Wikipedia
Saint Clotilde (475–545), also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc. (Latin Chrodechildis, Chlodechildis from Frankish *Hrōþihildi or perhaps *Hlōdihildi, both "famous in battle"), was the second wife of the Frankish king Clovis I, and a princess of the kingdom of Burgundy. Venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, she was instrumental in her husband's famous conversion to Catholicism and, in her later years, was known for her almsgiving and penitential works of mercy.
Clotild, Clotilda, Clotilde, Chlotilde, or Chrotilde is a Germanic female name . It might refer to:
- Clotilde, wife of King Clovis I
- Clotilde (died 531), daughter of Clovis, wife of King Amalaric
- Clotilde (floruit 673), founder of a monastery at Bruyères-le-Châtel
- Clotilde (died 699), wife of King Theuderic III
- Marie Clotilde of France, sister of King Louis XVI of France and wife of King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia
- Clotilde Tambroni, Italian philologist and linguist
It could also refer to:
- Basilica of St. Clotilde, Paris
- Clotilde (slave ship), landed and scuttled near Mobile, Alabama in 1859
- Clothilde (musician), French singer active in the late 1960s
Clotilde (or Chrodechildis) ( 500–531) was the daughter of King Clovis I of the Franks and Queen Clotilde and the queen of the Visigothic King Amalaric. She was born circa 500. The favorite child of her parents, she was saddened by her father's death in 511.
Clotilde married Amalric in about 526, and ties between both families were initially positive. Clotilde was a Catholic, while Amalaric and his fellow-Visigoths were Arians. Clotilde refused to adopt her husband's religious practices and complained to her kin that she was persecuted for her faith. Amalaric was subsequently kicked out from Narbonne. War ensued in 531 between her brother, King Childebert I, and her husband, at Barcelona, Spain. According to Isidore of Seville, Amalaric was eventually defeated, and then assassinated by his own men while Clotilde traveled to Francia with the Frankish army, but died on the journey. Her cause of death was not recorded. Childebert I brought her corpse to Paris for burial. Her death was greatly mourned by her mother and siblings.
Clotilde is an opera (melodramma semiserio) in two acts by Carlo Coccia. The Italian-language libretto was by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered on 8 June 1815 at Teatro San Benedetto, Venice.
Clotilde was especially appreciated for the usage of the chorus. A contemporaneous Italian writer wrote: "Nobody after Mayer has understood how a composer can take advantage of a sensible usage of the chorus. Coccia did it in this opera, avoiding those screams heard too often before". Francesco Regli in its Dizionario biografico stated: "With Clotilde Coccia taught how a chorus has to be written".
Clotilde was performed also in Paris in 1821, but it was unsuccessful.
In modern times, this opera was revived for the first time at the Teatro Coccia in Novara, on 7 November 2003. This production was recorded and published on CD. In his review of the Novara performance, produced making use of different versions of the opera, the Italian music critic Giangiorgio Satragni noted "the resounding of features of Rossini's style" and emphasized, among the pieces of the opera, Emerico's cavatina Soave all'anima and Clotilde's aria Deh! Tu guida, but judged the work on the whole as "implacable nineteenth-century operatic routine".
Clotilde or Chlodechilidis ( fl. 673) was the founder of the abbey of Bruyères-le-Châtel. Her charter is one of only eight known original manuscripts to survive from 7th century Francia, among which it is the only private charter. It is a parchment, which is unusual in that most surviving Merovingian documents of the 7th century were written on papyrus. As a result, it has been the object of detailed analysis over many years.
Clotilde, notes Levillain, was evidently a very important woman. It is supposed that she was in some way related to the Merovingian kings, but the exact relation is uncertain. Her name and its variants, male and female, are common ones among the Merovingians, perhaps due to the memory of Clotilde wife of Clovis I. Clovis and Clotilde had a daughter of the same name. This Clotilde was unhappily married to the Visigothic king Amalric. King Guntram had a daughter named Clotilde, and Clotilde the Proud, daughter of King Charibert I, was a famously disobedient nun whose story is recounted by Gregory of Tours. Clotilde's charter also suggests a link to the Merovingians as it requires the nuns to pray for the stability of the kingdom and success for the king, a requirement found elsewhere only in royal charters.
From the terms, derived from Roman law, which Clotilde uses to describe the lands she is granting to the nunnery, it appears that these had belonged to her son who had died without heirs. The term Deo devota used to describe her is read as meaning that Clotilde herself will become a nun in her new foundation. The vir inluster Charicard who is to have a life interest in Fontenay-lès-Briis is presumed to be Clotilde's husband for the legal terms used suggest that she was not a widow.
The charter was first published in 1681 by Jean Mabillon in his De Re diplomatica. As the document long predates the general adoption of Anno Domini dating, there was initially a dispute over whether it belonged to the reign of King Chlothar II or King Chlothar III. Modern historians confidently date it to the sixteenth year of the reign of Chlothar III, from which the Anno Domini date of 673 is deduced. This dating had cast doubt on the authenticity of the charter as the reign of Chlothar III was presumed to have been only fifteen years prior to the 19th century.
The content of the charter is simple. Clotilde grants a number of properties to the Virgin Mary and to the nunnery which she is founding. The nunnery is to be led by her niece Mummola. Half of an additional estate at Fontenay-lès-Briis is promised to the monastery after Clotilde and Charicard have both died. Clotilde sets out the rule that the nuns shall follow, based on that of Luxeuil, and how Mummola's successors shall be elected. She calls down the wrath of the Holy Trinity on any who oppose the provisions of her charter.
The charter was issued at Lamorlaye, a Merovingian palace north of Paris. The date and location suggest that Clotilde chose to have the charter witnessed on an occasion when important persons were at Lamorlaye for other reasons, perhaps the annual muster and review of warriors, rather than having convoked the meeting herself.
Ecclesiastical witnesses include the bishop of Paris Agilbert, abbot Chrodecar, a lawyer named Rigobert. One Ermenric, who signs immediately after Agilbert, and is thus the chief layman present, is tentatively identified with the man of the same name who had been intendant of the royal domain under Clovis II. Two counts who witness, Vaning and Robert, had been close allies of the mayor of the palace Ebroin. The following witness is named Ghislemar, probably the son of Waratton, another mayor of the palace.