18.27. 27. The same Subject continued.
We have seen that the Germans did
not appear in their assemblies before they were of age; they were a part
of the family, but not of the republic. This was the reason that the
children of Clodomir, king of Orleans, and conqueror of Burgundy, were
not proclaimed kings, because they were of too tender an age to be
present at the assembly. They were not yet kings, but they had a right
to the regal dignity as soon as they were able to bear arms; and in the
meantime, Clotildis, their grandmother, governed the state.
[49]
But their uncles Clotarius and Childebert assassinated them, and divided
their kingdom. This was the cause that in the following ages princes in
their minority were proclaimed kings immediately after the death of
their fathers. Thus Duke Gondovald saved Childebert II from the cruelty
of Chilperic, and caused him to be proclaimed king when he was only five
years old.
[50]
But even in this change they followed the original spirit of the
nation; for the public acts did not pass in the name of the young
monarch. So that the Franks had a double administration: the one which
concerned the person of the infant king, and the other which regarded
the kingdom; and in the fiefs there was a difference between the
guardianship and the civil administration.
Footnotes
[49]
It appears from Gregory of Tours, lib. iii, that she chose two
natives of Burgundy, which had been conquered by Clodomir, to raise them
to the see of Tours, which also belonged to Clodomir.
[50]
Ibid., v. 1: "Vix lustro ætatis uno jam peracto qui die Dominicæ
Natalis regnare cœpit."
