04. Conquest of Gaul by the Franks
CHAPTER IV. Conquest of Gaul by the Franks (300 A.D.)
I said that the Romans were growing weaker and less wise than they had been; the fierce tribes of Germany, on the other hand, were growing stronger and more powerful. Many of them left their own country, which was not so pleasant as Gaul or Italy, because the people had not taken any pains to improve it, and it was still covered with thick forests and swamps, and had no good roads or corn-fields, or orchards, and was altogether dreary and poor; so the German tribes came in great numbers, some into Gaul and some into Italy. The Roman emperors sent soldiers, and sometimes went themselves, to help the Gauls to resist these enemies, but in vain; there were so many of them, that as soon as one army had been defeated, another appeared. At one time Rome itself was taken by the Germans, and though they were afraid to stay there long, they did a great deal of harm, for they stole or destroyed most of what they found.
Many of the Germans had passed through Gaul on their way to Rome, and had destroyed the harvests, the trees, and the flocks, besides taking the people for slaves.
A writer of that time says: — " Neither strong places surrounded by water, nor castles built upon steep rocks, could escape their furious attacks and cunning stratagems. If the whole ocean had flowed over the Gaulish lands, the ruin of Gaul would have been less complete." After nearly a hundred years of this trouble and disturbance, one of the Roman emperors made an agreement with the King of the Goths, one of the German nations, that he would give up to the Goths a third part of Gaul, keeping for Rome only one province in the south, which was nearer to Italy, and could be more easily defended than the others.
The Gauls were in despair. After fighting against the Germans for more than sixty years, and bearing bravely all kinds of want and suffering, they were to become the subjects and probably the slaves of their fierce enemies. They wrote in vain to the emperor, begging not to be delivered up to the Goths; they then turned for help to the Greek emperor, who also refused to hear them; they were at last forced to yield to the Goths. Two other German tribes had also made themselves masters of a part of Gaul; of these the fiercest and most savage was that of the Franks, who, for some reason, were better liked by the Gauls, especially by the Gaulish bishops, than the Goths or any other Germans.
The King of the Franks died and left his crown to his young son Clovis, who showed himself, as he grew up, to be a wise and brave prince. He first attacked and conquered the Roman chief who was governing the part of the country which had been kept by Rome. Clovis took from him several provinces(, which was the name given to divisions of the country like our English counties). He afterwards made war against a fierce tribe of Germans who were trying to force their way into Gaul and settle there, as the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks had done.
Clovis at this time was, like the other Franks, a heathen, but his wife was a Christian, and had often tried to persuade him to be the same. In a great battle against the Germans the Franks seemed likely to be defeated. Clovis called for help upon the God of his wife, and swore that if he conquered in this battle, he would become a Christian. The Franks were victorious, and Clovis was baptized with all his chief warriors. After this the Gaulish clergy took the side of the Franks more than ever; the Goths were also Christians, but they believed some things which the clergy thought were untrue, while the Franks believed just what the Romans taught them.
Clovis, however, though he was a Christian, was still horribly fierce and cruel. He killed many of his relations and the other princes of his tribe, so that there might be no one to try to become king instead of him. He conquered all the land of the Burgundians, and a great part of what belonged to the Goths, so that he became king of almost all the whole of Gaul The Franks settled themselves comfortably in the country, and more and more Franks from Germany were constantly passing into Gaul and establishing themselves there.
The Franks, like most barbarous people, had a great dislike to living in towns; the king, when he was not at war, went from one part of the country to another, hunting and amusing himself, and his chief warriors followed him. He gave them land for their own to reward their services to him. This land they kept for their lifetime, and sometimes left it to their sons, for the chiefs often grew as powerful as the king, so that when he wished to take back the land he was not able to do so.
Sometimes in war the chiefs took land for themselves, and gave parts of it to their followers without the king having anything to do with it. You see that it was very dififerent being king of the Franks from being king of any of the countries of Europe at the present day. If an Englishman conquers land now, it belongs to the Queen; if a Frenchman conquers it, to the French Republic; if a Grerman, to the Emperor of Germany. But the king in those days was not much more than the general of his tribe, having very little power over them in times of peace, and he was obliged to allow the chiefs to keep the land they had won, because - he could not prevent them from doing so.
We do not know much of the state of the Gauls at this time. Probably they were rather better off at first under the Franks than they had been under the Romans, because the Franks were not accustomed to have slaves, and did not expect such large sums of money from the Gauls as the Romans had done; but the country soon fell into all lands of disturbance and confusion, and the Gauls were worse off than they had ever been before.
