France · The foundations
Clovis, the baptism nobody can put a year on
Clovis’s baptism comes to us from a bishop born twenty-eight years after his death. One contemporary gives the day, Christmas. The year, nobody. France made it its birth certificate anyway.
The start of the lesson
The next 6 cards, the four questions and the review are in the app.
Nobody is in charge: the last emperor of the West falls in 476. A century on, Gregory of Tours sets four pawns — Goths south of the Loire, Burgundians beyond the Rhône, Romans in between, long-haired kings of the Franks up north.
- 1The GothsSouth of the Loire, and Arian Christians. Their king Alaric invites Clovis over for a talk on an island near Amboise (Gregory, II, 9 and 35).
- 2The BurgundiansBeyond the Rhône, Arian too. Their king Gundobad killed his brother, drowned his sister-in-law. Their daughter is Clotilde. Remember that name (II, 9 and 28).
- 3The ‘Romans’Up to the Loire. A certain Syagrius, ‘king of the Romans’ according to Gregory, holds Soissons (II, 27).
- 4The FranksCambrai, the Somme, Tournai. This is where Childéric, Clovis’s father, dies around 481. His grave was overflowing with jewels (II, 9 and 12).
The new king is not done growing: fifteen. King of the Franks, not of France — the word doesn’t exist. Not even of all the Franks: Ragnachar, Sigibert, Chararic, every one of them family. Fifth year, he crushes Syagrius at Soissons.
The first written trace of Clovis? A letter he receives. Remi, bishop of Reims, congratulates the young king: so you now run Belgica Secunda. Then the advice of an old uncle: honour your bishops, comfort those who suffer. Not a word about baptism.
The next 6 cards, the four questions and the review are in the app.
What you will be able to answer
- Who tells the story of Clovis’s vow during the battle against the Alamanni?
- Gregory of Tours writes that Clovis was baptised on 25 December 496.
- Put these moments in order.
- In Gregory, Remi tells Clovis: ‘Gently bend your neck, Sigamber; worship what you ___; burn what you worshipped.’
Sources
Every date, every figure and every quote in this lesson was verified in these sources.
- Grégoire de Tours, Histoires (Histoire des Francs), traduction Guizot (Wikisource)
- Clovis dans le discours hagiographique du VIe au IXe siècle, Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 1996 (Persée)
- Auteur : Grégoire de Tours, œuvres disponibles (Wikisource)
- Musée d'Archéologie nationale, collections mérovingiennes, site officiel
- Grégoire de Tours, Histoires, livre II, trad. Guizot, 1823 (Wikisource)
- Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Brehaut, 1916 (Fordham, Internet Medieval Sourcebook)
- Grégoire de Tours, Historiae, éd. Arndt, MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum I, 1885 (archive.org)
- Avit de Vienne, Opera, éd. Peiper, MGH Auctores antiquissimi VI/2, 1883, lettre 46 à Clovis (archive.org)
- Lettre de Remi à Clovis, Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, t. IV, 1741, Variorum epistolae (archive.org)
- Léon Levillain, La conversion et le baptême de Clovis, Revue d'histoire de l'Église de France, 1935 (Persée)
- Philippe Bernard, « Vestra fides nostra victoria est », Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, 1996 (Persée)
- Michel Sot, Le baptême de Clovis et l'entrée des Francs en romanité, Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé, 1996 (Persée)
- Michel Sot, Que reste-t-il de la commémoration du XVe centenaire du baptême de Clovis, RHEF, 2000 (Persée)
- Johannes Fried, Le passé à la merci de l'oralité et du souvenir : le baptême de Clovis, Éditions de la Sorbonne (OpenEdition)
- Godefroid Kurth, Clovis, 1896 (archive.org)
- Musée d'Archéologie nationale, Le premier Moyen Âge
- Gallica, Grandes Chroniques de France, BnF Français 2813 (baptême de Clovis, f. 12v)
Two minutes of quiz, and your first lesson is waiting.
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