 ORIGINS (of 58 front. J.-C. with 887)
 Roman period
 Mérovingiens
 Carolingians
 FEUDALITY (from 887 to 1483)
 Any power of Feudality
 Feudal royalty
 Decline of Feudality
 One Hundred Years old war
 Ruin Feudality
 MONARCHY (of 1483 to 1789)
 Wars of Italy
 Wars against the house of Austria
 Wars of religion
 Apogee of monarchical France
 Decline of monarchy
 THE REVOLUTION
 Ruin Ancien Régime
 The Republic
 Empire
Vase of Soissons The history of the vase of Soissons shows us that the frank kings were all-powerful as military chiefs, but that in peace their capacity of king was almost null. Soldiers had concealed with a church a vase of most invaluable; Clovis cannot theirs tear off from force; it is restricted to request them to give it to him, and a coarse Frank answers him by breaking the vase: "You will have of all this only what the fate will give you" Clovis keeps silence; but, come spring, it joins together the Franks on the Field of Mars, and warns the soldier who had insulted it: "Nobody here has weapons also badly held to only", says you it, and it breaks to him cranium of a blow of axe, while adding: "Thus you made with the vase of Soissons." Battle of Tolbiac Gregoire de Tours, the principal historian of Clovis, tells us a famous legend on the battle of Tolbiac: the Clotilde queen did not cease begging the king to give up the idols and to be done Christian; nothing could decide there, but it happened that, in a great battle against Alamans, in Tolbiac, close to the Rhine (496), the army of Clovis had one moment the lower part; some soldiers started to release foot, when Clovis raised the hands towards the sky, and exclaimed: "Jesus-Christ, God of Clotilde, I call upon your help; if you grant the victory to me, I will believe in you, and I will be made baptize on your behalf "Alamans turned the back at once, and grateful Clovis was done Christian. Baptism of Clovis Clovis was informed in the catholic religion by saint Remi, archbishop of Rheims. The account of the passion of Jesus-Christ moved it deeply, and it exclaimed with indignation: "That I with my Franks was not there! "When holy Remi considered it worthy to be Christian, it baptized it in a solemn ceremony, which took place in Rheims the day before of Christmas 496. Three thousand frank soldiers and a crowd of women and children wanted to receive the baptism at the same time as Clovis. The Ford of the Hind Become Christian, Clovis was looked like the soldier of God, and when it had overcome the Visigoths heretics, a supernatural capacity was allotted to him, and one told of him marvellous things. One day that it sought a ford to pass overflowed Vienna, a hind appeared and crossed the river without putting itself at the stroke; the Franks, which had been about to kill her, thanked God and crossed Vienna without bridge and boats. The place still names the Ford of the Hind.  |
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In 486, four armies live on the ground of Gaule: Visigoths in the basin of the Garonne; Burgondes in that of the Rhone; in the center, the army of the Syagrius Roman; in north, the franque band under king Clovis, grandson of Mérovée. Clovis attacks successively the other armies: it beats Syagrius with Soissons (486), double its forces while being combined with the Church, beats Burgondes close to Dijon (500), and the Visigoths with Vouillé, close to Poitiers (507). Of the four armies there remains only one about it, that of the Franks. Clovis is a Master of almost all Gaule, and the Franks start to be based with Gallo-romains. |
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