¹ On the attribution of the chronicle to the otherwise unknown “Fredegar” in the sixteenth-century manuscript Saint-Omer MS 706, see Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ed., The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar (London, 1960), xv–xvi; Collins, Roger, Fredegar, Authors of the Middle Ages 13 (Aldershot, 1996), 1–2; idem, Die Fredegar-Chroniken (Hanover, 2007), 16–18. In the following discussion, I will employ this attributed name, rather than the awkward appellation “Pseudo-Fredegar,” when referring to the seventh-century compiler.Google Scholar

² Fredegar, , Chronica, prologus: “Mundus iam seniscit.” All references to the text of the Fredegar chronicle will be to the edition of Bruno Krusch: Fredegar, , Chronica, MGH Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum (hereafter SRM), 2, ed. Krusch, Bruno(Hanover, 1888).Google Scholar

³ For an Augustinian parallel, seeCurtius, E. R., European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (New York, 1953), 28. Landes, Richard, “Lest the Millennium Be Fulfilled: Apocalyptic Expectations and the Pattern of Western Chronography, 100–800 C.E.,” in The Use and Abuse of Eschatology in the Middle Ages, ed. Verbeke, W. D. F., Verhelst, D., and Welkenhysen, A.(Louvain, 1988), 137–211, at 167–68, sees in Fredegar's dating of events an overarching eschatological “concern with the age of the World.” Cf. Palmer, James, The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2014), 92–93, who notes that it was only in its eighth century recension that the Chronica “became a marker of apocalyptic time.”Google Scholar

⁴ On Gregory's authorial program, see, e.g., Goffart, Walter, Narrators of Barbarian History (Notre Dame, 2005), 112–234; Heinzelmann, Martin, Gregory of Tours: History and Society in the Sixth Century, trans. Carroll, Christopher(Cambridge, 2001); de Nie, Giselle, Views from a Many-Windowed Tower: Studies of Imagination in the Works of Gregory of Tours (Amsterdam, 1987); Wood, Ian, “The Secret Histories of Gregory of Tours,” Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 71 (1993): 253–70; Breukelaar, Adriaan, Historiography and Episcopal Authority in Sixth-Century Gaul (Göttingen, 1994); Mitchell, Kathleen and Wood, Ian, eds., The World of Gregory of Tours (Leiden, 2002).Google Scholar

⁵ A critical survey of earlier scholarship is provided byGoffart, Walter, “The Fredegar Problem Reconsidered,” Speculum 18 (1963): 206–41, who established the single-author thesis as the status quaestionis along withErikson, Alvar, “The Problem of Authorship in the Chronicle of Fredegar,” Eranos 63 (1965): 47–76. More recently, the single-author thesis has received additional support fromKusternig, Andreas, ed., “Die vier Bücher der Chroniken des sogenannten Fredegar,” in Quellen zur Geschichte des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts, ed. Wolfram, Herwig(Darmstadt, 1982), 9–13; andCollins, , Fredegar, 11–16.Google Scholar

⁶ For example, Gerberding, Richard, The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum (Oxford, 1987), 13–19, sees the repetition of the Trojan origin story for the Franks in chapters 2.4–6, 8–9 and 3.2, 9 as evidence for two authors. His argument rests primarily on the greater attention paid to Roman-Frankish relations in the Book II account, which also might be explained by the abridged nature of the Book III version and (as Gerberding acknowledges) the different contexts of the two accounts. See also the remarks ofGoffart, , “The Fredegar Problem Reconsidered,” 223–24, on the internal reference in Book III to the Book II account.Reimitz, Helmut, “Cultural Brokers of a Common Past: History, Identity, and Ethnicity in Merovingian Historiography,” in Strategies of Identification: Ethnicity and Religion in Early Medieval Europe, ed. Pohl, Walter and Hydemann, Gerda, Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 13 (Turnhout, 2013), 257–301, at 279, suggests Fredegar Chronica multiple authors but acknowledges that efforts to “rework” earlier sections of the chronicle by a compiler in the 660s “makes it impossible to draw sharp distinctions between the different parts,” thus compelling the reader to approach the text as if by a single author.Google Scholar

⁷ For the date, seeCollins, , Fredegar, 82–83; idem, Die Fredegar-Chroniken, 25–26. Collins makes the crucial distinction between the seventh-century chronicle discussed here and a significantly revised eighth-century edition, which he labels the Historia vel Gesta Francorum, emphasizing its status as an essentially “new” work.Google Scholar

⁸ Collins, , Fredegar, 104–7. While the following discussion will not dwell on this particular issue, circumstantial evidence will be mustered in favor of a Burgundian origin for the chronicle.Google Scholar

⁹ For the phrasing, seeWood, Ian, “Chains of Chronicles: The Example of London, British Library ms. Add. 16974,” in Zwischen Niederschrift und Wiederschrift, ed. Corradini, Richard, Diesenberger, Maximilian, and Niederkorn-Bruck, Meta (Vienna, 2010), 67–75. Collins, Fredegar, 83–91, has proposed that Fredegar originally utilized a five-book structure. Cf. Collins, Die Fredegar-Chroniken, 38–46.Burgess, Richard W., ed., The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana (Oxford, 1993), 18–20, surmises that Fredegar had access to a copy of a fifth- or sixth-century Iberian compilation that included the Eusebius-Jerome-Hydatius chronicle, the Consularia Constantinopolitana, the Liber Generationis, and Theophilus's Paschal Laterculus. For the manuscripts of the Fredegar chronicle, seeCollins, , Die Fredegar-Chroniken, 55–81; idem, Fredegar, 119–31.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Fredegar, , Chronica, prologus.Google Scholar

¹¹ Pizarro, Joaquín Martínez, “Mixed Modes in Historical Narrative,” in Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West, ed. Tyler, E. M. and Balzaretti, R. (Turnhout, 2006), 96–104; Burgess, Richard W. and Kulikowski, Michael, Mosaics of Time: The Latin Chronicle Traditions from the First Century BC to the Sixth Century AD (Turnhout, 2013), 240–43.Google Scholar

¹² On the abridgement and B manuscripts of the Historiae, seeGoffart, Walter, “From Historiae to Historia Francorum and Back Again: Aspects of the Textual History of Gregory of Tours,” in Religion, Culture, and Society in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honor of Richard E. Sullivan, ed. Noble, Thomas F. X. and Contreni, John J. (Kalamazoo, MI, 1987), 55–76; Heinzelmann, , Gregory of Tours, 192–201. See also on Fredegar's access to the abridgement, Collins, , Fredegar, 85–86.Google Scholar

¹³ Scheibelreiter, Georg, “Fredegar: Chronist einer Epoche,” in The Medieval Chronicle, ed. Kooper, Erik (Amsterdam, 1999–), 1:251–59; idem, “Gegenwart und Vergangenheit in der Sicht Fredegars,” in ibid., 2:212–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Reimitz, , “Cultural Brokers,” 282, 288. ForGoffart, , “From Historiae to Historia Francorum,” 66, Fredegar turned Gregory into a “political historian.”Google Scholar

¹⁵ Schwedler, Gerald, “Lethe and ‘Delete’ — Discarding the Past in the Early Middle Ages: The Case of Fredegar,” in Collector's Knowledge: What Is Kept, What Is Discarded, ed. Goeing, Ania-Silvia, Grafton, Anthony T., and Michel, Paul (Leiden, 2013), 71–96, at 86, counts only eleven bishops named by Fredegar. Collins, , Fredegar, 111, incorrectly states that “there are no references to the miraculous in his work.” On Fredegar's “incidental” references to saint cults, seeFouracre, Paul, “The Origins of the Carolingian Attempt to Regulate the Cult of Saints,” in The Cults of Saints in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, ed. Howard-Johnston, J. and Hayward, P. A.(Oxford, 1999), 143–65, at 150–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ Bietenholz, Peter G., Historia and Fabula: Myths and Legends in Historical Thought from Antiquity to the Modern Age (Leiden, 1994), 190; Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent (Oxford, 1971), 48.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Wood, Ian, “Fredegar's Fables,” in Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, ed. Scharer, Anton and Scheibelreiter, Georg (Vienna, 1994), 359–66, at 360.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Wood, , “Fredegar's Fables,” 360; idem, The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751 (London, 1994), 248.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.54.Google Scholar

²⁰ See the discussion inCollins, , Die Fredegar-Chroniken (n. 1 above), 16–25.Google Scholar

²¹ See, e.g., Woodruff, Jane, “The Historia Epitomata (Third Book) of the Chronicle of Fredegar: An Annotated Translation and Historical Analysis of Interpolated Material” (PhD Diss., University of Nebraska, 1987), 4–5.Google Scholar

²² Marius of Avenches, Chronica, ed. and trans. Favrod, Justin (Lausanne, 1993), s.a. 565, 579. There is a reference to unnamed presbyters s.a. 538, to Bishop Vigilius of Rome s.a. 547, and to King Sigismund of Burgundy being dressed as a monk prior to his execution s.a. 523.Google Scholar

²³ An observation also made bySarti, Laury, Perceiving War and the Military in Early Christian Gaul (ca. 400–700 A.D.) (Leiden, 2013), 75.Google Scholar

²⁴ See also Marius of Avenches, Chronica, s.a. 515, 574.Google Scholar

²⁵ Collins, , Fredegar, 97–103; idem, Die Fredegar-Chroniken, 46–55; Fischer, Andreas, “Rewriting History: Fredegar's Perspectives on the Mediterranean,” in Western Perspectives on the Mediterranean: Cultural Transfer in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 400–800 AD, ed. Fischer, Andreas and Wood, Ian(London, 2014), 55–75. The most sustained study of the interpolations in Book III remainsWoodruff, , “The Historia Epitomata.”Google Scholar

²⁶ The phrase comes fromHeinzelmann, , Gregory of Tours (n. 4 above), 189. On Gregory's own eschatologically oriented historical program, see 153–91.Google Scholar

²⁷ See, e.g., Remigius's advice toClovis, in Epistolae Austrasicae, no. 2, ed. Gundlach, Wilhelm, MGH Epistolae 3 (Berlin, 1892), 113. On the political virtue of listening to the counsel of bishops, seeHalfond, Gregory, “Negotiating Episcopal Support in the Merovingian Kingdom of Rheims,” Early Medieval Europe 22 (2014): 1–25; Collins, Roger, “Theodebert I, ‘Rex Magnus Francorum,”’ in Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society: Studies Presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, ed. Wormald, Patrick, Bullough, Donald, and Collins, Roger(Oxford, 1983), 7–33; Van Dam, Raymond, “Merovingian Gaul and the Frankish Conquests,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History, ed. Fouracre, Paul(Cambridge, 2005), 1:193–231, at 215.Google Scholar

²⁸ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.55. On the seventh-century so-called concilia mixta, see Halfond, Gregory, The Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils (Leiden, 2010), 195–97.Google Scholar

²⁹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.89.Google Scholar

³⁰ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.32. Similarly, Fredegar describes the advice of Leudemund of Sion to Queen Bertetrudis as “verba ignominiosa.”Google Scholar

³¹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.38.Google Scholar

³² Fredegar, , Chronica 4.58. Dagobert became king of Austrasia in 622.Google Scholar

³³ Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum, MGH SRM 1.1, ed. Krusch, Bruno and Levison, Wilhelm (Hanover, 1937–51), 5.18. Translation: Murray, Alexander C., ed., From Roman to Merovingian Gaul (Toronto, 2000), 335–36.Google Scholar

³⁴ Fredegar, , Chronica 2.53.Google Scholar

³⁵ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.30. The marriage, however, was less successful. Only a year after their nuptials, Theuderic returned his bride to her father, never having consummated the union.Google Scholar

³⁶ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.90.Google Scholar

³⁷ Fredegar, , Chronica 2.53: “Civetas Aurilianes oracionibus beatissimi Aniani liberata est.”Google Scholar

³⁸ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.31.Google Scholar

³⁹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.90: “Credetur a plurimis, hy duo Flaochadus et Willebadus, eo quod multa in invicem per loca sanctorum de amicicias oblegandum sacramenta dedirant, et uterque in populis sibi subgectis copeditates instincto iniqui oppresserunt, semul et a rebus nudaverunt, quod iudicius Dei de eorum oppressione plurema multetudine liberassit, et eorum perfedia et mendacia eos uterque interire fecissit.”Google Scholar

⁴⁰ On royal involvement in episcopal elections, seeClaude, Dietrich, “Die Bestellung der Bischöfe im merowingischen Reich,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: kanonistische Abteilung 49 (1963): 1–75; Wood, Ian, “The Ecclesiastical Politics of Merovingian Clermont,” in Ideal and Reality, ed. Wormald, et al. (n. 27 above), 34–57; Müller, Christoph, “Kurialen und Bischof, Bürger und Gemeinde — Untersuchungen zur Kontinuität von Ämtern, Funktionen und Formen der ‘Kommunikation’ in der gallischen Stadt des 4.–6. Jahrhunderts” (PhD Diss., Freiburg im Breisgau, 2003), 200–303; Norton, Peter, Episcopal Elections 250–600: Hierarchy and Popular Will in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2007), 115–17.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Fredegar, , Chronica 3.89, 4.19, 4.24; cf. 4.22.Google Scholar

⁴² Halfond, Gregory, “All the King's Men: Episcopal Political Loyalties in the Merovingian Kingdoms,” Medieval Prosopography 27 (2012): 76–96, at 88–89.Google Scholar

⁴³ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.25.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.52.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.53. Fox, Yaniv, Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul (Cambridge, 2014), 265–66, suggests that Fredegar may have exaggerated Arnulf's success, citing the latter's monastic retirement following Chlothar's death.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.85.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.43–44.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.54. On Aighyna, seeMartindale, J. R., ed., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge, 1992), 3:33. On a Basque presence near Eauze in this period, seeCollins, Roger, The Basques (Oxford, 1986), 93.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.42, assesses Chlothar's character in largely positive terms, while singling out the king's love of hunting and his attention to the counsel of women for criticism. On Fredegar's approval of Chlothar and (sometimes) Dagobert, seeWallace-Hadrill, J. M., The Long-Haired Kings (London, 1962), 90–94.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.41. I followMurray, Alexander C., Germanic Kinship Structure (Toronto, 1983), 93, in understanding the Burgundaefarones to be “the Burgundian leudes of the Frankish king.”Google Scholar

⁵¹ Vita S. Arnulf ep. Mettensis, Krusch, Bruno, ed., MGH SRM 2 (Hanover, 1888), 6.Google Scholar

⁵² Fredegar, , Chronica 4.56, 4.58.Google Scholar

⁵³ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.60–61.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.60: “Quod cum versum fuisset cor eius sicut super meminemus et ad Deum eius cogitatio recessisset, tamen postea, atque utinam illi ad mercedum veram lucre fuisset, nam aelymosinam pauperibus super modum largiter aerogabat, si huius rei sagacitas cupiditates instincto non prepedisset, regnum, creditur, meruisset aeternum.”Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Collins, , Fredegar (n. 1 above), 29–30, describes the chronicler as “unambiguously enthusiastic” about Pippin I (as well as Arnulf), but makes a persuasive case that the chronicler was not an “exclusive partisan of the Arnulfings.”Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Those skeptical of Paul the Deacon's later claim that Arnulf's son Ansegisel married Pippin's daughter Begga includeFouracre, Paul and Gerberding, Richard, eds., Late Merovingian France (Manchester, 1996), 309n45(with references), 311–12; Fouracre, Paul, The Age of Charles Martel (Harlow, 2000), 33–34; Wood, Ian, “The Use and Abuse of Latin Hagiography in the Early Medieval West,” in East and West: Modes of Communication, ed. Chrysos, Evangelos and Wood, Ian(Leiden, 1999), 93–109, at 103; Kempf, Damien, introduction to Paul the Deacon, Liber de episcopis Mettensibus (Louvain, 2013), 10–21.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Collins, , Fredegar, 29, observes that Fredegar never describes Cunibert, unlike Arnulf, with an epithet of praise.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.42. Compare 4.84 re Erchinoald: “… humiletatem et benignam voluntatem circa sacerdotibus.” See also 4.51 re Gundeberga, which praises the queen for her charity, but not explicitly her relationships with ecclesiastics: “Gundeberga regina, cum esset pulchra aspecto, benigna in cunctis et piaetate plenissema Christiana, aelimosinis larga, praecellenti bonitatem eius, diligebatur a cunctis.”Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Heinzelmann, , Gregory of Tours (n. 4 above), 191.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Halfond, , The Archaeology of Frankish Church Councils (n. 28 above), 232–39.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.1. Gregory of Tours, Liber in gloria martyrum, MGH SRM 1.2, ed. Krusch, Bruno(Hanover, 1885), 85, reports that Bishop Agricola of Chalon added a xenodochium to St. Marcel sometime prior to 580.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ Beaujard, , Le culte des saints en Gaule, 197n1, proposes without explanation that this liturgy was imposed during the Council of Mâcon (585).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.1: “Cum sacerdotibus utique sacerdus ad instar se ostendebat.”Google Scholar

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⁶⁹ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.24. On Brunhild's role in Aridius's election, seeNelson, Janet, “Queens as Jezebels: Brunhild and Balthild in Merovingian History,” in Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe, ed. Nelson, Janet(London, 1986), 1–48, at 25. On the likelihood that this election took place in 603, seeCharles-Edwards, T. M., Early Christian Ireland (Cambridge, 2000), 352n40.Google Scholar

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⁹⁴ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.22, 4.42, 4.79.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.14, 4.56, 4.79. Although it is true that Fredegar does not specifically mention Chlothar's earlier patronage of St. Vincent, presumably it counted among those churches mentioned as beneficiaries in the same chapter. In addition, Fredegar, , Chronica 4.90, also notes the burial of Flaochad at the church of St. Benignus in Dijon but does not allude explicitly to any prior relationship between the mayor and the church, unless, perhaps, this was one of those loca sanctorum where Flaochad and Willebad had earlier sworn oaths.Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.60: “cupiditates instincto super rebus ecclesiarum et leudibus sagace desiderio vellit omnibus undique expoliis novos implere thinsauros.”Google Scholar

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¹⁰³ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.44.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.78.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Fredegar, , Chronica 4.54, 4.83. On the context for Ermenfred's actions, seeLe Jan, Régine, “Convents, Violence and Competition for Power in Seventh-Century Francia,” in Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Theuws, Frans, De Jong, Mayke, and van Rhijn, Carine(Leiden, 2001), 243–69, at 250–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹⁰⁸ Halfond, Gregory, “Negotiating Episcopal Support” (n. 27 above), 23.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁸ For example, Guntram's devotion to St. Marcel, on which seeDam, Van, Saints and Their Miracles, 25.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ As argued byHen, , Roman Barbarians, 111–16, Dagobert's primary motivation in patronizing St. Denis and influencing its liturgy was his hope that the monks’ prayers might ensure his salvation.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ The reference to the “diem festi sancti Martini,” inFredegar, , Chronica 4.26, merely establishes the date on which Bertoald challenged Landri to battle on behalf of their royal masters.Google Scholar

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