Europe (c.1400-1458)

38. The Franks

180 The Franks tian world, he said, that he was not a scholar. However, he was a guardian of the laws, which he ordered to be translated for him into his native tongue. In all the cases tried before him, he was never found to have passed an unjust sentence. When he entered a certain monastery under his jurisdiction in order to institute reform, he was invited to eat with the monks and is believed to have swallowed poisoned food during the meal. For both he and the abbot, who had requested the reform, are said to have died shortly afterward. 38 THE FRANKS 130. AFTER this comes Franconia, a decidedly well-known and very powerful region, which was named after the Franks who settled there. In fact, the Franks were originally Trojans, who, after the destruction of Troy, followed the leadership of Priam, the nephew of Priam the Great on his sister’s side, and made their way into Scythia through the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. There they built a city called Sicambria, from which they took the name of Sicambrians . For it is known that, after the conquest and burning of Troy, those who survived its destruction divided into three bands and fled into exile. Some, under the leadership of Aeneas, headed for Italy; from them the Albans were descended and later the Romans , who gained control of the whole world. Others under Antenor slipped through the midst of the Achaeans, and, after making their way through the gulfs of Illyria and reaching the kingdom of the Liburnians in the innermost recess of the Adriatic Sea,437 they founded the city of Padua; tradition holds that Antenor was buried there. Antenor took refugees of the Enetians with him, and from them the Venetians were later named, who today wield immense power by land and sea. The third group, as I said, entered Scythia, 437. Virgil, Aeneid, 1.242–44. The Franks 181 where they evolved into a great race.438 When many of the Scythians became subjects of the Roman Empire, the Sicambrians also paid tribute and remained liable to taxation until the time of Emperor Valentinian, during whose reign the Alans began to harass the empire.439 However, the emperor issued an edict promising freedom for a period of ten years to any who could curb the ferocity of the Alans. Enticed by this prize, the Sicambrians took up arms, defeated, and destroyed the Alans. The emperor rewarded them for this with freedom for the duration of ten years and changed their name to “Franks,” which in the Attic language [i.e., Greek] sounds like “fierce” or “noble;”440 in Italian “Franks” means “free” (franci). 131. When the ten years had passed and the Romans demanded the usual taxes, the Franks, made headstrong by their freedom, refused to obey. The rulers of the Franks at that time were Priam and Antenor, who matched their ancient namesakes in valor. Under the command of these captains, the Franks fought a battle with the Romans, in which Priam and the bravest of his people fell. Those who survived the disaster left Scythia, traveled to Germany, and settled in parts of Thuringia together with their leaders, Marcomer and Suno, the sons of Priam and Antenor. Suno died childless ; Marcomer had a son called Faramundus, who was elected king by the Franks and became the first to reign over them.441 His son was Clodius the Long-Haired, from whom the kings of the Franks were named “the Long-Haired.” During the same time, the Goths, who had already forced their way into the city of Rome, invaded 438. Aeneas may be drawing on several sources for myths and history of the Franks, including Otto of Freising and Ekkehard of Aura (van Heck). For more on Trojan migratory myths and the Franks, see Heath, “Renaissance Scholars”; also R. E. Asher, National Myths in Renaissance France: Francus, Samothes, and the Druids (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993). 439. Cf. para. 21. 440. From Otto of Freising, Chronicle, Bk I: 25. The Greek allusion is obscure. 441. Marcomer and Suno battled Roman troops under Arbogast on the Rhine frontier and formed a treaty state in 384 CE. 182 The Franks the settlements in Gaul beyond the Loire River. The Burgundians , also, lived near the Rhone, and they, too, began to be ruled by kings a little later. As for the...