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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, Of the Uncertainty About Easter; of the Church at Chinon; How King Guntram Slew…

King Guntram put to the sword two sons of Magnachar, who was already dead, for having openly said hateful and abominable things of Queen Austrechild and her children; their wealth was taken for the royal treasury. He himself lost two sons,¹ destroyed by sudden disease, and sorely was he afflicted by their death, for he was left bereaved and childless. This year there was question as to the day on which Easter fell. We in Tours, with many other cities, celebrated the holy paschal feast on the fourteenth day of the kalends of May;² others, with those of Spain, kept this feast on the twelfth day of the kalends of April.³ It is said that, nevertheless, those springs in Spain which are filled by the will of God were full upon our Easter.

At Chinon, a village of Touraine, while Mass was being celebrated on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the church shook, and the affrighted people cried out with one voice that it was falling; they broke down the doors, and all of them escaped out of the building, though some had broken bones. After this a great pestilence visited the people.

Thereafter King Guntram sent envoys to his nephew Childebert, seeking peace, and praying that they might meet. Then Childebert with the chief men of his kingdom came to him, and they met at the bridge called the Stone Bridge, greeting and embracing each other. Then King Guntram said: ‘It is befallen me through my sins that I am left childless; and therefore I ask that this my nephew may now be to me as a son.’ And setting him upon his own seat, he gave over to him his whole kingdom in these words: ‘Let a single shield protect us and a single spear defend! If I should yet have sons, I will none the less regard thee as one of them, that between them and thee there may abide the lovingkindness which to-day I promise thee, calling God to witness.’ The chief men of Childebert made a like promise on his behalf. Then did they eat and drink together, honouring each other with worthy gifts, and so parted in peace. But they sent an embassy to King Chilperic, demanding restoration of all territory which he had taken from their kingdom, and bidding him know that if he delayed to do so he had best appoint a field of battle. But Chilperic, disdainful of their words, had circuses built at Soissons and at Paris, and began presenting shows to the people.

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