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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 7, 15. Of the Wickedness of Fredegund

While Queen Fredegund was still in the great church¹ at Paris, the ex-domestic Leunard came to her on his return from Toulouse, and began to tell her of the contumely and the wrongs endured by her daughter.² ‘According to thy orders,’ he said, ‘I accompanied the princess Rigunth; I was witness of her humiliation and of the manner in which she was despoiled of her treasure and all her possessions; but I made my escape, and I am come to announce these deeds to my sovereign lady.’ Maddened at his account, the queen commanded him to be despoiled in the very church where they were; and when he had been stripped of his garments and of a baldric which Chilperic had given him, she ordered him forth from her presence. The cooks and bakers, too, and any of the princess’s retinue, of whose return from that journey she was informed, she caused to be beaten, stripped, and put in handcuffs. Moreover, she sought, by making abominable charges, to destroy the influence at court of Nectarius, brother of Bishop Baudegisil,³ asserting that he had stolen many things from the treasure of the late king. She declared that he had carried off quantities of hides and much wine from the storehouses, and demanded that he should be cast in chains into the darkness of the prison. But the king’s tolerance and the aid of Baudegisil prevented it. Many vain deeds did she now commit, having no fear of that God in whose church she was finding refuge. She had with her at this time the judge Audo, who during the life of Chilperic had been her accomplice in much wickedness. This man, together with the prefect Mummolus,⁴ had taxed many Franks who had been free men under King Childebert the elder. After that king’s death these men despoiled and stripped Audo of his goods, leaving him only the clothes in which he stood. They burned his houses; and had he not fled to join the queen in the church, they would have taken his life.

Notes

Ecclesia; the cathedral.
Cf. above, ch. 9.
Of Le Mans; cf. VI. 9.
Cf. VI. 25 (35).