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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 7, How the Same King Subdued the Territory that Once Was Charibert’s

But the people of Paris being unwilling to receive him, that king sent envoys to Guntram bearing this message: ‘I know, dearest of fathers, that it is not hidden from thy goodness, how until now we have both suffered under the wrong of a hostile party, so that neither of us might have justice in the matter of that which was his due. Therefore I now entreat thee that the agreement¹ binding us since the death of my father may be maintained.’ But King Guntram gave the reply: ‘O miserable and ever false, having nothing of truth in you, and abiding by no promise, see how ye had abandoned every pledge made to me, and drawn up a new agreement with King Chilperic to expel me from my realm and to divide my cities between these kings. Behold the pacts themselves, behold your own signatures confirming the agreement. With what face can ye now ask it of me as a duty to receive with favour my nephew Childebert, whom, in your perversity, ye wished to make my enemy.’ The envoys answered: ‘If anger so master thy soul that thou wilt yield thy nephew none of the things which thou hast promised, cease, at least, to withhold from him the portion of Charibert’s kingdom which falleth to him.’ The king made answer: ‘Here are the agreements made between us to the effect that whichever of us should enter Paris without consent of his brothers should thereby forfeit his share; and that the martyr Polyeuctes, with the confessors Hilary and Martin, should be judges and avengers of transgression. Yet after this pact my brother Sigibert entered the city, and died by the judgement of God, forfeiting his portion.² Chilperic acted in like manner.³ Both of them by these transgressions forfeited their shares. Since, therefore, they have suffered God’s doom, and the curse threatened in the pact, I intend, as the law alloweth, to take under my jurisdiction the whole kingdom of Charibert and all his treasures; nor will I make any grant of them, save as a free act of grace. Depart from me, therefore, O ye liars and traitors, and bear my answer to your king.’

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