The Composition of the Histories of Gregory of Tours and its Bearing on the Political Narrative

A critique of the graduated (or real time, synchronic) theory of the composition of Gregory’s Histories, books 5–10, and the role this theory has played in recent interpretations of the bishop’s agenda. This chapter argues that though we cannot know the character of all the preliminary material Gregory may have had to hand when drawing up his work, the Histories as we know it was written after Tours was subjected to Childebert II in 585. To suppose a date of about 590 for the perspective of the work as a whole should not go far wrong.