her own step-son of having caused their deaths by witchcraft, and he and his mother, one of Chilperic's former wives, were put to death.
Both Chilperic and his brother Guntram, who reigned at Orleans, were without male heirs. At this juncture, the German chiefs and nobles demanded to have Childebert, the young son of Sigbert and Brunhilde, who had taken refuge among them, recognized as the heir to the Frankish throne. Chilperic consented, on condition that Childebert, with such forces as he could command, would march with him against Guntram, who had despoiled him of a great deal of his territory. The treaty was made, in spite of the opposition of Brunhilde, whose sister's murder was not yet avenged, and the civil wars were renewed. Both sides gained or lost alternately, without any decided result, until the assassination of Chilperic, by an unknown hand, in 584. A few months before his death, Fredegunde had borne him another son, Clotar, who lived, and was at once presented by his mother as Childebert's rival to the throne.
597.
The struggle between the two widowed queens, Brunhilde and Fredegunde, was for a while delayed by the appearance of a new claimant, Gundobald, who had been a fugitive in Constantinople for many years, and declared that he was Chilperic's brother. He obtained the support of many Austrasian (German) princes, and was for a time so successful that Fredegunde was forced to take refuge with Guntram, at Orleans. The latter also summoned Childebert to his capital, and persuaded him to make a truce with Fredegunde and her adherents, in order that both might act against their common rival. Gundobald and his followers were soon destroyed: Guntram died in 593, and Childebert was at once accepted as his successor. His kingdom included that of Charibert, whose capital was Paris, and that of his father, Sigbert, embracing all Frankish Germany. But the nobles and people, accustomed to conspiracy, treachery and crime, could no longer be depended upon, as formerly. They were beginning to return to their former system of living upon war and pillage, instead of the honest arts of peace.
Fredegunde still held the kingdom of Chilperic for her son Clotar. After strengthening herself by secret intrigues with the Frank nobles, she raised an army, put herself at its head, and marched against Childebert, who was defeated and soon afterwards poisoned, after having reigned only three years. His realm was divided between his two young sons, one receiving Burgundy and the other Germany, under the guardianship of their grandmother Brunhilde. Fredegunde followed up her success, took Paris and Orleans from the heirs of Childebert, and died in 597, leaving her son Clotar, then in his fourteenth year, as king of more than half of France. He was crowned as Clotar II.
Death placed Brunhilde's rival out of the reach of her revenge, but she herself might have secured the whole kingdom of the Franks for her two grandsons, had she not quarrelled with one and stirred up war between them. The first consequence of this new strife was that Alsatia and Eastern Switzerland were separated from Neustria, or France, and attached to Austria, or Germany. Brunhilde, finding that her cause was desperate, procured the assistance of Clotar II. for herself and her favorite grandson, Theuderich. The fortune of war now turned, and before long the other grandson, Theudebert, was taken prisoner. By his brother's order he was formally deposed from his kingly authority, and then executed: the brains of his infant son were dashed out against a stone.
613. MURDER OF BRUNHILDE.
It was not long before this crime was avenged. A quarrel in regard to the division of the spoils arose between Theuderich and Clotar II. The former died in the beginning of the war which followed, leaving four young sons to the care of their great-grandmother, the queen Brunhilde. Clotar II. immediately marched against her, but, knowing her ability and energy, he obtained a promise from the nobles of Burgundy and Germany who were unfriendly to Brunhilde, that they would come over to his side at the critical moment. The aged queen had called her people to arms, and, like her rival, Fredegunde, put herself at their head; but when the armies met, on the river Aisne in Champagne, the traitors in her own camp joined Clotar II. and the struggle was ended without a battle. Brunhilde, then eighty years old, was taken prisoner, cruelly tortured for three days, and then tied by her gray hair to the tail of a wild horse and dragged to death. The four sons of Theuderich were put to death at the same time, and thus, in the year 613, Clotar II. became king of all the Franks. A priest named Fredegar, who wrote his biography, says of him: "He was a most patient man, learned and pious, and kind and sympathizing towards every one!"
Clotar II. possessed, at least, energy enough to preserve a sway which was based on a long succession of the worst crimes that disgrace humanity. In 622, six years before his death, he made his oldest son, Dagobert, a boy of sixteen, king of the German half of his realm, but was obliged, immediately afterwards, to assist him against the Saxons. He entered their territory, seized the people, massacred all who proved to be taller than his own two-handed sword, and then returned to France without having subdued the spirit or received the allegiance of the bold race. Nothing of importance occurred during the remainder of his reign; he died in 628, leaving his kingdom to his two sons, Dagobert and Charibert. The former easily possessed himself of the lion's share, giving his younger brother only a small strip of territory along the river Loire. Charibert, however, drove the last remnant of the Visigoths into Spain, and added the country between the Garonne and the Pyrenees to his little kingdom. The name of Aquitaine was given to this region, and Charibert's descendants became its Dukes, subject to the kings of the Franks.
628.
Dagobert had been carefully educated by Pippin of Landen, the Royal Steward of Clotar II., and by Arnulf, the Bishop of Metz. He had no quality of greatness, but he promised to be, at least, a good and just sovereign. He became at once popular with the masses, who began to long for peace, and for the restoration of rights which had been partly lost during the civil wars. The nobles, however, who had drawn the greatest advantage from those wars, during which their support was purchased by one side or the other, grew dissatisfied. They cunningly aroused in Dagobert the love of luxury and the sensual vices which had ruined his ancestors, and thus postponed the reign of law and justice to which the people were looking forward.
In fact, that system of freedom and equality which the Germanic races had so long possessed, was already shaken to its very base. During the long and bloody feuds of the Merovingian kings, many changes had been made in the details of government, all tending to increase the power of the nobles, the civil officers and the dignitaries of the Church. Wealth—the bribes paid for their support—had accumulated in the hands of these classes, while the farmers, mechanics and tradesmen, plundered in turn by both parties, had constantly grown poorer. Although the external signs of civilization had increased, the race had already lost much of its moral character, and some of the best features of its political system.
There are few chronicles which inform us of the affairs of Germany during this period. The Avars, after their treaty of peace with Sigbert, directed their incursions against the Bavarians, but without gaining any permanent advantage. On the other hand, the Slavonic tribes, especially the Bohemians, united under the rule of a renegade Frank, whose name was Samo, and who acquired a part of Thuringia, after defeating the Frank army which was sent against him. The Saxons and Thuringians then took the war into their own hands, and drove back Samo and his Slavonic hordes. By this victory the Saxons released themselves from the payment of an annual tribute to the Frank kings, and the Thuringians became strong enough to organize themselves again as a people and elect their own Duke. The Franks endeavored to suppress this new organization, but they were defeated by the Duke, Radulf, nearly on the same spot where, just one hundred years before, Theuderich, the son of Chlodwig, had crushed the Thuringian kingdom. From that time, Thuringia was placed on the same footing as Bavaria, tributary to the Franks, but locally independent.
638. END OF THE MEROVINGIAN POWER.
King Dagobert, weak, swayed by whatever influence was nearest, and voluptuous rather than cruel, died in 638, before he had time to do much evil. He was the last of the Merovingian line who exercised any actual power. The dynasty existed for a century longer, but its monarchs were merely puppets in the hands of stronger men. Its history, from the beginning, is well illustrated by a tradition
