Compendium sive Breviarium primi voluminis Annalium sive Historiarum de origine regum et gentis Francorum

Johannes Trithemius, Compendium or Breviary of the First Volume of the Annals or Histories, concerning the Origin of the Kings and of the People of the Franks, addressed to the most reverend father in Christ and prince, Lord Lawrence, bishop of Würzburg ... by Johannes Trithemius, abbot. [Mainz], 1515.

[Source page illegible in the scan; the page image is the authoritative witness.]

A Compendium or Breviary of the First Volume of the Annals or Histories, on the Origin of the Kings and People of the Franks; to the most reverend father in Christ and prince, the lord Lawrence, Bishop of Würzburg and duke of Eastern Francia; [the work] of Johannes Trithemius, Abbot.

Royal Library of Munich.

With grace and Privilege of His Imperial Majesty.

Maximilian, by the favor of divine clemency elected Emperor of the Romans, ever august, and King of Germany, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, etc., Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, etc., to the honorable and devout John Trithemius, Abbot of St. James the Greater at Würzburg, beloved to us: imperial grace and every good thing.

Since you have humbly explained to us that you have composed various editions of both ancient and modern authors, collected not without great labor, wakefulness, and diligence, which you desired with all your mind to have brought into the light; and since Master Johannes Haselberg of Constance, beloved to us and to the Holy Roman Empire, has offered himself with a most ready mind to be the agent of this matter, and for that reason has procured at great expense the formes by which he may print the aforesaid works: We therefore, desiring that provision be made for the indemnity of the aforesaid Master Johannes and for the adornment of your honor, lest your works, composed by you with great labors and wakefulness, lie hidden as if covered with rust, but rather that they shine forth more and more day by day, have therefore given and granted to the aforesaid Master Johannes Haselberg of Constance full power and authority in every respect, just as by the tenor of these presents we give and grant it.

We decree that he may print, and sell when printed, wherever he pleases and according to his will, whatever of treatises and little works has been published by you, the aforesaid Trithemius, Abbot of St. James the Greater at Würzburg, and has been reviewed and approved by the honorable Conrad Peutinger, doctor and our councillor, faithful and beloved to us. And we forbid all and singular chalcographers and printers of books, of whatever condition, under the penalty written below, strictly commanding them not to dare or presume, throughout the whole Roman Empire and in our hereditary lands, to print, publish, or, when printed by others, publish, buy, and sell such works, or similar ones, for ten years after they have been published by the said Master Johannes.

Moreover, we command all and singular our faithful subjects, and those of the Holy Roman Empire, beloved to us, of whatever estate, condition, dignity, or office they may be, whether ecclesiastical or secular, under the penalty of our most grave indignation and that of the Holy Roman Empire, and of ten marks of pure gold, to be applied, as often as action is taken contrary to this, one part to our fisc and the other part to the aforesaid Master Johannes Haselberg, that they assist the same Master Johannes of Constance with their favor and aid in their places and lands, and not permit the said works and treatises to be printed, or those printed elsewhere to be sold. Rather, they shall immediately declare in our name that all persons presuming to do anything against this our grace and prohibition have incurred the sentence of such indignation of ours and of the Holy Roman Empire, and shall execute our will expressly stated in this matter.

In witness whereof these letters have been furnished with the impression of our seal on the back. Given in our town of Innsbruck on the tenth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred fourteen, in the twenty-ninth year of our Roman reign, and the twenty-fifth of Hungary.

By the king himself.

At the command of the lord Emperor himself.

N. Ziegler,

[unclear], by Paulus Oberstainer.

Ii 1098 1097 1096 1095 1094 1093 1092 1091 1090 1089 1088 1087 1086 1085 1084 1083 1082 1081 1080 1079 1078 1077 1076 1075 1074 1073 1072 1071 1070 1069 1068 1067 1066 1065 1064 1063 1062 1061 1060 1059 1058 1057 1056 1055 1054 1053 1052 1051 1050 1049 1048 1047 1046 1045 1044 1043 1042 1041 1040 1039 1038 1037 1036 1035 1034 1033 1032 1031 1030 1029 1028 1027 1026 1025 1024 1023 1022 1021 1020 1019 1018 1017 1016 1015 1014 1013 1012 1011 1010 1009 1008 1007 1006 1005 1004 1003 1002 1001 1000 999 998 997 996 995 994 993 992 991 990 989 988 987 986 985 984 983 982 981 980 979 978 977 976 975 974 973 972 971 970 969 968 967 966 965 964 963 962 961 960 959 958 957 956 955 954 953 952 951 950 949 948 947 946 945 944 943 942 941 940 939 938 937 936 935 934 933 932 931 930 929 928 927 926 925 924 923 922 921 920 919 918 917 916 915 914 913 912 911 910 909 908 907 906 905 904 903 902 901 900 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144 1145 1146 1147 1148 1

The Letter of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of St James, formerly of Sponheim, to the most reverend father in Christ and prince, lord Laurence, from the noble and most ancient family of the Bibra, bishop of the distinguished church of Würzburg and sole duke of Eastern Francia, concerning the compendium of the first volume of the annals on the origin of the Franks

To the most reverend father in Christ and most excellent prince, lord Laurence, bishop of the noble church of Würzburg, sole duke of Eastern Francia, Johannes Trithemius, unprofitable, abbot in name only of the poor little monastery of St James the Apostle in the suburbs of the aforesaid city of Würzburg, offers ready service in all things, no less voluntary than owed by right. Most reverend father, illustrious prince, gracious lord, I have written, as your most reverend lordship knows, three large volumes, of no small labor, on the origin, progress, and particular deeds of the kings and princes of the people of the Franks, taking the beginning of the narrative of the succession of kings from the four hundred fortieth year before the birth of Christ, at which time, after Antenor, the great king of the nation, had been killed by enemies, his son Marcomer succeeded to the kingdom and led his people, namely our forebears, from the borders of Scythia into the borders of Germany and Saxony, to the mouths of the Rhine, where Guelders now is. In these three volumes I have encompassed a period of one thousand nine hundred fifty-four years, in which the kings of the Franks are numbered, succeeding one another in proper order, from that same Marcomer already mentioned down to the twenty-ninth year of the emperor Caesar Maximilian Augustus: one hundred and three. There are many collateral kings, outside the direct genealogical line, who are excluded from this number of kings. Through the whole first volume, however, I have continued the successions and deeds of the kings of the Franks down to King Pippin exclusively, through one thousand one hundred ninety years, in which there were sixty-one kings succeeding one another in a direct line. To Pippin succeeded Charles, surnamed the Great, his son; then Louis the Pious. When he died, his sons divided the kingdom of the Franks into several parts. When they too had departed this life, their grandsons again divided the kingdom of the Franks in such a way principally into two kingdoms, of which one is called, is, and shall forever remain Germanic, while the other is Gallic, and neither is subject to the other. And this division is as follows.

Johannes Trithemius wrote three volumes of annals.

The bishop of Würzburg alone is duke of the Franks.

The history of the Franks of Germany is contained in four divisions.

The period of Trithemius’s annals: one thousand [unclear] years.

I. Let the kingdom of the Franks of Germany perpetually have its own king by itself, subject to no mortal whatsoever, not even to the Roman Empire, but most free according to the ancient custom of the Franks. To this kingdom the subject nations, cities, peoples, and races, in the division

It contains one hundred three kings of the Franks.

The first volume contains the period of the unity of the kingdom.

The second volume begins from the division of the kingdom of the Franks.

What the rights of possession of the Germanic kingdom of the Franks are.

The seat of the kingdom of Austrasia was Metz, and also Trier, Cologne, Aachen, Liège, with all the land between the sea and the Rhine.

The kingdom of Arles belongs by right to the Germans.

Once the kingdom, but now the duchy, of Burgundy, etc.

The empire of the Romans belongs by right to the Germans.

All Franks enjoy perpetual freedom.

The kings of both Frances were always utterly free.

The aforesaid territories fell to it, namely the whole kingdom of Germany, with the Saxons, Thuringians, Marcomanni, Danes, Frisians, Hessians, Westphalians, Eastern Franks, Bavarians, Swabians, Bohemians, Sorbs, Austrians, Germans, and all the nations, peoples, and races that lie among those named above.

¶ The whole kingdom of Austrasia also, with these cities: of the people of Metz, which is now called all Lotharingia; Trier, with the Mosellani, Eufalii, and [Cynonoti?]; Cologne, Aachen, Liège, and Maastricht, both lower and upper, with Holland, Zeeland, Brabant, Hainaut, the whole region from the river Rhine westward as far as the sea, with the Tongrians, Flemings, Morini, and all the land that either adjoins or lies among the regions and cities mentioned. Finally, the kingdom of Arles, with its eight counties in Gaul, is counted by ancient right as subject under the dominion of the king of the Germans; by reason of this each archbishop of Trier in office for the time being is recognized as having afterwards been appointed archchancellor of the German kingdom throughout Gaul, the aforesaid kingdom of Arles. The kingdom of Burgundy also, with all its counties, was assigned in the same division to the kingdom of the Germans. All Alemannia too, with its cities and peoples, in which are the cities of Chur, Sion, and Valais, fell by lot to the kingdom of the Germans, together with the Helvetians, Alsatians, [Caurici?], Savoyards, the people of Constance, Basel, Strasbourg, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and all the peoples from the source of the river Rhine as far as the sea, into which it finally flows by three mouths.

¶ But the Roman Empire, together with Italy, Lombardy, and all territories subject to it by ancient right, except Greece, the eastern empire, was then, and remains today, annexed and subject to the kingdom of the Germans. Nevertheless, in the course of time many disputes, invasions, and changes arose between the kings of the Germans and of the Gauls over certain boundaries of the kingdom; these have been written about more fully in the second volume.

¶ The kingdom of the Franks of Gaul also, separated from ours already mentioned, should in like manner, as the constitution states, have its own free king, who is no less free than the king of Germany, subject to absolutely no one. For it is manifest that the Franks were always utterly free from their origin. They never served the Romans, nor any other nation, nor were they subject to them. Rather, they themselves destroyed the empire of the Romans and made it subject to themselves. And therefore both kings, in the division of the kingdom, were to preserve everywhere unharmed for one another the ancient freedom of the Franks.

But the king of Gallic Francia, in the division of the monarchy, received as his portion the kingdom of Neustria, or Paris, the kingdom of Orléans, the kingdom of Aquitaine, the kingdom of Lausanne, the Armorican kingdom, or of New Brittany, with all the provinces, regions, and peoples of inner Gaul as far as Spain, from the river Rhône to the western sea.

The jurisdiction of the kingdom of Gallic Francia with its boundaries.

The writer pursues the deeds of the German kingdom alone.

After that division of the kingdom of the Franks I compressed the history; and, now omitting thereafter the Gallic Franks, in the second and third volumes of the annals I continue the narrative concerning the German Franks alone. But since, in so long a course of years, first from the entrance of the people into Germany, the history has become rather lengthy, I thought it would be worthwhile if from those three volumes of annals themselves I extracted the same number of shorter books, which would contain in brief the names, successions, and deeds more worthy of remembrance of the kings of the Franks of Germany. For I know that your most reverend lordship delights in ancient histories, and by reason of administering a principality is continually occupied in many affairs. Since, therefore, no prince lives today among mortals to whom, after God, I am by right more indebted, with all my powers, for service and pleasing obedience, nor am I readier with a most submissive will, than to your most excellent and most reverend lordship, I judge no one more worthy in whose name I either ought or wish to dedicate my studies on the origin of the Franks.

The most reverend lord bishop is a lover of histories.

End of the letter, the last day of February. In the year 1515.

In the year 1515.

Here begins the compendium or breviary of the first volume of the Chronicles or Annals of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Saint James the Greater, Apostle, in the suburb of the city of Würzburg, concerning the origin of the people and kings of the Franks.

Compendium on the origin of the Franks

With the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have written, not without very great labors, three volumes of our annals, of no small size, in which, from the origin of the race of the Franks down to the twenty-eighth year of Caesar Maximilian Augustus, we have arranged a fuller history, distinguished, that is, by the following sequence of division. In the first volume, indeed, we described both the origin of the aforesaid race of the Franks and their kings, beginning from Marcomirus, who began to reign in the four hundred thirty-ninth year before the birth of Christ; and after the death of his father, whom the Goths had killed in war, he reigned for twenty-eight years, and was the first to lead the people from the mouths of the Danube into Germany, to the mouths of the Rhine. This people, sprung from the offspring of Trojans once fugitive from captured Troy, while it was still among its own fellow citizens, had the Trojan name; after this, dispersed among various nations and wandering, it often changed both its settlements and its name.

For at first, with the Trojans, they were called Trojans; afterward, among the Scythians, they were also named Scythians. But when they came into the borders of Germany, for a time they were called Sicambri; most recently they were called Franks from Francus their king. Yet the Sicambri could not at once obtain from the neighboring peoples, and especially from the Romans and Gauls, to whom their power was always suspect, that they should be called Franks, until at last, enlarging their kingdom and their name, they powerfully subjected to themselves the Romans, together with Italy and all Gaul. And because they lived with the Germans, they were more frequently named Germans than Franks by writers of deeds done. Thus the whole period of the first volume of our annals contains one thousand one hundred eighty-nine years, from Marcomirus down to King Pippin.

The second volume of our annals takes its beginning from German affairs, from the seven hundred fiftieth year of the Lord’s birth, when Pippin, mayor of the palace, was elected king of the Franks, Childeric having been shorn as a monk. And it contains the period of years from that point down to the eighth year of Richard, king of Germany, who succeeded William amid the dissension of the princes: five hundred fifteen years, as is clear to one counting the sequence of the order, in which the history of the German kingdom is woven.

The third volume of our annals takes the beginning of its annotations from the eighth year of King Richard, which was the one thousand two hundred sixty-sixth year of the Lord’s birth. We continue it to the twenty-eighth year of King Maximilian, that is, the one thousand five hundred fourth year of the Lord’s birth.

Trithemius wrote three volumes of annals.

The Franks often changed their name along with their settlements.

The Franks received their name while with the Germans. The period of the first volume.

The second volume of the annals.

The third volume of the annals of Trithemius.

A

Epitome of the first volume of the Annals

Many have written on the origin of the Franks

Hunibald, historiographer of the Franks

The first six books contain 750 years. The second six books contain 840 years. The last six books contain about 100 years.

King Antenor is slain by the Goths.

In the year before the birth of Christ 460.

The war of the Scythian Franks with the Goths.

the tenth, containing two hundred forty-eight years. And thus the whole span of these three volumes amounts to one thousand nine hundred fifty-three years, whose deeds we have embraced.

Therefore, as we are about to write the epitome of the first volume of our Annals, a compendium or breviary from the sure consideration of our mind, we warn the reader not to carp at the work before he has prudently examined it. It is the manifest mark of a rash man to judge what he does not know, and to suppose that no one can know what he himself perhaps does not know. I know that many have written various and diverse things on the origin of the Franks; some of them contend that the people was indigenous, while others say that it came from some city of the Sicambri, I know not what. We believe that no one can either distinguish or reconcile their diverse opinions unless Hunibald’s compilation has illuminated him. For he flourished as a sound historiographer of the Franks in the times of King [Clovis?], whom Saint Remigius, bishop of the Romans, baptized, in the five-hundredth year of the Lord’s nativity; and after Doracus the philosopher, Wasthald the historian, and many other very ancient writers of deeds, he wrote a distinguished work, which he divided into eighteen books. In the first six he traces the earliest origin of the Frankish people from the destruction of Troy down to the death of King Antenor, whom the Scanzians, Goths, and Suevi or Suedi killed near the mouths of the Danube, namely in the four-hundred-fortieth year before Christ’s nativity. In the other six books he includes the period from the death of the aforesaid King Antenor down to Faramund, king of the Franks, the forty-third of the second order. From Faramund the remaining six books continue down to the last year of [Clovis?], the first Christian among the kings of the Franks, who died in the five-hundred-fourteenth year of the Lord’s nativity. And because we have written more fully about all these matters in the first volume of our Annals, the nature of the name “breviary” demands that here we aim at brevity. Here ends the prologue.

The first book of the compendium begins.

The breviary of the first volume of the Annals of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of St. James of Würzburg, of the Order of Saint Benedict, begins succinctly.

In the four-hundred-fortieth year before the nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Mary, the ever-undefiled virgin, when the peoples who were afterward called Franks, but before that Scythians, and still earlier Trojans, were settled at the maritime borders of Scythia, not far from the mouths of the Danube, King Antenor ruled. Against him a most savage nation, numerous beyond number, coming out of the Scanzian islands, which are now called Gothic, wore down his people by frequent incursion.

Joining weapons with weapons and hands with hands, Antenor, now defeated, now victor, was at last killed by the Goths in battle, together with many of his men, in the aforesaid year, as we have said, 440 before the birth of Christ. His son Marcomer succeeded him in the kingdom.

Marcomir, the elder son of the slain King Antenor, appointed in his father’s place, reigned for twenty-eight years. He began almost in the same year in which his father was killed. He was a high-spirited, brave, bold, and warlike man, who avenged his father’s death upon the neighboring Goths by frequent incursions, although he seemed far inferior to the Goths in number of fighters and in strength. Moreover, in the fourth year of his reign he held counsel with the chief men of the kingdom as to how either the Goths might be kept from the kingdom, or, if this could not be done, how he might otherwise provide for the people, lest it perish.

At last it pleased all who were rightly wise, since they could in no way withstand so immense a multitude of Goths, to change their dwelling-places by the will of the gods. Therefore, when the ministers of their gods had been summoned, the elders commanded that they should be stirred up by the divine powers as to which direction they were ordered to go. They prepare rites suited to prophecies; they offer sacrifices, composed by art, for summoning infernal powers. A priest stands in the midst, raving before the altar of Jupiter; he twists his head, utters verses in a murmur, gnashes artfully with his teeth, bent out of the ordinary manner, with his fingers he twists his arms together with his hands, brandishes them, and, flying about, bends himself back in like manner; to one seeing him sane he seems foolish, and more like a madman than a man. At last, when the divine power had been summoned by the chant, it gave back a prophecy to Menolpus as he prayed, and, beginning thus, thundered forth: “Marcomer, prince of Jupiter, the divine power bids you be calm, and not to fear the chances of the long journey, which stretches toward the west after your brothers to the mouths of the Rhine, where Brutus holds the back, the Trojans the face, [exulrophaea] at rest. Each is your brother by nature, by nation a faithful friend. Go, with swift course take possession of the dwellings prepared, to be extended by the will of the father’s divinity into a third part of the world.”

That same night King Marcomir, in his fatherland’s incantation, called upon the divine power, singing beforehand with a murmur the one whom from her sagacity they named Aliruna as she prophesied. He compared the monster. He confirmed by the authority of the Sibyl the prophecy of the priest, and ordered the people immediately to be led across to the place where, the offspring having multiplied exceedingly, by the foretokening vision it would remain stronger.

Marcomir beheld a three-headed divine power standing before him, of one [unclear] in eternity. He heard the particular prediction of each head, and saw a distinct [unclear] set above each one. The first head was that of a toad; the second, of a lion; the third, of an eagle, in form as if standing over it with wings spread, touching with fostering care the lion on the right and the toad on the left. And the eagle said: “Your progeny, Marcomir, will subject my head to itself. It will trample the lion; [silꝰ] will kill the toad.” And the toad itself, being subject, [unclear].

It marks Gaul as first to be overcome. The lion marks Germany as to be conquered. Interpretation to Alruna of the monster seen. The varied change of the kingdom of the Franks. Alruna in Gothic is a wise woman. By the lion, the Saxons; by the toad, the Gauls. The land of the toad is Gallic; the lion is Germanic. Prophecy concerning the victory of the Franks.

me, because I appear foul, fair king, you should not think to be despised; my appearance and form are suited to future things. Your race will first destroy me; long after this it will keep the lion captive by the sword. Take care to hear from its mouth what remains further. The lion-like head then said to King Marcomirus: Strongest king, stranger who will come into my [unclear] with your people, soon you will conquer the toad with toil, over much time; then my rights will yield everywhere and of their own accord to yours, by wars and by craft. Afterwards the Eagle will crown me, the right-hand victim, having on the left the toad bound by your seed. But what will be afterward, our conjecture shows you. When this lion-like apparition had uttered these things, the three heads were suddenly turned into one, and the three-headed monster stood transformed into the image of a man, and not of a simple condition, but of a king crowned with a golden diadem, holding a scepter in his left hand and a sword in his right; and, murmuring in a shrill voice, it said in the Scythian tongue: Alruna, taught by songs to raise the shades and to bring down the highest gods from heaven, so that they may bring responses to your incantations, hear what we foreannounce is to be for the people of King Marcomirus, and understand, lest we speak in vain. As the transformation of our image confirms the form and makes certain this very voice of the prophecy, so to this people a varied and broad kingdom is promised for the future, which long time and the multitude of the ruling lineage will vary, so that it will neither always be one nor divided among many. Now one, then two, now three, then four and beyond. Now it returns into one. At last it will stand divided in two, when the eagle has been joined as a friend to the lion, and the toad has held the left-hand part of the eagle in ambush. When all these things had been said, the vision disappeared.

King Marcomirus asked Alruna what the meaning of the prophecy was. She said to him: It is the ancestral god, O king, who accompanies you and your people; informed by his predictions concerning the future for your people and for the kings who will be born from you, you should know from this that you must migrate as quickly as possible toward the farthest lands of the lion, toward the west. The lion designates the people who dwell on this side of the river Rhine, sprung from the ancient stock of the Trojans.

On the other side of the river, however, dwells the people of the toad, inhabiting a wide and fruitful region. The other, third people, designated by the eagle, are the Romans, whose pride labors to subject the whole world to its dominion. Therefore go with your people toward the west, and you will dwell between those two peoples, of the lion and of the toad, between the sea and the Rhine. For it is to come to pass that many battles will be fought between your people and the people of the toad, and many on both sides will fall, slain by the sword.

But after many years, at last your seed and your people will take by arms the whole land of the toad, and they will possess it for many years, after the toad has been killed.

Then they will also subject to themselves the land of the lion, from the western river as far as the great eastern river of many nations. And finally they will possess the kingdom of the eagle with many nations, and there will be one king of several kingdoms from your seed, until after the third generation unity will be thrown into confusion by division.

Marcomir the king, therefore, after richly rewarding Aliruna, commanded her to keep silence about the secrets, and ordered her to depart. On the next day, having again summoned the nobles to him, he praises the counsel, and by public edict warns that their settlements must by all means be transferred. And so, an embassy having been sent to the Saxons in Germany, who themselves too are said to have been born from the Trojans, they asked them as brothers to grant the Scythians dwelling-places in some corner of their land. The Saxons readily gave consent to their request, promising that they would give them excellent settlements, and adding nonetheless that they should hasten to come as quickly as possible. A reason pressed the Saxons, on account of which they gladly consented to their Scythian brothers: namely, because they greatly desired to set them between themselves and the Gauls as a wall and bulwark.

Concerning the arrival of the Scythians within the borders of Germany, in the regions on this side of the Rhine, with their king Marcomir; they were first Trojans, then Scythians, afterward Sicambri, and in the final generation were called Franks.

Therefore in the four hundred and third year before the birth of Christ, which was the beginning of the seventh year of King Marcomir, around the middle of the month Hecatombaeon, which we call April, King Marcomir himself, with Sunno, Panthenor, and Priam his brothers, having left dukes beyond the Danube and the sea of Scythia within the borders, returning on their journey and circling northward, and then turning their road toward the region of the Teutons, began their migration westward with the whole people of the kingdom, with wives, children, and all their household goods, with great labor, difficult and long-lasting.

There were, apart from women and little children, one hundred seventy-five thousand six hundred fifty-eight men most ready for war. And the names of the princes who were with Marcomir and had descended from his lineage were: Duke Nicanor, paternal uncle of King Marcomir; Sunno, Panthenor, and Priam, brothers of Marcomir, now said to be king; Duke Helenus; Duke Antenor; Duke Menander; Duke Edrasius; Duke Gethenus; Duke Priam; Duke Marenus; Duke Ermo; Duke Nicanor; Duke Pyndar; Duke Helan; Duke Marcomir; Duke Colan; Duke Masan; Duke Antenor; Duke Ancrasius; Duke Bengoth; Duke Calomer; Duke Rodanus; Duke Malda; Duke Kylan; Duke Solas; Duke Colo; Duke Bremus; Duke Sunno; Duke Melanus; Duke Nicamor; Duke Thaphon; Duke Salon.

Number of Franks coming: 175,658 fighters. Dukes of the Franks under the king: 24.

The number of the whole people of the Franks was 489,360, and Meodarus duke.

Now the number of the whole people, as Humibaldus testifies, of men, women, and also little children of both sexes, was 489,360, apart from slaves and attendants. But if anyone desires to know fully what great difficulties they had on the journey, what wars they waged with the peoples resisting them, and into what great dangers they either fell or escaped, let him read the aforementioned writer in the book of histories of the race of the Franks. Its beginnings, just as they are remarkable, so they seem to me, saving the peace of those who judge better, to be fabulous in many respects.

At last, after many labors and innumerable difficulties, King Marcomirus, with his dukes and the whole people, came into Germany; and they were received kindly by the Saxons as brothers, and received the dwellings they desired between them and the Rhine, namely that province in which those now dwelling there are called the Western Frisians, and also the Guelders and the Hollanders: around that region, namely, where the Rhine flows into the sea by three mouths. And although those settlements received them at first rather narrowly, they soon made them wider by strength and arms, to the derision of the westerners.

Indeed, in the twentieth year of his reign, King Marcomirus, provoked by an injury from the Gauls across the Rhine, gathered an army, crossed the river, and subjected to his dominion that land which, enclosed by the islands of the Rhine, is nearest the sea, after expelling its inhabitants. He entrusted it to his brother Sunno to guard, and he brought in by ship peoples of his own race who would inhabit and cultivate it.

But when the Gauls were taking ill the incursion of a new and newly arrived people into the borders of the Hollanders, and were harassing it with various attempts, King Marcomirus, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, gathered a great army, both of his own men and of Saxons, crossed the Rhine by ship, entered western Gaul, and, devastating everything with sword and fire, came as far as the Meuse. Thereafter he fought many battles with the Gauls, victorious and triumphing everywhere; and his name was fearsome to all the Gallic peoples, and all who heard of Marcomirus were afraid. He made a treaty with the Britons inhabiting the island.

From that time, for nearly nine hundred years, the aforementioned kings of the race of the Scythians never ceased from harrying the Romans and Gauls, sometimes defeated, but more often victorious, until at last by arms they forced under their power not only all Gaul, but also all Germany, Swabia, Bavaria, Burgundy, Lombardy, Italy, Slavonia, Thuringia, Austria, Saxony, the Teutons, the Cimbri, the Danes, those on this side of the Rhine, the Mosellans, the Treveri, the people of Metz, the Austrasians, the people of Liege, the Morini, the people of Tournai, the Tungri, the people of the Meuse, the Atrebates, the people of Cologne, the people of Mainz, the Vangiones, the Nemetes, the people of Strasbourg, the Helvetii, the Rauraci, and the Bohemians, [unclear] together with the Spaniards and all the Germans, and almost all Europe.

After these things King Marcomirus, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, com-

[unclear] being completed, he died, namely in the year 412 before the birth of Christ, in the twenty-first year from the entrance of the people into the Saxon borders at the Rhine. He left three sons as leaders: Antenor, Priam, Nicanor, and twelve daughters.

Up to this year Vuasthald the Scythian, or Sicamber in his native tongue, brought down the historical work of his own people, over more or less 758 years, beginning from the destruction of Troy. In it he describes the various dwellings and settlements of his race, and also its leaders and wars, kings, and their various deeds in order. After him Hunibald the Frank, from the songs and writings of the priests of the Franks, continued the history for 1,426 years, down to the last year of King Clovis, who was the first of the kings of the Franks to receive the faith of Christ, baptized by Saint Remigius in the year of the Lord 499.

Antenor, the eldest son of King Marcomir, was raised to the kingship in the same year, and after his father reigned thirty years. He was held in the greatest honor among his people; he secured for himself a very firm friendship with the Saxons, with whose aid he victoriously fought many battles with the Romans and Gauls. Priam and Nicanor, his brothers, assisted him with the other leaders in faithful continuity; after crossing the river, they often inflicted many troubles upon the Gauls. Sunno also, the king’s paternal uncle, with his sons, always adhered to Antenor himself in all things with the greatest fidelity, and trained him in government as his own son, yet revered him no less as his lord.

King Antenor had a wife named Cambra, who was the daughter of Belinus, king of Britain. She was a woman more beautiful than the daughters of the whole kingdom, and of such prudence that the king and the princes of the Franks were always accustomed in all things to obey her counsel no less than that of some divine power. The customs of the people, still excessively rough with Scythian savagery, she rendered more cultivated by laws; she taught the nobles to build cities and castles. There she instituted the adornment of the forehead; she gave women the knowledge of sowing flax and committing hemp to the earth, and of weaving and preparing them for clothing and varied use. She composed laws; she pronounced justice. She presented herself as a seer, a priestess of Diana, and an Aliruna.

And since she was a woman in sex, but bore the mind of a king and priest, she became a laughing-stock among the Saxons in a proverb: whenever they heard anyone, beyond the ordinary, doing or saying something rather prudent, as though he wished to imitate the prudence of Cambra, they would rebuke him and say, “Look, camer.” In their language this is said: “Si camer,” as though they were saying, “Do you too know the prudence of Cambra?” Thus with time the proverb took root, so that the two latest words, that is, the adverb and the noun, “si” and “camber,” yielded a single word, which as a whole makes Sicamber.

The Sicambri were formerly called Neomagi.

The Franks changed their name together with their settlements.

Sunno the duke, the king’s paternal uncle, dies.

Groningen, a town of Frisia, is built.

The Third.

Priamus reigned twenty-six years.

The Sicambri began to use the language of the Germans.

Theocalus, pontiff and historiographer of the Sicambri.

But after some years, when the queen was dead, the Sicambri enrolled her among the goddesses, in her memory by decree of the kings and nobles. They, who previously were called Novimagi, that is Neumagi, as though “new kinsmen,” by their Saxon friends, were thereafter called Sicambri for about four hundred years, until at last from a certain king of theirs, Francus, as we shall say, they were named Franks, down to the present day, though with an admixture of peoples.

Meanwhile, because they were with their Trojans, they were also called Trojans; with Armenians, Armenians; with Scythians, Scythians; with Germans, Germans; with Gauls, Gauls. They often received a different name from others, and frequently changed customs, language, idiom of speech, and name together with their settlements.

In the twelfth year of Antenor, his paternal uncle Sunno dies, leaving two sons, Marcomir and Hector. The first of these, afterward racing with a horse over the ice, was drowned in the Rhine; the younger governed his father’s duchy in Holland under the authority of the king. He left four other sons, begotten from four other concubines, who are not counted among the dukes by the law of the Sicambri, which forbade, while children of the first wife survived, the sons of later women either to be princes or to be so named. Queen Cambra enacted this law so that the kingdom would not be thrown into confusion.

Priamus, moreover, brother of King Antenor, held the duchy among the Grunes, namely in that region bordering the sea which is now called Frisia, in which the son of Priamus the duke, in the three hundred seventy-seventh year before the birth of Christ, [built?] a new town, which from his own name is called Groningen down to the present day. For the duke’s name was Grunus, from whom the people too, although Franks by origin, were for a time called Grunes.

But Antenor, after many deeds bravely performed, dies in the thirtieth year of his reign, and in the year 382 of the Lord’s birth. The Sicambri, following him with great pomp according to the custom of the gentiles, enrolled him among the gods by order of the queen.

The only son of King Antenor by Queen Cambra reigned after his father over the Sicambri, who were afterward called Franks, for twenty-six years. In his time, entirely from the use of the old speech, there were among them many words which seem to sound more of Greek origin than of the character of the Teutonic or German language, as anyone who has full knowledge of both languages will easily discern. Nor was the change of the ancient speech among the people sudden; what began with time at last passed through usage into nature.

In the sixth year of King Priamus, Duke Marcomir died; he was the grandson of the first Sunno, concerning whom it was said above that, with the other dukes, he had led the people into Germany. Among many children he had a son one named Theocalus, a man most outstanding in all the wisdom of the Greeks, Scythians, and Germans, whom the Sicambri appointed great priest of Jupiter. And he was their prelate, father, augur, and prophet.

The priests, moreover, used the Greek language in sacred rites for a long time, and did not admit any mixing of another language. Until that time they had no temples of the gods, but sacrificed to their divinities under certain leafy trees, which the priests had consecrated after prior judgment.

Therefore in the eighth year of Priamus, king of the Franks, his mother Cambra and the queen, at the command of Theocalus the pontiff, [unclear], of which they called one Neopagus and the other Neomagus, in memory of their newly acquired name. In these two cities, and especially in Neopagus, the residence of the king of the Franks was for a long time.

They also built in the same city of Neomagus a great and very strong temple to Jupiter, in which Theocalus the pontiff, dwelling with the priests, instructed the sons of princes and nobles in morals and knowledge. He pronounced prophecies to the people. He wrote in songs the brave deeds of kings, which the youth, compelled to learn by heart, was accustomed to sing on feast days at [unclear]. At certain times of the year, however, the priests stayed not in cities but in solitude; their food was sparse, and their exercise of mind in learning the courses of the stars, songs, and the histories of the ancients was continual.

King Priamus, after many incursions made against the Gauls, after battles and victories, at last died in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, in the year 356 before the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, leaving several sons and daughters from the four wives whom [unclear] had had.

Helenus, the elder-born son of King Priamus, succeeding his father, reigned among the Sicambri for nineteen years, a man severe toward enemies, who also sacrificed infants, as often as he was able to capture them, to Pallas and other demons. Toward his own people, however, he was not cruel but gentle and very humane, burdensome or troublesome to no one and therefore pleasing to all.

In the first year of his reign he had a war with the Transmosan Gauls and the Tungri, in which he laid low more than sixty thousand of the enemy and turned the rest to flight. He also killed with his own hand the firstborn of the king of the Morini, named Guedenus, and subjected to his rule a great part of the land beyond the Meuse, which he entrusted to his dukes to defend. Very often thereafter he fought with the Gauls with varying fortune, now defeated [unclear]. Concerning his battles and deeds, we have written more in the first volume of the Annals.

At last, after many brave deeds performed against the Gauls and other enemies round about, Helenus, king of the Sicambri, died in the nineteenth year of his reign, 338 years before the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Diocles, the elder-born son of King Helenus, after his father reigned thirty-nine years. He was a man tall in bodily stature, harsh in character, and severe with excessive maturity, bold, brave, and most warlike, who [unclear].

The sacred rites were conducted in the Greek language.

First construction of Neopagus and Neomagus.

The Franks build a temple to Jupiter at Neomagus.

The prophet wrote the deeds of the kings of the Franks.

Priamus, king of the Franks, dies.

Fourth. Helenus reigned nineteen years.

War takes place between the Franks and the Gauls.

The king of the Morini is killed by the Franks.

Helenus, king of the Sicambri, dies.

Fifth. Diocles reigned thirty-eight years.

The Goths devastate the borders of the Saxons.

Five German kings with 260,000 men.

One hundred thousand of the Goths are killed.

Twenty-five thousand Saxons are killed.

The Gauls make war on the Franks while their king is far away.

The Gauls are defeated by the Sicambri through cunning and courage.

Many thousands of the Gauls are slain.

Three leaders of the Franks were killed.

Diocles, king of the Sicambri, dies.

In the twelfth year of his reign, a multitude of the people of the Goths came forth from the Scanzian islands, which are now called Gothic, and, pouring into the borders of the Saxons, began to carry out a very grievous devastation, consuming with sword and fire whatever it could find. Against this most savage people, which was accustomed to spare no one, five kings went forth to war, namely the king of the Doringi, the king of the Teutons, the king of the Rugii, and Diocles himself, king of the Sicambri, with many princes, commanders, and warriors; their army was numbered at 260,000 men.

War is waged; a fierce battle is joined with the enemy, in which more than one hundred thousand fighters from the army of the Goths were said to have been slain. On the side of the five kings, twenty-five thousand fell, among whom Heriman also, king of the Doringi, perished. But the Saxons, having gained the victory, divided the spoils of the enemy among the allies with an equal balance; and, when the enemy had been driven far off in flight, the kings returned to their own territories.

Meanwhile, when the Gauls dwelling beyond the Meuse learned that King Diocles had gone out of the country with his army, they gathered in a great multitude and hastened to make war against the Sicambri. When the commanders of the Sicambri, to whom the region had been entrusted, had learned this through scouts, they gathered the whole army of the remaining soldiery of the people and, leading it against the enemy, divided it into three parts. Two of these they arranged as separate battle-lines, and the third they placed in hiding-places for ambush. But as the Gauls approached and brought forward one battle-line, when they saw that the forces were being ordered otherwise, with their opponents hastening to close combat.

For as soon as the Gauls came into sight of the Sicambri, the Sicambri, impatient of delay, directed one line against the enemy formation. When the battle had now begun, the second line, circling around from Nijmegen against the enemy on the flank, threw their order into confusion. And when the fighting was fierce on both sides and the army of the Gauls was already inclining toward flight, suddenly the Sicambri burst forth from the ambushes and, making an attack, held the Gauls enclosed among them, so that no place of flight lay open to those preparing to flee. Thus the wretched Gauls, enclosed in the midst of the Sicambri, were slaughtered to death like cattle, and they suffered so great a massacre that, out of their eighty-eight thousand who had assembled for war, scarcely ten thousand, saved by flight through the benefit of night, escaped.

From the Sicambri, Duke Marcomir, Duke Helenus, and Duke Antenor perished, along with almost four thousand. Nevertheless, the victory, together with the spoils of the enemy, fell to the Sicambri.

King Diocles, however, throughout all the days of his reign, stood vigorously in conflict with the Gauls; meanwhile there was scarcely a year in which he did not harass them with some incursion or battle.

He finally died in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, 298 before the birth of the Lord. By the queen he had four sons, Helenus, Priamus, Nicanor, and Basanus; by other wives, however, he had several sons.

The Sixth King. Helenus reigned for fourteen years.

Helenus, the elder son of the aforesaid King Diocles, succeeding his father, reigned for fourteen years: an idle, wanton man, memorable for no exercise of virtue. In his time the Gauls, making repeated incursions, stirred up no small [unclear] among the Sicambri. Against them his brothers, with the nobles of the kingdom, often led out an army; fighting with varying fortune, they came forth sometimes defeated, sometimes victorious. But the king sat idle at home among gatherings of concubines, dissolving in lust, neither useful to the kingdom nor pleasing to the people: foolish in peace and unfit for war.

Therefore, when the fourteenth year of his reign had not yet been completed, the nobles of the kingdom, assembling at Neopagus with the whole soldiery of the army, by the common decree of all deposed him from the kingship as useless and harmful to the people, in the year 284 before the birth of the Lord.

Helenus reigned for fourteen years.

Helenus was deposed from the kingship because of his idleness, in the year 283 before Christ.

Basanus reigned for twenty-six years.

Basanus, the younger son of the above-mentioned King Diocles, after the deposition of his brother Helenus from the kingship, was raised to the kingdom of the Sicambri by the common guidance, and by the election, of the nobles and soldiers, and reigned for thirty-six years: a man most prudent in his generation, strong, bold, and exceedingly warlike.

The very greatest vanity. Basanus the pontiff. Because of the greatness of his prudence and the deeds magnificently accomplished by him, they called him Basanus the Great. The Sicambri held him in such reverence that they showed him honors not only royal, but almost divine. No one was ever permitted to contradict his commands with impunity, whether in a small matter or a great one, under the certain penalty of a bitter death. For he was exceedingly desirous of divine esteem; for that reason he both did and said great things.

Basanus reigned for twenty-six years.

Basanus, king of the Franks, philosopher and supreme pontiff.

The very greatest vanity. King Basanus wished to be regarded as justice and as a god.

King Basanus kills his son for the sake of justice. Hence, wherever he went, he ordered a [rod?] and a sword to be carried before him, as a manifest sign of justice. He was accustomed to observe it so steadfastly that he spared neither his own son, nor his brother, nor any one of the princes, if anyone knowingly offended even a little against the law of equity which he had established. He had a son named Sedanus, who, accused of adultery, was soon judged by his father to death according to the law that he had established for the Sicambri. But when the nobles pleaded for the young man, the father replied

How steadfast he wished to be esteemed in justice. Hedanus is beheaded by his own father. Thereafter they named the king Just Basan.

[unclear], Basangot.

Fear of King Basan terrified everyone.

The king of the Orchades vainly declared war on the Sicambri.

The Sicambri advanced against the enemies. The war and victory of the Sicambri against the Gauls.

The castle Basanburg is built.

King Basan, pontiff of the idols, restored the sacred rites. What sort of men the Sicambrian priests were.

He said: “Do not, noble men, fight against justice, and against the laws which I decreed with your mature consent, because it is easier to bind with the hand the wind blowing in the air than to turn the mind of King Basan away from the execution of equity.” Having heard this, the princes were silent; but the father himself said to his son: “It is not I, son, who kill you, but the law of the fatherland, which you knowingly transgressed”; and, having seized him, he beheaded him with his own hand.

From that time the Sicambri began to fear their king Basan to such a degree that no one among them, great or small, presumed either to say or to do anything evil against the law. Hence the priests of the gods called the king by the Greek word [unclear], that is, Just Basan. But the common people called him Theobasan, which in the German tongue signifies Basangoth, because all venerated him as a friend of the gods, afterwards to be deified.

From this a proverb arose among the Sicambri, so that whenever one person saw or heard from another anything contrary to the law, he would say: “Hort opp lieffman, kent gy nit dy grote kunig Basan.” As if he had said: “Cease from such things, good man; do you not know how just the great king Basanus is? If he perceived anyone saying or doing unlawful things, without doubt he would kill him as a transgressor.”

In the fifth year of King Basan, the king of the Orchades, having several island chieftains as auxiliaries, declared war on the Sicambri because of the rejection of his daughter, whom King Basanus, having taken as wife, had repudiated and sent back to her father; the cause of this repudiation we described in the first volume of the Annals. But King Basanus, learning of the arrival of his adversaries, advanced against them with a great multitude of fighters to the seashore, not far from the place where the Franks afterwards built Mesoburg. When the Orchades saw from their ships so great an army of the Sicambri, they did not dare to advance onto land.

When the Gauls and Morini again broke in toward the east, where the Sicambri had placed colonies in the region of the Tungri, King Basanus met them with a strong force of his men, and laid them low with so great a slaughter that scarcely a few out of many escaped. Having obtained victory, he built several castles, very strong fortifications, on both sides of the river Meuse, in which he stationed garrisons of the Sicambri.

But on the upper part of the river he built a very strong castle, which he named Basanburg after his own name; in it the kings of the Sicambrian Franks after him dwelt for a long time, on account of the pleasantness and strength of the place.

In the twenty-sixth year of his reign, King Basanus, after many battles bravely fought with various nations round about, wishing to show himself pontiff to the gods, renewed their sacred rites with much superstition. He appointed several priests, highly skilled in the worship of the divine powers, curious in the courses of the stars, in prophecies, in foreknowledges, in the interpretation of dreams, educated in ethical and physical doctrines after the manner of the ancients, and also in songs, in the histories of ancient kings and heroes, and of the race only of his own, very well practiced in composing and singing in both languages. Among them Heligastus, son of Theocalus the priest, once surpassed the rest in talent and practice in writing. He was in charge of educating the sons of dukes and nobles, and described the deeds of heroes in verse.

Hunibaldus, historiographer of the Franks, writes many marvelous things about this man. Unless they are granted to have been performed by the artifice of some demon, they should be judged to have been fabricated by some writer rather than carried out by a man devoted to idols. He foretold many future things to the Sicambri. He made Jupiter visible to the priests, brought men’s secret plans into public view, and disclosed to King Basanus the hidden counsels of enemies in difficult causes and affairs. Nothing at all seemed to escape him, even what the enemies had discussed against the Sicambri in the most secret counsel. This matter instilled security in his friends, but despair in his enemies.

For King Basanus, together with all the princes of the kingdom, depended wholly on the counsel of Heligastus; and what he ordered, all did, but whatever he forbade, no one dared to attempt. At his command the Sicambri met the enemy, and if he commanded the contrary, they remained peacefully at home. As often as he foretold victory for the Sicambri, they conquered; as often as he foretold otherwise, they were conquered. While he lived the Sicambri prospered in all things; whenever their name was heard, it terrified their enemies and made them fearsome to all round about.

But afterward, when he had completed thirty-two years in his office, and on a certain solemn Thursday, standing in the midst of the priests, hurling thunderbolts in the temple and troubling the upper air with his voice, he was resounding with frenzies in the manner of one prophesying, he suddenly disappeared; and, vanishing completely, no one was ever found who could know where he had gone. The Sicambri, thinking that he had thus become a god, proclaimed that he had been taken into marriage with Diana, and decree sacred rites for him every year.

In the thirty-third year of his reign Basanus moved his army to the upper parts of the river Rhine, against the people called Tegarania, which dwelt toward the south between the Saxons and the Mainz people on this side of the Rhine, under the protection of the Treveri, having its own petty king named Thaborinus. King Basanus killed him together with many others, and subjected his whole region to his dominion. These things happened 251 years before the birth of Christ. The place in which the aforesaid King Thaborinus of the Tegarania fell was called Mount Thabor from his name; it is about four miles from the confluence. There Basanus, king of the Franks, built a very strong castle, which, in perpetual memory of the victory, he called Mount Thaborinus; but by a corrupted word it is today called Montabaur by the inhabitants.

In the thirty-sixth year of his reign Basanus, very great king of the Sicambri, on the solemnity of his birthday at Nijmegen, summoned his sons, brothers, dukes, nobles, and the distinguished men of the families to a banquet. With them for seven days [unclear], they performed sacred rites to their ancestral gods, and he showed Jupiter in the air above the temple, visible to all.

Clodomer, son of Basanus, is made king by his father. King Basanus suddenly disappeared in the assembly. King Basanus, most eager for divinity. In the year 248 before the birth of Christ. The eighth. Clodomirus reigned eighteen years. Envoys of the Gauls sent to the Sicambri. The Saxons and Doringi, allies of the Sicambri. The Saxons with the Doringi came to the aid of the Sicambri.

On one day he designated his son Clodomirus, with the consent of all the nobles, as king over the Sicambri. He foretold many future events to the people in his native song. He commended his sons and the kingdom to the princes. He enjoined justice, and, having entered the chapel of the temple, appeared nowhere again.

I do not know what I should bestow on these little tales: indignation or laughter? Whether he was taken away by trickery or by art remains uncertain. But I think this one thing was the cause: the desire, in a man undoubtedly removed either by his own wit or by the spontaneous will of a demon, of obtaining the estimation of divinity. For, as Amerodagus, philosopher of the Sicambri, writes, King Basanus was most eager for divinity. He cultivated justice. He loved his people. He laid low the enemy. He was most dutiful to good men, always cruel and severe to the wicked.

But he vanished, or, as I should more correctly say, withdrew himself, as Amerodagus is the authority, from the public assembly of the nobles, as we have said, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, and in the year 248 before the birth of the Lord. The Sicambri, judging that he had been transferred into the fellowship of the gods, worshipped him under the name Basangot.

The elder son of Basanus, succeeding in the kingdom, just as his father had ordained with the consent of the princes, reigned eighteen years. In the first year of his reign, as soon as the Gauls learned that Basanus had vanished, whom they themselves did not doubt was dead, they sent envoys to Clodomirus and demanded back from him all the land between the Meuse and the Rhine, and all around in the circuit, which the Sicambri, at their first entry into the territories on this side of the Rhine, had violently usurped for themselves against justice. If he should scorn to restore it, they threatened that they were prepared to recover everything by the sword, whether he sent back a negative reply through the appointed envoys, or answered nothing at all.

But King Clodomirus, as though he were going to hold counsel with his princes about the urgent matter, prudently and carefully delayed the envoys of the Gauls and kept them with him for a rather long time; and, taking the greatest care that no secret of the design in his mind should come to their knowledge, he ordered his servants to feed them abundantly and arrange for them to have pleasant days. Meanwhile King Clodomirus, sending messengers to the kings of the Saxons and Doringi, very urgently asked that they quickly and secretly send forces in aid to the Sicambri, their friends, against the Gauls, their common adversaries. The Saxons came with the Doringi in support of their friends, as they were asked, bringing forth an army of one hundred thousand fighters. When matters had been arranged very secretly at his nod, King Clodomirus allowed the envoys of the Gauls, given gifts, to depart; and, lest anything on the way about the foregoing matters could come to their knowledge, he assigned escorts for the journey to them as they set out safely, who should accompany them and more cautiously observe them as they went with letters of this sort.

Clodomir, great king, to the satraps and Gallic peoples. We marvel at your rashness, in that you demand back from us the land which our forefathers long ago, by right of war, most justly vindicated with the sword from yours, as from unjust neighbors and their manifest enemies. Consider that our forces are far superior to yours, and cease from this wrongful rashness of folly. Remember the disasters which you formerly suffered, as you deserved, at the hands of our divine father, numbered among the gods, and of his parents, and be quiet, hiding in your holes with the foxes. It is ours to command you, and yours humbly to obey our commands. But if you presume to come against us, we have determined to meet you with power and to defend with the sword what our ancestors handed down to us.

When the Gauls had received these letters and messengers, they were stirred to anger, and resolved to take vengeance on the Sequanians for the Sicambri. After a bridge had been skillfully built over the Meuse, they led across a huge army of fighters. King Clodomir met them powerfully with 264,000 men, and, having divided the army into parts, placed one in ambush, sent another [unclear] in the region [unclear], and led the third part, which was the greater in number of soldiers, against the enemy.

The Sicambri engaged with the Gauls in a place not far from the river Meuse, which is called Delon, and for some time the battle was fought with doubtful fortune. At last the Sicambri, feigning flight, began gradually to retreat until they had finally drawn the Gauls rather far from the river Meuse to the place of ambush. There the Sicambri then stood immovable, and those who had earlier pretended flight fought back most bravely, like giants. Meanwhile the soldiers, going around, came to the crossing of the river and, after the enemy guards had been killed or driven far off, seized the bridge first. The rest at once burst out from the ambush and, attacking the enemy fiercely, cut them down from behind, slaughtered them, and killed them without pity. Finally those who could, seeking safety in flight, since they did not know that the bridge had been seized in advance by the Sicambri, were enclosed on every side and cut down by the enemy; nor was there any place to escape death, since those lying hidden pressed upon them. With night coming on, few out of many escaped alive, those who were able to flee into the dark groves and woods.

Thereafter the kingdom of the Sicambri rested from the tumult of wars for a few years; but afterward, when peace was broken, the people often took up mighty arms again. The other deeds and wars of King Clodomir, which he had with [exterminations?], we have written, following Hunibald, in the first volume of our Annals. King Clodomir died in the eighteenth year of his reign, 230 years before the birth of the Lord, leaving three sons by Queen Ermedrude, who had been the daughter of the king of the Teutons: Nicanor, Helianus, [unclear]. Clodomir’s eldest son [Helenus?], succeeding his father, reigned thirty-four years, a stern man, just among his own nation, and warlike, who [unclear].

Letter of King Clodomir to the Gallic princes

Great was always the fierceness of the Sicambri

The Gallic princes were angry at the Sicambri because they conspired

Two hundred sixty thousand Sicambri

Fierce war of the Franks with the Gauls

Many thousands of the Gauls perished

The Franks strengthened their kingdom by arms

Clodomir, king of the Sicambri, dies

Ninth.

Nicanor reigned 34 years.

The king was a man utterly unable to endure any injuries from enemies, especially from the Gauls, and he was fierce against enemies. For this reason he often fought against them savagely, with varying fortune.

For from that time when that people, sprung from Trojan stock, first came from the borders of the Scythians into Germany, to the mouths of the Rhine, it never ceased from the harassment of the Gauls, until at last, not without [unclear], nor always victorious, with much bloodshed of its own men, it powerfully subjected all Gaul to itself.

No one was ever able fully to overcome the Franks, or Sicambri; no one imposed upon their ferocity the bridle of subjection. Rather, they did not lay aside the desire for ruling, which they had once imbibed, before they had brought all Gaul, Germany, and at the same time Italy under their power, the Roman empire having been annihilated and many kings destroyed.

For, as was said above, it is clear from the reckoning of times that nine hundred and thirty years elapsed from the entry of the Franks, as they are now called, into the districts of Germany on this side of the Rhine, down to Clodio the Great, who, as the first victor over the Alamanni, believed in Christ. During these years the Sicambri fought with the Gauls, never ceasing to wage war against them, although they were often partly routed, until at last they overcame them all. The Franks fought against the Gauls for 930 years. Many of the Franks were also called Germans. It should be known, however, that they were not always named Franks, nor Sicambri, but frequently changed their names together with their settlements. For indeed, as Hunibald testifies, when after the destruction of Troy they wandered for many years among various nations and did not long have stable settlements in one place, among the Scythians [unclear], among the Armenians they were called Armenians. When they dwelt at the mouths of the Danube, they were called neither Franks nor Sicambri; but because they bordered on the Scythians, they acquired the speech and name of the Scythians. Amerodacus, historian of the Franks. Afterwards, driven by the Goths through the envy of the Romans, as Amerodacus is the authority, they descended into the territories of Germany; and, having established their settlements, as was said above, at the mouths of the Rhine, they learned the language of the German Saxons, and were first called Neomagi, afterwards also Germans. Then, named Sicambri from Cambra, they changed even that name in time, stirred by love for King Francus, from whom the name of the Franks, as will be said later in its proper order, took its beginning. Hence it came about that the writers of other peoples, whenever in the accounts of their histories they introduce the memory of the deeds of this people, more often call them Germans than Sicambri or Franks; and this has usually brought no small occasion of error to those who do not know the true origin of the Franks, while they believe that the Franks were either indigenous or had begun from a conspiracy of a few men.

But King Nicanor, joined with the Saxons and Thuringians, in the fourteenth year of his reign, marched with a great multitude to war against the Goths, who had again burst into the territories of the Teutons and Saxons. War of the Franks against [unclear]. In the first encounter the Goths were superior and crushed the Germans with a great slaughter. But soon, when the army had been restored, the Goths were defeated; many thousands of them perished both by the edge of the sword and submerged in the waters. The rest sought safety in flight. In the twenty-first year of his reign he waged a naval war against the king of the Orkneys, in support of the king of Britain, whose sister Constantia, by name, he had as his wife. But he waged war not very successfully, because many of his men, through inexperience in naval combat, perished at sea. He was also always in conflict with the Gauls, and fought many battles with them; and often, fighting most bravely with his men, he triumphed gloriously.

At length he died in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, in the one hundred ninety-sixth year before the birth of Christ, leaving five sons: Marcomirus, who succeeded to the kingdom; Antenor, who ruled the maritime regions; Priam, who died at his maternal uncle's in Britain; Helenus, who held the duchy on this side of the Rhine, between Saxony and the Rhine, over the Tegarani; and Clodius, duke of the [Mosanorum?]. Son of Nicanor, the elder by birth of the king's [unclear], succeeding his father, he reigned twenty-eight years. A foremost man in his genealogy, an augur, a seer, an interpreter of dreams and of events, he [unclear]. He ordered the great deeds of his people, whenever leisure allowed, to be sung before him, both in the palace and in the temples, so that their spirit, stirred by the example of these men, might be directed to the defense of his nation and always to the enlargement of the kingdom. This was the custom among the elders and the Germans: that the deeds or sayings of heroes worthy of remembrance should be entrusted by the priests of the temples to native songs; and, after the youth had been instructed in learning, remembering, and singing these, [unclear] failed at last.

King Marcomirus, however, ruled the people of the Sicambri at all times prudently and with the greatest moderation; he increased the worship of the tutelary gods; he fought many battles with the Romans, the Gauls, and the other nations round about; and in his time he enlarged the borders of the first kingdom not a little. On these matters Hunibald composed a fuller history, which here, out of love of brevity, we pass over.

King Marcomirus died in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, which was the one hundred sixty-eighth year before the incarnation of our Savior Jesus Christ. The first-born son of King Marcomirus of the Sicambri after his father, reigned eleven years. In his time the sword of the Romans, directed into Gaul, the Sicambri by no small [unclear] repelled.

After many battles fought with the Gauls, in the last year of his reign King Clodius, having gathered a huge army both of his own men and of Saxons, again fought with them not far from the fortress of Basanburg. In this battle, while looking about with too little caution in the battle-line, he was killed by his adversaries. But the Sicambri, emboldened, notwithstanding the death of the king, continued the war; and, fighting bravely, at length defeated the Gauls, and after killing many of them, put others to flight. And many Franks perished. The Franks always pursued the Gauls in war. Nicanor, king of the Sicambri, dies.

Tenth. Marcomer reigned twenty-eight years. A praiseworthy custom in a prince. Marcomer held the kingdom of the Sicambri. Marcomer, king of the Franks, dies. Eleventh. Clodius reigned eleven years. King Clodius dies in battle, first, at the hands of the Gauls.

Before the birth of the Lord, in the year 57.

The twelfth: Antenor reigned sixteen years. Truces are made between the Sicambri and the Gauls. The priests of the Sicambri were of great power. King Antenor dies.

The thirteenth: Clodomer reigned twenty years. When the truces had ended, the Gauls declare war on the Sicambri. War of the Sicambri with the Gauls. The Gauls are overcome by the Sicambri. Clodomir, king of the Franks, died.

The thirteenth king: Merodacus reigned twenty-eight years. The Franks, with 220,000, laid waste Italy.

But King Clodius dies, slain in the Gallic war, as has been said, in the eleventh year of his reign, but in the 157th year before the birth of Christ.

The elder son of King Clodius reigned after his father for sixteen years. He made with the Gauls truces for ten years, which our people, with faith interposed, call treugas; this also pleased the Romans, who were always on the side of the Gauls, enemies and foes, as was said, of the nation of the Sicambri. For the king was thirty-six years old when he began to reign, more a lover of peace than of war, and he did little worthy of memory except this one thing: being more humane than the rest, he forbade men to be sacrificed to the divine powers. This displeased many nobles of the Sicambri, who thought that fear of themselves among foreign nations was being diminished. But because this act of piety was decreed by the counsel and assent of the priests, the constitution itself remained inviolable. For priestly authority among them was always greater and more excellent than that of all leaders and princes. King Antenor dies in the sixteenth year of his reign, but in the 141st year before the birth of the Lord.

The son of Antenor reigned after his father for twenty years. In his first year the Romans, through Scipio, overthrew the Numantines and brought them under their own power. In his sixth year the Gauls, the truces which they had made with his father now ended, determined, after assembling a great army of their men, to move against the Sicambri; and, crossing the river Meuse, they were the first to declare war on the enemy. Clodomir, surrounded by the aid of the Germans, without delay confidently met the Gauls and fought most bravely for his people and kingdom. A very fierce battle was joined there for a long time, and many fell on both sides. At last the Gauls turned their backs; the Sicambri pursued them as far as the river and laid low the greater part of the army with the edge of the sword. If they had either thrown down or seized the bridge, as King Clodomirus, son of great Basanus, had once done, not even one of the Gauls could have escaped. After the Gauls had suffered that disaster, as long as Clodomir survived they no longer crossed the Meuse with an army, though in their usual manner they often carried out raids.

But King Clodomer, after many battles had been fought with the Romans, the Gauls, and the peoples higher up around the Rhine and the Moselle, dies in the twentieth year of his reign, which was the 121st year before the birth of Christ.

The son of Clodomir, succeeding his father, reigned twenty-eight years, a high-minded, vigorous, and most daring prince. How warlike he was, both the Romans and the Gauls were able to feel, with whom he fought many times bravely, even with his own hand. For when the Saxons, Thuringians, and Germans were bringing aid, he led against the Romans into Italy an army of 220,000 fighting men, and, laying waste...

all the places round about. He came with his forces as far as Ravenna and, enriched with much spoil, returned victorious.

He also, on his return, grievously afflicted many colonies of the Romans, subjected them to still heavier hardships, and made his name formidable to all. Greatly moved by these events, the Romans, having joined many nations to themselves, declared war on the Sicambri; when the necessities for the expedition had been prepared, they assembled for battle. And lest the Saxons or the Thuringians should bring aid to the Sicambri, the Romans had first induced the Goths and Slavs by promised gifts, so that at one and the same time [the former] would subdue the Saxons, and [the Romans] themselves the Sicambri. King Merodacus, therefore, being of necessity deserted by the Saxons and Thuringians, called upon the king of the northern island, whose people we today call Danes; he came with a hundred thousand and brought aid to the Sicambri.

And so, in the twenty-second year of his reign, he perceived that auxiliary troops, an immense army, were coming against him. For Marius, leader of the Romans, sent the Roman legions with the Gauls, under Theodomenus as commander, beyond the Meuse against the Sicambri, whom they themselves called Germans. They joined battle fiercely, and many thousands of men fell on both sides; the Sicambri fled, having lost more than twenty thousand fighters. After this, Merodacus, having restored his army and become stronger than the Gauls and Romans, inflicted much slaughter upon them, as, following Hunibald, we have said more fully in the first volume of our histories or annals.

Afterward, when he had joined many battles with the Gauls and Romans and had considerably enlarged the borders of his nation, King Merodacus died in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, but in the ninety-third year before the birth of Christ.

Cassander, the elder son of King Merodacus, succeeded his father and reigned twenty-one years. He was a very warlike man; in his time the Gauls, with the aid of the Romans, often crossed the river Meuse and invaded the territories of the Sicambri as enemies. Cassander, meeting them in the strength of his men, forbade the enemies the devastation of his nation. For all the days in which he ruled over the Sicambri, he was in conflict with the Gauls and Romans.

In these times Borbista, king of the Goths, entered the borders of Saxony with a countless multitude of fighters, devastating the region with fire and sword. Against him three very powerful kings, namely Arthari, king of the Saxons, Hamer, king of the Thuringians, and the aforesaid Cassander, king of the Sicambri, united their armies into one and advanced to battle. When the encounter had been made, the fighting was fierce for a long time; many fell on both sides. At last King Borbista turned his back, and the Germans obtained the victory.

On another occasion after this, King Borbista again entered Saxony with a very great multitude of Goths, cruelly devastated the region with fire and sword as far as the river Vistula, and, having seized much spoil from the Germans, withdrew; nor did he presume to advance farther that day.

The Romans declared war on the Sicambri. Expedition of the Romans against the Sicambri. Marius the Roman came against the Franks. Merodacus, king of the Sicambri, died. The fifteenth. Cassander reigned twenty-one years. Borbista, king of the Goths, devastates the Saxons. The Sicambri and Saxons with the Thuringians. The Goths are overcome by the Germans. Again the Goths enter Saxony.

For he had known the unconquerable strength of the Germans, and how often the pressure of the Romans had tested it.

But King Cassander, after many battles bravely fought with the Gauls and Romans, died in the twenty-first year of his reign; before the birth of the Lord, however, in the year 72. He was buried at Neopagus with many treasures.

[Antharius?], the son of King Cassander. After his father he reigned for twenty-five years. Of him Hunibald writes that he crushed the Moguntines, Roman colonists, in a pitiable slaughter; he burned and overthrew the city, which afterward is seen to have been transferred and built in that place now [unclear], across the river Ciana and the valley, on the slope of the mountain by the bank of the Rhine. This lamentable desolation of the Moguntines took place in the sixteenth year of King Arthar, which was the fifty-sixth year before the birth of Christ, as is shown from the sequence of the times.

King Anthar, with the help of the Germans, entered Gaul, burned villages, and many times carried away limitless booty and spoils. He wrought great devastation throughout Gaul, burned cities, destroyed villages, overthrew castles, shattered the strength of the people, and reduced a region long fruitful to a wilderness.

But when King Antharius had grown old, in the last year of his reign, which was the seventh before the birth of Christ, when the Gauls again broke into the region of the Sicambri and crossed the Meuse, he met them with the army of his people to fight. There, when he engaged rather incautiously, he was surrounded by the enemy and perished with twenty thousand Sicambri in the twenty-fifth year of his reign. And the Gauls on that occasion brought great calamity upon the Sicambri.

[Francus?], the elder son of King Antharius, from whom the Sicambri were thereafter called Franks, as Hunibald is the authority, reigned after his father for twenty-eight years: a fierce, daring, and warlike man, a most vigorous defender of his people. He avenged the death of his father severely enough upon the Gauls, and waged many wars with foreign nations, always a victor and glorious triumphator. The people of the Franks rightly boast that he was the founder of both their name and their honor. This King Francus was accustomed to fight, not to flee; he was beloved by his own people and very mild, but to all his enemies always exceedingly to be feared.

In the first year of his reign he contracted a perpetual treaty with the Germans, Saxons, and Thuringians. With the consent of all the dukes and nobles of the Sicambri, confirming the friendship on silver tablets, according to the ancient custom of the people, they established the conditions of the agreements in this way: that the Sicambri and the Germans, Saxons, and Thuringians, under their distinct kings and princes, should thereafter be regarded as one people, like brothers and kinsmen, and should remain in it; and war that whatever threatened the kingdom of one of these, from whatever people, should concern all, and should be repelled with united arms and common expenses.

This confederation of kings terrified the senate and people of Rome more than can be said; they labored in various ways, with diverse ingenuity and manifold contrivance, to dissolve the compacted alliance of the Germans, and in every way in vain. From that time the courage and power of the Franks were always suspect to the Romans, since they feared, as afterward happened, that the Germans would gain possession of the monarchy of all Europe. And this was the reason why Octavian, Caesar of the Romans, at the birth of Christ had the whole world obedient to the Romans registered by heads, thinking that the Franks were to be destroyed by the multitude of peoples; at that time, as yet, the writers of the histories of nations called them Germans.

But in the third year of the reign of Francus, when the Romans saw that they could by no device break up the alliance of the German kings, they again sent the Goths into the borders of the Saxons; and these, settling for almost ten years in the borders of Germany, were gradually and successively thinking of spreading into the interior of the nation just mentioned. Meanwhile King Francus fought frequently with the Gauls, and avenged his father’s death upon them with harsh vicissitude, and during that time killed many thousands of them. But when the Goths too were daily breaking farther into the interior of Germany, the Saxons together with the Teutons, at last compelled by necessity, resolved to make war upon them. Having summoned their allies to their aid according to the agreements, the Sicambri and the Thuringians led out to battle an army of two hundred and thirty thousand men. But the Scanzians and the Goths too, having themselves summoned allies, opposed to the arriving Germans an almost innumerable multitude. A very savage battle was joined between the parties in the place called Colmasus; with many falling on both sides, they fought from morning until night with the issue of war uncertain.

On the following day the Germans divided the army into three parts and set individual commanders over them. But the Sicambri, fighting most boldly under their king Francus, cried out, repeatedly shouting the name of their commander Francus: “Here, Francus!” At last the Goths were defeated, and more than eighty thousand of them were slain; the rest, slipping away in flight, returned with their children and wives to their former hiding-places. Thus the Saxons, with the aid of the Franks and the Thuringians, recovered their borders, which for ten years had been devastated and occupied by foreigners.

From that time the Sicambri, laying aside the name they had had before, began, from love of their king, to call themselves Franks. Indeed, as Hunibald bears witness, not only the nobles, but also all the soldiers and the whole people of the entire nation were so delighted by the very novelty of the name that they prevailed upon the king by prayers to sanction by public edict that thereafter they were to be called forever not Sicambri but Franks. This the king established all the more willingly, because he more eagerly loved the immortality of his name. Therefore those who first by some were called Sicambri, by others Germans by reason of the alliance, were called Franks from Francus. And indeed, in a wondrous manner [unclear]

This confederation of kings did not please the Romans and Gauls.

The reason why Augustus registered the whole world.

The Goths occupy the borders of the Saxons for ten years.

King Francus set an expedition in motion against the Gauls.

The army of the Saxons advanced against the Goths.

A very savage battle is joined between the Saxons and the Goths.

The name of the Franks first arose here.

The Sicambri, laying aside their old name, call themselves Franks.

The Frankish name pleased the Sicambri.

The Frankish name is confirmed by decree of the king.

Whence the Franks are called free, the free Franks, because they never served.

They gloried in the novelty of this name, since for many times thereafter, whenever they met one another, they greeted each other thus: “A good day, free Frank.” Nevertheless, not suddenly but only after much time did this name at last come into use, so that the people itself was called Franks even among other nations. For to the Romans, and especially to the Gauls, the name of the Franks was hateful. Hence among their writers they were more often called Germans than either Sicambri or Franks. But Hunnibald did not pass over in silence whence, or from whom, the name of the Sicambri had its origin.

That the Franks were formerly called Sicambri is attested not only by Hunnibald, but also by blessed Remigius, the archbishop, who, as Gregory, bishop of Tours, records, when he was to baptize Clovis, king of the Franks, the first of the Frankish kings converted to Christ, as we shall say in its proper place, said before the assembled nobles, as he laid aside the royal ornaments and humbled himself for the sacred laver, in the hearing of all: “Meekly bow your neck, Sicamber. Worship what you burned. Burn what you worshiped.” Of the history of this matter we have already spoken more fully, following Hunnibald, in the first volume of the Annals.

Therefore in the twenty-fourth year before the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which was the thirteenth year of King Frangus, the Sicambri changed their ancient name into a new one, although both before and afterward among writers they were more often called Germans or Sicambri. For although they themselves took for themselves the name Frank under the aforementioned king and always retained it, nevertheless it could not immediately come into use among foreign nations, especially hostile ones. From this the fact is most plainly established that the writers of histories who flourished in human letters among the Romans, the Gauls also, or other nations, at the time when the name was changed and nevertheless for many years after this as well, whether from ignorance or from detestation of the term, more often called this people German than Frankish. For it is certain that the Romans came to know the name of the Franks not through writings but through arms, not through love but through fear, not through adoption but through subjection.

But now, when the message had been received, in no way broken, he said to the soldiers: “If you are free, if you are worthy of the name of Frangus, now at once resume your strength and avenge so great an injury.” They, together with the nobles, said with one voice: “We are most ready, O most free Frankish king, either to conquer with you every people opposed to us, or to die fighting.” Gladdened by these words, the king immediately sent messengers to the Saxons, the Germans, and likewise the Thuringians, asking aid by right of alliance against the assault of the Gauls. All of them sent the requested contingents of soldiers with great eagerness: the Saxons, namely, 84,000 fighters; the Germans and Teutons, 60,000; and the Thuringians, 46,000.

Joined with these, the Franks, with great forces, very hastily led an army of three hundred thousand men against their adversaries. But when Francus the king saw the desolation of the region which the Gauls had wrought, moved by great indignation of spirit, he said: “See, my most valiant fellow-soldiers, you who rightly grieve that the blood of your fathers has been shed, what those most faithless Gauls have done. I swear by the head of my father Antharius, whom those most wicked men killed, that I shall give no rest to my head until I have notably avenged myself upon them.” And they all praised his purpose.

Therefore, when a bridge had been made with ships and much timber, in two days he brought the army across; and, leaving forty thousand men to guard the crossing, he advanced with the remaining multitude into Gaul. And he made such a slaughter as no one of the Sicambri before him either could have made or is believed to have conceived in his mind. For, entering as far as the river Tabul and both the western and the northern sea, he ravaged with fire and sword the Tungri, the Tarubani, the Legii, and whatever lies between or adjacent to these. When the Gauls joined battle with him, he overcame, routed, and destroyed them with such ease that he was thought to be not a man but some divine power sent from heaven. Hence all the nations round about, exceedingly terrified, feared any further to engage the Franks, as most savage monsters. In that encounter and devastation of the Gauls, more than two hundred thousand of them fell by the sword of the Franks, with children, infants, and women. For just as the Gauls had previously done when they devastated the Sicambri, sparing no one, so they received from the same.

Hence the Senate and people of Rome, moved with indignation, sent legions of soldiers against the Saxons into Germany, Marcus Julius being commander. For they did not think it would be safe to engage the Franks, whom they themselves called Germans, before they had first completely subdued the Saxons and the Dorings. When the Romans therefore entered Saxony, at first indeed they conquered, killing eighteen thousand Germans. But when Francus the king heard of the destruction of his allies, he sent his son Chlogio as commander, with a great army, to the aid of the confederates. They, having recovered their strength and again engaged the Romans, obtained the victory and put the enemy to flight, many of them being slain by the sword, in the twenty-fourth year of King Francus.

Finally King Francus, weighed down by labors and old age, after many battles conducted most victoriously against the Romans, Goths, and other nations, and after the kingdom of the Franks had been enlarged not a little and its settlements extended, died in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, precisely in the ninth year before the birth of the Lord. His wars, customs, institutions, laws, and victories were written by Clodomirus, the Frank, high priest, in German verse, and by Hunibald in prose, in the Latin language; under their guidance we have material both here and in the first volume of the annals of German and Frankish affairs which we have written.

Three hundred thousand Franks and Germans against the Gauls. The Franks, after making a bridge over the Meuse, devastate Gaul. A great part of Gaul is made desolate by the Franks. Fear of the Franks seized all nations. Expedition of the Romans against the Germans. The Romans are overcome by the Franks in battle. Francus king of the Franks dies in the year precisely the ninth before Christ. Clodomirus the Frank, writer.

The eighteenth, Clogio, reigned for 30 years.

Clogio, the elder son of Francus the king, succeeding his father, reigned over the Franks for 30 years: a man most cunning, versatile in intellect, an augur, magician, and most curious astrologer. Concerning him the aforementioned pontiff of the Franks, the counsellor and seer Clodomirus, set out many stupendous marvels in verse, of which we made mention in the first volume.

His mother, named Lothildis, daughter of the king of the Doringi, was the chief priestess or priest of the temple of Pallas, devoted to the magical arts, by the practice of which she did many marvels. For, as the aforesaid authors wrote, by her songs and incantations she destroyed whichever enemies of her son she wished, made them unfortunate, and, though absent however far away, killed them by the ministry of demons; by sorcery she procured victory for the Franks, and fear, terror, and flight for their enemies. Rains, thunders, flashes of lightning, and terrible storms in the air she brought on by her songs as often as, where, and upon whom she wished.

In the fourth year of his reign the Romans again launched an expedition into Germany; the allied kings, meeting them with no lack of energy, did not cease bravely to repel force with arms until they compelled the enemy to retreat and flee. For King Clogio, in the name of the Franks, having engaged in battle with the Roman army, fought most bravely for his people, and at last, after many had fallen on both sides, the Romans departed without victory.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of the aforementioned Clogio, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January, there was born in Bethlehem of Judah the Lord, the savior of the whole universe, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, from the untouched ever-virgin Mary. In that year, according to Hunibald, by an edict of Caesar Augustus the world subject to Roman rule was enrolled head by head; this, besides the mystical reason, being done by divine providence, was not without literal meaning, the Franks providing the occasion.

In the same year also King Clogio, at his mother’s urging, made his son Phrisus, his second-born, duke of that region which lies by the German sea toward the north; and from the name of that duke it was called Phrisia, as Hunibald maintains, down to the present day. Again, after ten years, with the consent of the aforementioned King Clogio and of all the princes of the people of the Franks, the same son Phrisius was raised to kingship, on this condition, namely, that all kings of Phrisia, like the other dukes, should remain forever subject to the king of the Franks, should pay each year a tribute of 260 oxen, and should fight with the Franks, in the manner of the other allies, against whatsoever enemies.

But Clogio, king of the Franks, died after many brave deeds, in the thirtieth year of his reign, which was the twentieth year of the Lord’s nativity. Hunibald writes many things concerning his character, prophecies, and oracles.

Herimer, the elder son of King Elogion, succeeding his father, reigned for twelve years, a warlike man and excessively bold. In the third year of his reign the Gauls made an incursion and came as far as the Meuse, laying waste with hostile rashness everything that belonged to the jurisdiction of the Franks, except fortifications and castles; and after this they hastily withdrew to their own territory with booty and spoils.

But afterward, when this incursion of the Gauls became known to King Herimer, he was moved to anger; and, having summoned to himself the dukes beyond the Meuse, through whose negligence the Gauls had broken in, he at once proceeded against them according to the laws of the Franks. For thus it was contained in the law: Let a prince established under the king of the Franks in ducal power diligently guard the province entrusted to him. But if through his negligence enemies enter the region, if they injure our people or despoil the inhabitants of the land of their goods, let him pay half of his possessions into the king’s purse, and let him be duke no longer, but live deprived of honor. If he willingly permitted entry to the enemies, let him be buried alive or punished by beheading; but let his wives, together with his children and all his goods, pass into the king’s service.

Then, having called to his aid his German, Teutonic, and [Doringian?] allies, King Herimer entered Gaul with a great multitude, and subdued them with such great slaughter that for many years they could not recover their former strength. Finally, however, in the last year of his reign, when he had again led an army into Gaul and, being too bold, not to say rash or presumptuous, fought rather incautiously, he was killed by them in battle, in the year of the Lord 32.

Marcomirus, brother of the aforesaid King Herimer, who had been slain by the Gauls, succeeding his brother in the kingdom of the Franks, reigned for eighteen years, a man tall in stature, but in his character feared and terrible. He engaged in many battles with the Romans and Gauls, and often grievously afflicted the people of Mainz and Trier, together with those of Cologne.

In the second year of his reign, the only-begotten Son of God, the Lord and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, born as man of Mary, ever and most pure Virgin, without union with a man, according to that same humanity was crucified, suffered, and died for our salvation, and was buried, at Jerusalem, the city of the Jews, under Pontius Pilate, governor of the Romans. He descended to hell and rescued the righteous from there; on the third day he rose from the dead; and ascending into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, to judge the living and the dead, and he lives forever.

In the tenth year of King Marcomirus, Clodius, Caesar of the Romans, led an army into Britain, which we now call England by the customary name, and made it, together with Armorica and the Orkney islands, tributary to the Romans.

Tenth. Ninth. Herimer reigned twelve years.

King Herimer was a most warlike man. Incursion of the Gauls into the Meuse of the Sicambri. The just law of the Sicambri.

The Sicambri devastated all Gaul. Herimer, king of the Sicambri, perished in battle.

Twentieth. Marcomer reigned eighteen years. People of Trier. People of Mainz. People of Cologne. Jesus Christ in Judea under Pontius Pilate. Roman legions are sent into Britain. C iij

On his going and returning he most grievously afflicted the Franks dwelling between the Meuse and the Rhine, although not without bloodshed among his own men.

At that time Guiderius, son of the late King Cymbeline, was reigning in Britain; when he had been slain in battle by the army of Claudius, his brother Arviragus soon rose up in his place. Setting the royal diadem upon himself, and after many Romans had been killed, he pursued Claudius all the way to the ships. Caesar, seeing that he could not overcome Arviragus, offered peace, gave him his daughter as wife, and recovered the tribute that had been denied to the Romans. With the help of his son-in-law he also carried his army over to the Orkney islands.

Marcomer, however, the aforesaid king of the Franks, died in the eighteenth year of his reign, in the fiftieth year of the Lord's Nativity, in the ninth Roman indiction.

Clodomir, son of the aforesaid King Marcomer, succeeding his father, reigned over the Franks for twelve years. He was a restless and very warlike man; of him Hunibald reports that he was most hostile to the Romans and the Gauls, and desired nothing more than to erase the memory of them. Scarcely a year passed in which he did not launch an expedition into Gaul at least once.

In the first year of his reign, three suns appeared at once, which gradually returned into one; and there followed throughout all Europe a great famine and an immense mortality not only of men, but also of beasts of burden.

In the ninth year, King Clodomir, with a great army of his men, crossed the Rhine and the Meuse, drove out the Gauls, and recovered everything that had previously been lost. He fought with the Romans near Mainz, with the aid of the Germans, but he could not prevent them from repairing the city. He died in the twelfth year of his reign, in the sixty-second year of the Lord's Nativity, in the fifth Roman indiction.

Antenor, son of King Clodomir, reigned after his father for six years. Throughout the whole time in which he reigned, he waged war with the Gauls and the Romans; and at last, on this account, he perished miserably with many nobles of the kingdom, when, as we shall say, the bridge broke on the river Meuse and he was drowned.

In the last year of his reign, after a bridge had been built of wood over boats in the ancient manner, he led his army across the river into Gaul; and, after ravaging the region, he hastened his return into Francia with much booty and many spoils. And when the greater part of the army had already crossed the river, while the king himself, with the nobles and the rest of those at the rear, was still waiting on the bank, suddenly the bridge, weighed down by the number of horsemen, fell; and the boats, loosed from one another when the ropes broke, presented a pitiable spectacle to those watching, as many fell into the river.

The king, thunderstruck and surely troubled in mind, began to take counsel with those who were present about repairing the bridge, when behold, they are soon told that the Gauls were coming behind them in a great multitude of fighters, ready for battle. When this was heard, all who were with the king; for them time and place denied flight, while their smaller army forbade battle. Therefore, since no way of escape lay open except the way of swimming through the river, they threw into the water whatever arms could weigh them down, and tried for safety by swimming. The king also, having cast off his cuirass and girded over his tunic only with a sword-belt and sword, lowered himself with his horse into the waves. All the rest, compelled by necessity, lowered themselves into like danger.

They all began to swim at once, some on horses, others sustaining themselves against the force of the waters with hands and feet. Of these, many reached the bank by swimming; many also who had no skill in swimming, choked by the waters, perished in the midst of the waves. Among them King Antenor was submerged, with nine princes, whose names are these: Duke Priamus, Duke Walther, Duke Clogio, Duke Herimer, Duke Antenor, Duke Marcomerus, Duke Clodius, Duke Richimer, Duke Antenor, Duke [Ruutvuicus?], with sixty-three other nobles of the Franks. Thus, then, Antenor, king of the Franks, perished in the sixth year of his reign, in the sixty-eighth year from the Lord’s nativity, in the eleventh Roman indiction.

Ratherus, or, as another writes, Ratherius, the elder son of the aforementioned King Antenor, after his father’s death reigned over the Franks for twenty-one years. He was a magnanimous, daring, strong man, who with his sword always most bravely defended the people of the Franks from every incursion of the Gauls, fearing no one, dreading no one, but himself to be feared by all. In his second year, Nero, the wicked emperor of the Romans, stirred up the first persecution against the Christians; at Rome he killed Peter and Paul, princes of the apostles, and throughout the whole empire he cruelly destroyed many thousands of believers.

Ratherus, king of the Franks, however, wore down the Gauls in many ways; he avenged his father’s death with arms, fire, and iron; he restored the territories taken from his people; he built castles, cities, and fortifications; he renewed the treaty with the Germans, Saxons, and Doringian kings, which Francus the king had once concluded a hundred years before, as we said above; and he enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom of the Franks.

After these things at last he died in the twenty-first year of his reign, in the eighty-ninth year from the Lord’s nativity, in the second Roman indiction. He was buried in the city Ratherama, which he himself had built new from the foundations, dedicated to his own name. His magnificent deeds Arebaldus, bishop of the Franks and poet, described in verse after the manner of the ancients; these Hunibald later reduced to prose.

Richimerus, son of King Ratherus, succeeding his father, reigned for twenty-four years: a prince magnificent in all things, daring, warlike, and excessively superstitious in the worship of his people’s idols, since he wished not only to equal the Romans in the number of gods, but even to defeat and surpass them.

The king of the Franks committed himself to the waters with the dukes.

King Antenor perished in the river with nine dukes.

Nine dukes and sixty-three nobles perished.

Antenor perished in the year of the Lord 68.

Twenty-third. Ratherius reigned for twenty-one years.

Nero, the most faithless man among the reprobate.

He renews the treaty between Franks and Saxons; he dies.

Arebaldus, bishop and historiographer.

Twenty-fourth. Richimerus reigned for twenty-four years.

The man dies. Arebaldus, bishop and historiographer.

Arebaldus, bishop of the Franks, died. The Goths again invaded the borders of the Saxons. Therefore, after the [unclear] had been multiplied by him, when Arebaldus had died, he was appointed chief bishop and priest of the Franks [unclear], and this he gladly accepted.

In his twelfth year, the Goths, again pouring into the borders of the Saxons, began to lay waste the region in their accustomed manner. Against their attacks, Widukind, king of the Saxons, Hermenfrid, king of the Thuringians, and Richimer himself, king of the Franks, with the Germans, his brothers, together with the Teutons, according to the ancient treaty, renewed a few years before, as we have said, quickly led forth a great army; and, when battle had been joined, they killed more than twenty thousand of the Goths, and put the rest, wounded and stripped, to flight.

After the Goths had again been driven out of Saxony, the Franks, with the Germans and Teutons, held counsel, inquiring among themselves how they might thereafter bar the Goths and the Scanzian peoples from returning into the borders of the Saxons or Germans. Finally it pleased all the kings and nobles that, from the people of the Franks, Saxons, Thuringians, Germans, and Teutons, who around the sea were nearer neighbors to the Dacians and Goths, they should bring together one people, with children, wives, and beasts of burden, which would inhabit the land beyond furthest Saxony and nearest to the Scanzians, and would prevent the incursions of enemies.

When that agreement had been concluded, Richimer, king of the Franks, assigned eighteen thousand men with children and wives to that region, and set over them as duke and prince his second-born son, Sunno. To him, according to the agreement, many later came from the Germans, Saxons, and Thuringians; and from diverse peoples they became one, and in a short time they grew into a great nation, and thereafter did not permit the Scanzians to lay waste Saxony. Yet they were often harassed by the Romans.

This Duke Sunno established the seat of his people with power in the borders of Saxony, having to the east the Sarmatians, to the south the Slavs of Bohemia, to the west Saxony and the Teutons, and to the north the Cimbri, the sea, the Dacians, and the Scanzian Goths, and men living on islands and in marshy places.

After Sunno had died, Clodomercilius succeeded in the duchy across the sea; he enlarged the boundaries of the possession he had received by no small amount. After him his son Sunno received the leadership of the people; in the year of the Lord’s nativity 146, in the fourteenth indiction of the Romans, in memory of his homeland, [unclear] of the Franks, he built a new city on the banks of the river Oder, which, out of love for his forefathers, he called Frankfurt. After this he also founded another city, at the mouth of the aforesaid river, not far from the sea, which from his own name he called Sunden, or, as Hunibald attests, Sunnonia.

The name of the Franks remained for some time in these lands, until at last, when the dukes had multiplied, the region was divided into several parts, and The several divisions received their names from particular princes or events. For from Duke Marcomer some were afterwards called Marcomeri; from Brando, his son, who founded the city of Brandenburg, others were named Brandenburgers; and others received other names from other sources.

In the fifth year of King Richimer, Domitian Caesar had previously crushed the Sarmatians and Dacians, who dwelt in the borders of Germany toward the east, and afflicted them exceedingly. And, adding sin to crime, he stirred up the second persecution against the Christians after the most impious Nero, and was the first of all the Caesars to command everyone to call him god and lord.

In the eleventh year of his reign, Richimer, king of the Franks, had a war with the Romans and Gauls not far from the city of Basana, aided by the common support of the Germans; in it many fell on both sides. Meanwhile, when the Roman legions had returned to Cologne Agrippina, Nerva Caesar was announced dead; in his place the soldiers raised Trajan, a man of Spanish nation, to be Caesar. He ruled nineteen years, six months, and fifteen days.

But Richimer, king of the Franks, after many deeds bravely done, at last finally died in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, and in the year 113 of the Lord’s nativity, in the eleventh Roman indiction. Ruthvuigus, bard of the Franks, wrote his life, character, deeds, and worship of the gods in verse.

Odemar, the elder son by birth of the aforesaid Richimer, king of the Franks, reigned after his father for fourteen years. He was a prince of the Franks very beloved by the people, who refrained from wars as much as could be done without harm to the commonwealth. For he made truces with the Gauls and the Romans, which the Franks call treugae, as if “confidences,” because faith was pledged between them; and he showed himself so friendly to them thereafter that he compelled all to lament his death.

Thus, as long as he lived among men, he kept the peace he had promised, and expended all his effort on the honor and adornment of his people. He founded very many castles, cities, and fortifications throughout the kingdom; by the counsel of the priests he both enlarged and renewed the laws and rites of sacrifices. For all the Franks, Saxons, and Germans at that time were still subject to the vanity of idols and far removed from knowledge of the Christian faith. They worshipped Mars as the fierce god of war, from whose divine power they sought victory at all times. To each of their gods they dedicated not only individual altars and temples, but also individual cities and villages; nor was there any number to the insensible gods.

In these times the chief priest, pontiff, elder, and bard of the Franks was named Vechtanus, born from the ancient stock of kings, eloquent in Greek and Latin speech, and highly skilled in astronomy, music, medicine, and the philosophy of the Greeks, since he had devoted much time to study both at Rome and at Athens [unclear]

From Brando they were called Brandenburgers.

Domitian Caesar persecutes the Christians.

War of the Franks with the Romans.

Trajan becomes Caesar at Cologne.

Richimer, king of the Franks, dies. Ruthvuicus the historiographer.

The twenty-fifth: Odemar reigned fourteen years. Truces are made between the Franks and the Gauls. King Odemar preferred peace to war. The Franks, together with the Germans, were still pagans in these times. Vechtanus, chief pontiff and bard of the Franks.

Vechtanus the pontiff wrote histories of the Franks. Vechtanus, pontiff of the Franks, perished in water. The town of Odemersheim is founded by the Franks. Odemarus, king of the Franks, dies. Twenty-sixth. Marcomer reigned twenty-one years. The city Marcaburg is founded among the Nitriones by the duke. The city Franckenfurt is founded beside the Main. Doracus, prophet and writer of the Franks. Doracus, of great authority among the Franks. The Franks were always suspect to the Romans, in peace and in war. Doracus in the annals.

of worldly things, with certain other fellow pupils of his. At last, having returned to his homeland, he taught the sons of kings and nobles, according to the ancient custom of the Franks, beneath an oak.

He wrote many things in Greek songs concerning the sacred rites of the gods, and put into German verse the histories of the ancient kings; with these he exercised the talents of the young and greatly raised up their memory. In the fifth year of King Odemarus, he perished in a small river, to which he gave its name when he was drowned, so that from Vechtanus it is called in German the Vecht down to the present day. Over his tomb King Odemarus founded a new city, which he named Odemarsheim after himself; it still stands at present within the borders of the diocese of the church of Utrecht.

But Odemarus, the peaceable king of the Franks, at last, after the founding of many cities, died in the fourteenth year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 127, in the tenth indiction of the Romans. His body was buried beneath a pyramid in Odemarsheim, as he had ordained while alive.

Marcomerus, son of King Odemarus, succeeding his father, reigned for twenty-one years. He had a wife named Athildem, daughter of Marius, king of Britain, by whom he begot seven sons, whose names were these: Clodomir, the firstborn, who succeeded his father in the kingdom; Marcomer, who held the duchy among the Nitriones, where he founded a city named after himself, called Marcoburg; Clogio, who perished in Britain; Franc, who was duke on this side of the Rhine among the Hogii, from the Confluence as far as the mouth of the river Main toward the east, among the Moguntiaci, Xones, and Germans, and who restored the old city Helenopolis and named it Franckenfurt; Merodac, who was struck by a boar while hunting and perished; Nicanor, who was duke of the islands at the mouths of the Rhine; Odemarus, whom his father had appointed to the sacred rites after his death, because he had become most learned in all gentile literature.

At that time Doracus flourished, counsellor of the Franks, kinsman of kings, an eminent prophet, formerly hearer and disciple of Vechtanus, born from the noble lineage of kings. After this he obtained the priesthood, and was held in such high esteem that he was worshipped by all almost as some divinity, and commanded not only the common people whatever he wished, but even the kings of the Franks and all the nobles. Writing the histories of the people in verse, he continued them.

The Franks had peace during all the days in which Marcomirus reigned, and under his direction they greatly increased in riches, power, and honor. Doracus writes in the annals, as Hunibaldus bears witness, that the Romans always regarded the Franks as suspect, in peace and in war, as future overthrowers of the empire, having long before been warned by the oracle of Phedius; and for that reason they often conspired with all their forces for their destruction, though in vain.

For under King Faramund afterward, and under his successors, they obtained all Gaul by their own forces and overcame the Roman Empire.

But Marcomir, the aforesaid king of the Franks, died in the twenty-first year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 148, in the first indiction.

Clodomer, the elder son of the already-mentioned king of the Franks, reigned after his father for seventeen years: a man of singular prudence, modest toward his own people, most humane. He had a wife named Hasildis, daughter of the duke of the Rugians, by whom he begot three sons, Farabert, Nicanor, and Roric. The first of these, as we shall say, succeeded his father in the kingdom. The second was king of Frisia. The third, drowned in water not far from Novesium, at his death left his name to the river which is called Rora down to the present day. The place of Roric’s drowning was between [Neocum?], a castle on this side of the Rhine, and the old city which the inhabitants called Moradunum; in those times all Francia was alien to the knowledge of the Christian faith.

Clodomer, king of the Franks, died in peace in the seventeenth year of his reign, in the third Roman indiction. In his time the Gauls were considering an incursion against the Franks. But King Clodomer himself, wisely anticipating their movement, restrained them from doing it.

Farabert, the elder son of Clodomer, king of the Franks, succeeding his father, reigned for twenty years, beginning in the previously noted 165th year of the Lord’s Nativity, in the third Roman indiction. He renewed and again ratified the treaty of friendship, long before contracted through the Frankish king, as we said above, then confirmed by other kings, renewed, and often strengthened by a new enactment, with the Germans, Saxons, Teutons, Marcomanni, and Cimbri; this greatly displeased the Romans and stirred them to arms.

For in the sixth year of this King Farabert, which was the 171st year of the Lord’s Nativity, in the times of Lucius Aurelius Commodus Caesar, the Romans, not bearing with calm minds so great a concord of the Franks, brought forth a great army of their men. And so, when legions had been sent through Sarmatia into Germany against the Dacians, Marcomanni, Teutons, Saxons, and [unclear] Franks, they brought forth a great army of their men. Against their incursion the kings of the aforesaid peoples sent out such great forces of fighters that the Romans, defeated, were compelled to return without victory, with loss and disgrace.

In the eleventh year of King Farabert, under the emperor Antoninus Pius, the Romans again led an army through the Sarmatians into Germany, and for a long time

Marcomir, king of the Franks, dies. Twenty-seventh. Clodomer reigned for seventeen years.

Roric, duke of the Franks, is drowned in the Rora, where now is the town and monastery of Werden.

Clodomer, king of the Franks, dies.

Twenty-eighth. Farabert reigned for twenty years.

Legions of the Romans into Germany. The Saxons and Teutons, enemies of the Romans. The Romans withdrew from fear of the Franks. Another expedition of the Romans against the Germans.

There was fierce fighting, and many on both sides fell, wounded by the sword. Concerning the manner, outcome, and miracles of rains in this war, which were then said to have occurred on behalf of the Roman army, following Hunibald we set out a sufficient account in the first volume of the Annals; we judge it superfluous to repeat it here.

Farabert, king of the Franks, after many brave deeds, died in the twentieth year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 185, in the eighth indiction.

In the times of this king Farabert, namely in the 182nd year of the Lord’s nativity, Eleutherius, the Roman pope, at the request of Lucius, king of Britain, son of Coillus, sent into that Britain which is now called England the bishops Faganus and Duvianus, so that they might announce the word of salvation to the aforesaid king and also to the nobles and the whole people of the British kingdom or island, and baptize those converted to the faith of Christ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When they came to the appointed place, in a short time they converted not only King Lucius but the people of the whole island to the faith of Christ.

At that time there were in Britain several pontiffs, priests of idols, among whom the flamens were preeminent in authority, twenty-eight in number; and there were three archflamens: of London, of York, and in the City of Legions, which the ancient walls and buildings testify to have been situated on the river Usk in Glamorgan. When the aforesaid flamens were converted to the faith of Christ, the preachers consecrated their temples of idols to the honor of the one God, the almighty Father, appointing the same number of bishops in place of the flamens, and archbishops in place of the archflamens. Gildas wrote of these matters more fully in the book which he entitled On the Victory of Aurelius Ambrosius, king of the Britons; after him, Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Briton, who for Robert, duke of Gloucester, completed the history of the Britons and the successions of all their kings in order from the first entry of the people with Brutus from Troy into that island down to the year of the Lord’s nativity 689, in ten books. His contemporary Caradoc of Llancarfan also described the successions, years, times, and deeds of the kings of the Franks in lucid language.

The elder son of Farabert, king of the Franks, succeeding his father, reigned twenty-eight years: a strong, vigorous, bold prince, who fought many battles with the Romans, likewise with the Gauls. In his time, as we said, King Lucius first most humbly received the Christian faith; after he died without children, the Romans sent Severus, a senator, into Britain with two legions. He fought many battles with Fulgenius, by whom at last, in the siege of the city of York, he was killed along with many Romans; they received his son, named Bassanus, as king. In the same year in which Severus was slain in Britain by Fulgenius, Sunno, king of the Franks, with the Germans and Saxons bringing aid, crossed the river near the castle

Suno

[Unclear] laid waste to the Gauls, and, after the region round about had been plundered, enriched with spoils, he returned victorious. But the remaining things which he magnificently accomplished in peace and in war, Hildegast, philosopher of the Franks and an eminent seer, described after him in a German poem, and Hunibald in prose in the Latin tongue; concerning these matters we have spoken in the first book of the Annals.

Sunno, king of the Franks, died in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, and in the year 213 of the Lord’s Nativity, in the sixth Roman indiction.

Hilderic, the elder son of King Sunno, reigned after his father for forty years, a magnanimous, prudent, bold, warlike man, who at all times defended his people bravely no less by prudence than by arms, and powerfully extended the boundaries of the kingdom far and wide. For he was of such great virtue and power that he was a considerable object of fear not only to the Gauls but also to the Romans; to them the Frankish name was so hateful and odious that they were accustomed never to write or name that people otherwise than as German.

The Franks gloried in their name; but the Romans, troubled by hatred of them, begrudged them the word. Nor did the writers of histories among the neighboring peoples, especially the Romans and Gauls, by common agreement grant the Frankish name to the people of Sicambria before, by Frankish arms and virtues, they had subjected almost all Europe to their dominion. For earlier, as we have said, the Romans, the Gauls, and the remaining nations hostile to the Franks, as Hunibald bears witness, moved by envy, called them by no other name than Germans. For thus says the author already mentioned: “Our ancestors had no less common concern for the name of their people, which they had once received from Franco their king, than for the kingdom, because they thought it would be glorious for them not thereafter to change the Frankish name into another, once it had been taken up by their forebears with the highest honor.”

In these times Hildegast, philosopher, counselor, seer, kinsman of kings, and elder, most learned of all, flourished in great esteem among King Hilderic, the nobles, and also the whole multitude of the Frankish people. In his own age he said, did, and wrote marvelous things. And he was of such great estimation and authority among his people that all always obeyed his command.

On the birthday of Hilderic, king of the Franks, while standing in the temple of Jupiter at Neopagus before the image of that god, after prayers had been poured out for the obtaining of a prophecy, he suddenly began to rage, as is the custom in madness, with a song of the alrunae; and, shaking his head and with his hands bent back, he prophesied thus, not using verses composed by the rule of meters, but rhythms without measure, uttered in fury and in great confusion. Hunibald made their interpretation thus: “Victory will come to the Franks from the western god, whom the ancient Dardanian ancestors worshiped.”

The final acquisition of all Europe by the Franks

Whatever the Gaul possesses, whatever all Germany possesses, all will yield to your right, warlike Sicamber, when it shall have given you this man, the first king by name, whom the princes, leaders now without a king, will appoint; then, when he is victorious, the Frank will reign [without end?].

Concerning the empire of the Romans also he added as follows: Behold, the great God will give brothel-camps to the Frank, and the lion will break the eagle, dashed against by the serpent.

Hunibald explains this meaning concerning the standards of the Franks which they used in battles, which we call among the emblems of princes.

What the emblems or arms of the ancient Franks were

They depicted a lion, with the forepart of its body, on a fleece of blue color, its feet stretched out for seizing and its mouth open in the manner of one roaring; the lower part of its body ended in a serpent’s tail, with which it seemed to press and suffocate the neck of an eagle, depicted beneath on a golden fleece with wings spread, and most strongly bound.

The Romans had the eagle as their standard when fighting. Desiring to suppress and annihilate its proud and arrogant power by strength and prudence together, the Franks took the lion for the one and the serpent for the other. For by the lion the Franks wished mystically to signify their strength, and by the serpent wisdom and prudence, by which they undoubtedly hoped that they would at last overcome [unclear]. All subsequent kings of the Franks used these emblems or arms, though they are improperly so called, down to Clodoneus the Christian, who is read to have taken up, in place of the lion, three lilies sent down from heaven, as will be said in its place.

Interpretation of the arms of the Franks. The arms of the Franks down to Clodoneus.

When and why the ancient emblems of the Franks disappeared.

Hildegast, a noble teacher of the Franks in all knowledge.

The Franks began to be more refined in manners and in building.

Hildegast also, the wise man of the Franks already mentioned, taught the sons of the nobles to sing in their mother tongue the deeds of their ancestors in songs, with lyres and various other musical instruments. He admonished the people to live by civilized customs, to build houses, and to go about more refined in dress, and he ordered them to put aside savagery. For indeed up to that time the Franks cared little for cultivation or adornment, either in buildings or in clothing. Hildegast established all these things in a more refined form, and most wisely instructed them to crush and subdue the pride of the Romans not only by arms, but also in possessions and manners. From that time the Franks began to build houses both larger and more beautiful, and distinguished by various dwellings. For whatever they had constructed in earlier times, with excessive sim by reason of its simplicity it was contemptible and rustic, since, on account of their frequent changes of settlements, they had been accustomed to live in fields rather than in cities. Hence the Germans, taking up a proverb, whenever they saw something made or painted with ancient simplicity, were accustomed, praising its antiquity, to say: "That is a good old Frankish work."

The Franks from their origin rude and uncultivated.

That is an old Frankish work.

Hunibald records the other things wonderfully said, written, or done by Hildegast. In the twenty-fourth year of Hilderic, king of the Franks, Alexander, the son of Mammaea, Caesar Augustus of the Romans, was killed at Mainz, a city of Germany, in a military mutiny, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Alexander Caesar is killed at Mainz.

Hilderic, moreover, king of the Franks, the first of that name, after many deeds bravely and magnificently performed, died at last in the fortieth year of his reign, and in the two hundred fifty-third year of the Lord's Nativity, in the first Roman indiction.

The Thirty-First.

Bartherus, son of King Hilderic, succeeding his father, reigned eighteen years. In his time the Romans waged war with the Goths, who [unclear] the river Ister [unclear] killed [unclear] thousand, under the leadership of Decius Caesar, his son. Many of the Romans also fell, among them his sons. But Decius Caesar, a most wicked persecutor of Christians, while fleeing, was submerged in the whirlpool of a certain marsh; his corpse could never be found by his men.

Bartherus reigned eighteen years.

In the tenth year of King Bartherus, when the Romans under the wanton rule of Gallienus were sluggish with idleness, the Franks, thinking that a suitable time was at hand to avenge their insults against them, with the Germans, Saxons, Bavarians, and Thuringians assisting, gathered a great army of warriors, entered the borders of the enemy, and, devastating everything with fire, advanced by hostile incursion with the sword as far as Ravenna; enriched with plunder, they returned to their own lands.

The Franks launch an expedition against the Romans.

Franks, Germans, Saxons, Bavarians, Thuringians.

In the following year, which was the eleventh of King Bartherus, the Alemanni, after mustering their forces, led a strong army into Gaul; and after the region had been laid waste by sword and fire, they returned to their own lands with spoils and much plunder. In the same year also they launched an expedition into Italy against the Romans, inflicted much damage on them, and avenged the injuries, many in number, that they had received from them.

The Alemanni laid waste Gaul and Italy.

In the [thirteenth?] year of King Bartherus, which was the two hundred sixty-sixth year of the Lord's Nativity, in the fourteenth Roman indiction, the Franks, with the aid of the German Saxons, mustered a huge army; after crossing the Rhine and the Meuse, under the leaders Antharius and Luther they entered Gaul, despoiling everything in hostile fashion. Duke Antharius was the son of Bartherus, the aforesaid king of the Franks; Luther was the son of Marbod, king in Saxony.

The Franks again moved into Gaul.

The Franks reached as far as Spain.

Beginning from the region nearest to the Tungri and proceeding thence hostilely through the Bellovaci beyond the Seine, they came as far as Spain, surrounding the noble city of Tarraco with a siege and utterly destroying it.

But Bartherus, king of the Franks, at last died in the eighteenth year of his reign, namely in the year of the Lord's Nativity 271, in the fourth Roman indiction; Hunibald sufficiently sets forth his many deeds.

Clodius, the elder son of King Bartherus, succeeding his father, reigned over the Franks for twenty-seven years. In his third year the Romans, sending legions into Alemannia and mindful of the earlier injury, sought it in war. Against their incursion the Alemanni advanced armed, having in their army thirty thousand fighters. A very hard battle was joined not far from Lake Benacus, in which nearly fifteen thousand of the Alemanni were slain.

In the twelfth year of King Clodius the Franks, under their leaders, invaded Gaul, and killed many thousands of the Roman guards and also of the Gauls; and, occupying a great part of inner Gaul, they dwelt there for seven years.

But King Clodius of the Franks died after this, in the twenty-[seventh?] year of his reign, [in the year] 298, in the first Roman indiction.

Walther, son of King Clodius, after his father reigned over the Franks for eight years, a magnanimous, strong, and warlike prince. In the time of his reign, when persecution had been proclaimed everywhere, Diocletian in the East and Maximian in the West overthrew the churches of Christ, burned the divine books in fires, and miserably afflicted the Christians in the tenth persecution after Nero. And Diocletian, in the first year of the aforementioned King Walther, ordered himself to be worshipped as a god; he also at the same time subjected Alexandria, with all Egypt, to the Romans.

In the first, second, and third years of Walther, king of the Franks, there were great disturbances in Britain, which is now called England. For after King Lucius had died some years before, he who, with his people, was the first to receive the faith of Christ from Pope Eleutherius, as we said above, in the one hundred eighty-fifth year, in the times of Farabert king of the Franks, the Romans sent the senator Senerus into Britain to take up the kingdom. When he too had been killed at York by Fulgenius, Basianus, son of that same Senerus, was admitted as king. When he also had been killed, Carausius seized the kingdom and despised the commands of the Romans. When he too died in the second year of Walther king of the Franks, the Romans sent Allectus to take up the kingdom.

Against him Asclepiodotus, a warlike, strong, and bold man, rising up, killed him with two Roman legions, set the diadem of the kingdom upon himself, and, against the will of the Caesars and the senate, reigned for ten years; he cultivated justice and, after the Romans had been excluded, kept the province in peace.

Walter, king of the Franks, in these times rested from wars, and at last finally died in the eighth year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 306, in the ninth Roman indiction, in which year there was an earthquake.

Dagobert, the elder son of Walter, king of the Franks, succeeded his father and reigned for eleven years. He was a man pious toward his subjects, gentle, most humane; and while they held him in singular love and great reverence, they feared him. In the administration of justice according to the laws of the Franks he was most equitable, and, preserving each man’s right unimpaired, he did injury to no one, nor did he permit it to be done by another.

In his fourth year Coelus, duke of Gloucester, rising up against his lord Asclepiadotus, king of Britain, killed him by the counsel of the Romans. Rejoicing at this news, the Romans sent the senator Constantius to Britain with legions, a man no less prudent than warlike. When Coelus, who had already occupied the kingdom, learned that he had landed on the shore, he did not dare to engage him; he sent messengers to him, asked for peace, and obtained it, on condition that the tribute should be paid firmly to the Romans each year according to the ancient custom.

When peace had been confirmed, however, King Coelus died not long afterward, within the fortieth day. Constantius took as wife his daughter, named Helena, a virgin second to none in beauty, wisdom, Christian religion, and piety toward God; by her he begot Constantine, afterward the great emperor, and obtained with her the kingdom of Britain, with all the nobles consenting.

But Dagobert, the above-mentioned king of the Franks, died in the eleventh year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 317, in the fifth Roman indiction.

Clogio, the son of King Dagobert, succeeded his father and reigned for only two years. For in the second year of his reign the Romans and Gauls, fiercely invading the kingdom of the Franks in the regions on this side of the mountains, began to lay everything waste with fire and sword. But King Clogio, having gathered forces as best he could, met the enemy with the help of the Germans; when he fought too incautiously, he was killed. Yet the Franks for that reason did not desist from the conflict, but fought bravely.

For Clodomer, the brother of the slain king, having drawn his body back from the battle-line, put on his arms, so that he might be thought by everyone to be the king himself, and so that neither his friends, once the king’s death was known, should lose heart, nor the enemies, exulting, should presume a certain hope of victory. And so Duke Clodomer, clad in the king’s arms and having returned to the battle-line, since he was thought by all to be the king himself, struck constancy into his own men and fear into the enemy.

Walter, king of the Franks, dies.

Thirty-fourth.

Dagobert reigned eleven years.

Asclepiadotus, king of Britain, is killed by the duke.

The Roman Constantius comes into Britain.

Helena, daughter of Coelus, becomes the wife of Constantius and the mother of Constantine.

Dagobert, king of the Franks, dies.

Thirty-fifth.

Clogio reigned only two years.

War of the Romans and Gauls with the Franks.

Duke Clodomer defeated the enemies by stratagem.

The Romans and Gauls are overcome by the Franks. Clogio, king of the Franks, is killed in battle. Before the twenty-fourth year of age let no one be made king. The Thirty-Sixth. Clodomir reigned eighteen years. The Romans gravely afflicted the Sueves. The Franks came to the aid of the Sueves. The Franks, ancient enemies of the Romans. Genebaldus, commander of the army of the Franks. The Romans were turned to flight by the Germans. The cause of the dissension between the Thuringian and the Sueve. The Thuringian and the Sueve fight a duel. The Sueve killed the Thuringian in the duel.

By fighting so bravely he restored the battle, so that at last he turned the Gauls together with the Romans to flight, obtained the victory, gathered the spoils of the enemies, and freed the kingdom from destruction.

Accordingly Clogio, king of the Franks, fell in the second year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 319, in the seventh Roman indiction. He left two sons, of whom the elder by birth, Helenus, was then in his twentieth year, while the younger, Richimer, was in his eighteenth. But by law it was forbidden to the Franks that they should promote anyone to the kingship before he had completed the twenty-fourth year of his age. Hence it happened that neither of Clogio’s sons came to the kingdom, but their paternal uncle Clodomirus was elected king.

Clodomirus, brother of the slain king Clogio, was elected king by the common decree of the Franks. After him he reigned eighteen years, a distinguished, prudent, and brave prince, who kept his people in peace and enlarged the kingdom of the Franks.

For in these times, when the Sueves were being grievously afflicted by the Romans, they had resolved to call the Franks, Saxons, and Thuringians to their aid; they trusted that they would find them willing all the more readily because they knew that they had always hated the Romans. But the Franks, otherwise ancient enemies of the Romans, having held counsel among themselves, readily gave their consent to the request of the Sueves, thinking it healthier to fight with enemies in borders far away and belonging to others than in their own.

Therefore Clodomir, king of the Franks, appointed his brother Genebaldus commander of the army that was to go, and entrusted to him eighty thousand fighting men. The other kings called by the Sueves to their aid did likewise. The soldiers appointed, coming together into one body, formed a sufficiently large army. They joined battle with the Romans and fought very fiercely, killing many thousands of them, while the rest sought safety in flight; and so the Romans were driven from the borders of the Sueves.

When the Germans, having gained this victory, were dividing the spoils in the camp in the customary manner, a dangerous quarrel arose between two soldiers, of whom one, a Thuringian, was named Gunther, while the other was a Sueve named Adelbertus. This was the cause of the disturbance: that the Sueve soldier had accused the Thuringian of having secretly carried off something or other from the common booty. When he denied it, a serious sedition of the Thuringians arose, while the Sueves defended the Sueve. For each had many adherents from his own people, who were stirred up in spirit.

But when the Thuringian steadfastly denied the theft, the Sueve offered that he would prove the truth by duel. When the princes had permitted this, single combat was entered into between them on the appointed day; in it, at the second encounter, the Thuringian was killed by the Sueve. When his corpse had been stripped of clothes and arms, the very theft over which he had been accused was found hidden on him. After the Thuringians received this confusion, they were exceedingly angry, But, concealing their anger, they afterwards held secret counsel among themselves as to how they might avenge Gunther’s fall upon Adelbert. And when the plan had been settled, namely that they should kill the Swabian that same night, one hundred and twenty of them conspired together to keep the matter secret.

Therefore on the following night they silently rushed upon the tent in which they suspected Adelbert to be, demanding that the murderer be handed over to them to be killed. Roused by these voices, the Swabians ran to arms, firmly resolving either to defend their innocent soldier from death or to die with him. An attack was at once made upon the Thuringians, and they slaughtered almost all those one hundred and twenty.

When this was announced in the camp of the Thuringians, they were greatly moved and, as though turned to fury, immediately seized their weapons; and, having formed a battle-line, they sprang upon the Swabians, who suspected no such thing, raising shouts on high like madmen. But the Swabians, not slow, when they could not call the Thuringians back from the tumult with fair words, themselves also put on arms and strove to resist bravely. A savage battle was joined between friends, in which more than two thousand men of each side perished. Yet the Thuringians lost more than the Swabians, and at last, overcome and compelled by necessity, they withdrew.

This contention had remained hidden from both the Franks and the Saxons until the struggle came to an end, since they had pitched their camps not in the same place but in different stations. Afterwards, however, when they learned the cause, they undertook many negotiations for peace and concord between the disputants; but since each side complained that it had been gravely and unjustly injured, they could not restore full concord between them. They did, however, establish truces, or an armistice, between them for three years, during which they ordered the parties to abstain from war, until anger should cool with time and the disturbance be calmed.

From that time the Thuringians always held the Swabians suspect for treachery, and up to the present day, as Hunibald says, they labor under a hidden and open hatred against them, although many do not know the cause of this mutual persecution.

But when the three years had passed and the end of the truces was at hand, the Swabians declared war on the Thuringians. The latter, having very little confidence in their own affairs, sent notable and [unclear] envoys to Clodomir, king of the Franks, and to the nobles of the kingdom, begging with great urgency that, in view of the former confederation, they would bring them the aid owed and friendly against the Swabians. At that time there were great movements of peoples in Britain and in all the adjacent islands neighboring the kingdom of the Franks; in consideration of these King Clodomir was distressed, fearing the stratagems of the Romans, lest, in the absence of the army of fighters, they should contrive some new incursion into the kingdom.

Having held counsel with the nobles of the kingdom, King Clodomir gave this reply to the envoys of the Thuringians in a public assembly of the magnates.

Conspiracy of the Thuringians against the Swabian.

The Thuringians fight seditiously with the Swabians.

Many fell on each side.

The Franks with the Saxons labor for peace.

Three-year truces are made.

The Thuringians and Swabians become enemies.

The Swabians declared war on the Thuringians.

Troubled Britain groans. Note well.

The Franks forestall the stratagems of the Romans.

Speech of King Clodomir to the Thuringians.

By the report of Duke Genebald, our very dear brother, we learned some time ago what the cause of the breach of trust was between you, friends, the Thuringians, and the Suevi, and the occasion of those disturbances which today stand at the gates. We acknowledge that we have been allied with you for a long time, and we neither wish in any way, nor indeed ought, to violate the right of the treaty that has been made. But you yourselves, excellent Thuringians, now see more clearly than daylight amid what great dangers the kingdom of the Franks is placed, since the Romans with the Gauls threaten us daily before our gates, watching most carefully our entrance, and likewise our departure, to see whether by any occasion they can overthrow our kingdom, which our ancestors, with the shedding of much blood, were scarcely at last able to acquire and establish.

Therefore it has by no means seemed prudent to the counsel of the Franks, especially in these perilous times, to divide the people and, neglecting our own affairs, to defend those of others, since, with the gods propitious, we may perhaps be able to suffice for one of the two, but to protect both, that is, our kingdom and yours, in these days from the incursion of enemies is not within our power. Finally, the very great distance of places hinders us very much from being able to bring you aid so often against the Suevi, since they hold the beginning and source of the river Rhine, while we hold its farthest mouths and setting. Nevertheless, lest we seem to have failed you altogether, as friends, it has pleased our counsel that we send our messengers and envoys to the Suevi, through whom we may again obtain for you three-year truces and armistices. Meanwhile let the Thuringians take counsel, so that they may be able either to obtain perpetual peace with their own people, or by some other means whatsoever set up the necessary wall of defense, that is, either from their own people or from foreign friendly nations.

When these things had been set forth by the king of the Franks, the envoys of the Thuringians answered: Your counsel, O king and you princes of the Franks, is excellent, if however you will be able to obtain three-year truces from the Suevi on our behalf. But as to your advice that we should set up a wall of defense between ourselves and the Suevi, either from ourselves or, if any necessity requires, from some foreign source, this is also the opinion of our king and of all the nobles of the people of the Thuringians; concerning this, we beg you, hear our counsel, and at the same time give aid as faithful friends.

We have a land broad in extent toward the south, and fertile with abundance of fruits, whose farthest borders mark the boundary between the Suevi and the Thuringians. If you are willing to place inhabitants there from among your people, and a duke, they will without doubt be for you and for the kingdom of the Franks a perpetual honor and advantage, and for the Thuringians a wall of defense, and for the Suevi a cause of fear. No difficulty concerning the gift can intervene to prevent it from being in your power by the voluntary offering of the princes and people of the Thuringians.

After consultation had first been held concerning these matters, the Franks gladly agreed, since nothing was more dear to their heart than to extend the Frankish name, and at the same time the kingdom. Therefore, first, with a letter and envoys sent to the Suevi, peace from the Thuringians for three years, keeping secret their plan of undertaking a new possession. Then they sent their men, together with the envoys of the aforesaid friends, into Thuringia, so that, by the judgment of the king and the nobles, they might confirm the proposed business concerning the grant of the promised region. When all these things had been duly completed, what we are writing followed.

When and whence the Franks first came to Menigauium [unclear]. The sequel follows.

Therefore, in the seventh year of Clodomir, king of the Franks, and in the year 326 of the Lord’s nativity, in the thirteenth Roman indiction, on the ninth day of the month of April, by order of the aforesaid king, there went out from the mouths of the Rhine, where the Sicambri had formerly had their first settlements in Germany, thirty thousand armed men, with wives, children, household goods, and beasts of burden, and two thousand six hundred eighty-six farmers and craftsmen of various trades, intending to set out for the new settlements promised to the Franks by the Thuringians. They did not all go out together at one time, but successively by companies, beginning on the prescribed day, until at last in the month of September they completed the aforesaid number, as Hunibald, the historian of the Franks, testifies.

[Margin: Here began the duchy of the eastern Franks. Würzburg, the ducal city of Franconia. In the year 326. 32,686 Franks come to Würzburg.]

King Clodomir appointed his brother Genebald duke of the people of eastern Francia, and entrusted to him the army and also the administration of the whole duchy under these conditions, according to the custom of the Franks: namely, that both he himself and his sons, heirs, and successors should remain forever under subjection to the kings of the Franks, should faithfully obey their commands in all things, should go forth with them to war against any adversaries whatsoever, and, according to the custom of the other dukes of the kingdom of the Franks, should everywhere render to those kings the service and honor owed to them.

[Margin: Genebald, first duke of eastern Francia. The institution of the duchy of eastern Francia.]

When these conditions had been given and accepted, Genebald, duke of eastern Francia, set out for Menigau with the people assigned to him, and ruled for nearly thirty years over the principality offered to him. For he was a prudent, bold, and warlike man, who not only governed and distributed the land of the duchy of Francia prudently, but also greatly enlarged the boundaries of its possession.

[Margin: Menigau, the place where Würzburg now is.]

When the Suevi heard of the arrival of the Franks within the borders of Thuringia, they bore it with considerable displeasure, fearing what did in fact happen: that, once multiplied in number and strength, they would also extend the boundaries of the possession they had received to the Suevi’s ruin. But when they saw that they could in no way resist the undertakings of the Franks, they feigned rejoicing at their arrival and, sending envoys, asked for peace, more from necessity, as it seemed to many, than from intention. They also committed to the arbitration of the Franks the settlement of the whole cause of the disputes that they were alleging against the Thuringians. The Thuringians did the same. Thus the great discord between them was calmed by the prudence of Duke Genebald.

The Suevi make firm peace with the Franks.

Marcomer, duke of the eastern Franks.

In the same year, in the month of September, Marcomir, son of Duke Genebald, came with the remaining band of the Franks, which by King Clodomir’s command had already earlier been chosen for migration by families, households, and persons, into the southern borders of Thuringia, and around the river Main to receive with his brothers the dwellings promised to them, having on the east the Boii and Bohemians, on the south the Suevi, on the west the Rhenish people, the people of Mainz, and the Apodas, and on the north the Fagophagi and Thuringians.

At the entrance of the Franks, the Thuringians, by order of Heurolus their king, withdrew beyond the forest, leaving all the grain, sufficient for the new guests for the following year. Therefore the Franks, newly arrived, first settled in the borders of the Thuringians between the river Falanus, as it is now called from Falagastus, and the lower parts of the Neckar, around the banks of the river Main. In that district, which was formerly called Meingau and afterwards East Francia, in which over time they built no small number of villages and cities, and in a short while grew in wealth and power.

But Duke Genebald begot Marcomir and Dagobert, who ruled over the eastern Franks for twenty-one years. Dagobert begot Clodius, who ruled over the people for ten years. Clodius begot Marcomir, who ruled for sixteen years. Marcomir begot Faramund and Marcomir. Faramund, both with his father and alone, administered the duchy for fifteen years, and afterwards, having been elected, became king of the Franks, as we shall say in its proper order. He entrusted the duchy of eastern Francia to his brother Marcomir, who ruled it for eighteen years. Duke Marcomir begot Priam, who ruled for twelve years. Priam begot Genebald the second, who ruled for twenty years. Genebald begot Sunno, who ruled for twenty-three years. After him Clodus, brother of Clodoneus king of the Franks, ruled for sixteen years. When he was struck by a boar while hunting and killed, Clodomir, son of the aforesaid Duke Sunno, succeeded in the duchy and ruled for twenty-one years. Clodomir begot Hugbad, who ruled for twenty-six years. Hugbad begot Helenus, who ruled for thirty years. Helenus begot Gotfrid, who ruled for twenty-two years. Gotfrid begot Genebald the third, who ruled for thirty years. Genebald begot Clodomir, who ruled for nineteen years. After him Heribert, his nephew, succeeding in the duchy, ruled for thirty years. When he also died, Clodoneus, his brother’s son, ruled in the duchy for twelve years. Clodoneus begot Gosvuert, who ruled for [unclear] years.

Saint Kilian is made bishop in the universal Church.

Genealogy of the dukes of eastern Francia at Würzburg.

Genealogy of the dukes of eastern Francia [unclear] son duke.

Genealogy of the dukes of eastern Francia [unclear] Würzburg.

Genealogy of the dukes of eastern Francia at Würzburg.

Genealogy of the dukes of Francia [unclear] Würzburg.

Genealogy of the dukes of Francia, dukes of Würzburg.

Genealogy of the dukes of Francia, duke of Würzburg.

in the seven hundred and fortieth year of the Lord’s Nativity, in the eighth Roman indiction, the duchy of eastern Francia remained without a duke for twelve years, under the rule of Pippin, mayor of the palace and afterward king of the Franks, who entrusted it to his son Charles the Great.

Therefore there were in eastern Francia, succeeding one another for four hundred and fourteen years, twenty-one dukes in number, who constitute the sacred seven, tripled in order, and not foreign to mystery. But in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 752, in the fifth Roman indiction, Pippin, raised from mayor of the palace to king of the Franks, as was said above, handed over the oft-mentioned duchy of eastern Francia to Saint Burchard, first bishop of the church of Würzburg, and to his successors, as their perpetual property.

From that time, apart from the bishops of the church of Würzburg, down to the present day, no one has been able by right to claim for himself the duchy of the aforesaid Francia, although by the rashness, not the right, of certain kings and emperors, rebels against and excommunicates of the Roman Church, the contrary was sometimes attempted, as if in vengeance for themselves. Among these Conrad, the third of that name and afterward emperor, since he was a Swabian by nation, violently usurped for himself, by royal permission, the duchy of eastern Francia; nevertheless, after he had become Caesar, he restored it to the Church with manifold satisfaction.

Let these things, briefly touched upon by a necessary historical digression concerning the origin, genealogy, and succession of the dukes of the people of eastern Francia, suffice. Let us now return to the order of the kings of the Franks, from which we departed. But Clodomir, king of the Franks, after many deeds bravely performed, at last died in the eighteenth year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord 337, in the tenth Roman indiction.

The last duke of Francia was Gosbert.

The duchy of eastern Francia is vacant for twelve years.

There were twenty-one dukes at Würzburg.

The duke of eastern Francia is now the bishop.

The duchy of eastern Francia belongs solely to the prelate of the church of Würzburg.

Conrad III was not duke of Francia but an invader.

Of these things a fuller mention is made in the Annals.

Clodomir, king of the Franks, dies.

The Thirty-Seventh.

Richimer, the eldest son of King Clodomir, succeeding his father, reigned thirteen years. Throughout all the days of his reign he was always in conflict with the Romans and the Gauls; and with the help of Genebald, his paternal uncle, namely duke of eastern Francia, residing at the city of [peapolitanam], and of the other princes of the Franks, and also of the Thuringians, Saxons, and fierce German friends, he often fought victoriously against them and afflicted them with great slaughter.

In the fourth year of his reign, after gathering the support of his friends, he entered Gaul with a very great multitude of fighters, and laid waste everything with fire and sword. Against him Tiberianus, prefect of the Romans, also moved a great army of his own men to war. When they joined battle, they fought for a long time with uncertain fortune, and many on both sides fell slain. Finally, however, the Gauls were defeated and compelled to seek safety by flight.

Richimer reigned thirteen years.

A war is undertaken between the Franks and the Romans.

The Romans again declared war on the Franks. The Franks stood bravely against the Romans. The Romans are defeated by the Franks in battle. Richimer, king of the Franks, is slain in battle. Thirty-eighth: Theodomer reigned ten years. The seat of the kings of the Franks was at Dispartum among the Tungri. The Franks were never at rest until they had conquered all. The eastern Franks cross the Rhine. The city of the Treveri is plundered by the Franks. King Theodomer is killed by the Romans together with his mother. Thirty-ninth: Clogio reigned eighteen years. Saint Antony dies.

In the sixth year of King Richimer, in the fourth indiction, the Romans, assembled troop by troop into one force with the Gauls under Constantius, son of Constantine, the great Caesar, declared war on the Franks. But King Richimer, since he was a high-spirited, strong, and bold prince, terrified by nothing, summoned to his aid, as was his custom, his friends the Teutons, Germans, Saxons, and Thuringians; and when these had been united with the Franks, he set against the Romans and Gauls an army of nearly two hundred thousand, with whom he fought spiritedly. In the first encounter the Romans were victors; in the second, defeated and overcome, they fled with loss to their own men.

In the last year of his reign Richimer, king of the Franks, when he was about to fight rashly again with the Romans, was slain in battle, namely in the thirteenth year of his reign and in the three hundred fiftieth year of the Lord's nativity, in the eighth indiction of the Romans.

Theodomirus, son of the aforesaid King Richimer, reigned after the death of his father for ten years. During all the days of his reign he lived in contention with the Romans and brought to completion many battles against them with varying outcome. His mother, named Hastila, daughter of the king of the Saxons, [unclear] the Gauls [unclear]. In antiquity the part of the Tungri was beyond the river Meuse, in the fortress which antiquity called Dispartum. From the boundary of the Franks as far as the river Loire the Gauls dwelt under the rule of the Romans; beyond the Loire were the Goths, mixed with peoples of diverse nations.

In these times the borders of the kingdom of the Franks were greatly enlarged beyond the Meuse, and they had occupied a great part of Gaul, though the Romans were unwilling. Nor did they desist from what they had begun until at last, reckoning from this time onward, within nearly seventy years, they subjected all Gaul to their dominion.

In the times of Theodomirus's reign, Dagobert, son of Genebald, the first duke of the eastern Franks, succeeding his father in the principate, gathered a multitude of fighters, crossed the Rhine, and devastated cis-Rhenane Gaul with plundered spoils, fire, and sword. He despoiled and burned the very ancient city of the Treveri, built in the times of Abraham, prince of the Jews.

But King Theodomirus at last was seized by the Romans inhabiting Gaul together with Hastila his mother, was beheaded, and perished in the tenth year of his reign, and in the 360th year of the Lord's nativity, in the third Roman indiction.

The son of King Theodomirus, succeeding his father, reigned over the Franks for eighteen years: a high-spirited prince, strong, and of singular prudence, who engaged in many battles with the Roman Gauls and harshly avenged the injury of his enemies. In his first year Saint Antony, abbot of the hermits, departed to the Lord, on the seventeenth day of the month of January on the day, in the 105th year of his age.

At the same time also the Alemanni had a war with the Romans, not far from the Rhine, in the territory of the people of Strasbourg. In that battle many fell on both sides; more of the Alemanni were killed than of the Romans, whose commander of the army was Julian Caesar, despiser of God and apostate.

Clogio, king of the Franks, wishing to avenge his father’s death, gathered a huge army and, entering Gaul in force, stormed the city of Cambrai, where he slew without pity many Romans whom he found there.

Proceeding from there, he subjected Gaul to his kingdom as far as the river Saône. Against him the Romans, fighting more by stratagems than by strength, could do nothing.

In the thirteenth year of Clogio, king of the Franks, meanwhile, because the commanders with their armies were ravaging the Gauls, Valentinian, Caesar of the Romans, having secretly and swiftly led legions through [Sarmatia?] into the territories of the Germans, waged war with the Saxons in the territories of the Franks, on this side of the Oder, not far from the sea. In it many on both sides fell, slain by the sword. Yet in the end victory fell to the Romans, and the defeated Saxons took to flight.

King Clogio died in the eighteenth year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord’s nativity 378, in the sixth Roman indiction, leaving three sons by the queen: Marcomir, who first succeeded to the kingdom; Dagobert, who after the death of the aforesaid brother held the kingdom under the title of duke, as we shall say below in its place; and Hector, surnamed Degenbart, from whom Pippin and Charles, later the great emperor, drew their lineage, as we have said in the second volume.

Marcomir, the elder son of Clogio

Marcomir, Clogio’s elder son, succeeding first in the aforesaid year to the kingdom of the Franks, reigned sixteen years, a high-souled prince, strong and bold, who engaged in many battles with the Romans.

Indeed, in the first year of his reign the Romans, aided by troops of the Gauls, moved war against him. He, with the Franks and Saxons, met them in an undaunted encounter not far from the city of Cologne, fought bravely, laid low many thousands of the enemy, and distributed the spoils among his helpers and friends. This war lasted four years.

But the Franks, fierce in their inborn savagery, received the Romans for battle no otherwise than a lion is accustomed to tear apart a little dog with outstretched claws, destined at once for death and without mercy. At last, when four years had passed, the Romans, considering that they could not tame the Franks and subject them to themselves, recalled by edict the remnants of the legions that had remained, and assigned them to other places. The Franks, however, did not therefore cease from harassing the Gauls, but continued what they had begun.

In the ninth year of Marcomir, king of the Franks, in the fifteenth Roman indiction, Maximus, king of Britain, sprung from the lineage of the Caesars, received the name and diadem of the Roman Empire, being appointed by the soldiers in England.

How King Maximus came into Britain.

A few years earlier Octavius, king of Britain, having no son, with the consent of the nobles summoned this man from Rome into Britain; for on his mother’s side he was a Briton, but on his father’s a Roman. And he gave him his daughter as wife, with whom, after Octavius had died, he obtained the kingdom of the whole island. He had come, when summoned into Britain, with an army of Roman soldiery; the greater part of the soldiers remained with him, while a smaller number returned to Italy.

Then, after the death of the Caesars Valentinian and Valens, in the fifth year of his British reign, raised up in pride of mind and impatient of quiet, he caused himself to be made Caesar of the Romans by those soldiers who had remained with him, against Gratian, whom the Romans had set over themselves.

Soon, therefore, when he had been hailed as Caesar by the soldiers, he entrusted the kingdom of Britain to a vicar to administer, and, gathering into one place all the noble youth fit for war of the whole island of Britain, which is now called England, he sailed with them into Gaul, having this intention in mind: that, once the Gauls had been conquered, he would proceed to Rome and subject the empire to himself.

Therefore in the ninth year of Marcomir, king of the Franks, and in the year of the Lord’s birth 387, in the fifteenth indiction of the Romans, Maximus, king of Britain, with a huge multitude of his own men, entered Gaul by ship and ravaged everything round about the region in hostile fashion.

And first he came with his ships to the shore of the Armorican land, which from that time thereafter has been called New Britain, or Lesser Britain, down to the present day. At that time the Franks inhabited it, under the rule of Duke Iubalchus, whom the kings of the Franks had appointed vicar of the kingdom in those places. Duke Iubalchus, greatly disturbed by the arrival of so great a multitude of peoples, gathered his forces as best he could, and, advancing to meet those who were coming, joined battle with them; in that battle he himself was killed with fifteen thousand Franks, while the rest sought safety in flight.

Then, in order to strike terror of his name into all the surrounding peoples, he used great cruelty, since he slaughtered without mercy women, virgins, old men, young men, and little infants, as many as he found. Now the Frankish kings, dukes, nobles, soldiers, and all the people were still blinded and polluted by the empty superstition of idols; but Maximus, though a tyrant, was nevertheless a Christian, together with all his soldiery and his people.

After this victory over Iubalchus had been obtained from the Franks, Maximus conferred that Armorican principality upon Duke Conan, who was, through his brother, the nephew of Octavius, the aforesaid king of Britain. Having left with him a good part of the army of the Britons for protection, he himself departed thence with the remaining multitude of troops, and, ranging through all Gaul, by war and arms made those who resisted his command obedient, no less cruelly than powerfully.

Meanwhile Gratian, Caesar at Rome, understanding that Maximus that he had usurped the diadem of the Roman empire, and that, having gone out from Britain with a great army, he had begun to ravage the Gauls; he also gathered forces and moved against him into Gaul, and entered the city of Paris with his army. Afterwards, when he joined battle with Maximus, he was defeated through the treachery of Merobaldus, master of the soldiers, and, slipping away in flight, came to Lyons, where he was afterwards killed.

Conanus, however, whom Maximus had established as king in the region of Armorica, endured frequent attacks from the Gauls and Romans who were in Aquitaine. Meeting them bravely, he fought with them manfully, and, after very many of them had been killed, turned the rest to flight.

At last, having obtained peace and quiet possession of the Armorican kingdom, he began to take counsel with his nobles as to how they might as quickly as possible have their wives and children, whom they had left behind in Britain, brought to them with all their household goods, lest the propagation of their race should fail.

The number of soldiers who had come from Britain with Conanus into Armorica was thirty thousand fighting men. The common people and farmers, however, as Geoffrey is the authority, were one hundred thousand, all of whom, by order of Maximus, had sailed from Britain into Armorica. Of these, many did not have wives; the rest, who did have them, had left them in Britain with their little children when they were compelled to follow Maximus.

But Conanus and all his people, since they were Christians, in no way consented to take as wives the daughters of pagans who worshipped mute idols. Even if these women had been Christians, nevertheless it did not please them to have any traffic of marital union with the Gauls.

In those days there was in Britain, which is now called England, a certain sub-king named Dionotus, who, after the death of his brother Caradocus, held the principality of Cornwall; to him also King Maximus, when about to set out for Gaul, had entrusted the kingdom, as to a very prudent man. He had an only daughter named Ursula, by everyone’s judgment the most beautiful among all the virgins of Britain, and very devoted to Christ.

Therefore Conanus, the new king of the Armoricans from Britain, not only knew very well Ursula, the daughter of the aforesaid prince of Cornwall, Dionotus, but also loved her greatly. Hence, after messengers and letters had been sent to him, he asked that she be sent to him as his wife.

Secondly, he asked that the wives and children of the soldiers and common people, left behind in Britain when their husbands departed at the command of Maximus, be put on ships with their household goods and sent to him in the Armorican kingdom.

Thirdly, he instructed that, according to the number which he had specified in his letters, virgins should be sent: noble ones from noble lineage for the soldiers, and common ones also for the common people, whom each of those who then had no spouses might take as wives.

King Conanus of Armorica accomplished many things in war.

The counsel concerning bringing wives from Britain.

There were thirty thousand soldiers, one hundred thousand common people.

All had left their wives in Britain.

Conanus, king of New Britain, that is, Armorica.

Dionatus, prince of Cornwall, father of Saint Ursula.

Ursula, a most prudent virgin.

Saint Ursula is sought as a wife by King Conanus.

Conanus asks Dionotus for noble girls.

He also seeks the wives of the soldiers and common people.

Eleven thousand of the nobles. Of the common people, indeed, sixty thousand virgin women. The sum of the girls was seventy-one thousand. Seventy-one thousand girls, placed on ships, were endangered at sea. The greater part of the girls was drowned; the rest were captured by barbarians. Vuania and Melga, Huns and Picts, took them. The girls perished for love of chastity. Vanius, king of the Huns, and Melga, of the Picts. All seventy-one thousand girls were Christians. Geoffrey, writer of the history of Britain, [unclear]. Marcomer, king of the Franks, was prudent, and trusted neither Maximus nor the Romans.

When Dionotus had seen Conanus’s messenger, desiring to satisfy his wish, he gathered from the various provinces of Britain eleven thousand daughters of the nobles, and from the others, of lower rank, sixty thousand virgin women; all of them he ordered to assemble on a fixed day within the walls of London. He also ordered ships to be brought from all the coasts of Britain, sufficient for the transport of so great a multitude. Although this had pleased many in so great an assembly, nevertheless it displeased many, who loved their parents and homeland with greater affection. Nor perhaps were there lacking some who, preferring chastity to marriage, would rather have lost their life in any land than be married.

At last, when the things necessary for their transport had been prepared, the women who were to set out boarded the ships and passed through the River Thames into the seas. Finally, when they were turning their sails toward the Armoricans, that is, from north to south, suddenly a great storm arose at sea; the fleet was divided and the ships were separated from one another. Great danger threatened them all; the greater part of the ships was scattered into the deep sea and was drowned with the women.

Those, however, who escaped so great a danger were driven to barbarous nations, islands of the sea, and by an unknown people were either slain or consigned to perpetual servitude. For they had fallen into the army of the wicked princes Vuania and Melga, who, hired for pay by the emperor Gratian, were ravaging first Britain and then the maritime nations and surrounding islands, out of hatred for Maximus; by them they cruelly perished for love of chastity.

Now Vuania, or if you prefer, Gnavia, in the manner of the Gauls, was king of the Huns; Melga, however, was king of the Picts. The emperor Gratian had sent them, hired for pay, into the borders of Germany and also Gaul, so that they might afflict those who followed the party of Maximus. Therefore, raging through the coastal regions with both infantry and naval incursion, they encountered the aforesaid women and girls, cast by chance into those regions; and since they were beautiful Christians, they solicited them for intercourse with themselves. But when the women, faithful in Christ, refused to consent to the shameful lust of the wicked men, they were pitiably killed by the impious.

This lamentable history of seventy-one thousand holy virgins and women, apart from little children, Hunibald does not relate; but the aforementioned author Geoffrey of Monmouth does, at the end of the fourth book concerning the origin of the people and the deeds of the kings of the island of Britain, which was first called the island of giants, then from Brutus, the first king, was called Britain, afterward was named Albion, and finally obtained the name of England, which it retains to this day.

But the aforementioned Marcomirus, king of the Franks, because he was a prudent man, so governed the reins of his principate that he followed neither the party of Maximus nor that of Gratian, because the former had taken Armorica from the Franks, with many of them cruelly slain without cause, and the latter ruled the Romans, a people hostile to the Franks from their origin. Therefore he held himself pru-

[Unclear]ly within the borders of the kingdom, preferring that one enemy be consumed by another rather than to bestow favor on an enemy.

¶ After the slaughter of the maidens, the aforesaid two kings, [Guanius?] of the Huns and Melga of the Picts, to please Caesar Gratian, flooded Britain as enemies, stripped as it was of all soldiery by Maximus, as we have said, and with fire and sword wrought a great slaughter and cruelly killed an innumerable multitude of the people. When this had been announced to King Maximus, who was at that time staying at Trier, he sent a certain Gratianus, a citizen, with two legions into Britain, to drive the enemies from there. With the Huns and Picts there were Scots, Dacians, and Norwegians; after an engagement, Gratianus drove them all into Ireland.

¶ In these times Maximus, king of the Britons, usurper of the Roman empire, after all Gaul had now been overcome and Caesar Gratian slain at Lyons, placed the seat of his kingdom in the city of Trier, where he convoked a synod of bishops. At it Saint Martin, bishop of Tours, appeared in person and shone forth with many signs and miracles. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, was present, and also Ausonius, bishop of Bordeaux, who wrote a metrical work in praise of the country and the city of Trier, which he entitled Mosella from the river flowing past. Jerome also, the priest of Bethlehem, copied out anew the book of blessed Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, On Synods, at Trier at the same time.

¶ But Maximus, setting out from Trier with a very great army, appointed his little son Victor king of the Gauls, and appointed Quintinus [and?] Nanneus, chief men of the city of Trier, as his guardians. Then he himself set out with the army into Italy and was slain by Theodosius, in the thirteenth year of Marcomir, king of the Franks. Not long afterward his son Victor also perished by the sword, to gain the grace and favor of Theodosius.

¶ But after the death of Maximus, Marcomir, king of the Franks, gathered troops and sent a great army of his men into Gaul under the leaders Sunno, Genebald, Priam, and Antenor, so that it might not only recover what had been lost, but might also render all Gaul subject to the Franks. And indeed, in a short time, recovering many things that Maximus had taken away, they also added no small part of Gaul to the Frankish kingdom. Nevertheless the kingdom of Armorica, which the Britons inhabited under Conan, as we have said, they could not obtain on that occasion; yet afterward they recovered it.

¶ Meanwhile, while these leaders were devoting themselves to the Gallic war, the Romans, under Caesar Valentinian, who was ruling with Theodosius, sent a great army into Germany against the kingdom of the Franks, intending, as they hoped, to destroy the Franks completely. Against them Marcomir, king of the Franks, advanced to battle with the Germans and Saxons; when an engagement had taken place, he was slain by the enemy and fell with many, while the others [entrusted themselves to the protection of flight?] [unclear], both enemies of the Franks.

[Guanius?] and Melga devastated Britain. Count Gratianus drove the robbers out of Britain.

Caesar Maximus placed the seat of his kingdom at Trier.

A council of bishops is held at Trier. Ambrose. Ausonius. Jerome.

Maximus, having set out for Italy, is killed.

The Franks moved into Gaul.

The Franks recovered everything except Armorica.

The Romans send an army into Germany.

King Marcomer is killed by Valentinian.

[unclear]. In the fifteenth year of his reign, but in the year of the Lord’s nativity 393, in the sixth Roman indiction. Valentinian, wishing to advance farther and desiring to subject to his rule the whole kingdom of the Franks that was in the regions on this side of the Rhine, was compelled, because of an incursion of the Lombards, to withdraw into Italy.

But, concealing by stratagem the necessity of going back, he sent messengers to those who had remained in the kingdom of the Franks, through whom he ordered that they should either choose war anew or pay tribute to the Romans. But the Franks, now deprived of their king, and with the strength of their soldiery and their dukes stationed in Gaul, since they did not know the emperor’s necessity for withdrawing, and thought that nothing other than war was imminent, and saw that they were unequal in strength, promised tribute to the Romans. Yet they could neither promise it without the consent and will of the princes, then, as we have said, far absent, nor pay it. When these matters had been concluded with the Franks as Valentinian the emperor wished, he set out against the Lombards.

Meanwhile all the things that the Romans, under the command of Valentinian, had done with the Franks were announced to the dukes of the Franks, Dagobert, Sunno, Genebald, Priam, Antenor, and the other elders who were directing the wars of the nation in the region of the Gauls: how they had condemned both the king to death and the nation to tribute, a nation which had always been free and had been subject to no one from its Trojan origin. They were angry, stirred up, and greatly troubled, and in many deliberations they considered how they might prudently avenge this injury.

After much and prolonged consultation, therefore, they at last came together into one opinion: that they ought rather to preserve their fatherland in its ancestral liberty than to press forward with affairs in Gaul. Leaving, therefore, Duke Priam in the territories of Gaul with a sufficient guard of soldiers, the other princes returned with the army into Germanic Francia. Thereafter, after the death of King Marcomir, the kingdom of the Franks remained vacant, without a king, under only two dukes, for nearly twenty-six years.

Dagobert, brother of Marcomir king of the Franks, who was killed by Valentinian, and son of the aforesaid King Clogio, after the death of his brother was, by the consent of the Franks, interrex, or governor of the kingdom, for about five years, as Hunibald indicates, a high-minded and warlike man. In his time Marcomir, son of Clodius, held the dukedom among the eastern Franks for sixteen years. Dagobert began the government of the kingdom under the name of duke in the year of the Lord’s nativity 393, in the sixth indiction.

In the second year of Duke Dagobert, Caesar Valentinian, having sent messengers to the people of the Franks in Germany, demanded the tribute imposed the previous year. To him the dukes and people of the kingdom sent back word through the same messengers as follows: the everlasting freedom of the Franks [unclear] to impose tribute on nations as he was accustomed with the rest, not to pay. But you, who, when the strength of the Franks was absent, fought against an unarmed few, and conquered by deceit, not by courage, if you trust that you have the right of exacting tribute from the Franks, come whenever you wish, and by the sword we shall show that we are most free and always have been, and that you are a slave. By this we make you certain, lest you send anyone to us unarmed concerning this matter, since indeed we strive rather to give up life than to lose liberty.

When Valentinian had received this message, he wondered at the constancy of the Franks, and said to those standing around: “Frank, Frank, you are a hard people, to be named rather from ferocity than from liberty.” And the matter rested in the current year, because at that time the Roman commonwealth was suffering many varied hostile incursions from different nations.

But in the following year Valentinian, deceived by the counsel of his own men, again sent to the Franks Sisinnius, a count of the court, so that he might induce them by good persuasions to the payment of tribute and to the very firm friendship of the Romans. But the Franks, not forgetful of those things which they had previously sent back in answer to Valentinian, and also wishing to avenge their most beloved king Marcomir, slew with the sword the count sent to them, together with the whole company which he had brought, in contempt of Valentinian and of all the Romans.

After this the Franks, having gathered a very great army of their men into one body, under the leaders Sunno and Genebald, whom the Gauls called Gundebaud, crossed the Rhine with force and, bursting into the borders of the Romans and laying everything waste, struck fear even into the people of Cologne. For they strove to subject to their dominion everything that lay between the rivers Rhine, Meuse, and [Tabula?]. But afterward, when the incursion of the Franks became known at Trier, Nannenus and Quintinus, chiefs of the Treveri, who, like the people of Cologne, followed the Roman side, gathered an army and determined to make a movement against them. For meanwhile the Franks, after the region of the Gauls had been ravaged and many of them killed, sent the spoils back to their native seats with part of the army, while they proceeded farther.

When Nannenus and Quintinus, chiefs of the Treveri, had come with an army, the Franks, as we have said, in good number and already laden with plunder, had crossed the Rhine, intending to return to their comrades in order, with all their strength, to lay waste what remained untouched among the Gauls. A great confusion overtook the Franks because of the ill-considered and insufficiently cautious division of the army.

For the first seats of the Franks were, as we have often said, around the borders of the mouths of the Rhine, where now are Holland, Zeeland, the people of Utrecht, Guelders, and the Frisians. A part of these afterward acquired the name Westphalians, that is, western Gauls, by comparison with the others, who received the name Eastphalians. And the eastern ones had [unclear] in the region of Münster, they said. The Franks had on the east the Saxons, Teutons, Germans, and Marcomanni; to the south the people of Cologne and the Gauls; to the west the Tungri and Morini, who inhabited the maritime regions; and to the north the Scots, Arcadians, Dacians, and also the sea.

The Franks, scattered, are cut down in turn by the enemy.

Therefore Nannenus and Quintinus, when they had arrived with the army of the Treveri at the places in which the remnants of the Franks had remained, awaiting the return of their companions, drew up the battle line and pursued the fugitives as far as the Carbonarian Forest, forcing them to withdraw, after no small number of them had been slaughtered. From this arose the hatred of the Franks against the Treveri, on account of which they afterward crossed the Rhine and began to winter in the territory of the Treveri and to lay everything waste.

When these things had been done, it seemed useful to Quintinus that they should lead the whole army of the Treveri into Francia and forestall them, unprepared, by a sudden incursion. But Quintinus’s plan did not please Nannenus, who did not doubt that the Franks would be bolder in resisting on their own soil. Therefore Nannenus, parting from Quintinus with his men, returned to Mainz.

But Quintinus, persisting in his plan, crossed the Rhine near the fortress of Musium and led out the army, intending to destroy the Franks at the first assault, with a spirit higher and greater than his strength for winning. But the Franks, not sluggish, met the Gauls with a manly encounter, and when battle had been joined many thousands of the Treveri perished, with few saved. In that engagement Heracleus, tribune of the Roman legion, fell, and almost all who had been in command of the soldiers perished with him by the missiles and sword of the Franks. For, with the exception of a few to whom dark night and the woods offered safety and the opportunity of hiding, the whole army of Quintinus perished by sword, bow, and marsh.

In the year of the Lord’s nativity 394, in the seventh indiction, the emperor Valentinian died by a noose at Vienne, a city of Gaul, through the deceit and severity of Arbogast, master of the soldiers; and a certain Eugenius, a Roman, by the plotting of the same Arbogast, seized the rule of the Gauls and reigned for three years. Afterward, when war was joined with the emperor Theodosius, he was slain by him.

The Franks, having heard of the death of Caesar Valentinian, resolved to cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Arbogast, understanding their plan, forestalled them: in the depth of winter, when the Rhine was frozen, he led an army across at Cologne Agrippina and began to lay waste with hostile incursion the Franks nearest the Rhine.

Against him, in the aforesaid year of the Lord’s nativity, 394, the leaders of the Franks moved a powerful army; engaging the enemy, they killed more than twelve thousand Gauls and put the rest to flight with Arbogast.

After this, in the year of the Lord 497, the emperor Theodosius came from the East into Gaul with a great army against Eugenius. When Eugenius learned this, he was afraid; and coming to the Rhine, with great prayers and promises he implored the aid of the Franks and Saxons, which nevertheless he could not obtain. Therefore Theodosius, coming into Gaul, joined battle with Eugenius, and, having won the victory, slew him with many others. But Arbogast, the instigator of all evils, in despair, killed himself with his own sword.

Eugenius led an army against the Franks at Cologne.

The Franks kill twelve thousand Gauls.

Theodosius fought against Eugenius.

Eugenius is slain by Theodosius in battle.

[Valentinian?] the emperor died by a noose. Eugenius usurped the empire in Gaul.

The Franks win a victory against the Romans.

Quintinus leads forces against the Franks. Theodosius, victorious, died on his return at Milan; his body was brought back to Constantinople and buried with due honor. After him his two sons succeeded in the empire: Arcadius in the East, and Honorius ruled among the Romans.

In the following year, which was the year of the Lord’s Nativity 388, in the eleventh Roman indiction, Dagobert died, interrex of the Franks, son of the late most noble king Clogio, brother of King Marcomir.

Genebaldus. Genebaldus, the elder son of the aforementioned duke Dagobert, succeeding first in the government of the kingdom of the Franks, presided over the people and the dukes for twenty-one years. Yet he neither wrote himself king nor was called king by others, but, content with the title of duke, usurped nothing of royal dignity for himself. He had two brothers, Marcomir and Sunno, who, together with the other dukes of the Franks, faithfully administered the commonwealth of the people, its wars, and its affairs by common vote.

In the year of the Lord’s Nativity 403, in the second Roman indiction, Marcomir, duke of the eastern Franks, died. He was a vigorous man but a pagan, dwelling among the Suebi at Würzburg among the [Dorigi?], and was buried according to his ancestral superstition on the mountain called Frankenberg.

To him in the Peapolitan duchy of the Franks succeeded his elder son, named Faramund, a prudent, bold, strong, warlike man, who presided over his people for fifteen years. Afterwards, as we shall say, he was elected king of the Franks by the unanimous consent of the dukes and nobles of the people.

After this, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 410, in the eighth Roman indiction, while the Franks, from hatred of the Romans and Gauls, looked the other way, Carocus, king of the Vandals, came out from the Scanzian islands, or, as they are now called, the Gothic islands, with an innumerable multitude of people. He made his way through Germany and Saxony and, with the consent of the Franks, crossed the Rhine and entered Gaul; after ravaging the region round about, he grievously afflicted the natives of the land.

He had a mother, on whose nod he depended, who said to him: “If you seek an eternal name, listen to and follow my counsel. Destroy all the buildings that former kings and princes constructed; kill the people whom they spared. For you will not be able to construct better or more beautiful buildings than those they constructed long ago; nor, by piety, moderation, or clemency in sparing those whom you have conquered, will you make for yourself a glorious name.”

Using the wicked counsel of his impious mother, Carocus crossed the Rhine and wiped out, burned, and utterly destroyed the city of Mainz on this side of the Rhine, together with all its inhabitants. Then he attacked Worms, and afterwards Speyer, with similar fury; after killing all the citizens whom he found, he overthrew them.

Moving from there, he besieged, captured, and destroyed the very ancient city of the Treveri on this side of the Moselle, which was scarcely breathing a little after the slaughter by the Franks. From Trier he moved to the city of Metz, which, when the wall had miraculously fallen by divine agency, he captured and overthrew, all its inhabitants being killed. For all people of both sex and age whom the most savage [unclear] found on his way—

Theodosius Caesar dies at Milan.

Arcadius and Honorius, sons of Theodosius.

Dagobert, interrex of the Franks, died.

The forty-second.

Genebaldus becomes interrex for twenty-one years.

The dukes of the Franks administered the kingdom.

Marcomer, king of eastern Francia, died.

Faramund becomes duke at Würzburg.

Whence Coracus, king of the Vandals, came.

The Vandals crossed the Rhine.

Carocus is wholly governed by his mother’s counsel.

The woman’s wicked but true counsel.

Mainz, Worms, and Speyer too are destroyed.

The very ancient city of the Treveri is destroyed by the Vandals.

Metz is laid waste; people are slaughtered.

Carocus, king of the Vandals. The Vandals ravage Gaul. Carocus is captured. The Vandals and Alans were in Spain. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, devastates Italy. The Vandals remained in Spain for thirty years. A battle between Alaric and Stilicho. Alaric’s hostile suspicion concerning Honorius. Count Stilicho is killed by Honorius. Rome is captured and overthrown by Alaric, king of the Goths. The Franks under their dukes occupied Gaul. The Franks kill the king of the Vandals with twenty thousand men. Respendial, king of the Alans, in Spain.

[unclear] the enemy Carocus cruelly killed without mercy. Advancing from the city of the people of Metz, this savage man entered the interior of Gaul, and after the desolation of many cities he finally besieged the city of Arles. There he was captured by a certain soldier named Marius, bound in chains, and led around with mockery through the cities which he had devastated; and he ended his excessively impious life by a fitting death.

The Vandals, however, who had remained in Gaul with the Alans, after the death of Carocus set over themselves as king Godgisith, a man notorious for crimes.

Alaric also, king of the Visigoths, devastating Italy with a great army, sent word to Caesar Honorius that he should either engage him in battle or grant the Goths a suitable place in his kingdom where they might remain in peace. But Honorius, not daring to fight with Alaric, after first taking counsel with his men, granted the Gauls, which were otherwise being shaken by the fury of many peoples, to the Goths to inhabit.

The Vandals, however, who had remained in Gaul, hearing of the arrival of the Goths, although they had been born from one Scanzian nation, were nevertheless struck with fear, abandoned Gaul, and with the Alans their allies occupied part of Spain. After remaining there for almost thirty years, they later sailed into Africa and destroyed the city of Hippo.

But Alaric, by the permission of Caesar Honorius, intending to seek Gaul with his men, departed from Italy. Count Stilicho, commander of the Roman army, attacked him on the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection when he suspected no harm, without being ordered, and provoked him unwillingly to battle. In the first assault indeed he was victorious; in the second encounter he was defeated and was compelled to seek safety in flight. King Alaric, who believed that this deed had been done by Honorius’s arrangement, immediately broke the treaty which he had made with him, and, changing his route, returned into Italy and laid waste everything round about belonging to Honorius’s party.

But Caesar Honorius, understanding that Count Stilicho was the cause of such great evils, seized him and beheaded him together with his son Eucharius.

King Alaric then captured the city of Rome, overthrew many buildings, and gravely injured the citizens in their possessions. Yet he restrained himself from bloodshed and the slaughter of men, and spared those who fled to the basilicas of the saints. On the third day he departed from Rome of his own accord; and, intending to sail into Sicily, he suffered shipwreck, and not long afterward, being gravely ill, he suddenly exchanged life for death.

While these things were being done in Italy by the Goths, the Franks, thinking that the time had come for them to subject all Gaul to themselves, gathered forces, assembled a great army, and, under the dukes Faramundus, Marcomirus, Sunno, Priam, and Antenor, entered the Gallic territories. First they engaged the Vandals, who were again raiding Gaul, and killed their king Godgisith, whom some call Godogisilus, together with twenty thousand men.

And unless Respendial, king of the Alans, had come in time from Spain, where he was then reigning, to aid the Vandals, they would all have been killed by the Franks.

In the year of the Lord 419 Genebaldus died, interrex of the Franks, son of Dagobert and grandson of King Marcomir, in the twenty-first year of his rule; after his death the Franks, as we shall say, again had kings.

In that same year, immediately after the death of Genebaldus, the nobles and elders of the Franks gathered together and held mature counsel among themselves, judging it useful that, after the custom of the ancients, they should appoint for themselves one king from among the dukes. And the proposal seemed good in the eyes of all; and the following dukes assembled, for the sake of this matter, at another diet: namely Pharamundus, duke of the eastern Franks; Duke Marcomir and Duke Sunno, brothers of the eastern Pharamundus; Duke Clodius, son of Pharamundus; Duke Dagobertus, son of Marcomir; Duke Nicanor; Duke Pharabertus; Duke Richimer; Antenor, duke of the Menipolitani; Duke Priamus, his brother; Bertheri, a Gallican duke; Heribert, an island duke; Duke Sunno and Duke Richer, sons of the late Genebaldus, duke and interrex of the Franks; Duke Diocles; and Duke Meroveus. There were also present some of the priests and wise men of the Franks: Salegasthald, chief priest of Jupiter; Gasthald; Herahd, master of letters; Vuisogasthald, priest of Diana; Rutvuicus; Adelhardus; Richeri; and many others, both from the common people and from the nobles.

All these, after sharing among themselves the counsel of mature deliberation, at last with unanimous consent elected Pharamundus, duke of eastern Francia at Wurzburg, as king of the Franks. He had been the son of Duke Marcomir, who died, as we said above, in the year of the Lord 404; this Marcomir was the son of Clodius, who was the son of Dagobert, who was the son of Genebaldus, first duke of the eastern Franks and brother of King Marcomir; their father was Clogio, king of the Franks, who, as we said above, died in the year of the Lord 478.

Pharamundus, therefore, son of Marcomir, great duke of the eastern Franks, elected king by the common vote of the nobles in the aforesaid year of the Lord’s nativity, 419, in the second Roman indiction, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of April, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, reigned over the Franks for seven years: a man esteemed in his generation, but not a Christian.

He soon entrusted the duchy of eastern Francia to his brother Marcomir to govern; Marcomir ruled it energetically for eighteen years. His lineage and successors in the duchy, continuing in order down to the last duke Hetanus and to Charles the Great, son of Pippin, we have described above, when we set down the genealogy of the first duke.

In the third year of his reign, King Pharamundus of the Franks, in order to restrain by laws a people uncultivated in its customs and fierce in spirit, summoned certain nobles of the kingdom to him and began to hold mature counsel concerning the establishment of new ordinances.

Genebaldus, duke or interrex, dies.

The Franks deliberate about the appointment of a king.

It pleased them to appoint a king for the Franks.

The dukes of the Franks assemble for the election of a king.

Pharamundus becomes king of the Franks, the forty-third.

Genealogy of King Pharamundus.

The Forty-Third.

Pharamundus reigned seven years.

Marcomer received the duchy of eastern Francia.

Pharamundus, king of the Franks, had laws restored.

He corrected the ancient laws. For the constitutions of the old kings the condition of the times did not admit in every respect, although, through the varied unrest of the nation over many years, they had fallen not only into disuse but also wholly into oblivion and contempt; and for this reason it seemed altogether necessary either to alter them by correction or to abolish them by novelty.

Four lawgivers of the Franks.

Salagastus.

Vuesogastald.

Vuyndegast.

Basogasthald.

The laws of the Franks, having been established, are approved by King Clodio.

The Vandals, with the Alans and Suevi, lay waste Spain.

Whence the Vandals are. The Alans. The Suevi. The Lombards. The Normans, etc.

The holy priest Jerome wrote many things.

Jerome, stricken with asthma, dies.

Saint Alban, priest, is martyred at Mainz.

Pharamund, king of the Franks, dies.

But in that assembly of the Franks there were many men prudent in their generation; from their number four of the more distinguished were chosen, to whom the king, together with the nobles, entrusted full power to frame laws. Their names were said to be these: Salagast, Vuesogast, Vuyndegast, Basogast. The first of these built a village beside the banks of the river Main, which he named Salagastat after himself; Vuyndegast, however, in eastern Francia founded a village of his own name, Vuyndesheim.

Therefore these four, coming together in one place for three assemblies, and carefully considering the origins of the cases, issued a new volume of legal constitutions, striking out a judgment on each matter. From the more principal author, Salagast, who was the chief priest of Jove, it received the name of the Salic law; to it King Clodoveus later added a chapter of interpretation.

In the same year the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, having divided the region of the Spains among themselves into three parts for habitation, being separated into three kingdoms, clashed with one another in internal war. The Vandals, Alans, Suevi, Swedes, Goths also, Lombards, and Normans are alike in origin as far as concerns the first homeland of their nation, having arisen from the borders of Germany, from the Scandinavian islands, which are now called Gothia under four or five divisions, from the beginning of their migration.

In the third year of Pharamund, king of the Franks, the blessed Jerome, an illustrious priest for fifty-six years, having published his books, worn out by a severe asthmatic ailment and so cast down in his chest that he could not rise from bed unless he grasped with his hands a rope which hung from a beam for this purpose, died at Bethlehem, in the ninety-first year of his age, on the last day of September.

In the sixth year of Pharamund, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 425, in the eighth indiction of the Romans, Saint Theonestus, bishop of Philippi in Greece, driven from his church by the violence of heretics, came into Italy and then into the borders of Germany with Alban the priest, Ursus the deacon, and Abraham the subdeacon. Of these Alban suffered at Mainz for the faith of Christ.

Pharamund, king of the Franks, dies in the seventh year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 421, in the ninth indiction of the Romans.

Clodius, son of King Pharamund, succeeding his father in the same year, reigned twenty years, a high-minded, brave, and warlike prince, who by his valor powerfully crushed the Gauls and Romans, and extended the boundaries of the kingdom of the Franks far and wide through Gaul, and because of his power was feared by all the nations throughout all Europe.

He, immediately at the beginning of his reign, commanded all the Franks by edict to grow long hair, so that from the Gauls, whom they were either going to attack or who, already conquered, were dwelling with them, the Franks might be distinguished at first sight. For this reason thereafter King Clodus himself was called “the long-haired” or “the hairy,” for he grew his hair and beard long. But the Gauls conquered by him he ordered to have their hair cut off, as a sign of servitude. From this one may infer that the Frankish Germans subjected the Gauls to servitude, and that neither the Gauls nor any other nation ever overcame the Germans. For it is clear, as Hunibald bears witness, that from the time when the Franks first entered Germany until the death of King Clodoveus, who first received the faith of Christ, as we shall say, through not less than nine hundred forty years, under forty-seven kings and petty kings, they always were and remained entirely free, and never served anyone even for a moment. But after Clodoneus, that all the Franks remained free down to the present day, both those who are in Gaul and those who remained in Germany, since it is known to those skilled in histories without envy, needs no proof.

Clodus, king of the Franks, in the eighth year of his reign, which was the four hundred thirty-fourth year from the Lord’s birth, in the second indiction of the Romans, having gathered forces, moved his army into Thuringia. The Franks, as we said far above, under King Franco, in the thirty-seventh year before the birth of Christ, had made a perpetual treaty with the Thuringians, Saxons, Teutons, and Germans, which was kept inviolate by all for almost 430 years, until the death of King Marcomir. But after Marcomir, king of the Franks, was killed by the emperor Valentinian, as was said before, in the year of the Lord 393, the Thuringians and Saxons, together with the Germans and Teutons, withdrew from the alliance of the Franks, affairs having been conducted not sufficiently prudently under the dukes.

On account of this breach, King Clodus powerfully entered Thuringia, defeated the king and the people, and compelled them to pay annual tribute to the Franks and thereafter to obey the commands of the victors, so that those who had scorned to remain free allies under the law of the ancient treaty were forced to be their servants, subjects, and tributaries. The same later happened to the Germans and Saxons, who, after breaking the treaty of alliance, thereafter no longer found the Franks friends, as before, but kings and lords. Then King Clodius, after crossing both the Rhine and the Meuse, moved an expedition into Gaul, and, devastating and powerfully occupying the whole region of Tongeren, subjected it to the kingdom of the Franks; and for the confirmation of the new possession, which he had formerly lost but now recovered, he settled there for some time. Then, advancing as far as [Tabula?], he recovered everything.

Forty-Fourth

Clodus the long-haired reigned twenty years.

The Franks, as free men, grew their hair long.

The Gauls, as slaves, had their hair cut off.

Not the Gauls subjected the Franks to themselves, but the Franks subjected the Gauls.

All the Franks, both Gallic and Germanic, were always entirely free.

King Clodus moved the army of the Franks into Thuringia.

The Thuringians withdraw from the alliance of the Franks.

The Franks subject Thuringia to their kingdom, so that the Thuringians are subjected to the servitude of the Franks.

The Franks subject the Gauls to their servitude.

The Franks send scouts into Gaul. The Burgundians in the province of Lyon. What the scouts saw and heard throughout Gaul. King Clodius took note of their words. The Franks launched an expedition into Gaul. The Franks killed the Roman soldiers at Tournai. The Franks subjected a great part of Gaul to themselves. Clodius the long-haired, king of the Franks, greatly increased the kingdom. The names of the peoples whom Clodius subjected. Clodius, king of the Franks, dies [unclear]. The Forty-Fifth: Meroveus reigned twelve years.

After these things, in his eleventh year, in the fifth indiction of the Romans, Clodius, king of the Franks, considering that the power of the Romans had declined in no small degree, sent scouts into further Gaul, so that they might diligently investigate the situation of the land, the strength of the people, and the guard of the cities and fortifications, and take care to report back to him as quickly as possible. At that time the Burgundians were living in the province of Lyon, and the Goths in Aquitaine, who, together with the Spaniards and Gauls, occupied the land.

When the scouts returned to Clodius, they reported that the regions were excellent, the land wholly fruitful, the situation also very pleasant, the people unarmed, fearful, and weak, and that the Roman guard in the cities was small. When he had heard this, King Clodius, who had nothing more in mind than to extend the name and glory of the Franks, and their kingdom, gathered a great army of his men, and, moving beyond the river which is called Tabula toward the sea into Gaul, besieged and took the city of Cambrai, killing all the Roman soldiers whom he found in it.

Then, moving through the Carbonarian Forest, he hastened on his way to the city of Tournai, which city was fortified by a Roman garrison. But the Roman soldiers who were in the garrison, when they had heard of the arrival of the Franks, advanced against them outside the city for battle; in that battle they were all killed by the Franks to the last man, so that not even one remained of all of them to carry news of the others’ destruction to the Romans. They subjected the city of Tournai, with the whole region, to themselves.

Then, advancing further, the Franks brought the Morini, the Taravani, and whatever remained of the Gauls as far as the sea under their complete power, and they possess all these things down to the present day, which the Romans afterward neither recovered nor indeed will be able to recover forever. For Rome has withered, though once it flourished.

But Clodius, the distinguished king of the Franks, after he had magnificently enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom, and had powerfully subjected to the kingdom of the Franks all the land of the Gauls which lay between the Rhine on the east, the southern sea on the west, the British sea on the north, as far as the Seine toward the south, that is, the Batavi, Menapii, Tungri, Taravani, Morini, Ambiani, people of Cambrai, people of Tournai, Atrebates, Bellovaci, and whatever lies between these regions, and beyond the Seine as far as the Loire, died in the twentieth year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 446, in the fourteenth indiction.

Meroveus, the elder-born son of the aforementioned King Clodius, succeeding his father, reigned over Francia for twelve years, a prince inferior to none of the preceding kings in power, courage, and the greatness of his deeds; he crushed the Roman empire, and, following his father’s footsteps in glorious imitation, not moderately increased the kingdom of the Franks in the few years in which he reigned.

King Clodius of the Franks had carried out his works in Gaul and Britain under his kings. Meroveus, his successor, continuing these magnanimous deeds, but changing him so that he might be ruled in Francia, and afterward he died. But Remigius, successor of Meroveus, who afterward had led in Germany, and afterward reigned in Britain, everywhere they will have the memory of his work. But Clodius afterward had led on behalf of the Roman cause in Germany, and afterward, having returned to Gaul, reigned there, and afterward died with his son Clovis, who afterward will reign in Francia. But what may have been of the merit of Clodius, or whether it was, we cannot now judge certainly; but an example of this kind suffices, whereby a father as teacher, so long as he is able, educates and is educated by his own son; and if his son does a good part, he seems to give thanks to the father for it. And thus Clodius too, so long as he was able, educated and does educate his son Meroveus, and if Meroveus did a good part, Clodius gave thanks to him.

Meroveus, king of the Franks, had performed magnanimous deeds, and afterward was dead, as we said above. Afterward Remigius had led in Germany, and afterward in Britain, and afterward reigned in Francia. And afterward Remigius died, and afterward Gaiseric and afterward [unclear] led on behalf of the Roman cause in Germany, and afterward he reigned in Gaul, and afterward died with his son Clovis. But what may have been the merit of Gaiseric, or whether it was, we cannot now certainly judge; but examples of this kind suffice, that fathers as teachers, so long as they are able, educate and are educated by their own son, and if their sons do a good part, they will give thanks to the father for it. And thus Gaiseric too, so long as he was able, educated and does educate his son Clovis, and if Clovis did a good part, Gaiseric gave thanks to him. Clodius, king of the Franks, had acted meritoriously, and afterward dies, as we said above.

Meroveus, king of the Franks, will be found in the memory of works of magnanimity, and afterward was dead, as was said above. Afterward they had led on behalf of Rome, Gaiseric, and afterward he reigned in Gaul, and afterward they died with his son Clovis. But what may have been of the merit of Gaiseric, or whether it had been, we cannot now judge certainly; but examples of this kind will suffice, that a father as teacher, so long as he is able, educates and does educate his sons, and if his sons do a good part, they will give thanks to patrons for it. Thus Gaiseric too, so long as he was able, educated and was educated by his son Clovis, and if Clovis had done a good part, Gaiseric would have given thanks to him. Clodius, king of the Franks, was held to have meritorious works performed, and afterward was dying, as is said above. And afterward they had led through Rome, Gaiseric, and afterward he reigned in Galicia, and afterward they died with his son Clovis. But what may have been of the merit of Gaiseric, or whether it had been, we cannot now judge certainly; but examples of this kind, that a father as teacher, so long as they are able, educates and does educate his sons, and those sons of his who have done a good part have given thanks to their father for it. Thus Gaiseric too, so long as he was able, educated and was educated by his sons Clovis, and if Clovis had done a good part, Gaiseric would have given thanks to them.

For all the territories of the Gauls which the father of the Franks had added to the kingdom, throughout all the days of his reign he not only kept under his own rule, but also, with the Romans wherever they were found either killed or put to flight, he extended the bounds of the possession he had acquired far and wide in a remarkable manner.

In the eighth year of his reign earthquakes were almost continual, and many fearful signs were shown in the sky. For on a certain day, as evening was coming on, the sky appeared in the north red as fire, with certain brighter lines interspersed through the fiery redness, deformed into the likeness of spears. The moon suffered an eclipse; a comet of dreadful magnitude appeared; and many other prodigies were seen, which the evils that followed declare not to have been at all idle.

For in the following year, which was the ninth of King Meroveus and, from the Lord's Nativity, 453, in the sixth indiction of the Romans, Attila king of the Huns, Vualimirus king of the Ostrogoths, Ardaricus king of the Gepids, and other northern peoples, conspiring together, set out from the borders of Pannonia and invaded both the western empire and the kingdom of the Franks in the Gallic regions with five hundred thousand fighting men; they wrought immense slaughter and spared no one.

And first, indeed, throughout all Gaul their fury, God permitting it, raged to such an extent that no strength or firmness of fortification could defend a city, town, or castle from their assault. Against their insolence Meroveus king of the Franks, and Theodoric also, king of the Visigoths, and Aetius, patrician of the Romans, advanced to war with the military forces of various other peoples, by common preparation; with them they fought in the Catalaunian fields from morning until night. And the Franks with their allied companions defeated the enemy, although Attila was not wholly destroyed.

In that battle one hundred eighty thousand fighting men were slain, among whom Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, a most warlike man, also fell. When the Franks, together with the others who had assembled against the Huns, withdrew, King Attila, taking his army, returned into [unclear], so that, after repairing his army, he might be able to continue the fury he had begun and reduce Gaul together with Italy to desolation.

For in the following year King Attila entered Italy and either plundered or utterly overthrew almost all its cities. Pope Leo I came to him dressed in pontifical vestments, and obtained not only safety for the city and people, but also that he should depart, leaving Italy. When he was asked by his men why he had become mild, he replied that he had not revered him, but rather a certain old man, venerable in appearance, standing beside him, who with a drawn sword threatened death to the king if he should either grieve the pontiff or deny anything that he asked. Not long after, King Attila, glutted at his wedding, died from a stroke of apoplexy.

He kept Gaul powerfully under his authority.

Earthquakes and many signs appeared.

A comet appeared in the sky.

Attila of the Goths; Vualamirus; Ardaricus.

The Huns with Attila devastate the empire.

The Huns reached Gaul.

The Franks fought against the Huns.

One hundred eighty thousand fighting men killed.

The Huns devastated all Italy.

Pope Leo I.

King Attila saw an angel of the Lord beside the pontiff.

The city of the Treveri is captured by the Franks and possessed by them.

The emperor Avitus was staying among the Treveri.

Lucius, a senator of the Treveri, handed the city over to the Franks.

Avitus violated the wife of Lucius.

The Franks are summoned to Trier by Lucius.

The city of the Treveri had for many years been subject to the Romans.

The kingdom of the Franks grew greatly over 900 years.

The Franks, by continuing wars, at last conquered.

The kingdom of the Franks greater than all the kingdoms of all Europe.

In the eleventh year of Meroveus, king of the Franks, and in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 457, in the tenth Roman indiction, the Franks took the city of the Treveri on the following occasion; Attila, king of the Huns, had captured it in war a few years before and had crushed it with grievous devastation. After the death of Valentinian, whom the friends of the patrician Aetius had killed in the same year, and who after Theodosius had reigned with Marcian, Avitus was appointed emperor by the Romans; under him the city of the Treveri was captured.

At that time there was in the city of the Treveri a certain senator named Lucius, who had a wife judged by very many to be most beautiful; Avitus was wasting away in shameful love for her. For this reason, feigning illness, he lay down on his bed and, as though to obtain relief from his sickness, ordered all the senatorial women of the city to come to visit him in succession. Among the others came the wife of Lucius, suspecting no evil; Avitus at once violated her. When the crime had been committed, the woman returned weeping to her husband’s house. On the next day Caesar Avitus rose from his bed, healthy in body but polluted in conscience by the crime, and said to Lucius when he met him: “You have beautiful baths indeed, Lucius, but you wash in cold water,” hinting at the foul, unnatural discharge of his wife. But Lucius understood the figure, took it grievously, and, messengers and letters having been sent in the utmost secrecy to the Franks, promised that if they came as quickly as possible, he would hand over the city of the Treveri into their power without doubt, delay, or difficulty.

For up to that point the Treveri, for many years past, had sided with the Romans and their kings with stubborn attachment. But the Franks, not forgetful of the slaughter and wrongs which they had once suffered from Nannenus and Quintinus, princes of the Treveri, at the Carbonarian Forest in the time of Duke Dagobert, the interrex, immediately gathered forces and hastened gladly to the destruction of the Treveri. When the city had been captured, the Franks plundered everything and subjected it to their kingdom.

In these times the kingdom of the Franks gradually took on great growth and extended its borders in many ways throughout the Gauls. Hence the kings of the nation, who from their first entrance into Germany had held seats around the Rhine, where Holland now is, with the peoples who are called Gelderlanders, Westphalians, Clivenses, and Frisians, for almost eight hundred and seventy years, at [Neopagus?], Duisburg, and in the other places and castles on this side of the Rhine, transferred the dwelling-place of their habitation into the Gauls, rarely resting from wars, until at last they subjected all Germany, Gaul also, and at the same time Italy, to the kingdom of the Franks.

And so the kingdom of the Franks, which took its beginning from one small people, through much labor, through most bloody wars, through the very great bloodshed of kings, dukes, nobles, soldiers, and commoners, over about nine hundred years at last grew immeasurably; it took on growth beyond all the kingdoms of all Europe, so that it ruled with power over many kingdoms and peoples, and from many kingdoms there was made one which, gathered by the sword, for the honor of the conqueror, would be called, and was, by the name of the Franks From this it is plainly clear that, just as the Franks who remained with the Germans use the language and customs of the Germans, so also those who entered Gaul with the kings and remained with the Gauls changed both their customs and their manner of speaking together with their settlements; and those whom nature had made Germans from the beginning of their birth, change of place in the midst of the Gauls likewise made Gauls in speech and customs. Indeed, when they were in Troy, they practiced Trojan customs and speech; among the Scythians likewise Scythian ones; in Germany they learned and kept German ones, and in Gaul Gallic ones. So too Aeneas, coming from the Trojans into Italy with his people, gradually forgetting his native speech, began to use the customs and language found at Rome.

After this Meroveus, king of the Franks, seized by sickness, died in the pagan worship of idols, as all his forebears had done, in the twelfth year of his reign, but in the year of the Lord’s nativity 458, in the eleventh indiction. The son of King Meroveus, succeeding his father in the kingdom of the Franks, reigned twice through a varied change of affairs. For first after his father he reigned only one year; then, because of his insolence and debauchery, as we shall say, he was deprived of the kingdom and fled into Thuringia. After him the Franks set over themselves as king a certain Aegidius, a Roman; when he had been driven out after three years, Hilderic was recalled from Thuringia into Francia and reigned twenty-two years. And the whole time of his reign, from his first establishment after his father down to his death, came to twenty-six years; yet he reigned only twenty-three, since Aegidius, as we have said, occupied the kingdom for three years while he himself was in exile in Thuringia with King Basinus.

After only one year had been completed in the kingdom, the nobles of the kingdom, conspiring against him, wished to kill him, because, living too insolently and wantonly, he had defiled by his foul conduct many of their daughters and wives and those of the nobles. When he learned this, he fled with a few men into Thuringia, and remained with Basinus, king of the Thuringians, his kinsman, for three years. He withdrew, however, after being deprived by the Franks, in the year of the Lord 459, in the twelfth indiction.

After his departure from the kingdom, in that same year, the princes of the Franks at once set over themselves as king a certain Aegidius, a Roman prefect at Soissons, who occupied the kingdom of the Franks for three years while Hilderic was in exile. He, continually raging against the chief princes of the kingdom, slaughtered many, having no reasonable cause apart from empty suspicion. Therefore the rest, fearing that similar things would at some time threaten them, unanimously arranged a conspiracy against the tyrant, judging that it would be more tolerable to suffer that man to rule the kingdom who abused the daughters and wives of his subjects than to endure longer that man who thirsted for nothing more than the blood of princes.

In the year, therefore, of the Lord’s nativity 462, in the [unclear] indiction. The kingdom of the Franks today is and remains divided in two. The Franks are more often reckoned with the peoples among whom they were. Meroveus, king of the Franks, dies. The forty-sixth. Hilderic reigned twenty-three years. Hilderic, an insolent and debauched king. Hilderic lived twenty-six years in the kingdom. King Hilderic, in fear of the Franks, flees into Thuringia. Aegidius the Roman is made king by the Franks. Aegidius, excessively cruel, is deposed. Between two evils one is more tolerable than the other.

Hilderic, a fugitive, is recalled from Thuringia to the kingdom.

[unclear] the fifteenth. Hilderic, through the diligence and loyalty of his friend Winibald, who was one of the more powerful princes of the kingdom, was recalled from Thuringia to the kingdom of the Franks, restored to his paternal kingdom with the favor of all the nobles and of the nation, and Aegidius, hateful to all, was driven from it. And thereafter Hilderic reigned very moderately for another twenty-two years.

And when Basina, wife of Basanus, king of the Thuringians, had heard that Hilderic had been restored by the Franks to the kingdom, she left her husband and followed him into Gaul, stirred by excessive love for him, which she had contracted from long familiarity in living together among the Thuringians. Hilderic, receiving her as she came with a cheerful countenance, took her as his wife, as one known to him, ill repaying this hospitality to King Basanus, by whom for three years he had been kindly received as a guest.

But as the first night of the marriage approached, Basina advised Hilderic to postpone intercourse for a little while, to watch the doors of the bedchamber, and to report faithfully to her as she prophesied what prodigies he saw in the courtyard on the third occasion. The king, trusting the woman, obeyed as she commanded; and after watching the buildings for the third time, he returned to her, saying that first he had seen in the courtyard of the palace rhinoceroses, that is, unicorns, and also lions and leopards. Secondly, wolves and bears raging and pursuing one another. Thirdly, he said, he saw many dogs, but small ones, which tore one another with their teeth and bit fiercely; but you tell me what they signify.

To these things the woman, a prophetess, spoke thus to the king: Behold, we shall beget offspring, diverse in character in the course of time. For the first generation that will be born from us will be very noble, such that in its nobility it is to be compared to lions and to noble unicorns. From the first generation in time a second will arise, which, after the manner of wolves, with nobility despised, will practice robberies and oppressions of the poor. The third generation after this, which will also be the last from us, will after the manner of dogs tear, bite, and strike one another, until at last, in the final days, the kingdom will fail. That same night the woman conceived and bore a son, named Clodoveus, as we shall say.

In the following year, which was the four hundred sixty-third from the Lord’s nativity, a son was born to Hilderic, named Clodoveus; he afterward succeeded his father in the kingdom of the Franks, and was the first to receive the faith of Christ, as we shall say below.

At about the same time Hilderic, king of the Franks, having gathered a great army of fighters, made war against the people of the Alemanni, who dwelt between Italy and Swabia, where now are the cities of Chur, Sitten, and the Valais. When battle was joined, the Alemanni were defeated and reduced under tribute to the Franks.

In these times also, when Uther Pendragon, king of Britain, which is now called England, had died, his son, named Arthur, was raised up in his kingdom. Concerning him not only the history of the Britons, as Geoffrey of Monmouth relates, but also the voices of the peoples of England proclaim wonders down to the present day, although many things are more fabulous than in accord with the truth. Who Ar-

Arthur was a prince magnificent beyond measure.

Arthur, strong in great uprightness of character, prudence, gentleness, and at the same time humanity, took every care to show himself lovable and venerable to all, because, together with virtue of soul, he also abounded in wondrous liberality toward everyone, and especially toward churchmen, on whom, for the love of Christ, he bestowed many little gifts and also presents.

King Arthur expelled the Saxons and Picts from Britain.

He expelled the Saxons and Picts from Britain, and powerfully subjected the Scots, the Irish, and the Orcadians to his kingdom. When the kings of Dacia and Norway heard this, they came of their own accord and submitted themselves to his lordship.

Merlin.

Marvelous things concerning this Arthur’s birth, and likewise his future deeds, Merlin, the prophet of the English, foretold to his father Uther Pendragon; we made mention of these in the first volume of the Annals.

Odoacer the Saxon came into Gaul.

In these same times Odoacer, by nation a Rugian, or a German Saxon, armed with a multitude of Turcilingi, Heruli, and also Suetii, or those whom we now call Swedes from the island, set out from almost the farthest borders of Saxony and came into Gaul, and entered the city of Orleans as victor. Afterwards he also received Angers into his power by the surrender of its citizens.

The war of the Franks with Odoacer.

Against him Childeric, king of the Franks, led out his army on the following day, joined battle, killed Count Paul, obtained the city, and put Odoacer with his army to flight.

Odoacer, overcome by the Franks, proceeds to Italy.

Odoacer, making peace with King Childeric, left Gaul and entered Italy intending to conquer it. He compelled Orestes, the patrician of the Romans, who did not dare to meet him in Liguria, to flee back; and when Orestes was hiding in the city of Ticinum, which is now called Pavia, he besieged, captured, and killed him.

Odoacer reigns in Italy for fourteen years.

After this he obtained absolutely all the cities and fortifications of Italy, with no one resisting, and possessed them in complete quiet. Placing the diadem of the kingdom on his own head, he reigned in Italy according to his own will for fourteen years; afterwards, however, he was slain by the king of the Goths.

The Franks, after killing the Romans, subjugated all Gaul to themselves.

Childeric, king of the Franks, having gathered a very great army of his men, traversed all Gaul with a powerful hand in the year of the Lord’s birth 475, subjected to his kingdom everything that remained, killed those who dared to oppose him, but received graciously those who voluntarily made surrender. In that tumult he killed many of the Romans and freed Gaul from their dominion.

The Franks, taking Cologne from the Romans, subjected it to themselves.

At the same time the Franks, seizing Cologne Agrippina from the power of the Romans with a strong hand, also subjected it to their own lordship. Then Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and not long afterward Strasbourg, together with all the towns and fortifications throughout the whole Cisrhenane region from the city of Constance in Alemannia as far as the sea, and thereafter through the Morini all Gaul as far as the Loire, they brought under their power, with no one resisting.

Here the petty kings of the Franks multiplied. Sigebert, petty king of the Franks at Cologne.

But in the more important cities they placed dukes from the royal stock of the Franks, who, under the command and power of King Childeric and his successors, were to rule his people and administer justice to individuals according to the laws of the fatherland. Of these, at Cologne they appointed a petty king named Sigebert; at Cambrai, [Riacharius?]; among the Morini,

King Riuacharius. [unclear] Carocus, king of the Morini. Heribertus, king of the Treveri. Godegisilus, king of Metz. Arbogast, king of Mainz. All under one king of the Franks. The Lombards first occupied the Rugi. Childeric, king of the Franks, dies. The forty-fourth. Clovis reigned thirty years, the first Christian. Clovis, king of the Christians, burned churches. Queen Clothild, wife of King Clovis, a Christian. The Franks made war on the Thuringians and overcome them.

Carocus among the Treveri and Mosellans, Heribertus in the principate of the city of Metz, Godegisilus among the people of Mainz, Arbogast, and others in other cities, they appointed as vicars of the kingdom, according to the custom of the ancient Franks; yet King Clovis later had almost all of them killed because of his ambition for monarchy.

In the year of the Lord’s nativity 479, in the second indiction of the Romans, in the times of the aforesaid Childeric, king of the Franks, after Odoacer’s departure from the Rugi, the Lombards invaded Rugium. At that time a fifth king, named Gudeoch, ruled over them, and they dwelt in that kingdom for some time.

But Childeric, king of the Franks, after he had performed many deeds bravely, died in the completed twenty-third year of his reign, but the twenty-sixth interrupted year, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 484, in the seventh indiction of the Romans. Clovis, son of King Childeric by Basina, when he was twenty-one years of age, succeeded his father and reigned thirty years: fifteen of these he spent as a pagan, like all the kings of the Franks before him, in vanity, and the remaining fifteen, reborn in the faith of Christ, he passed faithfully. He was a prince outstanding in form and distinguished in courage of mind; and soon at the beginning of his reign he drove out the son of the former Roman duke Aegidius, named Syagrius, who held rule over Soissons, and added the city to the kingdom of the Franks.

Proceeding from there, he took the city of Reims, over whose church at that time presided Saint Remigius, a most learned bishop; he plundered all the churches both there and elsewhere, burned many, and divided the booty among the soldiers according to law. Whatever of Roman jurisdiction existed in all Gaul, Clovis in a short time subjected wholly to the dominion of the Franks, just as it remains up to the present day. He took as wife Clothild, daughter of Hilperic, king of the Burgundians, whom Gundebald, the king, his brother, had slain; and his wife, that is, Clothild’s mother, was a faithful Christian woman, who diligently admonished the king to believe in the Lord Jesus and to renounce the vain worship of idols. Although he despised this at first, nevertheless, after fifteen years had passed in his reign, and after obtaining victory over the Alemanni, as we shall say in its place, he afterward believed in Christ.

In the ninth year of his reign, King Clovis made war on Thuringia, because they both disdained to pay the tribute formerly imposed on them, and openly accused his mother Basina not only of adultery but also of theft. And so, coming into the region of the Thuringians, he devastated everything with sword and fire, defeated the king, and compelled them to the payment of tributes.

In the eleventh year of his reign King Clovis, having gathered his forces, led an army against Alaric, king of the western Goths; when Alaric met him at the tenth milestone from the city of Poitiers, he killed him together with many others, and added all his treasures and that very city to his own kingdom.

In the fifteenth year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord’s Nativity 499, in the seventh Roman indiction, when the Alemanni, again raised up in pride, would neither be subject to the Franks nor any longer pay tribute, Clovis summoned a great army of his men and launched a strong expedition against the Alemanni for battle. Once the contest had begun, the fighting was fierce and long with the fortune of war undecided, and many fell on both sides.

At last, by the ordering of divine providence, while the Alemanni were fighting bravely, the Franks gradually began to give way; and when it already seemed almost certain that they would flee, the king, bathed in tears, prayed silently within himself, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, whom my wife proclaims to be the Son of God, and able to grant all things asked by those who faithfully believe in you, if today you give me victory over these enemies of mine, I shall believe in you and shall have myself baptized in your name, and I shall be a faithful and devoted servant to your name as long as I live.”

And while he was praying thus, with hands and eyes raised to heaven, and sighing deeply, the help of Christ suddenly came to him; and when it was present, the Alemanni were turned to flight, and those who before had fought immovably like a wall now suddenly fled just as the most terrified women are accustomed to do. In that battle the king of the Alemanni fell, with many others. But when the Franks did not cease to pursue the fleeing Alemanni more insistently, they cried out to King Clovis: “Do not pursue us any further, most victorious king, because we are now yours; we promise that from this time onward we shall serve you forever.” Moved by these pleas, he forbade the pursuit; and, after receiving the Alemanni in surrender, he returned to Gaul.

When he had come to the palace, on the advice of Queen Clotild he called to him Remigius, the most holy bishop of the church of Reims. Having been more fully instructed by him in the Christian faith, in a public assembly, while all the leading men of the Franks listened, he offered himself with the greatest reverence and humility for the holy mystery of baptism. The most learned bishop said: “Gently bow your neck, Sicamber. Worship what you burned. Burn what you worshiped.” From this it is clear that the Franks had somewhat earlier been called Sicambri, not among the Scythians but among the Germans. Clovis, therefore, the first of all the kings of the Franks, received the faith of Christ, and was baptized by Saint Remigius in the thirty-sixth year of his age, the fifteenth of his reign, and the year of the Lord’s Nativity 499, in the seventh Roman indiction.

On the same day, after the king, three thousand of the courtly princes and nobles of the Franks were baptized. The Thuringians are compelled to pay tribute to the Franks. The Franks kill the king of the Visigoths in war. The Franks waged war against the Alemanni under Clovis. Clovis vows that he will become a Christian if he wins. With Christ’s help invoked, the Franks overcame the Alemanni. The king of the Alemanni is slain by the Franks. The Alemanni submit to the [dominion?] of the Franks. Clovis receives the faith of Christ from Remigius. King Clovis is baptized by Saint Remigius the bishop. Three thousand of the chief men of the Franks are baptized on the same day.

Almost all the Franks receive the faith of Christ. The kings and nobles of the Franks build many churches. Clodoneus killed many kinsmen, kings of the Franks. Sigebert, king of Cologne, is treacherously killed by his son through Clodoneus. The credulous young man aspires to his father’s kingdom. Ludovicus, who killed his father, sends word. Ludovicus the parricide invites the king. The parricide is destroyed by the contrivance of King Clodoneus. King Clodoneus comes to Cologne and is admitted.

And in the days that followed, the bishops, priests of the Lord, baptized all the rest of the people with great joy, giving thanks for the mercies of almighty God, who through his grace, in order to give peace to the Church, subjected a most fierce people to the yoke of faith.

Thereafter great things were done for the honor of Christ, not only by Clodoneus but much more by his successors, the kings of the Franks: churches were built, several monasteries of those serving God were founded throughout Germany, Italy, and Gaul, and the ministry of divine worship in time was increased manifold. But King Clodoneus, though he was a man most dutiful toward his subjects, is nevertheless read to have been exceedingly cruel toward his own kinsmen, since he caused many most noble men, sprung from the ancient stock of the kings of the Franks, kings, dukes, and princes, to be cruelly and treacherously killed, so that he alone might hold the kingdom.

But that we may commend a few out of many to posterity, love of historical truth impels us. At that time there was reigning at Cologne Agrippina an old man, born from the seed of the kings of the Franks, named Sigebert, whom Clodoneus’s father Hilderic, after Cologne had been acquired, had placed there as vicar of the kingdom. He had a son named Ludovicus, to whom King Clodoneus wrote thus in cunning and deceit: “Your father is now old, useless for the kingdom; if he were to die, his kingdom would come to you, with our friendship, and not to another.”

The young man, seduced by desire for the kingdom, resolved to kill his father. And when King Sigebert one day, suspecting no evil, went out from Cologne, crossed the Rhine, and was hunting with a few men in the forest of Buronia, the son, as though he would possess his kingdom according to Clodoneus’s promise, had assassins sent against him and caused his father to be killed while he was sleeping in his tent at bright midday.

After the murder, indeed the parricide, had been most wickedly carried out, Ludovicus wrote to King Clodoneus: “My father is dead; I have his treasures in my possession along with the kingdom. Send men, therefore, and whatever pleases you from my father’s treasures, I will send to you with good will.” King Clodoneus wrote back to him: “I give thanks for your good will; I ask that you reveal everything to our men when they come, since you alone are henceforth to possess your father’s kingdom with our friendship.”

When the envoys of King Clodoneus came, Ludovicus showed them his father’s treasures. While they were inspecting various and diverse things, the young man said: “In this chest my father was accustomed to store gold coins.” “Put your hand in,” one of those standing by said, “all the way to the bottom, so that you may test whether it is all gold.” When he had done this and was bent far down, the very man who had ordered it raised his hand and swung an axe into his brain; he died at once in that same place.

When these wicked deeds had been done, King Clodoneus came to Cologne, and, as if unaware of the crimes, summoned all the people of the city and said: “Listen, excellent citizens, to the unspeakable evil that lately occurred. [Chloderic?], the son of my kinsman Sigebert, ensnared his father with false words, saying that I was plotting against his life. And when he was fleeing through the [Buconian?] forest, robbers were sent against him, and he killed his own father. He too, while he was brooding over the treasures, was struck by someone I know not and perished. But in these matters I am in no way privy to the crime. For I cannot shed the blood of my kinsmen, since it is a sin.”

But because these things had so happened, “I give you counsel, if it seems acceptable: turn yourselves to me, so that you may be under my protection.” And they, applauding with hands and voices, set him up on a raised shield according to the custom of the nation, and appointed him king over them. And thus he received into his own power the kingdom of Sigebert with all his treasures. For God daily laid his enemies low beneath his hands, and greatly increased his kingdom, because he walked with an upright heart in the way of God’s commandments.

He also deceitfully seized King Chararic and his son; first tonsuring them, he had one ordained priest and the other deacon. Subjecting their treasures together with the kingdom to himself, he afterwards had both their heads cut off.

[Ragnachar?] also, the king ruling the Franks at Cambrai and living far too wantonly and luxuriously, together with Richarius his brother, were treacherously captured while fleeing from battle; striking them with an axe by his own hand, he killed them.

He also had [Rignomer?], their brother, who was reigning at Le Mans, killed with similar cruelty.

When these men had died, he usurped their kingdoms with their treasures for himself. He also killed many other kings of the Franks, all of whom had been begotten from the blood of his own kin, especially those of whom he was suspiciously very much afraid, lest they take the kingdom away from him; sparing no one, and in this way, when almost all his kinsmen had been extinguished, he enlarged his kingdom throughout all Gaul. But let Hunibald praise Clodoneus as much as he wished, as though he had done well in these matters: I, in this respect, cannot praise a parricide, and one who killed so many innocent men.

For on a certain day, in the presence of many of his courtiers, he is said to have spoken about these relatives and kinsmen of his, whom he himself had destroyed: “Woe to me, because, like a foreigner among strangers, I remain alone, and today I have no one of my relatives or kinsmen still living who could help me in any way in adversity, if it should come upon me, as friend is accustomed to help friend.” But he said this deceitfully, thinking that someone from among those standing around would answer by way of consolation: “Behold, you still have this man or that man from among your own [unclear],” so that those of his kinsmen who survived might themselves also be killed as quickly as possible.

In the seventeenth year of his reign, King Clodoneus, at the continual urging of Queen Clotild, who desired the cruel death of her parents to be avenged upon her paternal uncle, declared war on Gundebald, king of the Burgundians. When he had been defeated, Clodoneus assigned Burgundy to the tribute and subjection of the Franks.

The fictitious exculpation of King Clodoneus.

The people of Cologne receive Clodoneus as king.

Chararic and his son, kings, killed by Clodoneus through deceit.

[Ragnachar?], king of Cambresian Francia, is killed with his brother.

[Rignomer?], king of Cenomannian Francia, is killed by him.

There were several kings of the Franks in these times.

To reign by wronging one’s kin is cruelty.

The words of King Clodoneus were spoken deceitfully.

No one doubts [that he was] an evil man.

War of the Franks against the Burgundians.

Clodoneus, king of the Franks, dies.

Clodoneus, king of the Franks, after his realm had been extended throughout all Gaul and a great part of Germany, and after many things had been bravely accomplished in war and peace, at last died in the thirtieth year of his reign, the fifty-first of his age, and the year of the Lord’s nativity 514, in the seventh Roman indiction. He was buried at Paris in the church of Saint Peter.

He left four sons: Lotharius, Theodoricus, Clodomirus, and Hildebertus, who divided their father’s kingdom in equal portions. But because several kings were subsequently born from these men, and because at one time the kingdom of the Franks was subject to a single monarch, while at another time it was divided into several parts and ruled by many, we have judged it worth the effort to continue in order, marked chapter by chapter in red, the names of those kings who carried the sequence of the royal stock in a direct line down to Hildericus, the last king. For among the sons of Clodoneus, Lotharius was not the firstborn; rather Theodoricus was the elder by birth. Clodomirus was born second; Lotharius himself, by whom the genealogy of the kings is continued, was born third.

After King Clodoneus died, Hunibald also completed his history of the origin of the Franks, divided into eighteen books, comprising a period of no fewer than nine hundred and fifty years, in which there were forty-seven kings from Marcomirus, son of Antenor, who first led the people from the borders of Scythia to the mouths of the river Rhine in Germany, down to the death of King Clodoneus. What follows in this second volume of our annals we have taken from authors whose names are these.

Einhardus, abbot of Saint-Amand; Flodoardus, priest of the church of Reims; Richerus, monk of Reims; Gregorius, archbishop of Tours; Lampertus, abbot in Hasungen; Regino, abbot of Prum; Eghardus, first abbot in Vraugia; Lampertus, monk of Hersfeld; Freculfus, formerly a monk, bishop of Lisieux; Strabus, monk of Fulda; Vuindekindus, monk in Corvey of Saxony; Rupertus, monk of Saint Alban near Mainz; Ioannes, monk of the same monastery; Adelbertus, monk of the monastery of Saint Vincent at Metz; Meginfridus, monk of Fulda; Golftherus, monk of Saint Matthias, in the deeds of the Treveri; Marianus Scotus, monk of Fulda; Sigebertus, monk of Gembloux; Richardus, monk of Cluny; Rupertus Ganguinus also, formerly minister general of the Order of the Holy Trinity; Ado, bishop of Vienne; Galfridus Brito; Saxo Dacus; Ptolemaeus of Lucca, a Saxon by country, in the Rudimentum novitiorum; Vuernherus, Carthusian monk of Cologne; Gotfridus of Viterbo; Rupertus, Premonstratensian canon; Hartmannus Schedel from Nuremberg; Iacobus of Bergamo, hermit of Saint Augustine; Marcus Antonius Sabellicus. From the aforementioned and various other writers of histories I wrote the two volumes of our annals that follow, not without the greatest labor, because there is much diversity among historiographers, not only in the years,

Historiographers. Einhardus. Flodoardus. Richerus. Gregorius. Lampertus. Regino, abbot. Eghardus. Lampertus. Freculfus, bishop. Strabus. Vuindekindus. Rupertus. Ioannes, monk. Ammonius. Adelbertus. Megnifridus. Golfcherus. Marianus. Sigebertus. Richardus. Rupertus. Ado, bishop. Galfredus. Saxo [unclear]. Ptolemaeus. Vuernherus. Godfridus. Rupertus. Hartmannus. Iacobus of Bergamo. Marcus A. Helinandus. Vincentius. Antonius. Martinus. Andreas M.

but also in the deeds and names of persons, which has increased my labor not a little, since quite often something is ascribed to one person which another did or said, and something that was done in another year is narrated as having been done in this one, and a deed which was done in this way by one is said by another to have been done otherwise.

Since, therefore, it is not within my powers to reconcile so great a discordance of histories, I follow the judgment of those whom I find to have differed less from one another, which could be observed not uniformly in every case, but in certain cases.

Therefore the third-born son of King Clodoveus, from whom the line of the kings of the Franks descending in direct succession continued down to Hilderic, the last of the stock of Faramund, reigned after his father in Soissons, a city of the Franks, for fifty years; and when his brothers and all their sons had died, he finally recalled into one monarchy the kingdom that had been divided into four parts. Each of his brothers reigned for a time in his own place.

There is great disagreement among the historians.

Trithemius follows those less discordant.

The Forty-Eighth.

Lotharius reigns for fifty years.

¶ For Theodoricus, the first-born of King Clodoveus, whom he had begotten not by Queen Clotildis, but before his marriage to her by a certain concubine, received in the division of the kingdom of the Franks Austrasia, in which is the city of Metz, together with the other cities belonging to it; and at that time it was called the kingdom of Austrasia, or of the Austrasians, in which he reigned for twenty-three years. After him Theodobertus, his son, reigned over the Austrasians for twenty-two years. When he too had died, his son Theodobaldus reigned over the people of Metz for nine years; and when he had departed this life, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 560, in the eighth Roman indiction, without children, his uncle Lotharius, named above, received the kingdom of the Austrasians, or of the people of Metz.

Theodoricus reigned over the Austrasians for twenty-three years.

Theodobertus reigns after his father for [fourteen?] years.

Theodobaldus reigns for nine years.

¶ Clodomirus, however, the third son of Clodoveus, but the first-born by Queen Clotildis, reigned at Orléans in Gaul for seven years; and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 521, after he had killed Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, with his wife and sons, and had again engaged with his brother Godemarus, he was killed by him. He left three young sons, Theodobaldus, Guntherus, and Clodoaldus; after their father’s death, the most pious grandmother Clotildis, living at Tours, raised them with herself like a mother. But a few years later, Lotharius and Hildebertus, kings and brothers of the aforesaid Clodomirus, having summoned to themselves their nephews Theodobaldus and Guntharius, and in their ambition for rule devising wicked things, killed them with their own hands. But the third, changing nobility destined to perish into divine servitude, became a cleric.

Clodomirus reigned at Orléans for seven years.

The three sons of King Clodomirus of Orléans are named.

The impious kings killed their nephews.

¶ Hildebertus, however, the fourth son of Clodoveus, king of the Franks, received the kingdom of Neustria in the division of the monarchy, and reigned at Paris for forty-six years. When he at last died, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 559, in the seventh Roman indiction, his brother Lotharius received the kingdom of the Parisians into his own power. Thus, with three now

Hildebertus reigned in Neustria for forty-five years.

H

Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, killed his son. King Sigismund performed great penance. Bertharius and Baldaricus, kings of the Thuringians, are slain. Ermenfrid, king of Thuringia, had the brothers treacherously killed. Saint Brigid died in Scotland. Boethius, the consul, a most learned man, died. Saint Benedict, father of monks. He wrote the Rule of monks. The Order of Saint Benedict is instituted. The Cistercian. Also the Celestines, Wilhelmites, Mount Olivet, the Slavs, Vallombrosa, Saint Paul, the Humiliati. The expedition of the Franks into Thuringia. The final destruction of the kingdom of the Thuringians by the Franks.

With the brothers and their sons and grandsons dead, or cruelly killed, Lothar alone obtained the monarchy of the whole kingdom of the Franks, and thereafter, after all his brothers, reigned still for five years.

In the second year of King Lothar, Sigismund, king of Burgundy, who had built the monastery of the Agaunensian martyrs, killed his son Sigeric, having followed the wicked counsel of that boy’s stepmother. Led to great penitence, he devoted himself wholly to the holy martyrs of Agaunum; and that he was worthy of pardon is attested by frequent miracles after his death, for in his honor health is granted to those suffering from fever.

In the fourth year of King Lothar, Theodoric, king of Austrasia, his brother, having been asked by Ermenfrid, king of the Thuringians, under the promise of half his kingdom, treacherously killed the brothers Bertharius and Balderic on the road, while they were returning toward Thuringia, suspecting no evil, from the city of Metz, to which they had come for the sake of greeting him. But when the crime had been carried out, and Theodoric sought from Ermenfrid the half of the kingdom of Thuringia promised to him, the latter neither gave what he had promised nor sent a fitting reply to the petitioner, deceived by the counsel of his wife, who was the sister of that Theodoric and of Lothar. This matter afterward, as we have said in the first volume of the Annals, brought on the final destruction of all Thuringia and extinguished there the royal name and title. In the same year the holy virgin Brigid, dying in Scotland, ascended to Christ.

In the seventh year of Lothar, king of the Franks, Boethius, the Roman consul, worn down by long imprisonment, was killed by Theodoric, king of the Goths, who, after Odoacer had been slain, was occupying Italy; he wrote many useful works for the faith of Christ. Father Benedict, our holy lawgiver, also flourished in these times in Italy, the first founding abbot of the monastery of Cassino, who was the prince of all western monks. To them he handed down a rule of life outstanding in every discretion, and a lucid teaching of words, made honorable by his deeds, is called by the name of Saint Benedict himself. The Order of Cistercian monks also professes the same rule. The Order of Saint William. The Order of Mount Olivet. The Order of the Slavs. The Order of Vallombrosa. The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit. The Order of the Humiliati, together with certain others which, for the sake of brevity, we have passed over here. The life of this saint the divine Pope Gregory set forth.

In the tenth year of Lothar, king of the Franks, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 524, the seventh indiction of the Romans, when the king of the people of Metz sought satisfaction from Ermenfrid, king of the Thuringians, for the murder of his brother, as we have said, and did not obtain it, he was roused to anger. Having called to his aid his son Theudebert and his brother Lothar, kings, he moved an expedition into Thuringia, captured King Ermenfrid with his wife and children, and subjected the whole kingdom to himself.

From that time the Thuringians did not have a king of their own.

And Radegund, among the other captives, daughter of Bertharius, once king, whom, as we have said, his brother Ermenfrid had caused to be killed through Theodoric king of the Metensians, King Lotharius joined to himself in marriage. She shone with great holiness, and afterward, becoming a nun, was radiant with very many signs and miracles. Concerning this destruction of the Thuringians, Fortunatus the archbishop wrote more fully in verse and in prose.

In the twelfth year of his reign, Lotharius king of the Franks, with his brother Hildebert, besieged Autun, a city of Burgundy, and, after King Godomar had been put to flight, powerfully subjected the whole province of the Burgundians to his rule.

In the year [unclear] of the reign of Lotharius king of the Franks, he powerfully wrested from the hand of King Athalaric whatever his grandfather Theodoric, king of Italy, had possessed in Gaul.

In these days Saint Nicetius flourished, formerly abbot of the monastery of Limoges, archbishop of Trier, a man of many virtues in Christ, whose deeds are extant. Theodoric king of Austrasia, who ruled over the Metensians, the people of Trier, Liege, Cologne, Mainz, and all those dwelling this side of the Rhine, brought many clerics from among the Arvernian citizens, whom he ordered to be enrolled for service to the Lord in the church of Trier.

In the twenty-sixth year of King Lotharius, in the ninth indiction, King Hildebert, with his brother’s son Theodobert, rose against that same Lotharius, his brother. But his mother Clotild, by prayers before God, acting so that there should be no war among her sons, they were restrained by a dreadful storm; and since not even a sign of so great a terror appeared over Lotharius, Hildebert, compelled by manifest necessity, withdrew from his brother in peace.

In the twenty-eighth year, Lotharius and Hildebert, the aforementioned brothers, after besieging the city of Caesaraugusta in Spain, when the citizens prayed to God and carried around the tunic of the holy martyr Vincent, received from them as a gift the stole of that martyr himself, and returned in peace, after the greater part of Spain had been acquired by war. At the same time Saint Maurus and Faustus, disciples of the divine Benedict, flourished in Gallic France, distinguished in conduct, learning, holiness of life, and miracles.

In the fortieth year of Lotharius king of the Franks, and in the year 554 of the Lord’s nativity, in the second Roman indiction, Queen Clotild died, formerly the wife of the great Clovis, king of France, with whom she also was buried at Paris in the church of Saint Peter. In the same year Bucellinus and Amingus, dukes of the Franks, having joined battle with Narses the Roman patrician, were both killed by him, together with not a few others.

For these were the two dukes Bucellinus and Amingus, who seven years earlier had entered Italy with Theodobert, king of the Franks, with a strong force, and did not cease to disturb it with various warlike assaults. From there, sailing into Sicily, they subjected it to the tribute of the Franks, and, after many spoils had been gathered, rebellion [unclear] In the forty-third year of his reign, Lotharius king of the Franks, having gathered his forces, moved into Saxony. For the Saxons, until then tributary to the Franks, into rebellion

Lotharius alone obtained the monarchy. King Lotharius burned Chramn, his son, with fire. Lotharius, king of the Franks, dies. The monastery of Saint Medard is built at Soissons. The monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Pres is founded.

The Forty-Ninth. Chilperic reigned twenty-four years. Two years earlier he reigned at Soissons. Audovera, wife of King Chilperic. Fredegund, deceiver of the queen. The contriver of the deceit addresses the king. Chilperic repudiates Audovera as his co-mother.

They rise up, and the Thuringians too bring aid, who themselves also bore the yoke of the Franks with great hardship and, with equal firmness, refused every tribute. Therefore Lotharius, coming into Saxony with a great army, subdued the Saxons in a severe battle.

In the forty-fifth year of his reign, Lotharius the king, now that his brother Childebert was dead, and all the others, both his nephews and his brothers, had either been killed or consumed by natural death, alone obtained the monarchy of the whole kingdom of the Franks for five years.

In the forty-ninth year of his reign Lotharius, king of the Franks, pursued with an army Chramn, his son, long rebellious and doing many evil things in the kingdom, when he had fled into New Brittany, which was formerly called Armorica, to Conobrus, duke of Brittany. When battle was joined, he killed Duke Conobrus, obtained Brittany, captured his son, and, consumed by fires together with his wife and daughters, reduced him to ashes.

In the following year, that is, the fiftieth of his reign, but the year of the Lord’s nativity 563, in the twelfth indiction of the Romans, this same Lotharius, king of the Franks, dies, leaving four sons, Charibert, Gunthram, Sigebert, and Chilperic, who again divided their father’s kingdom among themselves. The aforesaid King Lotharius built the abbey of Saint Medard, formerly the first bishop of Noyon and Tournai, at Soissons, into which he translated the body of the same saint from Tournai and placed it with the highest reverence and honor. But King Childebert, his brother, built the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, in which he deposited the stole of Saint Vincent the martyr together with his dalmatic. But the order of the abridgement now requires that we pursue the division of the kingdom.

Chilperic the Younger, son of Lotharius king of the Franks, is therefore placed by us before his brothers in this abridgement of the kings, because through him the line of kings descending in straight order is continued down to Childeric. He reigned in the city of Soissons two years before the death of his father, and, succeeding his father, reigned twenty-two years. And thus the whole time that he reigned was twenty-four years. The name of his first wife was Audovera, by whom he begot two sons, Clovis and Merovech, both of whom, killed in adolescence by the deceit of their stepmother, as we said in the first volume, perished.

When Audovera had given birth to an infant while the king was absent, since no one who would raise the boy to be baptized from the sacred font was at hand, the queen mother herself, deceived by Fredegund’s wicked counsel, fulfilled the office of co-mother, and raised from baptism the infant whom she had borne. Fredegund, the contriver of the deceit, joyfully announcing this to the king when he soon came, said: “You will not have Audovera as wife henceforth, O king; she preferred to be your co-mother rather than your spouse. Now I am yours.” For this reason King Chilperic repudiated Audovera his wife, asserting that by decree of the canons it was forbidden him to have his co-mother as wife. Seduced by such cunning through Fredegund, the queen is thrust into a monastery, her deceitful Fredegundis, by fraud, was taken by King Hilperic as his wife; by her he begot, as we shall say later, the successor to his fatherly kingdom.

Heribert, however, the eldest son of Lotharius, in the division of the monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks received Neustria, holding the seat of his kingdom at Paris; and he reigned nine years, and, doing nothing worthy of memory, died in the year of the Lord 573, in the eleventh indiction of the Romans, leaving the kingdom to his brothers.

Gunthramus, King Lotharius’s second-born son, reigned at Orleans for thirty-three years, a prince excellent in his own condition, but he obtained a most wicked wife, named Austrigildis. Among the many evils she perpetrated, when she was sick unto death and could not be helped by the physicians, she circumvented the king with crafty persuasion, so that he confirmed by an undoubted oath that he would grant her the fulfilment of one request. “Before I die,” she said, “have the heads of my physicians, who have tormented me in vain with their medicines, cut off while I am watching.” What more? Those who were to bring in the physicians were sent at once; when they entered the queen’s chamber, the witch said: “Ha! You are not physicians, but liars, who by your medicines force me to die before my time. I have prepared such a reward for you that, compelled to die, you shall pass over before me.” Soon, to satisfy the lust of the impious woman, the executioner, as ordered, cut off the heads of the two innocent physicians while that beast herself watched and laughed. King Gunthramus died in the year of the Lord 597, in the fifteenth indiction of the Romans.

Sigebert, however, the third-born son of King Lotharius, reigned at Metz in Austrasia over the people of Trier, and also those of [unclear], Cologne, Mainz, and the other cities and provinces on this side of the Rhine, for thirteen years. He had as wife a Spaniard named Brunia, whom writers have more often been accustomed to call Brunihildis, the murderess of ten kings, who was so hateful to the Franks that the prophecy of the Sibyl seemed to be fulfilled in her, saying: “There will come Brunia from the regions of Spain; before her sight peoples and kings will perish, but she herself will perish by the heels of horses.” Hilperic begot from her a son named Theodobert, who afterward reigned twenty-one years and died in the year of the Lord 599. His son, named Theodoricus, succeeding, reigned sixteen years; at the instigation of his grandmother Brunichildis he expelled Saint Columbanus from Gaul in the year of the Lord 614, and died shortly afterward, leaving three sons, as is read, bastards. The eldest, Sigebert, was put to flight in battle by Lotharius, son of the aforesaid king, and thereafter appeared nowhere. Corbus, the second-born, was killed by the same Lotharius. But Meroveus, the third-born, whom the same Lotharius had raised from the sacred font, he preserved alive. Brunihildis, however, the murderess of ten kings, he put to death.

In the third year of King Hilperic, the Huns, having gone out with a great army, began to ravage the regions of the Franks in Thuringia in hostile fashion. Against their insolence King Sigebert, brother of King Hilperic,

Hilbert reigned nine years.

Hildebert, king of Neustria, given over to idleness.

Gunthramus reigned at Orleans thirty-three years.

A cruel queen, unworthy of memory.

The physicians are beheaded by the persuasion of the queen.

King Gunthramus dies.

Sigebert reigned in Austrasia.

Brunichildis, wife of Sigebert, cruel.

Prophecy of the Sibyl concerning Queen Brunihildis.

Theodoricus, king of Austrasia, his son.

The three sons of Theodoricus and bastards.

The Huns ravaging Thuringia are [unclear] by the Franks.

Thuringia had been subjugated by the Franks.

Battle-lines of fighting men were seen in the air. Gregory.

The Lombards came from Pannonia into Italy.

The part of the Saxons who are now Westphalians entered Italy with the Winili.

The Suevi received Saxony from King Sigebert for thirteen years.

The Winili, so called first and afterward Lombards. The Saxons were deceived by the Lombards.

The Saxons return through Gaul to their own lands.

The Suevi refused to admit the Saxons.

War takes place between the Saxons and the Suevi.

Whence the name Westphalians, who are also Lombards in Ptolemy.

under whose reign the Thuringians were contained, brought forth his forces, joined battle, laid low many thousands of the Huns, and put the rest to flight. Meanwhile, while Sigebert was occupied in Thuringia with the Huns, his brother, King Chilperic, forgetful of brotherly charity, laid waste the borders of his kingdom with a hostile incursion, and besieged the city of Reims, and received it in surrender.

In the same year spears were seen in the air, and battle-lines of soldiers, and at the same time the din of clashes was heard, first portending the incursion of the Lombards into Italy, concerning whom Pope Gregory the Great speaks in a homily. For in the following year, namely the year of the Lord’s nativity 568, in the first Roman indiction, Alboin king of the Lombards entrusted Pannonia, in which he had formerly dwelt with his people, to the Huns, friends of the Lombards, and, taking as allies Saxons, Marcomanni, and other neighboring peoples, occupied with all his people that part of Italy which, from the name of the people, is called Lombardy down to the present.

In the same year Sigebert king of the Franks, who lived at Metz in Austrasia, brother of Chilperic, surveying the land of Saxony, empty of inhabitants who had gone with the Lombards, as we have said, into Italy, lest it be reduced utterly to solitude, handed it over to the Suevi to inhabit. And so the Saxons lived with the Lombards in Italy, and the Suevi in Saxony, for fourteen years. When these had passed, since the Saxons saw themselves among the Lombards in the lowest place, in the condition of slaves, they took counsel to return to Saxony.

Therefore in the year of the Lord’s nativity 582, in the fifteenth Roman indiction, the Saxons who were with the Lombards in Italy, no longer enduring the pride and unjust domination of the Winili, for so the Lombards were formerly called, returned with their children and wives, under the conduct of Sigebert king of the Franks, through southern Gaul to Cologne Agrippina. There, after crossing the Rhine, they sought again their former seats in Saxony, which they had left behind.

But the Suevi, to whom King Sigebert had given them to inhabit, at first denied the Saxons entry; secondly, they agreed to restore to them a third part. But when the Saxons demanded back not a part but the whole, the Suevi offered half the region. The Saxons remained constant in their judgment, demanding back not a part, not half of the land, but the entire whole.

At last the matter was committed to the sword; the fight for possession of the settlements was waged very fiercely by both armies. At length the Suevi were defeated; more than twenty thousand of them perished in that battle by the sword of the Saxons. And thus the Saxons recovered by war the land which, by the persuasion of the Winili, they had left quite imprudently, in the fourteenth year after their departure, some of the Suevi being killed, others expelled.

From that time the aforesaid Saxons, returning from Lombardy into Germany, are called Westphalians, that is, western Gauls, down to the present day, although they are nevertheless true Saxons and Germans. The city they built in the middle of their region a new [city], which they called Milan, in memory of the other one in Lombardy; in it there is now the episcopal see of the church of Münster. Hence some writers also called these Saxons, or Westphalians, Lombards, because they cast off their customs and rites in Saxony.

In the fifth year of King Chilperic, the king of Austrasia, his brother, remembering the injuries which he had received from him when, in the preceding year, absent from the kingdom, he was fighting with the Huns in Thuringia, gathered a great army and advanced against him to war. He occupied the city of Soissons, the seat of his brother Chilperic’s kingdom. He condemned his son Theodebert, when captured, to exile; he defeated Chilperic himself in battle and put him to flight; and all the things which he had previously taken away he recovered again for himself, and he usurped a great part of his kingdom.

In the same year King Sigebert took as wife Bruna, or Brunhild, daughter of Athanagild, king of the Visigoths, as was said above, who was reigning in Spain.

In the seventh year of Chilperic, king of the Franks, the Huns again devastated Thuringia; by magic arts they accomplished great things. Against them Sigebert, king of the Franks, advanced to battle. By their enchantments he had almost been deceived and defeated, but, prudently invoking the name of Christ, he stood firm, fought manfully, and finally conquered; and when a treaty had been concluded, the Huns returned to their own lands.

In the following year the Winili, who are the Lombards, after the city of Pavia had been taken by surrender after a siege of three years, in a short time gained almost all Italy except Rome and Ravenna, and, with no one resisting them, held dominion powerfully everywhere. In the ninth year of King Chilperic, in the sixth indiction of the Romans, his brother Charibert died, king of the Franks, who reigned in Neustria, in the city of the Parisians, without children.

In the tenth year of Chilperic, king of the Franks, Alboin, king of the Lombards, was killed by a certain armor-bearer of his on the following occasion. In the five hundred and seventh year of the Lord’s nativity, in the tenth indiction of the Romans, in the times of Lothar, great king of the Franks, this same King Alboin had a war with Chunimund, king of the Gepids, in which sixty thousand men fell on both sides. There Alboin killed Chunimund and had a drinking-cup fitted for himself from the shell of his head, which he was especially accustomed to use on the festive days of birthdays. He also took his daughter captive as his wife. And when, in the aforesaid year of Chilperic, on a certain solemn day, having become rather merry among the cups, he offered his wife her father’s brain, saying [unclear] For two years after he had died, the Lombards were under dukes for ten years.

Chilperic, king of the Franks, in the thirteenth year of his reign, in the tenth indiction of the Romans, too treacherously presses, harasses, and disturbs Sigebert his brother, king of the Franks in Austrasia, through his son Theodebert.

The city of the Westphalians, Milan, now Münster.

The Westphalians, who are Lombard Saxons.

The war of King Sigebert against Chilperic his brother.

Bruna, who is Brunhild, becomes the wife of King Sigebert.

The Huns devastated Thuringia.

The Lombards, who are Winili, take Pavia.

Charibert, king of Neustria, died among the Parisians.

Alboin, king of the Lombards, is killed.

Chunimund, king of the Gepids, is killed.

Sixty thousand men fell in that battle.

Alboin, king of the Lombards, is killed.

Sigebert, king of the Franks, dies among the Austrasians.

Whence, in the following year, the fourteenth of King Hilperic, and the year of the Lord’s nativity 578, a cruel war arose between them, in which Theodobert, son of Hilperic, was killed, and many of the Franks were slain on both sides.

After this, the Franks over whom Hilperic ruled, holding their own lord in hatred, resolved by common counsel to set over themselves as king his brother Sigebert, who seemed to be of a gentler disposition. When Fredegund, the wife of Hilperic, learned this, she sent two boys and treacherously caused King Sigebert to be killed in the aforesaid year of the Lord’s nativity.

In the following year Hilperic, king of the Franks, compelled Brunhild, the widow of his brother Sigebert, to go into exile with her sons. Almost all the Franks labored under hatred of this woman; although she made excessive use of much insolence, nevertheless she honored the churches of God. She also built several monasteries, and in various places established from the foundations new buildings of different kinds and of admirable workmanship.

In the seventeenth year of Hilperic, king of the Franks, the dukes of the Lombards began to lay waste the borders of the Gauls. The Franks met them with a great and strong multitude of forces, and fought several battles with them with doubtful fortune, sometimes defeated, and sometimes also victorious. In the end, however, the Franks triumphed.

Hilperic, king of the Franks, in the twenty-third year of his reign after his father, at the contrivance of his wife Fredegund, was killed in the year of the Lord’s nativity 587, in the fifth indiction of the Romans, leaving behind one only son, named Lothar the Younger, an infant of four months, who succeeded in the kingdom. The son of the husband-slaying Fredegund, when he was an infant of four months, was put in his father’s place and reigned forty-four years, beginning under the guardianship and direction of his mother. In the second year of his reign, Antharius, king of the Lombards, after the dukes had been driven out, took as wife Theodelinda, daughter of Garibald, king of Bavaria; to her, as to a woman of singular devotion, blessed Pope Gregory afterward sent the four books of the Dialogues.

In the fifth year of Lothar, king of the Franks, in the tenth indiction of the Romans, Saint Gregory the First, pope, formerly a monk and deacon, was ordained at Rome. He wrote, said, and did many things for the honor and benefit of the holy Church.

In the same year also, when Antharius, king of the Lombards, had died without children, the Lombards, having granted Queen Theodelinda the choice of selecting a husband for herself and a king for Italy, chose Agilulf as king for themselves and at the same time as her husband; thereafter he ruled energetically over the Lombards for twenty-five years.

In the eighth year of Lothar, king of the Franks, in the thirteenth indiction of the Romans, Garibald, king of the Bavarians, died, the father of the aforementioned Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards. After him Hildebert, king of the Franks, appointed as king of Bavaria a certain duke named Thassido, born of the race of the Franks, who overcame the Forabos, who are Slavs but later were called Bohemians, in war.

In the following year King Agilulf entered, intending to lay waste the borders of the Romans; but through the action of Theodolinda, queen of the Lombards, who was the wife of that same Agilulf, as we have said, not long afterward he made a treaty of friendship with them. Nevertheless, entering the monastery of our holy father Benedict the abbot on Monte Cassino, they plundered and destroyed it, the monks at that same time fleeing to Rome.

In the tenth year of Lothar, king of the Franks, in the fifteenth indiction, Gunthram, king of the Franks, second-born son of Lothar the Great and grandson of King Clovis, died at Orléans in the thirty-third year of his reign, not without a reputation for sanctity. His kingdom passed to his cousin Hildebert by [unclear] of [unclear]. In the following year Richard, king of the Visigoths, entered into a treaty with the kings of the Franks, and took as his wife the sister of the aforesaid King Hildebert. In the same year, on the twenty-first day of the month of November, Saint Columbanus died, abbot, priest, and teacher of the Scots and Picts; he left to his successors many memorials of sanctity, except that, in rustic simplicity, he neither learned nor taught that Easter ought to be celebrated on the Lord’s day, and never on another day.

In the thirteenth year of Lothar, king of the Franks, Hildebert, king of the Franks, died at Orléans. He was the son of King Sigebert, who was the son of Lothar, who was the son of Clovis, the first Christian king. He left two sons, Theobert and Theodoric, who divided their father’s kingdom between themselves; their grandmother Brunichild sowed many kinds of dissensions among them.

Therefore in the year of the Lord’s nativity 605, in the eighth Roman indiction, which was the eighteenth year of the reign of Lothar, Theodobert and Theoderic, the aforesaid brothers, stirred to fury by their grandmother Brunichild, who, as a supporter of Theoderic, labored with incredible hatred against Theodobert, waged a most savage war between themselves, in which more than thirty thousand fighting men fell. Also an angel of the Lord, holding and brandishing a drawn sword in his hand, was seen in the air above the people by many who were present.

At last Theodobert, having been defeated, since he could do nothing else, sought safety in flight. His brother Theoderic pursued him as far as Cologne Agrippina, and along the whole road ceaselessly cut down his soldiers as they fled likewise. But Theodobert entered Cologne and immediately ordered the city gates to be closed.

Theoderic, his brother, pursuing him, as has been said, encircled Cologne with a siege. The citizens, rushing to the walls, asked Theoderic for the terms of peace. He answered them: “You will never have peace from me unless first you cut off my brother’s head and throw it out to me from the wall. But if you refuse to do this, I shall not depart from here until, when the city has been violently taken, I destroy you all with your lord, your little children, and your wives.”

When they heard this, the citizens were exceedingly terrified; and after holding counsel among themselves, at last, lest it happen that all should perish, they cut off the head of King Theodobert, their lord, and threw it out over the wall to the impious Theoderic, as he had ordered, thus purchasing peace disgracefully in the blood of their own king.

The Lombards lay waste the borders of the Romans. The Cassinese monastery is destroyed by the Lombards. King Gunthram of Orléans dies. Hildebert succeeded Gunthram. The Franks enter into a treaty with the Visigoths. Saint Columbanus the abbot died. King Hildebert of Orléans dies. A most savage war takes place between the brother kings of Francia. Thirty thousand Franks perished. An angel was seen in the air with a sword. Theodobert flees from the battle to Cologne. King Theoderic pursues his brother as far as Cologne. The people of Cologne cut off the head of their own king.

King Theodoric enters Cologne after his brother has been killed.

The three sons of King Theodobert, who had been slain. One very beautiful daughter of the same man. Brunichild killed her own grandsons.

Sigebert, the king’s son, fled to the eastern [lands]. Sigebert becomes duke of the Alemanni and the Helvetians.

King Theodoric of Austrasia dies. Lothar becomes monarch of the whole kingdom of the Franks.

Brunichild, killer of ten kings, is slain.

Lothar entrusted the monarchy of the kingdom to counts. Wernher, mayor of the palace. Harpo is appointed count of Burgundy.

Thus made victor, in his brother’s blood, the savage King Theodoric entered Cologne in peace, and received the city itself and its citizens, together with his brother’s whole kingdom of the Austrasians, in surrender. He too, at last, died by the poison of his grandmother Brunichild, as we shall say in its place, having been deprived of heirs.

King Theodobert, slain by a miserable fate, left three sons and one, as is read, very beautiful daughter: namely Sigebert, Gunthram, and Lothar. I have found the name of the daughter nowhere. But King Theodoric, after entering Cologne, sent the aforesaid two younger sons of his brother, Gunthram and Lothar, and their sister as captives to the city of Metz. Their cruel grandmother Brunichild, meeting them and inflamed with excessive fury, in hatred of their slain father rushed upon them and killed with her own hand her grandsons, still little children, who [unclear].

But Sigebert, the elder son of Theodobert by birth, lowered by the help of certain citizens secretly over the wall and across the Rhine, fled in the dress of a scholar. Coming into eastern Francia, he lay hidden for some years, unknown, among his kinsmen Godfrid and his son Genebald III, dukes of the Franks, who ruled around the Main and Wurzburg. At length, after the death of King Theodoric, through the intervention of the princes, he received by the gift of King Lothar a duchy in Upper Alemannia, which is now called Helvetia; but he was not permitted either to bear the royal name or to wear the diadem according to the custom of his fathers. And he remained under the authority of the kingdom of the Franks.

He begot a son with his father’s name, Theobert.

In the thirty-first year of King Lothar, and in the six hundred eighteenth year of the Lord’s nativity, in the sixth indiction of the Romans, King Theodoric of Austrasia died at Metz by the poison of his grandmother Brunichild, in the nineteenth year of his reign. Lothar, the already mentioned son of Hilperic, received his kingdom, and so, according to the prophecy that Saint Columbanus had once foretold to him, he attained the monarchy of the whole kingdom of the Franks, and thereafter reigned alone for thirteen years.

And on the other side, when the sons of King Theodoric, at Brunichild’s instigation, raised an army, they were defeated; and Brunichild herself, the inciter of all evils, was captured and presented to Lothar together with Eudolina, daughter of King Theodoric. Condemned by the decree of the nobles, she received the sentence of a dreadful death. For, after being mutilated in one foot and the opposite arm, and tied to the tail of an untamed mare, she was torn apart limb by limb by the violent dragging. They said that she had destroyed ten kings.

Therefore Lothar, raised to monarchy over the whole kingdom of the Franks, which had previously been divided into four, since he could not profitably govern so broad a dominion by himself alone, entrusted the provinces to counts descended from the ancient stock of kings. He appointed as count, or prefect, of the royal palace Guarnerius, a noble and very eminent man.

But Burgundy he committed to a certain Harpo to govern; he too was a count born from the most ancient line of the kings of the Franks.

Rado was appointed count of Austrasia. Genebaldus was duke of Mainz. Marcopolis is now called Wurzburg. The origin of the counts palatine and dukes of Bavaria. The Palatinate is joined to the duchy of Bavaria. Sigebertus was duke of the Franks in Alemannia. The Lombards were tributaries of the Franks. Wernher, mayor of the palace, dies. Pippin, son of Ansegil, afterward mayor of the palace. The line of descent of Charles the Great, together with the dukes of Brabant and Bavaria.

He also entrusted Austrasia to Rado, a most noble count; in it were the most renowned cities: Trier, Metz, Liege, Cologne, the Mosellan [unclear], Luxembourgers, Austrasians, [Euphalians?], Namurians, and many others.

To Genebaldus, the third of that name, duke of the Franks in the east at Marcopolis, which is now called Wurzburg from the adjacent castle of Saint Mary on the mountain, he assigned Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and the peoples of those same regions; he founded Frankfurt beside the Main.

But to Pippin, who was the son of Duke Ansegisus, brother of Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and also count of Namur and duke of Brittany, from whom the counts palatine, the counts of the Rhine, and the dukes of Bavaria who live today, eighteen in number, all descended, as I know, apart from the females, on the mother's side, namely from Gertrude, daughter of Henry, count palatine dwelling at Heidelberg, who, having been married to Otto, duke of Bavaria, in the year of the Lord's nativity 1225, joined the principality of Bavaria to the Palatinate; King Lotharius assigned all Lower or northern Francia, that is, the people of Tournai, Arras, the Morini, Terouanne, Cambrai, and whatever lies between them, besides the county of Namur and the duchy of Brabant, which belonged by right to the aforesaid Ansegisus.

To Duke Sigebertus, son of the late Theodobert, king of the Franks in Austrasia, whose head, as we have said, the people of Cologne cut off, King Lotharius, after he was made duke through the intervention of the nobles, entrusted the cities of Alemannia: Chur, Lausanne, Constance, Basel, and the peoples settled around them, the Alemanni, the [Caurici?], and the Helvetii dwelling at the source of the Rhine.

In the thirty-second year of his reign, in the seventh Roman indiction, Lotharius, king of the Franks, remitted to the Lombards, after a treaty had first been made, the tribute of twelve thousand gold florins which they were obliged to pay each year to the Franks.

In the thirty-eighth year of Lotharius, king of the Franks, in the thirteenth Roman indiction, died Werner, count of the palace, or mayor of the palace of the Franks. After him Ansegil, son of Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz, monk and hermit, previously a married man, was made mayor of the palace of the Franks; with his son Pippin, and Saint Arnulf himself, faithfully assisting him, he held the principate. Pippin, afterward mayor of the palace, who was called the Elder, was the son of the aforesaid Ansegisus, who was son of Saint Arnulf. He was son of Ansegil, or, as others write, of Arnold the Elder. He was son of Ambertus, surnamed Nicanor, born from Blidehild, daughter of Lotharius, the first king of Clovis. That Ambertus was son of Duke Sigebertus.

He was son of Duke Priamus. He was son of Duke Heribertus. He was son of Duke Leontius. He was son of Duke Meroveus. He was son of Duke Diocles. He was son of Duke Sunno. He was son of Duke Genebaldus. He was son of Duke Dagobertus. He was son of Marcomir, king of the Franks. He was son of King Clodio. He was son of King Theodomer. He was son of King Richimer. He was son of King Clodomer. He was son of King Dagobert. He was son of King Walther. He was son of King Clodius. He was son of King Barther. He was son of King Hilderic. He was son of King Sunno. He was son of King Pharabert.

Pippin, son of Ansegil, afterward mayor of the palace.

The line of descent of Charles the Great, together with the dukes of Brabant and Bavaria.

Sigebertus was duke of the Franks in Alemannia.

Wernher, mayor of the palace, dies.

Rado was appointed count of Austrasia.

Marcopolis is now called Wurzburg.

The Palatinate is joined to the duchy of Bavaria.

The Lombards were tributaries of the Franks.

Pippin, afterward mayor of the palace, who was son of Ansegil, or, as others write, of Arnold the Elder, duke. He was son of Duke Meroveus, of Duke Diocles. He was son of Duke Dagobert, of King [Marcomir?]. He was son of King Clodio. [He was son of] King Richimer. He was son of King Clodomer.

Of the counts palatine also, at the same time.

The generation also of the counts of Namur.

All these descended from the ancient stock of the kings of the Franks down to these men.

From Marcomir to Charlemagne, fifty-four generations.

Dagobert, son of King Lothar, becomes king of Austrasia.

Arnulf, bishop of Metz. Pippin, duke.

The expedition of King Dagobert against the Saxons. Berthulf, duke of the Saxons, is killed by the Franks.

The Saxons are recalled under tribute to the Franks.

Lothar, the younger king of the Franks, dies.

Who was [son] of King Chlodomer. Who was [son] of King Marcomer. Who was [son] of King Odomar. Who was [son] of King Richimer. Who was [son] of King Rather. Who was [son] of King Antenor. Who was [son] of King Chlodomer. Who was [son] of King Marcomer. Who was [son] of King Clodio. Who was [son] of King Francus, from whom the Sicambri were first called Franks. Who was [son] of King Antharius. Who was [son] of King Cassander. Who was [son] of King Merodach. Who was [son] of King Chlodomir. Who was [son] of King Nicanor. Who was [son] of King Chlodomir. Who was [son] of King Basagot. Who was [son] of King Diocles. Who was [son] of King Helenus. Who was [son] of King Antenor. Who was [son] of King Marcomir, who led the Franks from Scythia into Germany. But Pippin the elder begot Charles Martel, and he begot Pippin the younger, mayor of the palace of the Franks, and king after Childeric. Thus from King Marcomir the first down to King Pippin, son of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, and father of Saint Gertrude, there are counted fifty-one generations over the course of one thousand fifty-nine years.

But King Lothar, in the forty-first year of his reign, which was the six hundred and eighth year of the Lord’s Nativity, in the first indiction of the Romans, appointed Dagobert, his son by Queen Bertrada, king of Austrasia, assigning to him Metz, Trier, Cologne, Liege, Tournai, Arras, Tongeren, Therouanne, the Morini, and whatever lay between the western sea, the English sea to the north also, and the Rhine. He earnestly entrusted him to Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz, and to Pippin, count of Namur and most noble duke of the Brabantians, to be instructed and guided. Dagobert established the seat of his kingdom, after the custom of the old kings of Austrasia, in the aforesaid city of Metz, and arranged the kingdom of the Franks well, both by himself and through dukes and counts.

In the following year the Saxons, rising in rebellion, refused the customary tribute to the Franks. Therefore King Dagobert, having gathered the forces of his men, moved his army against the rebels and waged war with Berthulf, duke of the Saxons; from the first encounter he was gravely wounded. When his father Lothar, who was then in Ardenne, heard this reported by a swift messenger, he immediately crossed the Rhine at Neuss and hastened to the aid of his son. The battle is renewed, and on both sides the fighting is hard and fierce. At last, however, the Saxons, after their duke Berthulf had been slain by the Franks, were defeated and sought safety in flight.

But King Lothar, pursuing the fugitives with the Franks, laid them low in a pitiable slaughter, sparing no one, but killing with the sword all who exceeded the length of his sword. The people, however, who had remained throughout Saxony he recalled to subjection to the Franks, and imposed on them a tribute of five hundred oxen.

After these things, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 631, in the fourth indiction of the Romans, the aforesaid Lothar, king of the Franks, died in the forty-fourth year of his reign, leaving by his wife the first, who was called Bertrudis, [bore] a son named Dagobert, who succeeded to the kingdom. After his first wife had died, he had taken a second, named Sichildis, who bore Heribert.

Dagobert, the elder son of King Lotharius, succeeding his father in the kingdom of the Franks in the year of the Lord’s nativity noted above, reigned fourteen years; and earlier in Austrasia, as has been said, three years while his father was still living. Thus the whole time during which he reigned was seventeen years.

Heribert, however, Dagobert’s brother by his father, but born of another mother, as has been said, received in the division of the kingdom Aquitaine, Toulouse, and the other cities contained between the Pyrenees and the Loire, as the possession of his inheritance, on this condition: that in the other kingdoms of the Franks he should claim no right for himself. He established the principal seat of his kingdom at Toulouse. In the fourth year after this, when an occasion for war had been seized, he received the Gascons in surrender.

King Dagobert built the monastery of Saint Dionysius the martyr anew from the foundations, and enriched it with many estates, goods, and possessions, though not without injury to certain churches, which he despoiled by force of many ornaments, as though all things, acquired both lawfully and unlawfully, were owed to the services of blessed Dionysius. He built the church of the same monastery, altogether most beautiful, which was covered with solid silver; into it he transferred the bodies of the said martyr and his companions from the Catulian village and placed them in a golden shrine. He also most beautifully adorned the inner walls of the church with tapestries most fittingly woven with pearls and large pearls. He gave the place to be inhabited by monks of our order.

Dagobert first had a wife named Gertrude, whom he repudiated because of sterility, and he brought in another, whose name was Nanthildis. Finally he kept going to many crowds of concubines, besides those whom he maintained in several places, arrayed and adorned like queens. Yet Pippin, mayor of the palace, or count palatine, who had been duke of Brabant and at the same time count of Namur, nephew of Saint Arnulf and father of Saint Gertrude, a virgin nun at Nivelles in Brabant, resisted his shameful deeds quite considerably, and by no means allowed the king to sink so freely, according to his own will, through so many vices.

In the second year of King Dagobert, which was the six hundred thirty-third year of the Lord’s nativity, his wife Nanthildis bore him a son, who was named Sigebert. This infant, forty days old, when he was baptized by Saint Amandus the bishop, while all were silent, himself answered “Amen” in a clear voice. Heribert, his uncle, who was reigning at Toulouse, lifted this Sigebert from the holy font of baptism. But when King Heribert died after some years, and not long afterward also his son, named [unclear] Sichildis was the mother of Heribert.

The fifty-first.

Dagobert reigned seventeen years.

Heribert, his brother, reigned in Aquitaine.

The monastery of Saint Dionysius is founded in Gaul.

The church of Saint Dionysius was covered with silver.

Queen Gertrude, being sterile, is repudiated. King Dagobert was excessively lustful.

Pippin, mayor of the palace of the Franks.

An infant of forty days, when he was baptized, answered: Amen.

The monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks is transferred to Dagobert.

With Hilperic, the monarchy of the whole kingdom of the Franks reverted to Dagobert, many always tending toward one, and again, by the plurality of sons, confounding unity.

When King Heribert had died, the Vascones refused to obey and be subject to the Franks; King Dagobert attacked them in war and compelled them to submission.

At the same time [Iudicahel?], who held the duchy of the same Armorican Brittany, terrified by the threat of imminent war, subjected himself and all the people of Armorican Brittany to Dagobert, king of the Franks, and to his successors forever. King Dagobert also attacked in war the Slavs, the Sorbs, who are now called Bohemians; he defeated and overcame them, and made them subject and tributary to the Franks.

If this Dagobert, the great king of the Franks, founded that once distinguished, exempt, and royal monastery of our order in the town of Wissembourg, in the diocese of Speyer, concerning which we have heard many expressing doubt, it seems to me that this was done in the third year after the death of his father, [unclear], since he reigned only fourteen years, although certain uncertain authors seem to have thought otherwise. With this reckoning of times agrees the number of the year of the Lord’s Nativity 634, which was the third year of the aforesaid Dagobert, but the sixth of his reign over Austrasia, and not the twentieth, as we read in the copied letters of that Dagobert himself. How shall we be able to know whether they are true or false, unless we see their archetype? Desiring to untie the knot of this doubt, let us set down a copy of the letters.

Dagobert, by the favor of divine clemency king of the Franks, to all the chief men of his kingdom, indeed to all professing the Christian faith, both future and present. A vow by which anyone has bound himself to God or to his saints cannot be made void without the stain of guilt; and the greater and more worthy is he to whom it is vowed, by so much heavier a judgment will the presumption of one who vows and does not pay be struck. Therefore we too ought and wish to render what we have vowed to the Lord, the terrible God, and to him who takes away the spirits of princes, terrible among all the kings of the earth. How he terrified us with the arm of his power, how, striking and healing, he visited us again, we have judged should be made known to all as an example of correction, especially so that every faithful person, having heard of our peril, may restrain himself from the devastation of the churches of God, and [unclear]; distracted, I neglected the duty of royal office, showing no solicitude or diligence toward those entrusted to me, doing or judging nothing from gentleness or zeal for justice. Among my other transgressions, the destruction of the churches of God [unclear].

King Dagobert enumerates his transgressions.

Copy of the letters of foundation of the said monastery. He makes mention of his vow. Dagobert relates that he was carried off into heaven. King Dagobert enumerates his transgressions.

and I had begun to be the destroyer of those things of which I ought to have been the defender and exalter, fearing neither the eyes of the divine majesty nor the outcry of men. At length the kindness of God, crushing the pride of my obstinate mind with the rod of correction, visited my iniquities, and, when I had been chastened, did not deny me pardon. For, caught up on high and presented before the divine majesty, seated among the choirs of the saints in the guise of one judging, I was gravely and steadfastly accused by the most holy patrons of the churches for ecclesiastical goods seized by robbery by me and consumed, especially by the most holy Mary, mother of God, and by the most blessed Peter and Paul, princes of the apostles.

¶ And when, burdened by conscience, I did not dare to defend my offences, at length my special patron, the martyr Dionysius, came to my aid; by his prayers he obtained for me a period of delay of the punishment that was pressing upon me. He himself, as though setting a manner of penance, placed in this my hope of full pardon: if, to the honour of God and of the holy preachers whom I had more greatly offended, I should build a house suitable for divine services. Gladly making this promise, I vowed it, and, dismissed by those above, I returned. Therefore, in sure hope of remission and pardon of our sins, rendering with eager zeal all that we have done, we have built a church in honour of the Holy Trinity, and of holy Mary ever-virgin, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in the place called Vuyssenburg; and we have determined to exalt it and enrich it with royal munificence. Therefore we give to it, and wish to have been given in perpetuity, from the property of our fisc lying adjacent there, whatever belongs to us, both in villages and in bondsmen, woods, vineyards, fields, meadows, pastures, waters and watercourses; and all these things we transfer by free conveyance to the use of the brethren serving God there under monastic profession. And so that the authority of this our donation may remain stable and firm for all time, we have taken care to note below the boundaries and the names of the surrounding places. Toward the eastern region the march which we have conveyed extends as far as Morchohouen and to Aldenherden, and thence to Goboldefvuege, and thence below Nadumlutra, and thence to Buozdigenhurst, and thence to the boundary which stands on the summit of the valley Iuuenesdal, and thence it leads toward the southern region above Vuarbach, and thence to Bodemloseffaffa, and thence to Sebach, and thence to Kirchdal, and thence to Ingoldesizahe, and thence to the wooded mountains as far as Bedebur. Toward the western region, however, as far as Lutenbach and Bernbach, and thence to Grunenbrunnen, and thence to Otterichescheyt. Toward the northern region as far as Eichenerenberg. But the place itself, which we embrace with singular devotion, now and henceforth we wish to be free from every oppression of servitude, under royal protection, namely in such a way that no public judge, no one from the judicial power, may presume to have any power there, nor to compel the men of that place either to hear cases, or to pay [auffreda?], or taxes. Finally, absolutely nothing from them

He asserts that he was presented before God judging.

Nothing is more grievous than a conscience burdened with sins.

He introduces Saint Dionysius speaking.

He vowed to build a new monastery in that very rapture.

The king’s endowment for the monastery of Vuyssen.

The location of the donation toward the east.

Iuuenesdal; Busdigenhurst, a wood.

The location of the donation toward the south.

The location of the donation toward the north.

The king wishes the monastery to be exempt.

He grants the monastery coinage on the model of that of Speyer.

He wishes the men of the monastery to be free.

The monks’ freedom of choosing an abbot for themselves.

The abbot will be able to create knights for himself.

The ministerials are to obey the abbot alone.

He states the advocate’s right over the household.

The king confirms these letters by the protection of his seal.

In the year of the Lord 624, in the twelfth indiction.

The discrepancy of the date gives rise to doubt.

In what way an error occurs either in documents or in histories.

Lotharius is still living in the year 634.

...may dare to exact. This also we have decreed by equal authority: that no bishop of the city of Speyer, nor any of the other bishops, shall have authority there for ruling, or for conducting any cases whatever; but under the defense of our immunity the father of the monastery, with his brothers, shall freely and quietly possess everything belonging to that place. In addition to this, we grant to the same place a coinage having on it images, letters, and the expressed likeness of the coinage of Speyer, and by the equal gift of our authority we wish it to be valid and firm: that the men of the same church may freely attend to their business throughout our whole kingdom, in such a way, namely, that they pay no toll due. And no judge, or any person of whatever rank, shall presume to inflict any violence upon it in a case of this kind.

Moreover, to the brothers serving God there, so that they may guard the order of holy conduct the more devoutly and tranquilly, we have given free power among themselves of choosing an abbot for themselves. To this abbot, and to all who succeed him, we grant this special privilege of dignity: that he may promote into the order and right of ministerials whomever from the household he shall judge worthy of such honor. All the ministerials of the same church shall also receive their benefice from the gift of the abbot, and shall serve the abbot alone; nor shall the advocate dare to exercise any power over them, unless perhaps, because of some disobedience, the abbot invites the advocate to constrain those ministerials as rebels.

But the rest of the household, at the lawful place and time, three times in the year, ought to assemble at the advocate’s court for the doing of justice, and, if the advocate is present, to pay single denarii for the advocate’s service, excepting those who are in the immunity. But if the advocate is absent from these courts, nothing is owed to him from these denarii, unless he is proved to be in the king’s service. And so that this our tradition, the institution of a dignity of granted right, may remain stable and unshaken forever, we have signed this written charter, strengthened by the addition of our seal. Given, as we did it, in that same monastery, in the month of May, on the eleventh day, in the twenty-third year of our reign, in the name of Christ, happily. Amen. In the year of the Lord 624.

I find nothing in these letters that casts doubt for me upon the foundation mentioned; but because the date of the writing of this page does not agree with the computation of the years of the Lord according to Sigebert, the monk of Gembloux, and also Rupert Gaguin, and many other most diligent writers of histories, I do not know whence this has arisen. For if credit is to be given to the said historiographers, it will be plainly established that Lotharius, the father of Dagobert, was still living among men in the year of the Lord 624, although the son himself asserts that he was dead before he began to found the monastery of Wissembourg. For King Lotharius died, as was said above, in the year of Christ 631, and Dagobert succeeded him at once in the same year and reigned fourteen years. Therefore he who can [unclear] the knot...

[unclear], I cannot persuade myself of anything else, except that King Dagobert founded the monastery of Weissenburg in the third year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 634.

At the same time Saint Eligius, powerful at the court of Lothar and Dagobert, kings of the Franks, and a marvelous goldsmith, founded, with both royal and his own expenditures, the abbey of the monastery of our order which is called Solignac; there he himself became a monk and innocently discharged the office of abbot. There also Saint Remaclus, coming from Britain, trained himself under him in Christ’s service.

Saint Dado, also called Audoenus, bishop of Rouen and chancellor of King Dagobert, likewise built within the forest of Brie a monastery of our order, which they call Rebais; over it he appointed Saint Agilus as first abbot, a man lovable to Christ and renowned for many virtues.

In the ninth year of his reign King Dagobert appointed his son Sigebert, a boy of seven years, king over the Austrasians, under the guardianship and direction of Saint Cunibert, archbishop of Cologne, and of Pippin, duke of Brabant and count of Namur.

In the same year, which was the 640th year of the Lord’s nativity, in the thirteenth indiction, Saint Arnulf died: Pippin’s grandfather, from mayor of the palace of the Franks bishop of Metz, and from pontiff a solitary and hermit. Clodulf, ordained bishop of Metz after his father, imitated his holiness.

Doda, formerly the lawful wife of Saint Arnulf before his episcopate, and mother of the already mentioned bishop Clodulf, enclosed at Trier for love of Christ, whom she had chosen as her bridegroom, separated from her carnal husband, shone with holiness.

In the eleventh year of his reign, Dagobert, king of the Franks, led an army against the Wends. The Saxons came to his aid with all eagerness, and when battle was joined the Wends were defeated by the Franks and compelled into servitude to the Franks under tribute. But the Saxons, who annually paid five hundred oxen to the Franks as tribute, having gained the opportunity, approached King Dagobert after the victory and asked that he remit the tribute to them. The king, wishing to return favor for their voluntary service, remitted the tribute.

After this Dagobert, king of the Franks, died on the first day of the month of February, and was buried in the church of Saint Dionysius which he himself had built, in the fourteenth year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 645, in the third Roman indiction. The son of King Dagobert, succeeding his father in the kingdom of the Franks, reigned seventeen years. His mother’s name was Nathildis. And his [unclear], named Erckenwald, was born from the most ancient stock of kings.

The opinion of Trithemius on the foundation of the monastery. Saint Eligius, goldsmith and bishop. The monastery of Latiniacum is founded. Saint Remaclus, from monk bishop of our order. The monastery of Rebais is founded.

Sigebert, a boy of seven years, becomes king in Austrasia.

Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz, died. Clodulf succeeded his father in the episcopate.

Saint Doda, nun at Trier. The Wends are overcome by the Franks and Saxons. Dagobert remits the tribute to the Saxons. Dagobert, king of the Franks, dies. The fifty-second. Clovis reigned seventeen years. [unclear]

Clodoveus reigned in Neustria. Sigibert, his brother, reigned in Austrasia. Saint Amandus, bishop in Maastricht. Pippin, mayor of the palace in Austrasia. Saint Chunibert, archbishop of Cologne, chancellor of the kingdom of Austrasia. Saint Irmina becomes the first abbess in the Horrea at Trier, of our order. The head of Saint Irmina is kept at Spanheim. Saint Modesta. Saint Anastasia. Saint Basilissa, abbesses there. Saint Modoald, builder of many monasteries. The monastery of Saint Symphorian is founded. Saint Severa, abbess of our order near Trier.

Clodoveus reigned over the Franks throughout inner Gaul, namely in Neustria, that is, Paris, Amiens, Beauvais, Blois, Reims, Orleans, Tours, also in Aquitaine, and in the whole kingdom that had been his father’s.

Sigibert, however, his brother, as we have said, reigned in Austrasia: over the people of Metz, Trier, Cologne, Liege, and Traiectum, where Saint Amandus was then bishop; also over the Tongri, Morini, Hollanders, Frisians, Saxons, Sorbs, Thuringians, Bavarians, Suevi, Alemanni, Cisrhenani, the people of Strasbourg, Worms, Mainz, [unclear], and the Burgundians. His mayor of the palace, or prince of the palace, was Pippin the Elder, son of Ansegisus and grandson of Arnulf, count of Namur and duke of Brabant, father of [Grimoald?] and of Saint Gertrude, abbess of Nivelles, in the paternal duchy of Brabant.

The chancellor of Sigibert was Saint Chunibert, archbishop of Cologne. In most of the places or provinces already named, under the rule of King Sigibert and of Pippin, mayor of the palace, there were appointed petty kings, dukes, counts, and prefects, by whose administration the people were governed.

Irmina, a virgin of most holy conduct, was one of the daughters of King Dagobert and the sister of the aforesaid kings. For her, her father, while still living, built in the city of Trier, in his very ancient palace which was called the Horrea, a monastery of maidens under the Rule of Saint Benedict, and a church in honor of blessed Mary ever virgin. In it he placed a congregation of nuns, and gave them this same daughter of his as mother and abbess; she was renowned in life and after death for many virtues and miracles, and her venerable head is kept in the abbey of Spanheim. In the governance of the nuns of the aforesaid monastery, Modesta succeeded this Irmina; she was a pupil of the monastery of Romaric and daughter of the sister of blessed Modoald, archbishop of Trier. After her came Anastasia, and in the fourth place Basilissa; all these have been enrolled among the saints.

At the same time the aforesaid bishop of Trier, Modoald, at whose urging the already-mentioned monastery in the Horrea had been built, also constructed another monastery in an ancient palace situated in the suburbs of Trier. In it he established nuns under the same Rule of Saint Benedict, and set over them Adela, another daughter of King Dagobert.

The same bishop Modoald built a third holy congregation of maidens on the bank of the Moselle, beside the walls of the city of Trier, in honor of the holy martyr Symphorian, under the rule of Saint Benedict. There he appointed his sister, named Severa, as mother and abbess over the nuns; living in all purity of mind and body, she in no way fell short of her brother’s holiness.

After she had at last most holily completed the course of the present race, she departed to the Lord, and was buried in the same monastery of Saint Symphorian the martyr, whom she had served most devoutly. This Modoaldus, moreover, whom others write as Rodoaldus, was the brother of Itha, wife of Pepin the Elder, and the maternal uncle of the blessed virgin Gertrude. This Itha founded in Brabant the monastery of nuns at Nivelles, in which, after Pepin’s death, she thereafter most holily served almighty God with her daughter.

But the most holy Modoaldus, bishop of Trier, not long after the death of his sister, also himself resting in the Lord, was buried beside her in the church of Saint Symphorian; Numerianus succeeded him in the archbishopric. In their time Dagobert, in the six hundred and twenty-seventh year of the Lord’s nativity, in the fifteenth Roman indiction, began to found the monastery of Doleiense of the order of Saint Benedict, in the diocese of Trier, by the counsel and aid of the blessed archbishop Modoaldus; Sigebert, king of Austrasia, his son, completed it. And Saint Pirminius, bishop and monk, afterwards adorned it more beautifully.

In these times men of great holiness shone in the diocese of Trier, one of whose number was Paul, who on Mount Gebenna, opposite the city across the bridge of the river Moselle, led an eremitic life; then, coming to the aforementioned monastery [unclear], he became a monk; finally, ordained bishop of Verdun, he faithfully preserved in all things the rule of his former holiness. The mountain formerly called Gebenna, taking its name from him, is called Mount Paul, in the vernacular Paulsberg, down to the present day.

Wendelin also, first a monk in Tholey, afterwards a hermit in that place where now there stands a town called from his name Saint Wendelin, distant only one mile from that monastery, a man of most holy way of life, who, living and dead, converted many to Christ by word and example; whom I have recorded [unclear], lest two be thought one.

There was another Wendelin, at almost the same time, a monk and priest, disciple of Saint Columbanus, companion of Saint Walaric the monk in pilgrimage, a holy man and excellent preacher, who converted many to Christ by word and example; whom I have recorded [unclear], lest two be thought one.

Ingobert also, monk and priest; Carilephus, monk and priest; Wolffrich; Bantus; his brother Beatus, monk and priest; Wolfiliacus, a layman, men of the greatest holiness, with many others, led a solitary life in the wilderness in the diocese of Trier in these times.

Saint Disibod also, monk and priest, in the diocese of Mainz, in the county of Spanheim, two miles from Kreuznach and one mile from my former monastery of Spanheim, leading an eremitic life, built in that place near Sobernheim, where the Nahe and the Glan meet, a monastery of monks, which today bears his name. Today only a small trace of his monastery is seen.

Saint Modoaldus the archbishop was the maternal uncle of Saint Gertrude. Saint Modoaldus died. Numerianus succeeded. The Doleiense monastery of our order is founded. Saint Pirminius, bishop. Several hermits in the diocese of Trier. Paul, hermit, afterwards monk, finally bishop of Verdun. Mount Gebenna, now Paulsberg. Wendelin, monk and hermit. Another Wendelin, monk. Walaric, monk. Wolffrich. Bantus also. Beatus his brother. Wolfiliacus. Holy monks. Saint Disibod, monk, near Spanheim. The monastery of Saint Disibod is founded in the year 660.

Saint Remaclus becomes bishop in Upper Traiectum.

Pippin, mayor of the palace, count of Namur, duke of Brabant, count palatine, died.

Grunuald becomes mayor of the palace for eleven years.

Hildebert, son of Grunuald, king.

Rathulf, duke of the Thuringians, is overcome.

Saint Furseus, abbot and pilgrim.

He founds the monastery of Latiniacum. Foillanus and Ultanus, holy monks.

The monastery of Fosses is founded.

Twelve monasteries of our order are founded.

The monastery of Stavelot-Malmedy.

Saint Remaclus, bishop in Maastricht, a monk of Stavelot.

Saint Landelinus, confessor of the Lord.

The monasteries of Lobbes, Aulne, Waslere, and Crespin are founded. The monastery of Fleury is founded.

The body of Saint Benedict the abbot is translated.

In the first year of Clovis, king of the Franks, Saint Remaclus was ordained bishop of the church of Traiectum, a man of much learning and great holiness.

In the following year, which was the year of the Lord’s Nativity 647, in the fifth indiction of the Romans, Pippin the Elder died: count of Namur, duke of Brabant, mayor of the palace, count palatine of Sigebert, king of the Franks, who held the seat of the kingdom at Metz in Austrasia, and father of Saint Gertrude the virgin. He left a son, Grunuald. Grunuald succeeded his father in the rule of the royal household for eleven years; afterward he was killed, as we shall say in its place. He had a son named Hildebert, of whom we shall also tell how he made him king after his own lord had been driven into exile.

In the aforesaid year, Radulf, duke of the Thuringians, raised up in pride, refused to pay the customary tribute to the Franks. Therefore Sigebert, king of the Franks of Austrasia, gathered forces and moved his army into Thuringia; and, when battle was joined, he defeated the duke and compelled him to payment of the tribute.

In the same year Saint Furseus, an abbot from Ireland, a pilgrim for the sake of Christianity, came into Gaul. Received honorably by King Clovis, he founded the monastery of Latiniacum, now of our order, and established monks there. Not long afterward his two brothers, Foillanus and Ultanus, monks who followed him with an equal vow of pilgrimage, illuminated Gaul by the word and example of their life.

Of these, Foillanus, by the gift of Saint Gertrude the virgin, afterward founded the monastery of Fosses, where, crowned also with martyrdom, he rests in the Lord.

In the sixth year of King Clovis, Sigebert, king of the Franks in Austrasia, despairing of posterity from offspring, built here and there twelve monasteries of the order of Saint Benedict in honor of God, with Grunuald, mayor of the palace, and Saint Remaclus, bishop of the people of Traiectum, assisting him in these things. Among them Stavelot and Malmedy were pre-eminent, which are governed under one abbot. This Remaclus, not long afterward, was made a monk in the same monastery of Stavelot, resigning the pontificate, full of years, and at last he happily came to rest.

Also in these times in Gallican Francia, Saint Landelinus, confessor of Christ, who in like manner built four monasteries of the aforesaid order: Lobbes, Aulne, Waslere, and Crespin, where he rests bodily in the Lord with his disciples Adolenus and Domitianus.

At the same time the monastery of Fleury was founded by Abbot Leodebold. To it not long afterward the body of the divine father Benedict, our abbot, was brought, translated by the monk Agilulf from Monte Cassino, after his monastery, as we said above, had been laid waste by the Lombards. The Italians contradict these things.

In the seventh year of Clovis, which was the six-hundredth year of the Lord’s Nativity [unclear].

[unclear] and fifty-second. Sigebert, king of the Franks in Austrasia, adopted Hildebert, son of Grunwald, mayor of the palace, as his son, and the kingdom.

In the following year Saint Judoc, son of the king of the Britons, despising kingdom and world, a pilgrim and hermit in the district of Ponthieu, rested in Christ.

In the eleventh year of King Clovis, Sigebert, king of Austrasia, his brother, died, leaving his son Dagobert still very small and entrusted to the faith of Grunwald, mayor of the palace, so that by his help he might be advanced to the kingdom. In the following year Grunwald had him tonsured by Dido, bishop of Poitiers, and sent him to Scotland; and, against his pledge, he raised up Hildebert his own son as king of the Austrasians. But the Franks, grieving over so great a breach of faith by Grunwald, captured him and presented him at Paris for the judgment of King Clovis. Clovis had him bound and made him waste away in prison by a bitter death; and, after casting down his son, he appointed his own younger son Childeric king of the Austrasians, and avenged the wrong done to his nephew.

King Clovis of the Franks, because of an insufficiently reverent contact with the body of Saint Denis, became mad and senseless for two years and died in the seventeenth year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 662, in the fifth indiction.

The eldest son of King Clovis reigned after his father over the Franks for four years. His mayor of the palace was Ebroin, a man of Gallic cunning, deceitful, ready in counsel for crimes, perverse in action.

From this point the kings of the Franks, down to Pippin, father of Charlemagne, for almost ninety years, degenerating from their forefathers in courage and knowledge, reigned in name alone, doing nothing worthy of the royal office; but all power of governing the kingdom was in the hands of the princes of the court, who had been called mayors of the palace. The kings, however, stayed at home in idleness, doing or arranging nothing, but gave themselves sluggishly to feasting and drinking. Only once in the year, at the Kalends of May, did they come forth in public and show themselves to the people to be seen and greeted, and so returned home.

In these times Queen Balthild, mother of Lothar and formerly the wife left by King Clovis, founded two distinguished monasteries of our order in Gallican France, one of which is called Corbie and the other Chelles; in them many most holy and most learned monks were illustrious.

At the same time also many other monasteries of the aforesaid order of our divine father were built in the Gallican kingdom, among which these are listed: the monastery of Celle, over which [unclear].

Hildebert, adopted by Sigebert as son.

Saint Judoc died in the year of the Lord 654.

Sigebert, king of Austrasia, died, leaving a son.

Grunwald, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, was captured and killed.

King Clovis, having become mad, died.

Fifty-third. Lothar reigned four years.

Ebroin. Ebroin, a most impious tyrant.

From this point the kings of the Franks reigned in name alone.

The whole administration of the kingdom was in the hands of the mayors of the palace.

The monasteries of Corbie and Chelles are founded.

The monastery of Celle, whose first abbot was Saint Gisilenus. Another.

The fifty-second. Sigebert, king of the Franks in Austrasia, adopted Hildebert, son of Grunvald, mayor of the palace, as his son, and the kingdom.

In the following year Saint Judoc, son of the king of the Britons, despising kingdom and world, a pilgrim and hermit, rested in Christ in the district of Ponthieu.

In the eleventh year of King Clodoveus, Sigebert, king of Austrasia, his brother, died, leaving his son Dagobert, still very small, entrusted to the loyalty of Grunvald, mayor of the palace, so that by his aid he might be advanced to the kingdom. In the following year Grunvald had him tonsured by Dido, bishop of Poitiers, and sent him to Scotland, and, against good faith, raised up his own son Hildebert as king of the Austrasians. But the Franks, grieving over so great a breach of faith by Grunvald, captured him and presented him for judgment before King Clodoveus at Paris; he had him bound and made him waste away in prison by a bitter death. After Grunvald’s son had been cast down, he made his own younger son Hilderic king of the Austrasians, and avenged the wrong done to his nephew.

Clodoveus, king of the Franks, because of an insufficiently reverent contact with the body of Saint Dionysius, was for two years deranged and out of his mind, and died in the seventeenth year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s nativity 662, in the fifth indiction.

The eldest son of King Clodoveus reigned after his father over the Franks for four years. His mayor of the palace was Ebervuin, whom [unclear] by nature deceitful, prompt in counsel for crimes, perverse in action.

From this time onward the kings of the Franks, down to Pippin, father of Charles the Great, for almost ninety years, degenerating from the solid men in courage and knowledge, reigned in name alone, accomplishing nothing worthy of the royal office; but all power of governing the kingdom was in the hands of the princes of the court, who were called mayors of the palace. The kings, however, remained at home idle, doing or arranging nothing, but sluggishly devoted themselves to eating and drinking. Only once in the year, at the Kalends of May, did they proceed in public and display themselves to the peoples to be looked upon and greeted, and so returned home.

In these times Queen Bechtildis, mother of Lothar and formerly the wife left behind by King Clodoveus, founded two distinguished monasteries of our order in Gallican France, one of which is called Corbie and the other Chelles; in them many most holy and most learned monks became famous.

At the same time also many other monasteries of the aforesaid order of our divine father were constructed in the Gallican kingdom; among their number these are recorded: the monastery of Celles, over which

Hildebert, adopted as son by Sigebert.

Saint Judoc died in the year of the Lord 654.

Sigebert, king of Austrasia, died, leaving a son.

Grunvald, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, was captured and killed.

King Clodoveus, made deranged, died.

The fifty-third. Lothar reigned four years.

Ebervuin. Ebervuin, a most impious tyrant.

From this time onward the kings of the Franks reigned in name alone.

All administration of the kingdom was in the hands of the mayors of the palace.

The monasteries of Corbie and Chelles are founded.

The monastery of Celles, whose first abbot was Saint Gisilenus. Another.

[unclear] of Hautmont, of which Saint Gislenus was first abbot. The monastery of Hautmont, over which Saint Madelgarius presided, who is also Vincentius, formerly a duke, then a monk and abbot. The same Madelgarius founded the monastery of Soignies. He also built the monastery of Maubeuge. Saint Trudo founded the monastery of Hasbania, where he too is buried.

In the second year of the reign of Lotharius, king of the Franks, Saint Gertrude died, abbess of the monastery of Nivelles in Brabant, of the order of Saint Benedict, daughter of the elder Pippin, mayor of the palace of the kingdom of the Franks in Austrasia.

But the aforesaid Lotharius, king of the Franks, died in the fourth year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord’s nativity 666, in the ninth indiction.

The fifty-fourth. Theodoricus reigned one year.

Ebroin, mayor of the palace, a man excessively wicked.

Theodoricus is deposed from the kingdom as most insolent.

The fifty-[unclear]. Childericus, brother of the two preceding kings, who was reigning in Austrasia, after the deposition of Theodoricus, was, by the common election of the nobles, taken up as king and monarch of the whole kingdom of the Franks. He reigned twelve years. His mayor of the palace was Wolfradus, a noble man and powerful in deed and word.

Theodoricus is deposed from the kingdom of the Franks in the first year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord’s nativity 667, in the tenth Roman indiction, and his brother Childericus, who was reigning in Austrasia, is elected by common consent.

Childericus the king is killed together with his wife.

In the ninth year of his reign, King Childericus, through the levity of his own conduct, kindled against himself the hatred of many nobles. Saint Leodegarius, formerly a monk of our order, bishop of Autun, having been driven from his see, he thrust into Luxeuil.

But in the twelfth year of his reign, and in the 679th year of the Lord’s nativity, in the seventh indiction, a certain Frank named Bodilo, whom King Childericus himself had ordered to be bound to a post and flogged, found him out hunting and, by a cruel blow, killed him together with Blithilde, his pregnant wife, After the killing of King Hilderic, Theodoric, his brother, summoned from the monastery of the holy martyr Dionysius, was restored to the kingdom of the Franks, and thereafter reigned for a second time for fourteen years. His mayor of the palace was Leudesius, son of Erchenvald, appointed for one year by the counsel of Saint Leodegar the bishop, who had then been recalled from the monastery of Luxeuil, and of other leading men.

For in the following year Eberwin, having gone out from the aforesaid monastery, recovered his strength and harried those who had plotted against him with hostile persecution. He fell upon King Theodoric, plundered his treasures and those of the church, slew Leudesius, mayor of the palace, in battle, put the king himself to flight, and, pretending that a certain Clovis was the son of Lothar, formerly king, made him king for himself; and he brought over to obedience to him all whom he could by threats and blandishments, and disturbed the kingdom of the Franks with many upheavals.

In the third year of Theodoric's reign, the holy prelate Leodegar was captured by Eberwin and grievously afflicted together with his brother Gerinus. But Gerinus, not long afterward, was killed at the command of that same tyrant, overwhelmed with stones.

In the sixth year of his reign, Theodoric received Eberwin into favor, and at his persuasion called a synod of bishops. In it, according to Eberwin's judgment, he deprived many of them of their episcopal office, while he condemned others to perpetual exile. Among them Saint Lambert, son of Count Aper, removed from his bishopric of Maastricht, entered the haven of monastic quiet in the monastery of Stavelot, and remained there for seven years.

In the same year Saint Leodegar, bishop of Autun, after being long tortured by Eberwin, after hunger and the squalor of prison, after the tearing out of his eyes, after the cutting of the soles of his feet, after the cutting out of his tongue and lips, by the tyrant's command consummated his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. Many miracles proved his innocence and merit.

In the eighth year of Theodoric, after the death of Wulfrad, mayor of the palace of the Franks, Pippin, son of Ansegis, held rule in Austrasia together with Duke Martin; Eberwin engaged them and killed Martin.

In the same year Conon was ordained pope at Rome. He ordained Saint Kilian, a Scot by nation and a monk by profession, as bishop, sending him with two monks, Colman the priest and Totnan the deacon, into Germany to preach to the peoples the faith of Christ and the true salvation of souls in him. Coming into eastern Francia, at the city of Wurzburg of the Franks, he for some time devoted himself to the office of holy preaching, where by word and example he called many back to knowledge of the truth. At last, with his aforesaid disciples, he suffered under the secret direction of Geilana, wife of Gosbert, duke of the East Franks, because she feared being separated from her husband when Saint Kilian rebuked him for having her as wife, since his brother had previously had her as wife.

Theodoric reigns for a second time for thirteen years.

Leudesius, mayor of the palace in Neustria.

Eberwin declares war on Theodoric.

Clovis is set up as king by Eberwin.

Saint Leodegar, from monk made bishop, is captured.

Eberwin is received into favor by Theodoric.

Saint Lambert, bishop of Maastricht, is driven from his see by Eberwin.

Saint Leodegar the bishop is martyred.

Wulfrad and Pippin, mayors of the palace.

Saint Kilian is ordained bishop and sent into eastern Francia.

Saint Kilian at Wurzburg.

Saint Kilian is martyred with his companions.

Ebroin, mayor of the palace of Neustria, is killed. Waratto, mayor of the palace. A war between Pippin and Giselmar. Bertharius becomes mayor of the palace of Neustria. A war of King Theodoric with Pippin, mayor of the palace. Victory fell to Pippin, who captured the king. Pippin captured King Theodoric. Pippin, mayor of the palace, for twenty-three years. Saint Lambert is restored to his church. Saint Willibrord, abbot, with his twelve monks. Saint Wandregisel flourished and built the monasteries of Fécamp and Fontenelle. Theodoric, king of the Franks, dies. The fifty-sixth. Clovis reigned four years. The two Ewalds, monks, suffered martyrdom in Saxony. Pippin overcame the Frisians in war.

In the ninth year of King Theodoric, Ebroin, mayor of the palace in Neustria, since he did not cease cruelly to oppress the Franks by his tyranny, was killed by a certain Ermenfrid, a noble man; this Ermenfrid soon fled to Pippin in Austrasia, who held the chief office of mayor of the palace. When the most wicked Ebroin had been slain, a certain Waratto was appointed mayor of the palace.

In the following year a battle between Pippin and Giselmar, son of Waratto, was fought at [Nauinucum?]. Not long afterward, when Giselmar had been punished by divine judgment, and Waratto also had died, his son-in-law Bertharius became mayor of the palace. But the Franks, suffering under Bertharius’s estrangement, sought Pippin’s friendship through hostages, promising aid and faithful service if he would take the chief rule from him in war.

In the twelfth year of his reign King Theodoric and Bertharius, his mayor of the palace, declared war on Pippin, who held himself as mayor of the palace in Austrasia against their will. But Pippin conquered in that battle and bound the captured King Theodoric, as he wished, by his own conditions. Bertharius, however, [unclear].

[unclear] Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse; he accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks. And so Pippin subjugated Neustria together with Austrasia to himself; under Theodoric alone he ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks for [unclear] years [unclear]. Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse, and accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks. And so Pippin subjugated Neustria together with [unclear] to himself; under Theodoric alone he ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks for [unclear] years [unclear]. Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse, and accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks. And so Pippin [unclear] Austrasia [and] Neustria together with Austrasia to himself; under Theodoric alone he ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks for [unclear] years [unclear]. Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse; he accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks. And so Pippin subjugated Neustria [unclear] together with Austrasia to himself; under Theodoric alone he ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks for [unclear] years [unclear]. Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse, and accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks. And so Pippin [unclear] Neustria and Austrasia [unclear] together with [unclear] to himself; under Theodoric alone he ruled the whole kingdom of the Franks for [unclear] years [unclear]. Saint Lambert, led out from the monastery of Stavelot, was restored to the bishopric of the church of Maastricht upon the Meuse; he accomplished many useful things in the kingdom of the Franks.

At that time Saint Willibrord, a monk, came from England into Gallican France with twelve companions of the same profession, and lived in great holiness.

In these same times Saint Wandregisel, who [unclear], nephew through his brother Walgisus of Ansegisel, formerly mayor of the palace of the kingdom of the Franks, built two monasteries of monks under the rule of blessed Benedict in Gallican France, namely Fécamp and Fontenelle, which is now on the borders of Normandy; in these, many very holy and very learned men afterward flourished in the course of time.

Theodoric, king of the Franks, died in the fourteenth year of his reign, but in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 693, in the sixth Roman indiction, leaving two sons, Clovis and Childebert, who succeeded each other in turn.

Clovis, the elder by birth of the aforementioned sons of King Theodoric, succeeded him first and reigned over the Franks for four years, with Pippin being mayor of the palace. [unclear] coming from England for love of Christ into Saxony were martyred; they were buried at Cologne [unclear] of Prince Pippin.

In the first year of King Clovis, Pippin, mayor of the palace of the Franks, in whose hands all the power of the whole kingdom had been placed, [made] war against the Fri[sians]

[He] moved against the [Frisians?], and defeated their leader Radbod. He also ordained Saint Willibrord, English by nation, of whom we have spoken, as teacher and apostle to the Frisian people.

In these days there flourished in Gallic France, from among the disciples of blessed Kilian the bishop, formerly martyred at Würzburg, Arnualdus and Adananus, abbots, and Adelmus and Wilfrid, bishops from among the monks, who brought the souls of many to salvation.

Clovis, king of the Franks, died in the fourth year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord’s nativity 697, in the tenth indiction of the Romans.

Hildebert, brother of the aforesaid king Clovis and son of the late king Theodoric, after his brother reigned alone for ten years.

[unclear] of the people, called Vultaburg, which is now named Utrecht, from the name [unclear].

[By the gift?] of the aforesaid prince Pippin he established an episcopal see in the place called [unclear], which is now named Utrecht, from the name [unclear].

[unclear] of the people, called Vultaburg, which is now named Utrecht, from the name [unclear]; pope [unclear], on the feast of Saint Clement, is ordained bishop of the Frisians; by the gift of the aforesaid prince Pippin he established an episcopal see in the place called Vultaburg, which is now named Utrecht, from the name [unclear].

Grimoald, mayor of the palace of the Franks.

He is killed at Liege in the church of St. Lambert. Theodoric becomes mayor of the palace of the Franks.

Pippin, the second mayor of the palace, died.

Charles is committed to custody by his stepmother.

Hildebert, king of the Franks, dies.

Fifty-eighth.

Clovis, who is Dagobert, reigned for four years.

He is named Dagobert by more writers than Clovis.

The Franks cast Theudobald, mayor of the palace, down from the principate.

Ragenfrid becomes mayor of the palace of Neustria.

Charles, freed from custody, resumed his father's principate.

A war between Charles and Daniel Hilperic.

Daniel the priest becomes King Hilperic.

Clovis Dagobert, king of the Franks, dies. Refutation concerning the foundation of the monastery of St. Peter in Erfurt.

In the sixteenth year of Hildebert, king of the Franks, Grimoald, whom Pippin, already weighed down by old age, had appointed mayor of the palace in his place, was killed at Liege, while praying before the altar of St. Lambert, by Ranegarius, an attendant of Radbod, duke of the Frisians.

After his pitiable death, Theudobald, son of Drogo, was made mayor of the palace of the Franks and prince of the court by his grandfather Pippin; in this principate he could scarcely rule for two years, but was cast down by the Franks.

In the following year, which was the year of the Lord's nativity 714, Pippin, son of Ansegisus, mayor of the palace of the kingdom of the Franks, died. He designated as heir of his principate his son named Charles, surnamed Tutides or Martel, born of the concubine Alpaida. But Plectrude, the legitimate wife left by Pippin, seized this Charles, her stepson, assigned him to very close custody at Cologne, and seized the principate with her grandson Theudobald.

Meanwhile Hildebert, king of the Franks, dies in the eighteenth year of his reign, which was the year of the Lord's nativity 704, in the thirteenth indiction. The son of King Hildebert, succeeding his father in the kingdom of the Franks, reigned four years, or, as others wish, five. Most writers of histories affirm that this man was not named Clovis but Dagobert; whether this diversity occurred by fault of the writers or on any other occasion, we do not know for certain. The greater part, however, call him Dagobert, and he is cast down from the principate. After him the Franks appoint Ragenfrid mayor of the palace.

The Franks, laboring under hatred of Theudobald, conspire together as one; with forces gathered from here and there they move a sufficiently dangerous war against him, in which, after many had been killed on both sides, Theudobald is at last defeated, put to flight, and cast down from the principate. After him the Franks appoint Ragenfrid mayor of the palace.

Meanwhile Charles, son of Pippin, freed from the custody of his stepmother by divine prompting, soon strives to snatch his grandfather's principate from the hand of Ragenfrid; and first, when Radbod, duke of Frisia, was aiding the enemy, he attacked and suffered loss of his army.

In the third year of Clovis or Dagobert of the Franks, Charles, in the district of Cambrai at Vincy, on Palm Sunday, which was the third day before the Kalends of April, engaged Hilperic and Ragenfrid, turned them both to flight, and pursued them as far as Paris. Hilperic, moreover, was by rank a priest, named Daniel, whom the Franks had established as king for themselves in Neustria.

After this Dagobert, or Clovis, king of the Franks, dies in the fourth year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord's nativity 711, in the second indiction.

Here it is pleasing to insert the false opinion of certain persons concerning the foundation of the monastery of St. Peter the Apostle in Erfurt, who grant to King Dagobert the great honor of this foundation; but neither time nor reason permits this.

I would gladly have passed over this babbling of the ignorant, had not the defense of my writings compelled me to bring triflers into the open. For some time ago, at the insistence of the abbots Blasius and Johannes, we wrote two volumes, of no small size, of chronicles or annals of the distinguished monastery of Hirsau of our order, which is situated in the diocese of Speyer; in the first of these we proved sufficiently, by many arguments, that the aforesaid monastery of Saint Peter at Erfurt was founded originally not by Dagobert, king of the Franks, but by Saint Wilhelm, twelfth abbot of Hirsau. And because we have now learned that this assertion of ours is all the more true from the most foolishly fabricated letters which we saw in the aforesaid Erfurt monastery, secured by no seal of anyone, and which we read under the name of Dagobert and transcribed, lest anyone accuse us of falsehood, we have thought it worthwhile to join a copy of the same letters, together with other arguments, to our assertion.

Johannes Trithemius, abbot, in the first book of the Annals of Hirsau.

He proves the Erfurt opinion to be false.

The foundation of the monastery of Saint Peter at Erfurt. It is shown to have been made by brothers from Hirsau.

Copy of the letters of foundation which are ascribed to Dagobert.

In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. I, Dagobert, king of the Franks, make known to clergy as well as people, to Christians as well as pagans, that our city, by name Merovegesburg, which had come to us by hereditary right from our grandfather Meroveus himself, namely the founder of that same city in Thuringia, we have given by royal power to Saint Peter and to his monks serving God there, to be possessed after my death, together with all its services; and the very mountain, after the foundation of the monastery which he built in honor of the aforesaid apostle, took its name, the pagan name of my grandfather having first been abolished, and was called Peter’s Mount. But by what ordinance of God this was done, we shall relate.

There was in the aforesaid city, beside the church of Saint Blasius the martyr, a man of God named Adeodatus, enclosed at my request by Rigebert, bishop of Mainz. This enclosed man, because of peril to his soul, was unwilling to make use of the communion of clerics who used wives and arms, and often asked me to summon for him from some cloister of mine a monk from whom he might hear the divine office and the word of the true faith, and receive the communion of the sacred mystery. Assenting to the request of this man, on account of our mutual familiarity, I sent to the monastery of monks which I likewise built in Selsenburg, summoning from there a venerable elder monk named Truckindus, and directed him to the aforesaid enclosed man Adeodatus as teacher and rector. When he arrived there, gradually, by his teaching and persuasion, the number of believers began to be multiplied, both through the conversion of pagans to baptism and of clerics and laymen to the monastic habit. Seeing this, and understanding the divine favor in it, I handed over my often-mentioned city, with all things belonging to it, to Saint Peter and to his monks, for monastic religion to be established there and an abbey to be made with my aid.

His grandfather was not, but the fourteenth king before him.

At that time Erfurt was a small village, not a city.

Rigibertus was bishop of Mainz.

It is certain that the kings of the Franks at that time could do nothing. All power was in the hands of the mayor of the palace.

Nor did he do this, nor could he, because the mayor of the palace was lord.

Pepin, mayor of the palace, was lord of the whole kingdom.

He could not give the wood and the villages.

Since all things were under the power of the mayor of the palace.

The king of the Franks at that time had no power.

If he existed as lord of all Thuringia, therefore he gave all the Thuringians to the monastery.

The brethren indeed show letters without a seal.

How was the whole church in Thuringia and Mainz present?

The indiction is put falsely, as in the original.

It was not in the ninth indiction, but the fourth.

He who knows ecclesiastical computation understands.

The reckoning of the years proves the fabrication.

Dagobert the Great could not have founded the monastery of St. Peter.

Nor was this Dagobert its founder; it is plain.

Moreover I gave to Saint Peter and his monks, for various uses, the forest which, because of the great number of deer, is called Hirsbrulis, from the southern side of the city toward the east as far as the boundaries of the region of Orlau, which region I handed over in benefice to Pepin, count palatine. I gave nonetheless to the aforesaid monastery the villages made by slaves in the same forest, namely Tuneckdorff, Tugebrachtestet, Tuttelstet, Nevukenrodt, Hochdorff, and several others; and the water Gera, for the monks to catch fish, from the southern part of the city as far as the boundary of the court of my ministerial Gisbotus. I also gave from my court, for the use of the brethren, fifty modii of wheat, one hundred of barley, and as many of oats, and all my other possessions in Thuringia. For the maintenance of this place beloved to me I gave my ministerials with all their offspring and possession, whose names are these: Gisbotus, Eckhardus, Vuolffholdus, Hysen, Egenhen, Vuolffgirus, Omarus, Sigebertus, Theodobertus, Theodoricus, Adelbotus, Adelgerus, Gelferatus, Hingfridus, Huntzelinus, and all the rest, my male servants and female servants in Thuringia. In order that this conveyance to my Lord Jesus Christ may remain firm eternally, we have caused it to be established by our letters, we have requested it to be confirmed by the ban of Rigibert, bishop of Mainz, and we have bound it with our ring and completed it by the display of our seal. Charter at Mainz, on the Kalends of March, in the presence of Bishop Rigebert. The sign of Dagobert, most unconquered king of the Franks. The witnesses of all these matters are these: Pepin, mayor of the palace; his son Charles; Rigibert, bishop of Mainz; Gunthernus, pagan count; Eckebi, count; the whole church in Thuringia around the Rhine in Mainz. These things were done in the seven hundred sixth year of the Lord’s incarnation, in the ninth indiction.

Far be it from me, Trithemius infers, to fight against the truth of this so ancient asserted foundation, if it holds up; but how truth can hold up in it I do not sufficiently see. Therefore I shall also note here briefly what reasons for doubting occur to me, after those, namely, which I wrote for Hirsau.

The first consideration which prevents me from conceding that Dagobert was the founder of the often-mentioned monastery of Erfurt is that the reckoning of the years does not agree; for if this very foundation is ascribed to Dagobert the Great, it contradicts the instrument of the letters no less than the truth of the computed time. For he died in the year of the Lord’s nativity, as we said above, six hundred forty-five, in the third Roman indiction, not less than sixty years before the donation of this document. But if it is attributed to that latest Dagobert, who was Clodoveus, nevertheless a discordance of years follows, because he began to reign in the year of the Lord 715 and died in the year 719. How, then, could he have delivered letters of a foundation of this kind in the sixth year of the Lord?

The second consideration which made me doubtful is this: that In the aforesaid instrument of letters the ninth Roman indiction is set down, although it was the fourth and by no means the ninth, as a skilled ecclesiastical computist will plainly find.

The third consideration gives me a strong suspicion of fabrication, because the aforesaid letters of foundation, which the brothers at St. Peter’s in Erfurt display as originals, are protected by no one’s seal, although a hole appears in the parchment, as if the seal had fallen off through excessive age.

The fourth consideration is by no means inferior to the foregoing, because it is found plainly written in the life and deeds of blessed Wilhelm, abbot of Hirsau, that he constructed seven new monasteries of our order, among which the often-mentioned monastery of St. Peter in Erfurt is counted fourth in order. I deliberately pass over several other considerations, lest prolixity create tedium for the reader.

Therefore, just as I wrote and long ago showed by many arguments in that very first volume of my Hirsau chronicles, it was necessary for me to think thus and to prefer to fabrication the truth, which I believe has simply perished.

In the year of the Lord 706 the Roman indiction was the fourth, not the ninth.

The letters of foundation which they have were never sealed.

It is clear that the man of Hirsau founded the place.

The monastery of St. Peter was founded by Hirsau.

Which Trithemius proved by many arguments.

Fifty-ninth.

The brother of the aforesaid King Clovis, or Dagobert, after his death, in the year of the Lord, as we said, 719, in the second indiction, at the advancement of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of the Franks, gathered forces, having them as assistance, and advanced in war against King Lothar and his mayor of the palace, Charles. But, defeated by Charles’s troops, they fled with great difficulty. Eudo, returning in confusion into Aquitaine, took with him Chilperic, who was Daniel.

Lothar reigned seven years.

Daniel the priest-king with his Regenfrid, his mayor of the palace.

Daniel, who was Chilperic, is defeated by Charles.

Daniel, from priest to king, is put to flight by Charles.

In the third year of King Lothar, Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, pursuing Regenfrid, besieged Angers; and, after the city had been captured, he received him in surrender. With peace established between them, he granted him the city to live in, and thereafter he himself powerfully held everywhere the principate of the whole kingdom of the Franks.

Charles moved war against Regenfrid.

Regenfrid is besieged by Charles in the city of Orléans.

In the following year Charles, mayor of the palace, surnamed Martel, launched an expedition into Saxony. After an engagement had taken place, with many killed on both sides, he compelled them to submission, and also forced the rebels to pay tribute to the Franks.

Charles launched an expedition into Saxony.

In the fifth year of the aforesaid Lothar, king of the Franks, which was the 724th year of the Lord’s Nativity, in the seventh Roman indiction, the Bavarians scorned to pay tribute to the Franks—

Charles, mayor of the palace, moved war against the Bavarians.

The Bavarians are compelled to submission to the Franks.

Lanfrid, duke of the Alamanni, is killed by the Franks.

Lothar, king of the Franks, died.

The Sixtieth: Theodoric reigned fifteen years.

The mayor of the palace appointed as king whom he wished.

St Pyrminius, from a monk, bishop of Meaux, builder of many monasteries.

The monastery of Dole in the diocese of Trier.

The monastery of Schuttern, founded by Saint Pyrminius the bishop.

The monks of Schuttern deny their own founder.

Having no letters of foundation.

The false assertion of the brothers of Schuttern is refuted.

The monastery of Schwarzach in Alsace is founded.

[unclear] had prepared themselves for open rebellion. When this matter became known to Charles, mayor of the palace, he gathered a great army of the Franks and, setting out into Bavaria, attacked the disobedient in war, and powerfully brought them back to complete submission.

In the following year Charles, mayor of the palace of the Franks, launched an expedition into Alemannia and, joining battle with the rebellious Alemanni, emerged victorious. He overcame Lanfrid, their duke, and forced their land into submission.

Lothar, king of the Franks, reigning in name alone, died in the seventh year of his reign, in the year of the Lord’s Nativity 726, in the seventh indiction. Theodoric, Lothar’s nephew by his brother, namely the son of the aforesaid King Clovis, whom others called Dagobert, after the death of his uncle and at the same time after the death of Chilperic Daniel the priest, who while Lothar was alive and after his death had acted as king for eight years, was raised by Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, to be king of the Franks, and reigned fifteen years.

In these times there flourished in Gallican Francia Saint Pyrminius, formerly a monk of the monastery of Abbot [Diuinaurus?], bishop of Meaux in the province of Sens, a man admirable for learning and holiness. For the love of Christ, to preach the true faith to the peoples, he came into the regions of Germany, where by word and example he converted many to the worship of truth, and founded several monasteries.

Among these the following are counted as the principal ones and known to us. The monastery of Saint Maurice the Martyr in Dole of Trier, which the great king of the Franks Dagobert, as was said above, once built, he personally visited rather often; for some time he lived there among the brothers, established the conduct of the brothers according to the intention of the Rule of Saint Benedict, and adorned the place.

Likewise the monastery of Schuttern, which is situated three miles above Strasbourg, a city of Alsace, the same Saint Pyrminius founded, just as is found clearly written in the original volume of his Life, which we have in our possession. Nor is it an objection that the brothers of that same monastery, showing no documents of truth, say that Offa, king of England, when he was seeking Rome for the sake of devotion in the times of Saint Gregory the First, pope, was moved by the pleasantness of the place to establish a monastery there; for King Offa and his brother, as we said above under King Hildebert, sought Rome and became monks in the year of the Lord 707, in the fifth Roman indiction. But Saint Pope Gregory, under whom they say that Offa, king of England, came to Rome, had died earlier, in the year of the Lord 605, in the eighth Roman indiction. Sigebert bears witness for our assertion in the chronicles.

Finally, the monastery of Schwarzach, situated in the diocese of Strasbourg, the same saint similarly founded, which the writer of his Life in the ori-

he attests in the original.

The monastery of Gengenbach, in the diocese of Strasbourg, which is one mile distant from Schuttern, the same writer of the Life of Saint Pirmin attests was founded by him.

The same saint founded the monastery which in Latin is called Mauri Monasterium, but in the vernacular Morsmunster, in the diocese of Strasbourg.

Likewise the same saint built the monastery of Neuweiler in the same diocese of Strasbourg; its monks, together with their abbot, in our times withdrew from the order.

There are two monasteries of our order with one name in Bavaria, of which one is called Upper Altha, and the other likewise Altha, but Lower. In the deeds of the dukes of Bavaria we read that Duke Odilo, father of Duke Tassilo, founded Lower Altha. But in the deeds of Saint Pirmin it is said that he built the monastery of Altha in Bavaria, yet it is not there expressed whether Upper or Lower; therefore it is clear that it was Upper.

The blessed Pirmin also built another monastery within the borders of Alsace, if I remember rightly in the diocese of Basel, of the same order of Benedict, which is named Murbach, as is contained in his Life.

He also founded another monastery on an island of the river Rhine, not far from Constance, which is now called Reichenau, in which in the course of time many cloistered men lived, distinguished for learning and holiness. But in these our days it is tossed in great poverty, which once, through extraordinary riches and abundance of goods, was called Rich Reichenau.

He also built from the foundations a new monastery in the town of Amorbach, in the diocese of Würzburg, of our aforesaid order, in which he appointed Saint Amor, his disciple, abbot. And many others which we do not know.

In the fifth year of Theodoric, king of the Franks, died Bede the Venerable, priest and monk in England, a learned and holy man, who wrote many volumes for the usefulness of readers and to the honor of the supreme, undivided deity.

Theodoric, king of the Franks, died in the fifteenth year of his reign, and in the year of the Lord’s nativity 741, in the ninth indiction of the Romans. Succeeding him, Childeric, with Charles, surnamed Martel, that is, the Hammer, as mayor of the palace, reigned in name only for nine years. For all power and the resources of the kingdom were in the hands of the mayor [unclear] than that, content with the royal name, with flowing hair and lowered beard, he should sit on a throne and display the appearance of one ruling, hear envoys coming from every quarter, and, as they departed, give them the answers in which he had been instructed.

The monastery of Gengenbach in Alsace is founded.

The monastery of Morsmunster is founded in Alsace.

The monastery of Neuweiler in Alsace is founded [unclear].

Two monasteries of our order of one name in Bavaria.

Upper Altha and Lower Altha are founded.

The monastery of Murbach is founded in Alsace.

The monastery in Greater Reichenau near Constance is founded.

The monastery in Amorbach is founded.

Bede, priest and monk in England, died.

Theodoric, king of the Franks, dies.

The Sixty-First.

Childeric, last king of the Franks, reigned nine years.

The kings of the Franks did nothing except bear the empty name, nor did they have any power in anything.

Thus idleness weakens virtue.

Charles, called Martel, mayor of the palace of the Franks, died.

He greatly enlarged the kingdom of the Franks, but failed himself with respect to salvation.

What evils Charles committed I wrote in the first book of the Annals.

Carloman and Pippin divide the principate.

After four years Carloman became a monk.

Pippin held the principate for eleven years.

Grifo, their brother, was grieved that he had been neglected.

Grifo is captured and committed to custody.

Saint Winfrid, who is Boniface, archbishop of Mainz.

The monasteries of Hersfeld and Fulda are founded.

A convent of nuns at Kitzingen, Bischofsheim.

Hadelloga and Lioba, holy abbesses in the places named above.

Odilo, duke of Bavaria, carried off Pippin’s sister as his wife.

or ordered, as if he were giving it back from his own authority, since, apart from the useless name of king and the precarious sustenance of life, which the mayor of the palace furnished him at his own discretion, he possessed nothing else.

In the same year Charles Martel died, mayor of the palace of the Franks, duke of Brabant, and count [unclear] of Namur; since he was most warlike and fortunate in all things, he greatly extended the boundaries of the kingdom. He defeated the Saxons, Bavarians, Burgundians, Sorbs, [Bulgarians?] dwelling beyond the Danube, and also the Gascons, Vandals, Goths, Saracens in Spain, Frisians, and many other nations round about; he overcame them by war and the sword. Of his deeds, good and evil, and how he conferred ecclesiastical dignities on his soldiers and despoiled churches, and how for those crimes he was seen after death buried in hell, we have related more fully in the first volume of our Annals, of which this is the compendium.

He left three sons: Pippin, Carloman, and Grifo. Of these, Pippin and Carloman divided the paternal principate between themselves, excluding Grifo, and in this way they ruled over the Franks for four years. But after four years Carloman, moved by the divine spirit, relinquished the whole principate to his brother Pippin, went to Rome, and became a monk on Monte Cassino. Pippin then ruled the principate alone for six years; after King Childeric had been deposed, by common vote he was made king.

Grifo, grieving that he had been disregarded by his brothers, by the counsel of his mother seized the city of Laon and declared war on his brothers. His mother was the stepmother of Pippin and Carloman. They, swiftly gathering their army, surrounded Laon with a siege, captured the city, and held their brother prisoner for four years.

In these times there flourished in the kingdom of the Franks Saint Boniface, English by nation, a monk by profession, by dignity archbishop of the church of Mainz, an apostolic man who by his preaching converted the Thuringians and many others to Christ, for whom later, while preaching in Frisia, he suffered martyrdom.

He founded in the Buchonia forest two notable monasteries of our order, one of which is called Hersfeld in the diocese of Mainz, the other by the river Fulda flowing past it, where he was buried, in the diocese of Wuerzburg.

He also built several convents of nuns, among which there still stands out one of the monasteries in the town of Kitzingen beside the Main, in the diocese of Wuerzburg; over it he placed a holy virgin named Hadelloga, whom he named Thecla, of English origin. Another, near the town of Bischofsheim beside the Tauber, in the diocese of Mainz, over which he placed Saint Lioba, a virgin beloved of God, likewise English by country; of this convent nothing survives today.

In the second year of Childeric, king of the Franks, in the eleventh indiction of the Romans, Odilo, duke of Bavaria, having carried off Pippin’s sister, against him rebelled; Pippin defeated and overcame him in war, though not without loss to his own men.

In the year of the Lord’s nativity 746, which was the fifth year of King Childeric and the fourteenth Roman indiction, Adelung, a priest at Würzburg, blind and warned in a dream to seek the bodies of Saint Kilian the bishop and of his companions, martyrs, found the sacred bones and recovered his sight. When Saint Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, learned of this miracle, with the help of Pippin, prince of the palace of the Franks, he obtained from Pope Zacharias that he should establish at Würzburg a new see of the bishop and of his companions, martyrs.

In the seventh year, therefore, of Childeric king of the Franks, and also in the year of the Lord’s nativity 748, in the first indiction, Saint Burghard, English by nation, a monk by profession, was ordained by Saint Boniface, archbishop of Mainz, as first bishop of the church of Würzburg. He presided for forty years. And in the same year little crosses, as if marked with oil, appeared on people’s linen garments.

In the year of the Lord’s nativity 749, in the second indiction, Childeric, king of the Franks, with Zacharias, pope of Rome, also giving counsel, was cast down from the kingdom and tonsured as a monk, in the ninth year of his reign. Therefore, by the common will of all, Pippin, mayor of the palace, was elected king; from him the second volume of our annals takes its beginning. He himself descended from the ancient stock of the kings of the Franks, as we have said in the same volume. Here, then, in the name of Jesus Christ, we end the epitome, or abridgment, of the first volume of our annals, in which, over the course of 1,190 years, sixty-one kings of the Franks are contained, from the first entrance of the people into Germany at the mouths of the Rhine.

The end.

Here ends the compendium or abridgment of the volume of chronicles, or annals, of Johannes Trithemius, abbot of Saint James at Würzburg, formerly of Sponheim, concerning the origin and kings of the Franks. On the twentieth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord 1514, in the fifty-second year of his age.

It comprises in sum 1,189 years.

Born in the year 1462, on the first of February.

The bodies of Saint Kilian and his companions are found.

Adelung the priest, blind, is illuminated.

The bishopric of Würzburg is instituted.

Saint Burghard, first bishop of Würzburg.

Childeric, king of the Franks, useless to the kingdom, is deposed.

Pippin, mayor of the palace, is elected king.

The compendium of the first volume of the annals of Johannes Trithemius, abbot, is finished.

The present work of chronicles was printed and completed in the year of the Lord 1515, on the vigil of Margaret the virgin, in the noble and famous city of Mainz, the first inventor of this art of printing, by Johannes Schöffer, grandson of the late honorable man Johannes Fust, citizen of Mainz, the principal originator of the aforesaid art. He at length began to devise and contemplate the art of printing by his own genius in the year of the Lord’s nativity 1450, in the thirteenth indiction, when the most illustrious Frederick III, Roman emperor, was reigning, and when the most reverend father in Christ and lord Theoderic, pincerna of Erbach, prince-elector, was presiding over the holy see of Mainz. But in the year 1452 he perfected it and, with divine grace favoring, brought it into the work of printing, yet with the labor and many necessary inventions of Peter Schöffer of Gernsheim, his assistant and adopted son. To him he also gave his daughter Christina Fust in marriage, as a worthy recompense for his labors and many aids. The two men already named, Johannes Fust and Peter Schöffer, kept this art secret, all their assistants and household members being bound by oath not to reveal it in any way. But when at last, in the year of the Lord 1462, it was spread abroad by those same household members into various lands and provinces, it took no small increase.

With the grace and privilege of the imperial majesty, by order and at the expense of the honorable Johannes Haselperg of Aia Maior, of the diocese of Constance.