Mummolus,
Mommolus, or
Mummulus, born
Eunius to one Peonius, Count of Auxerre. He was a Gallo-Roman patrician and
prefectPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
who served
GuntramSaint Guntram was the king of Burgundy from 561 to 592. He was a son of Chlothar I and Ingunda...
,
King of BurgundyThe following is a list of the Kings of Burgundy.- Kings of the Burgundians :The Burgundians had left Bornholm c.300 and settled near the Vistula...
, as a general.
Peonius sent his son to the Guntram with gifts in order to guarantee his reappointment as count, but Mummolus used his gifts for his own request for the comital office, which he received. Mummolus attained prominence in Gaul during the first
LombardThe Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Kingdom of Italy which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks...
invasion.
Mummolus,
Mommolus, or
Mummulus, born
Eunius to one Peonius, Count of Auxerre. He was a Gallo-Roman patrician and
prefectPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
who served
GuntramSaint Guntram was the king of Burgundy from 561 to 592. He was a son of Chlothar I and Ingunda...
,
King of BurgundyThe following is a list of the Kings of Burgundy.- Kings of the Burgundians :The Burgundians had left Bornholm c.300 and settled near the Vistula...
, as a general.
Peonius sent his son to the Guntram with gifts in order to guarantee his reappointment as count, but Mummolus used his gifts for his own request for the comital office, which he received. Mummolus attained prominence in Gaul during the first
LombardThe Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Kingdom of Italy which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks...
invasion. The patrician Amatus died in battle against them and was replaced in that office by Mummolus.
It was in the wars with the Lombards that Mummolus proved himself a strategist of a kind not common in contemporary Gaul. The Lombards were then in the midst of an interregnum known as the
Rule of the DukesThe Rule of the Dukes was an interregnum in the Lombard Kingdom of Italy during which Italy was ruled by the Lombard dukes of the old Roman provinces and urban centres...
and three of their dukes —
Zaban of PaviaZaban was the Lombard dux of Pavia during the decade-long interregnum known as the Rule of the Dukes . Pavia had been the capital of the Lombard kingdom, but after the death of King Cleph, it became the centre of a great duchy, one of thirty five into which the Lombard state was then divided...
, Amo, and Rodanus — invaded
ProvenceProvence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
and were expelled by Mummolus and chased even into
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. His first victory was a tactical one at
EmbrunEmbrun is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France.-Description:...
. This was followed up by a defeat of some
SaxonThe Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans ; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; those in north...
raiders who had accompanied the Lombards at
EstoublonEstoublon is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in south-eastern France.-Geography:The river Asse flows southwestward through the western part of the commune.-See also:*Communes of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department...
. The main Saxon army, however, made peace. But when the Saxons came to the River Rhone, they were not allowed to cross, Mummolus stopping them. The Saxons paid a high price in gold and were eventually allowed to cross.
After the wars with the Lombards, Mummolus went to the aid of the king of
AustrasiaAustrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and...
,
Sigebert ISigebert I was the king of Austrasia from the death of his father in 561 to his own death. He was the third surviving son out of four of Clotaire I and Ingund...
, against the king of
SoissonsSoissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardie in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris...
,
Chilperic IChilperic I was the king of Neustria from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of Clotaire I, sole king of the Franks, and Aregund....
. He successfully recoverred
ToursTours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
and
PoitiersPoitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne département and of the Poitou-Charentes région...
. He then met
DesideriusDesiderius was a Gallo-Roman dux in the Kingdom of the Franks during the reigns of Chilperic I and Guntram. He served Chilperic as Duke of Aquitaine and was his greatest general....
, Chilperic's chief general, and defeated him in battle. By this time, he was the proven best general in Gaul. He joined the rebellious duke Guntram Boso and at first supported Gundoald as pretendent king in Aquitaine against Guntram, but abandoned that cause and rejoined Guntram against the insurrection. He sabotaged the rebels' boats in an attempt to drown them in the Rhone, but Guntram Boso reached
AvignonAvignon is a commune in the Vaucluse department in south-eastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 89,300 in the city itself and a population of 290,466 in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census.The city is well known for its Palais des Papes , where several popes...
, where Mummolus was staying, and besieged it. At the siege of Avignon, Mummolus displayed great tactical knowledge, diverting water from the river to a moat and diggin holes in the bed of the moat to make it impossible to cross for the besieging force. Guntram's nephew,
Childebert IIChildebert II was the Merovingian king of Austrasia, which included Provence at the time, from 575 until his death in 595, the eldest and succeeding son of Sigebert I, and the king of Burgundy from 592 to his death, as the adopted and succeeding son of his uncle Guntram.-Childhood:When his father...
, sent down an army which relieved Avignon and rescued Mummolus.
Gregory of ToursSaint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
accused Mummolus of subjecting many
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
who had thitherto been free to taxation. During his wars against Chilperic, Mummolus had obtained the enmity of his queen Fredegunda, who accused him of responsibility for the death of her son Theodoric and of practising sorcery. He was eventually captured in a rebellion and ordered executed by Guntram. He left a huge treasure behind, which was consequently plundered, as his family members had mostly been arrested by the king's men.
Sources
- Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
. Historia Francorum. translated Earnest Brehaut, 1916.
- Lewis, Archibald R. "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550-751." Speculum, Vol. 51, No 3 (July 1976), pp 381–410.