Note 80 — Chapter I

The kingdom of the Burgundians, which had been established in 407 (see page 93), was divided, in 470, among the four sons of king Gonderic; Hilperic, or Chilperic, the father of Clotilda, fixed his residence at Geneva; Gundobald at Lyons; Godegesil at Besançon, and Godemar at Vienne (in Dauphiné). A war broke out between the brothers, in which Gundobald conquered and took prisoner Hilperic and Godemar; the latter committed suicide; the former was put to death by his inhuman brother Gundobald, and his wife and his two sons shared his fate; his two daughters were spared, and one of them, Clotilda, was brought up at the court of Lyons; and, as chance would have it, in the Catholic faith, though Gundobald himself, like most of the Christian princes of the time, professed the Arian doctrine, Gundobald would gladly have refused Clovis the hand of his niece, had he dared to brave the anger of the powerful Frankish chief. Clotilda, on her part, was overjoyed at the prospect of an alliance with a King, whose ambition might be turned to good account for the pursuit of her own vengeful projects against the murderer of her father; with a pagan, whose conversion to the Nicean creed would gain her beloved Catholic church a formidable champion against the hated Arian heretics. Gundobald had scarcely parted with his niece, and her father’s treasures, when the pious princess displayed her Christian spirit, by ordering her Frankish escort to burn down the Burgundian villages through which they were passing, and when she saw the flames rising, and heard the despairing cries of the unfortunates who were thus being deprived of their homes, she lifted up her voice, and praised the God of Athanasius—the holy Chlotildis!