Fortunatus arrived in the spring of 566 in Metz at the Merovingian Court, with the specific intention of becoming a poet in the court. To reach Metz, he took a winding route, passing through four modern countries: Italy, Austria, Germany and France. Fortunatus himself explains two entirely different reasons for this route. Describing the first reason, he “portrays himself in the guise of a wandering minstrel, his journey just one in a series of adventures.” The second reason is more religious, explained in his Vita S. Martini took this route to worship at the shrine of St Martin in Tours, visiting other shrines as he went.

Fortunatus’ journey was planned, he was officially invited to come to Gaul. Fortunatus notes that he was met by the royal envoy Sigoald, a man who later became one of his friends and correspondents. Secondly, the fact that some of his earliest patrons in Gaul, Sidonius of Mainz, Nicetius of Trier, and Vilicus of Metz, where bishops with transalpine connections provides further evidence of a planned journey.

Fortunatus’ arrival in Metz coincides with the marriage of King Sigibert and Queen Brunhild, and at the ceremony he performed a celebration poem for the entire court. The chief men of Sigibert’s kingdom attended the marriage feast, and Fortunatus met many of his future friends and patrons.

Upon his move to Merovingian Gaul, Fortunatus entered a world where the elite was educated or aspired to be so. The sixth century was a period of change in the organization of society and the administration of the formerly imperial West, where churchmen and soldiers increased in importance against civil officials, and where ‘secular education and learning at the expense of literacy and to the profit of a more clerically orientated and a more scriptural culture’. However, in the Merovingian Kingdoms through which Fortunatus’ networks of friendship and patronage extended, literary culture still mattered. He addressed his episcopal and secular correspondents assuming that they were learned and took pride in being so. The people to whom he wrote would likely have been taught to read and write at home, using books from family libraries, continuing their training in a monastery or under the supervision of ecclesiastical relatives (if destined for a religious career), or at court (if destined for a secular career). It was a world in which literary culture mattered and those who participated in it ‘were conscious of their role as the last defenders of the classical culture that distinguished them from barbarians’.

In his first decade in Gaul, Fortunatus sought and cultivated literary connections throughout the Merovingian world: with priests, bishops, Kings, Queens, abbesses, nuns, aristocrats, royal officials—anyone who might offer him support, protection, and replies. Fortunatus drew on the language and imagery of Classical and Christian friendship in his work. He made particular use of the language and images of absent friendship, using it to suggest an intimacy which transcended the boundaries of space, time, and personal acquaintance. But he also couched this rhetoric in the rich and long-standing language of patronage, to give distinction to his addressees and humility to himself.

Fortunatus had many noble patrons, as well as bishops, who wished him to write poetry for them. About a year after he arrived in Metz, Fortunatus travelled to the court of King Charibert, Sigibert’s brother, in Paris, and stayed there until Charibert’s death in 567 or 568.

Fortunatus travelled frequently during his first decade in Gaul, visiting the court of Charibert (561-567) and the cities of Tours and Poitiers, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. Due to danger presented by King Chilperic, brother of Sigibert and Charibert, Fortunatus had to make the decision to move south to Tours, returning to Sigibert’s lands. He settled in Poitiers by 569 and attached himself to the monastery of the Holy Cross, founded by the nun and former queen Radegund. Fortunatus arrived in Poitiers at the same time that Radegund was trying to obtain a relic of the cross for her foundation, a process which seems to have begun in late 567/568. They became close friends, and Fortunatus wrote many poems in her honour and in support of her political campaigns. Fortunatus wrote poems to the Byzantine imperial family in support of her cause, composed hymns to celebrate the relic’s arrival in 569, and became close friends with Radegund and her adopted daughter Agnes, the convent’s abbess.

Poitiers’ position on the Merovingian political and ecclesiastical map is worth noting. The diocese of Poitiers was frequently separated from the other dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Bordeaux by the shifting borders of the Merovingian Kingdoms. The city itself was seized by various Merovingian Kings Poitiers’ position on the Merovingian political and ecclesiastical map is worth noting. The diocese of Poitiers was frequently separated from the other dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Bordeaux by the shifting borders of the Merovingian Kingdoms. The city itself was seized by various Merovingian kings

Fortunatus had made another great friendship in Tours and Poitiers: with Gregory of Tours, who was installed as Bishop of Tours in 573, from whom Fortunatus also received patronage. In 580, Fortunatus wrote a poem defending Gregory against treasonous charges placed upon him at Chilperic’s court.

In his time, Fortunatus filled a great social desire for Latin poetry. He was one of the most prominent poets at this point, and had many contracts, commissions and correspondences with kings, bishops and noblemen and women from the time he arrived in Gaul until his death. He used his poetry to advance in society, to promote political ideas he supported, usually conceived of by Radegunde or by Gregory, and to pass on personal thoughts and communications. He was a master wordsmith and because of his promotion of the church, as well as the Roman tendencies of the Frankish royalty, he remained in favour with most of his acquaintances throughout his lifetime.

Fortunatus provides another window into the world of the Merovingian court. For much of this period, the only reliable source on the subject is Gregory of Tours’ history, but as it is well known that Gregory had his own political and personal agendas, the objectivity of his accounts can sometimes come into question. While Fortunatus tends to embellish or even mock the happenings and truth of the situations he writes about, there is an element of inferred truth, whether it is his classical embellishments on the marriage panegyric for Sigibert, or his recalling the traits of the ideal ruler to correct a bad King. With this, he supplies an alternate view of everything going on at court.

The poet’s introduction to Radegund may have come through King Sigibert or through Bishop Germanus of Paris (c. 496-576), who had consecrated Radegund as a nun. Since Fortunatus was on pilgrimage in Tours before his arrival in Poitiers, it is perhaps more likely that it was Bishop Eufronius of Tours who sent him on to Radegund. After the death of Sigibert, and that of Chilperic, Fortunatus moved to Childebert’s court in Poitiers. Childebert was Sigibert’s son. Sometime around 576, he was ordained into the church. He stayed there until around the year 599-600, when he was appointed Bishop of Poitiers, to replace Plato, Bishop of Poitiers.

Although he was permanently based in Poitiers from 568, Fortunatus continued to travel and seek patronage in Gaul throughout the 570s. When his poem on the death of Queen Galswinth, written for her sister Brunhild in 569/570, did not win him any special notice, he started travelling again: to Bordeaux to visit Bishop Leontius and his wife Placidina and also to their villas on the lower Garonne and the Haute Garonne. By around 573, he had met and was writing regularly for Gregory of Tours. Even after settling in Poitiers and establishing a steady connection to Gregory, Fortunatus’ poems suggest that his travels continued with a visit to Paris sometime before 576; journeys to a villa, the monastery at Tincillac, and Angers sometime in the 570s; a visit to Nantes before 573; Nevers in the early 570s; Brittany before 576/577, and two other unspecified trips.

Fortunatus’ writing for Gregory is woven throughout his collection and Fortunatus’ name is linked with Gregory’s more than with any other patron. There are more than thirty poems in Fortunatus’ corpus written to Gregory, about him, or at his behest. They include an adventus poem for his entrance into Tours when he was consecrated bishop in September 573, a four-book metrical life of Saint Martin, and a poem about the conversion of the Jewish community of Clermont, which will be discussed further on in this chapter. Fortunatus also wrote poems and epitaphs for important members of Gregory’s family: Armentaria, Gregory of Langres, Tetricus of Langres, and Gallus of Clermont. Fortunatus’ panegyric for King Chilperic (561-584), delivered to a group of bishops at Berny-Rivière, has been interpreted as an act in defence of Gregory, who was on trial for slander.

Fortunatus relied on Gregory as a temporal and spiritual patron; he also appealed to Gregory on behalf of others as well as himself. George and others have concluded that Fortunatus repaid some of these favours in writing for on the bishop’s behalf. Carm. IX.1, one of Fortunatus’ great royal panegyrics, was delivered to king Chilperic on Gregory’s behalf at the synod of Berny-Rivière in 580, can be seen as a particular example of this. Gregory was called before a council of bishops assembled at the royal villa, to answer the charge that he had slandered Chilperic’s queen, Fredegund (d. 596/7). ‘Fortunatus himself declaimed a formal panegyric before the synod, to mediate between the king and the bishops and persuade Chilperic to accept Gregory’s innocence.

Gregory’s own writings support the contention that Berny-Rivière was a suitable place for a trial, as well as an administrative centre of some importance. When Chilperic took over rule from his father, he took possession of his father’s treasure at Berny; similarly, Andacharius went to Berny to fraudulently obtain royal charters. The overzealous Duke Dragon wrongly dragged Dracolen to the royal villa, where the latter was murdered. The royal villa was a setting of the plague of 580, in which two of Chilperic’s sons died.

Finally, Fortunatus wrote about Gregory’s building projects and contributed tituli for the murals depicting the life of St Martin which adorned Gregory’s cathedral. These survive only in Book Ten of Fortunatus’ poetry—the cathedral is long gone and Gregory’s description of his efforts to rebuild does not refer to the tituli.

Fortunatus’ access to the convent of the Holy Cross is not an insurmountable obstacle to a later date of priestly ordination, since it likely he was in clerical orders for some time before becoming a priest. Most Merovingian priests followed a standard cursus clericorum, progressing through the ranks of the minor clergy before their ordination to the priesthood. A man could not be ordained a priest before age thirty, and he was required to be literate, a faithful Catholic, and of good moral character. Except for those who came from clerical families, a priest required approval from the King or his iudex to confirm his appointment.

Fortunatus wrote panegyrics and other types of poems, including praise, eulogies, personal poems to bishops and friends alike, consolations and poems in support of political issues, particularly those presented by his friends Gregory of Tours and Radegunde. His eleven books of poetry contain his surviving poems, all ordered chronologically and by the King of subjects. For instance, a poem about God will come before the panegyric to a King, which will come before a eulogy to a bishop.

A significant number of hagiographic works attributed to Fortunatus were dedicated to members of the Merovingian clergy: Bishop Pascentius of Poitiers received the Life and Miracles of St Hilary, the life of Marcellus was written for Bishop Germanus of Paris, and the Life of Albinus was written for Bishop Domitian of Angers. In none of these works is the process of commissioning recorded. It is tempting to imagine that the men for whom Fortunatus wrote, having been satisfied with his work, passed his name on amongst themselves. Fortunatus’ career and writings certainly suggest that this was possible. Responding to commissions and actively seeking literary patronage were after all to the poet’s advantage—abbots like Martianus, and bishops like Pascentius of Poitiers and Gregory of Tours, could champion the poet’s work on a scale that he himself could not.

Fortunatus’ works provide evidence of communication between western Gaul and northern Spain in the sixth century, as he wrote for both Martin of Braga and another sixth- century Spanish churchman, Victorianus, whose foundation of Asán was probably somewhere in the Pyrenees. The poem tells us that this abbot existed (the other evidence is a fourteenth-century vita) and had some significance in contemporary eyes.

Fortunatus died in the early 7th century. He was called a saint after his death, but was never formally canonized.

Interest in Fortunatus’ poetry long outlasted the Merovingian Kingdoms. In the medieval world, Fortunatus’ works were classics until the end of the eleventh century and he had a significant impact on medieval thought. Most manuscripts of his works date from the ninth and tenth centuries, when he seems to have enjoyed particular popularity. As a Christian poet and hagiographer, he was known and admired by other early medieval writers, including Paul the Deacon, who wrote an epitaph of him; Aldhelm, who knew his works well; and Alcuin of York, who included him in a list of Christian poets.

The royal official’s Dynamius and Gogo composed letters found in a compilation of sixth-century letters are called the Epistolae Austrasicae. Using the letters and poetry of these three writers, we see that literary skill facilitated the creation and maintenance of connections across large distances and was a necessary part of elite identity. It also shows that Gregory of Tours’ dramatic rhetorical claim did not reflect the true state of literature in Gaul in that period.

Hope Deejune Williard
University of Leeds

Gogo was one of the foremost members of the Austrasian court. He was responsible for escorting princess Brunhild, daughter of the Visigoth king Athanagild, from Toledo, in Spain, to northern Gaul. He also served in the office of comes, ‘count’ (administrator or palace official).

After King Sigibert’s death, Gogo became nutricius, a guardian or teacher to King Sigibert’s son Prince Childebert II.

Fortunatus concluded, ‘You are considered great in the judgement of King Sigibert’.

Writing letters

In the following poem, Fortunatus asks the clouds where his friend Gogo could be and inquires after his friend’s wellbeing:

“Clouds who come on the blast of the fierce north wind,
who, suspended on high, move with the sun in the starry heavens,

Tell me what health my dear Gogo enjoys.
“What occupies his carefree mind in tranquil times?
if he lingers by the banks of the wave-driven Rhine
to catch with his net in its waters the fat salmon,
or roams by the grape-laden Moselle’s stream,
where the gentle breeze tempers the blazing sun,
where vine and river moderate the midday heat:
shade under the knitted tendrils, water with fresh flowing waves.

Does the Meuse, sweetly sounding, haunt of crane, goose, gander, and swan,
rich in its threefold wares, in fish, fowl, and shipping,
hold him, or where the Aisne breaks on grassy banks
and feeds pastures, meadows, and fields with its waters?
Or else does he wander the sunny groves and glens
and with his net snare wild animals, with his spear kill them?

Does the forest crack and thunder in the Ardennes or Vosges
with the death of stag, goat, elk, or aurochs, shot by his arrows?
Does he strike between the horns the brow of the sturdy bison,
can bear, wild ass, and boar no more delay their fate?

Does he now sit joyfully in the palace hall
with an attendant retinue that rejoices in their love for him?
Or does he join with my dear Lupus to dispense merciful justice,
to create by their common counsel a soothing honey,
by which the poor are fed, widows gain comfort,
the young receive a guardian, and the needy aid?”

Fortunatus, emphasizes Gogo for his good Christian virtues (feeding the poor, protecting the weak).

This reinforces the Christian elements within the poem as a whole.

One of Gogo’s other friends, is Lupus, who is an important Austrasian dux from Reims. Lupus had literary interests himself: he offered patronage to the slave Andarchius from Marseille, who was an expert in Virgil and Roman law. Lupus and Fortunatus and Gogo, were also friends with Dynamius, the governor of Provence, who was part of a Provençal literary circle.

These men were steeped in classical Latin literature. Their literary correspondence was the basis for their bond of amicitia, and together they formed a powerful network of magnates advancing their ambitions at court.

While Merovingian history is filled with stories of war and violence, Fortunatus’ poetry reveals a picture of courtly life that is very different from the stereotype of bloodthirsty barbarian warlords. Men such as Gogo would have preferred to see themselves portrayed as Roman landowners, Christian administrators and poets lingering in the gentle breeze of the Moselle valley.

We often think that the DARK AGES where a time of great unrest and culural stagnation, but we have to remember that this time build upon the knowledge of the Ancients World and was actually closer to this world then we are to the Merovingian times. The next page will present you the famous ancient Seven Wonders of the World.