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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 9, Of Baddo, Who Having Been on an Embassy, Was Imprisoned, and After a Time…
Baddo, who, as I have above related,1 had been put in bonds for high treason, was ordered by King Guntram to appear before him and then sent on to Paris. The king said: ‘If Fredegund, by the help of men of good repute, can clear him of the charge brought against him, let him go free, and depart whither he will.’ But when Baddo came to Paris, no one was sent by Fredegund able to maintain his innocence. He was then brought back closely guarded to Chalon, bound, and loaded with chains. Afterwards messengers passed between the two kingdoms, chief among whom was Leudovald, bishop of Bayeux,2 with the result that Baddo was released and permitted to return home.
At this time3 Metz was cruelly visited by dysentery; and as I was journeying in haste to meet the king, I met on the road, at Reims, Wiliulf, a citizen of Poitiers, in a high fever and grievously ill of this malady. Leaving that city in great feebleness, accompanied by his wife’s son, he reached the territory of Paris only to make his will and die at the domain of Rueil. The boy, who was suffering from the same disease, also died; their bodies were borne together to Poitiers and buried there. The wife of Wiliulf married a third husband, a son of Duke Beppolen;4 it was notorious that this man had abandoned two wives, both still living. For he was a light man and voluptuous, the slave of carnal desires; he had forsaken his first wife for the commerce of serving-maids, loathing his wedlock and ever seeking other pleasures. He had used his second wife in the same way, and now did likewise with this, his third, not perceiving that corruption shall not inherit the incorruptible.5
Notes
- VIII. 44.
- VIII. 31.
- In 588.
- Cf. VIII. 42.
- 1 Cor. xv. 50.