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The Anatomy of a Little War: A Diplomatic and Military History of the Gundovald Affair, 568-586. By Bernard S. Bachrach. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995. Pp. xxiv+ 283; maps, figures, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $49.85 (cloth).
In the late 6th century, a Frankish prince named Gundovald returned from a lengthy exile in Byzantium and, aided by his former hosts, sought to establish a kingdom of his own in southwestern Gaul. Such ambitions were not uncommon among the fractious princelings of the Merovingian period, all of whom normally expected to inherit at least a portion of their father's domain. Gundovald had once been considered a legitimate son of King Clothar I, which would have given him inheritance rights. But after he was disowned and declared no royal heir, he was exiled to Byzantium. His return following Clothar's death represented an attempt to reclaim by force a patrimony he thought had been unjustly snatched away from him by his half-siblings. Gundovald's half-brother, Guntram, the somewhat insecure ruler of Burgundy, saw the whole affair in a very different light-as a Byzantine plot to regain a toehold in Frankish...