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Clotilde
Character
Queen of the Franks
Historical Accuracy
Gregory of Tours is the principal source for her life and her role in Clovis's conversion; as a Burgundian Nicene Christian princess marrying into a pagan Frankish court, her documented advocacy for Clovis's baptism fits a well-attested pattern of royal wives in this period influencing their husbands' religious choices, though the precise extent of her personal influence, versus later devotional embellishment of her role, is difficult to fully disentangle given how heavily later Catholic tradition built up her reputation.
Historical Significance
Sources:
- Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum. Modern: Ian Wood, Guy Halsall.
Clotilde's marriage to Clovis I and her credited role in steadily working toward his conversion to Nicene Christianity make her one of the most historically consequential royal wives of the entire Merovingian period — later Catholic tradition and eventual sainthood cast her as instrumental to the religious alignment that shaped Frankish, and later French, history for centuries.
Historical Era
Book I
Novel Appearance:
- Established as Clovis's queen within Book I's 478–511 AD span.
Timeline:
- c. 474/475 — born
- 492/493 — marries Clovis I
- 511 — widowed
- 545 — dies
Birth:
- c. 474–475 AD, likely Lyon.
Death:
- 3 June 545 AD, Tours.
Parents:
- Father: Chilperic II of Burgundy. Mother: Caretena.
Children:
- Ingomer, Chlodomer, Childebert I, Chlothar I, Clotilde the younger.
Allies:
- St. Remigius of Reims.
Enemies:
- Gundobad, King of Burgundy.
clotilde
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