Editing Gregory of Tours (section)

==== Analysis ====
{{Further|List of Frankish kings}}

The {{lang|la|Historia Francorum}} is made up of ten books. Books I to IV initially recount the world's history from the [[Genesis creation narrative|Creation]] (as was traditional for such works);<ref>{{cite book |last=Burrow |first=John |title=A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century |location=London |publisher=[[Allen Lane]] |date=2007 |page=198 |isbn=9780713993370}} Also reprinted by Knopf (2008), Vintage (2009), and Penguin (2009).</ref> but move quickly on to the [[Christianization of Gaul]], the life and times of [[Martin of Tours|Saint Martin of Tours]], the conversion of the Franks and the conquest of Gaul under [[Clovis I]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallace-Hadrill |first=J. M. |title=The Barbarian West: 400–1000 |edition=3rd revd. |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts / Oxford |publisher=Basil Blackwell |date=1989 |orig-date=1952, 1957, 1967 |pages=71–72 |url= https://archive.org/details/barbarianwest4000000wall_q3r1/ |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}}</ref> and the more detailed history of the [[List of Frankish kings|Frankish kings]] down to the death of [[Sigebert I]] in 575. At this date, Gregory had been bishop of Tours for two years.

With his fifth book, Gregory embarks (with some relief) on contemporary history, opening: "Here, I am glad to say, begins Book V".<ref>Quoted in {{harvp|Burrow|2007|p=205}}.</ref> This, the second part of his history, Books V and VI, closes with [[Chilperic I]]'s death in 584. During the years that Chilperic held Tours, relations between him and Gregory were tense. After hearing rumours that the bishop of Tours had slandered his wife, [[Fredegund]], Chilperic had Gregory arrested and tried for treason&nbsp;– a charge which threatened both Gregory's bishopric and his life.<ref name="cathen" /> The most eloquent passage in the {{lang|la|Historia}} is the closing chapter of Book VI, in which Chilperic's character is summed up unsympathetically through the use of an invective: [[Herod Antipas|Herod]] and [[Nero]] are among the comparisons employed.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Bury |editor1-first=J. B. |editor1-link=J. B. Bury |editor2-last=Gwatkin |editor2-first=H. M. |editor2-link=Henry Melvill Gwatkin |editor3-last=Whitney |editor3-first=J. P. |editor3-link=James Pounder Whitney |title=The Cambridge Medieval History |volume=II: The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] / [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |date=1913 |page=122 |url= https://archive.org/details/cambridgemedieva02buryuoft/ |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

The third part, comprising Books VII to X, takes his increasingly personal account to the year 591, and concludes with a plea for further chroniclers to preserve his work in entirety (as indeed would be done).{{sfnp|Burrow|2007|p=210}} An [[epilogue]] was written in 594, the year of Gregory's death.