Gregory of Tours and the History of the Franks (c. 576-594)

Gregory of Tours was a sixth-century bishop and historian whose Ten Books of Histories, usually called the History of the Franks, is the chief source for Gaul under the Merovingian kings. Written between about 576 and 594, it tells the story of Clovis, his sons and grandsons, and of the bishops, saints and ordinary people of a post-Roman kingdom. Without Gregory, very little would be known about Frankish history in this period.

Life

Gregory was born around 538 at Clermont in the Auvergne, into a Gallo-Roman family of senatorial rank. His original name was Georgius Florentius; he took the name Gregory later, after a great-grandfather who had been bishop of Langres. Many of his relatives were bishops, including his uncle Gallus of Clermont and his mother’s relative Nicetius of Lyon.

In 573 Gregory became bishop of Tours, home of the shrine of Saint Martin, the most important pilgrimage centre in Gaul. His appointment was backed by King Sigibert I and Queen Brunhild, and the poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote verses celebrating it. Tours changed hands between rival Frankish kings, and Gregory had to deal with each of them.

His most dangerous enemies were King Chilperic I and Queen Fredegund. In 580 he was accused of slandering the queen and tried before a council of bishops at Berny-Rivière, where he cleared himself by oath. He died at Tours, traditionally on 17 November 594, and was honoured as a saint.

The Ten Books of Histories

Gregory’s Histories begin with the Creation and move quickly through biblical and Roman history. Book 1 ends with the death of Saint Martin in 397. Book 2 covers the fifth century and the rise of Clovis I, Books 3 and 4 the reigns of his sons and grandsons, and Books 5 to 10 the years Gregory lived through as bishop, up to 591.

The work is a history of the world seen from Gaul and from the Church. Gregory mixes royal wars, family murders, church councils and court cases with miracles, omens, plagues and floods. He describes, for example, the epidemic that struck Clermont in 571, part of the Plague of Justinian, and the raids of the Lombards across the Alps after their invasion of Italy.

Some of the best-known episodes of early French history come from Gregory: the baptism of Clovis, the Vase of Soissons, and the long feud between the queens Brunhild and Fredegund. He also wrote eight books of miracles, including four on the miracles of Saint Martin and the Life of the Fathers.

Style and reliability

Gregory insisted that his Latin was rough. His preface laments that the study of letters was perishing in Gaul, and he repeatedly asks the reader to excuse his errors. His language reflects the changing spoken Latin of the time, which was gradually turning into early French, and it makes his work valuable to linguists as well as historians.

Historians read Gregory with care. He wrote as a Catholic bishop with clear moral aims, showing how God rewarded the faithful and punished the wicked. He was hostile to Arian Christians and to rulers who threatened the Church, especially Chilperic, whom he called the Nero and Herod of his time. For Clovis, who died some 27 years before Gregory was born, he relied on oral tradition and a few written sources, so his account of that reign is less secure.

Manuscripts and later use

The Histories survive in many manuscripts, some from as early as the seventh century. An abridged version in six books circulated widely in the early Middle Ages, which is one reason the work became known as the History of the Franks. Later chroniclers, including the writer known as Fredegar, continued his narrative. The standard modern edition was published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and Lewis Thorpe’s 1974 English translation made it widely known to modern readers.

Myths and facts

Myth: Gregory wrote a national history of the Franks. The title History of the Franks was added later. Gregory called his work simply Ten Books of Histories, and he was more interested in the Church, the saints and the moral meaning of events than in the Franks as a people.

Myth: Merovingian Gaul was uniquely violent and barbarous. Gregory’s vivid stories of murder and revenge created this image, which was repeated by nineteenth-century writers. Modern historians point out that he chose dramatic examples to make moral points, and that much of ordinary government, law and church life continued quietly in the background.

Fact: Gregory was an eyewitness to much of what he describes. He met kings and queens, attended councils and trials, and sheltered fugitives in the church of Saint Martin, including the rebel prince Merovech in 577. For the 570s and 580s his account is often the testimony of a participant.

Timeline

• c. 538, 30 November: Gregory is born at Clermont in the Auvergne.
• 573: Gregory becomes bishop of Tours.
• c. 576: Gregory begins writing the Histories, according to most scholars.
• 580: Gregory is tried at Berny-Rivière for slandering Queen Fredegund and is cleared.
• 591: The narrative of the Histories ends.
• 594, 17 November: Gregory dies at Tours (traditional date).

Why it matters

For Merovingian Gaul, Gregory of Tours is the storyteller whose account shapes almost everything later historians say. His Histories preserve the voices, quarrels and beliefs of a society in transition between Rome and medieval France, and they remain the starting point for anyone studying the early Franks.