_Faramund* K of Franks_
_Chlodion* K of Franks__|_______________________
_Merovech* K of Franks____|
| | _______________________
| |________________________|_______________________
_Childeric I* K of Franks____|
| | _______________________
| | ________________________|_______________________
| |__________________________|
| | _______________________
| |________________________|_______________________
_Clovis I* King of Franks_|
| | _______________________
| | ________________________|_______________________
| | __________________________|
| | | | _______________________
| | | |________________________|_______________________
| |_Basina of Thuringia_________|
| | _______________________
| | ________________________|_______________________
| |__________________________|
| | _______________________
| |________________________|_______________________
|
|--Clothar I* King of Franks
|
| _______________________
| _Gunther* K of Burgundy_|_______________________
| _Gundovech* K of Burgundy_|
| | | _______________________
| | |________________________|_______________________
| _Chilperic II* K of Burgundy_|
| | | _______________________
| | | ________________________|_______________________
| | |_Caratene* _______________|
| | | _______________________
| | |________________________|_______________________
|_Clotilda* of Burgundy____|
| _______________________
| ________________________|_______________________
| __________________________|
| | | _______________________
| | |________________________|_______________________
|_____________________________|
| _______________________
| ________________________|_______________________
|__________________________|
| _______________________
|________________________|_______________________
died in 511 the kingdom was divided among his four sons. Traditionally
historians have said that this was merely following Frankish inheritance
customs. But, as Ian Woods has argued, it may rather have been an
expedient forced by QUEEN CLOTILDA, to prevent CLOVIS' eldest son,
Theuderic (her step-son) from cutting her own three young sons,
Childebert, Chlodomer, and this Clothar, out of the inheritance
completely."
These joint kings further consolidated the power they had inherited.
They defined the frontier with the Visigoths. They conquered Burgundy
and killed King Gundobad's sons, thus avenging their mother. They began
applying pressure on the Germans to their east and the Italians to their
south. In brief, they made Francia the predominant power in western
Europe.
When Chlodomer died, his three little sons were sent to Paris to be put
under the care of their grandmother, CLOTILDA. She was so fond of them
that their uncles, CLOTHAR and Childebert, were afraid that she would
require that their father's inheritance should be given to them. So they
asked her to send the boys to them on a visit, and as soon as they
arrived, a messenger was sent to the queen with a sword and a pair of
scissors, desiring her to choose. This meant that she should choose
whether the poor boys should be killed, or have their heads shaven and
become monks. CLOTILDA answered thta she would rather see them dead
than monks. In 533 CLOTHAR killed the eldest, who was only ten, with
his sword. The second clung to Childebert and begged for his life, but
CLOTHAR forced his brother to release him, and killed him too. The third
boy, whose name was Chlodoald, was helped by Childebert to escape, and
when he grew older he went into a monestery. He was so good a
churchman that he became known as Saint Cloud.
The last surviving son of his father, CLOVIS, Clothar was the sole ruler
of the Franks from 558 until his death in 561.
Clothar had seven sons by three wives: Gunther, Childeric, Charibert,
Guntram, and SIGEBERT by Ingonde; CHILPERIC by INGONDE's sister,
HAREGONDE; and Chramn by Chunsina. Gunther and Childeric died before
their father, and Chramn, who rebeled against him was burnt alive,
together with his wife and children, on Clothar's orders. Clothar himself
died on the anniversary of Chramn's death. (Gregory of Tours implied that
this was the hand of God's justice.)
At this point history repeats itself in that Clothar, who was one of four
sons to inherit a partitioned kingship left four sons to succeed him -
Charibert (who died first), CHILPERIC I (who got Neustria), Guntram (who
got Burgundy), and SIGEBERT I (who got Austrasia).
This is the starting point in a tale of interfamily intrigue in which
truth is indeed stranger than fiction. As it involves two separate lines
and several individuals, I will tell it here, all in one place, rather than
try to split it up as separate biographies of thse involved :
ATHANAGILD, king of the Visigoths (RIN 2464) had two daughters,
BRUNHILDA and Galswintha. They were married to two of the sons of
CLOTHAR, SIGEBERT I and CHILPERIC I respectively. CHILPERIC had a
wife of low birth named FREDEGONDE whom he put aside to marry
Galswintha. One day Galswintha was found strangled under conditions
very incriminating to CHILPERIC and FREDEGONDE. This pair was
immediately remarried. BRUNHILDA's driving passion became to avenge
her sister. FREDEGONDE was as ruthless and strong willed as BRUNHILDA
and the two queens became archenemies.
Throughout the 560's, 70's, & 80's, There was constant warfare,
intrigue, and a shifting of alliances between the three royal brothers and
the two queens, the intricate details of which would be too involved to
relate here.
BRUNHILDA's husband, SIGEBERT I, was the first of the brothers to die
in 575. It was universaly accepted that he had been the victim of an
assasination plot by FREDEGONDE. As Sigebert's son, CHILDEBERT II, was
only five years old, Austrasia came to be ruled by a group advisors.
CHILDEBERT's uncle, Guntram, king of Burgundy, who, over the years,
shifted his alliance back and forth between Austrasia and Neustria, was
allied with SIGEBERT at the time of his assasination. Guntrum, whose
own children had all died of illnesses, even made CHILDEBERT his heir in
Burgundy and took on the role as his protector against CHILPERIC.
CHILDEBERT's advisors, however, sabotaged the Burgundian alliance and
sought to form an alliance with CHILPERIC. Queen BRUNHILDA, who was
now just in her mid twenties, was, of course, at odds with this policy.
Shortly after her husband's death, BRUNHLDA fell into the hands of her
enemies and was forced to marry CHILPERIC's son, Merovech. Since he
was her nephew by marriage, the church annulled the marriage as
incestuous. This did not deter Merovech's brother from also tring to
marry her. This so incensed his step-mother, FREDEGONDE, that she had
him assasinated.
In 584, CHILPERIC also died (another of FREDEGONDE's assasinations -
she arranged to have her husband stabbed to death while returning from a
hunting trip). FREDEGONDE tried, on sevaral occasions, to assisinate
CHILDEBERT, BRUNHILDA, and Guntram. FREDEGONDE also had all of her
step children killed. All of her own children had died as infants, but she
was carrying another of CHILPERIC's children when he was killed. This
child was CLOTHAR II. FREDEGONDE ruled Neustria as his regent.
As CHILDEBERT grew older, he and his queen mother BRUNHILDA
eliminated the Austrasian aristocrats who opposed them one by one.
Upon King Guntram's death in 592 BRUNHILDA became regent for
CHILDEBERT in both Austrasia and Burgundy.
In 596 CHILDEBERT died and BRUNHILDA was regent for CHILDEBERT's
two sons, THEUDEBERT II (who became king of Austrasia) and Theuderic
II (who became king of Burgundy).
In 597 FREDEGONDE died. Her son, CLOTHAR II, only 13 years old at the
time, eventually firmly established his position as king in Neustria.
Meanwhile, BRUNHILDA's two grandsons were quarreling. Theuderic was
taken prisoner by THEUDEBERT and forced to become a monk. He was put
to death soon after. THEUDEBERT died a short time later. THEUDEBERT's
daughter married the Duke of Bavaria which became one of our lines of
descent through CHARLES MARTEL (RIN 2451) and the emporer LOUIS THE
PIOUS (RIN 1212).
At this point we find BRUNHILDA firmly in control of all of Francia
except for CLOTHAR II's small kingdom of Neustria. Theuderic II's son,
Sigebert II, succeeded to the kingship of Austrasia upon his father's
death in 613. This made BRUNHILDA perhaps the only ruling queen great
grandmother in all of recorded history.
Our story finally comes to an end when CLOTHAR II attacks and defeats
BRUNHILDA's forces. BRUNHILDA's great grandchildren are killed. In 613
BRUNHILDA is slain. CLOTHAR II becomes the first man to rule a united
Francia since the time of his grandfather, Clothar I (whose biography,
lest we forget, this is).
Christopher Cope, in his book, "The Lost Kingdom of Burgundy", gives a
good succinct obituary for BRUNHILDA : ". . . her own end was brutally
dramatic. In 613, when she was about sixty-three, she was overwhelmed
and captured by the Franks in a battle on the shores of Lake Neuchatel in
north-west Switzerland. She was tortured for three days and set on a
camel as a mark of derision; there cannot have been many in Christian
Europe in those days. Then she was tied by her flowing white hair by an
arm and a foot to the tail of a vicious stallion which her captors lashed
to fury until her limbs were torn from her body. With the passing of this
queen of Burgundy, heroic, legendary and larger-than-life, we take one
more step into the gloom that accompanied the disintegration of the
classical world."