Germanic Sources
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Gallic Chronicle of 452, Author unknown. Covers 379-451
Gallic Chronicle of 511, Author unknown. Covers 461-507
The Chronicle of 452
Honorius, 16; 410 CE
Britanniae Saxonum incursione devastatae: The British provinces were devastated by an incursion of the Saxons.
Theodosius II: 18,19; 441CE
Britanniae, usque ad hoc tempus variis cladibus eventibusque latae in dicionem Saxon rediguntur. Alani, quibus terrae Galliae: The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule.
The Chronicle of 511
THEODOSIUS II XVI Theodosius II, 16; 441 CE
Britanniae a Romanis amissae in dicionem Saxonum cedunt: Britain abandoned by the Romans passed into the power of the Saxons.
The entries in the above Chronicles leave the impression that the Saxons had taken full control of Britain by the year 441. This was not the case, although it may have appeared so at the time. Perhaps the statements were made retrospectively and phrased the way they were to indicate that Vortigern had fallen under the influence of the Saxons by this time and that the whole island would surely follow.
There are two surviving "Gallic Chronicles" which are named after the year of their final entry. The "Chronicle of 452," which covers the years from 378 to 452, exists as a ninth or tenth-century Carolingian copy and has two British entries. The second entry is written across two years, Theodosius II XVIII (the eighteenth year of the reign of Theodosius II, or AD 441) and Theodosius II XVIIII (442), but refers to the first of these years.
The "Chronicle of 511" is unlikely to be completely independent of the other; it is likely that both chronicles were based on the same common source. This chronicle has one British entry, dated to Theodosius II XVI; but, as there is a consistent two year error in the expresion of Theodosius' regnal years in this text, the corrected date is again, 441.
(Note: there is much disagreement between scholars as to the dates. The last part of the above paragraph is unlikely to be true. RR)
Bibliography: Mommsen, T., ed., "Chronica Minora," Berlin, 1892; Jones, M.E. and P.J. Casey, "The Gallic Chronicle Restored: a Chronology for the Anglo-Saxon Invasions and the End of Roman Britain," Britannia, vol. XIX, 1988, pp. 367-98; Burgess, R.W., "The Dark Ages Return to Fifth Century Britain: the 'Restored' Gallic Chronicle Exploded," Britannia, vol. XXI, 1990, pp. 185-96 Information courteously provided by Jeff Davies of Llys Arthur From: Britannia.com
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Gelnhausen Charter; April 13, 1180 CE.
In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity. Frederick, by favour of the divine mercy, august emperor of the Romans. Since human memory is short and does not suffice for a crowd of things, the authority of those who preceded our age, the divine emperors and kings, has decreed that those things were to be written down which the progress of fleeting time generally removes from the knowledge of men.
A. Wherefore let the generality of the present as well as the future subjects of our empire know, that Henry the former duke of Bavaria and Westphalia, for the reason that he gravely oppressed the liberty of the churches of God and of the nobles of the empire, occupying their possessions and diminishing their rights,-on account of the urgent complaints of the princes and of very many nobles, inasmuch as being summoned he scorned to present himself before our majesty: did, both for this contumacy and for scorning the Serbian princes of his rank, incur the sentence of our proscription. Then, as he did not desist from raging against the churches of God and the rights and liberties of the princes and nobles, being cited by a lawful triple edict, according to feudal law, before our presence, as well to answer for the injury to the princes as for the repeated contempt shown to us, and, chiefly, for the evident crime of high treason:-for the reason that he absented himself and sent no one to respond for him he was judged contumacious; and, for the future, as well the duchy of Bavaria as that of Westphalia and Angaria, Ed also all the benefices which he has held from the empire were, in the solemn court held at Wurzburg by unanimous sentence of the princes declared forfeited by him and adjudged to our jurisdiction and power.
B. We, therefore, after deliberating with the princes and by their common counsel, did divide in two the duchy which is called Westphalia and Angaria, and, through consideration of the merits through which our beloved prince Philip the archbishop of Cologne has deserved the privilege of the imperial favour by promoting and upholding the honour of the imperial crown, fearing neither expense nor personal danger,-we have lawfully donated to the church of Cologne, and, from the imperial bounty, have conferred on it one portion, namely, the one that extended to the Cologne bishopric and over the whole bishopric of Paderborn. We have donated it with every right and jurisdiction, namely, with the county courts, with the advowsons, escort-monies, manors, vills, benefices, serving-men, bondsmen, and all things that pertain to that duchy. And, asking an opinion from the princes as to whether this could be done, when an affirmative one had been given and approved by the common consent of the princes and of the whole court, the consent, also, of our beloved relative duke Bernard, to whom we had given the other portion of the duchy, being given publicly,-we did solemnly invest, through an imperial standard, the aforesaid archbishop Philip with that portion of the duchy conferred on his church.
We do confirm, therefore, this lawful donation and investiture of our royal majesty to the Cologne church and to our oft-mentioned prince the archbishop Philip, and to all his successors. And wishing this to remain valid for them unto all their posterity, we forbid by an imperial edict that any one, with rash daring, infringe it or in any way attempt to violate it; and we validly corroborate this our decree by the present privilege, signed by the golden seal of our Highness, the witnesses being written down who were present at this deed. They are as follows: etc. etc.
Henderson's Note:
The charter issued by Frederick Barbarossa at Gelnhausen in 1180. It commemorates a most important event in German constitutional history. The partition of Saxony was a death blow to the old ducal influence in Germany. There was, henceforth to be a new nobility basing its claims on its services to the crown and not on its hereditary territorial power
Source:
Henderson, Ernest F.: Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages
London : George Bell and Sons, 1896.
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Germanus, Life of Saint (De Vita Germani) (+)
3.15,16
Meanwhile the Saxons and Picts had joined forces to make war upon the Britons. The latter had been compelled to withdraw their forces within their camp and, judging their forces to be totally unequal to the contest, asked the help of holy prelates. The latter sent back a promise to come, and hastened to follow it. Their coming brought such a sense of security that you might have thought that a great army had arrived. ... great numbers of this pious army sought the grace of baptism. ... The soldiers paraded still wet from baptism, faith was fervid, the aid of weapons was little thought of, and all looked for help from heaven.
Meanwhile the enemy had learnt of the practices and appearance of the camp. They promised themselves an easy victory over practically disarmed troops and pressed on in haste. But their approach was discovered by scouts, and ... the army ... began to take up their weapons and prepare for battle and Germanus announced that he would be their general. He chose some light-armed troops and made a tour of the outworks. In the direction from which the enemy were expected he saw a valley enclosed by steep mountains. Here he stationed an army on a new model, under his own command.
By now the savage host of the enemy was close at hand and Germanus rapidly circulated an order that all should repeat in unison the call he would give as a battle-cry. Then, while the enemy were still secure in their belief that their approach was unexpected, the bishops three times chanted the Alleluia. All, as one man, repeated it and the shout they raised rang through the air and echoed many times in the confined space between the mountains. The enemy were panic-stricken, thinking that the surrounding rocks and the very sky itself were falling on them. Such was their terror that no effort of their feet seemed enough to save them. They fled in every direction, throwing away their weapons and thankful if they could at least save their skins. Many threw themselves into a river which they had just crossed with ease, and were drowned in it. Thus the British army looked on at its revenge without striking a blow, idle spectators of the victory they achieved. The booty strewn everywhere was collected; the pious soldiery obtained the spoils of a victory from heaven. The bishops were elated at the rout of the enemy without bloodshed and a victory gained by faith and not by force.
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Gildas: Concerning the Ruin of Britain: De Excidio Britanniae
23, 24, 25, 26
Gildas Bandonicus, a British [i.e. Celtic] monk, lived in the 6th century. In the 540s - in the most aggressive language - he set out to denounce the wickedness of his times. He ended up being the only substantial source which survives from the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain, and the best source before the much more impressive work of the Venerable Bede [who completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English People almost 200 years late in 731]. At any event, the Anglo-Saxons began arriving in the 470s, perhaps imported as soldiers as Gildas suggests. For some time the British fought back [the historic basis of the Arthurian myth], but by 600 the Anglo-Saxons had control of most of what becomes 'England', and the Celtic peoples were pushed to the hills of Wales and Scotland and across the English Channel to "Brittany".
23. Then all the councillors, together with that proud tyrant Gurthrigern [Vortigern], the British king, were so blinded, that, as a protection to their country, they sealed its doom by inviting in among them (like wolves into the sheep-fold), the fierce and impious Saxons, a race hateful both to God and men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations. Nothing was ever so pernicious to our country, nothing was ever so unlucky. What palpable darkness must have enveloped their minds-darkness desperate and cruel! Those very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more than death itself, were invited to reside, as one may say, under the selfsame roof. Foolish are the princes, as it is said, of Thafneos, giving counsel to unwise Pharaoh. A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in three ships of war, with their sails wafted by the wind and with omens and prophecies favourable, for it was foretold by a certain soothsayer among them, that they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred years, and half of that time, a hundred and fifty years, should plunder and despoil the same. They first landed on the eastern side of the island, by the invitation of the unlucky king, and there fixed their sharp talons, apparently to fight in favour of the island, but alas! more truly against it. Their mother-land, finding her first brood thus successful, sends forth a larger company of her wolfish offspring, which sailing over, join themselves to their bastard-born comrades. From that time the germ of iniquity and the root of contention planted their poison amongst us, as we deserved, and shot forth into leaves and branches. The barbarians being thus introduced as soldiers into the island, to encounter, as they falsely said, any dangers in defence of their hospitable entertainers, obtain an allowance of provisions, which, for some time being plentifully bestowed, stopped their doggish mouths. Yet they complain that their monthly supplies are not furnished in sufficient abundance, and they industriously aggravate each occasion of quarrel, saying that unless more liberality is shown them, they will break the treaty and plunder the whole island. In a short time, they follow up their threats with deeds.
24. For the fire of vengeance, justly kindled by former crimes, spread from sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease, until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean. In these assaults, therefore, not unlike that of the Assyrian upon Judea, was fulfilled in our case what the prophet describes in words of lamentation: "They have burned with fire the sanctuary; they have polluted on earth the tabernacle of thy name." And again, "O God, the gentiles have come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled," &c. So that all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side.
Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels. So entirely had the vintage, once so fine, degenerated and become bitter, that, in the words of the prophet, there was hardly a grape or ear of corn to be seen where the husbandman had turned his back.
25. Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice of exhortation. "Thou hast given us as sheep to be slaughtered, and among the Gentiles hast thou dispersed us." Others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their country. But in the meanwhile, an opportunity happening, when these most cruel robbers were returned home, the poor remnants of our nation (to whom flocked from divers places round about our miserable countrymen as fast as bees to their hives, for fear of an ensuing storm), being strengthened by God, calling upon him with all their hearts, as the poet says,-
"With their unnumbered vows they burden heaven," that they might not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under the conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone in the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive. His parents, who for their merit were adorned with the purple, kind been slain in these same broils, and now his progeny in these our days, although shamefully degenerated from the worthiness of their ancestors, provoke to battle their cruel conquerors, and by the goodness of our Lord obtain the victory.
26. After this, sometimes our countrymen, sometimes the enemy, won the field, to the end that our Lord might this land try after his accustomed manner these his Israelites, whether they loved him or not, until the year of the siege of Bath-hill, when took place also the last almost, though not the least slaughter of our cruel foes, which was (as I am sure) forty-four years and one month after the landing of the Saxons, and also the time of my own nativity. And yet neither to this day are the cities of our country inhabited as before, but being forsaken and overthrown, still lie desolate; our foreign wars having ceased, but our civil troubles still remaining.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book.
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Grant of Exemptions From Toll: 754 of Pepin, King of the Franks
In the eighth century there was sufficient travel, partly for religious, partly for commercial reasons, to warrant royal exemptions from tolls.
But we have ordained concerning thelony that no one shall take thelony for victuals or cartage when the carts are empty. Likewise for wine we have decreed, and for travellers who come to Rome or to any place because of God, that you do not hold them on any occasion at bridges or harbors or on board ships, or on account of their cargo, and that you do not harm any travellers nor take any toll from them. And if any one shall so act, we grant to whatever man who will have proved it, thirty out of sixty solidi.
The other shall go to the fisc of the king.
Source: Monumenta Germaniae Historiae, Legum, Alfredus Boretius, ed., (Hanover, 1883), Tome I, p. 32; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 399. This text is part of the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
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Gregory of Tours (Georgius Florentius) c. 590: History of the Franks;
Life of the Fathers; Available online: Internet Medieval Source Book
Encyclopædia Britannica Online
b. Nov. 30, 538/539, Augustonemetum, Aquitaine
d. 594/595, Tours, Neustria; feast day November 17
original name GEORGIUS FLORENTIUS, bishop and writer whose History of the Franks is a major source for knowledge of the 6th-century Franco-Roman kingdom. The complicated political situation of that period actively involved Gregory himself in numerous political events and in open dispute with the king. He also wrote Lives of the Fathers, seven books of miracles, and a commentary on the Psalms.
Gregory was born to an aristocratic family. On both sides his family supplied several of the chief bishops of what today is central France. He was educated at Arvernia in the bishop's household. In 573 he succeeded his cousin as bishop of Tours.
At that moment the Frankish kingdom (which included present Rhineland Germany) was divided into three kingdoms under the three surviving grandsons of the great Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty in western Europe: Guntram, ruling Burgundy and Provence; Chilperic, ruling Neustria, the western kingdom; and Sigebert, ruling Austrasia, the eastern kingdom, but with appendages at Tours and in the south. Just as Gregory became bishop, one of the fratricidal wars endemic among the family of Clovis broke out; Sigebert was murdered (575), and Chilperic seized Tours. Gregory was bishop for 10 years under the capricious and tyrannical Chilperic.
Outside the city of Tours was the sanctuary of St. Martin, the revered 4th-century bishop of Tours, where well-known criminals or persecuted persons sought shelter. Chilperic's own son Merovech sought shelter there from his father; and, in consequence of trying to protect Merovech and the right of sanctuary, Bishop Gregory became embroiled with his king and especially the queen, Fredegund. He was alternately threatened and cajoled with offers of bribes and had to defend himself formally, at the Council of Berny in 580, against the charge of spreading scandal that the Queen had committed adultery with the Bishop of Bordeaux. The council accepted Gregory's denial on oath and acquitted him. Gregory stood up to Chilperic to protect a fellow bishop and to resist the King's unorthodox opinions on the Trinity. "It would be no sensible man but a lunatic that would adopt views like yours," he told the man whom he once described as the Nero and Herod of his time.
In 584 Chilperic was murdered, and Tours came under King Guntram of Burgundy. With Guntram, who possessed a certain degree of political ability, his relations were far happier. In 587 the Treaty of Andelot between Guntram and Sigebert's son Childebert II restored Tours to Austrasia, and Gregory came under Childebert. As bishop he restored the great church of St. Martin at Tours, dedicated a number of churches, protested successfully against excessive taxation in his diocese, and arbitrated in Frankish vendettas. His last years were disturbed by a riot that he had to quell in the nunnery of St. Radegunda at Poitiers.
Gregory wrote several groups of lives of saints, called the Lives of the Fathers, and seven books of miracles. These afford unique evidence of the piety and social life of Merovingian France. In addition, he wrote a commentary on the Psalms (of which only fragments survive) and a treatise on church offices. But his fame rests on his History of the Franks (which he called simply the History; its complete title is not the original). It was written in three separate sections: the first (books 1-4) covered the period to the death of Sigebert in 575 and was written soon afterward; the second (books 5-6) was composed about 581-584; the third (books 7-10) was written about 590-591. The manuscripts show two texts, a longer one and a shorter one, and perhaps Gregory himself personally edited the additions or subtractions. In an age of dry annalists his history has only one Latin competitor, namely, the work of Bede, the Anglo-Saxon historian. In his pages France of the 6th century comes alive as nowhere else. Gregory's chronicle is an unforgettable portrait of the western kingdoms just after the breakup of the western Roman Empire.
Though he was a compulsive writer, he lamented his confusion over grammar, especially genders and prepositions, and thought that he wrote like a country bumpkin. He once asked his mother about the matter: she said that if he wrote in everyday language, everyone would understand. He tended, nevertheless, to drag in classical quotations when he could. He arranged his presentation by years but was never dull like the contemporary monastic chroniclers. Yet the story is at times disordered and confused. His genius as a writer was for graphic, fast-moving, blunt narrative, understated rather than rhetorical. He had no interest in personal details or the habits of society, and none of his characters (except himself) comes alive. His strength lay primarily in describing dramatic situations.
His philosophy of history (insofar as someone so unphilosophical could be said to have one) saw the world as groaning and the church as fighting the battle to save humanity from its bonds. He stated his aim thus: "to record the wars of kings with their enemies, of the martyrs with the heathen, and of the churches with the heretics." He looked for villainy to find its just punishment, and virtue its just reward, in this life as well as in the next. He thought an orthodox faith to be important and judged kings partly by whether or not they professed it. Gregory made no effort to paint the church of his day in rosy colours, describing warrior bishops or adulterous and drunken priests with equal impartiality. He generally used his authorities well, though he did not transcribe them well. In describing events of his own time (in books 4-10) he was most successful as a chronicler.
Gregory enjoyed the world, shared deeply in the superstitions of the age, travelled constantly and knew France as well as any man of his time, was affectionate to little children, and gave in his writings the unconscious impression of a likable, down-to-earth, courageous, not very spiritual, but Christian and humane, man. Editions of Gregory's works may be found in the Patrologiae cursus completus . . . , vol. 71, and in B. Krusch and W. Levison, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, vol. 1; rev. ed. by R. Buchner, 2 vol. (1955). An English translation of the histories, with a valuable introduction by O.M. Dalton, is The History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours, 2 vol. (1927). For background information, see H.G.J. Beck, The Pastoral Care of Souls in South-East France During the Sixth Century (1950); S. Dill, Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age (1926); and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, "Gregory of Tours and Bede: Their Views on the Personal Qualities of Kings," in Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 2:31-44 (1968).
From Life of St. Gall, From Lives of the Fathers:
Chap. 6.2
So it came that when the king went to Cologne, he went with him. There was there a heathen temple full of various articles of worship where the neighboring barbarians used to make offerings and stuff themselves with food and drink until they vomited; there also they worshipped images as god, and carved limbs in wood, each one the limb in which he had suffered pain. When the holy Gall heard of this, he hastened to the place with only one clerk when none of the benighted pagans was present, and set it on fire. And they saw the smoke of the fire rolling up to the sky and searched for the one who had set it, and found him and pursued him sword in hand. He fled and took refuge in the king's court. But when the king had learned from the pagans' threats what had been done, he pacified them with agreeable words and so calmed their furious rage. The blessed man would often weep in telling this story, and say: "Unhappy me that I did not stand my ground and let my life be ended in this affair." [note: Gall would in that case have been a martyr with all a martyr's advantages. He does not regret running away as an act of prudence, but as an injudicious act spiritually speaking. Cf. Marignan, Le culte des saints sous les Mérovingiens (Paris, 1899), ch. I.] He was deacon at the time….
Source: Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, trans. Ernest Brehaut (extended selections), Records of Civilization 2, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916), 260-62
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