Brunilda (other versions of her name in Latin sources include Brunhilde, Brunehilde, Brunichild, Brunechilde or Brunichildis) was a Frankish queen of Visigothic origin from 567 to 613. She was born between 445 and 550, the daughter of the Arian Visigoth king Atanagildo and his wife Gosuinda. In 566, she married the Merovingian king Sigeberto I, who ruled the Frankish subkingdom of Austrasia. After his assassination in 575, she entered into a short-lived marriage with Meroveu, the son of Quilperico I, king of the subkingdom of Neustria and Sigeberto's half-brother. After his death in 577, she played an important role as regent and representative of a strong kingship until her fall and execution in 613 by Clotário II, son and successor of Quilperico I. As wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of the Austrasian and, since 592, Burgundian kings, she had decisive influence on the politics of the Frankish Empire. As a royal dowager, she took over the regency for her son and grandchildren several times and repeatedly asserted herself against attempted overthrows and conspiracies by opposition groups.
Brunilda
Brunilda (other versions of her name in Latin sources include Brunhilde, Brunehilde, Brunichild, Brunechilde or Brunichildis) was a Frankish queen of Visigothic origin from 567 to 613. She was born between 445 and 550, the daughter of the Arian Visigoth king Atanagildo and his wife Gosuinda. In 566 she married the Merovingian king Sigeberto I, who ruled the Frankish sub-kingdom of Austrasia. After his assassination in 575, she entered into a short-lived marriage with Meroveu, the son of Quilperico I, king of the sub-kingdom of Neustria and Sigeberto's half-brother. After his death in 577, she played an important role as regent and representative of a strong kingship until her fall and execution in 613 by Clotário II, son and successor of Quilperico I. As wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of the Austrasian and, since 592, Burgundian kings, she had decisive influence on the politics of the Frankish Empire. As a royal dowager, she took over the regency for her son and grandchildren several times and repeatedly asserted herself against attempted overthrows and conspiracies by opposition groups (cf. PLRE IIIA 1992, 248 – 251).
The sources paint competing and often contradictory pictures of the queen. Among the most important historiographical writings is the contemporary account of Gregório de Tours known as the Ten Books of Histories (Gregório de Tours, Decem libri Historiarum, ed. Krusch/Levison). His account often reveals clear preferences and general prejudices, for example against Arian queens and kings (Hartmann 2009, 61). Brunilda, however, is portrayed very positively by Gregório (ibid., 74), not least because she was probably instrumental in his elevation to bishop in 573 (Heydemann 2006, 76). Also contemporary are the poems of Venâncio Fortunato, the bishop of Poitiers (Venâncio Fortunato, Carmen, ed. Leo), the correspondence between the queen and the Visigothic king Sisebuto (Sisebuto, Epistolae Wisigoticae, ed. Gundlach), who, moreover, paints a very negative picture of her in his Passio Desiderii written shortly after 613 (Sisebuto, Vitae Desiderii, ed. Krusch), another anonymous Passio for Desidério de Vienne (Vitae Desiderii, ed. Krusch), as well as the so-called Epistolae Austrasiacae (Epistolae Austrasiacae, ed. Gundlach), a form from the royal chancellery of Metz with several letters from Brunilda, for example to the imperial court in Byzantium. In addition, Brunilda, who founded numerous churches and monasteries, received ten not preserved letters from Pope Gregório I between 595 and 602, in which he portrayed her as a patron of the Church (cf. Gregório I, Registrum, VI 5, 55, 57; VIII 4, IX; 212, 213; XI 46, 48, 49; XIII 7). The Vita Columbani of Jonas de Bobbio (Jonas de Bobbio, Vita Columbani, ed. Krusch), completed around 641, and the so-called Fredegário Chronicle (Fredegário, Chronicae, ed. Krusch), whose author drew on the negative portrayal of Brunilda by Sisebuto and probably had a general aversion to the participation of queens in government, date from the middle of the 7th century (Hartmann 2009, 61). Jonas de Bobbio presents Brunilda in his work as a second version of the Old Testament queen Jezabel (Jonas de Bobbio, Vita Columbani, I 18), which the authors of the Fredegário Chronicle (Fredegário, Chronicae, 40) as well as the anonymous anonymous Passio for Desidério de Vienne also adopt. This equation was intended to cast Brunilda in a bad light and make her appear as a foreign, heretical princess who had negatively influenced her husband and son and had met a just end (Heydemann 2006, 73). Furthermore, the 8th century Liber Historiae Francorum (Liber Historiae Francorum, ed. Krusch) should be mentioned, which had probably a female author and partly contains rather implausible, romanticising stories about the Merovingian kings and queens (Hartmann 2009, 61 – 62).
During Brunilda’s lifetime, the Frankish Empire was marked by struggles for supremacy between the sub-kingdoms of Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy. The background to this was the so-called Merovingian fratricidal war that broke out among his four sons after the division of the empire following the death of King Clotário I in 561 (cf. Scholz 2015). This shift in the centres of power also formed the context for the very different depictions of Brunilda in the sources.
Gregório de Tours reports on her marriage in 566 and the conversion of the Arian princess to Catholic Christianity, emphasising that Sigeberto I chose Brunilda in order to distinguish himself from the not befitting marriages of his brothers (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, IV 27). With Sigeberto she had the daughters Ingunda and Clodosindo and the son Quildeberto. (Hartmann 2009, 74). As queen, Brunilda probably took an active role in politics, as for example Venâncio Fortunato indicates in his poems (Venâncio Fortunato, Carmen, 6, 1; 5, 3), and built up a network of alliances with bishops and nobles, which she drew on as queen dowager (Heydemann 2006, 74). The conflict between the sub-kingdoms was intensified by a family feud between Sigeberto I and the Neustrian ruler Quilperico I. The latter was married to Brunilda's sister Galsuinta, but had her murdered in 570/571, allegedly instigated by his concubine Fredegunda, who now became his wife. Sigeberto I and Brunilda were on the verge of winning the war in 575 when Sigeberto was murdered. According to Gregório de Tours, the murderers were commissioned by Fredegunda (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, IV 51). Quilperico then sent Brunilda into exile to Rouen. Their minor son Quildeberto, brought to safety beforehand, was raised to succeed his father. Brunilda married Quilperico's second son Meroveu in Rouen against his father's will, from which she probably expected an improved position to assert her claims to rule (Heydemann 2006, 74). Against Quilperico's emerging superiority, Brunilda's minor son Quildeberto concluded an alliance in 577 with the Burgundian sub-kingdom under his uncle King Gontrão, who adopted him and bequeathed him his kingdom (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, IV 51; V 1-2). The fact that Brunilda was not present at this meeting indicates that the affairs of state were in other hands. Even if this included Brunilda’s confidants, it is unclear how far her influence extended (Scholz 2015, 136). Brunilda's assumption of the regency met with resistance from parts of the nobles (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, V 1). She finally lost her position in 581, after she and her allies were ousted in a palace revolt by an opposition group seeking a settlement with Quilperico I (Ewig 2006, 44 et seq.). However, after Quilperico I died in 584 in a noble conspiracy, Brunilda was able to take over the regency again. Fredegário names Brunilda as the commissioner of the murder, which, given his negative his negative attitude towards her, is rather implausible (Scholz 2015, 136). In this position, she dissolved the arranged betrothal of her just of age son to Theudelinde, the daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibaldo, and married him instead to a woman named Faileuba, with whom she seemed to have had a relationship of trust. Through this consensuality she was able keep her influence over the affairs of government (Hartmann 2009, 76). A conspiracy of Austrasian nobles was directed against Brunilda and Faileuba's position of power in 589 (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, IX 38). In 587, Gontrão, Quildeberto, and Brunilda concluded an agreement on territorial divisions in the Treaty of Andelot (Gregório de Tours, Historiae, IX 20), which also secured Brunilda's position and recognised her claims to atonement for her sister's murder. The fact that she was involved as a contracting party illustrates her strong position. From 592, Quildeberto II also ruled Burgundy after Gontrão's death. Together with Brunilda, however, he did not manage to depose Fredegunda, who had been reigning for her son Clotário II since 584. When Quildeberto II died in 596, he left behind his minor sons Teodorico II, who received Burgundy, and Teodeberto II, who ruled over Austrasia. Brunilda took over the regency again and probably had great influence in both kingdoms, as indicated by her correspondence with Pope Gregório I (Scholz 2015, 171 – 172). According to the Fredegário Chronicle, she was expelled from Austrasia to the court of Teodorico in Burgundy in 599. After 602, she increasingly lost influence in Austrasia. Jonas de Bobbio also reports a scene from this period that contributed to Brunilda's negative reception. According to this, Brunilda asked Columbano for a blessing for her grandchildren, Teodorico four concubine sons, but the saint refused. Brunilda is said to have expelled the saint as a result (Jonas de Bobbio, Vita Columbani, I 19).
From 604 onwards, tensions between Teodorico II and Teodeberto II escalated and ended in 612 with the victory of Teodorico, who had his brother and his sons murdered (Hartmann 2009, 77 – 78). Here, too, the author of the Fredegário Chronicle sees a complicity of Brunilda as the instigator (Fredegário, Chronicae, IV 27): since Teodeberto, according to the Liber Historiae Francorum, was not Faileuba's son, Brunilda had incited Teodorico against him (Liber Historiae Francorum, 37).
After Teodorico II died Brunilda tried to establish her great-grandson Sigeberto II as king in Austrasia and Burgundy and to take over the regency again, against which, an opposition formed that called Clotário II to Austrasia. (Scholz 2015, 177 – 178). He captured Brunilda, whom he blamed for all disputes between the Merovingians in the last decades, and had the queen publicly humiliated and tortured and finally executed: The Fredegário Chronicle describes again with biblical associations how she was tied by her legs and arms to the hooves of horses by which she was dragged to death and torn apart (Cf. Fredegário, Chronicae, IV 42 and Liber Historiae Francorum, 40). Her remains were buried in the monastery of St. Martin in Autun, which she founded and had designated as her burial place (Hartmann 2009, 79). Almost all of Brunilda's descendants were murdered, so that the Austrasian royal house perished with her. Clotário II, now ruler over the entire Frankish Empire, initiated a damnatio memoriae (Heydemann 2006, 75) against Brunilda's memory, which also symbolised a rejection of her exercise of rule, vehemently defending royal power against the aristocracy (Scholz 2015, 180).
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- Marc Pawlowski Mariano (Autor), Brunhilda of Austrasia. The Life of the Frankish Queen, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1339754