<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-8865025185775618"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>Last time, we left Adhemar of Chabannes' Historia Francorum on a bit of a cliff-hanger. King Childeric, intoxicated with power and hubris (as well as being a little bit horny, perhaps), has gotten up to antics of a certain nature with the daughters of many of his subjects, and so, facing an uprising of the Frankish people, has to go into exile in Thuringia. Before he leaves, however, he hatches a crafty plan with his best mate, Wiomad. Here, we see where this plan leads to. Expect lots of hacking and slashing and burning, and also a romance which, while its not exactly as star-crossed as Anthony and Cleopatra, Lancelot and Guinevere, Abelard and Heloise, Dante and Beatrice or Percy and Annabeth (kudos to you if you can get the last one), is still a better love story than Twilight, if that means anything these days (I'm a medievalist not a contemporary historian, so how should I know?)
Anyway, enjoy the translations and, once again, all faults are my own.
Chapter 6: when King
Childeric was raised to the kingdom
(Above: The Gold signet ring of King Childeric I - a classic example of the more abstract, Germanic/ sub-Roman artistic styles. Could it have been fashioned from the same half of the gold coin he gave to Wiomad in Adhemar of Chabannes' account?)
Indeed, the Franks, after Childeric had abandoned them,
having followed bad advice, established Aegidius, prince of the Romans, to rule
over the [Frankish] kingdom. When Aegidius had reigned over the Franks for eight
years, Wiomad pretended to join in friendship with him; meanwhile what was
known by him, was not known to Aegidius. Moreover, he encouraged Aegidius to
deceitfully oppress the other Franks. Having heard that advice of his, Aegidius
took to bitterly oppressing them. Indeed, they were turned from reverence to
sedition; again, they desired advice from Wiomad as to what they must do. Yet
to them, he said “why do you not remember how the Romans oppressed your people
and ejected them from their land? Indeed, you ejected your useful and wise
king, and raised over yourselves a servant of the Roman emperor, proud and
conceited; you did not make a good resolution, but an exceedingly bad one.” And
to Wiomad they replied “Indeed, he [Childeric] was ingenious to us. Due to the
fact that he took advantage of your daughters wickedly and unlawfully, we
became completely opposed to our king. If only we were rewarded to find him,
and he would reign over us peacefully. Thereupon that friend [Wiomad] sent to
the king the part of the gold coin which they had divided between themselves
before, saying “return to the kingdom of the Franks because they are all
pacified.” The king indeed, knowing this half of the gold coin to be the sign,
understood it as a clear signal that he was desired by the Franks; and in
response to their demands, returned to his kingdom. For while he was in
Thuringia, with Queen Basina, the wife of King Bisinus, King Childeric
committed adultery with her. Likewise, Basina, queen of Bisinus, king of the
Thuringians, having left her man, came to Childeric. And when he questioned her
what she was searching for, or else for what reason she had come to him from
such a distant region, and she brought forth the response: “I altered your
usefulness and handsomeness in order that you would be useful and wise,
therefore I come in order to live with you. For if I were to have known, on the
furthest limits of the sea, someone more useful than you, I would desire and
beg for him to join together with me.” With rejoicing Basina was bound together
with Childeric in marriage. Verily, receiving from him [Childeric], she gave
birth to a son and he was named Clovis. This son was the great king over all
the kings of the Franks and he was the bravest warrior.
Chapter Seven: In which the Franks cast out Aegidius, who they had instituted over themselves, and took back Childeric
(Above: seems like these chaps weren't just carving out kingdoms in lowland Britain and fighting battles with King Arthur, or whichever Romano-British warlord/s inspired the medieval legend. They were poking their noses round Gaul too).
In those days, the Franks captured the city of Agrippina
over the Rhine, and they called it Cologne, as if tenant farmers lived there.
They killed many of the Roman people from Aegidius’ part of Gaul there, and
that same Aegidius escaped and fled. And they came to the city of Trier, over
the river Moselle, and they laid waste to those lands and captured and set fire
to that same city. Afterwards, King Childeric drove back a very large army of
the enemies of the Franks and came through to the walls of the city of Orleans,
and devastated the surrounding countryside. Adovagrius, leader of the Saxons, came
through the sea with a fleet of ships up to the walls of the city of Angers,
and he set that land ablaze, and thereupon great losses were inflicted on the
city of Angers; afterwards, Adovagrius accepted hostages from Angers and from
the other cities. Therefore, with Adovagrius having turned back from Angers, King
Childeric of the Franks, having set in motion an army, came there; he killed
Paulus, who was count there, and he captured that same city; and he burned down
the city with fire, and from there he returned home.
(Below: a map of Europe in 481. Its the best I could find, though do exercise some caution in using it. The Kingdom of Syagrius will be making an important appearance next time, though do note that it refers to the territories in northern Gaul that remained under Roman rule even after 476).
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