 Queen Clotilde, the wife of Clovis I, had previous built a small chapel there dedicated to Saint George circa 511.King Chilperic I and his wife, Fredegund, frequently resided at Cala; Chilperic was assassinated in 584 while hunting there.The Queen-Saint Balthild, wife of King Clovis II (639-657/658), an Anglo-Saxon aristocrat who had been taken to Gaul as a slave, founded the abbey in 658 on the ruins of the Clothilde's chapel as a monastery for women.