A general chronological history of France beginning before the reign of King Pharamond, and ending with the reign of King Henry the Fourth, containing both the civil and the ecclesiastical transactions of that kingdom / by the sieur De Mezeray ... ; translated by John Bulteel ...

Childeric, King IV.

Aged XX to XXV years.

POPES,

• LEON I. Three years,
• HILARY the 12th Nov. 461. S. Five years Ten Months.
• SIMPLICUS the 20th Sept. 561. S. Twenty Five years, Five Months.

[Year of our Lord 458] THis Prince, being yet Young, much addicted to his Pleasures, and ha∣ving a Kingdom too peaceable, gave himself the liberty to debauch [Year of our Lord 459. Or 460.] his Subjects Wives and Daughters.

The French who were not accustomed to such infamous dealings, de∣graded him from his Throne, either by Sedition only, or by some kind of judici∣al proceedings, and in his stead, Elected Aegidius or Gillon, Master of the Roman Militia, who was a stranger, but in high reputation for Wisdom and Probity. Childerick knowing after this, that they sought his Life also, retired himself into [Year of our Lord 460] Turingia to King Basin, but left a faithful friend in France, named Guyemans, who promised to work his Restauration, by turning the Hearts of the French against Gillon.

Guyemans being very subtil, gained much upon the Good Will and Confidence of Gillon, and encouraged him to charge them with Taxes or Imposts; and when they made a great noise about it, he counsel'd him to strike off the most stirring Heads, who were the same that had degraded Childeric: then do they come secretly to make complaints to Guyemans, who perswades them to recall their natural King: and when he observes them disposed so to do, gives him notice of it, and for a [Year of our Lord 468] token sends him the half of a Gold Crown broken in two, of which the King kept the other half. The French go as far as Bar to meet him, and re-establish him in his Royalty with formal Solemnity.

[Year of our Lord From the year 468. To the year 481.] After his return, he made use of the heat of his Subjects against Gillon, he push∣ed at him vigorously, forced him to abandon Colen, took Treves by Assault, and Burnt it, Conquer'd the Countrey now called Lorrain; and afterwards crossing Cham∣pagnes which then remained firm to the Romans, he made himself Master of Beau∣vais, Paris, and of many other Towns upon the Oise and the Seine; the People gi∣ving themselves up to the French, rather out of choice than by compulsion, to free themselves from the horrible Tailles, and cruel Concussions of the Roman Magi∣strates, who had put them into so great dispair, that they sought their own re∣lief in the ruine of the State.

A little after, Childeric came from Turingia, Queen Basina charmed with his Virtues, forsook her Husband to come to him; he took her to Wife, and within the year had a Son by her, who was named Clovis.

Gillon, as it should seem, had called in some Auxiliaries of the Saxons, Com∣manded by their King Odoacer, which he employed to defend the Cities above the Loire, as well against the Visigoths as the French. When he was dead, viz. in the year 464. the Count Pol took the Command, and Odoacer on his side, would se∣cure the City of Angiers, and fortified the Islands in the Loire to preserve his boo∣ty: but Childeric vanquished the Count Pol near Orleans, and after he had possess'd himself of that City, pursued him to Angiers, where he forced his way in, and laid him dead on the Pavement. This done, he dislodged the Saxons from their Islands; and after an agreement with them, he set them at work to drive away the Germans, who at that same time had made an irruption into Gaul.

[Year of our Lord 476] Anno 476. Of the Christian Aera, and the 1229. from the foundation of Rome, the Roman Empire ended in the West; there having been in the last Twenty years Nine or Ten Abortives of Emperours, of which Romulus, whom they called Augustulus, was the last. He was a young Child of about Ten or Twelve years old, to whom the Patrician Orestes his Father, had given the Title of Emperour to Govern in his Name. Odoa∣cer,* 1.1 King of the Heruli having slain Orestes, locked up this Child in a Castle, and gave beginning to the First Kingdom in Italy.

Divers years before Gondiochus, King of the Burgundians was dead, and his Four Sons Gondebaud, Godegesile, Chilperic, and Gondemar, had shared his Kingdom a∣mongst them. Now Anno 477. Gondebaud the eldest, and the most knowing of all, had [Year of our Lord 477] Leagued himself with the Second, to dispoliate the two others; at first he was defeated, and kept himself hid for a time: then when they thought him dead, he comes forth on a suddain and surrounds them in Vienne: Gondemar was burned in a Tower, where he was defending himself: Chilperic fell into the Victors hands, who caused him to be Mas∣sacred with his two Sons, and his Wife thrown into the River with a Stone tied to her Neck, but spared the Lives of his two Daughters. They were called Sedeleube, and Clotilda, both of them were of the Orthodox Faith, though their Father and Ʋnkle were Arrians. The First Consecrated her self to God, the other Gondebaud kept, and had her bred up in his own House.

King Childerick, upon his return from an Expedition against the Almains, is as∣saulted by a Fever, and dyes, aged at least 45 years, of which he had Reigned 22 or 23. He left Four Children, one Son whom they named Clouis, and three Daugh∣ters, Andeflede, who espoused Theodorick, King of the Orstogoths, Alboflede and Lan∣tilda. [Year of our Lord 481] These two received Baptism with their Brother Alboflede, being Converted from Paganism, and Lantilda from the Arrian Heresie; These were not Married.

It is conjectured, that he held his Royal Seat at Tournay, because in our times, in the year 1654. digging under some Houses, there was a Tomb discovered, and amongst other singular Curiosities was found a Ring, whereon his Effigies and his Name are Engraved.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Emp. Zenon, 474.