The Battle of Autun was a pitched battle in 642 or 643,[1] concluding a feud between Flaochad and Willebad, two magnates of the Merovingian kingdom of Burgundy.[2] The battle is recounted in detail in the final chapter of the contemporary Chronicle of Fredegar and also in the biographies of saints Eligius of Noyon and Sigiramn. While Fredegar seems hostile to Willebad, the hagiographers are hostile to Flaochad.[3] The anonymous author of Fredegar may have been an eyewitness.[4]
- ^ Bachrach 1972, p. 94, and Fox 2015a, p. 1, give the year as 643; but Martindale 1992, p. 810 and Collins 2007, p. 10, give 642; while Grierson & Blackburn 2007, p. 126, give 641. France 2017, p. 84, hedges with 641/642. Wallace-Hadrill 1960 places "the story of Flaochad and Willebad" in 642 on p. xxiii of the introduction, but Flaochad's appointment as mayor by Nantechildis took place in "the fourth year of King Clovis" (given as 643 in the margin on p. 75) and her death took place in 641/642 according to a footnote on p. 76.
- ^ Fouracre 1986, p. 27 n. 15, calls it a "lengthy feud ... which ended in a pitched battle", while Wallace-Hadrill 1959, pp. 481–482, also describes it as a feud, but calls it "a skirmish that has something of the flavour of a duel".
- ^ Fox 2015a, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Wallace-Hadrill 1959, pp. 481–482.