In My Own Words

I was once asked to look back on my life and ask myself if I thought it had been a success. I think that it has. Let me start at the beginning and try to explain.

I was born in 470 AD the daughter of Chilperic, King of Burgundy. I always loved my father because he protected me from the world full of bad things like books, boys and manual labor. He let me do what I loved to do... go to church. In Burgundy, we were all Christians and worshipped God with a very serious conviction. In an effort to unite more of the Germanic tribes, my father had me betrothed to Clovis I, even though he was an infidel. So, when I was 23, I married and left home to be with my new husband. Clovis was the leader of the strongest tribe in all of Europe, the Salian Franks. It always bothered me that my husband was an infidel, but I was very proud of Clovis and gave him all of my support. Besides, he never made me make decisions or think very much, and he didn’t beat me when he got mad or drunk.

When Clovis had defeated all of the smallest kingdoms around his own, a new threat from the East loomed. The Alamanni were trying to invade his territory. It was under this premise that I opened him up to God. He had a big fight coming up, and he was afraid that he might lose because there were lots of the Alamanni and only a few of him. I don’t like fighting very much, but I decided to help him win. I told him that if he trusted God, he would be victorious. He agreed, and since he won the battle, he and his soldiers were all converted and baptized. That was 496 AD Clovis united with the Holy Roman Catholic Church and was able to gain a lot of strength through its stability. After Clovis conquered the Alamanni n 506 and then the Visigoths, we moved to Paris and Clovis made it the capitol of his Frankish Empire. I can proudly saw that I have seen more triumphs over the infidels than anyone else in history.

In 511, Clovis died and split his kingdom up between his sons. I just couldn’t bare living a normal life without him, so I came to Tours and joined the convent that I am serving at now. There is some nonsense going around that I am going to be canonized, but that’s rubbish. Who would want to make me a saint?

So, I guess I feel pretty good about my life achievements to this point. I feel that I have served my station in life as a woman and wife and was very happy to do so. I hope that things won’t change for women in the future. It would be silly. Just imagine the chaos there would be if women decided they wanted to have a say in Man’s affairs. A woman should stay where she can make an impact... at the side of her husband, just as I did. The most important thing that I ever did was make my husband and all of his troops see the light and I couldn’t have done it except from the side of Clovis. I hope that all women everywhere will always follow my example.