Table Of ContentT H E G A T E W A Y TO T H E M I D D L E A G E S
F R A N C E A N D B R I T A I N
The Gateway
to the Middle Ages
FRANCE
AND BRITAIN
by Eleanor Shipley Duckett
ANN ARBOR PAPERBACKS
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
FIRST EDITION AS AN ANN ARBOR PAPERBACK 1961
REISSUED AS AN ANN ARBOR PAPERBACK 1988
COPYRIGHT © BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 1938, RENEWED 1966
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ISBN 0-472-09050-X (cloth)
ISBN 0-472-06050-3 (paper)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD CATALOG NO. 61-2247
PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1991 1990 1989 1988 4 3 2 1
TO
M ary Ellen Chase
and
Our Cambridge Fam ily
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND
1934-Ï936
ABBREVIATIONS
P L ..................... Patrologia Latina
P G ..................... Patrologia Graeca
M.G.H................... Monumenta Germaniae Historica
M.H.B.................... Monumenta Historica Britannica
R.I.S....................... Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Muratori)
Script. rer. Merov. Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum
Script, rer. Lang. . Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum
C.S.H.B. . . . Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byiantinae
C.S.E.L.................. Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum
Latinorum
P.L.M..................... Poetae Latini Minores
P.W........................ Real-Encyclopädie, ed. Pauly-Wissowa
C.M.H.................... Cambridge Medieval History
H.S.C.P.................. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
C.P......................... Classical Philology
Schani . . . . Schanz-Hosius-Krüger : Geschichte der
römischen Literatur, IV, 2, 1920
Manitius . . . M. Manitius : Geschichte der lateinischen
Literatur des Mittelalters, I, 1911
Bardenhewer . . O. Bardenhewer: Geschichte der alt
kirchlichen Literatur, V, 1932
PREFACE
T he gatew ay to th e m iddle ages is made up of three
parts. This one deals with France and Britain in the sixth
century.
When the period opens, France, like Italy, is under the
power of barbarian Germanic invaders of the Roman Em
pire. In France, however, these are Franks from the region
of the Rhine.
Here, then, we follow from Latin record the story of the
Frankish kings. It was Clovis who founded their line, who
held great part of the land of France when he died in 511.
It was he whom the Catholic Church claimed as her “first
born” among barbarians; for he turned from heathendom
and heresy to submit to the Catholic Faith. Here we read of
the well-known scene at Reims when its bishop, Remigius,
baptized this king, with thousands of his fighting men.
Henceforward Frankland was a Catholic realm in the
minds of its princes, and Clovis, its founder, marched forth
under the banner of his church and his state to bring other
regions under his control.
Gregory of Tours, the historian of the Franks in this
sixth century, is our authority for many, varied pictures of
Frankish life given here, ranging from battle, murder, and
cruelty unbelievable, from vice, lust, and superstition prac
ticed by kings and queens, by hierarchy and nobles, by lay-
folk of simple birth, to the high holiness of early medieval
saints. At the death of Clovis his kingdom was divided into
PREFACE
four; and we see his four sons reigning, each in his pride, at
Paris and at Reims, at Soissons and at Orleans. Here in
Gregory’s narrative they stand out, with the long, flowing
hair which was the mark of their royal birth, with tunic,
breeches, and mantle of brilliant hue, armed with battle-
axe, dagger, and sword, ready to use all against those who
would dare to rise in their way. Their women yield nothing
to them in fury of determination; the feud of two royal
queens of early France, Brunhild and Fredegund, in its
violence and crime born of jealous desire, fills one of the
darkest pages in Frankish history.
Yet there were gentle and happy pages also. There were
men of song and poetry. At the cloister of Holy Cross in
Poitiers lived a Frankish priest, Fortunatus, who was chap
lain to its nuns and wrote hymns for their chanting; Chris
tian people still chant them today. He made his verses, too,
for the lady foundress of Holy Cross in gratitude for offer
ings sent to his cell. Her name was Radegund, once a
Frankish queen, and she is still honored by dedications in
that name.
From France we turn to Britain and its history as Gildas
the Wise told it in this time. The land of Britain, he la
mented, had been swept bare by Saxon invaders. The in
vaders, moreover, had stayed; and Saxon occupation had
driven the British to the remote wilds of the West Country,
to Devon and Cornwall, and to Wales. Here reigned the
Five Kings of Britain, whom Gildas held sinners of utter
depravity. Yet in these remoter parts of Britain, too, lived
men who cared deeply for books and their making, for such
learning as their time afforded them. Here is the picture of
the School of Llantwit in South Wales, where the scholar
Illtyd taught youths whose names, like his, are still familiar
words.
PREFACE
Gildas should not be forgotten. Much can be learned
from him himself and from his medieval biographer in
regard to the history and the legends, the customs and the
culture, of the British of the western coasts in this sixth
century, when settlers from overseas were making ready,
here and there, their various kingships in the realms of
what was to be known as Anglo-Saxon England.
E.S.D.
Northampton, Massachusetts, i960
