CLOUET
67
CLOUET
nuptial poems of the rude epic poetry found among
many of the Germanic peoples. Here it will suffice
to summarize the legends and add a brief statement
of the historical facts. Further information will be
found in special works on the subject. The popular
poems substituted for King Godegisil, uncle and
protector of Clotilda, his brother Gondebad, who was
represented as the persecutor of the young princess.
Gondebad is supposed to have slain Chilperic, thrown
his wife into a well, with a stone tied around her neck,
and exiled her two daughters. Clovis, on hearing of
the beauty of Clotilda, sent his friend Aurelian, dis-
guised as a beggar, to visit her secretly, and give her
a gold ring from his master ; he then asked Gondebad
for the hand of the yoimg princess. Gondebad, fear-
ing the powerful King of the Franks, dared not refuse,
and Clotilda accompanied Aiu-elian and his escort on
their return journey. They hastened to reach Frank-
ish territory, as Clotilda feared that Aredius, the faith-
ful counsellor of Gondebad, on his return from Con-
stantinople, whither he had been sent on a mission,
would influence his master to retract his promise.
Her fears were justified. Shortly after the departure
of the princess, Aredius returned and caused Gonde-
bad to repent his consent to the marriage. Troops
were dispatched to bring Clotilda back, but it was too
late, as she was safe on Frankish soil. The details of
this recital are purely legendary. It is historically
established that Chilperic's death was lamented by
Gondebad, and that Caretena.lived untU 506: she died
"full of days", says her epitaph, having had the joy of
seeing her children brought up in the Catholic religion.
Aurelian and Aredius are historical personages,
though little is known of them but their names, and
the role attributed to them in the legend is highly im-
probable.
Clotilda, as wife of Clovis, soon acquired a great ascendancy over him, of which she availed herself to exhort him to embrace the Catholic Faith. For a long time her efforts were fruitless, though the king per- mitted the baptism of Ingomir, their first son. The child died in his infancy, which seemed to give Clovis an argument against the God of Clotilda, but notwith- standing this, the young queen again obtained the consent of her husband to the baptism of their second son, Clodomir. Thus the future of Catholicism was already assured in the Frankish Kingdom. Clovis himself was soon afterwards converted under highly dramatic circumstances, and was baptized at Reims by St. Remigius, in 496 (see Clovis). Thus Clotilda accomplished the mission assigned her by Providence; she was made the instrument in the conversion of a great people, who were to be for centuries the leaders of Catholic civilization. Clotilda bore Clo\-is five children: foiu' sons, Ingomir, who died in infancy, and Kings Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire, and one daughter, named Clotilda after her mother. Little more is known of Queen Clotilda during the lifetime of her husband, but it may be conjectured that she inter- ceded with him, at the time of his intervention in the quarrel between the Burgundian kings, to win him to the cause of Godegisil as against Gondebad. The moderation displayed by Clo\'is in this struggle, in which, though victor, he did not seek to turn the vic- tory to his own advantage, as well as the alliance which he afterwards concluded with Gondebad, were doubtless due to the influence of Clotilda, who must have viewed the fratricidal struggle with horror.
Clovis died at Paris in 511, and Clotilda had him interred on what was then Mons Lucotetius, in the church of theApostles (later Sainte-(ienevie\'e), which they had built together to serve as a mau.soleum, and which Clotilda was left to complete. The widowhood of this noble woman was saddened by cruel trials. Her son Clodomir, son-in-law of Gondebad, made war against his cousin Sigismund, who had succeeded Gondebad on the throne of Burgundy, captured him,
and put him to death with his wife and children at
Coulmiers, near Orleans. According to the popular
epic of the Franks, he was incited to this war by Clo-
tilda, who thought to avenge upon Sigismund the
murder of her parents ; but, as has already been seen,
Clotilda had nothing to avenge, and, on the contrary,
it was probably she who arranged the alliance between
Clovis and Gondebad. Here the legend is at vari-
ance with the truth, cruelly defaming the memory of
Clotilda, who had the sorrow of seeing Clodomir perish
in his unholy war on the Burgundians; he was van-
quished and slain in the battle of Veseruntia (V^ze-
ronce), in .524, by Godomar, brother of Sigismund.
Clotilda took under her care his three sons of tender
age, Thcodoald, Gunther, and Clodoald. Childebert
and Clotaire, however, who had divided between them
the inheritance of their elder brother, did not wish the
children to live, to whom later on they would have to
render an account. By means of a ruse they with-
drew the children from the watchful care of their
mother and slew the two eldest; the third escaped
and entered a cloister, to which he gave his name
(Saint-Cloud, near Paris).
The grief of Clotilda was so great that Paris became insupportable to her, and she withdrew to Tours, where close to the tomb of St. Martin, to whom she had great devotion, she spent the remainder of her life in prayer and good works. But there were trials still in store for her. Her daughter Clotilda, wife of Amalaric, the Visigothic king, being cruelly mal- treated by her husband, appealed for help to her brother Childebert. He went to her rescue and de- feated Amalaric in a battle, in which the latter was killed; Clotilda, however, died on the journey home, exhausted by the hardships she had endured. Fi- nally, as though to crown the long martyrdom of Clo- tilda, her two sole surviving sons, Childebert and Clo- taire, began to quarrel, and engaged in serious warfare. Clotaire, closely pursued by Childebert, who had been joined by Theodebcrt, son of Thierry I, took refuge in the forest of Brotonne, in Normandy, where he feared that he and his army would be exterminated by the superior forces of his adversaries. Then, says Gregory of Tours, Clotilda threw herself on her knees before the tomb of St. Martin, and besought him with tears during the whole night not to permit another fratri- cide to afflict the family of Clo-vis. Suddenly a fright- ful tempest arose and dispersed the two armies which were about to engage in a hand-to-hand struggle ; thus, says the chronicler, did the saint answer the prayers of the afflicted mother. This was the last of Clotilda's trials. Rich in virtues and good works, after a widow- hood of thirty-four years, during which she lived more as a religious than as a queen, she died and was buried in Paris, in the church of the Apostles, beside her hus- band and children.
The life of Saint Clotilda, the principal episodes of which, both legendary and historic, are found scat- tered throughout the chronicle of St. Gregory of Tours, was written in the tenth century, by an anonymous author, who gathered his facts principally from this source. At an early period .she was venerated by the Church as a saint, and while popular contemporary poetry disfigures her noble personality by making her a type of a savage fury, Clotilda has now entered into the possession of a pure and untarnished fame, which no legend will be able to obscure.
Vila Clotiidis in Acta SS.. June, I. also in Script, rerum A/cro- vinfficarum, II; Kuhth. Lps sources de I'hist. de Clovis dans Grigoire de Tours in Rev. des quest, hisl. (Paris. 1888); Idem, Les sources de I'hist. de Clovis dans Frideaaire. ibid.. 1890: Idkm. Clovis (2nd ed., Paris, 1901); Idem. Sainte Clotilde (Sth ed., Paris, 190.5), GODEFROID KuRTH.
Clouet, the family name of several generations of painters.
I. Je.\n (Jean the Younger), b. at Tours, France, 1485; d., probably at Paris, between 1541 and 1545.
