Clovis next made war against the Burgundians, who, as has been said, occupied the southeastern part of Gaul and were ruled at that time by two brothers, Gundobald and Godegisel. Both fell victims to his cruelty. One of the dead brothers left a daughter Clotilde, for whose hand Clovis appealed to her uncle, the Burgundian chief. The uncle did not dare refuse Clovis’s request, and Clotilde, the Christian, became his wife. She immediately set about the task of converting him, but did not succeed at that time. His purpose was to secure her inheritance, not her religious faith.
Before concluding final arrangements with the Burgundians another problem presented itself for settlement. The Alemanni were threatening Siegbert, one of his relations. This gave him a sufficient pretext for drawing his sword against them. A decisive battle was fought at Toul.[11] It was a bloody encounter, and victory at first appeared to favor the Alemanni. Thereupon, thinking of Clotilde’s appeals to him, he invoked the Christians’ God before his whole army and promised to become a Christian if he won the victory. Thereupon he massed his forces and hurled them upon the enemy with such fierceness that the onset was irresistible. The Alemanni were decimated, and Clovis occupied the entire region between the Neckar and Lahn and forced it to supply warriors to make good his losses. In the same year he and three thousand of his followers were baptized at Rheims.
The German chiefs who had embraced Christianity at an earlier period had given their adhesion to the Arian confession, but Clovis gave his to the Catholic. There was great rejoicing in Rome, and the Pope conferred upon him the title of “All Christian King,” which title also descended to his Frankish successors. Later the clergy spread the report abroad that a miracle took place at the time of Clovis’s baptism. It was said that there was no consecrated oil at hand. As the bishop stood helpless at the altar a white dove suddenly flew down with a flask of oil in its beak, a sign that his name had been inscribed in heaven and that his conversion had given delight to God and the angels. To satisfy the sceptical, the wonderful flask was preserved in the Cathedral of Rheims, and the precious contents were not diminished, though it was used whenever the rite was repeated. In fact the flask was used at every coronation down to the close of the last century. The story of its origin spread and is believed by some even to this day. Neither baptism, nor anointing, nor papal titles, however, could change the deceitful, truculent, bloodthirsty nature of Clovis. He next turned against his wife’s Burgundian relatives, who were subjugated and compelled to pay tribute to him.
Clovis was now master of Gaul even to the southern part of it, which had belonged to the West Goths who a century earlier, under the leadership of Ataulf, had taken possession of the country north and south of the Pyrenees (southern Gaul and northern Spain). As there was no political pretext for making war upon the West Goths he found a religious one. The “All Christian” King Clovis assembled the bishops and secular leaders and thus addressed them:
“Shall the West Goth heretics occupy that beautiful country and persecute our Catholic brethren? Arise in the name of our faith and conquer them!”
Clovis had now openly declared his adherence to the Catholic faith, and there was fresh rejoicing in Rome when it was known that he had undertaken a crusade against the West Goths. He was victorious in a battle with Alaric the Second, whom he slew with his own hand, but was prevented by Theodoric the Great,[12] father-in-law of Alaric, from subjugating the entire West-Gothic kingdom. He had to be content with the sovereignty of the region between the Loire and the Garonne (Provence) as part of the Frankish Empire.
Clovis’s career was continually marked by injustice, cruelty, and bloodshed. One outrage rapidly followed another. He next sought to add the possessions of his Frankish relatives to his kingdom. Siegbert, with whom he had fought against the Alemanni, was a cripple because of a wound received in the battle of Toul. Clovis sent word to his son that his father had lived too long, and that if he were out of the way they might be friends. The dissolute son had his father murdered, and sent this message to Clovis: “My father is no longer living. Send messengers to me, and they shall take whatever you need from my treasures.” Clovis sent his messengers, but upon another errand. The young prince led them to the treasure chamber and they assassinated him there.
Clovis next assumed the role of avenger of Frankish chiefs killed by Siegbert. He summoned the heads of the Frankish families and brought such inducements to bear that they voluntarily acknowledged his authority and accepted his sovereignty. He secretly inspired an uprising against one relative, who had proved too obstinate; and when he was brought before him by his own people in chains, Clovis exclaimed: “What! are you not ashamed to appear before me in chains and to disgrace our princely race?” With these words he cut off his head with a battle-axe. He also killed his victim’s brother because he dared to protest. Sooner or later all his relatives who wavered in allegiance suffered from his wrath. Then he began to grow anxious lest some one of the family might have been spared. He hypocritically lamented that he had not a relative he could trust. He instituted a search, but all inquiries were useless. He was in undisputed possession of a kingdom which extended from the mouth of the Rhine to Switzerland on the south, to the Atlantic ocean on the west, and almost to the Pyrenees on the southwest. He thought himself secure against all enemies, but in his forty-fourth year death overtook him.
Four sons inherited his kingdom, but there was no peace among them or any of their descendants during the next two centuries. Treachery, assassination, and poison were the agencies employed by the male members of the princely house to gain their end. Petty jealousy, envy, and revenge drove their wives to crimes of the worst description. Simplicity of customs disappeared from court life. Roman civilization accomplished its fatal work. The once princely Merovingian race was degenerated by physical and spiritual weakness.
