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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 8, 10. Of the Bodies of Merovech and Chlodovech

The king would still oft-times bewail the death of Merovech and Chlodovech,¹ not knowing where their bodies had been cast after they were slain. Now there came to him one who said: ‘If in future it be not turned to my disadvantage, I will show the spot where the body of Chlodovech lies.’ The king swore that no harm should come to him, but that, instead, he should be enriched with gifts. The man then said: ‘The tale of the events shall prove that I speak the truth. When Chlodovech had been slain, he was laid in ground beneath the eaves of a certain oratory. But the queen feared that some day the remains might be discovered and receive honourable burial; she therefore commanded them to be thrown into the bed of the Marne. Thus I found them in the weir which I had myself prepared for catching fish. At first I did not know who the dead man was. Then I recognized Chlodovech by his long hair, and took him on my shoulders, and bore him to the bank, and buried him under a heap of sods. Behold, his limbs are unharmed; do now that which seemeth good to thee.’ On hearing this, the king set out as if for the chase, discovered the grave, and found the body in it whole and unharmed, save only that a part of the hair which lay underneath had fallen away; the rest, with all its long locks, was preserved intact. It was seen that this was indeed he whom the king had sought with so much zeal. So the king summoned the bishop of the city, and caused the body to be borne to burial in the church of the holy Vincent,² accompanied by the clergy and people, with pomp of innumerable tapers; the king mourned no whit less for his dead nephews than for those sons of his own whom he had already seen laid to rest. And afterwards he sent Pappolus,³ bishop of Chartres, to ask the body of Merovech, which he now caused to be buried near the grave of Chlodovech.

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