The Exemplar Pactionis of the Kings Gunthram and Childebert II in the History of the Franks of Gregory of Tours: the “Oldest Treaty of France” or the “Annual Record”?

Abstract

The article deals with the most important fragment of the History of the Francs of Gregory of Tours, which is sometimes called the “oldest treaty of France”. It is an agreement concluded by the Merovingian kings Gunthram and Childebert II in Andelot in 587. The singularity of this pact lies in the facts that it was added in an unusual context of the early medieval chronicle and is found nowhere else in collections of law of the 6th century. Discovering the similarities between the form and content of the treaty in Andelot, acts in public and private forms of the Middle Ages, the author applies the analysis of formulary to the text of the annual record of the History of the Francs and compares it with the capitularies of the Carolingian era. Deriving the clauses of the protocol, the operative part (corpus) and the eschatocol from the entire text one can make an assumption that Gregory of Tours actually was present at the time of its compilation and attestation, and also had the copy at the time of writing the History of the Francs.