The Enervés de Jumièges , this curious romantic painting is so realistic that it is easy to imagine hearing the lapping of the water around this raft carrying two young people in the wind, resting after a good evening! Well no, this scene is not so happy! Evariste-Vital Luminais (1822-1896), “firefighter painter” because he painted scenes of battles where men wore helmets like firefighters, represents the two sons of Clovis II lying in a kind of boat or raft. They are inert, covered with Merovingian-style fabrics, their feet wrapped in canvas strips, a flowery reliquary and a lighted candle at the end of the boat.
The angry people of Jumièges:Clovis II in the Holy Land?
History wants Clovis II to go to the Holy Land, leaving the government to Bathilde his wife. The eldest son revolts and excludes his mother from the Council. Clovis ends up learning it and returning to France, he finds himself facing an army led by his sons, but succeeds in triumphing. Clovis and Bathilde, after many reflections, decide to "irritate" them, a term meaning "to cut the nerves, tendons and ligaments" at the time of the lazy kings.
Here is what we can read in the life of Saint Bathilde "when the young men had been brought before their father, in the presence of all, she ordered that they be burned the nerves of the hocks with nails reddened in the fire”. Weakened in this way, the repentant sons throw themselves into prayer, while Bathilde has them installed on board a raft left adrift, accompanied by a servant who would feed them. The boat ran aground in Jumièges, near Rouen. The founder of the abbey, Philibert took them in to this holy place where they became monks and ended their lives.
This legend is however false, Clovis II died too young for his sons to have reigned and he never left for the Holy Land.
To go further
Curiosities and enigmas of the History of France – JP Colignon
Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen