Gregory of Tours, the Eastern Emperor, and Merovingian Gaul
This article explores Gregory’s passages on imperial Rome and argues that they were intended to highlight the virtues and vices of particular Merovingian kings in comparison with particular Roman emperors.
Adversus paganos: Disaster, Dragons, and Episcopal Authority in Gregory of Tours
In 589, a great flood of the Tiber river sent a torrent of water rushing through the city of Rome
Hagiography and the Experience of the Holy in the Work of Gregory of Tours
The rich literature associated with the Desert Fathers provides convincing evidence of the important role played by charismatic figures in the transformation of Late Antiquity.
The Frankish Pretender Gundovald, 582–585. A Crisis of Merovingian Blood
In the autumn of 582, a claimant to Frankish kingship named Gundovald landed in Marseilles, returning from exile in Constantinople with covert support from very powerful persons in the kingdom.
The Birth of the Monarchy out of Violent Death
There were many motives for murdering a king.
The secret histories of Gregory of Tours
In recent years the spiritual side of Gregory’s Histories has been firmly brought into focus, but the possibility that there may be a political aspect to them and to their literary form has been little considered
Merovingian Diplomacy: Practice and purpose in the sixth century
The practise of diplomacy has not been much studied in Merovingian Gaul, although there are numerous works that deal with its political dealings with its neighbours and with the administration and culture of Gaul at this time.
The ‘second Jezebel’: representations of the sixth-century Queen Brunhild
The sixth century Merovingian queen Brunhild is a figure of extremes, lauded by Pope Gregory the Great as ‘most excellent daughter’ and later defiled as ‘the enemy of
Christianity’.
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence Philipp Dörler Networks and Neighbours, Volume One, Number One (2013) The…
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
Celestial portents appear frequently in the Historiae of Bishop Gregory of Tours (ca. 539–94). Gregory carefully distinguished between the interpretation of celestial signs and horoscopic astrology by describing signs as natural, albeit miraculous, elements of God’s Creation.
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.