à Suez, et en Égypte (1832); De la peste observée en Égypte (1840); Aperçu général sur l’Égypte (1840); Coup d’œil sur la peste et les quarantaines (1851); De l’ophthalmie (1864).
CLOTAIRE (Chlothachar), the name of four Frankish kings.
Clotaire I. (d. 561) was one of the four sons of Clovis. On the death of his father in 511 he received as his share of the kingdom the town of Soissons, which he made his capital, the cities of Laon, Noyon, Cambrai and Maastricht, and the lower course of the Meuse. But he was very ambitious, and sought to extend his domain. He was the chief instigator of the murder of his brother Clodomer’s children in 524, and his share of the spoils consisted of the cities of Tours and Poitiers. He took part in the various expeditions against Burgundy, and after the destruction of that kingdom in 534 obtained Grenoble, Die and some of the neighbouring cities. When Provence was ceded to the Franks by the Ostrogoths, he received the cities of Orange, Carpentras and Gap. In 531 he marched against the Thuringi with his brother Theuderich (Thierry) I., and in 542 with his brother Childebert against the Visigoths of Spain. On the death of his great-nephew Theodebald in 555, Clotaire annexed his territories; and on Childebert’s death in 558 he became king of all Gaul. He also ruled over the greater part of Germany, made expeditions into Saxony, and for some time exacted from the Saxons an annual tribute of 500 cows. The end of his reign was troubled by internal dissensions, his son Chram rising against him on several occasions. Following Chram into Brittany, where the rebel had taken refuge, Clotaire shut him up with his wife and children in a cottage, to which he set fire. Overwhelmed with remorse, he went to Tours to implore forgiveness at the tomb of St Martin, and died shortly afterwards.
Clotaire II. (d. 629) was the son of Chilperic I. On the assassination of his father in 584 he was still in his cradle. He was, however, recognized as king, thanks to the devotion of his mother Fredegond and the protection of his uncle Gontran, king of Burgundy. It was not until after the death of his cousin Childebert II. in 595 that Clotaire took any active part in affairs. He then endeavoured to enlarge his estates at the expense of Childebert’s sons, Theodebert, king of Austrasia, and Theuderich II., king of Burgundy; but after gaining a victory at Laffaux (597), he was defeated at Dormelles (600), and lost part of his kingdom. After the war between Theodebert and Theuderich and their subsequent death, the nobles of Austrasia and Burgundy appealed to Clotaire, who, after putting Brunhilda to death, became master of the whole of the Frankish kingdom (613). He was obliged, however, to make great concessions to the aristocracy, to whom he owed his victory. By the constitution of the 18th of October 614 he gave legal force to canons which had been voted some days previously by a council convened at Paris, but not without attempting to modify them by numerous restrictions. He extended the competence of the ecclesiastical tribunals, suppressed unjust taxes and undertook to select the counts from the districts they had to administer. In 623 he made his son Dagobert king of the Austrasians, and gradually subdued all the provinces that had formerly belonged to Childebert II. He also guaranteed a certain measure of independence to the nobles of Burgundy, giving them the option of having a special mayor of the palace, or of dispensing with that officer. These concessions procured him a reign of comparative tranquillity. He died on the 18th of October 629, and was buried at Paris in the church of St Vincent, afterwards known as St Germain des Prés.
Clotaire III. (652–673) was a son of King Clovis II. In 657 he became the nominal ruler of the three Frankish kingdoms, but was deprived of Austrasia in 663, retaining Neustria and Burgundy until his death.
Clotaire IV. (d. 719) was king of Austrasia from 717 to 719. (C. Pf.)
CLOTH, properly a covering, especially for the body, clothing,
then the material of which such a covering is made; hence any
material woven of wool or hair, cotton, flax or vegetable fibre.
In commercial usage, the word is particularly applied to a
fabric made of wool. The word is Teutonic, though it does not
appear in all the branches of the language. It appears in
German as Kleid, dress (Kleidung, clothing), and in Dutch
as kleed. The ultimate origin is unknown; it may be connected
with the root kli- meaning to stick, cling to, which appears
in “clay,” “cleave” and other words. The original meaning
would be either that which clings to the body, or that which is
pressed or “felted” together. The regular plural of “cloth”
was “clothes,” which is now confined in meaning to articles
of clothing, garments, in which sense the singular “cloth” is
not now used. For that word, in its modern sense of material,
the plural “cloths” is used. This form dates from the beginning
of the 17th century, but the distinction in meaning between
“cloths” and “clothes” is a 19th-century one.
CLOTHIER, a manufacturer of cloth, or a dealer who sells
either the cloth or made-up clothing. In the United States the
word formerly applied only to those who dressed or fulled cloth
during the process of manufacture, but now it is used in the general sense, as above.
CLOTILDA, SAINT (d. 544), daughter of the Burgundian king
Chilperic, and wife of Clovis, king of the Franks. On the death
of Gundioc, king of the Burgundians, in 473, his sons Gundobald,
Godegesil and Chilperic divided his heritage between them;
Chilperic apparently reigning at Lyons, Gundobald at Vienne
and Godegesil at Geneva. According to Gregory of Tours,
Chilperic was slain by Gundobald, his wife drowned, and of his
two daughters, Chrona took the veil and Clotilda was exiled.
This account, however, seems to have been a later invention.
At Lyons an epitaph has been discovered of a Burgundian queen,
who died in 506, and was most probably the mother of Clotilda.
Clotilda was brought up in the orthodox faith. Her uncle
Gundobald was asked for her hand in marriage by the Frankish
king Clovis, who had just conquered northern Gaul, and the
marriage was celebrated about 493. On this event many romantic
stories, all more or less embroidered, are to be found in the
works of Gregory of Tours and the chronicler Fredegarius, and
in the Liber historiae Francorum. Clotilda did not rest until
her husband had abjured paganism and embraced the orthodox
Christian faith (496). With him she built at Paris the church
of the Holy Apostles, afterwards known as Ste Geneviève.
After the death of Clovis in 511 she retired to the abbey of St
Martin at Tours. In 523 she incited her sons against her uncle
Gundobald and provoked the Burgundian war. In the following
year she tried in vain to protect the rights of her grandsons, the
children of Clodomer, against the claims of her sons Childebert
I. and Clotaire I., and was equally unsuccessful in her efforts
to prevent the civil discords between her children. She died
in 544, and was buried by her husband’s side in the church of
the Holy Apostles.
There is a mediocre Life in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script. rer. Merov., vol. ii. See also G. Kurth, Sainte Clotilde (2nd ed., Paris, 1897). (C. Pf.)
CLOUD (from the same root, if not the same word, as “clod,” a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages for a mass or lump; it is first applied in the usual sense in the late
13th century; the Anglo-Saxon clūd is only used in the sense
of “a mass of rock,” wolcen being used for “cloud”), a mass of
condensed vapour hanging in the air at some height from the
earth.
Classification of Clouds.—The earliest serious attempt to name the varieties of cloud was made by J. B. Lamarck in 1801, but he only used French terms, and those were not always happily chosen. The field was therefore still clear when in 1803 Luke Howard published, in Tilloch’s Philosophical Magazine, an entirely independent scheme in which the terms were all Latin, and were applied with such excellent judgment that his system remains as the broad basis of those in use to-day. He recognized three primary types of cloud—Cirrus, Cumulus and Stratus—and four derivative or compound forms,—Cirro-cumulus, Cirro-stratus, Cumulo-stratus and Cumulo-cirro-stratus or Nimbus.
