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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 34. Of the Dysentery, and of Chilperic’s Sons Dead

These portents were followed by a most grievous pestilence. The kings were at strife and once more making ready for civil war, when a dysentery¹ invaded almost the whole of Gaul. The sick suffered from severe fever with vomiting, exceeding pains of the kidneys, and a heaviness of head and neck; what they passed at the draught was of a yellow or greenish colour. Many declared that the sickness was caused by secret poison. The country people described the cause as internal pustules, which is not so incredible a belief; for when cupping vessels were applied to the shoulders or legs, vesicles swelled and burst, the matter escaped, and many were cured. Numbers found a safeguard in drinking a decoction of the herbs which are antidotes to poisons. This sickness, which began in the month of August, first attacked young children and brought them to their death.² Then did we also lose the little children, so sweet and dear to us, whom we had cherished in our bosoms and carried in our arms, fed with our own hands, and nourished with all the care and knowledge that we had. But we wiped away our tears, and said with the blessed Job: ‘The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it come to pass. Let His name be blessed, world without end.’³

In these days Chilperic the king fell sick, and no sooner was he better, than his younger son, who was not yet reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, began to ail. Perceiving him nigh his end, they washed him in the water of baptism. He became a little better; but his elder brother Chlodobert was now attacked by the disease. When their mother Fredegund saw him also in peril of death, she repented all too late, and said to the king: ‘The divine mercy hath long borne with us in our misdeeds; oft have we been seized with fevers and other ills, but there hath followed no amendment. And lo! now we lose our sons; lo! now they are slain by the tears of the poor, by the lamentations of widows, by the sighs of orphans, nor is there any object now left to us for which we may amass riches. We lay up treasures without knowing for whom we gather them together. Behold now our treasures are without an owner, having the taint of things plundered and accursed. Were not our store chambers full of wine, our granaries of corn? were not our treasuries filled with gold, with silver and precious stones, with necklaces and other royal ornaments. And lo! now we lose that which was loveliest of all that was ours. Come, therefore, if thou wilt, let us burn all the unjust tax-lists; let that be sufficient for our treasury which sufficed thy sire, King Lothar, before us.’ With these words the queen, smiting her breast with her clenched hands, bade them bring her the books which had been brought from her own cities by Mark,⁴ and cast them into the fire; then, turning once more to the king, she cried: ‘Wherefore delayest thou? Do now as thou seest me do, that if we must needs lose our dear children, we may at least escape eternal punishment.’ Thereupon the king, smitten to the heart, cast all the tax-lists into the fire, and when they were consumed, sent messengers to forbid assessment in future. But now the younger boy died, too feeble to resist decline, and his life was quenched. With exceeding grief they bore him from the domain of Berny to Paris, and caused him to be buried in the church of the holy Dionysius. Chlodobert they laid upon a stretcher, and took him to the church of the holy Médard at Soissons; then they set him down before the saint’s tomb and made vows for his recovery. But in the middle of the night, worn to a shadow, and hardly drawing breath, he gave up the ghost. They buried him in the church of the holy martyrs Crispin and Crispinian. There was great lamentation of all the people; for men showing their grief, and women in the sad weeds they wear at their husbands’ burial, followed this prince’s bier. And afterwards King Chilperic made great largess to cathedrals and churches, as well as to the poor.

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