Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 1.djvu/111

 CLOVIS THE FIRST 81 CLOVIS THE FIRST BY THOMAS WYATT, A.M. (465-5H) THE honor of having established the French monarchy and the French na tion, of having raised himself from his posi- tion as chief of a petty and turbulent tribe to be the ruler of a powerful and permanent kingdom, unquestionably belongs to Clovis the First, who was born in the year 465. The multitude of petty kingdoms subsist- ing in Gaul at this time, forms, says an illustrious historian, one of the greatest dif- ficulties in the ancient history of France. In a manuscript work, still preserved in the King's library at Paris, it is imputed to the disorders which prevailed after the expul- sion of Childeric, father of Clovis, when such as were sufficiently powerful took ad- vantage of the anarchy in which the nation was involved, to establish independent mon- archies of their own. Clovis ascended the throne at the age of fifteen, and at the early age of twenty began to show his jealousy toward those whom he con- sidered usurpers of his territories. His courtiers, ever ready to fan into a flame the spark they had discovered in the breast of their master, incited him to chal- lenge Syagrius, a Roman who still had possession of Soissons and a part of the adjacent country. The challenge was accepted by this self-made prince, and a bloody battle was the result. Syagrius saved himself by flight, taking refuge among the Visi- goths ; but Alaric II., then king, fearing the threats of Clovis, delivered the refu- gee into his power, who caused him to be beheaded. The Prankish leader was now a man of note in the world ; but he was still nothing more than the leader of a band of warriors, often retaining his authority only by brute force. At one time, his band having stormed the Christian city of Rheims and carried off from its church a vase " of marvellous size and beauty," the bishop sent word to their leader entreating him to return it. "That will I," responded Clovis to the envoy, "if when we divide our spoil the vase falls to my lot." In his desire to gratify the bishop, who was an old friend, the chieftain went a step beyond his promise and requested his companions to give him the great vase as his share. Then cried one of their number, striking