The History of the Franks

Gregory begins this book by denouncing the civil war between the Franks and writing, “Beware, then, of discord, beware of civil wars, which are destroying you and your people” (254). When Brunhild heard that her husband King Sigibert had been assassinated, “she was prostrate with anguish and grief, and she hardly knew what she was doing” (254). Sigibert’s son, Childebert, who was only five years old, became the next king.

While she was in Paris, Brunhild was captured by Chilperic and banished to Rouen. Chilperic ordered his and Audovera’s son Merovich to march on Poitiers, then part of Childebert’s kingdom, but Merovich disobeyed his father and instead went to Rouen, where he married Brunhild. Chilperic had Merovich imprisoned. Gregory stops to introduce one of Chilperic’s commanders, Duke Rauching. When two serfs from his estates married without his permission, he vowed to the priest who presided over the marriage not to separate them. Then he had them buried alive.

Gregory describes how Felix, the bishop of Nantes, accused his brother Peter, a deacon, of killing his bishop. He accuses Felix of making the accusation as part of a plot to take some of the church land entrusted to Gregory.