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The Raid of Hygelac (Chlochilaicus) and His Defeat by the Franks (c. 516 CE)

According to Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks, Hygelac, king of the Geats (known in Beowulf as Beowulf's uncle and overlord), led a raid on the Lower Rhine, only to be defeated by a Frankish army commanded by Theudebert, the son of King Theuderic I of the Merovingian Frankish Kingdom.

The Historical Context of Hygelac’s Raid

• Hygelac's attack was likely part of the Scandinavian coastal raids that targeted the Frankish realm during the early sixth century.
• He led his forces into Frisia, likely aiming to plunder Frankish settlements along the Lower Rhine.
• The Franks, under the leadership of Theudebert, responded swiftly, defeating and killing Hygelac.

Dating Hygelac’s Death (c. 516 CE)

• The Danish king Chlochilaicus, mentioned in Gregory’s account, is widely identified with Hygelac.
• N. F. S. Grundtvig, a Danish historian and philologist, used this raid to date Hygelac’s death to around 516 CE.
• The event aligns with the reign of Theuderic I (d. 534 CE), son of Clovis I, further supporting this timeframe.

Conflicting Identities: Geat, Dane, or Gothic King?

• Gregory of Tours calls Chlochilaicus "king of the Danes", suggesting a possible Danish connection to Hygelac.
• In the Liber Monstrorum, he is referred to as "rex Getarum" (king of the Getae), which in medieval sources often referred to the Goths or could be confused with the Geats of Scandinavia.
• The Liber Historiae Francorum calls him "rege Gotorum" (king of the Goths), which may indicate later scribal confusion between the Geats, Goths, and Getae.

The Frankish Victory and the Fate of Hygelac’s Army

• Theudebert, leading the Frankish counterattack, defeats and kills Hygelac during the raid.
• The surviving Geatish raiders are either killed, captured, or forced to retreat.
• This marks one of the earliest recorded Scandinavian raids on the Frankish territories, foreshadowing the later Viking incursions centuries later.

Hygelac’s Place in History and Legend

• Hygelac appears in Beowulf as a historical figure, supporting the idea that the poem preserves historical memory of real events.
• His defeat by the Franks aligns with early medieval accounts of Scandinavian activity along the coasts of Europe.
• Though some sources mistakenly associate him with the Goths or Danes, the core event of his raid and death remains well-documented in Frankish sources.

This raid represents one of the earliest known conflicts between the Franks and Scandinavian raiders, illustrating how Scandinavian warbands had begun testing their strength against the wealthier, Christianized kingdoms of mainland Europe—a trend that would intensify in later centuries with the Viking Age.

Emperor Wu of the Liang becomes a Buddhist and introduces the new religion to central China.

He demands that sacrifices to imperial ancestors be changed to using dried meat, instead of the traditional animals (goats, pigs and cows).

King Sigismund of Burgundy is opposed by his son Sigeric, who also insults his new wife, and has him strangled.

Overcome with remorse, he retreats to the monastery that he founded, St. Maurice's Abbey.

The Council of Epaone, convened near near Epao (present Anneyron in Burgundy), reinforces in 517 the decisions of the Council of Vannes (465) in prohibiting Christians from participating in Jewish feasts.

The synod enacts the first legislation against wooden altars, forbidding the building of any but stone altars with chrism (a mixture of oil and spice).

Empress Dowager Hu's power is unchallenged during these few years of Yuan Xu's childhood, and while she tolerates—and, in certain circumstances, encourages—criticism, including rewarding such officials as Yuan Kuang the Prince of Dongping and Zhang Puhui for their blunt words, she is slow to implement suggestions that will curb corruption.

Empress Dowager Hu is a fervent Buddhist, and during this part of the regency, she builds magnificent temples in Luoyang.

One, dedicated to her father Hu Guozhen the Duke of Qin, after his death in 518, is particularly beautiful.

Because of her influence, Emperor Xiaoming also becames a dedicated Buddhist.

In his youth, however, he also favors spending time in imperial gardens rather than studies or learning about important affairs of state.

An earthquake destroys the Illyrian (Macedonian) city of Scupi (later Skopje) in the Roman province of Dacia.

Anastasius dies in his late eighties on July 19, 518, leaving the imperial treasury richer by twenty-three million solidi or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold.

He having died childless, without designating an heir, and without a reigning Augusta to supervise the election of a successor, the throne is up for grabs.

According to John Malalas, a Greek chronicler from Antioch, the powerful praepositus sacri cubiculi Amantius intends to elect to the throne a comes domesticorum, commander of an elite guard unit of the late Roman Empire, by the name of Theocritus.

Theocritus is an obscure individual, primarily mentioned by two authors: John Malalas and Marcellinus Comes.

Amantius hopes to secure the election for Theocritus by bribing Justin, the influential comes excubitorum (head of the imperial guards).

Justin is supposed to share the money with his troops.

Justin, born of Thraco-Roman peasant stock n a hamlet near Bederiana in Naissus (modern Niš, South Serbia), had been a swineherd in his youth.

Like his companions and members of his family (Zimarchus, Dityvistus, Boraides, Bigleniza, Sabatius, etc.), he bears a Thracian name.

As a teenager, he and two companions had fled from a barbaric invasion, taking refuge in Constantinople possessing nothing more than the ragged clothes on their backs and a sack of bread between them.

Justin soon joined the army, entered the palace guard and, because of his ability, had risen through the ranks to become a general and a patrician under Anastasius I, becoming the emperor's close confidant and acting possibly as regent.

He remains illiterate and has never learned to speak more than rudimentary Greek.

The events of the election are described in detail by Peter the Patrician, extracts of whose work survive in the tenth-century De Ceremoniis.

On the morning of the election, the Excubitors at first put forward the tribune John as a candidate.

He is raised on the shield in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

But the Blues, an influential chariot racing faction, riot against this candidate.

The guardsmen of the Scholae Palatinae then attempt to proclaim their own candidate, but the Excubitors almost kill that unnamed man.

The Excubitors then allegedly put forward Flavius Petrus Sabbatius (later Justinian I), nephew of Justin, as their second candidate for the day, but he refuses the crown.

The Senate supposedly settled the matter by electing Justin himself.

Both Amantius and Theocritus are soon executed on a pretext, obviously eliminated by Justin for their role in the conspiracy.

Procopius briefly mentions: "Indeed, his power [Justin's] was not ten days old, before he slew Amantius, chief of the palace eunuchs, and several others, on no graver charge than that Amantius had made some rash remark about John, Archbishop of the city.

After this, he was the most feared of men."

Based on the account of Marcellinus, Amantius and his supporters were accused of being adherents of Manichaeism.

A combination of sources imply that Amantius and Theocritus had attempted to overthrow Justin, following his election.

If so, they were met with swift executions.

Justin, unlike his predecessor, is a champion of Christian orthodoxy.

Instrumental in ending the Acacian schism with Rome in 518-519, he persecutes the dissident Monophysites.

Justin’s nephew Petrus Sabbatius becomes his administrator and a power behind the throne.

Severus, patriarch of Antioch, is deposed by a synod on September 29, 518, for his monophysitism.

Paul the Jew, a Chalcedonian, is appointed to replace him.

A serious riot occurs in Luoyang in 519, after the official Zhang Zhongyu proposes that the civil service regulations be changed to disallow soldiers to become civilian officials.

The soldiers become angry and storm both the ministry of civil service and the mansion of Zhang Zhongyu's father, Zhang Yi, killing Zhang Yi and serious injuring Zhang Zhongyu and his brother Zhang Shijun.

Empress Dowager Hu arrests eight leaders of the riot and executes them but pardons the rest, to quell the unrest.

She also rejects the proposal to change the civil service regulations.

This event is often seen as the turning point and the start of the unrest that will eventually tear Northern Wei apart.

Despite these events, Empress Dowager Hu continues to tolerate corruption, and she often gives exuberant awards to officials, draining the treasury; the pressure on the treasury and the burden on the people are further increased by her orders that each province is to build a tower dedicated to the Buddha.

Sometime before 520, Empress Dowager had forced Emperor Xiaoming's uncle Yuan Yi the Prince of Qinghe, who is popular with the people and the officials because of his abilities and humility, to have an affair with her.

Yuan Yi thereafter becomes the effective leader of government, and he tries to reorganize the administration to decrease corruption.

He particularly tries to curb the powers of Empress Dowager Hu's brother-in-law Yuan Cha and the eunuch Liu Teng.

Yuan Cha therefore falsely accuses him of treason, but he is cleared after an investigation.

Fearful of reprisals, Yuan Cha and Liu persuade Emperor Xiaoming that Yuan Yi is trying to poison him and carried out a coup against Empress Dowager Hu and Yuan Yi, killing Yuan Yi and putting Empress Dowager Hu under house arrest.

Yuan Yong becomes titular regent, but Yuan Cha becomes the actual power.

Vitalian, once back in northern Thrace, had gone into hiding, while many of his erstwhile aides were captured and executed.

Nothing is known of him for the next three years, although a short remark by a chronicler seems to indicate that he resurfaced and led another armed rebellion during the last months of Anastasius's life.

Justin I, the new emperor, had quickly moved to strengthen his rule, dismissing a number of potential rivals or enemies.

At the same time, he had called upon Vitalian to come to Constantinople.

Upon his arrival, Vitalian is made magister militum in praesenti, named honorary consul, and soon after raised to the rank of patricius.

As a well-known champion of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, Vitalian is to play a role in the new regime's reaffirmation of the Chalcedonian doctrines and reconciliation with Rome.

He plays an active role in the negotiations with the Pope, and in 519, he is one of the prominent men who escorts a papal delegation into the capital.

On March 28, the Eastern and Western churches reconcile their differences, ending the Acacian Schism.