Paul Freedman, professor of history at Yale, examines Gregory of Tours' history of the Merovingian kings as a primary source for the early medieval Franks. He contrasts Gregory's style with Procopius's classical invective, noting how Gregory's account reads as more random and leans heavily on supernatural intervention, especially the miracles of St. Martin of Tours. The lecture traces how Clovis built Frankish hegemony in the post-Roman West and secured the Franks' status as the first Catholic, rather than Arian, barbarian people, a point central to Gregory's narrative. Freedman closes with the division of Clovis's empire among his sons and their violent rivalries, which Gregory nonetheless treats as fitting rule for a brutal age. Part of Yale's Early Middle Ages, 284-1000 course, recorded in Fall 2011.