Los francos salios o francos salianos eran la rama romanizada del pueblo germano de los francos que habitaba, a mediados del siglo III d. C., en el valle inferior del río Rin, en los actuales Países Bajos y el noroeste de Alemania.
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00:00Archaeologist
00:08The archaeologist had great expectations.
00:11In 1912, he was going to examine a strange stone in a farm near Magdeburg, in central Germany.
00:17A farmer had found it 30 years earlier, while ploughing the field.
00:22Since then, it had served as a threshold for the stables.
00:25The expert recognized it immediately.
00:27It was a unique discovery of the time of the Germanic peoples, of the time of the barbarian invasions.
00:32The stone of the horse of Hornhausen represents a Germanic warrior with sword, spear and shield.
00:38Today, ancient sources and modern science can tell us the story of the life of a Germanic warrior in the time of the barbarian invasions.
00:46Let's call him Radulf. This could be his story.
00:50Our king Childerico had died.
00:53Now he was sitting next to the other heroes, next to Botan, in Valhalla.
00:58His warriors had come from all over the country to Tournai, in the north of Gaul,
01:03to swear loyalty to his son, according to the old tradition.
01:07We called ourselves Francos, the brave.
01:10Here I saw many companions of old battles.
01:14Clodoveo, our new chief, was only 16 years old.
01:18From now on, we would go to fight as his followers.
01:23As we had done before with his father, Childerico, now we swore loyalty to him.
01:33King Franco Childerico died in the year 482 of our era.
01:38He was buried with his favorite horse.
01:41He would take him to Valhalla, the fortress of the dead warriors.
01:45Childerico was buried under a mound, a non-Germanic custom.
01:49It was an evident sign of the power and greatness of King Franco.
01:58Valuable funerary jewels donated by the Romans with statues,
02:03they found that Childerico was an ally of Rome.
02:10His stamp stamp has an inscription in Latin,
02:13in which you can read Childerici Regis,
02:15which means, this is the King Childerico.
02:18A symbol of the power of the Roman model.
02:21The ring, like the other burial goods, is in the cabinet of Medail,
02:25cabinet of medals, in Paris.
02:27For a long time, Medail was the head of the royal family.
02:32For a long time, it was thought that the ring was a gift from Rome,
02:35as a sign of recognition of King Franco by the Roman Empire.
02:41Above all this is a utensil.
02:43It is a stamp stamp.
02:45It was used to authenticate documents.
02:48The stamp confirms the material power of Childerico,
02:51in the center of the Roman Empire.
02:54But the ornamentation of this ring is not well worked,
02:57and the Latin inscription of the portrait.
03:00So it was probably carved in his court,
03:03the Germanic court of Childerico.
03:06However, his other jewels are much better ornamented,
03:09and its quality is substantially higher.
03:14It is evident that they were made elsewhere.
03:18The tomb of Childerico was discovered in 1653.
03:22Most of the objects were subtracted
03:24during a robbery perpetrated in the 19th century.
03:27But thanks to the detailed drawings of the archaeologists,
03:30it is possible to reconstruct the treasure of Childerico.
03:38Almandines, red granite stones, gold embroideries,
03:41decorate the long sword of King Childerico.
03:44They are Roman.
03:45Perhaps they were gifts from Rome to the allied king,
03:48of whose warriors depended the empire.
03:53Childerico also had in his grave
03:55a typical weapon of the Franks, a Francisca,
03:58the ax thrown so feared by his enemies.
04:03All these attributes characterize him as a successful military chief.
04:07Under his command, the Franks had conquered lands in Roman Gaul.
04:15For this reason, Childerico was raised on a shield and crowned king,
04:19as was the Germanic custom.
04:26It was said that a legendary creature of the Rhine,
04:28half bull and half man,
04:30had been the progenitor of the Childerico dynasty.
04:35Coins found in the treasure confirm financial contacts
04:38with Rome and Constantinople.
04:42Almandines are particularly shocking.
04:45The red granite stones were not very common
04:48in the Germanic world or in the Roman world.
04:51Where did these exotic semi-precious stones come from?
04:55In the Louvre Museum laboratory, in Paris,
04:58they are investigating it using X-ray structure analysis.
05:02Geophysicists will identify the geological footprint
05:05of the red granite stones from the grave.
05:07The goal is to determine their physical composition,
05:10how much iron and how much aluminum they contain.
05:14The quantities and the physical composition
05:16will reveal the origin of the stones.
05:20Geophysicists discover that the Almandines came from India,
05:23which testifies to the distant connections
05:25that existed during ancient times.
05:28By then, the Germanic tribes had already attacked Rome several times
05:32and destroyed the empire.
05:34The emperors only ruled in Constantinople,
05:36the capital of the Eastern Empire.
05:40In the year 375 of our era,
05:42the Huns invaded the Germanic territory.
05:45The Germanic tribes entered the weakened empire.
05:48The barbaric invasions put an end
05:51to the brilliant era of the greatest empire of antiquity.
05:55The Germanic tribes began to fight each other
05:57for the formidable legacy of the empire.
06:00Near Zülpich, in Eastern Germany,
06:02where the old city of Tolbiac was built,
06:05the Franks and the Alamans fought for supremacy in Rome.
06:10It is thought that that battle, known as the Battle of Tolbiac,
06:13took place in the year 496 of our era.
06:16The bishop and chronicler Gregorio de Tours wrote about the battle.
06:22When the two armies met,
06:24there was a horrible bloodbath.
06:26The army of Clodoveo was practically annihilated.
06:33For many years I had fought alongside my victorious king, Clodoveo.
06:39He had abandoned us, Botan.
06:41He was on the side of our enemies, the Alamans.
06:45This time Clodoveo also seemed to doubt his lucky winner.
06:52After the defeat, Gregorio tells us,
06:54Clodoveo made a decision of great transcendence.
06:59While his warriors prayed to the Germanic gods,
07:02he went to a foreign god.
07:06Jesus Christ, if you let me defeat these enemies,
07:09I will believe in you and I will have me baptized in your name.
07:14Save me from the claws of my adversaries.
07:19Go ahead!
07:24The plan was to launch a desperate attack to change the course of the contest.
07:28His most loyal followers carried out the task.
07:34Either we won or we died.
07:38And the truth is that we managed to stop the Alamans.
07:44A source of ancient antiquity refers.
07:47Both on foot and on horseback,
07:49the Franks are incredibly effective in close combat.
07:53They challenge death without repairs.
07:55Their attacks are energetic and timid.
07:57They do not know fear.
08:04Suddenly I saw the head of the Alamans.
08:08My comrades in arms considered me one of their best ax launchers.
08:15Botan would lead my Francisca to her goal.
08:21Gregorio de Tours wrote.
08:24When the Alamans saw that they had killed their king,
08:27they surrendered to Clodoveo.
08:34Already during ancient times,
08:36the French ax launchers were legendary.
08:39In the German technological center of weapons and ammunition,
08:42the effect of the Francisca is tested.
08:44Can we really believe testimonies like those of the former historian Procopio?
08:49When the Franks had already killed many adversaries with their ax launchers,
08:53their enemies turned their backs and fled.
08:57In the experiments, the effect of the Francisca will be tested on a mannequin.
09:05Was the ax really capable of killing a distant adversary,
09:08or was it not suitable for long-distance combat,
09:11as some historians assure?
09:15A reliable replica of a Germanic ax is launched against a doll
09:18located at a distance of 10 meters.
09:21The rotation keeps the Francisca in a stable trajectory.
09:30So that the effect can be produced,
09:32not only the weight is crucial, but also the speed.
09:35When the impact occurs, all the energy is concentrated in a single point,
09:39with devastating consequences.
09:46At an impact speed of 12 meters per second,
09:49or 45 kilometers per hour,
09:52this is the type of injury that would occur.
09:56Here we can clearly see the cutting and destructive effect of the ax launchers.
10:02It is a cumulative effect,
10:04as a result of a forceful blow and an incision.
10:08The specific result would be brain and cranial trauma,
10:11which in this case would have had,
10:14with all probability, fatal consequences.
10:21All the graves of the Franco warriors
10:23housed this deadly weapon from a long distance.
10:26The man known as Mr. de Morken
10:29was also buried with all the objects
10:31that corresponded to his noble condition.
10:34He held a coin between his teeth,
10:36according to the Greco-Roman tradition,
10:38it represented the payment to Charon, the boatman,
10:40to cross the lagoon that led him to the other world.
10:43A long sword also lies next to the deceased,
10:46as was customary in all the Germanic tribes around the year 500.
10:51In the Landesmuseum in Stuttgart,
10:53swords of this type belonging to Franco and Alamans are preserved.
10:57Using X-ray images,
10:59Klaus Kokotidis is able to determine
11:01how these swords were forged and what material they are made of.
11:06The images show that the blades of the sword
11:08are made up of layers of different irons.
11:11The material is called Damascus steel.
11:15The swords made with this method were of very high quality.
11:18Why did the Germanic tribes get so obsessed with swords?
11:22For the Franco and Alamans,
11:24the sword was a symbol of status.
11:27They had golden handles,
11:28the blades were elaborately machined,
11:32and they were often hungry.
11:35These swords responded to the status of their owners
11:38and often could not be used in battles.
11:42The sword was the weapon of the highest rank in the Germanic tribes.
11:46Only the bravest chiefs and warriors
11:48were allowed to carry swords of this class.
12:00We won the battle against the Alamans near Tolbiac.
12:04I thanked Botan from the bottom of my heart.
12:07He was our god of war.
12:11But Clodoveo had turned his back on him
12:14and had thanked the Christian god.
12:21The result of the battle of Tolbiac
12:23not only determined who held power in the Rhine.
12:26Clodoveo was the first Frankish king to recognize the Christian faith.
12:29That changed the course of European history.
12:35In the French National Library,
12:37Michel Rouche has been studying medieval manuscripts
12:40about the battle of Tolbiac.
12:43The memory of Clodoveo's victory
12:45remained alive for many centuries in the Christian West.
12:48Because a single battle had changed the course of history.
12:53The battle of Tolbiac was Clodoveo's opportunity
12:56to see how far his victory over the Germans
12:59was interpreted as a defeat for Botan,
13:01the god of war.
13:03That immediately provided him with authority
13:06over the Germanic tribes
13:08to whom he tried to unite with the Roman Gauls.
13:11In Zülpich, he made the personal decision
13:13to convert to Christianity.
13:15And all the great victories that followed
13:17were the consequence of that battle.
13:23Cross and sword.
13:25At that time, they were not a contradiction.
13:29Clodoveo became the ideal figure
13:31of the Christian kings of the Middle Ages.
13:40As a conqueror, he changed the face of Europe.
13:44Under his leadership,
13:45the small Franco empire of his father Childerico
13:48became a great European power.
13:51Under the sign of the cross,
13:53Clodoveo achieved victory after victory.
13:57The Cathedral of York, England.
14:01This is where the triumphal march of a Roman began,
14:04who one day would be the model to imitate Clodoveo,
14:07Constantine.
14:09In the year 306 of our era,
14:11the Roman emperor was proclaimed by his troops.
14:15Six years later,
14:16Constantine fought on the Milvio Bridge in Rome
14:19for the power of the empire.
14:21And he managed to put an end to that fateful battle
14:24in the Tiber,
14:25tilting the scale in his favor.
14:28After the battle,
14:29a triumphal arch was erected in honor of Constantine,
14:32glorifying his feats.
14:34According to legend,
14:35it was the god of the Christians
14:37who helped him to be victorious.
14:39Before the battle,
14:40he had had a vision in which a cross appeared
14:42with the monogram of Christ and the message,
14:44with this sign you will win.
14:47Constantine became the first emperor
14:49who embraced Christianity.
14:52With the conversion of Constantine,
14:54the triumphal march of Christianity had begun.
14:58From then on,
14:59the emperor protected Christians in his empire
15:02and granted them freedom of religion.
15:05Under the mandate of his successors,
15:07Christianity became the religion of the Roman state.
15:10Temples were transformed into churches.
15:13In the 5th century of our era,
15:15the new faith had spread from Rome to the entire empire.
15:18The new faith also reached Gaul,
15:20where the Franks ruled from the Battle of Togliatti.
15:28In the court of Clodoveo,
15:30we celebrate our victory in the way of our ancestors.
15:38I took the seat of honor next to the king.
15:42But an unexpected visitor arrived.
15:46It was Remigius,
15:47a noble Roman and Christian bishop.
15:56It was a surprise for me.
15:58Clodoveo courted the Christian Roman.
16:06He asked me to leave the seat next to him.
16:18Clodoveo recognized that he had to cooperate
16:21with the local leaders of the area of Gaul that he had conquered.
16:25He needed their help to establish a permanent kingdom.
16:36A written uniform law was established to strengthen the kingdom.
16:40The Lex Salica or Salic Law.
16:43The monastic library of San Gallo, Switzerland,
16:46houses an early medieval copy.
16:50The Salic Law was dictated by Frankish legal experts
16:53and written by the Romans,
16:55since they were illiterate.
17:02The historian of law Clauditer Schott
17:04is an expert in the ancient Germanic legal texts.
17:10That was not the first time that Germanic kings
17:13asked the Romans to write their tribal laws.
17:17But the codes of law of the Goths and Burgundians
17:20are based on Roman law.
17:23The Salic Law, however, was of purely Germanic origin.
17:31Even in the preface there is a specifically Germanic problem,
17:35the blood feuds.
17:38It has been agreed by the Franks
17:40that all blood feuds must be prohibited,
17:43and must also be considered
17:45in the written laws of the other tribes.
17:51While the other Germanic tribes
17:53were integrated into the Roman Empire,
17:56the Franks were the first large or small tribe
17:59that emancipated and insisted on independence.
18:03Perhaps the Salic Law is a document
18:06that testifies to their desire to become independent of Rome.
18:14Clodoveo, in any case,
18:16made it clear that as a king
18:18he wanted to inherit the legacy of the Roman Empire.
18:26And as a king, Clodoveo gave himself the right
18:29to place himself above all laws.
18:35Gregorio de Tours, in the Legend of the Jarra,
18:38left evidence of Clodoveo's position
18:40regarding the tribal laws of the Franks.
18:43According to the old tradition,
18:45after a successful campaign,
18:47the booty had to be divided among the warriors.
18:51Bishop Remigius always sat next to our king.
18:54One of my fellow warriors went to pick up a jar
18:57and Remigius intervened immediately.
19:04He had been abducted from a church.
19:07Remigius requested that he be returned.
19:12But my companion did not give his arm to twist.
19:16Gregorio wrote the following about the day
19:19when Clodoveo was abducted.
19:22Gregorio wrote the following about the outcome of that event.
19:26The man bent over and the king took his ax and killed him.
19:30And at the same time he said,
19:32the same thing you have done with the jarra.
19:37He scared everyone with his behavior.
19:41Then Clodoveo ordered his army to return home.
19:44In contrast to the previous Germanic kings,
19:47who had been first among equals,
19:50Clodoveo demanded unconditional obedience to his men.
19:54King Franco had not only broken with the Germanic faith,
19:57he had also broken an old German law.
20:04Clodoveo was undoubtedly a brutal ruler,
20:07according to the current canons.
20:10At least the sources describe him
20:13as a violent and brutal man.
20:17The example of the jarra leaves that extreme very clear,
20:20as we see now,
20:23the fact that he killed a soldier for a triviality
20:26and in front of all his army.
20:30We also know other cases
20:32in which he made them kill rival kings,
20:35when he did not do it himself.
20:39And he did not tremble when he killed his relatives.
20:44That is one side of the coin.
20:47The other side is that he was a charismatic leader,
20:50who thanks to his military successes
20:53obtained the recognition of his countrymen, the Francs,
20:56but also of the Gallo-Roman population,
20:59and particularly of the Gallo-Roman bishops,
21:02who saw him as a comrade,
21:05at least after converting to Christianity.
21:10There was no justification for him to stay by my king's side,
21:15so I left him alone.
21:18In the border region I fell into the hands of some Alamans,
21:21our greatest enemies.
21:25This time, Botan was not there to protect me.
21:40I became a prisoner of the Alamans.
21:45The gods were capricious,
21:48there had been a lot of trouble,
21:51the gods were capricious,
21:54I had gone from being a master to being a servant.
22:03I imagined what fate would bring me as a slave to the Alamans.
22:08The Francs treated their captives in the same way.
22:15In the 5th century a new class emerged in Germany.
22:19Professional soldiers.
22:22While they gained glory and wealth in the battlefield,
22:25they had slaves working in their haciendas.
22:28They were mainly prisoners of war,
22:31but there were also some Roman captives.
22:36I had to work in the field with my captives
22:39for the lords of the mountain.
22:42We worked in the fields of the valley,
22:45and the Alamans recovered from their campaigns in the mountains.
22:50Unlike the Francs, the Alamans did not form a great kingdom in the 5th century.
22:55They isolated themselves geographically
22:58and lived in fortifications on the hills.
23:01One of them was located on the hill of Bad Urach,
23:04in the Suavos mountains.
23:09The Alamans settled in an area located 250 meters above the valley.
23:16The ascent is laborious and steep.
23:19Despite this, the fortifications of the hill
23:22were popular residences among the Germanic elite.
23:25The surface on which it could be built
23:28occupies an area of about half a hectare.
23:31It housed 200 Alamans during the 5th century.
23:35There is not much left of the settlement.
23:38Based on the number of holes in the ground,
23:41archaeologists estimate that 6 or 7 houses
23:44must have been built here .
23:47Probably a solar house with several floors.
23:50It was not an easy task for archaeologists to rebuild the settlement,
23:53given the scourge of holes in the ground.
23:56But in the past it must have shown this aspect.
24:00Next to the residential houses,
24:03there were also buildings for domestic work
24:06and a weaving for textile manufacturing.
24:09Mainly women worked in it.
24:12A network of walls made of beams
24:15protected the inhabitants of the invaders.
24:18The Alamans had also settled on the slopes.
24:21The lower class lived and worked there.
24:24They were the craftsmen.
24:27They processed metals.
24:30The lord, his family and his entourage resided on the top of the hill.
24:33The luxury items were not only treasured,
24:36but also manufactured.
24:40For archaeologists, this proves
24:43that it was the residence of an Alaman chief,
24:46or perhaps a king.
24:49It is likely that the goldsmiths
24:52melted the loot of military expeditions
24:55to make the jewels of their lords.
24:58The security and prestige of a settlement
25:01used to go hand in hand.
25:04The Germanic elite liked to live in those places.
25:07Others would follow their example.
25:10Several centuries later, the tops of the hills
25:13were again chosen as places of residence,
25:16this time by the knights of the Middle Ages.
25:21After a day of hard work and great deprivations,
25:24my suffering Roman companions and I
25:27returned to the hill at night.
25:31Fortunately, not all the Alamans
25:34saw us as mere slaves.
25:39A girl took pity on us and gave us something to drink.
25:42Her name was Frida.
25:48Then something strange happened.
25:51The young woman secretly gave one of my captive companions
25:54a ring with a cross.
25:57Her name was Vitus.
26:00Ancient sources say that it was often the Roman captives
26:03who spread the Christian faith in the Germanic world.
26:06Christianity was very popular among Germanic women.
26:09Then they transmitted their faith to their children.
26:19The Alamans and the Franks were similar in many ways.
26:23The sound of the lyre made me recall some memories.
26:26How many times we had eaten together in the court of Clodoveo
26:29and how many times we had laughed and celebrated.
26:38For a few moments, I forgot my sad situation.
26:49In 2001, in a tomb of the 6th century,
26:52near Trocadero,
26:55in the south of Germany,
26:58archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery.
27:01An ancient lyre, practically intact.
27:04Barbara Teunegroskop has examined the Germanic lyre.
27:08The instrument shows clear signs of use.
27:11It is evident that it was played very often.
27:17The tannido of the lyre
27:20was an integral part of the Germanic banquets,
27:23during whose celebrations the warriors sat together,
27:26drank and sang songs.
27:29They were usually performed by the host of the house.
27:32We have news that some kings did it
27:35or by some members of their sect.
27:38In these songs, the deeds of the Lord were praised.
27:41But stories or popular gestures were also told,
27:44such as the singing of the Nibelungs in the High Middle Ages,
27:47whose origins date back to the 5th and 6th centuries.
27:53In a belligerent society like the Germanic,
27:56the warriors used to sing their own praises.
28:02And the image represented in the lyre
28:05fits well in that context.
28:10The image recorded in the front of the lyre is unique.
28:14The Germans almost never represented human figures.
28:17Every detail, small or large,
28:20is of great value to archaeologists.
28:23What does it represent?
28:26The comitiva of a caudillo
28:29or warriors fallen in the Valhalla of Botan?
28:32Barbara Teine Groskov has found a surprising similarity
28:35with other representations.
28:38The composition of the theme,
28:41with a spear in the center flanked on both sides
28:44by two groups of six warriors,
28:47comes from the Mediterranean area.
28:50We know of sarcophagi dating from ancient times
28:53that show Christ with six apostles on each side.
28:56Sometimes a cross replaces the figure of Christ.
28:59The major apostles, Peter and Paul,
29:02appear raising the cross,
29:05something very similar to what we have here in Trossingen.
29:10The spear is a symbol of domination and power.
29:13And the two main warriors
29:16are touching the spear.
29:19It is possible that a model of the Christian world,
29:22like that of Christ among his apostles,
29:25was transferred to the Germanic world
29:28as if it were a man among his followers.
29:32Christian themes were very popular
29:35among the upper Germanic class
29:38and were copied relatively frequently.
29:41However, they were often deprived of their religious meaning.
29:44This was the case with many believers
29:47of their old world of gods.
29:50Despite the hard work we did,
29:53they gave us very little to eat,
29:56but Frieda lent us help again.
29:59When I was hungry, I immediately took the food.
30:02It is what I had always done.
30:05However, Vitus said that a true God
30:08asked us not to think of ourselves.
30:11In the Bible it was written that we are all brothers,
30:14that the hungry must be fed,
30:17the sick served and the captives visited.
30:20That sounded very different from the words of Clodobeus
30:23about the Christian God who had granted him victory.
30:27The fifth century was a time of great agitation and crisis.
30:30Many people believed that the old gods
30:33could no longer help them.
30:36Fraternal love, compassion and the prospect of salvation in paradise
30:39were very attractive promises for the lower classes of society.
30:42Although the Fathers of the Church, like St. Augustine,
30:45tolerated for a long time,
30:48or even justified, evils such as slavery.
30:56Vitus told us not to ever give up hope.
30:59Would his words be true after tonight?
31:03Frida told us that the time was favorable
31:06and that we should try to flee.
31:13In a secret conversation,
31:16Vitus had managed to convince her of the Christian faith.
31:33Vitus was right.
31:36It was not necessary to kill the guard.
31:39I forgave his life on behalf of my liberators.
31:42When our paths parted,
31:45Vitus gave me his ring.
31:48It was the symbol of his Christian companions.
31:51Now I could ask a Christian for help wherever he found me.
31:54The Romans decorated the Christian symbol
31:57with their pagan symbol of fortune, the solar wheel.
32:01This link shows the convergence of both cultures.
32:04Archaeologists often find golden bread crosses
32:07in Salamanca tombs dating from the 5th century.
32:10Does that mean that the deceased Germans were Christians?
32:13Who decided to place the crosses in the graves?
32:20At first they were predominantly members
32:23of a more progressive upper class,
32:26who along with their usual funeral garb
32:29of a warrior or a woman in galanada
32:32placed Christian symbols in their graves.
32:35It was a kind of guarantee
32:38to keep both cults happy,
32:41since they ignored what would be fulfilled with their promises.
32:50Later, when the tombs were looted,
32:53the thieves only left the crosses made of precious golden bread
32:56for fear of the power of the new god.
33:05I thanked Vitus for everything he had done for me.
33:10My captivity with the Salamans and Vitus' affection
33:13had changed me.
33:16A new life began for me.
33:24I renounced the Germanic gods,
33:27the powers of thunder, war and death.
33:30From now on, I wanted to live like a Christian.
33:45When I returned to the territory of the Francs,
33:48I was told that Clodoveo was going to be a Christian.
33:51I went to Quibitas Remorum.
33:58It was probably in the year 496
34:01when 3,000 Francs were baptized as Christians
34:04with King Clodoveo in the chapel of Quibitas Remorum,
34:07the current Reims.
34:10This conversion to the new faith
34:13laid the foundations of Western Christianity.
34:22Gregorio de Tours collected the baptism formula
34:25used by Bishop Remigio.
34:28You, from the tribe of the Francs, bow your head,
34:31worship what you have burned and burn what you have worshiped.
34:34Do you believe in God, Almighty Father?
34:38I believe, the king replied.
34:41And Remigio baptized him in the name of the Father,
34:44the Son and the Holy Spirit.
34:51Under the cathedral of Reims,
34:54archaeologists have been looking for the place
34:57where the historical baptism took place.
35:00Here lie the foundations of a Franc chapel of the 5th century.
35:03The cathedral was later built on them.
35:06For a long time, archaeologists believed
35:09that it was the only thing that had survived from the times of Clodoveo.
35:12But in the 90s they made a totally unexpected discovery.
35:22They found a baptismal pile from the time of the barbaric invasions.
35:25It is very likely that Clodoveo and his warriors
35:28were baptized in it.
35:33The conversion of Clodoveo to Christianity
35:36ensured the support of the bishops,
35:39who were already influential figures in society at the time.
35:42The people who lived in those times
35:45believed that they were not owners of their own destiny.
35:48This was in the hands of the gods,
35:51and the true god was the only one who had the power
35:54to grant them victory.
35:57That's what happened in the Battle of Tolbiac.
36:00For Clodoveo, abandoning his traditional gods
36:03was a risky decision.
36:06The blood of the gods ran through the veins of a Germanic king.
36:09He was basically a member of the divine family.
36:12Denying his gods entailed the risk of losing his people.
36:16The cathedral of Reims
36:19is a symbol of the birth of Christianity in Europe.
36:22On the portico north
36:25a series of reliefs collect the historical moment.
36:31In the gallery of the kings,
36:34the followers of Clodoveo who renounced the pagan gods
36:37were the witnesses of his baptism.
36:41Immediately after being baptized,
36:44Clodoveo was anointed Christian king.
36:50Adapting to the sign of the times,
36:53he thus became king by the grace of God.
36:56A reliquary reminds us of that moment,
36:59a historical moment wrapped in legend.
37:02It was said that the ungüento had brought a dove from heaven
37:05in a jar whose content was inexhaustible.
37:09Subsequently, all the Frankish kings
37:12were anointed with this sacred ungüento.
37:20After our baptism, I decided to become a monk
37:23to dedicate my life to the service of the only true God
37:26and to spread his message among the people.
37:31With great patience I learned to use the pen and ink,
37:34a very unfamiliar activity for the Frankish.
37:39I also had to learn to read.
37:47Once I had become familiar with the sacred scriptures
37:50and with the teachings of the Church,
37:53Bishop Remigio sent me on a trip,
37:56as it is written in the Bible,
37:59go out into the world and make of all my disciples.
38:03Despite the baptism of Cloboveo,
38:06Christianity only spread at the beginning
38:09among the rural population of the Franks.
38:12Many Germans did not see a reason
38:15to abandon the gods of their ancestors,
38:18in which they had believed for hundreds of years.
38:21From the conversion of Cloboveo,
38:24the Frankish rulers began to spread the new faith
38:27among their subjects,
38:30both by word of mouth and with weapons.
38:35Later sources say that the sacred trees of the Germans
38:38were directly cut down.
38:42It was strange that a church acted in moderation,
38:45despite the instructions of Pope Gregory the Great.
38:48The false relics should not be destroyed under any circumstance.
38:55No, people must renounce their false beliefs of heart
38:58and then go to their old shrines to pray to the true God.
39:04Christianity became especially popular among the poor.
39:08The only people who continued to bury their dead
39:11with their funeral rites,
39:14following the old Germanic tradition,
39:17were the members of the upper class.
39:20While the Bulgarian buried his dead without a rite
39:23around the churches under the protection of the Christian Church.
39:26It is very possible that this was motivated by economic reasons,
39:29since it was obviously cheaper
39:32to order a requiem for the loved ones
39:35than to bury them with their material possessions.
39:39In addition, the old custom made
39:42a large amount of precious metals,
39:45weapons and other valuable objects,
39:48when they were buried underground,
39:51disappear from the economic cycle.
39:57Pagan gold jewelry like this
40:00became increasingly rare in Germanic tombs.
40:07While the whole continent was converting to Christianity,
40:10the land of the Anglo-Saxons remained faithful to the Germanic gods.
40:14It was not until the 7th century
40:17when the Roman monk Paul made it impossible
40:20to convert the kings and princes of the Anglo-Saxons.
40:23The Pauline Chronicle not only tells us about his experiences
40:26in the court of Gibbering.
40:29It also provides us with a detailed description
40:32of the landscape surrounding the Germanic royal residence.
40:39In the 50s, with the help of this description,
40:42archaeologists were able to discover its location from the air.
40:46During the excavations,
40:49some unusual marks on the ground
40:52caught their attention.
40:55Although the post holes were typical
40:58of Germanic constructions,
41:01their arrangement in this case was unique.
41:04An English archaeologist would be able to solve
41:07the secret of Gibbering.
41:10Brian Hope Taylor.
41:16Today, the original plans of the architect's excavation
41:19are kept in the Edinburgh Archive.
41:23Brian Hope Taylor measured and carefully documented
41:26the remains of this unique construction.
41:34Reconstruction sketches collect the results of his research.
41:39A tribune was erected on the site of Gibbering.
41:42A curious combination of Roman theater
41:45and place of Germanic worship.
41:51Was this theater built in honor of Pauline, the missionary?
41:54Sources tell us that he spent 36 days
41:57praying in front of the Anglo-Saxons
42:00until King Edwin was baptized.
42:07The plans not only allowed the reconstruction of the theater,
42:11but also that of the entire royal residence.
42:14The residence was the solar house
42:17located in the center of the complex.
42:20That was where the big meetings, receptions and parties took place.
42:23Next to it, a cattle field served to supply
42:26the table of the royal feasts,
42:29but also for the sacrifice of the gods.
42:32Not far from the theater, in another building,
42:35innumerable skulls of oxen were found.
42:38Probably remains of pagan animal sacrifices.
42:41Pauline transformed this temple into a Christian church.
42:53Clodopeo, our king, had to be patient
42:56until he was recognized as the Christian ruler
42:59of the powers of Europe.
43:03But at that moment, a delegation from the Byzantine Empire
43:06awaited him at the Basilica of Tours.
43:15Clodopeo had finally reached his goal.
43:23Gregorio de Tours describes the memorable event
43:26that occurred in the year 508 of our era.
43:30At that moment, Clodopeo received the title of consul
43:33in the name of the emperor of Byzantium,
43:36in the church of San Martín.
43:39He adorned his head with a diadem
43:42and accepted the purple mantle.
43:45From that day on, he was called Consul Patricio.
43:51With the insignia of power of the Byzantine Empire,
43:54the reign of Clodopeo was legitimized.
43:59In France, there are many legends
44:02about the first Christian king of the Franks.
44:10In the museum of Saint-Germain in Reims,
44:13the city of coronation of the French kings,
44:16the history of Clodopeo is represented
44:19in an impressive tapestry of the 16th century.
44:23The old lord of the pagan war of the Franks
44:26was venerated as the bearer of Christianity
44:29and celebrated as a genius of France.
44:36The French consider King Clodopeo
44:39the founder of their monarchy.
44:42In this tapestry appears represented in the battle of Tolbiac
44:45as a knight with his medieval armor.
44:50The conversion to Christianity of Clodopeo
44:53was made through the motif of the toads and the azucenas.
44:59Behind us, in the tapestry
45:02that represents the baptism of Clodopeo,
45:05we find a very important element
45:08of the heraldic symbolism of the reign of the Franks.
45:12In the tunic that Clodopeo wore in the battle of Tolbiac,
45:15you can see some toads.
45:18This motif is an invention
45:21of the monks of the Middle Ages,
45:24which symbolizes the forces of evil
45:27and the obscurantism linked to paganism.
45:30Clodopeo came out victorious from the battle
45:33and once converted to Christian faith,
45:36the toads miraculously transformed
45:39into beautiful azucenas
45:42that would become a symbol of the Frankish kingdom.
45:48Clodopeo was the first king of the Franks
45:51to be buried in a church.
45:54His sarcophagus now lies next to the tombs
45:57of more than 150 French kings and queens
46:00in the interior of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris.
46:11It is the largest collection of funerary documents in the world.
46:15Almost all the crowned heads of France
46:18are buried here.
46:21The dynasties of the Merovingians, the Carolingians,
46:24the Capets and the Bourbons.
46:27The French chroniclers of the Middle Ages
46:30called the Basilica of Saint-Denis
46:33the necropolis of the kings.
46:36100 years after the death of Clodopeo,
46:39Gregory of Tours evaluated his reign.
46:42He defeated the rival kings and annihilated the enemy peoples.
46:45But he made friends with the peaceful peoples.
46:48He left a strong and impregnable kingdom.
46:53What Gregory does not specify
46:56is how much blood was shed to achieve such successes.
47:04I want to continue on the path of true faith.
47:07Maybe one day we will live in a better world.
47:13THE CIVILIZATION OF THE FRENCH
47:27With the passage of the centuries, the warrior culture of the French
47:30merged with the Romano-Christian civilization.
47:33A link that would configure the entire Middle Ages.
47:37300 years after Clodopeo,
47:40King Francis Charlemagne was celebrated as
47:43Pater Europe, or Father of Europe.
47:48Under his reign, he achieved what Clodopeo had started.
47:51The French established their hegemony
47:54over large areas of Europe.
47:57A process linked to the evolution of Christianity in the West.
48:00The Germanic tribes constitute the link
48:04between antiquity and the Middle Ages.
48:07However, it would soon be forgotten that without them,
48:10history would have followed a different path.
48:33THE END