was most probably Childeric, who may have been sent to
Rome by his father, Meroveus, to renew the alliance which Clodion had
made with Ætius.
[80] The kingdom of the Burgundians, which had been established in
407 (see page 93), was divided, in 470, among the four sons of king
GONDERIC; HILPERIC, or CHILPERIC, the father of Clotilda, fixed his
residence at Geneva; GUNDOBALD at Lyons; GODEGESIL at Besançon,
and GODEMAR at Vienne (in Dauphiné). A war broke out between the
brothers, in which Gundobald conquered and took prisoner Hilperic
and Godemar; the latter committed suicide; the former was put to
death by his inhuman brother Gundobald, and his wife and his two sons
shared his fate; his two daughters were spared, and one of them,
Clotilda, was brought up at the court of Lyons; and, as chance would
have it, in the _Catholic_ faith, though Gundobald himself, like most
of the Christian princes of the time, professed the Arian doctrine,
Gundobald would gladly have refused Clovis the hand of his niece,
had he dared to brave the anger of the powerful Frankish chief.
Clotilda, on her part, was overjoyed at the prospect of an alliance
with a King, whose ambition might be turned to good account for the
pursuit of her own vengeful projects against the murderer of her
father; with a pagan, whose conversion to the Nicean creed would gain
her beloved Catholic church a formidable champion against the hated
Arian heretics. Gundobald had scarcely parted with his niece, and her
father’s treasures, when the pious princess displayed her Christian
spirit, by ordering her Frankish escort to burn down the Burgundian
villages through which they were passing, and when she saw the flames
rising, and heard the despairing cries of the unfortunates who were
thus being deprived of their homes, she lifted up her voice, and
praised the God of Athanasius--the _holy_ Chlotildis!
[81] The Alemanni were also, like the Franks, a league of several
Germanic nations, among whom the Teneteri, the Usipetes, and most
probably a portion of the Suevi, were the most important. The
favorite etymology of the name, _Allemanni_ or _All-Men_, as meant
to denote at once the various lineage, and the common bravery of
the component members of the league, is a little fanciful perhaps,
yet not more so, or rather not quite so much so, as some other
etymologies of the name indulged in by the learned.
[82] The invocation as given by Gregory of Tours, is rather _naïve_.
Jesu Christe, quem Chlotildis prædicat esse filium Dei vivi, qui
dare auxilium laborantibus, victoriamque in te sperantibus tribuere
diceris, tuæ opis gloriam devotus efflagito: ut si mihi victoriam
super hos hostes indulseris, et expertus fuero illam virtutem, quam
de te populus tuo nomine dicatus probasse se prædicat, credam tibi et
in nomine tuo baptizer. _Invocavi enim deos meos, sed ut experior,
elongati sunt ab auxilio meo: unde credo eos nullius potestatis, qui
tibi obedientibus non succurrunt._ A pretty plain hint: no victory,
no belief, no baptism!
[83] Theodoric had lately married ALBOFLEDA (Audofleda, or
Andefleda), the sister of Clovis.
[84] _Lex Gudebalda_--“_La loy Gombette_.”--Drawn up by AREDIUS.
[85] Alaric was married to Theodoric’s daughter THEUDOGOTHA, or
THEODICHUSA.
[86] Prosternabat enim quotidie Deus hostes ejus sub manu ipsius,
et augebat regnum ejus, _eo quod ambularet recto corde coram eo, et
faceret, quæ placita erant in oculis ejus_. Gregor. Hist. lib. II.,
cap. 40.
[87] Austrasia comprised the old Salian possessions in Belgium, and
the territories of the Ripuarians and the Alemanni.
[88] Clodomir had left three sons, who were brought up by their
grandmother, Clotilda. The two brothers having got possession of two
of their nephews, calmly resolved to kill them. Clotaire sheathed
his dagger in the breast of one of them, the other embraced the
knees of his uncle Childebert, and besought him to spare his life.
The tears of the innocent child moved even the harsh Childebert
to pity; he entreated his brother to spare him; but that monster
remained deaf to all prayers, and threatened even to make Childebert
share the fate of the helpless boy, should he continue any longer to
withhold him from his murderous hands: Childebert thereupon pushed
back the poor innocent, and Clotaire’s dagger speedily sent him to
rejoin his brother (532). The third of the children of Clodomir was,
indeed, saved from his uncle’s clutches; but he deemed it necessary
afterwards to embrace the ecclesiastical profession, in order to
secure his safety.
[89] Fredegonda was first Chilperic’s concubine, subsequently,
after the murder of Galsuintha, his wife. After a career of blood
and crime, of which history affords but few parallels, she died in
579, at the height of prosperity and power, tranquilly in her bed,
properly shriven, of course, and with a promise of paradise. Had the
female monster been but a little more liberal to the _Church_, who
knows but the Calendar of the Saints might contain an additional name.
[90] Brunehilda was the daughter of Athanagild, King of Spain,
and the wife of Sigebert, King of Austrasia. She was in every
respect a worthy pendant to Fredegonda; but her final fate was very
different from that of her more fortunate rival, whom she survived
about sixteen years. In the year 613, she fell into the hands of
Fredegonda’s son, Clotaire, who inflicted upon the aged woman the
most horrible tortures, and had her finally tied, with one arm
and one leg, to the tail of a wild horse, and thus dragged along
over a stony road until death took mercy upon her. And all these
people _professed_ the religion of Christ, and were surrounded by
numbers of _most pious_ bishops! but then, the _Church_ has always
been indulgent to those who could and would remember her with rich
endowments. Moreover, many of the bishops of that period were
themselves such monstrous villains that little or no remonstrance
could be expected from _them_ against any royal crime, however so
atrocious.--To give one instance out of many: a bishop of Clermont,
wishing to compel a priest of his diocese to cede to him a small
estate held by the latter, and which he refused to part with, had the
unfortunate man shut up in a coffin, with a decaying corpse, and the
coffin placed in the vault of the church!
[91] Theuderic, or Thierry, was the younger son of Sigebert’s son
Childebert; he murdered his elder brother, Theudebert, and the infant
son of the latter, Meroveus (612). He died a year after, and two of
his own boys, Sigebert and Corbus, met the same fate at the hands of
Clotaire.