Gender and Violence in Gregory of Tours' 'Decem Libri Historiarum'
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GENDER AND VIOLENCE IN GREGORY OF TOURS' DECEM LIBRI HISTORIARUM Jennifer McRobbie A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2012 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3151 This item is protected by original copyright Gender and Violence in Gregory of Tours’ Decem Libri Historiarum Jennifer McRobbie This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews Date of Submission 19th August 2011 ii Declaration I, Jennifer McRobbie, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 76,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2004 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in August 2011; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 2004 and 2011. Date…………..signature of candidate I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic publication of this thesis: Access to all of printed copy but embargo of all of electronic publication of thesis for a period of three years on the following ground: publication would preclude future publication Date……………signature of candidate………… signature of supervisor………….. iv Abstract The Decem Libri Historiarum of Gregory of Tours, our only coherent narrative source for the latter half of the sixth century in Gaul, has been the subject of much lively scholarly debate as to its reliability and original purpose. Literary approaches have proved useful; however, the findings of gender studies, applied so fruitfully in many other areas of historical research, have thus far had virtually no impact on the study of Gregory’s work. For the first time, this thesis examines the role of gender in the DLH. Just as gender assumptions were vital to the thought world of the writers of the books of the Old Testament, so too they were vital to Gregory, who took these books as his main inspiration. It will be shown that gender can offer a fresh and vital perspective on some of the most contentious issues associated with the DLH, taking us closer than ever to a full appreciation of Gregory’s objectives. In exposing Gregory’s literary devices and strategies, this study goes beyond Gregory’s viewpoint, with implications for the study of kingship, and particularly queenship, in the sixth century. It will be shown that competing norms of elite masculine and feminine behaviour were in flux over the period, and required careful negotiation. This study also has repercussions for gender studies more widely. In demonstrating the usefulness of gender approaches in analysing a text to which such approaches have never before been applied, the thesis indicates that gender must be considered an essential analytical tool in historical research. v vi Contents Declarations iii Abstract v Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Historiographical Contexts 11 Chapter 2: Clothild, Mother of Gregory’s Merovingians 47 Chapter 3: Gender, Violence and Heresy 83 Chapter 4: De malitia Fredegunde 129 Chapter 5: Rebels and Rhetoric: the revolt at Ste. Croix 177 Conclusion 225 Bibliography 231 vii viii Acknowledgments Seven years is a long time to spend with any one project, and unsurprisingly I have managed to incur a fair few debts of gratitude over that time. I would like to thank staff and fellow students at the Mediaeval History dept. at St. Andrews University, and in particular, attendees of the Postgraduate seminar series, at which I was able to present several early versions of chapters, and to receive valuable feedback on these. These early years were facilitated by a Doctoral Award from the AHRC. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Julia Smith, for her encouragement, inspiration and what must have seemed at times endless patience. Many thanks to my parents, Janet and Andrew McRobbie, for their support, and determination to see me to completion even when it felt that my own belief in the possibility was beginning to fade. To my parents and also my parents-in-law Jenna Agate and Trevor Timms I would like to extend my thanks for babysitting services! To my husband, Ben Agate, thanks are not really enough. But thank you anyway. Finally, thanks to my two boys, Lewis and Joseph Agate, who arrived in the middle of it all, and who helped me keep half an eye on real life when I was in danger of losing myself somewhere in the late sixth century. It is to you two, and to your Daddy, that this thesis is dedicated. ix x Abbreviations Gregory’s works DLH Decem Libri Historiarum GC Liber in Gloria confessorum GM Liber in Gloria martyrum VJ Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris VM Liber de virtutibus sancti Martini episcope AHR The American Historical Review Annales, HSS Annales, Histoire, Sciences Sociales CH Church History Comitatus Comitatus: a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies EHR The English Historical Review EME Early Medieval Europe GEMW L. Brubaker and J.M.H. Smith eds., Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West 300-900 (Cambridge, 2004) HWJ History Workshop Journal JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JFSR Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion JMEMH Journal of Medieval and Early Modern History JMEMS Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies JMH Journal of Medieval History JRS Journal of Roman Studies JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament LHF Liber Historiae Francorum LHR Law and History Review MH Medievalia et Humanistica MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica AA Auctores Antiquissimi Epp Epistolae SSRM Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum SS Scriptores PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina P&P Past and Present PQ Philological Quarterly RBPH Revue belge de philologie et. d’histoire Signs Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society WGT K. Mitchell and I. Wood eds., The World of Gregory of Tours (Brill, 2002). xi xii Gender and Violence in Gregory of Tours’ Decem Libri Historiarum Introduction The would-be historian of sixth-century Gaul has little choice, and perhaps still less desire, but to begin with the works of Gregory of Tours. A native of Clermont, Gregory became bishop of the politically and spiritually vital see of Tours in 573, and appears to have written copiously throughout his twenty-one years in office. The most famous of his works is the Decem Libri Historiarum1 (henceforth DLH), which cuts, on a first reading, an appealingly chaotic path through history from Creation through the Old and New Testaments, followed by a few choice highlights from Roman history and that of a few other countries – lest the reader fall under the misapprehension that Gregory is ignorant of such places – before coming to focus, somewhat abruptly, on Gaul, and on the see of Tours in particular. In addition to this most famous of his works, he also composed eight books of Miracula,2 as well as a treatise on the Offices of the Church called “On the Course of the Stars,”3 a piece on the “Seven Sleepers of Ephesus”4 and a commentary on 1 Ed. B. Krusch, in B. Krusch and W. Levison eds. MGH SSRM I.1 (Hanover, 1937), ed. and trans. O. M. Dalton, The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours (Oxford, 1927), vol. 2; ed. and trans. L. Thorpe, Gregory of Tours: The History of the Franks (London, 1974); ed. and trans. A. C. Murray, Gregory of Tours: the Merovingians (Peterborough, Ontario, 2006). 2 These were comprised of: Liber in Gloria martyrum (GM), ed. B. Krusch, in B. Krusch ed., MGH SSRM I.2 (Hanover, 1885) 484-561, trans. R. Van Dam, Gregory of Tours: Glory of the Martyrs (Liverpool, 1988); Liber de passione et virtutibus sancti Iuliani martyris, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM I.2, 562-584, trans R. Van Dam, “The Suffering and Miracles of the Martyr St. Julian” in Van Dam ed. Saints and their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton, 1993) 162-195; Liber de virtutibus sancti Martini episcopi, (VM - four books) ed. B. Krusch, MGH SSRM I.2, 584-661, trans. Van Dam, “The Miracles of the Bishop St.