Irritated by Jumièges

The Énervés by Jumièges is a legend which relates to two wire of the king mérovingien Clovis II.

Towards 660, Clovis II would have undertaken a Holy Land pilgrimage. During its absence, he entrusts the government to his oldest son, under the regency of his mother, Bathilde. But during this period, his/her son opposes his mother, and joint with the one of his younger brothers to plot against the king and the queen. Clovis learns this revolt and returns to France. Its sons oppose an army to him, but the king ends up triumphing over the rebels.

The king is well decided to make carry out the two traitors. But his Bathilde wife rather proposes to punish them by burning the nerves of their legs: “I judge that must be weakened the force and the power of their body, since they dared to employ them against the king their father”. Thus, it is necessary to include/understand the term “irritated” contrary to its modern significance, its direction first designating somebody which one removed or cut the nerves (makes the tendons of them), and who is thus apathetic, incompetent of reaction.

Become weak and handicapped, the two brothers take refuge in the prayer, and ask to enter in religion. Not knowing in which monastery to place them, Bathilde decides to entrust them randomly and makes build a raft on board of which both brothers are sent to the drift on the the Seine.

The boat derives from Paris until Jumièges, close to Rouen. There, Holy Philibert, the founder of the Abbey of Jumièges, sees them and recognizes their royal robeses. It collects them and the conduit with the abbey where they become monks. Later, the king and the queen, learning where their sons were collected, return visit to the abbey and make increase the monastery and bequeath grounds to the monks.

It is historically shown that this legend is completely false. Indeed, Clovis II died young person, its sons never would thus have had the age to be drawn up against him. Moreover, it never left in Holy Land pilgrimage. Its three sons, Clotaire, Childéric and Thierry reigned in turn, and none was an “irritated” monk.

Painting

Vital Evariste Luminais, Irritated by Jumièges (1880), oil on fabric, 1,97 m X 1,76 m, Museum of the Art schools, Rouen

Literature

Pierre de Ronsard, Françiade, song IV , 1572
Dominique Bussillet, Irritated by Jumièges , Editions Books of Time, 2007

Cinema

Claude Duty, Irritated by Jumièges (1986), short-measuring

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