Queen Fredegund's Life Condensed

I was having a chat with a teenaged friend of my daughter's who told me that she did not like history. It was boring. I got out Gregory of Tours History of the Franks because I thought that the story about Queen Fredegund's fights with her daughter Rigunth are very funny and interesting, too. So I looked in the back of the book for the index to find the story I was looking for faster.

Fredegund was one busy girl. Her section in the index goes on for more than a page. A sample of entries go as follows:

- sends two emissaries to assassinate King Sigibert at Vitry

- expelled from Soissons

- is furious when she learns that Merovech has escaped from Anille

- persuades Duke Guntram Boso to lead Merovech into an ambush, but it fails

- tries to infect her stepson Clovis with dysentery

- tortures Clovis's girlfriend and the girl's mother

- has Clovis murdered for alleged conspiracy ( I sense a trend here)

- she and Chilperic have Leudast tortured to death (definitely a trend)

- grief at the death of her son Theuderic

- tortures and kills a number of Parisian housewives for allegedly causing Theuderic's death ( I am shocked)

- tortures Mummolus the Perfect for alleged implications in Theuderic's death ( I am really shocked. Really.)

- takes refuge in the cathedral in Paris when her husband is assassinated (Someone let her in? She knew where a church was?)

- her crimes listed (that probably took a few days)

- she is pregnant again (good grief! She gave birth four months before this and her husband is dead. Who is the daddy? Inquiring minds want to know.)

- rages when she hears how badly Rigunth is being treated

- sends a cleric to assassinate Brunhild

- murders him when he fails (probably would have killed him if he succeeded too)

- wanted Eberulf, King Chilperic's Treasurer, to be her lover (isn't she pregnant? ew!)

- accuses him of having killed Chilperic ( this looks bad)

- encourages Claudius to kill Eberulf (he should have just given in or run away)

- exchanges bitter remarks with Praetextatus ( the saint)

- Praetextatus is murdered in his own cathedral, apparently at the instigation of Fredegund

- she goes to watch him die (Of course. Wouldn't you?)

- poisons one of the Rouennais who says that it is a bad thing to murder bishops (The truth hurts.)

- her endless quarrels with her daughter Rigunth lead to her trying to choke the girl with the lid of Chilperic's treasure-chest (almost killed her, too)

This is just a sample of Fredegund's life as recorded by Gregory of Tours. The teen, that I was reading this to, agreed that this history is not boring. You just have to find something you like.

I think we can safely say that Fredegund burned the candle at both ends. In a cage fight to the death, you have to wonder who would come out alive - Fredegund or the Empress Theodora? I think an empress trumps a queen but that is just me.

Why was Gregory of Tours wrong about Amalasuntha?

      Considering that he is an otherwise reliable source, it must be strange to see this passage on Theodoric's daughter that has no basis in fact except the part that she was murdered, possibly  by complicity with the empress Theodora, by her cousin, Theodat.  Why do I say Gregory of Tours is wrong?

       There are three other historians with first hand knowledge of the situation in Ravenna.  There is Cassiodorus, who was Theodoric's and then Amalasunth's secretary.  His History of the Goths did not survive but many of his letters did and they support much of what Jordanes put in his abbreviated version of the history.  Jordanes was writing at the court of Constantinople about fifteen years after Cassiodorus left Ravenna and moved to Constantinople.  Jordanes had contact with people who had first hand knowledge of the events in Ravenna, especially since Amalasuntha's daughter Mathesuntha had moved to Constantinople with her husband Germanus, nephew of the emperor, Justinian.

      The last historian was Procopius, who was the legal adviser to Justinian's general Belisarius, the man who was sent to Ravenna to punish Theodat.  It is not known if Procopius accompanied Belisarius on this campaign but he had accompanied him on others so it is possible that he was there also. 

     Gregory was born about five years after Amalasuntha died and he was a Frank not a Goth.  The Ostrogoths were Arians, on the wrong side of the Trinity debate to Gregory, but still Gregory does not give such an unflattering and erroneous portrait of other Ostrogoths.  There is no doubt that he is wrong.  Amalasuntha not only married a prince like her parents wanted her to but she had children, which Gregory denies.  She is also the niece of Clovis, whom Gregory approved of .  It is so strange. 

Beatles Song of the Week

Pro commodum Milvorum Papyraceus,

Spectaculum hodie nocte in petaurum erit,

Hendersoni toti illic erunt,

Recens Pablorum Fanquorum de nundino.

Quam spectaculum!

Super viros et equos et trochos et rebus,

Et ultime per cado de flamma vera!

Sic M.P mundum provocabit.

Amalasuntha, Daughter of the King

     Amalasuntha died around 534 AD, strangled in her bath according to Jordanes. Procopius agrees she was murdered.  You may ask who was Amalasuntha and why do we care.  I shall try to answer that.

     She was firstly the daughter of Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoth King of Italy.  When Theodoric died, his throne passed on to Amalasuntha's son, Athalaric, a sickly lad of ten.  The kingdom had peace for eight years under his rule and the regency of his mother but it was not to last.  Athalaric died at the age of eighteen, leaving his mother alone to rule the kingdom.  His father Eutharic had died before Theodoric.   The Goths were not disposed to follow the rule of a woman even the daughter of Theodoric the Great so Amalasuntha asked her cousin Theohadad, who was the king of Tuscany, to be her co-ruler.  He immediately exiled her, seized her throne and, within a few days, Jordanes related, he had her strangled in her bath. 

     Procopius also had a few things to say about Amalasuntha since her father had been fostered at the court in Constantinople and the rule of Italy had been conferred on Theodoric and his family by the Byzantine emperor.  They were under his protection and, after the death of Amalasuntha and Athalaric, Mathesuentha moved to Constantinople with her second husband Germanus, the nephew of Justinian. 

     Procopius would never accuse the empress Theodora during his lifetime.  Far too risky.  He wrote about it in his Secret History that was not published until after his death.  He wrote that Amalasuntha was planning to move to Constantinople and Theodora sent a man to assassinate her before she could arrive and possibly become a rival for the emperor's affections.  Amalasuntha was still young and beautiful, a widow and the daughter of a king.  

     This could have been the case because Amalasuntha's mother was Audofleda, the sister of Clovis and the oft warring Merovingian kings were her cousins.  Yet they seemed to do nothing about her murder but Justinian, the emperor, took this opportunity to launch an invasion to reclaim Italy. 

     Faced with the large and well armed Byzantine army, the Goths deposed Theohadad and chose his armor bearer, Vitiges, as his replacement.  Theohadad then fled and was pursued and killed by Vitiges's men.  Vitiges then married the last surviving member of Theodoric's family, Amalasuntha's daughter Mathesuentha, and prepared to defend Italy against the Byzantines. 

     Where is Gregory of Tours account in all of this since it involves a member of the Merovingian clan?  He does write an account of Amalasuntha but it is slanderous and full of malice towards her.  Amalasuntha was a virtuous woman, whose mother died of old age before she did.  She married a prince willingly and had two children with him but Gregory says nothing about that.  He wrote that she was a wicked woman who ran off with a slave and murdered her mother and that Theodat (as he named him) was the avenger who did right to have her killed.  Gregory also wrote that Childebert, Lothar, and Theudebert did demand wergeld from Theodat for her death, not that they cared but that it was an opportunity for a cash grab. 

    One has to wonder why a good Christian man like Gregory would formulate such lies about Amalasuntha when it is a sin to do so.  I read one suggestion that it may have been because she was a member, like most Goths, of the Arian sect and if there is one thing Gregory clearly despises it is a heretic especially the Arians.  This story may have been just to discredit one more Arian since it is probably not a sin if you lie for the purpose of turning people towards the true faith. 

     Now for the second question, why do we care?  There are lines in Jordanes, sec. XLVIII, 

"For his son Beremud, as we have said before, at last grew to despise the race of the Ostrogoths because of the overlordship of the Huns, and so had followed the tribe of the Visigoths to the western country, and it was from him Veteric was descended.  Veteric also had a son Eutharic, who married Amalasuentha, the daughter of Theodoric, thus uniting again the stock of the Amali which had divided long ago."

If Tolkien was in part inspired by Jordanes, compare those lines with this line from Appendix A in Return of the King, " ... Arwen and Aragorn.  By the last the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored."  I had a thought that Eutharic might have been the historical Aragorn, he is a descendant of Theodoric the Visigoth who stood with the last might of Rome to repel Attila the Hun,  but nothing else about him fits.  But, if he were Aragorn, then Amalasuntha would be Arwen.  I guess they were just one more ingredient that went into the soup.   The search for Aragorn still goes on.

From Wikipedia:

"The Amali were one of the leading dynasties of the Goths, a Germanic people who confronted the Roman Empire in its declining years in the west.  They were also called the Amals, Amaler, or Amaling and were at one point considered highest in rank among Gothic fighters and royal dignity.  According to Gothic legend, the Amali were descended from an ancient hero whose deeds earned him the title of Amala or 'mighty'."  Beren One-Hand, anyone?

Beatles Song of the Week

Te amat, heia, heia, heia!

Te amat, heia, heia, heia!

Cogitas tuum amorem amissis,

Certe eam heri vidi,

Dicit te amat,

Et scis mallum non est.

Heia, te amat,

Et scis laetus sis. 

Dixit eam multum nocuis,

Paene eam mentum amissit,

Et nunc dicit ea scit,

Genus qui nocere non es,

Dicit te amat,

Et scis malum non est,

Dicit te amat,

Et scis laetus  sis.

Te amat, heia, heia, heia......

Beowulf

      This week, I am writing about Beowulf.  What has Beowulf to do with Gregory of Tours you might ask.  The answer would rest in Book III, subsection 3, which describes a raid on the Franks by a Danish king, Cholchilaich.

     This 'Danish' king is also known by his Old English name Hygelac, which you might remember is the name of Beowulf's uncle and king.  Gregory described the disastrous raid into the Frisian land and how Hygelac was killed along the Rhine.

    I own several copies of Beowulf and, in the one translated by Burton Raffel, he mentions, in the afterword, that these raids were confirmed by two other sources without naming them.  He also states that Gregory was born less than one generation after this raid.  My copy of The History of the Franks, gives a birth date of c.539 for Gregory and a N.F.S. Grundtvig dates this raid c. 516.  I have seen estimates of an even later date for the raid so it appears that Gregory was born shortly after.

     The lines 2910-2921 of Beowulf lament the death of Beowulf because, once the Franks and the Frisians become aware of his death, they will revive their old quarrel with the Geats that was begun by Hygelac's raiding along the Rhine.

     Gregory relates that Hygelac stayed by the shore until all the loot and slaves were loaded onto the ships and safely at sea.  The Merovingian Theuderic, Clovis's son by a concubine, sent his son Theudebert to kill him.  Theudebert was successful, of course, and Hygelac's fleet was defeated and all the booty returned to shore.

the copy of The History of the Franks that I am using is the Penguin Classics, translated by Lewis Thorpe. 

Beatles' song of the week

This week, I am going to leave the name mentioned in it blank because it probably makes it a bit too easy if I left it in. But it does translate in Latin well, ie. keeps it rhythm.

"Heus _____, facisne malum,

Carmen triste cape et melius fac. 

Memento, eam in corem tibi permittere,

Tunc incipium melius facere potes."

Gregory of Tours, Clovis

      Book II from the History of the Franks deals with the beginning of the Merovingian dynasty.  It is very clear after reading just a few lines that these people cannot possibly be the descendants of Jesus, as is claimed in the Da Vinci Code.

     Roman consular lists mention a Clodio, who is one of the Kings of the Franks, the long-haired kings.  Merovech, one of his descendants, was the father of Childeric and gave his name to the dynasty.  Childeric is described by Gregory as being King of the Franks, whose private life was one long debauch. 

     Gregory also described the conversion of Clovis since, up until around 496 A.D., the family had been firmly pagan.  But, Clovis married a Christian woman who worked tirelessly to convert her husband to her faith.  She had their first son baptized and he promptly died, leading Clovis to declare it was a bad religion.  Their second son was baptized and nearly died, but Clotild prayed and Chlodomer survived.  It was not a good sign.

      In spite of this, when a battle with the Alamanni was going against Clovis, he decided to try this god and promised to be baptized if Jesus would  assist him in slaughtering his enemies.  Because Jesus enjoys a good bloodbath, do you not know, Clovis won and was immediately baptized.  His sister decided to be baptized too and died right after.  It makes you wonder what was in the water. 

     One might think Clovis had a hand in these deaths but female relatives were generally safe.  It was all his male relatives and possible competitors for the throne that he had murdered. Which is part of why this dynasty died out in the end:  they kept killing each other.

Beatles's song of the week

This one was hard to translate because of things in it which did not exist in Classical Rome. I did my best.  I am sure it won't be hard to guess anyway.

Pulchra Rita, vigilia stativae mercedis,

Nihil inter nos venire potest,

Ubi obscurum decet, corem tibi abstraho.