 Chapter 7 The Germans and Gaul, the Franks and Clovis Part II The majority of the learned have regarded this account of Fredagar as a romantic fable, and have declined to give it a place in history. M. Farriel, one of the most learned associates of the Academy of Inscriptions, has given much the same opinion, but he nevertheless adds, whatever may be their authorship the fables in question are historic in the sense that they relate to real facts of which they are a poetical expression, a romantic development conceived with the idea of popularizing the Frankish kings amongst the Gala Roman subjects. It cannot, however, be admitted that a desire to popularize the Frankish kings is a sufficient and truth-like explanation of these tales of the Gala Roman chroniclers, or that they are no more than a poetical expression, a romantic development of the real facts briefly noted by Gregory of Tour. The tales have a graver origin and contain more truth than would be presumed from some of the anecdotes and sayings mixed up with them. On the condition of minds and parties in Gaul at the end of the fifth century the marriage of Clovis and Clotilde was, for the public of the period, for the barbarians and the Gala Romans a great matter. Clovis and the Franks were still Pagans, Gondibund and the Burgundians were Christians, but Aryans, Clotilde was a Catholic Christian. To which of the two Catholics or Aryans would Clovis ally himself? To whom, Aryan, Pagan or Catholic, would Clotilde be married? Assuredly the bishops, priests, and all the Gala Roman clergy, for the most part Catholics, desired to see Clovis, that young and audacious Frankish chieftain, to take to wife a Catholic rather than an Aryan or a Pagan, and hope to convert the Pagan Clovis to Christianity much more than an Aryan to Orthodoxy. The question between Catholic Orthodoxy and Aryanism was, at that time, a vital question for Christianity in its entirety, and Saint Athanasius was not wrong in attributing to its supreme importance. It may be presumed that the Catholic clergy, the Bishop of Rem, or the Bishop of Longris, were no strangers to the repeated praises which turned the thoughts of the Frankish king towards the Burgundian princess, and the idea of their marriage once set afloat the Catholics, priesthood or laity, labored undoubtedly to push it forward, whilst the Burgundian Aryans exerted themselves to prevent it. Thus there took place, between opposing influences, religious and national, a most animated struggle. No astonishment can be felt, then, at the obstacles the marriage encountered, at the complications mingled with it, and at the indirect means employed on both sides to cause its success or failure. The account of Fredegare is but a picture of this struggle in its instance, a little amplified or altered by the imagination or the credulity of the period. But the essential features of the picture, the disguise of Aurelian, the hurry of Clotilde, the prudent recollection of Aurelius, gundabods, alterations of fear and violence, and Clotilde's vindictive passion when she is once out of danger, there is nothing at all in this out of keeping with the manners of the time or the position of the actors. Let it be added that Aurelian and Aurelius are real personages who are met with elsewhere in history, and whose parts as played on the occasion of Clotilde's marriage are in harmony with the other traces that remain of their lives. The consequences of the marriage justified before long the importance which had on all sides been attached to it. Clotilde had a son. She was anxious to have him baptized, and urged her husband to consent. The gods you worship, said she, are not, and can do not for themselves or others. They are of wood or stone or metal. Clotilde's resisted, saying, It is by the command of our gods that all things are created and brought forth. It is plain that your god hath no power. There is no proof even that he is of the race of the gods. But Clotilde prevailed, and she had her son baptized solemnly, hoping that the striking nature of the ceremony might win to the faith the father whom her words and prayers had been powerless to touch. The child soon died, and Clovis bitterly reproached the queen, saying, Had the child been dedicated to my gods he would be alive, he was baptized in the name of your god, and he could not live. Clotilde defended her god and prayed. She had a second son, who was also baptized, and fell sick. It cannot be otherwise with him than with his brother, said Clovis, baptized in the name of your Christ he is going to die. But the child was cured and lived, and Clovis was pacified and less incredulous of Christ. An event then came to pass which affected him still more than the sickness or cure of his children. In 496 the Alemanians, a Germanic confederation like the Franks, who also had been, for some time past, assailing the Roman Empire on the banks of the Rhine or the frontiers of Switzerland, crossed the river, and invaded the settlements of the Franks on the left bank. Clovis went to the aid of his confederation and attacked the Alemanians at Tolbiac near Cologne. He had with him Aurelian, who had been his messenger to Clotilde, whom he had made Duke of Mellon, and who commanded the forces of Sen. The battle was going ill, the Franks were wavering, and Clovis was anxious. Before setting out he had, according to Fredegare, promised his wife that if he were victorious he would turn Christian. Other chroniclers say that Aurelian, seeing the battle in danger of being lost, said to Clovis, My Lord King, believe only on the Lord of Heaven whom the Queen, My Mistress, preaches. Clovis cried out with emotion, Christ Jesus, thou, whom My Queen Clotilde calleth the Son of the living God, I have invoked My own gods and they have withdrawn from Me. I believe that they have no power, since they aid not those who call upon them. Thee, very God and Lord, I invoke. If thou give Me victory over these foes, if I find in thee the power that the people proclaim of thee, I will believe on thee, and will be baptized in thy name. The tide of battle turned. The Franks recovered confidence and courage, and the Alemanians, beaten and sing their king's lane, surrendered themselves to Clotilde, saying, Cease of thy grace to cause any more of our people to perish, for we are thine. On the return of Clovis, Clotilde, fearing he should forget his victory and his promise, secretly sent, says Gregory of Tours, to St. Remy, Bishop of Rem, and prayed to him to penetrate the king's heart, with the words of salvation. St. Remy was a fervent Christian and an able bishop, and I will listen to thee most holy father, said Clovis, willingly, but there is a difficulty. The people that follow Me will not give up their gods, but I am about to assemble them, and will speak to them according to thy word. The king found the people more docile or better prepared than he had represented to the bishop. Even before he opened his mouth the greater part of those present cried out, We abjure the mortal gods, we are ready to follow the immortal god whom Remy preaches. About three thousand Frankish warriors, however, persisted in their intention of remaining pagans, and deserting Clovis, but took themself to Ragnacare, the Frankish king of Cambray, who was destined ere long to pay dearly for this acquisition. So soon as St. Remy was informed of this good disposition on the part of king and people, he fixed Christmas Day of this year, 496, for the ceremony of the baptism of those grand neophytes. The description of it is borrowed from the historian of the Church of Rem, Frodoard by name, born at the close of the ninth century. He gathered together the essential points of it from the life of St. Remy, written shortly before that period by the St. celebrated successor at Rem, Archbishop Hinkmar. The bishop says he went in search of the king at early morning in his bed-chamber. In order that, taking him at the moment of freedom from secular cares, he might more freely communicate to him the mysteries of the Holy Word. The king's chamber people receive him with great respect, and the king himself runs forward to meet him. Thereupon they pass together into an oratory dedicated to St. Peter, chief of the apostles, and adjoining the king's apartment. When the bishop, the king, and the queen had taken their places on the seats prepared for them, and admission had been given to some clerics and also some friends and household servants of the king, the venerable bishop began his instructions on the subject of salvation. Meanwhile, preparations are being made along the road from the palace to the baptistry. Curtains and valuable stuffs are hung up, the houses on either side of the street are dressed out, the baptistry is sprinkled with balm and all manner of perfume. The procession moves from the palace, the clergy lead the way with the holy gospels, the cross, and standards, singing hymns and spiritual songs. Then comes the bishop, leading the king by the hand, after him the queen, lastly the people. On the road it is said that the king asked the bishop if that were the kingdom promised him. No, answered the prelate, but it is the entrance to the road that leads to it. At the moment when the king bent his head over the fountain of life, lower thy head with humility, Sikambrian cried the eloquent bishop, Adore what thou hast burned, burn what thou hast adored. The king's two sisters, Abeloflid and Lentichild, likewise received baptism, and so at the same time did three thousand of the Frankish army, besides a large number of women and children. When it was known that Clovis had been baptized by St. Remy, and with what striking circumstance, great was the satisfaction amongst the Catholics. The chief pergundian prelate, Avitus, Bishop of Vien, wrote to the Frankish king, Your faith is our victory, in choosing for you and yours you have pronounced for all. Divine providence hath given you as an arbiter to our age. Greece can boast of having a sovereign of our persuasion, but she is no longer alone in possession of this precious gift. The rest of the world doth share her light. Pope Anastasius hastened to express his joy to Clovis. The church, our common mother, he wrote, rejoices to have borne unto God so great a king. Continue, glorious and illustrious son, to cheer the heart of this tender mother, be a column of iron to support her, and she in her turn will give thee victory over all thine enemies. Clovis was not a man to omit turning his Catholic popularity to the account of his ambition. At the very time when he was receiving these testimonies of good will from the heads of the church, he learned that Gondobod, disquieted no doubt at the conversion of his powerful neighbor, had just made a vain attempt, at a conference held at Lyon, to reconcile in his kingdom the Catholics and the Arians. Clovis considered the moment favourable to his projects of a grandisement at the expense of the Burgundian king. He fomented the dissensions which already prevailed between Gondobod and his brother, Ghorajizile, assured himself to the latter's complicity, and suddenly entered Burgundy with his army. Gondobod, betrayed and beaten at the first encounter at Dijon, fled to the south of his kingdom, and went and shut himself up in Avignon. Clovis pursued and besieged him there. Gondobod, in great alarm, asked counsel of his Roman confinan Eridius, who had but lately foretold to him what the marriage of his niece Clotilde would bring upon him. On every side, said the king, I am encompassed by perils, and I know not what to do. Lo, here be these barbarians come upon us to slay us and destroy the land. To escape death, answered Eridius, thou must appease the ferocity of this man. Now if it please thee, I will feign to fly from thee and go over to him. So soon as I shall be with him, I will do so that he ruin neither thee nor the land. Only have thou care to perform whatsoever I shall ask of thee, until the Lord in his goodness dain to make thy cause triumph. All that thou shalt bid, I will do, says Gondobod. So Eridius left Gondobod and went his way to Clovis, and said, Most pious king, I am thy humble servant. I give up this wretched Gondobod and come unto thy mightiness. If thy goodness dain to cast a glance upon me, thou and thy descendants will find in me a servant of integrity and fidelity. Clovis received him very kindly and kept him by him, for Eridius was agreeable in conversation, wise in counsel, just in judgment, and faithful in whatever was committed to his care. As the siege continued, Eridius said to Clovis, O king, if the glory of thy greatness would suffer thee to listen to the words of my feebleness, though thou needst not counsel, I would submit them to thee in all fidelity, that they might be of use to thee, whether for thyself or for the towns by which thou dost propose to pass. Wherefore keepest thou here, thine army, whilst thine enemy doth hide himself in a well fortified place. Thou ravages the fields, thou pillages the corn, thou cut us down the vines, thou fellest the olive trees, thou destroyeth all the produce of the land, and yet thou succedeth not in destroying thine adversary. Rather send thou unto him deputies, and lay on him a tribute to be paid to thee every year. Thus the land will be preserved, and thou wilt be Lord forever over him who owes thee tribute. If he refuse, thou shalt then do what pleases thee. Clovis found the counsel good, ordered his army to return home, sent deputies to Gundabad, and called upon him to undertake the payment every year of a fixed tribute. Gundabad paid for the time, and promised to pay punctually for the future, and peace appeared to be made between the two barbarians. Pleased with his campaign against the Burgundians, Clovis kept on good terms with Gundabad, who was to be henceforth a simple tributary, and transferred to the Visigoths of Aquitania and their king, Alaric II, his views of conquest. He had there the same pretext for attack and the same means of success. Alaric and his Visigoths were Aryans, and between them and the bishops of Southern Gaul, nearly all Orthodox Catholics, there were permanent ill-will and distrust. Alaric attempted to conciliate their good will. In 506, a council met at Agda, the thirty-four bishops of Aquitania attended in person or by delegate. The king protested that he had no design of persecuting the Catholics. The bishops at the opening of the council offered prayers for the king, but Alaric did not forget that immediately after the conversion of Clovis, Volusian, bishop of Ture, had conspired in favour of the Frankish king, and the bishops of Aquitania regarded Volusian as a martyr, for he had been deposed without trial from his sea, and taken as a prisoner first to Toulouse and afterwards into Spain, wherein a short time he had been put to death. In vain did the glorious chief of the race of Goths, Theodoric the Great, king of Italy, father-in-law of Alaric, and brother-in-law of Clovis, exert himself to prevent any outbreak between the two kings. In 498, Alaric, no doubt at his father-in-law's solicitation, wrote to Clovis, If my brother consent there, too, I would, following my desires and by the grace of God, have an interview with him. The interview took place at a small island in the Loire, called the Island d'Or, or Saint-Jean, near Amboise. The two kings, says Gregory of Ture, conversed, ate, and drank together, and separated with mutual promises of friendship. The positions and passions of each soon made the promises of no effect. In 505 Clovis was seriously ill. The bishops of Aquitania testified warm interest in him, and one of them, Quintian, bishop of Rodes, being on this account persecuted by the Visigoths, had to seek refuge at Clermont, in Avernia. Clovis no longer concealed his designs. In 507 he assembled his principal chieftains, and, it displeases me greatly, said he, that these Aryans should possess a portion of the Gauls. March we forth with the help of God, drive we them from that land, for it is very goodly, and bring we it under our own power. The Franks applauded their king, and the army set out on the march in the direction of Portiers, where Alaric happened at that time to be. As a portion of the troops was crossing the territory of Ture, Viscgregory, who was shortly afterwards its bishop, Clovis forbade out of respect for St. Martin anything to be taken, save grass and water. One of the army, however, having found some hay belonging to a poor man, said, This is grass, we do not break the king's commands by taking it, and in spite of the poor man's resistance he robbed him of his hay. Clovis, informed of the fact, slew the soldier on the spot with one sweep of his sword, saying, What will become of our hopes of victory if we offend St. Martin? Alaric had prepared for the struggle, and the two armies met on the plain of Vuj, on the banks of the Little River plain, a few leagues from Portiers. The battle was very severe. The Goths, says Gregory of Tours, fought with missiles, the Franks soared in hand. Clovis met and with his own hand slew Alaric in the fray. At the moment of striking his blow, two Goths fell suddenly upon Clovis, and attacked him with their pikes on either side, but he escaped death thanks to his cures and the agility of his horse. Beaten and kingless, the Goths retreated in great disorder, and Clovis, pursuing his march, arrived without opposition at Bordeaux, where he settled down with his Franks for the winter. When the war season returned he marched on to Luz, the capital of the Visigoths, which he likewise occupied without resistance, and where he seized a portion of the treasure of the Visigothic kings. He quitted it to lay siege to Carcassonne, which had been made by the Romans into the stronghold of Septumeia. There his course of conquest was destined to end. After the Battle of Voya he had sent his oldest son Theodoric in command of a division, with orders to cross central Gaul from west to east to go and join the Burgundians of Gondobod, who had promised his assistance, and in conjunction with them to attack the Visigoths on the banks of the Rhône and in Narbonnes. The young Frank boldly executed his father's orders, but the intervention of Theodoric the Great, King of Italy, prevented the success of the operation. He sent an army into Gaul to the aid of his son-in-law Alaric, and the united Franks and Burgundians failed in their attacks upon the Visigoths of the eastern provinces. Clovis had no idea of compromising by his obscenity the conquests already accomplished. He therefore raised the siege of Carcassonne, returned first to Toulouse, and then to Bordeaux, took Angoulême, the only town of importance he did not possess in Aquitania, and feeling reasonably sure that the Visigoths, who even with the aid that had come from Italy, had great difficulty in defending what remained to them of southern Gaul, would not come and dispute with him what he had already conquered, he halted at tour, and stayed there some time to enjoy on the spot the fruits of his victory and to establish his power in his new possessions. It appears that even the Britons of Amorica tendered to him at that time through the interposition of Malinens, Bishop of Rennes, if not their actual submission, at any rate their subordination and homage. Clovis at the same time had his self-respect flattered in a manner to which barbaric conquerors always attach great importance. Anastasius, emperor of the east, with whom he had already had some communication, sent him at tours a solemn embassy, bringing him the titles and insignia of patrician and council. Clovis, says Gregory of Tours, put on the tunic of purple and the chamos and the diadem, then, mounting his horse, he scattered with his own hand and with much bounty gold and silver amongst the people, on the road which lies between the gate of the court belonging to the Basilica of St. Martin and the church of the city. From that day he was called consul and Augustus. On leaving the city of Tours he repaired to Paris, where he fixed the seat of his government. Paris was certainly the political center of his dominions, the intermediate point between the early settlements of his race and himself in Gaul and his new Gallic conquests, but he lacked some of the possessions nearest to him and most naturally, in his own opinion, his. To the east, north, and southwest of Paris were settled some independent Frankish tribes governed by chieftains with the name of kings. So soon as he had settled at Paris it was the one fixed idea of Clovis to reduce them all to subjection. He had conquered the Burgundians and the Visigoths, it remained for him to conquer and unite together all the Franks. The barbarian showed himself in his true colors during this new enterprise with his violence, his craft, his cruelty, and his perfidity. He began with the most powerful of the tribes, the Repurian Franks. He sent secretly to Clodarec, son of Sigbert, their king, saying, Thy father hath become old, and his wound maketh him limp a one foot. If he should die his kingdom will come to thee of right, together with our friendship. Clodarec had his father assassinated whilst asleep in his tent, and sent messengers to Clovis, saying, My father is dead, and I have in my power his kingdom and his treasures. Send thou unto me certain of thy people, and I will gladly give into their hands whatsoever amongst these treasures shall seem like to please thee. The envoys of Clovis came, and as they were examining in detail the treasures of Sigbert, Clodarec said to them, This is the coffer wherein my father was want to pile up his gold pieces. Plunge, said they, thy hand, right to the bottom of that that none escaped thee. Clodarec bent forward, and one of the envoys lifted his battle-axe and cleft his skull. Clovis went to Cologne and convoked the Franks of the Canton. Lern said he, that which hath happened. As I was sailing on the river-shellt, Clodarec, son of my relative, did vex his father, saying I was minded to slay him, and as Sigbert was flying across the forests of Buchaw, his son himself sent bandits, who fell upon him and slew him. Clodarec also is dead, smitten I know not by whom as he was opening his father's treasures. I am altogether unconcerned in it all, and I could not shed the blood of my relatives for it is a crime. But since it hath so happened, I give unto you counsel, which ye shall follow if it seem to you good. Turn ye towards me, and live under my protection. And they who were present hoisted him on a huge buckler, and hailed him king. After Sigbert and the Repurian Franks came the Franks of Tyrone, and Sheraric their king. He had refused, twenty years before, to march with Clovis against the Roman, Cyagreus. Clovis, who had not forgotten it, attacked him, took him and his son prisoners, and had them both shorn, ordering that Sheraric should be ordained priest and his son deacon. Sheraric was much grieved. Then said his son to him, Here be branches which were cut from a green tree, and are not yet wholly dried up. Soon they will sprout forth again. May it please God that he who hath wrought all this shall die as quickly. Clovis considered these words as a menace, had both father and son beheaded, and took possession of their dominions. Ragnacare, king of the Franks of Cambrae, was the third to be attacked. He had served Clovis against Cyagreus, but Clovis took no account of that. Ragnacare, being beaten, was preparing for flight, when he was seized by his own soldiers, who tied his hands behind his back, and took him to Clovis along with his brother, Riquier. Wherefore hast thou dishonored our race, said Clovis, by letting thy self-wear bonds, to our better to have died, and cleft his skull with one stroke of his battle-axe? Then turning to Riquier, hast thou suckered thy brother, said he, he had assuredly not been bound, and felled him likewise at his feet. Ragnoma, king of the Franks of Le Mans, met the same fate, but not at the hands, only by the order of Clovis. So Clovis remained sole king of the Franks, for all the independent chieftains had disappeared. It is said that one day, after all these murders, Clovis, surrounded by his trusted servants, cried, Woe is me, who am left as a traveller amongst strangers, and who have no longer relatives to lend me support in the day of adversity. Thus do the most shameless take pleasure in exhibiting sham sorrow after crimes they cannot disavow. It cannot be known whether Clovis ever felt in his soul any scruple or regret for his many acts of ferocity and profidity, or if he looked, as sufficient expiation, upon the favor he had bestowed on the churches and their bishops, upon the gifts he lavished on them, and upon the absolutions he demanded of them. In times of mingled barbarism and faith there are strange cases of credulity in the way of bargains made with divine justice. We read in the life of St. Ileutherius, Bishop of Tornay, the native land of Clovis, that at one of those periods when the conscience of the Frankish King must have been most heavily laden, he presented himself one day at the church. My Lord King, said the Bishop, I know wherefore thou art come to me. I have nothing special to say unto thee, rejoined Clovis. Say not so, O King, replied the Bishop, Thou hast sinned and darest not avow it. The King was moved, and ended by confessing that he had deeply sinned, and had need of large pardon. St. Ileutherius betook himself to prayer. The King came back the next day, and the Bishop gave him a paper on which was written, by divine hand, he said, the pardon granted to royal offences which might not be revealed. Clovis accepted this absolution, and loaded the church of Tornay with his gifts. In 511, the very year of his death, his last act in life was the convocation at Orléans of a council, which was attended by thirty bishops from the different parts of his kingdom, and at which were adopted thirty-one cannons that, whilst granting to the church great privileges and means of influence, in many cases favorable to humanity in respect for the rights of individuals, bound the church closely to the state, and gave to royalty, even in ecclesiastical matters, great power. The bishops, on breaking up, sent these cannons to Clovis, praying him to give them the sanction of his adhesion, which he did. A few months afterwards, on the 27th of November, 511, Clovis died at Paris, and was buried in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, nowadays St. Genevieve, built by his wife Queen Clotilde, who survived him. It was but right to make the reader intimately acquainted with that great barbarian who, with all his vices and all his crimes, brought about, or rather began, two great matters which have already endured through fourteen centuries, and still endure, for he founded the French monarchy and Christian France. Such men and such facts have a right to be closely studied and set in a clear light by history. Nothing similar will be seen for two centuries, under the descendants of Clovis, the Merovingians, amongst them will be encountered none but those personages whom death reduces to insignificance, whatever may have been their rank in the world, and of whom Virgil thus speaks to Dante, non ragionum di for magare pasa. There is no words on them, one glance, and pass thou on. Chapter 8 The Merovingians Part 1 In its beginning and in its end, the line of the Merovingians is mediocre and obscure. Its earliest ancestors, Meroveus, from whom it got its name, and Claudion, the first it is said, of the long-haired kings, a characteristic title of the Frankish kings, are scarcely historical personages, and it is under the qualification of sluggard kings that the last Merovingians have a place in history. Clovis alone, amidst his vices and his crimes, was sufficiently great and did sufficiently great deeds to live forever in the course of ages. The greatest part of his successors belong only to genealogy or chronology. In a moment of self-abandonment and veriness, the great Napoleon once said, What trouble to take for half a page in universal history? History is far more limited and modest than a universal history. Not only have I right, but are bound to shed their light only upon those men who have deserved it by the eminence of their talents or the important results of their passage through life. Rarity only can claim to escape oblivion. When save two or three, a little less insignificant or less hateful than the rest, the Merovingian kings deserve only to be forgotten. From A.D. 511 to A.D. 752, that is, from the death of Clovis to the accession of the Cullovingians, is 241 years, which was the duration of the dynasty of the Merovingians. During this time there are in 28 Merovingian kings, which reduces to eight years and seven months the average reign of each, a short duration compared with that of most of the royal dynasties. Five of these kings clotter the first, clotter the second, dagger-bird the first, theory is the fourth, and Hildrex the third, alone, at different intervals, united under their power all the dominions possessed by Clovis or his successors. The other kings of this line reigned only over special kingdoms, formed by virtue of diverse partitions at the death of the general possessor. From A.D. 511 to 638, five such partitions took place. In 511, after the death of Clovis, his dominions were divided amongst his four sons, Teodoric or theory, the first was king of Metz, Claudomir of Orlians, Hildre bird of Baris, clotter the first of Saussons. To each of these capitals fixed boundaries were attached. In 558, in consequence of diverse incidents brought about naturally or by violence, clotter the first ended by possessing alone during three years all the dominions of his fathers. At his death, in 561, there were partitioned afresh amongst his four sons, Harry bird was king of Paris, Gontran of Orlians and Burgundy, Ziggy bird the first of Metz and Hildrex of Saussons. In 567, Harry bird, king of Paris, died without children and the new partition left only three kingdoms, Austrasia, Noistria and Burgundy. Austrasia in the east extended over the two banks of the Rhine and comprised side by side with Roman towns and districts, populations that had remained Germanic. Noistria in the west was essentially Gallo-Roman, though it comprised in the north the old territory of the Sallian Franks on the borders of the Shelt. And he was the old kingdom of the Burgundians, enlarged in the north by some few counties. Paris, the residence of Clovis, was reserved and divided amongst the three kings, kept as a sort of neutral city into which they could not enter without the common consent of all. In 613 new incidents connected with family matters placed clotter the second son of Kilperic and heretofore king of Soissons in possession of the three kingdoms. He kept them united up to 628 and left them so to his son, Dagobard I, who remained in possession of them up to 638. At his death a new division of the Frankish dominions took place, no longer into three but two kingdoms, Austrasia being one and Noistria and Burgundy the other. This was the definite dismemberment of the great Frankish dominion to the time of its last two Merovingian kings. Theories of Ors and Hildrex III, who were kings in name only, dragged from the cloister as ghosts from the tomb to play a motionless part in the drama. For a long time past the real power had been in the hands of that valiant Austrasian family which was to furnish the dominions of Clovis with a new dynasty and a greater king than Clovis. Southern Gaul, that is to say, Aquitania, Voscunia, Narbonnes, called Septimania, and the two banks of the drone near its mouth, were not comprised in these partitions of the Frankish dominions. Each of the co-partitioners assigned to themselves to the south of the Garonne and on the coast of the Mediterranean, and that beautiful region of Old Roman Gaul, such and such a district or such and such a town, just as heirs at law keep to themselves severally such as such a peace of furniture or such and such a valuable jewel out of rich property, to which they succeed and which they divide amongst them. The peculiar situation of these provinces, at their distance from the Frank's own settlements, contributed much towards the independence which Southern Gaul, and especially Aquitania, was constantly striving and partly managed to recover amidst the extension and tempestous fortunes of the Frankish monarchy. It's easy to comprehend how these repeated partitions of a mighty inheritance with so many successors, these dominions continually changing both their limits and their masters, must have tended to increase the already profound energy of Roman and barbaric worlds, thrown palmel one upon the other, and fallen a prey, the Roman to the disorganization of a lingering death, the barbaric to the fermentation of a new existence, striving for development under social conditions quite different from those of its primitive life. Some historians have said that in spite of these perpetual dismemberment of the great Frankish dominion, a real unity had always existed in the Frankish monarchy, and regulated the destinies of its constituent peoples. They who say so, show themselves singularly easy to please in the matter of political unity and international harmony. Amongst those various states, springing from a common base, and subdivided between the different members of one and the same family, rivalries, enmities, hostile machinations, deeds of violence and atrocity, struggles and wars soon became as frequent, as bloody, and as obstinate, as they have ever been amongst states and sovereigns, as unconnected as possible one with another. It will suffice to quote one case, which was not long incoming. In 424, scarcely thirteen years after the death of Clovis, and the partition of his dominions amongst his four sons, the second of them, Claudomir, king of Orleans, was killed in a war against the Burgundians, leaving three sons, direct heirs of his kingdom, subject to equal partition between them. Their grandmother, Clotilde, kept them with her at Paris, and their uncle Hildebert, king of Paris, seeing that his mother bestowed all her affection upon the sons of Claudomir, grew jealous. So, fearing that by her favours they would get a share in the kingdom, he sent secretly to his brother Clotère, king of Soissons, saying, Our mother keepeth by her the sons of our brother, and willest to give them the kingdom of their father. Thou must need, therefore, come speedily to Paris, and we must take counsel together as to what shall be done with them, whether they shall be shorn and reduced to the condition of commoners or slain, and leave their kingdom to be shared equally between us. Clotère, overcome with joy at these wards, came to Paris. Hildebert had already spread aboard amongst the people that the two kings were to join in raising the young children to the throne. The two kings then sent a message to the queen, who at that time dwelt in the same city, saying, Send though the children to us, that we may place them on the throne. Clotilde, full of joy, and unwitting of their craft, set me to drink before the children, and then sent them away, saying, I shall seem not to have lost my son if I see succeed him in his kingdom. The young princes were immediately seized, and parted from their servants and governors, and the servants and the children were kept in separate places. Then Hildebert and Clotère sent to the queen their confident Arcadius, one of the Arvernian senators, with a pair of shears and a naked sword. When he came to Clotilde, he showed her what he bears with him, and said to her, Most glorious queen, thy sons, our masters, desire to know thy will touching these children, will do that they live with shorn hair, or that they be put to death. Clotilde astounded at this address, and our canvas indignation answered at hazard, amidst the griefs that overwhelmed her, and not knowing what she would say. If they be not set upon the throne, I would rather know that they were dead than shorn. But Ariadius, caring little for her despair, or for what she might decide after more reflection, returned in haste to the two kings and said, Finish ye your work, for the queen, favoring your plans, willest that you accomplish them. For Swiss Clotère took as the eldest by the arm, dashes him upon the ground, and slays him without mercy, with the thrust of a hunting-knife beneath the armpit. At the cries raised by the child, his brother castes himself at the feet of Hildebert, and clinging to his knees, slays amidst his saps. Aid me, good father, that I die not like my brother. Hildebert, his visage bathed in tears, said to Clotère, Dear brother, I crave thy mercy for his life. I will give thee whatsoever thou wilt as the price of his soul. I pray thee, slay him not. Then Clotère, with menacing and furious mean, cries out aloud. Thrust him away, or thou diest in his stead, though the instigator of all this work, art thou then so quick to be faceless. At these words Hildebert surged away the child towards Clotère, who seized him, plunged a hunting-knife in his side, as he had in his brothers, and slough him. They then put to death the slaves and governors of the children. After these murders Clotère mounted his horse and departed, making little heed of his nephew's death. And Hildebert withdrew into the outskirts of the city. Queen Clotilde had the corpses of the two children, placed in a coffin, and followed them with the great parade of chanting, and immense mourning, to the basilica of Saint Pierre, now Saint Geneviève, where they were buried together. One was ten years old, and the other seven. The third, named Clotilde, could died about the year 560, after having founded, near Paris, a monastery called after him Saint Claude. Could not be caught, and was saved by some gallant men. He, disdaining a terrestrial kingdom, dedicated himself to the Lord, was shorn by his own hand, and became a churchman. He devoted himself wholly to good works, and died as priest. The two kings divided equally between them, the kingdom of Clodomir. The history of the most barbarous peoples, and times, assuredly offers no example, in one and the same family, of an other patient more perfidiously, and atrociously consummated. King Clodomir, the father of the two young princes, thus disrobed, and murdered by their uncles, had, during his reign, shown almost equal indifference and cruelty. In 523, during a war, which, in concert with his brothers Hildbert and Clotair, he had waged against Sigismund, king of Burgundy, he had made prisoners of that king, his wife and their sons, and kept them shut up at Orleans. The year after, the war was renewed with the Burgundians. Clodomir resolved, says Gregory of Tours, to put Sigismund to death. The blessed Avitus, a bot of centrums Mercement de Missy, and Abbey, about two leagues from Orleans, a famous priest in those days, said to him on this occasion, If, turning thy thoughts towards God, thou change thy plan, and suffer not these folk to be slain, God will be with thee, and thou will gain the victory. But if thou slay them, thou thyself will be delivered into the hands of Zion enemies, and thou wilt undergo their fate, to thee and thy wife and thy sons, will happen that which thou wilt have done to Sigismund and his wife and his sons. But Clodomir, taking no heed of this council, said, It were great fully to leave one enemy at home when I march out against another, one attacking me behind and another in front. I should find myself between two armies. Victory will be sureer and easier if I separate one from the other. When the first is once dead, it will be less difficult to get rid of the other also. Accordingly, he put Sigismund to death, together with his wife and his sons, ordered them to be thrown into a well in the village of Clodomir, belonging to the territory of Orleans, and set out for Burgundy. After his first success, Clodomir fell into an ambush and into the hands of his enemies, who cut off his head, stuck it on the end of the pike, and held it up aloft. Victory nevertheless remained with the Franks, but scarcely had a year elapsed when Queen Conciqui, Clodomir's widow, became the wife of his brother Clotair, and his two elder sons, Tobald and Gontair, fell beneath their uncle's hunting knife. Even in the coarsest and harshest ages, the soul of man does not completely lose its instincts of justice and humanity. The bishops and priests were not alone in crying out against such atrocities. The barbarians themselves did not always remain in different spectators of them, but sometimes took advantage of them to arouse the wrath and warlike ardor of their comrades. About the year 528, Teodoric King of Metz, the eldest son of Clovis, proposed to undertake a grand campaign on the right bank of the Rhine against his neighbors, the Touringians, and summoned the Franks to a meeting. Be thank you, said he, that of all times the Touringians felt violently upon our ancestors, and did them much harm. Our fathers, you know, gave them hostages to obtain peace, but the Touringians put to death those hostages in diverse ways, and once more, falling upon our relatives, took from them all they possessed. After having hung children up by the sinews of their thighs on the branches of trees, they put to a most cruel death more than two hundred young girls, tying them by the legs to the necks of horses, which, driven by pointed goats in different directions, tore the poor souls in pieces. They laid others along the roots of the roads, fixed them in the earth with stakes, drove over them laden cars, and so left them, with their bones all broken, as a meal for the birds and dogs. To this very day does Hermann of Roy fail in his promise, and absolutely refuse to fulfill his engagements. Right is on our side, march we against them with the help of God. Then the Franks, indignant at such atrocities, demanded with one voice to be led into Touringia. Victory made them masters of it, and they reduced the country under their dominion. Whilst the Frankish kings were still there, Theodoric would have slain his brother Clotaire. Having put armed men in waiting, he had him fetched to treat secretly of a certain matter. Then, having arranged in a portion of his house a curtain from wall to wall, he posted his arm and men behind it. But as the curtain was too short, it left their feet exposed. Clotaire, having been warned of the snare, entered the house armed and with a goodly company. Theodoric then perceived that he was discovered, invented some story, and talked of this, that, and the other. At last, not knowing how to get his treachery forgotten, he made Clotaire a present of a large silver dish. Clotaire wished him good-bye, thanked him, and returned home. But Theodoric immediately complained to his own folks that he had sacrificed his silver dish to no purpose, and said to his son Theodobert, Go, find thy uncle and pray him to give thee the present I made him. Theodobert went, and got what he asked. In such tricks did Theodoric excel. These Merovingian kings were as greedy and licentious as they were cruel. Not only was pillage in their estimation the end an object of war, but they pillaged even in the midst of peace and in their own dominions, sometimes after the Roman practice, by aggravation of taxes and fiscal manors, at others after the barbaric fashion, by sudden attacks on places in persons they knew to be rich. It often happened that they pillaged a church, of which the bishop had vexed them by his protests, either to swell their own personal treachery, or to make, soon afterwards, offerings to another church, of which they sold the favor. When some great family event was at hand, they delighted in a coarse magnificence, for which they provided at the expense of the populations of their domains, or of the great officers of their courts, who did not fail to indemnify themselves, thanks to public disorder, for the sacrifices imposed upon them. At the end of the sixth century, Hilperic, king of Noistria, had promised his daughter Regonte in marriage to Prince Recared, son of Lovigild, king of the Visigoths of Spain. A grand deputation of Goth came to Paris to fetch the Frankish princess. King Hilperic ordered several families in the fiscal domains to be seized and placed in cars. As the great number of them wept and were not willing to go, he had them kept in prison that he might more easily force them to go away with his daughter. It is said that several, in their despair, hung themselves, fearing to be taken from their parents. Sons were separated from fathers, daughters from mothers, and all departed with deep groans and maledictions, and in Paris they reigned a desolation like that of Egypt. Not a few of superior births, being forced to go away, even made wills, whereby they left their possessions to the churches, and demanded that, so soon as the young girl should have entered Spain, their wills should be open, just as if they were already in their graves. When King Hilperic gave up his daughter to the ambassadors of the Goth, he presented them with vast treasures. Her mother, Queen Fredegonde, added there, too, so great a quantity of gold and silver and valuable vestments, that at the sight thereof the king thought he must have not remaining. The queen, perceiving his emotion, turned to the Franks and said to them, Think not, warriors, that there is here all of the treasures of former kings. All that you see is taken from mine own possessions, for my most glorious king has made me many gifts. There, too, have I added of the fruits of mine own toil, and a great part proceed as from the revenues I have drawn, either in kind or in money, from the houses that have been seated unto me. Ye yourselves have given me riches, and ye see here apportion thereof, but there is here not of the public treasure. And the king was deceived into believing her words. Such was the multitude of golden and silver and articles, and other precious things, that it took fifty wagons to hold them. The Franks, on their part, made many offerings. Some gave gold, some silver, Sundry gave horses, but most of them vestments. At last the young girl, with many tears and kisses, said farewell. As she was passing through the gate, an axle of her carriage broke, and all cried out, Alacic, which was interpreted by some as a presage. She departed from Paris, and at eight miles distance from the city, she had her tents pitched. During the night, fifty men arose, and having taken a hundred of the best horses, and as many golden bits and brittles, and two large silver dishes fled away, and took refuge with King Hildebert. During the whole journey, whoever could escape, fled away with all that he could lay hands on. It was required also for the towns, that were traversed on the way, that they should make great preparations to defray expenses, for the king forbade any contribution from the treasury. All the charges were met by extraordinary taxes levied on the poor. Close upon this tyrannical magnificence came unexpected sorrows, and close upon these outrages remorse. The youngest son of King Hilperich, Dagobert by name, fell ill. He was a little better when his elder brother, Hulodebert, was attacked with the same symptoms. His mother, Fredegonde, seeing him in danger of death, and touched by tardy repentance, said to the king, Long has divine mercy borne with our misdeeds. It has warned us by fever and other melodies, and we have not mended our ways. And now we are losing our sons. Now the tears of the poor, the lamentations of widows and the sighs of orphans are causing them to perish, and leaving us no hope of laying by for anyone. We heap up riches and know not for whom. Our treasures, all laden with plunder and curses, are like to remain without possessors. Our cellars are they not bursting with wine, and our granaries with corn. Our coffers were they not full to the brim with gold and silver, and precious stones and necklaces and other imperial ornaments. And yet that, which was our most beautiful possession, we are losing. Come then, if the wilt, and let us burn all these wicked lists, let our treasury be content with what was sufficient for thy father Clotaire. Having thus spoken and beating her breast, the queen had brought to her the rolls, which Mark had consigned to her of each of the cities that belonged to her, and cast them into the fire. Then turning again to the king, what she cried, to hesitate, do so even as I, if we lose our dear children, at least escape the everlasting punishment. Then the king moved with compunction, threw into the fire all the lists, and when they were burned, sent people to stave the levite of those imposts. And afterwards their youngest child died, born out with lingering illness. Our well-described they bear him from their house at brain to Paris, and had him buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis. As for Hlaudebert, they placed him on a litter, carried him to the Basilica of Saint Medard at Soissons, and lying him before the tomb of the saint, offered woes for his recovery. But in the middle of the night, enfeebled and exhausted, he gave up the ghost. They buried him in the Basilica of the holy martyrs, Crispin and Crispinian. The king Hilbric showed great larges to the churches and the monasteries and the poor. It is doubtful whether the maternal grief of Redegonde were quite so pious, and so strictly in accordance with morality, as it has been represented by Gregory of Tours. But she was, without doubt, passionately sincere. Rush actions and violent passions are the characteristics of barbaric natures. The interest or impression of the moment holds sway over them, and causes forgetfulness of every moral law, as well as the every wise calculation. These two characteristics show themselves in the extreme license displayed in the private life of the Merovingian kings, on becoming Christians, that only did they not impose upon themselves any of the Christian rules in respect of conjugal relations. But the greater number of them did not renounce polygamy, and more than one holy bishop, at the very time that he reprobated it, was obliged to tolerate it. King Clutter I had to wife in Gondar, and her only did he love, when she made to him the following request. My Lord, said she, has made of this handmade what seemed him good, and now, to crown his favours, let my Lord day into here what his handmade demandeth. I pray you be graciously pleased to find for my sister Aragonda your slave, a man both capable and rich, so that I be rather exalted than a best surabbi, and be enabled to serve you still more facefully. At these words, Clutter, who was but too voluptuously disposed by nature, conceived a fancy for Aragonda, but took himself to the country house where she'd velled, and united her to him in marriage. When the union had taken place, he returned to Ingonde and said to her, I have labored to procure for Zee the favours of its so sweetly demand, and, on looking for a man of wealth and capability, worthy to be united to sigh a sister, I could find no better than myself. No, therefore, that I have taken her to wife, and I throw that it will not displease Zee. But seem is good in my master's eyes, that let him do, replied Ingonde. Only let thy servant abide still in the king's grace. Volume 1 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francis Guizot, translated by Robert Black Chapter 8 The Merovingians, Part II Clutter the first had, as has been already remarked, four sons. The eldest, Haribet, king of Paris, had to wife Ingeberge, who had in her service two young persons, daughters of a poor workman, one of them named Markovive, had donned the religious dress, the other was called Merofléde, and the king loved both of them exceedingly. They were daughters, as has been said of a worker in Wul. Ingeberge, jealous of the affection born to them by the king, had their father put to work inside the palace, hoping that the king, on seeing him in such condition, would conceive a distaste for his daughters, and whilst the man was at his work, she sent for the king. Haribet, singing he was going to see some novelty, though only the workman afar offered work on his Wul. He foresoaked Ingeberge, and took to wife Merofléde. He had also to wife another young girl named Toidoe Hilde, whose father was a shepherd, a mere tender of sheep, and had by her, it is said, a son, who, only shewing from his mother's womb, was carried straightway to the grave. Haribet afterwards esposed Markovive, sister of Merofléde, and was at cause both were excommunicated by Serg German, bishop of Paris. Hilperich, forced son of Clotiers I, and king of Soissons, though he had already several wives, asked the hand of Galsuinte, eldest daughter of Atthaghanild, king of Spain. She arrived at Soissons, and was united to him in marriage, and she received strong evidences of love, for she had brought with her vast treasures. But his love for Fredegonde, one of the principal women about Hilperich, occasioned fierce disputes between them. As Galsuinte had to complain to the king of continual insult, and of not sharing with him the dignity of his rank, she asked him in return for the treasures, which she had brought, and which she was already to give up to him, to send her back free to her own country. Sheoperec, artfully dissimulating, appeased her with soothing words, and then had her strangled by a slave, and she was found dead in her bed. When he had mourned for her death, he esposed Fredegonde, after an interval of a few days. Amidst such passions and such morals, treason, murder, and poisoning were the familiar processes of ambition, covetousness, hatred, vengeance, and fear. Eight kings of royal heirs of the Merwingian line died of brutal murder or secret assassination, to say nothing of innumerable crimes of the same kind committed in their circle, and left unpunished, saved by similar crimes. Justice is due to the very worst times and the very worst governments, and it must be recorded that, whilst sharing in many of the vices of their age and race, especially their extreme license of morals, three of Clovis' successors, Théodebert, king of Austrasia, from 534 to 548, Gontran, king of Burgundy, from 561 to 598, and Théodebert I, who united under his own sway the whole Frankish monarchy, from 622 to 688, where less violent, less cruel, less iniquitous, and less grossly ignorant or blind than the majority of the Merwingians. Théodebert, since Gregory of Tours, when confirmed in his kingdom, showed himself full of greatness and goodness. He ruled with justice, honing the bishops, doing good to the churches, helping the poor, and distributing in many directions numerous benefits with a very charitable and very liberal hand. He generously admitted to the churches of other all the tribute they were want to pay into his treasury. Gontran, king of Burgundy, in spite of many shocking and principled deeds, at one time of violence, at another of weakness, displayed during his reign of thirty-three years, an inclination towards moderation and peace, in striking contrast with the measureless pretensions and outrageous conduct of the other Frankish kings his contemporaries, especially King Hilberg, his brother. The treaty concluded by Gontran on the 28th of November 587, at Andelot near Langarys, with his young nephew Héodebert, king of Metz, and queen Brunnhund, his mother, contains dispositions, or more correctly speaking words, which breathe a sincere but timid desire to render justice to all, to put an end to the vindictive or retrospective quarrels and spoliation which were incessantly harassing the gallows of Frankish community, and to build up peace between the two kings and the foundation of mutual respect for the rights of their liege. It is established, says this treaty, that whatsoever the kings have given to the churches or to their liege, or with God's help shall the hereafter will to give to them lawfully, shall be irrevocable acquired, as also that none of the lieges, in one kingdom or the other, shall have to suffer damage in respect of what so ever belongs to him, either by law or by virtue of a decree, but shall be permitted to recover and possess things due to him. And as the aforesaid kings have allied themselves in the name of God, by a pure and sincere affection, it has been agreed that at no time shall passage through one kingdom be refused to the loyalties, liege's great vessels, of the other kingdom who shall desire to traverse them on public or private affairs. It is likewise agreed that neither of the two kings shall solicit the loyalties of the other, or receive them if they offer themselves, and if, per adventure, any of these loyalties shall think it necessary, in consequence of some fault, to take refuge with the other king, he shall be absolved according to the nature of his fault and given back. It has seemed good also to add to the present treaty that whichever, if either, of the parties happen to violate it, under any pretext, and at any time whatsoever, it shall lose all advantages present or prospective therefrom, and they shall be for the profit of that party, which shall have faithfully observed the hoverset conventions, and which shall be relieved in all points from the obligations of its oath. It may be doubted whether between Gontran and Hildbert the promises in the treaty were always group of sleep fulfilled, but they have a stamp of serious and sincere intention, foreign to the habitual relations between the other Merovingian kings. Mention was just now made of two women, two queens, Fredegonde and Brunnhout, who, at the Merovingian epoch, played important parts in the history of the country. They were of very different origin and condition, and, after fortunes which were for a long while analogous, they ended very differently. Fredegonde was the daughter of poor peasants in the neighborhood of Montedier in Picardee, and at an early age joined the train of queen Audovere, the first wife of King Hilperich. She was beautiful, dexterous, ambitious, and bold, and she attracted the attention, and before long awakened the passion of the king. She pursued with ardor and without scruple her unexpected fortune. Queen Audovere was her first obstacle and her first victim, and on the pretext of a spiritual relationship, which rendered her marriage with Hilperich illegal, was repudiated and banished to a convent. But Fredegonde's hour had not yet come, for Hilperich esposed Galsointhe, daughter of the Visigothic king, at Hunnegild, whose youngest daughter Brunehout had just married Hilperich's brother Sigebert, king of Austrasia. It has already been said that before long Galsointhe was found strangled in her bed, and that Hilperich espoused Fredegonde. An undoying hatred from that time arose between her and Brunehout, who had to avenge her sister. A war insistently renewed between the kings of Austrasia and Austria followed. Sigebert succeeded in beating Hilperich, but, in 575, in the midst of his victory he was suddenly assassinated in his tent by two emissaries of Fredegonde. His army disbanded and his widow Brunehout fell into the hands of Hilperich. The rite of Asulum belonging to the cathedral of Paris saved her life, but she was sent away to Rowan. There, at this very time on a mission from his father, happened to be Merovi, son of Hilperich and the repudiated queen Audovera. He saw Brunehout in her beauty, her attractiveness and her trouble. He was smitten with her and married her privately, and prior textatus, bishop of Rowan, had the imprudent courage to seal their union. Fredegonde ceased with avidity upon this occasion for persecuting her rival and destroying her stepson, heir to the throne of Hilperich. The Austrasians, who had reserved the child Hildebert, son of their murdered king, demanded back with treats her queen Brunehout. She was surrendered to her Zem, but Fredegonde did not let go her other prey, Merovis. First imprisoned, then shorn and shot up in a monastery, afterwards a fugitive and secretly urged on to attempt a rising against his father. He was so affrightened at his perils that he got a faithful servant to strike him dead, that he might not fall into the hands of his hostile stepmother. Hilperich had remaining other son, Clovis, issue as Merovis was of Queen Audovera. He was accused of having caused by his sorceries the death of the three children, lost about this time by Fredegonde, and was, in his turn, imprisoned and before long poignarded. His mother Audovera was strangled in her convent. Fredegonde sought in these deaths advantages for her own children some sort of horrible consolation for her sorrows as a mother. But the sum of crimes was not yet complete. In 584 King Hilperich, on returning from the chase and in the act of dismounting, was struck to mortal blows by a man who took to rapid flight, and a cry was raised all around of treason. It is the hand of the Austrasian hildebert against our Lord the King. The care taken to have the cry raised was proof of its falsity. It was the hand of Fredegonde herself. Anxious last Hilperich should discover the guilty connection existing between her and an officer of her household, Landry, who became subsequently mayor of the Palace of Nostria. Hilperich left a son, a few months old, named Clothair, of whom his mother Fredegonde became the sovereign guardian. She employed, at one time, in defending him against his enemies, at another, in endangering him by her plots, her hatreds and her assaults, the last 13 years of her life. She was a true type of the strong-willed, artful, and perverse woman in barbarous times. She started low down in the scale, and rose very high without a corresponding elevation of soul. She was audacious and perfidious, as perfect in deception as in effrontery. Proceeding to atrocities, either from cool calculation or a spirit of revenge, abandoned all kinds of passion, and, for gratification of them, shrinking from no sort of crime. However, she died quietly at Paris in 597 or 98, powerful and dreaded, and living on the throne of Nostria, her son Clothair II, who, 15 years later, was to become sole king of all the Frankish dominions. Brunechout had no occasion for crimes to become a queen, and in spite of those she committed, and in spite of her outbursts and the moral irregularities of her long life, she bore amidst her passion and her power a stamp of courageous frankness and intellectual greatness, which places her far above the savage who was her rival. Fredegonde was an upstart of barbaric race and habits, a stranger to every idea and every design, not connected with her own personal interest and successes. And she was a brutally selfish in the case of her natural passions, as in the exercise of her power, acquired and maintained by a mixture of artifice and violence. Brunechout was a princess of that race of Gothic kings, who, in southern Gaul and in Spain, had understood and admired the Roman civilization, and had striven to transfer the remains of it to the newly formed fabric of their own dominions. She translated to a home amongst the Franks of Austrasia, the least Roman of all the barbarians, preserved there the ideas and tasties of the Visigoths of Spain, who had become almost Gallo-Romans. She clung stoutly to the efficacious exercise of the royal authority. She took a practical interest in the public works, highways, bridges, monuments, and the progress of material civilization. The Roman roads in a short time received, and for a long while kept in Austrasia the name of Brunechout's causeways. There used to be, shown, in a forest near Borgh's, Brunechout's castle, Brunechout's tower and attempts, Brunechout's stone near Torny, and Brunechout's fort near Cahors. In the royal domains and wheresoever she went, she showed a bounded charity to the poor, and many ages after her death, the people of those districts still spoke of Brunechout's alms. She liked and protected men of letters, rear and mediocre indeed at that time, but the only being such as they were, was the notion of seeking and giving any kind of intellectual enjoyment, and they in turn took pleasure in celebrating her name in her deserts. The most renowned of all during that age, Fortunatus Pyshuf Poitier, dedicated nearly all his little poems to two queens, one, Brunechout, plunging amidst all the struggles and pleasures of the world, the other, Centra de Gonde, sometime wife of Clotaire I, who had fled in all haste from a throne to bury herself at Poitiers, in the convent she had founded there. To compensate Brunechout was detested by the majority of the Austrasian chiefs, those lodes, landowners and warriors, whose sturdy and turbulent independence she was continually fighting against. She supported against them, with indomitable courage the royal officers, the servants of the palace, her agents and frequently her favourites. One of these, Lupus, a Roman by origin and Duke of Champagne, was being constantly insulted and plundered by his enemies, especially by Ursion Bertfried. At last they having agreed to slay him, marched against him with an army, at the sight, Brunechout, fighting the evil case of one of her legions unjustly persecuted. Assumed quite a manly courage, and threw herself amongst the hostile battalions crying, stay warriors, refrain from this wicked deed, persecute not the innocent, engage not for a single man's sake in a battle which will desolate the country. Back woman, said Ursion to her, let it suffice thee to have ruled under thy husband's Now it is saison who reigns, and his kingdom is under our protection not dine. Back, if the word is not, that the hooves of our horses trample thee under us the dust of the ground. After the dispute had lasted some time in this strain, the queen, by her address, at last prevented the battle from taking place. It was but a momentary success for Brunechout, and the last words of Ursion contained a sad presage of the death awaiting her. Intoxicated with power, pride, hate, and revenge, she entered more violently every day into strife, not only with the Austrasian lake chieftains, but with some of the principal bishops of Austrasia and Burgundy, amongst the rest with centred year Bishop of Yen, who, at her instigation, was brutally murdered, and with the great Irish missionary Saint Colomba, who would not sanction by his blessings the fruits of the royal irregularities. In 614, after thirty-nine years of wars, plots, murders, and political and personal vicissitudes, from the death of her husband Cigibird I, and under the reigns of her son Teodobird, and her grandson's Teodobird II, and theories II, in Brunechout, at the age of eighty years, fell into the hands of her mortal enemy, Clotaire II, son of Fredegonde, now sole king of the Franks. After having grossly insulted her, he had her paraded, seated on a camel, in front of his whole army, and then ordered her to be tied by the hair, one foot and one arm, to the tail of an unbroken horse, that carried her away, and dashed her in pieces as he galloped and kicked beneath the eyes of the ferocious spectators. After the execution of Brunechout and the death of Clotaire II, the history of the Franks becomes a little less dark and less bloody, not that murders and great irregularities in the court and amongst the people disappear altogether. Dagobird I, for instance, the successor of Clotaire II, and grandson of Hilperich and Fredegonde, had no scruple, under the pressure of self-interest, in committing aniquitous and barbarous act. After having consented to leave to his younger brother, Harrybert, the kingdom of Okvitania, Kiri took it by force in 631, at the death of Harrybert, seizing at the same time his treasures, and co-othing, or permitting to be murdered his young nephew Hilperich, a rightful heir of his father. About the same time Dagobird had assigned amongst the Bavarians, subjects of his beyond the Rhine, and a sullum to 9000 Bulgarians, who had been driven with their wives and children from Pannonia. Not knowing afterwards where to put or how to feed these refugees, he ordered them all to be massacred in one night, and scarcely 700 of them succeeded in escaping by flight. The private morals of Dagobird were not more scrupulous than his public acts. A slave to incontinence, as King Solomon was, says his biographer Fredeguer, he had three queens and a host of concubines. Given up to extravagance and pomp, it pleased him to imitate the magnificence of the imperial court at Constantinople, and at one time he laid hands for that purpose, upon the possessions of certain of his lords, or of certain churches. At another he gave to his favorite church, the Abbey of Saint Denis, so many precious stones, articles of value, and domains in various places that all the world, says Fredeguer, was stricken with admiration. But despite of these excesses and scandals, Dagobird was the most wisely energetic, the least cruel in feeling, the most prudent in enterprise, and the most capable of governing with some little regularity and affectionness of all the kings furnished since Clovis by the Merovingian race. He had on ascending the throne the immense advantage that the three Frankish dominions, Austrasia, Noistria and Burgundy, were reunited under his sway, and at the death of his brother Harrybert, he added there to Aquitania. The unity of the vast Frankish monarchy was thus established, and Dagobird retained it by his moderation at home and abroad. He was brave, and he made war on occasion, but he did not permit himself to be dragged into it, either by his own passions, or by the unlimited taste of his legions for adventure and plunder. He found, on this point, solitary warnings in the history of his predecessors. It was very often the Franks themselves, the royal lords, who plunged their kings into civil or foreign wars. In 530, two sons of Clovis, Hildebert and Clotaire, arranged to attack Burgundy and its king Godomar. They asked aid of their brother Teodorik, who refused to join them. However, the Franks who formed his party said, if they refused to march into Burgundy with their brethren, we give the up and prefer to follow them. But Teodorik, considering that the Avernians had been faceless to him, said to the Franks, follow me, and I will lead you into a country where you shall seize of gold and silver as much as you can desire. We shall take away flocks and slaves and vestments in abundance. The Franks, overcome by these words, promised to do whatsoever he should desire. So Teodorik entered our gene with his army and wrote devastation and ruin into the province. In 555, Clotaire I had made an expedition against the Saxons, who demanded peace. But the Frankish warriors would not hear of it. Seas, I pray you, said Clotaire to them, to be evil-minded against these men. They speak as fair. Let us not go and attack them, for fear we bring down upon us the anger of God. But the Franks would not listen to him. The Saxons again came with offerings of vestments, flocks, even all their possessions, saying, take all this, together with half our country. Leave us but our wives and little children. Only let there be no war between us. But the Franks again refused all terms. Hold, I adore you, said Clotaire, again to them. We have not right on our side. If he be sorrow-minded to enter upon a war, in which he may find your loss, as for me I will not follow ye. Then the Franks enraged against Clotaire, threw themselves upon him, tore his tent pieces as their hipter approaches upon him, and bore him away by force, determined to kill him if he hesitated to march with them. So Clotaire, in spite of himself, departed with them. But when they joined battle, they were cut to pieces by their adversaries, and on both sides so many fell, so that it was impossible to estimate or count the number of the dead. Then Clotaire, with shame, demanded peace of the Saxons, saying that it was not of his own will that he had attacked them, and having obtained it, returned to his own dominions. King Dagoburt was not thus under the yoke of his lords, either by his own energy, or by surrounding himself with wise and influential counsellors, such as Pepin of London, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, Saint Arnaul, Bishop of Metz, Saint Elidius, Bishop of Noyon, and Saint Andoenus, Bishop of Raun. He applied himself to and succeeded in assuring to himself, in the exercise of his power, a pretty large measure of independence and popularity. At the beginning of his reign, he held, in Austrasia and Burgundy, a sort of administrative and judicial inspection, holding at the principal towns, listening to complaints, and checking, sometimes with the rigor arbitrary indeed, but approved of by the people, the violence and irregularities of the grandees. At Langris, Dijon, Sanjindi, Losne, Chalons-sur-Saleen, Augzer, Autoun, and Sains, he rendered justice, says Fredegir, to rich and poor alike, without any charges, and without any respect for persons, taking little sleep and little food, caring only so to act that all should withdraw from his presence full of joy and admiration. Nor did he confine himself to his unceremonious exercise of the royal authority. Some of his predecessors, and amongst them Hildebert I, Clotaire I and Clotaire II, had cause to be drawn up in Latin and by scholars, digest more or less complete of the laws and customs handed down by tradition amongst certain of the Germanic peoples established in Roman soil, notably the laws of the Sallian Franks and Riparian Franks, and Degubert ordered a continuation of these first legislative labours amongst the new-born nations. It was apparently in his reign that the digest was made of the laws of the Germanians and Bavarians. He had also some taste for the arts and the pious talents displayed by sense, a law and quote in Goldsmith's work and sculpture, applied to the service of religion or the decoration of churches, received from him the support of the royal favour and munificence. Degubert was neither a great warrior nor a great legislator, and there is nothing to make him recognized as a great mind or a great character. His private life, too, was scandalous, and extortions were a sad feature of its close. Nevertheless, his authority was maintained in his dominions, his reputation spread far and wide, and the name of great king Degubert was his abiding title in the memory of the people. Taken all in all, he was next to Clovis, the most distinguished of Frankish kings, and the last really king in the line of the Merovingians. After him, from 638 to 732, 12 princes of this line, one named Sigebert, two Clovis, two Hedric, one Clotaire, two Degubert, one Hildebert, one Hilperic, and two Throduric, or theory, bore in Noestria, Austria and Burgundy, or in the Three Kingdoms United the title of king without deserving in history more than room for their names. There was already heard the rumbling of great events to come around the Frankish dominion of kings, more able to bear in accordance with the spirit and wants of their times the burden of power. End of Chapter 8 Section 14 of Volume 1 of a popular history of France from the earliest times this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Volume 1 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francis Guizot translated by Robert Black Chapter 9 The Mayors of the Palace the Pepins and the Change of Dynasty Part 1 There is a certain amount of sound sense of intelligent activity and practical efficiency which even the least civilized and least exacting communities in their governing body. When this necessary share of ability and influence of a political kind are decidedly wanting in the men who have the titles and the official posts of power communities seek elsewhere's equalities and their consequences which they cannot do without. The Slakard Merovingians drove the Franks, Neustrians and Austrasians to this imperative necessity when kings sprang from Clovis acquitted themselves too ill or not at all of their task and the Mayors of the Palace were naturally summoned to supply their deficiencies and to give the populations assurance of more intelligence and energy in the exercise of power. The origin and primitive character of these supplements of royalty were different according to circumstances. At one time conformably with their title the Mayors of the Palace really came into existence in the Palace of the Frankish Kings amongst the Lloyds charged under the style of Neustrians legis in the confidence of the King in Trusteregia with the internal management of the royal affairs and household or amongst the superior chiefs of the army at another on the contrary it was to resist the violence and usurpation of the kings that the Lloyds, landholders and warriors themselves choose a chief able to defend their interests and their rights against the royal tyranny or incapacity. Thus we meet at this time with Mayors of the Palace of very different political origin and intention some appointed by the kings to support royalty against the Lloyds others chosen by the Lloyds against the kings. It was especially between the Neustrian and Austrazian Mayors of the Palace that the difference became striking. Gallo-Roman feeling was more prevalent in Neustria Germanic in Austrazia the majority of the Neustrian Mayors supported the interests of royalty the Austrazians also the aristocracy of landholders and warriors the last years of the Merovingian line were full of their struggles but a cause for more general and more powerful than these differences and conflicts the very heart of the Frankish Dominions determined the definite fall of that line and the accession of another dynasty when in 687 the battle fought at Estrey on the banks of the Somme left Pepin of Hairstyle Duke and Mayor of the Palace of Austrazia Victorius of Arbertaire Mayor of the Palace of Neustria it was a question of something very different from mere rivalry between the two Frankish Dominions and their chiefs at their entrance and settlement upon the left bank of the Rhine and in Gaul the Franks had not abandoned the right bank in Germany there also the remains settled and incessantly at strife with their neighbours of germanian race Turingians, Bavarians the confederation of alemonians prisons and Saxons people frequently vangished and subdued to all appearance either from their recovery of their independence or again under the pressure of that grand movement which in the third century had determined the general invasion by the barbarians of the Roman Empire after the defeat of the Huns at Chalons and the founding of the Visigothic Burgundian and Frankish kingdoms in Gaul that movement had been if not arrested at any rate modified and for the moment suspended in the next century it received a fresh impulse new nations Avars, Tartars, Bulgarians Slavons and Lombards thrust one another with mutual pressure from Asia into Europe from Eastern Europe into western from the north to the south into Italy and into Gaul driven by the Oigoar Tartars from Pannonia and Noricum nowadays Austria the Lombards through themselves first upon Italy along the Alps and penetrated into Burgundy and Provence to the very gates of Avignon on the Rhine and along the jurors of Franks had to struggle on their own account against the newcomers and they were further summoned into Italy by the emperors of the east who wanted their aid against the Lombards every were resistant to the invasion of barbarians became the national attitude of the Franks and they proudly proclaimed themselves the defenders of that west of which they had but lately been the conquerors when the Merovingians were indisputably nothing but sluggard kings and when Ebroin the last great mayor of the palace of Noistria had been assassinated in 681 and the army of the Noistrians destroyed at the battle of Testri in 687 the ascendent they in the heart of the people of Frankish Gaul passed to the Franks of Austrasia already bound by their geographical position to the defence of their nation in its new settlement there had risen up among them a family powerful from its vast domains from its military and political services and already also from the prestige belonging to the hereditary transmission of name and power its first chief known in history of the nation of London called the ancient one of the foes of Queen Brunhout who was so hateful to the Austrasians and afterwards one of the private consulers on mayor of the palace of Austrasia under Dagibird the first and his son Siegibird the second he died in 639 living to his family an influence already extensive his son Grimald succeeded him as mayor of the palace but his grandson but his daughter Bega Pepin of Haeristal was for tenty-seven years not only virtually as mayor of the palace but ostensibly and with the title of Duke the real sovereign of Austrasia and all the Frankish dominion he did not have ever take the name of king and for descendants of Clovis Therese the third, Clovis the third Heldebird the third continued to bear that title in Noistria and Burgundy under the preponderating influence of Pepin of Haeristal he did during his longest way three things of importance he struggled without cessation to keep or bring back under the rule of the Franks the Germanic nations and the right bank of the Rhine Friesens, Saxons Turingians Bavarians and Alemanians and thus to make the Frankish dominion to pull work against the new flood of barbarians who are pressing one another restwards he rekindled in Austrasia the national spirit and some political life by beginning again the old march parades of the Franks which had fallen into disitude under the last Merovingians lastly and this was perhaps his most original merit he understood of what importance for the Frankish kingdom was the conversion to Christianity of the Germanic peoples over the Rhine and he abetted with all his might the zeal of the popes and missionaries Irish, Anglo-Saxon and Gullaroman devoted to this great work the two apostles of Friesland Saint Wilfried and Saint Willibord especially the latter had intimate relations with Pepin of Haeristal and received from him effectual support more than 20 bishoprics among others those of Utrecht Mayans, Rattisbon Worms and Spire were founded at this epoch and one of those ardent pioneers of Christian civilization the Irish bishop Saint Levin martyred in 656 near Ghent of which he has remained the patron saint brought inverse to his friend Herbert a little before his martyrdom I have seen a sun without rays without light and nights without repose around me ragged a people impious and clamorous for my blood oh people what harm have I done they this peace that I bring they wherefore declare war against me but thy barbarism will bring my triumph and give me the palm of martyrdom I know in whom I trust and my hope shall not be confounded whilst I am pouring forth there comes unto me the tired driver of the ass that beers me the usual provisions he bringeth that which makes the delights of the country even milk and butter and eggs the cheeses stretch the wicker work of the four two narrow panniers while there is do good carrier quickens their step collects their riches do that this morning art so poor as for me I am no longer what I was and have lost the gift of joyous verse how could it be otherwise when I am witness of such cruelties it were difficult to describe with more pious graceful and melancholy feeling a holler and a simpler life after so many firm and glorious acts of authority abroad Pepin of Haristel at his death December the 16th 1714 did a deed of weakness at home he had two wives Blacktrud and Alpide he had repudiated the former to expose the latter and the church considering the second marriage unlawful had constantly urged him to take back Blacktrud he had by her a son Grimoire who was assassinated on his way to join his father lying ill near Leech the son left a child Teodobald only six years old this child it was whom Pepin either from a grandfather's blind fondness or through the influence of his wife Blacktrude appointed to succeed him to the detriment of his two sons by Alpide Charles and Hildbrand Charles at that time 25 years of age had already a name for capacity and value on the death of Pepin his widow Blacktrude lost no time in arresting and imprisoning at Cologne one of her rival Alpide but some months afterwards in 715 the Austrasians having risen again Blacktrude took Charles out of prison and set him at their head proclaiming him Duke of Austrasia he was destined to become Charles Martel he first of all took care to extend and secure his own authority over all the Franks at the death of Pepin of Aristotle the Noistrians vexed at the long domination of the Austrasians had taken one from themselves Roganfried as mayor of the palace and had placed at his side a Merovingian sluggard king Hilpurg the second whom they had dragged from a monastery Charles at the head of the Austrasians twice succeeded in beating first near Cambrai and then near Soussons the Noisteran king and mayor of the palace pursued them to Paris returned to Cologne got himself accepted by his old enemy Queen Blacktrude and remaining temperate amidst the triumph of his ambition he too took from amongst the surviving Merovingians a sluggard king whom he instilled under the name of Clotaire the Fourth himself becoming with the simple title of Duke of Austrasia master of the Frankish Dominion being in tranquility on the left bank of the Rhine Charles directed towards the right bank towards the prisons and the Saxons his attention and his efforts after having experienced in a first encounter a somewhat severe check he took from 715 to 718 ample revenge upon them repressed their attempts at invasion of Frankish territory and pursued them on their own imposed tribute upon them and commenced this vigor against the Saxons in particular that struggle at first offensive and afterwards aggressive which was to hold so prominent a place in the life and glorious but bloodstained annals of his grandson Charlemagne in the war against the Noistrians at the battle of Soissons in 719 Charles had encountered in their ranks Oides or Oydon Duke of Aquitania and Vasconia that beautiful portion of southern Gaul situated between the Pyrenees the ocean the Garonne and the Rhine who had been for a long time trying to shake off the dominion of the barbarians with the Goths or Franks at the death of Pepin of Haeristal the Noistrians had drawn into alliance with them for their war against the Austrasians so as Duke Elides to whom they gave as it appears the title of king after their common defeat of Soissons the Aquitan friends withdrew precipitately into his own country taking with him the sluggard king of the Noistrians Hilperic II Charles pursued him to the lawyer and sent word to him a few months afterwards that he would enter into friendship with him if he would deliver up Hilperic and his treasures otherwise he would invade and ravage Aquitania Oides delivered up Hilperic and his treasures and Charles, satisfied with having in his power this Merovingian phantom treated him generously kept up his royal rank and at his death, which happened soon afterwards replaced him by another phantom on the same line Theodoric or Serius IV whom he dragged from the Abbey of Shalas founded by queen Saint Bathilda wife of Clovis II and who for 17 years bore the title of king whilst Charles Martel was ruling gloriously and was perhaps the saviour of the Frankish dominions When he contracted the alliance with the Duke of Aquitania Charles Martel didn't know against what enemies and perils he would soon have to struggle In the earlier years of the 8th century less than a hundred years from the death of Muhammad the Mosulman Arabs after having conquered Syria Mesopotamia Egypt and northern Africa had passed into Europe invaded Spain overthrown the kingdom of the Visigoth driven back the remnants of the nation and their chief Pelagius to the north of the peninsula into the Asturias and Galicia and pushed even beyond the Pyrenees into old Narbonnes then called Septimania their limitless incursions These fury conquerors did not amount at that time according to the most probable estimates to more than 50,000 but they were under the influence of religious and warlike enthusiasm at one at the same time There were fanatics in the cause of days and of glory The Arab warrior during campaigns was not excused from any one of the essential duties of Islamism He was bound to pray at least once a day on rising in the morning at the blush of dawn The general of the army was its priest He it was who, at the head of the ranks gave the signal for prayer uttered the words, reminded troops of the precepts of the Quran and enjoyed upon them forgetfulness of personal quarrels One day, on the point of engaging in a decisive battle Moshe Ben-Noisar first governor of Mosulman Africa was praying according to usage at the head of the troops and he omitted the invocation of the name of the caliph a respectful formality indispensable on the occasion One of his officers persuaded that it was a mere slip on Moshe's part made a point of admonishing him No though said Moshe that we are in such a position and at such an hour that no other name must be invoked save that the most high god Moshe was apparently the first Arab chief to cross the Pyrenees in March plundering as he went into Narbonnes The Arabs had but very confused ideas of goal they called it Franjas and gave to all its inhabitants without distinction the name of French The caliph Abdul Malik having recalled Moshe questioned him about the different peoples being concerned and of these French said he what has to tell me they are a people answered Moshe very many in number and abundantly provided with everything brave and impetuous in attack but spiritless and timid under his verses and how when the war between them and Zee added Abdul Malik was it favorable to Zee or the contrary the contrary nay by Allah and the prophet never was my army languished never was a battalion beaten and never did the Muslims hesitate to follow me when I led them 40 against 4 score in 719 under El Idaur by Abdul Rahman a valiant unable leader says Arab writers but greedy, harsh and cruel the Arabs pursued their incursions into southern Gaul dispersed the inhabitants spread themselves abroad in search of plunder as far as the borders of the Garonne and went and laid siege to Toulouse Oedas, Duke of Aquitania happened to be at Bordeaux and he hastily summoned all the forces of his towns and all the populations from the Pyrenees to the lawyer and hurried to the relief of his capital the Arabs commanded by a new chieftain El-Sama a popular amongst them than El-Haur awaited him beneath the walls of the city determined to give him battle have you no fear of this multitude said El-Sama to his warriors if God be with us who shall be against us elites had taken equally great pains to kindle the pious courage of the Aquitaniens he spread amongst his troops a rumour that he had but lately received as a present from Pope Gregory II three sponges that he had served to wipe down the table at which the sovereign pontiffs were accustomed to celebrate the communion he had them cut into little strips which he had distributed to Oedas of the combatants who wished for them and thereupon gave the sword to sound the charge the victory of the Aquitaniens was complete the Arab army was cut in pieces El-Sama was slain and with him according to the victor's accounts full 375,000 of his troops the most truth-like testimonies and calculations do not put down at more than from 50 to 70,000 men in fighting trim the number of Arabs that entered Spain 8 or 10 years previously even with the additions it must have received by means of the immigration from Africa and undoubtedly El-Sama could not have led into Aquitania more than from 40 to 45,000 however that may be the defeat of the Arabs before Toulouse was so serious that 4 or 5 centuries afterwards the best of their historians still spoke of it as the object of solemn commemoration and affirmed that the Arab army had entirely purged their without the escape of a single man the spot in the Roman road between Carcassonne and Toulouse where the battle was fought was one heap of dead bodies and continued to be mentioned in the Arab Chronicles under the name of Mertyrs Cosway but the Arabs of Spain were then in that unstable social condition and in that he day of impulsive usefulness as a people when men are more ebbed to be excited and attracted to the prospect of bold adventures than discouraged by reverses El-Sama on crossing the Pyrenees to go plundering and conquering in the country of the French had left as his Leutnant into Iberian Peninsula and Bessa Ben Sohim one of the most able, most pious most just and most humane chieftains say the Arabic Chronicles that Islamism ever produced in Europe he was informed of El-Sama's death before Toulouse resolved to restume his enterprise and avenge his defeat in 725 he entered Gaul with a strong army took Carcassonne reduced either by force or by treaty the principal towns of Septimania to submission and even carried the Arab arms for the first time beyond their own into province at the news of this fresh invasion took Odys, hurried from Aquitania collecting on his march the forces of the country and after having waited some time for a favorable opportunity gave the Arabs battle in province it was indecisive at first but ultimately won by the Christians without other result than the retreat of An-Bessa mortally wounded upon the right bank of their own where he died without having been able himself to recross the Pyrenees but leaving the Arabs monsters of Septimania where they established themselves in force taking Narbonne for capital and a starting point for their future enterprises End of chapter 9 part 1