He was intending to marry his son, Radigis, by a previous marriage to the sister of the king of the Angles, but, after a premonition of his imminent death, decided that a marriage alliance with the closer and more powerful Franks would be better than one with the people of Brittia.
Hermegisclus got his nobles to agree that Radigis should marry his widow, Theudebert's sister, as duly happened. The spurned Angle princess led a military expedition to Varni territory and captured Radigis, whereon he agreed to abandon Theudebert's sister and marry her after all.
The people of Brittia are unfamiliar with horses and have to be lifted into the saddle when they are expected to ride while visiting the Franks or Romans. Fishermen living on the Atlantic coast opposite the island of Brittia are exempt of Frankish taxes because of the supernatural service they provide in conveying souls of the dead across the sea to this island.
The Goths were demoralised and in a poor situation. Totila sent repeated embassies to Justinian, pointing out that the Franks had occupied much of Italy while the rest was deserted because of the war, and offering to make peace on favourable terms, but his overtures were rejected. Theudebert had recently died of disease, having occupied parts of Liguria, the Cottian Alps and most of Venetia. The Goths and Franks had agreed not to fight each other while the war continued, and to discuss their allocations of lands in the event of Totila's victory.
The Romans sent the senator Leontius to Theudebert's son and successor, Theudebald. Leontius complained that the Franks had broken their original agreement with the Romans, for which they had been well paid, to fight the Goths, and Theudebert had trespassed on territory that belonged to the emperor. He urged Theudebald to right his father's wrongs. Theudebald declined, saying that the Franks were the Goths' allies, and, if they abandoned their allies, to what extent could they be trusted by the Romans?
He pointed to his lack of wealth as evidence that his father was not given to plunder. He said the territory occupied by Theudebert had been given to him by Totila, but if it were proved any had been stolen from the Romans it would be returned, and he promised to send envoys to Constantinople to discuss this. The Frank, Leudard, and three others were then sent. The Franks refused Narses free passage through Venetia, saying it was because he had their bitter enemies the Lombards with him, rather than admitting it was in their interest and their alliance with the Goths.
His advisers told Narses that approaching the Goths via Venetia was not strategically advisable anyway. The Franks in Venetia prevented the Goths of Verona surrendering to the Roman commander, Valerian, by laying claim to the territory for themselves. However, the Franks did not wish to die for Goths or Romans but would only fight to secure Italy for themselves. Period covered: Creation to , with mention of events of For background, see the Wikipedia page on Fredegar.
Nothing is known about Fredegar as a person. Even the name is uncertain. It was only attached to the work in the sixteenth century, and is probably incorrect. In the nineteenth century, some scholars spoke of 'Pseudo-Fredegar', but this has gone out of fashion as a piece of pedantry. Various theories have been put forward based on the work's internal evidence. Some have argued 'Fredegar' is actually several authors, but most believe it is the work of one hand. Fredegar was probably a secular figure, given his lack of attention in comparison with Gregory of Tours to theology and church politics.
It is generally believed Fredegar's perspective is of one living in Burgundy. He records minor events from that region e. Marius a. The kings whose reigns he uses for dating events are also those who ruled Burgundy. On the other hand, in 4. On the basis of the final chapter, which supplies a detailed anecdote about a relatively minor incident concerning how 'Berthar, a Frank from the Transjuran district' was saved by his son on the battlefield, it has been suggested 'Fredegar' was either Berthar or the son.
Fredegar's work is partly a compilation of previous works and partly original. He explains in the prologue to the original part that he collected five earlier chronicles and added his own continuation, making six chronicles in all. The earlier chronicles are:. This material has come down to us organised in four books, so Fredegar's original contribution is known as either the sixth chronicle or the fourth book usually the latter.
Fredegar did not simply copy the earlier chronicles he used, but excerpted from them, rearranging, compressing and sometimes adding new material. These supplements are especially prevalent, and especially interesting, in the case of Gregory of Tours.
Fredegar's chronicle was extended by later writers, in three successive continuations. A preface between the Second and Third Continuations explains that the first two continuations were made under the patronage of Count Childebrand, Pippin's uncle, and the Third Continuation was made under Childebrand's son, Count Nibelung.
Book I consists of 26 chapters. It is based on the Liber generationis, a computus by Jerome, and the chronicle of Isidore of Seville. It covers much biblical history then proceeds to Alexander the Great, along with lists of Hebrew kings, Roman emperors and popes. The last pope mentioned is Theodore , so that this part of the chronicle was composed during his day. Since the death of the Roman emperor Heraclius Oct Feb is mentioned but there is no information about his successor, it was probably very early in Theodore's reign.
However, Jerome's computus is extended only to the first year of the reign of Sigibert II, i. This lack of coherence in the material constitutes some of the evidence for multiple authorship. Book II consists of 62 chapters. It begins with the kings of Assyria and the birth of Abraham, recounts much biblical history, then goes on to the story of Alexander the Great and after that the Roman republic and empire. The introduction states 'here are the chapters excerpted from Jerome', although only the first 48 chapters are from Jerome.
Chapters are from Hydatius, while chapters are thought to derive from a lost work known as the Gesta Theoderici Deeds of Theoderic the Great. Chapters 60 and 62 seem mostly original while 61 derives from Gregory of Tours with some additions.
An important interpolation into Jerome's chronicle is Fredegar's legendary account of the Franks as refugees from the fall of Troy chapters There is also a long interpolation in c. It reproduces Gregory's preface, then states 'here begins the fourth book'.
Actually it is the third book but, after Isidore, Jerome and Hydatius, the fourth chronicle; again this presents the material as less of a coherent whole and more an unreconciled assemblage that may or may not have been the work of one author. In chapters 1 and 2, there are references to 'what Hydatius wrote above' and 'what Jerome wrote above', though the passages in question are actually interpolations; this confusion has also been considered evidence for multiple authorship.
There are interpolations in the vast majority of the chapters, though usually only a few words. There are notable additions to Gregory regarding the early Franks: how a senator Lucius encouraged the Frankish sack of Trier because the emperor Avitus had seduced his wife 3. Fredegar's own account in Book IV displays an antipathy for Queen Brunhild, and this is anticipated in chapters of Book III, where we are told 'much evil and effusion of blood occurred in Francia on Brunhild's account'.
This contrasts with Gregory, who seems mostly sympathetic towards Brunhild. In chapters , regarding the last days of Sigibert I, he tells us a few extra details not mentioned by Gregory: Sigibert teamed with Chilperic to attack Guntram, but peace was then concluded; Sigibert's army wanted a fight and encouraged him to attack Chilperic; Sigibert's assassins were killed; his son, Childebert II was rescued by being passed through a window to be whisked away and raised as king.
Book IV is the original part and consists of 90 chapters. In the preface, Fredegar says he has summarised earlier chronicles, speaks of the world growing old, refers to his rustic style, and says that he intends to go on from Gregory 'who fell silent with the death of Chilperic' showing he had no knowledge of Gregory's later four books.
He begins with praise for Guntram and the conclusion of the Gundovald affair in , then goes over events covered by Gregory of Tours up to , but with more material on the Byzantines and Persians, including the latter's conversion to Christianity and the discovery of the tunic of Jesus Christ. With the death of Guntram, Fredegar moves into uncharted territory, telling of the wars of Childebert II, his death and the passage of the kingdom to his sons Theuderic II and Theudebert II Fredgar does not mention Theudebert's association during Childebert's lifetime, which Gregory reports.
He describes fighting between the royal brothers and their deaths, the misbehaviour and downfall of Brunhild, and, in , the subjection of the whole Merovingian realm to Chlothar II He reports a certain Aletheus attempting to seduce Chlothar's wife and take the throne, and later the death of Chlothar's beloved wife Berthetrud.
Otherwise, he tells us very little about the king, and spends far more time on the Lombards, Huns and a Frank called Samo, who became king of the Slavic Wends. His statement that Samo became king in and reigned 35 years is one of the clues that the chronicle was written c. The story continues with the association of Dagobert I in , as king of Austrasia, the decision of the Burgundians to do without a mayor of the palace and deal with Chlothar directly, then Chlothar's death and Dagobert's taking over the whole kingdom.
Here Fredegar reports the three-year reign of Dagobert's half-brother, Charibert II, which came to a mysterious end and which is not mentioned in the LHF. We are told Dagobert moved to Paris where he soon went downhill, giving himself over to pleasure and the company of women. Fredegar continues to have relatively little to say about Frankish affairs and gives at least as much space to Lombards, Wends, Saracens, Byzantines and Visigoths. He does speak of Dagobert successfully asserting his authority over the Gascons Basques and Bretons, and of drawing up a succession treaty, giving the Neustro-Burgundian kingdom to his second and apparently favourite son, Clovis II, while Sigibert would retain Austrasia.
After telling us briefly about Clovis's regents--Aega, mayor of the palace, and Nantechild, queen mother--Fredegar again launches into Byzantine and Visigothic affairs. There is then material on political struggles among the Frankish nobility, a flashback to negotiations over the division of Dagobert's inheritance between his sons, and an account of the revolt of Radulf, duke of the Thuringians and his victory over Sigibert though he never explicitly rejected Sigibert's authority despite calling himself king.
Fredegar's account ends with the Burgundian mayor Flaochad determining to kill Willebad, his enemy and fellow noble, which he does. This includes the story of Berthar, the Frank from the Transjura, that some have taken to be a clue to Fredegar's identity. Thus, in one clash, a Burgundian Manaulf was fighting for Willebad, while Berthar was on the other side. The two men had once been friends and Manaulf offered to take Berthar under his shield.
However, it was a trick and he dealt Berthar a severe wound. Berthar's son, Aubedo, saved his life, racing to his help and killing all those who had surrounded him. An Aubedo is also mentioned earlier c. If this is the same Aubedo and he was the author of this part of the chronicle, it might explain the interest that 'Fredegar' shows in foreign affairs.
The First Continuation of Fredegar takes the story from up to The Second Continuation goes on from to The division into First and Second Continuations reflects the existence of a natural break, involving a computus of the annus mundi plus an afterthought. The Third Continuation goes on from to and the death of Pippin I, the first Carolingian king.
La chronique de Marius d'Avenches On the web: MGH. The chronicle of Marius is known from a single manuscript that came to light in the 17th century. The author is identified as bishop Marius, and the only known bishop Marius of the relevant era was the bishop of Avenches, in modern Switzerland, which in Merovingian times was part of the kingdom of Burgundy. This fits with the perspective of the text, which focuses on Burgundy, the Valais, southern France, Italy and the east Roman empire. Marius seems to have been born c.
He was thus alive for over a decade after the point at which his chronicle ends. Perhaps it was deliberately or accidentally truncated in transmission. Unlike, say, the Histories of Marius's contemporary Gregory of Tours, the chronicle is strictly dated, being a year-by-year list of Roman consuls, with events recorded under the year in which they happened.
By no means all the years have such notices attached, and those that do appear tend to be only a few sentences at most. Since the last consulship was that of Basil ius in , subsequent years are dated firstly as so many years of the post-consulship of Basil and then, from , in terms of the eastern emperor's reign called a consulship, the office having been assimilated to that of the emperor.
Unfortunately, Marius got out of sync when transferring from the post-Basilian consulship to the imperial consulship, so his later datings seem up to a year out. The first entry presents the chronicle as following on from that of Prosper. Download Free PDF. A short summary of this paper. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are from the versions cited in the bibliography.
Of course, the way in which Gregory viewed the spiritual world and its beings was not necessarily how his contemporaries saw it; not everyone sharing the same culture perceive things in the same way. See also N. Winstead addresses the nature and function of the Lives and miracle stories within the Histories.
Stancliffe, St. Martin and his Hagiographer Oxford, , pp. Martin and St. Julian and specific styles of worship, Gregory sought to enhance, and stabilise, episcopal authority more widely — especially his own. Brown ed. See also P. What form, appearance, or abilities could a spirit adopt?
Carroll Cambridge, , pp. Martin, p. Meyer ed. The Culture of Christendom London, , pp. His unembarrassed tales of bodily malfunction are often tied to the removal of unclean spirits, with bodily discharge frequently marking the completion of exorcism.
Wood ed. Baker ed. The most explicit example of this is found in The Miracles of Saint Martin. Notions of embodiment in discharges of this sort have been similarly explored by Martha Bayless in her study on filth and sin in the Late Middle Ages. The clarification that filth was sin is crucial to understanding medieval world views; it is a radical difference between medieval and modern attitudes. Elsewhere in his work, Gregory records a story of a possessed man in the East who announces that the relics of St.
Julian were on board a ship. My emphasis. This also reflects how possessed people were used to announce the arrival of new relics. With these notions of embodiment in mind, we can consider other accounts of healings in Gregory that involve gross discharges but which include no explicit reference to the Devil.
Although for the most part the connection of demons to illness remains implicit, one gets the impression that, for Gregory, unclean spirits play a part in all sicknesses and ailments. As there is an apparent trigger and evident discharge, one must reasonably infer that a cleansing of unclean spirits is implicit in the process.
In the Late Middle Ages the dominant opinion was that, during possession, spirits unclean or holy literally entered the body, reflecting the physicality of interceding spirits. From the life of Saint Martin of Tours to the conversion of the Franks and the conquest of Clovis, "Historia" also details the procession of Frankish kings down to Gregory's own time.
The later books grow more personal, ultimately reflecting the author's arrest from a misplaced charge of treason. Though written largely as a fight against heresy, "Historia" is widely considered a dramatic narrative of French history.
Detailed and engaging, this historical document is also a skillful unraveling of many years of transition from the Roman period to Medieval period, reflective of the little-known flowering of historical recovery in the 'Dark Ages. The Franks The Franks Author :.
Who were the Franks? Anyone who wants to know the history of European nations, must read the history of the Franks. Beyond the Roman Empire, the foundation of medieval Europe also depends on the Franks whose empire evolved into the modern France and other European countries. Saint Gregory of Tours' comprehensive history of the Frankish people, who ruled over much of what is modern-day France and Germany, is published here in full with an original map and genealogical chart.
Gregory provides a chronicle of Frankish monarchs, their lineage, principle battles, and the local Gallic culture. The Franks gradually assumed control of the governmental vacuum left by the crumbling Roman Empire. First formally recognized as an authority by the Roman Empire in the 4th century, less than two centuries later the Romans had all but ceded control of their Western Empire.
This left many of the tribes previously denigrated as 'barbarians' to assume full control. With skill and eloquence, Gregory brings the age vividly to life, as he relates the exploits of missionaries, martyrs, kings and queens - including the quarrelling sons of Lothar I, and the ruthless Queen Fredegund, third wife of Chilperic. Portraying an age of staggering cruelty and rapid change, this is a powerful depiction of the turbulent progression of faith at a time of political and social chaos.
He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather. He wrote in form of late Vulgar Latin; however, it has been argued that this was a deliberate ploy to ensure his works would reach a wide audience.
He is the main contemporary source for Merovingian history. His most notable work was his Decem Libri Historiarum or Ten Books of Histories, better known as the Historia Francorum "History of the Franks" , a title given to it by later chroniclers, but he is also known for his credulous accounts of the miracles of saints, especially four books of the miracles of Martin of Tours.
St Martin's tomb was a major draw in the 6th century, and Gregory's writings had the practical aspect of promoting this highly organized devotion. Written in the 6th century by the Bishop of Tours, "Historia Francorum" is a ten volume work that recounts the world's history from creation, focusing on the movement of Christianity into Gaul. From the life of Saint Martin of Tours to the conversion of the Franks and the conquest of Clovis, "Historia" also details the procession of Frankish kings down to Gregory's own time.
The later books grow more personal, ultimately reflecting the author's arrest from a misplaced charge of treason. Though written largely as a fight against heresy, "Historia" is widely considered a dramatic narrative of French history.
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