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Gaul at the Accession of Clovis

[481

the Gallo-Romans and to administer their territories wisely. The former subjects of Rome would willingly have submitted to them in exchange for the protection which they could afford and the peace which they could secure; they would willingly have pardoned them for dividing up their territories; but between the Gallo-Romans and the barbarians there was one grave subject of dissension. The former had remained faithful to orthodoxy, the latter were Arians; and although the rulers were willing to exercise toleration and to maintain friendly relations with the members of the episcopate, their Gallo-Roman subjects did not cease to regard them as abettors of heresy, and to desire their fall as a means to the triumph of the true faith.

To the north of the Burgundian kingdom, the Alemans had made themselves masters of the territory between the Rhine and the Vosges the country which was to be known later as Alsace- and they were seeking to enlarge their borders by attacking the Gallo-Roman cities to the west, the Burgundians to the south and the Ripuarian Franks to the north-west. They also continued to hold the country on the right bank of the Rhine which had been known as the agri decumates, and they had established themselves in force upon the shores of the Lake of Constance and to the east of the Aar. The Ripuarian Franks remained in possession of a compact State round about Cologne and Trèves, and, near them, the Thuringians had founded a little State on the left bank of the Rhine. It should be added that small colonies of barbarians, drawn from many different tribes, had established themselves here and there over the whole face of Gaul. Bands of armed barbarians ranged the country, seeking a home for themselves; Saxon pirates infested the coasts, and had established themselves in some force at Bayeux.

Such was the general condition of Gaul at the time when Clovis became king of the Salian Franks. For five years the youthful king— he was only fifteen at his accession-remained inactive. He seems to have been held in check by Euric, the king of the Visigoths. But in the year following the death of Euric, 486, he took up arms and, calling to his aid other Salian kings, Ragnachar and Chararic, attacked Syagrius. The two armies came into contact with one another in the neighbourhood of Soissons. During the battle Chararic held off, awaiting the result of the struggle. In spite of this defection Clovis was victorious, and Syagrius had to take refuge with the king of the Visigoths, Alaric II,* who had succeeded Euric. Alaric however surrendered him, on the first demand of the Frankish king, who thereupon threw him into prison and had him secretly put to death. After this victory Clovis occupied the town of Soissons, which thenceforth ranked as one of the capitals of the kingdom. It is in the neighbourhood of Soissons that we find the principal villae of the Merovingian kings, notably Brennacum (to-day Berny-Rivière). From Soissons he extended his sway over the cities of Belgica Secunda of which Rheims is the metropolis, and he entered into

481-496]

Beginnings of Clovis

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relations with Remi (Remigius), the bishop of this city. Then, gradually, meeting with more or less prolonged resistance, he gained possession of other cities, among them Paris- the defence of which was directed, so the legend runs, by Ste Geneviève-and Verdun-sur-Meuse, which is said to have received honourable terms, thanks to its bishop, Euspicius. Thus, little by little, the dominions of Clovis were extended to the banks of the Loire. In this newly conquered territory Clovis followed a new policy. In occupying Toxandria the Salians had expelled the Gallo-Roman population; here, on the contrary, they left the GalloRomans undisturbed and were content to mix with them. The ancient language held its ground, and the Gallo-Romans retained their possessions; there was not even a division of the lands, such as the Visigoths and Burgundians had made. Clovis was no doubt still a pagan, but he respected the Christian religion and shewed an extraordinary deference towards the bishops- that is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the well-known incident of the bowl of Soissons- and the prelates already seemed to see before them a glorious work to be accomplished in the conversion of Clovis to orthodox Christianity.

Not content with bringing the Gallo-Romans under his sway, Clovis waged war also with the barbarian peoples in the neighbourhood of his kingdom. In the year 491 he forced the Thuringians on the left bank of the Rhine to submit to him, and enrolled their warriors among his own troops. He also invited other barbarian auxiliaries to march under his standards-Procopius calls them 'Apẞópuxo - as well as the Roman soldiers who had been placed to guard the frontier, and in this way he formed a very strong army.

The fame of Clovis began to spread abroad. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who had almost completed the conquest of Italy, asked the hand of his sister Albofleda in marriage, and Clovis himself, in 493, espoused a Burgundian princess, Clotilda, daughter of Chilperic, who had died not long before, and niece of the kings Gundobad and Godigisel.

Clotilda was an orthodox Christian and set herself to convert her husband-it would be possible to trace the influence of women in many of those great conversions which have had important political consequences. Half won-over, the king of the Franks allowed his children to be baptised, but he hesitated to abjure for himself the faith of his ancestors. He did not make up his mind until after his first victory over the Alemans.

After his victory at Soissons, Clovis pushed his advance towards the east. The Alemans, already in possession of Alsace, were endeavouring to extend their territories towards the west, across the Vosges. It was inevitable that the two powers should come into collision. The struggle was severe. Clovis succeeded in crossing the Vosges, and, on the banks of the Rhine, probably in the neighbourhood of Strassburg, he defeated

112

Conversion of Clovis

[496-507 his adversaries in a bloody battle (A.D. 496), but was unable to reduce them to subjection. He began to perceive at this time what strength he would gain by embracing Christianity. The bishops, who exercised a very powerful influence, would everywhere declare for him, and would support him in his struggles with the heathen tribes, and even against the barbarians who adhered to the Arian heresy. His wars would then assume the character of wars of religion — crusades, to use the term of later times. It was doubtless from such considerations of policy, rather than from any profound conviction, that he decided to be baptised. The ceremony, to which numerous persons of note were invited, took place at Rheims, whatever some modern historians may say to the contrary. It was celebrated on Christmas day of the year 496. Three thousand Franks went to the font along with their king. This conversion produced a profound and wide-spread impression. Throughout the whole of Gaul, in the kingdom of the Burgundians as well as that of the Visigoths, orthodox Christians spoke of it with enthusiasm. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, a subject of King Gundobad, wrote to Clovis, king of the Franks: "Your ancestors have opened the way for you to a great destiny; your decision will open the way to a yet greater for your descendants. Your faith is our victory." And he urged him in emphatic language to propagate Catholicism among the barbarian peoples in more distant lands, "which have not yet been corrupted by heretical doctrines." It was quite evident that if the Catholics of the Burgundian and Visigothic kingdoms did not precisely summon Clovis to their aid, they would at least not resist him if he came of his own motion.

Accordingly, four years after his baptism, in the year 500, Clovis commenced operations against the Burgundians. Coming to an understanding with Godigisel, he made war on Gundobad, king of Vienne. He first defeated him near Dijon, and then advanced along the Rhone as far as Avignon. But that was the limit of his success. On Gundobad's promising to pay tribute, Clovis retired. Gundobad, however, not only broke his word, but attacked his brother Godigisel, slew him in a church in Vienne and made himself master of the whole of Burgundy. Thus the attack of Clovis had the consequence of making Gundobad stronger than before. From the year 500 onwards Burgundy enjoyed a period of prosperity. It was at this period that the so-called Lex Gundobada and the Roman law of Burgundy were promulgated. Clovis, not being able to subdue Gundobad, notwithstanding the secret support of the orthodox clergy, came to terms with him, and later found him a useful ally in the war with the Visigoths.

If Clovis did not push home his success against the Burgundians, it was doubtless because his own kingdom was menaced by the Alemans. About this time, therefore, he decided to expel that nation from the territories which they occupied; and from 505 to 507 he waged against them a war of extermination. He not only seized the country afterwards

500-507]

Wars with Burgundians and Visigoths

113

known as Alsace, but pursued the Alemans up the right bank of the Rhine and drove them to take refuge in the valley of the upper Rhine (Rhaetia). At this point Theodoric the Great, the king of the Ostrogoths, intervened in favour of the vanquished. Theodoric desired to exercise a kind of hegemony over the barbarian kings and with that view to maintain the balance of power among them. He wrote an eloquent letter to Clovis, in which, while sending him a player on the cither, he begged him to spare the remnant of the Alemans, and declared that he took them under his protection. The Alemans, who were now occupying the high valleys of the Alps, thus passed under the dominion of Theodoric, and paid tribute to him. They formed a kind of buffer-State between the kingdoms of the Franks and the Ostrogoths. We shall see how Witigis, a successor of Theodoric, gave up these remnants of the Alemans to the Franks (536).

As early as 507 Clovis was bending all his energies to the project of wresting from the Visigoths the part of Gaul which they held. The orthodox bishops were now tired of being subject to Arian rulers, and besought the aid of the king of the Franks. Alaric II, who had succeeded Euric in 486, was undoubtedly a tolerant ruler. He gave to the Romans of his dominions an important code of law which is known by the name of the Breviarium Alarici; and he allowed the bishops. more than once to meet in councils. But being obliged to take severe measures against certain bishops, he was counted a persecutor. Thus, two successive bishops of Tours, Volusianus and Verus, were driven from that see, Ruricius of Limoges was obliged to live in exile at Bordeaux; and all these bickerings made the bishops long for an orthodox ruler. Causes of contention between Franks and Visigoths were not lacking. One difficulty after another arose between the two neighbouring kingdoms. In vain the kings endeavoured to remove them, meeting for this purpose on an island in the Loire near Amboise; in vain Theodoric the Great wrote urging the adversaries to compose their quarrel. He advised Alaric to be prudent and not to stake the fate of his kingdom upon a throw of the dice. He reminded Clovis that the issue of a battle was always uncertain, and threatened to intervene himself if the king of the Franks proceeded to extremities. He invited Gundobad

the king of the Burgundians to co-operate with him in maintaining peace. He warned three kings who held the right bank of the Rhine the kings of the Herulians, the Warnians, and the Thuringians — of the ambitions of Clovis. It was too late; the war could not be averted. Beyond question, Clovis was the aggressor. He mustered his troops and made a vigorous speech to them. "It grieves me that these Arians should hold a part of Gaul. Let us march, with the help of God, and reduce their country to subjection." He had with him Chloderic, son of Sigebert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, while Gundobad king of the Burgundians co-operated by advancing upon the

C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. IV.

8

114

Battle of Vouglé

[507-508

Visigoths from the east. The decisive battle took place at Vouglé, in the neighbourhood of Poitiers (A.D. 507). The Visigoths made a heroic resistance, in which the Arvernians, led by Apollinaris the son of the poet Sidonius, especially distinguished themselves. But the Franks broke down all resistance, and Clovis slew Alaric with his own hand.

After the battle the Salians effected a junction with the Burgundians, and the combined forces advanced on Toulouse and burned that city. Then the conquerors divided their troops into three armies. Clovis subjugated the western part of the country, capturing Eauze, Bazas, Bordeaux, and Angoulême; his son Theodoric (Thierry) operated in the central region, and took the cities of Albi, Rodez, and Auvergne ; Gundobad advanced towards the east, into Septimania, where a bastard son of Alaric II named Gisalic had just had himself proclaimed king, ousting the legitimate son, Amalaric. Soon there remained to the Visigoths, to the north of the Pyrenees, nothing but Provence, with its capital Arles, formerly the residence of the Praetorian Praefect and known as the "little Rome of Gaul" (Gallula Roma). The Franks and Burgundians had laid siege to this city when the army of the Ostrogoths came upon the scene. Theodoric had been unable to intervene earlier, for at the beginning of 508 a Byzantine fleet, perhaps at the instigation of Clovis, had landed a force on the shores of Apulia, and the king of the Ostrogoths had had to turn his attention thither. At length, in the summer, he sent an army across the Alps, and its arrival forced the Franks and Burgundians to raise the siege of Arles. His troops occupied the whole of Provence, but instead of restoring this territory to the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths kept it .for themselves. Theodoric sent officials to the cities of Provence with orders to treat in a conciliatory fashion this people which had been "restored to the bosom of the Roman Empire." The Ostrogoths did not however content themselves with this success. Their general Ibbas retook Septimania from the Franks and Burgundians, capturing Narbonne, Carcassonne, and Nîmes. He left this territory, however, under the rule of Amalaric and rid him of his rival Gisalic. Communication was thus established along the coast of the Mediterranean between the kingdoms of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths.

If

Nevertheless Clovis gained considerable advantage from the war. Septimania had eluded his grasp, he had extended his kingdom from the Loire to the Pyrenees. Gundobad alone obtained no profit from the struggle.

Clovis treated with clemency the Gallo-Roman populations whom he had just brought under his dominion. He ordered all clergy, widows, and serfs of the Church, who had been made prisoners by his troops during the campaign, to be set at liberty. There was no new distribution of lands. The Arians, indeed, were required to embrace the orthodox faith, but even their conversion was effected rather by persuasion