| BRUNECHILDIS [Brunequilda/Brunehaut] ([545/50]-Renève-sur-Vingeanne Autumn 613, bur Autun, abbaye de Saint-Martin). Gregory of Tours records the marriage of King Sigebert and Brunechildis, daughter of King Atanagildo, describing her as "elegant in all she did, lovely to look at, chaste and decorous in her behaviour, wise in her generation and of good address", specifying that she converted from Arianism to Catholicism and came to France with a large dowry[184]. After her husband's death, her brother-in-law King Chilperic seized her treasure in Paris and banished her to Rouen[185]. Paulus Diaconus records that "Brunihilde matre" became regent after the accession of her son "Childepertus…adhuc puerulus"[186]. Herimannus records her second marriage to "Meroveus, Hilperici filius"[187]. Her power in Austrasia appears to have increased when her son King Childebert II assumed more direct control from [584], confirmed under the Treaty of Andelot in 587 which recognised her right to protection[188]. According to Fredegar, after her son's death in 596, she was regent for her grandson King Theodebert until 599 when she was "hunted out of Austrasia"[189]. Wood highlights that Pope Gregory I's correspondence with Queen Brunechildis concerning reform of the Frankish church appears to indicate that she still retained power in Austrasia as late as 602[190]. Fredegar reports that she was found "wandering alone near Arcis in Champagne" by a poor man (who was rewarded with the bishopric of Auxerre for his service)[191], and taken to the court of her grandson Theoderic II King of the Franks at Orléans, where she plotted against King Theodebert, culminating in the latter's overthrow and murder in 612 by King Theoderic. Fredegar records that she was the "bedfellow" of Protadius, a Roman, whom she "loaded with honours" and appointed patrician over the territory east of the Jura in [603][192]. After King Clotaire II defeated and captured her great-grandsons in 613, Brunechildis was arrested at the villa of Orbe by theconstable Herpo and taken to Clotaire. According to Fredegar, she was tortured for three days, led through the ranks on a camel, and finally tied by her hair, one arm and a leg to the tail of an unbroken horse, being cut to shreds by its hoofs as it ran[193]. m firstly (early 566) SIGEBERT I King of the Franks, son of CLOTAIRE I [Chlothachar] King of the Franks & his third wife Ingundis [Ingonde] ([535]-murdered Vitry [Nov/Dec] 575, bur Soissons, basilique Saint-Médard). m secondly (576) MEROVECH of the Franks, son of CHILPERICH I King of the Franks & his first wife Audovera (-Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais 577, bur Paris Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés). He was murdered on the orders of Frédégonde, the concubine of Merovech's father. |
