History of the FranksGregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
History
History of the Franks
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, Saint
France -- Church history -- To 987; France -- History -- To 987; Franks -- History -- To 768
28. When Chilperic saw this, although he had already too many wives,
he asked for her sister Galsuenda, promising through his ambassadors
that he would abandon the others if he could only obtain a wife
worthy of himself and the daughter of a king. Her father accepted
these promises and sent his daughter with much wealth, as he had done
before. Now Galsuenda was older than Brunhilda. And coming to king
Chilperic she was received with great honor, and united to him in
marriage, and she was also greatly loved by him. For she had brought
great treasures. But because of his love of Fredegunda whom he had
had before, there arose a great scandal which divided them. Galsuenda
had already been converted to the catholic law and baptized. And
complaining to the king that she was continually enduring outrages
and had no honor with him, she asked to leave the treasures which she
had brought with her and be permitted to go free to her native land.
But he made ingenious pretences and calmed her with gentle words. At
length he ordered her to be strangled by a slave and found her dead
on the bed. After her death God caused a great miracle to appear. For
the lighted lamp which hung by a rope in front of her tomb broke the
rope without being touched by anyone and dashed upon the pavement and
the hard pavement yielded under it and it went down as if into some
soft substance and was buried to the middle but not at all damaged.
Which seemed a great miracle to all who saw it. But when the king had
mourned her death a few days, he married Fredegunda again. After this
action his brothers thought that the queen mentioned above had been
killed at his command, and they tried to expel him from the kingdom.
Chilperic at that time had three sons by his former wife Audovera,
namely Theodobert, whom we have mentioned above, Merovech and Clovis.
But let us return to our task.
29. The Huns were again endeavoring to make an entrance into the
Gauls. Sigibert marched against them with his army, leading a great
number of brave men. And when they were about to fight, the Huns,
who were versed in magic arts, caused false appearances of various
sorts to come before them and defeated them decisively. Sigibert’s
army fled, but he himself was taken by the Huns and would have
remained a prisoner if he had not overcome by his skill in making
presents the men whom he could not conquer in battle. He was a man
of fine appearance and good address. He gave gifts and entered into
an agreement with their king that all the days of their lives they
should fight no battles with one another. And this incident is
rightly believed to be more to his credit than otherwise. The king
of the Huns also gave many gifts to king Sigibert. He was called
Gaganus.[BJ] All the kings of that people are called by this name.
[30. King Sigibert attempts to take Arles from his brother Gunthram
but fails.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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